Jeff’s Journal

As of 12/31/2008, my former insurance company finally paid out the remaining amount of my wife’s gallbladder surgery.

You know, the surgery she had in February.

Stay classy, Benefit Concepts.

In somewhat chronological order:

* Karaoke with dodgeballers. I sang Meat Loaf’s “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and then Rickrolled the bar on a dare. I surprised them because they don’t know that I sing. Much more fun than anticipated. Liz, I thought of you about a dozen times - you must hate people like me.

* The Andy Warhol: Pop Politics exhibit at the Currier Art Museum. The whole art museum was great (it may have actually been the first time I’ve actually been to an art museum), but the Warhol exhibit was maddeningly wonderful. Ann has a very visceral, negative reaction to Warhol which is interesting and fun at the same time. The rest of the museum was great, too, but the Warhol exhibit was what brought us in. Also, free Saturday mornings at Currier? Awesome.

* Dinner with Jackie and Matthieu, followed by a maddening game called Bananagrams, which is like your own personal Scrabble with a race against other people. Strange, but it worked.

* Fried chicken. I really fried chicken. About that whole losing weight thing…

* Being done with my amoxiciillan. And without hives!

* D&D today. First game with our campaign in close to 6 weeks or so, and it was nice to get back in the swing of things. I don’t like trolls anymore, though. Or my dice. Stupid dice.

* Weeds. We’ve watched 5 or 6 episodes over the last four days - surprisingly fun and addictive show.

* The library. Because no matter how hard I try, I always have roughly 17 books out at once. I brought 8 back and thought “finally, I won’t have a ridiculous stack.” Whoops. As we were checking out, I saw a book I wanted across the room and sent Ann after it. The woman behind the desk gave me a look. I can’t blame her.

* Football. Who cares if I was 0-4 in my NHL predictions? The Colts are out in the first round!

I’m not a resolution guy, but I am a goal guy. I like words. So, beyond the stuff I can’t yet discuss publicly:

1) Write more. While the Kroger Babb bio is my priority, that doesn’t mean I can’t do more other stuff:

a) I’ve always talked about writing a novel, I’m a NaNoWriMo failure 6 times over - a 120k word novel requires about 330 words a day. I think I can force myself to write a paragraph or two a day on most days, right? At the very least, just be able to say I’ve done it. The fact that I have zero faith in any of my ideas or ability to execute them can be dealt with later.
b) I need to get moving on this Babb bio. The window of opportunity is closing on a few things, and with the various life changes that are inherent, if I don’t get a lot of legwork done now, it may hamper my ability to get anything done later. At the very least, I need to get more significant research done - locate prints, locate people, maybe locate an agent/publisher where I can get some help? I dunno.
c) Blog more consistently. None of this “life is depressing and so I need to stay away from my keyboard until I want to explode and then get everyone angry.” It’s no good for anyone, and keeping my mind sharp and informed is important to me.

2) Get healthier. I don’t eat great, and I don’t exercise enough. The federal government thinks I’m 5 pounds away from obesity, which is somewhat ridiculous, but the fact remains that I could stand to lose 15-20 pounds. Dodgeball once a week ain’t gonna do the trick, and my diet is unlikely to change because I simply have too many food issues, but I was at 155 in college and that was fine, albeit when I didn’t eat period. If I were at 165, I’d be pretty happy with myself, to be honest. The other roadblock, though, is that writing about it is pretty much the extent of my significantly caring, so if I really want to lose some weight, my level of caring has to increase.

3) See better movies. I’m actually considering a self-governed project where I’ll watch all of the Best Picture winners in order, but then I fear eventually having to watch The Greatest Show on Earth, never mind Titanic or Crash. But, while it’s fun to throw on Harold and Kumar for a diversion, that’s 90 minutes I could put toward, say, Kicking and Screaming instead. I only watched 30-something movies last year, that’s something I’d like to improve upon.

4) More gaming. Hopefully, this will be easy once Mike’s Genius game gets off the ground, but I would like to feel comfortable enough with things to possibly run a one-shot near the of the year. It’s a goal, hey.

5) Be a better husband. I don’t pull my weight enough, and I know it and Ann loves me for it anyway. I need to stay more aware of it, though, and make a better effort.

6) Be more creative. I haven’t recorded a piece of music in 2 years now, for instance. Even if I’m writing 300 words a day, maybe doing some short stories might be fun. Why hold back?

Actually, I think that may have to be my mantra going forward - why hold back? I’ve become too concerned with my own perception of myself and, as much as I hate to admit it, my own perceptions as to how others see me. I know what I’m capable of. I’m going to be 28 this year. Why hold back?

Pigeon, our cat, goes through phases. Usually they’re just that - phases. I’m about ready to murder her, though.

Occasionally, Pigeon thinks it’s a good idea to scratch the walls. She only does this in the early morning, and, for a while at least, it seemed to coincide with the lights from headlights and such. Lately, however, without question, she’s doing it every morning. Without fail. Typically, it’s between 5:00a and 5:30a, but sometimes as early as 4:00a or as late as 6:15a, such as this morning. Worse, it’s the same sound every time - climb on the hind legs, slide down with the claws.

Now, Pigeon is many things, and starved for attention is one of them. She always needs to be in our business, and we do our best to let her be in our business. It’s really why she’s such an awesome cat. The good news is that, when she did it yesterday morning at 4:30am (tellingly, a time I didn’t have to work), I was able to call her over and she snuggled with me for about 10 minutes before heading to the edge of the bed again. Then there are mornings like today, where she started in at 6:15am, didn’t stop until I woke up, meowed at me once, and then headed back to the edge of the bed where she stayed at least until I left. She’ll probably sit there until 2:00p or 3:00p, too.

