Monday, December 29, 2008

The First Wii-In

Thanks to a freelance copy editing check, I bought a Wii today. Tomorrow, I'll sell my PS2 and games to cover some of the cost.

I decided recently that a Wii was for me after I did some boxing and tennis on someone else's Wii Sport (the game that comes with the console). My heart rate was up, and I was sweating...a decent cardio workout. And a helluva lot more fun than a stationary bike.

So I bought the Wii for health purposes. Really! I'll try to play on the Wii for 45 minutes to an hour each day (the sacrifices we make) as my exercise. I'll track my weight, and in mid-January I have to see my doctor again anyway, so I can see if the exercise is helping my cholesterol and triglycerides at all. In the meantime, I'll just have some fun.

So at tonight's Wii-in, I come in at an embarassing 215 lbs. Gotta start Wii-in' it off!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Boxing Day Cleanup

This Christmas is proof positive that it really does pay to post your wish list on your blog!

Dear Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, et al.,
Christmas may be over, but don't feel that a late gift will be unappreciated. I didn't get that house in Lawrence Township that I was hoping to find under the tree, so feel free to help me cross that off my wish list anytime during 2009.

4ndyman

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Christmas Wish

Our company holiday party was yesterday. In the past, they have been pretty lame because they try to do too much (like hiring a magician instead of just letting people socialize). But, still, it's hard to pass up free food these days. And there were door prizes.

But in the end, I'm really glad I went. I made the acquaintance of two women I didn't previously know, though I would see them around often enough. One in particular, the (ahem) single one, seems quite intelligent, has a quick wit, seems to share my sense of humor, knows a lot of obscure trivia (like me), and . . . well . . . is single.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to screw my courage to the sticking place and ask her out. I'll be happy if I can get through the conversation without having an anxiety attack, even if she shoots me down.

[Update: I was red as a beet, but I made it through. We're going to a little chamber concert tomorrow night.]

Thursday, December 04, 2008

My First Christmas Present 08

I was surprised this afternoon at work by the delivery of a package. I hadn't ordered anything, wasn't expecting anything. I don't get packages at home, much less at work.

The return address revealed that it was from the production company that put together the new videos we put on Dummies.com (more about this below). Somehow I had become the "math guy" — my degree in music certainly made me qualified, eh? — and I had helped the people at this company decipher what we had given them to use as scripts for some videos about Calculus. (I took Algebra 2 my sophomore year of high school, and didn't take a math class again until my junior year of college, and that was business math.)

Anyway, inside the package I found a little gift bag from a place in Michigan. Inside the bag was a really cool travel mug (bearing the production company's logo) and four little bags of specialty coffees.

This gift, my first Christmas gift this year, brought a bright ray of caffeinated joy to an otherwise somnambulant day.

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Dummies.com was relaunched recently, and there are a mess of videos and new free content to see there. If you haven't stopped in to check it out, you oughta. Here's a fun little video about adding and subtracting fractions. Much of the rest of my daily labors will go to creating more content to put on this site. There's a lot of stuff there already, but we've left plenty of room to grow.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Fruit of the Womb

So my best friend found out today that the bean in her belly is female. Let the baby-naming fun begin!

The mother had some horrible heart problems when she was born, so this pregnancy is officially somewhat risky. As such, she has been getting ultrasounds more often than normal, with special attention paid to the baby's heart. The bean's heart looked healthy in today's ultrasound.

With that in mind, I thought they ought to name the bean something that meant "good heart" or "strong heart." Unfortunately, I couldn't find a name online that meant exactly this that was actually a decent name. I don't think they would go for Creuddylad or Azami (though, considering the bean is one-quarter Japanese, perhaps Azami would make a great middle name?).

I did, though, land on Cordelia, which might (might!) come from the Latin "cor," heart. Plus, there's the Shakespeare reference, which is almost always good.

So there. That's my official (and perhaps only serious) suggestion for a name to replace "Cletus the Fetus."

Monday, December 01, 2008

I've Run Out of Context

Statements actually made over Thanksgiving vacation:

Phrases you hear only from the mouths of young children (let's hope): "Nobody wants to hear about your penis!"

Things only your grandmother can say: "You're getting fat!" I considered correcting her: I'm not getting fat, I am fat. But I made some statement about joining the Y instead.