Mild Amusement

Somehow or another, I became an adult. I know it's sort of a thing on the Internet for people to talk about still feeling like a kid, but it's true. It's not so much that I'm a kid at heart (though I still thoroughly enjoy playing with Lego's ), but that I don't quite remember the passing of time all that vividly. Sure, there are several very memorable milestones that have happened in my adult life, like, say, getting engaged or getting married . But even so, I have been legally considered an adult for a long, long time now. I just don't remember over a decade of adulting. Now, I once read an interesting theory that basically says you notice the passing of time by relating it to memorable events in your life . As a kid, your first times come at you in a constant barrage: first step, first day of school, first crush, and so on. Heck, even something like high school has a built-in  deadline of four years. There are so many memorable events that you can po...

In many ways, I am a creature of habit. There are some restaurants where I consistently order the same thing, for example (as best as I can tell, this was a large part of the confusion behind " do you know you? "). I've also been writing weekly blog posts for something like six years  (the actual blog has been around for longer, though). I honestly don't know where the time went, and it blows my mind that that fact is true. Still, there it is. Like I said, a creature of habit. Now, I realize this fact about myself, so I try to take advantage of it. That's why I build in little mnemonics into my life, to help generate results that I like. I don't want to forget my wallet in the car, so I pat my pockets down each and every time (check that last link if you're confused). Basically, that helps reduce the chances that I might walk away without it. As it turns out, I'm not the only one. I've heard other people reference their own version of a self p...

Language has always intrigued me in various ways. I'm sure I could hypothesize plenty of reasons for that particular fascination, but sometimes, it just boils down to the fact that I like how words connect. You can paint landscapes in the mind's eye, you can convey emotion far beyond the actual words (" I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep "), and you can find very creative ways to insult someone . Heck, even regional differences from the exact same language  can make things interesting (note, this holds true for multiple languages ). Like I said, I just like language. That's why I was incredibly amused to discover this on the Merriam-Webster website : Growing up, I was always told that "irregardless" wasn't a real word. In fact, I'm still not convinced that it's proper English, regardless of what the dictionary says. That said, I can't deny the fact that the dictionary does, in fact, have an entry for that word...

As I've mentioned before, the Mild Wife is Filipina. So, she brings her own cultural heritage and stories to the table, and that occasionally leads to some very interesting stories when our cultures meet ( for example, this one ). Let me put it this way: think about some of the amusement that results when my own two cultures mix , and now imagine adding a third culture to the mix. It gets pretty funny at times. The first, and most obvious, bit involves language. The Mild Wife's family speaks a language called Kapampangan , so I hear it thrown around at family gatherings these days. Before I met the Mild Wife, I'd never even heard of it before. Still, it's considered one of the major Filipino languages (note that it's not a dialect of Tagalog, it's its own language), so that just means I was ignorant about these things. As you can imagine, this meant I was starting from scratch in trying to understand people. You know who else is starting from scratch? You...

I used to participate in high school speech and debate (side note: I am a bit surprised that I haven't actually written any blog posts about this before, but I can't find any references). It meant a lot of very interesting research on policy and philosophy, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time. So, I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the activity. Well, soft spots sometimes lead to empty bellies and hearty laughs. First, you'll need a tiny bit of background. Ultimately, the events are competitions, no different than, say, a swim meet. But it's not like you can measure who finished the debate the fastest. Instead, you need to decide who was more convincing, or who won the argument. Basically, you need a real life person to make a subjective call; you need someone to act as a judge. To that end, each school that participates is responsible for bringing a certain number of judges to the competition. The more competitors you bring to the event, the more judges you n...

Cologne and I have a very interesting relationship. I have a " signature scent " that I like and that I have worn for years, but I've never been a connoisseur. When I first picked out that scent, I basically walked into a store and asked for help . I think that's probably a good representative moment for my attitude towards cologne: I like wearing it, but I couldn't pick something out off the top of my head. Other than my signature scent, I don't really know what the other options are. Well, that changed a little bit recently. First, I have to explain a little bit of back-story, though. A while back, my brother-in-law was on an international flight for work. He was flying on one of the nicer tiers, either business class or first class, so they handed him a complimentary care package thing. It's the sort of thing that has a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a few other amenities to make the flight and the time immediately afterward a little more comfortable. ...

I get the odd compliment every now and then, quite literally. Like I always say, it beats a straight up insult, so I'd rather hear the compliment than the alternative. Still, it usually makes for a fun story. There is one of those odd compliments, however, that I've heard repeatedly over the course of my life. Apparently, I have nice, long eyelashes. It's the sort of thing that I've never really considered, because that's just how my face looks. For better or for worse, that's what I've got, so I just take it for granted. Now, I fully realize that I can say that in part because I'm a guy. I'm not expected to curl my eyelashes or apply mascara to them at any point, so I don't. Incidentally, that's also why the people who tend to make comments about my eyelashes are women. They do  change the shape and length of their eyelashes, so they tend to notice those things. It's the same basic reason that I tend to notice when TV shows have ...