tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62690418384693093592024-02-19T10:23:03.179-05:00Daylight CandlesWhat I have to add to the collective conversation of the world.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-85124617769057608072011-12-07T11:57:00.005-05:002011-12-07T12:59:17.331-05:00RE: "The Courage to Say 'Merry Christmas'"In a recent <a href="http://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion/letters/article/635064--have-the-courage-to-say-merry-christmas">letter to the editor</a> of the Guelph Mercury, there was a letter from a person who expressed his disdain for a company who in a Christmas-themed ad used the phrase "Happy Holidays". Here's how I interpreted his meaning:<br /><br />-----<br /><br />Someone who celebrates one of the other holidays that has the misfortune to fall around the same time as Christmas should know that their retailer cares more about Christmas than whatever their holiday happens to be. That's not why they get those two consecutive days off. That's not why most people give gifts at this time of year.<br /><br />I grew up celebrating Christmas, and when I was growing up, no one that I knew celebrated anything else, or if they did, they had the sense to keep it to themselves.<br /><br />Why should I have to now have to accept that people are different from me, even though it used to be that I didn't have to? And why should a business that I might choose to frequent be allowed to tacitly acknowledge that they are catering to a predominantly Christian market and yet still avoid openly saying so? Clearly, any business that does not go out of its way to explicitly state that they are celebrating Christmas - and not any other holiday - at this time of year should be castigated.<br /><br />I've heard others try to justify the usage based on the fact that the word "holiday" comes from the root words "holy" and "day", but I think that's not the point. It's about the use of the word "Christmas". It's the fact that these retailers want to make people think about Christmas, and they want people to purchase their products to give as Christmas gifts, but they don't want to turn away people who don't celebrate the religious holiday, especially if they also give gifts to one another at this time of year.<br /><br />It may not be in the best interest of a business to deliberately or accidentally offend people of religions other than mine, but I will punish any business that doesn't.<br /><br />-----<br /><br />Perhaps I am wrong, and this person has a different viewpoint than what I have ascribed to him. But when someone takes the view that saying "Merry Christmas" represents a significant milestone in courage, I think they are being unfair.<br /><br />Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Not everyone who chooses to give gifts at Christmas time is Christian. Other holidays fall during the month of December.<br /><br />No one is making you celebrate any of those other holidays. Why do you feel it is necessary to try to force them to celebrate yours?<br /><br />edit to add: I just emailed a version of this post to the Mercury.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-70499526078749789512011-11-16T10:46:00.002-05:002011-11-16T11:10:32.075-05:00Getting Checked OutTaking the message of Movember to heart, I decided to get myself checked out. Since my last physical was over 4 years ago, and I haven't been to the same doctor more than twice since the 90s, I need to find a new general practitioner.<br /><br />So I went to the local municipality's website to see if they are referring doctors. There were several listings on the site, so I seemed to have a choice. Being a creature of habit, I started with the clinic that I went to a couple of years ago when I had a rash on my leg from an allergy. According to the website, they have 2 doctors looking for patients. When I call, they have a waiting list that they are willing to keep me on for three months. I have to go in person to fill out the application form during business hours.<br /><br />I keep looking. I continue with places listing doctors (plural) looking for patients. I get put on hold as soon as the receptionist answers the phone. They have a waiting list. One auto-attendant explicitly tells me that I cannot leave a message. I sense a theme. This is not a buyer's market.<br /><br />In the end, I try every clinic on the list and get two prospects: one doctor's office is located somewhat inconveniently but they have a doctor accepting applications that they may or may not call for appointments. The second clinic is more convenient and they are willing to make an appointment over the phone for the nurse practitioner who is accepting patients. I take the first appointment available, January 10th. The receptionist tells me that this is an introductory appointment, and that I have to meet the NP before they will consider scheduling a physical for me. Ten minutes later, I call back and make a second appointment for my wife. This is the best option in town.