“Just write.”  Is what the psychic told me this afternoon.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve had my cards read – I think the last time was in the summer of 2008 in Sedona. 

And I think that psychic told me to write as well.  The psychic in Sedona also talked about my “spirit guide” (that I should give my will over to him) and the psychic at the Ren Faire today told me to follow my “holy guardian angel(s)”.  Interesting.

But yeah, in my conversation with the psychic today – RozeLisa is her name (and I shall henceforth refer to her as such) – she said I should write.  I said, “Write what?  Like work stuff or fiction or what?”  And she said “I don’t know, just write.”  So yeah, here I am writing.

When I started this blog, I posted every day for about a year.  Then I started to take a few days off here and there, and eventually I got to where I’ve been for the last few weeks – probably averaging two posts per week.  Man, do I hate bloggers that post about blogging or their blog-habits – almost as much as I hate blog posts that start with things along the lines of  “sorry I haven’t posted in so long…”

So that’s enough situational reference for me.

Today was a good day.  I woke up, showered and hung out with my brother for about an hour before Katie and Scott arrived (in separate cars) at my house.  We shot the shit for a bit, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, and headed off to the Renaissance Faire.  We met Heather Rolland (yes, the famous author), her husband Tom Moeller, her daughter Maya and Maya’s friend Chelsea at the Cock ‘n Balls Bull just inside the gate, and headed out to explore for the day.  While we were at the knife-throwning show, Christine (Laila Jo’s mommy) and her b/f Ryan called me to say that they had arrived.  I wandered over to the Kissing Bridge to pick them up, waited a few minutes and recieved a text that they were at the stage where the knife-throwing show was.  So I sauntered back over that way.  By that time, our cousin Danny and his girlfriend Pauline had arrived.  I think.  Maybe they got there sooner.

After the show, we rolled out – 12 deep - to check out the rest of the Faire.  It was a good day.  As is commonly done with a group that large, we split up into smaller cells and did things separately, occasionally meeting up to discuss what booty we had gathered or things we’d seen. 

As we were wrapping up with the card reading, RozeLisa gave me her card and I gave her mine – pointing out this web address and stating that this is where I predominantly write.  She noticed that my card says Wyckoff on it and I explained that I live in Ridgewood.  RozeLisa then said that she’s opening up a shop in Ridgewood – about a block away from my dad’s store, as a matter of fact. 

I think I’m going to see RozeLisa again in a couple of months – I don’t think the Ren Faire is the place for me to get psychic readings anymore: it’s too busy; too many people.  Whether it’s taxing on a psychic, I couldn’t say, but I don’t see how that kind of a situation wouldn’t be.  Plus, I can’t imagine that the tarot cards have that much of an opportunity to be cleared of the last person’s energy and fully accept mine with such a high turnover rate of clients.

I think that next time I’ll ask RozeLisa if we can use her future-seeing cards, instead of the ones that read the recent past – most of the stuff that came through the cards had just happened to me in the past couple of weeks.

No real luck to speak of on the “will I find love” question (at least not from the cards).  I’ve sent out a couple of emails on okCupid in the last week (no responses, but that’s t be expected).  RozeLisa said that I should probably get out more, and that I should basically man-up and make my own decisions and be confident in them – that they’re the right ones.

I’m in a pretty good head-space right now:  I didn’t really have any particular questions in mind when I sat down to have my cards read (which probably explains the lack of granularity in the reading).  I’ve been making my own decisions and following through with them, and I feel comfortable that they’re the right ones.  Mercury is in retrograde for the next couple of weeks, so I’ll be careful with my communications and try not to misread anything.

I’m taking Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off from work this week and will spend that time in the Adirondacks, bagging peaks and sleeping in the woods.  Right now, it looks like it’s going to rain the whole time.  I’ll bring my raingear.  I’m looking forward to the time alone.  I’ll reflect and get centered.

November is National Novel Writing Month, so it looks like this is my year to get on that.  Any novel suggestions?

Yes, yes, I know, dear reader:  it’s been quite a long time since my last post.

A lot’s been going on lately and I’ve mostly been keeping to myself.  Oh, I’ve been talking to people here and there about things, and it’s not that I didn’t feel comfortable talking to you about them, dear reader, but, well, I haven’t felt comfortable talking to you about them.

I quit my job on Thursday.  Scratch that – I ‘resigned’ on Thursday:  handed my boss my resignation letter at the end of the day.  I had to go into the office for a bit on Friday, I suppose to bring closure, though there wasn’t really anything for me to do.  Everything I’d been working on had been tied off or handed off in the past week or so.  I think my boss saw it coming, but I don’t think he was expecting it – if that makes sense.

I’m starting at a new firm soon.  It’s a start-up, and I’ll be in on the ground floor.  Several of my colleagues from the old firm are already there and I’m excited to work with them again – they’re the ones from the old firm who actually worked.

I’ve known for several weeks that I’d be moving firms, but couldn’t really tell anyone at the old place until I’d squared away all my stuff.  The last few weeks have been torturous for me:  I’ve not been sleeping well and my self-doubt has been at the forefront of my thinking.

After I resigned on Thursday night, and knowing that I’d have to go into the office on Friday and face everyone, I went to see Inception with my sister Katie.  It was pretty good, though I think it could have been much better.  At least it was entertaining and got me out of my head for those few hours before I went to bed.

And, it helped me realize that I’d been spending so much (too much) time in my head lately.  Mostly falling prey to my self-doubt and thinking along pessimistic lines.  I don’t mean to say that I’ve stopped all that and have reverted to a pollyannaish outlook, but rather that the movie helped me become aware of just how much time I’d spent concocting possible future scenarios in my imagination – and negative ones, at that.

Not blogging about my thoughts and feelings on the whole scenario was tough but necessary.  There are one or two people with whom I work who know about this site and I couldn’t risk letting any of my plans become public knowledge at work.

Special thanks to Jen, Heather, Anna and Didi for talking with me via email about what’s been going on in my head.

I’m still a bit nervous for the future, but I’m also confident that I can handle whatever comes.  I’m excited in a subdued fashion to see how things unfold over the next few weeks.  I just re-read Sun Tzu’s Art of War and am currently reading both Richard Branson’s Losing My Virginity and Bruce Lee’s The Tao of Jeet Kune Do.  I think I’m going to read a few books on military history, in order to have some practical examples to which I can relate the aphorisms from Art of War.

Game on.

Ok, we’re live at The Red Fish (158 Bleecker St NY NY) – for those of you who speak French, that’s “Le Poisson Rouge”. Greg “Cosmo D” Heffernan of Smoothe Moose Lanoratories & Recordings fame is kicking it on his cello & Mac and a couple of DJs are mixing shit up on their Macs and . . . er, mix machines. The sound is overall pretty mixed.

I wish I had a real keyboard, but this is the price I must pay to be this effin mobile.

Greg’s off now and the DJs are getting more beers; they lef the volume up on a pretty decent beat. Now they’re back and messing around again. Every minute or two I think I can hear Justice or Daft Punk – yeah, that’s definitely DP’s “Human After All” they’re playing around with now. These guys should continue to play other people’s music.

There are four Macs on the table with sundry other equipment. I really gotta think one Mac could get the job done just as well.

Holy shit, did Daft Punk know what the fuck they were doing!

Two turntables and a Macintosh: I think the turnies are just there to support the Mac stand. And I don’t mean emotionally.

Here’s the email exchange between Brian, Scott and me.  I’m mostly in the background, laughing mfao:

Brian:  Yo Ted – what’s up with the blog dogs?  I feel like I can’t get my morning started without reading some shit.  What’s up?  You been busy?

Scott:  That fool has been living at work get a newspaper read that

Brian:  Dude it’s not the same.  I have to read about how Ted’s love life sucks or how many mountains he climbed this weekend or at least a new infographic to learn about some stupid bullshit.

Scott:  Me and Scott The Fat Vegan hiked Rusk Mtn. this past Saturday it was a straight up bushwhack but we were ready for it.  It was only about 4 miles but seemed much further cause of the bushwhack part.  It was fun to watch Scotts fat ass just push through the thick pines knowing trees down and and almost breaking his neck every five feet he’s good for that.  We reached the summit around noon then headed over to East Rusk just in case it was part of the Catskill Hundred highest which it wasn’t I found out later that it was PUD (pointless up and down).  We got back to the car and headed home. 

On Sunday we took three guys from Union City out on a hike for our fresh air fund project.  We hiked about 4 miles inside palisades state park.  They only feel a couple times and made it out alive and we got back to the car right before it started pouring out.

Other than that I have been swamped at work this being the peak of the proxy season which also means no dating not that I would be on a date cause E Harmony sucks the big dirty dongus.  But if any of you want to get jiggy with it and are under a hundred pounds I’m open to that.  Well I’m off to bed morning comes early these days.

Brian:  Dude that’s hilarious.  Thanks for that.  Did you & Ted rape those Union guys in the woods?  I’m sure that’s part of the program.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

-Benjamin Franklin

I’m not exactly sure where I am as far as this quote goes, but I suppose that’s ok.  As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been doing things worth writing about.  I’m still riding high on the sense of accomplishment from climbing those four mountains last Saturday.  I’ve climbed 25 mountains this winter and have 2 left to go.  Of the 27 I set out to climb this winter, those four from Saturday were the ones I was most trepidatious about.  Not scared; just not particularly looking forward to them.

The part of my brain that likes to beat me up has been trying to figure out how I didn’t really “do it all the way” – how there must be some way that I cut corners or copped out and somehow didn’t really climb those mountains.  But there’s a canister at the summit of each of those mountains with my name and 3/6/10 next to it written in the logbook within.  I really wish my iPhone’s charger hadn’t crapped out and that I have the gps data for the whole trip.  But what the hell, I’ve climbed plenty of mountains besides those well before I even had the capability of recording the trip.  A map and a compass, dear reader:  that’s all I had to go by when navigating from peak to peak.  Well, there were some tracks in the snow for the portion along the river and between the last two mountains, but she-yit, that was about it.

The last two mountains should be relatively easy.  I’m looking forward to a break afterward, though.  My left leg is bone-sore below the knee.  It feels mostly like it’s a tendon thing, but it goes deeper too.  No worries, though:  I could climb those last two mountains on crutches if I had to.  Of course, I’d rather not.

I’m trying to figure out what’s next.  I was considering joining the local rock climbing gym, but I think I’ll save that for next winter.  Right now, it looks like it might be backpacking.  Oh, I’ll still be peakbagging, but instead of only doing day trips and returning home to a nice hot shower and a warm bed, I’ll be returning to my tent or lean-to for some ramen or other cardboardish fare.  I’m starting to research backpacks, tents and other gear.

Probably the Adirondacks.  Even with camping out, the five-hour drive is still a bit daunting.  We’ll see.

I have no idea if I’ve been writing anything worth reading lately.  I kind of don’t think so.  Most of my blog posts have been pretty sporadic and unfocused.  Too many ‘general update’ style posts for my tastes, but hell, it’s what I’ve been writing.  I kind of miss working on things for Weekly Writing Assignment, but whatever.  I belong to a couple of writing groups on LinkedIn, and one of them does a monthly writing contest.  I should probably just get my ass in gear and write something for one of those.

I keep up with a lot of blogs.  I’m sure you’re familiar with The Naked Redhead at this point, but there are plenty of other blogs I read on a regular basis as well.  At this point, I’m not even sure how many RSS feeds are coming into my Outlook at work.  Trust me, though, it’s A LOT.  I keep up with corporate governance and investor relations stuff for work, as well as other regulatory and finance industry blogs, and I read a lot of stuff for fun too.  As Matt Vallerini has said “Ted’s on Mashable HARD.”

One of my favorites now (and for a while before now) is Lauren Flax’s blog.  I don’t know that I can recommend it highly enough.  Lauren’s a yoga instructor in Baltimore and she just got accepted to a writing program at Johns Hopkins.  She’s pretty effin prolific, and it’s all pretty good stuff.  I enjoy her fiction as well as her thoughts/general update posts.  I often find myself comparing my writing to hers and falling short, but we’ve relatively divergent styles and subject matters, so a comparison probably isn’t the best of ideas.

Lauren practices the art of writing.  In every sense of the word ‘art’.  I can’t really describe it any better than that.  She has fully-formed and well-worked pieces, as well as fragments and bits that may never see the potter’s wheel again.  By contrast, writing for me has very much been a craft of late:  website copywriting and lots of editing non-creative pieces at work.  I used to just highlight things and add a note like “unclear” or something and tell the person to rewrite the sentence/paragraph, but of late I’ve been doing the rewriting myself.  There’s really no use in criticism without a suggestion as to how to improve something.  I really enjoy editing. . . which makes me think that I should probably finish plugging my edits into Franco’s novel and send them off to her (at this point, it’s been just over a year since she sent me her last draft).  Frig.

I’ve been meaning to give a shout out to Lauren’s blog for a while now, but couldn’t really find the words.  Hell, I still don’t have them; I don’t think the one’s I’ve written so far suffice, either.  “Check it out” is all I can really say; you won’t be disappointed.  Lauren does things worth writing when she’s not writing things worth reading.

I’m still enamored with her story Stanley that earned her a finalist spot at Weekly Writing Assignment back in August.  I can’t find the link to the story on her blog, so you’ll have to make do with the one to WWA.  I still think of it and wonder every time I’m scratching Laila Jo behind the ears.

Yay technology.  I can now check my six email addresses from my iPhone.  I just added two new ones – one is a brand-new gmail account for copywriting stuff, and the other is my already-existing MobileMe account.

Nobody likes blog posts that start off with anything that even vaguely resembles “…haven’t blogged in a while…”, especially not ones that include an apology to the reader.  So, to wit:

Fuck you, dear reader; I’ve been busy.

Blogging isn’t really any kind of a chore for me – I really dig it, in fact.  It’s cathartic and does wonders for the organization of my thoughts – past, present and future.  But I usually leave that for the end of the day, which has been getting later and later (again) of late.  It’s after midnight right now and I really should have been in bed a while ago.

Things are going very well at work.  I’m a fuckin’ animal.  Projects that used to take me a day or two to complete two years ago (or half a day, a year ago) are only taking me a couple of hours now.  I’m able to find answers to people’s questions in seconds – and some of said people have been doing this kind of work for many more years than me.  I blame regular chess for my refined ability to switch gears and come at problems from different angles.  In the last couple of weeks, my boss has seemed genuinely happy to see me every day.  And I’m not getting into the office any earlier.  I’m also a lot more confident – my answers and solutions to questions or issues have been coming quicker and with more assurance than ever before.

That said, I’ve been a little low on the self-confidence scale of late.  Not in any overt manner – I’m not all cowed or anything – but I seem to have something niggling at the back of my head, something stirring the hairs on the back of my neck that feels like a lack of self-confidence.  I’m not sure quite what it is.  Every time I turn around (figuratively speaking), there’s nothing there.  Any general inventory or stock-taking I’ve compiled in the last few weeks has come up well in the black.  I really have no idea what exactly is going on – and the funny/ironic thing is, whenever I examine my feelings, I’m not really all that worried about it either.  I’m pretty chill, which is pretty fly.  What will be, will be:  I’m cool with whatever comes.

So yeah:  writing.  I’ve been doing kind of a lot of that lately (I’m including editing in there, because it uses the same or similar muscles), most of which consists of emails and reports for work.  I have a couple of irons in the fire for copywriting work, which is pretty cool.

But I haven’t really been writing for me all that much.  Not much blogging; no real thought-recording.  I know that’s partly to do with the hour at which I tend to sit down to blog.  It’s also partly due to the fact that I’m verbose – I mean “loquacious” – for whatever effin reason, I can’t bring myself to write a 250-word blog post.  And certainly not during the work day.  WTF.  Everybody else does.

I really need a few hours to sit down and read – zone out from the world and get lost in fiction.  Soon, Ted, soon.

Anyway, I’m off to bed.  Here’s the video from Tuesday night’s Flogging Molly show of If I Ever Leave This World Alive (recorded on my iPhone – god I love that thing):

The other day, The Naked Redhead nominated me for a “Happy 101 Award” because she thought it was “hilarious to do so”.  This is kind of like a blogger chain-email thingamabob (I think).  TNR was nominated by Alex over at The Tell Tale Blog, and I was named in her post.  I think pingbacks are supposed to be involved here, but who knows whose are disabled and whose aren’t?

Anyway, here are the rules of engagement:

List 10 things that make you happy. Do at least one of them today. Tag 5 bloggers that brighten your day.

