So my netbook (a poor man’s iPad) died and I was trying to figure out whether to get an iPad (I guess it’s a rich man’s netbook) when I got tired and started lying in bed.  It dawned on me how out of control my feelings can get at times and I’m trying to figure out the heart of the matter because I think on the surface most people tend to think I’m this quiet polite guy.  I think for a lot of things I’m pretty low key (like if I suddenly won a trip to Hawaii I might yawn a little) but there are some things I go complete bonkers about.  I think it has a lot to do with expectations vs. reality and the disparity between the two can be quite jarring.  I think at times we can all have wild imaginations on what might take place, what our life might be liked if everything panned out as planned, and start living toward those unrealistic expectations.  I never thought imagination was a bad thing, but I suppose what’s the real killer is not understanding that it’s just imagination. I ended up getting another netbook, which I think has slightly better video playback than my old one which I’m going to have to sadly retire.  I’m going to miss the little guy as I’ve been using it practically everyday.  I have 29 study days left until my exam, so it’s time to put my nose to the grindstone.

I finished my study manual for exam C!  I was thinking of putting up even more progress bars of the different sample problems/practice exams I have yet to do before my exam on June 20th (I have quite a lot to keep me busy until then) but I can’t seem to think of anything more boring to watch.  Letsee I can see how long it takes to eat 300 waffles.  Or go through 2000 yards of dental floss.  Or ingest 50,000,000 milligrams of sodium.  That last one might be hard to keep track. Progress bars have been my answer to everything lately.  Need to lose weight?  Progress bars!  Put more money in savings?  Progress bars!  Change a tire?  Progress bars!  Find a spouse?  Progress bars!  Letsee, I’m currently at 0 for 1 in the spouse department.  Only, uh… one more to go!  Almost there!

Well on a whim I decided to throw up a push up progress bar.  I’m not sure how close I’ll be able to get to 10,000 pushups; that’s probably more than I’ve done in my lifetime.  I figure I’m pretty far ahead of where I should be study wise so I thought I’d throw in something to distract me in the meantime.  Although I’m not sure how my new lifestyle will change with my bulging biceps.  I’ll probably have to adjust myself when I shake people’s hands so I don’t crush them with my unleashed power.  Maybe I’ll have to sit differently during my exam sitting so I don’t break the keyboards with my massive arms.  I’ll have to restrain myself when opening doors for people that I don’t totally blow them off their hinges.  Think of all the doors I’d have to replace, and the embarrassment caused to myself, my friends, and my family.  Wow, this is becoming more problematic than I thought.

I’ve been feeling particularly anxious about something so I went to the prayer room today and while talking to the man there he mistakenly called me Thor!  I thought I heard it all.  I also thought the only form of my name left that I haven’t used is my full name, Theodore.  I guess should I get bored with that one, there’s one more in reserve. Now if he called me Thor, God of Lightning, that would be odd.  Especially if he was praying to our Lord.  Awkward…

So my coworker recommended I pop a zit today and against all warnings from the internet against pimple popping I went to the local CVS, bought some q-tips, isopropyl alcohol, and went to work and after 14 or so q-tips (they do come in rather large packages so I figured I’d use them liberally) I did manage to wash the area, sanitize the pimple, finish the surgical procedure, and disinfect the wound. I’m not sure why I’m writing this down, but I have a much greater respect for q-tips now.  I attempted to graph the results:   OK maybe this is not that accurate as I don’t remember using q-tips before age 7 or 8sh and I’m not quite 35 yet.  Ah well, life’s too short to be fiddling with graphs.  Now if I only knew what to do with the rest of the box…

Someone at church mentioned that she prefers weddings in the smaller chapel more than the main sanctuary because it’s more homey. I asked her if by homey she meant ghetto. By the look on her face, she didn’t find that funny at all.

