saturday afternoon tv

It has always seemed to me that the day and time when I am most likely to have spare time and the freedom to use it, the worst programming is on television. I am referring to Saturday in the afternoon. Even when I was younger I had a hard time getting up early on Saturday mornings. I would sometimes get up for a cartoon I really liked (Garfield and Friends, for example), but I did not consistently get up early on Saturdays. If I had nothing to do on a particular Saturday it was always a little disappointing if I slept through the cartoons in the morning, because the afternoon programming was wretched.

Now it takes a lot more than a Garfield cartoon to get me out of bed on a Saturday morning. I still have a similar problem with Saturday afternoon programming, though. The majority of programming that I can find is sports that I have no interest in watching (college anything, golf, tennis, racing, bowling, etc), westerns, old movies that I am not interested in, reruns of shows I may have been interested in but I have already seen, or cartoons. I would have liked to have the cartoons in the afternoon when I was younger, but I guess them's the breaks.

So, this afternoon as I was looking for something to relax me as a postponed my homework and other household chores, I flipped through the channels. Nothing I wanted to watch was on, so I did what I normally did. I watched a rerun. On Saturday afternoon there is no point in being picky.

easy as pi

A couple of nights ago I was assisting someone with some Statistics homework that I had already worked through. Since I had already done the homework I had an idea of everything that needed to be done.

The guy who I assisted has been very frustrated throughout the class and has pointed out that he majored in drama for his undergrad work, so he doesn't have a foundation in math. I understand some of his frustration, and that is part of the reason I was willing to stay after class and discuss the homework with him.

It occurred to me partially a few days before and partially while I was discussing the homework with him that math itself is not complicated. I don't mean that math is not complicated for people naturally gifted in math. I mean that math itself is not complicated. Math is typically relayed in an intimidating manner.

Part of what I think happened is that this guy saw a bunch of weird characters (sigmas, mus, exclamation marks) and gave up because it looked like a foreign language. It was too much to handle, so he didn't try. The actual problems were really just simple, "replace the symbols with the given numbers and solve," style problems. By the time my classmate would have noticed this he had already called it quits, though.

Another problem with how math is taught is that the purposes of specific formulas are almost never relayed. That isn't as much a problem in this class, but I don't think the drama grad was making the connections in his mind what these formulas he was using had to do with anything.

My opinion is that, if students understand the practical value of the formula and are able to understand the intimidating array of symbols that mathematicians use, they will do well in math even if they are not naturally mathematically inclined. It just seems so easy.

slurm

Golden recently picked up some Sunkist orange pop at the store and this reminded me of a comparison that I have made many times. Every time I see Sunkist I think of the drink Slurm from Futurama, and vise versa. It is actually to the point that I got a few of the guys at the office to call it Sunkist "Slurm."

Maybe this is a stretch, but it's close enough that if I watch much Futurama I tend to drink more Sunkist. In one episode of Futurama, Fry finds out that Slurm is an excrement from a huge slug creature, but in the end that doesn't matter because it is so addictive. Sunkist isn't really addictive, but I did crave it every time I saw that episode.

So, am I the only one who sees the similarity, or am I right?

tug of war

Imagine a game of tug of war with three teams. Rather than two teams pulling opposite directions on a singular rope, three teams pull at 120 degree angles from each other on individual ropes that are secured to a central ring that is sturdy and small. The object of the contest is to be the first team to pull the ring to the location where your team started.

A three team tug of war is how I view my strategy when I voice my disagreement with someone about something. I generally view myself as one of the teams and the two other teams as those who disagree with me trending toward the opposite extremes. When I have heard a lot of one side of an argument and not the other, I will usually view this like one of the two teams is pulling the other team too far. Thus, I will often jump in and argue against that view. In my analogy, I would be leaning my team so that I am pulling harder against the strong team than the weak one. There are at least three problems with this perspective on life, though.

The first problem is that it always makes me think that I don't have an extreme viewpoint because I can always find people or philosophies that are more extreme than I am. I know some of the things I believe are relatively extreme when compared to someone typical. As a result, perhaps my motives aren't as noble as I think.