<br /><br />It's incredibly frustrating that it's so difficult to get to a doctor. Sure, I have an appointment, but it is entirely possible that the NP will decide not to accept my business. The day that I booked, the receptionist said that the NP had too many new clients to see my wife, so I had to book a different day for her. So there I am; I have to wait for 2 months to see if a medical professional is willing to perform preventative maintenance on me. I hope that the interval between the introduction and the actual checkup is a shorter one.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-59933262871295303722011-09-26T12:29:00.003-04:002011-09-26T13:12:11.650-04:00BullyingSo the Toronto Star asked people for their stories with respect to bullying as a young person. Were you bullied as a child, or were you a bully? I think everyone has their own interpretation of how the world worked when they were younger. Here's how I remember it.<br /><br />When I was in grade 7, I was given the nickname "Beer Belly". I had been a regularly scrawny kid up til then, and had never thought about healthy eating. I knew that cookies tasted good, and fruits and vegetables were the things you were obligated to eat, and who wants that? So there I was, turning 11 and getting a bit fat. And Todd* decided I looked like I had a beer belly. And since Todd was afraid of no one, we were afraid of Todd. And who's kidding who, if I'm the one being singled out, everyone else is safe.<br /><br />So the cool kids grabbed on to that nickname like grim death. I was "beer belly", or just "beer" when someone was being informal. Every day. Not to my friends, but they weren't the cool kids either. It didn't help that I was also a pretty shy kid, so I didn't have a lot of friends anyway. I was introverted and into Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons. Thinking about it now, there was a lot of controversy at the time about a kid who had played Dungeons and Dragons who had killed himself. I wonder now if the media would have looked for the kids who bullied him. 'Cause you just know that they would have been there.<br /><br />Just like me. Beer Belly, beer-bell, beer. I remember one time I was in my grade 8 class, and Mr. Ross was giving a lesson on how to be a grown-up. I didn't realize that's what it was at the time, but I understand that now. He was telling us about how advertising will emphasize the good in a product, and leave out the bad. His analogy was the beer industry. I remember he said how the beer commercials always show athletes and healthy people with their beer, but they never show the "beer bellies". And the class started laughing and pointing at me. And the best I could do was look like I wasn't crying. Not only was everyone laughing at me, but the teacher was using my hated nickname. Although he seemed kind of confused about what was going on with that, so I think he didn't know that I had that nickname.<br /><br />At the time, I knew I didn't like it, but I did have other things to get me through. I had a good home life, I knew my parents loved me, and I had big brothers who probably would have beaten up Todd if it had occurred to me to ask. So I was bullied, but I made it through. And 30 or so years later, I still have some emotional scars from it, but I'm okay now.<br /><br /><br /><br />*people normally change names in stories like this, but not me. His name was Todd Baziliwich. And he was an asshole. I remember one time he stopped me on the street and asked me if I had any money. I'm sure that if I hadn't lied and said no, he would have taken it from me. But I lied, and he believed me. So fuck you Todd: I'd been collecting for my paper route that day. I'd probably had 20 or 30 bucks on me.<br /><br />Anyway, Todd Baziliwich, Aldo Collarille, and Andre Kruk. There were more of you, but you're the ones whose names I remember. Go fuck yourselves. I'm not afraid of you anymore.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-89002181470929346902011-06-23T15:50:00.003-04:002011-06-23T16:09:07.089-04:00Irony in Action<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQPaNXQC8b_4bA6R48AXD3H-gCVReY4jvYlQ6GwPPHBl8Ib2XzXu1eA4jg5nEHFHKIyjcrfYNX56dMjsOwrFO_wObXvIix9i_483MmDknqmL_K5r0yo94YE51X_UaMrNg_VVvRpd8sMQ/s1600/msnbc+fracking.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQPaNXQC8b_4bA6R48AXD3H-gCVReY4jvYlQ6GwPPHBl8Ib2XzXu1eA4jg5nEHFHKIyjcrfYNX56dMjsOwrFO_wObXvIix9i_483MmDknqmL_K5r0yo94YE51X_UaMrNg_VVvRpd8sMQ/s320/msnbc+fracking.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621505390705115314" border="0" /></a>So there I am, watching the Ed Show online on MSNBC.com, and Ed is railing about how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Look at the top right corner: Ed Asks: When Does the Greed Stop?<br /><br />On the commercial break between videos, I get the image here, with a video. Erik Oswald, a geologist from ExxonMobile, tells us about how we didn't even know that there was all this precious natural gas "locked in the rock", and we just need to get at it.