In the cafeteria today I was getting a salad and noticed someone pouring a healthy amount of olive oil on her slice of pizza. I thought that was a pretty odd topping. I guess if you think of it, pizza normally has olives and is oily in itsellf, so maybe the lady wanted to ramp things up a bit. Yesterday while hurrying in to church I overheard someone saying, “you don’t want to sit on those seats of shame,” which I assume he is referring to as the seats in the back of the church. Hey, I’ve sat on those seats before! Are we not human too? If you prick us do we not bleed? Of course we all know that when you’re little, the front seats are really the seats of shame. So close to teacher! So nerdy! What a dork! The cool kids sat in the back. Ah, how quickly life doth change. Later that day, I was talking with a friend and had one of those moments where the reality of one day seeing Jesus sunk in and I started crying. I hadn’t cried in quite sometime but I wouldn’t describe it as sadness or regret. I’m not sure if it was happiness either. It was, I guess, this overwhelming longing. What kind of Sunday will I have next week? Tune in next time when…

Well it’s Sunday night and I’m out of power, studying by a small flashlight hanging on a lanyard from the ceiling fan overhead.  I got the flashlight from Brookstone, not the usualy place I’d go to buy one but I ended up returning the electric massager I got at the white elephant gift exchange for a couple of these small flashlights which are proving to be quite handy since there’s not a whole lot to do when it’s dark.  Being without power is strangely peaceful.  Is this what it was like before the internet?  It seems like those times were ages ago. Anyway, I just finished Part 2 of 5 of my study manual, and cracking open Parametric models which is a fairly big section.  The first chapter, Method of Moments, is pretty basic but sounds like it could be the name of a cool indy rock bank or movie¹.  I’d go see it by the title alone! At church today there was this umbrella which was left drying by the door and everyone who passed by it would look because it had this interesting text written on it:

snow was general all call me Ishmael all we Karamazovs are such I have not slept here all night

It was a little strange so I wrote these phrases down to look up later. I thought it was a little neat puzzle for me to try to figure out before the sermon started. Well, not having power, I guess today has been a lazy peaceful Sunday.  I took a short nap.  I thumbed through a couple unread books on my shelf.  I ate an apple and a cookie.  I finished the section on Empircal models.  I guess there’s still a lot you can do without electricity (batteries not included).

I must be accustomed to taking out my calculator every time I take out my mechanical pencil because in sunday school class I found myself with a calculator open in hand while listening to the sermon for a brief moment before nonchalantly putting in back in my backpack.  I must have been dazed from losing an hour from daylight savings time and I tried to think of a reason for it to be out so I could look like I had known what I was doing but couldn’t come up with anything.  Letsee if you add up the number of prophecies of Balaam and divide by the chapters …. I’m sure I have no reason to be embarrassed.  I mean who really watches other people take notes in class anyway?!?!

  Well this is my best showing so far for a Tuesday puzzle.  Since I do these on a computer, I actually tried screen capture recording this attempt to try to make a Let’s Play video out of it, even coming up with a commentary but alas, when I clicked save, it didn’t.  Maybe I’ll try again next week but I’m going to have to try to find a different program to record.  Then again I question how entertaining a video of someone not solving a crossword puzzle really is. I did make one mistake.  I saw T_EATER and immediately thought “Theater!”  The clue was “Tab grabber.”  Movie stubs are kinda like tabs aren’t they and the theater ticket tearer kinda grabs them from you … right? It’s kinda strange doing these for me.  There usually comes a point halfway through where I want to give up (and usually do) but sometimes I keep going and things kinda fit into place.  Like 44 across’ clue was “One of a Disney septet” and I had _W_R_ to go with.  I was thinking, “Happy?  Grumpy?  I don’t know all the dwarves! Forget it” and then at work I had a “Doh!” moment and realized the solution was much simpler than I thought.  I get stuck a lot but it’s quite satisfying going on a roll and doing much better than you think you could do which is why I still try to whittle away at these. One of the things that made it easier was that all the words could be typed on the left side of the keyboard (one of the clues gave it away).  I thought that was neat!  Well I don’t normally look at the answers so I guess I’ll never know (although I did manage to get some after the fact):

• SERGE: Twilled fabric (thanks R2)
• CB__S: People with handles
• TATTER: Rip to shreds (figured it out but a word that starts with TB?  Clue: Way up a slope)
• EATAT: Trouble no end (TBAR?  Ohhhkaaay….)
• DRESS: Promgoer’s buy (I suddenly feel quite dumb and happy at the same time)