Actually it's all of the battle.
If you knew the following, you should've been on my trivia team tonight. Because we didn't know them.
Timex is more popular than Swatch.
Alice in Wonderland was written in 1865.
A Hitchcock film with numbers in the title? 39 Steps
Greek word for milk, used in astronomy. Galaxy
Celebrity who first touted the Corinthian leather of the Chrysler Cordoba? Ricardo Montalban. (Seriously trivia?)
1200 mile wide hurricane from 1956? Hurricane Greta
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Reader's Digest
I sometimes use my blog as a social shortcut. Someone says to me “What’s been going on?” and I say “read my blog.” Those three words are much easier than giving a synopsis of the many aspects of my life. However, people rightfully respond “You just talk about Lady Gaga.” I don’t JUST talk about Lady Gaga, though my posts about her remain my highest viewed to this day. So if you’re googling randomly:
LADY GAGA LADY GAGA LADY GAGA LADY GAGA LADY GAGA
Sorry, just trying to get some extra traffic.
But they are correct; I don’t talk about my life so much as I talk about my interests. But this is how I am in real life. I’m ok with the standard “How was your day. Good, how about yours” rigmarole, but I’m not too excited by it. I expect that if you had a really interesting anecdote about finding a finger at work or seeing David Bowie at the mall you’re going to tell me. Those stories are exciting and are going to get told.
The story about how I had to come to work today, and then I finished my work and I went home. I watched Mad Men on the elliptical machine, read about SSRIs and fb chatted for an hour. Well that story doesn’t really need to be told. And that’s what I did on Wednesday.
But, for those of you who want my blog to be about me, here are some things that have been going on:
At work I just finished a rotation in Mesa, now I’ll be in Phoenix for the next 2.5 months. I’m dreading the traffic, excited for some new co-workers and expecting to have less free time.
At church I’m teaching Sunday School. It’s Isaiah, so that’s going as well as can be expected. I teach about every 2 weeks which is more than I’m used to, but has improved my scripture study.
At socializing I’m having a hard time balancing my time. There are too many things going on between work people, church people I do know and church people I need to get to know. But it’s better than the alternative.
At dating, I’m having more success at accomplishing my mission president’s goal of a date a week for life. I’m a couple years behind from my time in Ohio.
At being creative, I’m working on 2 projects. One is a screenplay about a couple that’s engaged and half their friends are trying to split them up and the other half is trying to keep them together. Also it has spies. My other project is trying to figure out how to make my own talk show in the style of Between Two Ferns.
At work but not part of work, I’m trying to redesign our call schedule to incorporate a night float system.
At being a good roommate I’m not doing it.
At being a world traveler I’m trying to commit to either a trip to Thailand or Croatia.
At being a music snob I’m going to Gorillaz next week and paid more than I ever have before for tickets.
At not dying before I’m 60 I have been going to the gym more.
At wasting my time I have figured out a way to mooch Netflix On Demand.
At not wasting my time I have refused to watch any new television shows this year.
At fulfilling my New Year’s Resolution that I just now made, I’m going to win Team Trivia some time this year. I may feel ok about holding this resolution over until next year since I just made it in the middle of October.
LADY GAGA LADY GAGA LADY GAGA LADY GAGA LADY GAGA
Sorry, just trying to get some extra traffic.
But they are correct; I don’t talk about my life so much as I talk about my interests. But this is how I am in real life. I’m ok with the standard “How was your day. Good, how about yours” rigmarole, but I’m not too excited by it. I expect that if you had a really interesting anecdote about finding a finger at work or seeing David Bowie at the mall you’re going to tell me. Those stories are exciting and are going to get told.
The story about how I had to come to work today, and then I finished my work and I went home. I watched Mad Men on the elliptical machine, read about SSRIs and fb chatted for an hour. Well that story doesn’t really need to be told. And that’s what I did on Wednesday.
But, for those of you who want my blog to be about me, here are some things that have been going on:
At work I just finished a rotation in Mesa, now I’ll be in Phoenix for the next 2.5 months. I’m dreading the traffic, excited for some new co-workers and expecting to have less free time.
At church I’m teaching Sunday School. It’s Isaiah, so that’s going as well as can be expected. I teach about every 2 weeks which is more than I’m used to, but has improved my scripture study.
At socializing I’m having a hard time balancing my time. There are too many things going on between work people, church people I do know and church people I need to get to know. But it’s better than the alternative.
At dating, I’m having more success at accomplishing my mission president’s goal of a date a week for life. I’m a couple years behind from my time in Ohio.
