So after speaking with both the driver of the other vehicle and me, my insurance company has decided that I was at fault in the accident.
Should have made them talk to my lawyer.
Not going to cost me anything directly (my policy covers the damage to her car), but my rates are surely going to go up.
This sucks.
Ok…the fates have now warned me that leaving the house again today would be a bad idea.
First off, today was the opening day of Alex’s new baseball season. I got to the field a little later than I was planning to, because I had to stop and pick up some two liters of soda for the opening day festivities. When I got there, I saw my ex-wife sitting on the ground next to what I initially thought from a distance was one of my nieces in a chair. It turned out to be my son, bent over in half and holding an ice pack to his face.
He took a baseball to the eye during the pre-game warm up. Pretty nasty shot, too. He’s got a slight cut over his left eye and a healthy bruise forming underneath it. Fortunately it doesn’t look like anything was broken or that any damage was done to the eye, but he was in a good deal of pain and sat out most of the game. He did manage to play outfield in one inning (and got a great stop), but he couldn’t see well enough to bat (due to the swelling).
So that sucked. I left the field and went to Publix. Got some foods. Everything going well. Was backing out of the parking space to head home.
*crunch*
Got into a collision with another car that was backing out at the same time. Pretty minor damage to my car, really. The driver of the other one took a bigger hit. Neither of us was at fault, according to the officers who came and filed the report.
Just…ugh.
Yep…Not leaving the house again today. It’s safe here.
So.
This is my first official day as a manager here at work (yesterday was a holiday).
Mind you, my boss is out and I have nobody to manage yet. So I’m just kind of sitting here going “now what?”
At this point not much has changed other than my pay grade, which was a pretty nice increase. I realized this morning that in the last three years my income has jumped right around 25%. That’s not too shabby, my friends. My plan, as it currently stands, is to try living as if I did not get the increase at all. I want to use that extra money to pay off the credit cards. I don’t know how successful I’ll be in that, but I’m going to try. I want to at least make a dent in them.
Did my taxes yesterday, and that turned out pretty well. I’ve got enough coming back to pay off my back taxes from last year and get my property taxes paid as well. That only leaves the balance of the homeowner’s insurance left to pay, but I think I can handle that. I’m also half way done towards paying off the saint who helped out with getting the insurance policy going in the first place. Once I get all THAT straightened out I can start getting some money to my Mother to pay off the car she gave me.
Whee. Money is fun!
Unfortunately it’s looking more and more likely that Dragon*Con isn’t going to happen this year. etcet has been informed that Labor Day weekend is most likely to require him to work, and while the current plan in our department is to be done well before that you never know for sure. aishlynn is also doubtful about her ability to get that weekend off, and it was having the two of them along that made it a worthwhile trip for netgoth.
And while I could go without three of my favorite people, it just wouldn’t be as fun. Especially if Brooks doesn’t go again this year.
So I dunno.
Had a big heart to heart with K. last night. Didn’t start out in such a pleasant manner, but in the end I think it was good. We’ve been distant recently, and from what came out last night it’s pretty clear it wasn’t something that was intentional from either direction. I think we’ve both just been dealing with so much outside of our relationship we haven’t taken the time that is needed to focus on each other every once in a while. It makes me sad that we let things get to that point, but I’m glad it’s out there now and we can deal with it. These kind of issues are the type where if they are left to fester they just get worse and eventually cross a point of no return. Fortunately, we didn’t get there.
Very lucky indeed.
Maybe I don’t say it enough, but I’ll never forget how fortunate I am to have K. in my life. I can’t. I remember it every morning. Every time I wake up and feel her next to me I am just overwhelmed by gratitude and comfort. I know what it’s like to wake up and wonder why you’re in the bed with the person next to you. That never happens with her. If everything else in my life is going spectacularly to shit, I still have that moment every morning when, very briefly, all is right in the world – and it’s her presence that does it for me. She’s been behind me as I’ve dealt with a three year plateau in my weight loss, and her continued support has kept me from throwing in the towel on more than one occasion. She can make me feel good about myself when I’m feeling ugly, and she never, ever takes the things I do for her for granted. I don’t think there’s a meal I’ve cooked for her that she hasn’t sincerely thanked me for. She shares my love for gaming and theater, and has introduced me to a ton of music that I now listen to on a regular basis.
