This song is a decade old, but I really, really like the words.
Now that I have found you
You’ve changed my life
Cos you’re the one who showed me
I have everything right
We’re never gonna differ cos we know it’s true
So don’t change me and I won’t change you
Here’s Sophie Ellis-Bextor, “I Won’t Change You”
I am kicking off the week with a little bit of familiarity. Normally I travel to and from work with my iPad, after all, it is one of the latest Apple gadgets and as an Apple fanboy I am obligated to buy the latest offering from the greatest company in the world and dutifully truck it back and forth to every place I go.
I hope you realize that the paragraph preceding this one is 95% snark.
Anyways, while the iPad is great for traveling it is excels at content consumption but is mediocre at content creation, especially since it has a software keyboard. I have mentioned before that I carry a standard Apple bluetooth keyboard to use with my iPad, but this approach is rather clumsy. This week I decided to start carrying the MacBook Pro again.
Yesterday I was going through my duffle bag and found my Kodak HD video camera which I haven’t used very much. I started playing around with it, taking video of the leaves blowing in the wind, for example, and then I discovered the art of using slow- and fast-motion editing techniques to make the video a little more interesting. I mean, blowing leaves are still blowing leaves whether they’re dancing fast and doing a slow wave, but nonetheless, the spontaneous creative endeavor inspired me a little bit. Sometimes we need only a small bit of inspiration. It’s the opportunity to run with it that gives us the magic we seek.
I sound like a fortune cookie insert. Just add “in bed”.
You may have noticed in the photo above that I have an older style MacBook Pro. This is Earl’s former computer. It had been dropped at one point in it’s life, but I resurrected it and now it purrs along like a happy cat. Personally I prefer this style of the MacBook Pro because I like the keyboard much better. I find the sharper edges from the current version to be a little uncomfortable for the way I type and since I do a lot of babbling on my blog, it’s best that I am comfortable when I am typing. My plan is to use this MBP for as long as I can, since it works just fine. It’s even running OS X Lion without an issue. I am pleased.
So tonight was suppose to be my 25th high school reunion. It was around two weeks ago that I read on the official Facebook page for the gathering that it had been canceled due to a lack of interest. I found this quite interesting and not really that surprising, considering the dynamics of our graduating class. I graduated from a small high school and many of us both started kindergarten and graduated together. We didn’t have any cheerleaders in our class, we left that duty up to the classes that preceded and followed us.
I find it interesting that there wasn’t a lot of interest in the gathering because a good share of us already talk to each other on Facebook. Perhaps Facebook has replaced the necessity of a high school reunion. Plus, we had a really good time getting together five years ago for our 20th reunion. Why spoil the good memories by trying to recreate it.
This weekend tends to be chosen for these types of events, instead of the traditional high school graduation weekend, because it’s the weekend of the annual Ringgold Firemen’s Field Days. Think church/town carnival with plenty of beer or think county fair without as many cows but more beer. Pulaski has always had a decent field days and this year should be no exception. It turns into an “old home days” type gathering anyways and it’s the only place out in the wild that I ever run into anyone I graduated with. I posted on the official Facebook page of the reunion committee that I would be at the field days tonight and one other person mentioned it as well. My best friend through high school is going to be there, so there will be an extra helping of gay at the event. You can never have enough gay, even if it’s shut behind a closet door. Although, too much gay behind the porta-john door might get people talking.
I think I’m digressing.
Though we won’t bust out into a rousing, rowdy version of our high school Alma Mater, “The Crimson and the Blue”, I’m sure there will be a few laughs, a few people barfing from the field days rides and a few tears in a few beers as we haphazardly run into each other at the field days.
Sounds just as I remembered high school. Ah, the memories.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Ten years ago today I started something. Armed with a computer running Windows Me, a crappy version of Internet Explorer and a software package called FrontPage, I started something I called “my online journal”. Ten years ago today, my very first blog post went something like this:
The first comment came a few weeks later from Thom, who started his blog around the same time. Our paths have crossed in the real world a few times. He was nice in his first comment and he’s a nice guy too.
While there have been server moves, changes in attitude and plenty of facelifts over the years, more has remained constant: I’m still trying tomfind myself, I’m still trying to healthier, I’m never looking at the same big picture shared by everyone else, but more importantly, what I write here is honest for the moment. I hope you have enjoyed this snapshot into our life.
I look forward to sharing more over the years. Happy blogoversary.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
“Do you think the Blue Angels are available to do an airshow?”
“No.”
“A fly over?”
“No.”
“Perhaps a Cessna 150 with a really small horn?”
Glare.
“Can we get a bouncy house for the kids and the kids at heart?”
Eye roll.
“I suppose chips in dog bowls would be tacky.”
“Really?”
