Archive for My Life

March 7, 2008

A Puddle Frozen in an Interesting Way

7:26 pm | My Life | Comments: 1

Today as I stepped out of my car I looked down to see water frozen in a very unique pattern. It was a puddle with leaves in it that had frozen and thawed several times, leaving layers of ice with pockets of water. It captured my imagination for a very brief moment as I recalled the days when things like that used to mean something.

When I was younger a puddle frozen in an interesting way like that was fascinating enough to warrant my full attention for several minutes. I’d squat down and examine the leaves mixed into the ice and water. I’d step on the ice and listen to the satisfying crunch below my shoes. In fact, I’d meticulously step on every part of that frozen puddle until I had crunched any ice that was crunchable because it was indeed such a satisfying crunch. Various other winter images would go dancing through my head: ice skates, snow caves, and of course Christmas.

Now I just walk over it as I unload my gear out of my car. Many more things crowd my mind and I have no time to ponder a puddle frozen in an interesting way. That’s life, it seems. Moving from one thing to the next, overlooking that which was once note-worthy, forgetting that which was once so captivating. As much as I’d like to stop and admire that puddle, it’s too cold outside to be bothered with such things. I have stuff to do.

The same is now true of Set It Off.

Rise! Let your spirit fly!
Rise! Stand up for yourself!
Rise! Hold your head up high!
Our time has come,
Set it off!

December 5, 2007

Still Moving Forward

10:36 pm | My Life | Comments: 2

It was my last night as a member of the University Club. I extended my customary ten minute soak in the hot tub by another ten minutes, using the extra time to think over the last seven months. My plan to get washboard abs just by having the UC membership card in my pocket had failed, but the greater goal had not: I was in shape for the Academy. An era in my life was ending, the same way that many before had done. Not a moment too soon; I had just been finally enrolled in my Academy classes and had been dinged with a tuition bill far higher than expected. Time to tighten the belt. No more lavish health clubs in downtown Grand Rapids for me.

As I packed my things into the gym bag I tallied up the pros on the cons. The club afforded me a good platform for regular and effective workouts, but I also needed to start saving money like nobody’s business. It was very sad to say goodbye to the hot tub. On the other hand, I no longer had to deal with the incredibly awkward teenage locker-room employee that always seemed to be staring at my junk. I would miss running for an hour on the elliptical machine while watching Cops, but, well, on the other hand I wouldn’t have to see that teenage kid anymore. He really, really bugged me. I dropped off my keycards and walked out. When I hit the street I took a mental tally of my things and realized that I had left my bathing suit hanging in the shower room. First time in seven months that I left it hanging there before walking out the door. It was time for a new bathing suit, anyway.

November 13, 2007

Quick Hits for November

6:37 pm | My Life | Comments: 3

- FreeRice.com is something you should look at. Save the world from starvation and improve your vocabulary at the same time!

- If you’re interested in public service, and who isn’t, you should read this article about redefining public service. I agree with some of the points he makes about government; there are many people in government who claim to be serving the public who are simply serving themselves. Bad people.

- Big news coming on the 16th, so stay tuned.

- I recently was presented with an electric blanket, and I have to say that E. Blanks are amazing. If you don’t have one, you’re completely missing out. It’s like having a hot tub, but in your bed! I’ll stop short of saying that the thing has changed my life, but let me tell you that the quality of sleep that one enjoys when one deploys the electric blanket is superior.

September 8, 2007

Kept and Borne

7:41 pm | Culture | My Life | Comments: 17

What you’re looking at is a Glock 19 safe-action pistol, and I am now a proud owner of one of them. You’ll recall a post on SIO a while ago in which I bemoaned the fact that morons out there blamed the Virginia Tech massacre on American gun culture and lax firearms legislation, after which I came to the conclusion that the only reasonable thing to do in the face of the tragedy at VT was to arm myself. The Glock 19 was, in fact, one of the weapons that the gunman used in the attack.

Glock is the most famous and popular maker of polymer-frame sidearms, legendary for creating quality weapons that are absolutely, utterly reliable. The Model 19 is chambered for 9mm rounds and is a compact version of the Glock 17, weighing about 5.5 pounds. I chose the Glock 19 primarily for concealed carry purposes, and it’s a great performer in that category for a number of reasons: 1) you can depend on a Glock without fail to fire when you pull the trigger (no external safeties, hardware failures, or jams to worry about); 2) it’s lightweight polymer and has service pistol dimensions on a compact frame that’s very streamlined; and 3) it has a magazine capacity of 15 rounds.

