Yawn

A relatively boring day at work today, so what do I do? I blog. :-)

Actually it's been a pretty boring and socially uninteresting week in general so far; few dating prospects, nothing really going on other than "24" tonight and "Reilly: Ace of Spies" this coming Thursday. I really need to find myself a social circle.

Actually, this appears to be a pretty big theme with me lately. I'm a lonesome person, granted. However, I have a pretty diverse array of interests and one would think I'd have parlayed this into some sort of local social group by now. I used to have a group of local friends, say, three years ago, but since then they've all moved out of town; one to Chicago, several to the wilds of Maryland (driveable, but only just), one to Birmingham, Alabama; the list goes on.

Okay, fine, go out and find a new circle. Well, here's where the hitch comes. Where does one go to do such a thing? Bars? Yeah, right. Work? Not where I am; I've got one buddy here, and we do do a lot of talking, but he's twenty years my senior and there's little socially that we have in common save for checking out the occasional movie.

Hmm, dry so far... What else? Clubs? Church? User groups? Classes? Jeez, I don't know. Here's where we get way outside my comfort zone. I'm not naturally gregarious. People like Tripp, for example, naturally gravitate toward "people" situations. A dead evening for a guy like him (Hi, Tripp!) will only have him talking to five or so close friends, while a busy weekend might see him zipping among dozens of people. A gregarious week for me might witness me talking to a dozen people all told. I just don't seem to be wired that way, and the idea of just popping in on a social group for the purpose of meeting people is an uncomfortable and alien one. Artificial.

But then, what's the alternative? Evenings with my dogs and cat and an apartment full of whirring gadgets, and the occasional date from Match.com. Argh.

-Rich

Colorgenics Profile

You feel worn out, physically and mentally. Recently the going has been tough .. and it looks as if there is still a considerable way for you to go before you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. If only you could put a protecting wall around yourself and cut yourself off from the rest of the world - be it even for only a little while - how wonderful it would be, but you can't ... so you need to bear with it. Just when everything will seem at its lowest ebb you will find that there is a turnabout ... and your problems will seem to find a way of resolving themselves.

You are a leader and possibly at this tine in a position of authority. But you are experiencing problems ... You are not quite sure how to handle the present situation .. .

You are a very choosy person .. demanding and exacting in your emotional demands and very particular in your choice of partner. You are self-sufficient and as a result of this overbearing nature you find it difficult to establish any depth of deep physical or mental involvement with members of the opposite sex..

Whatever you strive to do, something always seems to be holding you back. There is no subterfuge in you. You are a clear thinker and all you demand from life, in a relationship, is a partner whom you can trust and with whom you can, together, develop a foundation of trust based on understanding. You are your own person... and you demand freedom of thought ...to follow your own convictions. You have no interest in "two-timing" and all you seek is sincerity and "straight-dealing".

You need to be needed and would like a situation where you will no longer be subjected to pressures and demands from those about you ... There is no harm in "dreaming". But it is you - and only you that can be able to realise those dreams and to turn them into reality.

...yyyyep. :-)

-Rich

PS. Got the Colorgenics link from Mary over at minutiae.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Too funny. Make it stop...

Wrong story to read at TomatoNation... Wrong damn story. Ow ow ow...

-Rich

Have Discovered the Problem

Aha. So this tummy bug I've got behaves itself so long as I don't eat. Got it. Right.

Am at work. Am not happy re: this fact. Am troubleshooting problems similar to tummy bug: "if it hurts when you do that, don't do that."

Argh.

-Rich

Off From Work Today

Yep, being a gummint worker I get the day off for President's Day. This has allowed me to relax, sleep in and generally prepare myself and the apartment (wishful thinking abounds) for tonight's date with "Julia," with previous preparation and dramatics chronicled here.

Who knows? Things might actually go places with "Julia," but so far she seems to be one of the four busiest people on the planet - this dinner has been nearly three weeks in the making, due to her flitting around the country on business. Sigh - part of me is hoping against hope that I'm not being humored here... She's busy enough (hell, we're meeting right after work for her) that I'm not optimistic that she'll have had any decompression time and thus be able to enjoy herself.

Well, at least she's no bon-bon-eating layabout. :-)

-Rich

Wendy: Caught in the Crossfire

Sigh.

No man is an island, and no online comment is ever forgot. And yes, you do have many more rejection letters than I do.

</genuflect> :-D

-Rich

Little to Report

Didn't head into work on Friday due to gastro distress, and as it's only just beginning to fade now, I'm optimistic that tomorrow (President's Day, and thus a government-employee holiday) I may actually do things worthy of reporting.