These are the questions and responses that are being aired about as Earl and I discuss our wedding plans. There was quite an outpouring of love when we changed our Facebook statuses from “In A Relationship” to “Engaged”. We notified each other of our status changes via Facebook, even though we were sitting across the table from one another.
Slowly but surely plans are coming together. Dates are being set. Thoughts are being aired and budgets are being checked. People from all over are sending wonderful words of love and support in our direction. Quite frankly I still can’t believe that somehow, in some manner, the State of New York has deemed it legally possible for me to marry the man that makes me see fireworks every time he walks into a room. I was talking about the vacation time with the Director of the group I work in and I actually got a little teary eyed. I read about and hear on the news that “Conservatives” oppose same sex marriage. Honestly, I think that’s a bit of hogwash. It’s actually right-wing extremists and nut jobs that oppose same sex marriage. I know a lot of conservative people1. Many have voiced their support. The others have kept their mouths shut and not said a word. I know who fits into which camp. I’m not bothered by it. I figure they’ll figure it out when they pass on to the next existence and figure out how silly they have been.
We know a few couples that have been together for more than 30 years. One in particular are still quite obviously very much in love and yet they are not allowed to get married in the state of Wyoming. We’ve asked them to come visit us so they can breathe a little bit of open minded air. It might do them so good. Another couple that has been together just as long don’t seem interested in getting married even though they can now. I don’t find this sad, it’s not my business to make that judgement. They can do what they need to do to find happiness just like everyone else in the world. I know straight couples that opt out of marriage and they seem quite happy.
I just know that I never thought marriage would be in the cards but now that it is, I am very excited and even more blissfully happy.
Happiness. There needs to be more of this.
1 Actually, I consider myself a middle of the road, financially somewhat conservative libertarian more than anything else.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
As a bit of a social networking junkie and a downright nerd when it comes to all things connected, I get a bit of a kick out of the social networking app called Foursquare. If you’re unfamiliar with it, this is an app that lives on your favorite mobile device that allows you to ‘check-in’ at whatever business you happen to be in. They have made this part of a game; you earn little trinkets and doo-dads and if you go to the same place enough times, you eventually become ‘mayor’. As I understand it, some places offer specials to the Foursquare mayor of their business, but I have yet to be treated like royalty. There are other similar programs out there, such as Gowalla, plus there is Facebook Places and Google Places (and the check-ins on Google+) that allow you to do the same thing for the most part. Early in my discovery of Foursquare, I would earn myself some eye rolls from the folks I was with because I would squeal (in a very masculine voice) that I was now the mayor of places like the Cozy-Have-A-Snack1. There were several blogger and Twitter types that would gripe when Foursquare announced to the world that we had just become mayor. I turned that feature off; I only update Twitter when I want people to know where I am.
And, while I’m on the subject, I’m really not that concerned about people knowing where I am because I’m the one that is doing and controlling the announcing. It’s not like my phone is automatically checking me in to their locations.
While I don’t really have an interest in the idea of earning mayorships of businesses that I visit frequently, I do think it’s a hoot when I earn one, especially if I’ve only been to that location once or twice. I’m more excited to see who else is checked in to the same location I’m at and the excitement of seeing another geek on the street and in the wild. It’s kind of like the early days of being out as a gay and you’d get a little giddy when you saw another gay on the street. This latter example subsided for me considerably when I lived in Boston and my gaydar blew several fuses, a circuit breaker and any modicum of composure when I walked down Newbury Street for the first time.
But I digress.
Up until recently I was the mayor of the Dunkin’ Donuts closest to work. I held this title for a long time. There were no advertised specials nor was my photo plastered on the wall, but ever since I was mayor I didn’t have any clear liquid stuff sprayed into tea nor did I receive a bagel with pink goo on it by mistake. My orders have been accurate. While we were in Denver, I received word that a person by the name of Amanda S. had taken over as mayor of the Dunkin’ Donuts.
When I checked in today, I noticed that she was also checked in to the location. At long last, our paths were crossing and we would have the opportunity to meet. I walked into the restaurant and saw that they had no customers. Must be she had already left. I asked for my usual unsweetened iced tea and after someone went to get it, I asked for lemon.
“Amanda, be sure to put a lemon in it”, the cashier yelled over to the prep station.
A HA!
Sure enough, Amanda with the lemon is Amanda S. the mayor of Dunkin’ Donuts on Foursquare. I bet she thought she was quite crafty by not wearing her name tag, but the Hardy Boy in me figured it out. She wasn’t hiding under the secret stair case, she was right there, working at the Dunkin’ Donuts and checking in every time she had to work.
When she came back to give me my tea I cocked an eyebrow and pointed a finger at her. “Amanda? Amanda S from Foursquare?”
She smiled, blushed and said yes.
I smiled and said, “nice to meet you.”
