Snausages: So, an E-flat, a G-flat, and a B-flat walk into a bar.
Snausages: And the bartender says,
Snausages: “I’m sorry, we don’t serve minors.”
Myke: That struck a chord.
Snausages: Careful with those puns, you’ll get in treble.
Myke: But they’re key to my humour.
Myke: And very noteworthy.
(via bash)
I conducted an experiment this summer. I’ve never gone without television for more than a week or two. There’s too many programs I enjoy and watch regularly for me to completely give it up. So, for two months this summer, I completely fasted from tv.
My experiment was wildly successful. I didn’t realize I could do this, nor did I even care to try. It began as an unintentional absence. Soon after realizing I hadn’t vegged out watching anything for a few weeks, I decided to totally give it up for a while. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
While I was very successful at avoiding everything that tv had to offer, I created a void. There was downtime that I needed to fill. I quickly learned how unimportant one medium became and grabbed on to my other favorite medium: the Internet.
I’ve probably spent an average of 10-14 hours a day in front of my computer for these past two months. However, during the first month, it was much easier to not be in front of the computer since I was working full-time and socially as an IT administrator. I also had many people to visit after hours and kept myself busy most nights.
In the middle of July, I flew back home to an unscheduled second half of the summer. So my free time suddenly increased threefold. With my desire to watch television nearly deceased, I spent much time browsing the world wide web. And it’s just as easy to treat this medium as television and waste hours reading unimportant crap: mostly trivial or subjective content but nonetheless mildly entertaining.
I admit to being quite obsessed with being online when I should be doing one of many things. As was so famously portrayed in What about Bob, I guess sometimes we have to take baby steps.
The most important change I should discipline myself with is time management. I could have done this years ago, knowing very well that I waste a lot of time. I have no regrets about this, but I also realize that I’m going nowhere fast. If certain things really were important to me, I’d do anything to make them happen. I see this in a few of my other friends, which is very inspiring.
I guess life doesn’t get any easier than this. I work for myself, I call my own hours, I travel when I desire and to wherever I want, and I can make the most of everything I do. I’m lucky to be in my position and unless I further myself in the areas I want so badly, I might lose this again to another extensive round of monotonous drudgery. I have the opportunity to do and be anything I want right now. Wake up, Micah!
Two summers ago, I lost everything. One day in July, the day I began my new job, someone pulled the plug. My web host went under without any notice or word. I was hosed. I had no backup of anything on my web server. It was gone.
Luckily, after a few days of waiting, the host decided to flip on the switch for one week, enough time for us to download everything we were hosting. Talk about wiping the sweat off of my face…
After a quick and fierce search online, I decided to shack up with Dreamhost. It’s been a love/hate relationship since then but mostly I’m satisfied.
I’ve only had two lingering things bothering me since I made the switch. I missed my awesome statistics software and my comments have been kinda screwed up. Well, I’ve mostly fixed those problems and now must optimize and customize what I have fixed to work great. So, please feel free to register and leave comments. It’s very easy and it’s spam free! The best part about my comment integration is the amazing functionality that it allows with my bulletin board. I will hopefully get around to more customization since I have time on my hands that I didn’t before.
These changes are two years in the making. You don’t even know how relieved I am right now.
Eating breakfast at Meemaw’s house was such a welcome change from eating breakfast at home. During my annual week long visits to her house, I was almost always assured a nutritious, delicious two-course breakfast that consisted of fruit and fiber.
At around 8:30, if I hadn’t woken up yet she would usually come around and wake me to say that she’s preparing breakfast. After taking a few moments to realize that I’m awake, I would slowly make my crawl to the kitchen bar, where I sat watching her prepare a half cantaloupe for me.
While I sat at the bar enjoying my sweet cantaloupe, she would be sitting on her stool, drinking her morning cup of coffee and reading the newspaper at the end of the kitchen counter. As my cantaloupe’s mass steadily decreased, she would begin the second course of breakfast.
Most of the time, my second course was what I wish every breakfast was like. We’d usually go to the grocery store and buy a box of blueberry waffles not too long after she picked me up from the airport. The two minute toasting of these waffles produced a heartwarming aroma that always made my mouth water. Blueberry waffles was probably one of my favorite meals growing up because it consisted of the best of food: fruit, bread and sugar. The perfect consistency and combination of blueberry waffles was a great way to start my day.
