An Odd Day, Reality TV, and Filling the Empty Hole...

A new day, a new post. What dost thou know?

(A little King James for ya there... actually, would it be more appropriate KJV to say "What knowest thou?")

What an odd last 24 hours...

It began Monday night, when I was practicing cooking, using some things I bought for the new "lo carb" diet that wifey and I are trying. I whipped up some eggs, chopped steak and spinach in a frying pan and gobbled it down. In the middle of the night, the spinach revolted on me, and I spent from about 5 to 6 am watching it make its reappearance. Yuck. I hate vomiting.

So I went to work late, as a zombie, desperately needing sleep. But the show must go on, so out on the road Yanni and I went, to spend the day on the van picking up and delivering rugs. And that's when the weirdness really started. All of our encounters were strange today, for one reason or another.

The first lady kept asking her dogs in a high-pitched squeak if they wanted cookies. "Who wants some cookies? You want some cookies?" That was odd, but manageable. The next lady had a very large (13'x17' or so) Kerman rug with a lot of wear through the field. She wants all the wear rewoven. Ain't gonna happen. She loves her rug! Sometimes, people that love their rugs think anything is possible. "I'd rather pay 5 or 6 thousand dollars to get it re-woven than have to pay another 250 grand to replace it!" She'll find out soon that we're not set up to tackle such a huge project. But, hey, we brought it in for wash anyway. So that was odd. The third lady had a wicked cool British accent. So, I guess, other than being out of the ordinary, it wasn't "odd" per se...

The fourth lady didn't like the job we did in cleaning her rug. She had an old blueberry stain that she had treated with not one, but several "no-no" products, which had basically locked the stain in, making it impossible to remove. I told her as much when I picked it up a week or two ago, but she wanted to try it anyway. When it came back with the stain still there, she was not pleased. She proceeded to school me on the basics of stain removal, and things I should have tried on her rug. Things that, had I tried them, would have ruined her rug. I tried to explain that to her, but she was having no part of it. It's hard to have to stand by and be condescended to like that, but I smiled and was pleasant, and told her she didn't have to pay a dime, since our work is all guaranteed. I politely explained the situation to her again - she was listening now, once she realized I wasn't going to make her pay. Before, she thought I was making excuses. Now that she knew she wouldn't have to pay, she understood. By the time I left, she'd offered to pay half, which is cool. But very odd.

The fifth lady was moving into a massive retirement community. We arrived the same time as the furniture movers. The family was nice (even gave us a tip) but the movers from the other company were jerks. Not often we run into unprofessional jerks from other service companies, so that was odd. And the sixth (and final) lady had a big poodle that was a chronic crotch sniffer. I had to keep politely pushing it away, while the lady kept scolding her dog, "Oh, quit being so nosy, Clementine!" Creepy dog.

So, yeah, all things considered, it was an odd day.

Wow, that was a long ramble. Wonder if anyone actually read any of it?

I have a confession to make. There's a reality TV show that I not only watch, but am consistently inspired by. And it's odd, because it's not like I'm overweight - a little pudgy, sure. I could stand to lose ten pounds and get into better physical shape. But I'm nowhere near grossly overweight. So why I find Biggest Loser so fascinating, I don't really know. Yet it never fails to hold me captive, and inspire me, even though I realize they edit and shoot the show in such a way that purposely manipulates the viewer's heart-strings. I guess I just get something out of watching people that have come to a turning--point in their lives, acknowledging past mistakes, and then working their butts off to turn things around. Seeing some of the transformations that people have affected in their lives is really stunning.

If you haven't dropped by Kris' blog lately, go on over. He has a couple great recent posts - one is a movie trailer round-up, with his thoughts on upcoming films, and the one prior is a great post (and healthy comments-discussion) on the Star Wars trilogies, and their upcoming release as a set on Blu-Ray. Go check it out, and join the discussion, eh! I added his link back to my Link List on the right side over there, but here's the direct link, if you're too lazy to scroll up.

And Paula is posting on her blog again! Yay! Now if we could just get Havah to start hers as well...

Now that Verizon has announced that they'll start carrying the iPhone in mid-February, I have a decision to make. I've been holding onto my upgrade, waiting to see if the iPhone rumor was going to prove true... now I need to decided if I should get one or not! Or even a Droid or one of those cool new Windows phones. I have an old Razor that has serviced me just fine - I don't really need bells and whistles. I have to try and find out if I'm just trying to fill that hole in me again - the one I contemplated shoving a new car into last post... my old car is fine, why would I need a new one? My old phone is fine, why would I need a new one?



Still struggling to dig my way out from under my To-Do List, which has evolved into a fanged monster. Wish me luck.

I'm out. Hope your week is a good one.

Dave

Rapid Fire, Star Wars and Eminem

I think that road sign means "bottle of wine ahead"...

