30 June 2006

Moron Alert!

I didn't take my medicine yesterday. I didn't realize I didn't (is that a double negative?) until I just woke up. Ooh, I'd rather have a migraine than feel like this... well it's back to bed, hopefully I can sleep until it kicks back in.

29 June 2006

Oh Look, A Chicken

I was awoken this morning by a Bellevue streets crew who was finishing up fixing the part of the road in front of my house... with a jackhammer... at 07:23am. With any luck THEY all got a good nights sleep.

I went to an improv workshop put on by 88 improv last night with Spanky & Mae. It was taught by Nate, Steve, and Sol. It turns out that Spanky is a natural at it, he thought he was trying too hard, but his over the top style (my words) was quite humorous. I had little trouble being funny, but lots of trouble being creative on-the-spot. I ended up thinking about comedic timing and saying the first thing that popped into my head rather than the story. Mae thought it was difficult to do with someone that she knew well (i.e. me & Spanky), but I found it much easier to do with her (or someone else I knew) because the repore was already there, and I felt I knew what to expect. I thought it was really fun, and challenging. I will be back for more.

I saw a movie: Prairie Home Companion. I love the radio show, Garrison Keillor is such a wonderful storyteller and quite passable as a singer. As I have said before, I am quite the midwestern boy, and I love the radio show for it's midwestern sensibilities. I liked the movie, it was a story told visually, not about stars or fancy effects, but a story. (to me) When the focus is the story, and you have wonderful actors playing the people in the story, it just flows... that's when I can lose myself, that's when I love movies. I went in with few expectations, and was rewarded with the unexpected. Lake Wobegon was not mentioned once, I am going to guess that has to do with some sort of complicated copyright thing. Kevin Kline's character made me think of Rosencrantz, I hope I correctly remember my Shakespeare. There was really very little weak acting, although Lindsay Lohan either did a fantastic job not stereotyping her character or just missed it "by that much", it was kind of hard to tell. If all movies were made this thoughtfully, I'd see more.

26 June 2006

CWS Rocks!

LeeAnn came up with tickets for the College World Series championship game. This is perfect weather. 0-0 in the second inning.

The final was 3-2 Oregon State. I'd never been to any sort of championship game before, it was dramatic and surreal when they all piled on top of one another at the end. We stayed to watch the presentation, minus the MVP award, and I'm glad we did.

I did get to see Suzie working, she is cute anyways, but she has the hair/freckle thing working perfectly.

25 June 2006

Exciting Times... Power Equipment

There it is, brand new, just out of the box, my new lawn mower. 6.5hp, 21" blade, mulch or bag, SELF-PROPELLED, and on sale.

Many of you probably heard that I bent the blade on my old mower and was having trouble getting it off so I could bend it back or replace it. This is as close to a impulse buy as I get, I suppose. As I drove to Menards to purchase the tools to get the blade off, I considered that my old mower had several issues, an engine with a serious case of post-purchase engineering just to keep it running, a cracked deck, a loose muffler, missing safety devices, and a pull starter that likes to break twice a year. I set a price in my mind for a mid-brand self-propelled mower, and there it was, $50 less than the price I had figured. So I put the tools back, and bought the mower.

Naturally I had to try it out right away. It works fine and was easy to put together. The self-propelled feature made it a whole lot lighter going up the hill.

22 June 2006

A Good (All) Nights Sleep

This wasn't the first time that I had done this on my new schedule, but it may have been the most satisfying. After work I got some fast food, answered one email, turned the phone off, and headed to bed... at 6:20pm, and was out. I did get woken up by a headache around 10, but I was back asleep around 11.

I had another amazing dream during the first part of the sleep. The basic plot was I was on a vacation to somewhere, when all of a sudden every plane in the air was forced to land, we ended up with about 100 other jet liners at a military base in Peru. No one knew what was going on, but evidentily it wasn't good for the entire northern hemisphere, because the Peruvian military disappeared shortly thereafter to prepare for something. All the airliners took the opportunity to leave, and in a hurry, we barely got off the ground and did some fancy roller coaster manuvuers to avoid buildings and other ground based objects. We landed again at some secret base on an island in the pacific, got just enough fuel, and headed to New Zealand (which was going to be a safe haven). Evidently we were the only plane to make it to New Zealand, and there was much rejoicing. Lots of drama, the acting was great, good special effects, and the cinematography was spectacular; I give it 3.5 out of 4 stars.

