Category: general

It’s hard being married.

When you live with someone, when you’re bound to them completely, they affect you and you affect them in ways that you can’t predict. Moods play off one another. Little things turn into big things, and big things into little things. Desires don’t always match up, and when they don’t it can make being in the same room awkward, and that’s kind of hard to deal with when you don’t have anywhere else to go.

Sleep is an escape from that, as is going on late night drives for no real reason.

Ultimately, you can’t really escape, though. And you shouldn’t.

Tomorrow we’re going to deal with this head-on, like we always do. And things will be good and happy again.

For now, though, I’m stuck in that awkward feeling.

All that talk of eating animals made me hungry, so I set out for McDonald’s in search of their late night menu (specifically, the evil, evil double quarter pounder with cheese). However, upon arriving I discovered that the system was down and they couldn’t take my order.

Some days, I take events like that as a sign that I shouldn’t eat a double quarter pounder, but not today.

The girl said the system would be back up in 10 minutes, so I drove up to the McDonald’s off Baston Road and Fury’s Ferry to see if it was open. It wasn’t, so I decided to check out the Fury’s Ferry Road construction and see how it’s coming along.

I drove out past Evans to Lock until I hit North Belair, where I turned left, thinking I would go to the Evans McDonald’s on Washington Road. I found myself passing the Columbia County Government Complex on Ronald Reagan, which perplexed me–I hadn’t realized that it was that close to North Belair. Of course, I was on the “other” side of North Belair, and this didn’t click until I turned onto Evans to Lock and ended up back at Fury’s Ferry.

Duh. I had driven in a big circle.

Oh, well. By this time surely McDonald’s system was back up, so I headed back over there. But another thought had occurred to me. The sign had said “Late Night – 11 pm to 4 am”, and now it was past 4. Would I have to eat breakfast?

Sure enough, I had to order from the breakfast menu. Sausage egg and cheese meal with orange juice it is, then.

Hey wait…there isn’t any cheese on this!

My previous post, in which I stated that I would try a meal of seal, made me think of something I saw on TV the last time I was in Kentucky. (I only watch US television when I’m in Kentucky, it seems.) I was at AJ’s, and they had that show on where you trade wives. This vegetarian woman was sent to live with a rural(?) family, somewhere in the South where they have gators. The scene we were watching involved the vegetarian convincing herself to try eating gator.

She freaked out about it for awhile, but then actually tried it and enjoyed it. During dinner, though, she had an interesting conversation with the family.

She stated that she didn’t think it was right to eat any animal, but that if she had to eat a dog to survive, she would.

The son of the family was totally shocked by this. He said something to the effect of, “You can eat other animals because they’re made for eating. But a dog is your friend.”

There are places in the world, of course, where dog and cat and other animals that are domesticated (and treated like family) elsewhere are eaten without a second thought. And there are places in the world where animals we eat regularly here are quite safe from becoming stir fry. The deciding factor in determining which animals are okay to eat is obviously cultural.

It makes me wonder. I’ve eaten a lot of strange things, including raw horse (in Yatsushiro–worth experiencing, not worth trying again) and cooked alligator (in Savannah–it was kinda tough, but not bad). But are there things that even I wouldn’t try? I’m not sure, for example, that I could knowingly eat a dog or cat (although strangely I don’t have a problem with the idea of eating bunnies). And the idea of eating buloot seriously grosses me out. But if someone prepared dog or cat or buloot and gave it to me–if it was right there in front of me, waiting for me to try–could I pass it up?

I’d actually like to think the answer is no.

JP over at Japundit unearths a new conspiracy in Japan’s seafood industry, one that is sickeningly familiar.

Run, Tama-chan, run!

(Of course, you realize that I will have to try seal the next time I’m in Hokkaido)

I can’t tell you how many times I have stopped reading something that may have actually been interesting because the design of the page was irritating to me. Maybe the font was too small. Maybe it was too big. Maybe the color was too close to the background. Maybe the colors were too stark in general.

Thanks to RSS, I now don’t have to visit people’s actual websites unless I want to make a comment, so you’d think I’d take a little longer before outright rejecting a blog because of its design. But no…I was reading something just now that was actually very interesting, but the font and the colors were so annoying that after a few seconds I gave up and closed the window.

The sad thing is, that site was using a standard Blogger template…

So Gen X are “apathetic slackers” (or were, “in their day”), and the younglings (Gen Y?) are the “Entitlement Generation”, according to this Yahoo! article linked by Miss Em.

Now, deserved or not, this latest generation is being pegged, too – as one with shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or remain loyal to a company.

“We’re seeing an epidemic of people who are having a hard time making the transition to work – kids who had too much success early in life and who’ve become accustomed to instant gratification,” says Dr. Mel Levine, a pediatrics professor at the University of North Carolina Medical School and author of a book on the topic called “Ready or Not, Here Life Comes.”

While Levine also notes that today’s twentysomethings are long on idealism and altruism, “many of the individuals we see are heavily committed to something we call ‘fun.'”

