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My work insurance policy will pay a certain amount towards returning a vehicle home (or a rental to the agency) should I be unable to do so myself. The wording in the paragraph reads:
"If sickness, injury or death prevents you from driving..."
I don't normally discuss my job here (I don't want to get Dooced, after all), but I'm very excited. So I shall couch my terms to not reference my employer directly.
I've been preparing for weeks (and weeks) for a single presentation, which will direct the course of my employment for the next year (at the least). While I have yet to give said presentation (it's tentatively scheduled for two days after I return from my honeymoon), the presentation material is finished and has been signed off by my boss and my bosses boss.
It's not the first step, but it's step 0.9, and it's a HUGE load off my mind. Now I can start to relax.
Ever have a funny thought that would make a great joke (or blog entry) but as you hurry to tell someone (or post) you realize there is a perfectly good reason for it and you're kinda glad you never made a silly comment (or post) only to have someone frown and say, 'It's because of this'?
For example, in the men's washroom in my office, waaaay up in the building, there are three urinals. Two are normal and one is set low, as if for children.
I laughed to myself when I noticed and was composing a post about it, something silly about why would they put in a urinal for children in a building with all adult employees? After all, none of us are that short and...wait. Little people. Were we to have someone vertically challenged on the staff, they would need a shorter urinal, much like how we have wheelchair stalls even though no one in the building is in a wheelchair.
Stupid perfectly good explanations.
Interview Meme: Questions Asked by hyperhyphen
1. If there was one thing you could accomplish (that you have not done yet) in your life time what would it be?
I would get a book published by a major publishing house. There are lots of little houses that will publish nearly anything, so getting picked up by a big house means you are actually something special.
It's easy to look at my work and tell myself it's good or bad, but really, I cannot judge my own stuff. I can tell if it's honest at least, if I've actually given of myself to craft it, but that doesn't necessarily make it any good.
Comments by friends and family are not any real mark of quality, as they are tempered by love and the need to encourage. No, it's the admiration of strangers I crave.
2. Who do you most respect and why?
Your hubby already asked me this one, so I'll have to come up with a new answer.
This may sound weird, but: William Shatner. Okay, so here's this B-actor who starred in this little science fiction show a million years ago, that just happened to become this big cult phenomena. He could have done what most do -- go to conventions, star in bit roles here and there -- but he didn't.
He grabbed this new type of celebrity and ran with it. He self-parodied himself so hard and for so long that he burst right through into the real thing. He didn't try to avoid his Kirkness, he embraced it, wrestled it to the ground and made it work for him.
And under all that, it turned out he actually could act. His work as 'Denny Crane' in the wonderful Boston Legal has been so powerful that it has actually supplanted the whole Kirk image in my head. Should I ever meet the Shat-man, I won't say, "Beam me up!", I'll say, "Denny Crane!"
My point is that life is full of unknowns I doubt that becoming a fan icon was what Young Bill Shatner had in mind. But that's what happened and he parlayed it into a career to be seriously reckoned with.
And that's... one to grow on.
3. What is your favorite cartoon?
I read Get Fuzzy all the time, so it's generally my favourite, but for real evil giggles, I always pop over to the Perry Bible Fellowship. It leaves no moral value unturned.
4. Psychology says that smells can evoke memories of different situations; My question is what is your favorite smell and what memory or feeling does it evoke?
Vanilla is my favourite smell, by far. Vanilla means cookies and cakes and other types of lovely baked goods. My mom didn't back often -- usually just at Christmas -- so when she did it was a big treat. The smell of vanilla always means that good things are coming soon.
Lisa wears a vanilla skin lotion from time to time. I love the smell of cookies on a woman.
5. If you were a chess piece which would you be and why?
I'm the Knight. I may not move far or in big jumps, but I'm a lot more complex than people think and don't always go where they expect.
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OH YEAH! The trailer for Serenity is up!
