Being Reasonable PEOPLE

Politics is just straight wearing me out. Too many fearful people just being exhausting.

They Got Me

Although I had wanted one, and had even told myself I would get one, I thought I would talk myself out of an iPad. I have a desktop, notebook and even a media server at home...but I wasn't able to do it. So I have a new iPad. I went and picked it up on lunch but haven't been able to really play with it yet. I figured I would treat myself since I worked about fifty hours of overtime last week.

I'll post my impressions on it. I have been something of an anti-Apple guy with the exception of my iPod, so this will be a new adventure for me.

It has been a terrible week, and stressful. Looking forward to camping on the couch tonight and playing with my new toy. I think David and I will have a ton of fun with it--lots of apps designed around kids.

Being a Reasonable Parent

I really don't know if I can be.

When I dropped David off for his first day he saw another little boy he knew and I think he was extremely relieved to see a familiar face. I know I would have been were I him. He put his hand on the boy's shoulder as a gesture of familiarity. It wasn't over the top by any means, or a grab or squeeze. The other little boy pulled his arm away and looked irritated.

It made me almost spill over with anger.

David has always tried his best to play with this boy, who will sometimes do it and sometimes not...and David is just not sophisticated enough to know when he is being jerked around at this age. When I picked him up in the afternoon he said that the other little boy wouldn't play with him again. It troubles him. I hesitated to say anything...but I really couldn't stand it anymore. I told David that if the other little boy didn't want to play with him, then don't bother trying. Find another friend that would, that clearly he was just too good a friend to play with the other boy.

I guess I am feeling situations like this out and there is no guidebook that fits every situation (if anyone tries to sell you one tell them it's too coarse to make good toilet paper). I don't know if this is the best advice I could have given him, but I **think** it was.

I know this--I will protect my little boy like an angry grizzly bear.

David at school

My little boy David went to Kindergarten today. It was a little upsetting, probably more so for me than him. When I look at him now I don't see a baby anymore, I see a boy. Not sure what to think about that. I bought him some new clothes yesterday and took him to get his school supplies, including a new backpack--this was very exciting, of course. There was a torrential rain and when we got out of the car we both got absolutely soaked, which I think doubled the excitement.

He is going to the same elementary school that I went to. I walked down to the lunch room to put money into his lunch account and it was surreal. I can't even imagine the amount of meals I ate there in the seven years I went to school there. I felt ridiculously large.

I appeal to whatever lesser angels watch over the doings of little boys to remember him and make him happy.

Imagination, for a change (or at least something good on TV)

There's really nothing good on TV, or at least good to me. Most of it makes me feel like I've been covered with a thin layer of slime (see Celebrity Rehab and Jersey Shore). I've almost quit watching altogether with the exception of a few things on Discovery Channel and the occasional one-off on the History Channel. You almost HAVE to count on alternate sources of entertainment. I occasionally stumble on to something utterly random on the web, which is still where you can get a few digital cameras and torrented web software and be George Lucas. When I do find them, I'll post them here if I think to. Here's one--give it a shot. Low budget and you can tell, but...not bad.

http://www.pioneerone.net/#2f7/vimeo

Or..you can find something entertaining to do in the analog world. I highly recommend it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z07jUswW4a0

Sorry for the non-links, but Blogger doesn't want to insert them right now. Copy-paste.

Photography

I'm not very good at it yet, but would like to be. Surely the motivation counts for something...

I don't think you can beat film, but on the whole I would say that photography has benefited hugely during the digital age. That being said, when I try to take a picture I try to put the whole "I can take a million of these with this 16gb SD card and pick a good one" notion out of my mind and pretend that I have sixteen exposures and not a single one to waste.

I got a GREAT Fuji camera from NewEgg that had a bad pixel on the screen, so I was able to upgrade my camera significantly without spending much money. The bad pixel is invisible to the naked eye and can't be seen without a magnifying glass, so I will call that a great deal. I'm just not good enough at it yet to justify putting some money into it...but I have confidence that I will learn.

One thing I have decided not to do is read on the subject. I will just feel my way out. Maybe at some point I will read about the principles of it, but I hate to get bogged down in the methodology--it is the same approach I have taken to mandolin and that seems to have worked out just fine. I have gotten some pretty favorable results so far which I will post for my amusement (and yours).

One more thing--the first picture (of me) was taken with am app that I downloaded to my Droid which is meant to mimic some of the classic cameras. In this case, it's a Leica. There are a number of different cameras in the app and they do a pretty amazing job of duplicating the low-tech. Duplicating the low-tech...that's a whole other post in itself. The other photo is a raptor-dog (my Dingo) trying to eat my hand.

NOT Working All Weekend

On call again.

I really like the money--that is certainly not the problem. It's the constant text messages. Our system at work generates an error when there's a problem, and sends me a text message.

God, I have come to loathe that sound.

Then there's the techs I have to deal in when I call in to work, explain the problem and get assistance with fixing it. The tech this morning says, "I don't really have time for that." Huh? If I had hair, I suppose I would commence to tearing it. I have just never been the type that is able to say that. I would have helped even if it made me mad enough to spit nails. It makes me doubly angry because of that.

I didn't get to go to Oolenoy last night, which is a shame. I knew there was no point since I was on call. I would just wind up coming home, likely in a foul mood. Oolenoy is the former one-room school house where the local jam takes place. Some of the people there favor the "combat jam" approach where you wind up having to elbow your way in, but I think there are just as many good people there.

Just picking the rest of the evening, and trying to enjoy it. I will have a good time...even if I have to force the issue.