For those bloggers who get the award, you then link back to my blog and create your makes you happy list.

So needless to say I’m pretty honored that TNR named me in her post; it’s nice to be among such fine company.  I won’t mention that I’m so far the only dude I’ve seen in this love-train.  Ok, so it looks like I did just mention that.  Whatever.  Somebody’s got to represent the Y chromosome.  “Represent, reprezent-zent”, as they say in A Tribe Called Quest.

I made my list on the way to work today.  And thanks to my AyePhone, I was able to store it in my notes, instead of wrestling with pen and paper while driving.  Here’s what I came up with – and these are in no particular order:

1. Sunny Days
2. Hiking
3. Tools
4. Katie
5. Yoga
6. Meditation
7. Strong Coffee
8. Cigarettes
9. A Sense of Accomplishment
   
10. A Solid Beat
11. Friendship/Unconditional Love
12. Living Alone
    
13. Driving
14. Boobs
    
15. Paying Bills
16. Writing
17. Reading
18. Feng shui

Yes, I can count, and I know that’s not ten things.  But whatever:  I was brainstorming.

As I was going through this exercise, my thoughts turned to the nature of happiness.  What makes me happy?  Does money make me happy?  The things that money can buy me?  I don’t think so.  I think that material things in general kind of need to be excluded from the list.  For me, that is.  Because I’m a philosopher and a wordsmith and pretty anal about definitions.  And, in that spirit, for the purposes of this post, I will define something that “makes me happy” as “makes me feel good”.

So what’s happiness?  Happiness for me comes in two flavors:  overall and the short burst/realization kind.  Most of the things on the list above are basically of the latter kind – having them, being around them, or just knowing or becoming aware that they’re near is enough to create a feeling of happiness.  The overall happiness thing is a bit more slippery and tough to nail down.  Which is why I don’t think I’m going to get into it right now.  I’m not sure that – overall – I’m happy right now.  Nor am I sure that I’m not.  Maybe I’ll explore this subject another time.

This isn’t meant to be quite as heavy as I’m making it, but wtf, I’ve been having trouble uploading pictures, so I can’t post brightly-colored pics of flowers, red lipstick and nipples.

Anyway, here’s a crack at distilling the above into ten specific items, and thereby coming into conformity with the whole point of the fun:

1.  Sunny days are awesome.  They make waking up easy and I dig wearing my new shades.  Whatever it is about the sunlight hitting my retina, I’m a fan.  I don’t care if it’s cold or hot or sticky or what-have-you: if it’s sunny out, chances are I’m happy.

2.  Hiking was an easy one – but when I spent some time thinking about it, hiking doesn’t really make me “happy”.  I don’t go hiking for the sheer joy of it.  I like the sense of accomplishment I get from peakbagging.  Oh, the exercise is certainly good for me and leads to a wonderful combination of physical exhaustion and balance among my brain chemicals (and waves), but these are – again – of the short-term variety of happiness.  They are also, however, in my opinion, components of the “overall” type of happiness.  And since we’re talking about visceral things here, I’m going to go right ahead and lump boobs into this one, because they bring me a very visceral kind of happiness as well.  Or maybe I should just say the female form in general.  Mmmm.

3.  Tools make me happy.  Having the right ones for the job, etc.  My AyePhone, netbook, cordless drill, leatherman, hiking gear, and so on.  All these things give me a sense of being prepared, and they’re a joy to apply to the proper situation.

4.  Driving makes me happy.  Specifically, driving my stick-shift Mini Cooper between 60 and 90 miles per hour in moderate traffic.  Driving your car doesn’t make me happy.  I suppose this has something to do with a sense of being in control, but I don’t much feel like shrinking my own head on this one right now.  Oh, and strong coffee and cigarettes are a wonderful addition to driving.

5.  A solid beat makes me happy.  It never fails.  Preferably one seen and felt in a live environment.  Recordings are great, but actually watching an artist lay down a solid beat – whether on the drums, cello, bass or whatever – gives me a sense of participation.  In such an environment, I find it hard not to dance.

6.  I know I already mentioned a sense of accomplishment above, but I think it deserves its own number.  In fact, that number should probably be 1.  Pretty much everything that makes me happy (or “feel good”) in some way or another involves the production of a sense of accomplishment within me.  It’s definitely the #1 reason why I’m always so busy, and probably the main motivation behind just about everything I do.

7.  Yoga and meditation can go together because they’re inherently related.  Quieting my mind on a regular basis is another aspect of the elusive “overall” flavor of happiness.  And definitely something that I need more of right now.  Feng shui is also connected to this, because #7 here is as much about energy flow as anything else.

8.  My sister Katie makes me happy.  I know I’m better in small doses, which means that my doses of Katie end up being reciprocal, but that’s ok.  Reciprocal’s not the right word, but I hope you’re picking up what I’m putting down.

9.  Friendship and unconditional love make me happy.  Again, I think these are also components of the “overall” flavor that I’m missing in my life right now.  I don’t have very many friends – which is entirely a personal choice at this stage in my life, and I’m ok with that.  As much as I’d like to substitute a pretty girl’s head on my chest for Laila Jo’s furry-engine-purring when I (finally) go to bed at night, living alone is also something that makes me happy.  Not having to clean up after someone else and the resultant (relative) ease of maintaining my home’s feng shui are interrelated aspects of this.  While I haven’t actively severed ties with most of my recent friends, I haven’t done much in the way of maintaining the bridges between us.  Too many people have given me the impression that I’m really only good for whatever I can do for them, and that doesn’t make me happy.  I prefer the friendships that are based upon unconditional love – the ones where you’re buddies and that’s pretty much it, you know?  No strings, no quid pro quo.

10.  Reading and writing make me happy.  Both are kind of an escapist thing for me, but whatever.  I like reading fictions and writing facts.  Writing is cathartic for me, and reading is good for my imagination, which makes me more productive.  So does chess, but this post is long enough.

So that’s it.  Ten things.  Today, I spent some time reading, writing (in the comfortable feng shui of my apartment), and driving (fast, in moderate traffic, while drinking strong coffee and smoking cigarettes, listening to music with a solid beat).  I thought about calling Katie, but figured that was precluded under the “small doses” rule, given our interaction on facebook today.  I’m not even going to get into my usage of tools.

I’ll now do my best to tag five bloggers that make me happy:

Lauren Flax of the blog of the same title

Didi at Vodka Fuelled Diatribes

Sabrina at The Sabs.com

Samiantha at Being Samiantha

Jon Barker (aka “Barker Fett”) at JonMTM: A Private Lyricist

I can’t believe I was able to come up with five bloggers that quicly and easily.  What up, tribe.

Wow, am I exhausted.  I can’t even begin to tell you, dear reader, what a wonderful day today was.  On so many levels.  I’ve been blessed with gifts material and intellectual today that would take me hours to explain.  And, being that it’s four minutes after twelve in the ante-meridian on Sunday and I have a wicked-full day still ahead of me, I’d best keep it short and get some rest.

Jesus.  “Keep it short” is easier said than done for this particular nutjob.  So here we go, yet another attempt at brevity by the loquacious (not verbose) Ted Wallace:

Woke up at 6 this morning – an hour and more early.  I’m not an early riser.  Picked up the mail, which included a thank-you note from Margaret regarding last weekend’s baptism, a small packet from the Adirondack 46ers, and a birthday card from Wendy (for which I still need to finish punching out my thank-you email).  Coffee, taylor ham egg & cheese (salt, pepper, ketchup) on a bagel, and I was off to Baruch College in NYC for Wordcamp NYC 2009.

Got there just early enough to get registered and find a good seat for the opening remarks.

***And here’s where I would normally go off for about a thousand words on how much I learned today.***

Bloggers, developers – you name it, if they use WordPress, they were represented today.  The conference started at 9 and ended at 6.  Again, I can’t even begin to tell you all the cool things I learned and about the cool people from whom I learned them.

Left at 6, drove up to Katie’s apartment in Astoria, hung out with her for a wonderful half-hour or so, and then walked to the Czech place for dinner with the whole family.  A birthday dinner, I might add, so the cost to me was $0.  Mom brought me a bag with the 2010 Farmer’s Almanac, a pair of Merrill shoes, a merino wool set of long johns, some socks and a pocket book called “The Art of Peace”.  Dinner was excellent.  Garlic soup – need I say more?

When I returned home, I found a bag on my door handle containing all the mail I’d been missing for the past week or so:  the PSE&G bill, Edward R. Tufte’s Visual Explanations, the Hylauronic Acid capsules from PurityProducts, and (finally!) my business/calling cards.  They came out great – I was worried about shrinking the logo that much, but for naught.

I’m a very wealthy man.  My brain is just about full, and I still have a whole ‘nother day of WordPress knowledge to cram in there.  Tomorrow is #WCNYC all day again, followed by a quick jaunt home to shower and change, and then off to Metallica at Madison Square Garden with Katie, John and Danny.

I have absolutely no idea when I’m going to finish writing the copy for the website I started last Tuesday – but I’ll get it done before everyone returns to work on Monday.  And I have no idea when I’m going to clean my apartment and do the laundry.  Maybe Monday night.

I also have a doctor’s appointment on Monday at 1:45PM, and as far as I’m concerned, the forseeable future ends there.  Yay antibiotics!  After a week and change of being sick, I’m pretty positive that I have a sinus infection.  I can feel that little golf ball of sharp pain and pressure just beneath and behind my left orbital bone.  That started this morning.   What to do?  Overload on vitamins, water and food, and keep on keepin’ on.

I’m a f*ckin’ animal.  Now if I can just manage to get up on time tomorrow and not feel too much like the poo on the bottom of a trash-trucker’s boot.

The last few days haven’t exactly been kind to me, dear reader.  But I am grateful for them nonetheless.  My apologies for the lack of posts, but I’ve been sick as a dog.  Yes, yes, I know you’ve been hearing that from me for about a week now.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a cold/flu last this long.  Normally, I’m two days of fitful, sweaty sleeping and then a quick recovery spurred on by high caloric and vitamin intake.  Not in this case.  I haven’t even been driving myself as hard as I usually do – probably about 80%, which is a big pull-back for me.

I took the night off from blogging on Wednesday evening so that I could catch a few extra winks.  Went to bed around midnight (which is WAY early for me), and woke up feeling like the ass-end of an MSW trailer.  So I emailed in sick for the day and went back to sleep.  I didn’t wake up until about 6PM and was so dizzy and disoriented that I could barely take a shower before going back to bed.  Not the best of ways to go about fasting, I’ll tell you what.

I made it to work today (Friday) because I had to send out a handful of reports for one of the guys in my department who’s on vacation.  But man! did I not feel like being there.  As the day wore on, I felt a little better – which made me wonder if taking Thursday off was such a good idea.

In any case, I made it through today, even finishing off about half of the website copy I’d started on Tuesday.  I’m off to bed shortly so that I can be up early for WordCamp NYC tomorrow and Sunday.  WordCamp is a travelling seminar for bloggers who use the WordPress platform (of which I am one).  I’m psyched to meet some other bloggers.

Want to hear something stupid?

Too bad.  I ordered new business/calling cards for myself last week – maybe Wednesday or Thursday.  They haven’t arrived yet, even though I was very specific about including “Garage” in the address (I live in the carriage house behind the main house).  I got the “order shipped” email last Friday, but haven’t seen them yet.  When I got home today to find them still not on my doorstep, I checked the tracking number and found that UPS had delivered them to the “front door” on Tuesday.  Which means that they’re sitting in a pile of mail at the main house.  Whomever the current caretaker is apparently doesn’t realize that I’m here or doesn’t read the address labels as the mail comes in.  I wonder how much more mail I’ve missed.

I ordered the new cards because I’m pretty much out of my old ones, but also partly to pass out at WordCamp this weekend.  They have my logo, URL, and Google Wave address on them.  Now I just have to hope that someone’s home at 8AM tomorrow morning.  What a pain in the ass.

So that’s about it for me, dear reader.  If I’m not too shot-out from blog-info-overload tomorrow, I’ll update you later on in the evening.  Talk to you soon.

I’ve been giggling my ass off all night long.  And I’ve got Bob Marley playing on the stereo right now.

No, dear reader, I’m not pulling tubes in my apartment.  I’ve been having a great time on facebook with my buddy Matt Helmick (@IntegralHack on Twitter), and for whatever reason, I can’t blog to Marley.  I have no idea why, but my thoughts just don’t stay on track when he’s in the background.  I know these CDs back-to-front, so one would think it would be as meditative for me as anything else, but it’s just not.

Anyway, Matt and I bumped into one another via the yoga circles on Twitter.  After spending some time slinging 140 character one-liners back and forth, he found me on facebook.  And facebook’s functionality has definitely trumped Twitter as far as cross-country friendship-building possibilities go.

So yeah, before this gets to be sounding too gay – frig, I lost my train of thought again.  Damn you, Bob.

Oh yeah:  Matt and I have three fellow mateys on facebook (read: three friends in common – I view facebook in English (Pirate), so I don’t see things quite like you do):  Andrei Codrescu, Liz Wilhite and Jennilyn Carson.  Jennilyn came first – she also travels in the Twitter yoga circles as @yogadork; her blog is on my blogroll (down and to the right).

Andrei is some author for the New York Times or some such publication for The Man – I don’t remember.  I think Matt, Liz and I were going back and forth in Matt’s facebook comments about something Andrei wrote – so I friended him and passed his link along to them.  Liz and Matt are friends IRL, I think.  Somewhere in there, I friended Liz as well – her comments and status updates are dry and witty and totally fits her url slug “Satirica”.  Awesome.  I just noticed that.

I’ve been meaning to ask Liz for a cake recipe or two.

This evening, Matt’s sister Wendi posted a comment in the thread that Liz and I were in.  I chanced to mention to Matt that Wendi is H4WT, and he suggested a sister-swap.  Being ever the gentleman and protective brother I am, I of course declined, but said that I would certainly friend-suggest my favorite sister Katie (who always brings the awesomeness) to him, that we might have more fellow mateys.  Which I did.

And to my surprise, Matt also suggested Wendi as a possible swashbucklin’ matey fer me!  Will wonders never cease.  I am continually astounded at the bounteous synchronicity of this Universe.  It’s honestly a wonder that I’m still agnostic.

So if everything works as the Universe seems to have planned – totally independent of any meddling on our parts – Matt and I will, sometime in the near future, have 5 fellow mateys.  Oh frabjous day, caloo calay!

KATIE IF YOU DON’T FRIEND MATT I’M GOING TO SET YOUR CAR ON FIRE *AFTER* I COVER IT IN BOLOGNA.

Seriously.  I know you’re logged in to facebook right now.  JUST DO IT.

Stupid reggae.  Where was I?  Huh.  I totally lost my train of thought.  Again.

In any case, I’m off to bed now, to lay my head a-rest on that sweet pillow of balance in the Universe – the pillowcase being gratitude, of course.

My bad, dear reader.  Dogs and kittens, I’ve been unfaithful to you:  I’ve been spending my evenings writing for someone else’s website.

I picked up a copywriting gig earlier this week, and I’m still working on getting my arms around the different systems I need to use for it.  That, and writing website copy ain’t as easy as it seems.  At least, not yet.  I’m still getting back into my groove.

So please bear with me for another day.  I’ll have something for you soon, but not tonight.  As late as it is, this qualifies as cheating on my day job as well, methinks.

So feel free to blog in the comments and tell everyone what’s been going on in your lives…

It’s now twenty after one in the ante meridian on Monday, and I promised one of my co-workers (albeit only a few hours ago) that I’d be in the office at 8, so that means there’s really no time for me to blog.

Today was a beautiful day in NNJ.  I spent quite a bit of it just dozing in bed with Laila Jo.  Hence, I didn’t get to my weekend errands until later than usual.  I just pulled my laundry from the dryer and my cake from the oven a few minutes ago.

I could have finished everything on time, but I went into Astoria this evening to hear some live music and hang out with my awesome sister Katie.  I got to meet several of her friends, of whom I’d only heard stories.  And vice-versa, so it was a pretty cool evening all around.

Hiking on Saturday did not go as planned, and I can’t wait to tell you about it, dear reader.  But tomorrow.  Right now I need to put the sheets on my bed and crawl into it.  Suffice to say that my 5.5 hour trek covered four mountains before noon, and several more miles than I had originally planned.  And yes, it rained.  I’ll update you in about 22 hours.

Feel free to blog in the comments.  If anybody’s been following, I don’t think Miragi has responded to any of Brian’s advances yet.

