Saturday, April 01, 2006
My husband has reached a new depth of stupidity
First off; if you're reading this on 4-1, what did you think of my April Fool's JavaScript thingie? Did you have a moment of terror when you thought I might actually be deleting my blog, or did you guess right off that it was an April Fool's joke?
The other new item on my blog is another of those images you can customize with your own text; I'm a sucker for novelty doodads, in case you hadn't noticed. I went here
http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/
and created the cover of "New Age Spirituality for Dummies," which you'll find at the bottom of the page; I know, it's sorta silly, but I DO think of my spiritual posts as trying to be clear and simple enough that someone who doesn't know anything about it can pick it up, which is the idea behind the "Dummies" books, so it's reasonably justifiable... and anyways, it was fun to make.
Ok, on to the main topic; it's a good thing I already did my April Fool's prank, because otherwise everyone would assume that that's what this post was... it's that unbelievable. A couple of days ago, my husband walked into the family room, where I was hard at work on my laptop, and:
Him: I just had a really good example of how maybe sometimes you should read the directions.
Me: What have you destroyed this time?!!
Him: No, nothing, this is something different.
Me: Well?
Him: It turns out that those CLOROX wipes aren't meant for "personal cleansing."
Me: Oh no, you didn't wash your [genitals] with those wipes with the BLEACH?!! (He's stinky enough to need to do between-shower touchups of his more rancid zones, so this was a natural assumption to make.)
Him: No... worse.
Me: You... you mean... you wiped your...?!!
Him: Yeah.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Him: It IS pretty funny, lol.
Me: Did you burn yourself?
Him: Yeah, a little.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Him: lol
Me: I know I shouldn't laugh at that, but... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Him: Why shouldn't you laugh? I'M laughing, even though it's MY butth0le that's sore.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Him: lol
Me: That was REALLY stupid, even by your standards.
Him: No kidding.
Me: Whatever possessed you to wipe yourself with a CLOROX wipe?
Him: I thought they were hand wipes, and that they could be used just like baby wipes.
Me: Hand wipes are NOT the same as baby wipes, as the latter are very smooth and cushy with super-gentle liquid for a baby's delicate skin, and the former are NOT.
Him: Oh.
Me: Can you imagine if Clorox tried to market a baby wipe? Would anyone buy it even if they had studies proving it was the gentlest brand?
Both: LOL
Me: Just for future reference, do NOT wipe your butt with a hand wipe.
Him: Ok.
Me: And it goes without saying that anything meant to clean the bathroom surfaces isn't for use on any bodily orifices either.
Him: Uh-huh, lol.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Him: lol
Me: I shouldn't be laughing so much, but...
Him: When it's a guy who was hurt it's always ok to laugh, unless it's a serious injury; even then, if the paramedics say he'll live you can still laugh.
Me: I'm sure that your male friends would find this hilarious.
Him: Oh yeah, big time.
Me: Speaking of friends, I'll have to call [female friend] this weekend and tell her about this, so she can laugh at you... and then she'll tell her husband, and HE'LL laugh at you.
Him: Aw, come on, don't tell her husband.
Me: You know she's going to tell him everything, just like I tell YOU everything.
Him: Ok, but tell her that she's officially not allowed to tell him; she still will, but if he's not officially allowed to know he can't say anything to me about it.
Me: We'll see. Also, you DO know that this is gonna be my next blog entry, right?
Him: I sort of figured that, lol.
Me: Thousands of people on 6 continents will know that you wiped your butt with BLEACH.
Him: Cool, I'll be famous!!
Both: LOL
A great deal more laughter has occurred at his expense, and promises that he'll be hearing about it for the rest of our lives, plus I've been calling him "Bleach Butt" and "Clorox Kid," which he chuckles at every time... you never saw anyone take such pleasure from being ridiculed for stupidity. He was openly disappointed when, after I examined the package of the offending product, "Clorox Disinfecting Wipes," which you can see here
http://clorox.com/solutions_disinfecting_wipe.php
I discovered that the wipes don't actually have any bleach on them; he literally said, with great dismay, "But now you can't call me 'Bleach Butt' anymore, and it was alliterative as well as being really funny"... he was relieved, I kid you not, when I told him I'd keep using the name as it was part of the story. He was pleased when my perusal of the label revealed further that the wipes are lemon scented, because now he can say that his butt was lemony fresh... at least for a couple of minutes.
