Babies, lizards, and pacemakers - oh my!

Monday 06.30.2008 02:33AM

You asked, and I ANSWER'D!

From Allison: Why is Michael Scott both the best AND worst boss ever?
He is the best boss because he is oblivious to the idea of productivity; he is never on your back about working harder and thus it is easier to goof-off around the office. He also knows the crap out of women, much like myself. I don't understand the part of the question about him being the worst boss ever?

What is your favorite part of the movie Grease? [now that I've finally seen it]
Um, that one part... where we laughed. I don't know, I've only seen it once now, so I don't really remember/love enough to pick a favorite part.

Where do babies come from?
The vagina.

What was your deepest childhood ambition? What is your current deepest ambition?
I guess the one thing that sticks out to me is that I wanted to be an architect when I grew up. I liked the precision and the idea of designing nifty houses. I just kind of grew out of it though, which doesn't really disappoint me. I don't have very deep ambitions at the moment, other than to finish my degree and live in California for a while. Being debt free is another strong ambition that I'm making good progress towards.

Who is your role model? If it's Jesus, then who is your #2?
David Hasselhoff. “Jump in my car.”

From Jon: Do you use any jigs or lures when getting all the women?
Yes, I say, “Come on and come to my house, ladies! Come on and come to my house, girls girls!” and they just flock.

I also use dimples, blue eyes, and my biceps.

From Ben: Since it's one of the things that I'm jealous of you for, what would you say is responsible for conversational style? What advice would you give someone who wanted to become a better conversationalist?
I don't know that I have really thought of myself as being a good conversationalist, so first of all – thanks. I'd have to say the core of being a good conversationalist is being a good listener and being genuinely interested in other people. I had to think about this question for a bit before I came up with an answer, and then I realized that it goes right along with the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I've never been asked for advice in this area before, so I would have to recommend that book. Here is a good summary of the main points in it.

From Ian: If you could change any event in your life what would you change and why?
I had to think about this one for a while too, and honestly I don't know that there is anything I would change. I don't tend to look back at my life in regret very much. There are things I wish didn't happen – such as my parents' divorce – but when I look at things as they are now, I'm not even sure I would go back and change it. Knowing my parents now, I'm not really sure they were that great together, and I know they seem quite pleased where they are now. Changing that event would have made me feel “better” at that time in my life, but that's not really important to me in the now. I don't think there is an event I would change, not even my heart incident last year.

From Isha: Can we get an anole?
Sure. To those wondering (and too lazy to click, *ahem*), anoles are small lizards with the ability to change their skin color. No, they're not chameleons (Come-a, Come-a, Come-a, Chameleon...). I had one of these for many years as a child and his name was Harry. They are easy to care for, fun to feed live flies or crickets to, and are quite cute.

When are you going to get sick of me playing with your heart? [pacemaker]
Since I am a stick, my pacemaker bumps out of my chest a tad, and you can also feel one of the wires just beneath my skin. It is pretty fascinating, I guess; I've just gotten used to it. Anyway, I will get sick of it on September 9, 2009 at 3:03:42 PM.

From Jeremiah: When and how did you get your first job after college, and what got you to where you are now?
Well, as alluded to earlier, I'm technically not done with college. Very close, though. Through college I mostly worked on campus in the continuing education department as a lab tech and various other positions. Then I found a job listing for a PHP programmer and worked there for a year. Unfortunately they were a small company and had some rough times financially, so I had to leave there. I found my current job on craigslist, and it's what I consider my first full-fledged, serious “post college” job, since it's with a well-established company. I basically taught myself PHP over the years, so that got me to where I am. That and ...ladies.

Now readers, feel free to answer in the comments or your own blog post:

  • What are your 5 desert island books - ok, movies? You know, you're on a desert island and these are the only 5 you can have with you.

  • What is the previous question a reference to?

  • What artist/album/song has really impacted you recently, and how?

  • Which do you like best: my dimples, blue eyes, or biceps?

EDIT:
Photo reference for the last question.
photo

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Open Post

Thursday 06.26.2008 06:42PM

A couple loyal fans gave me a hard time for not blogging in a while; so here I am trying to write something, but not coming up with anything interesting. It worked out pretty well last year when I had an open call for questions, comments, and concepts to write about, so let's try that again.

Consider this an open post, comment away.

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Late Night Thoughts

Wednesday 05.07.2008 02:42AM

I should write a blog post, eh?

I keep thinking that, but have not made the time to do it. That usually makes me think about the busyness of life and how I have not been doing well at balance, as far as being productive with my time. It is easy to let the free time slide, especially now that Spring is here and there is plenty of fun to be had. I am not too hard on myself about it, but have been breaking my to-do list into easier, discrete tasks and using rememberthemilk.com to keep on top of them.

I have not done the “No Screen Night” consistently, unfortunately. The other week I really needed it though, so disconnected for a night. Nothing interesting to report there, except that I got several things done and it was relaxing.