And, of course, there’s those…private…things she does for me that I won’t gush about here.
I don’t say it often enough, love…but thank you. For being in my life. For loving me. For being you.
And if you’re still reading after all that gush, faithful reader, I salute you.
Edit You know, this WYSIWYG editor that LJ has is nifty and all, but you’d think they would have written it so that it didn’t convert your LJ cut tags into escaped code and would ignore ascii spaces in the spell check.
Sheesh.
Nothing say “Today is gonna be AWESOME” like waking up to find dried cat puke on your office chair first thing in the morning. No idea how long it actually sat there, but it was old enough that I had to get out the 409 and scrub to get it all off.
Bill is still improving. I didn’t hear anything from Jody about him yesterday, but Alex talked to her and she gave him the whole lowdown. She told him about how it was related to his diabetes and why it was so important that he take care of himself in that regard. I can only assume that means he’s doing well enough that she’s not afraid Alex is going to freak out over him dying and it being diabetes related. Speaking of diabetes, Canadian scientists have cured it in mice. Like, overnight even.
In the “WTF??” department, Scott Kurtz of PVP online started a storyline today that smacks a bit too much like Ctrl+Alt+Del‘s Winter-Een-Mas. Right down to wearing a controller as decoration. I’m hoping this is some kind of self-referential dig, especially considering that the characters in PVP tend to break the fourth wall often in that regard. If not…I dunno. I guess I’ll just be really disappointed. Kurtz gets a lot of shit from the internet community, but he’s always seemed like he was a genuinely good guy to me. I’d hate to think he was starting to show some of the “big man in comics” arrogance his detractors accuse him of, and ripping off ideas from other comics would definitely fall into that category.
Yesterday was a big ball of suck at work, but in retrospect it was surprisingly entertaining. Frustrating as hell, sure, but it made the first half of the day fly by. Got off a little early so I could swing by Omaha Steaks and cash in the $100 gift certificate my Mom gave us for Christmas. Picked up a pretty standard package that included some steaks, burgers, hot dogs, pork chops, chicken breasts, and potatoes au gratin, then added on a bag of Tortilla Crusted Tilapia. We got one of those the last time Mom gave us a gift certificate, and they were damned tasty. All in all, pretty good stuff from that place, but considering the distance I have to go to get there and the fact that it’s “gourmet” prices it’s not some place I’d start shopping regularly.
But $100 of free meats is $100 of free meats, ya know?
Locally, it’s time once again for me to put on my shilling hat. Jobsite is getting ready to open All The Great Books (Abridged). Yep, the “Bad Boys” of abridgment are back again, having tackled Shakespeare, The Bible, and American History they are now moving on to books. Amazingly enough, this might actually mean they’ve taken some time to read one or two. Who’d have thought it, huh? They must have found some way to completely eliminate sleep from their lives. In any case, I have yet to leave an “Abridged” without being completely sore from laughing so hard, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with for this one. These guys give a whole new twist to the Abridged plays, making each one their own. Even if you’ve seen this play before, the Jobsite crew promises to give you a truly unique (and, most certainly, a much funnier) experience.
Get yer asses out there and buy tickets before the monkeys start flinging poo, damnit!
I was woken up this morning just after 7:00 AM with a phone call. This is never good. In my life I have discovered that calls before 8:00 AM and after 10:00 PM generally mean something fucked up is going on. This morning was no exception. My sister Kim is back at the hospital with both of her children. My niece Madison woke up in the middle of the night screaming that her stomach hurt, and it’s incredibly hard to the touch. Her son, Patrick (who was in the hospital not too long ago and has a condition that makes him very susceptible to illness) was throwing up. My hope is that Maddy just has some really bad gas and Patrick has caught the flu that is running around, but as of this point we don’t know.
Good times.
So on that cheery note, I figured I’d start a long overdue update.
We have too much of it. K spent the weekend beating our bedroom and the hall closet into shape, and much of the excess stuff has made its way into our computer room. This stuff will hang around for another two weeks, when we are planning to have a garage sale and get rid of all of it.
