A New Favorite Thing

Those who know me personally know how much I love my water bottle. I've often said that and my bed are two of my favorite three possessions. When asked what the third is, the common answer was, “I don't know.”

Well, now I know:

That's right, a pair of shoes¹. But... these are no ordinary shoes. You can probably tell that by looking at them. The idea is that you feel and walk like you're barefoot without actually having to go barefoot. It's a more natural way to walk and run, and it's a lot healthier. Wearing it feels like a glove on your feet, which is pretty cool. Walking around, I can feel the ground beneath me. And I certainly don't feel restricted like I do when wearing traditional shoes. Not having to worry about blisters on my toes constantly is pretty nice.

Yeah, they look a little goofy, but that's because we're just not used to seeing them. In time, I think they'll look as natural as they feel². And it's certainly a conversation piece. So yeah... I love them. And I think everyone should try them, provided you don't have special foot needs. They're a revelation.
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1 And I'm not even gay!

2 I can't tell you how fun it is to be able to wiggle your toes in shoes.

This is Long Past Due

If I may hearken back to high school for a moment: Finally... "Daria" HAS COME TO DVD!  OK, my apologies.  I know that was terrible.  But it took eight years (eight!) for one of my all-time favorite shows to come to DVD, so I had to channel The Rock there.  We all did it back then.  Yes, we were single.

What were we talking about?

Ah, yes, "Daria."  Anyway, if you know me at all, you know of my profound love of this show, as well as my fascination with its existence.  We had a show on MTV-MTfreakingV- that was as razor-sharp a satire of high school life and pop culture that you'll see.  It skewered everything MTV and those who marketed to my generation stood for.  And it did so with unparalleled skill and verve.   What's most amazing is that it was a spin-off of "Beavis and Butthead," of all things. It left the air in 2002, the same year I graduated high school, and we've yet to see anything that can compare on American TV.  Accidental?  Consider me a skeptic.

Then, and now, I identified with the title character.  She considered herself above her peers, untouchable and uncompromising.  She mercilessly reconstructed the hypocrisies around her while simultaneously taking the scorn of her antisocial behavior.  Like me, she thought she was immune to it and refused to admit she was all too vulnerable.

Rather than write an essay on the series (which I absolutely could do), I'll encourage you to give the series a look if you never have.  As I touched on before, its wit is top-notch.  The humor is smart and biting.  It gives you a sense satisfying opposition to the world.  Most of all, it's one of the few cartoons that meaningfully challenges its characters.  They are not static; they transform and evolve.  Relationships take on new dynamics over the course of five seasons.  It's very satisfying to see where they end up and look back on where they began.  There is, of course, a fair amount of absurdity mixed in with the satire and culture critiques.

Best of all, the DVD set has an introductory price of $50 and includes a T-shirt.  For 26 hours of excellent TV, this is a more than reasonable price.  I'll leave you with this piece from Salon.  It does the spirit of the show justice.

Minus One

My sister is engaged.

This is not breaking news. It happened in December, not long after my parents and I ended our visit to Disney World. Incidentally, it was less than a month after I met her fiance for the first time. I was at my parents' house when the news came in. My mother was thrilled, my father and I less so. Why?

I often joked that Ashley, 3 ½ years my younger, would marry before me. Women tend to marry younger than men, she was in a relationship the lion's share of the time (I have been single for the great majority of my hormonal life), and it was an easy bit of self-deprecating humor. That he proposed was no surprise; we had expected it even if we didn't know exactly when.

Still, knowing it is coming does not prepare you for when it actually happens. He seems like a decent enough guy¹, but that's not really the point. When a female sibling gets married, it's like she's leaving the family². Is that fair? Probably not, but I don't write the scenario. If she reads this, she'll insist that's not the case and she'll mean it. But it won't change anything³.

It's hard for me, and not just because I'm a little afraid people are going to start bothering me about when I get married⁴. Even when I wasn't on speaking terms with my parents, I was still in contact with her. Along the same lines, my relationship with her has never been rocky like it has been with my parents. She's still the one I care about the most from my childhood home by a wide margin. And I feel like she's being taken away from me.

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1 I barely know him. This is what I say when people ask me about him.