As I've often said, marriage is GROSS; married people are WAY too involved with each other's bodily functions and the associated parts of the body. There's a great deal of potential for amusement inherent in that, though, as this incident proves; just wait 'til I remove all the toilet paper from my husband's bathroom in a few days and leave the Clorox wipes in their place. :-)
The other new item on my blog is another of those images you can customize with your own text; I'm a sucker for novelty doodads, in case you hadn't noticed. I went here
http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/
and created the cover of "New Age Spirituality for Dummies," which you'll find at the bottom of the page; I know, it's sorta silly, but I DO think of my spiritual posts as trying to be clear and simple enough that someone who doesn't know anything about it can pick it up, which is the idea behind the "Dummies" books, so it's reasonably justifiable... and anyways, it was fun to make.
Ok, on to the main topic; it's a good thing I already did my April Fool's prank, because otherwise everyone would assume that that's what this post was... it's that unbelievable. A couple of days ago, my husband walked into the family room, where I was hard at work on my laptop, and:
Him: I just had a really good example of how maybe sometimes you should read the directions.
Me: What have you destroyed this time?!!
Him: No, nothing, this is something different.
Me: Well?
Him: It turns out that those CLOROX wipes aren't meant for "personal cleansing."
Me: Oh no, you didn't wash your [genitals] with those wipes with the BLEACH?!! (He's stinky enough to need to do between-shower touchups of his more rancid zones, so this was a natural assumption to make.)
Him: No... worse.
Me: You... you mean... you wiped your...?!!
Him: Yeah.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Him: It IS pretty funny, lol.
Me: Did you burn yourself?
Him: Yeah, a little.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Him: lol
Me: I know I shouldn't laugh at that, but... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Him: Why shouldn't you laugh? I'M laughing, even though it's MY butth0le that's sore.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Him: lol
Me: That was REALLY stupid, even by your standards.
Him: No kidding.
Me: Whatever possessed you to wipe yourself with a CLOROX wipe?
Him: I thought they were hand wipes, and that they could be used just like baby wipes.
Me: Hand wipes are NOT the same as baby wipes, as the latter are very smooth and cushy with super-gentle liquid for a baby's delicate skin, and the former are NOT.
Him: Oh.
Me: Can you imagine if Clorox tried to market a baby wipe? Would anyone buy it even if they had studies proving it was the gentlest brand?
Both: LOL
Me: Just for future reference, do NOT wipe your butt with a hand wipe.
Him: Ok.
Me: And it goes without saying that anything meant to clean the bathroom surfaces isn't for use on any bodily orifices either.
Him: Uh-huh, lol.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Him: lol
Me: I shouldn't be laughing so much, but...
Him: When it's a guy who was hurt it's always ok to laugh, unless it's a serious injury; even then, if the paramedics say he'll live you can still laugh.
Me: I'm sure that your male friends would find this hilarious.
Him: Oh yeah, big time.
Me: Speaking of friends, I'll have to call [female friend] this weekend and tell her about this, so she can laugh at you... and then she'll tell her husband, and HE'LL laugh at you.
Him: Aw, come on, don't tell her husband.
Me: You know she's going to tell him everything, just like I tell YOU everything.
Him: Ok, but tell her that she's officially not allowed to tell him; she still will, but if he's not officially allowed to know he can't say anything to me about it.
Me: We'll see. Also, you DO know that this is gonna be my next blog entry, right?
Him: I sort of figured that, lol.
Me: Thousands of people on 6 continents will know that you wiped your butt with BLEACH.
Him: Cool, I'll be famous!!
Both: LOL
A great deal more laughter has occurred at his expense, and promises that he'll be hearing about it for the rest of our lives, plus I've been calling him "Bleach Butt" and "Clorox Kid," which he chuckles at every time... you never saw anyone take such pleasure from being ridiculed for stupidity. He was openly disappointed when, after I examined the package of the offending product, "Clorox Disinfecting Wipes," which you can see here
http://clorox.com/solutions_disinfecting_wipe.php
I discovered that the wipes don't actually have any bleach on them; he literally said, with great dismay, "But now you can't call me 'Bleach Butt' anymore, and it was alliterative as well as being really funny"... he was relieved, I kid you not, when I told him I'd keep using the name as it was part of the story. He was pleased when my perusal of the label revealed further that the wipes are lemon scented, because now he can say that his butt was lemony fresh... at least for a couple of minutes.
