David's Blog

Leap Year

Today is Leap Day. Yesterday was my birthday. I thought I'd go ahead and blog about this. Most people who find out that I was born on February 28th comment on the leap year thing. They usually say something about it being a close call or something of that sort.
I can't help thinking though... it wasn't a close call. It was the wrong year. In fact, it was a long shot. Almost everyone I know was a lot closer to being born on leap year than I was. I am 730 days away from leap year either way around the calendar you go. Also, I was born around eleven in the evening, so there are only two hours were one can get farther from being a leap year baby. I guess in that way one can comment on something about my birthday that is somewhat special.

Happy 22nd to Me

Today is my birthday, and I have a ton of work to do. It actually is just four things, but these four things are very thought intensive and time consuming. To make matters worse, I am faced with a near constant stream of interruption. This is, of course, appreciated, because I do like the well wishes and the love, but it also makes getting my work done a whole lot harder.
Fortunately, this is my last year at University of Florida, which is probably the only school that has Spring Break in early march. So, I won't normally have a mid-term load of work resting on my shoulders on my birthdays any longer.
Also fortunate -- my parents called and told me to go ahead and go out to eat "on [them]" tonight. Now the question remains... where does someone as indicisive and maximizistic as me go to eat a birthday dinner?

It's my birthday so I am taking liberties here and making up a new word when I can't think of a more appropriate one.

max·i·miz·ism: (n)
1. A propensity for wanting to make things as great or valuable as possible.

max·i·miz·ist adj. & n
max·i·miz·istic adj.

My Symptoms

'I'm not complaining; I'm describing my symptoms.'

...
'No, I'm serious. I wasn't trying to make a joke there, man.'
...
'I'm not upset. I'm just a lil frustrated with the laughter and your condescending intonation of "sure" and "are." '
...
'I can't win here!'
...
'Now look, you almost got me off topic...'

The Passion / Braveheart

After reading many reviews and criticisms of The Passion and having seen the movie, the one thing that I am suprised by is the lack of any parrallels drawn from Mel Gibson's latest movie and Braveheart. If I were an upstart critic I think I'd be very tempted to point out that Mel might have some sort of thing for on screen torture and brutality.
In both movies we have martyrs being brutalized by oppressive powers that don't want change towards the very end of the movie. I think both scenes played out similarly too -- with cuts to the life that is flashing by.
Yeah, that's pretty much it... I guess that answers my question as to why no one wrote about this. It doesn't exactly take up a 1,000 word column.

Liberal Bias Explanation?

Last night I briefly discussed with Megan and Jenn the seemingly widely held view that many media outlets had a liberal bias.

They both seemed to think that it was almost a given that they had a libreal bias. Also, they're both self-proclaimed liberals so they don't mind the bias all that much, and I'd even wager that they think it's pretty cool. They were able to point out that there are "more conservative" media outlets available as well, but that they are generally smaller and less famous.
I also posed the question that went something like -- Why are people interested in the differing forms of media typically liberal?

They didn't really have an answer for me, but they did agree that it was probably the case that people who work in this field are generally more liberal.
Well, not having an answer is never fun, so I've been thinking about this today and I've come up with an answer for myself. It's really just an intuition based on some of my beliefs about businesses, people and such, but here goes...

What sells media? I felt that entertaining or interesting and relevent content is what sells it. From there I thought about the types of things that are interesting, and I was reflecting on the differences between views which are generally considered liberal and views which are generally considered conservative.

I feel that liberal views are often about changing the status quo, pushing the envelope, etc whereas conservative vies are about maintaining the status quo, protecting and preserving cultural values, etc. Just from that I can see why news media would have a liberal bias to it. Change is interesting. Who would want to read something on a regular basis that reported in on what hasn't changed, what has been protected, and what is still true. I'd venture to say almost no one. This is a pretty satisfying explanation for me, because there is no agenda and no conspiracy and it answers the question as well as I can expect it to be answered. It uses just the nature of many people to explain what brings about a behavior of an entire society.

Feeling Left Out...

I am nearly finished with my degree program at the University of Florida (just two more months!) and one thing that has really impacted me the entire time I've been here is how different I seem to be.