There were, however, those breakfasts where she was out of waffles. In this case, my second course was usually a bowl of high fiber cereal like All-Bran or Fiber One, different than most of the cereals I ate at home. I was used to Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, Raisin Bran, or maybe Life on occasion. Those high fiber cereals Meemaw served were usually not too bad of a difference since there was usually *some* flavor.
Over the years, breakfast diminished in value. During my stay on campus my first year and a half of college, my cereal habits would vary depending on what the cafeteria had available. I moved back home for my spring semester of sophomore year and my breakfasts quickly became less important: breakfast bars or the occasional eggs and bacon that my dad would cook. I didn’t like cereal anymore and would never eat it.
As college continued and I ate more breakfast bars, I got sick of those, too. There was, however, one breakfast food I occasionally ate and never got tired of eating. Oatmeal is the wonder food when it comes to nutrition. You can make oatmeal however you want, varying the ways it can be served. My last year or two of college began my love for the oatmeal breakfast.
Since then, oatmeal has been my instant breakfast of choice. I moved so many times that it was just the easiest and quickest meal for me to prepare no matter where I was. Because eating fruit is a past time favorite, I usually buy fresh or dried fruit to serve with my oatmeal. Not only is it good, it’s a great way to start the day.
Just this morning, I ate a half cantaloupe. I can’t help but think of those times my grandmother served me breakfast anytime I eat a cantaloupe. They’re still very tasty, but it’ll never be the same.
When I think of the Astros, I think of only a few from my time:
Nolan Ryan
Mike Scott
Ken Caminiti
Billy Wagner
Shane Reynolds
Mike Hampton
Daryl Kyle
Lance Berkman
Jeff Bagwell
and Craig Biggio
Biggio is one of the best players to ever wear a baseball uniform and the best Astros player in its history. He’s a legend and an guaranteed inductee into the Hall of Fame. I’m glad I was able to see him in action.
Thanks for all the game winning home runs.
Thanks for being a huge part of the Killer Bs.
Thanks for your consistency and hard work.
Thanks for stepping up to the plate, even though so many of them were hits by pitches.
Thanks for being a life long Astro.
Good luck to you.
I took a long round-trip road trip from Boston to Houston during Christmas break of 2001. I flew to Boston from Denver to spend my vacation in the northeast, but our goal was to attend the New Year’s Eve celebration at Times Square. This trip, however, marked another occasion.
One evening, as we were sitting around with nothing to do, I decided that I wanted to stop being bored. Russell was watching Friends and I needed to find something else to keep me busy. We were downstairs where there was a library of all kinds of books, enough to keep me busy for months and probably years. There was one set of books that caught my attention.
By that time, I had heard about this book through others or from the media. It was obvious this was a children’s book about wizardry and similar fantasy stories, but it must appeal to all ages if her parents owned hard back copies of the book. So picking between reading a book and watching TV, I picked reading a book. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I only had time to read a chapter or two, but it was enough make me want more.
Our trip continued on to America Jr. where we stayed with a friend in Toronto. And it was there that I once again made it to another bookstore. The Canadian equivalent of Barnes and Nobles is called Chapters, and my first and only destination was to find Harry Potter. This time, however, the book was titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I liked that title better than the Americanized version.
I reread the first couple of chapters and continued on a few more. It was then that I was hooked. If I was in elementary school, I would have loved to be Harry Potter and would be that kid waiting in line for the next new book. So I bought the British version of the book.
Upon my trip home to Denver, I knew that the new Harry Potter movie out in the theatres so I spent a lot of time with my book, determined to read the whole thing before I went to see the movie. That was probably the first movie I had ever preceded with the book version but it was worth it. So, in order to see the next movies that came out, I made sure to repeat the same process.
This summer is a huge summer for Harry Potter fans. I am a few years out of having finished book four and have been too busy to read book five. My main problem with being so behind was that I had been spoiled with reading the first four books in British English. I’ve held out ever since, occasionally looking for a good deal or package that I could order for the next few books to be in the British English but got busy and/or lazy about seeking it out.