As I've often said, marriage is GROSS; married people are WAY too involved with each other's bodily functions and the associated parts of the body. There's a great deal of potential for amusement inherent in that, though, as this incident proves; just wait 'til I remove all the toilet paper from my husband's bathroom in a few days and leave the Clorox wipes in their place. :-)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Leaders + followers = disaster?
I remember as a kid wondering about a girl in my neighborhood; we'll call her Jane. Jane was as close to a zero as any human being I've ever met; she had no spark, no animation, none of the liveliness one expects in a girl of 7... there was nothing mentally wrong with her, she was just a little shy and alot bland and boring. I remember being astounded at how there was a constant battle for her friendship between 2 girls who were far more appealing than she was, and would have been expected to pair up with each other and exclude her entirely; when, after a couple of years, I asked one of the battlers WHY she was always struggling to be the closest to Jane, all she could come up with was that the order in which the families had moved onto our street somehow meant that Jane should be HER best friend. This explanation didn't make sense to me, then or now, especially since there was an age difference of several years between them which should have eliminated any desire for a relationship with her of any sort; in other words, she didn't KNOW why she continued to fight over Jane, only that she was compelled to do so... and it never occurred to her (or to the other girl, I'd be willing to bet) that she could have had a higher-quality friendship with far less effort if she'd chosen the other combatant to be her buddy instead, or that they could have all been friends together and channeled the energy wasted in competition into having FUN.
It wasn't until I became consciously aware of leader/follower dynamics as an adult that I saw what was going on back then; in our immediate area, before my family moved in, there were below school age kids, boys, the battlers and their siblings, and Jane... just 3 "older girls," with Jane being the only follower up for grabs. Jane could have had a horn growing out of the middle of her forehead and she still would have been pursued, because the other girls, one older than her and one younger, were both wannabe leaders, and most leaders have a strong drive to gather in followers; I was the oldest, so my arrival meant that I became the overall leader by default, of boys as well as girls, but the battle for Jane never ended until one of the battlers moved away years later.
Also interesting was that the younger battler was in the best-friend seat with Jane most of the time, despite the greater influence the older girl would be expected to have and the cachet to Jane of having an older friend. That puzzled me too, until a time came when the younger girl decided she wanted some of the boys on her side as part of some fight or other, and I questioned them as to how she'd managed to get them to run after her; they told me that she'd offered them candy and gum in return for their allegiance, and they showed no hint of embarrassment that they were willing to follow a GIRL in return for a minor bribe. The older girl's parents were uptight types who didn't pass out too many goodies, so the younger one's bribing strategy was successful, presumably with Jane as well as with the boys; she was willing to give up a significant portion of her sweets to buy friendship, and it's amazing that a child as young as 6 was not only willing to do that but had figured out that it was a good tactic... AND had managed to handle it in such a way that she didn't come across as a pitiful creature to be used and abandoned, which is how people who try to buy friendship typically get perceived (attitude is everything).
Why do I bring this up? Because adults act exactly the same way, just with a little veneer of sophistication glossed over it... and a level of viciousness of which small children are incapable. I can't tell you how many times, online and offline, I've seen unscrupulous leader types going to insane lengths to gather in every follower in sight, AND to totally destroy the relationships those people had with any other leaders in the extended group; while kids seem to have the actual friendships as their goal, the adults will eventually tire of their followers and shred and discard them... THEIR goal is to have "wins" over the other leaders, NOT to have friends, and they feel that way even if the other leaders not only aren't competing but are unaware that a competition is taking place... a trap I myself walked into several times, until my eyes were opened and I realized that, as is nearly always the case with evil people, these folks were following totally consistent and predictable patterns, and was able to start side-stepping them.
Whether you're a leader or a follower, you can get the raw end of these manipulations, so it's useful to see what the behavior patterns are. I've compiled a gigantic list of specific things to look out for, and I've been meaning to start sharing them with you for ages, but I never got around to making an introductory post; now that I'm doing so, I'll try to get into a groove of sharing the list a little at a time... because the bad people of the world can only yank you around if you LET them, if you and those around you are blind to what's going on and/or do nothing to stop it.
