you're wrong

It's a sickness. I don't think there is a cure. I think I'll always be this way. I have to correct people when I think they are saying something wrong.

When someone mispronounces a word or speaks in a way that is grammatically incorrect I get this strong urge to pipe up with a correction. When someone uses a word in a way it was not meant to be used, I have a strong urge to enlighten the person with a more accurate word.

When someone relays information that I believe is inaccurate to someone else, I can't leave it alone. This is especially a problem in discussions in classes at church or school. Sometimes I can bite my tongue, but only long enough to avoid saying something to the crowd. I then whisper my correction to whoever happens to be sitting next to me. Sometimes it just looks like I am picking on the people with whom I most disagree.

I do not know why I am like this. Maybe part of me wants to feel superior and I am acting out to make it happen. If this is all that is causing this behavior, though, I am doing a good job of disguising it from myself. I don't typically feel superior to my victims when I do this.

I could be doing this because I am trying to influence people to think like me or to make them understand the way I think. That would explain a lot, but I hope it is not completely true. That is a very self-centered approach.

All I really know is that I need to address this personality defect at some point. For once, I need to correct myself instead of someone else.

a few updates

This is just a quick update on the status of things in my world and stuff I have posted on recently.

Since NJ is our priority, I'll mention him first. We're getting pictures of NJ done tomorrow. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it has proven difficult to time pictures so that he doesn't have a bump on his head. Last week under my care he crawled head-first into the back door.

Regarding school, I got an email today saying that the four-credit reduction in my MBA program's requirements applies to anyone graduating December 2007 or later. That will save me almost a semester's worth of work and just short of two thousand dollars once textbook prices are considered. I'm ecstatic.

While I'm talking about school, I'll mention that I am two weeks from the end of the semester. I think I officially mentally checked out two weeks ago, so that's probably not a good thing. Anyhow, two weeks from this Thursday I can start going to coffee night again at Homers. The hiatus feels like it has been longer than the few weeks that it has been.

Regarding the site, I decided to take the poll down for now. It wasn't getting used much and I wasn't really happy with the appearance. I may put another one up in the future, but I need to think it out more before I do that. The last poll results are below.

Regarding my exercise routine, I should probably be doing more. I have walked quite a bit, and I actually did some physical work at work on Thursday. I don't know how a person is supposed to take the time to exercise with a job, school, a baby, and Kansas weather (which kept me indoors this week), though. It seems I have more pressing concerns than my body.

dustradamus

Anyone who knows me should not be too surprised that I am not too impressed by most futurists. I can't imagine taking a fortune teller or astrologer seriously even if I didn't have doctrinal reasons not to do so. The idea that the stars I was born under or creases on my hand predetermine the events in my life is absurd unless you can somehow attach the prediction to something or someone controlling the stars, the creases, or my life.

Because I have this view, I sometimes get a kick out of what I think are pointless predictions. Who are these people who think it's a good idea to dump three dollars a minute into phone psychics? Why do the people who follow their horoscope do so? Why does anyone take Nostradamus seriously?

Nostradamus is probably the most fun to follow. His predictions are not straightforward predictions. They are rather cryptic quatrains that people have later determined predicted specific things. For example, some people believe the following quatrain describes Hitler (Century 3, Quatrain 35).

Out of the deepest part of the west of Europe,
From poor people a young child shall be born,
Who with his tongue shall seduce many people,
His fame shall increase in the Eastern Kingdom.

Now, I have to be fair. I hand-picked this quatrain because it fits my point. That point is that eventually some person had to be born who would have to match this description. It only took four or five hundred years before people were comfortable attributing this to someone. If someone hadn't been born yet to match the description, the devout could always fall back on the belief that it simply has not occurred yet.

Also, if Nostradamus did predict Hitler, what value did that provide to anyone? The acknowledgement is after the fact, so people couldn't do anything to prepare for or prevent Hitler based on Nostradamus' writings.

After giving this some thought, I decided that I'd go ahead and jump on the bandwagon and write a few random quatrains. Maybe I'll check back later to see if anything happens that is similar to them.

Quatrain #1:
From the heart of the land of his parent Africa
The youth will rise to unite those divided
From coast to coast they will be drawn
And he will also be really good at soccer

Quatrain #2:
One by one the mimics will fall away
Till one is left whose name is unmarred
He will point the way for the rest to follow
Then he will be revealed as a fraud as well

Quatrain #3:
A man of brawn and a woman of brain
Will meet and find they have a common need
After a great interplay of intents and words
She will buy his car for the price she wants

Remember, you heard it here first. Unless it didn't come out clearly enough with my tongue in my cheek.

gray shirts

Most people who know me well know I like being casual. Few things are more enjoyable than kicking back in jeans and a cotton t-shirt. One thing that I have noticed, though, is that I am somehow drawn specifically to gray t-shirts.