I don’t want to hate my cat, but I swear. I’m not getting enough sleep these days as is, and one would think we could train her out of this, but ugh. On one hand, if she’s waking me up that early, 10 minutes of snuggle time won’t ruin anything, but on the other hand, do cats even understand reinforcing behavior, and if they do…

Blah.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to use this again for about 3 weeks

THINGS I DID:

* Got rolling on my character for Mike’s Genius: The Transgression game. Assuming Mandy’s prediction doesn’t come true, that’s going to be a fun game to play in.
* Continued to fill an mp3 player. I haven’t wanted to spend money on a boombox, and I have a 6gb mp3 player I bought for recording purposes that I’m not using, so I bring that to work. 6gb is a lot of memory. Also, I still don’t know if I like the whole mp3 thing, but this is pretty handy.

THINGS I KIND OF DID:

* Wrote a very important letter. At least a portion of it. In my head. I’m being vague.

THINGS I DIDN’T DO:

* Clean.
* Organize.
* Respond to about 4 e-mails/Facebook messages. I’m so bad at this.
* Read. I’m loving Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks and wanted to try and finish it tonight. That’s not going to happen.

THINGS I FORGOT TO DO:

* In my recap post, note two things:
** Ken and Emily had a baby, and Emilie had a baby! I knew there was at least one other baby in there, and I just found out today that Emilie had her’s a couple weeks ago. So yay for that.
** Meeting Jackie and Matthieu! Our Manchester buddies we met back in January, back at the Jeff Kinney event. It’s been almost a year and we get along with them so well I forget we’ve not known each other a year yet. I’m a dummy.

THINGS I’M LYING TO MYSELF ABOUT:

* Ann is officially allergic to amoxicillian. I caught her strep throat, so I’m on it now, too. I’m now afraid of being allergic, to the point where every itch I have makes me think I’m getting hives, too.
* That I’m not going bald. Because I clearly, CLEARLY am. In the right light, I’m a step away from combover territory, which may sound ridiculous and it may be something only I notice, but whatever.
* That I’m not addicted to Puzzle Quest. Because I clearly, CLEARLY am.

Mixing memes:

What age did you turn this year and how did you spend your birthday?

I turned 27. I think I actually had to work late on my birthday, if I remember correctly.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Well, I’d say some of it. Got more politically involved to a point, but didn’t get much done with the book as compared to what I wanted.

What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Had surgery, I suppose, even though wisdom tooth extraction is hardly surgery. Played a tabletop RPG, which took way, WAY too long for me to get involved with. Quit a job with no actual fallback in place. Was in a movie that people saw. Ate black olives and liked them.

Did anyone you know give birth? Did anyone you know die?

My grandfather died at age 94. That’s the only real noteworthy death from this year I can remember. Congrats to Andy on his second kid, that’s the only one I’m remembering at the moment.

Tell us about some noteworthy things done by people you know.

Chelsea got her movie in a bunch of festivals. That was probably the most noteworthy thing I can think of.

Do any traveling?

I only went 2 hours from Manchester once. Didn’t leave New England at all.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A less ridiculous work situation, financial stability, a place closer to home.

What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

No clue.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Standing up for myself. As strong a personality I am, I tend to wilt considerably when it comes to defending myself or doing what I think is the right thing. This means both recognizing where I’m correct and admitting where I’m wrong. I’m still not perfect, not even close, but the Jeff of even 2 years ago would have never done what I did concerning the library debacle this year. The Jeff of 2 years ago wouldn’t have apologized for wronging someone so long ago and thus repairing a relationship that had no business being repaired.

What was your biggest disappointment or failure?

The library, the election, the Super Bowl. My relative inaction on the Kroger Babb bio. The American news media.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Wisdom teeth and strep throat.

What was the best thing you bought? Best gift you were given?

Interestingly enough, I didn’t actually buy all that much for myself. I spent a good deal of money on gaming stuff (video and tabletop), but nothing crazy.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

My wife’s, without question. She trusts me to do the right thing, stands by me when I need her support, and doesn’t hold back when I’m wrong. The fact that she hasn’t bailed on me for a better model after the activity of the last 3 months is a testament to how lucky I am to have her.

Whose behavior did not?

Library-related entities. The American electorate. Manny Ramirez. Benefit Concepts, Inc.. Pigeon.

Where did most of your money go?

Bills.

What did you get overly excited about?

The amount of reading I accomplished. D&D v4.0. Left 4 Dead.

Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Sadder. The world was my oyster last year, and this year I have absolutely no clue where I’m going to end up.
ii. thinner or fatter? Same. I’ve been a steady 177-182 for 4 years running no matter what I do.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer, since my new job is essentially a $10k/year pay cut.

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Worked harder on the book, was more active physically, socially, and politically.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Moping. Getting too far into my head.

How will you be spending the end of the year?

Ann’s babysitting, so I’ll probably play Left 4 Dead until the clock strikes midnight. I don’t really do much on New Year’s these days, nothing will trump New Year’s 2001/2002 for me. Then again, if something interesting did come up, I might dive at it.

With whom did you spend the most time on the phone with?

I avoid the phone as much as possible.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Tiffanie’s kitten is quite adorable, yes.