That which does not sell gets donated. The stuff goes. Once the garage sale weekend is done I don’t want to see it anymore. Yes, it means giving away some things that may have value to someone if we can just find the right person, but enough is enough. We need to get our house back.
Over the course of this week and the weekend, I plan on tackling the laundry room and the shed.
We also shed a lot of stuff in WoW this week. More to the point, we walked away from the guild alliance that we’ve had for about a year now and started doing things “on our own.” I put “on our own” in quotes because we still have a few players from that alliance tagging along with us, but we’re doing it our way now. We’re using a new loot distribution method (called Suicide Kings) that is incredibly fast and easy to use, we’re signing up on the Children of Midian (name of our guild) boards, and the majority of the people going are in CoM. This last Sunday we went into Zul’Gurrub, a 20 player dungeon, with 19 players – 15 of those players were from our guild. We took down four bosses, including one we had never fought before (Gri’lek from the Edge of Madness event) that wiped our party twice before we figured out the encounter. Not bad at all, considering the fact that 3 of those players had never even been to Zul’Gurrub before.
Yeah, it was nice.
Things are still a little crazy in game with the other guilds. The main guild we were allied with has proceeded to implode in the wake of our leaving. I feel a little guilty about that, as it almost seems like it’s our fault, but I know that’s not really the case. It was going to happen eventually anyway. I think our leaving was just the final straw on an overburdened camel’s back.
In other WoW news, I pre-ordered my copy of the Burning Crusade this morning. I actually managed to get the Collector’s Edition, even though Amazon (according to the web site) has already sold out. I already had it in my cart, though, and it let me place the order. We’ll see what really happens. I’m going to pay extra for next day shipping as well. I was going to get free super saver, but then I realized that would be a week of people teasing me with new content I couldn’t see, and we can’t have that.
Taking part in a weight loss challenge with etcet and a few other guys in the IT department here at work. We call our team “Shrink Geek.” I’m not really doing anything out of the ordinary as part of this, though. Just trying to stay on track with Weight Watchers. Was down a good bit last week, which was nice. Hopefully the trend will continue.
The boys continue to take lackluster care of their pets, regardless of the fact that I have emphasized that they are rapidly nearing a point where they are going to lose them. I think, at this point, I’m going to take one final step towards making sure the cats are properly cared for. I’m going back to chore calendars for the boys, and cat maintenance will be part of it. So will their other chores, of course, but the cats are a big one.
The weather recently has been absolutely stunning. Those few days a year that make living in Florida worthwhile (weather wise).
And since I’m talking about the weather, it’s time to go….
So I was originally going to sit down and write a five-year anniversary post. I even started to do so. I realized, however, that I hadn’t written anything about my day yesterday…and it was an awesome day. So much so, that I think putting down a chronicle of that day is much more important. To me, anyway. Your mileage, as the saying goes, may vary.
When I got back from Dragon*Con last week, I promised my son that we’d spend a day together over the weekend. We got to go to Dragon*Con. J. got to go to his grandmother’s house for a weekend (where he got a PSP and assorted other loot). It seemed only fair I devote a day to Alex. I made no plans in Warcraft or around the house. Sunday was going to be his day.
Woke up relatively early, and made breakfast for the family. Omelete’s all around! It started with just one for Alex, but as everyone started to smell my wonderful cooking I ended up making three more. Not that I minded, really. I actually enjoy cooking, when it’s appreciated, and my breakfasts are almost always appreciated. I got dinner in the crock pot (pot roast…mmm), grabbed a quick shower, and then Alex and I were off.
Our first stop was at a place called Congo River Golf in Clearwater. It’s a nifty little mini-golf course that an interesting little bonus feature – you can feed baby alligators there. They have a partnership with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and a small habitat near the entrance. What’s most amusing about it is that the three dollar “gator food” is a cut up hot dog. Anyway, a rousing game of mini-golf took place, with the score a dead heat going into the final two holes. A poor calculation on Alex’s part on the last hole that dropped him into a rock trap put the game to me by a margin of only 2 strokes! Of course, we were both so far over par it wasn’t funny. Yeah, not so much of a future in the professional golf tournament thing for either of us.