And that’s what makes social networking cool.
1 Über points to the person that can name that very obscure pop culture reference.
Back in MY day (my goodness I’m getting old), summertime on television used to mean that we got to watch reruns. I remember one particular summer where we got to see Farrah Fawcett be an angel after watching Cheryl Ladd do the honors the whole season before. That same summer Laverne and Shirley’s landlady hadn’t married yet and they called her Mrs. Babish, even though we now knew her to Frank’s wife. Reruns were what we got in the summer and though it was brain candy, it was good.
Today we get reality shows.
Now, I don’t think one should be watching a lot of television in the summertime. In these parts it’s the one time of the year where you can actually get outside and do something without having to wear a snowmobile suit, so I like to keep busy in some manner. But once in a while you want to escape and be a couch potato. Enter, the Reality Shows.
Earl is good at flicking the remote through the various offerings we get on the satellite. I’m not much for channel surfing anymore. I’d rather just think of something to watch and download it, cutting the cable completely and controlling our own schedule, but if you’ve been raised in the era of channel surfing it’s hard to break the habit. Yesterday he was watching some reality show called “Millionaire Blind Date” or something like that.
What a waste of technology.
First of all, I don’t know where to begin. I’m probably going to sound like an offensive, judgmental prick, but the woman who’s running this millionaire dating service thing is one of the most screeching, obnoxious women I think I’ve ever witnessed. Her lips are so plumped up she looks like she’s been stung by a bee. I will set aside her grating downstate accent because I’m nice like that, but her attitude towards her clients is unbelievably awful. I don’t know why anyone with any sort of self respect would go to this woman for dating assistance, especially since she can’t be doing a really good job if she needs to fund her business through appearing on a reality show. Not since The Beast1 appeared on “Love Cruise” and “Paradise Hotel” has such an awful woman appeared on a reality show. I blame that thing they call Snooki (and for the life of me, I still haven’t figured out what a Snooki is). If this is the best that the greater New York metropolitan area can offer than Houston we have a problem.
I think I should be ashamed that I know about these reality show people I have just mentioned.
Now I haven’t watched “Big Brother” since BB3, I have seen what sort of damage Survivor can do by releasing people like Elizabeth Hasselbeck onto the masses and I have absolutely no desire to eat a bug, but when is this reality show ‘fad’ going to end? Why can’t we go back to things like “Password Plus” or “Match Game”? At least on those shows we knew the celebrities that were appearing and we had the entertainment of watching them whilst under the influence.
I think I need to convince Earl to dial it back to TV Land and watch a rerun of “Alf” or something.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
So I was pretty pleased with myself. I had successfully completed 39 miles of my planned 40 mile long ride and it was only a few more moments before I could get out of the increasing blazing sun and into the relative coolness of the house. The ride had gone fairly well. I had found some quiet spots on the road that had let my mind wander as it tends to do when I’m riding my bike. I like getting lost in myself that way. It’s something that I don’t do enough.
I approached the traffic light slowly as it was red. I was in the right hand margin of the center lane, like any responsible cyclist would do. The right lane was for right turns, the left lane for those turning left and I wanted to go straight through the intersection so I was in the lane traditionally designated for that. I slowed way down so I wouldn’t have to come to a complete stop.
I saw the opposing side of the light turn yellow. There was a car coming from my right, very slowly, with her turn signal on, indicating that the driver wanted to turn left, back towards the direction I was coming from. Since the light was yellow and she was slowing, I figured she stopped.
I balanced myself a bit by riding slowly as I waited for the light to turn green. It’s easier to do that instead of getting unclamped out of my pedals. The light turned green and I picked up speed.
Except the motorist from the other direction decided to run the light. Then she saw me. So she stopped.
Directly in the path of my bike.
I couldn’t go left or I would have been mashed by the vehicles that were also going straight through the intersection. Going right wouldn’t have worked, because the rest of her car would have been in the way. The only way was down.
So I went down.
I couldn’t unclamp from my pedals before hitting the pavement, so the bike and I went down together. I landed on my right knee and skidded a little bit. My left foot then unclamped. I swore, A LOT. I looked up and the woman in the car that had stopped in front of me decided to continue through the red light. I jumped up, pissed and for a brief nanosecond, considered throwing my bike at the car that was starting to make it’s way across the intersection. But I decided not to. I jumped up on my feet and did what you’re suppose to do when you fall off your bicycle. I got back on it and rode home.
Earl listened to a really loud rant of mine when I walked into the door. God bless him. He puts up with a lot of crap from me. I profusely apologized for my outburst after getting myself together again and cleaned up. My knees are sore and one is scraped up pretty good but I’m not really that worse for the wear.
At least I was able to do 40 miles on the bike today. And that’s the part that made me feel good.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!