Awesomeness Approacheth

We’re doing something REALLY COOL this weekend.

REALLY COOL.

I’ll give you a hint.

Woohoo!  Clear the camera card!

Crunch Time

I recently read an aphorism that says, “The days are long, but the years are short.”  Hoo boy is there some wisdom in that.

A couple of things are converging upon me right about now, not least of which are typical year-end projects at work, the holidays, three out-of-state trips between Dys and myself, and my aforementioned class.  Some things just don’t respond well to preplanning, it seems, and a lot of this work is coming up all at once.  Add to that the combination of some dimwitted procrastination on my part and some recently changed priorities at work, and I find myself in crunch time.

Some deadlines are coming down, and I’m attempting to set some even more aggressive deadlines for myself in order to beat the rush.  Until the end of next week, and to a lesser extent for the rest of the month, I’ll likely be more quiet than usual.  I still have a lot to say, especially my usual year-end review of the MotoGP season (which is much more important to me than it is to you guys, I know!), but sadly my time is suddenly a lot more precious.

Even if I’m not as present, I’ll definitely be thinking about all of ya.  In the meantime, I’m gonna try to remember to keep my nose properly oiled for the grindstone.

Those Who Can’t Do

I think I’ve mentioned it obliquely here once or twice, but I’m teaching a class next semester.  Co-teaching, actually, with a couple of my coworkers, and the topic is basically an introduction to our field.

Here’s the funny part:  I never took such a class. Anywhere.  Not one.  All my training has been on-the-job.  And once a boss said “You want a promotion?  Here, read this textbook.”

I know my job and my field.  I’m actually quite good at what I do, even when I don’t necessarily like doing it.  But I consider my ability to do my job so well without such underpinnings to be something of an indictment of the professional literature and theory of the field.  For every important new idea in the field – probably less than one a year – there are dozens and dozens of articles that are rearranging the same old nick-nacks on the same old shelves.

So now I’m busily reading the professional literature that I’m pondering assigning in the spring.  I AM learning just a little bit – but mostly it’s “Yeah…mmm-hmm…yeah…is it 5 o’clock yet?  8:28?!?!?!?  AUGH!!!”

Not to mention that my public speaking style is somewhat authoritative.  I’m often asked about my military background afterward.  (Maybe the earrings will change that now.)  I’ve never had to do a lot of sharing-the-stage in such situations.   But I will now, and I’ll have to find ways to preach what I believe and NOT what I don’t believe.  Without ticking off my co-teachers.

This will make for an interesting experience.

Repeat Offender

I done stole something again.  This one’s a meme from Laura.

***

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Sadly, it appears to be impossible (or at least far beyond my personal ability) to have sex while on a moving motorcycle – because that would be it.

Seriously, a moment of perfect happiness for me would be quiet stillness in which I was at peace with myself – past, present, and future.  Rare enough, for sure, but not outside the realm of possibility.

What is your greatest fear?
That I might fail my son as a father.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Cowardice, which is largely a function of a lack of belief in myself.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Deliberate ignorance brought on by closed-mindedness.

On what occasion do you lie?
It’s a point of pride that Dys has once upbraided someone, in writing, with something like “You clearly don’t understand that my husband doesn’t lie.”  Clearly a hyperbole, because everybody does, but that’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever had.  (Thanks again, babe.)  Generally when I do lie it is to protect the feelings of others.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Hmm.  Overall, I’m most likely to splurge on stuff like guitars or motorcycles, but those BIG splurges are few and far between.  My now-annual MotoGP trip is probably the most unnecessary hedonistic expense right now.  If you mean regularly, probably buying expensive bourbon.  Not the crazy $100 a liter stuff, but I usually buy stuff that’s ~$35-40 for a 750ml.

What is your current state of mind?
A little tense, since I have a crapload going on in my personal and professional life in the immediate future, but generally I’m happier with myself than is the norm for me.  I’m hoping this is the new norm.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Loyalty.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Self-confidence.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“Anyway.”

When and where were you happiest?
In the hospital when my son was born; walking along the sidewalk at UVA on an unusually warm February day when I first realized that I didn’t just have an infatuation with Dys but that I was full-blown in love with her.

Who are your favorite writers?
Tolkien, C. S. Friedman,  Hunter Thompson, Robert Pirsig, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a dozen others.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Besides the ability to never, ever crash a motorcycle?  There are many abilities I would wish for, but the one above all would be the ability to adequately express myself musically.  Instrument not important.  I was thinking about this last weekend, actually – that artistic expression is such a fabulous thing, but given the choice between having a perfect ability to express myself through art, writing, or music, music would win every single time, hands down.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
About $250,000 would go a long way toward solving a lot of problems…   Seriously, I’d give my son the self-confidence that I never had to deal with his small anxieties, and give my wife the unification of a focused mind that I think she desperately wishes for (from time to time at least).

