randomness 2 Comments

Being Predictable

Finish this sentence: “People who really know me can count on me to…”

Is your first thought a positive one? Because it doesn’t have to be.

I’ve been contemplating this today, especially considering this weekend’s checkbook-balancing debacle. Aaron wasn’t entirely surprised when I almost bounced a check or two—in fact, he’d jokingly berated me about my checkbook register habits not a day before I discovered my big whoopsie. (That’s how he calls my attention to something that bugs him: he jokes about it.)

I feel like I’m known for the things I’ll screw up. I’m known for procrastination to the extreme; for leaving dirty dishes to pile up unchecked for unhealthy periods of time; for leaving my clean clothes in the basket or on the floor; for having piles of papers stacked around my desk; for never unpacking boxes of random crap that I’ve been moving around since college; for staying up too late and sleeping too long; for being late (or almost-late) to work… and the list goes on.

Of course, I guess I’m also known for having relatively spiffy web designs and taking good photographs. I hope I’m known for telling it like it is, in a lighthearted and tactful way. I was once known for using really long words in conversation, and I’m still known for being able to spell them all.

Still, though, it’s troublesome to know that these more negative things are thoroughly expected of me. Even more disturbing is the fact that I’ve been trying to change these aspects of myself for years and years. How many times do I have to go on a self-improvement kick before something finally sticks in my thick skull?

And how long before I realize that beating myself up over my faults doesn’t make them go away?

randomness 2 Comments

My Incompetence Is Infuriating

*fuming*

Aren’t bank employees supposed to be able to balance their own fucking checkbooks? Yes?

No.

Not me, who forgot to record the PayPal purchase of two class reunion tickets, made a ten-dollar math error, forgot to record my $30 NSF (non-sufficient funds) fee resulting from said math error, and still had to adjust my checkbook for over $20 I couldn’t find. Not me, who is now over $50 in the hole—and that’s after transferring funds from my savings.

I’m OK for now; we just can’t mail off our car payment just yet. It’s not due for another week, though, so we’re OK.

*runs off to root through box of eBay-ables*

site-related

A Successful Blog?

Call me egotistical, but according to D. Keith Robinson, I’d like to think that this new blog of mine will be A Successful Blog. Ideally, anyway.

Incidentally, Keith’s website is where I inadvertently stole my anti-tagline from. Just like I (somewhat less inadvertently) appropriated some of Dooce‘s design elements. Imitation is the highest form of flattery… right?

After all, I believe it was Picasso who said, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” —I’m not sure what that makes me, then.

randomness 3 Comments

Gmail Invitations At Large

So, I just checked my Gmail account, and the thingy said:

Invite a friend to join Gmail!

I know Kris Heath, Eric, and Sheryl are already on the bandwagon, and I already sent invites to Mark and Amy, but the next four people to post a comment get a Gmail invitation. I’m feeling generous… and I don’t know of anyone else who might want one. Beth? Anyone?

drumcorps 2 Comments

Supersizus Interruptus

I had just sat down to write a review of Super Size Me, the documentary that I went to see yesterday with Mark and Aaron, when Kris Heath called. Turns out that he and Jamie happened upon the PBS broadcast of the 2004 DCI World Championship Finals, and he wanted to let me know it was on—which was good, because I hadn’t realized it would be broadcast so soon after Finals. Usually, it’s not broadcast until Thanksgiving weekend.

As always, watching Finals on PBS was an experience best shared with no one. If I can’t have fellow corps alumni with me, I’d rather not have anyone else watch me silently cheer the incredible drill moves, or tear up at the memory of aging out forever, or any of the other silly unexplainable things I do while watching the broadcast. Having been involved in the activity, these reactions make perfect sense; to someone looking from the outside in, I’m sure it seems… over the top?

Back when I was still marching Junior corps, I’d seen alumni from the 70’s bawl like babies when they saw the Troopers perform their signature starburst drill move, simply because no one does that anymore, and it was once a staple of drum corps repertoire. I only vaguely understood back then what they were feeling, even with the drum corps experience that I had. I can’t imagine what people with no drum corps experience whatsoever would make of this.

Even without the drum corps experience under your belt, though, the DCI PBS broadcast is a wonderful program. Back in high school, before I ever dreamed I could possibly age out of a Top 12 corps and play in The Night Show, I watched and admired the ability of these young people to perform with such intensity. All the corps put on a great show, and every last kid is giving it his or her best for that one final performance. Even without knowing it firsthand, you can see in their eyes their love for the activity and their corpsmates, and it can really move you if you let it. When I saw it back in high school, I wanted that feeling myself. I never thought I’d actually get it.

Even now, seven years later, it’s such a great memory.