Oh okay, I dug out my Playstation yesterday, schlepped over to Funcoland and snagged a used copy of Final Fantasy VIII to help while away the gurgling hours. This is my first in-depth experience with a console RPG, and seldom have I run into anything so self-consciously impenetrable. An example: in order enable something as basic as the ability to drink a healing potion in battle, I need to 'junction' a 'GF' (guardian force) to the character in question, then manually select the abilities I want (which are unavailable until said GF is junctioned) like 'Item,' 'GF' (again), 'Draw,' and/or 'Magic' ('Item' is the ability in question, allowing use of things during a fight). This effectively builds the menu of options I have while fighting for my life against the demons and bad guys of the FF8 world; cool tech, but God, the terminology...

I'm sure someone somewhere at Squaresoft knows why I need to forge a spiritual link to Shiva or Quetzalcoatl (no kidding) before I can snag a bottle off my belt in battle, but hey, that's how they made the game, and it's sold gajillions of copies, so I suppose I'm just picking nits.

-Rich

Cool Stuff on Other Blogs

Oh my god. My sides still hurt from holding in the laughter. The mood around the office is dour today, so me busting a gut over in my cube wouldn't exactly go over well. Sarah recommended this story today (its parent site is Tomato Nation, a collection of what must be similarly cruelly- and unusually-funny stories), and what can I say? Read the story, but be careful that no one who cares sees you. :-)

In other news, Wendy updated her blog yesterday, backfilling with several posts from over the previous week. More connection issues with the Mac, eh? Sorry to hear it - my iBook (via its long-departed AirPort) was a very reliable connection while its AirPort lasted.

I was unsure whether to mention it yet, but I'm in a saucy mood today, so here goes: for those who've been interested in the comings and goings of my recent stumblings into the world of dating, I've begun a new blog, Mad Method. And for those who might feel that my tendency toward TMI renders such material distasteful or just oogy, feel free not to visit. :-) I'm still experimenting with the Mad Method's "look" (it currently bears an uncanny resemblance to this site), but the material's been accumulating, so with V-Day coming I figured I'd just dump the info and work on window-dressing later. Enjoy!

-Rich

Those Crazy Scientists

Science fiction becoming science fact, yet again. This time it's artificial wombs.

...So what does this mean to all my myriad readers out there, male and female? I'm honestly interested in comments, here. If of the feminist bent, as the article mentions, are you worried that this will allow men to "obsolete" women from the reproductive process? If of a conservative stripe, since this could make abortion unnecessary, where does this fit on your moral map? How about the potential for an explosion in orphanage/foster-child population in an already-strained foster system?

Since in vitro fertilization has been around for a while, I don't foresee mechanized gestation being too traumatic in terms of the legalities of using the technology, but societally this could be at least as traumatic as Roe v. Wade or even the advent of the Pill. After all, if there's no inconvenience to pregnancy or medically-mandated recovery time after childbirth, on the one hand it makes having children a much less stressful endeavor for families in general and women in particular. On the other hand, the raw biological bond created between a hormonally-charged (and -changed) mother and her newborn is one of the basic tenets of nature. If Mommy's spared the indignities and inconveniences of swollen ankles, back trouble and painful mammaries, then she's also reduced to the role of adoptive parent in all but genetics. Breast-feeding, which has been proven beneficial both to mother in terms of reducing the risk of mammary cancer, and to baby in terms of early weight gain and immune system function, will be nearly impossible without Mom undertaking some sort of hormone regimen to stimulate lactation (does this even exist yet?).

No doubt, a complicated issue, and one with which current prepubescent girls will have to deal once they get to their middle twenties. It's a scary world out there.

-Rich

A Beautiful Springlike Day

Today's weather in Richmond is simply gorgeous. High 50s, breezy and clear, with copious sun. To boot, work is slow today, with much progress being made on my department's application without the need for me to contribute overly much.

I'll be attending the Virginia Opera production of Elektra at the Carpenter Center this evening, despite being stood up by my prospective date due to her work travel schedule shifting on her. Ah, well; the extra leg room will be appreciated, in any event.

Gonna be a low-key weekend for a change: laundry, pre-Spring-cleaning and TiVo-clearing will fill most of my time.

In other news, my 16 MB "holiday gift" storage card arrived on Tuesday from Palm, Inc. ('twas a free sign-in kind of offer; I got in just under the wire), and I'm stoked. Just for giggles I grabbed copies of War and Peace, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Mark Twain: a Biography; The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Albert Bigelow Paine), and slapped them all on the card. It's still over half empty. :-D

No doubt opportunities to get myself in more geek-variety trouble will present themselves over the weekend.