Michigan is a great state for firearms enthusiasts. Without a criminal record, you can go to the Police Department and get a license to purchase (no charge) then head straight to a dealer and walk out with your handgun the same day. The Concealed Carry permit process takes a bit longer and is much more expensive, but if you meet the very reasonable requirements you’ll get it. This all makes me very happy.

May 23, 2007

Getting It Right

11:19 pm | My Life | Comments: 5

I have a great plan for getting in shape. I’m taking out a membership at a local gym, and as a bonus they have this great free introductory period. The idea of a gym is great, really. Why buy expensive exercise equipment of your own that will just collect dust when you can have craploads of thousand-dollar ellipticals and back-rowers at your disposal for a small monthly fee? The real genius of the plan is that I’ll enjoy the benefit of an immediate fitness increase just by having the membership card in my wallet. I hear the sheer proximity can give you washboard abs.

May 13, 2007

Age and Stuff

12:22 am | My Life | Comments: 2

Today the Dub turns 24. It’s definitely one of those transitional stages of life. Depending on what group I’m associating with, I am either a young know-it-all or an old guy. It’s nice because it’s easy to throw people off and keep them guessing about what’s really going on in your head. Growing a beard makes people think you’re trying to be older. Playing drums in a rock band makes them think you’re trying to be younger. Working 9-to-5 at an office desk job convinces them you’re old, then growing kinda-long hair and wearing a baseball hat backwards at an office party throws them off again. The truth is you’ll never know what’s going on in the Dub’s head for sure. Not until I’m 50 and still trying to pick up chicks at the student union. At that point it’d be pretty obvious, one would hope.

May 2, 2007

Nerding Out

6:55 pm | My Life | Sci/Tech | Comments: 1

Ah, Pentium. That name will always evoke emotions of joy and giddiness. Those among you who haven’t gone through a computer nerd stage won’t understand completely, but just imagine something you really, really, really wanted. Even after you got it, there was a better one that you wanted. If you spent more money than you could even imagine on getting the best one, a month later there was a better version of it that you then wanted. The wanting just never stopped; it was (and is) the ultimate carrot on the stick that promised you joys never-ending but could never satisfy you. That has been the experience of late 90s and early 21st-century nerds. I will refrain from telling my “first computer” story here, to avoid sounding like every computer science professor on day one of every computer science class.

I often say that I was a wanna-be nerd in college. Computer gaming and game-related web development in my teens convinced me that I liked computers, and based on that assumption I studied computer information systems in college. The truth, which I realized around my junior year, is that I just liked computer gaming, and computers and technology as a whole really doesn’t do a whole lot for me at all. I just didn’t fit in with the other kids in class that got extremely excited over the latest Windows version as well as anything and everything that Google happened to have done that week. That being said, I’ve been able to take the degree and gain some real-world benefit out of it, and against all odds one of the two IS Majors at GVSU that didn’t own a laptop (neither did Mark) is now an I.T. professional.

April 13, 2007

Night at the Cottage

6:01 pm | My Life | Stories | Comments: 3

It’s about time I told my side of the story. There are many important perspectives on this event, and my version isn’t a complete picture. But it’s what I remember. It starts with a small group of homeschoolers, like 4 families and their kids, that would always hang out together. One night there was this big sleepover we were all at. All the boys slept in one room, girls in another, etc., and during the night they drew marker faces on us, so we obviously were pretty upset about that and we vowed revenge.

So later that summer there was planned another such thing, only out at some lakeside cottage. And one of the guys didn’t disguise the fact that we were going to get the girls back this time. In fact we all took great pleasure in hinting at the girls’ impending doom. We had this great big plan, actually, but were so excited about it we couldn’t keep quiet. So anyways this time, the girls were inside and the guys were sleeping out on a covered pontoon boat, so we wait a while after “bedtime”, and then begin trying to sneak into the house with all manner of huge, black, permanent markers.

So there’s four of us sneaking into this little cottage and suddenly stuff starts going wrong. One of the moms walks out and exposes us after we’re all inside and does the mom thing, you know? Like what are you boys doing in here, you should be in bed, and so on. So she lectures us for a while and we feel kinda ashamed and head back out to the pontoon boat. We get back and start looking around, and quickly notice that ALL OUR STUFF IS GONE. No sleeping bags, no pillows, no nothing. So we run back to the house, and bam! all the doors are locked tight and there in the back hallway we see all our stuff, at which point we proceed to go crazy trying to break into the house.

