The most unexpected thing that has happened so far is in my workplace. We recently picked up some new leadership and an infusion of really active people who share my distaste for heel and knuckle dragging. Watching our Operation: Historic Moment unfold was very nice and the response we got from our work was utterly delightful. We've picked up some new talent recently and with luck we can keep the pace that we've set at the beginning of the year. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next.
Hitkari Fine Bone China Tea cup
The oldest thing I own is a very old set of Syracuse china that my mother gave me. I have no place to put it or display it so it is still in storage. Eventually, when I have money and time, and a place to put it I plan on displaying it proudly in my home. I just don't have the conditions yet to properly honor the collection, but I won't let it escape my grip.
Three things that are worth waiting in long lines for are: Certain movies, Certain Comic-Con events, and saying goodbye to loved ones that have died. Without a doubt the longest time I've willingly remained in a queue is the entry line for Comic-Con's Preview Night. Sitting on hard concrete for two or three hours is a testament to my passion for the event and my gross stupidity for waiting so long for something that on retrospect isn't ever really worth it afterwards.
I haven't seen one of those, or sent one, in any of my conscious memory. Everything that comes in the post now-a-days is printed matter and it's either complete crap or bills. I don't think that people actually handwrite any longer. I know that unless I concentrate very hard, my handwriting is utterly incomprehensible. My cursive script is utterly abominable. I suppose it's a lost art and we can lament it's passing, but in this day and age people value the message over the way the message is sent.
There are still some things that demand handwritten messages, but none of them should be delivered by post. Mostly love letters and poetry. Those should be hand-delivered. I can't think of any other reason why you would send a message over the post in a handwritten way other than to perhaps stroke some sense of nostalgia.
The world has moved on.
Paris Exposition: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, 1900
I would return to Paris and have dinner there. I would seek out a delightful little nowhere place in the Marais district and we would order a roasted chicken and a nice bottle of wine. Then we would walk from the Marais to the Metro, and take it to Montmartre. Where we would order a crepe from a crepe-cart wandering around the base of the butte.
Visiting Paris, and dining there is a wonderful experience. The language difference is a problem and the waiters are gruff, but the way the French dine is delightfully civilized. It was the one of the many things that I missed when I returned to the USA, and dined here in this country. French waiters don't buzz you regularly and ask you impertinent questions. They practically ignore you until you flag them down and frankly, that's the way it's supposed to be! I'm taking in the experience, I'm talking with my partner, I don't want to be interrupted! I miss it a lot. There is something utterly perfect about sitting down at a table, disassembling a roasted chicken by hand, drinking half a bottle of fine French wine and then walking across the city and treating yourself to a Nutella-filled fresh-made Crepe and a bottle of Evian.
What do I miss about dining in the USA that I can't get in Paris? Complimentary water. You can trust the tap water in the USA with your life, it's crystal clear and squeaky clean, but you cannot anywhere else. In Europe you have to rely on bottled water. It's not terribly expensive, but it is a glaring difference.
I sometimes muse about starting a restaurant that is designed and run in a truly french style. The waiters aren't gruff, there aren't any language barriers, the water is from the tap and free, but the way the waiters conduct themselves and the pace of dining, that's what I'd like to bring back. What the French have over us is this one thing. It's clearly superior and I wish the American dining experience could measure up.
April Fools Day for an IT Admin in my position wouldn't be practical. I have access to too much and it would undermine many of my professional relationships. One of the most important foundations of what I do is built upon trust, so if I were to pull a prank, it would damage that trust.
April Fools is pretty much the day that you take absolutely no interest in the operation of the world. You assume everything is a lie and sit back and enjoy all the machinations of pranksters as they try to get people's goats. It used to be that April Fools pranks would flow through social networks like a mighty river, but for the few years we've been using these systems, most people have developed a natural resistance to what April Fools day delivers. It's fun for people who have much more lighthearted jobs, but not for me.