Best TV shows and/or website? (passive entertainment)

The new ones on our plate are Mad Men, 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother. I don’t think we watch anything else that’s new new.

Websites? Cracked.com is the ultimate timewaster, as is Shelfari.

Best video game?

I spent the most time with Team Fortress 2, Geometry Wars 2, and Left 4 Dead.

Best book/comic?

Book was Anathem, no contest. Comic? Ultimate Spider-Man or the Buffy/Angelverse.

What song will always remind you of 2008?

Interestingly enough, probably “Sultan” by What Made Milwaukee Famous.”

What was your greatest musical discovery?

For so, so many reasons, the Two Man Gentleman Band.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

How many ways can you match your Chuck Taylors to your button-down shirts?

What political issue stirred you the most?

Other than the election itself? Possibly the Employee Free Choice Act.

Whom did you miss?

Everyone 75 miles south of here.

Who was the best new person you met?

There are a pile of people who fit this here, so I’m just going to say that getting to know Mandy, Bill, Mike, Billy, and Jenny has been a pleasure I’ve not had in quite a long time. Hopefully I don’t irritate them too too much.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people. Honestly, though, not especially. I don’t *hate* the one person who essentially made my life a living hell as much as feel sorry for them, and as much as I get irritated and upset with people I know and love when it comes to matters of personal beliefs, I don’t ever hate them and never could.

What did you want and get?

I wanted little, and got little.

What did you want and not get?

See above.

A valuable life lesson you learned in 2008?

Be yourself, because your principles matter.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Must not publicly berate people, an Obama loss, and $20k.

Quote to sum up your year.

I’m so bad with quotes, but this one book I read this year, Parenting Without Belief, had a really interesting passage in the introduction that brought a ton home for me in terms of things that went on this year in a lot of areas. It applies to almost everything noteworthy that’s happened with me this year, so yeah:

Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins shares a heartfelt letter to his 10-year-old daughter Juliet about his own intellectual values. …[S]ome others [may] find Dawkins’ approach disrespectful to religious belief. There is a good reason for this: he does not respect religious belief. Not one bit.

This raises an important question…. Is it okay to disrespect someone’s beliefs? Notice that the subject is beliefs, not believers - we can presumably agree that people themselves deserve respect. But can we allow disrespect - not just disagreement, but disrespect - for opinions?

If the word “respect” is to retain any meaning whatsoever, then respect must not be granted to all opinions automatically. I may disagree with an opinion but still respect it, if I feel it was arrived by legitimate means…Though I disagree strongly with my friends, I respect their argument since they back it up with reasoned argument.

I know full well I didn’t achieve this in either direction in many of my doings this year, in more than just discussion on current events but on my life in general. I wish I had seen this in January and not December.

Ah well. 2009 has the potential to be an amazing year, and I’d be smart to embrace that. I’m more comfortable in my own skin now than I believe I’ve ever been before, and that can only translate positively. Let’s hope so, at least.

1) I was invited out to a friend’s birthday, but it took me nearly 50 minutes to make the 20 minute drive home, and that’s before the snow picked up.

2) My wife has strep throat. This means that I’m probably going to get strep throat. Who has two thumbs and no interest in strep throat? THIS GUY.

3) Addiction of the moment? Good Old Games, which has two point-and-click adventure games for free for download. The whole site is awesome, and you should all feel pity on my financial situation and buy me some gift credits or something. I could spend $100 here, easy.

4) Christmas is six days away and I’m still not feeling it. That’s very depressing.

5) Karma’s frustrating. I reconnected with someone I wronged this year, and it’s been a very good thing. Unfortunately, I’ve lost a friend that I miss a bit too much sometimes, and I was having a nostalgic moment about the whole thing and I have no clue what happened for real, although I have suspicions. And no way to approach it. And that makes me sad.

6) I really, really don’t want strep throat.

7) I used an mp3 player for the first time ever today. I admit it - they are pretty neat. I bought a Sandisk for eventual voice-recording stuff, but pulled warehouse duty today and ended up using it while picking books. I will say this much, though - earbuds? Not cool. Very uncomfortable, very strange.

8) Seriously, throat - if you’re swollen and ridiculous in the next few days, I’m going to be very angry.

Tongiht, Ann’s laptop somehow contracted a virus. The scanner stuff thinks it’s the Zafi.B, buit that’s from 2004. Whatever nasty she’s contracted denies her access to virus scanning websites, which is incredibly dastardly.

I’m really looking forward to having one night at some point in the next few days where absolutely nothing happens. Please. I need it.

PSNH: You’re doing it right!

We got power back roughly 3 hours ago. Honestly, that was crazy unexpected from the reports we were getting - many towns won’t see power for three weeks if not more. But I can’t express how much of a relief it is that we have power - talk about feeling kind of lost and bewildered when you have everything digitally somewhere. When I get money, I’m definitely getting one of those keychain flash drives to have phone numbers and stuff in.

We did have a pretty great weekend, but right now, I just want to catch up on life.

Yeah, real quiet around this neck of the woods lately. Why?

1) New job. It’s not bad, it’s still a job, it’s light years better than anything I interviewed for during my downtime, though. I’m chomping at the bit at this point to get really rolling, but whatever. Either way, it’s one of those unfortunate timesucks - 8 to 5 plus commutes, plus all the stuff around the edges.

