"Wisdom is what you learn too late"

I didn't have a bad day today. But sometimes when people ask you how you're doing, it feels like it's just going to take way too much energy to really explain the nuances of how things are really going. Well, I was gonna do this thing, but then this other thing happened, and it went like so-and-so, and then this, and that, and yadda-yadda-yadda... Way too much work. And at the time, I hadn't really had a good day. So you simplify.

"Bad day."

But after I said it, it didn't feel right. I mean, nothing really bad happened.

• I didn't get into a horrible accident on 128
• ...or get a speeding ticket
• I haven't been laid off
• ...nor been told that I had to drop all my plans and that I had to stay late tonight and over the weekend

I was tired. If I had given it more thought, I would have said I'd had a stressful day.

The doctor has been absolved; he didn't call yesterday because he hadn't received the report from the radiologist. He faxed me a copy of the report; there's possibly a partial separation at the AC joint. So I've made an appointment with an physician at ProSports, the same place that I had my knee checked out two years ago and also where I did my first couple of rounds of PT for my back before going to the Spine Center (run by New England Baptist Hospital).

At work, things continue to be in hyper-crunch mode. The senior VP of engineering did walk by my cube just as I was calling the SOOTTAD to tell her that I was running late but would be on my way. He didn't say anything, but I'm sure he took a mental note that I was cutting out before dark. I feel bad for another guy who cancelled a trip down to NYC with some friends from out of town because of this project. I tried to leave things in a manageable state before leaving in a rush. I get to deal with them again later this weekend.

Down to Waltham in record time, picked up the SOOTTAD and into blew into town, settling for parking halfway to Inman and barely made it to the show on time.

But we didn't miss the show. In fact, we got to see an awesome Leo Kottke show at Sanders Theater tonight. And he played some new songs as well as some old favorites. And he told some great stories. And we saw friends there, and went to Pho afterwards. And had ice cream after that.

Pretty good really, but I think just saying "good day" doesn't work either. It ended well, and I'm certainly not going to complain about that. Just pointing out that it would be missing a great deal in saying only that. This economy of words, dividing all these things into Black and White, is certainly convenient at times, but it seldom seems to do the thing justice. The extrapolation of that can be left as an exercise to the reader.

good read; follow-up

TheChak has joined the list of regular reads. (added, stage left) He provides evidence of what's so great about the web: that other people can make your point much more eloquently, so you don't have to.

* * *

In other news, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get an appointment with my doctor that afternoon. Had an X-ray and everything. No fractures, but he couldn't tell if there was a separation (presumably, whether it was just a strain or a tear) and was going to ask the radiologist about it today and give me a call.

It's tomorrow now; no call.

I realize now that I was probably being unduly harsh about not being able to get a check-up appointment within 6 months of trying to schedule it. I understand that regular preventative care is, by definition, predictable and can be scheduled far in advance. And I should have known better. That point was made clear when I called in the afternoon and got an appointment that same day.

I like my doctor; he's got good bedside. I was originally told to follow-up with him after a visit to the Newton-Wellesley emergency room for what turned out to be cat-scratch fever (no, not this). I've stayed with him despite the inconvenience of his office being in Norwood, which seems to get farther and farther away as I move northward to live and work. Sometimes I wonder whether I should ask him for a referral for another doctor that's closer.

Anyway, it just would have been nice if he had followed up today like he said he would. I'm sure he was just really busy today. It happens. I'll give him a call tomorrow morning and it'll be no problem. I just have a thing about people doing what they say they're gonna do.

shoulder research

Hmm, this feels about right. Maybe I should go see my doctor after all... (I wonder if I can get an appointment with him before I have my checkup)