Peace in our time.

Subtitle:  “One in a Million”

QuixoticJedi@GoogleWave.com

If you’re on Google Wave, feel free to ping me and we’ll connect.

After much searching and querying of my cyber-friends, I finally received a Google Wave invitation this morning.  Mammoth thanks go out to my buddy Ed Pirone, who effected the hookup.  Don’t try to find Ed and ask him if he has an more invites, and don’t ask me if I have an invite to send you, because we don’t.

Google Wave invitations went out a few weeks ago to 100,000 users.  I was in early with my request for an invitation, but I guess my personal statement wasn’t compelling enough for Google.  Those 100,000 original invitees were given 10 invitations each.  So there are a maximum of 1,000,000 people with Google Wave accounts.  And I’m one of them.  Wicked cool.

I got my invite this morning, so I’m not going to give you a review just yet, but it’s pretty fly so far.  For those of you who don’t spend enough time on the internet to know what Google Wave is, here’s the short video introduction:

And here’s the looooong video introduction:

Goddamn, if this blog gets any more self-referential, I’m going to stop reading it.  That said, what do you think about me installing BuddyPress on this site?  It would basically turn The Quixotic Jedi into a networking site – kind of like facebook or LinkedIn or whatever.  That means you, dear reader, would be able to register on this site and interact with your fellow readers without just flipping back every now and again to see if anyone commented after you.

You can already register yourself as a user – though the way I think that works is that you register with WordPress (notice those who have their own gravatars) and your info is imported over here.

I need to do some more research on this – it’s pretty involved.  It means I’d have to install WordPress MU (multi-user) first and then BuddyPress on top of it.  On the one hand, I’m not sure if my blog posts would necessarily still be featured front & center – which is a serious consideration for me ego-wise.

Pros (on the other hand) include increased functionality for you, dear reader.  Besides interacting with your fellows, I believe it would also give you opportunities to post content and set up an entire profile hereon.  I don’t know – is that something you think you might be interested in?  Would you spend a bit more time here, checking out what others have to say?  Do you dig your fellows – their comments, etc.?  Please feel free to let your opinions be known in the comments section – or email me separately: QuixoticJedi[at]gmail.com.

>>>

In other news, things are progressing for me in interesting ways.  Katie (my favorite sister) suggested to me last week that taking care of Laila Jo is probably a good thing for me.  She said that it’s good for me to spend time thinking about someone besides myself.  That it’s good for me to take care of someone.  Thankfully, I didn’t take this to mean “you’ve been wicked selfish lately”, which isn’t (I’m pretty sure) how she meant it.  Rather, Laila Jo helps me stay out of my own head and keeps me from getting completely wrapped up in my own concerns.

Christine has been stopping by more often to spend time with Laila Jo – and sometimes bringing nice people like Jeanne with her – so I’ve been socializing a bit more than usual.  It’s definitely a change to have more people besides just me walking in and out of my door.

On the upside, I’m a bit more social.  On the downside, my apartment can sometimes feel more empty when it’s just me and Laila Jo.  She’s a great cuddler, but she doesn’t have opposeable thumbs or the capacity for human speech, so she’s not really a big help in the kitchen.

I’ve been cooking more lately, too.  I’ve been making a bundt cake for my Monday night commitment every week for the past couple of months.  Tonight we had a potluck supper and I made chili (all day on Sunday), rice, cornbread, and a bundt cake.  I forgot how nice it is to cook for other people.  I haven’t done so since I was married.

I’ve also had to pick up some cooking implements – things I owned once-upon-a-time, but somehow lost in my many moves.  I really need a new butcher knife – cutting everything with a big-ass hunting knife may be intensely masculine, but it’s not as convenient as one might think.

I’m thinking drum circle this Saturday night with the full moon.  Anyone interested?

It’s after 1AM and I need to get my ass in bed.  I’m planning on leaving work early, so I don’t think they’d cotton too well to me getting in late as well.

Feel free to blog int he comments section.  One of these days, I’ll set up BuddyPress and y’all can be friends with each other here on this site as well.

Possible comment-blog topics:

1. Mondays Suck
2. I Heart Mondays
3. F*ck The People Who Blog on Topic #2
4. I’m in Love With Ted
5. My Favorite Post at The Quixotic Jedi
6. Other Blogs I Read
7. What I Did This Weekend

Unauthorized Comment-Blog Topics:

1. Internet Dating Advice For Ted
2. Anything That Resembles Topic #2
3. Why I Like Child Pornography
4. eHarmony Is Awesome
5. Join My Cause on Facebook
6. Things That Might Harsh The Mellow of My Fellow Blog-Commenters

I’m early this week.  Here’s my submission for this week’s writing assignment.  It’s due by midnight on the 14th, so you still have time to get your submission in.  Here’s the link to the instructions for this assignment.

Addiction

Hyde:  Ok doc, the formula’s ready.  Toss it off and let’s bounce.

Jekyll:  It’s not ready yet.

Hyde:  WTF, man!  You’ve been stirring that damned beaker for half an hour longer than usual!  What’s wrong with you – down it and let’s be off!  I’ve got one on the size of the Eiffel Tower right now, and I’m ready for some LUV!

Jekyll:  I’m not sure I’m going to need the formula tonight.

Hyde:  What are you talking about?

Jekyll:  I…I think I’m going to go out by myself this week.

Hyde:  WTF.  We go out once a week.  You know the deal, I’m your wing man: you set ‘em up, I take ‘em down.  (*snickers* way down).  You’re the brains, I’m the bod.  We’re the perfect combo – the perfect man – these chicks never know what hit ‘em.  You remember the twins from last week?  (*rowr*)  What were their names?

Jekyll:  In point of fact, no, I do not remember “the twins” from last week.  All I remember was mixing up the formula – I believe a bit stronger, at your suggestion – and heading off to the Latin Quarter.  I have a vague recollection of stopping off for a bite to eat, but beyond that…

Hyde:  It was effin awesome.  We stopped at a dive and weren’t even sitting down yet before you had their eyes – those chicks wanted you from the second we walked in.  Sure, the swagger was all me, but you set the hook with all that brainy shite you were talking.  Politics or some such.  I just reeled ‘em in and brought ‘em home.  Damn they were fine.

Jekyll:  That’s exactly it:  I don’t remember any of it.  What I do remember is waking up the next morning with one shoe, no money, and vomit on my trousers – which were still on by the way – and I was alone.  Where did “those chicks” go?

Hyde:  They played hard.  Hard players don’t stay around and cuddle in the morning.  Jesus christ, will you man-up already?  Drink the fuckin formula if you want to get laid tonight.  You know you can’t do it without me.  I’m the big-leaguer here, not your over-educated ass.

Jekyll:  I’m not quite sure I believe you.  All these stories you tell me every week about the week before – how ‘awesome’ it was and whatnot – I never remember any of these supposed encounters, and I’m still bloody single.  I’m tired of “getting laid” (if I’m even doing that); I want to find a nice girl to settle down with.  It’s what I’ve always wanted.

Hyde:  You’re a pussy.  You scared of girls, remember?  You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing around women.

Jekyll:  I’m not sure that’s entirely correct.  Yes, of course I get a little nervous.  I’ve just never tried to talk to women without the formula.  I think it’s time for a change.  The formula isn’t working.  I’ve tried so many different ingredients and measurements; I don’t think there are any combinations left for me to try.  This one I’m stirring isn’t all that different from last week’s – just a higher concentration.  I’m going to go out without it and try my luck being just me.

Hyde:  Look, buddy:  I admit, we’ve been on a pretty good run lately with the kind of chicks I dig.  Maybe I’ve been a little selfish about the whole thing.  How about we do this:  add a pinch more of the kitten-whisper from that jar up there, and it’ll take the edge off the experience.  I’ll take us out the way you want tonight.  No twins or couples for us tonight – we’ll pick up a reeeaal nice girl.  One of them librarian-types, ok?  I’ll be real gentle.  We’ll find one that’ll stay the night and you can make her your fuckin omelete supreme for her in the morning.  Hell, the two of us are unstoppable.  If that’s the kind of girl you want, there’s no way I can’t bring one home for you.  Tonight is all you, baby.

Jekyll:  Well…I’m not really sure.  You don’t think I can do it by myself?

Hyde:  Nope.  No offense, buddy, but you’ve got no spine – no balls – no chutzpah - and that’s what chicks dig.  Even the librarians.  I bring that to the equation.  We’re a team.  I complete you.  Your librarian-chick doesn’t want to date half a man anyway.  She wants a whole person.  That’s you and me.  Together.  I’m tellin’ ya, just add a pinch of kitten-whisper – or two if you’re that nervous – and we’ll be good to go.

Jekyll:  I don’t know…we haven’t tried the kitten-whisper before, and I’ve been wondering how that might affect the formula.  Do you think two pinches is too much?

Hyde:  No, I think we’ll be fine.  We can totally handle it.  And if it doesn’t work this week, you can try it on your own next week.  Go on, two pinches, toss it off, and let’s bounce.

Jekyll:  Right-o.  I’m sure the kitten-whisper is the missing ingredient.  True Love, here I come!

Random Words: Urban Dictionary Edition

Ok, so here’s my post for this week’s writing assignment over at Weekly Writing Assignment.  I totally forgot that today was the deadline – and hadn’t really planned on submitting this week anyway, but WTF, as the kids say these days:

Yo man, I’m totally down and out.  Nothing is going right, and everybody keeps calling me a fag. Example: the chick I was having phone sex with last night was completely fershnickered and kept asking me if I was some kind of fagal.  Even after I clearly explained to the bitch that all I wanted was to do some brodies on her nunga nungas with my neckbeard, she got all pissed and was like “fine, you little pain in the ass, why don’t you go do some fucking donuts with your dorky friend – you two uber queers are perfect for each other!”  I swear to god – soft eyes here – it was hella worse than the time that chick rickrolled me while we were camming it.  I mean look, just ‘cause I took the dirty dub from my homie for writing ‘hommie’ on Pookie’s schlong while he was passed out doesn’t mean I didn’t realize the bill was fake OR that I have a wide stance.  I mean, c’MON – I’m the decider of my faghood, not him.

I just want to get laid. Is that so much to ask??

There are fifteen random words in there from the Urban Dictionary.  You can find out which fifteen were the required ones by checking out this week’s assignment over at WWA.  There are a handful of others in there as well, including one I had to submit to the Urban Dictionary myself – bet you can’t guess which one.

Last night I finished Princeps’ Fury, the most recent installment of Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series.  It was pretty darned good.  I know that Butcher’s been cranking out novels for both the Codex Alera and The Dresden Files serieses as fast as he can – the Acknowledgements in Princeps’ Fury even say something along the lines of “thanks for all the help on such short notice” – but I think he’s getting the hang of it. 

There were bits here and there in both serieses where I could tell that Butcher had been rushing through.  But not in Princeps’ Fury.  In classic Butcher style, it gets off to a good start and is action all the way through.  I’ll give you a full review of the overall series soon.

Robert Brockway, my favorite Cracked.com writer, posted another beaut today, entitled 5 Amazing New Inventions (That Will Doom Humanity).  We’re all gonna die.  Soon.  If I ever get my hands on these things, that is.

Here’s an interesting (if long) article from BoingBoing about Gary McKinnon, a UK man who hacked into all kinds of US military sites.  Looking for information on UFOs and aliens.  He’s been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, which is on the Autism scale.  Not exactly Rain Man, but not Cole Trickle either.  That’s a big part of his defense right now.  I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it – I only know one person who’s been diagnosed with AS, and she seemed pretty normal to me (as normal as Twitter conversations can indicate, that is).  I think it’s kind of a flimsy/cheesy defense.

If you’re in the mood for something hip-yet-spiritual, head on over to YogaDork – and buy a “Yoga Is My Bailout” t-shirt:  I did.  I got mine in the original green, but there are now more colors available.  Yes, I know that last sentence should end with an exclamation point, but I really don’t like those.

I have to say, I don’t know that I qualify as enough of a #yogadork to be wicked interested in every damned post topic, but you can bet that I read that blog every day.  I dig the author’s writing style.  She’s pretty cool in person, too.  So yea, buy a shirt, you tool.  Matt Helmick bought one, and he’s a Drupal programmer.

Lastly, here are a couple of interesting feeds I recently pulled, though I haven’t had much chance to do more than skim a few posts:

Pornokitsch

Utter Wonder

They look good to me.  Let me know what you think. 

 Ok, one final thing.  This is totally #NSFW (Not Safe For Work – so don’t click it if you’re there), but my work-twitter persona is being followed by some total hotties (which are quite obviously porn bots).  Maybe they think my white collar and tie mean I’m rich, but I don’t care.  If you have any idea who (remember: NSFW) this is, please tell her I love her. 

Happy Hump Day.  I kind of can’t believe we’re here already.  This week, like this month, like the summer, like the year, has been flying by.  We’re just about 3/4 of the way through 2009.

So check it:

I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time messing around behind the scenes on this blog.  Joining things, trying out new themes, creating and nesting pages.  The Star Wars Twitter Must Follow List is almost complete.  It’s not as pretty as I’d like it to be, but feel free to stop by throughout the day today, as I will be adding new pages as I’m able.

That said, I really don’t have much to report in the meantime, because I’ve been doing a lot more doing than thinking.  Let’s have some links then, shall we?

My favorite surfer girl and friend Samiantha (of multiple comment fame) asked me for some good-reading blog suggestions today.  I mentioned Didi’s blog, which I’m glad to announce is back on the air after a fitful respite.  I also suggested Sabrina’s blog, which is always good for a mid-day laugh (more often than not, it’s an awww-sad rather than an awww-cute).  And of course there’s xkcd.com, which is also always good for a laugh – if you’re into nerd jokes and paid any attention at all in physics class – cartoons are also good for the verbally impaired.  And of course you’re aware of Weekly Writing Assignment (I missed the deadline for last week’s submission, but I’ll be submitting in time for this week’s assignment – you should too), and our favorite naked redhead TNR.  Thanks to WWA, I’ve also been trying to catch up with and follow Lauren Flax’s blog – I dig her writing style as much as I dig Didi’s.  I also read Samiantha’s blog, but I’m not sure whether she’d dig a plug or not, so I’m not going to give you the link right now.  Feel free to hit her up in the comments section and maybe she’ll point you in the right direction.

Also on my feeds and daily reading list are Cracked.com and Mashable.com.  The former is generally pretty darned funny and the latter helps me keep up with current events in technology and social media.

Oh and here’s a dude on facebook who will name his son Batman if his fan page hits half a million.  I fanned the page, and recommend that you do so as well, if you’re on facebook.  Feel free to write on the wall and say “The Quixotic Jedi sent me”.  I could use the publicity too.

So that’s it for now.  I need to go shake hands with the governor before I head off to bed, and it’s already almost 1AM.  Happy surfing this Wednesday, dear reader.

Ok.  So I’m sure I’ve mentioned this a couple of times already, but I’m looking for a new theme for this blog.  By “theme” I mean a new template – the overall setup and look of the blog.  Besides the fact that it’s time for a change, this theme won’t let me nest the pages, which is entirely incompatible with where I want to go with this website as a whole.

By “nest the pages” I mean have several pages behind a parent page – for example, if you look above at the tabs (Hiking, Internet Dating, Donations, etc.) – those are pages.  Web pages, in fact.  They’re entirely different from a post, which is what you’re reading currently.  That’s the idea behind the overall setup of a blog:  it’s a website that features frequently updated content.  So the posts are front and center.

If I wanted to put the Philosophy, Hiking, and Internet Dating pages under a single page called “About”, I can’t with this theme.  They’ll still show up as separate tabs above.  Which really pisses me off.  I want to add more pages, but don’t want a dozen tabs up top.

So this is where you come in, dear reader:  I’d like to solicit your help in choosing the next theme for this blog.  The overall framework for The Quixotic Jedi is called WordPress, so we need to find a WordPress theme.

Here’s how this will work:  Below are a handful of websites that offer (free) WordPress themes.  Click through them and find one (or more) that you like.  Then either copy and paste the URL (the web address – it’s way at the top and starts with “http://”) into the comments section or into an email to me (QuixoticJedi[at]gmail.com).  If you feel like it, tell me a little bit about why you think the theme(s) you’ve chosen are appealing to you and/or why you think they would fit well with the overall content and whatnot of this blog.

Depending upon how many submissions I get, I’ll cycle through them for about a week or so and let you – the readers – decide which theme we’re going to go with for however long.

