Sunday, August 29, 2010

BEDAu Day 29: Up & Down


Have you ever had a day where you were alternating between wakefulness and sleep? As I tweeted earlier today, I want coffee and a nap at the same time.

And it won't get better tonight because (as usual) I've avoided doing any office work throughout the whole weekend. So, if I want to approach the goals I had on Friday, it'll have to start tonight. We'll see.

But I've accomplished two bike rides with the kids and started a new book. So, other good things have definitely been going on. And the work won't be going anywhere. And what else am I going to do during the weekdays, (See? I've practically talked myself out of it while you're reading this. I'm so predictable!)

In other news, we took the plunge and started the underwear route for Hannah this weekend. A few minor mistakes so far but one of the rites of passage are underway.

I guess that's it for now.

-- Posted From My iPhone (so, I apologize in advance for any typos I missed)n

Saturday, August 28, 2010

BEDAu Day 28: Random

My back is hurting and my body is running out of energy, so I'll keep this one short.

Here's what I did today:

1. Went to bed around 12:30 a.m.
2. Slept until just after 8 am.
3. Got Hannah up and joined the rest of the kids downstairs.
4. Helped Lynda make the pancakes.
5. Got out stuff together and eventually got out of the house. We all rode bikes down to the library where I picked up a book on reserve (Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart) and then rode back home.
6. Ate lunch.
7. Took a shower.
8. Started some laundry.
9. Watched over the house and the kids and reread  few chapters of An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.
10. Watered the backyard while I watched over the kids playing in the backyard. Swept the patio.
11. Moved the watering to the front yard.
12. Ate dinner.
13. Drank smoothie for dessert.
14. Cleaned up kitchen and washed remaining dishes.
15. This happened.
16. Gave Hannah a bath.
17. Now blogging and preparing to rest for a while.
18. It goes (I think?) without saying that I was periodically checking Twitter and Facebook throughout the day.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

BEDAu Day 26: Round and Round

The weather has improved mightily the last few days, so the family is working harder to get out after dinner and walk. We don't go far, just up or down the street, or down around the corner. Tonight we walked over to the middle school to walk on the track for a change.

As we walked round and round, the Pee Wee football teams were out on the grass working on their formations and such. I didn't pay lots of attention, but did find it interesting to some degree. I never played football at any point in my youth and with three girls, I don't expect to see much of it soon.

As we walked around the track, the kids sometimes walked with us and sometimes they played in the sand pit of the long jump. One time, as we were all walking around, I looked down at the lane number painted on the rubberized asphalt: 6.

It got me to thinking. Suddenly and randomly, I called out to Grace--what is your favorite number?

She hesitated for a minute and then said 8. When I asked her why, she hesitated again and then changed her answer to 1. I asked her why again and she told me "When there is only 1, you can do whatever you want." I thought that was an apt answer that probably spoke to something deep in Grace's personality.

So I posed the same question to Sarah. Her immediate answer was 11. I was puzzled, so I asked her the same follow up question . . . why?

Again, with no hesitation, she said: "Because when you turn eleven, you can go to Hogwarts."

Of course . . . I should have realized. And, again, apt.

Not to leave anyone out (except for Hannah, who is a bit young to play the game) I asked Lynda. Her answer was the same as mine--6. But we have different reasons.

Lynda's favorite number has always been 6 because she has always liked something about its shape, some vague appreciation of the curve of it.

I have always liked 6 because I grew up in a family of six, of which I was the sixth member. And, whenever we played Yahtzee, I always wanted to roll sixes. It probably has something to do with the pattern of six dots on the die face that also appeals to me.

So, here is my unsolicited question to you. What is YOUR favorite number and can you give a reason why? Please leave your answers in the comments.


-- Posted From My iPhone (so, I apologize in advance for any typos I missed)

Monday, August 23, 2010

BEDAu Day 23: On a walk

So, we went for an after dinner walk tonight and I took some pictures and made some videos. (Actually, I made one video and then Sarah made another.)

Here's what we got.