Our school has championed minorities all of the last four years that I've been here, and probably more. I think that is cool, but it sucks too because the general rule seems to be "As long as you're not "white AND male" -- YOU'RE A MINORITY! Welcome, we embrace you with open arms." (and, well, I am both of those things.) The university is even willing to bend a bit on the white AND male policy if you slip in through gender identity or sexual preference exemptions. My girlfriend has made it all too clear to me that she'll stop dating me if I try any of that, so I am at a huge loss. I can't fit in with all this great and exciting minority fun. I have to struggle that much harder to find something to complain about, and I've noticed that I still need to be careful, because there are some things that can come straight back at me due to the actions and positions of previous generations of "white AND male"s.
Sometimes I feel like all these activities are kind of biased directly against my ethnic/gender group. I've even mentioned this to some friends of mine -- most of whom are not members of my ethnic/gender group, and it seems to fall upon deaf or hostile ears. I think to myself... I was just born this way! I didn't do any of those things that everyone is so upset about. I am not hating on any people-groups. In fact, it could be said that my ethnic-gender group of this generation is pretty opened minded about all this, because of all the recent change.
This is all frustrating and stuff. I guess I should just take Joy's advice and not let it bother me, but... I think it would be cool if I had a month or a week or something like that too.

Death is Coming for Me. And so is Rebirth

Part of me is going to die soon. In a few months I will graduate and immediately move on to the next stage of my life. This life that I have been living will pass from me as if this particular instance of me has died.

I've said all this before to people, and every time I get a quick response. "You're not really dying. That's just a major life change" or "Yeah, but you can still come back, call the people you know, or visit with them."
The second response strikes me as potentially the most valid, but most of the people that I am close to seem to be people that don't keep up with their friends after they move on to another stage in their life. Even if they were to keep up with me, I would appreciate it, but know that it is a different connection. There would be a distance that removes the ease which makes things so much sweeter.
I don't say all of this to be melodramatic. I have faith that my next life -- or my next stage in this greater life -- will be similar to this one in terms of amount of happiness, sadness, pleasantries, etc. I will miss this life at times when I am in the next, but I am sure I will look back and be happy that I am where ever I am.
This outlook actually makes me glad, because it brings me hope. I have changed lives several times over, and each time there is a cycle that I now see and can embrace. Each time I mourn the loss of one stage of life in preparation for the next. This practice is also very comforting to me, because I imagine that death will be a lot like this. I will end two different stages of life and move on to an entirely different one.
So, I am preparing myself to have a smooth death and a quick rebirth. This is all coming in a few short months, and I can use this time to responsibly enjoy the rest of this life, and at the same time prepare myself as best I can for the next one so that I will transition smoothly into my new life. Hopefully, like so many ancient cultures desired, I will be able to take as much goodness and love as possible from this life into the next, but if that isn't possible than I will be content with just the things that I have learned, the experiences I have had, and the character that I have developed.

Date/Time

How cool is this!?!

The Friday Five -- 2/20/2004

When was the last time you...
1. ...went to the doctor?
2. ...went to the dentist?
3. ...filled your gas tank?
4. ...got enough sleep?
5. ...backed up your computer?

My answers --
1. Dec 31st 2003. I know this because the appointment business card is still sitting in the center console of my car.
2. See above. That's the Doctor that I saw.
3. Wednesday, February 18th @ 12:30AM
4. Not last night, but the night before... and tonight too - I plan to sleep in.
5. I haven't backed up this computer. I've been meaning to, but I still haven't. I've recently backed up Joy's computer though, which is good because the hard drive in it died.

File-Sharing OK from an Anthropological Perspective

I am taking ANT2301: Human Sexuality this semester, and I am learning a great deal about sexuality from an Anthropological, Evolutionary, Cross-Cultural perspective grounded in scientific research conducted via sampling, interviews, surveys, observation, field-work, experimentation, case studies, and laboratory research. (What a mouthful!)
This is all very fascinating to me, especially now as I am working on writing a paper for the class. So it gets me thinking about things that are kind of off-topic and sometimes critical of the perspectives used in the book and in the class.
One conclusion that occurred to me just now is that these Anthropologists would likely OK something such as file-sharing along all the same grounds that they OK homosexuality.

