Babies, lizards, and pacemakers - oh my!

Monday 06.30.2008 02:33AM

You asked, and I ANSWER'D!

From Allison: Why is Michael Scott both the best AND worst boss ever?
He is the best boss because he is oblivious to the idea of productivity; he is never on your back about working harder and thus it is easier to goof-off around the office. He also knows the crap out of women, much like myself. I don't understand the part of the question about him being the worst boss ever?

What is your favorite part of the movie Grease? [now that I've finally seen it]
Um, that one part... where we laughed. I don't know, I've only seen it once now, so I don't really remember/love enough to pick a favorite part.

Where do babies come from?
The vagina.

What was your deepest childhood ambition? What is your current deepest ambition?
I guess the one thing that sticks out to me is that I wanted to be an architect when I grew up. I liked the precision and the idea of designing nifty houses. I just kind of grew out of it though, which doesn't really disappoint me. I don't have very deep ambitions at the moment, other than to finish my degree and live in California for a while. Being debt free is another strong ambition that I'm making good progress towards.

Who is your role model? If it's Jesus, then who is your #2?
David Hasselhoff. “Jump in my car.”

From Jon: Do you use any jigs or lures when getting all the women?
Yes, I say, “Come on and come to my house, ladies! Come on and come to my house, girls girls!” and they just flock.

I also use dimples, blue eyes, and my biceps.

From Ben: Since it's one of the things that I'm jealous of you for, what would you say is responsible for conversational style? What advice would you give someone who wanted to become a better conversationalist?
I don't know that I have really thought of myself as being a good conversationalist, so first of all – thanks. I'd have to say the core of being a good conversationalist is being a good listener and being genuinely interested in other people. I had to think about this question for a bit before I came up with an answer, and then I realized that it goes right along with the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I've never been asked for advice in this area before, so I would have to recommend that book. Here is a good summary of the main points in it.

From Ian: If you could change any event in your life what would you change and why?
I had to think about this one for a while too, and honestly I don't know that there is anything I would change. I don't tend to look back at my life in regret very much. There are things I wish didn't happen – such as my parents' divorce – but when I look at things as they are now, I'm not even sure I would go back and change it. Knowing my parents now, I'm not really sure they were that great together, and I know they seem quite pleased where they are now. Changing that event would have made me feel “better” at that time in my life, but that's not really important to me in the now. I don't think there is an event I would change, not even my heart incident last year.

From Isha: Can we get an anole?
Sure. To those wondering (and too lazy to click, *ahem*), anoles are small lizards with the ability to change their skin color. No, they're not chameleons (Come-a, Come-a, Come-a, Chameleon...). I had one of these for many years as a child and his name was Harry. They are easy to care for, fun to feed live flies or crickets to, and are quite cute.

When are you going to get sick of me playing with your heart? [pacemaker]
Since I am a stick, my pacemaker bumps out of my chest a tad, and you can also feel one of the wires just beneath my skin. It is pretty fascinating, I guess; I've just gotten used to it. Anyway, I will get sick of it on September 9, 2009 at 3:03:42 PM.

From Jeremiah: When and how did you get your first job after college, and what got you to where you are now?
Well, as alluded to earlier, I'm technically not done with college. Very close, though. Through college I mostly worked on campus in the continuing education department as a lab tech and various other positions. Then I found a job listing for a PHP programmer and worked there for a year. Unfortunately they were a small company and had some rough times financially, so I had to leave there. I found my current job on craigslist, and it's what I consider my first full-fledged, serious “post college” job, since it's with a well-established company. I basically taught myself PHP over the years, so that got me to where I am. That and ...ladies.

Now readers, feel free to answer in the comments or your own blog post:

  • What are your 5 desert island books - ok, movies? You know, you're on a desert island and these are the only 5 you can have with you.

  • What is the previous question a reference to?

  • What artist/album/song has really impacted you recently, and how?

  • Which do you like best: my dimples, blue eyes, or biceps?

EDIT:
Photo reference for the last question.
photo

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Open Post

Thursday 06.26.2008 06:42PM

A couple loyal fans gave me a hard time for not blogging in a while; so here I am trying to write something, but not coming up with anything interesting. It worked out pretty well last year when I had an open call for questions, comments, and concepts to write about, so let's try that again.