My video is not very successful, I think. I am not very skilled at carrying on any engaging video dialogue while walking and sticking to the point of the exercise (which was to get some exercise). Plus random strangers approached and I am got self conscious about capturing their image without their permission. Because, really all they want to do is walk.

So, it was kind of a failed experiment. I suppose if I took (had) the time to learn some video editing software, I could throw together different video clips into something more pleasing and coherent. But that's going to have to be a project for some other year.

So, to make it up to you, I also let Sarah do a recording while we walked. Who knows what she captured. Let's watch it together, shall we?



What I can tell you about it all is that I found myself constantly worried about tripping over my feet during this entire walk. Part of it is because I was wearing sandals, which give me no ankle support. I am growing increasingly aware of my leg and feet limitations as I am getting older. And frankly, I'm growing tired of the bizarre psychological warfare that is going on in my head these days.

So let's forget about that and just show a nice picture.

I like the way everyone here is a bit individual.
And, of course, it makes me think of
Reservoir Dogs.
What, it doesn't do that for you? Oh well.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

BEDAu Day 22: Meanwhile . . .

Yeah, I took a few days off from my month-long effort, confirming why I can't grow a group of readers any faster. (Because I can't be trusted?)

But I'm back (today) with a random video that I won't replace and should probably learn how to edit and add some interesting production values to in order to make it more pleasing. But . . . this isn't my job . . . and it shows.

(Jeez, enough with the self-criticism. Just get the video off the camera, download to YouTube, and get it out there.)

That'll probably be completed by 10:30 this evening. I'll edit this post with the finished video as soon as it is ready.

Later . . . 6:45 to be exact.


I got the video downloaded to YouTube a while back but I haven't had time to drop the code into Why Won't You Grow?! until now.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

BEDAu Day 18: Flotsam or jetsam?

I'm glad you asked, because I've thought about this a lot in the last week and I'm ready to admit it now.

I'm a jetsam man.

Jetsam has been taking it on the chin to flotsam for so long. (I think jetsam was last popular back in the 1920s when ladies were dames and when legs were gams and when alcohol was hooch.)

Clearly, its been too long since jetsam had its day. Jetsam has been second banana for too long and I am ready to see this change.

Jetsam has a style that I think suits the zeitgeist. It seems more hip, more now, more ready for the digital age. Flotsam is just so . . . analog, you know?

I'll do my best to make jetsam the new and hip thing that is gonna take the world by storm.

Are you with me?

Anyway, that's my answer.

Thanks for asking.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

BEDAu Day 17: Most atypical song?

So, as I was driving down to Louisville over the weekend--alone, remember since Lynda and the girls had leaft a day earlier--I was flipping around on the radio, testing out the "repaired" satellite radio in the van. And for the time that the Sirius was coming through nicely, I flipped over the the "80s on 8" channel and the "90s on 9" channel and I alternated back and forth between the two as mediocre songs forced me to switch.

And, at some point, midway to Louisville on I-71, I flip back over the "90s on 9" to avoid some terrible 80s song that even nostalgia can't redeem . . . and I get House of Pain.

And when you hear House of Pain, that can (most likely) only mean one song.

"Jump Around."

And as I always do, when "Jump Around" shows up . . . I listen.

I've got it on my iPhone. It's in my iTunes. I just really enjoy that song.

And as I listened, I thought to myself whether it would surprise others to know that I really, really like "Jump Around." Does that fit whatever image of me they have? Would they consider this atypical of David?

So, here is my question to you tonight (or whenever you get around to reading this). What do YOU think is a song that you believe is something at odds with how you believe others perceive you? Is there a song that you absolutely love, but you think others would be surprised to learn of it?

Leave me a comment describing how you would answer these questions.

Monday, August 16, 2010

BEDAu Day 16: My news is NOT all of woe!

See the video for my reaction to the wonderful gift that I got in the mail today from my good friend and long-lost colleague Lulu.

The video I made doesn't do justice to the beauty of the thing and it throws in a particularly horrible angle on my face that I wouldn't blame you from running away from the screen to avoid. But if you decide to hang in there, you will be rewarded with some much prettier footage of a very special and thoughtful gift.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

BEDAu Day 15: Do I have to?