How Anthropologists determine that something (like homosexuality) is OK --
1. They'd look to the animal kingdom. Other animals have been found that have been observed doing homosexual acts.
2. They'd look to other cultures and societies. Homosexuality has been acceptable and even embraced in other cultures throughout the globe and throughout History.
3. They would look past current or Historical laws that address the issue. 'These are just temporal social controls that have no bearing on the inherent acceptability of the issue.'
Perhaps there are other ways that I am missing, but that seems to be how Anthropologists have come to the conclusion that homosexuality is OK.
Now, using that standard we can apply it to this relatively new issue of file-sharing, which is stealing the right to use a song, movie, or software.
1. Animal Kingdom. Yeah, animals of all species can be observed taking things without delivering payment. One bear can catch a salmon and another might come up and take it away. Or, some hyena may run down a gazelle -- only to have the food stolen by a passing lion.
2. Other Cultures throughout the world and History. Check. Microsoft has major beef with China because they make ridiculous numbers (duh! China...) of uncompensated for copies of their software. They do it to music, video and other software too. Also, the Vikings would often take stuff from the towns that they raided.
3. Looking past the mores of the day. OK, well, right now we feel like it is bad to take software, music, and movies without somehow paying for the use of them, but when you look past that it suddenly becomes...
OK

New: The Friday Five

I am starting something new at my blog... weekly answering The Friday Five.
It basically works like this -- I go to that website once a week, read the questions and then answer them here in the extended entry. I think this is cool, because answering questions is fun! Yea!
Here is my first set of questions --
1. Are you superstitious?
2. What extremes have you heard of someone going to in the name of superstition?
3. Believer or not, what's your favorite superstition?
4. Do you believe in luck? If yes, do you have a lucky number/article of clothing/ritual?
5. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?

Answers:
1. I am tempted to be superstitious from time to time. Such as the time when I broke Joy's mirror... I was pretty worried about some major bad luck for about five minutes after that. Luckily, Lana was willing to break the thing again and agian and again afterwards. That kinda killed that worry for me. I don't think that I actually am superstitious though... just tempted quite often.
2. The salt throwing thing seems pretty extreme to me. I don't know why people do that, but I've seen it done, and it is probably the only thing that I have seen done in the name of superstition.
3. Friday the 13th!
4. I used to believe in luck. No longer. My "lucky" numbers are two and eight, mainly because my birthdate is 2/28/82.
5. Believe in? I hate that phrasing. I am interested in astrology and I think it is valid. That pretty much answers the question. Do I put my faith in any of it? Nothing serious... just some of the personality assessment aspects of it. I am completely against horoscopes too.

Healthy Choice Frozen Entrées

As sad as this is, I am writing about food again. I actually kinda like doing this from time to time, and since I bought eight different Healthy Choice entrées last Saturday (they are on sale for $2) I thought it would be fun and interesting to write something about how much I liked them and how easy they were to cook.

Mixed Grills: Steak with Teriyaki Dipping Sauce
Dinner -- 2/16/2004
This looked like one of the better ones that I got, so I decided to try it first for dinner tonight. The directions were very simple... as in no stopping and stirring and no removing pouches and setting them aside. All I needed to do was microwave it for five to seven minutes. It took seven and there was still a cold spot in the middle of the tray. Perhaps the directions should have suggested a stir.
The food tasted good though. It smelled like it was grilled on a wood fire, which was really different for me. There were tons of vegitables, which is cool because I like broccoli, carrots and potatos. The potatos also had the wood smell.
I'd buy this again and microwave it longer the next time.

Flavor Adventures: Grilled Chicken Marinara
Lunch -- 2/17/2004
Meal #2 looked promising from the picture, but it wasn't all that great. It takes 8 to 11 minutes to cook (I opted for 11 because the last one needed the higher time.) When it was ready to eat it was all tossed together with the broccoli mixed in with the chicken pasta entrée. So, it took a long time (in terms of microwavable meals) to make, it was only 10oz of food, and everything was mixed all together. Pretty sad. Luckily the food was actually still pretty good -- even though I don't particularly care for marinara on my broccoli.
I probably won't get this again unless it is on sale and I am really looking for some variety.