If you died and came back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
Some solitary predator like a bear or an eagle.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My gut.  Thanks, dad & granddad.  After that?  If I had my choice, I’d have my full head of shoulder-length hair back, but generally the bald thing is okay with me.

Where would you like to live?
A small town called Lovingston, Virginia, in the mountains not far south of Charlottesville.  Or inside a roadracing course like that Kawasaki commercial from a few years back.  That was funny.

What is your most treasured possession?
I assume you mean a physical possession and not “my family” or “my health.”  So I’ll say my Fender Stratocaster.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Betrayal.

What do you most value in your friends?
Respect and loyalty.

What are your favorite names?
My son’s.  Aside from that, honestly, I dunno of any that I particularly like.

What is it that you most dislike?
Aggressively “me-first” behavior.  There is too much of this in the world.

What is your greatest regret?
Not standing up for myself when I should have.

How would you like to die?
Like my great-uncle John.  Having lived a good, long life, still being in decent health of body and mind, walking along the dirt road to visit some friends, and BANG, massive heart attack in mid-stride.

What is your motto?
“The Way that can be described is not the eternal Way.”

Musical Bonus

I just saw this linked by the man himself on Twitter and had to share.

Devin Townsend signing and decorating 2000 copies of his forthcoming CD…

You da man, Dev!  I’ll be your stunt double anyday.

Monday Music

This is one that I’ve wanted to MM for several weeks now but I held it back – there were others that were more fitting on given days, and maybe the mood wasn’t quite right.

Feeling good about it now, though.  *evil grin*

The Gathering, “Monsters”

As usual, thanks to my buddy Michael for the obscure European tunes.  The Gathering is a Dutch band with a female lead singer.  This particular song has always struck me as writhing and sensual in very, very dirty way.  Imagine a woman singing languidly and lustfully over NIN and that’s kinda the way this song sounds to me.  mmm-MMM.

NOW do you wanna click?  Heh.

Afterglow

I’m going from meeting to meeting today so I don’t have nearly the time to devote to this that I wish I had, but I wanted to thank  my lovely lady for joining me on the show last night.  Even though it was a little weird for us both at first.  We didn’t have a topic picked out, really, and we sort of filled the space by going to some meme-type web site and asking each other the sort of questions you typically find on Myspace/Facebook surveys.  But by the middle of it I think we were both genuinely having fun with it.  I certainly enjoyed it.

Even those who couldn’t listen in last night can still enjoy:  Just go to the show web site here, click play on the episode player in the middle of the screen, and listen.

You ladies will definitely want to check out her little tidbit from about 10 minutes in.  Heh.

Radio Show Tonight!

So did I mention that this was gonna happen?

And tonight I have the hottest, awesomest cohost on earth.  And if you don’t buy the hyperbole, I will at least guarantee that it was the hottest, awesomest cohost I could find in my living room.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the lovely and talented Dyskinesia.

The big button above (or this link) will take you to my radio show profile page.  The show will go live at 10pm Eastern time tonight.   Unless your name is Dyskinesia, in which case it’s 9:30.  The show starts at 9:30. (That joke will cost me some sex.)

Click on the big-ass button above or click the link to stop by and listen in! At 10pm, a “Click to Listen” button will appear on my profile page there and you can click that to stream the show live.  Or, for the adventurous, you can call in and talk to me on the air. The call-in number is:

(646) 915-8720

That being a New York phone number (and definitively not mine), long distance charges may apply. However, there should be a “click to talk” button, which should in theory allow anyone with a microphone connected to their computer to click the button and talk to me directly over VOIP free of charge.  I think that’s how one of my callers did it once, so that seems to be working A-OK.  I can have up to 5 callers on the line at one time.  And unless we try to use both lines of the house phone, Dys will count as one of those.  I’ve never had it cap out, but hey, that’s a good potential problem to have, huh?

In the interest of full disclosure, anyone who calls in will have their phone number pop up on my little host switchboard.  (The Click-to-Talk people pop up as calling in from 000-000-0000 if memory serves.)  I swear on my honor as a Virginian, I have never written down or otherwise saved the phone number of anyone who’s called my show, and have no intention of doing so.   I figure anybody who wants me to have their phone number knows my email address and can give it to me explicitly.  But I wanted to be completely above board with this, just on the off chance that somebody wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea that I might see their number.  End aside.