After we left there, we stopped by the Barnes and Noble on Sunset Point for some books and a snack. Picked up a copy of Marvel Zombies, Ultimate Spider-Man TPB #3, and the new Dragonlance novel. Got a Halo book for Alex as well, despite his fears that it was too thick for him to handle. I was a little taken back by that statement. I mean, the kid reads at a 10th grade level! He shouldn’t be intimidated by a 314 page novel about a video game. I guess it’s just the level of books that he’s reading as part of his fifth grade curriculum. That bothers me to an extent, but he didn’t test well enough to make it into the gifted program so what can I do? Anyway, I talked him into letting me buy him the book and he actually had the first chapter read before we got home.
Ah yes, I’ll be inflicting The Hobbit on him soon…muwahahahah.
Split one of those mondo cookies with him while he had a glass of milk and I sipped on a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I’m such a whore for Pumpkin Spice. Really.
Next stop was Bed, Bath and Beyond where I wanted to look for some metal tins to store my spices in. I was sick of looking at my boring spice rack, and rapidly running out of cupboard space for the ones that didn’t fit in it. Alton Brown has this system where he uses metal tins and velcro to put them inside of his cabinet doors. I figured I could ape that pretty easily.
I was wrong.
At Bed, Bath and Beyond the only tins they had were magnetized ones that cost $2.00 each. I figured if I was going to be putting velcro on them it was silly to spend extra on the magnets, so I passed. Alton had said you could get the tins at a Hardware store, so Home Depot was scheduled on to our afternoon agenda. I did, however, get a wooden cutting board (something I desperately needed).
For lunch we went to eat at a place called Sunset Subs. I used to eat there quite often when I worked at the Staples in the Sunset Point Shopping Center.
It’s not nearly as good as I remember it being.
At the Home Depot I was again thwarted in my efforts to get the metal tins and velcro. Realizing that Alex was being dragged to all kinds of Not Fun places, we decided we’d swing by the movie theater to see about going to a movie. Unfortunately, there was literally nothing that we wanted to see. A quick stop by Target also failed to produce the tins I was looking for. The closest I came was finding a candle making kit at Michaels that had four tins in it, but I wasn’t convinced that the seal on those was going to be strong enough to stay closed when hanging on a door.
Lowe’s – Nothing. Finally we ended up at Linen’s and Things, where I purchased 15 of the exact same kind of tins that I passed on at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
As a side note to that – It’s not exactly what Alton promoted, but I think I’m happier with what I ended up getting. I actually found a place online that I could purchase the tins from today, and they are much less expensive. However, when you add in shipping and the cost of the Velcro and China Markers needed to emulate his system exactly I’m only saving about 20 cents per tin. Not only that, but the tins don’t have a shake or pour option. I realize that by having a clear top and not being stored in the cupboard my spices won’t be preserved as well, but I don’t buy expensive spices like he does anyway. Not at this point in my life. I really like the way the spices look on the fridge in their jars, too. So I think, for now, I’m sticking with the magnetized ones. In fact, I’m heading over to a Linen’s and Things here in Brandon to buy more today.
After we left Lowe’s I let Alex pick our next destination, so we were off to Game Stop. Of course, he asked me to buy him a game. It was a used copy with no book, so I plopped down the 17 bucks and got it for him. I figured it was about what I would have spent taking him to the movies anyway.
When we got home J. was watching The Two Towers so Alex couldn’t get on his new game. Instead we played a few hands of Chez Geek. At that point, dinner was done so I got that out of the crock pot and we had delicious pot roast. Alex got in a game or two after that, and then it was time for him to shower and go to bed.
Once he was down, I got my lunch together for today and set up the coffee pot to automatically brew in the morning. Grabbed one of my new graphic novels and went back in the bedroom to hang out with K. while she studied. We watched a little TV while reading, talked a bit, and flirted so much that despite her still being somewhat sick nookie became a necessary way to end the evening.
Not that I’m ever…EVER…going to complain when THAT happens.