2) Oh, edges:

a) My satellite radio is on the fritz, so I tried to get some stuff to un-fritz it. Instead of going past my place to the Circuit City on the southern side of Manchester, I thought I’d save time and hit the Circuit City in Concord. Dumb mistake, and I still haven’t fixed it. By the way, standard radio is crap. That was Monday.

b) Tuesday, I wanted to try and get a small boombox for my cube at work. Cheapest one is $20 - no thanks. I could have swore these cost $7 once. Fail.

c) Today, I wanted to go to the library. Too bad they close at 5:30 on Wednesday. Stupid me.

3) It isn’t all epic fail, I have found time to eat and play games and watch some shows, but I feel like my time is just completely gone. It’s a strange feeling.

4) What is epic fail is the current financial situation for us. We’ll make it through our spring plans, but it’s going to be one of those “I sure hope nothing big comes up in the next 3 months” type things. The current job just doesn’t pay enough, plain and simple. So we’ll figure it out.

Somehow.

Also, Christmas is in 14 days? So completely not ready.

* There are, as of this writing, 73 aired episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

* Each episode is approximately 21 minutes long.

* Netflix sent the first disc of the first season of How I Met Your Mother to my home, arriving on 5 November 2008.

* On Friday, 5 December 2008, Jeff and Ann watched the episode of How I Met Your Mother that originally aired on Monday, 1 December 2008.

* It took Jeff and Ann exactly 30 days to get through 73 episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

I have absolutely no clue whether to be proud or ashamed.

Life:

* On a whole, not bad, actually. If you asked me this 24 hours ago, I would have probably had a pretty different answer, but things are decent. Ann had last week off, so we got a few days in to just hang out and chill. We learned, among other things, that we still don’t travel well and we’re very into our routines. We had a minor breakdown sometime on Saturday when we realized how off-kilter we were. But other than that…

* The dodgeball team is 4-3, and we need a win and some help to make the playoffs from the looks of things. The #1 team shut us out when we played them, but hey.

* D&D is taking some time off, but I’m playing in a one-shot on Sunday, which happens to be our only free weekend day in the entire month of December. Yay living far from home!

* The 360 should be back this week. So much for catching up on games while I was unemployed. Oh, wait, I logged 45 hours of Team Fortress 2 on the PC over a 3 week period. Go me.

Things That Were Good About the Last Month:

* Seeing Georgy for dinner. It had been a criminally long time since we saw each other, so it was good to do that.

* Some of the absolutely crazy interviews I was on. It’s easy to laugh now about the insurance company that was essentially using me for leads during the interview process, or that anyone thought I’d be a good fit in telling people that, no, I wouldn’t be able to turn their electricity back on, but to think that I actually gave them a good, honest try is rather amusing.

* I got a few good leads for the book - two from people who care about me and this book too much, and a couple others that I tripped up on. It’s not dead!

There’s a reason I don’t post much personal stuff - I have absolutely nothing fascinating to say about my life.

…I’m employed!

Details later! Yay!

FACT: I owe at least 10 people e-mails.

FACT: I don’t see that changing tonight.

A turbaconducken would be wonderful.

Today feels like a rather big day.

1) Three interviews scheduled for this week. One I’m very, very excited about. Crossing fingers…

2) I spent Friday afternoon playing Gears of War 2 with dodgeball buddy Dave for a few hours. Good times there, and a good game to boot.

3) Seeing the parents for dinner. Seeing the brother too. Good to be home, even for a little bit.

4) Seeing Michelle and Josh. Ann & I hadn’t been down to see them since the spring, and I only got to see them at the AMC pub night, so that was great.

5) My old high school put in a wind turbine. It’s huge. And random.

6) D&D - best session yet. I nearly died again, but that was by choice as opposed to me being stupid! We beat up on some crazy, crazy, CRAZY stuff. It was awesome!

I’m confident right now.

Or at least until the polls close.

1) So, unemployment is fun. Again. I hit up the temp agency yesterday, and that’s looking promising, I have one job interview next week and hopefully a few more down the pike. Things that are crappy in no particular order:

a) The uselessness. I forgot how much I do generally like working.

b) The health insurance. Ann may work for the least worthwhile benefit package in existence.

c) The sleeping patterns. Mine are shot all to hell.

2) This past weekend wasn’t shabby, though - movies and an extremely fun D&D session, I got to bail from work early, drinking with friends, etc. I really can’t complain.

3) Things that have taken up too much of my time: Fallen Sword, a web-based MMORPG of sorts. A fun way to kill 30 minutes, and if you sign up under me, I benefit. So yeah.

4) More fun: Photoshopped fantasy novels.

I have a ton to say, but I’m antsy.

So, memes.

01. What’s the last DVD you watched?

Ann & I watched Rocket Science last night. Good flick.

02. What are you wearing at the moment?

Jeans, my Elizabeth Elmore guitar pedal t-shirt, socks and black Chucks.

03. Who is/was your favorite cartoon character?

I was always partial to Danger Mouse.

04. What is your favorite scent?

Thoughts that passed through my mind for this: a burning clove cigarette, burning wood, barbecue, vanilla.

05. What do you drink the most?

Probably water.

06. Is there a useless thing that you cannot brace yourself to throw out?

I can see roughly a half dozen things from where I’m sitting.

07. Who was your first big crush?

his girl I went to school/danced with. I was six. It would have never worked out.

08. What did you want to be when you grew up?

In order: a crayon maker, President, meteorologist, actor, music teacher, politician, director, librarian. Still don’t know for sure.

09. What mythological figure are you?

Zeus, because I’m that awesome. Or something.