When 10 rolls around, the chick with the snooty British accent will say “BlogTalkRadio!” and then yours truly will be drawlin’ on the airwaves.  Like last time, I’ll also open a chat room window for those who are interested – but I’m not sure how much attention I’ll be paying to it.  My guess is that the more folks I have on the line, the less time I’ll be watching the chat window.  But I am just winging this whole thing, after all, so whatever.

As a side note, the show is scheduled for an hour. That means that, as I understand it, when 11:00 rolls around, the “Click to Listen” button goes away, the listening window goes dead, and nobody else can call in.  However, anybody already on the phone will still be good to go – and the show will keep recording until I hang up.  Even though nobody can listen live, it’s still being recorded for the archives. In other words, if we’re having fun, the show can run long.  I went to bed stupidly early last night to help stay awake for it, and I’ll have a Coke with dinner to make sure.

There is as yet no set topic, and none of you buggers have submitted any ideas.  If she’s feeling healthy enough, Laura has said that she’ll call in, in which case there’s a good chance we’ll end up talking about our joint trip next year to the 2010 Red Bull Indianapolis GP. (WOO!)  We don’t have to stick to any topic, though, and anybody that calls in gets the chance to help determine the direction of the conversation, so let that be a mini-bribe.  If nobody helps steer the conversation, then you’ll likely get treated to a good solid hour of our typical rambling evening conversation, and in that case, all bets are off.

It’s important to add that if there are any problems with the show, check here for updates.  If any technical snafus pop up, I’ll post up here.

Hope to hear from some of you tonight!

You Asked For It

The lovely Dyskinesia has consented to co-host tomorrow night’s radio show with me.  Yes, tomorrow night at 10pm Eastern, details to follow.

So…who has a topic they’d like to hear the two of us discuss on-air?  Who wants to call in and just generally gab?  (Laura, we never did get to gush about MotoGP last time, this would be a good opportunity for that as well!)

You can either leave suggestions here, or email them to me.  If you put “Radio Show Question/Topic – Secret” in the subject line, I won’t open it until we’re on the air.  Ooh, aah!

Who’s in?

An Interlude

I have to tip my hat here to MTAE, who generally has the market cornered on locker-room stories…

I walked into the gym last night and headed to the locker room to dump my stuff before I punished myself for all the Halloween candy I’m eating.  I assiduously avoided the scale.  Oh look, there’s another Fun Sized Snickers in my desk drawer!  Pardon me.  *nom nom*  “Fun size” ain’t very fun, dangit.  Where was I?  OH YEAH.

So I head to the locker room and there’s a 58-ish guy in a towel with his back to me.  Not unusual; I avoid the main gym because it’s full of fratboys preening for the ponytails on the treadmills, so the funky third-rate gym I attend is often heavy on grad students and faculty.  This guy, however, is COVERED with this huge tattoo of a green dragon bursting into and out of his skin on his back.  Normally I don’t make conversation, but it looked like really good work and I love it when people compliment my tattoo, so I asked him about it and he turned around, smiled, and talked to me about it for a few minutes.

Dude had one pierced nipple and an intricate inner conch piercing, and more importantly, the dragon was even more intricate than I thought.  It breathed fire across his chest and he sorta adjusted his towel to show me that it continued all the way to his right thigh.  I’m thinking, “Cool, this old dude is a badass!” as we talk about who did the work, how long it took, how long he has left to finish it, etc.

Then another, younger guy walks in and the old dude says, “Hey, were you at [some club/restaurant name I didn't recognize] last night?”
Young guy:  “Yeah!”
Old dude:  “Man, if I ever want lessons on how to build legs, you’re the guy I’m going to ask.  Your thighs are awesome!”
Me:  *blink blink*
Young guy:  “Hey, thanks, man!”
Old dude:  “Really!  Do you play soccer or something?”
Young guy:  “Rugby.”
Old dude:  “Cool!  Well, your legs look great.”
Young guy:  “My name is [blah], don’t be shy to ask questions!”
Old dude:  “Okay, [blah], my name is [blah]!”
Me:  *blink blink*
Old dude:  [to both of us]  “Hey, this is my first time here, is it okay to wear a towel in the sauna?”  [gesturing toward his towel]
Me & young guy:  [looking at each other]  “Uh, I don’t know, I don’t use the sauna!”
Me:  “I’d assume it’s okay!”
Old dude:  “Okay!  Thanks!”
Me:  [wondering to myself]  “Did I just get hit on, or witness a hit-on, or does he think I was hitting on him, or all of the above?”

Maybe I’ve been letting my sexiness go to my head a little TOO much lately.  I might need to dial it back.