Today's bullets

• Work is still sucky.
  • Plan: get into work early in order to leave early for practice guilt-free.
  • Reality: get into work late (9:10am), feel guilty about leaving work early anyway. (5:40pm)
  • Rationalization: "hey, I worked through lunch."
  • Overlooked: spent (time > 0) surfing through a few blogs (some old, and some new). Whoops.
• First day of disc practice. Whoo-hoo! We had enough to run sixes and it wasn't even that cold (although I did wear gloves). Probably mid-40's with 10-15mph gusts.
  • Bonus points: despite concerns that the ankle was still tender even after more than a week of inactivity, the ankle felt pretty good, even running at full tilt.
  • Yellow Card: I took a (cold, and thus HARD) disc to the nose. Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark.
  • Red Card: After taking a tumble in order to avoid cleating a teammate who had just made a spectacular layout catch, my shoulder is hurting again in that weird, not so good, tender and sore kind of way (as opposed to the normal tender and sore kind of way). I'm hoping it's just a bone bruise. I'd rather not see my doctor and have him tell me that I can't play, again. I had enough of the sidelines 2 years ago.
• Post-practice, I think I watched more television tonight than I have in the last 3 weeks. (not counting videos) I thought we were going to see a TiVo'd Daily Show, but halfway through they switched over to American Idol. How can people watch this crap?! Thankfully, I was able to clear my mental palate with the first half of the Women's NCAA Basketball Final before heading home.
• Remaining to do: Call the folks, study Chinese, go to bed.

compromising principles

The DNC has my number.

Literally.

This afternoon, I was resting on the couch trying to get some proto-heartburn to settle down, when the phone rang. I was expecting it to be a callback from a friend, but was instead greeted by a fundraiser for the DNC. He began with an explanation of who he was, so-and-so from some-TLA calling for the DNC. "We gotta get Bush outta the Whitehouse," he began. He must have been new, or maybe not very good at his job, or perhaps, giving him the benefit of the doubt, just really tired after calling a list of hundreds, if not thousands, of people, who'd rather not be bothered. (I'm pretty sure he wasn't a volunteer -- at some point he explained that blah-blah-blah-TLA was an independent fundraising organization that was contracted by the DNC.) I think he was going for "impassioned" but fell a little short. It went on, a series of sound-bites, all strung together. He had definitely spent some time thinking about what he was going to say, but I don't think it came out quite the way he had planned it. For one, people don't usually hear the "Uh"s when they're saying it in their head. I expect that they're supposed to start off with something in their own words to "make it more personal." He eventually got to the scripted part. It also came out a little stiff. "The Democratic party is rallying around John Kerry... blah. blah. blah."

I wasn't all that impressed by Kerry. Back when there were seven candidates, back before Clarke had even entered the race, I think Moveon.org gave all the candidates an opportunity to make their case. (Maybe it was MTV's Rock the Vote) Anyway, I wasn't all that impressed with Kerry. He didn't have much of a position on anything. He just came off as a guy who wanted to be President because that's what politicians were supposed to do. My opinion hasn't changed much. And I'm not sure Protectionism is the solution for the country's job problem. And I'm extremely unhappy with his public position on gay marriage. But I suppose he's finally started putting together a decent plan now that the campaign is really rolling. I can respect his Vietnam record. I appreciate that he's not rolling over to all the Whitehouse attacks. I believe he'll fight for better environmental policy. He's not a religious ideologue. And they got it right: "Anyone but Bush." Sometimes you make compromises.

So I pledged another donation. And after I hung up the phone, I realized that I compromised another one of my basic principles: "Never give money to any organization that contacts you with an unsolicited phone call." (I do make one exception to this: calls from the Cornell fencing team. I can still remember early morning trash clean-up after the football tailgate parties in order to make money for the team. I remember the trauma of making calls for the phone-a-thon to beg the alumni for money. I will never give a student a hard time -- and unfortunately, the school fundraisers know this and will thus continue to exploit them) I was supposed to ask the guy to put my number on the DNC do-not-call list. Write me a letter, don't call me. Especially when I'm not feeling well and trying to rest. But for the cause at hand, I forgot myself and gave in.

Life is all about compromises; you just have to make sure you know why you're making them, and realize that you're making them in the first place.

Opening day for the Sox

I think this picture does a pretty good job of capturing one of the things I love about Boston. I took it last fall while walking around downtown for a friend's birthday celebration, which happened to fall on Game 3 of the Boston-Oakland AL Division series. We hit a few different bars that night, and at each one we joined a huge crowd that was watching the game. I suppose that's not so unusual. At some level, you know that there will always be large numbers of people from a city who are going to follow the big game. But it was really cool to actually see the crowds as we went from bar to bar. Each one filled to capacity. Each one full of fans.

I admit, I don't really follow baseball. I had to catch a stray headline to remember that today was the first game of the Red Sox season. Really, I don't follow any professional sports. I've always much preferred playing over watching. And of course, to make matters worse, I'm originally from L.A. We used to make fun of the Boston fair-weather fan. But after living here for more than a decade, I think I get it. You can't help but get swept up in the excitement. There's something about the way the whole city pulls together for something like this. (And I try not to dwell on the negatives.) The city is alive and you can't help but want to be a part of it. And for a little while, I can be a part of Red Sox Nation, too.

