Monday, April 27, 2009

I Swear

One of the cool things about having a son is the fact that he likes to play video games with me; one of the bad things about me and video games is that when things go wrong (and how they go wrong) I tend to swear... I swear loudly, I swear often. Once the seal is broken on the swear jar I drop f-bombs like a rapper drops... well f-bombs.

Let me take you back to a time before Duncan. In those days leading up to the birth of my son my wife had deemed it acceptable, not desired mind you, but acceptable, for me to swear in two places: sitting in traffic dealing with idjits or sitting in front of the computer/console swearing at some dire circumstance that was obviously the fault of whatever game I was playing.

Fast forward to the days of Duncan, a boy who is almost 2 1/2 and likes to parrot much of what he hears. Here I am sitting in front of the TV playing Burnout: Paradise City crashing for the 5th time in 7 seconds (only 4 of those were actually my fault) and the urge to swear is rising rising rising.

Lest some of you gentler people gasp at this heretofore unseen aspect of Sir William I'll let you in on a little snippet of my family history. My father is an Ex-US Marine... to my father the f-word is not a swear word; it is an adjective. He knows there are some instances where this word should not be used (and in those instances he says little to nothing) but when he is in his element my dear pater can make a sailor blush.

As for me, it wasn't until I went to kindergarten that I learned the f-word was not used in polite society.

For the most part I've been fairly successful at not swearing in front of my child. The worst that's happened so far has been an occasional cwap and one memorable occasion when Duncan says, parodying his old man: "You suck! you suck! You suck! You suck!... I sorry."

So lets re-visit last Sunday. My boy had asked if we could crash cars together (and how we could crash those cars) and I was trying some of those cases where I wasn't actually supposed to crash cars.

I was of course crashing left right and center, and over the guard rail and into the water and over the side of the cliff, and in the barn, and in the parkade... well you get the picture. I was having a very difficult time not swearing. There was some yelling at the game (yes it does help), possibly a couple of "craps" but no f-bombs.

Not long after things went south in the GT 500 Cruiser, Carole took the boy out of the house to Auntie Ronnie's (he wanted to see Iain). I watched them leave, waved good boy... came back and starting driving.

And I crashed...

... and I swore....

... I swore loudly...

... I swore often...

I swore.

And it felt good.

English degree be damned (ooo I swore) sometimes catharsis is a damn good thing.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

What doin?

What doin' is Duncan's newest phrase - so its a fitting title for this post which is about nothing more than what I am in fact doing.

The answer at this point is not a whole freakin' lot which is a good thing. Got through about 4 episodes of Smallville; for the most part the season's been okay but nothing exceptional. I think I was spoiled on the series when I watched the first 6 seasons on DVD w/o any commercials - I like my TV that way - and able to watch one show after the other. Having to wait weeks at a time to save up new episodes is a ghastly way to watch TV.

Also finished off the Ultimate Avengers animated movie which I'd had sitting on the computer; I don't expect two thumbs up cinema from animated Marvel comics but talk about your formulaic tripe.

Back at work tomorrow and beginning the final days until the Hour of the Bean - w00t!

Peace out for now, its time for bupper!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

It's Dusty In Here

So my wife tells me I ought to get back on the blogging wagon. Tap those keys and become one more voice in that sea of voices that is the Interweb. I hesitate to do so. If I do get back into the habit of blogging she'll think I'm going to start listening to all her good advice and that sets a dangerous precedent.

So what's been going on? Well those who know me, already know. And those who don't know me - there are better sites than this ("Go then, there are other worlds than these").

Once I fix the pilot light in the brain pan and that gets burning I'm sure I'll expound intelligently on some of the crazy things I've noticed - but right now I'm just coming down from having finished a property assessment related course. I'm not enjoying reading for the sake of reading not because I need to try and commit the four styles of management in a Systems approach to memory (if you're interested its facilitate, systematic, directive and interactive).

I've been reading some of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels - those are good quick reads. I finished one in about 3 hours last week (though I should have been studying for a test). The books are formulaic but quite well written and enjoyable. I just branched out and tried one of his Jesse Stone novels and found it to be similar so that opens up a whole new avenue of books I can read. Sadly I came home with the book at about 4:30 and I finished it about 1/2 hr ago.

The book I'm currently waiting to get my hands on is the latest book by Jim Butcher called Turn Coat. I really want to get it but its one of those cases where when I do I'll read it in 5 hrs and want more and have to wait eons for the next one to come out. So I hold off. Pleasure delayed is later savored.

Well that's enough for now. Let's see if I can make this a habit.