Even more irritating (and thus, more effective) than Clocky, the clock that runs away and hides when you try to hit the snooze button a second time, is the Sea Anenome Clock, which not only bounces around the room, but also vibrates like a mad thing, forcing you to clutch it tightly just to turn the damned thing off.
Guess-The-Google is a game based on Google's image search, but in reverse. It submits a word to Google and generates a series of images, from which you have to guess the original word.
Very cool.
See? This is the sort of shit I should have learned in Boy Scouts, instead of spending all that time playing floor hockey...
Interview Meme: Questions Asked by lunarvixen
1. Why haven't you and Lisa gotten married earlier?
Short answer? Because I'm a big fat dummy.
Okay, longer version. First off, I'm lazy. Complacency comes easy to me, and it became too easy to push it off, saying thigns like, 'we don't have the money', or 'I'll start saving now and propose in a few months', et cetera.
There has been so much other domestic turmoil in our household over the last few years that my mind just hit 'too much' and choked.
Secondly, there's the legend of Her Whose Name Can't Be Spoken, Lest She Reappear And Torment Me Aknew, the woman I was engaged to for six months of utter Hell. The experience left me shell-shocked.
Finally, I have a fear of rejection. Generally speaking, In my dating years, I was never able to ask a girl out unless she was standing in front of me, shaking me by the lapels, screaming 'WHY HAVEN'T YOU ASKED ME OUT??'
Yeah, I'm messed up.
2. Do you plan to have kids. If so, when?
Yes. No comment.
3. What do you dislike about the Vampire Games?
Cheating. It's so hard not to cheat and people fail all the time.
Powers work how people think they should work at the time, and arguements fire up at every little dispute. Metagaming is ugly and rampant.
And for the most part, it's not deliberate. It's natural to try to edge things your way, and in the heat of adrenalin, people forget the downsides of their characters, or that they learned that tidbit of knowledge at the coffee shop rather than in game.
It's frustrating, but there isn't much that can be done.
4. Do you miss Storytelling Northern Nights?
Yes I do, but even if I was offered a new storytelling role right now, I'd say no. Even as a storyteller, my favorite part was playing NPCs, and now that I'm only a player again, I'm happy to be doing it.
I do miss God-mode though. It's nice knowing all the angles.
5. How many pets, is too many pets?
One more than we have at any given moment.
-----------------------------------
Be part of the interview chain. If you would like an interview:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments on my journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
If you'd like to ask me some questions, whether I've asked you to or not, even if you don't want to answer any questions, feel free to do so.
Interview Meme: Questions Asked by lacykitten
1. Why marriage? Why is it important to you, or a choice you made? What do you view it as? What does it mean to you?
Everyone asks the big questions. What ever happened to, 'What's your favorite food?'
Marriage to me is the ultimate commitment. As I've detailed elsewhere, I believe humans live to commit to things, be it religious beliefs, underdog sports teams or whatever. Marriage is the full commitment that 'This is the person for me'. I don't deny that polyamory and polygamy work for some people (although I only know a couple people who do it successfully) but most of those seem to have a 'primary', someone they've chosen as their number one.
Life alone, even when within a group, sucks. When you are married, you are never alone. Ideally, your spouse is always there for you, always supporting you. For me, that is always a boost.
2. How did you know Lisa was "the one"?
The first night we slept (actually slept) together, I slept like a baby, even with my arms around her. Those who've known me for a long time know that I (used to) sleep best alone in a silent, dark room. People in the same bed keep me from sleeping for a while, and usually skin contact would prevent sleep entirely.
Not Lisa. That was the first sign. There have been lots since.
3. What was the weirdest dream you can ever remember having?
Detailed dreams are rare with me, but when they do occur they are only moderately bizarre.
The weirdest one? I will skip the actual weirdest, as it was intensely personal. Happy to chat about it in person (with some people), but it's one of the few things I'm uncomfortable with discussing here.