Yes, I know, I should be working right now. But I'm SOOO not feeling it. So I thought I'd blog it up instead, while I psyche myself up to be productive...

Kind of a gloomy day today.

See? You check in, and get a free weather report!

And now, for sports...



Not sure how "dribbling two balls at once" will benefit the kid on court, but it certainly looks like he's got the skillz.

Rapid Fire:

• Got two new newsletter clients. 
• Redesigning the rug shop website again. 
• Wife has shingles. 
• I've discovered I like Guinness. 
• Apple sells apps for Mac computers now. 
• 3D movies suck. 
• Windshield still cracked after almost 2 years. 
• St. Bryan's Day is the 15th. 
• Trying Tim Ferriss' "Slo-Carb" diet. 
• Knight and Day was actually a very good movie, I thought.

And now, some Star Wars funnies, for the geeks among us.

Recently signed with indy label Carbonite...

glug glug...

Aww, ain't he cute?

I think I've distilled my "feelings" about Eminem's music down to the bottom line. I *really* like several of his songs. Not all, of course, but several of them really click with me. I think this is why.

- His lyrics are clever and smooth, and he performs them crammed with emotion.

I think the emotion thing is what gets me most. I've been programmed to either ignore, suppress or otherwise fail to acknowledge emotions for my whole life. I've always wanted to just rage, you know? But in a smart way, not just thrash out. But be able to channel all my pent-up angst into an emotional blast that also is intelligently elucidated. Be able say what I need to say, effectively, and with the full force of both emotional barrels. Some of Eminem's songs bristle with that energy - and in those few cases, I don't mind the profanity, it fits.

Now, I'm not technically a fanboy - I don't advocate you run out and get any of his CD's. A lot of it is absolutely not worth listening to. But certain songs where he talks about the loss of his best friend, his difficult upbringing, his difficulty dealing with life in the spotlight, the hard marriage he was in, and /or the intense love he has for his daughter are very, very potent to me, and I get a type of emotionally cathartic release by listening to them - ideally with the volume cranked way up.

I guess in a way, I envy and appreciate his ability to channel emotion in such a smart, eloquent way.

Sorry about the music.

So, I've been wanting to buy a new car all year, sort of as a gift to myself for turning 40 and having my 20th anniv., but I can't justify the new debt, especially in light of the fact that I own my current car outright, and there's nothing wrong with it (beyond the cracked windshield). I've been daydreaming again about a BMW 3 series - which I've always wanted. But even good used ones are 20K, and I'm not doing that at least until my credit card debt is gone.

But I came up with a good idea in the interim. I think every month, I'm going to squirrel away 50 bucks or so into a savings account. Then maybe twice a year, I'll rent a really nice car for a weekend. All those high-end cars I've always day-dreamed about - they can be rented. So maybe that will satisfy the itch to drive a really nice car, without having to actually pull the trigger on buying one. And I can rent a different make/model each time. Drive it, give it back. Then if I'm ever in a position where I could afford one, I will have driven enough of them to know which one I would want.

Space bar...

I think I'm done for now. Time to get work done. Or play Defense Grid. One or the other. Or both.

Adios

Dave the Gump

Mt. Doom, Stop Motion Love and Religious Absurdity

That's either Mordor, or that Icelandic volcano from last year... you decide...

Yep, I'm posting again. I saw the coolest video just now, and didn't want to wait to post it - I know how flighty I am. I just know I would have forgotten about it if I went to sleep before posting...



Now THAT is the coolest thing I've seen all year. Yeah, we're only a week in, but still, very cool. I'd like to shake the hand of the crew that put the time into making that stop-motion masterpiece...

Made a slight modification to the blog header. I'm sure I'll swap it out for something a little lighter (both visually and tonally) soon, but for now, angsty is in. Besides, no one voted on the other options I posted!

I've been chewing a lot lately on just exactly why I like a certain subset of Eminem songs a lot, while the majority of the others I've heard of his I will never want to listen to again, ever. Eminem is a fascination to me. My thoughts are almost done cooking on it; I'll post some of them soon, if I can get them into coherent form. Trust me, it will dovetail with several topics that might be of interest to you, even if you care not a whit for Eminem or his music. Stay tuned!

Religion + MMO mash-up comic, from Penny Arcade. 

You'll either "get it" and it will be hilarious, or it would take waaay too long to explain, and you still won't think it's funny. Ah, well, life is hit-n-miss, ain't it?

Lemme try this one, from White Ninja...

Religion + Over-the-top absurdism...

Thought I'd stick with the religious theme. Big fan of absurd humor. Keeps me sane.

