So Alyssa asked me to write all about the things that happened in 1983. Well, I had so much fun talking about 1984 I thought I'd take up the challenge and talk about the awesomeness of 1983. So let's brek it down.
Movies:
Return of the Jedi, A Christmas Story, War Games, Strange Brew, Mr. Mom, Eddie and the Cruisers, Cracking Up, Flashdance, Koyaanisqatsi, Lone Wolf McQuade, The Right Stuff, Terms of Endearment, Superman III, and if you're a gangster or rapper or even if you're both Scarface was also released in 1983.
TV Shows:
Fraggle Rock, Mama's Family (that show drove me nuts. I could never get into it), The A-Team, Black Adder, Webster, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I loved Webster back in the day, but the only show that has really stood the test of time is Black Adder. So hooray for Rowan Atkinson.
Songs:
Africa by Toto, All Night Long by Lionel Richie, Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne, Beat It by Michael Jackson, Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, Blister in the Sun by Violent Femmes, Blue Monday by New Order, Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Down the House by Talking Heads, China Girl by David Bowie, Cum on Feel the Noize by Quiet Riot, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me by Culture Club, Don't You Want Me by Human League, Der Kommissar by After the Fire, Down Under by Men At Work, Every Breath You Take by The Police, Every Day I Write the Book by Elvis Costello, Far From Over by Frank Stallone, Faithfully by Journey, Gold by Spandau Ballet (one of the greatest songs of all-time, by the way), Holy Diver by Dio (Ronnie James Dio is the greatest metal singer of all-time if you didn't know), Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran, Let's Dance by David Bowie, Little Red Corvette by Prince, Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benetar, Nobody's Diary by Yaz, Our House by Madness, Photograph by Def Leppard, Rio by Duran Duran, Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top, Steppin' Out by Joe Jackson, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics, Love Cats by The Cure, Safety Dance by Men Without Hats, This is the Day by The The, Thriller by Michael Jackson, Too Shy by Kajagoogoo, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, True by Spandau Ballet, Uptown Girl by Billy Joel, White Lines by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, You Are by Lionel Richie.
Now that's what I call a fantastic bunch of hits for 1983. As I look at it, I think some of them might have actually been released in 1982 or 1984. The master list I cut this from may or may not have been put together in a haphazard manner. At any rate, that's a bunch of awesome songs to be released in one time period.
Video Games:
Spy Hunter, Dragon's Lair, Star Wars, Gyruss, Congo Bong, Mario Bros., Battlezone, Burger Time, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Gauntlet, Joust, Jungle Hunt, Keystone Kapers, Miner 2049er, Pitfall II, Pole Position, Popeye, Q*Bert, Vanguard, and possibly others. Some of these games were enjoying their initial release in the arcade while others were being released on the best system of the day: the Atari 2600.
It should also be noted that the bubble burst on the video game market in 1983. Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, and a few others were seeing the rise of personal home computers which could play games as well as do word processing and other stuff. So video game consoles were quickly phased out and home computers were ushered in. A lot of people lost a lot of money in the transition, and several companies folded. This is known as the video game crash of 1983. Of course it didn't stay crashed for long. Nintendo picked up where Atari and the others left off and took games to a whole new level.
Sports:
The Baltimore Orioles win the World Series, the Miami Dolphins lost the Super Bowl, The Michigan Panthers won the USFL Championship (does anybody else think the USFL was awesome? I know I did), the New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup, and the 76ers won the NBA championship. I can't say as I care for most of those teams. I like that the Dolphins lost the Super Bowl because I can't stand the Dolphins. The USFL was still around, which was great. I'd still like to get me some Arizona Wranglers or Arizona Outlaws gear.
Miscellaneous Whatnots:
The musical "Annie" closes on broadway. Giovanni Vigliotto is convicted of fraud in a Phoenix courtroom. He had married several women under false pretence and stole all their worldly belongings. He had pulled the scam 105 times before being caught. President Reagan first announces his widely-panned "star wars" defense plan. Sally Ride (funny name. It reminds me of the song "Mustang Sally") becomes the first woman in space. Guion S. Buford becomes the first black man in space. Saint Kitts and Nevis becomes an independent country. I challenge anyone to tell me where it is without consulting a map, globe, or atlas. Robert, you're on the clock. The first Hooters restaraunt opens. The United States invades Grenada, a country that could really could have been taken over by only two people provided one of them is carrying a pocketknife. Martin Luther King Day becomes an official federal holiday. The Turkish half of Cyprus declares independence from the Greek half. This leads to even more fighting than there had been previously. Brunei gains its independence from the UK, making it the last Southeast Asian country with an absolute monarchy. The D.A.R.E. anti-drug program is launched in American schools. And finally, McDonalds unleashes the McNugget(tm) on an unsuspecting public.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Weekend Update
So I guess I should sit down and tell you all what transpired on our super awesome amazing better-than-yours weekend. As you may have known, Megan and I were house sitting again this week. It's kinda fun to kick it in someone else's house for a little while and enjoy the perks of a super huge TV and all that sorta jazz. Plus there's the obvious benefit of getting paid to do it. The only down side to the whole deal is the commute. The house we sit (well, technically it's more dog sitting than house sitting. We stay at the house and feed two dogs: one that is all hyper all the time, and one that is nigh unto death and apparently can't control its bowels like it used to in the good ol' days.) is in far boonieville Chandler. So we end up spending a little more on gas to get out there, but we're saving on our electric bill because we're not at home running the AC. So that's good.
This time the house sitting gig started on Thursday and overlapped our weekend. On Friday I had a ridiculous day. I won't go into any details because I am writing this entry on a computer that may or may not be more closely monitored than the computers our boys in Iraq are using. Let's just say I got busted for something that really shouldn't be a big deal, and the person who ratted me out was either one of our more ridiculous patrons or a person I work for. Either way I'm not too happy about it. This summer the major things I normally do as summer-long projects have been cancelled due to lack of funds (which is an all-too-common problem at ASU these days) so it's not like I have a lot to do around here. Everything I write on this computer is being screened and sent to the head of the library for review. It feels a little like 1984(the book, not the actual year. 1984 the year was great. The Larry Bird era Celtics won the NBA Championship over the Magic Johnson era Lakers. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the first Karate Kid movie and Footloose were all released that year. The board game Axis and Allies was introduced. Alex Trebek started his long stint on Jeopardy!. Apple computers released the first of their Macintosh computers. Bon Jovi, Yngwie Malmsteen and Spinal Tap all released their debut albums in '84. Wayne Gretzky's Oilers won their first Stanley Cup. There were new TV shows like Airwolf, Night Court, Punky Brewster, and The Cosby Show. And just look at this murderer's row of hits from 1984: Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, Jump by Van Halen, Footloose by Kenny Loggins, Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper, When Doves Cry by Prince, Missing You by John Waite, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!, Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen, Drive by The Cars, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, Here Comes the Rain Again by the Eurythmics, I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner, Lucky Star by Madonna, People are People by Depeche Mode, Pride by U2, I Want to Break Free by Queen, Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Shout by Tears For Fears, Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart, The Longest Time by Billy Joel, The Power of Love by Frankie goes to Hollywood, Purple Rain by Prince, We Belong by Pat Benetar, You Might Think by The Cars. Seriously, I'm going to make the new tape player at the top of this blog from those songs. So if you're not convinced that 1984 the year was a good year, you're crazy. Did I have way too much fun looking all that stuff up? Of course I did.)
So the workday on Friday was boring, long, and tedious. I had nothing to do and had been banned from the ways I normally pass the time. So I was literally twiddling my thumbs for three hours at a time. Your minds cannot fathom the depths of my boredom. Watching paint dry would have been a refreshing relief. I was as happy as a man could possibly be when Megan picked me up at the end of the workday.
After work Megan and I headed over to Last Chance to see if we could find me some new pants. Megan is beginning to see that it's totally a woman's world when it comes to clothes shopping. In all her favorite stores, the men's section takes up a small back corner and none of the clothes they have are in my size. So I didn't get anything, but I was much happier to be shopping than at work. We couldn't shop for too long because we had to go back to the boonies to feed the dogs. We spent the rest of Friday night watching Monk and thanking the heavens for the weekend.
We slept in a little on Saturday, which turned out to be a bad idea for me. Megan slept like a baby, and I slept like a guy in a full nelson for 8 hours. I didn't know it, but when I woke up, the rediculous down pillow I was sleeping on was fat on both ends and wafer thin in the middle where I was sleeping. This did two things for me 1) It made me self conscious about whether or not my noggin is overweight and 2) It crinked (that's a medical term, by the way) my neck and gave me a headache for the whole day. So that was fun. I feel like I'm complaining a lot in this post. Let me interrupt myself and apologize to all of you in reader land.
So on Saturday we had errands to run. We went into Tempe to return one of Megan's tires to discout tires because it had developed a comically (and I only say comically because it didn't explode and cause a crash) large bulge. We dropped the tire off and then headed over to get Megan a hair cut. During this time I started calling my old roomy Travis because they were holding some mail and a package for me at the apartment. I probably called Travis about 9 times that day. I called him every time we were in the neighborhood of the apartment, which amounted to about once every half hour. Little did we know that he was in Mexico.
So we got Megan's hair cut and the tire fixed and we headed over to wally world to pick up some important supplies. We got a garden hose so we can give our cars the wash we've been talking about for months. We got bug bombs so we can head off this inchworm problem. Anyway, I'm sure you're very interested in the contents of our shopping cart, but I think I'll cut it short right there.
We got to go to Bookman's, which is my new old favorite place. It had been a favorite place for a while, but now that I live closer to it, the favoriteness has been renewed, revived, refreshed, rejuvenated, replenished, and other words that start with "re." I love the fact that I can roll in on any given day and pick up Atari 2600 games for less than a dollar each. That's just a good time. Megan picked me up some birthday presents, which was kind of comical. She has gotten me a couple presents that I don't know about, but the ones she got at Bookmans are things that I know all about. It's going to be hard to get surprises on each other's birthdays. I'm ok with not having any surprises, but it's kind of funny to try to keep that going. At one point Megan said, "Here, hold these games, but don't look at them." Yup, that's married life. Did I mention that 9 out of 10 doctors prefer marriage to single life. And these aren't the same doctors that were telling us about how Camel cigarettes were easy on the "T-Zone" back in the '50s. These doctors are legit.
On Saturday night we went to a housewarming party for Janae, Megan's old roommate. It was nice to see some of our single homies again. I hassled Eric and told him to hurry up and propose. That was fun. I've never had the ability to be the married person who tells single people, "Just get married. It's not like it's hard or anything." I'm hoping I never forget how rediculous and hard it was to be single, but at the same time, it's still fun to hassle single people as long as they know you're mostly joking. Oh, it was also the first time that Megan and I were not the newest newlyweds in the room. A couple who got married two weeks after we did found their way to the party. So Megan and I are old-timers. We know everything about marriage. Call us up if you need advice or anything. We've got it all figured out.
After the party I dropped by the old apartment to pick up some stuff. Luckily they hadn't thrown out my old skateboard or hockey sticks. My favorite brand of hockey sticks has been bought and sold again. Koho was once owned by CCM which was bought out by Reebok, which is apparantly owned by Adidas (pronounced Aw-Dee-Daws by most everybody except Americans, as I learned on my mission). So I don't know if I'll be able to get Koho sticks anymore, especially not Mario Lemeux signature models. So it was good to get the remainder of my stuff out. We talked with Joel for a second then headed back to the boonies to feed the dogs and whatnot.
On Sunday Megan got asked to fill in and tech Relief Society. So she spent the morning getting her lesson together, and I spent it writing the meme you may or may not have read. When we got to church, the member of the high council who was supposed to announce my new calling wasn't there. So I didn't actually get sustained, and nobody in the ward talked to me about the calling. So I feel like I may have jumped the gun a little by telling y'all what the calling was. I didn't actually think about that until they didn't announce it and I realized I maybe should've held off until I was actually sustained (who knows, the ward might vote against it). Megan's lesson didn't go nearly as well as she had hoped. People didn't make that many comments, and she zipped through most of her material well before the hour was up. She made it through, though and I think she probably did pretty well. There is a huge difference between singles wards and family wards though in terms of people commenting during lessons. It can be silent as a crypt in Elder's quorum when the teacher asks a question, and apparantly Relief Society is a little bit the same. We'll get used to the ways of the family ward before too long, but we're still pretty new at it I guess.
Oh, and I guess I can tell you this crazy anecdote before I close this thing up: so I went to get a hot dog from Circle K at lunch today. They're cheap, they're delicious, and they make a great meal on days when I forget to pack a lunch. So I buy my hot dogs and take them outside. I set them down on this crate of propane tanks where I proceed to slather them in ketchup as I am wont to do. Out of the corner of my eye I see this guy ride up toward me on this rediculous low rider bicycle (I have never understood the low-rider bicycle thing, especially if it's a white guy riding one). The guy riding this abomination of a bicycle was a g-funked white guy with chrome-plated teeth. He asked me if I had 50 cents so he could ride the bus. I told him I didn't. It's the truth. I never carry cash, and I hardly ever have change. I feel bad when I see homeless people because I genuinely never have change to give them, but what can ya do? Anyway, this guy rode off and as he rounded the corner, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Liar!" So he's calling me a liar when he doesn't actually know that I really don't have any change. Maybe if he wasn't spending all his money on tricked-out bicycles and chrome-plated teeth he might have some spare change of his own.
The beggars in Tempe are getting way out of hand. A few months back I had a similar scenario where I guy asked me if I had any spare change as I was eating my lunch. I told him that I didn't. He asked me, "How'd you pay for that food then?" I should have told him it was none of his business, but I told him, "I payed for it with plastic." He then cursed us rich people and our plastic and how it deprives people like him of what they need to survive. Now I'm sorry that we have homeless people in this country, but they are not entitled to my pocket change. As a Christian, I am supposed to give when I am able, and I do. But it's a little rediculous to be called out by a guy who feels like he has a right to a cut of my money. I've never seen rediculous beggars (Is it P.C. to use the term "beggar?" He was technically begging for my change, but it's not a super dignified term. But what's a less offensive term: hobo? transient? pauper? panhandler? vagabond? domestically challenged person? You tell me what a better term would be and I'll use it) the way we get them in Tempe.
I guess that's a bit of a downer to end on, but it's almost time to close up shop here in the liberry, so I'll leave it like that. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of, "James Complains About Everything." Tune in next week when I complain about 1960s and 1970s U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia. It'll be riveting.