The second weirdest was the one recurring dream I had when I was a small child. First, I was looking across a giant, empty white room. There was a person in the distance sitting at a chesstable, staring at it. I don't recall if anyone was opposite him. It feels like there was, but I cannot recall anyone there. I was approaching the person extremely slowly (and never got close). Then the scene would shift to what looked like a snow/static pattern on a television, on the old ones where you got snow when you turned to a dead channel (in the days before blue screens). But although it was TV-like, I knew it was lots and lots of people, and the noise was less like the static hiss and more like the noise of the crowd-animal when heard from a distance.
The dream would alternate back and forth between the two, and I had it over and over again as a child.
4. If you had a year to change the world in some way, how would you do it?
Assumptions: I'm not worried about other necessities of life, like bills, rent and such, and can devote the entire year to improving the world.
Hard one. I think I would devote the year to writing. Writing is my best skill, and if there was any way I could actually influence the world, that might be it.
Maybe I'd focus on my blog, turn it into something political. The big blogs these days influence hundreds of thousands of people, so that might work. A book? Maybe as well.
5. What is the most important ideal in your life, and why?
I think it's connections. Connections between people.
We need connections. Deep abiding ones with our lovers and family and friends. Connections with ourselves, our spirituality, our beliefs. Connections with the world, with nature. Connections with the universe, from which we came.
Knowledge, wisdom and love all coming from connecting. Can you ask for anything more in life?
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Be part of the interview chain. If you would like an interview:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments on my journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
If you'd like to ask me some questions, whether I've asked you to or not, even if you don't want to answer any questions, feel free to do so.
Couple people have asked why I'm spending this week away from Lisa, living in the gracious Tim's basement. Well, Lisa has articulated our reasons well on her blog. Go read it!
Finally changed the image on the home page to represent Wednesday's entry.
So I went out to do lawn work this morning. My first time! Whee!
Tried to water the lawn, but couldn't find the spinkler we bought in the winter, so had to do it by hand. Discovered that the reel of garden hose had to way to attack it to the tap, so had to take it off the reel and pile it up on a concrete block.
Not entirely certain what is growing in the flower bed out front -- it's green at least. The bushes all have buds and new leaves! Yay!
This is too domestic. Gotta go.
To prevent spending days 2-7 of the honeymoon confined to a dark hotel room slathered in burn cream, Lisa and I have been hitting the tanning beds for the last week. Lisa is well on her way to becoming one big freckle, and I might have to give up my membership in the Pasty-Faced Web Developer Union (Local 512).
The strange side effect is that I think we might get addicted to it. It feels really good to be completely surrounded by UV radiation. I never got into suntanning as a kid, because it was just too damn hot, but in a climate-controlled facility with full control over tanning exposure, plus music and no damn insects, I think I like it.
Don't worry. I won't go all George Hamilton on you.
If I leave my work phone off the hook, instead of doing that loud, annoying 'EHHHH EHHHH EHHHH' thing that my phone at home does, is quietly flashes 'HANG UP!' in the little status window.
Given that I only ever look at the phone when someone calls, it could have been doing that for a long time...
Interview Meme: Questions Asked by genghiscon
1. You have a six shooter full of magic bullets. Fire them off and they will seek out there target anywhere in space and time. Who do you take out and why?
Oooh, space and time. Excellent.
Bullet #1: Hitler. Stereotypical, I know, but if I didn't, everyone would be all, 'Why didn'tja kill Hitler?' I don't need that kind of stress.
Bullet #2: Joseph McCarthy. He honed American paranoia to a razor edge and cut lots of innocent people with it.
Bullet #3: Lee Harvey Oswald. That way, I'd know for sure if he killed Kennedy or not.
Bullet #4: Rob Schneider. I want the 90 minutes I spent watching 'The Animal' back.
Bullet #5: Rudolf Hoss. He killed around 2 million people for Hitler. He really deserves it.