At being creative, I’m working on 2 projects. One is a screenplay about a couple that’s engaged and half their friends are trying to split them up and the other half is trying to keep them together. Also it has spies. My other project is trying to figure out how to make my own talk show in the style of Between Two Ferns.
At work but not part of work, I’m trying to redesign our call schedule to incorporate a night float system.
At being a good roommate I’m not doing it.
At being a world traveler I’m trying to commit to either a trip to Thailand or Croatia.
At being a music snob I’m going to Gorillaz next week and paid more than I ever have before for tickets.
At not dying before I’m 60 I have been going to the gym more.
At wasting my time I have figured out a way to mooch Netflix On Demand.
At not wasting my time I have refused to watch any new television shows this year.
At fulfilling my New Year’s Resolution that I just now made, I’m going to win Team Trivia some time this year. I may feel ok about holding this resolution over until next year since I just made it in the middle of October.
Inappropriately Allocated Resources
I wanted to write a post called Things Girls Think Guys Might Care About But They Don't. But I'm on call, so I'm just going to give you 2 examples instead of the dozens that are probably out there.
1. Made From Scratch
All guys like food, so it makes sense that you might try to impress a guy with cooking. And admittedly, some guys even rank cooking abilities in their top 10 qualities in a companion. Personally I think cooking skill is a great bonus, but it's not even on my radar in terms of picking girls to date. I do like it when girls have hobbies and interests, so to me cooking is really more valuable in that it shows an interest in SOMETHING, but the food itself is just a minor benefit. Of course I eat fried egg sandwiches several times a week, so I'm not the world's best food connoisseur.
Anyway, the point is this: it doesn't really matter if you can cook, but it's nice if you do. If you do cook, I think most men don't care if something's made from scratch. That's fine if you like it better that way, that's fine if you take pride in it, I just don't think it wows us like you might think it does. If the pasta salad tastes great, I'm happy. But the fact that you grew the herbs that went into the home-made dressing, well that's impressive but it doesn't make you more attractive.
2. Shoes
Most men will not notice your shoes. Ever. We'll notice if the shoes clash drastically, but not really in any other situation. We'll notice if you're suddenly 3 inches taller and if your legs look great, but not really notice the characteristics of the shoes that are making you so.
I'm not saying don't make things from scratch. If you like it better, it's worth doing. I'm not saying don't take pleasure from your shoe buying and hording and displaying. If you like them, great. If other women notice them and like them, great. But it's not going to make guys like you more.
I'm not sure if there are opposite examples. There are many things that men do that don't make us attractive to women, but I'm hard pressed to think of anything that we THINK impresses women but actually doesn't. There's stuff like manscaping or bodybuilding, but most men don't engage in these to any great extent.
Any ideas? Things (most) men do to impress women, which are missing the mark?
1. Made From Scratch
All guys like food, so it makes sense that you might try to impress a guy with cooking. And admittedly, some guys even rank cooking abilities in their top 10 qualities in a companion. Personally I think cooking skill is a great bonus, but it's not even on my radar in terms of picking girls to date. I do like it when girls have hobbies and interests, so to me cooking is really more valuable in that it shows an interest in SOMETHING, but the food itself is just a minor benefit. Of course I eat fried egg sandwiches several times a week, so I'm not the world's best food connoisseur.
Anyway, the point is this: it doesn't really matter if you can cook, but it's nice if you do. If you do cook, I think most men don't care if something's made from scratch. That's fine if you like it better that way, that's fine if you take pride in it, I just don't think it wows us like you might think it does. If the pasta salad tastes great, I'm happy. But the fact that you grew the herbs that went into the home-made dressing, well that's impressive but it doesn't make you more attractive.
2. Shoes
Most men will not notice your shoes. Ever. We'll notice if the shoes clash drastically, but not really in any other situation. We'll notice if you're suddenly 3 inches taller and if your legs look great, but not really notice the characteristics of the shoes that are making you so.
I'm not saying don't make things from scratch. If you like it better, it's worth doing. I'm not saying don't take pleasure from your shoe buying and hording and displaying. If you like them, great. If other women notice them and like them, great. But it's not going to make guys like you more.
I'm not sure if there are opposite examples. There are many things that men do that don't make us attractive to women, but I'm hard pressed to think of anything that we THINK impresses women but actually doesn't. There's stuff like manscaping or bodybuilding, but most men don't engage in these to any great extent.
Any ideas? Things (most) men do to impress women, which are missing the mark?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
From the Peanut Gallery
Can you imagine what would happen if this group of men got together? They'd surely conquer the world.