This time the house sitting gig started on Thursday and overlapped our weekend. On Friday I had a ridiculous day. I won't go into any details because I am writing this entry on a computer that may or may not be more closely monitored than the computers our boys in Iraq are using. Let's just say I got busted for something that really shouldn't be a big deal, and the person who ratted me out was either one of our more ridiculous patrons or a person I work for. Either way I'm not too happy about it. This summer the major things I normally do as summer-long projects have been cancelled due to lack of funds (which is an all-too-common problem at ASU these days) so it's not like I have a lot to do around here. Everything I write on this computer is being screened and sent to the head of the library for review. It feels a little like 1984(the book, not the actual year. 1984 the year was great. The Larry Bird era Celtics won the NBA Championship over the Magic Johnson era Lakers. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the first Karate Kid movie and Footloose were all released that year. The board game Axis and Allies was introduced. Alex Trebek started his long stint on Jeopardy!. Apple computers released the first of their Macintosh computers. Bon Jovi, Yngwie Malmsteen and Spinal Tap all released their debut albums in '84. Wayne Gretzky's Oilers won their first Stanley Cup. There were new TV shows like Airwolf, Night Court, Punky Brewster, and The Cosby Show. And just look at this murderer's row of hits from 1984: Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, Jump by Van Halen, Footloose by Kenny Loggins, Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper, When Doves Cry by Prince, Missing You by John Waite, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!, Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen, Drive by The Cars, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, Here Comes the Rain Again by the Eurythmics, I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner, Lucky Star by Madonna, People are People by Depeche Mode, Pride by U2, I Want to Break Free by Queen, Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Shout by Tears For Fears, Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart, The Longest Time by Billy Joel, The Power of Love by Frankie goes to Hollywood, Purple Rain by Prince, We Belong by Pat Benetar, You Might Think by The Cars. Seriously, I'm going to make the new tape player at the top of this blog from those songs. So if you're not convinced that 1984 the year was a good year, you're crazy. Did I have way too much fun looking all that stuff up? Of course I did.)
So the workday on Friday was boring, long, and tedious. I had nothing to do and had been banned from the ways I normally pass the time. So I was literally twiddling my thumbs for three hours at a time. Your minds cannot fathom the depths of my boredom. Watching paint dry would have been a refreshing relief. I was as happy as a man could possibly be when Megan picked me up at the end of the workday.
After work Megan and I headed over to Last Chance to see if we could find me some new pants. Megan is beginning to see that it's totally a woman's world when it comes to clothes shopping. In all her favorite stores, the men's section takes up a small back corner and none of the clothes they have are in my size. So I didn't get anything, but I was much happier to be shopping than at work. We couldn't shop for too long because we had to go back to the boonies to feed the dogs. We spent the rest of Friday night watching Monk and thanking the heavens for the weekend.
We slept in a little on Saturday, which turned out to be a bad idea for me. Megan slept like a baby, and I slept like a guy in a full nelson for 8 hours. I didn't know it, but when I woke up, the rediculous down pillow I was sleeping on was fat on both ends and wafer thin in the middle where I was sleeping. This did two things for me 1) It made me self conscious about whether or not my noggin is overweight and 2) It crinked (that's a medical term, by the way) my neck and gave me a headache for the whole day. So that was fun. I feel like I'm complaining a lot in this post. Let me interrupt myself and apologize to all of you in reader land.
So on Saturday we had errands to run. We went into Tempe to return one of Megan's tires to discout tires because it had developed a comically (and I only say comically because it didn't explode and cause a crash) large bulge. We dropped the tire off and then headed over to get Megan a hair cut. During this time I started calling my old roomy Travis because they were holding some mail and a package for me at the apartment. I probably called Travis about 9 times that day. I called him every time we were in the neighborhood of the apartment, which amounted to about once every half hour. Little did we know that he was in Mexico.
So we got Megan's hair cut and the tire fixed and we headed over to wally world to pick up some important supplies. We got a garden hose so we can give our cars the wash we've been talking about for months. We got bug bombs so we can head off this inchworm problem. Anyway, I'm sure you're very interested in the contents of our shopping cart, but I think I'll cut it short right there.
We got to go to Bookman's, which is my new old favorite place. It had been a favorite place for a while, but now that I live closer to it, the favoriteness has been renewed, revived, refreshed, rejuvenated, replenished, and other words that start with "re." I love the fact that I can roll in on any given day and pick up Atari 2600 games for less than a dollar each. That's just a good time. Megan picked me up some birthday presents, which was kind of comical. She has gotten me a couple presents that I don't know about, but the ones she got at Bookmans are things that I know all about. It's going to be hard to get surprises on each other's birthdays. I'm ok with not having any surprises, but it's kind of funny to try to keep that going. At one point Megan said, "Here, hold these games, but don't look at them." Yup, that's married life. Did I mention that 9 out of 10 doctors prefer marriage to single life. And these aren't the same doctors that were telling us about how Camel cigarettes were easy on the "T-Zone" back in the '50s. These doctors are legit.
On Saturday night we went to a housewarming party for Janae, Megan's old roommate. It was nice to see some of our single homies again. I hassled Eric and told him to hurry up and propose. That was fun. I've never had the ability to be the married person who tells single people, "Just get married. It's not like it's hard or anything." I'm hoping I never forget how rediculous and hard it was to be single, but at the same time, it's still fun to hassle single people as long as they know you're mostly joking. Oh, it was also the first time that Megan and I were not the newest newlyweds in the room. A couple who got married two weeks after we did found their way to the party. So Megan and I are old-timers. We know everything about marriage. Call us up if you need advice or anything. We've got it all figured out.
After the party I dropped by the old apartment to pick up some stuff. Luckily they hadn't thrown out my old skateboard or hockey sticks. My favorite brand of hockey sticks has been bought and sold again. Koho was once owned by CCM which was bought out by Reebok, which is apparantly owned by Adidas (pronounced Aw-Dee-Daws by most everybody except Americans, as I learned on my mission). So I don't know if I'll be able to get Koho sticks anymore, especially not Mario Lemeux signature models. So it was good to get the remainder of my stuff out. We talked with Joel for a second then headed back to the boonies to feed the dogs and whatnot.
On Sunday Megan got asked to fill in and tech Relief Society. So she spent the morning getting her lesson together, and I spent it writing the meme you may or may not have read. When we got to church, the member of the high council who was supposed to announce my new calling wasn't there. So I didn't actually get sustained, and nobody in the ward talked to me about the calling. So I feel like I may have jumped the gun a little by telling y'all what the calling was. I didn't actually think about that until they didn't announce it and I realized I maybe should've held off until I was actually sustained (who knows, the ward might vote against it). Megan's lesson didn't go nearly as well as she had hoped. People didn't make that many comments, and she zipped through most of her material well before the hour was up. She made it through, though and I think she probably did pretty well. There is a huge difference between singles wards and family wards though in terms of people commenting during lessons. It can be silent as a crypt in Elder's quorum when the teacher asks a question, and apparantly Relief Society is a little bit the same. We'll get used to the ways of the family ward before too long, but we're still pretty new at it I guess.
Oh, and I guess I can tell you this crazy anecdote before I close this thing up: so I went to get a hot dog from Circle K at lunch today. They're cheap, they're delicious, and they make a great meal on days when I forget to pack a lunch. So I buy my hot dogs and take them outside. I set them down on this crate of propane tanks where I proceed to slather them in ketchup as I am wont to do. Out of the corner of my eye I see this guy ride up toward me on this rediculous low rider bicycle (I have never understood the low-rider bicycle thing, especially if it's a white guy riding one). The guy riding this abomination of a bicycle was a g-funked white guy with chrome-plated teeth. He asked me if I had 50 cents so he could ride the bus. I told him I didn't. It's the truth. I never carry cash, and I hardly ever have change. I feel bad when I see homeless people because I genuinely never have change to give them, but what can ya do? Anyway, this guy rode off and as he rounded the corner, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Liar!" So he's calling me a liar when he doesn't actually know that I really don't have any change. Maybe if he wasn't spending all his money on tricked-out bicycles and chrome-plated teeth he might have some spare change of his own.
The beggars in Tempe are getting way out of hand. A few months back I had a similar scenario where I guy asked me if I had any spare change as I was eating my lunch. I told him that I didn't. He asked me, "How'd you pay for that food then?" I should have told him it was none of his business, but I told him, "I payed for it with plastic." He then cursed us rich people and our plastic and how it deprives people like him of what they need to survive. Now I'm sorry that we have homeless people in this country, but they are not entitled to my pocket change. As a Christian, I am supposed to give when I am able, and I do. But it's a little rediculous to be called out by a guy who feels like he has a right to a cut of my money. I've never seen rediculous beggars (Is it P.C. to use the term "beggar?" He was technically begging for my change, but it's not a super dignified term. But what's a less offensive term: hobo? transient? pauper? panhandler? vagabond? domestically challenged person? You tell me what a better term would be and I'll use it) the way we get them in Tempe.
I guess that's a bit of a downer to end on, but it's almost time to close up shop here in the liberry, so I'll leave it like that. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of, "James Complains About Everything." Tune in next week when I complain about 1960s and 1970s U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia. It'll be riveting.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
So this is your Friday meme being written on a Sunday. I didn't have time to write on Friday, so I'm writing it now. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you don't think too hard about the fact that I'm still calling it a "Friday meme" even though it's being written on a Sunday.
What is your favorite animal to see at the zoo?
I actually haven't been to a zoo since I was a kid. I think my favorite part of the ordeal was seeing a goldfish that had grown to be about two feet long. It made me want to get a goldfish and raise him to be a giant.
If you won a shopping spree at the mall, which store would you run to first?
The first thing you need to know is that I'm not a big fan of malls. I'm the sort of guy who seeks out Mom and Pop establishments and goes there often enough that Mom and Pop actually know me by name. There's something very comforting in that. So I'm way out of my element in a mall. But I think if I had to spend money in a mall, I'd go blow it at the virgin megastore or something.
Are you afraid of the dentist?
I've had some major dental work done recently, so there's not really a lot that I'm afraid of. I've had two root canals in the past year, and I really couldn't feel a thing. The worst part about it was keeping my mouth open for two solid hours. I think the part I fear the most is having the dentist look at my teeth, then ask me if I've ever seen a toothbrush. For those of you reading at home, the answer is yes. I have seen a toothbrush and it has, in fact, been inside my mouth.
What do you eat on your hamburgers?
I'm a simple man with simple tastes. Call me crazy, but I like to taste the meat. So I'll put on mayo, ketchup, and a tomato if there's one available and that's it.
If you had to stay awake for 24 hours, what would you do in that time?
You mean what did I do back in the day when I did this sort of thing, right? The last time I pulled an all-nighter was on my birthday a couple years ago. We went to Krispy Kreme at 4 in the morning. We went swimming way past the pool hours at my apartment complex. We watched made-for-tv movies, which were way more entertaining than they should have been (I think the no sleep had something to do with that), we cruised Mill, we went to Wal-Mart, and later the next day my band played a gig. It was rediculous, but it seemed like more fun than it probably was because I was young and crazy.
Do you open your eyes under water?
No. My eyes are pretty sensitive, and if I open them underwater I'll feel it for a week.
Are you organized?
I'm slightly more organized than a post-tornado trailer park. I'm organized but only if you're using FEMA as a benchmark for organization.
What do you do to relax before you fall asleep?
Back in the day before I was married (Oh so long ago and far away now) I used to lay on my right side when I was winding down and getting ready for sleep, and then when I was really ready to get my sleep on, I would roll over to my left side and snooze away. Now that I'm married, laying on my right side means cuddling with Megan for a while before dozing off. That girl has developed some sort of serious addiction to my lovin'.
Do you like Sunny D?
Sunny D is Tampico for people with weak stomachs. Real men drink Tampico because it tastes delicious, and it burns all the way down. If Tampico and Sunny D were drugs, Sunny D would be a whippit and Tampico would be crack. With Sunny D in mind, however, I feel compelled to ask: why is it that when people thrown a doughnut breakfast for any reason, they always bring out the Sunny D? Are they not aware that after eating a doughnut, Sunny D becomes so sour it can literally turn your face inside out? Why have these people not heard of milk? I'm just curious.
Do you eat organic food?
Everybody eats organic food. Organic food contains carbon compounds. It really bugs me that hippies think they're the only people eating organic food. If you are eating tomatoes that were grown in a lab, or eating meat from a cloned sheep, it's still organic. It has carbon compounds and is susceptible to decay. So don't pay 12 bucks for an "organic" tomato when you can get organic food wherever you go. Organic does not mean, "Grown in nature by groovy people who don't use pesticides." It literally means, "contains carbon," which all living things do.
Who do you text the most?
I still don't use the word "text" as a verb. It's still a noun to me. I don't send text messages to anyone because I have this weird thing where I'd much rather actually speak to people. I don't even like phones that much. I'd rather speak face to face with everyone, but given the choice between reading text and actually speaking, I'll speak on the phone. So if you ever send me a text message I'll do one of two things: 1) Ignore it, or 2) Call you and actually speak to you.
Last song you downloaded?
This week I downloaded the complete works of Scott "Wino" Weinrich. He's a buddy of one of my old institute teachers and he just happens to be the most famous doom metal artist of all time. Doom metal is slow and plodding like early Black Sabbath. Anyway, it's funny to listen to the music of this guy and think about the fact that my old institute teacher went to guitar school with him.
What do you find the most attractive about your same sex?
Nothing. I think guys are hairy and disgusting. I find it odd that women are ever attracted to us.
If you could name a planet, what would you name it?
It would be way to vain to name it after myself, though I have to admit I would be tempted. I could name it after Megan, but that would really up the expecatations for gift-giving, and I can't always give the gift of celestial bodies. It gets expensive. So I think I would name it after something I like. So it would be "Planet Weezer" or "Planet Maple Leafs" or "Planet Voltron" or something.
What would you consider a lot of money?
I dunno. Where is this money coming from and what is it for? $50 is a lot of money to find in your pocket and not realize it was there, but it would be a really crappy lottery jackpot. Everything depends on the context.
Have you ever put Mentos in Coke?
Nope. But I've put Mentos in my mouth, which was pretty awesome. I like the fruity kind.
What movie do you really want to see right now?
Call me crazy, but I still feel that my mission to bring the awesomeness of "Evil Alien Conquerors" to fans of weird/bad sci-fi movies has not been completed. There may be some of you within the sound of you mumbling along as you read this entry (I don't say "sound of my voice" because I really can't shout that loud) who have not yet seen this movie. I feel it is my job to bring you the joys (Or the woes, depending on how much you enjoy movies like this) of such amazing bad sci-fi awesomeness.
Do you wear glasses?
I own glasses, but I don't wear them. Megan likes the way I look in them, but I'm not as sold on the idea.
Ever made out with a monkey?
No, but I've had monkeys check my hair for lice. Luckily they didn't find any, but I could tell they were a little disappointed.
When was the last time you went to the ocean?
It's been a while. I think it's been since 2004 when we hit the beach in Kompong Saom.
Would you marry the Burger King King?
That guy is the creepiest guy ever. If burger king's intention was to get me to think that at any time I could be accosted by a weird guy wearing a creepy mask, it worked. I now check under the bed and in the closets to make sure he's not there.
Do you feel bad for the Polar Bears?
No. Should I?
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
More than I actually wear or need, but fewer than Megan. So at least I've got that going for me.
Who's your favorite celebrity?
I dunno. Garth Hudson. Jeff Lynne. I can only think of people I admire, but aren't really celebrities to most people. I think those guys are the bee's knees, but you won't ever see them on a red carpet.