Well, do I?

Since I already let yesterday go without a post, this might give me permission to just move on. But only missing one day does not equal failure. We may fall short of the goal, but the effort remains.

We returned from our brief visit to Louisville today. We saw cousin T. marry L. with much rejoicing from the H. extended family. There was no time to do much else and see things in Louisville that I've not seen before (such as the campus where my mom went to college, just down the road from where Cousin T. is now attending seminary and where Lynda's dad also attended seminary.

It is interesting how all of our connections may possibly entertained if we stretch them far enough and look within them deeply enough. And yet three (or four . . . or more) lives intertwined this weekend--two by choice and more by circumstance.

It can be a good lesson to remember as we work and play and live together all the time. We don't always agree and we sometimes rub each other the wrong way. But we are sometimes more connected than we realize. Understanding that can make our problems end more quickly.

And that's all I've got to say tonight.

-- Posted From My iPhone (so, I apologize in advance for any typos I missed)

Friday, August 13, 2010

BEDAu Day 13: Happy anniversary & travel mercies

Today marks the start of my sixth blogging year. Never has so little been said with such effort for so few, right?

I'll be in a meeting most of the morning and then on the road, so this may be it for today. If I see something amazing on the road, I guess I can pull over and describe it.

Year SIX!

Onwards and upwards, y'all!


-- Posted From My iPhone (so, I apologize in advance for any typos I missed)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

BEDAu Day 12: Alone

Lynda and the kids left this afternoon to go to a family reunion/wedding in Louisville.

I will be joining them tomorrow afternoon, after I attend a work meeting in the morning.

But I've been holding down the fort alone at home this evening. And when you are alone, with leftovers in the fridge that need to be gotten rid of . . . you kind of make some weird food combination choices. (Or maybe  that's just me?)

And . . . that's all I've got to say about that sort of thing.

(Don't want to spend my valuable "bachelor" time blogging, right?)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

BEDAu Day 11: Busier than . . .

a one-legged man at an ass-kickin' contest.

a three-legged cat at a stream of trout.

some other maim-based euphamisms that I can't recall (or have time to identify).

I've got more work to do tonight, Lynda's got to get packed for departure, and we've got to go back tomorrow to pick up our two (2!) vans that were in the shop today.

I'm typing this poor excuse of post to fulfill my BEDAu duties and then it's back to it.

Sorry all.

I'll try to do better tomorrow night.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

BEDAu Day 10: Small Things I am Sad About

I am typing tonight's post on my iBook G4, the laptop I've had for about five years now. And it has been serviceable and done its job. But it is obsolete now and there is something that one of the kids jammed into the disk drive slot that is causing it to make a continuously (annoying) sound whenever it is being used. AND the U key is loose and always wobbling around. AND it just doesn't run very fast any more. AND AND AND.

Times change, technology moves on at a much faster pace than my families budget or my job's salary can keep up. So we'll soldier on for a while yet. Eventually it'll get replaced.

*****

In other things that I am sad about, I just went outside in the deepening dark to turn off the water that Lynda was using to trickle on some of our backyard plants. And I noticed (as I always do  these many years) that it hurts for me to walk barefoot outside.

Lord knows that I have had many, MANY foot problems in my life. And perhaps my feet are more sensitive as I get older? Or maybe I'm just smarter and more self-aware then I was as a five-year-old kid. But I remember being outside and barefoot a LOT as a youngster. And now, it just is a painful prospect.

I know the ground on my property is pretty rocky underneath. And we probably don't give the yard enough water to keep it "supple" or whatever . . . but it just hurts, you know?

I'm sure that you probably don't care. Just slip on some sandals or flip flops or whatever. Quit complaining about stupid stuff! you're thinking. Well, that's just not always a convenient thing for me to do, okay? Do YOU have a pair of shoes/slipper/sandals/flip flops ready and waiting for you beside every door . . . ready to be put on your feet at any moment . . . regardless of what door you are choosing and for whatever the duration?