I should specify here that there's nothing superior about being a "leader type," as all it takes to be followed is often just a big mouth and a little bit of fearlessness or forcefulness, and there's nothing inferior about being a "follower type," as MOST people naturally follow whoever takes the lead; we're pack animals, and it's instinctive. It's even possible to be a leader or follower depending on what group you're with; you might be a follower with your family but a leader with your friends or at work, for example... it might all boil down to what situations you're comfortable sticking your neck out in and which ones you're more comfortable trailing safely in someone's wake in. Take a clear, objective look at the various groups you're in, and ask yourself; in this group, which people are leaders and which are followers? Be VERY sure you've gotten your own role honestly figured out, or you're wasting your time trying to learn how to maneuver through any battles that arise.
I don't want to get started with any specifics yet, but here are the general warnings:
If you're a follower, be VERY suspicious of large amounts of time and attention being lavished upon you by a leader; don't get so flattered and swept up in it that you forget that this is NOT how normal, healthy friendships work, and thus that something fishy is going on. Pay attention to what's happening, and if the leader does or says ANYTHING to try to draw you away from any other leader in your group, or to cut a leader out of plans or the information loop, or tries to cast the way a leader acts towards you in an unflattering light when you've seen nothing to suggest that that person has bad intentions or is anything but nice and a good friend, BEWARE-the battle has begun, and you're being used as a pawn to "get" an innocent person.
If you're a leader, and suddenly one or more of your follower friends seem to be spending an unusual amount of time with another leader, or to be talking alot about them, especially about things that person has recently DONE for them, be aware that that leader has targeted the follower(s), and that means, sadly, that you either have to wildly escalate what YOU'RE offering the follower(s) or accept that you're probably going to lose them, or at least become far less close of friends with them... they'll see the other leader as a better deal, and never question the sincerity of what that person offered to them. If you're not that attached to the followers, and don't care if they've transferred some allegiance to another leader, it might seem like no big deal, but if they start being a little chilly towards you, or you sense ANY hostility from them that's coming out of nowhere, it's time to do MAJOR damage control, because the other leader is turning them against you, and you're fast approaching a situation where the other leader will have the entire group on "their side," and everyone will either be unfriendly towards you or awkwardly and embarrassedly friendly to you when you're alone but publicly hanging out with the other leader's group and pretty much ignoring you most of the time.
Why are people, both leaders and followers, all too often willing to spurn someone who never was anything but nice to them? Because human nature sucks. YOU don't have to be part of that sort of ugliness, however; you can CHOOSE to turn against the trash-talker instead of against the intended victim, you can CHOOSE to make sure everyone else knows that the trash-talking was going on, and you can CHOOSE to actively defend the victim and to encourage others to do so. If you're a leader, it's a little trickier to protect yourself, but it can be done, mostly by being aware in advance that there are trouble spots and handling them before they gather momentum and run over you; stay tuned, there are alot of red flags and ways to deal with them coming up in future posts.
It wasn't until I became consciously aware of leader/follower dynamics as an adult that I saw what was going on back then; in our immediate area, before my family moved in, there were below school age kids, boys, the battlers and their siblings, and Jane... just 3 "older girls," with Jane being the only follower up for grabs. Jane could have had a horn growing out of the middle of her forehead and she still would have been pursued, because the other girls, one older than her and one younger, were both wannabe leaders, and most leaders have a strong drive to gather in followers; I was the oldest, so my arrival meant that I became the overall leader by default, of boys as well as girls, but the battle for Jane never ended until one of the battlers moved away years later.
Also interesting was that the younger battler was in the best-friend seat with Jane most of the time, despite the greater influence the older girl would be expected to have and the cachet to Jane of having an older friend. That puzzled me too, until a time came when the younger girl decided she wanted some of the boys on her side as part of some fight or other, and I questioned them as to how she'd managed to get them to run after her; they told me that she'd offered them candy and gum in return for their allegiance, and they showed no hint of embarrassment that they were willing to follow a GIRL in return for a minor bribe. The older girl's parents were uptight types who didn't pass out too many goodies, so the younger one's bribing strategy was successful, presumably with Jane as well as with the boys; she was willing to give up a significant portion of her sweets to buy friendship, and it's amazing that a child as young as 6 was not only willing to do that but had figured out that it was a good tactic... AND had managed to handle it in such a way that she didn't come across as a pitiful creature to be used and abandoned, which is how people who try to buy friendship typically get perceived (attitude is everything).