Ever take a dump in the woods?
Of course. I've been camping enough to have done my business behind a bush.
What is your least favorite color?
Teal. It was super popular in the 90's and it drove me crazy for some reason.
How many times have you gone to the bathroom today?
Only once I think. But thanks to the person who wrote this for writing insightful questions that our readers really wanna know the answer to.
What is the most times you have ever seen one movie?
I dunno. I think I've seen "Saving Silverman" more times than any other movie, but I have no idea how many times I've seen it.
What holiday just passed?
Pioneer Days came and went without me really even noticing. If I'm not in St. Johns, it's as if Pioneer Days doesn't even happen. I think we'll try to make it next year.
Do you play any instruments?
I play the bass, though I'm out of practice, and I played the viola in middle school and high school, but I'm way out of practice on that one. I think I can still read music in alto clef though.
What room are you in?
My compy is in the dining room.
What color is your camera?
It's silver-ish. But I'm pretty sure nobody cares what color my camera is. What an odd question.
Where is your room?
In our house, which is in the middle of our street. It's our castle and our keep.
What is the closest green item to you?
So you're really telling me, "I am running out of questions and I don't know what else to ask." There is a box of kleenex, which has a greenish hue. I think my readers will be fascinated to know that.
Last time you saw your mother?
I saw her last week when we were at the family reunion.
What was it you last laughed about?
I dunno. Megan and I live lives full of laughter. I hope we don't grow up to be like The Lockhorns or anything.
Do you drink Red Bull or any other energy drink?
The only time I ever had a Red Bull was in Cambodia. The idea for Reb Bull was taken from the Thai energy drink Krating Daeng, which had been in Thailand for years. So I think I got an energy drink before they really became popular in the states. Of course Red Bull tastes like cough syrup that has passed its sell-by date and it didn't give me much extra energy. I stay away from energy drinks these days because they're expensive, rediculous, and they taste terrible.
If you could work at any clothing store, which store would you pick?
DI. I get a lot of my clothes from DI, and if I worked there I might get a discount from their already low prices, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have to listen to super repetitive techno music all day. If DI paid as much as my current job and had decent benefits, I would be working there right now.
How often do you give high fives?
Often. Megan and I are constantly high-fiving. We can't help it. The Aquabats told us to.
Do you own a cowbell?
No, but I think you want me to somehow tie my answer in to the SNL "More Cowbell" sketch. I won't do it.
Have you ever been on television?
Yes. I was on TV when I was 16 because I was a pall bearer at my uncle's funeral (he was given a hero's funeral after being killed in an incident at Fort Bragg) and it showed up on the evening news. I was also a guest on a late night public access show in Tuscon back when I was a theater major. I don't know how or why it happened, but it did.
Where did you last eat?
The last place where Megan and I ate out was Ikea, home of the 50 cent hot dog.
Who's the most annoying person in your neighborhood?
Probably me. I dunno. I haven't been in the neighborhood long enough to know.
Do you plan on moving in the next year?
No. I've done all the moving I'm gonna do for a while.
Who is the last person you saw in your house?
I see Megan in our house all the time. We practically live together. I say practically because it would be incredibly impractical for a husband and wife to not live together.
What's the last thing you put in your mouth?
A frozen Nutter Butter. If you've ever trusted my opinion on anything, trust it on this: Nutter Butters are better frozen. Sure, they're delicious when they're not frozen, but the freezing really brings out the deliciousness molecules.
When was the last time you saw your number 2?
I don't even know who my number 2 is. All I know is that Megan is my number 1.
Where is your biological father right now?
My how times change when you have to word a question that way. My biological father and my biological mother are married, live in the same house, and are still very much in love. I think it's a terrible thing that my situation isn't more common.
What was the last thing someone bought for you?
Megan bought me some things that I'll get on my birthday. I'm finding out that it really is hard to make anything a surprise when you're married. There are a couple things I'll get that will be a surprise, and a couple others that will not.
Who took your profile picture?
Martha took the picture you see at the top of the blog. She did a great jorb.
What will you call your first child?
His name will be James Hyrum Badger jr. and we will call him Jimmy jr. I had a long talk with my Mom about this and I'm pretty sure what she said was that she loved the whole Jimmy jr. idea. But seriously, I would like to name a son after myself.
Do you celebrate monthly anniversaries?
Megan and I celebrated monthaversaries when we were dating. I think we'll mention our monthaversaries in passing now that we're married, but we'll probably only really celebrate our annerversaries from now on. I would also like to point out the fact that the term "monthly anniversary" is incorrect because the "anni" part comes from the latin word "anno" which means year. Anniversary means yearly celebration. So when you say "monthly anniversary," you are really saying "monthly yearly celebration." It's a contradiction of terms. Although monthaversary isn't technically a word, it's more correct. This has been your weekly etymology lesson. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you won't celebrate any monthly anniversaries. Your head might explode because it's a crazy contradiction. The only way you could do it is if you were celebrating a different annual event every month, which is just too much if you ask me.
This has been your Friday meme. I hope you enjoyed it.
A Plethora of Questions
What is your favorite animal to see at the zoo?
I actually haven't been to a zoo since I was a kid. I think my favorite part of the ordeal was seeing a goldfish that had grown to be about two feet long. It made me want to get a goldfish and raise him to be a giant.
If you won a shopping spree at the mall, which store would you run to first?
The first thing you need to know is that I'm not a big fan of malls. I'm the sort of guy who seeks out Mom and Pop establishments and goes there often enough that Mom and Pop actually know me by name. There's something very comforting in that. So I'm way out of my element in a mall. But I think if I had to spend money in a mall, I'd go blow it at the virgin megastore or something.
Are you afraid of the dentist?
I've had some major dental work done recently, so there's not really a lot that I'm afraid of. I've had two root canals in the past year, and I really couldn't feel a thing. The worst part about it was keeping my mouth open for two solid hours. I think the part I fear the most is having the dentist look at my teeth, then ask me if I've ever seen a toothbrush. For those of you reading at home, the answer is yes. I have seen a toothbrush and it has, in fact, been inside my mouth.
What do you eat on your hamburgers?
I'm a simple man with simple tastes. Call me crazy, but I like to taste the meat. So I'll put on mayo, ketchup, and a tomato if there's one available and that's it.
If you had to stay awake for 24 hours, what would you do in that time?
You mean what did I do back in the day when I did this sort of thing, right? The last time I pulled an all-nighter was on my birthday a couple years ago. We went to Krispy Kreme at 4 in the morning. We went swimming way past the pool hours at my apartment complex. We watched made-for-tv movies, which were way more entertaining than they should have been (I think the no sleep had something to do with that), we cruised Mill, we went to Wal-Mart, and later the next day my band played a gig. It was rediculous, but it seemed like more fun than it probably was because I was young and crazy.
Do you open your eyes under water?
No. My eyes are pretty sensitive, and if I open them underwater I'll feel it for a week.
Are you organized?
I'm slightly more organized than a post-tornado trailer park. I'm organized but only if you're using FEMA as a benchmark for organization.
What do you do to relax before you fall asleep?
Back in the day before I was married (Oh so long ago and far away now) I used to lay on my right side when I was winding down and getting ready for sleep, and then when I was really ready to get my sleep on, I would roll over to my left side and snooze away. Now that I'm married, laying on my right side means cuddling with Megan for a while before dozing off. That girl has developed some sort of serious addiction to my lovin'.
Do you like Sunny D?
Sunny D is Tampico for people with weak stomachs. Real men drink Tampico because it tastes delicious, and it burns all the way down. If Tampico and Sunny D were drugs, Sunny D would be a whippit and Tampico would be crack. With Sunny D in mind, however, I feel compelled to ask: why is it that when people thrown a doughnut breakfast for any reason, they always bring out the Sunny D? Are they not aware that after eating a doughnut, Sunny D becomes so sour it can literally turn your face inside out? Why have these people not heard of milk? I'm just curious.
Do you eat organic food?
Everybody eats organic food. Organic food contains carbon compounds. It really bugs me that hippies think they're the only people eating organic food. If you are eating tomatoes that were grown in a lab, or eating meat from a cloned sheep, it's still organic. It has carbon compounds and is susceptible to decay. So don't pay 12 bucks for an "organic" tomato when you can get organic food wherever you go. Organic does not mean, "Grown in nature by groovy people who don't use pesticides." It literally means, "contains carbon," which all living things do.
Who do you text the most?
I still don't use the word "text" as a verb. It's still a noun to me. I don't send text messages to anyone because I have this weird thing where I'd much rather actually speak to people. I don't even like phones that much. I'd rather speak face to face with everyone, but given the choice between reading text and actually speaking, I'll speak on the phone. So if you ever send me a text message I'll do one of two things: 1) Ignore it, or 2) Call you and actually speak to you.
Last song you downloaded?
This week I downloaded the complete works of Scott "Wino" Weinrich. He's a buddy of one of my old institute teachers and he just happens to be the most famous doom metal artist of all time. Doom metal is slow and plodding like early Black Sabbath. Anyway, it's funny to listen to the music of this guy and think about the fact that my old institute teacher went to guitar school with him.
What do you find the most attractive about your same sex?
Nothing. I think guys are hairy and disgusting. I find it odd that women are ever attracted to us.
If you could name a planet, what would you name it?
It would be way to vain to name it after myself, though I have to admit I would be tempted. I could name it after Megan, but that would really up the expecatations for gift-giving, and I can't always give the gift of celestial bodies. It gets expensive. So I think I would name it after something I like. So it would be "Planet Weezer" or "Planet Maple Leafs" or "Planet Voltron" or something.
What would you consider a lot of money?
I dunno. Where is this money coming from and what is it for? $50 is a lot of money to find in your pocket and not realize it was there, but it would be a really crappy lottery jackpot. Everything depends on the context.
Have you ever put Mentos in Coke?
Nope. But I've put Mentos in my mouth, which was pretty awesome. I like the fruity kind.
What movie do you really want to see right now?
Call me crazy, but I still feel that my mission to bring the awesomeness of "Evil Alien Conquerors" to fans of weird/bad sci-fi movies has not been completed. There may be some of you within the sound of you mumbling along as you read this entry (I don't say "sound of my voice" because I really can't shout that loud) who have not yet seen this movie. I feel it is my job to bring you the joys (Or the woes, depending on how much you enjoy movies like this) of such amazing bad sci-fi awesomeness.
Do you wear glasses?
I own glasses, but I don't wear them. Megan likes the way I look in them, but I'm not as sold on the idea.
Ever made out with a monkey?
No, but I've had monkeys check my hair for lice. Luckily they didn't find any, but I could tell they were a little disappointed.
When was the last time you went to the ocean?
It's been a while. I think it's been since 2004 when we hit the beach in Kompong Saom.
Would you marry the Burger King King?
That guy is the creepiest guy ever. If burger king's intention was to get me to think that at any time I could be accosted by a weird guy wearing a creepy mask, it worked. I now check under the bed and in the closets to make sure he's not there.
Do you feel bad for the Polar Bears?
No. Should I?
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
More than I actually wear or need, but fewer than Megan. So at least I've got that going for me.
Who's your favorite celebrity?
I dunno. Garth Hudson. Jeff Lynne. I can only think of people I admire, but aren't really celebrities to most people. I think those guys are the bee's knees, but you won't ever see them on a red carpet.
Ever take a dump in the woods?
Of course. I've been camping enough to have done my business behind a bush.
What is your least favorite color?
Teal. It was super popular in the 90's and it drove me crazy for some reason.
How many times have you gone to the bathroom today?
Only once I think. But thanks to the person who wrote this for writing insightful questions that our readers really wanna know the answer to.
What is the most times you have ever seen one movie?
I dunno. I think I've seen "Saving Silverman" more times than any other movie, but I have no idea how many times I've seen it.
What holiday just passed?
Pioneer Days came and went without me really even noticing. If I'm not in St. Johns, it's as if Pioneer Days doesn't even happen. I think we'll try to make it next year.
Do you play any instruments?
I play the bass, though I'm out of practice, and I played the viola in middle school and high school, but I'm way out of practice on that one. I think I can still read music in alto clef though.
What room are you in?
My compy is in the dining room.
What color is your camera?
It's silver-ish. But I'm pretty sure nobody cares what color my camera is. What an odd question.
Where is your room?
In our house, which is in the middle of our street. It's our castle and our keep.
What is the closest green item to you?
So you're really telling me, "I am running out of questions and I don't know what else to ask." There is a box of kleenex, which has a greenish hue. I think my readers will be fascinated to know that.
Last time you saw your mother?
I saw her last week when we were at the family reunion.
What was it you last laughed about?
I dunno. Megan and I live lives full of laughter. I hope we don't grow up to be like The Lockhorns or anything.
Do you drink Red Bull or any other energy drink?
The only time I ever had a Red Bull was in Cambodia. The idea for Reb Bull was taken from the Thai energy drink Krating Daeng, which had been in Thailand for years. So I think I got an energy drink before they really became popular in the states. Of course Red Bull tastes like cough syrup that has passed its sell-by date and it didn't give me much extra energy. I stay away from energy drinks these days because they're expensive, rediculous, and they taste terrible.
If you could work at any clothing store, which store would you pick?
DI. I get a lot of my clothes from DI, and if I worked there I might get a discount from their already low prices, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have to listen to super repetitive techno music all day. If DI paid as much as my current job and had decent benefits, I would be working there right now.
How often do you give high fives?
Often. Megan and I are constantly high-fiving. We can't help it. The Aquabats told us to.
Do you own a cowbell?
No, but I think you want me to somehow tie my answer in to the SNL "More Cowbell" sketch. I won't do it.
Have you ever been on television?
Yes. I was on TV when I was 16 because I was a pall bearer at my uncle's funeral (he was given a hero's funeral after being killed in an incident at Fort Bragg) and it showed up on the evening news. I was also a guest on a late night public access show in Tuscon back when I was a theater major. I don't know how or why it happened, but it did.
Where did you last eat?
The last place where Megan and I ate out was Ikea, home of the 50 cent hot dog.
Who's the most annoying person in your neighborhood?
Probably me. I dunno. I haven't been in the neighborhood long enough to know.
Do you plan on moving in the next year?
No. I've done all the moving I'm gonna do for a while.
Who is the last person you saw in your house?
I see Megan in our house all the time. We practically live together. I say practically because it would be incredibly impractical for a husband and wife to not live together.
What's the last thing you put in your mouth?
A frozen Nutter Butter. If you've ever trusted my opinion on anything, trust it on this: Nutter Butters are better frozen. Sure, they're delicious when they're not frozen, but the freezing really brings out the deliciousness molecules.
When was the last time you saw your number 2?
I don't even know who my number 2 is. All I know is that Megan is my number 1.
Where is your biological father right now?
My how times change when you have to word a question that way. My biological father and my biological mother are married, live in the same house, and are still very much in love. I think it's a terrible thing that my situation isn't more common.
What was the last thing someone bought for you?