If you do, I declare you a slob who needs to pick up after him/herself more often.

THAT IS ALL.

Monday, August 09, 2010

BEDAu Day 9: Tiger & Don

Work and home life are pressing, pressing, pressing me to do other things tonight, so I don't have a lot of anticipated time to blog frivolously.

Luckily for me, my brother MSquared sent me a good email today that I am going to mostly cut and paste without even asking his permission. (Though it should be noted, I am attributing the content to him . . .)

He asked: "Did Don Draper and Tiger Woods bottom out on the same day?"


Tiger Woods refers to the famous golfer, who famously was caught in infidelity and has famously sucked at golf ever since. But, apparently, even for Tiger, there are levels of bad golfing that even he had not experienced before. The specific day of "bottoming out" in question was this past Sunday, right here in the grand state of Ohio. (You can see video of the details here.)


The Don Draper being referred to is the main character played by John Hamm in the AMC show "Mad Men" which is airing its fourth season right now.


(And, don't worry . . . nothing referred to below is a major spoiler . . . really . . . but if you are a "Mad Men" fan who doesn't want to know anything at all before you watch, then here is your 


SPOILER


ALERT!!


STOP 


READING 


THIS!!


COME 


BACK


TOMORROW!!


Okay, have they left?


MSquared observed the following interesting parallels between Tiger Woods and Don Draper.


They are:


- "Both married former models who were gorgeous but somehow not good enough.
- Both were in car accidents resulting in facial lacerations. (Draper was
bailed out by Peggy and Tiger was bailed out by incompetent police work.)
- Both were the best at what they did, now both are facing an uncertain
future.
- Both went thru mistresses sometimes two or more at a time until they were
exposed against their will, at which point their professional and personal
worlds changed dramatically.
- Draper fired himself and started his own agency; Tiger fired Hank Haney to
"go it alone."
- Tiger has a half-brother (actually two - Earl's sons by his first wife)
who he has very little to do with (although no word if either half-brother
has hanged himself).
- Tiger dumped the name "Eldrick" just as convincingly as Draper dropped
"Dick Whitman."  (It was not a secret process but do you really think he is
any less disgusted with who "Eldrick Woods" used to be than Don Draper is
with the former Dick Whitman?)"

- [I've redacted the last observation, not because it's not a good one, but because WWYG?! is a family blog.]

As I said, there is no way that I can convincingly argue against his observations.


(Unwitting) thanks go to you MSquared!



Sunday, August 08, 2010

BEDAu Day 8: You are a well-respected editor at a large publishing house. How much of your identity is wrapped up in that statement?

To begin answering this question, let me first tell you a story.

The spring before I went to college, I went and visited the Georgia Southern University campus in Statesboro to interview for a spot in the Bell Honors Program. As I have mentioned in this space before, the BHP was a full scholarship program with a small group of new incoming students each year. The BHP curriculum got you through the basic core classes expected of everyone at GSU, but they were taught in a "higher-level" seminar style (kind of like graduate school?).

I had already completed the paperwork and submitted my entry essay (which you can read here in all of its cringe-tastic glory: http://wwywrite.blogspot.com/2009/01/bhp-scholarship-application-essay.html). But I had to do one more thing; go in for a personal interview with the BHP director and some of the faculty.

Dr. Joiner asked me questions about myself and some other perfunctory stuff about the essay that I wrote and the type of activities I had done in high school. Standard, getting-to-know you type of stuff. At the very end of the interview, there was The Final Question that was (I later learned) asked of all the prospective candidates. The question is "If you knew that someone in this room could give you the honest answer to any single question, what would you ask them?"

I thought about that for a minute, looking down at my hands in my lap, which had recently been sitting on the table and leaving sweat marks for all to see on the table top.

I looked up and said "I would want to know what job I could find that when I woke up in the morning . . . three days out of five, I would be happy to be going to work."

*****

So, that is where I start my answer to this question. How much of my identity is dependent upon my role as editor? It is very little, I hope. Certainly, I hope that the people I work with see me as more than the sum of my editorial skills. I dearly hope that my family and my church friends and my extended relatives think of me in more expansive terms than whether or not I can diagram a sentence and shorten wordy sentences down to fit a space.