Right now, the only requirement is that the theme have two sidebars – also called “three columns”.  See how there are two sidebars on the right-hand side?  I use kind of a lot of widgets (sidebar sections), and I think the double-sidebar is a good way to keep them from getting lost at the bottom of the screen.  Of course, I’m up for change, so if you really like a single-sidebar job, let me know and I’ll put some extra work into the setup.

So here you go, a handful of sites from which to choose a theme:

• WordPress.org (the official site)
• FreeWPThemes.net
• WordPressThemesBase
• Old Smashing Magazine Post
• ThemeSplice.com

If you’re feeling creative, you can also do a regular old boolean search (via Google or your favorite search engine) – just include the words “free wordpress theme” and whatever else you’d like to see (e.g. “yellow”) in the theme.

A word of caution:  I’ve found that the easiest to read display for the text is undoubtedly black on white – some of the darker backgrounds with lighter lettering may look cool, but they’re not all that easy on the eyes.

So go for it.  Let me know what you’d like to see.

I think about having sex a lot.  Not always with your sister, but often.  I sometimes think about having sex with girls who are only-children too (by which I mean no siblings), so the your-sister-thing really can’t be called a proper fetish.  Fishnets and stilettos, maybe.  I would think adding leather corsets into the mix probably crosses that line.  Asians, red hair, black hair, glasses, muscles, intellect – all of these can be fetishes in themselves, so I think I qualify as ‘normal’ by default.  I.e. I’m uncategorizeable by the things to which I’m attracted.

I woke up this morning with some nasty knots in my shoulders and a prevailing thought was that I need to get laid.  It’s been a while.  This thought proceeded to take me into the realm of casual sex dating sites.  I backed out of that for a minute and went to massage (sans hand-release – what kind of weirdo do you think I am?).  I backed out of that one, too.  I’m thinking more yoga.

If yoga doesn’t work (even though I’m sure it will), maybe I’ll get a massage.  The good lord knows I always have knots in my shoulders; I consider them almost a badge of honor.  I won’t deny, though, that I could probably use a massage – kind of like a good cleaning of one’s car – using rubbing compound (no pun, sicko) – where necessary, followed by a coat of wax.  And then, of course, regular washing and waxing for maintenance purposes.

I guess what I’m saying is that I need an overhaul in my physical-energy body relations.

Don’t get me wrong:  I’d certainly dig getting laid as soon as possible; I’m just not sure that casual sex is the panacea my sick mind is cracking it up to be.  The few casual sex relationships I’ve had in these 32 years have really been all-but fulfilling.

Yes.  Definitely more yoga.  And maybe some more new age stuff in my life.

I’m taking vacation days on Thursday and Friday.  I think it’s also time to do some hardcore junk removal from my apartment and spend some time tinkering with this site.  I’ve been thinking about a new theme – by which I mean the overall template for the blog – any suggestions?

Just a bit of whining today:

I’ll try to keep it short.  The whining and the post. 

I’m fairly well fed up with my damned crappy wi-fi connection at home.  It’s spotty and crappy and slow.  I tried to spend some time at my local Starbucks this evening to put together the new “must follow” list of Star Wars characters on Twitter, but I got ended up talking to my friend Arthur (with whom I haven’t spoken in quite a while).  His buddy from college was visiting, and between the two of them, I picked up a few internet/computer-related ideas.  I’m now considering loading Windows 7 onto my netbook, instead of Linux.  We’ll see.

So I will not be true to my word from Monday’s post, insofar as I will not have a new SW list posted today.  I’ve kind of re-thought that idea anyway.  I’m thinking about making the list into a page (or set of pages), rather than a post.  My last iteration “Star Wars Characters You Can Follow on Twitter” was a pretty popular post, but I can’t add any more to it – I’ve apparently exceeded the amount of data that WordPress will allow in a post.  Nested pages should be able to hold more data and be easier to keep updated.

In any case, I’m beat.  I’ll get the new SW list up tomorrow, but I really need to get some sleep tonight.  I’ve spent at least an unproductive hour since I’ve returned home, waiting for pages to load.

Until tomorrow, dear reader.

A Day in the Life of My Dog

(from his perspective)

6:52 AM:  I have to pee.  I have to pee.  I have to pee.

6:55 AM:  I HAVE TO PEE.  WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP I HAVE TO PEEEEEEEE.

7:00 AM:  I have to pee.  I have to pee.  I have to pee.  I’m peeing.  I’m peeing.  I have to pee.  I’m peeing.  I wonder what that smells like?  Smells like my pee.  I want to run.  I want to run.  I want to run.

7:05 AM:  I have to pee.  That’s a tree.  I wonder what that smells like?  Smells like someone else’s pee.  I’m peeing.  It’s my tree now.  Why is my human laughing?  What does pee-mail mean?  I want to run.  I’m running.  I’m not running.  I want to run.

7:10 AM:  I’m pooping.  Why am I pooping?  I’m sorry, human, I wanted to run.  Why am I pooping?  That felt good.  I want to run.  My back itches.  Scratch my back.  Ooh!  Rub my belly, human!  I want to run.

7:15 AM:  I want to run.  Around the block.  Around the block.  That smells interesting.  What is that?  I want to smell like that.  Smell like that.  Why is my human yelling?  I smell like that.  I smell gooood.

7:20 AM:  I want to run.  I like my smell.  Why is my human doing that?  I smell different.  I like my smell.  I like my butt-smell.  I can lick my butt.  I want to run.

7:30 AM:  Why is my human leaving?  Why is he leaving me?  I’ve been good.  I like treats.  Crunchy.  I want to run.  Water bowl.  I have to pee.  Take a nap.

Noon (ish):  What’s that sound?  Window.  Car.  Trees.  Fuckin cats.  BARK BARK BARK BARK FUCK YOU CAT YOU CAN’T TALK BARK BARK BARK STUPID FELINE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT FELINE MEANS BARK BARK.  Where did cat go?  Why did cat run away?  Why doesn’t cat want to be friends?  Fuckin cats.  I want to run.  Take a nap.

Mid-afternoon:  I have to pee.  I want to run.  I’m thirsty.  Water bowl waterbowlwaterbowlwaterbowl.  I can lick my butt.  Take a nap.  I like my human’s smell.  My smell is better.  I can lick my butt.  I can lick shoe.  Chewy shoe.  Tasty shoe.  Smells good.  Take a nap.

Early evening:  Water boooowwwwll!!  I have to pee.  I want to run.  Take a nap.  Lick my butt.  Take a nap.

6:30 PM:  My human is home!  My human is home.  Myhumanishomemyhumanishomemyhumanishome.  BARK.  BARK BARK BARK HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN I HAVE TO PEE I WANT TO RUN SHOES TASTE GOOD I SMELL GOOD FUCKIN C ATS LICK MY BUTT BARK I’M HUNGRY I WANT TO RUN WATER BOOOOWWWWWLLLL!!!

6:34 PM:  I have to pee.  Around the block.  Why am I pooping?  Pee-mail.  Fuckin squirrels.  I want to run.  What’s that smell?  Smells like my pee.  I’m peeing.  Dog park?  Dog park.  Dog park.  Bitches.  Bitches.  I have to pee.  I want to run.  Bitches.  Hump.  Humphumphumphumphump.  Why is my human yelling?  Dog park.  I’m running.  I’m running.  I’m running.  Water?  Pee.  Water.  I’m peeing.  Wow another dog.  Big dog.  I’m bigger.  Hump?  Smell his butt.  My butt smells good.  Lick my butt.  Hump.  Humphumphumphumphump.  Why is my human yelling?  I’m running.  We’re running.  I’m running.  I’m running.  Water?  Around the block.

7:08 PM:  Dinner time!  I want to run.  ROO-ROOOO!  FEED ME HUMAN!  ROOROOOOROOROROROROROROOOOOO!  Roo.  Feed me.  I want to run.  I’m eating.  I’m eating.  I’m eating.  Water bowl.  I’m eating.

7:19 PM:  Dinner time!  My human is eating.  My human is eating.  Drool.  He will feed me his food.  He will feed me his food.  My human you will feed me your food.  Drool.  Feed me your food.  I’m eating.  Water bowl.  I have to pee.  I want to run.

7:27 PM:  I want to run.  I want to play.  I want to play.  Human.  Rub my belly.  I want to play.  Fuckin internet.  BARK BARK BARK FUCKIN INTERNET BARK I WANT TO PLAY BARK BARK HUMAN HUMAN HUMANHUMANHUMANHUMANPLAYPLAYPLAYPLAY!!  Rub my belly.  My butt smells good.  We’re playing!  We’re playing we’re playing.  Play play.  My butt smells good.  Take a nap.  I want to run.

8:15 PM:  I have to pee.  I have to pee.  I’m hungry.  Human feed me your food.  I want to run.  I have to pee.  Around the block.

8:17 PM:  Why am I pooping?  Around the block.

8:26 PM:  I want to play.  Fuckin book.  My butt smells good.  I can lick my butt.

11:00 PM:  Around the block.  I’m peeing.  I want to run.  I’m peeing.  Around the block.

11:07 PM:  I want to run.  Water bowl.  I want to play.  I like treats.  Crunchy.  Time for bed.  Crunchy bed.  Why is my human yelling?  Crunchy floor.  I like treats.  I want to run.  Time for bed.  Move human.  My pillow.  Fuckin elbows.  Move.  Stretch.  I love my human.  Take a nap.

Check out Weekly Writing Assignment for the instructions for this submission, as well as for Weekly Writing Assignment #4.

F*ck a bunch of bullsh*t, dear reader:  I’m an expert procrastinator.

As any good for-tomorrow-er knows, justification and rationalization are indispensable tools in this art.  They need to be sharp and clean at all times if one is going to push things off successfully.

To wit:  I’ve known the subject of this week’s writing assignment since it was posted this time last week.  Did I write it right away?  Hell no.  Sure, I thought a lot about it; even made some notes in my Moleskine.  But I didn’t sit down to actually write it until tonight, about half an hour before it was due.

My rationale?  I’m way too busy.  Which is true (these tools don’t work if one doesn’t believe in them, dear reader) – but I certainly could have found the time somewhere.

Anyway, this week’s writing assignment is called “The Mirror“, and you can read the full description by clicking either of the links above.  Next week’s assignment was posted about 20 minutes ago, it’s called “Animals“.  Go check it out.  These things are wicked fun.  And they’re short – 300-word limits.  Which, as I’ve mentioned (ad nauseum, I’m sure), is tough for me.

And don’t forget to check out last week’s winner, The Naked Redhead – whom you will hopefully remember is a friend and supporter hereof.  Here’s her winning post.  Leave her some congrats from me in the comments section – I’ve already hit her up pretty much every way I know how.

So without further ado, procrastination, or verbosity, here’s my submission for this week:

Vanity

I just finished eating my fairly Spartan dinner of Dinty Moore beef stew and rice.  Rinsed the bowl and put it in the sink.  Sat back down at the kitchen table, book still in hand, head still in the story.  Pushed my chair back and rested my left ankle on my right knee as I sat back.

Something prompted me to look up at this point, and I looked directly into the full-length mirror leaning against the heater, which is next to the stove.  I don’t know who the man staring back at me is.  He’s clean-cut and good looking; relaxed in his t-shirt and jeans.  Behind him I see the ordered clutter of my kitchen.

And it strikes me that this dude is single.  For a moment, I’m comfortably surprised by this fact.  I mean, hell, I cook, I clean, I’m well-groomed and handsome.  My surroundings certainly don’t speak of decadence, but I’m making a decent living. Who wouldn’t want to be with the dude in the mirror?

Then I’m struck by the fact that the mirror isn’t all that clean – the image isn’t as crisp as it could be.  And this makes me think of this writing assignment:  how I my plan was to do something fancy to show off my intelligence.  Maybe an extended anlogy, describing the mirror itself instead of who it reflects.

The old mirror as a metaphor for the subject’s character: that intense bouts of scrubbing with many and varying detergents and implements for different short periods never seems to yield the shining result strived for; that the only way it’s gotten to this level of reflection has been through consistent cleaning on a regular basis.

So I sit here, alone, admiring my reflection.  Hell, maybe they’ll name a flower after me.

Check out the new “become a fan” (on facebook) button in the sidebar on the far right.  Pretty cool.  I’m starting to wonder if I’m painting myself into a corner with this theme.  That is, if I switch themes (the overall look of the site – the template), will I lose all my settings?  There aren’t a whole lot of themes out there with two sidebars – at least, not ones that I particularly like – so I’m getting a bit nervous.  Ugh.  I’ve been giving some thought to buying Thesis, but I really think that’s probably a waste of money.  Just a kind of dumbed-down, drag&drop way of coding – kind of like Blogger (dot com).

Jeez, am I a blog snob now?  Whatever.

I bought the Asus Eee PC 1005HA netbook today.  Haven’t had much time to mess around with it, but I’m looking forward to doing so tomorrow.  Which is actually today, as it’s now 3:30AM on Sunday.  I need to get my ass in bed, as I’ve an appointment at 11:30 and am not generally very good at waking up at a decent hour on the weekends.

I got home from Scott’s house at about 1AM and cleaned my apartment.  Mmm…rain-scented bleach.

I’m sure I’ll have more for tomorrow’s post – you can expect a Weekly Writing Assignment submission as well.  I think the next one is due Monday by midnight.  It has something to do with mirrors.

Anyway, I also owe Didi a couple of long emails, and I still haven’t finished editing Franco’s novel.  Hopefully the netbook will allow me to spend more time on the internet and take care of stuff like this faster - it’s a quick startup/shut down, and much lighter than my laptop.

Ok, so I totally had a bigtime blog post planned for today, but I live in New Jersey.  Seeing as how I don’t have a tv, crappy tribal tattoos, or some sort of non-natural tan, I’m required by the culture to deal with certain amounts of drama from time to time.  All in all, I suppose it could be worse.  I could actually have drama in my life – which I don’t.

In this particular case, the extremely drunk semi-ex-girlfriend of one of my closest friends will be sleeping on my floor (with her cat) tonight.  They’ve been fighting for a while now, so the breakup was pretty much inevitable – predestined, if you will. 

Needless to say, she’s been on the phone with him all night.  Yay drama.  Did I mention that they’re both drunk?

There are a couple of nice things about situations like this one:

#1, they don’t happen very often.  As I am drama-free, I’m also inexperienced therein, so it’s unusual for the Garden State to call upon me for such duties.  And yes, I have to do this even though I’m not registered to vote.  I have absolutely no idea how they find me.

#2, I’m allowed to say right up front (and all the way through) that “this is a one-time deal”.  Meaning, I don’t plan on being caught in this particular type of drama a second time.  Fool me once, shame on you (like tonight) – fool me twice, shame on me. 

So anyway, there’s my excuse. 

I can think of probably fifteen different things to blog about tonight, but only about two sentences for each.  I suppose, therefore, that you’ll have to pardon any disjointedness that may follow, dear reader.

Remember last Wednesday’s post?  The Weekly Writing Assignment (#1)?  Well check out who happens to be one of this week’s finalists:  none other than our very own (and very favorite) naked redhead.  I am speaking, of course, of THE Naked Redhead.  Here’s the link.  I think it’s quite an excellent piece.  And quite apropos, given TNR’s relationships niche.

Daniel has posted five or six other finalists, all of which I think are pretty darned good.  Three hundred words was a pain in the ass for me, but it seems that everyone else was able to do it easily and eloquently.  Ah, curse my damned loquaciousness.  (Note the clever euphemism for “verbose”.)  I think TNR’s is the best of the lot, but I suppose my prejudices lean towards hot chicks with red hair and no clothes.  All (attempted) cheekiness aside, I have to say that TNR’s piece definitely elicited an emotional response from me – which is, arguably, the only true purpose of any art.

Switching gears:

I’m pretty sure I’ve found my future netbook:  the Asus Eee PC 1005HA.  Now I just have to figure out how to pay for it.  Please note the “Donations” button up yonder and to the right (hey – the famous Jon Barker of the UK donated just this week).  I suppose that’s as good an excuse as any to spend a bit of time cleaning up my finances.  Overall, things are in pretty good shape; they’re just all over the place.  I’ll probably just wait until my paycheck hits at the end of the month (which, thankfully, is Friday) – if only to be on the safe side. 

