the winter games

I used to get real excited about the Olympics. Any more I have a hard time getting into it. Granted, I have always liked more events in the summer games than the winter games, but in both it was fun to keep tabs of how many medals each country had collected and watch event after event unfold.

This past couple of weeks, though, I only watched the games a couple of times. Instead of being obsessive about the medal count I just checked up on it every once in a while. I am sure part of it is that I didn't have as much time to watch as I normally would have had, but part of me was also saying that if it weren't the Olympics I could care less about the luge, or alpine skiing, or ice dancing. And the bobsled--I would like to know how someone who is not an Olympian goes about learning how to bobsled.

Apparently, I am not the only person who didn't tune into the Olympics. I read in a couple of places that American Idol actually got better ratings than the games last week. I would not have chosen American Idol between those two, but it makes me wonder if people care about the Olympics in the US as much as they used to. Maybe I am just remembering the games from my youth with rose colored glasses. I do remember enjoying Calgary.

happy birthday!!!

Happy Birthday, Golden!!!

The world lit up the day you were born, and it hasn't dimmed since.

talking politics

I am always intrigued when I hear someone who is either staunchly conservative or staunchly liberal. To hear them talk either Hillary Clinton or Dick Cheney are the physical incarnations of Satan himself.

I am not going to act like I am perfectly objective or that I don't have some strong political opinions. I do have strong opinions about specific things. What I don't understand is the assumption that anyone who agrees with me on issue x is great and anyone who doesn't is the scum of the earth or at least a blathering moron. How selfish or selfless, honest or dishonest, smart or stupid a person is has absolutely nothing to do with political party.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't usually like talking politics on my blog or in life. Such conversations are very rarely constructive because people simply don't often have open minds about politics.

Ignoring the wisdom of avoiding politics, though, I noticed a blurb in the Kansas City Star earlier this week about a study that tested how an extremely partisan person's brain works. Essentially, people who labeled themselves as staunch Republicans or staunch Democrats were shown to have reduced activity in rational portions of the brain when presented with evidence that contradicted their love for a specific candidate. The blurb was interesting enough that I searched around the Internet to find more information about the study online. This article is hilarious to me just because I know that I have seen this behavior in action. The thought that the politically polarized are simply shutting down part of their brains so they don't have to think about something they disagree with really fits.

What I love about this study, though, was that it was not slanted either toward the Republican or the Democrat. The partisans from one party aren't somehow more open-minded or smarter than the partisans from the other party. In fact, based on what I read, I would say that a person who holds that view is probably exercising the same brain activity as the people in the study.

So, next time you are in an argument with someone about whether Dubya Bush is an idiot or whether Bill Clinton is a shyster just call it a draw. Your opponent is probably very literally a dead-head at that moment. You probably are too. There's no point in proving it.

green light

Due to a complication with my bank I was late for work today. So as I was speeding into the office the car in front of me stopped at a green light. Before I could lay into the horn I noticed that an ambulance was about to go through the intersection. A little embarrassed, I accepted that I would simply need to give up a couple more minutes while the traffic cleared that had all stopped to let the emergency vehicle through.

I must confess that I have some morbid curiosity about where accidents are so I tried to pay attention to where the ambulance was going when I saw something disturbing. I know I shouldn't judge because there may be a good reason for this, but the moment the ambulance cleared busy traffic its emergency lights went off and it started driving normally.

It is possible that the people in the ambulance got a call that the emergency they were going to no longer needed their assistance. I can't get it out of my head, though, that maybe they used the lights to quickly get through the intersection without any concern for the schedules of the people forced to let them through. That would be morbid.

on my throne

Today I take my first test in years. Since I don't want to screw it up I studied through almost the entirety of yesterday and I will continue to study through today. Lately, if I have a project that I need to work on I set up camp on the recliner in the living room with the laptop, books, a blanket, and whatever else I need and don't get up until I am done. In this case this means that I was in the same position from about 1:30 to 11.

The real story, though, is how Golden put up with me. She was very considerate in that she didn't do anything that made so much noise that it was distracting. There was the one time she spontaneously broke out in song, but that sort of thing is going to happen.

