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.
Monday, April 27, 2009
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!
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
7:33pm
Not much to report here. The eye is slowly getting better. I have an appointment with Dr. Bright, now that's not a made up name, and he will hopefully tell me I can stop putting the damn drops in my eyes. I'm grateful for them, but its like anything that's good for you that you have to do - eventually you get tired of it.
It was a frustrating day at work today. A lot of different orders from different sources - in a way its mostly no one's fault because of the rather odd situation we find ourselves in at work this year. But at the same time its frustrating to have to deal with the uncertainty of a rule that can change 3-4 times in one day. But I endure.
There you go - no deep topics, no witty (or attempts to be witty) monologue.
Observation on Life: if you don't sleep, you get tired.
It was a frustrating day at work today. A lot of different orders from different sources - in a way its mostly no one's fault because of the rather odd situation we find ourselves in at work this year. But at the same time its frustrating to have to deal with the uncertainty of a rule that can change 3-4 times in one day. But I endure.
There you go - no deep topics, no witty (or attempts to be witty) monologue.
Observation on Life: if you don't sleep, you get tired.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
CSI: BFE
I’ve been awake since 3 this morning so forgive me if my thoughts are not exactly lucid.
While watching the news this morning there was an interesting story that left me in a perplexed state (more so than usual). After being dropped off in a remote location a couple of lumberjacks were attacked by a grizzly bear; one of them (presumably the slower one, in the vein of the comedian joke where two or more people are in the woods being chased by a bear “I don’t have to outrun the grizzly, I just have to out run you”) was mauled (he’ll be fine, hence the jest). That, in and of itself, is not exactly perplexing.
What’s left me perplexed is the comment from some guy (who’s name/title/reason for being quoted remain unclear to me) who said they’re going to go out in the woods and try and track down this bear. The bear, because it had the temerity to attack a human, will be killed.
The perplexity of the situation strikes me here – how’re they going to know they have the right bear? My wife, the answer to all my rhetorical questions, points out that as bears are territorial there’s a chance that if they find the spot where the attack happened it was probably in the territory of the next bear they find. Me, I says that’s circumstantial evidence.
I’m not a tree hugger, I wouldn’t even hug a tree hugger, but I have a keen sense of justice. I’d like to be sure this is the bear that attacked the man. Due process must be followed. We need to take this bear’s paw prints and run it through the system to see if this bear has committed any previous offences, take a swab (good luck with that one) and run that through UDIS (Ursine DNA Index System), match the bear claw to the claw marks on the victim – all the things they do on CSI. We need to make sure we have the right bear.
If this bear had robbed a 7-Eleven (for the bear essentials… sorry couldn’t resist) or had held up a liquor store, I would be the first guy to grab a pitch fork or a flaming torch to go after this monster. As it stands however, these lumberjacks were in the forest, in the bear’s territory, so maybe the bear thought someone was trying to pull a B&E on his winter stash.
I feel bad for the guy but he’s still alive and will recover.
I feel worse for the bear who will be hunted down and killed because we, as a species, encroached on his territory.
Observations on Life: It’s a bad time to be a bear.
While watching the news this morning there was an interesting story that left me in a perplexed state (more so than usual). After being dropped off in a remote location a couple of lumberjacks were attacked by a grizzly bear; one of them (presumably the slower one, in the vein of the comedian joke where two or more people are in the woods being chased by a bear “I don’t have to outrun the grizzly, I just have to out run you”) was mauled (he’ll be fine, hence the jest). That, in and of itself, is not exactly perplexing.
What’s left me perplexed is the comment from some guy (who’s name/title/reason for being quoted remain unclear to me) who said they’re going to go out in the woods and try and track down this bear. The bear, because it had the temerity to attack a human, will be killed.
The perplexity of the situation strikes me here – how’re they going to know they have the right bear? My wife, the answer to all my rhetorical questions, points out that as bears are territorial there’s a chance that if they find the spot where the attack happened it was probably in the territory of the next bear they find. Me, I says that’s circumstantial evidence.
I’m not a tree hugger, I wouldn’t even hug a tree hugger, but I have a keen sense of justice. I’d like to be sure this is the bear that attacked the man. Due process must be followed. We need to take this bear’s paw prints and run it through the system to see if this bear has committed any previous offences, take a swab (good luck with that one) and run that through UDIS (Ursine DNA Index System), match the bear claw to the claw marks on the victim – all the things they do on CSI. We need to make sure we have the right bear.