The other (relatively major) purchase I’m researching is a portable GPS unit for hiking.  I don’t really need one to tell me where I am on the map, but I’d like to give my family some peace of mind while I’m off on my solo treks.  I’ve also seen said GPS units do some pretty cool things as far as tracking one’s hike goes.  I emailed my buddy Ralph Bressler over at CatskillHiker.com to ask his opinion, and he suggested I check out the Garmin GPSMap 60 line.  Ralph uses the Magellan eXplorist 400-something and has put together some rockin’ good web pages therewith.  Here’s a good example.  I highly recommend Ralph’s site for anyone thinking about hiking the Catskills.  Kudos to Scott for finding Ralph’s site.

So yeah, that’s about it for tonight.  I made it in to work on time (8:30) this morning, and I’m hoping to continue the streak for the rest of the week.  For all you #starwars twitterers out there, get ready for a new “must follow” list – hopefully to be posted in time for this upcoming #followfriday.  It won’t be as extensive as the previous list, but it’ll include the core members of the community.  DM @DarthTraya or @cadeskywalker if you think you’re core enough to be included – they’re heavily involved in the compilation process.

I’m taking the day off from work today.  It feels good.  I think I’m going to do fuck-all nothing.  I have appointments at 8 (AM – ugh), 2, and 3:30, for an oil change, haircut, and a tune-up for my meat suit, respectively.  In between, I might go shopping for some incense.  Most likely, though, I’ll just sit around in the sun and read.

Maybe I’ll just say effit and buy a netbook too.  I’ve been eyeballing them for a while and the conclusion to which I’ve come is that it doesn’t matter all that much which one I get.  As long as I’m comfortable with the keyboard and it has a wi-fi built in, I really don’t think I’m savvy enough to know the difference among the other features.

Sure the new Acer model that’s supposed to be coming out in August looks nice – dual boot, windows and google’s Chrome OS, but that’s bound to be wicked expensive.  I figure I can get what I need for about four Franklins.

I’ll be mailing off my tally sheet to the Catskill 3500 Club, and probably my notice to the Adirondack 46ers that I’d like to join their club as well.  That’s going to be tough – some of those mountains are 4 hours away.

Check out my Peakbagger page if you’re interested in seeing the mountains I’ve climbed so far.  Here’s the front-runners list for the 3500 Club peaks as well – notice it says “Complete!” next to my name.  Pretty sweet. 

I gotta tell you, dear reader, I’m a pretty happy camper overall.  Things have been good lately.  I’m sure that a big part of that is that I’ve been hiking lately.  I need the exercise – it levels out my brain chemistry.

So, apologies for the short post, but I’m beat and need to get up earlier than I do on a work-day.

Question for you, dear reader:  When I include links in these posts, they’re set up to open in a different window.  Is that cool or a pain in the ass?  Would you prefer that I set the links to open in the same window (you’ll jump from my page to wherever the link goes – not a separate tab, though)?

Oh, and before I forget (again) to put together an entire post, please click

HERE

and vote for @theMaraJade in this contest (click the + in her avatar).  It’ll piss the trekkies off.  I’ve been voting for @GeneralVeers and @Wilhuff_Tarkin as well, because they’re good tweeps too.

If there comes a time when your cyber-friends need assistance such as this, dear reader, please do not hesitate to call on me.  This may not be the most popular blog on the net, but my readers are loyal and active.  They’ll help you out when you need it.

Thank you – for past good deeds, and in anticipation of future ones.

Jeez, Diana must have heard my prayers for a muse.  I actually have a handful of things that I’m kind of excited to get done – which I’m sure will snowball into me getting done those things on my list that I’ve been dragging my feet on.

#1:  NetworkedBlogs on Facebook. 

I read a handful of blogs.  They don’t all update every day like I do, but they’re all interesting stuff.  At this point, you’re probably familiar with TNR and Didi*.  Being that (a) I read a lot, (2) not all of the blogs I follow update daily, and (d) they’re blogs (which means that posts are usually pretty short), I’m often left with a dearth of daily reading material.  Not that I spend hours and hours per day at work reading blogs – but it is important for me to take short breaks and get my head out of work-stuff over the course of the day.  This keeps me sharp and from being dragged into monotony while at work – I need to be able to look at my projects with fresh eyes every couple of hours so that I can evaluate my progress (et cetera).

Work-breaks aside, I’m looking for other bloggers with whom to interact.  Or just other blogs that I find interesting to read – things that make me go hmmm.  No, I don’t think C+C Music Factory has a blog.  I’ve spent quite a few hours browsing Blogger, Google, and GoogleBlogSearch for something – anything – that might catch my fancy.  Believe it or not, there’s not a whole lot out there under “philosophy” or “Mensa” in the way of blogs.  Nothing, that is, that isn’t incredibly dry.

So I was pretty psyched to find NetworkedBlogs on Facebook the other day. (Thanks $@bs for putting selecting me in your “author confirmation” endeavor.)  I set pretty much everything up on Facebook as far as this blog goes, and even added that nifty widget on the right (under the Donations widget), so that people can follow this blog via Facebook.  How the hell all this works, I’m still in the midst of figuring out, but wtf, it’s marketing – right?

Anyway, I’m psyched to check out NetworkedBlogs and maybe even start building a tribe of my very own.  At the very least, I’m hoping to get my Google Reader content to refresh a bit more often.

If you’re on Facebook, feel free to click that “Follow” button in the sidebar.

*Didi’s blog is currently eyes-only – I’ll probably talk about that another time.

#2:  Set Up a Work-Related Facebook Account

I started to do that this morning.  Facebook at work has been tricky over the past few months – it kept getting blocked and unblocked by our firewalls.  The same with Twitter – I enjoyed putting together a work-related Twitter account (@ProxyHound), even though I don’t use it all that much.  For some reason, I was able to start the process of setting up a new Facebook account, but I can’t seem to log back into it.  Whatever.  Maybe I can complain to the boss – it is work-related – and then I’ll be able to access both accounts while in the office.

#3:  My Finances

One of the ways I procrastinate my to-do list is to add more things to it.  Or at least start new things, the completion of which will eventually end up as items on my to-do list. 

I paid online those bills that I could yesterday, which entailed sending username/password reminder requests (I owe so may people money that I can’t always remember by which names they like to call me), and generally clicking just about every link on their websites, in an attempt to pay those bills.  So in addition to looking at the “pay bill now” pages, I also looked at the “overall” and “detail” pages…which led me to putting together a big spreadsheet with all of my loans, their interest rates, what payments I was making, etc.  Now I can mess around with them and decide whether to pay Sallie Mae $200 a month for the next 30 years, or – whatever, I’m not going to think about that too much right now.

I put together a budget sheet as well.  And I hate budgets.  It’s ok, I don’t plan on looking at it too much. 

Overall, the exercise was a good one for me.  While I’m certainly more of a left-brain, shoot-from-the-hip, and estimate kind of guy when it comes to pretty much everything, it was nice to see that my estimations don’t fall too far afield from my actual calculations.  That means that I’m not fooling myself about my finances and spending money I don’t have.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it.  For whatever reason, I decided to actually get out of bed this morning when I woke up (just before 6), instead of going back to sleep and barely waking up in time to be late to work.  I ran a few errands and hit the office around 7:30.  Which you’re damn-sure means I’m leaving at 4:30 today.  I’ve accomplished quite a bit in the office so far, though I wish I had been able to publish this post a bit earlier.  Oh well.

My circadian rhythms are way off.  Actually, all kinds of rhythms are way off right now.  I’m pretty sure that’s my fault, but I’m doing my best to find someone or something else to blame for it.

This post is going to get published sometime in the afternoon.  Which is really weird for me.  My posts are usually published around 1AM (because that’s when I finish writing them, not because I use the “Schedule” fxn).  I kind of miss my incense, incandescent lights, stereo and cherry Skoal right now.  At least I have a liter of water next to me, though the bathroom seems awfully far away.

Maybe I picked the wrong title for this post.  “Mojo” is a hoodoo charm bag.  I don’t think “Blogging Charm Bag” makes much sense.  Though, maybe those things listed above qualify.  Damn.  I’m also getting a pretty nasty picture in my head about Michael Myers and that whole Austin Powers (2, I think) thing where he “gets his mojo stolen”.  Yeah, I just shuddered a little.

Blogging from work is a little strange, too.  I kind of feel like I should be doing more actual WORK, but when I was at lunch with the owner of the company yesterday, he told me that I should be “relaxing” or “taking it easy” for the next couple of weeks.  Though I think he means “use your vacation days NOW, fool”.

So I’m feeling kind of guilty that I stayed up till about 2 last night, finishing off book #11 of The Dresden Files.  At least I’m done with that damned series until Butcher puts out another book.  Good series, btw.  I wrote a post about it – want to hear it?  Here it go.

So yeah:  Monday was a Monday and yesterday found me in the city for a meeting and lunch with said company-owner.  Friday we’re off because the market is closed and tomorrow we’re only working half a day because the supremely non-powerful powers-that-be decided that we didn’t need to work all day.  It’s not very busy at work right now – the busy season ended about a week or two ago.  Which leaves me with today, which is really the only real day that I can get done the 4 or so hours of work I need to do to stay on the ridiculously loose schedule that my co-worker has put together for this project that we’re doing together. 

Man, am I a control-freak or what?  If I were in charge, we’d have WAY more than 4 hours of work per week on this project.  I’m glad I’m not in charge on this one.

Anyway, I’ve spent most of today (after walking in an hour late because of said book-reading) reading Josh Allen’s posts over at Fireland and feeling sorry for myself as a writer.  I mean, this guy is good.  I’m also planning my epic review/ass-kiss post all about Josh’s site/werks.  Maybe tonight.  Maybe.

My cell phone crapped out on me last night and I’m kind of pissed about it.  But, as luck would have it, my favorite sister Katie and I have plans to meet at Garden State Plaza for dinner and the new Transformers movie.  Don’t ask.  I suggested dinner and all of a sudden it’s a effin party with Optimus Prime.  Whatever:  at least I get to hang out with Katie.

So my plan is to leave work a bit early today and check out the Sprint/Nextel store in the mall to see if they’re able to fix my phone.  Depending on how hot the chick is behind the counter, I’m prepared to spend between $100 and $200 on a new phone – though this one is less than a year old and there really shouldn’t be anything wrong with it.  Alas, there’s nothing human about Sprint/Nextel, so I’m fairly certain that my only choice will be to purchase a new unit.  Yes, I said unit (sicko).

So that’s it.  Have fun at wherever-you-are today, dear demographic-mine.  I wish I knew what you were.

My apologies, dear reader, I don’t have much to say this evening.  I just got home from work and my brain feels like mac ‘n cheese.  I feel like a wizard who’s out of magic.  I’m digging real deep right now, but there’s just no energy left in me.  My powers of analogy are failing me.  Say it ain’t so. 

If I count the hours right, 9AM to 1AM is a 16-hour day.  Holy shiz, batman.  All my good words and turns of phrase went into emails today.  I pulled off some really good ones – that whole “pen is mightier than the sword” thing isn’t wholly applicable, but people who have no reason to do what I ask them to do did what I asked them to do today.  Pretty cool.  I got an email today from the HNIC of corporate governance for a pretty effin large firm that said “…but what about what that major firm’s analysis?”  I replied – in a much more complex fashion than this: – “their analysis is wrong”.  And he was like “ok, Ted, I’ll take your word for it”.  Pretty cool.

Anyway, I’m exhausted.  Feel free to blog in the comments section.  Maybe DarthTraya will get back to War & Peace-ing it instead of being snarky today.  ;-)  Brian, feel free to dump in a few words about how you’ve been feeling lately – I haven’t heard from you in a while.  Scott, good suggestions last week in the readers-blog-in-the-comments vis-á-vis (which means face-to-face, for those of you who aren’t privy to those fancy french phrases) the whole who-are-you-and-what-are-you-about doo-dad.  Maybe we’ll even hear from Didi today.  And all you randoms from Twitter, now’s your chance to grab those fifteen minutes of fame.

So yeah, if you’re reading this, it’s the end of my words – click on the comments link above and see what the other readers have to say.  If there’s nothing there, congrats, you get to be the first and everybody after you will read your comment and probably use it as a jump-off for their comments.  So please, try to say something fun.

Peace out, nuckas.  I’m for bed.

Hearken unto me, dear reader: 

My wi-fi died last night at about 1AM – or rather, my connection to my neighbor’s wireless router was on the fritz – so I wasn’t able to put a post together for today.  I left work at about 11PM and was exhausted anyway, so I took the malfunction as a sign from the goddess to get my skinny white ass to bed.  She was kind to me in my dreams, though I don’t remember them.

So please accept my semi-humble apologies.  This doesn’t happen often (maybe twice in this calendar year), so I hope you’ll forgive me my dereliction, dear reader.

Please feel free to guest blog in the comments section – I’m sure Vegan Success Story Scott and possibly even the ever-inappropriate Brian will have something to say.

Tomorrow’s post: “Yahoo! Personals Blows”, by request from Tomers.

Hi Carrie!  Heheee – I’m going to blog to and about you for a bit.  ;-)

My friend Carrie Cleaver posted an interesting comment to Sunday’s post that hit the nail on the head as far as some of my thoughts of and at ReUnion went.  Carrie and I follow each other on Twitter; her blog is called Mindspeak.  Check it out.  I dig the way she structures her thoughts, both in 140 character segements and longer.  She’s a reader and a writer and fun to converse with.  Sometimes she listens to Slayer when she blogs, and sometimes her avatar is Betty Page; my kind of girl.

If you’re too lazy to click the link and read her comment, here it is:

So many of us think the same, and aren’t even aware of it. I bet half the people there at that gathering were thinking the same thing. Blogging from Blackberry. Darn, now I’m going to have to think on getting one. =)

Like I said, right on the money, Carrie. 

I was very comfortable in my interactions with the active brotherhood of the fraternity – they aren’t all that much different from the guys I pledged with and lived with during my years at Union.  Conversation was easy and the silences weren’t awkward.  I’d never met any of them before, but felt as though I’d lived with them for the past couple of years. 

Going down to the “young alumni” reception, however, was a different story.  I can be outgoing or reserved in those situations.  In the case of this past Saturday, I’d already bumped into enough of my old classmates that I really didn’t feel like recounting the highlights of the last ten years in a breath over and over again.  I was already kind of emotionally tapped out.  Plus, I hadn’t really eaten much of my dinner – I was too busy talking to Goloboy and Lauren and giggling at the kids’ antics.  Thomas had me pretty well trained – he’d screech for something across the table, I’d hand it to him, he’d throw it on the floor, and I’d pick it up and give it back to him.  And repeat.  I should probably give some thought to being more unpredictable.  It was really something to see his little smile when the world worked out the way he thought it would, though.

Anyway, I had told Goloboy I’d meet him at the function, and he was really the only one I had any interest in catching up with.  As Carrie said, I was very cognizant of the fact that everybody else at the cocktail hour was probably having similar thoughts to mine – how much money does he/she make?  is his/her spouse hot?  do they have kids?  et cetera.  If I were feeling outgoing or bubbly, I’d be bopping around, all hail-fellow-well-met and making little self-deprecating jokes to lighten the mood and get people more comfortable with themselves.  But I wasn’t really feeling that way at that point in the evening.  I just felt like watching, and hoping that maybe my facial hair or something would keep people from recognizing me right off the bat.

The other thing that led to my reserved feeling was that I’m not the same person I was back in college.  I don’t do all the crazy shite I used to anymore – and that’s what people remember.  Or, at least, that’s what I expect them to remember.  And that expectation was borne out a couple of times during the day – for example, when Zandman asked if he could see the scar from where I stitched up my hand.  I bit back the temptation to show him the other scars where actual doctors had done the stitching.  Ha! – my thumbprint on my right hand is forever uneven because a certain African pediatrician named Ofodile working the emergency room shift in DC general was too nervous to line the print back up.  Or maybe it’s because I talked to him the whole time and wouldn’t let him concentrate.  Fun story, but not really the impression I’m looking to convey at this point.

So thanks for pointing out that everybody else at the function was probably having the same thoughts I was, Carrie.  It was something I was definitely thinking about, and would have blogged, but just didn’t get around to because it was so late when I put the post together.

Oh, and I dig my bby.

And that’s it, dear reader.  If you didn’t click on the link to Carrie’s blog way back up there, here it is again.  Check her out.  Pretty interesting stuff.  Leave a comment, tell her I sent you – it’s like eGraffiti.

One of my favorite people to follow on Twitter is @absolutspacegrl.  She’s a rocket scientist – literally.