10. What characters are overrated?

Thoughts that passed through my mind for this: Starbuck and Roslin from the new BSG, Jack Bauer, Tony Clark.

11. What 3 people would you invite to dinner?

There’s no way I can narrow this down. None at all. I’d love to dine with Jefferson, Kroger Babb, Thomas Sowell, Sarah Vowell, Peter Buck, my best friend from kindergarten, my uncle Tom, and roughly half the people reading this, but there’s no way I could get them all interested in each other.

12.What is your current desktop?

A Diesel Sweeties-style turnip landscape.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

A fun, if enigmatic, friend. Meant entirely complimentary.

14. What are you afraid of?

Failure.

15. What’s your favorite item of clothing?

I hate clothes. I suppose my red Chucks are well loved, though.

16. What are you into right now?

In no particular order: dodgeball, Jenny Lewis, movies, fantasy books, Mad Men, and my wife.

17. What did you do today?

Ate breakfast, went food shopping, watched the Pats game, played some video games, applied to three jobs.

18. What do you want?

One of the jobs I applied to last week to call me back and hire me.

19. What should you be doing right now?

Cleaning, applying for more jobs.

20. What’s the meaning behind your LJ username/name/nicknames you go by?

I am Jeff, and Badly Drawn Boy is a musician I love, but not as much as I probably used to. But the name sort of fits in a lot of ways, so it stays.

Five from Adam:

1) Barack Obama - Where will he rank among the worst presidents ever?

I can’t imagine Obama or McCain doing better than Bush, and I would probably place Bush somewhere in the bottom ten ever on a good day. Neither of them have the answers to solve the problems we’re looking at. So my prediction would probably be somewhere in the bottom 10.

2) Bill Ayers - is that REALLY a legitimate thing for the McCain/Palin campaign to bring up?

Yup.

3) McCain/Palin - What happened? Who’s to blame?

I think the campaign management is the biggest problem. They never seized the narrative, they never went after Obama in a clear, focused way, and they squandered a great opportunity with Palin. It was a hard enough year for a Republican as is, and Obama was like a gift. Kind of pathetic.

4) Palin - You sort of touched on this above, but, really, what is it about her that really does it for you? Just her policies, or her life story and situation too? What do you think about her numbers now?

It really is her policies. That she comes from a pretty middle class background doesn’t hurt, but I don’t respond well to populist angles. Her numbers, well, I’m not sure she ever had a really good shot to do anything about that.

5) Recession - Any thoughts?

We’ll see.

Now from Lee Anne:

1. How would you vote on Massachusetts Question One and what’s your reasoning behind it?

For those unaware, Question 1 would eliminate the Massachusetts state income tax over a two year period. I voted yes on this in 2002, and I’d vote yes today if only to send a message to the legislature. They’re just going to overturn it later anyway, after all.

2. What’s your junk food of choice?

I’m really not much of a junk food guy. I’ll have some cookies with my lunch, I like tortilla chips. If I have a significant junk food vice, it’s probably milkshakes.

3. You and Ann have exposed each other to a lot of new stuff. What are you proudest of getting her into?

Man, I don’t know. This may sound like a copout answer, but she likes so much that I do that the fact that she trusts me enough to not steer her into something she’ll loathe is probably the best part. That I can take her to a bizarre concert and she’ll enjoy it, that she’ll roll dice with me or explore a historic island. It’s the ability to share anything that’s probably the best, and I’m proud because it means that I’ve shown myself to be a good judge of those things.

4. On a different note, what has she introduced you to that you really like?

This is a tough question, since I’m considered the “entertainment coordinator” of this household. The first things to pop into my brain were black olives and red grapes, but that sounds trite. So I asked her:

Jeff: “What have you introduced me to?”
Ann: “Nothing. Seriously, nothing. Foods. Quesadillas, maybe? Tacos. Ooh, I know - non-tapered pants.”

See?

5. If you had a million bucks to donate to the charity of your choice,

Alzheimer’s research. Start a nonprofit to give interest free loans to people who want to open small businesses. Make some sort of fund for rural libraries to be able to get newer, lesser known books for their children’s collections.

Now from the wife:

1. It’s Groundhog day, you’re Bill Murray, but at least you can control what happens that day. What’s your day’s agenda?

Lots of illicit sexual escapades I’d probably try more new things over and over and over just to see what happens.

2. What would Pigeon be saying if she could talk?

Food? Food food fo– hey, what’s that shadow?

3. Alright, the condo is on fire! Pij and I are okay, what do you have in your two hands? (Yes, yes, I know you wouldn’t have time to go digging in the closet or whatever, but suspend reality for a minute, okay?)

It’s funny, because I don’t have a lot of stuff with sentimental value. Or any non-financial value. Sure, the CDs are there, but, well, that’s a lost cause. The Rickenbacker has no personal value, the “big ticket” items can be replaced. Honestly? I’d probably grab all the Kroger Babb stuff, because that’s the only irreplaceable stuff I have.

4. What do you like most about ManchVegas? Is this the city where you picture us raising our children?

It feels like what I wanted Worcester to be. I still think our future is further north, but I’d be happy with here, too.

5. You have known me five years now(!) In what ways have I changed the most? How do you think you have changed?

You’re more confident and self-aware. You care more about everything. I’d like to think I’m similar, but I don’t know.