The second part of the sleep was fairly dreamless, which, although not as exciting as a cool dream, is good too.

17 June 2006

Bad Attitude, Happy Guy

I've been suffering from a bad attitude the last week or so. Strangely enough, however, I am sitting here writing this with a big smile on my face, because I am so happy and thankful about my life. What a freak.

One of the things that makes me feel alive is when I see people putting contradictory and complex feelings and/or desires together and helping them, or sometimes helplessly watching them try to make sense of it all. I know I have a thoughtful talent for it, although I also know people sometimes figure I'm all frosting, no cake, so not so many get to see that part of me.

I admit, it is not normal for me to see (recognize) this occurring in me, although I am sure it happens. I am happy that instead of ignoring it or trying to fix it, I am taking my own general guidance and just letting it be, and trying to make sense of it... getting to the root issue, rather than applying new curtains to the bad attitude "window"... treat the disease instead of the symptoms, what a novel idea.

I have a fair idea of what some of the root causes are, and one is that struggle with esteem. In general, my 'self' esteem is fairly good, I like myself. The esteem issues I have are the ones where I am unsure whether I believe I will be accepted by other people in general, or more to the point caring about being accepted by the population in general. At the same time I want to be loved and accepted by everyone, I have no desire to have because of how badly I would be compromised by the demands of the world... I don't want to be stamped into a mold and told what is normal. This ain't my first rodeo with this issue, and it won't be my last, I'm sure, but I don't like it holding me back from being fulfilled as a person and as a contributing member of society.

The other issues involved are not necessarily for public consumption (see the above paragraph). Until I get it figured out, you'll see me with a smile on my face and a bad attitude lurking somewhere behind.

16 June 2006

Wednesday Improv

Check this out for a Wednesday night activity!

Improv classes on the cheap.

15 June 2006

A few notes about cars, thunderstorms, and open sunroofs

Actually I probably don't need to say much more on the subject other than "wet butt".

13 June 2006

Mystery Solved

The mystery of the missing gray pants is solved.

It was Kevin, they were in his room.

10 June 2006

Spoonerism or Freudian Slip?

(who and what not included to protect ME!)
I'm calling it a spoonerism, Kevin thought it was more of a freudian slip, either way, it was funny. I was describing to someone how I was complaining to someone about something, and I attempted to describe my complaining as an "explitive laced tirade", but instead, it came out "laxative based tirade"... I think that it works out the the same general thing. Potty mouth.

Shortly thereafter, I was chatting with MistyJoJangles, and she said to me "good luck gettin' busy". Thanks, you too.

08 June 2006

Surgery Update 000C

Okay, cross your fingers, I am about to jinx myself. No mirrors, ladders, open umbrellas, or black cats are allow near this post.

I feel I am 90% recovered from my surgery, and with the exception of a couple days of eating (too much) chocolate, I have not had a migraine in three weeks. I wish I had a bunch of money, because, well then I could pay my hospital bills, but also, I could take everyone out with me to celebrate!

Praise the Lord and pass the mashed potatoes baby!

04 June 2006

:stupid: Roommate :/stupid:

You all noticed my latest waste of time... well no more. That's right, I beat my addiction... thanks to the roomie. Stupid jerk.

I hate beta programs (like everything Microsoft produces), and that moron with the messy room installed the 3.0 alpha of the program we play all the time. And now the old version doesn't work, or didn't work. I played for two and a half hours and completely lost all of it. Including some really cool items.

Arg! I'm going to make him walk the plank into shark infested waters.

02 June 2006

Party Crashing

Fortunately it wasn't too much of a faux pas (that's French), if any, I knew MistyJoJangles was going to be at a certain restaurant, so I invited myself to join them without asking. I started to think about this as I walked in, and so I apologized, and as I was apologizing, Mae walks in, who I invited, because of course, no party is complete without her.

In a slightly related story, Nate cut his hair... for a job, the outrage of the things you have to put up with when dealing with the man... his explanation was much more entertaining.