I will be very happy to have this class behind me. That is for sure.

where's the point

I deeply believe that God has a sense of humor and that it is very ironic. I believe this for multiple reasons. First, He invented humor and irony, so why wouldn't those aspects describe him? Second, if God were only serious it would make Him seem very one-dimensional in nature. Finally, there are few teaching methods more effective than irony. I wish to address this final reason.

One time when I was in high school something was really bothering me. I don't remember now what it was, but was probably something of very minor significance. I didn't know what God's position on the issue was, so I did the rational thing: I closed my eyes opened the Bible and pointed to a passage hoping that God would point me to the answer. Okay, so that wasn't the rational thing to do. When I opened my eyes I was pointing at Micah 3:6-7 which reads as follows in the NIV.

"Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God."

After I read that I closed my Bible sheepishly and stopped pushing God for an answer. I believe to this day that God was using irony to drive a point home to me. I often have to remind myself when I push God for an answer to something that He is not some crystal ball that I can use to answer the questions that I care about, but that He will bring me to the point to understand what He wants me to understand.

a flowery demise

I love making Golden happy and flowers make her happy, so you'd think that I would love buying flowers. I do love giving Golden flowers, but the whole purchasing process leaves much to be desired. I can think of few other stores where I feel more out of place than at a florist. There are several reasons for this.

First, I have never really liked the smell of flowers. Many varieties actually induce me to sneeze just from the smell (it happens too quickly to be due to pollen). I think I psychologically associate nearly all flowery smells with sneezing because of that, so I don't think that most flowers smell pleasant.

Second, half of picking flowers is color coordination and the other half is flower species identification. Neither of these are things that I excel at. I always end up asking some employee what color half the ribbons, vases, and balloons are in the store.

Third, even after years of marriage and purchasing different arrangements through the years, I still don't know what arrangement is good and what isn't. Golden says she doesn't always want the $50 dozen roses arrangement, but does that mean she wants the $30 half-dozen, the $25 three roses and other flowers arrangement, the $15 three roses in a vase, or something that has a stuffed animal thrown into the mix? (The prices have been changed to protect the frugal.)

Fourth, I think that florists naturally talk down to me. When I visited the florist earlier this week I felt like I was back in the third grade and the person assisting me was my teacher. When I asked for a purple ribbon, she specifically used the phrase "pretty purple ribbon" in a childish tone probably five times in the next three minutes.

Fifth, flowers cannot be purchased very far ahead of time, so you can't express your love by buying the plant a few weeks in advance at your leisure and storing it somewhere. No, you have to purchase it on the day of (or maybe the day before) the event. I understand that this can be worked around by having the flowers delivered, but keep in mind that I rarely can predict whether Golden will be at work or at home at a given time on a given day. Also, remember that I am a tightwad.

Sixth, have you ever tried to transport a vase of flowers and an inflated balloon or two? February 14 is a dangerous day to be on the road because of the number of people driving under the influence of roses.

Seventh, I view florists as predatory creatures that feed on fear. If you don't believe me, look into the eyes of most of the men visiting a florist in the middle of February. Most of the guys there are way out of their element to the point that I even feel somewhat knowledgeable by comparison. Judging from the way I hear many talk the goal is to figure out how to go home with a cheaper arrangement and not end up sleeping on the porch for the night. I am sure that some of the guys I have witnessed at the florist did not succeed.

This seventh reason is also one thing that I do enjoy about buying flowers. Very few places will you see so many men so timidly requesting advice from twenty-something sales assistants that they are not hitting on. As much as I am never really sure what I am doing at the florist, I get some confidence that I am not the most clueless guy there.

For all my whining, getting flowers for Golden is completely worth it to see a smile on her face. Nothing lights up my day more.

not a typical tuesday

As you might have seen on Golden's site, we are a bit distracted right now. We should find out the sex of the baby today. Oh yeah, and it's Valentine's Day. I am lucky Golden is the way she is because most women wouldn't put up with my attitude about this specific holiday. I'll probably post more on that later this week, though.