I started this at 10:30pm Friday night, I’ll probably finish in the morning. Who knows. If you want 5 of your own, let me know - these were from Mike:

1. Are you having kids any time soon?

In the clearest possible terms, no. For one, we’re simply not ready in any way shape or form - we don’t have a second bedroom, I don’t have a job in 7 days, and we’re enjoying our life as it is anyway. Beyond that, the adoption process is, bare minimum, a two year process. We’ve put off buying a place until the economic stuff sorts out a bit more, so we’re at least 3 years away at this point, I think.

What’s your thoughts on being a parent? What kind of dad do you picture yourself being?

I’m scared. It’s the single scariest thing on my future horizon. I fear being a poor parent, about not doing right for my kids, for not being able to provide what they deserve, for not bringing them up the way I think they should be. I fear my genetics. I fear my own insecurities.

Ann thinks this might make me a better parent, since I’m so aware of all these things. I’m not convinced yet, but, again, 3 years down the line.

2. You’re a literary nerd. Why aren’t lyrics important to you?

It’s probably because I’m even more of a music nerd. I’m drawn to a song’s structure - whether it be a catchy melody, a great hook, or an interesting arrangement - long before I even hear the words being sung.

Even as a “literary nerd,” there’s very little in literature that sticks with me. I just finished Anathem today, which is probably my favorite book in 12 months, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you the details of a passage that really caught me, even though there were plenty. Maybe I just don’t have that sort of mind, not that I know what sort of mind it is.

3. How in the world do you find the time to read as many books, watch as many movies, listen to as much music, and do as much stuff in a 168 hour week?

Okay. First, a typical “adult” book is 250-400 pages long. A typical “adult” book, as it is, I can read at a clip of 55-70 pages in a 30 minute sitting. I’ve always been a fast reader, so it’s pretty natural for me. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t fit in at least 30 minutes of reading, and it’s usually closer to an hour when it gets to the points in time I can get 10 minutes in here or there. The 30 uninterrupted minutes over lunch alone make up for that easily. Now, that’s close to a book a week on lunch breaks alone. A book like Anathem or A Game of Thrones, both 900 page tomes with a ton of detail, move slower but get more attention than normal. Meanwhile, I’ll read a young adult novel with larger print and smaller book sizes at a clip of maybe 100 pages in a 30 minute time span. I can polish two or three of those off in a week. Or perhaps a graphic novel, which is 100 pages on a good day and can often be finished in one or two sittings. Add them all together, and it’s not so strange to have read 115 books as of this point in time.

As for movies, baseball season and the advent of the DVR has cut back on that tremendously, but if I can find time to watch two episodes of Mad Men in an evening, what’s a 90 minute movie? I could, in theory, probably watch a movie a day if I didn’t give it my full attention. I just enjoy movies too much.

Music? Wicked easy - satellite radio plus having a CD going whenever the TV is off and I’m near a computer.

And why isn’t working on The Most Important Book In The World included more often? Seriously. Get back to work on that thing.

I know, I know. The Drama is nearly over, and the creative juices feel like they’re coming back again, which is a good sign for that. Hopefully the prodigal grandchild will understand…

4. What happened to all the Palin love in your blog as of late? Are you still as enthralled with her?

The love went the way of most other writing as of late. I just haven’t been enthralled with anything, the election included. As it stands, if my excitement in late August was an 11, it’s probably around a 9.75 right now - I’m still a huge fan, and I just don’t know how much to blame that rough Couric patch on her or the inept McCain campaign.

5. Stubbornness: a boon or bane? Explain. (Bonus points for a tie-in to your recent job situation.)

Depends on the context. It’s a boon in some ways because it keeps me grounded - my stubbornness goes a long way when I know I’m not completely off-kilter. I know I’m not insane when it comes to recent troubles, and it keeps me from going completely nuts in my head. It’s a bane in the same way, however, where if I wasn’t so stubborn, I could have saved myself a ton of mental anguish.

The whole library thing isn’t unique to my typical stubbornness. It’s probably the number one cause of my inaction on many areas of my personal life, and probably gets mistaken for apathy in a lot of areas. I need to overcome it.

6. WHY SO SERIOUS?

All that time in the asylum…

I say “weekend” as if I’m not just feverishly trying to recap life in general since I’ve had no desire to write much of anything. But that’s slowly going away, I think. But anyway, less Sox talk and more real life…

1) I went to a children’s library conference on Thursday, and I’m amazingly glad I did:

a) It was held in Bethlehem/Littleton, NH, which is about 2 hours north of Manchester, through the White Mountains. I’m not a “ooh, nature” guy, but holy crap was it gorgeous. It was a pretty crappy day, but as I got to the mountains, you could see the clouds and fog rolling off the hills and mountains, and the foliage was pretty, and I could honestly pick up shop and move up that way for good if things were different in my life right now. Just such a perfect, gorgeous, beautiful area.

b) The conference was enlightening, both personally and professionally. I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation from other librarians with the authors and events I’ve been able to get, apparently, which was a very surprising and nice thing to hear, but each panel was just as interesting as well - one on autism and dealing with autistic kids in the library was great, but my favorite was the Native American materials presentation, which really spoke to my personal vendetta against bad nonfiction in children’s collections. The whole day was really great in that regard.

The whole thing was a very uplifting experience for me.

2) Dodgeball didn’t go so well in week two, but I did nail someone in the babymaker, so that’s worth something.