Bullet #6: Jamie Tillbury. Not only was he the bane of my childhood years, but he asked out the girl I had a crush on in Grade 8. And eventually married her.
2. You're offered a very swank contract job for a one-year duration overseas. You must go alone. You'll make enough money to live there, pay your portion of the bills back home as well as clear your debt load (house, loans, lines of credit, etc.). There is no visitation for that year. Do you take the job? Why or why not?
Let's see, with the new mortgage, our personal debt is near a quarter of a million dollars. While it would suck not to see Lisa and my friends, I would most certainly take the job.
One year to solve all our financial problems? That would be AWESOME. Imagine not making mortgage payments every month...wow!
3. You can choose any realm of fiction to inhabit. Which one and Why?
Interesting. Do we really get to 'fit' into that world? Because I'd LOVE to be a wizard. Wizards kick ass. At least they do in D&D-style fantasy worlds. I wouldn't want to be a wizard in, like, a Terry Pratchett universe...
If it were just me, your basic guy, it would be a 'Star Trek'-type future. Advanced civilizations, space exploration, that sort of thing. That would rock.
4. Which is worse, a truth that hurts or a lie that binds? Why?
By 'binds' I guess you mean you are trapped by the lie. So a choice between telling someone that you love their lemon merange pie and having it every night for the rest of your life, or tell them it tastes like ass and getting your nuts kicked.
I would say the lie that binds is worse. The pain of ripping off the bandage will fade. Usually. But the binding lie is years of suffering, and they always get revealed in the end. "You've hated my pie all these years?!?" KICK!
5. Everybody has a body trick they can do. What can you do?
I crack. Here's the list of joints that I can crack, usually on a moment's notice: knuckles, wrists, elbows, spine, knees, ankles.
Snap!
-----------------------------------
Be part of the interview chain. If you would like an interview:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments on my journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
If you'd like to ask me some questions, whether I've asked you to or not, even if you don't want to answer any questions, feel free to do so.
New one is up! Just some final thoughts before the wedding, given that I likely won't have time to post until mid-May now.
Enjoy!
-- Phil
Interview Meme: Questions Asked by aslan78
1. What is music, what does Music mean to you? What does it do to you?
I've always had sort of a movie outlook on life, and movies need soundtracks. When I was a teenager, I would listen to my walkman and run credit reels through my mind as it played. I had songs that opened my day, I had songs that closed out the night.
I even had a smidgeon of musical talent. I did a bunch of years at piano, and learned to play the electric bass and string bass in high school. Oh, and I played the tuba for about seven years. I was never more than a technical player -- I lacked the true 'ear' for music that would have taken me further -- but a pretty good technical player at that.
Music is life. I focus better with music, so I like to have my headphones on at work. When music plays and dancing is possible I tend to get kind of funky.
I don't think life would be liveable without music.
2. What is Marriage?
Tricky question. Sure it's the 'union (religious or civil) of two individuals', but you're asking more than that.
A survey was done in England on happiness. They asked all sorts of people questions abou stress and happiness, job satisfaction, home life, et cetera, basically seeing how people were doing. When they analyzed the results they found something interesting.
Married people were happier.
Now they never asked, 'are you happier because you are married', but they compared the answers of married couples to couples living common-law and found that the married couples were happier, all else being equal.
I believe that humans are committment animals. We are happier when we can devote ourselves to things. Careers, hobbies, whatever. We are at our best when we throw ourselves in completely. And marriage is committment to a person, one person who we say we will be with forever. That doesn't mean it will work, just that we always want to try.
3. Who do you personally respect and admire the most? Why do you admire this person?
Currently it's Neil Gaiman. Neil has made himself a life of whatever he wanted to do at the time. He's written comic books, novels, screenplays, short stories. He ranges in medium and message and type as the mood strikes him. And he's been incredibly successful at it.
