If you had spoken to the high school version of my self and told him that in his 30’s he would spend several midnights waiting for books, I am sure he would laugh at you.
Once again, however, here I stand. I fear that every time I have done this it has been in relation to “young adult” books. Up until this moment I had only ventured out at the witching hour to spend time with a certain scar wearing boy wizard. This, though odd, was somewhat acceptable because every walk of life was out on these nights of Harry Potter mania. Young and old alike came out so I never felt really out of sorts.
Tonight, however, I feel very out of place. Sadly I must admit that a delivery of books meant for my mother-in-law that was left at my home gave a hungry mind access to what people refer to as the Twilight saga. Yes, that is right, I am currently waiting for a book that is supposed to be for young adults, mostly those not of my gender. Around me is a sea of estrogen with a few random examples of testosterone who I believe have been dragged here either by girlfriends or daughters. I am here for neither. I am here for myself.
Should I be emberassed? Ashamed? I feel very much like I did the day I went hunting for the book Eldest after reading my nieces copy of Eragon. When I approached the clerk at the bookstore I will never forget the feeling in my gutt when I was told, “Oh, that is in the young adult section.”
I should really be at home in bed.
Another uplifting feeling is that I am on the standby list, and they keep naming names of people that can get the book. “Please line up Deborah C. Katherine E. Stacey L. William W. Emily E. Nancy C.” One of these things is not the same. One of these things is not like the other.
Oh what a dork I am.
-WW
Every day I see something knew and every once in a while I see something I just don’t understand. Today is one of those days.
While sitting on the BART train for my wonderful morning commute I looked up and saw someone facing away from me. This guy looked like and ordinary guy, ordinary clothes, no visible ink. The puzzling thing about this guy, however, was the fact that his ear was pierced from top to bottom so that right next to his head there is a metal bar visible over the opening of the ear (imagine a single jail cell bar covering part of the ear).
This looks to me to be one of the most painful piercings for something so subtle. I don’t understand why someone would subject themselves to this type of pain to achieve such a subtle sign of individualism or rebellion. Than again I really don’t get the piercing craze in general. Same thing with ink. The only thing I think of when I see these people with sleeve tatoos and small plates in their ear lobes is, “How is that going to look when you are 65?”. Do these people even ponder this or do they just live in the now? I am dying to know.
In a completely unrelated topic I just have to say how insanely in love with my wife I am. Our marriage has had a really big revival of our love and dedication to one another and I can’t believe how after fourteen years of marriage we can actually still get closer and stronger in our relationship. Finding your one true love in life is a one in a million shot and I can’t believe in love I hit the jackpot.
-WW
I really don’t know which is more nerdy: blogging itself or blogging via iPhone on the commuter train. My initial guess is the latter and sadly it is what I am doing.
Yesterday’s experiment was a definite success. People who I know for a fact don’t read this site actually reached out to say hello. This isn’t to say I am not an annoyance to those that •I• message on a daily basis, but it does make me feel better I know that there are people out there that want to actually talk to me.
Last night I upgraded the software powering this site. After doing so I discovered a feature I wasn’t aware of and boy was it uplifting. Turns out that there is a feature that hits up Google to see how many others sites are linking to this site or aticles within. The number of incoming links on this bad boy? That’s a big fat goose egg! Yay blog!
By the way, I just have to say that I really hate the term blog. It is one of those lame and made up Internet terms created originally by open-source elitists who didn’t want ordinary people to know what they were talking about (and makes me feel like a dork even saying). This site isn’t a blog, it is my online journal that I write in because I like to write (however poorly the job may be… seriously I am 37 years old and I still have a had time using then and than properly). I don’t blog, I won’t blog, I just write. End of story.
Time to enter the Trans-Bay Tube, so that’s it for now.
-WW
Greetings Internet traveller! Thanks again for dropping in on my little corner of the web.
After publicly shaming myself with my shirtless post in the beginning of the year I figured it was about time for a check in. Don’t worry, you won’t need to shield your eyes from the screen, no picture today. I’ll save that for the end of the year.
To date I’ve lost 30 pounds, I am under 300 pounds, and I can go up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I am making better eating choices and exercising two to three times a week. I am pretty pleased with my progress but really need to crank it up a bit.
Last month I was tapped by my friend Jed to help support the social networking management aspect of a project that he has done with family and friends. It’s a super villian musical called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and it looks like it is going to be one of the biggest projects I have ever ridden the coat-tails of. Hit up the site to find out more (or use the links below to hit up all the sites that have been set up).
Lastly, we have The Experiment. I find that on instant messenger programs I am usually the one who initiates contact with other people (probably much to their annoyance). Today I am going to turn it on and not contact anyone. I will leave it running and I am going to see just how long it takes for someone to actually want to talk to me (those actually reading this are hereby disqualified). I will post the results as soon as they are known.
I hope all of you out there are doing well and I hope the rest of the year is good to you.
-WW
** EDIT at 1:16 PM Pacific Time **
The first Instant Message has come in after 3 hours of being on. It was an ICQ spam message trying to get me to go to a site.
** EDIT at 2:10 PM Pacific Time **
Second Instant Message has come in. This time it is in fact someone that knows me and wanted to share something with me. 4 hours and 10 minutes. I’m going to reset the clock and see how long the next message takes. I really don’t know why I’m doing this.
** EDIT at 7:10 PM Pacific Time **
The one friend I’ve known the longest, Jereme, IM’d me after reading this. Thanks sir but, as said before, readers of this blog are disqualified. Appreciate the effort though.
** EDIT @ 9:14 PM Pacific Time **
Another friend from Los Angeles IM’d me out of the blue to check in. I consider this experiment a success. Someone did actually want to chat with me today.
Today was the day that I haven’t been looking forward to since March 1, 2008. Today was the day that we fulfilled my father’s final wish and released his ashes into the San Francisco Bay (or as I like to think of it the more modern version of a Viking funeral).
The ceremony was just as it should have been, and I’m glad I was there to see Dad off in the way that he wanted. It was also nice to have closure.
That being said, I wanted to share with you a quote that was in my head for most of the day.
“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, our sweat, and in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”
–Pres. John F. Kennedy, Australian Ambassador’s Dinner for the America’s Cup Crews, September 14, 1962, Newport, R.I.
