Mild Amusement

I mentioned last time that I took a trip to visit my sister (and her cat ) in Colorado, but really, the best part was that all three of the Chang siblings got together to hang out. For the most part, the three of us get along well. What's more, we are each goofy and funny in our own way, but we have a shared history and we feed off of each other. In case it's not obvious already, there is much, much laughter to be had when we get together. This trip was no different. It's not even like there was one single thing that was hilarious and the rest of the time was boring. Nope, there were quite a few zany antics that I remember. For example: I actually arrived a day later than my brother, because my work schedule didn't allow me to leave as early. So, my brother, my sister, and my brother-in-law all had a night to hang out before I got there. And on that night, they decided that they wanted California burritos the next day (apparently the Colorado ones are prepared diff...

A little while back, I took a trip to Colorado, to visit one of my siblings. Actually, all of the Chang siblings decided to meet up there. I don't quite remember who first suggested that we all get together, but I found myself on a plane headed out there. We had a good time, and as is common when the three of us get together, shenanigans were afoot and much laughter was had . Looking back, though, there were quite a few laughs had around my sister's new cat, Tanuki. First of all, I should explain the name, since I was partially responsible for naming her. Given her size, the cat's tail was surprisingly big and bushy. My sister wanted to give her a name befitting of her tail, so she asked for suggestions. Me being me, I suggested Tanooki, Bushy, and Becky. The first one comes from Super Mario Bros. 3, where there is a tanooki suit that Mario can wear. Bushy should be self-explanatory (heck, I used the same word to describe the tail). And Becky ... well, that comes from t...

Remember how I have a friend who I have dubbed "The Litmus Test?" The story behind this was amusing enough to write about; basically, every time she's met one of the Mild Ex'es, I've gotten into a big fight with said Mild Ex shortly thereafter. And I hate to say it, but she may now have some company. There is now a second friend who can lay claim to the title of "Litmus Test." The first time it happened, I just figured it was a random coincidence. I was about to take off on a vacation with a buddy of mine, and I got in to a fight with the now-Mild Ex pretty much the day before I left. The next couple of days were not pleasant, and the fact that I wasn't around to try to work through it all made things even worse. Now, when you're traveling with people, you tend to talk about anything and everything, so this came up at some point. He was a good friend about it all, and he gave some words of encouragement and all that. When I got back, the Mild ...

I forget where I first heard it (I think it might have been Descartes), but I have long been a fan of the notion that certain things just have a " ring of truth " to them. If you've never heard the idiom before, the basic idea is that some things are super-true. They are not just true, but they are so obviously true, that as soon as you hear them, you recognize the truthiness inherent in them. I usually get excited when I hear one of these, since it means that I am a tiny bit less ignorant from that moment forward. For the first time in memory, though, I experienced the ring of truth. First, let me paint the scene with a little bit of background. I'd made plans to have dinner with my friend, but we'd agreed to play it by ear. The end result was that we ended up settling on a pretty late dinner in a local spot. That worked out just fine, since we weren't shooting for gourmet, we just wanted to grab some food and catch up in the process. So, we headed out to ...

I know enough about my car to take care of minor repairs with it: I can change tires, change windshield wipers, swap out headlights or fuses, and swap out the suspension. I still don't know enough to take care of anything major, though, so I don't try. When it comes to things like the transmission or the electrical system as a whole, I take it to the professionals. I kinda sorta need those to run well, and I'd rather not learn the hard way that I made a mistake when working on one of those systems. So, when the taillight indicator on the dashboard came on, I started by checking it wasn't one of the little things I could fix. After all, if it was just a blown out bulb, I could fix that myself. First, though, I needed to figure out which light was acting up, so I could investigate further. There, however, was the rub. I couldn't tell which light was problematic. My brake lights all turned on, the turn signals blinked just fine, and the reverse lights turned on as ...