Why do I bring this up? Because adults act exactly the same way, just with a little veneer of sophistication glossed over it... and a level of viciousness of which small children are incapable. I can't tell you how many times, online and offline, I've seen unscrupulous leader types going to insane lengths to gather in every follower in sight, AND to totally destroy the relationships those people had with any other leaders in the extended group; while kids seem to have the actual friendships as their goal, the adults will eventually tire of their followers and shred and discard them... THEIR goal is to have "wins" over the other leaders, NOT to have friends, and they feel that way even if the other leaders not only aren't competing but are unaware that a competition is taking place... a trap I myself walked into several times, until my eyes were opened and I realized that, as is nearly always the case with evil people, these folks were following totally consistent and predictable patterns, and was able to start side-stepping them.
Whether you're a leader or a follower, you can get the raw end of these manipulations, so it's useful to see what the behavior patterns are. I've compiled a gigantic list of specific things to look out for, and I've been meaning to start sharing them with you for ages, but I never got around to making an introductory post; now that I'm doing so, I'll try to get into a groove of sharing the list a little at a time... because the bad people of the world can only yank you around if you LET them, if you and those around you are blind to what's going on and/or do nothing to stop it.
I should specify here that there's nothing superior about being a "leader type," as all it takes to be followed is often just a big mouth and a little bit of fearlessness or forcefulness, and there's nothing inferior about being a "follower type," as MOST people naturally follow whoever takes the lead; we're pack animals, and it's instinctive. It's even possible to be a leader or follower depending on what group you're with; you might be a follower with your family but a leader with your friends or at work, for example... it might all boil down to what situations you're comfortable sticking your neck out in and which ones you're more comfortable trailing safely in someone's wake in. Take a clear, objective look at the various groups you're in, and ask yourself; in this group, which people are leaders and which are followers? Be VERY sure you've gotten your own role honestly figured out, or you're wasting your time trying to learn how to maneuver through any battles that arise.
I don't want to get started with any specifics yet, but here are the general warnings:
If you're a follower, be VERY suspicious of large amounts of time and attention being lavished upon you by a leader; don't get so flattered and swept up in it that you forget that this is NOT how normal, healthy friendships work, and thus that something fishy is going on. Pay attention to what's happening, and if the leader does or says ANYTHING to try to draw you away from any other leader in your group, or to cut a leader out of plans or the information loop, or tries to cast the way a leader acts towards you in an unflattering light when you've seen nothing to suggest that that person has bad intentions or is anything but nice and a good friend, BEWARE-the battle has begun, and you're being used as a pawn to "get" an innocent person.
If you're a leader, and suddenly one or more of your follower friends seem to be spending an unusual amount of time with another leader, or to be talking alot about them, especially about things that person has recently DONE for them, be aware that that leader has targeted the follower(s), and that means, sadly, that you either have to wildly escalate what YOU'RE offering the follower(s) or accept that you're probably going to lose them, or at least become far less close of friends with them... they'll see the other leader as a better deal, and never question the sincerity of what that person offered to them. If you're not that attached to the followers, and don't care if they've transferred some allegiance to another leader, it might seem like no big deal, but if they start being a little chilly towards you, or you sense ANY hostility from them that's coming out of nowhere, it's time to do MAJOR damage control, because the other leader is turning them against you, and you're fast approaching a situation where the other leader will have the entire group on "their side," and everyone will either be unfriendly towards you or awkwardly and embarrassedly friendly to you when you're alone but publicly hanging out with the other leader's group and pretty much ignoring you most of the time.
Why are people, both leaders and followers, all too often willing to spurn someone who never was anything but nice to them? Because human nature sucks. YOU don't have to be part of that sort of ugliness, however; you can CHOOSE to turn against the trash-talker instead of against the intended victim, you can CHOOSE to make sure everyone else knows that the trash-talking was going on, and you can CHOOSE to actively defend the victim and to encourage others to do so. If you're a leader, it's a little trickier to protect yourself, but it can be done, mostly by being aware in advance that there are trouble spots and handling them before they gather momentum and run over you; stay tuned, there are alot of red flags and ways to deal with them coming up in future posts.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
So, we went to our friends' house...