Megan bought me some things that I'll get on my birthday. I'm finding out that it really is hard to make anything a surprise when you're married. There are a couple things I'll get that will be a surprise, and a couple others that will not.
Who took your profile picture?
Martha took the picture you see at the top of the blog. She did a great jorb.
What will you call your first child?
His name will be James Hyrum Badger jr. and we will call him Jimmy jr. I had a long talk with my Mom about this and I'm pretty sure what she said was that she loved the whole Jimmy jr. idea. But seriously, I would like to name a son after myself.
Do you celebrate monthly anniversaries?
Megan and I celebrated monthaversaries when we were dating. I think we'll mention our monthaversaries in passing now that we're married, but we'll probably only really celebrate our annerversaries from now on. I would also like to point out the fact that the term "monthly anniversary" is incorrect because the "anni" part comes from the latin word "anno" which means year. Anniversary means yearly celebration. So when you say "monthly anniversary," you are really saying "monthly yearly celebration." It's a contradiction of terms. Although monthaversary isn't technically a word, it's more correct. This has been your weekly etymology lesson. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you won't celebrate any monthly anniversaries. Your head might explode because it's a crazy contradiction. The only way you could do it is if you were celebrating a different annual event every month, which is just too much if you ask me.
This has been your Friday meme. I hope you enjoyed it.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
And the Winner Is...
So as you may know if you've been reading this blog with any consistency (not that Megan and I have been writing with any consistency) you may have read that I got a call from our stake presidency who wanted me to come in to meet with them and get a calling. I know some of you have been anxiously awaiting the news of what my calling my be (also, I've been having a mixture of excitement and fear) so I'll do the only decent thing I could do: wait until the end of this post to tell you what it is. So keep reading and you'll eventually get to it.
Now that I've told you that, I don't really know what to say here. I'm sure I'll think of something. How about this: Megan and I have the weirdest infestation I've ever seen or heard of (excluding of course Mitch Hedberg's infestation of koala bears, which has no documented proof). I found the 5th inchworm in less than 2 months in another weird part of our house. We found one in Turbo's lettuce, one in the kitchen, one in the dining room, Megan squished one with her foot that was hiding under the covers in our bed (that was traumatic and disgusting), and then there was the one I found today. Weird, eh? I've never heard of such an infestation before. It's weird.
So Megan and I will be back house sitting tonight. It doesn't feel like we're home a lot these days. Maybe that's because we aren't home a lot these days. Seriously, we were house sitting last week until we left for the reunion, we came home for three days and then we're going right back. As soon as we're done with that, we'll be shipping off to Denver for Jen and Justin's (Jen is Megan's former roommate and one of her best friends) wedding. So this whole process is making home feel less home-ish. We've only lived in the house for about a month and a half, and now we're spending almost two weeks not living in it. That's crazy talk. But we get paid to house-sit, so that's nice.
Oh, I wanted to say this earlier: I haven't seen and can't really find the button that allows me to reply to a single comment on the blog. I can only find the button that allows me to respond to the post itself. So if you've been wondering why I've been a jerk and haven't responded to your comments, that's the reason. Maybe I'll just make comments on my posts and say, "Hey, this is in response to whoever commented earlier." We're still getting the kinks out of the system here. In other blog news, I changed the option so you can make comments even if you don't have a gmail account (which means my mother should be able to comment now). Hopefully we won't get too many rediculous spam comments like I used to get on the old blog before I locked it down.
So here's the moment of truth: Megan and I went into the stake offices last night. It was funny because the stake center is only a mile from the chapel we got to church in. Mesa really is a funny town. Anyway, we met with a member of the stake presidency who called me to be...an assistant ward clerk. Megan keeps saying it's assistant TO the ward clerk, but that's wrong. I'm a full-fledged assistant. Anyway, they'll be training me in both the membership record and financial side of it, but I'm not sure which I'll end up doing more of, but they want to train me on both.
In the interview the member of the stake presidency asked me if I had ever done this kind of thing before. It brought back memories of sitting in the mission office with dengue fever, running a temperature of 103 or so, and filling out stacks of baptism, ordination, and other membership records. So yeah, I've done a lot of membership records. I've just done it by hand the good old fashioned way.
So the anticipation fo what my calling might be is over and they should start putting me to work pretty soon. I've never been a clerk before, so it'll be interesting to do something a little different.
Well, I'd best wrap this up because it's time to close the library. Until next time and every time after that, I'm James Badger. Thanks for reading.
Now that I've told you that, I don't really know what to say here. I'm sure I'll think of something. How about this: Megan and I have the weirdest infestation I've ever seen or heard of (excluding of course Mitch Hedberg's infestation of koala bears, which has no documented proof). I found the 5th inchworm in less than 2 months in another weird part of our house. We found one in Turbo's lettuce, one in the kitchen, one in the dining room, Megan squished one with her foot that was hiding under the covers in our bed (that was traumatic and disgusting), and then there was the one I found today. Weird, eh? I've never heard of such an infestation before. It's weird.
So Megan and I will be back house sitting tonight. It doesn't feel like we're home a lot these days. Maybe that's because we aren't home a lot these days. Seriously, we were house sitting last week until we left for the reunion, we came home for three days and then we're going right back. As soon as we're done with that, we'll be shipping off to Denver for Jen and Justin's (Jen is Megan's former roommate and one of her best friends) wedding. So this whole process is making home feel less home-ish. We've only lived in the house for about a month and a half, and now we're spending almost two weeks not living in it. That's crazy talk. But we get paid to house-sit, so that's nice.
Oh, I wanted to say this earlier: I haven't seen and can't really find the button that allows me to reply to a single comment on the blog. I can only find the button that allows me to respond to the post itself. So if you've been wondering why I've been a jerk and haven't responded to your comments, that's the reason. Maybe I'll just make comments on my posts and say, "Hey, this is in response to whoever commented earlier." We're still getting the kinks out of the system here. In other blog news, I changed the option so you can make comments even if you don't have a gmail account (which means my mother should be able to comment now). Hopefully we won't get too many rediculous spam comments like I used to get on the old blog before I locked it down.
So here's the moment of truth: Megan and I went into the stake offices last night. It was funny because the stake center is only a mile from the chapel we got to church in. Mesa really is a funny town. Anyway, we met with a member of the stake presidency who called me to be...an assistant ward clerk. Megan keeps saying it's assistant TO the ward clerk, but that's wrong. I'm a full-fledged assistant. Anyway, they'll be training me in both the membership record and financial side of it, but I'm not sure which I'll end up doing more of, but they want to train me on both.
In the interview the member of the stake presidency asked me if I had ever done this kind of thing before. It brought back memories of sitting in the mission office with dengue fever, running a temperature of 103 or so, and filling out stacks of baptism, ordination, and other membership records. So yeah, I've done a lot of membership records. I've just done it by hand the good old fashioned way.
So the anticipation fo what my calling might be is over and they should start putting me to work pretty soon. I've never been a clerk before, so it'll be interesting to do something a little different.
Well, I'd best wrap this up because it's time to close the library. Until next time and every time after that, I'm James Badger. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Lizard King
Howdy doody everybody. Let me start this off by saying that the title of this entry is not a reference to Jim Morrison, so you hopeful Doors fans should probably go ahead and calm down. The title is basically going to reference the fact that I have a good rapport with lizards. I even have pictures to prove it. We'll get into that later, but let's kick it into the weekend update and let you know all the super fun things Megan and I do when we're not at work.
On Thursday I was super blessed to get off work early. When I rolled into work at 10:00, my coworker told me he was going to get off at noon and that I'd probably get off early as well. Not too long after that, the head librarian told me I could have the option of going to one of the other libraries on campus and doing busy work for them or I could use some of my vacation time and go home early. So I took less than a millisecond to decide to go home early. I called Megan and let her know I'd be home before she would. We were both kind of excited because it would mean we could leave a little earlier for the family reunion.
The funny thing that happened on Thursday was that we completely failed to get out of town until 9:00. I was doing a complete overhaul on this laptop. I deleted partitions, formatted, repartitioned, and then went through the joy of installing both operating systems and various drivers and utilities. It took a little while to get it all done, but I was done well before Megan and I got out of town. I was packed and even loaded my stuff into the car. Megan was basically ready to go front he minute she got home, but somehow we didn't manage to get out of town until 9:00. We have no idea where the time went other than dropping Turbo off at the sitters (big ups to Shannon and BJ for taking care of our little guy).
So we had a fairly uneventful journey over to the Elks Youth Camp near Young, which has been the location for the Badger family reunion for the past few years. It was uneventful except for the fact that I hit my 5th bird this year. So far this year I've killed 3 birds with my car and hit 5 in total. Before this year I had never hit a bird before and now I can't avoid them. I feel like George Costanza when the deal is off with the pigeons. Also, we had an extremely close encounter with three deer that froze up in our headlights as we rounded a corner on a narrow mountain road. Had I been going faster I would have definitely committed multiple acts of vehicular animacide. So aside from nearly killing several animals on the way, it was an uneventful trip.
We had a fun time at the reunion. Megan has become the favorite aunt in a very short amount of time because she made balloon animals for all the kids. So good luck to the rest of the aunts who can't do balloon twisting or face painting. I think Megan is a mortal lock for favorite aunt for life. So there you have it. I also bolstered my favorite uncle status by letting the kids play Nintendo games on my laptop.
There were all sorts of fun things at the family reunion and I'd be hard pressed to remember them in chronological order. But just suffice it to say that we had a lot of fun. Of course there were things that were not so fun, which just of the top of my head would probably include Paul hitting my wife in the face with a baseball. It's kind of a funny story. So the story starts with Paul and I playing catch. I hadn't played catch in 10 years or so, so it was kinda nice to be throwing a baseball again. I was just impressed that I could still throw with any speed or degree of accuracy. So as things went on, Paul and I started to bring the heat. We really started to sling that ball back and forth. All this while we had nieces and nephews walking back and forth trying to hit the ball and whatnot. The ball was zooming over their head and they miraculously managed to not get hit. So as it was getting dark and dinner was almost ready, Paul and I decided that we would each throw the ball 10 more times and then we'd pack it in. All this while, we had been throwing each other pop flies, fastballs, and pretending to do turnaround throws to first. So as we're throwing we're also moving around a little. I was always a little worried when Paul was throwing when my wife and mother were sitting right behind me. I was worried I'd miss the ball and they'd get hit. But we're counting down the last 10 pitches and we get down to the very last throw of the night and I'm standing just to the right of where my Mom and Megan were sitting. Paul threw a pitch that went a little low and outside. I couldn't get a glove on the ball, but it didn't look like it would hit anybody. Then the bottom falls out of the pitch and it hits a rock, sending it right into Megan's face nailing her right in the lip. She got a really bad bloody and swollen lip. She said it didn't really hurt, which is a good thing, but she did get the benefit of getting anything she wanted from Paul just by pouting her swollen lip a little. So yeah, that's the story of the baseball and the face.
Also, Megan and I caught a couple lizards. One minute I was talking about how I was too old and slow to catch lizards and the next I'm crawling with lizards. Seriously, there was one lizard I didn't see at first and I almost stepped on it, but then it jumped onto my shoe and started climbing up my leg. Megan and I caught two lizards in under a half hour. It reminded me of back when I was a kid and every summer I would catch lizards and horny toads and sell them to other kids in the neighborhood. Anyway, check out these awesome lizard pictures:
On Saturday we packed it up and headed over to St. Johns because on Sunday Lynnette was having her non-farewell. Megan and I got our own room in my parents' house for the first time ever, which was kind of nice. We were relaxing on our bed taking a nap as we could hear the commotion of nieces and nephews running up and down the hall just outside our door, but we had our little oasis of calm.
While we were in St. Johns, Megan and I broke out the cribbage board we just bought. I had never played and Megan hadn't played for quite a while, so we were kind of excited to add another old people game to our repertoire. Now we just need to learn Pinochle and Whist and we can start hustling people in retirement homes. I won the first game of cribbage, which means I like the game now. I lost the next two, but one of those losses was on a technicality, so it might as well not be a loss at all. But I think I'm a bona fide fan of cribbage now, so that's good. I'm getting a good head start on getting old. I think I'll have a fitting for some chest-high plaid pants and I'll cash in my skater shoes for some deck shoes. And speaking of deck shoes, I should probably pick up shuffleboard. I don't have the opportunity to get into a curling league, so I think shuffleboard will be next.
Lynnette gave a good talk at her non-farewell and Ben Brown gave a good non-homecoming talk. I also got to see some people I hadn't seen for a while. Mikie Prentice was home from his mission. That was kinda funny because the last I saw him he was a crazy 10 year old kid who was maybe a little too hyper for his own good and now he's an RM. I guess I'm a little old.
Anyway, going from the family reunion to the non-farewell was a little like having two separate weekends back to back. It felt great to not be at work for a while, but it was weird to not be at home for a long time because up until we left for the reunion we had been house sitting. So we left the same day our house sitting gig was over and instead of going home after the reunion we went to St. Johns. Now we're home for a few days and we'll be right back to house sitting and then we'll be heading to Denver for Jen and Justin's wedding. So it feels like we aren't going to be home for a while, which I guess comes from the fact that we won't be home for a good deal of time this month.
So here's another little tidbit before I close this up. Well, maybe I'll give two tidbits. First of all, I haven't really read this post as I've been writing it. I actually haven't been paying much attention to myself and I have no idea what I might have said. So if none of this has made sense thus far, that's why. Secondly, I just got a call from a member of our stake presidency. They want me to come into the stake offices tomorrow and get a calling. I have to say I'm a little scared. I don't know if it's a calling for Megan and I or if it's just a calling for just me. In the voice mail it sounded a little more like Megan and I were both getting callings, but this morning he was setting up the appointment with me and at the end he said, "Oh, and bring your wife with you." So I don't know if this will be a calling for just me or for both Megan and I. Either way, I've never had a stake calling and I have no idea how the stake presidency knows to look us up. Our records were just read into the ward two weeks ago, so I dunno. Watever the calling is, I'll do it, but I have to admit I'm a little scared. So there you have it: all the news that is news.
On Thursday I was super blessed to get off work early. When I rolled into work at 10:00, my coworker told me he was going to get off at noon and that I'd probably get off early as well. Not too long after that, the head librarian told me I could have the option of going to one of the other libraries on campus and doing busy work for them or I could use some of my vacation time and go home early. So I took less than a millisecond to decide to go home early. I called Megan and let her know I'd be home before she would. We were both kind of excited because it would mean we could leave a little earlier for the family reunion.
The funny thing that happened on Thursday was that we completely failed to get out of town until 9:00. I was doing a complete overhaul on this laptop. I deleted partitions, formatted, repartitioned, and then went through the joy of installing both operating systems and various drivers and utilities. It took a little while to get it all done, but I was done well before Megan and I got out of town. I was packed and even loaded my stuff into the car. Megan was basically ready to go front he minute she got home, but somehow we didn't manage to get out of town until 9:00. We have no idea where the time went other than dropping Turbo off at the sitters (big ups to Shannon and BJ for taking care of our little guy).