Check back to Golden's site later today for an update. I may mention it in notes as well, but I have been letting her post the baby stuff more because she is better at it.

routine

When I was growing up my mom used to quote her grandfather to me when I put something down in the wrong place like a jacket on the floor or the TV remote in the fridge.

"A place for everything and everything in it's place."

Due to this environmental and genetic influence on my life I have grown to greatly appreciate routine, planning, and consistency. I have tried to apply this to every aspect of my life and I have generally succeeded. On my blog, though, I see where I haven't succeeded.

I have generally gotten into the routine where I post on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Monday and Thursday I try to post shorter stuff so people can easily access the previous post. I often move the more mundane posts to Wednesday and Saturday because of the fewer weekdays that they will be at the top of the page. This works great for me so long as nothing messes with my routine.

Why have I not followed this structure for the past week? Mostly because I still haven't worked the schedule back into place after attending the funeral services last week and dealing with homework and taxes this weekend. Does this mean I have freed myself of the bondage of routine? Never!

A few more days and I will have this schedule back on track.

ice ice under pressure

duhh duh duhh duh duh duhh duhhh
duhh duh duhh duh duh duhh duhhh

When you hear the familiar bassline do you first think of Ice, Ice Baby or Under Pressure? If you think of Under Pressure do you think of the Queen rendition or the cover by My Chemical Romance?

I have a theory that there are few measures that are more telling about what age a person is than which song a person starts singing when they hear that bassline. For as sheltered as I was growing up, I still recognize it as Vanilla Ice's theme. If Golden or myself hear the bassline for any reason (even if it is for the song Under Pressure) we will start singing "Ice ice baby too cold too cold." I have noticed that people just a little older than myself tend to think more about Queen. I have to assume that someone much younger will only easily remember the recent cover by My Chemical Romance that has gotten a lot of radio playing time.

So which song do you think about and how does that correlate to your age?

speaker for the dead

Orson Scott Card introduced the concept of a "speaker for the dead" in his Ender series of books twenty years ago. The idea is that this "speaker" would investigate a person's life after his or her death and in a memorial service of sorts relay the absolute truth about how that person lived--good and bad. This would obviously cause distress to anyone who wanted to keep things in his or her family life hidden and was used in the series for the shock value that such a telling could provide.

As most people reading this blog know, Golden and I went to her grandfather's funeral this week. There were different things that I could comment on the proceedings that stuck out to me like the great volume of people who went to his viewing, the fact that the service was performed outdoors in February, or that family politics is always very intriguing to watch. What stuck out to me the most was that many people had a different portrait in their minds of this man than I did.

Through the past two days I have determined that you can tell a lot about how close a person was to the deceased by what good things they choose to say about him or her. In this case one of the most accurate that I heard was that he was a very giving person. He was very giving. He was also a very nice person to get to know. I didn't hear that one quite so much. Interestingly, it seemed to me that some people chose at random what good traits to apply to him, though, because some did not really apply. I am not saying that he was a bad person, but he was human and everyone is lacking in some positive traits.

I feel it is only fair to use myself as an example. If anyone uses any of the following to describe me after my death, I will have either changed greatly or that person will not have known the true me very well.

• He was always selflessly giving
• He never said "I told you so"
• He never failed God
• He always had his priorities right
• He put others ahead of himself

I am sure that someone will find some quality of mine that is relatively accurate for my funeral, but I sincerely hope that no one attributes behaviors to me that never described me. I prefer a bad truth to a good lie even in this circumstance. I think I would like a speaker for the dead to commemorate me if I weren't so concerned that the real me is more bad than good. I don't know if I can deal with that much truth.

big five

First of all, it will probably be Tuesday night or Wednesday before I post again. Golden's grandfather passed away this weekend so we are going to Springfield to be with her family for a couple of days. For more on that go to Golden's site.

For the lack of a good segue, I have always seen myself as a little off-center from the norm and I think I now have proof. I am currently taking Organizational Behavior and had to take a test called the "Big Five." The idea is that this does a better job than Myers-Briggs at providing useful information to employers about how good an employee will do in a specific job. It has five measurements rather than four and it contains several submeasurements within the main five. Since this test is supposed to be pretty specific it took about 45 minutes for me to complete.

