Mild Amusement

Lately, I have stumbled across a few more drinks that I like. It's no accident that I just finished writing about how I'm giving gin another chance . I like to try different things, and I am the type of person who will go out of my way to order something I haven't had before at a restaurant. Now, this occasionally means that I have something nasty, but it also means that I stumble across interesting food and drink. In the last few months, that happens to have resulted in new libations I like. The first one was a red blend that I had while out at dinner with the Mild Ex and another friend. The waitress recommended it, and everyone at the table was agreeable to that option. As it turned out, I ended up really liking it. It was the first time where I tasted a very noticeable difference after letting the wine aerate . Unsurprisingly, this novel discovery made the whole thing even more agreeable to me. I like science , remember? The second, more interesting one, was a drink ...

It seems to me that most people have one liquor with whom they just don’t get along. Sometimes it’s because they simply don’t like the taste. Sometimes it’s because they had one really bad experience with it, and that memory has stuck with them. Either way, most people seem to avoid a particular type of liquor. For me, that liquor is gin. Now, I generally don’t like the taste of the gin I’ve had. It tastes very much like licorice to me, and I don’t particularly like licorice. The words that come to mind are “sweet” and “herby.” Neither one is necessarily a good thing. Worse yet, I had one night many years ago in Vegas that did not end all that well. It just so happened to end with gin. So yeah, two strikes against gin. Still, it’s yet to earn itself a third strike. And I’m generally willing to give things a try, so every now and again, I will see if my tastes have changed. More often than not, the answer is a resounding "no." I simply haven't found a drink that ma...

Normally, these nickname posts contain a bunch of nicknames for various people. Each one is like a one-liner, so I figure in order for there to be enough meat in the post, I should put several of them together. This post, however, is different. It contains a single nickname, for yours truly. That's because there are a couple of fun stories. First, let's start with the fact that I am of the age where friends of mine are starting to have babies. Sure, everyone knows the girl who got knocked up in high school, but that was the exception, not the rule. These days, however, people are older, married and more established. It really isn't uncommon for people I know to have kids wandering around their households. It's actually kind of fun for me, because I like playing with munchkins. Regardless, it means that conversations often involve all of us, both the adults and the children. And when that happens, the fact that I am a generation older than said kid kicks in. It...

Remember how I listened to a speech and decided to start making the bed every morning ? Well, I've actually managed to keep up the habit. I haven't actually kept track, but I probably have a fairly decent streak of consecutive days where I've made the bed. That's something to be proud of, to be sure, but I'm actually more proud of how I make the bed. It all starts with the fact that I have a mild allergy to dust . Knowing that, I try to vacuum regularly and otherwise keep dust from accumulating in my personal space. My bed counts as part of my personal space, so I figured that I might as well rotate the sheets while I was at it. That way, no one sheet is always on the top, nor is the same side always facing the top. I figured that'd help to minimize any potential dust accumulation. Well, okay, so I need to rotate the sheets somehow. I happen to use 3 sheets, so the easiest plan was to simply reverse everything. I just took all of the sheets and flipped the...

I work out enough that I get sore from the exercise. I'm not entering any body building competitions any time soon (although I do have a friend who does that), but I am no stranger to working a particular muscle so much that I will be really sore afterward. However, I've noticed that I don't get sore like normal people. No, my body decides to mess with me. For example, once long ago, I was participating in a kickboxing class. This was the same kickboxing class that led someone to question whether I was being abused and that allowed me to win a game like tag with a seven year old girl . Still, for the purposes of this post, the pertinent part was that we had to do a bunch of drills. And in one particular instance, we had to practice kicking with our lead leg. Since you're kicking with your lead leg, you generally don't put too much power into this type of kick; it's the equivalent of a jab . However, precisely because it is a strike that you throw quickly, it...

I make no secret of the fact that I like playing with Legos . I don't break them out all that often, but I do have some lying around the house. It lets me tinker and be creative, and I just like plain like building stuff. As I mentioned in that previous post, I keep a bucket of Legos in my room. Well, technically, I keep two buckets of Legos in my room. One is red and the other is pink. I don't quite remember getting the red bucket, but it was full of your standard pieces. It had the 2 by 2 squares, the 2 by 4 bricks, and some 1 by 2 edge pieces. It wasn't fancy, but my siblings and I had plenty of fun building planes, houses, and space ship looking things with them. Somewhere along the line, though, my parents bought a house-themed set, and that one came in the pink bucket. I'm assuming it was meant for my sister, what with the color scheme, but all of the pieces ultimately ended up mixed together. So I have an amalgamation of pieces all thrown together in these two ...