So yesterday was, in a word, incredible. I spent some awesome quality time with my boy. We talked. We laughed. I shared some things from my past with him, and he shared a place he enjoys with me. I got to cuddle (and other stuff) with K. Even got to hang with J. for a bit (he played Chez Geek with Alex and I…he’s in that “I’m listening to my iPod and playing on my PSP while watching television so who are you and why are you interrupting me” phase so getting quality time with him is kind of hard). Didn’t play much Warcraft at all, and that’s not such a bad thing. As John (Banick) said to me in an email, we all probably needed a little time unplugged.
I got some pictures of Alex and I goofing around at the golf course yesterday. If I get them uploaded tonight I’ll share. I may still write about the attacks later, but I wanted THIS memory to be first. When, in ten years, I start scrolling back through my September posts to remember what I was thinking I want these thoughts to be the ones to rush back to me. These feelings.
Because yesterday I can truly say that life was just about perfect.
You don’t get that often.
So. More guild drama in WoW over the last few weeks. Miscommunication leading to distrust and speculation, guilt trips, childish tantrums, accusations. So much bullshit. I finally had enough. Made a HUGE post in the officers section of the shared forum that our guild community uses, and vented my spleen all over the place.
Despite some inital concerns that said post was going to get us kicked out of that community, the response was on the whole positive. In fact, most of the people who replied there (or contacted me outside the forums) told me that I had said what most of them were feeling but hadn’t spoken up about.
Somebody has to do it, I suppose.
I understand now why there was a very serious article in Wired magazine about how some companies have actually had their hiring decisions influenced after finding out that a potential candidate was a guild leader in an MMORPG. This shit is a serious pain in the ass sometimes. I want to have fun just like everyone else, but a lot of my time in game (and outside of it) is tied up dealing with the management end.
I am very, very thankful to have the officers that I do in my guild. I don’t know that I could be as effective as I (hopefully) am without them.
On the positive side, we have another potential alliance in the works with a larger raiding guild that will get us back into the 40 man raid instances. I know that my endgamers want to see this content, and I’m really glad that it looks like we have a chance to offer it to them again. Until the expansion comes out, it’s pretty much all that there is left to do for some of them, and I worry about them burning out. Hell, Krystalle is suffering from some serious burnout, and with her impending sememster o’ doom ahead of her she is going to have even less time to play. I’m hoping that on those rare occasions when she does she’ll have something enjoyable to do.
In non-game related news…
Got a LOT of cleaning done around here this weekend. All told between Saturday and Sunday I probably spent between 8 to 10 hours scrubbing and organizing. It felt really good. The house had really slipped in the last few months, and while it wasn’t disgusting it definitely wasn’t “clean.” Now I can look around and not see proof everywhere that I’m slacking in the house keeping department. Gonna do some more this weekend, but it shouldn’t be quite the extravaganza that it was a few days ago.
zayna stopped by today to drop off a nifty shirt she had purchased for her beau that was a tad bit too snug in the chest area for him. It’s pretty damned cool, and will make for great Papa Tiki’s Undead Luau wear.
If I ever go, that is.
Got a truly nifty little addition to my home office working today. A few months ago, my company converted over to a VOIP phone system, and they just gave me one that I could bring home. All I have to do is sign in to the phone and instantly my extension works in my house just like it would if I was at my desk.
Technology rocks.
I was going to go to Orlando for a week in September for some MySQL training, but right as we were getting ready to start paying for things I realized that it was the same week my boss was going to be out of the country on vacation with his family. Oops. I’m his right hand man, basically, and I need to be there in his absence to cover any emergencies that might crop up. So, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it is going to happen.
Heh. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get to go to one in Vegas again instead.
Glee!
Helped xany_hellion get his computer fixed on Friday, and spent a day or so reformatting my Mother’s computer as well. She had let the grandkids use it, and they proceeded to get her box loaded down with viruses and spyware. I’ve got it running smooth again, and this time I completely removed the icons for Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. I figure if she sticks to Firefox and Thunderbird she’s got less of a chance to get plagued with that stuff.
