Rain falls on the just and the unjust.: January 2005

my design business
groovy music

More random thoughts
Lessons from Halloween
The sin of low expectations
At the crossroads
Friend or foe
The memo I didn't send
The lazy stroke
Blown away
Watching it snow
Bad Karma

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January 31, 2005 :: Bad karma week

OK, I'm not sure whose cornflakes I peed in recently, but check the following:

Tripped on the concrete steps in the parking garage here at work and banged my kneecap on the point of the steps. Hurt like hell, and for a while I thought I had broken my kneecap. Hurts a lot less now, and I had a MRI this morning. We'll find out more later. Thank God for good (PPO, not HMO) health insurance, because that MRI cost them $880. In fact, the type of insurance I have was the 2nd question my doctor asked. The first: "Was there a girl around?"

Had my best wool 3/4 length coat, wool hat & scarf stolen from Ozio. Yes, I laid it down on a chair, and not in the coat check (which I didn't know existed). The people who were at the table when I laid it down (with whom I am acquainted but not close) were long gone when I went to get my coat, and it was ghost. Of course, I followed up with the manager on the off-chance someone picked it up by mistake and returned it, no dice. Pissed... $250 gone and counting...

Dropped my cell phone again, now the hinge is completely broken. I never liked that phone, and its mistreatment shows (dropped 3 times in January, plus I spilled lemonade on it so I can barely hear people when I am not using the earpiece). Replacement costs for a suitable phone will run me another $250. (yes, I know I can get them cheaper if I sign my soul away AGAIN, and no, I didn't and don't plan to buy the damn insurance. I can get phones for the same price as the Sprint store's soul-bartered discount price by shopping online. Ebay is great for this kind of thing.)

I mean, it is as if I ran over someone's dog, and the universe is trying to pay me back. I swear, whoever you are, I didn't see your beloved Fluffy. If you've still got the remains, try going to Genetic Savings and Clone pet cloning agency, maybe they can help you.

January 17, 2005 :: The survey we really want to see

I know lots of you have seen these 20 questions-style surveys that have been circulating via email for what seems like forever. They always have the same sort of aimless questions (what's your favorite pudding flavor?) that none of us really care about. So here's my attempt to start another email that gains a life of its own and circulates forever.

What time did you get to work?
What time do you plan to leave work?
How many times have you been fired (and "layoffs" count)?
What is the one food you love that disgusts others?
Did O.J do it?
Who initiated your most recent break-up?
Do you wash your hands every time you use the bathroom?
What is the one thing you wish you could do but never had the balls?
What do you do when you are alone in your car (or on the train/bus/etc)?
Do you think of Oprah as (A) genius, (B) fat, or (C) inescapable?
How many people have you dated in secret (i.e. would under no circumstances allow your close friends to see you two together)?
How many people have you dated that you met online? (for comparison's sake)
Do you consider musical ring-tones to be (A) a great way to personalize your phone, or (B) justifiable homicide?
How many times a week do you receive email from friends at work that would get you fired, or at least a serious reprimand, if actually read by a superior?
Should people you don't like (now) or did not enjoy qualify for the list or number of "people you have slept with"?
Have you ever dated/slept with a coworker?
Do you look in other people's medicine cabinets?
What one thing that random people do would you criminalize?
Do you (A) love your job! it's great! (B) like some aspects of your job, but others are stressful, (C) dream of quitting and moving to Tahiti, (D) dream of running up in there with an AK-47 and blowing everybody to shreds?
How much of The Man's time did you just spend on this?

Now, with this, your friends can truly learn something about you that they might not have known before.

January 13, 2005 :: Logic gone horribly wrong

Recently, I found out that a girl I've been dating for the past three months has a boyfriend. What's worse, she isn't the one who told me, her cousin told me. We had a conversation about it, and I let her know that her lame, stupid excuses were lame and stupid. Suffice it to say we won't be going out anymore.

This is where it gets interesting. More than one of my friends has suggested that the thing this woman has in common with all the other women I've dated that have done shitty things to me is that she's attractive. Somehow, I guess women I'm attracted to have a statistical correlation with being shitty. So my friends' suggestion is that I should start dating women to whom I am not attracted. Say what?

I say, that makes about as much sense as setting up a cart in front of a Metro station and offering free meals and scintillating conversation to whatever stray woman wanders out. I guess it does not occur to my friends that unattractive women can be jerky too. In fact, this last episode has convinced me I need to raise my standards. If I'm going to be shit upon, it can at least be by supermodels and rich sugar mommas. Who wants to be shit on by a nobody?

January 06, 2005 :: Reader participation day

Please provide a caption for this picture.

January 03, 2005 :: New Year's resolutions

I know they are cliché, but they are still useful, if properly constructed so that you can actually fulfill them (and I say that because last year's was a doozie). To wit:

Travel to at least one international destination a year, where at least every other year is a trip to a place I have never been. Do so for the rest of my life, or until I am no longer able to travel.
Finish things that I start. I have 1000 personal projects, most of them far from completed. Brimming with ideas, and guilt over not seeing them through. This especially burns when I see someone else develop fully the idea that I had, and gain some accolades/success from it.

Surely some of the less cynical among you also have resolutions... share with us!