So we had a fairly uneventful journey over to the Elks Youth Camp near Young, which has been the location for the Badger family reunion for the past few years. It was uneventful except for the fact that I hit my 5th bird this year. So far this year I've killed 3 birds with my car and hit 5 in total. Before this year I had never hit a bird before and now I can't avoid them. I feel like George Costanza when the deal is off with the pigeons. Also, we had an extremely close encounter with three deer that froze up in our headlights as we rounded a corner on a narrow mountain road. Had I been going faster I would have definitely committed multiple acts of vehicular animacide. So aside from nearly killing several animals on the way, it was an uneventful trip.
We had a fun time at the reunion. Megan has become the favorite aunt in a very short amount of time because she made balloon animals for all the kids. So good luck to the rest of the aunts who can't do balloon twisting or face painting. I think Megan is a mortal lock for favorite aunt for life. So there you have it. I also bolstered my favorite uncle status by letting the kids play Nintendo games on my laptop.
There were all sorts of fun things at the family reunion and I'd be hard pressed to remember them in chronological order. But just suffice it to say that we had a lot of fun. Of course there were things that were not so fun, which just of the top of my head would probably include Paul hitting my wife in the face with a baseball. It's kind of a funny story. So the story starts with Paul and I playing catch. I hadn't played catch in 10 years or so, so it was kinda nice to be throwing a baseball again. I was just impressed that I could still throw with any speed or degree of accuracy. So as things went on, Paul and I started to bring the heat. We really started to sling that ball back and forth. All this while we had nieces and nephews walking back and forth trying to hit the ball and whatnot. The ball was zooming over their head and they miraculously managed to not get hit. So as it was getting dark and dinner was almost ready, Paul and I decided that we would each throw the ball 10 more times and then we'd pack it in. All this while, we had been throwing each other pop flies, fastballs, and pretending to do turnaround throws to first. So as we're throwing we're also moving around a little. I was always a little worried when Paul was throwing when my wife and mother were sitting right behind me. I was worried I'd miss the ball and they'd get hit. But we're counting down the last 10 pitches and we get down to the very last throw of the night and I'm standing just to the right of where my Mom and Megan were sitting. Paul threw a pitch that went a little low and outside. I couldn't get a glove on the ball, but it didn't look like it would hit anybody. Then the bottom falls out of the pitch and it hits a rock, sending it right into Megan's face nailing her right in the lip. She got a really bad bloody and swollen lip. She said it didn't really hurt, which is a good thing, but she did get the benefit of getting anything she wanted from Paul just by pouting her swollen lip a little. So yeah, that's the story of the baseball and the face.
Also, Megan and I caught a couple lizards. One minute I was talking about how I was too old and slow to catch lizards and the next I'm crawling with lizards. Seriously, there was one lizard I didn't see at first and I almost stepped on it, but then it jumped onto my shoe and started climbing up my leg. Megan and I caught two lizards in under a half hour. It reminded me of back when I was a kid and every summer I would catch lizards and horny toads and sell them to other kids in the neighborhood. Anyway, check out these awesome lizard pictures:
On Saturday we packed it up and headed over to St. Johns because on Sunday Lynnette was having her non-farewell. Megan and I got our own room in my parents' house for the first time ever, which was kind of nice. We were relaxing on our bed taking a nap as we could hear the commotion of nieces and nephews running up and down the hall just outside our door, but we had our little oasis of calm.
While we were in St. Johns, Megan and I broke out the cribbage board we just bought. I had never played and Megan hadn't played for quite a while, so we were kind of excited to add another old people game to our repertoire. Now we just need to learn Pinochle and Whist and we can start hustling people in retirement homes. I won the first game of cribbage, which means I like the game now. I lost the next two, but one of those losses was on a technicality, so it might as well not be a loss at all. But I think I'm a bona fide fan of cribbage now, so that's good. I'm getting a good head start on getting old. I think I'll have a fitting for some chest-high plaid pants and I'll cash in my skater shoes for some deck shoes. And speaking of deck shoes, I should probably pick up shuffleboard. I don't have the opportunity to get into a curling league, so I think shuffleboard will be next.
Lynnette gave a good talk at her non-farewell and Ben Brown gave a good non-homecoming talk. I also got to see some people I hadn't seen for a while. Mikie Prentice was home from his mission. That was kinda funny because the last I saw him he was a crazy 10 year old kid who was maybe a little too hyper for his own good and now he's an RM. I guess I'm a little old.
Anyway, going from the family reunion to the non-farewell was a little like having two separate weekends back to back. It felt great to not be at work for a while, but it was weird to not be at home for a long time because up until we left for the reunion we had been house sitting. So we left the same day our house sitting gig was over and instead of going home after the reunion we went to St. Johns. Now we're home for a few days and we'll be right back to house sitting and then we'll be heading to Denver for Jen and Justin's wedding. So it feels like we aren't going to be home for a while, which I guess comes from the fact that we won't be home for a good deal of time this month.
So here's another little tidbit before I close this up. Well, maybe I'll give two tidbits. First of all, I haven't really read this post as I've been writing it. I actually haven't been paying much attention to myself and I have no idea what I might have said. So if none of this has made sense thus far, that's why. Secondly, I just got a call from a member of our stake presidency. They want me to come into the stake offices tomorrow and get a calling. I have to say I'm a little scared. I don't know if it's a calling for Megan and I or if it's just a calling for just me. In the voice mail it sounded a little more like Megan and I were both getting callings, but this morning he was setting up the appointment with me and at the end he said, "Oh, and bring your wife with you." So I don't know if this will be a calling for just me or for both Megan and I. Either way, I've never had a stake calling and I have no idea how the stake presidency knows to look us up. Our records were just read into the ward two weeks ago, so I dunno. Watever the calling is, I'll do it, but I have to admit I'm a little scared. So there you have it: all the news that is news.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Madness and Chaos
There's a reason why I didn't get the weekend update out in a timeley manner and a good reason why I didn't do a meme last week. Normally I update the blog while I'm at work because my time at home is precious. The problem with that is that if...heaven forbid... something happens at work or if...heaven double forbid...I actually have work to do at work then I don't have time to update the blog. Well, the past week or so has been a little of both things happening and work to be done.
At one point last week I, like an idiot, decided to install some free CD burning software on my work computer. My work computer has a CD/DVD burner in it but no software for the burning of CD's. Over the course of the past couple weeks I have been turning my laptop into a dual boot system that runs both Windows 98 and Windows XP. I wanted Windows 98 because I have a lot of old DOS-based games that I used to play (Like Wolfenstein 3d, Doom, Oregon Trail, Commander Keen, etc.) and I want to be able to play them without using an emulator. The point of all this is that to get 98 up and running and to get the games I want, I'm using a lot of out-of-print software which I download from a variety of sources in disk image formats that need to be burned to a CD to work. So I need to burn CD's. I have a CD burner on my work computer and I, like an idiot as I said before, decide to install some free CD burning software.
What happened the first time I installed the software was that it also installed a massive trojan that took over my browser and all of my administrative functions, and embedded itself in my registry in such a way that I couldn't uninstall it. This program pretended to be a spyware sweeper, but what it really was was a massive spyware installer. It takes over your system and before you know it, you're drowning in a sea of pop-up ads and fake windows security notices. I'm no slouch when it comes to computers and I've been battling trojans and spyware for a long time now, but this one was a doozy. What eventually happened after many attempts to get rid of the software was that I had to call IT, who were completely bewildered so they gave me a whole new machine and took the old one away to be formatted and start life anew. That happened on Friday.
On Monday when I came into work, I noticed my feet squishing on the carpet. We don't have any special sort of squishtec(tm)carpet or anything, so obviously we had a flood. It was weird because we had a decent rain storm over the weekend, but certainly not even the worst monsoon rain I've seen in my time here in the valley. So the architecture building where Arizona's best and brightest come to learn how to build buildings that can withstand all sorts of damage...can't withstand a simple rainstorm. The water damage in the library didn't seem too bad, and the only things that got wet were some drawings in the special collections room. So no big deal, right?
"Nope," He said in a whole new paragraph. It's a really big deal. It's such a big deal that we called in an emergency library flood response team who is freeze drying sealing up books and drawings right and left. Any book that was in the same room as carpet that may or may not have mold on it is now being freeze dried or incubated. There are more people working here doing more damage control than I care to count. They built a quarantine tent right in the middle of the library so they can do all sorts of specialized work away from any and all dust molecules. It's like that scene toward the end of E.T. that frightened me as a kid and destroyed my likelihood to ever watch that movie again as an adult. Here is a picture of what used to be a room full of books and study tables.
You can see the quarantine tent and the shelves they have taken apart. All this has made more work for me because all of a sudden I'm having to move large sections of books around that I'm just going to have to move back when all this is over. It's no fun. Plus we have eight different fans running at once and the air conditioning has been turned up to somewhere in the 80's so everything can dry out. I'm all for saving the books and whatnot, but this is annoying and it makes more work for me than I would like to do.
So for the last couple days it has been chaos in this place as 30 different non-English speaking workers move all our stuff around and wrap everything in plastic. The dean of the libraries comes in twice a day, the boss man hasn't worn his suit coat for three straight days (which is disturbing because with the suit he looks like the grim face of death, but without it he looks like the Olson twins creepy anorexic dad. I don't know what's worse. Basically, there's a lot of hubub and I wish I could relax and generally slack off like I normally do.
So yesterday I get a crazy (aka stupid) idea to try installing som CD burning software again because I still want to get more games and utilities on this laptop. So just try and guess what happens. If you said that a different yet eerily similar trojan completely takes over my machine, you are correct. I thought I had it headed off early when I hit it with an antivirus scan using the software that comes pre-installed on our work computers. Well, that didn't work. It has now taken over my computer to the point where I can't do anything except stare at things that it pops up at me. I have no administrative control, and even in safe mode I'm walled in and this trojan has no intention of leaving. So I had to call the IT guy yet again. Luckily they didn't sound agry, which I thought they would. So tomorrow I should be getting my second new machine in less than a week. Brilliant.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the reason I'm even bothering to burn CD's at work is because my home computer's CD burner has stopped burning CD's. I don't blame it. It's been through an awful lot in the time that I've had it and I bear it no ill will. It can go silently into that dark night and I will salute it all the way. It just stinks because I really wish it was working right now. The whole thing is like some sort of bizarre technological version of "There's a hole in my bucket."
So there you have it: perhaps the longest ever post explaining why I don't post as often as I should. It's not irony in its purest form, but at least we can all agree that it's mildly interesting.
At one point last week I, like an idiot, decided to install some free CD burning software on my work computer. My work computer has a CD/DVD burner in it but no software for the burning of CD's. Over the course of the past couple weeks I have been turning my laptop into a dual boot system that runs both Windows 98 and Windows XP. I wanted Windows 98 because I have a lot of old DOS-based games that I used to play (Like Wolfenstein 3d, Doom, Oregon Trail, Commander Keen, etc.) and I want to be able to play them without using an emulator. The point of all this is that to get 98 up and running and to get the games I want, I'm using a lot of out-of-print software which I download from a variety of sources in disk image formats that need to be burned to a CD to work. So I need to burn CD's. I have a CD burner on my work computer and I, like an idiot as I said before, decide to install some free CD burning software.
What happened the first time I installed the software was that it also installed a massive trojan that took over my browser and all of my administrative functions, and embedded itself in my registry in such a way that I couldn't uninstall it. This program pretended to be a spyware sweeper, but what it really was was a massive spyware installer. It takes over your system and before you know it, you're drowning in a sea of pop-up ads and fake windows security notices. I'm no slouch when it comes to computers and I've been battling trojans and spyware for a long time now, but this one was a doozy. What eventually happened after many attempts to get rid of the software was that I had to call IT, who were completely bewildered so they gave me a whole new machine and took the old one away to be formatted and start life anew. That happened on Friday.
On Monday when I came into work, I noticed my feet squishing on the carpet. We don't have any special sort of squishtec(tm)carpet or anything, so obviously we had a flood. It was weird because we had a decent rain storm over the weekend, but certainly not even the worst monsoon rain I've seen in my time here in the valley. So the architecture building where Arizona's best and brightest come to learn how to build buildings that can withstand all sorts of damage...can't withstand a simple rainstorm. The water damage in the library didn't seem too bad, and the only things that got wet were some drawings in the special collections room. So no big deal, right?
"Nope," He said in a whole new paragraph. It's a really big deal. It's such a big deal that we called in an emergency library flood response team who is freeze drying sealing up books and drawings right and left. Any book that was in the same room as carpet that may or may not have mold on it is now being freeze dried or incubated. There are more people working here doing more damage control than I care to count. They built a quarantine tent right in the middle of the library so they can do all sorts of specialized work away from any and all dust molecules. It's like that scene toward the end of E.T. that frightened me as a kid and destroyed my likelihood to ever watch that movie again as an adult. Here is a picture of what used to be a room full of books and study tables.
You can see the quarantine tent and the shelves they have taken apart. All this has made more work for me because all of a sudden I'm having to move large sections of books around that I'm just going to have to move back when all this is over. It's no fun. Plus we have eight different fans running at once and the air conditioning has been turned up to somewhere in the 80's so everything can dry out. I'm all for saving the books and whatnot, but this is annoying and it makes more work for me than I would like to do.
So for the last couple days it has been chaos in this place as 30 different non-English speaking workers move all our stuff around and wrap everything in plastic. The dean of the libraries comes in twice a day, the boss man hasn't worn his suit coat for three straight days (which is disturbing because with the suit he looks like the grim face of death, but without it he looks like the Olson twins creepy anorexic dad. I don't know what's worse. Basically, there's a lot of hubub and I wish I could relax and generally slack off like I normally do.
So yesterday I get a crazy (aka stupid) idea to try installing som CD burning software again because I still want to get more games and utilities on this laptop. So just try and guess what happens. If you said that a different yet eerily similar trojan completely takes over my machine, you are correct. I thought I had it headed off early when I hit it with an antivirus scan using the software that comes pre-installed on our work computers. Well, that didn't work. It has now taken over my computer to the point where I can't do anything except stare at things that it pops up at me. I have no administrative control, and even in safe mode I'm walled in and this trojan has no intention of leaving. So I had to call the IT guy yet again. Luckily they didn't sound agry, which I thought they would. So tomorrow I should be getting my second new machine in less than a week. Brilliant.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the reason I'm even bothering to burn CD's at work is because my home computer's CD burner has stopped burning CD's. I don't blame it. It's been through an awful lot in the time that I've had it and I bear it no ill will. It can go silently into that dark night and I will salute it all the way. It just stinks because I really wish it was working right now. The whole thing is like some sort of bizarre technological version of "There's a hole in my bucket."
So there you have it: perhaps the longest ever post explaining why I don't post as often as I should. It's not irony in its purest form, but at least we can all agree that it's mildly interesting.
7-11 and First Pictures
So this last Friday was July 11th, and for those of you who are unaware of the significance of the eleventh day of the blessed seventh month, I'll explain: on July 11th every year 7-11 gives out free 7.11 ounce slurpees. Insane people like myself then spend time going to multiple 7-11's on a quest for as much semi-frozen beverage in as many flavors as possible. It's kind of a big deal.