We spent the evening (and on into the early AM) with another geek couple, the female half of which I've known since college; a good time was had by all. We narrowly escaped disaster, though, when her husband, always eager to try to suck me (and by extension her) into playing a game with him and my husband, tried to convince me of the merits of Balderdash, a game which purportedly circles around your ability to bluff and read people as you try to guess the true meanings of words you're all supposed to have never heard of. I'd played it once, years ago, and because I not only knew the meanings of all the words but showed a fair amount of skill at inventing plausible definitions that fooled the other players, I was able to beat everyone else so badly that they gradually became resentful, and looked suspiciously at me as if I were tricking them somehow rather than just knowing more $10 words than they did; since I wanted to KEEP this couple as my friends, I made no mention of this, and said instead that I'd be AWFUL at that game, because I'm no good at bluffing or reading other people's bluffs. The husband said, "Oh well, it was worth a shot," and the wife said, "I TOLD you not to ask her about that one, her vocabulary's too big for it to be fair"; in other words, I made the right choice, because, although most folks don't mind playing a sport or a standard strategy-based game with someone who's better at it than they are, and in fact may seek out superior players in order to challenge themselves, NO ONE wants to have a contest of pure intellect against someone who's more knowledgeable... we all want to see ourselves as a little smarter than the people in our lives, and we deeply resent anyone who demonstrates otherwise.
I had a small, unexpected slip, though, when, after the husband had given us a little geek humor (Did you hear about the programmer found dead in the shower with an empty bottle of shampoo? It said "Lather. Rinse. Repeat."), to which we responded with appreciation and amusement, I tossed out the joke "Why do programmers confuse Christmas and Halloween?"; since he's a math nut and programmer, I figured he'd either know it already or get it right away, and think it was cool, but too much time passed and he was still trying to figure it out... BIG red flag, especially when ego is likely to be getting involved. The wife looked blankly at me, so I took that as a sign that I could dive in with the answer, which is "Because Dec 25 = Oct 31, you know, decimal and octal #'s"; he took a few seconds to do the octal calculation in his head to verify that it came out 25, and nodded, but he wouldn't look at me, and didn't seem too pleased... I clearly should've babbled out the punchline as soon as I saw him struggling with it instead of just saying to me "I don't know, why do they confuse the two?", which I'll remember for future reference. We quickly went on to other topics, so it wasn't problematic, but if we'd stalled in discomfort it could've been unhappy-making in a major way.
My husband distinguished himself when, after I pointed out that people didn't need to take tiny amounts of the blob of potato salad remaining on the table because there was plenty more in the fridge, he referred to it as "Xeno's potato salad" (in other words, no one was willing to take more than half of what was left); I howled with laughter, my friend's husband got it right away, she got it a couple of seconds later, and both of them snickered... it's good to know geeks.
We discussed the difficulty of finding other appropriate geeks to hang out with, as single geeks whine constantly about their lack of relationships and have no social skills, especially if they're still single at OUR age, married geeks are usually hooked up with non-geeks who want them to back off of geek-ness, and geek couples are hard to find; we came up with a list of qualifying questions we'd want a couple to answer to see if they could be our friends, including quotes they'd have to be able to identify, such as "Not the One!! Not the One!!" (from "Babylon 5")... it's too bad there's nowhere we could run an ad to find prospective geek buddies, because we really nailed it.
Later in the evening, while the boys played some sort of silly board game, my friend and I got caught up with various things in our lives in excruciating detail; part of what I told her was about all the nice new clothes I'd gotten on eBay as part of my "create an adult wardrobe" project... and we shared a giggle about how despite all that I was still wearing a geek t-shirt and jeans for a social occasion. (Bear in mind that her husband was dressed just like me, and that she herself was wearing jeans and what she informed me was an $8 WalMart shirt, which was covered in cat hair.)
We also discussed my recent epiphany on why evil people are consistently rated higher and liked better than virtuous ones (see my post of 2-2-06), and she came up with an interesting tangential point; people don't feel like they've accomplished anything when a nice person likes them and treats them well, but if someone less pleasant is nice to them, or is their friend or lover, they feel like they've really accomplished something, must really be someone special if they can say, "Yeah, (s)he's done dirt to many people, but (s)he's nice to ME." Sadly, I think she's right; yet another reason to be less nice to people, and to expect to be perceived as a less worthy person if you STAY nice, sigh.