-Rich

Okay, I'm stopping now

Ditto for overbearingly dextrous and delicate hyperstimulus.

I'm getting back to work now. %-)

-Rich

A brief snapshot of my mind

Was Googlewhacking a bit while at work (hey - it's still legal in Virginia), and discovered that appalling double-jointedness qualifies. Wow, am I in a mood. :-D

-Rich

...And the World Returns to Normal

Sarah has rectified what I'm sure was a clerical error as detailed a post ago - many thanks, Sarah!

So Spill About the Weekend Already!

Okay, okay. :-D The trip to New York City was a good'un. It'd been over four years since I visited the first time, and this go-round I was able to savor the experience to a much more thorough degree. I also have excellent subway karma, apparently - I don't think Meagan (my sister) and I ever had to wait more than a minute or two for a train. Got to walk the Jack Russell Terrier she's currently dogsitting along a decent portion of Riverside Park, which was quite impressive; the priority of parks in such a densely crowded area as Manhattan was great to see. I also had the chance to stop by Lincoln Center (down by the Juilliard School); first, we had some incredible sushi at Sushi a Go-Go, and then I stomped around a bit while Meagan rehearsed. I got to patronize a street vendor or two (fresh, warm honey-roasted peanuts, cashews and almonds rock), check the shops and watch the sun set over the local skyline. That evening we met with some good friends of Meagan's as well, and caught up with a comparatively long-lost cousin for dinner at the Gramercy Diner. Oh, this was after we hung out and goggled at the furniture at ABC Carpet and Home, which is a truly high-end store for such things. We saw a few pieces that ran north of $10,000.00, and rightly so. To close out the day we zipped back to Lincoln Center and caught In the Bedroom, which would have been inscutable enough in its own right, if not for the onslaught of snoring, laughing, clapping and cell-phone-dropping perpetrated by the audience. 'Twas a great people-watching opportunity, if the movie left a little to be desired in the "point" department. That closed out Friday; we dragged ourselves home and crashed.

The next day we went to the @SQC Restaurant for brunch with Meagan's new beau (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty). Most notable (aside from the guy himself - she's found herself a live one this time) was the hot chocolate: effectively warm chocolate syrup in a large coffee mug, only richer, better tasting and topped with homemade whipped cream and sporting a cinnamon-stick-like roll of shaved chocolate. OMG. The maple-apple-cinnamon souffle was almost bland by comparison. Whoof.

Hopped a bus to New Jersey to visit an old friend recently reacquired for the remainder of Saturday and the beginning of Sunday. There is more, but it is written in the language of Mordor, which I shall not utter here. ;-)

Sunday afternoon I hung out, exhausted from my travels and nursing the faint beginnings of a head cold, and for dinner Meagan and I ordered Indian food in and watched the Super Bowl. Poor Rams. Did doze nasty Patriots give you a owwie? :-p Great game, though.

The trip back from JFK airport to Dulles was horrific. Not only were we delayed an hour because of inclement weather of indeterminate type around Washington, but once we got close enough to determine the nature of the weather we discovered that it was high winds. Can you say turbulence? Can you say extensive barf bag use? Can you see the runway slew repeatedly from right to left as you get closer and closer to the ground? I knew you could. Thankfully I didn't require my "complimentary convenience bag," but the guy behind me (and most of the rear of the plane) did. Ewwwww. It was a Gulfstream I (other photo), and as such small enough that they had to move big passengers like me around for weight distribution reasons - i.e., so it could take off. Yeesh.

Nevertheless, we all made it back fine, but I now need to make an appointment with my chiropractor thanks to the violence of the final approach.

So anyway, quite an adventure. Between the good and the bad, I'll definitely be making more visits to NYC from now on.

I may take the train, though...

-Rich

So This is the Thanks I Get

Sarah has declared me one of the "Folks who need to update," despite my having blogged thirteen(ish) times in the month of January compared to, say, Wendy's four times. Wendy (understandably, perhaps, considering her housemate status) gets "Can they be trusted?" billing, while I get the proverbial waggled finger along with Tripp, who deserves it, not having blogged at all since October 16th of 2001. Oh well, so much for that whole "work rewarded" thing.

:-p. So fie on thee, fickle Chicagoan. Aunties, elderberries and all that. Did you know that 'googlewhack referral' is, at the time of posting, itself a Googlewhack?

Anyway, I just got back from a wonderful trip to New York City about which I was going to expound at length, but as I'm now feeling somewhat haughty and (playfully) put out, I shall keep mum on the subject until I'm in a more suitable mood.

-Rich