Grilled Turkey Breast
in cranberry sauce with green beans and a blend of roasted red skin potatoes and sweet potatoes
Dinner -- 2/18/2004
Meal #3 is one that I have had before. Unfortunately I can't remember whether or not I liked it. It certainly looks like something that I would like, and the cooking situation is ideal -- just cut one slit in the top and cook it for four to six and a half minutes.
Whoa! This one is yummy! I was semi-full before even trying this and it is still good, which is impressive. I'll definately be getting it again. The cranberry sauce is this sugary apple pie-like glaze that really works with the turkey and potatoes. The turkey is in short supply, but it is great. I guess that is kind of the point though. Green beans and carrots always work well for me, and they are even better when dipped into the cranberry sauce (cranberry and apple glaze.)
I'm definately getting this one again.

Lemon Pepper Fish
with rice pilaf, crisp broccoli, and apple cherry dessert
Lunch -- 2/19/2004
This meal looked like the right one for this afternoon, and it turned out well. Like the Grilled Turkey Breast this one only takes six minutes to microwave, which works out to three minutes in my speedy microwave. So cooking it is easy and fast... two slits, three minutes... food!
Everything tasted great too, but the little dessert thing was sub-par in that it didn't exactly have much in the way of fruit in it.
All together though, this is a pretty decent meal. I'd probably buy it again, but I'd only eat it occasionally.

Blackened Chicken
Blackened chicken breast with fire roasted red pepper sauce, seasoned rice, and apple praline crisp.
Again I cheat! I've had this meal before too. I like it. It's a bit spicy, which is always cool with me. The rice is great, the dessert is yummy, the meal is easy to prepare and cook, and the chicken is unique and delicious. The only problem I have with it is that there is at times a cold spot somewhere in the chicken, which makes it take a little longer to heat and cook. Letting it stand for the two minutes and then cooking it again for a bit solves that though.
Definately buying it again.

Beef Tips Portabello
with gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetables and apple cherry crisp
I never really cared for frozen mashed potatoes. They taste weird to me probably because of the stuff that they add to them. Everything else was fine, but it is a big downer to have bad mashed potatoes so I probably won't get this again. The cooking time was short and didn't require much interaction though, so that is always a plus.

Peanuts

Lately I've had this crazy thing for peanuts. It all started about a week before Super Bowl XXXVIII...

My brother had brought home this 5 pound bag of roasted peanuts that were still in their shells. He said I could have some, and so I did. They were so awesome for some reason. Whenever I'd stop to have some I'd stand there and compulsively eat peanuts for five to ten minutes at a time. That went on for about a week -- until we ran out.
Now last week peanuts were on this huge sale at Publix, so I decided to go ahead and grab some... a lot of them.
I have been eating them like crazy ever since. I've almost finished off this 16 oz glass jar of Dry Roasted in like half a week. The craziest thing about it is it is like messing with my system. I think it is all the peanut oil or something. Who knows.

V-Day 2004

A quick account of the holiday.

I got to sleep in!
I went to Best Buy and bought a router, some floppy disks, and Friends: The Complete Fourth Season
I went to Publix and picked up the groceries that Joy wanted me to get for the dinner.
Spent time with Joy.
Helped make dinner.
Made crazy plans with Dom to get tickets to The Passion to sell after church.
Ate dinner.
Spent time with Joy.
Watched a lot of Friends.
Had terrible G.I. problems -- probably dinner.
Watched more Friends.
Also managed to annoy, upset, or cause problems for pretty much everyone I came into contact with today.
-Both roommates (parked in garage when it was raining)
-Publix cashier (Pushed wrong button at check-out (it wasn't marked correctly; new system)
-At least three fellow drivers (It's raining. I get tired of waiting for the right of way to be hand-signaled to certainty)
-Roommate's girlfriend (Borrowed two DVDs... only asked about one of them... didn't return both)
-Joy (Biiiiig mistake that was supposed to be a funny joke. I finally owned up to it, which hurt her and seemed to make her glad at the same time.)
That's pretty much everyone. Oh, wait. No... I asked this Publix shelving guy (who actually used to live next to me in my dorm) where I could find light cream. He didn't take that interruption so well.
Valentine's Day seems to be the day to be a nuisance though, because pretty much everyone got over all of this more quickly than usual.
Now, it's time to read the directions to the new router and fall asleep.