Anyways; we ate some junk food, watched a scifi DVD, messed around on a website that allows you to create "South Park" style characters
http://images.southparkstudios.com/games/create/
and sang songs from that most classic of all Warner Brothers cartoons, "What's Opera Doc?"... it was a typical geekfest, in other words. In true geek fashion, when we got home at 3AM, instead of going to bed I put on the tape of "Metal Mania" (the heavy metal program on VH1 Classic) that had been recorded while we were gone and got to work on the computer doing my daily eBay searches and my scheduled blog entry; it'll be a tired Sunday in the Omni household, but it was worth it.
I had a small, unexpected slip, though, when, after the husband had given us a little geek humor (Did you hear about the programmer found dead in the shower with an empty bottle of shampoo? It said "Lather. Rinse. Repeat."), to which we responded with appreciation and amusement, I tossed out the joke "Why do programmers confuse Christmas and Halloween?"; since he's a math nut and programmer, I figured he'd either know it already or get it right away, and think it was cool, but too much time passed and he was still trying to figure it out... BIG red flag, especially when ego is likely to be getting involved. The wife looked blankly at me, so I took that as a sign that I could dive in with the answer, which is "Because Dec 25 = Oct 31, you know, decimal and octal #'s"; he took a few seconds to do the octal calculation in his head to verify that it came out 25, and nodded, but he wouldn't look at me, and didn't seem too pleased... I clearly should've babbled out the punchline as soon as I saw him struggling with it instead of just saying to me "I don't know, why do they confuse the two?", which I'll remember for future reference. We quickly went on to other topics, so it wasn't problematic, but if we'd stalled in discomfort it could've been unhappy-making in a major way.
My husband distinguished himself when, after I pointed out that people didn't need to take tiny amounts of the blob of potato salad remaining on the table because there was plenty more in the fridge, he referred to it as "Xeno's potato salad" (in other words, no one was willing to take more than half of what was left); I howled with laughter, my friend's husband got it right away, she got it a couple of seconds later, and both of them snickered... it's good to know geeks.
We discussed the difficulty of finding other appropriate geeks to hang out with, as single geeks whine constantly about their lack of relationships and have no social skills, especially if they're still single at OUR age, married geeks are usually hooked up with non-geeks who want them to back off of geek-ness, and geek couples are hard to find; we came up with a list of qualifying questions we'd want a couple to answer to see if they could be our friends, including quotes they'd have to be able to identify, such as "Not the One!! Not the One!!" (from "Babylon 5")... it's too bad there's nowhere we could run an ad to find prospective geek buddies, because we really nailed it.
Later in the evening, while the boys played some sort of silly board game, my friend and I got caught up with various things in our lives in excruciating detail; part of what I told her was about all the nice new clothes I'd gotten on eBay as part of my "create an adult wardrobe" project... and we shared a giggle about how despite all that I was still wearing a geek t-shirt and jeans for a social occasion. (Bear in mind that her husband was dressed just like me, and that she herself was wearing jeans and what she informed me was an $8 WalMart shirt, which was covered in cat hair.)
We also discussed my recent epiphany on why evil people are consistently rated higher and liked better than virtuous ones (see my post of 2-2-06), and she came up with an interesting tangential point; people don't feel like they've accomplished anything when a nice person likes them and treats them well, but if someone less pleasant is nice to them, or is their friend or lover, they feel like they've really accomplished something, must really be someone special if they can say, "Yeah, (s)he's done dirt to many people, but (s)he's nice to ME." Sadly, I think she's right; yet another reason to be less nice to people, and to expect to be perceived as a less worthy person if you STAY nice, sigh.
Anyways; we ate some junk food, watched a scifi DVD, messed around on a website that allows you to create "South Park" style characters
http://images.southparkstudios.com/games/create/
and sang songs from that most classic of all Warner Brothers cartoons, "What's Opera Doc?"... it was a typical geekfest, in other words. In true geek fashion, when we got home at 3AM, instead of going to bed I put on the tape of "Metal Mania" (the heavy metal program on VH1 Classic) that had been recorded while we were gone and got to work on the computer doing my daily eBay searches and my scheduled blog entry; it'll be a tired Sunday in the Omni household, but it was worth it.