Thanks for your contributions. Clearly though, saying someone has a beard doesn't mean MY beard can approximate it. Plus I'm glad Dumbledore is dead. But if nothing else we've assembled a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Oh, and facebook crushed blog. 27 entries to 5. Twitter zero.
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Thanks for your contributions. Clearly though, saying someone has a beard doesn't mean MY beard can approximate it. Plus I'm glad Dumbledore is dead. But if nothing else we've assembled a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Oh, and facebook crushed blog. 27 entries to 5. Twitter zero.
What we have here, is a failure to communicate
A friend told me the other day that she was going to do an impersonation of me. I asked what this would entail. As expected: monotone, straight face, dry jokes. Then she added “speaking in the vernacular.”
I don’t like to be put in boxes. Literally or figuratively. Any descriptor you might apply to me, I would add a caveat or clarification. I don’t really want to be unabashedly anything. Except intelligent. I want people to know that I’m smart. I’m not particularly proud of that desire, but clearly I am proud of that particular attribute.
Why then, when I so arrogantly want people to know that I’m intelligent, do I sometimes talk like a Real World contestant? I know that’s a dated reference, I just hope that by ignoring reality television it will go away. But the question remains, why speak like I do?
When my SAT score came back, I shocked and chagrined to discover my verbal far exceeded my math score. This is a sad realization for a budding scientist. Not that the SAT is all that methodical in terms of intelligence testing, but really it has turned out to be accurate. Words are more intuitive to me than numbers. A good enough arrangement for a psychiatrist I suppose. The point being, my vocabulary is actually pretty good. I rarely hear words that I don’t know; in fact I tend to cry BS when someone uses a word I haven’t heard. I’m sure this is very endearing. So I think I’m quite capable of making my language more florid, if I had the inclination, and also of choosing my words more expeditiously to make them more precise.
But I don’t.
The goal is communication. I want to convey my meaning as clearly as possible. Esoteric polysyllabic tongue-twisters are fine and dandy in moderation. But generally, they’re not helping to get the point across. It might sound nice, but it doesn’t help. It might be EXACTLY the right word for the job, but if the audience isn’t familiar with it, it doesn’t help. And I’m not implying that I have to condescend and patronize people all day long. This isn’t really about intelligence, it’s about ease. And the best communication is easy. The focus should be on the content of the message, not the structure of the words. I want the attention to be on what I’m saying, not how I’m saying it.
So, I speak in the vernacular. There are other reasons. I find other people’s pontificating annoying so I try to avoid it myself. I sometimes like the challenge and freedom of knowing the rules so I can break them. Refined language often ruins jokes. But generally, it’s about being a good communicator. A great one even.
I don’t like to be put in boxes. Literally or figuratively. Any descriptor you might apply to me, I would add a caveat or clarification. I don’t really want to be unabashedly anything. Except intelligent. I want people to know that I’m smart. I’m not particularly proud of that desire, but clearly I am proud of that particular attribute.
Why then, when I so arrogantly want people to know that I’m intelligent, do I sometimes talk like a Real World contestant? I know that’s a dated reference, I just hope that by ignoring reality television it will go away. But the question remains, why speak like I do?
When my SAT score came back, I shocked and chagrined to discover my verbal far exceeded my math score. This is a sad realization for a budding scientist. Not that the SAT is all that methodical in terms of intelligence testing, but really it has turned out to be accurate. Words are more intuitive to me than numbers. A good enough arrangement for a psychiatrist I suppose. The point being, my vocabulary is actually pretty good. I rarely hear words that I don’t know; in fact I tend to cry BS when someone uses a word I haven’t heard. I’m sure this is very endearing. So I think I’m quite capable of making my language more florid, if I had the inclination, and also of choosing my words more expeditiously to make them more precise.
But I don’t.
The goal is communication. I want to convey my meaning as clearly as possible. Esoteric polysyllabic tongue-twisters are fine and dandy in moderation. But generally, they’re not helping to get the point across. It might sound nice, but it doesn’t help. It might be EXACTLY the right word for the job, but if the audience isn’t familiar with it, it doesn’t help. And I’m not implying that I have to condescend and patronize people all day long. This isn’t really about intelligence, it’s about ease. And the best communication is easy. The focus should be on the content of the message, not the structure of the words. I want the attention to be on what I’m saying, not how I’m saying it.
So, I speak in the vernacular. There are other reasons. I find other people’s pontificating annoying so I try to avoid it myself. I sometimes like the challenge and freedom of knowing the rules so I can break them. Refined language often ruins jokes. But generally, it’s about being a good communicator. A great one even.
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