<br /><br />What he doesn't get at in the short video commercial for how awesome ExxonMobile is: how to get at the precious natural gas that is "locked in the rock". They blow the rocks up, they drive chemicals into the rock, they <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing">frack </a>the heck out of the land to get at the gas. Of course the impact of the fracking has been known to cause massive contamination in drinking water, even to the point that people have been known to have water so contaminated that it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZ4LQSonXA">lights on fire from the tap</a>.<br /><br />I find it just horrifyingly ironic that MSNBC would be asking the question "When does the greed stop?" when they are taking advertising revenue from a company that is advertising on the idea that hydraulic fracturing is a "safe" method of extracting natural gas from the ground.<br /><br />When does it stop? When you stop perpetuating it.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-82346198690316900802010-07-14T11:43:00.003-04:002010-07-14T11:46:06.254-04:00I Write Like Dan BrownI tried this <a href="http://iwl.me/">website</a> and discovered that both the entries that I put in came up with the same result:<br /><br /><div style="overflow: auto; border: 2px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font: 20px/1.2 Arial,sans-serif; width: 380px; padding: 5px; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(247, 247, 247); color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><img src="http://s.iwl.me/w.png" style="float: right;" width="120" /><div style="padding: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); text-shadow: 0pt 1px rgb(255, 255, 255);"> I write like<br /><a href="http://iwl.me/w/cfe99843" style="font-size: 30px; color: rgb(105, 139, 34); text-decoration: none;">Dan Brown</a></div><p style="font-size: 11px; text-align: center; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><em>I Write Like</em> by Mémoires, <a href="http://www.codingrobots.com/memoires/" style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);">Mac journal software</a>. <a href="http://iwl.me/" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 224);"><b>Analyze your writing!</b></a></p></div><br /><br /><!-- End I Write Like Badge -->The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-28050510110023404472010-06-21T10:28:00.009-04:002010-06-21T14:52:47.660-04:00Musing on Superman<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/obama-superman-wall-2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 574px;" src="http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/obama-superman-wall-2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I was thinking about Superman on the drive in to work this morning, and it occurred to me that Barack Obama seems to have the same failing as everyone's favourite Kryptonian superhero.*<br /><br />The problem is the comic book adage: Truth, Justice and the American Way. It's all well and good to be in favour of those things, but the fact of the matter is that Western culture, or "the American Way", if you will, is founded on the concepts of Deception, Abuse of Power and Acquisitiveness.<br /><br />Similarly, Obama's slogan "Change you can believe in" becomes "as much of the status quo as required to keep the lobbyists from pulling their funding."<br /><br />It's sad, and something that my lovely wife and I talk about on a regular basis, as we're both disenchanted by the current state of discourse and lack of trustworthy government. Unfortunately, we also lack the wherewithal required to successfully run for office.<br /><br />So the question becomes: what can I do to make the world a better place? How do I emulate Superman in my everyday life?*<br /><br />So I'm starting with my own acquisitiveness. I've decided that I no longer need to receive gifts at gift-giving holidays. I have the financial wherewithal to have pretty much anything I want, or at least anything that I could reasonably expect for a birthday or Christmas gift. So I mentioned to my wife that anyone asking her for gift ideas for my upcoming birthday should be told to donate to a worthy cause whatever they were going to spend on my gift.<br /><br />I'm not intending to be a jerk about it, or try to make people feel guilty that buy me stuff. ("Thanks for the sweater, Mom. I'll send it to a starving child in Africa.") But anyone who asks, I'll tell them that I don't need anything, and a donation in my name is what I want.<br /><br />Hopefully, this starts a trend in my immediate circle of family and friends that spreads outward.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />*(I was going to make a "suck it!" joke to the other Kryptonian superheros, but they're both female, so it doesn't really work without being creepy. Sadly, "in your face!" has the same effect.)The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-55396131278014608012010-06-16T14:15:00.003-04:002010-06-16T14:41:33.449-04:00The Pluses and Minuses of Furniture RearrangementIn this world, there are people who like to change the furniture around from time to time. I am one of those people. My wife is not. Her belief is that the placement of furniture in a room is something that is a matter of discerning the best way to set a room, and doing that. And never changing it again.