I've already had a few interesting visits to the dentist , and as of a little while ago, it's time to add a fourth story to the list. As all of these stories do, my story started with a routine check up. I showed up on time, waited a few minutes, and then they called me back to get on with the dental part. Then things got really amusing. Maybe I should've known that this was not going to be the usual check up when I saw the dentist walk in with a stroller and her baby. I didn't really think much of it at the time, since her husband was with her. I didn't quite know what was going on, but it's not particularly hard to surmise that if she was going to be doing her day job, he would be the one watching the baby. Pretty straight forward stuff. You see, the dentist didn't recognize me as one of her patients. To be fair, I didn't immediately recognize her face when she walked in the door, either. Either way, she sat down and introduced herself before...

I've written plenty about how I eat a lot , so I don't think that part is a surprise to anyone. However, the part that always seems to surprise people is how little I appreciate sweets. It's not that I don't ever eat chocolate, it's that I never go looking for it. So, I will eat a bunch of entrees during a meal, but then I will tell people that I am too full to have dessert. For some people, this falls somewhere between shocking and sacrilege. They simply don't understand how I don't want to eat ice cream (or whatever the dessert happens to be). This is also where the fact that I eat a lot comes into play. If I eat so much anyway, surely I must be able to sneak in some ice cream into my stomach. Besides, they argue, I must surely have a dessert pocket in my stomach . It's a discussion I've had quite a few times, so it's no longer a surprise when it comes up. I've learned to accept that other people have this mysterious space for dessert t...

Since I get to work pretty early , I don't generally have to worry about finding a parking spot. It's pretty easy to park wherever you want when there aren't too many folks around. I actually tend to park far away since that forces me to walk a little bit farther, but that's not the point of this post. The point is that parking is highly dependent on what time you arrive. I suppose that isn't really a surprise, but this has some pretty interesting implications. First of all, this all happens because the parking lot closest to the building is only so big. So if you're amongst the early crowd, you can park in that lot. Mind you, "early" doesn't necessarily mean the crack of dawn. You can still find spots there if you show up around 8 or 9AM. However, there is a bit of a linear progression between what time you show up and how many spots are available; you can't show up late and expect to park there. The flip side of this, however, is far more...

The fact that I shave my head causes no end of amusement to people around me . It's been around 5 years since I wrote that linked post, but it seems like some things never change. The Mild Ex has been known to be amused by my shaved head, and I'm pretty sure I've heard similar comments in the last few weeks. It's just one of those things that I've gotten used to. Heck, even the little kids seem to get in on the act. Though, frankly, I never quite understood why. I know for older folks, part of the appeal is that it's they're used to seeing me look different. There was also an old supervisor of mine who assumed that I had lost a bet. Either way, these are very adult reasons to be amused. Think about it: a little kid doesn't have that past mental image of me from which to draw, nor are they going to understand what kind of bet would cause you to shave your head if you lost. For them, there has to be a much simpler explanation. And it's not a fluke,...

I like sports. I like playing several of them, and I like watching professional teams, as well. In fact, I follow several local teams, and I am more than happy to devote a few hours to watching a game . On a basic level, it's just flat out fun to watch someone do something wholly unexpected (like Baron Davis dunking on one of the better shot blockers in the league in a play off game ). But there's also a whole level of drama involved, like when a guy who has been injured hits a home run to tie the game for his team . Just watch the reactions from everyone on that last link, the entire stadium went nuts at that point. So yeah, it's fun. However, there are a variety of unspoken rules about rooting for athletes and teams . The most basic of these is that you're supposed to pick a team and stick with it. If all you ever do is just wait until the post season and pick a team at random, you're not really a fan. It's like picking a new favorite color every year becaus...

Generally speaking, I don't buy tons of stuff for myself. I do have some hobbies on which I'll burn some occasional disposable income (comic books, gadgets, travel, athletic endeavors), but I really do mean it when I say I spend money on these "occasionally." For the most part, I tend to stick to the basics. Heck, I've had people comment that shopping with me looks like a sprint through the mall (or store). As I have recently discovered, though, the one quasi-exception to this is ties. I have been a working stiff for enough years at this point that I have a non-trivial number of dress shirts. And sometimes, I have to wear a tie with those dress shirts. So, I own several ties. Up until a few months ago, this wasn't really something I really noticed, much less thought about. I had a bunch of dress shirts, and a few ties to match with them. That's what you do when invitations you get start to include the words "business casual." Then one day, I ...

