« Archives in May, 2009

Here’s a survey for those of us who are no longer teenagers…

Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids? (no offense). Here are questions for the people who are a little older. Copy and paste into your own note, then answer the questions. Finally, tag your friends including me, please!
1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
I hate the DWP bill the most, because so much of it goes to water the enormous lawn. You know, the mass of green grass in the middle of the desert. For style’s sake.
2. Do you miss being a child?
Tons. Voltron was awesome.
3. Chore you hate the most?
Any kind of cleaning that doesn’t take place in the kitchen is like being shanked with an unsharpened prison toothbrush.
4. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
On my proposal night! It worked, too — she said yes!
5. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?
I would’ve played team sports starting much earlier. Not that I’m good at sports, but it builds character. And I’m not enough of a character.
6. Name of your first grade teacher?
Mrs. Boyle? No, that was second grade. I actually don’t remember!
7. What do you really want to be doing right now?
I want pie. Or coconut cake. Mmm, dessert.
8. What did you want to be when you grew up?
An architect. I always liked answering the question “how do you fit all that in such a small place?”
9. How many colleges did you attend?
I went to Pomona College, which is affiliated with 4 other colleges and a graduate school of theology that are all next door. I took classes at 3 of those other colleges, which you can count either as one college or as 3. Also I took 2 summer school classes at UCLA one year. So, depending on how you count, either 1, 2, or 6.
10. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
I like being the only one in the ‘hood with Portuguese on my shirt!
11. What are your thoughts on gas prices?
Too many externalities in that market.
12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
Today: yay Saturday, no alarm! Yesterday: quick quick gym gym.
13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
How did it get so late?
14. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?
I’ll take them all!
15. Have you ever crashed your vehicle?
I was a very bad teenage driver.
16. If you didn’t have to work, would you volunteer?
Yes, boredom is the enemy.
17. Get up early or sleep in?
Get up early! The gym is not so busy at 6am. And a ton seems to happen when the day starts that early.
18. What is your favorite cartoon character?
First, this question should be “who.” Second, I feel a lot like Brain lately.
20. When did you first start feeling old?
When I realized that the character of Bones on the TV show Bones is younger than me.
21. Favorite lunch meat?
Roast Beef
22. What do you get every time you go into Walmart?
Haven’t been in a decade.
23. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
Nah, I think it’s gonna be awesome!
24. Favorite movie you wouldn’t want anyone to find out about?
I don’t want you to find out about it either!
25. What’s your favorite drink?
Nice, peaty Scotch.
26. Who[m] from high school would you like to run in to?
Paul Harnik and Serge Blok.
27. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?
That one radio station that always plays Pokerface.
28. Sopranos or Desperate Housewives?
Sopranos.
29. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back?
Well, every good mistake you learn something from. I wouldn’t trade those lessons for anything.
30. Do you like the person that sits directly across from you at work?
I work from home, or, at my big current client, in an office that faces a wall. No people: just how I like it.
31. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purposes?
You mean to liven up a party?
32. Last book you finished reading?
Some mystery. Reading a lot of mysteries lately.
33. Do you have a teddy bear?
I have a stuffed tiger I’ve had since I was 3 or so.
34. Do you go to church?
Nor synagogue.
35. How old are you?
Pushin’ 34.















Getting Productive on the Mac

I’m a big systems guy: I think that, if you’re doing something repeatable and everyday, you should make it into a system that makes it easy to do over and over again without actually having to think much. I had such a system “on my PC”:http://wadearmstrong.com/archives/productivity/easy_gtd_with_outlook_and_the_palm_treo.php. Remarkably, despite the plethora of pretty brilliant task- and information-management applications on the Mac, it’s only now that I think I’ve gotten an equal-quality system on the Mac.















Intervention

It finally happened. After years, somebody finally felt it was time to put an end to the behavior. So in came the professional, and the law got laid down. It was pretty much exactly like this:

That’s what it comes to when the bird needs to straighten up and fly right. Parrots are famously jealous, and I’d initially worried that Junior would hate DJ L’il Bit taking my time, and attack her. She deftly turned away a couple of early displays of aggression, and so Junior changed his tune: he decided he would love her more than anyone, ever. Every time that he’d see her, he’d do nothing but stare — and lean as close to her as he could. He wouldn’t eat, he wouldn’t drink, and, after 2 1/2 years together and a year cohabiting, DJ L’il Bit has never seen Junior play with a toy. It was weird, it was disruptive, and it could sometimes be “loud”:http://www.mytoos.com/noise.shtml (warning: loud!).
So the behaviorist, Deborah Stambul, came by mid-day today and laid down the law. That is, she trained me and DJ L’il Bit about how to treat the bird properly. We’ll see if we have learned our lessons well; hopefully we’ll complete our schedule of treatment and come out the other end with a fully-functional family.
Or stew. We’ll see. Either way, the dog is exhausted from having the potential of training in the house.