The standard hope is that when I die, people won't talk about what a great editor I was or how many successful book projects I was involved in. They will remember things like my sense of humor or my willingness to help when asked. They will remember parties I held or the fact that I delivered a stuffed pepper and a metal helmet to people on their birthdays. They might remember that I had a good cheesecake recipe.

Hopefully they will remember me as a good father, a good husband, a good friend, and a good brother or son. These are the things that i hope can truly define me. These are the characteristics that I certainly WANT to be remembered for.

Anyway, there is my answer.

Thanks for asking.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

BEDAu Day 7: The missing post and other stuff

I don't quite know why last night's post hasn't yet shown up, but I did write one. (It's located here if you are looking for it.)

I'll make sure it gets integrated into the WWYG?! flow of posts once it finds its way back from whatever Internet nether world it has slipped into.

Now, on to new things.

Sarah and Grace and I went on a bike ride this afternoon after lunch. It was initially just a test run so that Grace could get familiar with the route to school (which begins in about three weeks), so that she and Sarah could ride bikes to school together this fall and spring. Once there, we spent a little bit of time playing on the school playground and chatting about what usually happens at recess.

Sarah described it as all of the boys playing sports over here or over there . . . while she (presumably) watched. I get the feeling that Sarah spends a lot of time watching--either the boys from afar or her friends as they do something. It worries me a bit that she isn't more active in shaping her own decisions . . . but she is only ten, I guess. I hope soon enough she'll be making all the (right?) decisions.

Grace's description of her recess is a bit different. It consisted of her ordering everyone around to what she wanted to do and getting the girls to chase the boys. Yep, Grace has never lacked for assertiveness.

*****

After we did that for a while, I decided to test their bike riding skills a bit more and we rode down Walnut Street, finally cutting across on the bike path to College and then down to Serendipity for some refreshments. We sat on the front porch swing of the old converted house and drank water and ate ice cream (well, they ate ice cream anyway).

After that we got back on the bike trail and rode over to County Line Road, then up alongside County Line, cutting through Tower Park, down Spring Road and back onto Nicole.

It was a good ride for all of us and Grace did remarkably well. She proved beyond any doubt that she can handle riding a couple of blocks down the road to school.

*****

Once home again, I grilled some barbecue chicken (got it a bit dry unfortunately), paired it up with baked potatoes and corn. The girls mixed in some play time with our next door neighbor's daughter who we haven't seen much of this summer.

Now, showers are being taken and I am debating whether I'll try to do any productive work tonight once everyone is in bed.

Friday, August 06, 2010

BEDAu Day 6: What is the optimal size of a post-apocalyptic survival group?

Well, I'm no real expert but I HAVE read "World War Z."

Unfortunately, I can't remember if the author mentioned an optimal size of a survival party. What I do remember about the book is to:

A. Fill the bathtub with water to drink.
B. Go to the second floor with your weapon (and the bathtub--hopefully).
C. Destroy the staircase and start shooting.

As to what constitutes a good survival party, you'll need a good marksman, a good foraged, a tracker, a survivalist, and someone to entertain everyone.

I guess that means five?

Anyway, that's my answer.

Thanks for asking.


Thursday, August 05, 2010

BEDAu, Day 5: What's this thing?

This may not be challenging for any of you, but there is a possibility that some of you won't recognize this object--and not just because it's a pretty bad picture that intentionally pushes the object out of scale..



I found this in my desk drawer at work today and was struck by the fact that you don't really see these things anymore. When I was a kid, just getting into music of my own and watching my brothers listen to music of their own, these things were more common. But technology has (it seems?) passed this object by. It still represents something that is very common, but standardization has made it less necessary.

What it is?

It's a headphone jack adapter.



Here it is in proper context. For the uninitiated, you sometimes has to use an adapter like this to plug your headphones into your older brothers boom box to listen to Boston or Kansas or The Steve Miller Band. Or if you were in the car, travelling to visit relatives in Kentucky, your Dad might demand that you plug in the headphones so that he could focus on negotiating the traffic on I-285 without all that noisy distraction of AC-DC  or Thriller.