The second problem is that if I am around individual people only in certain contexts (for example, in liberal or conservative environments) I will look more extreme in my beliefs than I really am. I remember being in a Christian Philosophy class a few years back and someone I had been acquainted with for a couple years noted that she didn't realize how liberal I was. I probably wasn't really as liberal as she thought I was, though. I just played the devil's advocate a lot with some of the more conservative people in the class.

This is probably the problem that bugs me the most because I don't like people thinking I believe something that I don't.

The third problem is that there are some people who must feel like I am always disagreeing with them. I don't know if this makes the problem more or less extreme, but I generally (but don't always) follow a few specific rules in deciding whether to pipe up.

1. I stand down when someone is too sensitive or immature to deal with my disagreement.
2. I stand down when I don't care enough about the issue.
3. I stand down when I don't think disagreeing will make anyone understand my point of view any better, and when disagreeing won't assist me in understanding the other person's point of view.

Given these rules, it must be worth noting that if I voice my opposition to a point of view, it is partly out of respect that I do. Most of the time, if I voice disagreement with others it is either because I want to learn from how they are thinking or I want to know that they understand the opposing views. Sometimes I voice my opinions so that people don't think that through my silence I am acquiescing what is being said. Sometimes I am just trying to get under someone's skin.

cookies 'n cream

Golden likes Oreos. I don't really, but I'll eat them. I view them as the anticookie. To me, a perfect cookie is a chewy chocolate chip. Oreos are too crunchy and they stick to the teeth. I do love the creamy filling, and that is why I'll eat Oreos on occasion, but the filling hardly makes up for the drawbacks of the crunchy exterior.I had a conversation at work a few days ago about how good the minty inside of an Oreo is and how annoying the chocolate outside is when it occurred to me. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say anything good about the chocolate part of the Oreo. So, my question to the Oreo lovers is, "Do you like Oreos simply for the minty, creamy filling, or does the chocolate, crunchy outside have some appeal as well?"

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control

I have been realizing lately that I need to start addressing my control issues. I don't really have problems with controlling others. My problem is that I cannot stand other people controlling me.

I have always had issues when I thought others were trying to manipulate me. I think that is partly just personality and partly comes from some past experiences where I didn't feel like I had any control in my life. No matter where it comes from, the end result is that I take a lot of steps to make sure that I control my fate, so to say. I keep our family budget in line largely because not doing so would leave me at the mercy (and in the control) of others. I am very cautious around people who like to control others because I don't want them meddling in my life. I try very hard to have an understanding of surroundings and predict what is likely to happen so I can avoid being blindsided. I simply do a lot so I don't lose control.

There are a lot of problems with this, not the least of which is that I have a more passive personality. Some probably see that as an invitation to try to control me. Also, the steps I take can sometimes hamper my interactions in life. Finally, nobody is ever in control of 100% of their life, so I'll always be getting irritated at something that is out of my hands. I just can't control that. I'll try to, though.

all over again

For as long as I can remember, I have experienced déjà vu. It's not an everyday thing, but I will go through weeks where it happens three or four times. I'll just be minding my own business and something will happen (usually someone will say something) and I will just know that I have experienced this before. It doesn't feel at all like I am imagining that I have experienced this before. It feels more real than that, like maybe I dreamed it in the past.

This used to concern me. I always believed that any predictive powers came from either God or Satan. I couldn't think of any reason God would do this. There wasn't much I could do about it, though.

This is one of those things that I haven't discussed too much in the past. I don't know how many other people feel about déjà vu and whether they have opinions about where it originates, so I didn't figure it was worth broaching the topic.

I recently read the Wikipedia description of déjà vu and found that I actually have been experiencing déjà vécu. The article also gives some possible causes of déjà vu, but there is nothing definitive. I am quite sure these aren't premonitions, but if something is screwy in my head, I'd like to know what it is.

alone no more

Golden will be getting back here in less than an hour, so I have been doing some tidying that I hadn't been able to (or wasn't willing to) do earlier in the week. While I have missed the family, it has given me some relaxation to have fewer responsibilities to be concerned about. Here are some highlights.