She works for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston TX and tweets about what’s going on at NASA.  And unlike most “famous” people on Twitter, she’s engaging.  By which I mean it’s possible to have an actual conversation with her.  She talks to her followers and answers their questions – anyone from moms with kids who want to know about rocket ships to hardcore amateur astronomers with technical questions. 

Like most kids, I thought NASA was the coolest thing when I was young.  To think that people actually got into rocket ships and went to the moon was incredible.  There was a time when I wanted to be an astronaut, just like everybody else.  I read all kinds of stuff about NASA and spaceflight.  It’s no secret that I’m a huge sci-fi buff.  I wouldn’t be such an avid reader of science fiction if it weren’t for learning about NASA as a kid.  As I got older, though, sci-fi took over my reading schedule because it was so much more interesting to read about than NASA in the newspapers.

Following @absolutspacegrl on Twitter has rekindled my interest in what our country actually does with all that money that goes into the space program.  As a Future Billionare of America, I can say that I plan strong support for NASA later on down the road.  Though my pocketbook isn’t currently available to support NASA, my voice is.  I’ve met some really cool people on Twitter, strictly because we find @absolutspacegrl‘s tweets interesting.

When the shuttle Atlantis lifted off on its mission to service the Hubble Telescope and the biggest outlets on the internet froze up, @absolutspacegrl‘s tweets kept us all in the loop.

The thing I admire most about @absolutspacegrl is that she loves her job.  She’s on Twitter because she wants to tell the world how cool NASA is and how much she enjoys working there.  I dig my job, sure; I even have a Twitter account set up for work-related stuff.  But I don’t tweet on that account nearly as much as @absolutspacegrl tweets on hers.  She lives and breathes spaceflight, and I think that’s wicked cool.

If you’re on Twitter, I highly recommend following @absolutspacegrl, whether or not you’re into stuff that deals with space.  She’s a great person and always deserving of every #followfriday she gets.

You can also check out some of the mentions of her here.

PS: #saveabsolutspacegrl

I’m not so sure that I’m psyched for this to be a short week.  Yes I am.

This was definitely a good weekend.  I got the rest I needed.  I was talking to my friend Mike this evening and said that I’m hoping my motivation hasn’t completely disappeared – that I’ll be able to jump back into work with both feet.  I have a lot to do in the next four days – especially Tuesday.  A 10PM conference call with Taiwan makes for a long day, especially when I’ll be the star of the call.  I have some general outlines for a report that I have to put together, discussing this year’s project in light of last year’s.  Given all the things I have to do for this year’s projects, spending time re-analyzing last year’s project feels like a real waste of time.  I’d rather be working on things coming down the pike than reminiscing about what’s past. 

But it’s not my job to whine about reasons; my job is to get the report done and kick ass on the con call.  Not a problem.

Mike said with a good amount of surety that he doesn’t think I’ll have a problem getting right back down to business when I walk in the door at work on Tuesday.  And Mike knows me pretty well.  I don’t think I will either, but I’ve been struggling with that whole self-doubt thing ever since I dredged up my Psychic Encounter in Sedona last week.

I can still see the pain in the psychic’s face when she said (multiple times) “so much self-doubt”.  I guess it’s more the memory of that than anything else – it’s kind of echoing in my head.  Especially when I’m – duh – doubting myself.  I’m either doing it more lately or I’m noticing it more. 

I’m trying to get away from doubting myself – I really thought I’d gotten past it, but maybe I can chalk this up to a character defect that I’ll never truly get away from – part of my karma. 

Though I’m trying to get away from it, I don’t want to do it in the way I normally would: puffing up my ego with bullshit affirmations.  Lying to myself that I’m right all the time.  The best thing I’ve been able to come up with so far is to ask questions of those around me when I’m feeling doubtful about my thoughts and/or contemplated actions.  Keep things out in the open – bad ideas die when they hit the fresh air.

It’s a tough balance, though, especially when it comes to work.  Besides the fact that I work for a consulting firm and we’re supposed to know what we’re talking about, I’m also trying to move up in said consulting firm.  It sure ain’t the jungle, but that doesn’t mean I can afford to display meekness or weakness.

Anyway, enough whining for now.  I’m off to bed to get up at a decent hour – I’ll kick more ass if I’m at work early.

On a side note, a funny thing happened after I published my psychic encounter post on Friday night:  fifteen minutes after the post was published, I received an email notification from Twitter “ED (TedsSpiritGuide) is now following your updates on Twitter.”  When I checked the URL (twitter.com/TedsSpiritGuide), I got the “this page doesn’t exist” notification.  I got a kick out of it.  When my posts are published, the link is also auto-tweeted on Twitter.

I checked my stats plugin, but the only info it displayed was an IP address in Laguna Beach CA (which is where the server is located, not the person).  Anyway, it turned out to be my buddy Matt Helmick (@IntegralHack) effing with me.  We shared a good laugh over Facebook (he’s in Walla Walla WA). 

A few weeks ago, Didi and I did an “eSocial Experiment” that worked out pretty well.  It was a lot of fun for both of us and our readers as well.  Though Didi and I know each other much better now, back then we only had vague impressions of one another via our blogs and Facebook profiles.  We each wrote about the other and coordinated our posts so that they were published at the same time.  Both were pretty accurate descriptions of the other.

I was discussing internet- and multiple-personalities with a fellow blogger yesterday afternoon.  We talked about how some of us are way out there with who we are in real life, and some of us prefer our anonymity.  Not to say that we “hide” behind our cyber-egos, but rather that we prefer to project an image of a character and maintain that character’s consistency and continuity.  Twitter is a good example of this.

I suppose I’m somewhere in the middle.  I regularly post the link to my Facebook profile on Twitter, and am not particularly shy about people finding out more about me (e.g. last name, hometown, etc.).  You can even find my LinkedIn profile on the Cyber-Ego page of this blog, though I’ve since removed the link to this blog from my LinkedIn profile.  Not entirely consistent, I know, but hopefully not entirely hypocritical either.  I have work and personal Twitter accounts – though to tell the truth, I hardly use the work-related one.

So what I’m wondering is if there’s anybody out there in the blogosphere, Twitterland, Facebook, MySpace, or any other social media network that would like to participate in another eSocial Experiment here at The Quixotic Jedi. 

Do you have one personality at home, and another on the internet?  Do you, like me, have a regular and fairly mundane day job, but an exciting life on the internet during your off-hours?  Would you like to tell your story to the world?  Would you like to “out” yourself?

I think we’ll play this kind of like we did Rap Appreciation Week – only with fewer rules.  We’ll keep this wide open – all you need is more than one “you” on the internet.  Do you have separate usernames on Twitter for work and for play?  Then you qualify.  Do you have a Facebook or Myspace account for your personal life, and one for your business?  Do you have a couple of different blogs with different niches?  You qualify.  Do you have a couple of internet dating profiles – one for “just sex” and one for “a serious relationship”?  You qualify.  As Hutch said to Starsky “I’ll take anything.”

Shoot me an email in the next couple of days: QuixoticJedi[at]gmail[dot]com.  Tell me about your Cyber-Egos.  Anything you like.  This will become a blog post, so the more information you give me, the better.  If you’d like to stay anonymous, that’s fine, I won’t publish anything without your permission.  I’ll keep this open for about a week or so – this won’t be a contest per se, it’ll just be an opportunity for you to showcase yourself here on my 100-reader blog.

No perverts, please.  Perconoclasts are ok, but I can’t condone kiddy porn or anything of that nature.

Time flies.  These last few weeks have passed so quickly my head is spinning.  Every day is like a lifetime in and of itself.  And I gotta tell you, dear reader, that I am currently living in gratitude.  So much cool shiz has happened in the last few weeks – I’d really love to tell you all about it, but how does one encapsulate so many lifetimes in a single post?

I almost wish you could sit next to me, day and night and watch the pages flip by through my browser tabs; see this WordPress dashboard with me and watch my interaction with it.  You are the cause of most of that gratitude, dear reader.  You are also the reason I’ve been getting very little sleep of late, and for that I thank you.  Life is effin awesome right now. 

This will be a short post, and I’m almost sad that I’m seemingly wasting such a good title on a simple and abrogated stream-of-consciousness.

I’ve made some excellent new friends in the past few weeks, almost all of whom have multiple internet personalities – just like me.  I really hope to have some time to write a series of “Cool People I’ve Met on Twitter” – if the words in quotes are a link, then you’re currently reading a time-capsule that actually bore fruit.  Interesting people, intelligent people – I feel so blessed.

So I’m going to jump and spend some more time on other portions of this WordPress dashboard.  Check my blogroll in the sidebar for a few new additions.  And check my tweets for the #followfriday hashtag from yesterday - wander around there for a bit if you’re surfing the net. 

Join a Forum and Start Participating

Is today’s task for Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog“.  Ef me, I joined two Star Wars forums: Star Wars United and the official Lucas Online Star Wars Message Board - from which I can also access other great LucasFilm boards like the one for Indiana Jones.  L. O. L.  (I also joined StarWarsForum.net, but it wouldn’t let me log on, even after clicking all the links in the confirmation email.  Boo.)

I’m still not a Star Wars Geek, but heck, if I do much more around the “Star Wars Characters You Can Follow on Twitter” post and keep checking the Star Wars Wiki in order to communicate intelligently with my #starwars friends on Twitter, I just might qualify as one sooner than I think.

Without getting off on too much of a tangent, I’d say that what I got out of today’s exercise is that I actually tried to find a forum that would relate to my audience.  The #starwars characters post was extremely popular, so I may as well capitalize on that for a bit.  I think this is a better idea than trying to find some esoteric philosophy forum with stuffy intellectuals like me. 

Case-on-point:  I joined a blog forum sometime last week called Bloggeries, but that seems to be a bunch of bloggers trying to drive people to their sites.  Besides, I have to comment on others’ threads like 20 times or something before I can post anything. 

I posted the link to my #starwars characters post on the two Star Wars forums I joined.  I’ll let you know if I see any traffic from them.

My username on all three of these forums is “niceguyted” (go figure), if you feel like looking me up.

I’ll keep joining forums until I find one I like – which means even MORE time spent on the internet.  Yay!

Interlink Your Old Blog Posts

…is today’s task in Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” experience.  Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.  If you haven’t yet had a chance to watch that video (or read the words around it), don’t do either while you’re at work – you might get in trouble.

I realize that I’m totally copping out on this one, but it took me FOREVER to do my taxes last night.  And I’m pissed at the federal government.  I mean, it could have bought me dinner first.  Or done me the courtesy of slipping me a mickey or some Rohypnol.

I paid over 6 grand in student loan interest last year – which is theoretically tax-deductible.  Guess how much they let me deduct?

$832.  WTF.

And, to add insult to injury, between fed and the Garden State, I’m now $1,048 lighter than I was yesterday.  What do the kids say these days?  “Fuck my life”?

Ach.  Whatever.  It’s only money.  Have I mentioned that nifty PayPal icon on the right lately?  Please feel free to donate to your heart’s content.  At this point, I’m not sure that I can say it’ll be tax deductible, though.

Ok, there’s actually an old post of mine that’s been running through my head that I think you might want to check out.  It’s about relationships, and it’s called “The Missing Piece Meets the Big O (by Shel Silverstein)“.  You can tell by the font and whatnot that I posted it very early in my blogging career.  Normally, I’d fix the html, but I think it’s an apropos reminder (for me) of what a learning experience this blog has been.  It took me forever to get that post moved over from the blog section of my myspace account – mostly because I couldn’t figure out how to fix the font size, etc.

Another fun piece I found from a little while ago is called “It’s Time to Ramble On“.  It’s meant to be a multi-media experience – if you set it up right.  I’ve definitely received some compliments on it, so I hope you like it.

Write a Link Post

Day #7 in Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” event, and I’m already behind.  Jeez, this is a lot like school.  Back then I was trying to balance too many things at once – I guess some things never change.  I know you haven’t seen Day #4 yet – that’s because it’s “Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche“, and I still haven’t figured out what my niche is.  By analogy, that task is kind of like saying “explain your conception of god”.  Dang. 

I’ve decided to link to Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist blog.  Scroll down and scan to the right and you’ll see it’s been added to my blogroll.

Here’s why I decided to link to Chris’s blog (don’t watch this at work):

 
Study: Children Exposed To Pornography May Expect Sex To Be Enjoyable

While I thought the main topic of discussion in the video was funny, I can see how some people wouldn’t get it.  If you’re one of those people, maybe this is the time to delete my RSS feed and start following someone else’s blog. 

I was particularly impressed with the discussion at the end of the video regarding the post-homicide disposal of prostitute corpses.  I think the newscasters make some excellent points about how it’s not as easy as the movies make it out to be, but I also feel the need to point out that practice makes perfect.  Like anything else, body-disposal is at first a daunting proposition and seems to take forever.  I can assure you, dear reader, that after a few (albeit nerve-racking) tries, this task becomes as routine as brushing one’s teeth or shaving.  Once a modicum of efficiencey is achieved, one can then even begin to add a bit of “flair” to the task and it becomes thoroughly enjoyable.

I found Chris’s blog on Twitter.  Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) follows about 27 people, and Chris (@nerdist) is one of them.  I dig the layout of Chris’s blog – it’s simple and to-the-point.  I’d like to do something similar – if I ever finally manage to sit down and code myself a new theme.

Who knows if Chris will link back to my blog, but I left him a comment with the URL for this post and I’ll hit him up on Twitter as well (probably Al, too, since I’m following him as well).  I also friended him on Facebook.  I’ll grab Chris’s RSS feed when I get to work tomorrow and follow his posts for a bit.  I haven’t read through much of his blog, so I may decide that it sucks later on.  Two things I was particularly impressed with were that many of his post-titles looked interesting and that the first post I saw caught my attention.

Chris, if you’re reading this (and got this far), what say you hook a blog-brother up with a couple of tweets and maybe a link-back?  Thx, bro.

What the hell?  Chris, if you’re reading this, please also check out the “Support” heading in the right-hand sidebar – maybe hook a blog-brother up with some PayPal love, too?

Email a Blog Reader

…is today’s task in the “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” event.  It’s actually something I already do – so I paid special attention to Darren’s tutorial when he said that most people just roll their eyes when he suggests this.  While I wasn’t rolling my eyes per se, I was thinking I’d get a day off and not have to do anything.

However, as I’ve heard before “SEO/SEM is a journey, not a destination” – the same goes for making this blog better.  Just as I can’t get by today on yesterday’s shower, I have to do something today to build a better blog – that’s the point of the exercise.

Emails Today

I have a few readers who regularly comment on my posts.  Sometimes, I’ll reply to their comments, but it’s rare that I email them – they’re regulars, they’ll be back…right?  Emailing the new-commenters is a no-brainer.  I’m always hot for a new email address and something to talk about.

Today I emailed my regular commenters.  I thanked them for their comments and did an in-general check-in.  I also emailed someone who used to be a regular commenter, but from whom I haven’t heard in a while.

Other Recent Emails

I’ve also been back through my comments to see if there were any commenters I hadn’t emailed.  Surprisingly, there were a few.  I cross-referenced my comments with my sent emails (which was a bit more time-consuming than I expected) and sent short thank-you emails.  I’ve also set up an auto-signature on my gmail account to include my website and twitter URL.

I’ve had some good conversations via email with some of my commenters.  I’d definitely consider some of them friends.  I’ve even friended a couple on Facebook – we now ”talk” regularly via that medium.

I’m giving some serious thought to setting up a separate profile page for The Quixotic Jedi and uploading my gmail contacts list to it.

This is probably as good a time as any to mention in an actual post that I’m all about paying off my student loan debt.  You can read more about that up top in the About and Donations tabs, or just swing your eyes to the right and drop something in the PayPal bucket under the Support heading.  Ten bucks is just a suggestion – I’m equally happy with more or less – it’s your choice.

Having got that out of the way (and before I come back to it), I’d like to express my undying gratitude to you, dear reader.  You keep me coming back to this WordPress dashboard every night, hoping to put together something you’ll get a kick out of.  And you keep me coming back to this dashboard all day long, to read your comments and see if you’re having as much fun as I am (I intuit this via my stats plugins).

My friend and fellow blogger The $@BS loaned me that ever-popular “new age hooey” book The Secret, which I’ve been reading over the past few days.  No worries, I don’t plan on getting into a wordy discussion of the law of attraction and how it’s working for me.  But I am going to try a little experiment:

Here are links to authentic *.pdf and html copies The Secret blank checks, drawn on the Bank of the Universe. 

Print one out, make it out to yourself with the details of how much money you’d like to receive in the near future, and place it in a location where you can look at it every day.  When you see it, “feel the feeling of having that money now”.