<br /><br />I, on the other hand, view the arrangement of furniture as a quest for unobtainable perfection. There are many factors to consider, and different factors carry different priorities over time, so it makes sense to shuffle things around once in a while.<br /><br />In this case, I'm going to talk about the furniture in my office. When I took my job, the furniture was in place, and that was that. The previous manager had placed everything where it seemed to work best, and left it at that. And it seemed to me that in the space that I had, I would have to live with it. A couple of years later, about a year ago, there was a nasty rain and wind storm that drove the rain through my skylight and filled the paper tray of my printer with water. That became the catalyst for a new office arrangement. I had already been itching to change things: the previous layout had both windows of my office almost entirely covered by file cabinets, and I like my natural light.<br /><br />So I made the change. The printer moved from below the skylight, and the cabinet it stood on moved away from the window. The other cabinet moved to by the door. However, this ended up with a couple of things I didn't like. First, using the all-in-one printer/photocopier/fax meant squeezing into a 16-inch gap between the printer and the wall, and the alcove beyond it became the wasteland for junk that I had no place for. Also, I didn't like the aesthetic of all the furniture being against the same wall. And I still was stuck looking at the vending machines and avoiding eye contact with people waiting in line for the ticket window just past my door.<br /><br />After a while, I started to feel the itch; it was getting to be time to change the office. I wanted to open my window, which meant squeezing past the printer. I still didn't like the printer placement. The file cabinet by the door became increasingly oppressive, and I never used any of the files in it anyway. Finally, I was stuck working a weekend for one of my staff, which I took as a sign to change it up again. Now the bulk of the work is done, and I am down one file cabinet, which I moved into storage, and my desk is facing away from the door. The printer is easy to get at for both me and the part-time staff who need to use it. And I'm no longer looking out the office door, but instead face the mostly unobstructed windows.<br /><br />So far the biggest down side is that I can't see the door from where I am, so people who come into my office have to call for my attention. And I've moved my guest chair to a spot that works for being able to talk to people at my desk, but requires that I move it to get at the window. So my junk alcove continues to exist. On the other hand, I like the layout much better, and the room feels much bigger and more inviting.<br /><br />And 6-8 months from now, we're going to be renovating, so I'm going to have to change it again then anyway...<br /><br />... and I'm looking forward to it.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-82003578963031431252010-03-19T09:10:00.003-04:002010-03-19T09:26:27.135-04:00So What Stuck?1. Update my blog at least once per week.<br />-> Obviously not.<br /><br />2. Make a meaningful and deliberate attempt at a good deed each week.<br />-> Still working on that one. It's a good one to keep in mind. I'll keep at it.<br /><br />3. Work out on the Wii Fit every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for at least 10minutes each time, and for at least a half hour once each weekend.<br />-> Lasted for about a month. I would blame my wife for this, but I can't hold her accountable for the times when she wasn't home and I chose to play Mass Effect instead of working out. I still want to get back to a regular schedule, but it's problematic, since the Wii is hooked up to the big TV, which my wife likes to watch in the evenings, and I don't like working out in the morning. <br /><br />4. Follow the Weight Watchers program until I lose 40 pounds.<br />-> The less said the better.<br /><br />5. Return all business calls and correspondence within one business day.<br />-> still doing this! <br /><br />6. Whenever I notice myself making excuses not to do something I should do, I will immediately do that thing.<br />-> Yeah, not so much.<br /><br />So what <span style="font-style: italic;">have</span> I been doing? Well, as I mentioned, Mass Effect 2 came out in late January, and I played it through several times. I think I'm finally done with it, at least until Bioware comes out with some new content for it. <br /><br />I took another HR course, Strategic Compensation, which I thought would be really boring stuff and I couldn't figure out how they'd fill a 39 hour course with it. I turned out to be wrong. I found the content and strategy quite interesting and useful, but the course delivery was just the perfect storm of annoyances. The instructor, while knowledgeable and well-meaning, is not engaging at all, and cannot hold the attention of the class. Add to that a few classmates that enjoy going off on unrelated rants to no purpose, and the fact that the teaching materials were not updated with the new textbook, and you have the reason that I have attended less than half the classes. I should still pass the course however. The instructor gave us study notes that basically give you the test in advance.