Mild Amusement

I've never really been a huge television fan. There were some shows that I really like as a kid (the animated X Men and Batman shows come to mind), but I can't remember ever spending the whole day in front of the television. I would play video games for long stretches of time, but that seems different to me. I was trying to control the action, rather than just staring at the screen. Either way, that means I missed out on a lot of shows and movies. There are classic movies that I know about as general cultural awareness, but that I've never actually watched. This includes movies like "Casablanca," for example (I'll get around to it eventually). This phenomenon also encompasses more recent small screen hits, like "Breaking Bad" or "Game of Thrones." I've heard a lot about both of them, and I even have some vague inklings of key events in those series (I know to be very wary of a Red Wedding). But I've never actually sat down to watc...

The Mild Fiancée and I have a very interesting relationship to food. Between the two of us, we will eat just about anything  and seek out interesting food . We also spend time a good amount of time cooking an interesting diet , so things are never very dull in our kitchen or at our table. Basically, there's always a laugh or two to be had. The latest turn of events is that we've noticed that the Mild Fiancée likes to season her food a bit more than I do. Neither of us add so much that the food tastes bad, but it's readily apparent who adds more spices to the food. I don't just say that to avoid getting dirty looks; other people have complimented the Mild Fiancée's cooking for a very long time. She knows what she's doing in the kitchen. So, perhaps it's more appropriate to say that I add less seasoning to the food than the Mild Fiancée. I appreciate flavor as much as the next person, but I just prefer a bit less seasoning. There's no accounting for pr...

When I was a kid, my dad once showed me and my siblings how to make a pickle glow ... with electricity . I remember being both confused and amazed. It was precisely the sort of thing that a young boy who likes science would enjoy. As it turns out, you can do all sorts of really interesting stuff with household items. All you have to do is apply just the right stimuli or chemical, and something kind of amazing can happen. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't warn you about that whole pickle thing. You're actually making a resistor out of the pickle, which means that electricity is flowing through the pickle. In fact, there's enough electricity going through the pickle that it can do you serious harm if you're not careful. Be careful if you try that at home, kids. Well, I came up with one of those types of experiments, complete with the associated danger, all by myself. In my case, I did so completely by accident. In order to replicate this particular experimen...

A while ago, I mentioned that the Mild Girlfriend and I had started taking dance classes (and I found myself involved in dance off shenanigans ). Well, I proposed and she said "yes," so the Mild Girlfriend became the Mild Fiancée. And since we had already started taking dance classes, we figured we'd just keep right on with them. The only difference was that we'd now be taking those classes with a purpose: we started working on something we could do at our wedding. That wasn't the intent from the outset (though it would've been awfully clever of me if it had been). We just started taking dance classes as a date night, figuring that it might be fun. And as it turned out, we enjoyed doing it together enough to stick with it. Having a little bit of extra practice for the Mild Wedding was just a nice bonus. So, we've been working on footwork, timing, and all sorts of other little things so that we can have some fun with our dances. On a related note, did ...