I have to admit to being incredibly proud of my Mother for her level of tech capability. She gets all frustrated when her machine is messed up because she can’t check email or listen to her internet radio stations, and when she was talking to me about this the other day she said “I’ll just have to break down and send this snail mail.”
HA!
She said snail mail.
My Mom rocks.
Speaking of which, it looks like my “needing a new car” woes have been solved by her. She’s got two vehicles she owns free and clear, and she doesn’t need them both. Once my nephew leaves for the Army (sometime next week, I believe) I’m going to take ownership of her Mercury Villager. It has about the same gas mileage as my current vehicle, but it won’t require me to fill it with Super Unleaded.
Yeah, it’s a mini-van.
Bite me, ok?
I’m gonna pimp it out with a bunch of geek stickers and shit.
I’ll end up paying her for it, but she seemed pretty relaxed about how much she wants from me every month.
Ranney is stopping by on Friday night to work on some stuff for his web site. Will be good to see him again. Also going to be putting together a web site for my brother-in-law’s electrical business.
No, I don’t have the balls to charge my sister for it, either. If I do she’s probably gonna whip out some huge “back daycare” bill on me and slap me around with it. Better to leave that one alone, ya know?
Maybe I can barter some free electrical work out of her husband some time if he likes it.
Not much else really to report, so I’m gonna go eat dinner and get ready for the Wednesday night raid.
A friend of mine asked a question similar to this recently, and it got me to thinking yet again about the subject of internet communication. I have visited this topic on several occasions before, and it’s not without some level of amusement that I find my own personal feelings on the subject seem to change based on circumstances and time. This might even make me sound like a hypocrite on occasion, and I’m fully aware of that. Like much in life, though, this isn’t something that really has a clear black and white distinction, so I’m not uncomfortable with the fact that my stance could at times appear to be a hazy one.
This kind of question comes around most often when someone has taken offense at the behavior of an individual on the net. The response, normally from the offending party, is one of disdain and mockery. The thought process seems to be that the internet is, basically, one big joke. If you get upset by something you see here, you should go outside more. Thus, the only people who take the internet seriously are losers who have no social life.
Maybe at one point this was true, but I really don’t think it is anymore. Whether you realize it or not, the internet has grown to something that, in one way or the other, manages to touch our lives every single day. It has become so important that colleges now include the financing of a new computer into student loans. There are government programs in the works (and perhaps even implemented) to provide free or reduced cost high speed internet access to welfare recipients. Entire corporations (MySQL, AB for one) are housed entirely online, with all of their employees telecommuting on their own schedules. Yes, there is still a lot of fluff out there. Yes, the biggest online industry continues to be pornography. The fact remains, however, that in 2006 we are all part of the internet age. Even if an individual is not an active member of the online world, their lives are in some way touched by what goes on there. With that being the case, is it really fair to say that communicating online is a joke?
Of course, there is the anonymity factor. There is a classic Pennny Arcade strip explaining this phenomenon, which they call the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. The logic, as detailed in that comic, is simple. Take a normal person, give them the illusion of anonymity and an audience, and watch them turn into a total fuckwad. People say and do things online that they would never dream of doing in “real life,” largely because it would get them in a great deal of trouble (i.e., they would get their asses kicked). Perhaps part of this stems from the fact that, for perhaps the first time in the history of mankind, young people have an outlet for expression that puts them on equal (and at times higher) ground with their elders. In the past, in order to get a forum for people to listen to your words you had to have some influence or importance, both of which usually came with age and experience. With the internet, anyone and everyone can find a way in which their words can be read by scores of people. Unfortunately, though, because this level of access has not been earned, the intellectual and emotional maturity that is necessary to keep the attention of an audience is lacking. In this kind of situation, an attention starved individual tends to start doing whatever is necessary in order to get the feedback they so desperately crave, and the end result is fuckwad behavior. When they are called on this they reference back to my original point and how the internet is a medium you aren’t supposed to take seriously.
