Archive Song List 6

I left this one up there awhile. I really love the Great Lake Swimmers right now.

Great Lake Swimmers - Moving Pictures, Silent Films
Lydia - Your Taste is My Attention
White Rabbits - The Plot

Oh, Arizona, I was just starting to warm up to you

Tip toeing on politics again, but, if for nothing else, it's a humorous perspective on what our legislature has been up to.

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The Road

I absolutely adore vocabulary. Most of that comes from having to take so many English classes in college, but I've always appreciated language. There are so many different ways to say the same thing. It's akin to writing an email vs. hand writing a letter, they may technically achieve the same goal, but they have a vastly different impact.


One of my most favorite individuals found this cool site that aggregates the words you use the most in your blog and makes a map of it. Mine is really sad. I've had a sneaking suspicion that I had become rather lazy and sluggish with my diction, and this map does little to disabuse that notion. Sadly work emails and notes don't engender elevated vocab...

Tho I'm super glad piglet made the list.



I'm currently reading "The Road", which is a fantastic book and I can lend it to anyone... however, the book is a little dangerous. It's definitely not a light or easy read, and I'm not referring to the level of difficulty. It must be the most solemn and foreboding novel I've ever read. But, in the face of horror, there is the opportunity to create and foster something amazing.

Basically it's an amalgamation of a post-apocalyptic future, holding on to humanity while surrounded by insanity, an arduous road trip, and other things that I haven't deciphered quite yet. But more than anything it's about the relationship between a father and son.




Their relationship is beyond moving and, while it seems the book isn't about happy endings (or beginnings or middles for that matter), it's been well worth the anxiety so far.

The League

Alright, I don't think anyone comes here to watch videos (actually, I don't know that people actually come here) but this is my favorite show of all-time and this is me pimping it.

It is utterly hilarious. Here's the first episode from season one. Season two starts this summer.

Reminder: it's the little things that matter most

This is one of the first images that returns when you search "cold shower" on google. (it'll make sense later)

It's like those puzzle games, how many wrong things can you find in this picture?


So this past Thursday I received a call on my phone from a number I didn't recognize. Check that, multiple calls. The reason why there were multiple calls is that I don't pick up the phone for numbers I don't recognize. Like ever. Say the car is in the shop and I KNOW they'll call me when they are done, I let it go to voicemail and assume they are done with the car. Amazingly enough this idiotic strategy hasn't really blown up in my face.

Back to Thursday.

So this person is blowing up my phone and I finally answer after the fifth consecutive call.
(P.S. don't ever call me like that from an unknown number unless there is a serious fire or they are bringing back The OC)
With a very curt tone I answer expecting some spanish jibberish (I get these freaking voicemails with what sounds like spanish telemarker blather... maybe my number is in a bathroom stall in Nogales??) and instead it's my HOA talking about my floor leaking water on the person underneath my condo.

The water heater in my unit is leaking and I have to turn it off and empty it. Okay, it's an old unit and I will be moving pretty soon, so I figured something would break on the way out -- not a big deal. Now, I know what water heaters do, but I wasn't fully appreciating the gravity of the situation.

No.
Hot.
Water.

For some reason, being the little piglet I am, I thought about food. Not a big deal, I have stove and microwave, so warm water is till accessible. I realize that I didn't really use my water heater for boiling water for cooking, but, again --> me = piglet. Then I thought about the dishwasher, but that was okay too, I don't mind doing dishes by hand. And all was right in the world.

The next morning I woke up happy to skip work and play golf all day. I started brushing and I got the water going in the shower so it'd be warm when I was done brushing. ... That would be a fantastically long wait.

I love showers. I don't like them searing, peeling back skin hot like some people do, but I like it warmer than cold. I have my routine and it's soothing, it's something I need each day to get going.

I had to get my day started and I figure the body adjusts to water temperature pretty fast, so just jump in. I think I yelped. I haven't yelped before, so I can't be entirely sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that's what occurred. I kept jumping up and down in the shower trying to get my body to warm up. My ears were burning in that they were so frigid. My routine turned into "empty all products all over me as fast as possible and get the f out".

It's like going from this:


To this:



I'm going on four terrible showers in a row now. I went to my parents house last night and found myself leaving my hands under the warm water when washing my hands before dinner.

A reminder for us all to appreciate the little things.


So when you pop in the shower next and you think about taking what you have for granted, think of me. ... I believe I just asked whomever to think of me in the shower. Awkward... :P

(500)

I finally had the opportunity to see (500) Days of Summer and it was better than advertised. (don't continue if you haven't seen it yet!) The setting, the acting, the lighting, the dialog, the method of storytelling... Loved it.

Isn't there something becoming of a guy pining in misery over a girl? The tormented thoughts, the drunken stupor, the melodramatic conversations... it's amusing to me in the same way that biffing on ice skates horribly makes me smile... wasn't fun or funny at the time - not even a little while after it - but time passed, as it always does, and perspective sets in.

My first job out of college was notable in two ways:
a. I met some utterly amazing friends
b. I learned a very valuable concept

Managing expectations

Here's an example:

Say you get this really great job offer in another state and you're wondering what to do. You obsess over the decision and wear yourself out. You decide to pick up dinner at the local Chinese restaurant and in a brash moment you decide to let fate set your course. You open the fortune cookie and you see this:



A little disheartening. Managing expectations could have been implemented like the Chinese restaurant being called, "Literally Devoid of All Spiritually Chinese Food".

Giving someone additional information to adjust what they might anticipate to occur is a powerful notion. Incidentally, my boss, whom bestowed this upon me, was terrible at using this skill himself. More credence to the saying those that can't do, teach.

To manage expectations you have to have an idea of how a person is thinking and, more importantly, care about how they are feeling. That was a fascinating disconnect in (500) Days of Summer. The girl (who should be slugged in the face) stood on the ground rules that she established when they first started talking. He instead evaluated their relationship based on their dynamic. A spin of a popular theory we hear about... the girl in this story was clear with her wants and intentions and the guy felt that he could be enough to change her.

The girl didn't care enough about the guy to manage his expectations and felt fine leading him on. He felt that she cared for him enough that she clearly wouldn't be so careless with his emotions. Again, she's a twat.

But, ultimately, it's up to ourselves to manage our own expectations. To temper our fantasies. To be pragmatic. And in the face of what he has been through, in the wake of having his heart obliterated, he finally does manage his own expectations... by not adjusting them at all and carries on with the same recklessness as before.

Archive Song List 5

Going to a 3-song standard for now.

I don't write nearly enough to keep people entertained for five songs.

William Fitzsimmons - After Afterall
Tori Amos - Siren
Nick Drake - Northern Sky
American Football - The Summer Ends
William Fitzsimmons - Afterall

This particular playlist could have lasted quite a while longer, but the Great Lake Swimmers song has been speaking to me so I was compelled to make a change.