Go Sox!

talking about work

In general, I don't like talking about work, regardless if things are going well or particularly crappy. There are probably a couple of reasons for this. For one, I don't think it's all that interesting to talk about. Then there's that public/private thing that suggests that it might be unwise to reveal too much detail. (Customer scenario: "Dude, what do you mean the P-32 Space modulator that you're trying to sell us doesn't work during months beginning with the letter 'J'?") I also don't like to talk about work because frankly, the more I talk about it, the greater the chance that the listener (or reader) will realize that I have no idea what I'm doing and I'll be exposed for the sham that I really am.

But there have been at least parts of this week that haven't been too bad. For starters, I've actually gotten into work at a reasonable hour over the last few days. Like, before 9 even. (Yeah, I know, no big deal. Sad but true that it is for me.) However, what's genuinely good is that I actually felt engaged again. I feel like I know what I'm doing.

It's been a while.

For probably the last month or so, I've felt like I've been a walking zombie. I'll spare (myself) the details, and just say that I've been reviewing someone else's design and it's been slow-going. Unpleasant. Painful. I'd read a section of code and it felt like I was trying to drive it into my head with a two-by-four and it was just bouncing off and dropping uselessly to the ground. Real headache, though. And late nights. It's been a while since I've put in regular late nights. But after spending the whole day unproductively staring at line after line of code, what better way to turn the problem on its head and... stare at it for another couple of hours?

Thankfully, it finally started clicking sometime Monday or Tuesday. And it felt good. Like many things, I tend to forget how it feels to be in a certain frame of mind. It's like you know it feels different, but you just don't remember exactly what it was all about. I think it's buried deep in your lizard brain somewhere and occasionally you'll catch glimpses of it through core functions -- like the smell of a certain type of tree will remind you of a particular hot summer day when you were 7 and playing T-ball. Anyway, I had forgotten; now I remember. Codemonkey. I found my geek nature.

I'm still staying late, the process itself still sucks, but at least things are making sense in my head again and I feel like I'm actually contributing.

The downside (and there always seems to be one) is that work has still pretty effectively clobbered real life this week. I'm not done now, it's not easy. I'm just not beating my head against a wall anymore. So by the time I get home, I'm still cooked. It feels like I get up, (early) [drive to work] work, [drive home] eat, shower and go to bed. Rinse and repeat. It's not that bad, but most of non-work, non-sleep time seems just seems like transition as opposed to true independent states. I haven't been running during lunch (which is at least giving my ankle some time to heal -- did I mention I rolled it playing hoops on Saturday?). I haven't been studying Chinese nearly as much I as ought to.

It's interesting to note that it seems like there's an inverse relationship between studying Chinese and figuring out this design at work. It's like I filled up all my brain's new-information queues when I was studying Chinese first thing in the morning so that by the time I got into work, there was no room left to feed the design into my head. And, now that I'm got the design code in my head, I'm having trouble staying focused when I try to sit down and study Chinese after work. So really, all I'm getting is superficial studying right now.

fundrace

I don't actually remember where I read about Fundrace.org (Ok, it looks like it was Interesting times), but it's popped up on the radar a couple of times this past week. It's...interesting. SHR IM'd me about it; he said he found my donation -- my first contribution to a political candidate, actually. I suppose that says something about me. Or the state of the country. Or both. (A former fencing student of mine who supported Nader in the last election wrote about how he thought a Bush presidency would spur people to action. I think he was right, but at what cost?) Anyway, I looked again. It was a little weird to see my name right there, complete with occupation, company name and full home address (it wasn't there last time); but I didn't think too much of it at the time. I did wonder how low-profile celebrities would feel about it, but I suppose that information is already a matter of public record and any fanboy (or fangirl) worth their mettle would have already figured it out anyway.

When I first played with it, I did a search of my neighborhood and the first thing that struck me was how the few Bush donations (Massachusetts, duh) all seemed to be pegged at the $2000 maximum. I had planned on writing about that, but upon further inspection, I found a few donations in the $200 range which blew away my premise. And I found the rankings page did the work for me anyway. I found it interesting to see that, although W was actually the FatCats leader just 2 weeks ago, Kerry had jumped in front sometime last week. It's interesting that W is 2nd in the Grassroots index, just behind Howard Dean.

