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.]

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.

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."

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.

Life Lessons from Homemade Salsa

I made some salsa again last night. It turned out yummy, but I learned something very important: the oils from hot peppers don't wash off one's hands very easily. At one point, both of my eyes were stinging from the oils after I unconsciously rubbed them with my fingers.

And then, later, I had to go to the bathroom.

I might just have to buy some disposable rubber gloves the next time I want to make salsa.

Another Year Younger

I turned 34 last week. They say that 40 is the new 30, but as far as I know, 34 is still just 34.

 

I wish I had turned 40, so I could be four years younger than I am now.

Voting Follow-Up: Foretelling Results

On the way back from voting, I stopped at Panda Express for some lunch. My fortune cookie had this to say: SOON YOU WILL BE SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD. Since I'm not planning any trips to Tibet in the near future, this could mean only one of three things:

1. I will suddenly come in to a lot of money.
   
2. The girl of my dreams will drop into my life.
   
3. Obama will take Indiana.
   

I can't decide which is the more realistic option. It has to be one of these. And fortune cookies never lie.

My Voting Experience: Thinking of Changing My Name

Because I work so close to my polling place, I figured I could avoid the before- and after-work voting crowd by taking my lunch hour a little early and going to vote.

I arrived at 10:40 with two books to read. (I'm nearing the end of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, so I brought a second book in case I finished it.) Two precincts are voting at my polling place. When I got there, I saw one long line and one line with only five people in it. Turns out that both of these lines were for my precinct. There was no waiting for voters from the other precinct, and maybe ten people voted there while I waited in line. (I can't be too certain of that number because my nose was buried Jekyll and Hyde; at any rate, I never saw a line there.)

As I said, both lines — the long and the short — were for my precinct. One was for last names A–M, the other for N–Z. Guess which line I was in!

That's right. I was in the long A–M line. Seems my precinct has more Davises, Johnsons, and Millers than Smiths, Taylors, and Williamses. (Incidentally, I just found a list of the most common surnames in the US; 19 of the top 30 fall into that first half of the alphabet.) Maybe I should change my last name to Ziegfeld so I don't have to spend so much time at the polls?

But, all-in-all, it wasn't terrible. I was out of there by 11:15, and I got some reading done. Now we just need to see if any of the people I voted for actually win. (Cross your fingers that we know the election results before December this time!)

Wish List 08

Both my twenty-four(teen)th birthday and Christmas are coming up soon, and people always ask me what I kind of gifts I want. Whenever someone asks me the question, though, my mind goes completely blank. So here I'll keep a running list of things I'd like, so you lucky few who read this blog won't be left in the dark. (A certain amount of analysis can reveal more about what kind of person I am, too, probably revealing more about me than I would like to.)

So, here's my wish list for 2008:

• Caroline Hartig's Clarinet Brillante II. I don't already own this CD from my college clarinet prof, and there's no excuse for it. [Finally bought this, Spring 2009]
• A wireless router (as opposed to a cordless router — we're talking WiFi here) [All right...so I went out and bought this one myself. I still get to cross it off the list!]
  
• A subscription to Games magazine [Thanks, Dad!]
  
• The CD Best of Bowie [Thanks Ginia!]
  
• The Kronos Quartet's Nuevo [Thanks, Mom!]
• Coldplay's Viva La Vida
• Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack [Thanks, Nelsons!]
• Neal Stephenson's new novel Anathem [Thanks, Jean!]
  
• A 26-hour day
  
• Russel Shorto's Descartes Bones
  
• A house in Lawrence township (in hopes that Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, et al. surf the blogosphere looking for ways to spend money)
  
• One of those nonclassical-music creation programs, like one of these. [Anyone know of a good Cakewalk guide?]
  
• Effects pedals for an electric guitar (I don't have any, so anything from simple distortion to a wah-wah pedal would be great -- get them used at eBay)
  
• Maybe a new watch (analog, something interesting but not too visually loud) [Even better: an old watch. Two, actually, that belonged to my brother.]
  
• A large donation to the Indiana Wind Symphony
  
• A small sculpture of a clarinetist, to add to my small collection [Not a sculpture, but a nice framed paper silhouette]
• Teen Titans: The Complete Fifth Season [Found this at Fry's]
  
• The New England Jazz Ensemble Wishes You a Cookin' Christmas

A Compliment . . . 16 Years Later

Way back in the early days of the nineties, when big hair bands were giving way to grunge and a Bush-free eight years was just beginning, I took a printmaking class in high school. One of the projects we did was silk screening. I created "my version" of Picasso's "The Old Guitarist," which, hopefully, you can see here:

The original.

This is from Picasso's Blue Period. Thinking of him as "The Blue Guitarist," I gave him an electric guitar and sunglasses and made him "The Blues Guitarist." I made six prints (and I'm realizing now that I never took a picture of them). I have one of them (the first one, which definitely wasn't the best one) hanging up in my office cube.

[AND I'LL INSERT IT HERE AFTER I GET A PICTURE OF IT.]

The complete and total fraud

I had since forgotten what happened to the other five. This weekend, I got a Facebook e-mail from Kelly. Kelly wrote to tell me that I had given her one copy of this print, and that she had moved it around from apartment to apartment and displayed it for 16 years, framed even. As you can imagine, this made me feel quite good.

Honestly, I didn't even remember who this Kelly was. I looked through her photos on Facebook for a while before I recognized her. I don't remember actually giving her the print, but I do remember that she was a pretty red-head, which in those days (okay, still!) would have been enough for me to do anything for her. I was such a pushover for a pretty face and red hair.

Too often, things from our past can come up and bite us. It was nice that something from my past came up and gave me a big hug.