Back before iPods ruled the music scene, there were a great variety of "portable" devices for you to listen to your Tears for Fears cassettes. And this was before everyone used earbuds, there were larger headphones that pretty much covered your entire head. And their plugs and accompanying jacks were about as large as an iPod Shuffle is today.

How I've held onto this bit of arcane tech and from where it originated, I don't know. But I've got it. And now you know about it.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

BEDAu Day 4: Tired

I've got nothing worth saying tonight everyone. Sorry. I guess I should keep this short to avoid wasting more of your time. I had an idea of what to write on tonight, but after going to Hilliard and back this evening, I just have no energy left to try and spin something out of a half-baked set of ideas. I am also too tired to do any office work. So I guess I'll fall asleep on the couch before going upstairs to sleep some more.

And that is what my life is truly like.

Jealous?


-- Posted From My iPhone (so, I apologize in advance for any typos I missed)

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

BEDAu, Day 3: Suppose you knew that you had exactly 24 hours left in your life, and you could spend those 24 hours in any way you wanted. What do you suppose you would spend your time doing/seeing/ eating/visiting/arranging, etc.?

Well, I think that I would basically spend it with my wife and my kids.

If money was no object, I guess I would want to spend that time somewhere amazing, or be somewhere that I had never been before to share that unique experience with my most loved ones.

But you, questioner, made that hard for me by only giving me 24 hours left. So, unless I fly against the rotation of the earth, it's gonna be damned hard for me to go somewhere that is truly outstanding. For instance, I don't think I am going to be able to make it to Europe or Asia or somewhere like that and have any time left to really enjoy time before I kick the bucket. And really, the bulk of my time would be spent doing stupid bureaucratic stuff like waiting in line, transferring my luggage, and sitting in planes.

That, my friends, is no way to spend your last hours on earth. And why drag your wife and kids along for that ride? Because there will be so much pressure for that to be a wonderous time . . . that nothing would go well and disappointment would surely abound.

So, lets stay local, okay?

I guess I could make it to someplace relatively close like New York--a place I've never been. But would I want to spoil my wife and kids first visit to the Big Apple by up and dying on them? That seems kind of selfish of me. And I'd stick them with the necessity of bringing my dead self BACK to Ohio for the burial and stuff like that.

So, I guess the other extreme is to just make a picnic of really nice food and take my family to the local cemetary. If I have the foresight to pack a shovel in the trunk of the van, they won't have that much work to do after the picnic is over and there won't be the depressing travel back home, right?

Of course, that is ghoulish to the extreme.

So . . . I guess there isn't a perfectly good answer to the question. More than anything, I think I should spend time with Lynda, Sarah, Grace, and Hannah making them adjust to the fact that I won't be there anymore. I need to spend time making sure they know that I love them and will miss them. I should tell each of them individually how special they are and in specific detail how they have improved my life. I need them to come away from the loss with a sense of happiness and security. Where that takes place is less important than the fact that it needs to happen.

So, that's my answer.

Thanks for asking?

Monday, August 02, 2010

BEDAu Day 2: Mini cokes

We recently started buying the 8 oz. cans of Coke. There are several reasons for this.

1. We reduce the overall consumption of sugared water we purchase and consume.

2. Maybe it is a minuscule contribution to less waste? (Obviously I've done no research on this.)

3. It reduces the number of chemicals and artificial sweeteners we drink.

4. It makes us feel like giants! (Neither Lynda or I are very tall.)

5. It makes me feel extra manly when I easily crush it by pounding it against my forehead. (Because it's SO tiny!)

(Hey . . . I've gotta get stress relief somehow if I'm not smoking or drinking.)

6. It makes me think we live in a bigger house with bigger kids, ready to move out and move on!

(This last one just seemed like a good joke opportunity . I'm not totally ready for that yet.)


-- Posted From My iPhone (so, I apologize in advance for any typos I missed)