But is anonymity really a factor anymore? To an extent it is, yes, because if you really wanted to be anonymous on the web you could easily create false email accounts and blog names to remove any trace of who you really are, but from a technological standpoint it’s really becoming quite difficult to truly remain anonymous on the net. Don’t believe me? Set up some false email accounts and use them to send an email to the white house with a bomb threat attached to it. I guarantee you within a few hours you’ll have some well dressed gentlemen at your door step who would be more than happy to explain how IP tracking works to you. If anything, the internet has made me realize that the cheesy song is dead on, and that it really IS a small world. I have met many people online who have ended up being connected to me through “meatspace” in one manner or other, even though our meeting had nothing to do with that common connection. With the popularity of services like Livejournal and MySpace, we’re all being drawn even closer together. The people who are reading your words are likely, at some point, to actually come face to face with you – or someone who has.
This being the case, is it really that strange for people to use these forums as a “screening” process to determine if an individual is someone they want to associate with? As my long time platonic life mate good_eeevening has said on many occasions, once you put your thoughts and feelings in words where others could possibly read them you own them, and you have only yourself to blame if the net result of those words being read is a negative one. If you choose to use this forum to only present the less appealing aspects of your personality, can you really blame someone who does not know you outside of it from assuming that it is all you are?
My current boss reads reads my livejournal on a fairly regular basis, and has done so since before he hired me. He did a google search on my name when he got my application, found my blog, and did some reading. Fortunately for me, there was nothing he read that gave him pause in hiring me. In fact, I believe the opposite was the case. Generally speaking when I actually “write” in this blog I attempt to divest as much of my genuine self into my words as I can, and because I did so my boss saw the characteristics he was looking for in a new hire. This simple little blog, because I made the decision to use it in what I felt to be a responsible manner, helped me land the best job I have held in my entire professional career to date. My Mother reads my blog, as do my three sisters. I try, as a result, to conduct myself here in a manner that is respectful to my audience. In this case, not only my online friends but my family and my boss as well.
You may be thinking to yourself that this is not relevant to you, but…are you sure? How do you know? I have, over the course of the years, been surprised on numerous occasions to learn who knew about my blog and checked up on it regularly. You might put everything you write behind a friends tag, but how do you know someone isn’t copying those words and sending them to someone else? How do you know the people on your friends list are who they really say they are for that matter. Anyone can create a live journal or myspace account, attach a fake picture to it, and create a whole new identity exclusively for the purpose of keeping tabs on you.
Would you be hired for a job if a potential employer read your blog?
Would you be comfortable with your mother reading your blog?
I was, and I am.
The way that a person chooses to present themselves online is not the only factor in determining who they are, but it is not inconsequential. More and more frequently, it is becoming the first step in determining whether or not you want to get to know a person better. If all you choose to present to the outside world is the bad stuff, there will be people who keep you at arms length as a result. If ALL donwaughesq did, for example, was talk about how he wanted to beat people with hockey sticks people would naturally not be inclined to be around him (especially at hockey games). Because he presents many aspects of his personality, though, we come to understand that’s just his way of expressi
ng frustration verbally. We’ve read about his tender moments with barnabyq, and been inspired by his determination in the face of severe health problems. He has given us a taste of who he really is, so we are not scared of being the victims of blunt force trauma to the head.
I don’t have quite the idealistic view of livejournal as a conduit for communication that people like nickdangerous and prynne have. I don’t automatically associate everyone on my “friends” list as a true friend, and I do often treat this as more of a reading service than anything else. That being said, however, I do believe that it IS a potential powerful means of communication, and I try to conduct myself here accordingly. I am not anonymous here. My face and my name are out here for the world to see, and my blog in many ways is a representation who I am. I have made genuine connections with people here. Hell, I met my other half here! If used properly, services like this can be amazing conduits for human interaction, and a fabulous way to network and make real connections to people.
It’s really all up to the individual.
So to answer the original question for those of you who don’t have the time or inclination to read my long and wordy post – Ae we really supposed to take Livejournal seriously?
Yes.
I find myself uncharacteristcally depressed today.
I suppose it doesn’t help that I had a horrible dream last night about my mother getting and dying from cancer. It was incredibly detailed and graphic, and it was long. This wasn’t one of those five minutes of ugly dreams – it pretty much lasted all night, and it had me very disoriented when I woke up this morning. So much so that I thought K.’s alarm clock going off was mine, and that I had to get up to go to work. I couldn’t figure out why the alarm clock wouldn’t shut off though, despite my repeatedly hitting the buttons. By the time I figured it out I was awake, and while I went back to sleep after the residue of the dream and the general mind haze from the incorrect assumption that it was a work day made it nearly impossible for me to fall fully asleep again.