And when you receive the money, come back here and drop me a Hamilton, or a Jackson, or a handful of Franklins.  I’m feeling the feeling of it working for you and my PayPal account filling up as we speak.

The title means Day #3 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m participating in this event sponsored by ProBlogger Darren Rowse.  Today’s task is to promote a blog post.

In many ways, I’m still a newbie blogger.  Even so, I’ve definitely jumped in with both feet.  I joined Twitter for the specific reason of promoting my blog, and some of my friends on Facebook are getting so tired of seeing http://QuixoticJedi.com in my status updates that I’ve resorted to using tinyurl.com as a kind of indirect-marketing tool. 

I’ve created profiles on several other sites as well - I have a free blog on Blogger that I update every once in a while, but use primarily to push readers here to The Quixotic Jedi.  I’ve joined Digg, del.ic.io.us, Technorati, and several other social-media-type sites in an effort to get my URL out there in the public eye.

To promote yesterday’s post, I blasted the URL all over Twitter and started conversations with a few of those on my list that seemed most active- specifically to ask whether I’d missed anyone while compiling my list.  There were a few characters that I missed, and I promptly added them and alerted all parties that the list was updated.  I also used the Twitter hashtag #starwars in a few of my tweets to make sure that they could be picked up on the public timeline.  This went over well, I think.  My hits for the day were sky-high.

Special thanks to

admiraldaala / Admiral Daala

for her help, suggestions, and RTs (re-tweets).

And to

theMaraJade / Mara Jade

for having such a hot background.  I couldn’t stop thinking about her character all day.

I definitely got good feedback from the Star Wars Geek community – and from some SWG groupies, as well.  I tried to be as fast as possible with my responses, even though I was having trouble getting my @replies on Twitter for most of the day (and I have a day job, so I had to do some of the work for which they pay me).

Other marketing tools I used were:

• Posting ads on craigslist.org in the San Francisco Bay Area under the “rants/raves” heading.  I posted both Star Wars Characters You Can Follow on Twitter and Death to eHarmony(another relatively popular post).    My stats plugin counted 37 and 18 incoming hits, respectively, from these links.  The CL suggestion was by my friend and fellow blogger The $@BS.
• Tweeting directly to @GeekTyrant and sending a link-baiting email to the site‘s admin.  @GeekTyrant has about 9,000 followers on Twitter (by contrast, I have 535 as of the time of this post.
• I also googled “Star Wars Twitter” to see if anyone else had compiled a similar list – no one had.  Aside from links directly to the various characters, there were surprisingly few blogs or other websites that related specifically to these keywords.  I found a couple of blogs and posted the URLs to my site and yesterday’s post in comments to other relevant posts.

I think the biggest thing I got out of Darren’s tutorial today was that I really shouldn’t be looking to market every single post I write (especially since I post every day).  Rather, I should pick a few of the better posts (such as Star Wars Characters You Can Follow on Twitter and Death to eHarmony) and market them.  I found that those links were enough to get people to look at my site; once they were there, they looked at other posts as well.

Yesterday was my best day ever.  I have a steady following of about 40 readers – I usually see between 30 and 60 hits per day.  By 1PM EST, I had over 100 hits (my previous best day was 125 hits); this was just after the CL ads were posted.  By 5:30PM I had 175 hits, and half an hour later I was at 341 hits.  This was due to Twitter RTs from @admiraldaala, @theMaraJade, @dayofthejedi and @GeneralVeers and the tweet by @GeekTyrant.  When my WordPress Stats plugin cut off (around 7PM), I had 589 hits and have had 201 additional hits since then.

Again, many thanks to the Twitter Star Wars community!

Ok everybody, this post gets a lot of hits and I’m pretty much over my limit to edit it any further – I’ve set up a whole separate set series of pages for this list: either look/scroll up and click on #SW List, or click here.

I am NOT a Star Wars Geek. 

That said, what follows is a list of Star Wars-related characters on Twitter.  I’ve signed up to participate in Darren Rowse‘s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” via his ProBlogger um, blog.  Today is day #2, and our assignment is to create a “List Post“. 

While I was screwing around on Twitter as a means of procrastinating my blog post (as usual), I noticed the conversation among several of the SW-related characters that I follow.  It’s an interesting community.  I think a lot of them only talk/tweet with one another, and they stay in character.  Similar to D&D?  I don’t know; I’ve never played.  So here we go.  This list is not intended to be exhaustive and is not in any particular order:

Star Wars Characters You Can Follow on Twitter:

• darthvader / Darth Vader

• Ackbar / Admiral Ackbar

• lukeskywalker / Luke Skywalker

• hansolo / Han Solo

• bobafett / bob

• Chewbacca

• r2d2 / R2-D2

• MaceWindu / Mace Windu

• IG_88

• JekPorkins / Jek Porkins

• clonetrooper

• princessleia / @-_-@ Princess Leia

• Qui_Gon / Qui-Gon Jinn

• emperor / The Emperor

• theMaraJade / Mara Jade

• RogueTwo / Wedge Antilles

• JabbaDaHutt / Jabba the Hutt

• stormtrooper / Stormtrooper

• PlanetHoth / Planet Hoth

• obiwankenobi / Obi-Wan Kenobi

• GeneralVeers / General Veers

• arctrooper / Arc Trooper

• CommanderGree

• KyleKatarnJedi / Kyle Katarn

• admiraldaala / Admiral Daala

• AllSeeingYoda / Yoda

• WicketWarrick / Wicket W. Warrick

• Jacen_Solo / Jacen Solo

• Ben_Skywalker / Ben Skywalker

• Nien_Nunb / Nien Nunb

• _HK47_ / HK47

• Wilhuff_Tarkin / Grand Moff Tarkin

• aaylasecura / aayla secura

• BeruLars / Beru Lars

• CalrissianLando / Lando Calrissian

• CommanderCody / Commander Cody

• MasterLogray / Master Logray

• yoda / Yoda

• BobaTheFett / Boba Fett

• Luke__Skywalker / Luke Skywalker

• canderousordo / Canderous Ordo

• WuherTheBarkeep / Wuher

• PissedOffAnakin / Anakin Skywalker

• hothiceplanet

• tahiriveila / Tahiri Veila

• generalgrievous

• darthvaderghost / Darth Vader(ghost)

• _C3PO / C-3PO

• TheF0RCE / Energy Field

• The_Jedi

• kyle_katarn / Kyle Katarn

• ClonePilot / Clone Pilot

• landocalrissian

• LtRenz / Lieutenant Renz

• TD0025

• MasAmedda / Mas Amedda

• StormTrooperMK4 / StormTrooper-MK4

• EmpireNewsNet / Empire News Network

• ThirdEwok

• StudMuffinAni / Anakin Skywalker

• Oola_dancer / Oola

• admiralthrawn / Grand Admiral Thrawn

• grandmofftarkin

• Darth_Sidious_ / Darth Sidious

• SalaciousCrumb / Salacious Crumb

• DarthSkywalker / Darth Vader

• AdmOzzel / Kendal Ozzel

• QueenAmidala / Amidala, Padme

• ShmiSkywalker / Shmi Skywalker

• theNodes / Figrin D’an & Nodes

• Jango_Fett / Jango Fett

• MaxRebo

• medicaldroid / 2-1B Medical Droid

• NeinNunb

  UncleOwen

• SarlaccBeast

• bibfortuna / Bib Fortuna

• TheGreedo

• C3PO

• snowtrooper / Snow Trooper

• CloneCommander / Appo

• ATAT_Pilot / AT-AT Pilot

• EmpPalp / The Palpinator

• jawa_nebit / Nebit, Jawa Chief

• CC1004 / Commander Gree

• Yoda_old / Yoda

• LandoC / Lando

• JediMaster_OPS / Joshua Ecuyer

• The_Management

• siobibble / Sio Bibble

• thejarjarbinks

• TrooperTK421 / TK-421

• AT_AT

• stormtrooper_12

• PondaBaba / Ponda Baba

• Jacenohil / Jacen ohil

• ZirotheHutt / Ziro Desilijic Tiure

• GeneralGrevious / G.Grevious/Possessor

• StormTrooperMK4 / StormTrooper-MK4

• AdmiralPiett

• Greedolives / Greedo

• SgtKal / Kal Skirata

• MrWatto / Watto

• TriviaJedi / Revan Averre

• Juno_Eclipse / Juno Eclipse

• TuskenRaider / Tusken Raider

• death_star / The Death Star

• Qwi_Xux / Qwi Xux

• QwiXux / Qwi Xux

• cadeskywalker / cade skywalker

• MrsVader / Mrs. Darth Vader

• JabbaTheHutt

• _KitFisto_ / Kit Fisto

• EmpiresJanitor / Phil

• RealDarthMaul / Darth Maul

• Plo_Koon / Plo Koon

• MrBossk / Bossk

• GayStormtrooper / Stormtrooper

• crixxxlolz / Crix Madine

• annieskywalker / Annie

• TheRealOola / Oola

• FigrinDan / Figrin D’an

• Galen_Marek / Starkiller

• Leia_Organa / Princess Leia

• paploo / Paploo the Ewok

• Mara_Skywalker / Mara Jade Skywalker

• modalnodes / The Modal Nodes

• Jediknight_siri / Siri Tachi

• MaceWindu_ / Mace Windu

• carthonasi / Carth Onasi

• dark_lord_revan / Revan

• JabbaTheSlutt / Jabba The Slutt

• DarthTraya / Darth Traya

• GedeonN / Gedeon Noordzij

• BastilaShan / Bastila Shan

• Dash_Rendar / Dash Rendar

• Mallatabuck

• ob1kenobi

• CptnJainaSolo / Jaina Solo

• DeliahBlue / Deliah Blue

• CrixMadine / Crix Madine

• Drucklumnd / Darth Lumnd

• Female_Revan / Revan

• theBenSkywalker / Ben Skywalker

• Kyp_Durron / Kyp Durron

• AllanaSolo / Allana Solo

• TenelKa

• RancorMonster / Rancor

• jedimetric / Darth Ruler

• FRED_EWOK / FRED EWOK

• GarvenDreis / Adam

• Nom_Anor / Nom Anor

My apologies, Star Wars Geeks, if I missed anyone.  Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to be included in this (again, non-exhaustive) list.  You can find me on Twitter here:

niceguyted / The Quixotic Jedi

Big Words and Long Sentences

I think the my last few posts have been kind of crappy – but what the hell, people have been reading them. 

One of the girls with whom I was emailing on eHarmony (no, I’m not a complete internet dating failure) asked me if I was “verbose”.  I know she has no control over my impression of her use of the word, but I was slightly offended.  Verbose – to me – means “overly wordy” – as in, “characterized by the use of too many words“.  It’s hardly a compliment.  Succinct, terse, even laconic would be adjectives I’d sometimes rather were applied to my writing.  I’d probably prefer “loquacious” to verbose.  But I suppose if the shoe fits…

I have a monster vocabulary, and I’m not afraid to use it.

Please, dear reader, don’t think that I intend to flaunt:  I don’t look to create situations in which to use polysyllabics, it just happens.  As you can see.

Anyway, I’m constantly at war with squeezing a complex thought into a single sentence.  Truncation is not an option.  I really need to read more Hemingway.  I’ve seriously been trying to use short, declarative sentences more often (for ease of reading), but they sometimes sound so terse and/or curt. 

Weekend Plans

Since I’m effectively sans hiking partner for the forseeable future, I’ve decided to switch hiking days from Saturdays to Sundays.  After a 50-ish hour week of work, getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday is tough without knowing that Scott will be walking in my door on time – and that if I’m up late, I’m holding the whole process up.  A few extra hours of sleep on Saturdays has been good for me in the last couple of weeks.

I have 5 mountains left to climb to get into the Catskill 3500 Club – Graham, Doubletop, Lone, Rocky, and Kaaterskill.  Heretofore, I thought this would take me 5 more weekends, but in reality it will take only 3.  Graham and Doubletop are close enough to be hiked together, as are Lone and Rocky.  Both will be long hikes, but more efficient than climbing all four mountains separately.  Ascending Kaaterskill High Peak will also be a long hike.  All are bushwacks.  I may have to go back to the southwest peak of Hunter Mountain, as Scott and I couldn’t find the canister the first time around.  I’m not particularly looking forward to that, but I am looking forward to that 3500 club patch and sticker for the Mini.

So it’ll probably be Graham and Doubletop on Sunday – I’ll post maps tomorrow.

As for today, I have a good sized list of shite to do.  Ideally, I’d like to get my kayak in the water – in fact, that’s as close to a priority as I’m willing to label it, considering that weekends are for relaxing (yeah, right – sleep when I’m dead).  I finally picked up a PFD yesterday, so I now have all the basic gear I need to get out on the water. 

I’d also really like to get to the office and dump my handwritten edits to Nicole’s novel into Word and send them off to her, but the prospect of walking in to that building on an off-day is not what I would call appealing. 

I’m Kind of a Geek

The point of my first sentence – crappy posts (in my opinion) of late – was to segue into how much time I’ve spent on the computer working on things peripheral to the actual content of this blog.  I’ve spent so much time building a following on Twitter and joining social media sites to promote the blog that I haven’t had much time to actually craft my posts the way I’d like.  Whatever.  They’re only good for a day anyway. 

For example, I spent a bunch of time time trying to edit the code of the current theme (the overall layout) of this blog yesterday.  And really effed it up.  Which was actually a good thing, because I now have more of an idea of what I don’t know about CSS and PHP than before.  I dug my CSS book out last night and finally downloaded a text editor.  It looks like I’ll be spending some time at SBUX using my free 2 hours of wi-fi per day.  I’m psyched to learn the rudiments of coding.  All I’m really looking to do is be able to change some of the features of this theme with which I’m not too happy.

Stay tuned.  Changes coming.  I’ve also met some very interesting people on those various social media sites – I’ll put together another “Network Updates” post soon so that you can meet them.

As I got home rather late last night from the IR Magazine Awards dinner, there will be no blog post today.

I will continue to update this non-post with information relevant to the lack of a blog post here at The Quixotic Jedi.  Please also feel free to follow me on Twitter, or just look to your right –> at the sidebar section entitled “What I’m Doing”.

1. Apparently, I’m not the only one who knows that The Quixotic Jedi updates every day at 6AM EST.  I’ve already received an email and a text message to my phone asking “why no post yet?”.  One asked me if everything was ok, and both included “WTF”.  That’s exactly what I’m looking for:  QJ addicts.  Hey little girl, want some can-dy?  Our new motto:  “First one’s free.”
2. So keep checking back, more updates to this non-post to follow…

If you read yesterday’s post and didn’t get a chance to flip over to Didi’s blog because I’m so long-winded, today you don’t have to.  Being that I’m all about easy content, below is Didi’s blog post from yesterday’s eSocial experiment.  Of course, if you’d prefer to read it in its original format, you can go to

Didi’s Blog

Confession: I’ve met someone online.

And… as his nick tells me, he’s a nice guy. His other nick tells me that he’s a bit of an impractical Star Wars nerd (?) too. Y-eah. Oh, and he’s white. Not that it should matter, but I’m just saying. You know how it is… Asian girl meets white boy on internet – he gets a sweet, submissive little woman that will validate his manhood and she’s hit the BIG TIME in dating stakes (White Gold, baby! White Gold!). Writing this, I can’t seem to keep Estelle’s voice going on about her American boy out of my head.

—
—
—

I’m kidding! Sheesh, you can even go ahead and ask me which part, you humourless monkeys.

What? Did you really think I’ve actually succumbed to internet dating? As one of my best friends would say (emphatically, I must add): FUDGE OFF!

On to the real thing:

This post is actually a pseudo-social-experiment type thing that my new internet friend and I are conducting. I’m not quite sure what the point of doing one is, but to get into detail on how we arrived at this would need a post of its own. Long story short, I’ve always wondered if people tend to match up to the impressions we have of them, especially when you don’t know them personally. You think you know a person well, just because you follow his/her blogs or tweets and you stalk their Facebook profiles, but is that impression that you have, the right one?

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is really the whole point of this exercise. That and the fact that I am a total dork with waaay too much time on my hands and I’ve got a willing victim to inflict my full dorky sociology-pretensions upon.

Say hello to Ted, The ever-articulate Quixotic Jedi.

Our paths crossed some months back, when I found an incoming link on my WP dashboard – The Quixotic Jedi linked here saying”…”

Qui-wha? Jedi-wha?