Valentine's Day Reactions

Valentine's Day is coming!
I've been hearing this for a few weeks now. Probably ever since Super Bowl XXXVIII. I've witnessed some interesting reactions to this too.

First, there is my girlfriend. She just tells me how Valentine's Day is going to go down -- at least as far as she knows. Suprises are, of course, always welcome.
Then there are the single girls that I know. These are the dreaders. I've heard from quite a few of them. They make some sort of preparatory pact, plans, etc. or they dread the fact that they are single and curse the holiday that is currently reminding them of their singleness.
Tonight I noticed a third type of reaction. It was pretty cool. Instead of making plans, dreading, or any of that stuff these single girls decided to take it upon themselves to give all their male friends a cool message and some candies.
I think this is so much better of a reaction. Instead of thinking about themselves and the impact of the holiday on their lives, these girls thought of the holiday as an opportunity to express some sisterly love.
Inspiring!

Rush Hour... in my house!

Man! I can't seem to escape rush hour. I try to stay at home between 4:00 and 6:00 because traffic is crazy during those times, and now there is craziness right outside my bedroom door!

My roommate and his girlfriend are doing some massive project in which they drag huge boxes and bags of trash through the halls and then open and slam the door again and again. It's shounds like elephants are coming through or something.
Oh well, I guess it is just my signal to go to Publix sooner in the day.

UPDATE @ 10:55 --
Instead of commenting on how spectacular their project was I probably should have offered to help out. I guess there is always next time.

Issues...

Perhaps this is all because I didn't get enough sleep last night, but... I kinda doubt that.
See, I have this problem that is definately just a small problem, but it grows whenever I try to do something about it.
People annoy me. I'm 'hypersensitive.' Whatever. All I know is that in certain situations people doing everyday things can really wreck havok on my senses, and that type of sensory interference is really hard to deal with and subsequently quite annoying for me.

EXAMPLE: Sitting in lecture. The person sitting by me is enjoying a candy. This isn't really anything bad on the part of the person at all, and I realize it. However, this is right next to me -- or worse -- right behind me so I can hear it really well. In fact, I can hear it just as well, if not better than I can hear the lecturer. When this happens I like to think of it as an aural illusion or perhaps just a trick of the mind. Much like the eye trick that features two faces about to kiss each other. Or is that a vase?
See, that is my problem. I vacilate between hearing lip smacking, sugar enjoyment and the monotony of a lecture. Actually, you can replace the sounds of sugar love with anything else too, such as a tapping boot or pen, a constant cough, or even a conversation... especially a conversation.

Now, some people will still be failing to understand me at this point. "What's the problem?" They'll ask? "Just get over it." They may suggest. I wish it was that easy. I wish I could do just that because then I wouldn't have the next problem, which is the effort to remove myself from the situation or to get the situation to stop.

When you couple ease of distractibility, lack of tact, and an overdose of the desire to not hurt people you get a pretty frustrating situation. You also get me.
These three things combine to blend up a pretty troublesome situation when you add in a person who is just an acquaintance, but someone that you like well enough, wouldn't want to offend, and kind of should befriend.
Now the options that I have dreamed up are all fairly poor. My main objectives are to be able to concentrate on the lecture without interruption and not hurt anyone's feelings.
My first thoughts on solutions for this are --
Get over it. (I tried this. It hardly ever seems to work for me, unfortunately.)
Try to pull some tact out without being overly explainy and let the person know what is going on.

Hmmm... time to go to my next class.

Swimming at the Florida Pool

Monday I went swimming at the Florida Pool for the first time. It was something else. I hadn't really been swimming in years, and here I was bumbling around the pool getting ready to swim some laps to rehabilitate my knee.