Anyway, Betsy Devine makes a good point, riffing off of Scott Johnson's original post. And now it's more than interesting; it also feels a little scary. I don't know. Maybe we do need to just get over it. It's already public. And the internet has a long memory. I was reminded of this when I discovered old archives of this blog with my real name on it (even though I updated the template a while ago) and, of course, links to my old personal homepage. The world continues to move on. Just hopefully not so fast that we (personally and as a society) can't keep up with it.

and while we're on the subject of depressing...

The amendment to ban gay marriage passed in the third session of the state constitutional convention today. You can read about it here. The amendment that was passed today does explicitly grant Civil Union rights to same-gender couples and the language makes it sound like such unions will have equitable footing. But the principle of such an amendment at its core is still wrong, no matter how much you try to dress it up.

"The unified purpose of this Article is both to define the institution of civil marriage and to establish civil unions to provide same-sex persons with entirely the same benefits, protections, rights, privileges and obligations as are afforded to married persons, while recognizing that under present federal law same-sex persons in civil unions will be denied federal benefits available to married persons.

"It being the public policy of this commonwealth to protect the unique relationship of marriage, only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in the commonwealth. Two persons of the same sex shall have the right to form a civil union if they otherwise meet the requirements set forth by law for marriage. Civil unions for same sex persons are established by this Article and shall provide entirely the same benefits, protections, rights, privileges and obligations that are afforded to persons married under the law of the commonwealth. All laws applicable to marriage shall also apply to civil unions.

"This Article is self-executing, but the general court may enact laws not inconsistent with anything herein contained to carry out the purpose of this Article."

"Public policy ... to protect the unique relationship of marriage?" What a load of crap.

Why is it necessary to...? How can you...? What were you...?! ...?!

*sigh*

Ok, the more I try to think of calm and rational things I could write, the more frustrated and angry I become. Where do I start? I've gone through all these approaches before.

I guess it's just one of those days. I think it's time to go to bed.

I'll just leave this with the words of the court:

"The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal."

Word.

Left Behind

So, in the last 24-hours I've seen two references to the Christian Armageddon series, Left Behind: this short article in Slate (which references this article from 1999) and this post in Halley's Comment. It's probably related; it's not like Halley gets all her information directly from God or anything.

Talk about armageddon as a real thing is scary. It was bad enough when we were talking metaphorically about da bomb, it takes it to a whole new level when you bring religion into the picture. (and at least I think it's fair to call it religious fanaticism if you're going to be talking about a Biblical Armageddon) Honestly I don't really know much about the big "A" other than what you absorb through cultural immersion (interesting just to think about that). I never even saw Armageddon OR End of Days (although I did see that Demi Moore movie made in the late 80's). The jist I get from reading the above articles, though, or at least the premise in the books, is basically:

1. anti-Christ comes to earth as a world leader
2. ...who befriends and then screws over the Jews (metaphorically, of course)
3. Christ ...brings about? ...enacts? ...performs? the Rapture and saves "the Saved"
4. leaving the rest of humanity is pick sides and duke it out for what's left

The first thing I think is: "oh, The Stand!" Right. It's all derivative works, I guess.

The second is... well, the second thing. I'll briefly explain. I initially had this idea where I'd have links to a particular world leader, some news about Israel, and maybe a link or two about a liar/deceiver. I thought I could make it funny. But it's been done. And really, the more I think about it, the more I find the whole thing sadly ironic, if not a little depressing.

public (dis)service

I know I'm at work, but I'm going to make an exception because more people need to see this article about Condoleezza Rice's credibility (or lack thereof). Even if it's just the 1 or 2 people who get lost and accidentally find themselves here every month or so. From the dates given for her quotes, it looks like much of it is from her (closed) testimony before the 9/11 commission. (Doesn't that mean she's still under oath?)

[UPDATE: Mon Mar 29, 2004, 05:40:26 PM EST]
Q: "Doesn't that mean she's still under oath?"
A: "Apparently not."

My friend SHR pointed me at a couple of links over IM this afternoon. Nothing seems to just go out and say it, but from this Reuters article:

"Rice is refusing to appear before the commission in public and under oath to answer allegations from a former White House counterterrorism official that the Bush administration neglected the threat from al Qaeda."