3) I took Friday off, and went to meet the wonderful, amazing Jon Scieszka on Saturday:

It’s always wonderful when a guy you’ve admired for 20 years ends up being even more awesome than you could have thought. In the picture is fellow librarian friend Jackie, who joined us on the excursion. We got to talk to Scieszka for a good 5 minutes before he spoke, and he signed a couple things for me and posed for a picture. Wicked down to earth, amazingly funny - he has a Norm MacDonald-style delivery which is just hysterical - and really someone I’m happy is cool, and makes me appreciate his work that much more. Really wonderful stuff.

4) Yesterday was D&D, first time in a month. Wow, did I miss it - a really crazy battle with some undead dragon newborns, some crazy challenges, and the afternoon really flew by. Every session becomes more and more fascinating, which is great. Two more weeks? Really?

5) Currently obsessed with the following:

a) 30 Rock. We’re all caught up, finally. Talk about a wickedly funny show. Anything that can make Al Gore fun is fine by me.

b) Anathem by Neal Stephenson. A less talented author wouldn’t be able to make me care about monks who study math and philosophy, but there you have it. Rick has been trying to get me to read Snow Crash essentially since the day I met him, and I may have to bump that up considerably.

c) Mega Man 9. No video game hates you quite the way MM9 does. Yet I can’t stop torturing myself.

d) Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis. The CD isn’t anything special, except that every song feels as if it’s better than the song before it, and you’re disappointed when it’s over. That means something, right?

e) E. L. Fudge cookies. The double stuff variety. Yeah. Cookies shaped like elves are my anti-drug.

This weekend, too my knowledge, we have nothing planned. I’m looking forward to a late-night High School Musical 3 and a lot of sleeping.

…but my goodness is my wife’s new haircut gorgeous or what:

I’ve generally always known that I picked a good one, but it’s always fun to get a new reminder about how damn cute she is, too.

…that I have no clue as to whether I can remember everything.

1) So remember that short film I was in? It made its debut at Lumen Eclipse last weekend, and apparently to pretty good acclaim. I have a copy of it, there was one on DailyMotion that doesn’t exist anymore, and when I am able to share it with you all, I will, because I think it’s worth seeing - it’s offbeat, it’s a fun Nancy Drew homage, and if you hate it, well, it’s only 60 seconds out of your time. It’s worth noting that I’m on screen for roughly .75 seconds, which is a new record for any sort of film presentation, and thus makes my role as “The Pianist” of similar substance to Dame Judi Dench’s Oscar-winning turn in Shakespeare in Love. Just sayin’.

2) A couple weeks ago, Rick and Mark came up for a long weekend. It was essentially like old college times all over again, which was exactly what was needed and a good time. We hit the Anna Maria alumni weekend pub night - it’s my 5 year reunion this year, which is scary in so many ways. Saw a lot of people I didn’t expect, a few I did, and I’m honestly glad I went. The rest of the weekend went smoothly except for the amount of money I spent on food and the fact that my 360 hates EA games.

3) Dodgeball started up this week. A solid W for The Ocho, and I didn’t play half bad, either. I forgot how much I missed it, too - good competition is fun, and the team’s a pretty solid good time, too. I wish I could be one of those people who can hit the gym 4 times a week or whatever, but I can’t even blog regularly. But I feel great tonight, even if the tops of my thighs are absolutely on fire from the running around.

4) With my time at the library coming to a close, I’ve been trying to get myself set up better at the Manchester Library, which means navigating through their new system and getting used to the kinks, especially from a patron side as opposed to the librarian side. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty details without knowing the specifics, I’ll say this much - every so often, I’ll tell Ann how sad it makes me that I simply will never get to read all the books I want to. I’ve read over 100 this year alone, so it’s not as if I’m a reading slacker - it’s just that a) I know my list at Manchester is about 60 titles deep right now, b) it could be doubled if I wanted to take an hour and play around with it, and c) that doesn’t even start getting into the books that the library doesn’t have and, scarier, probably can’t get.

My literary holy grail at the moment is Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires. I’m not paying $44 for a used book on Amazon, and even weirder is that no library shows as having it on WorldCat. I may never even see this book in the, uh, paper flesh in my lifetime, never mind get to read it. It has apparently been optioned as a film (yeah, that’s right - not that anyone’s ever seen the book or anything), which bodes well, but still, this book is essentially the story of my life when it comes to books. Not that I won’t have hundreds of others to read instead, of course, but still.

5) Related to the above, I’ve tried LibraryThing and couldn’t really get into it. I tried the iRead application on Facebook and found it difficult. I did GoodReads and got annoyed. Finally, I’ve found a web-based book program I actually like - Shelfari! I know it doesn’t do much new with certain things as perhaps the others I’ve tried have, but I love the interface and this just feels easier. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it - after all, I’ve read over 400 books in the last 3 years, and I can’t normally remember what I read last week without keeping it written down somewhere - but if you’re unhappy with your other ones or whatever, friend me over there and check it out.

6) I feel like the only human being in the world who doesn’t understand Twitter.

7) At this point, I think the best move is to NOT talk about the Red Sox in fear that it might, like, bring Mike Timlin into a close game or something.

8) Finally, I can’t decide which one of these videos is more awesome, so enjoy them both:

I quit my job today.

Yes, it was a good move for me. Yes, I’m going to miss being a librarian, but I was missing my basic sanity even more at this point. Details as I can provide them, but a) it’s the right thing to do, and b) if you’re hiring, let me know.

The bad completely totally overshadowed the good. Unfortunately, there’s no way I can talk about the bad here, and it was only one bad, so we’ll talk good instead!