2 If you've seen “Father of the Bride,” you have an idea what I'm talking about.

3 If I get married, will it feel like an addition to the family? Good question.

4 Not soon, if ever.

Checking In

So, I had started updating this blog again with some semblance of regularity; I even had started my longish ballot post on Election Night. I didn't get to finish it right away because I was pretty busy.

And it's not like I haven't had the time or desire to post; I've had things on my mind and plenty of opportunity to opine.

The problem was, three weeks ago I dislocated my shoulder. I was at the OU/BG football game and did the giant hamster ball race at halftime. I fell during the race, and that was that. I knew immediately my joint was not where it was supposed to be. But hey, if you're gonna injure yourself, do it in front of 15,000 people, right?

I was taken out of Peden in an ambulance. If you're keeping score, I've been escorted out of The Convo by police and taken out of Peden in an ambulance. I think I'm the only person that can claim that. Now that I think about it, how many people on this Earth can even claim similar, um, achievements?

Anyway, I've been out of my sling for less than a week. I couldn't work, and typing with one hand just isn't worth it. I'm rehabbing the shoulder and trying to catch up. I also have to get going with my MAC Report Online writing; that had to be put on hold as well.

So I'll get some posts thrown up here, just not at the speed I would like, most likely. The suckiest part is that I'm in Twinsburg again for the holiday season, and my laptop's wireless modem sucks so bad it can't pick anything up at anything but close distances. We'll see how this goes.

So...

I was planning on posting my ballot today, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow, it looks like. I simply got caught up in the whirlwind fury of this election night.

I went to Baker Center to watch the results. I didn't really want to sit this out alone, and I really wanted to see how people would react. It seemed an Obama victory was inevitable.

Watching it actually unfold, seeing him amass an impenetrable lead so quickly, was actually kind of shocking to see. I didn't anticipate how it would actually feel. And I completely underestimated how people would react. When CNN announced Obama the winner at 11:00 p.m., the auditorium erupted. Whistles, applause, cheers, hugging, high-fives, crying, chanting. It went on for several minutes. A pure wave of euphoria swept us all away. And the videos were coming in from New York, Chicago, Australia, Kenya! It was like the whole world, in that moment, was united. I never thought I'd see it. Amazing.

I am not ashamed to admit I teared up a little. Never been had I seen anything like that related to politics. Regardless of who you wanted to win, it was a pretty powerful moment. So wow. I hope we build on that.

Also

I'm running Linux on this machine- Ubuntu to be exact- so I feel really cutting edge/cool/geeky. Interestingly, it doesn't come with the Times New Roman font, which is a little aggravating given the name of this blog. Part of what makes Ubuntu such a great platform, though, is that all I needed to do was bring up a window that showed me all the nifty programs and things I can download- for free- from the Ubuntu community. One click and the Microsoft font pack was installed. Seriously, this thing is great. I can find anything I want to. Photoshop clone for free? Yep. Civilization for free? Yep. A clock that moves counter-clockwise? You bet.

Look Who Caught Up to Strong Bad!

That's right, I finally have myself a laptop. I guess the score is even now, old boy.

Now that I can actually type from a comfortable position (which the desktop did not allow me to do), I might do so more often. We'll see. We all know the problem isn't that I don't have things on my mind.

January Sucked

It's true. But it's over, so I guess things are looking up? But yeah, few things went right that month.

I just found out that my friends called off their engagement, which broke my heart. On the plus side, if there is one, I might have a new roommate... not that such an event is something to celebrate even if it means getting TR off his rent. Also, been talking to another friend and I've gotten to hear about how the guy she'd been with for about a year and a half was seeing someone behind her back... bleh. Really, just terrible. I just hope things go better this month. They almost have to, right? Whatever. At least the Bobcats have won four straight.

Remember my reflections on being someone who doesn't drink? Well, I was YouTubing and came across this clip of Jim Gaffigan riffing on the same topic. Kinda cool.

Also, I still haven't gotten over the awesomeness of the new Southeast Engine album. One of my favorites already.

Going to see "There Will be Blood" tonight. Very excited for the experience that is Daniel Day-Lewis.

A Notice

Not that you care, but I've added labels to all of my posts. Some are more useful than others.