Plus he's wonderfully talented in all the right ways, and a nice person by accounts. The person I always would like to be. When I finished the first draft of my (uncompleted) novel, someone told me my writing reminded them of Neil Gaiman. That was the best compliment I ever received.
4. What is a part of yourself that you haven't tapped into? Who revealed this part of you? (good or bad)
Really, I haven't fully tapped into my creative energy. Sure, I write here and on What I Saw Today... and I have a novel festering away coated in electronic cobwebs, but I haven't really tapped into the energy that is there.
Lisa convinced me to do National Writing Month a couple years back, by the simple push of her confident face and her simple words of, "I believe you can". The novel that resulted isn't going to win any prizes but there were moments when I truly slipped into the role of The Writer and there were parts that (in my humble opinion) actually touched on brilliance. Very briefly.
But to really bring that creative side out, so I can call on it and use it daily... no, I haven't done that yet. To my sadness.
5. What is a flaw of yours that you seek to overcome and yet constantly fail?
I'm lazy. I'm a big, easy-way-out kind of guy. It's easier to just leave that dirty plate right where it is than take it up to the kitchen. It's comfortable. I'm comfortable. We'll do it later.
And then later involves me buried under a pile of dirty plates with an arm poking out scrabbling for a wash cloth to save my life.
The easy way is sometimes the best way, but not always. But it sure looks inviting.
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Be part of the interview chain. If you would like an interview:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
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3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments on my journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
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I didn't know that Mr T. tried to be a singer, and even made a video. And I would have been better off not knowing.
Interview Meme: Questions Asked by ruthhall
1. Do you and Lisa plan on having kids? If yes what is your biggest fear about becoming a dad? If no why not?
We do plan on it. The current (and completely tentative, undecided, random-thought-at-night sort of thing) plan is to go a year in the new house and see how things go. We rush into a lot of things and want some ducks seriously in line before we make the big jump.
I worry about a lot of things in becoming a parent. Punishment, for example. I know if I have a daughter I will likely spoil her rotten, and keeping myself from being wrapped around her tiny little finger will be hard.
I guess I worry about ruining them. So much happens in the first couple years that will set them for their entire life. The level of discipline and love. The language you use, the surroundings they are in. How any first child isn't messed up beyond belief by their inexperienced parents is beyond me.
And I am not looking forward to diapers AT ALL.
2. Aside from the obvious (your bride to be) what brings you the most happiness in life and why?
I am an experience hog. I love to see things and do things. One of the biggest draws of the live-action gaming I do is the change to be other people and interact in ways that I can't do in real life. But it's much more beyond gaming.
Travel is the biggest draw for me over nearly anything. The adventure of going somewhere exotic calls to me. I'm looking forward to the honeymoon in the craziest way, because it's been years since I've been anywhere at all. If I had my way, I might never come home again. Just me and Lisa, journeying the world. We'd write, of course.
3. What do you like most about yourself, and why?
That's a hard one. Unknown to most people, I spent my early 20s with very little appreciation for myself. I was shallow, vapid, flighty, sometimes mean...all because I didn't like myself all that much, so I kept myself at a high rate of action. If you move fast enough, you can't catch up with yourself. I hurt a fair number of people during that period.
Now I've slowed down, and I tend to move more gradually into things, and I find I like that a lot better. It gives me time to look at people closer and get experience things fuller. I feel I know my friends better than I ever had before, and my outlook on everything, even on myself, is so much brighter.
And I have hairy hobbit feet. I like that.
4. What pisses you off the most, your biggest pet peeve?
Deliberate ignorance. Not knowing something is not a crime, but deciding that you CANNOT LEARN something before you give it a try is ridiculous. There is no such thing as 'I'm too old' or 'I'm just not smart enough'. It's all hogwash.
I took my cousin Dave to play LaserQuest a few years back. Long-time readers know that Dave was born with no connections joining the two hemispheres of his brain together. Among other problems, Dave has slow reaction times and doesn't pick up new things as quickly -- or sometimes at all. Yet he gamely tried it, had a great time (besides scoring in the negatives) and will happily go back any time I ask him.