* Friday night we finally got to see fellow Manch-Vegans Jackie and Mattieu, who we haven’t seen in AGES. Spend a couple hours at Murphy’s Taproom catching up on life and getting $2 drafts and getting a much needed escape from the stresses of life in general. Considering the drama surrounding me lately, I felt a million times better afterward. Excellent stuff.

* The majority of the weekend was spent in Massachusetts. First stop was to see my old high school friend Kim and her newish fiancé who we hadn’t met yet. It was so good to see her, since I never see her anymore and it’s good to see she’s found a good, solid guy. Plus, we had 4 meals at Finder’s Pub for $21. How sweet is that?

* Following that was a cookout at Julia’s. Certain things brought the mood down a bit, but it was still good to see who we got to see, and there was good food and good times and a nice chance to catch up again. Very nice.

* We left the cookout around 9, and crashed at my parent’s. Both were up, and then my brother swung by, which was nice. We probably just sat around the table for 2 hours just catching up and joking around, which was just what I needed at that point. My dad made breakfast the next morning, I got to see my Memere, and it was like yet another added bonus to an already pretty busy weekend.

* D&D followed breakfast - one of the best sessions yet, in my opinion. Some kobold ass-kicking gave way to a diplomatic truce and some D&D-style race war/genocide discussion. I love D&D, I really do. And it’s only getting better, which is awesome. The cracks are starting to show, and there are significant choices and consequences which just make things more crazy. I didn’t know it could improve more, but there you have it.

* So this week is a short work week for me workwise - Rick and Mark are coming up for the weekend. It’s the first time I’ve seen Rick since the wedding, and the first time the three of us have gotten together since then. We’ll be hitting Anna Maria’s pub night for alumni weekend Friday, and then just hanging in Manchester the rest of the time. AMC folks, let me know if you’ll be there.

It’s been 5 years since I graduated college? Wow.

* Oh, Friday was Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Ann noted to many that it was 5 years to the day she fell for me. Why? I did a Tatnuck shift report entirely in pirate-speak. If that’s not further evidence I found the perfect person for me, I don’t know what else to tell you.

It’s amazing what a couple hours with good friends can do to really help put things in perspective again.

…and I have a lot to look forward to this weekend, thankfully, but one appears to be falling through. The Manchester Library $5 paper bag book sale ($5 lets you fill a bag, etc) is this Saturday, and we were going to hit the library before hitting a housewarming party.

Once again, Barack Obama foils me, holding a rally with Biden down the street. Sigh.

1) SARAH PALIN OMG.

2) Tonight we had Red Sox tickets. Earlier this week, Matsuzaka was the starter to be ready for. Then, two days ago, it was David Pauley, he of the 10.XX ERA. Today? Michael Bowden, pitching prospect, making his major league debut. Awesome - awesome game, awesome experience, and $6 parking.

3) Tomorrow, we’re surprising my Uncle Jeff, who I haven’t seen in about 5 years. He’s one of those close family friends who you end up calling uncle even though they’re not actually related, and we’ve swung in and out of contact with him over the years, and it turns out he’s staying about an hour away and my parents are visiting him right now and invited us up tomorrow. So that’ll be awesome. Very awesome.

Talk about a sea change in attitude.

I never lived in a dorm, and only spent a year in an apartment, so I never experienced the “fire alarm going off mere seconds before hopping into the shower” situation.

Fun times, really.

Thank you lady downstairs for burning your porkchops!

Ahhhhgfdgdfgdfgergbrbn.

1) Summer reading = over. A good summer, but also glad it’s over and I can somewhat relax again. I’m always amazed at how much I end up running on adrenaline rushes for a lot of stuff, and then I’m shocked when I’m exhausted at the end. I took Friday off, slept in, and pretty much stayed on the couch all day playing games.

2) Life doesn’t seem to want to slow down, either - we have a Red Sox game coming up, another weekend in Massachusetts, we still have to figure out when to see people we haven’t seen in a while, still house hunting. Why is life insane?

3) D&D was awesome on Sunday. We went Wyvern hunting, and did it well. Ann played her first week as a Dwarven Fighter, and was pulling action movie stunts almost immediately, and it was pretty awesome. Best battle I’ve been in since I’ve started playing, hands down.

4) Someone want to explain why Pac-Man: Championship Edition is so addicting? Anyone?

I hope to reach some sort of basic schedule again at some point this week. Business + craziness = no time for annoying people on the internets.

1) Another busy weekend. August is poo!

I shouldn’t say that - it was busy, but another generally fun weekend. We hit a movie on Friday, did an Irace family gathering in Maine followed by a stop at the Great Lost Bear and home on Saturday, and a Sox game on Sunday followed by dinner in Watertown with the D&D crew minus Billy.

1a) At the Sox game, I sat next to one of the crazier people I’ve ever encountered at a Sox game. He’s convinced there’s a massive conspiracy to oust all the nonwhite players a la the Yawkeys of old, that the games are fixed by the pitching coaches, etc. Stunning, really.

2) Downsides to the weekend? I’m probably more sunburnt right now than I’ve been in a very long time. I tried to be proactive, too, but my face is all bright red as well as the tops of my hands. Ah well. It’ll be a sore day or two I suppose, but the switch to a long-sleeve shirt paid some serious dividends.

3) This week’s the last week of summer reading. I don’t know if this has been more harrowing because of drama or just because, but I’ll be glad when it’s done nonetheless.

Enough for now.