“WHO is this random soul linked to my blog?” I wondered and proceeded to find out (oh, the link was a randomly-automated one, btw), only to end up in a bit of a wordpress wasteland (well, at the time, the blog was using some standard 4-column template and the font was really tiny, and the posts were sparse) that featured well-crafted out personal profile postings.

“Interesting,” I thought. What caught my attention was some post (can’t remember which) that was talking about looking for women with good grammar (or something to that effect). Anyway, I left a random comment somewhere, and that was that. End of story.

My impression of the writer then? Intriguingly verbose. Here’s someone with a fine appreciation of the written word, and is a bit of a snob about it too (poetry, highly literary works, etc). What humanised him though (and therefore brought him down to my level), were his personals/dating posts. I felt a little bit sad for the writer who’d go on quite a number of personals sites, obviously looking for love… for The One, not quite finding her and yet not quite giving up.

“Why doesn’t he just go out and meet women?” I thought to myself, which made me think that this is guy that hides behind the poetry of his words. He is shy, maybe a little socially-awkward, definitely a bit of a literature geek. I pictured a dirty-blonde, 6′2″, slim guy with steel-rimmed spectacles, who wears a lot of plaid.

After that first foray onto QJ, I forgot all about it and as we all normally do, moved on to other blogs and stuff. Sometime last month, I received a random email inviting me to look at the newly-renovated site. So I did. He found me on Facebook, one day, and I was… rather disturbed. Oh my god… what? Is he some kind of stalker? Didn’t help that that was the same day he decided to post some kind of stalker manual on the blog.

So, my impressions of Ted WALL-ACE (you’ve got to say it Braveheart-style, c’mon…) today?

Ted is fun and funny. A bit dorky in a very American way. Does strange American things like go hiking (people do that?). He’s a sensitive soul (based purely on his obvious love for words), definitely a bit shy, though he shouldn’t be, and he might have a slight self-esteem issue. A bit of an attention seeker (Have you seen his FB status updates?), but then, aren’t we all. He’s also very prone to self-introspection – I can relate.

Ted is, as clichéd as it sounds, warm and kind. A family man, one who cares a lot for his friends and family – his mentions about his sister attests to that. His obvious love and admiration for her is really super-sweet. How can anyone feel threatened by this guy, you know?

I don’t ever bother making friends/meeting people on the Internet, but I’m happy to have gotten talking with a strange man named Ted, who, as it turns out isn’t a dirty-blonde 6′2″ who wears a lot of plaid. In reality, he’s actually Wolverine-esque. I don’t know if he’s as hairy as Wolverine and I don’t know if I actually want to know for sure.

Nor is Ted a stalker, thank god, so you women (especially those based in the New York, New Jersey area) interested in a certain Hyp Hyker (go figure out which book that’s from) namedTed Wallace… Thunderbirds are GO! <– Oops, a bit too cheesy, huh, Ted? :D

So, am I right in my assessment of Ted? Comment, comment, comment away.  ;-)

p/s: Ted, I’m sorry if you don’t think this post does you any justice, but then my writing/imaginative skills are nowhere near yours.  :D

• Done blogging. Tomorrow’s post should be fun. http://QuixoticJedi.com and http://ilovevodka.wordpress.com – a social experiment. #
• How well can you get to know someone from information available on the internet? http://QuixoticJedi.com, http://ilovevodka.wordpress.com #
• @Nenad Screw your avatar. I like your personality. I might pick a different adjective than “sparkling”, though. #
• @theclimbergirl Hey baby, what’s your sign? in reply to theclimbergirl #
• @Nenad lol – I get your point. I thought “hardcore dork” was pretty cool. #
• Love you, Chuck. RT @Nenad RT @chucknorris_: There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live. #
• I’ve been waiting for this one: RT @cognitatic @niceguyted ted are you menstrual? [No, just hyper-aware of the world around me. I <3 Gaia.] #
• Duh. I counted 96%, wtf. RT @TechCrunch [News] Facebook Poll: 94% Of Users Don’t Like Redesign http://twurl.nl/f3a345 #
• Twitterers losing tweets: @IntegralHack, @thecorplibrary…anyone else? I’m not worried, mine are all crap anyway. #
• @thecorplibrary As far as I can tell, all my tweets are still there. Huh. Good to know you didn’t lose anything. in reply to thecorplibrary #
• @corplibrary @IntegralHack My DMs have been in/out all day; getting them much earlier via regular email. @ replies have been the same. #
• LMAO you guys are too much…RT @Durgamaa @yogadork Who says? An Ayurvedic vaidya? I think not… #
• @IntegralHack I feel ya, dog. I’m going to get back to doing some work-related work. in reply to IntegralHack #
• @Glammy_ RT @Andrew303 Finally someone is making hoodies out of blowup dolls http://is.gd/o5h5 (1 part unsafe for work, 9 parts plain weird) #
• Dig it. “Daily Gratitude Blog” RT @BlissfullyTeal The value of life…http://tinyurl.com/dcztzx #
• Home from the diner and Mini dealership – $30 for a little piece of metal?! Definitely not blogging about THAT. I pick up the kayak on Sat. #
• @IntegralHack @yogadork I tweeted this morning about being sensitive to the lunar cycles. I got the same “are you menstrual” question. #
• @yogadork lol – no, my feelings were hurt :-( ok, now I’m lmao – actually, I tried to explain my hyper-sensitivity in 140 chars #
• @IntegralHack Yeah, nice to know I’m not the only one. If I get any more “sensitive”, I’ll be effin psychic. #
• @Digital_Buddha Yo Helaine! Great to see you in this forum. Plenty of cool stuff going on – if you can find it. ;-) in reply to Digital_Buddha #

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Ok.  Check it out.  As the title states, this post is all about Didi.

I’m not really sure how to start, because I don’t really know all that much about Didi.  That makes this post kind of tough for me, because I’m a perfectionist.  I’m also not sure how much about Didi I should reveal, which also rubs against my perfectionism.  We’re friends on Facebook, so I’ve got a bit more opportunity for an inside scoop than y’all might have.  I’ve also spent some time trying to find her blog, so I know a few keywords that’ll get one a good view at Didi’s Cyber-Ego.

So how about I start from the beginning, tell you a bit about how I ended up writing about a person I hardly know, and then actually get to the miserable little bit that I do know about Didi?

Or, maybe we’ll do this Stephen-King-style and start in the middle and fill in the backstory as we’re moving forward?

This whole thing started out as Didi’s idea – one to which I wholeheartedly agreed.  This is kind of a double-blind experiment: neither of us know very much about one another, so we’re going to write bios of one another and post them on our blogs.  Theoretically, we’re supposed to stick to just what we know of each other from our respective blogs and Facebook pages.  I’ll give you the link to Didi’s blog at the bottom of this post and you can proceed to read the other half of this experiment.

Didi was the first person ever to post a comment to my blog – back when this was QuixoticJedi.wordpress.com.  I had just spent a few hours figuring out how WordPress worked – picking a theme and all that was excruciating.  My first post – also an experiment – was entitled “Tabula Rasa” and the only words in it were something along the lines of “let’s see what happens”.  Didi’s comment was: “Well, what happens?”  Which was good for me, because it actually motivated me to help something happen.  I googled her username and flipped around a few of her pages on different sites for a bit.  That’s when I found her WordPress.com blog.

A couple of months ago, after I had bought a domain and really put some time into this blog, I had the notion to look Didi back up.  I sent her an email telling her that my blog had “evolved” and that she should check it out again.  We’ve corresponded (ever so briefly) every now and again since then.  She called me “monosyllabic” and I asked her if she was British.  It’s really been a match made in blog-heaven.  I think Didi got a kick out of it when I friended her on Facebook.

The thing that kind of sucks for me about this (and why I’m taking so long to get to Didi’s bio – i.e. stalling) is that I’m kind of intimidated by my own impression of Didi.  She’s got what’s called “creative intelligence” – which means that her imagination is particularly vibrant.  She can think outside of the box and come up with brand-new ideas much more readily than me.  This might have something to do with the fact that she’s an Aquarian.  I’m kind of jealous of this and, being a competitive Scorpio, think you’ll like her post much more than you’ll like mine.  I feel like my writing is drudging and pedantic when compared to hers.

My suggestion:  When you move on from this post, read more of Didi’s blog than just the first couple of posts at the top.  If you see the same things I do, you’ll notice that her words seem to flow effortlessly from keyboard to screen.

Bullet Points

• Didi lives in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).  She likes football and footballers (translation to American: soccer and soccer players), particularly Italian football (and -ers).  Her favourite team:  AC Milan.  Didi follows them religiously.  She watches the games, reads the news, and gets caught up in the drama.
• Didi likes vodka.  She thinks that perhaps she likes it a bit too much.  She’s not sure if her relationships would survive without vodka. 
• Didi is incredibly introspective.  Didi has high expectations of herself; possibly high to the point of unattainability.
• Didi is a pretty big fan of sex.  That’s hot.  Who isn’t?  A fan of sex, I mean.  Didi’s preferred man is “prison sexy”.
• Didi likes fashion.  Didi likes shopping and hates budgeting.

Comparison

Didi lives half the world away, follows sports, and is somewhat materialistic.  I don’t pay attention to sports and am not into men – jury’s still out on the “prison sexy” thing, though.

Identification

I’m introspective and have high expectations of myself; I’m a fan of sex, fashion (in my own way), and I’m materialistic (in my own way), too.

Conclusion/Critique

I can really dig on the introspection thing.  I think Didi is way too hard on herself, though.  While it’s important to take regular (mental/emotional/fiscal/whatever) inventory every once in a while, I think it’s important to do so objectively.  That is, look at the “good” and “bad” and take note without judging too much or skewing the overall conclusion in a positive or negative direction.  I think Didi has a shitload of positive attributes that get overwhelmed (in her mind) by the ones she considers to be negative character traits.

Didi is much smarter than she gives herself credit for.  She has either met a (very) few people that are smarter than her or has simply acknowledged the fact that there must be people out there that are smarter than her.  She thus considers herself to be of middling intelligence, when in fact she falls more towards the top of the heap.

I think Didi likes the field that she’s in, but not necessarily the day-to-day tasks that her job involves (writing dumb headlines for stupid government agencies).  I can identify with that.  Again, this comes with being predominantly right-brained (holistic).  Didi likes the big picture, but not so much the details.  Which is not to say that she’s not good at the detail-aspects of things, just that they bore her after not-too-long.  Because of that boredom, she stops paying attention to where she was going and gets lost in the labyrinth of specificity.

Didi should be rich and able therefore to avoid getting mired in details, but she’s not, and consequently does.  Didi should be a manager or a director and only have to worry about big-picture, broad-stroke issues, but she’s not and the detail-work is a real pain in her ass.  At some point in the future, Didi will truly begin to look at herself objectively and see her assets for what they really are.  Then she will be able to apply them to their fullest extent and not be hampered by what she considers to be her defects.  Then she will be free and the world will be nothing more than the oyster in which she becomes a pearl, her lustre shining for all to see.

There’s much more I could tell you about Didi, but again, I’m not sure how much to reveal.  If you want to know more, ask her.  She’s pretty damned cool. 

So that’s it from my end.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this portion of Didi’s and my social experiment and celebration of our shared uber-dorkhood.

Now, on to

DIDI’S BLOG

Tomorrow is a very special day.  My friend Didi in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and I are going to do a little social experiment.  She’s going to blog about me and I’m going to blog about her.  Thing is, we only really know a little about each other, so from a psycho-sociological standpoint, tomorrow’s posts should be pretty interesting.  You and I, dear reader, will find out things about me that we didn’t know before.  Or at least I will – in a similar fashion to Nicole’s comment to Sunday Night’s Dream.

So check it out:  visit Didi’s blog here.  Whenever you want today, but make sure you visit it tomorrow (I’ll post a link with tomorrow’s post as well).  Because tomorrow, this blog will be all about Didi.

Not sure if you fockers realize this, but I’m a night-blogger.  The Quixotic Jedi updates every day at 6AM EST, sure, but I put these posts together the night before.  You’re currently reading something I wrote several hours ago, so prepare for the gestalt-shift as I start talking about the present that is my present right now (12:47AM EST on 3/18):

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, so this will be the end of my work for this evening.  I’ll leave you with a poem from my formative years, though, so you can still get your fix of words-on-the-page.  Tomorrow is get up early so I can get gas for the car, get paid and find out about catering work for this weekend, get coffee and be at work fashionably late (I didn’t leave until 8:15 tonight, so that should be acceptable – wait, the boss is out of town – effit).  Then it’s another busy day of being too busy to do other peoples’ work at the office while surfing the net (seriously, though, I will be busy with work-related work), and off to Campmor to work out the details of purchasing my kayak that’s on hold.  Home at a reasonable hour, because tomorrow’s (which will be Thursday’s) post is going to take some time. 

And so, without further adieu, a poem:

Untitled, circa 1997

I can’t even cry
I try and try
And try and try
But I can’t seem to cry.
What is this inside,
This ball of something
Just between my throat and my stomach is crawling around, pushing my insides aside, not really growing, not exactly pulsating, but definitely hurting.  Is it some virus?  Am I getting sick?  I haven’t felt all that well lately, but now that she’s gone, my body seems to have succumbed to whatever it is that’s killing me right now.  Am I nervous?  Am I worried about my exams, about studying, about living up to someone else’s expectations?  No, I don’t think so.  It seems that if I just sat down and had a good cry everything would be all right.  But this ball of something, somewhere between my throat and my stomach is preventing that first cleansing sob from rushing up my chest and out my face, siphoning the pain away.  I just need it to be gone.  I can’t even eat.  Whatever this is, it’s not letting anything into or out of my system.  So am I reduced to this once more, checking my email thrice a day in the hope that I’ll hear her voice, if only for a few moments, if only in my head?  What twisted trick of fate is this that brings her to me, only to take her away as soon as I’ve barely said hello, before I can really…express myself?  What the fuck.  I can’t explain it.  I’m no poet.  I’ve been trying to draw a picture with steam, molecules of water what aren’t sure whether they want to be a liquid or a gas.  The ambiguity I’ve expressed thusfar is quite indicative of the nebulousness of the pain that’s trying its darndest to kill me.  That which does not kill us makes us stronger?  Bullshit.  That which does not kill us turns us into quivering mounds of nothing at all.  Ebola Zaire of the soul is what this is.  Don’t read any further, don’t look into any eyes too deeply, you might catch it too.  This is certainly not worth it.  Don’t take the high road or the low one.  I’ve been on both.  Take the one in the middle that doesn’t hit any extremes, the one that doesn’t vary, that has no hills and no valleys.  The one that runs equidistant from heaven and hell.  That’s the one to be on.  Consistency is a great thing.  Be happy with what you’ve got; as soon as you reach up or stoop down BANG! You’re fucked.  Keep your eyes forward, your head up and lock that smile of satiety down on your face.  Don’t ever take it off.  Be satisfied with everything, because as soon as you leave that middle road and decide that you want something…well, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it and when you get it, you’ll have taken the detour to the high road, and then there’s no turning back.  Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel, Daniel-san, because once you wish for something, get it, jump to the high road, trade that smile of satiety for one of ecstasy, throw it in cruise control and lean back to enjoy the ride, BANG! An eighteen wheeler with big spikes all over it, tire shredders on the wheels, gun turrets everywhere (not to mention the demon driving it) comes out of nowhere and runs that puny piece of shit Dodge-ass Neon (Hi) that you’re driving right down into the asphalt, where not even the best and most experienced civil engineer who deals with soils every day of his life will be able to tell your ride fro the double yellow line that really isn’t there any more because it’s you that’s stuck to one of those spikes on that eighteen wheeler – right on the grille with a spike through your heart and one through your nuts, hanging there next to some dipshit who won’t stop whining about how much homework he’s got, that his dad is gonna kick his ass if he doesn’t get good grades, but he’s stuck to this fucking eighteen wheeler because he decided that his dad was wrong, that alcoholism isn’t really hereditary, that he can handle it.  So you hang there, next to that pussy-boy whiner, whishing for all the world that you hadn’t made that wish, that you hadn’t left that middle road, that you had used screws instead of scotch tape to hold that smile of satiety on your face, but most of all, you just want to cry.  You try and try and try and try but you just can’t seem to cry.  So you hang there, suspended on the grille of that evil eighteen wheeler, barreling down the road at the speed of time, trying to figure out what went wrong and why you can’t cry.  And you’re still too fucking stupid and look down and realize that there’s a fucking spike straight through your heart that won’t let you eat or study or think or feel or even cry.