Anyway, Paul came into town to celebrate the drinking of free beverages with us. As tradition dictates, we started at 7:11 in the evening and went to 11 different 7-11 locations. So by the end of the evening we each drank 78.21 ounces of slurpee, which is more than a half gallon for those of you scoring at home. My metric conversion chart tells me it's 6.11 gallons. That's a lot of slurpee.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the journey.
Megan was our chaufferess for the evening.
This is Paul looking completely normal in the back seat.
Megan and Paul in a 7-11 somewhere in the greater Mesa area. This is only a couple Slurpees into the evening. You can tell because they aren't doubled over in pain from a combo bellyache brain freeze yet.
Megan and I at the same undisclosed 7-11 location.
This is Paul and I halfway through the evening. As you can see, we're slightly less excited about the whole ordeal than we were earlier on. The great thing about 7-11 is that you keep going long after the thrill of free beverages has worn off and has been replaced with sickness and pain. John Cougar "This is Our country" Mellencamp should write a song about it.
This is a solo shot of what I look like when I'm a little bit sick and wearing a hat.
The rediculous thing about this picture is that I am freezing my tongue because I was trying to get a tongueful of slurpee in the shot. As you can see, my tongue isn't even showing so millions of tastebuds died needlessly. It seems like I could draw some sort of parallel with this, but I won't bother to.
This is a picture of Megan after taking a slurp of the nastiest flavor of her evening. It was some sort of black energy drink that tasted like frozen mud would taste like if the mud was made from tire fire ashes.
This is what the energy mud flavor will do to your tongue.
For some reason Paul and I chose to drink the nastiest flavor as our 11th and final slurpee of the evening. It was a slurpee made from my least favorite flavor of mountain dew, but the machine was broken or something and the flavor was some sort of disgusting mix of orange and that watery stuff that leaks out of the bottom of non-name-brand garbage bags. I don't know why guys try to up the degree of difficulty at every opportunity, but we do. The slurpee was the worst of the evening, but we made it.
Behold the spoils of war. Megan built this pyramid from all the cups we used over the evening. It represents the unconquerable human spirit and the desire and willpower to go on even when the slurpees are disgusting and when there's only one cup left and the cashier lady chews you out for re-using a single cup for three people. So yeah, we had a good time.
Anyway, Paul came into town to celebrate the drinking of free beverages with us. As tradition dictates, we started at 7:11 in the evening and went to 11 different 7-11 locations. So by the end of the evening we each drank 78.21 ounces of slurpee, which is more than a half gallon for those of you scoring at home. My metric conversion chart tells me it's 6.11 gallons. That's a lot of slurpee.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the journey.
Megan was our chaufferess for the evening.
This is Paul looking completely normal in the back seat.
Megan and Paul in a 7-11 somewhere in the greater Mesa area. This is only a couple Slurpees into the evening. You can tell because they aren't doubled over in pain from a combo bellyache brain freeze yet.
Megan and I at the same undisclosed 7-11 location.
This is Paul and I halfway through the evening. As you can see, we're slightly less excited about the whole ordeal than we were earlier on. The great thing about 7-11 is that you keep going long after the thrill of free beverages has worn off and has been replaced with sickness and pain. John Cougar "This is Our country" Mellencamp should write a song about it.
This is a solo shot of what I look like when I'm a little bit sick and wearing a hat.
The rediculous thing about this picture is that I am freezing my tongue because I was trying to get a tongueful of slurpee in the shot. As you can see, my tongue isn't even showing so millions of tastebuds died needlessly. It seems like I could draw some sort of parallel with this, but I won't bother to.
This is a picture of Megan after taking a slurp of the nastiest flavor of her evening. It was some sort of black energy drink that tasted like frozen mud would taste like if the mud was made from tire fire ashes.
This is what the energy mud flavor will do to your tongue.
For some reason Paul and I chose to drink the nastiest flavor as our 11th and final slurpee of the evening. It was a slurpee made from my least favorite flavor of mountain dew, but the machine was broken or something and the flavor was some sort of disgusting mix of orange and that watery stuff that leaks out of the bottom of non-name-brand garbage bags. I don't know why guys try to up the degree of difficulty at every opportunity, but we do. The slurpee was the worst of the evening, but we made it.
Behold the spoils of war. Megan built this pyramid from all the cups we used over the evening. It represents the unconquerable human spirit and the desire and willpower to go on even when the slurpees are disgusting and when there's only one cup left and the cashier lady chews you out for re-using a single cup for three people. So yeah, we had a good time.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Bizzy in the Hizzy
Hey everybody. I know Megan is working up a big review of our week, so I know I'm not going to throw down the big weekend update on ya. But what I think I will do is throw some words out there anyway. I'll try to hit the bullet points of the weekend. As a matter of fact, I think I'll just give you a bulleted list. But inasmuch as I don't see anything that would allow me to make an actual bullet, I think I'll just throw down some asterisks (asteriski? asteriskum? asparagus?) and be done with it.
* Odd meetup of the decade on Friday morning, and no I'm not talking about meeting the self-proclaimed meanest sheriff in the country. I'm talking about running into the very first guy Todd and I ever moved in with: Davey Dave. Yes, I ran into Davey Dave for the first time in over six years. It was awkward, it was weird, I didn't know what to do. He said he's married and in our ward now, but I didn't see him on Sunday, so maybe he's in a different ward. At any rate, if I had to pick from a list of people I have known in my life that I did not expect to run into on the 4th of July, Davey Dave makes the top 5 every time.
* Speaking of running into mean sheriffs, yes I did get to meet the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The lady who put together our 4th of July breakfast is apparantly very well connected. Anyway, I had several opportunities to shake his hand, but I have to admit I was legitimately terrified of meeting him. He had two bodyguards near him at all times. He just happened to walk right past me at one point and I mustered the gumption to stick my hand out. I have to say that he's every bit the curmudgeon he seems to be. He refused to smile in pictures, and he told us outright that this year's breakfast was sad compared to last year's. So there you have it.
* Another interesting Sheriff Joe point: when he gave his little speech, he mentioned the fact that even though illegal immigrants are a problem (and he wouldn't be the man he is if he didn't somehow tie patriotism to the illegal immigration issue, would he?) when they are taken into custody we do two things for them before sending them back 1) We teach them some conversational English and 2) We teach them how to sing "God Bless America." Now correct me if I'm wrong here. If our goal is to get these people out of the country with the hope that they won't come back, isn't it completely counterproductive to teach them a skill that would help them better adapt to life in the states and even more counterproductive to teach them songs about how great America is? I just thought that was silly.
* So the barbershop quartet sounded pretty good. We practiced it better than we performed it, but that's usually the case. It was good to be back singing in a quartet again, but it was also good to meet some of the guys in the ward I might not have met otherwise.
* On Sunday I had the opportunity to sit in with a primary class. We were teaching the 10 year olds. It was funny because even the kids who were paying attention the most were squirming and climbing all over their chairs. We had one kid who sat on the floor and refused to speak or participate in any way. It's a little different than sunday school in the singles ward where you can literally fill a whole lesson on comments from a single question. But it was fun to be helping out in that class. I learned quickly in singing time that they don't sing any of the same songs I sang. The songs that are still in circulation have had lyric changes, additional verses and whatnot. I didn't know what I was doing in singing time, but it was funny to watch the lady do the two-handed pitch poke (where you move your hands up and down as the notes go higher or lower).
* So Megan and I are apparantly completely nuts at times. On Thursday after barbershop practice we went over to the dollar theater (I persist in calling it a dollar theater despite the fact that it costs $3.00 to get in, which is still rediculously cheaper than what other theaters charge) to catch the late showing of "21" which was based off of the true story of the MIT card counting team. I saw the history channel special on the MIT card counting team, so I was really excited to see the movie. It wasn't a bad movie. There were things that could've been cut out, and they could have done the card counting sequences better, but all-in-all it was good. So after the movie, we dropped by Wal-Mart to pick up ingredients for our contribution to the breakfast. It was 1:30 or so by the time we got home, and we had to get up at 5:45. Needless to say, we really needed a nap when breakfast was over.
* I love glow sticks. I know I'm an adult and a married man, but I can't help myself. Mary and Konden brought glow sticks to the fireworks, and the kids went bananas with 'em. I couldn't help but get five or six of 'em for myself. Now that I'm an adult, I can buy my own glow sticks. So I think I will buy some for myself before too long.
* The fireworks were great. I've seen larger and more impressive displays, but we were on a blanket in the park not too far from where the fireworks were going up and it wasn't too crowded. I've never been a fan of the fireworks at Lyman Lake. I always liked it better on the football field. You're closer to the action and it doesn't take a billion years to park and another billion to get out. I'm just saying, if you can get a smaller and more intimate fireworks display it'll be better every time.
* 4th of July lunch was delicious. There were steaks, pulled pork sammiches, corn on the cob, multiple desserts, and I'm probably forgetting other edibles. It was good. In a related note: my wife is awesome for making me barbecue sammiches on the 4th. It just felt right.
* I haven't officially been given a home teaching assignment, but I'm the senoir companion of one of the young men in the ward. His Dad introduced me to him last Sunday. It'll be a little different to be the senior companion. I've been the same age as all my companions for a while now. It'll be fun to see if he can teach lessons as boring as the ones I taught when I was a junior home teaching companion.
Well, I think those are all the bullet points I can think of for the moment. Maybe I'll throw down an addendum later, but I think that's it for now. I think Megan's entry will be a little more substantial.
* Odd meetup of the decade on Friday morning, and no I'm not talking about meeting the self-proclaimed meanest sheriff in the country. I'm talking about running into the very first guy Todd and I ever moved in with: Davey Dave. Yes, I ran into Davey Dave for the first time in over six years. It was awkward, it was weird, I didn't know what to do. He said he's married and in our ward now, but I didn't see him on Sunday, so maybe he's in a different ward. At any rate, if I had to pick from a list of people I have known in my life that I did not expect to run into on the 4th of July, Davey Dave makes the top 5 every time.
* Speaking of running into mean sheriffs, yes I did get to meet the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The lady who put together our 4th of July breakfast is apparantly very well connected. Anyway, I had several opportunities to shake his hand, but I have to admit I was legitimately terrified of meeting him. He had two bodyguards near him at all times. He just happened to walk right past me at one point and I mustered the gumption to stick my hand out. I have to say that he's every bit the curmudgeon he seems to be. He refused to smile in pictures, and he told us outright that this year's breakfast was sad compared to last year's. So there you have it.
* Another interesting Sheriff Joe point: when he gave his little speech, he mentioned the fact that even though illegal immigrants are a problem (and he wouldn't be the man he is if he didn't somehow tie patriotism to the illegal immigration issue, would he?) when they are taken into custody we do two things for them before sending them back 1) We teach them some conversational English and 2) We teach them how to sing "God Bless America." Now correct me if I'm wrong here. If our goal is to get these people out of the country with the hope that they won't come back, isn't it completely counterproductive to teach them a skill that would help them better adapt to life in the states and even more counterproductive to teach them songs about how great America is? I just thought that was silly.
* So the barbershop quartet sounded pretty good. We practiced it better than we performed it, but that's usually the case. It was good to be back singing in a quartet again, but it was also good to meet some of the guys in the ward I might not have met otherwise.
* On Sunday I had the opportunity to sit in with a primary class. We were teaching the 10 year olds. It was funny because even the kids who were paying attention the most were squirming and climbing all over their chairs. We had one kid who sat on the floor and refused to speak or participate in any way. It's a little different than sunday school in the singles ward where you can literally fill a whole lesson on comments from a single question. But it was fun to be helping out in that class. I learned quickly in singing time that they don't sing any of the same songs I sang. The songs that are still in circulation have had lyric changes, additional verses and whatnot. I didn't know what I was doing in singing time, but it was funny to watch the lady do the two-handed pitch poke (where you move your hands up and down as the notes go higher or lower).
* So Megan and I are apparantly completely nuts at times. On Thursday after barbershop practice we went over to the dollar theater (I persist in calling it a dollar theater despite the fact that it costs $3.00 to get in, which is still rediculously cheaper than what other theaters charge) to catch the late showing of "21" which was based off of the true story of the MIT card counting team. I saw the history channel special on the MIT card counting team, so I was really excited to see the movie. It wasn't a bad movie. There were things that could've been cut out, and they could have done the card counting sequences better, but all-in-all it was good. So after the movie, we dropped by Wal-Mart to pick up ingredients for our contribution to the breakfast. It was 1:30 or so by the time we got home, and we had to get up at 5:45. Needless to say, we really needed a nap when breakfast was over.
* I love glow sticks. I know I'm an adult and a married man, but I can't help myself. Mary and Konden brought glow sticks to the fireworks, and the kids went bananas with 'em. I couldn't help but get five or six of 'em for myself. Now that I'm an adult, I can buy my own glow sticks. So I think I will buy some for myself before too long.
* The fireworks were great. I've seen larger and more impressive displays, but we were on a blanket in the park not too far from where the fireworks were going up and it wasn't too crowded. I've never been a fan of the fireworks at Lyman Lake. I always liked it better on the football field. You're closer to the action and it doesn't take a billion years to park and another billion to get out. I'm just saying, if you can get a smaller and more intimate fireworks display it'll be better every time.
* 4th of July lunch was delicious. There were steaks, pulled pork sammiches, corn on the cob, multiple desserts, and I'm probably forgetting other edibles. It was good. In a related note: my wife is awesome for making me barbecue sammiches on the 4th. It just felt right.
* I haven't officially been given a home teaching assignment, but I'm the senoir companion of one of the young men in the ward. His Dad introduced me to him last Sunday. It'll be a little different to be the senior companion. I've been the same age as all my companions for a while now. It'll be fun to see if he can teach lessons as boring as the ones I taught when I was a junior home teaching companion.
Well, I think those are all the bullet points I can think of for the moment. Maybe I'll throw down an addendum later, but I think that's it for now. I think Megan's entry will be a little more substantial.
Monday, July 07, 2008
New Badger in the Sett
Well, here goes my first official blog entry and what better way to do it than with a weekend update.
I'm not going to lie, this weekend was pretty fantastic. I got Thursday and Friday off which is my boss's way of saying thanks to everyone for putting up with what has been going on at work.
For those of you who don't know, my job has been a bit iffy lately. About a month ago, three of our employees got laid off and we had an emergency company meeting that basically said there isn't enough money to get the company through the summer and if we don't figure out how to fix it, more people will be losing their jobs. One of the solutions was to have everyone take one unpaid day off a week. Although it would be great to have a three day weekend every week, James and I can't really afford to be missing 20% of my income. So in order to keep my paycheck the same, I will be working 6 hours of unpaid overtime a week. It kind of stinks to be working more hours instead of less, but at least we'll be making the same kind of money.
Back to the weekend . . .