I've had a decent amount of practice coordinating dinners and otherwise trying to rally the troops . And if you do something often enough, you pick up a few tricks. For example, whenever I send out an invitation for a meal, I usually tell people the details of the reservation (e.g., it's for 4 people, under my name, at 6:30PM, on Thursday ). It helps to resolve any issues that might come up, and streamlines the process. If you're the first one there, you know exactly what to ask for, and you're not trying to figure out if others in the party have arrived yet or not. Otherwise, you and the host(ess) get to play "guess the reservation" for a few minutes. It's a simple thing, but it helps. One thing in particular I've found is that if you're asking "where do you guys want to eat?" the conversation is much, much simpler if you throw out at least one suggestion. People can say either yes or no to the options you suggest, and it helps start t...

I wrote recently that my email is actually a pretty rich source of material for blog posts . However, my weeknight outings are also just as likely to cause some hearty laughter. Heck, I've got a tag for outings precisely for that reason. If you don't believe me, I invite you to read about the time that dinner led to a bet about whether or not someone could finish their meal . These outings also resulted in the decision to ban someone from picking the restaurant because we narrowly avoided food poisoning , my cell phone pretending to get booty calls in the middle of dinner , and people giving me grief over a gift card . Don't get me wrong, I've been laughing right alongside with all these folks, but I've come to realize that an inordinate number of amusing stories come from these types of outings. And as it turns out, an inordinate number of those outings happen to come up on a Thursday. It's like Thursday is my lucky day or something. I actually didn...

In case you haven't noticed yet, I prefer talking informally. If people IM me at work, I usually greet them then follow it up with, "what's up?" There are a few reasons for this, but the most important one is that I think there's more character to it. There's more soul in slang, if you will. In fact, one of my very first blog posts was about this very topic . It just doesn't sound the same to use twelve five-dollar words when you can use five normal ones. In particular, somewhere along the line, I decided that I like the usage of "yes ma'am" and "yes sir." I don't know if I read it or heard it first, but the idea that you'd show respect in a such charmingly simple way struck a chord with me. Of course, it's always something that's portrayed as a country manners type thing. But it sounds right to me, so I use it. It's precisely why I say that normal, every-day conversation has more soul to it; there's a sen...

Long-time readers of this blog (all two of you) know that I stick to a schedule . There are good reasons for this, all outlined in the linked post. However, the pertinent part of that post for today's purposes are near the bottom of that post: if I have to stick to a schedule, how do I ration out my funny stories so as to not run out? I don't want to end up in a situation where I post a bunch of funny stories, and then one day, I find myself staring at a laptop with nothing amusing to write. Well, as it turns out, the answer to this problem seems to be checking my email. Somehow, I have managed to gather a group of friends that consistently provide snarky and/or amusing stories. And they frequently email me about these post-worthy stories. On days when I find myself needing inspiration for the weekly blog post, I usually end up checking my email to see if there's anything worth writing about in there. In hindsight, this should come as no surprise. After all, my inbox wa...

A long time ago, I was talking to a health professional (the person wasn't a doctor or nurse, but had a heck of a lot more training than me. I don't remember what his official title was) about my diet. Like pretty much every person in that field does, he asked me if I drink at some point. Yes, I do. No, I don't drink that much. Well, what about sugary drinks? Yes, I have one of those every often. No, it's not very often. For the most part, I actually try to eat healthily. Sure, I enjoy burritos, wings, and beer, but that is hardly my every-day diet. The same extends for any carb-heavy drinks, including both beer and soda. I will maybe have a couple of beers when I go out, and I almost never drink soda. The person sitting opposite from me was not convinced, however. He didn't quite call BS, but he had a facial expression that seemed to indicate otherwise. I think he thought I was lying to him. Well, there's not much I could do about convincing him in the span...

I've been going on a lot of hikes lately. I've always liked being outdoors , and it helps keep me in passable shape. All in all, I don't think it's all that bad a deal, so I try to do it as much as possible. And as it turns out, I know quite a few like-minded people , so I've had plenty of opportunity to enjoy this particular activity in the last few months. In fact, I've enjoyed it so many times lately that it's led to all manner of shenanigans. Fittingly enough, an old coworker of mine actually started up a series of summer hikes. At some point, someone forwarded it to a friend, and she then forwarded the invitation to me. Long story short, I ended up hiking with some coworkers. That whole series has been interesting, to say the least. The first time I did it, I carpooled with someone from work, but we were running late. That meant we had to hustle to try to catch up with the rest of the group. She assured me that this was feasible, but she neglected to ...

Whenever you go to the doctor and complain about pain, they ask you to rate how bad the pain is on a scale from 1 to 10 . This is largely due to the fact that there is no way to objectively measure the pain  (#5 in the linked article covers this one). I don't know enough of the science behind it, but I imagine that everyone's body reacts differently to stimulus (different muscles, different chemical responses, different everything, really). Worse yet, everyone's pain tolerance is different, often wildly so. Keep that last part in mind, it's going to be important in a little bit. A while ago, I was talking to the Mild Ex about some of the folks she works with, and she was joking about how guys are all wusses. None of the guys wanted anything to do with needles and shots, apparently. She went down the list, and all of them refused. The very first woman she asked, however, happily agreed. Translation: guys are wusses. As it turns out, I don't necessarily disagree. ...