• When I walked into church after missing Sunday School Vernal immediately pointed out that she predicted that I would be late. Every day after that my mom called me in the morning to verify that I got up for work.
• On Monday night I watched some football then studied for my quiz the next day. I pretty handily proved that being alone when I study is no guarantee of success.
• On Tuesday and Wednesday night after class I watched a couple of movies: Final Destination and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Both were better than I expected.
• I ordered several things (stroller, car seats, baby gate) for when NJ gets bigger a couple of weeks ago and they arrived one by one all week. It was like Christmas every day.
• Dash and T invited me over on Thursday night to chase away the loneliness. Much appreciation for that.
• I drove Golden's Mazda around this week because it gets much better gas mileage. When I was at coffee night a girl came over to our table and asked if anyone drove a Mazda because one had just rolled into another car in the parking lot. My heart jumped into my throat and didn't leave until well after I determined that it wasn't Golden's car.
• Last night I worked late then watched Silent Hill to grilled cheese and tomato soup. I don't know why, but the combination was very good.

I regularly point out that the worse four days of my life was the first four days I was in the KC area because I didn't know anyone, I didn't have a job, I didn't have a TV that got more than three channels, and I was here alone. Anything that did not mimic those four days was a gift from God.

late check in

While Golden is gone, I am not bothering to open most of the mail we get. This is partly due to me not being at home very much and partly due to me being lazy. So, most of the mail sits on a pile on the love seat in the living room near the door.

On Tuesday as I was filtering through the mail that I was about to drop on the love seat I noticed a postcard that looked vaguely like a check. It was a check! I had completely forgotten about it, but I had sent a rebate form in for some hardware I got back in January. Perhaps you remember me mentioning it. Apparently, I wasn't being sarcastic about rebates requiring 4 to 6 months processing time.

Interestingly, had the company simply not sent me the check, it wouldn't have stuck out to me. But now that the company sent me the check, it reminds me of how horrible mail in rebates are. Of the three rebate forms I sent out, I got one check in the allotted time.

The other company that didn't send me a check in time instead sent me a letter saying that they didn't get the UPC. I put it in the envelope I sent, but I remember one UPC being so tiny it might have been possible for it to slide out. Regardless, I have no recourse. I sent the UPC in. I don't have it any more. As far as I am concerned it is just one more corporation doing what it can to cheat me out of a few bucks.

Back to the check that I got this week. Not only did the company send it seven months late, it also put steps in place to make sure that some checks don't get cashed. Near where the endorsement of the check is, a warning is placed (for the bank teller I assume) not to accept the check without identification and not to cash the check if it is older than ninety days. Furthermore, I don't think the check is made to look like a check. Perhaps this is in the hopes people throw the check away once they get it thinking that it is junk mail.

Anyway, there is no way that I am not depositing this check. For all the hassle that this stupid rebate has caused, I'm getting my twenty bucks.

300

This is my 300th post. Since 300 is a perfect score in bowling I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give my thoughts on the sport.

I have always loved bowling. I am not really sure why, but I have a few theories. When I was five or six I even used to enjoy watching bowling on TV. Today I cannot imagine why I thought that was entertaining.

Upon some introspection, I think there are two reasons that I have always liked bowling. Since this enjoyment started before I can remember, I cannot guarantee this is completely accurate.

1. Bowling involves clearing out clutter. For some reason I enjoy the idea of clearing out a mess of pins and sending them to the mysterious darkness beyond the lane. I cannot describe the enjoyment well, but it exists.
2. Bowling is something relatively competitive that almost anyone can play.

Until I was about seven I used to beg to go bowling with my dad, but because I was very competitive and he was far better than me I always left the alley crying. Why couldn't I figure a way to win just one game? I still cry when people beat me.