On Thursday my old roomies came to see the new house and have breakfast before Martha officially moves to California. It was fun to see them but the real highlight of the day was the three-hour nap I took in the middle of the day. I tend to appreciate naps a lot more these days. James and I celebrated Friday and Fourth of July Eve by going to his Barbershop Quartet practice (which was pretty impressive) then to the cheap movies. I want to say dollar movies, but the sad truth is that even dollar movies no longer cost a dollar. Now the cheap moves cost three dollars, which is a steal considering it costs about ten dollars to go to a regular movie theater. We saw 21, which is a pretty cool movie except now I have aspirations to quite work and run to Vegas to make millions counting cards. But considering gas prices these days, I'll probably just stay in town.
We had our ward July 4th celebration bright and early Friday morning. James and I had to be there by 6:45 so he could practice with the quartet and I got roped into helping tie up some helium balloons. I'm a little afraid of the time when the ward discovers I'm a balloon twister and face painter because from the looks of it, our ward goes all out for everything. We had a fire truck, the Mesa Police and even Sheriff Joe himself. Not to mention an awesome barbershop quartet. That bass was amazing!! We took the opportunity for a nap after the ward party to rest up for the Hansen 4th of July celebration. We had a BBQ at my parent’s house which produced much to much food. It was delicious. The best part was that right before the fireworks we had a little windstorm, which blew the heat right out of the valley. In my 15 years in living in Phoenix, I have never been to a 4th of July fireworks display where it was actually cool. Mary bought a tube of 100 of the glow sticks you make bracelets and necklaces and stuff out of. After finding ways to use all 100 of them we were lit up like . . . well . . . the 4th of July.
Saturday we mostly just rested and enjoyed not having that much to do. We probably did something worth mentioning, but I can't really think of anything.
Church was pretty great. It's the first fast and testimony meeting we've been to since we've been married and it was fantastic to hear all the varied testimonies that come from being in a family ward. I do have to confess that the day started with some lovely blueberry pancakes because James and I totally forgot that it was Fast Sunday. Oh well, we'll try again next week.
We spent Sunday evening defrosting our freezer after we realized we weren't getting any cold air through. We're going to try and have someone come look at it in the following week. Our dryer gets no heat and our freezer gets no cold but both are still under warranty so that shouldn't be so bad.
For some exciting news, James and I are speaking in church for the first time on Sunday. We are actually super excited. Funny enough, both of us actually enjoy speaking in church. We were given the topic of patriotism, which leaves me a little stumped, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. Dobson Ward watch out!
Well, that's about it folks. I'm over and out!
-Megan Badger
I'm not going to lie, this weekend was pretty fantastic. I got Thursday and Friday off which is my boss's way of saying thanks to everyone for putting up with what has been going on at work.
For those of you who don't know, my job has been a bit iffy lately. About a month ago, three of our employees got laid off and we had an emergency company meeting that basically said there isn't enough money to get the company through the summer and if we don't figure out how to fix it, more people will be losing their jobs. One of the solutions was to have everyone take one unpaid day off a week. Although it would be great to have a three day weekend every week, James and I can't really afford to be missing 20% of my income. So in order to keep my paycheck the same, I will be working 6 hours of unpaid overtime a week. It kind of stinks to be working more hours instead of less, but at least we'll be making the same kind of money.
Back to the weekend . . .
On Thursday my old roomies came to see the new house and have breakfast before Martha officially moves to California. It was fun to see them but the real highlight of the day was the three-hour nap I took in the middle of the day. I tend to appreciate naps a lot more these days. James and I celebrated Friday and Fourth of July Eve by going to his Barbershop Quartet practice (which was pretty impressive) then to the cheap movies. I want to say dollar movies, but the sad truth is that even dollar movies no longer cost a dollar. Now the cheap moves cost three dollars, which is a steal considering it costs about ten dollars to go to a regular movie theater. We saw 21, which is a pretty cool movie except now I have aspirations to quite work and run to Vegas to make millions counting cards. But considering gas prices these days, I'll probably just stay in town.
We had our ward July 4th celebration bright and early Friday morning. James and I had to be there by 6:45 so he could practice with the quartet and I got roped into helping tie up some helium balloons. I'm a little afraid of the time when the ward discovers I'm a balloon twister and face painter because from the looks of it, our ward goes all out for everything. We had a fire truck, the Mesa Police and even Sheriff Joe himself. Not to mention an awesome barbershop quartet. That bass was amazing!! We took the opportunity for a nap after the ward party to rest up for the Hansen 4th of July celebration. We had a BBQ at my parent’s house which produced much to much food. It was delicious. The best part was that right before the fireworks we had a little windstorm, which blew the heat right out of the valley. In my 15 years in living in Phoenix, I have never been to a 4th of July fireworks display where it was actually cool. Mary bought a tube of 100 of the glow sticks you make bracelets and necklaces and stuff out of. After finding ways to use all 100 of them we were lit up like . . . well . . . the 4th of July.
Saturday we mostly just rested and enjoyed not having that much to do. We probably did something worth mentioning, but I can't really think of anything.
Church was pretty great. It's the first fast and testimony meeting we've been to since we've been married and it was fantastic to hear all the varied testimonies that come from being in a family ward. I do have to confess that the day started with some lovely blueberry pancakes because James and I totally forgot that it was Fast Sunday. Oh well, we'll try again next week.
We spent Sunday evening defrosting our freezer after we realized we weren't getting any cold air through. We're going to try and have someone come look at it in the following week. Our dryer gets no heat and our freezer gets no cold but both are still under warranty so that shouldn't be so bad.
For some exciting news, James and I are speaking in church for the first time on Sunday. We are actually super excited. Funny enough, both of us actually enjoy speaking in church. We were given the topic of patriotism, which leaves me a little stumped, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. Dobson Ward watch out!
Well, that's about it folks. I'm over and out!
-Megan Badger
Thursday, July 03, 2008
The Inaugural Friday Meme
For those of you just joining us, I used to do a meme every Friday on my old blog. It was pretty much the only feature you could count on after I got too lazy to do the Weekend Update every Monday. Many of you may be wondering what a meme is. Let me clarify this. If you look up the word, "meme" you'll no doubt come across the fact that Richard Dawkins, noted scientist and hater of all things religious, coined the term to explain how cultural phenomena spread through society in a Darwinian sort of way. So what does that have to do with the fact that when I "do a meme" it's really a silly questionnaire? Probably nothing. A friend of mine who introduced me to the world of blogging called them memes, so I do as well. I suppose calling an online questionnaire a meme is a meme in the Dawkins sense. Weird, eh? So let's quit with the semantics and head right into the questions.
How old are your siblings? Robert is 34, Jennifer is 32, Christine is 29, Kimberly is 26, Lynnette is 24, Paul is 22, Kelly is 18. All those ages are approximations. I have a hard time remembering how old I am, let alone the ages of my 7 siblings.
What kind of jelly do you like? When making a peanut butter sandwich I prefer honey to any of the available jams, jellies, or preserves. I do love a good apricot jam, or strawberry. I'll eat grape, but it's probably my least favorite gelatinous fruit spread.
Who is the last person you seen dance? Who is the last person I've seen dance? That would have to be Megan. I haven't been out dancing in a billion years or so, so the only dancing I see is what Megan does if I put on danceable music.
Is zebra print cool? Always. There has never been a matter of clothing or interior design that could not have easily been solved by going with zebra print. It matches everything, it never goes out of style, and it says to all who look upon it, "I am a person with real class."
Last time you fell down? I dunno. As an adult, I try not to fall down very often. When I do, I have to do my best to pretend it didn't happen. So I have no idea.
Do you play with your gummi bears? I eat the heads first. I like to pretend I'm Kroker or some other giant who can devour bear heads like candy.
How many tv's are in your house? There are two. We have the main TV in the entertainment room and we have the jailbird set up in the bedroom. The jailbird is a TV I picked up at DI that was donated to them from either a prison or a former prisoner. So that TV has done time in the clink, the joint, the big house, the slammer, the pen, the can, the coop, the hoosegow, etc. But I think the jailbird has changed its ways and may now be completely rehabilitated.
When did you last clip your toenails? This morning. They were getting out of hand. Megan was a severe risk for footsie related injuries.
Do you think all babies look the same? Nope. I say that because I've seen black babies, Asian babies, Hispanic babies, white babies, albino babies, Pacific islander babies, Native American babies, and they don't look the same. Seriously, when I was a baby there was no way you would think I was black, Asian, Hispanic, or basically anything other than white.
Also, male babies and female babies don't look the same, at least not when they're naked. And don't get me started on people who have ugly babies. It happens. So this assertion that all babies look the same is ungrounded and utterly false.
What size shoe do you wear? I wear a size 12, which means that the available shoes in my size are: basketball sneakers, loafers, and deck shoes. So I'm not a basketball player, old or gay so it's hard to find shoes that fit me that I actually like.
Do you lick your lollipops or suck them? I suck them and then I bite them. I don't have the patience it takes to suck my way to the center of a tootsie roll pop. I'll be biting that thing in under a minute every time.
How many cousins do you have? More than I can count. My Mom has 11 siblings which means I have 60-something cousins on the Peterson side. The Badger side isn't as big, but all told I have a whole buncha cousins. The good thing is that I know most of them.
What cell phone company do you use? The funny thing about this question is that I used to go off on rants about how people shouldn't just assume that every man, woman, and child on the planet has a cell phone. But now I have a phone of my own. I use Verizon, which works ok I guess.
Do you have any fish? I don't know if I've ever had any fish as pets. I've been out fishing and I caught fish that I would later eat, but I don't currently have any fish that I personally reeled in. I think we have some fish fillets or something in our freezer, but I believe I have strayed far away from the original intent of the question so I'll stop right here.
Did your mom ever put soap in your mouth? Not that I know of. I think I got warned that I would get my mouth washed out with soap, but I don't think it ever happened.
Is your belly button an innie or outtie? I have an innnie. I got it for my birthday one year.
What do you think about cars? I like cars. My car gets me to and from work without wasting too much gas, so that makes me happy. I can do most small repairs and maintenance on my car, so that's good. I also love muscle cars of the 60's and 70's.
How old is your dad? I don't actually know. I don't go out of my way to ask my parents how old they are because they're somewhere in the no-man's-land between pretending it's their 29th birthday every year and being proud they actually staved off the icy hand of death for another year. For the record, I think they're closer to the former than the latter. They're somewhere in their 50's.
Do you take baths or showers? I usually shower for time reasons, but I usually don't pass on an opportunity to take a nice soothing bath.
Whats the month your birthday is in? July.
Do you like chinese food? I like actual Chinese food, but I have a hard time choking down Americanized mass-produced buffet-style Chinese food.
Do you have any cats? I never have and if I play my cards right I never will.
Do you pay any bills? I pay nothing but bills.
Have you ever played an instrument? I used to play the viola in middle school and high school, and I play the bass guitar but I'm admittedly out of practice a bit.
Has anyone said you were accident prone? Yes. Every pedestrian I have ever hit somehow gets this idea that I'm accident prone. But seriously, I think I was told that when I was a clumsy 7th or 8th grader and before I developed in the almost freakishly coordinated and athletic person you know and love today.
Do you talk about your feelings or hide them? It depends on who I'm talking to. I'll tell Megan just about everything, but I don't often bear my soul to complete strangers. I'd say I'm more open than closed in general, but there are certain people I don't want to know anything about my person life. Like my boss, for example.
Have you ever ran with scissors? I was on the state champion 4 x 800 scissor relay team in high school. But seriously, I'm pretty sure I ran with scissors as a kid at least once. Mainly because it was verboten. Kids love things that are verboten.
What do you think about grocery shopping? I'm all for it. I'm not the sort of dreadlocked home grown organic bean curd eating person that I am sometimes mistaken for. I don't live in a commune where we grow all our own food. I have been known to go to my local grocer and exchange legal tender for foodstuffs. As a matter of fact, I get 97.5% of my food that way.
Are you allergic to anything? I'm allergic to penicillin. So for all of you who like to make cookies and other desserts laced with penicillin, don't feel bad when I politely decline to eat them. It's not you. It's me.
How did u get one of your scars? The biggest scar on my body was caused by one of my most manly mishaps: I tripped and fell while descending the steps on the school bus when I was in kindergarten. I was staring too intently at my Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox and the first step, as they say, was a doozie.
Can you use chop sticks? Not only can I use chopsticks, I can use them like a champion. I can pick up slippery candies like skittles and M&M's with chopsticks. In an unrelated note: chopsticks is one of maybe two songs I can play on the piano.
Who would you want to be tied to for 24 hours? I think we all know the answer to this one: I wouldn't mind being tied to Megan. I spent all but 4 hours of our first week of marriage with her and nobody else. I think I could handle being tied to her.
Do you like to color inside the lines? I don't like to color because after all these years, I'm still not that good at it. I'm all over the lines, I don't fill things evenly, I pick the wrong colors. I just try to stay away from coloring books.
Do you know how to whistle? It took me 26 years, but I finally learned how to whistle. The secret? I have no idea. I don't know what I was doing wrong before. All I know is that one day I tried and I could do it.
What is the longest you can wait patiently? For what? I can wait all day for tickets to a really good concert. I'll camp out if I have to. If I'm waiting to get into the bathroom I might get very impatient. Of course it depends on how bad I have to go.
Do you want to be bilingual? I don't have to want it because I am it. Well, of course it depends on what you mean by bilingual. I can converse freely and easily in Khmer, and I read at a fairly high level. I have sloppy handwriting in Khmer, just like I do in English so I'd call myself bilingual. I just wasn't raised speaking two languages. I'd like to be multi-lingual someday. I'd like to learn Pali or Sanskrit and also another Southeast Asian language like Burmese or Laotian.
Your motivation for tomorrow? Tomorrow I'm going to be singing in a barbershop quartet for our ward 4th of July breakfast. Hopefully we'll hit all our key changes and not sound too bad. I'll be motivated to not embarrass myself in front of the meanest sheriff in the country. After that we'll be having a 4th of July barbecue with the Hansen clan. Pulled pork sammiches are all the motivation I need.
Who can make you laugh no matter what? So far the movie, "Evil Alien Conquerors" has never failed to make me laugh. Also, watching Turbo attempt to gracefully get down from the top of his house is worth a chuckle every time. That little guy has the heart of a champion.
Do you still watch cartoons? I still watch the same cartoons I grew up watching. I have things like GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and Voltron on DVD. Good cartoons never get old.
Do you usually write in print or in cursive? I can't write in cursive anymore. It has been nearly completely wiped from my memory. When you sign your marriage licence, they make you sign your full name, legibly, in cursive. I can't even remember how to form all the letters in my middle and last name. My signature is more of a scribble than anything. When I was a kid I consistently got C's in cursive. I think the only reason I got C's was because the teacher didn't really give out F's and I was really trying. I have bad handwriting. I think we've covered this.
Is it true that you can be anything you want to be? It is not true. There are limitations on dreams. For example: The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to be President of this country, but that will never be. He is a foreigner and is therefore not eligible. He can dream all he wants, but it will never come to be. Also, if I wanted to change into a purple unicorn, I will still never be a purple unicorn no matter how hard I try.