And from this transcript on Rice's 60-minutes interview:

" BRADLEY: On Thursday, the White House indicated its willingness to have you testify before the commission, as long as your testimony is in private, behind closed doors, and as long as you're not under oath. The Secretary of State, Defense, the Director of the CIA, have all testified in public, under oath, before the commission.

If you can talk to us and other news programs, why can't you talk to the commission in public and under oath? "

After explaining that she had "answered questions" from the commission in private, but was unable to testify officially in order to maintain the separation between the legislative and executive branches of the government, she goes on to address Bradley's point about other Presidential Advisors testifying in the past, saying:

"...the only National Security Advisors, sitting National Security Advisors that to our knowledge have testified did so in matters having to do with either criminal intent or criminal allegations, or impropriety -- not on matters of policy."

Fortunately for them, the administration has actually managed to learn from history that lying to the American people isn't actually considered a crime... unless, of course, you do it under oath.

W

I posted a long time ago about googling for "W" and coming up with a link to the Whitehouse. No surprise really. The administration's media machine clearly knows what it's doing. (and if you followed that first link, you'd see that it now points to W's re-election website -- can I just say how tacky it feels to have the sitting President selling re-election swag?)

Anyway, my point was really about referring to the President as "W." I actually find it kind of funny, in a "to myself only, because it's a 20-year-old inside joke that no one even knows, let alone remembers" kind of way. I was by no means cool* in high school. But like all high school kids (I can only assume), we had our goofy inside jokes, our overquoted movies and stand-up routines, our slang. And "W" was one of them. You could just say it, or you could hold up your middle 3 fingers to your forehead while saying it, or you could just make the gesture. Kind of like the "L" you make with your thumb and forefinger when you're calling someone (or yourself) a loser, without fear of looking like a moron if you used the wrong hand. Very much like it, actually.

Since, "W" is just an abbreviation for ""Worthless."

Although I'm not sure how you'd convey negative value... but let's not go there today. It's the weekend, and it may not be sunny, but at least it's warm out.

* [UPDATE: now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that all those things I mentioned are really proof-positive that I was decidedly UNcool. I need to pick up on this kind of thing waaaaay before I hit that publish button... Dumbass.]

forgotten tidbit

5 planets will be in alignment and should be visible in the evening for the next few days. They're also supposed to be visible again in the wee hours of the morning sometime around the end of the year.

Too bad it was overcast last night. Then again, I left the office around 9:30pm last night, so I guess I would have missed it anyway.

It's about time...

Spring made a cameo appearance today. I hope she'll get signed as a regular cast member soon. That cold and rainy (and snowy) business was getting old.

We played disc during lunch today. Four-on-three. Despite forecasts for an overcast day, the sun was out. It must have been over 60. I wore shorts. I didn't need the extra long-sleeved shirt. No more frozen-solid ground. No more patches of frozen slush.

I'd forgotten what grass felt like. Soft. And, well, springy. (I guess it is Spring, after all.) It SMELLS like Spring. I'll try to remember this time once the summer sun has baked the ground into adobe and I'm complaining that it's too hot.

* * *

Tidbits:

• New Harry Potter trailer! (recommend against WMP format; it didn't play right on the home machine)
• I had no idea what this was talking about on Wil Wheaton dot net until I stumbled on a link to this. I think we need to get real cable again. I really miss Adult Swim.

Meta 1.5

Found this Blog survey after wandering onto chak.org. I thought it provided some context for the whole public/private thing about posting online.

There was also another point brought up in section 11:

" b) Performing for an audience
Even though blogs have been hailed as the ultimate venue for personal expression; a world that is all about the self, it turns out that blogs are not necessarily that egocentric. In this survey, various respondents expressed the pressure that comes with having an audience. Even in its current elusive form, a blog’s audience can become such a powerful element of the writing action that it can affect what the blogger chooses to write about. "

It's probably not something I have to worry about here since there is no audience as far as I know. But I also can't help thinking about how people interact in the "real world." Perhaps it's just me, but I'm often acutely aware of the public face that I put on when dealing with different groups of people. Nothing sinister. I play a highly knowledgeable and professional engineer (or at least I try, sometimes) when I'm at work. I'm a responsible adult that needs to make real financial decisions. I'm confident about who I am, and what I want, and where I'm going. I've got my shit together. I'm a grown up.

No.

No, I'm not.

