Mild Amusement

I realized a while back that I tend to appreciate clever things. I am a fan of stand up comedy largely because it involves a clever spin on every day events, I like movies with interesting & surprising twists, and I appreciate rap because of the clever word play involved. All in all, I like watching ingenuity in action, since it's amusing as heck. As I'm discovering, though, little kids are a boundless source of said ingenuity. Sure, there are some really smart kids that pass through the day care, and I readily admit that they impress me with their creativity in accomplishing things they shouldn't be able to do. But even on a more mundane level, little kids consistently get very creative to do things they're not supposed to be doing. Sometimes they just happen to luck in to that course of action, or sometimes they see something that the adults don't see. Either way, these stories are universally worth a good, hearty laugh. Watching TV The kids don't g...

In a post from a while back , I mentioned that people around me end up with nicknames fairly frequently. It's not always my doing, but I am more than happy to play along. Of course, the best part isn't the actual nickname, it's always the back story that leads to the nickname. And since it's been a while since that previous post, I've picked up a few more stories about nicknames that are worth a chuckle. So, without further ado, I present to you: "ADT" You know how people pay for security systems for their houses? One of the most well-known companies is called ADT . My brother likes to say that he has no need for said security systems because one of his neighbors is constantly on the lookout for what's going on in the neighborhood. She's like a one-person neighborhood watch, complete with a side of the neighborhood gossip. He has actually come home and had her tell him about the comings and goings of his wife. My brother's smart aleck str...

A little while back, my sister and her husband came to visit. It was nice to see the two of them, and I was glad to have them around. However, this meant that there were two more people sleeping in the house than usual. Normally, this isn't a huge problem: you let the guests use any kind of a guest room or extra couches you have, and you make sure that they've got whatever supplies they need. In my case, that's not really an option, but ultimately, it led to me laughing at myself for several days in a row. First of all, let's start with the guest room option. In my house, that room has several cribs in it; it gets used for the day care. Most adults I know won't fit there, so it's not a very good option. Sure, we could throw an air mattress or some sleeping bags in there, but it's not entirely comfortable to be cramped by several pieces of furniture like that. Also, if any of the babies actually need to take a morning nap, said guests are going to get kicke...

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I have a couple of friends that I jokingly call the Litmus Tests . The joke goes that every time they have met one of my girlfriends or I have gone a trip with them, the relationship has come to a halt shortly thereafter. Neither one is to blame, but it's still pretty amusing to think about it in those terms. It's like they're the harbingers of break ups. Well, as it turns out, I have a different friend with similar powers. You see, there is a different friend of mine who somehow seems to know about my relationship status without me telling her. There have already been a couple of instances where she has said to me, "hey a little birdy told me you're seeing someone new." Considering that I generally don't put my business out for the general public to see, that's fairly impressive. This goes doubly so for my love life, because I publicize that information even less so....

You know how ancient samurais lived by a strict code of discipline (e.g., bushido )? Everything they did was governed by this set of beliefs, and it governed how they acted in every situation. Well, I'm not samurai, but I've got a version of that for myself. The catch is that I'm not nearly clever enough to come up with anything original, so my "bushido" is cobbled together from things I've heard over the years that have struck a chord. Where it gets amusing, though, is that it's almost always set to music (if you've read any of my past entries , this should come as no surprise). Sure, there are some quotes here and there that resonated with me (Bruce Lee's "if I tell you I'm good, you might think I'm boasting. If I tell you I'm no good, you'll know that I'm lying" comes to mind), but for the most part, I have a soundtrack by which I live my life. And, of course, more than a few of them have some amusing tidbits tha...