If this bear had robbed a 7-Eleven (for the bear essentials… sorry couldn’t resist) or had held up a liquor store, I would be the first guy to grab a pitch fork or a flaming torch to go after this monster. As it stands however, these lumberjacks were in the forest, in the bear’s territory, so maybe the bear thought someone was trying to pull a B&E on his winter stash.
I feel bad for the guy but he’s still alive and will recover.
I feel worse for the bear who will be hunted down and killed because we, as a species, encroached on his territory.
Observations on Life: It’s a bad time to be a bear.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Eye Eye Eye! (Ahoy oi there!)
If I’m well enough to work, I’m well enough to blog, though whether or not I’m well enough to work is a debatable point. Nevertheless, here I be.
It’s been pretty close to a month since my last post saying I couldn’t really read enough to blog, and that’s sort of mind bloggling (it’s blog related ergo bloggling). When you’re sitting in the dark in the house watching American Justice and too much Cold Case Files time flows together and I’m only now coming back into a world where I have to keep track of such a mundane thing as: the date.
For those of you that don’t know, I had a flare up of my Iritis, which is an inflammation or swelling of the iris of the eye (though I still think it sounds like the Latin verb ‘to write” (conjugate: I writus (I write), I wrotus (I wrote). It’s painful. The pain is tolerable. The vision is the problem.
At first it goes blurry and reacts badly to sunlight. Then you start treating it with a steroid drop and it goes blurrier and you start to see spots. Then when the steroids don’t work from drops, you get the joy of having a needle in the eye (more on that in a sec) and there are more spots, and then when you’re “better” you still have a lot of spots and now some mini “blind” spots (ha! Accidentally wrote mini bling spots… little dollar sign floaters)
The Needle: Initially when the iritis flared up I thought I was going to have to get a needle right away, and I was ready for it. But after the first appointment turned out to be needle free I thought I might get off the hook. 2nd appointment however proved me wrong. The needle in the eye is uncomfortable (they freeze it first so its not, you know, like tortuous) but even worse than that in my opinion is the 2 minute window between the time when Herr Doc says: “I need to schteek a needle inkz your eye” to the point where he comes back with it. That’s one of those situations where the mind runs at a frantic pace in all directions at once.
Blog may not make much sense, but it first one after long time. Gimme break.
Observations on Life: Anything you need to know about life you can learn from The Wiggles. In one episode alone I learned about levering AND that’s its possible to come wash your face in a frying pan and comb your hair with a wagon wheel.
It’s been pretty close to a month since my last post saying I couldn’t really read enough to blog, and that’s sort of mind bloggling (it’s blog related ergo bloggling). When you’re sitting in the dark in the house watching American Justice and too much Cold Case Files time flows together and I’m only now coming back into a world where I have to keep track of such a mundane thing as: the date.
For those of you that don’t know, I had a flare up of my Iritis, which is an inflammation or swelling of the iris of the eye (though I still think it sounds like the Latin verb ‘to write” (conjugate: I writus (I write), I wrotus (I wrote). It’s painful. The pain is tolerable. The vision is the problem.
At first it goes blurry and reacts badly to sunlight. Then you start treating it with a steroid drop and it goes blurrier and you start to see spots. Then when the steroids don’t work from drops, you get the joy of having a needle in the eye (more on that in a sec) and there are more spots, and then when you’re “better” you still have a lot of spots and now some mini “blind” spots (ha! Accidentally wrote mini bling spots… little dollar sign floaters)
The Needle: Initially when the iritis flared up I thought I was going to have to get a needle right away, and I was ready for it. But after the first appointment turned out to be needle free I thought I might get off the hook. 2nd appointment however proved me wrong. The needle in the eye is uncomfortable (they freeze it first so its not, you know, like tortuous) but even worse than that in my opinion is the 2 minute window between the time when Herr Doc says: “I need to schteek a needle inkz your eye” to the point where he comes back with it. That’s one of those situations where the mind runs at a frantic pace in all directions at once.
Blog may not make much sense, but it first one after long time. Gimme break.
Observations on Life: Anything you need to know about life you can learn from The Wiggles. In one episode alone I learned about levering AND that’s its possible to come wash your face in a frying pan and comb your hair with a wagon wheel.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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