It could be that I just like the color gray. When mixed with a black, especially, gray can be very appealing. It could also be that I don't have to worry about gray clashing with most things. Another possibility is that I psychologically associate gray t-shirts as the most comfortable because I have had a lot of comfy cotton tees that were gray.

At any given time I have one or two t-shirts that I will more often than not grab on a Saturday to wear around the house when I don't have anything important to do. The majority of these have been gray (though a few blue and orange ones have been in the mix).

At some inevitable point I determine that either the shirt is too threadworn or the shirt has shrunk too much to be very comfortable and I move to a new favorite gray shirt. So, I buy a shirt one size larger and the circle of life starts anew.

buyer's remorse

Last week I found out that KU is changing it's business program to reduce four credits from the MBA requirements for new students (not me). A few previously optional classes are now required classes as well, so the real decrease is in the number of elective credits required. I knew what I was signing on for when I agreed to take classes and I definitely wouldn't have wanted to wait until now to start classes, but it is a little irritating that I will have to spend time and money on four more credits than other people who will be getting the same exact degree.

It is very seldom that I buy something and don't have buyer's remorse for one reason or another. Even when I need the object I am buying, I always have a little tinge of guilt regarding committing resources to something that may not be perfect for my situation. This is part of why I am a penny pincher. The benefit I get out of what I am buying has to outweigh my expected buyer's remorse.

In this case, I know now as I knew a couple of years ago that going through this program is the right decision. That doesn't mean I can't question the way things work every once in a while.

socks and apples

This Monday is my dad's birthday and, as usual, I still haven't figured out what I am getting for him. I think there is probably not anyone else that I will ever know that is harder to buy for than him. This has always been an issue. When we were growing up and my sister or I ever asked what he wanted us to get him he would always reply that he either wanted a pair of socks and a basket of apples. This did not make the process any easier.

With a lot of men you can buy them things to contribute to their hobbies, be it golf equipment, fishing equipment, or any other type of equipment. He doesn't really have any hobbies, though. I think it is mostly due to the fact that he does not want to spend money on a hobby, but for whatever reason that is not a strategy that I can use.

My dad does like to laugh, but there is a genuine limit on very clean humorous entertainment available that fits his personality for sale. There is more blue humor available than clean humor, and the blue humor is out of the question. My dad does like an author named Pat McManus who mainly writes short stories about mishaps fishing, hunting, and growing up in a rural area. I am not 100% sure of which McManus books he has, though, so I can't always fall back on that author.

For some men, you can buy them something that they can use at work. My dad he currently manages a school bus terminal and does fill-in preaching in churches in his area. In the past I have bought doctrinal books and a car seat warmer for him for on the job, but his career roles have not been a great boon for gift ideas.

So, now I am two days away from his birthday without a good idea. I guess I will be getting him a gift card to some store. I just have to decide which one.

say what you mean

From Alice in Wonderland:

March Hare: "…Then you should say what you mean."
Alice: "I do; at least—at least I mean what I say—that's the same thing, you know."
Mad Hatter: "Not the same thing a bit! Why, you might just as well say that, 'I see what I eat' is the same as 'I eat what I see'!"

English is sometimes a strange language. What you mean and what you say can be completely different. Let me illustrate.

• "No offense, but...": These words are almost always followed by something that you should take offense at.
• "Hi, how are you?": This isn't a genuine question. There is no acceptable answer other than to say things are good.
• "Good morning": This is an oxymoron.
• "This will only pinch a little": I have gotten a lot of Novocain shots in my life, definitely enough to know that this statement is a lie.
• "Allow 6-8 weeks to receive rebate": This is actually something I discussed before. If you actually get the rebate check you will be very fortunate to get it in eight weeks.
• "To serve you better...": I wish a company would just occasionally confess that sometimes moves are not made to serve the customer better. For example, I worked at a grocery store that installed a CoinStar machine "to serve customers better." Why should customers pay to turn change into cash when they can pay with change at the cash register for free? I will admit that it is useful when someone has a lot of coins, though.
• "The doctor will be with you in a minute": Would you like to read this copy of War and Peace while you wait?
• "I promise I'll change": For at least the next week or so.
• "I'm just being real": This is an excuse to tell someone off while pretending to take the high road.

Do you have any examples of your own?

office

Since I have been in college I have always used Office 97. This is mostly because I didn't want to have to spend the money on a new version of Office, but it was also because the old version worked fine. Word 97 is not really any different from my perspective than Word 2000 or Word 2003, so why pay money for the newer versions? I have been getting a little frustrated about little things in that old version of Office that are different from the newer versions, though, so when I rebuilt our PC I decided to replace Office as well since I can get a sizable student discount.

