Mild Amusement

As I've mentioned before, I use Google Reader to track various RSS feeds . It helps me to keep up with various sites and stories that I find interesting and/or educational, so I like it quite a bit. On most days, I read my posts and go about my business. Recently, though, there was a post that made things anything but just another post on any other day. To begin with, the post that came up on my feed was from a site called "Clients From Hell." In hindsight, the title on the thing was "NSFW Work Opportunity," so I should've known that this was going to be awfully interesting. Now, I should also mention that I usually read my feeds while at work. So a post that says " NSFW " made me a little leery. Still, it showed up on my feed, and those posts are generally text-only, so I figured I'd take my chances. If you haven't already read the post, the story is about a guy who asks a designer to make his anatomy look bigger in a "risque pr...

A while back, I had dinner with a friend. This was someone I've known for a while, so we were both pretty comfortable around each other. That meant that no one had to pull any punches, and we both heard the raw truth when it came to telling our stories. Of course, that also meant that the conversation was infinitely more hilarious as a result. To begin with, I knew that she was dealing with some drama in her life at the moment (she claimed that it followed her around). I didn't quite know the source of all the drama, but I knew something was up. So, I asked her what was going on. I won't go in to the gory details, but she was dealing with someone who had once been a friend. Things had gotten messy for a while, and she had ultimately cut her ties with this person. Things didn't stay that way. The ex-friend had made something of a half-hearted attempt to reconnect, in the form of an email. Without being a gossip, suffice it to say that my friend did not think it was gen...

A short while back, I stopped by my friend's house warming party. I hadn't seen the guy in a while, so I was looking forward to catching up with him. As it turned out, there were a bunch of people at the shindig, so I got to talk to my share of his other friends. That would end up causing quite a bit of laughter. You see, both my buddy and his girlfriend played quite a bit of ultimate Frisbee, so many of their friends came from that social circle. So when I would ask someone how they knew the hosts, it wasn't unheard of to hear, "oh I played ultimate with one of them." It was interesting meeting this other social circle, but the best part, by far, was when I met one of them who happened to be a trainer of some sort. When she told me she played with the hosts, I replied with something along the lines of, "oh cool, not me, though. I don't play ultimate." Taking that as her cue, she launched into a one-woman game of What Does Sam Play Then? Mind you, ...

A while back, I was looking for a new dentist. I had actually missed a couple of appointments with the previous dentist, and I wasn't particularly thrilled with the original one. So, I figured I'd hunt around for a new dentist, and give that person a try. In the worst case, I could just switch back. It seemed like a pretty reasonable plan, but little did I know what in store for me. It started out much the same as any other doctor appointment: with paperwork. I filled out my information, waited for my turn, and then sauntered in when they called my name. That's when things started to get interesting. Since I hadn't ever been to that particular office before, they needed to get x-rays of my teeth. I'd done that before, so I wasn't surprised (though I've never been a big fan of the process). However, the assistant who helped me did raise an eyebrow. You see, she had a super raspy voice. I noticed right away, but I didn't say anything. What was I going to...

I think I've mentioned before that people in my family tend to have a sense of humor, so you'd darn well better have one if you want to run with us. Most people have no problem playing along, and over time, good family friends and significant others get in on the act, too. Sometimes a little too well. Let's start this story chronologically, with my brother. A long time back, he was spending some time with his in-laws, and he joked to his mother-in-law that she was his favorite mother-in-law. Technically, this was a true fact. However, she didn't exactly have much competition. His mother-in-law momentarily forgot this fact, so she was flattered. My brother's wife, however, knew that it was a joke, so she politely pointed out how many mother-in-laws my brother had (one). Everyone had a good laugh, and it turned in to a fun story. Fast forward a few months, and somehow this story came up at dinner one night with my sister and her husband. Everyone chuckled. Me being...

Once, a long time ago, when I was a poor college kid, I decided to shave my head instead of getting a haircut. I don't entirely remember the whole thought process involved, but I do definitely remember thinking that it'd be cheaper. I mean, a cheap set of clippers was way cheaper than paying 15ish bucks every few weeks. It didn't look crappy or anything, so I stuck to this plan. Fast forward a few years, and I'd been shaving my head for a while. I'd very much gotten used to the whole process, and I didn't think anything of it. However, I'd just started working for a new supervisor at the time, and HE wasn't used to the process. My hair was a little shaggy when I first started working for him, so a couple of weeks after, I shaved my head. Upon walking in to his office, he looked up, and immediately asked, "what'd you do? Lose a bet?" Yeah, it went like that. Anyhow, the point is that I've shaved my head for a while, and it has always c...

I was just talking to someone the other day about how I'm usually very willing to play with my diet. This is how I ended up eating vegetarian meals (and occasionally regretting it ) and how I ended up getting a dirty look over tofu . As I quickly discovered, though, I am decidedly in the minority when it comes to food. And as it turns out, this has often led to quite a few laughs over food. The one item where this is the most noticeable is pizza. Sure, everyone has their preferences about certain food; I know people who don't eat seafood, people who don't eat meat, people who only eat Chinese food, people who don't eat dairy ... you get the idea. But because pizza has so many options, people's preferences very quickly come out. My Chinese grandmother was one a perfect example of this. She was one of those people that pretty much only ever wanted to eat Chinese food (my friends can confirm that this is not an isolated occurrence among other Chinese elders). I wou...