Although it is good to tell people to shoot for the stars and to never give up on their dreams, there are practical limits to what every person can do. When I was a kid I wanted to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs someday. Now that I'm in my late 20's and married, I have begun to think that the Maple Leafs might not ever draft me. It's not to say that I was wrong for dreaming the dream as a kid, but sometimes your dreams are a little too far-fetched to become reality.
I would never tell any of my kids to not dream the big dreams, but as you get older you begin to see that some things are beyond your reach. It's not a good thing, but it's also not a bad thing. It's just life.
What's one of your favorite possessions? I'm really loving my Atari 800XL these days. It's a fun machine.
Do you get enough sleep? I'm starting to get enough sleep. When I first started sharing a bed with Megan, it was the hardest adjustment I had to make in married life so far (yes, in the entire long month we've been married). But now that I've gotten used to having a girl in my bed and have gotten into a good sleep routine, I get a lot more restful sleep.
Which is better: flowers or chocolates? Chocolates. I'm a guy so flowers won't get you very far with me.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? I want to go back to Cambodia sometime and take Megan with me. Plane tickets are only $1,000 or so if you go in the off season, so maybe we'll make it back eventually.
Do you believe that if you want something bad enough you'll get it? No. In every case, some action is required on your part. All this stuff derived from such sham-driven self-help books like "The Key" where you can get whatever you want out of life by just sitting on your duff and wanting it badly enough is pure baloney. It's the old D & C 9:7 where the Lord doesn't plop things into the lap of those who, "[take] no thought save it were to ask me."
Do you take walks often? I walk about half a mile from my car to work every morning and another half mile back to my car at the end of the day.
Is good grammar attractive? I like a girl who has a firm grasp of the English language. Of course I can't say I'm a perfect practitioner of English grammar. I like to break the rules sometimes, but I'm usually attracted to intelligent people, and intelligent people usually, but not always, know how to use good grammar.
When did you pray last? Ere I left my room this morning I totally forgot to pray. Megan and I prayed last night, and I blessed my breakfast this morning before I ate it. So I pray often. I pray at least once a day if not more.
Ok people. That's how the Friday meme goes. Just remember: if you've enjoyed reading this meme half as much as I've enjoyed writing it, I've enjoyed it twice as much as you.
-James
Couldn't Be More Random
How old are your siblings? Robert is 34, Jennifer is 32, Christine is 29, Kimberly is 26, Lynnette is 24, Paul is 22, Kelly is 18. All those ages are approximations. I have a hard time remembering how old I am, let alone the ages of my 7 siblings.
What kind of jelly do you like? When making a peanut butter sandwich I prefer honey to any of the available jams, jellies, or preserves. I do love a good apricot jam, or strawberry. I'll eat grape, but it's probably my least favorite gelatinous fruit spread.
Who is the last person you seen dance? Who is the last person I've seen dance? That would have to be Megan. I haven't been out dancing in a billion years or so, so the only dancing I see is what Megan does if I put on danceable music.
Is zebra print cool? Always. There has never been a matter of clothing or interior design that could not have easily been solved by going with zebra print. It matches everything, it never goes out of style, and it says to all who look upon it, "I am a person with real class."
Last time you fell down? I dunno. As an adult, I try not to fall down very often. When I do, I have to do my best to pretend it didn't happen. So I have no idea.
Do you play with your gummi bears? I eat the heads first. I like to pretend I'm Kroker or some other giant who can devour bear heads like candy.
How many tv's are in your house? There are two. We have the main TV in the entertainment room and we have the jailbird set up in the bedroom. The jailbird is a TV I picked up at DI that was donated to them from either a prison or a former prisoner. So that TV has done time in the clink, the joint, the big house, the slammer, the pen, the can, the coop, the hoosegow, etc. But I think the jailbird has changed its ways and may now be completely rehabilitated.
When did you last clip your toenails? This morning. They were getting out of hand. Megan was a severe risk for footsie related injuries.
Do you think all babies look the same? Nope. I say that because I've seen black babies, Asian babies, Hispanic babies, white babies, albino babies, Pacific islander babies, Native American babies, and they don't look the same. Seriously, when I was a baby there was no way you would think I was black, Asian, Hispanic, or basically anything other than white.
Also, male babies and female babies don't look the same, at least not when they're naked. And don't get me started on people who have ugly babies. It happens. So this assertion that all babies look the same is ungrounded and utterly false.
What size shoe do you wear? I wear a size 12, which means that the available shoes in my size are: basketball sneakers, loafers, and deck shoes. So I'm not a basketball player, old or gay so it's hard to find shoes that fit me that I actually like.
Do you lick your lollipops or suck them? I suck them and then I bite them. I don't have the patience it takes to suck my way to the center of a tootsie roll pop. I'll be biting that thing in under a minute every time.
How many cousins do you have? More than I can count. My Mom has 11 siblings which means I have 60-something cousins on the Peterson side. The Badger side isn't as big, but all told I have a whole buncha cousins. The good thing is that I know most of them.
What cell phone company do you use? The funny thing about this question is that I used to go off on rants about how people shouldn't just assume that every man, woman, and child on the planet has a cell phone. But now I have a phone of my own. I use Verizon, which works ok I guess.
Do you have any fish? I don't know if I've ever had any fish as pets. I've been out fishing and I caught fish that I would later eat, but I don't currently have any fish that I personally reeled in. I think we have some fish fillets or something in our freezer, but I believe I have strayed far away from the original intent of the question so I'll stop right here.
Did your mom ever put soap in your mouth? Not that I know of. I think I got warned that I would get my mouth washed out with soap, but I don't think it ever happened.
Is your belly button an innie or outtie? I have an innnie. I got it for my birthday one year.
What do you think about cars? I like cars. My car gets me to and from work without wasting too much gas, so that makes me happy. I can do most small repairs and maintenance on my car, so that's good. I also love muscle cars of the 60's and 70's.
How old is your dad? I don't actually know. I don't go out of my way to ask my parents how old they are because they're somewhere in the no-man's-land between pretending it's their 29th birthday every year and being proud they actually staved off the icy hand of death for another year. For the record, I think they're closer to the former than the latter. They're somewhere in their 50's.
Do you take baths or showers? I usually shower for time reasons, but I usually don't pass on an opportunity to take a nice soothing bath.
Whats the month your birthday is in? July.
Do you like chinese food? I like actual Chinese food, but I have a hard time choking down Americanized mass-produced buffet-style Chinese food.
Do you have any cats? I never have and if I play my cards right I never will.
Do you pay any bills? I pay nothing but bills.
Have you ever played an instrument? I used to play the viola in middle school and high school, and I play the bass guitar but I'm admittedly out of practice a bit.
Has anyone said you were accident prone? Yes. Every pedestrian I have ever hit somehow gets this idea that I'm accident prone. But seriously, I think I was told that when I was a clumsy 7th or 8th grader and before I developed in the almost freakishly coordinated and athletic person you know and love today.
Do you talk about your feelings or hide them? It depends on who I'm talking to. I'll tell Megan just about everything, but I don't often bear my soul to complete strangers. I'd say I'm more open than closed in general, but there are certain people I don't want to know anything about my person life. Like my boss, for example.
Have you ever ran with scissors? I was on the state champion 4 x 800 scissor relay team in high school. But seriously, I'm pretty sure I ran with scissors as a kid at least once. Mainly because it was verboten. Kids love things that are verboten.
What do you think about grocery shopping? I'm all for it. I'm not the sort of dreadlocked home grown organic bean curd eating person that I am sometimes mistaken for. I don't live in a commune where we grow all our own food. I have been known to go to my local grocer and exchange legal tender for foodstuffs. As a matter of fact, I get 97.5% of my food that way.
Are you allergic to anything? I'm allergic to penicillin. So for all of you who like to make cookies and other desserts laced with penicillin, don't feel bad when I politely decline to eat them. It's not you. It's me.
How did u get one of your scars? The biggest scar on my body was caused by one of my most manly mishaps: I tripped and fell while descending the steps on the school bus when I was in kindergarten. I was staring too intently at my Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox and the first step, as they say, was a doozie.
Can you use chop sticks? Not only can I use chopsticks, I can use them like a champion. I can pick up slippery candies like skittles and M&M's with chopsticks. In an unrelated note: chopsticks is one of maybe two songs I can play on the piano.
Who would you want to be tied to for 24 hours? I think we all know the answer to this one: I wouldn't mind being tied to Megan. I spent all but 4 hours of our first week of marriage with her and nobody else. I think I could handle being tied to her.
Do you like to color inside the lines? I don't like to color because after all these years, I'm still not that good at it. I'm all over the lines, I don't fill things evenly, I pick the wrong colors. I just try to stay away from coloring books.
Do you know how to whistle? It took me 26 years, but I finally learned how to whistle. The secret? I have no idea. I don't know what I was doing wrong before. All I know is that one day I tried and I could do it.
What is the longest you can wait patiently? For what? I can wait all day for tickets to a really good concert. I'll camp out if I have to. If I'm waiting to get into the bathroom I might get very impatient. Of course it depends on how bad I have to go.
Do you want to be bilingual? I don't have to want it because I am it. Well, of course it depends on what you mean by bilingual. I can converse freely and easily in Khmer, and I read at a fairly high level. I have sloppy handwriting in Khmer, just like I do in English so I'd call myself bilingual. I just wasn't raised speaking two languages. I'd like to be multi-lingual someday. I'd like to learn Pali or Sanskrit and also another Southeast Asian language like Burmese or Laotian.
Your motivation for tomorrow? Tomorrow I'm going to be singing in a barbershop quartet for our ward 4th of July breakfast. Hopefully we'll hit all our key changes and not sound too bad. I'll be motivated to not embarrass myself in front of the meanest sheriff in the country. After that we'll be having a 4th of July barbecue with the Hansen clan. Pulled pork sammiches are all the motivation I need.
Who can make you laugh no matter what? So far the movie, "Evil Alien Conquerors" has never failed to make me laugh. Also, watching Turbo attempt to gracefully get down from the top of his house is worth a chuckle every time. That little guy has the heart of a champion.
Do you still watch cartoons? I still watch the same cartoons I grew up watching. I have things like GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and Voltron on DVD. Good cartoons never get old.
Do you usually write in print or in cursive? I can't write in cursive anymore. It has been nearly completely wiped from my memory. When you sign your marriage licence, they make you sign your full name, legibly, in cursive. I can't even remember how to form all the letters in my middle and last name. My signature is more of a scribble than anything. When I was a kid I consistently got C's in cursive. I think the only reason I got C's was because the teacher didn't really give out F's and I was really trying. I have bad handwriting. I think we've covered this.
Is it true that you can be anything you want to be? It is not true. There are limitations on dreams. For example: The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to be President of this country, but that will never be. He is a foreigner and is therefore not eligible. He can dream all he wants, but it will never come to be. Also, if I wanted to change into a purple unicorn, I will still never be a purple unicorn no matter how hard I try.
Although it is good to tell people to shoot for the stars and to never give up on their dreams, there are practical limits to what every person can do. When I was a kid I wanted to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs someday. Now that I'm in my late 20's and married, I have begun to think that the Maple Leafs might not ever draft me. It's not to say that I was wrong for dreaming the dream as a kid, but sometimes your dreams are a little too far-fetched to become reality.
I would never tell any of my kids to not dream the big dreams, but as you get older you begin to see that some things are beyond your reach. It's not a good thing, but it's also not a bad thing. It's just life.
What's one of your favorite possessions? I'm really loving my Atari 800XL these days. It's a fun machine.
Do you get enough sleep? I'm starting to get enough sleep. When I first started sharing a bed with Megan, it was the hardest adjustment I had to make in married life so far (yes, in the entire long month we've been married). But now that I've gotten used to having a girl in my bed and have gotten into a good sleep routine, I get a lot more restful sleep.
Which is better: flowers or chocolates? Chocolates. I'm a guy so flowers won't get you very far with me.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? I want to go back to Cambodia sometime and take Megan with me. Plane tickets are only $1,000 or so if you go in the off season, so maybe we'll make it back eventually.
Do you believe that if you want something bad enough you'll get it? No. In every case, some action is required on your part. All this stuff derived from such sham-driven self-help books like "The Key" where you can get whatever you want out of life by just sitting on your duff and wanting it badly enough is pure baloney. It's the old D & C 9:7 where the Lord doesn't plop things into the lap of those who, "[take] no thought save it were to ask me."
Do you take walks often? I walk about half a mile from my car to work every morning and another half mile back to my car at the end of the day.
Is good grammar attractive? I like a girl who has a firm grasp of the English language. Of course I can't say I'm a perfect practitioner of English grammar. I like to break the rules sometimes, but I'm usually attracted to intelligent people, and intelligent people usually, but not always, know how to use good grammar.
When did you pray last? Ere I left my room this morning I totally forgot to pray. Megan and I prayed last night, and I blessed my breakfast this morning before I ate it. So I pray often. I pray at least once a day if not more.
Ok people. That's how the Friday meme goes. Just remember: if you've enjoyed reading this meme half as much as I've enjoyed writing it, I've enjoyed it twice as much as you.
-James
Cracking the Spine on the New Blog
Megan and I decided to start this new blog for the both of us so we can keep you updated on all the minutiae of our exciting lives. So here we are.
I named this blog, "The Badger Sett" because it sounds a lot better than, "The Badger Hole." Also, "sett" is a word that applies only to holes created for and by Badgers, so it would be ridiculous of me to not take advantage of such fantastic verbiage.
If you'll notice, I named this entry, "Cracking the spine" not because I'm referencing Mortal Kombat or the chiropractic profession but because it's a library term. Basically this blog opens a new chapter in a new life for Megan and I, so it's a little like cracking the spine on a new book. You probably knew that, but I figured I'd waste some space and some time telling you about it.
As for my old blog, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it at the moment. I might keep it open and update only once in a long while, or I might turn it into a .pdf file and close the account. I haven't decided yet. But you should know that this will be the new place to be if you want to know all about Megan and James.
Anyway, enjoy the posts that should follow in the days to come and feel free to comment early and often as we get this new blog up and running.
-James
I named this blog, "The Badger Sett" because it sounds a lot better than, "The Badger Hole." Also, "sett" is a word that applies only to holes created for and by Badgers, so it would be ridiculous of me to not take advantage of such fantastic verbiage.
If you'll notice, I named this entry, "Cracking the spine" not because I'm referencing Mortal Kombat or the chiropractic profession but because it's a library term. Basically this blog opens a new chapter in a new life for Megan and I, so it's a little like cracking the spine on a new book. You probably knew that, but I figured I'd waste some space and some time telling you about it.
As for my old blog, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it at the moment. I might keep it open and update only once in a long while, or I might turn it into a .pdf file and close the account. I haven't decided yet. But you should know that this will be the new place to be if you want to know all about Megan and James.
Anyway, enjoy the posts that should follow in the days to come and feel free to comment early and often as we get this new blog up and running.
-James
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