...but I play one in real life.

we've been reminded

I keep forgetting this because we don't have real cable at the house (our channels end at 23), but... the Daily Show rocks! The SOOTTAD says, "Dude, Jon Stewart for President!" We are only reminded of this when we get links to video clips via email or I catch something in a blog I'm reading. The ones that had us cheering tonight were this one (on the fake Medicare news spots) and this one (on the recent Richard Clarke controversy).

Keep up the good work, Jon.

Meta, Part 1

I gotta say, this whole blogging thing has been kinda weird on a couple of different levels. I've got a couple of different takes on this, so I'm going to try and break it into several posts. Hopefully I'll actually get back to it, unlike some of the other things I've started which appear to be stuck in eternal draft mode.

* * *

There's a weird public/private boundary that gets blurred on-line. The SOOTTAD is extremely suspicious of this and thus is extremely careful about what gets posted about her on the 'net at large. There's a reason there aren't many (any) pictures of her floating around with her name attached. Quite frustrating, I must say, speaking as someone who was once trying to find out more about her when we first met.

I, on the other hand, dove in head first. Under the auspices of creating a website for my fencing club and the local division, I also created a personal homepage complete with a few photos, interests and geographical information. You know, so people would know who designed the pages. (I hate the new club site, BTW. It's certainly prettier and flashy, but to me senseless Flash is just a waste of bandwidth and CPU.) Really, it's just the 21st century version of seeking your 15 minutes. The SOOTTAD has definitely rubbed off on me. I've gotten a lot more careful about what I put out there in this brave new world of identity theft and web-enabled crazies. There's a reason there are no direct links to our on-line photo gallery or even my old site. Plus it's fun to use aliases and nicknames for people. (something that I'm only just starting to do, and probably not do very much)

Ok, it's getting late and there are a bunch of other things about posting that I'm just gonna bullet item here. Maybe I'll come back later and clean it up.

• There's something inherently (narcissistic? self-absorbed?) ...perhaps a self-consciousness or self-awareness when you post about yourself to the great sea of the internet at large. (ok, maybe it's just me) Am I being totally honest and open with you? Probably. Maybe. (again, maybe that's just me, though) It's been easier to rant. Or point -- "Ooh look, pretty!" And sometimes there are also legitimate reasons to watch what you say.
• Sometimes, by the time I get home from the office (I'm trying not to post when I'm at work -- ok, post less), the last thing I want to do is sit back down in front of a computer. It becomes work.
• Sometimes, the spirit that moved me, moves on. The muse exits, stage left. Whatever.
• Still other times, something interesting happens, but I'd rather write it in my "brick-n-mortar" journal. (Yes, if I really want to keep a thought, I want it on paper, in my journal, in my house. Not unseen on some server somewhere out in the ether.) And then, it's written, and it's a little weird writing it all again.

* * *

OK, bedtime. Maybe I'll get to the client-side commentary next time. Or fix up the stuff above.

More signs of Spring, good and bad

Saw what looked to be a magnolia tree starting to bud out on my run during lunch today. And it was clear and sunny, too. (although not much above freezing) Some of the bulbs don't seem to be faring as well -- several that survived last week's snowstorm have been unceremoniously dug up, presumably by squirrels. I'd probably be less upset if they just ate them, rather than chewing them up, leaving them half-gnawed and strewn about the disheveled earth.

We had the same problem with the raspberries last year, although thankfully, they didn't take too many. But every few days, you'd find one perfectly good raspberry lying on the ground, or sitting on the fence (so you know it didn't just fall there), with maybe a little piece taken out of it. Maybe we're just lucky and we have squirrels that don't like fresh fruit.

About

Originally uploaded by foodnerd.