Now, I’m way behind. The 5th movie is out, the final book is out, and I’m nowhere near finished. I think I’m going to bite my tongue, sit myself down in the local bookstore and finish up the series this week or next. I owe it to myself to finish out the story of Harry Potter that I grew to love and then I can join in the discussion of so many local friends who love this book more than I do.
I guess I just kinda feel left out.
Juror number 29.
Sitting and waiting was tedious. The majority of today was spent listening to each story and excuse why anyone shouldn’t have to continue with jury duty.
Out of the nearly 90 of us sitting there, the judge decided to question just the first 50. Then came time for the lawyers to follow up. Finally, deliberations about who should and should not serve.
The judge was very kind and was quick in questioning everyone for further information. Most people said there was no reason why they could not unbiasedly serve. Several others became emotional, confessing how difficult each situation was for each person. The excuses all sounded similar. The fun part, however, was watching the district attorney corner everyone into why he or she could or could not serve to be impartial and fair. This DA was relentless, too, but she was just doing her job.
After lunch and another break, the pick for a jury began. It was kinda strange watching the selection process because it was more like a game. First the state of California rejects someone. Then the defense rejects someone else. And they take turns for quite a while.
Numbers one through twelve sat in the jury box. After an initial swipe of a few people, the game began and the jury members in the hot seats were slowly axed as either the DA or defense attorneys didn’t want someone. As one person left one of the hot seats, the next in numerical order who still survived took the empty seat.
The pressure became intense as I saw each attorney axe another person. Sometimes, you knew exactly why one person was denied. Other times, it was just random. But in the end, those who were not very partial were left behind. Everyone in front of me who was not denied went up to the hot seats.
Juror number 28 was axed, and I took his hot seat. There I sat, watching and waiting for just a moment. It was the defense attorney’s move.
I was not picked for the final panel of jury duty.
Back to life, back to reality.
From my recollection, I’ve never entered a criminal courtroom. In fact, it’s very rare that I’ve actually been to a courthouse. The three times I remember going are:
Yesterday afternoon I finally entered into my first criminal courtroom. In fact, I sat on my first panel as a potential jury member for a criminal court case. I am one of about 90 potential jurors to be chosen for this specific case. Best of all, even if I do get picked, the longest this case should last is about a week. I don’t have a choice either way of if I’m picked or not, but I might as well make the best of it.
We received a one page questionnaire with a list of information to fill out including our biases and history into law. I finished every item, but one question said the following (paraphrased):
“Will age, race, or religious preference affect the outcome of your decision?”
This question bothers me for several reasons. If I say no, can I objectively say that none of these variables will influence or affect what i think of the defendant(s) when decision time is on hand? I try to be very practical when it comes to making decisions. I’ve always felt my rationalizations are logical, even more so than others in their rationalizations. But during a recent discussion I had a few months ago, I came to realize that complete objectiveness in decisions is virtually impossible unless you are a robot. Many factors, including nurture and subliminal messages amongst many others, can influence how you think or feel about any subject. There is plenty of evidence that bias and subjectiveness influence our decisions, especially during arguments.
Will these factors influence my decision? Of course they will in an open setting where I see and hear the defendant(s) and testimony. I am human after all. But I will try very hard to be practical and logical about these decisions.
When I decided to change the answer to that question, my answer was “maybe” with the note, “it depends on how fundamentalist they are”.
I think I’m fasting from tv right now. Granted, I’ve only been home for three and a half days so far, but I still don’t care about watching anything. It’s freeing and I can feel the ball and chain of television slipping away. The heat of the day (it’s currently 90 degrees IN MY ROOM) is keeping me from even wanting to turn it on.
I’m curious to see how this behavior can keep up in the next few weeks. It’s a huge accomplishment for me so far. Now I need to incorporate book time into my daily schedule.
I get asked quite often from my friends and family who don’t live in Los Angeles how I like it. I’ll hear one of the following or more:
Simply giving my broad opinions about this place doesn’t quite do it justice for how I feel. It’s hard to explain such a huge place in just a few sentences. And having lived here for over three years now, I think I have a much better opinion to give about what it’s like to live here.
So let’s put these questions to rest. Here are my Woos and Boos about the largest city on the left coast.
This city is a mixed bag. But right now, it’s MY mixed bag.