For some reason, I have never really jotted notes or drafts for blog posts. I should probably do that more often, then I would have more frequent posts – and of a better quality than this one.

Changes. It was back in February that I started to decrease the dosage on my anti-spasmodic prescription, and as of April 22 I am off it entirely. I have had no symptoms or side-effects during that time or since stopping entirely, so that's good. Since they do not know how my body might react after being on the medicine for about a year, I'm not supposed to drive for several months (seizure risk while driving).

My California plans are most likely on hold for a little while longer. I need to finish my degree, which unfortunately means enrolling as a returning student and putting me under a different course bulletin than I was before. It has not changed a lot and all of my courses will apply, but I will probably have to take two or three more classes instead of one. I'm ok with it, I guess. I'm not as concerned about the “safety net” of having the degree as I am just accomplishing it. Plus, I get to be around my Midwest friends a bit longer; leaving was never going to be easy.

I voted for Ron Paul today in the Indiana primary. I never got around to writing more in-depth about him and why I support him, unfortunately. Maybe I'll write something later, in retrospect (or not, since that will fall in my to-do list and disappear :). I know McCain has the nomination sealed up, but it's just a primary and Paul is still on the ballot. It was symbolic support for the message, which I always thought was more important than his chances at the nomination / Presidency.

I am excited to see that Mary Ruwart recently announced she's seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. She's the author of the book I have been reading, Healing our World in an Age of Aggression. Every article I have read (and her book) has been principled, consistent, and articulately deals with issues of liberty. She has a long history as a liberty activist and knows her stuff; I'm really hoping she gets the nomination.

And now it's quite late. Stream of consciousness over.

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Happy 303

Monday 03.03.2008 06:31PM

Back in the good 'ole days, this was a closely guarded secret. Now, in the good new days, it's not so much. Let's just say that... security was breached. It is still fun, though, and thus I share:

Circa mid-nineties, when I was in high school, my friends Tim and Andrew (I believe; correct me if I'm wrong) were responsible for coining the phrase “303.” It was clever because saying “303” among your friends drew less attention and was easier than saying “Wow!” when some hottie came by. It was cool (well, okay, to us *) because it was derived by holding your hands with your thumbs touching and your index fingers touching. It kind of looks like “wow”; 3 fingers on your left hand, an O in the middle, and then 3 fingers on your right hand. Thus, 303. It was even cooler* because it worked by addition, too. 2 pretty girls? 606. 3? 909. Ad infinitum.

So yes, we were known to toss around “303” or occasionally make the hand sign when appropriate.

Years later, after the secret was leaked and the female populace became familiar with it (via The Mothership; that's another post entirely), there was a surprise party that I was planning and I did not even realize it fell on 3/03. Sheryl, Lindsay, and Ronda did, though, and made a “Happy 3/03” cake, which was pretty awesome. I might have pictures of it around here, somewhere.

So, that's the summary of “303”, and why March 3rd is 1000 times better than Valentine's Day.

Happy 3/03!

303

The sign. Did it open up your eyes? Yes, I framed it this way on purpose.

* and to those who aspired to be as cool as us. what!? we weren't socially awkward at all!

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Two arms available ...ladies.

Thursday 02.14.2008 01:25AM

Well, that day is around the corner*, afraid I don't have any embarrassing crushes to reveal like last year.

I was just now seeking topical suggestions for this post from some friends; they have not been a lot of help so far. This will probably be a stream-of-unconsciousness post, then.

Life has been a bit depressing lately. I think it's mostly the weather. Work has been pretty busy lately and I need to get a bit more order/distinction between work and non-work. It can be a drain to be at home so much (I work from home) and it starts to feel like I just work and sleep, because “there's always some work to do.” I'm not being a workaholic; in fact, it probably makes me less productive, so I need to do something about that.

On a similar note, Sheryl shared this Lifehacker post about being “more present in the present.” The blogger is starting a project called 52 Nights Unplugged, where one night each week she does nothing involving a screen. No internet, TV, or phone. I really liked this idea and plan to try it out myself. It will be nice to have a scheduled time that I know I'll need to fill with the things I talk about wanting to do, but never quite “disconnect” long enough to actually do.

I have been going back through old, old posts on here, working on tagging and cleaning up some formatting issues. Goes back to 2002, dang. A lot of good memories, though.

If you're interested in possibly winning an iPod Touch, check out Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim post. It's pretty simple: subscribe to his blog via RSS or email; between now and March 1st the instructions to enter will be posted there. In addition, you can up the size of the iPod Touch you win by blogging and twittering about it, ergo... what you're reading. Clever marketing. :]

I think I'm in my natural state pretty often...

“Silly is you in a natural state, and serious is something you have to do until you can get silly again.”

– Mike Meyers

...Thankfully.

I highly recommend the album below. Great, chill electronic music; good to work or write to. [obligatory virb and myspace links]

* I started writing this before midnight, so this was accurate at the time. Yes, it took a while to write, I was distracted and chatting.

Pocket Symphony Currently Listening
Pocket Symphony
by Air

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