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-27519630536048421722010-01-07T16:14:00.003-05:002010-01-07T16:24:56.216-05:00New Year's Resolutions!Well, I've said this twice, so I assume it's going to be true. I've never really been one for making New Years resolutions, because anyone who reads this blog (hi honey!) can see that I have a tendency to start things with enthusiasm and then drift away from them. So my NYR's don't have much of a chance to work out. With that in mind, I found myself changing a number of things in my life all at the same time as the New Year, so I suppose they count.<br /><br />Having thought about it a bit, I've decided that they all count as New Year's resolutions, and I'm just going to acknowledge them all, and see which one(s), if any, stick.<br /><br />My NYR's for 2010.<br /><br />1. Update my blog at least once per week.<br />2. Make a meaningful and deliberate attempt at a good deed each week.<br />3. Work out on the Wii Fit every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for at least 10minutes each time, and for at least a half hour once each weekend.<br />4. Follow the Weight Watchers program until I lose 40 pounds.<br />5. Return all business calls and correspondence within one business day.<br />6. Whenever I notice myself making excuses not to do something I should do, I will immediately do that thing.<br /><br />So that's what I've got so far. Feel free to post in the comments with any of your resolutions.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-42143232647586440752009-10-06T13:42:00.002-04:002009-10-06T14:43:58.665-04:00Okay, I'm back. <br /><br />Last week was pretty crazy: in addition to my normal two nights at school, I also worked late two nights, and then we spent the weekend on day trips to visit each others' in-laws. Special mention to my lovely wife for driving both days during daylight to allow me to study for my test this week in the car. She's especially gracious in doing so as she is jealous of my ability to read while traveling in the car; she gets carsick.<br /><br />So some of the things that I wanted to talk about last week: First, a special recognition to Ken for doing an awesome job presenting a concert in the gallery on the 30th. He read about a blind busker who was trying to do a cross-country busking tour in order to raise money for seeing-eye dog training. This excited Ken's imagination, and so he called the artist and arranged to have him perform a charity concert in our venue. The audience was small but appreciative, and they raised a couple of hundred dollars for the charity, which certainly perked up the artist.<br /><br />For my own efforts, I worked on trying to reduce negative actions and going extra steps from time to time. So instead of being silent in class, I contributed to discussions, and when I was dominating the conversation, I stopped to let others speak. It's a weird thing for me. I normally like to stay in the background, but at the same time, I just can't let the instructor hang there waiting for someone to speak. And once I get going, I find that I enjoy being a part of the discussion, so there you go.<br /><br />I still prefer my quiet alone time to recharge my batteries.<br /><br />So I have some other things that I've done over the past week, and I'm kind of embarrassed to be proud of them. Posting to a blog that I haven't been as passive-aggressive or unwilling to do a little extra at my job doesn't exactly come across as an accomplishment. But I have to acknowledge that I have been trying to improve my outlook and my commitment to helping people, and I'm seeing some effects from that.<br /><br />That said, we come to today's cliche:<br /><br />Admitting that you have a problem is the first step in solving it.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-52284430133801365312009-10-04T09:10:00.002-04:002009-10-04T09:16:22.832-04:00I Haven't ForgottenJust a quick update to say that this has been a crazy week, but I haven't forgotten or given up. <br /><br />There have been a couple of things that I've done, but to talk about them in this forum would embarrass the persons involved.<br /><br />I'll take a quick moment to mention that Ken at work did a great job promoting a charity fundraiser for a blind street musician, and his efforts raised over $200 for the Seeing Eye Dog Foundation. <br /><br />That's all for today; I'll try to get a true update tomorrow.<br /><br />js.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-65086009356565342302009-09-29T09:26:00.003-04:002009-09-29T09:46:30.208-04:00Starting SmallNormally, when I get up in the morning, I have a series of things to do. Shower, get dressed, feed the cats, scoop the litter and clean up any cat "accidents", make lunch, empty the dishwasher, have breakfast, go to work.