That does sound somewhat familiar…

Technically, I’m at the very tail end of Gen X, and I’ve always looked up to Gen Xers as my role models, but it does seem that I share qualities with this other arbitrary generation.

ICANN was going to, apparently.* (No wonder there have been so many people out there claiming that ICANN is eeeeeeeeevil. I never quite put it together before.)

U.S. keeps control of Internet computers

Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami professor who helps run an independent ICANN watchdog site, said the date for relinquishing control has continually slipped.

Some countries, he said, might withdraw support they had for ICANN on the premise it would one day take over the root servers.

In a worst-case scenario, countries refusing to accept U.S. control could establish their own separate domain name system and thus fracture the Internet into more than one network. That means two users typing the same domain name could reach entirely different Web sites, depending on where they are.

The announcement comes just weeks before a U.N. panel is to release a report on Internet governance, addressing such issues as oversight of the root servers, ahead of November’s U.N. World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia.

Some countries have pressed to move oversight to an international body, such as the U.N. International Telecommunication Union, although the U.S. government has historically had that role because it funded much of the Internet’s early development.

By the way, how do you like that subtitle? “Calls to hand function to international body ignored.” Yes. The US is ham-fisted!

[Revised at 12 noon due to a lack of reading comprehension on my part. Hey, it was like 2:45 am, man…]

Would-Be Bride Throws Homeless a Party

I think it’s great that she turned her reception into a party for the homeless, I just think it sucks that she called off her wedding so late in the game.

At least she didn’t run off to Vegas and then call the FBI and claim she’d been kidnapped.

A couple of films have been released recently about WWII/Japan. Thought I’d link ’em.

Film about Emperor Hirohito wins Russian film fest prize

The film, “Solntse” (Sun), directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, focuses on the emperor’s anguish from August 1945, when he decided to agree to Japan’s unconditional surrender, to January 1946, when he renounced all claims to divinity. The movie is the third part of a trilogy by Sokurov on people in power during the 20th century. His two previous works were about Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin.

Filmmaker documents Japan’s WWII germ experiments in China

A documentary film on Japan’s notorious secret unit that conducted germ experiments on Chinese prisoners of war (POWs) in northeastern China during World War II is to be shown in Tokyo Friday evening, its producer said Thursday.

The 60-minute film titled, “The Phantom Unit 731,” directed by TV producer Haruko Yoshinaga, will be shown at the Shufu Kaikan hall in Chiyoda-ku, beginning at 6:30 p.m., Friday.

Bleh. Didn’t want/mean to do that.

I designed a logo today, and it is totally cool. (No word yet on whether or not it will actually be used, but it is cool, I tell you.)

It’s really hot today. I took off my overshirt and shoes to eat lunch under the canopy at the mini-stage at Riverwalk. While I was there, a huge group of children came by, and then that group of regular exercisers arrived to do their leg lifts. I managed somehow to not get kicked in the head.

When I finished eating, I walked around taking pictures for awhile. Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries rather quickly, so I couldn’t take pictures of all the pretty flowers I kept seeing. I was obsessed with this weird bird–I guess it was some kind of duck, all black with a short white bill–and I used the digital zoom to get pictures of it, and that chewed right through the AAs.

Alas.

I headed up to Broad Street to see if I could find some batteries, to no avail. At that point I lost the desire to explore any further (it’s so hot), so I ended up coming back to the office a little early.

Is it just me, or is it extraordinarily irritating to have to stay in one place (that isn’t your home) for eight hours? Nine when you add in the lunch. I mean, come on. I want to be going places if I’m not at home.

I found this on Snopes today. It’s one of those things you might get in an email forward from your mom. But it’s one of the good ones.

You don’t actually have to take the quiz. Just read this straight through and you’ll get the point. It is trying to make an awesome point!

Here’s the first quiz:

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The facts are, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

6. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

Buy it at Threadless.

Ever since I was a teenager, I have looked forward to my 30s and 40s. I always thought that would be the best time of my life. By then I would understand who I was, and I would be settled into my life. (I also assumed I would be married and have kids. No problem on the first one; so much for the second one. But I digress.)

I didn’t spend much time thinking about the meantime, but I guess I assumed I would get all the “exploring” out of the way, get all that “figuring stuff out” done so I could relax.

I’m twenty-seven years old. I’ve barely explored anywhere, and I haven’t figured out anything!

What am I doing with my life? Why am I sitting around in my underwear reading blogs and watching MacGyver at 4 in the freaking afternoon?

I may be somewhat “trapped” by our current lack of funds, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything! It just means I have to try harder to make the things I want to do work out.

But instead, I’ve just been sitting around whining and wishing.

I’m going to run out of “exploring” time before I’ve actually done anything!

Peter Ejtel came by and posted a comment on my entry “The “blogger market”; plus, a question for my readers“. He clarified his position with Tucows and then went on to ramble about the current “revolution” (there’s always a revolution, isn’t there?).

I posted a reply that you might find interesting. In it I was finally able to quantify the reasons why blogging is troubling to me as a medium.