I had a good half dozen or so reservations about doing this for the first time. I ended up talking to three different friends in an effort to procrastinate on going to the pool. I was worried about the akwardness that sometimes comes with not knowing my bearings and general ignorance of pretty much every situation that I could conjure up.
So, I decided that I'd just ask a lot of questions, which seemed like it would be a good plan, but the lifegaurds I talked to were really big into short sentences that provided only one clue at a time. That was cool. I just went up and asked them question after question until I knew what I was supposed to do. This happened five times.
My questions --
'Hi! I've never been here before. What do I need to do?'
"Show me your Gator-1 and sign in."
'OK, uhm... where should I change?'
"In the locker room."
{There are eight different doors surrounding the pool -- that I can see at this point}
'Right, which door is that?'
"Just go down there, it's to your right."
{Five doors to my right. Three are marked. Lifeguards Only. Men. Women.}
{I decide to check out the Men door. I had to use the restroom anyway. There was a shower, a bench, some hooks, a sink, a urinal, and a disabled-friendly toilet}
'Which one is the lockher room?'
"The bathroom."
'Oh. Well, where are the lockers?'
"No lockers."
'Where do you want me to put my stuff?'
"Where ever you want is cool."
{I go and change. When I come out every lane is full.}
'All the lanes are full. Do I just wait until one opens up or...?'
"No. Go on in."
{David Hasselhoff was probably much more talkative than this, right?} {He noticed my hesitation and colunteers information!}
"Usually they just try their best to avoid each other."

So, I walk around the pool -- the long way. I didn't realize that there was no "shallow end" in this pool. I look at the situation down by me feet and realize that I should probably just hop into the pool. I do. It's nice and warm... sweeet!
I don't stretch. I don't really think much anymore either. I just decide to swim a lap.
I get back and I am burning. I decide to talk to my neighbor who is also standing in the less deep end. I learn a lot from this guy. His name is Ben. He is a triathelete. He too hurt his knee. Down and back is two laps NOT one. The length of the pool is 50 yards. He planned on swimming 750 yards today, but he doesn't in the end.
I didn't have any plans really. I didn't realize it would be so hard to swim. I try for another lap. My third and fourth. They kill me. I end up doing the side-stroke back to the place where I can stand and breathe. I am not used to this madness where I have to think before I suck wind -- else suck in heavily chlorinated water. I realized that the water burns your throat pretty badly -- after everything else stopped burning.
I was standing there in five foot land sucking in air. Completely dizzy and dehydrated. I finally read the sign with the pool rules on it. I was supposed to shower before getting in, eh? Thanks for letting me in on that lifeguard! Oh? Drink lots of water? I wished that they had this sign visable from the front.
Burning finally stopped. Stretching helps. Talking to Ben helps. I try to say funny things, but that doesn't work so well for me. I must have been really dumb, because things started feeling really good while I was standing there and I felt that it meant that I should try another pair.
OK... turning at the half-way point... turning is hard. Stopping at five and a half feet is cool. I stretch some more. Wait to tell Ben that I am leaving and get out of the pool.
So do three other guys... Not exactly desirable situation here, but life goes on.
I'm totally out of it all the way back to my car. By the time I am driving I feel like I'm about to fall asleep because I am so beat. I guess runner's high isn't limited to runners.
I hate that I feel that I have to shower before I go to bed because of the cholrine smell. I don't shower right away though, because I don't want to sleep in the shower for an hour and waste all that water.
yawn... It's late. This is pretty long, drawn-out, and overly detailed.
Tomorrow I am going to go swimming again. Yeah... every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is the plan. I should probably be sleeping by now though... I wish my tiredness would come through on the blog in some way other than a weird mix of complete brevity AND its absense.

Appalling Truths

What do you do when the truth about an individual is so uncomfortable and so appalling that if you were to voice it you'd be met with resistance and instant defamation?

Do you gain indisputable evidence to support yourself? The arguments against you will surely come, but successfully defending yourself in an argument against a crowd is always at most a pyrric victory.
Do you just keep quiet? Say nothing to maintain the peace?
Does it just depend on the situation? There's no answer now, I'll just deal with that if and when I get there...
I don't know the "right answer" if there is one so I am just leaving this up as an open question. Hopefully, some kind and wise person will drop an answer in the comment box for me.

Internet Down

Today my Internet was down when I got home. My roommates were both upset when I got back, and they wanted me to magically fix the problem so I called up our service provider BellSouth.