<br /><br />The path to the cat litter takes me past my computer room, where I usually stop and fire up my PC and end up killing 15 minutes or so checking my RSS feeds, playing <a href="http://www.evony.com">Evony</a>, reading Facebook, etc. Then I rush up from the basement when I hear my wife coming down from the bedroom towards the kitchen. I end up rushing through the making of lunches and taking a breakfast bar with me to work instead of having my preferred bowl of cereal.<br /><br />Today I resolved not to go on the computer, and instead spent that time tidying up the living room, which I had spent most of the weekend cluttering up. The house looks better, I didn't have to rush this morning, and my wife will be happier not having to either clean up a mess not of her making or push me to clean up after myself.<br /><br />Perhaps I didn't find the cure for a terminal disease, but I did something that I wouldn't have normally done.<br /><br />So today's cliche: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-29284080714708557562009-09-28T10:48:00.003-04:002009-09-28T11:05:06.112-04:00My New ChallengeSo I've decided on a theme for my blog. My challenge is a good deed every day. <br /><br />Life lessons and cliches come and go, but the one that I've chosen to embrace and to write about is to "become the change you want to see in others."<br /><br />Lately I have been increasingly disillusioned with the way that people have been behaving in the common discourse: granted I take most of my information from The Daily Show and the Huffington Post, which both focus on calling attention to bad behaviour. That said, I've heard a great deal about increasing levels of anger and aggression, and it seems to me that I can do something small that goes against that grain.<br /><br />So, instead of my original plan of using this blog to make fun of others, or being rude or passive-aggressive, I've decided to write about good things happening in either my life or the world, depending what I've got going on. I'm going to try to focus on my own personal good deeds, but if someone else has something that I think merits attention from my many readers [Hi sweetie! Your eggs are just fine!], then I'll write about that.<br /><br />I may also spend some focus on changes in habits that I am working on, so my good deed might be not being a jerk at work, or remembering to ask someone about their day, or achieving weight loss goals or whatever, but I still think it counts.<br /><br />So. Today I'll take a moment to shine the Daylight Candle on Wes Burrows. Wes is a really nice guy <a href="http://www.redrosetea.ca/reachoutwithredrose/EssayContest/EssayView.aspx?id=5eb8cff6-a19d-42ac-8aeb-6e33c51ca574">who saw a need in the world and worked to fix it</a>. His fundraiser, the Great Shave at Three Willows United Church raised a total of over $20,000 over two years for the relief of AIDS-ravaged Lesotho. <br /><br />So click the link and vote for Wes. If he gets the most votes, he wins a trip to work in Africa for a week.The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6269041838469309359.post-11919748408487023192009-09-03T13:57:00.006-04:002009-09-28T11:21:12.488-04:00The One Where I Get StartedOf the things that I like, I don't really think there's a dearth of written work analyzing them. I mean, my interests are computer games, scripted television, not liking unscripted television, science fiction and fantasy novels, Spider-Man comic books, movies, dogs, cats, and my wife.<br /><br />I'm also interested in politics and the general state of common discourse, but again, not a dearth of writing on the subject. Really, the only thing not being blogged about already is my wife, and she's too introverted to be pleased at being the subject of my website. Not to mention that it would probably end up turning into a passive-aggressive haven of minor complaints and grudges. Even though I love (and like) her, when you live with someone, you end up finding fault with them. If you love them, you generally come to terms with those faults by either knowingly forgiving them, choosing to ignore them. If I used this blog to catalog my lovely wife's idiosyncrasies and rant about them, I'd end up getting more worked up about them than if I just walk it off.<br /><br />Plus, I think she's the only person that I could reasonably expect to read these blogs, so that wouldn't really work. I guess I could use this blog as the forum for discussion with her. Next blog: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Honey, I don't like the way you prepare eggs</span>.<br /><br />I can't see that as the best way to maintain my marriage.<br /><br />Maybe next time I'll go off about the US health care debate...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Seriously, why would any town call itself Smallville?The Yellow Darthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06210559433230017050noreply@blogger.com0