• The tall asian dude is pretty tall... for an asian dude. The SOOTTAD (significant other of the tall asian dude) says that he's pretty tall for most people. Admittedly, while falling below the average height of the Boston Celtics, he is taller than their shortest player.
• The tall asian dude likes to think that he still looks like he's in his 20's, even though he isn't -- and hasn't been for a while. He's really just a big kid pretending to be an adult, although recently he's been feeling like he's been forced to grow up some.
• The tall asian dude lives with the SOOTTAD and their last remaining (crotchety old eccentric) cat in the cozy Boston suburb of Waltham, MA.
• Having recently bought a new house and sold the old one, he is quite thankful that he first bought before the housing boom hit its stride in the late 90's.
• The SOOTTAD spent almost 2 years living and working in Chicago after having lived in Massachusetts for almost her entire life, which really bummed out the tall asian dude. Thankfully, the SOOTTAD moved back to Massachusetts in early 2007.
• In the summer of 2007, the tall asian dude and the SOOTTAD got married and are actively engaged in the process of living happily ever after.
• Although the tall asian dude grew up in southern California and has willingly chosen to remain in Massachusetts, he is, in fact, not crazy.
• The tall asian dude considers himself to be a pseudo-geek, mostly due to his occupation (engineer) and education (engineering degree). However, he much prefers getting irradiated running around outside than sitting in front of a monitor. Sitting outside working on a laptop would still fall in the latter category and thus is behavior to be avoided. He is geeky enough to realize that TFT screens, and really even CRT monitors, don't generate all that much radiation.
• The tall asian dude completed a program in muscular therapy and now has a small part-time massage therapy practice in Newton, MA that he runs with a friend and former classmate.
• The tall asian dude's primary passion, outside of the SOOTTAD, is ultimate frisbee. Technically, it's "ultimate disc" or just "ultimate" but generally when the tall asian dude used to say that, people would look kind of perplexed. The sport has grown in popularity so it may no longer be as much of an issue, but the tall asian dude is always just a shade behind the times, it seems.
• The tall asian dude has been known to swing. (dance that is. Lindy hop, specifically.)
• He likes running, too.
• The tall asian dude is aware of how silly it is that he's writing this description in the third person, but seems content to continue doing it anyway.

[UPDATED: Fri Jul 29, 2007, 09:37:29 PM EDT]

I probably should be studying right now, but I've had a few things on my mind that I wanted to write about. But I'm also beat, so it's been hard just to sit down and try to draw the things out of my head. Low on energy. I feel like all I've been doing recently is having the life sucked out of me at work and studying Chinese, with some sleeping, eating and driving between the two squished in between. I know it isn't really that bad, but sometimes it feels that way anyway.

I'm sure part of it is the crappy weather. I know this is New England, not California. I can appreciate 40°/50° temperatures, especially considering that we were talking single digits and below zero just 2 months ago. But Spring is supposed to be right around the corner. And yet when it hasn't been snowing or raining, it's still been pretty gray most of the time. Right now, I can see little glimpses of blue every so often, but it's a gradient of dark threatening clouds to the north, and when July and I took a short walk around the neighborhood an hour ago, it was mostly wind and gray. I should be happy it's not snowing, but I'm dwelling on the daylillies and tulips whose tips we had spotted last week which are only now reappearing through the melting snow, after being buried by the snowstorm Wednesday.

So anyway, it's not really that bad. I played hoops yesterday before class, had a great dinner at the John Stone House in Ashland with friends. I've been running during lunch with some folks at work (although only once last week because of travel and weather). I suspect the travel has been throwing me off. Hopefully I'll get back in sync next week, and maybe the current work crisis will finally settle down.

* * *

So while I was driving home from hoops yesterday, this cool song came on the radio. And I thought to myself, "Hey, this song is pretty cool. It sounds like Norah Jones. I wonder if it's from the same new album of that other song I keep hearing?" Because for probably the last month or so, I've been hearing the same last 30-seconds-to-a-minute of this one Norah Jones song on the radio. I'd be flipping around from station to station and I'd hit this song which reminded me of some other song. (I'll let you know if I ever figure out what that other song is.) And eventually I'd hear enough to realize that it wasn't this other song, but maybe a cover. And then I'd hear the chorus and I'd think, "no, it's a different song." But I still thought it was pretty cool, so I'd keep listening, waiting to hear the next verse. And then the song would end. Doh. This had to have happened at least six or seven times. I'd land on the song, think to myself, "This is it! I'm finally going to hear more of this song!" And then, disappointment. Ok, my bad. I flip stations a lot (certainly more than I used to), or maybe I'd be listening to a language CD ("Na, ni xihuan zuo shenme? Wo zhi xihuan chi fan, shui jiao...") and the current lesson would end and I'd switch back to radio. So anyway, I'm listening to this new song and it's playing along and I'm driving and it hits the chorus and I realize, "oh, this is that song!" Heh. Well, at least I've now heard the whole song now. I'll still have to wait to see whether another song gets any airplay and I can decide whether or not to buy the album.

* * *

Clouds have broken up; it's almost dusk. Maybe it's time to do some studying. Perhaps I'll write more later.