Consider this an open post, comment away.

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Closing or Opening

Wednesday 06.11.2008 12:52PM

Just read this on Taylor McKnight's blog and it really resonated with me. It was written by his mom, I just added line breaks and some emphasis as I saw fit.

Right now, and in every now-moment, you are either closing or opening.

You are either stressfully waiting for something – more money, security, affection – or you are living from your deep heart, opening as the entire moment, and giving what you most deeply desire to give, without waiting.

If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down your guard and love.

Everything you do right now ripples outward and affects everyone. Your posture can shine your heart or transmit anxiety. Your breath can radiate love or muddy the room in depression. Your glance can awaken joy. Your words can inspire freedom.

Your every act can open hearts and minds. Opening from heart to all, you live as a gift to all. In every moment, you are either opening or closing. Right now, you are choosing to open and give fully or you are waiting.

How does your choice feel?

Amazing.

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The awesome weekend

Tuesday 06.10.2008 12:16AM

Now that summer is here and LOST is over, Thursday nights are freer for me and most of my friends. Instead of our usual viewing party, we made plans to hang out downtown. We went to Mo'Joes coffeehouse to get our caffeination, then walked along the canal while looking really cool – like we're in some TV show.

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I was a bit concerned about being thrown into the canal. See, most of us enjoy using Twitter, but Lauren has always strongly resisted joining. For kicks, Ian and I conspired to set up an account for her and post Lauren-y things on it. When she found out, she was quite “upset” and said that I would be going for a swim in the canal. Thankfully, her bark was worse than her bite, at least in this instance. I did not go for a swim, but we had to at least pose a shot.

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Ironically, she has actually started to use the Twitter account.

Then we took some self-timer, family vacation shots that turned out quite well.

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Shane (the guy in the white shirt) we met at the last Indianapolis TweetUp and this was his first time hanging out with us. He seems like a cool guy, and I do not think we scared him too much, so he might come to future shindigs. The night ended up being its own TweetUp of sorts, since everyone there is on Twitter. There just were not as many laptops or geeky conversations about “social media.” :-]

On Friday the plan was to go see Grease at the IMA. They have summer film nights outside in their amphitheater, letting you bring in your own food and drinks, so it is quite fun. Unfortunately, the weather looked like it definitely was not going to cooperate, so I voted we watch the DVD instead. It probably comes as a shock to most, but Doug, Isha, and I had not seen Grease before. We all enjoyed it quite a bit. Then for our second feature we watched Kung Pow: Enter the Fist accompanied by copious amounts of laughter.

After we had exhausted the entertainment of the movies, the YouTubes, shown some leg, and re-enacted Mango from SNL, we decided to go to Denny's. I rode in the back, with the ladies.

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Saturday rolled around, and by then my body was starting to get tired from all the activity. Well, and staying up late at Denny's. And that I'm just getting old. Anyway. Saturday evening the plan was to go to Tibbs Drive-In to see Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man. Thankfully the weather cooperated this time. We met another new person, Jeremiah's friend Asim or “Awesome”, if you so desire to pronounce it that way.

At this point, this post is getting quite long, and words don't quite do it all justice. About 500 photos were taken by various people, of which I have included a few favorites here. This was definitely one of the best weekends of the year so far, and Sunday was definitely a day of doing nothing, to recuperate.

Somewhere amidst all that, I got a date next Friday. Then Saturday is Death Cab for Cutie, which I'm quite excited to finally see for the first time. So yeah, next weekend should be awesome as well.

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A Floating Smile

Saturday 05.31.2008 03:29AM

Listen.

Cool Hand Luke - “A Floating Smile”

I'm sad that I don't think about You
Because I just can't get on without You
You speak in the funniest things
Glimpses of Heavenly dreams

Lately it seems that it's harder
For my legs to walk any farther
I need You to show me I need You
And give me the faith to believe You

One day You'll come back
Soon You will come back
One day You'll take me home (x2)

We'll fly away
We'll fly away
We'll fly away
Forever and ever
On a floating smile

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