I talked to the support guy and went through many of the steps that I have gone through 13 times before. Nothing that they did worked. They decided to do some odd-sounding tests to see if X, Y, or Z issue was the real problem with my Internet not working today.
I felt like BellSouth was not giving us service -- like we were experiencing a short break in service. It happens. No one is perfect and neither is any one company.
Eventually, I got to talk to some higher-up tech guy. He let me know that he was the 15th person to enter notes into my account's technical service log, which is how I knew that I had done this exactly thirteen times before. He said he was doing something to test other possibilities, and eventually he decided that my modem was not working. He said there was really only one thing to do -- get a new modem. That would be $150, but if I was willing to give a verbal agreement to stay with BellSouth for another year they'd knock the price down to $100. Wow! It sounded great at first so I started ordering and got put on hold for a moment -- just long enough for me to think and realize that this was a bit shady. When I got back on the phone I talked to my new acquaintance about how I felt that the deal was kinda shady. I even explained it to him.
I said that it was kinda weird that when I lose service for a bit that I have to purchase another modem to continue my service. Sounded weird to me, because the way they have it set up, I now have a great opportunity to shop around for better/cheaper service plans. I mean... I have to buy a new broadband modem anyway, right?
So, that's what I am doing now.

UPDATE -- 2/7/2004 @ 7:30PM

Well, I decided to continue to give my modem some more tries. Perhaps the service came back online, right? Well, I prayed that the modem would just work again, and... it did! How cool is that? Now I have Internet again. Now I am disappointed with BellSouth again. They told me that my modem wasn't working. They were wrong. That mistake would have cost ME $100 -- $150 plus shipping and servicing, which is a cost that was never quoted to me.
Oh well, now I need to call BellSouth up again and let them log that my modem was, in fact, NOT broken and that their diagnostics were faulty. Hopefully, that will help them be a better business for the next person.

Deliriously Blogging

I think I think more when I don't get enough sleep or something. Maybe I just think more randomly or perhaps I just feel more like blogging because I KNOW that I will be too tired to remember any of this stuff, and I am also too tired to realize that what I am writing is just silliness that no one will want to read.
Waitaminute! No one reads any of this anyway! I should be writing whatever I want as it is -- even when I'm not sleep deprived. That's what Megan and Jenn do, after all....

Portion Control

Maybe it's because I'm a pisces, maybe it's because I'm an undisciplined American, or perhaps it's just a hold-over from how I was raised... I eat everything in front of me almost anytime I am given food and/or make food for myself.

This is why I am going back to work on keeping my portions properly sized. No more of this 1/3 of a box of cereal every morning! No more whole, 12" Digorno's pizza! No more eating the entire 1lb bag of Chicken Viola! (I am still reserving the right to eat an entire bag of popcorn though -- that is good stuff!)
This is all coming back now, because I've slipped up in a big way lately. In fact, the other day, Joy remarked that I look like I worked out a bit and drank a bit too, and by that she meant that I have a weekender's beer belly, man! That's totally unacceptable! If my girl friend is noticing this then that means everyone must notice too!! (Sorry, faulty logic is just so irrisistably fun.)
I'd be outside running RIGHT NOW if it wasn't for my great knee that is currently and only temporarily under the weather. (I have a thing against calling any part of my body a "my bad ____")

Basically Pleasure Seeking

In the past few months I've heard some things that have got me to thinking once again about whether people are basically good or basically evil. I've decided that this one really needs to be played out outside of the box.
I think that good and evil is real, but I think that they are judgements on a behavior/incident not an inherent attribute -- per sé.

Anyway, as my title suggests I think that people are basically pleasure seekers and pain avoiders from the get-go. "Good"ness is a decision that is unique to the individual in my opinion, and it is decided based on how a person goes about avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. If you get your pleasure from helping others, striving towards sleflessness, defering to other's needs and desires, etc. then I'll say that you're a good person. Conversely, if your pleasure comes first -- before anyone else's -- and if you will put as many of the costs of your pleasure on other people as you possibly can then I will probably think you are bad.
The reality of life isn't based on what I think though, so people will judge people on how they go about maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Some people may feel that the effort to do these things is enough to qualify a person as being "basically good." They quickly infer that nearly everyone is basically good, because nearly everyone does this. Actually, this is the only other way that I care to represent right now, because I'm having a major brain-fart.
Y'all get what I'm saying though, right?
Cool.

