Mild Amusement

I have a quirky personality, so I hear all sort of random commentary about me. I've written about this a couple of times before (exhibit A and B ), but it's been a while, so the comments have added up. As always, these are actual conversations that I have had with people. "You'd be an awesome team lead, if you don't get fired" Apparently this is how some people react when I suggest we should be allowed to give out dunce hats at work. I figure that in most cases, the actual social shaming would be a worse punishment than a stern talk from a supervisor. Say someone goes out of his way to be lazy. He would be awarded the dunce hat, and the social stigma would encourage him to avoid this behavior. Win-win. The person with whom I was talking agreed with the idea, but suggested that I was slightly crazy for suggesting it in the first place. Great, thanks. "You're good at writing. That surprised her because you're an engineer" I don't t...

I've been playing a lot more basketball lately. I've always liked to play, but my nagging injuries seem to be disappearing, so I can push my legs a little bit more. Also, I recently stopped for a few weeks, and my jump shot seemed to magically disappear. Vowing that I didn't want this to happen again, I figured I'd make it out to the courts more frequently. Even if my usual basketball crew doesn't show up, I'll just go shoot around for a bit. It's decent exercise, and I like doing it. However, that means that I don't have to go to the centrally located courts that my basketball friends prefer. If they're not around, I'm free to frequent some of the other courts closer to my house. So I do. As I've realized, these particular courts seem to attract much more interesting characters. I'm not there to gawk, but my basketball adventures have suddenly gotten a lot more interesting. Heck, sometimes the adventures come to me. Last time I was t...

A while back, I noted that I've seen at least one really smart kid pass through my mom's day care. As of now, that list is up to three kids. I've always said that it's actions that prove whether a kid is smart or not. All little kids parrot what they hear around them. If they use big words, it just means someone around them knows the big words. If they find ways to accomplish things that you think are impossible for them, though, that's all them. And since little kids are constantly trying to do things that they shouldn't be doing, that means the real test is in what kind of mischief they get up to. So, gather 'round, because this is a tale of mischief. There are a pair of twin one year old boys that really like to climb on stuff. It's not like this is a new phenomenon, either; they've always liked to climb on stuff. Luckily for us, they just didn't have the physical capacity for the longest time. Their legs couldn't reach high enough, a...

A little while back, I joked that I should get in the habit of twiddling my thumbs so that I don't show up late for meetings. It was just a joke, since I really can't handle sitting around doing nothing. I get bored very, very easily, and intentionally putting myself in a position to be bored sounds like one of the outer circles of hell to me. Of course, life has a funny way of throwing you curveballs . It all started when I was sitting in some random meeting where I wasn't expected to say much. In those situations, I tend to move my hands around. You can think of it as fidgeting if you like, but it's more about keeping myself from tuning out than it is about nervous energy. It's not exactly like status meetings scare me. Anyhow, I was doing my usual thing. However, I became a little self-conscious about moving my hands, so I made an effort to keep more still. I figured clasping my hands in front of me was a decent plan, so I went with that. For the clever am...

You know how some couples have a song? It'll be some random song that means a lot to them, and whenever one of them hears the song, it'll remind that person of the other half of that relationship. Well, I do that, too. The catch, however, is that I associate music with people that I'm not dating. I don't know why, but some combination of my memory, my penchant for finding patterns, and my sense of humor means that I will hear a song and be reminded of certain people. Now, I can understand if you think that this is weird. I have found that more often than not, though, the associations I make between the song and the person are pretty amusing. For example: The chorus of Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" reminds me of one of my sister's friends. This guy apparently did not know that a Louisville slugger  was a type of baseball bat. As a result, he was very, very confused by the part where she says she used one to trash a car. Rightfully so, my...

One of the most interesting things about being single is that people have all sorts of advice for you. For the most part, it comes from friends who only want the best for you. They figure that you'll be that much happier with a significant other, and they are merely trying to nudge you towards that. It doesn't matter if the person giving the advice is single or not, that person is ultimately trying to impart some sort of wisdom. And precisely because the advice is given with the best intentions, I don't generally mind. I usually have a joke or two about the horrors of a girlfriend, and everyone has a laugh. I may listen to the person, I may not. But I don't mind the actual act of giving advice. It's just one of those things that happens. On the other hand, there are times when my best interests are not the impetus for the advice. And funnily enough, I've seen an increase in the screwball advice lately. For example: My sister-in-law was telling me that she...

In general, I really dislike the concept of tl;dr . If you care enough to read about something, just read the darn thing. Sure, there are cases where people are overly verbose, but those are the exception, rather than the rule. Instead, tl;dr gets used as an excuse for people to avoid reading. In its most common usage, it's a form of laziness. The real world is full of nuances, and you miss out on all of that if you see the world through CliffsNotes glasses. In particular, I tend to think that you miss important details when you're constantly asking for the executive summary. You want to know why I think this? Because I learned this the hard way. My friend was in town a little while ago, and she wanted to get some people together for a meal. After a little negotiating on what would meet everyone's dietary restrictions, she settled on Samovar . Now, if you either know San Francisco or if you clicked on the link, you will notice that there are several locations with that ...