I keep hearing people talk about how different this version of Office is, but so far it is very similar functionally to previous versions. It has a very different look and feel, though, and it will require some learning curve until I figure out where everything is. There are a lot of little cool things, like the beveling option to frame pictures (like the one in this post).

One new functionality that I am testing with this post is the ability to post a Word document to a blog. When I was looking through the different options in the menus, I came across a blog publishing option. If this goes well, maybe I'll do this again.

season finales

There are a lot of reasons that I love this time of year, but perhaps among the most surprising is that it signals the end of the television season. This Sunday is the last Apprentice episode of the season. I think the last Amazing Race episode is this Sunday as well, though I may be off by a week. The Office will be concluding for the season in early May. I think the last of my shows to conclude is Survivor or Lost some time in the middle or end of May.

While I enjoy my shows when they are on, there is something nice about not feeling like I have to keep up. This is especially the case now that most of my shows have a chronology that must be followed. It is much easier to miss an episode in a disjointed sitcom than an episode of show with a continuing storyline. I have purposely avoided some shows with a continual storyline because I already have enough of them.

In the summer I watch more movies and cable and I play more video games than during the rest of the year largely because I am not tied to as many TV shows in the summer. I wouldn't like it if this is the way it always was, but I like the freedom the off season provides me, if only for a few months. This way I am properly rested for and can look forward to the season premieres in September.

the twist

I watched a movie from the sixties this weekend called Charade. It stars Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, and James Coburn, among others. I enjoyed the movie largely because it shamelessly twists the plot about five times throughout the story. I expected about half of the plot twists because I was looking for them, but a couple took me be surprise even with me looking for them.

I am a complete sucker for an unexpected plot twist. The more unexpected and the more it shifts the perspective of the audience, the better. This is why I like The Village the most of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, even though I have heard a lot of people can it as his worst. This is why Psycho is probably my favorite movie. This is also why I greatly enjoyed Identity, The Sixth Sense, Stay, Saw, The Others, and the old French version of Diabolique.

I think the reason I like plot twist movies is that I tend to get bored with a storyline if I know where it is going. I love to try to piece together in my head what specifically is going on, then find out how right or wrong I am at the end of the movie. The twist usually gives initially benign elements of the story greater meaning, so it allows me to go back to get a better understanding of what is going on. It is pretty common that the twists give the movie a deeper point to contemplate as well.

So, it can be relatively easy to predict whether I will like certain movies based on how much the plot turns on itself. This is very much in constrast to how difficult it is to predict the plot twists themselves.

the diagnosis

For as long as I can remember I have been easily winded. Perhaps more so in later years, but even when I was much younger I have never had significant endurance. After seeing a commercial for COPD medication, I decided that I would have my dispnea (difficulty breathing) checked out. It was tested several years ago, but I didn't do any follow-up to find out what the cause was. So, I recently determined that I should find out while I am still young and can do something about it.

About four weeks ago I went to the doctor, and I have had a few tests run and found out yesterday that the doctor has apparently eliminated nearly every possible cause for my breathing problems. I don't have asthma, COPD, anemia, heart problems, miscellaneous lung problems, or even high cholesterol. The doctor concluded there was only one major possibility left. I need more exercise.

So, for the next few months I am supposed to get myself back in shape. As he was describing this all I could do was wonder how am I ever going to stick to an exercise routine. I know I should exercise, but I am lazy and time-conscious. This is not a combination that leads to much physical exertion.

If you see someone jogging through the neighborhood in the next few weeks, that won't be me. If you see someone wheezing and limping down the sidewalk trying to maintain the will to live, that will probably be me. I'll give exercise a chance, but I'd much rather just take pills.

a blessing or a curse

I always viewed lotteries as a tax on those who aren't very good in math. I have bought tickets before, but that was almost always when a group of people at work bought a bunch of tickets. I wanted to avoid being the one person left in the office if by some chance the group hit the jackpot and quit on the same day. My purchase was much more an insurance policy than it was a lottery ticket.

I also generally avoid thinking about what I would do with all the money because that is a bad path for me to traverse. There is literally nothing good that can come of thinking that way. I am sure some people can think about what to do with large sums of money they will never have without going somewhere negative that they shouldn't, but I am not "some people."

With this background I am always intrigued when other people say what they would do if they somehow came into a large sum of money, either through a lottery or an inheritance or something of that nature. I think that when a lot of people hear about a dollar amount greater than one million dollars they think this is an unlimited amount of money. It does not take complicated math to determine this is not the case. You can't give away or spend the same money multiple times.

I think that if I ever came into money and others found out about it, it might be more of a curse than a blessing. I want to help others out, but there are so many horribly greedy people who want something for nothing, I would not fork it over so easily. People would probably always hate me for not giving them what they think I should. I would also wonder if people were only friends to me because of what I had.