Guess I should give a shout out to my cyber-pal Josh's newest website - a theology-heavy site called Post Calvinism. Definitely food for thought, if you like your Christian theology heavily seasoned with "in your face" common sense, freshness of thought, and fearless postulation. Besides, I designed the "Terminator Calvin" banner for him. Take a peek, if you dare... MUAHAHAHA!!!

I'm going to check Facebook to see if I have any Scrabble plays waiting my attention, and then head off to bed. Adios.

New Looks, New Books, and Crazy Russians...

Greetings again. Thought I'd post again. You know, just to keep you guessing...

Also thought I'd tweak the look of my blog a bit. You'll notice a nice, dark grey theme instead of the usual white one. And of course, the new header. I made a couple new headers to try out, but went with the moody one for now. Here are the others, in case you want to vote!

Mostly landscapey-type shots... but as pretty as they are, they're kind of bland. I'm looking for something a bit more edgy and angsty. I'll keep experimenting - not completely sold on the black, moody one I chose - though I do like the big ghosted letters in the blog title. Yes, I realize you can barely see the letters... that's the point! Sheesh!

It does fit my mood today, at least. Was thinking about death again. Hang on, bear with me here. Every now and then I get flooded with a realization that everything and everyone dies, great and small, famous and anonymous. How many billions of people have been born, lived, died, that we know nothing of? I really do think that death is just no big deal, in the grand scheme. Nothing to fear, in other words. It happens to everyone - how scary can it be? It doesn't take any special skill or ability. I can't picture God being that particularly bothered by it. By now, He's seen deaths by the jillions. Caused a lot Himself, if the Old Testament is to be trusted.

I was thinking about many of the Old Testament heroes, and what their trials would be like if they were alive today. You know they'd be arrested and put on trial. How many Bible Greats would be considered mass- or serial-murderers? King David would be tried for war crimes, and compared to the most bloody, brutal rulers in history... I mean, that guy personally killed A LOT of people. Elijah called down fire from heaven, which consumed 100 soldiers and 2 captains... plus single-handedly slew the prophets of Baal on the top of Mt. Carmel. Moses killed. Gideon killed. Elisha cursed those kids that mocked him, and the two bears came out and gobbled them up. Joshua. Judges. Samson, of course. Samuel hacked the King of the Amalekites to pieces with a sword. David's Mighty Men ran wild. Seems a lot of death was perfectly fine with God. That's why I tend to think that it just isn't a big deal to Him. People die by the thousands every die across the world. I wonder if it moves Him at all anymore?

Yeah, I know, I've likely talked on this before in this blog. But, hey, it's on my mind of late, what with the odd chest pains I've been having.

OK, I'll shift gears.

Question: What should a sane man do when he has a shelf-full of books waiting to be read? Answer: Buy more books, of course!

 

I stopped by Barnes & Noble today after work, to unwind by drinking a frap and wandering the wonderful aisles of books, and I saw the new KJ Parker book, The Hammer, which was released today, actually. I had a B&N gift card burning a hole in my wallet, so I snatched it up. I also looked for Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton and Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, but they didn't have either in stock. Guess I'll buy the Kindle versions...

One could possibly wonder why I'd buy the Parker book, when I haven't even finished the first book of his/her Engineer trilogy yet. What can I say? I am nothing, if not a man skating on the edge of sanity!

And now:

Something that Absolutely No One but Me Will Find Interesting: A year or two ago, the makers of one of my favorite games ever, Battlefield 2, created a new Battlefield game that was free to play online, called Battlefield Heroes, which, honestly, appealed to me NOT AT ALL, for many reasons. It was cartoony (like Team Fortress 2, another game I don't like), and it was third person. I'm an FPS guy, sorry. Anyway, the game fizzled. The good news (and the part that's interesting to me) is that they regrouped and decided to tweak the original Battlefield 2 game, which I dearly love, and are going to make that game free to play! Woot!

[By the way, when I say "free to play", I mean, you don't have to buy the game or pay to play it... you know, a free game. As in, you don't, like, pay anything. It's... uh... free!]

The reason I bring it up is that I will be contacting each of you, personally, to find out what role you'd like to play in the new BF2 clan I'm making for us. Think of it! We can squad up every night, and hit the servers, and own some noobs! Of course, I'll be Anti-tank, and lead the squad that focuses on defending control points. The rest of you will form up into 4-man squads for coordinated assaults. We'll go over the specific, targeted strategies for each of the maps, have exhaustive practice sessions several nights a week, and communicate in coded messages, based on a variation of the Nazi's "Enigma" machine from WW2, in case other clans try to hack into our practice and listen in.

Think of it! O, what fun we will have!

Speaking of crazy Russian motorcyclists with a deathwish, watch this....



Yeah, that just about made me simultaneously lose my lunch and soil myself.

I'm done with this post. Who knows what 2011 will bring? Let's find out together, shall we?

Dave