I still remember the first time I broke 100. I was probably twelve at the time. A group of people from my church would occasionally play a few games at the small eight lane alley in town, and one of my friends would always cover whatever cost I couldn't pony up from the money he made from his paper delivery route. If I ever see him again, I should pay him back somehow.

The one and only time I broke 200 I was playing with friends over Christmas break when I was going to college. The following semester I took bowling and archery as a Phys Ed course and did not top 130 the entire semester. We were separated into groups of four students and the three girls I was teamed with all very regularly beat me. That certainly did quite a bit for my ego and my mascara.

The first time Golden and I went bowling I had a bad night and she had a good one. I think she beat me by twenty points. I have beaten her since, but you only get one chance to make a first impression. I'm still working on fixing it today.

what a headache

Almost every weekend I get a headache. It typically starts as a minor irritation some time Saturday afternoon or evening and it strengthens through Sunday. It is usually accompanied by some minor nausea. This past weekend was no different.

I have been straining for a while to figure out what is causing this. I thought for a while that I was allergic to something around the house, because the pain is often through my sinuses. I have noticed that when I apply something warm to my head or take a shower, this temporarily relieves the pain, but until yesterday I could not find anything that actually fixed the problem.

Toward the end of the day I was getting desperate to find something to address the headache. It wasn't so bad that it was unbearable, but it was bad enough that I could not concentrate on doing homework. There had to be a solution.

As I put my head in my hands I noticed that the headache throbbed. I wondered to myself if this is what a hangover feels like. It was then that the lights went on. Water! I don't drink as much water on the weekend and I could be getting a little dehydrated. About fifteen minutes after downing three twelve-ounce cups of water the headache went completely away.

I am still not one hundred percent convinced that dehydration was the cause, but it is quite a coincidence that the headache went away after I drank the water. I feel a little stupid that it was this simple. There are worse things in the world, though. Like not knowing what is causing the headache.

solitude

This weekend I am dropping Golden and NJ off at her parents' house for a week. Obviously, I will be baching it this coming week. I am kind of torn on this.

On the one hand, I am looking forward to being able to do things without being interrupted by the baby. I enjoy time by myself to enjoy a movie, game, or just complete something I need to do, like homework.

On the other hand, a week is a long time to be the only one at the house, and it is an especially long time to be responsible for all the things that Golden typically takes care of. She handles clothing and meals as well as a multitude of other things I am sure to discover this week.

I haven't been alone at home for more than a day too many times in my life. This may be a fight for survival.

'til you drop

This past weekend we did some, but not an excessive amount of, shopping. Every time I go shopping at an apparel store for more than ten minutes one question occurs to me. Where's the stinking seating???

When I was younger I remember being brought along with relatives as they went dress shopping. As enthralling as the process sounds, the one thing I longed for the whole time was a simple chair. It didn't have to be a throne or a recliner. It didn't even have to be padded. I just wanted somewhere to kick back so that I would be merely bored rather than bored and weary.

I have puzzled for years over any possible reasoning as to why clothing stores would not bother to install seating. I honestly cannot think of anything beyond the fact that most people who run apparel shops don't realize that the topic is dull to a percentage of the population. Store managers must not realize that some would prefer to take a load off rather than stand around waiting for their significant others or family members to decide they are done looking through clothes.

I am sure that if an apparel store installed a simple cluster of chairs in a central location that more husbands, boyfriends, etc would be willing to go their with their wives, girlfriends, etc, thus increasing the potential sales. And all for the price of a few simple chairs. How easy is that?

my long weekend

Golden may post on this too. I'm not going too in depth about anything, so if she does post, it will probably have better detail and perspective.

This weekend my sister, Miss Carisma, visited to see NJ for the first time. I suspect that NJ likes his aunt more than he likes his dad, because she did a much better job of calming him down and making him smile than I did.

We picked MC up at the airport on Friday night, and like every day, didn't get started Saturday until late morning. Saturday afternoon we visited the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, which is essentially a huge petting zoo where the kid to adult ratio is something like 500 to 1. NJ will probably like this when he is older, but only the adults could enjoy it this time around.