You may be right -- you may actually be too dumb or too old or whatever to learn something. But never freaking resign yourself to be that way. I haaaaaaaate that.
5. What do you feel is your biggest flaw?
My memory. Oh, lordy, my memory. I can recall some things perfectly -- I have whole conversations stored up there about the stupidest topics. But ask me to do something like grab a bottle of water from the fridge on my way upstairs? Not a chance. I have to carry a notepad with me everywhere I go at work, just in case someone asks me to do something. If I don't write it down, it's gone. Whoosh! Gone!
A lot of it is impact on my brain. My folks have always put it as 'if it's important to me, I'll remember it'. But that's not quite it. It's a matter of how engaged I was at the time. If it was a thought in passing, I likely won't recall. If it was a face-to-face conversation in a dimly-lit room after midnight with no distractions, it'll stick for years.
I try very hard to pay attention to what people tell me these days. It's better, but if I'm tired or bored (or the television is on) I do tend to regress.
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Be part of the interview chain. If you would like an interview:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
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3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments on my journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
If you'd like to ask me some questions, whether I've asked you to or not, even if you don't want to answer any questions, feel free to do so.
I'd set it to read, "Contents Under Pressure" and stuff like that.
How'd Zaphod put it? "Ten points for style but minus several million for good thinking, what?"
I think the maintenance staff at work must have just gone on a training course. When I used the restroom just after they cleaned it today all the toilet paper rolls had hotel corners.
Much better as compared to two weeks ago when the place smelled like a hateful combination of human feces and buttered popcorn.
Today is Lisa's BIRTHDAY! Every pop over to her blog and wish her a happy-happy!
Happy birthday, my sweet girl!
How...odd.
Well, a three-day training course has left me drained and exhausted. Plus all the wedding ridiculousness -- took Dave and Colin to get their tuxes fitted and the store was closed and empty at 12:00, when we had an actual scheduled appointment. Now we have to go back and do it all over again -- has made things a write-off again.
I promise one more post before the wedding. Sigh.
I don't normally enter these, because they don't make much sense to me, but this one made me giggle.
Why have I never heard anything about this film? Or even the books it's based on? Looks cool!
The Final Scene From Seven, as performed by stuffed animals.
Very cool.
No new entry today. Went for tuxes, busy at work, and the little time I had at home was taken up by a visit from the local Welcome Wagon lady -- which wasn't even strange enough to generate a whole post out of. I might try to write something tomorrow, but likely this'll be it till next week. Watch the blog for more
Those fun robots at TinyMixTapes made one of my suggested mixes! I'm going to go home and whip it up for a listen!
Legally purchasing all songs, of course.
How very strange.
Ooh! It's a shiny clock that no one can read unless they know the trick! Me wantee! The silver one!
It's a Pin Clock!
Anyone recall my post about the coffee maker in my office last month? Well, I think someone in this office must have read my blog because not only is there a brand new percolater, it has three carafes with it.
Hmm...
Edited (10:27am 4/6/05): Okay, so why didn't anyone TELL me you couldn't see the whole image? Well, here it is in a pop-up.
I slept great on Friday and Saturday night. Why did I get no sleep last night? Well, I'm sure I slept at some point, but all I really recall was an endless set of roll over/glance at clock/sigh inwardly/roll over/fluff pillow/repeat.
Mouth doesn't hurt as much today. Seems dry socket wasn't as bad as the advertising. Even if the little clove packet they stuffed in oozed its way back out a few hours later. By that point it had lost all consistancy, and simply oozed out every time I shoved it back in.
Bah.
Do you know what they do when you have Dry Socket (when the blood clot from an extracted tooth comes out or dissolves early)? They pack the empty socket with Essence of Clove Oil.
Bleagh. I get to taste this junk nearly constatly for the up-to-a-week that it will take to dissolve.