Well, we weren’t actually trying to break anything, more like trying to annoy them (I guess trying to annoy them into letting us back in… at this point our planning abilities were pretty much dead). Banging on all the windows, honking car horns, ringing the doorbell, etc. We even tried shining one of those portable spotlights into the windows. Eventually we realized that one of our buddies wasn’t around. We thought maybe he had been kept inside by the moms and was in big trouble for our little stunt and that he was getting a talking-to, and we felt really bad. After walking through the woods a bit to lament our woes and think up ways to get our buddy out of trouble, we decided that we had to keep trying to get inside. In reality, our missing buddy knew a secret way in through the half-height basement and he got inside and eventually managed to let us in as well. So we got in, got to the hallway with our stuff and in rush all the girls, and they attack us.

And I mean really attack us. One of the moms was trying to put me in a headlock and break my fingers off, while the other girls basically just grabbed onto the stuff and wouldn’t let go. So we kinda wrestled it out until one of the dads woke up and appeared in a doorway in his boxer-briefs with half-open eyes wondering what was going on. At that point it was mutually decided that we had won our gear back, and that was good enough for me and my one buddy.

So we take our stuff back to the boat and try to get some sleep, but my other two buddies still hadn’t given up hope of doing something to the girls, so they refused to leave the house (no problem for the girls - they just locked the door to their room and slept soundly). The next morning we found the poor guys asleep on the floor, blue screen on the T.V. in front of them, both looking like trainwrecks. After they finally woke up they evidently had another brilliant plan in mind, because while I was having a friendly chat with the mom that I had done mortal combat with only a few hours previous, there they were with cans of shaving cream and aerosol deodorant trying to coax the girls out of their bedroom. At that point it was just kinda sad.

In retrospect we did alot of things poorly. First, we broadcast our plans of revenge before we got to the cottage, so the girls were 100% certain we were going to try to marker-face them. Second, we didn’t wait nearly long enough before going in. We should have waited until at least 4 or 5am, when in reality we probably went in no later than 2am. There is a bit of contention about exactly when we went in, but I’m fairly certain it was much earlier than it should have been. Third, we should have known about the secret entrance beforehand and used it to our full advantage. Fourth, we didn’t need all four of us to go in at the same time; we should have just sent in one or two guys at a time.

The really sad thing is that we never had a chance after that to do anything of consequence, and the balance is still clearly tipped in the girls’ favor. It’s probably better that we failed, because we brought along the biggest, fattest permanent markers we could find - if we had succeeded, the girls would still to this day be trying to get the marker off their faces. All that being as it may, it was still lots of fun.

March 7, 2007

Stop Talking about Snowboarding

1:35 am | My Life | Sport | Comments: 14

Let it be known that I am planning a snowboarding trip for March 24th. Late in the season? Yes. I personally am hoping that Michigan doesn’t melt everything on me before then; I walk by faith, not by sight. I’m really looking forward to this and you’re all invited, just get in touch with me sometime before the 24th. Hoping to go to Caberfae, but if the majority of folks are feeling lazy and cheap we will go to Bittersweet.

The issue of health insurance has been raised. In a discussion this evening we decided that you can injure yourself just as readily walking to your car as you can while snowboarding so there’s no need for alarm should you be lacking in the health insurance department. So just stick with me and everything will be alright.

February 26, 2007

Back into the Fray

8:48 pm | My Life | Comments: 17

So I’ve picked up this gig with the GVSU student orchestra. My sister needed some help in the percussion section, and I with my big heart and future wicked-awesome percussionist aspirations decided to lend a helping hand. A couple observations. First of all, it’s tough to play in an orchestra if you’ve never seen or heard the music you’re supposed to be playing along with. Second, there’s more to hand-held cymbal playing than meets the eye. After my second night of stumbling along being generally confused but still having a great time I managed to get ahold of the music, and a cute bassoon player showed me how to make loud cymbal crashes - I’m well on my way to making music history.

Being back on campus has been quite surreal, to be honest. It’s interesting how a college campus is somewhat timeless. Even though eventually you grow up and move on, the atmosphere of the Student Union stays the same as it was the first day you walked into it. Same fratties on the couches, same nerds playing videogames. The pizza even tastes the same. It’s a bit refreshing, really. I won’t say it’s like coming home, it was never home for me. The nice thing is knowing that you know so much more about life than all the kids shuffling around you. I find myself wishing I could sit them down and say, “Well son, when I was your age…”