Saturday night we watched Casablanca. While it isn't really what one might consider a Dust movie, I do understand why it is so acclaimed. The storyline is spectacular.

Sunday we took NJ to church, but of course he spent most of the service in the nursery. As I mentioned before, we tried Noodles & Co for the first time for lunch. Most of the day was down time, though. My sister read a lot and I did homework for most of the afternoon. Golden tried to catch up on some sleep.

Sunday night we watched Tristan & Isolde. I expected this to be more of a chick flick than it was, and I actually enjoyed the conclusion of the movie.

Monday, we visited the mall. I got two pairs of jeans and found that my waist size had increased since the last time I bought jeans. Big surprise. We learned that moving between levels at the mall is not nearly as easy with a stroller as it is without one.

The movie of the night on Monday was Madagascar. It was exactly what I expected from the previews. No better, no worse.

Yesterday, we did a little more shopping in the afternoon before I dropped MC off at the airport. The bad news is that the long weekend is over. The good news is that I have already reached the middle of the week and this is my first day back in the office. You know that I will always try to find the positive side of things.

tipped off

Yesterday for lunch we visited Noodles & Company for the first time. It was actually quite good, for a more reasonable price than I would have expected. When we walked through the doors I noticed some instructions posted on how to order. The last step included a comment that the restaurant is a no tipping zone.

There few things that confuse and frustrate me more than the process of tipping. To me, it is the ultimate in passive-aggressiveness in business. I'm expected to pay for something without being given a good description of what the parameters of the expectation are. This is the key. I am more than happy to tip for good service. I just don't like that it is not made clear when a tip is appropriate and how much is a good or bad tip. How much do you tip a barber or a taxi driver or a carhop at Sonic? Should I tip a higher percent if my meal costs less? What do I do if I don't have enough smaller bills?

In my life I have both over and under compensated on my tipping multiple times. The times that I know that I have underpaid have felt much worse than the times I have overpaid. It is worth paying a few extra dollars to not feel like I have shafted someone who needed the money. I have also heard that one of the worst shifts a waiter or waitress can have is Sunday lunch because Christians tend to expect more service and to tip less. I definitely don't want to be a part of that stereotype.

I believe that if a person's largest source of income is through tips, that the business hiring them has a moral obligation to make clear what level of tipping is expected for good service. That way, the people who rely on those tips and who provide good service can have the expectation that they will get the pay that they deserve. Sure, some people will eat out less, but we are talking about moral, not financial, obligations.

I know I would like a more up front system. At least then I won't spend half my meal, or haircut, or taxi ride wondering what type of tip, if any, is expected. I'd pay for that.

two incidents

There were two things of note that happened to me the past couple of days.

Incident One:

For two or three days I had been noticing that one of the lights that I have to go through on my way to work was not staying green as long as it used to. It sounds like a minor issue, but going through this intersection added about ten minutes to my commute, and there were not a lot of options to avoid that intersection.

Yesterday morning it was particularly bad, so I decided to do something about it. I found an email address on the city's web site that was associated with traffic lights, so I sent an email explaining the issue and asking if there was a process that I could go through to request the issue be addressed. Three or four hours later I got an email from an engineer stating that the issue would be addressed. I thought that was nice, but I expected a delay before it was addressed.

This morning when I went through the intersection it was back to normal and I had ten minutes of my commute back. For all my griping about government bureaucracy, I am very pleased with how quickly my concerns were addressed. It's not too bad to live and work in the OP.

Incident Two:

After I had been home for an hour or two this evening the doorbell rang. "That's odd," I thought to myself, "we aren't expecting anyone right now." When I answered the door I found a pizza delivery guy. Apparently one of our friends ordered pizza but forgot that the last time they ordered pizza it was to have it delivered to our house after NJ was born so that we wouldn't have to prepare a meal.

It took a couple of minutes to get that straightened out. I hope Dash and T were able to find something else to eat.