In a story that feeds my cynical side, this sort of thing has happened in the last few years. A guy who won over $300 million in the Powerball in 2002 has come to believe that victory was actually a curse. He lost his friends, he became cynical about mankind, and he believes it directly caused his granddaughter's death. Reading his story makes me wonder if people who wish for a windfall of money really understand what they are asking for.

Some people can't win for losing.

it's all about the boy

My sister visited this weekend. I felt pretty important when she originally made the plans, so I offered to see if I could get someone to babysit NJ for the weekend. I no longer feel as important as NJ appears to be a higher priority than his dad any more.

The plan is for her to visit us first, which she has done, then visit other family and friends in the general area before flying out on Tuesday. In order for her to keep this schedule she needed to rent a car, so she reserved a car at Enterprise to be picked up on Saturday before noon when they closed.

Very late Saturday morning everyone was kind of slowly moving around when I was sent to pick up lunch. As I stepped to my car I vaguely recalled that we had something we had to do that morning. The long and short of it is that I dropped her off at Enterprise as 11:59AM, literally one minute before closing time.

It's always nice to see family, but at this point we all know that the purpose of every visit is for NJ. He's going to get a big head.

fashion versus comfort

We have watched several episodes of the show "How Do I Look?" today. A theme that apparently occurs frequently on the show is that people defend their fashion choices using comfort as an excuse. The hosts of the show liked to point out how lame of an excuse that is. I have to question this perspective, though.

I understand taking general steps to look good because some people deem it acceptable to judge on appearances. I understand that some don't deem it acceptable, but do so anyways. I also understand understand that maintaining a good style helps a lot of people feel good about themselves. I still can't figure out why style is more important than comfort.

I have always valued comfort over any specific style. There have been times that I wanted brand name things, but I do not think there has ever been a time when I would have voluntarily sacrificed comfort for the brand name. If not for Golden I would probably be a prime candidate for one of these style shows. I do not know that I would be happy if someone signed me up for one of those shows, though.

I would not mind someone giving me a recommendation regarding what I could do to look better, but if someone tried to force me to change my philosophy I think I would resist out of principle. Maybe I would be in the wrong, but I have a hard time dealing with people telling me to conform.

part two

For what it's worth, tomorrow is this site's two-year anniversary. It's more or less irrelevant, but I still like pointing out my milestones.

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One of the classes that I am taking right now is called "Managing Technology II." Surprisingly enough, it is related to a class I took at the beginning of the semester called "Managing Technology I." Most people who signed up for the second class also signed up for the first, but there is a large minority of people who are just taking the second one. I would have a hard time doing this.

I like things to be done in the sequence they are intended. It irritates me when I do something out of sequence. As an example, every time I have read The Chronicles of Narnia series I have had to read it in the order it was written rather than in chronological order, as a lot of people read them.

Further, it bothers me that I have seen both Weekend at Bernie's II and Gremlins 2 without seeing the originals. I don't particularly want to see the first versions of either of the movies, because I know that they have to be bad, but something feels incomplete about watching the sequel without watching the original. I'm nothing if I'm not comple

from scratch

Every two years or so something happens the requires me to reinstall Windows on our PC and start from scratch. Last time it was a hard drive crash and I lost a lot of data. This time, it was a fan breaking and causing some of the hardware to overheat.

This might come as a surprise to those people who see me as a computer guy, but I don't really like the process of rebuilding my computer. I think that is largely because I usually only do this if something breaks. There are other problems, though, like the fact that the process is time consuming, the fact that I always lose something in the transition, and the fact that being without a PC is inconvenient.

As an example of the inconvenience, part of the reason that Golden hasn't posted much is that she is not used to using my laptop. After quite a bit of work, I hope to have the computer at least partially operational tonight, though. Maybe she will have more blogging opportunities shortly.

floored

The carpets in the main hallways of our office building were changed over the few days last week. This wouldn't be a big deal if the carpets were being changed in off hours. Apparently, carpet layers keep regular business hours.

On the first day there was no warning. I just stepped out of the office to find the carpet missing. I didn't get the same shock as at least one other guy in the office who stepped out into wet glue that had been laid for the carpet that was to be laid. His footprints could be followed back through the office.

The next business day there was a period of time where we could not leave our office because nearly the entire floor was covered with glue. The parts that weren't covered were inaccessible because carpet had been stacked against one of our doors. Another guy in the office determined he had to step through the glue to get to the bathroom. I just held it for an hour until a path to the bathrooms was available.

After the carpet on our floor was completed, I thought that would complete the complications. I learned the next morning, though, that they were also replacing the carpet in the stairwells. I was running up the stairs when a guy stopped me and said that he had just glued the area at the top of the stairs. I had to take an alternate route, but at least I didn't get glue on the bottom of my shoes.