Just My Humor I Guess...

I overheard someone for the hundredth-plus time remark, "They're just trying to get more money!" This seems to be some sort of condemnation, but to me it is all just so funny. First, there's the "duh man!" because the observation rarely ever needs to be made, and because most people are trying to get more money. The second thing that strikes me is the irony of the typical situation in which this occurs. Usually the person making the statement is someone who is paying the "extra" money and complaining about it in a condemning, self-righteous way. This is hilarious to me because if they were any different from whom/whatever they are condemning their loss of money would mean little to nothing to them and would thus not be worth a comment. Finally, the hypocrisy of this all is really funny to me. I get a huge kick out of self-righteous people who are inadvertantly being hypocritical. It's something that we all do at some point in our lives, and it is amusing to witness such a typical-human thing.
Anyway, I'm done with talking about that particular recurring incident, but I have more to say down below about my my sense of humor and humor in general.

I think have a fairly broad sense of humor. This has it's positives and its negatives for sure. The most obvious positive is that I find a whole lot of things funny, and therefore enjoy myself a lot in life. The negatives are that I sometimes (too often maybe?) laugh when other people think I shouldn't. I also might laugh at something that no one I am currently with finds humorous, and that's just plain awkward. Finally, there is the real killer -- telling a joke, being witty, etc. and having it be a bad fit for my audience's humor (audience = Joy or some other close friend) or having it go over their head.
I'm a big fan of physical comedy, wit, dark comedy, silliness, irony, gentle teasing innuendo, double entedres and other word play (Yea for word play!) I'm pretty much a positive-neutral on slapstick, bathroom humor, and gross-out stuff. They're alright. These kinds of jokes/situation might get a laugh from me occasionally, but usually they need to be backed up with some wit of some kind or else I will let them just slide by unremarkably and unnoticed.
There are probably other types of humor that I enjoy, but I don't really know the names for all of this stuff.
Basically, the only humor I don't really like is mean-spirited humor, mockery, verbal jabs and put-downs outside of a really tight friendship, and laughing at someone else's genuine misfortune.
This whole humor thing has been an issue for me since I was a kid, and it comes and goes depending on how good I feel in general and my level of confidence or lack of inhibition in the situation. One of the biggest issues that has gotten me thinking lately is the way that I unconsciously shift my humor to match the sense of humor of the person/people that I am with. At first I thought this was a bad "loss of self"-type issue, but I would like to embrace it because that is what makes having an eclectic mix of friends fun, y'know? This allows me to be witty with the quick witted people, silly with kids and the sillier types, dark with the mean-spirited people (I find that the people I know who like mean-spirited humor also like dark humor,) etc.

A Gator's Girl Power

I read about the coolest thing in the newspaper today... Actually, I had heard about it last nigt, strangely, but that's not really important... the story is!
So, here goes...
Some 26-year-old guy was let into the Thomas Hall dorm (at University of Florida) Friday night, and he grabbed an unnamed girl by the throat from behind. HOWEVER... she hit the guy in the stomach several times, ran him back into the wall behind her, and then ran up some stairs and called the cops. The guy had a knife. UPD was there in one minute.
This is totally awesome on the parts of both the girl and the UPD!!
I love hearing about girls who hold their own against guys and call the cops instead of becoming another victim. Go nameless chicka! You rule!

Maturity Is..

I'd like to know a college girl who realizes that maturity is something that she still must try to attain instead of convincing herself that it is something she already is.
I guess this is the way that nearly all people are. Always wanting to be at this place -- maturity -- without really spending much time arriving there. The arrival is always spoken of in the past tense. It is used in stories about mistakes, or perceived mistakes, embarrassments, accomplishments, triumphs, etc.
I am still in transit. I am in the process of arriving, but I am constantly realizing that I am probably not there just yet... wherever that may be.

What Sign of Affection Are You?

hand holding - you like to be in constant physical
contact with your special someone but you don't
want to take things too quickly.


What Sign of Affection Are You?