I mentioned recently that I have a new laptop , so I've been having fun playing with the new toy (I'm a developer, remember? As far as I'm concerned, a laptop is a toy). Sure, it's meant re-learning a few things on the new machine, but for the most part, I've enjoyed having an upgraded machine that can do more than my old laptop could. I will also admit that there is something to be said for the Apple sense of polish. There are a bunch of little things that I just like about using the new laptop. However, there is one little thing that seems to always mess with me. You see, the charger for the laptop is magnetic. There's nothing particularly problematic with that, except for that the charger comes with a little piece of plastic to cover it. I think that's largely because it is magnetic, so that you don't have lots of cruft messing with the magnetic. Regardless of the reason, though, I noticed right away that there was an extra little piece to worry a...

Okay, so let's start out with a few facts. First off, I get up pretty early on the weekdays. It's a fact I've mentioned on this blog a few times (my favorite is still the time when I got accused of stealing my own car ), so if you've been reading for a while, then it should come as no surprise. The other fun fact about me is that I don't use the snooze button. I think I've hit the snooze button something like twice in my life, and both times, it was entirely by accident. I actually remember having to run back to my room to turn off the alarm because I was already up, and I didn't realize that I had hit the snooze button instead of the "turn off" button. Given these two facts, I have gotten very used to waking up early and I'm not usually late to work. I'm not complaining, mind you, but that's just how things have conspired in this case. It's actually worked out in my benefit, and I'm glad that's how things worked out. So...

I mentioned last time that I occasionally volunteer to teach an email class, and it has led to all sorts of laughter at my expense . However, there's a new twist to the story now. One of the things we talk about during the class is an email signature. We use them all the time at work, since typing your name and title gets old. People also tend to prefer to include contact information there, since it might be easier for someone to call you than to reply to the email. All in all, it makes sense. On top of that, the email program we use makes it pretty easy, so everyone tends to just slap a signature on the bottom of their emails. In my personal life, I don't tend to do this very often. I always just slap my name on the bottom of my emails, because that person clearly has my email. If I want that person to have my phone number, I will give it to them by some other means (usually they just ask me and I say, "it's XXX-XXXX"). In other words, I have no real reason t...

Every now and again, I volunteer some of my time to help teach people trying to get back into the workforce. It all started on a whim, really. I got an email through work asking if I could help with a math class. I remember thinking, "well, hell, I like math. Sure, why not?"And so, I agreed to help teach a business math course that helped people understand the type of math that they'd need in an office setting. As it turns out, I found the whole thing pretty rewarding, so I kept at it. Eventually, I also agreed to teach a few other classes, including one about effective use of email. The way I see it, anyone can send email, so the more people that are sending concise emails that communicate clearly, the better the world will be. It's like my own little way of balancing out all the email spam out in the wild. Besides, I might end up working with some of these folks some day, so it'll be better for my inbox that way. Chris Rock did this bit about wanting his niec...

I have always used some form of a Windows PC for my personal computing. I understand how it works, and I've got a fairly decent feel for what to expect from the operating system. In short, I feel like I get it. On top of that, most workplaces I've been to have also used it, so using the Windows operating system has been a significant part of my experience with computers. As you've probably noticed, though, Apple and its products have put themselves squarely in the conversation for "best devices to use" ( though if my brother's company ever pans out, that'll change ). I fully get that, and I am willing to give the devices their due. However, there are some people who go far, far beyond that, and become fanboys. Their favorite device and the associated manufacturer can do no wrong in their eyes, and they absolutely insist that Apple is the end-all, be-all, absolutely best thing ever, and that no other competitor has ever even come up with a good idea. It...

I have been writing this blog for just under 5 years now (holy crap, I can't believe it's been that long), but it's never been wildly popular. That's mostly because it's only so interesting (it's called MILD amusement for a reason), but part of it is also due to how I market the thing. Or don't market it, as the case may be. The funny thing about me is that I will happily share details about myself , but I don't necessarily go out of my way to volunteer those details. In fact, as a result of this, some of my friends will intentionally tailor questions to me in a very specific manner to make sure that I respond with the details that they care about. It makes for some very amusing exchanges, but recently, it came up in relation to this blog. A friend of mine has been talking about starting a blog of her own, and she was telling a few of us all about how she came up with the name for it. It involved some guy quasi hitting on her as she was walking dow...