The net result of all this is that I’m just…blah today. The things that normally would slide off my back are kind of persisting, and I’m just down. I really wanted to just relax today and play some Warcraft, but even that is wearing a little thin. One of the guilds we are allies with seems to be having some major turmoil recently, and our raids with them have suffered as a result. We’ve been trying to work a little harder on our own progression in guild, but can’t seem to get more than seven people on at a time to work on a dungeon called Upper Blackrock Spire. As a result, we can only get the first half of it done. I’m proud of that accomplishment, but I know we could finish it if we could all just find a time that worked for us. Some other guild posted today on our server forums about a Friday night Molten Core alliance, but I worry that if we express an interest in that we’ll alienate the folks who we’ve been working with outside of our guild. In a similar vein, I started using a new method of loot distribution in guild last night, and while I believe that it’s a solid method it’s going to take a while to get used to it and frustration from the players as we experiment is obvious.
I really want to go see Superman Returns in the worst way. It’s silly for that to be a source of depression for me, but there it is. I’m actually down because I haven’t seen a stupid movie.
My nephew wants to go into the Army. Let me correct that – he wants to go into the Air Force, but they are dicking him around. He wants it so badly that he’s lost like 70 pounds to do so. He’s gotten into amazing shape, but for some reason they still want him smaller. They want his BMI to be less than 20%. This is a man who is built very much like me, and who currently weighs 213 pounds. He’s gotten to the point where he’s stopped lifting weights because he kept gaining weight by building muscle. The Air Force had told him he was good to go, and that he was going to take his physical on Thursday. Wednesday they told him that he was still too big, and to talk to them on Saturday.
The Army, of course, is ready to take him right now just the way he is. They could have him shipped off to boot camp on August 1st.
Not surprisingly, this is causing my sister no end of distress. In the Air Force it wasn’t looking very likely that he would end up being in the middle of the war in Iraq, or that if he was he’d be in a relatively safe location. The Army, though? Not so much. From everything I have heard (primarly from current or former enlisted folks), the Army is infamous for making all kinds of promises about what your job will be and then changing it the day you graduate from boot camp. Even if he ends up being some kind of mechanic and not a grunt he’ll likely end up in some kind of hot spot.
My sister has already buried one of her children. I don’t think she could deal with doing it again.
My personal feelings on the subject should be pretty obvious, but I also believe that he has to do what he feels is right. For some reason, the military is something he feels strongly about. He doesn’t like school, and he (like most people raised around here) is a young person that just “has to get out of here.” I had the same mindset, but to get out I did college and then (when that failed miserably) went on the road with the Renaissance Festival.
The big difference between my choices and his is that when I realized that Florida wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be I could just up and come home. He’s going to be stuck with his choice for at least six years.
Krystalle and Bill both suggested that he look into the Navy, and I’ve passed that along to my sister. I hope he does it.
In interesting and positive news, I got a call from maladr1n last night. There’s a role for a small boy in The Pillowman, and he asked if I thought Alex would be interested. It’s not a speaking part, and it wouldn’t require a lot of time commitment from us to make it happen. Ideally, I’d be able to play the role of the boys father as well (another small, non-speaking part). He could work around my class schedule so I’d only have to miss the three Thursday nights that were performance nights.
Of course, that’s 3 weeks in a row of missing a class. Thing is, it’s a lab class. Who knows if we’ll even actually be meeting those nights?
I guess I need to write to the professor and get some kind of idea as to whether or not it would be a possibility.
Even if it’s not feasible for me to play that Father, I’d like to see Alex be able to get the role. He’s asked me several times when he was going to get to do a Jobsite show, and I think it would be a great experience for him. Before I ask him, though, I need to clear it with his Mother.
Oh well…not much else going on in my head at the moment, and not really like this is the best post I’ve made anyway. Take care out there, folks.