Chinese Punishment of the Rack
I graduated from high school in 1993 and so my ten-year reunion would have been 2003. The twenty year is coming up in 2013. Either way, I can’t see myself actually engaging in any kind of reunion with those people. I regard that time of my life like everyone-who-wasn’t-in regards theirs, a daily trudge through some of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. I was different, I was an outsider, and from the very start I knew it was going to be four years spent where the most important aspect of my life was endurance. I just had to live through it. High school taught me lots of things, the school component of it wasn’t difficult and I did well academically, but the social and emotional aspects of it were vastly different. It’s been so many years and the experiences were so incredibly unpleasant that a giant majority of the time is lost to me. I simply do not remember it. I have redacted my own memories in order to protect myself. I left that situation and those people behind and out of six billion people on this planet high school helped me identify a certain set of people who I never ever want to see again for the rest of my life. The whole experience, from 9th to 12th grade in high school harbor the most unpleasant and painful memories that I have in my life. Like unwanted guests, I do everything I can to not think about them, that time in my life, and I am very happy that it has receded into the past. With each passing breath I am further and further away from it.
I don’t need a reunion with these people. On Facebook I friended those people who I actually were friends with but those connections didn’t get anywhere. Recently in a fit of piqué I decided to browse the web-of-friends that some of the people who I had established a connection with had with people I dimly remember from that time in my life and it was cathartic. What did I discover? What everyone discovers. That those who were in aged just as disastrously as everyone else, but what really struck me is how many people never got anywhere. I think that launching yourself somewhere very different is good for you in the long run and many of these people are stuck in their little lives in their little towns and they never see anything of the world. I have pity more than anything else for them. Perhaps it was all the unpleasantness that encouraged me to range so very far from where I started out, but I can say that I am better now than I was, I’m happier far away than close by, and if I never think about high school again I could die a happy man.
I wish I knew more about any kind of artistic expression. Each of us has our own talents and we express them in our own ways and I am happy that mine are squarely pegged on technology and helping people deal with that technology. This isn’t a very strong wish, mostly it’s a passing curiosity on my behalf. The closest I’ve ever gotten creatively has been some dabbling in photography. It’s quite appropriate, I think, that I can find the easiest access to art via a type of technology. This desire isn’t as strong as it is for others, even when it comes to photography. Perhaps someday when I have some actual time to devote to pursuing some kind of art I’ll give it another shot.
I find news to be needless and odious. I try to avoid it and only run my hands in the oceans of filth every once in a great while. Mostly I watch Colbert Report and The Daily Show and I keep my finger poised on the Fast Forward button, I skip all the commercials and if a segment is becoming too obnoxious then I simply skip it. If the guest is annoying or unpleasant then I just hit stop and delete the program.
What in the news cycle would affect me? Local news is just about crimes, national news is about scandals, shock-pieces, or governmental waste. If there were news items to pay attention to I will find them and read up on them on my own by the people I follow on Twitter. They curate the news for me for free and I pick and choose what I look into. When I want to know more about something I check Wikipedia, which might as well be an authoritative source for information since it’s as biased and corrupt as all the other sources. I approach much things in a zero trust model. I’ll read a news item but I don’t believe it until it affects me personally, and since very little will affect me personally, I rarely if ever believe anything at all. I used to parrot what I read trying to impress people with what I picked up, but over years of dealing with know-it-alls and generally unpleasant-to-talk-to people I’ve given up. I know a lot but I don’t try to raise my voice and correct people who describe things any longer, it’s just not worth the conflict. I’ve gotten quite good at identifying bullshit and smiling as I watch the purveyor waddle away thinking that they have convinced me how great their steaming pile of bullshit is.
I find that watching too much news is simply bad for your mental and physical health. Too much of this noise is bad for your mind, it clouds your thinking and enables you to be a lazy oaf, unwilling to do any thinking on your own when some babbling putz goes on a rampage. Too many people allow too much in their lives to executively overwrite their common sense, if they even had it at all to begin with.
The difference between noise and signal is vitally important. Much of what you hear in “popular media” is noise and not signal. If you consume too much noise then you will be what you consume and will become noise yourself. Whenever I’m exposed to such noise I can feel it beating me down and generally making me miserable. I seek to avoid suffering, so that is to avoid noise, and finally to avoid news.
I would march down to the US Postal Service and buy a Postal Money Order for $1000. Then march down to the bank and deposit the money and use it at I saw fit and at my leisure.