Apparently most people will score average on most measurements. Apparently I am not most people. I stayed completely out of the middle 60% on all measurements. Here is how I scored.

Extroversion: Low (20th percentile). This isn't a surprise. Actually it was higher than I expected. I usually like being an introvert anyway.

Agreeableness: High (81st percentile). This is a measure of how much you are willing to sacrifice your own happiness for others'. Too high and you're a doormat. I am nearly to level where I need to tattoo the word "Welcome" on my forehead.

Conscientiousness: High (91st percentile). This is a measure of how goal-oriented you are and how focused you will remain in completing your goals. Someone who is high in conscientiousness but low in agreeableness is a competitive jerk. Someone who is high in conscientiousness and high in agreeableness is a competitive jerk who disguises it really well.

Neuroticism: High (84th percentile). This relates to how easily stressed you are. Few will deny that I am a neurotic. More will question how I got something as low as the 84th percentile.

Openness to experience: Low (17th percentile). This measures how much you like change. Needless to say, I prefer cash.

why shakedust

A few people have asked why I go by shakedust, so here is the story.

When I was in high school I was in Bible quizzing for one year in a non-denominational league. In that year I determined that I was either not going to study at all or go all out. I eventually went all out. That meant that I went to more tournaments than I would have otherwise attended.

Most teams had names that simply described where they were from like Berien, or Quad Cities, or Pittsburgh, or Detroit. Some teams had cute names. Our church team was called the Outcasts based on some verse from Jeremiah. The team name Gardner Chapel would have sufficed, but at the time we thought a cheesy team name would be fun. I still think it was.

That year the league from Akron sent two very good teams to a tournament that I attended. One was called Return of the Magi and one was called Shake the Dust. The names were out of two separate passages in Matthew. In the main quizzing room the scoreboard could only hold so many letters so long team names were abbreviated. When I saw the Shake the Dust team playing in that room for some reason the condensed Shake Dust looked cool to me and it stuck in my memory.

Fast forward to my Freshman year in college about six months later. My roommate was setting up my first IM name for me. He asked what I would like to use. I literally came up with ideas for twenty straight minutes and everything that I liked was already taken. In an act of desperation I asked if shakedust was taken. It wasn't. I used it.

Now I frequently use shakedust as a username because it is almost never taken. In fact if it is taken when I try to use it, I usually assume that I must have already requested that username at that site before and go to the "Forgot your password" section of the site.

There you have it. The name originated out of practicality rather than something incredibly deep. At least "Off the Bridge" has some meaning.

hi, my name is dust...

What's your name?
Where do you work?
Have you lived in the area a while?
Do you have a family?

In my life I have noticed two types of people when dealing with small talk. One type of person excels once the typical initial small talk topics are exhausted and one doesn't. I know there are in actuality more than two types of people in the world, but for my purposes today there are only two. In my experience I have actually been both types of people, and probably the first more than the last, so I hope this doesn't come across as terrifically biased.

The first type of person is the type who wants to talk about only his or her main five or six topics. If you are unable to talk to this person about one of those topics the conversation will not last longer than three minutes. This is definitely something I battle with. I have topics that I want to discuss and I will often force the issue on people who could care less. Lately, all I have talked about is school. Soon all I will talk about is the baby. Who is looking forward to that?

The second type of person can show genuine interest in what just about anyone has to say either because that person is either incredibly well-rounded or because that person cares that others don't feel left out. I continually aspire to be this type of person. This is especially the case when I catch myself ranting about a pet topic for an extended period of time. I try to know a little bit about everything so that I can talk to just about anyone on one of their pet topics for at least five minutes, but in most cases I can't always go much further.

I have noticed that one way around the problem of knowing pet topics is allowing the other person to talk about themselves. Everyone likes talking about himself or herself. When I do that I have a habit of interrupting the other person when I decide that it's time to talk about me. I don't think there are many people who aren't thinking about what they are going to say about themselves while they are listening to someone else give a virtual autobiography.

The problem I have is that I get the most satisfaction now when I talk about what I want to talk about, but I feel better about myself later when I have talked to someone about what they wanted to talk about. Even when I am selfish I can't win.