What a BuzzKill

All right, so in part 1 of this I went over most of the important things I look for in relationships. This second part is where I go over things about myself. Hopefully this will help serve as a reminder to me that I’m far from perfect – and maybe help others understand me a little bit better.

Alright, let’s get this started with:

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): INTP (find your type here)

I’ve found a lot of interesting insight about people based on their MBTI. This doesn’t tell you what type of person they are, but it does help you understand they way they tend to process things in life.

I won’t even bother with my astrological sign, as I think it’s complete bullshit.

Hmm… what next? How about my strengths. This isn’t always easy to do for yourself, but many of my friends have been nice enough to inform me of some of my strengths (and also my flaws, coming up next). These are in no particular order…

– Smart, able to comprehend complex things
– Logical, can usually figure out a solution to a problem
– Insightful, able to see things from many different angles
– Funny, make people laugh, not afraid to look like a dork
– Easy to talk to
– Knowledgable in many different areas
– Creative
– Musically inclined
– Direct and to the point
– Honest
– Dependable, I’m there when you need me or when I say I will be
– Helpful
– Caring
– Easy-going
– Stable
– Good with computers
– Generally able to give good advice
– Trustworthy, people know that they can talk to me and I’ll maintain their confidence
– More than one female has said that they feel safe when I’m around (not just girlfriends)
– Non-judgemental
– Perceptive
– Patient
– Tolerant
– Will be that one friend who will tell you the truth, even when it hurts
– Good in the kitchen
– Self-sufficient (cook, clean, iron, laundry, etc for myself)
– Good driver
– Good father
– Pretty good judge of character

Here’s a list of my flaws (that I know of):

– Sometimes too direct and to the point
– Sometimes the truth isn’t what somebody wants to hear and I’ll say it anyway
– Don’t always show how I feel
– Procrastinate a lot
– Lack initiative sometimes
– Not especially ‘driven’ or ‘goal oriented’
– Distant and/or withdrawn at times
– Put up with some things too long
– Lack self-confidence in many areas
– Like to be in control too often
– Can be inflexible at times
– My humor can sometimes be a bit mean-spirited
– Will sometimes try avoid answering a question that I don’t want to answer

General things about me:

I’m mostly an introvert, but have learned how to cope with social situations (the one thing that I can thank my evil step-mother for). If I’m lucky, I can be in a social gathering, but remain off to the side by myself and get to enjoy people-watching. I tend to do well one-on-one or in small groups. After periods of being around other people a lot, I tend to seek solitude to sort of ‘recharge’. Sometimes I’ll hole-up for an entire week, but at some point I come back out.

Nights are my favorite time. Having a 9-5 job has forced me to adapt to being a day person, but I do get out into the night when opportunity arrives. The beach at night is so relaxing!

The outdoors are nice and I like to go hiking and camping, especially in areas away from the city. When gas wasn’t so expensive, I used to like driving down roads I’ve never been on before, just to see where they went.

I have a tendency to be cynical and sarcastic. Usually it comes out as a very dry sense of humor. It can also be playful ribbing and personal jibes. Some people might think I’m being rude, but I generally don’t mean anything by it. If I really had a problem with something, I would just tell them directly.

My mind tends to drift (partly because I have ADD), which can sometimes make it difficult for me to stay focused on a conversation. Additionally, this tendency also means that I tend to be very random and odd to most people. My humor is often laced with innuendo and/or will come seemingly from out of nowhere. Usually this is because my brain has somehow found some round-about connection with something within my scope of view/hearing. This isn’t always the case, since these odd and strange ideas can also just come out of nowhere except my imagination. Friends tell me that I’m odd/strange/weird – but not in a scary way.

Theory and abstract thinking are where my thoughts tend to dwell most of the time. Time and time again I’ll find myself pondering the connections or causes of things – no matter how random, strange, mundane, or unimportant. Ideas and concepts just occur to me out of the blue sometimes. An example of this is how I learned to tie a necktie 2 different ways without ever having seen it done or tried to do – after I pictured it in my mind I borrowed one of my step dad’s ties and tried it out and was amazed that my idea worked. Other things like how French onion soup became so popular or why pork is shunned/forbidden by some religions. Heck, even existential topics, with a bit of strangeness thrown in: are we just a bunch of specks of dust (or atomically small objects) floating around in a bedroom closet in some larger universe – and our lifetime is just a fraction of a second to that universe? Yeah, shit like that.

Take the last sentence of the previous paragraph into consideration for a moment. Yep, I swear. In person, I swear a lot more. There aren’t very many words that I won’t say, either. I do a good job around mixed company, but when I’m just relaxing with friends, I just let it flow. Some days are worse than others and it really just depends on my mood. People that eschew cussing probably won’t be comfortable around me.

Okay, so there it is. I’ve splilled my guts, both good and bad, to the world. I might come back and add to this as stuff occurs to me

This entry just didn’t know when to quit!

[Warning: Extremely long post…]

Being single is a strange thing. We want to meet people, but we want to meet for a multitude of different reasons – a good portion of the time not for the same reasons. So what are people supposed to do?

Dating takes time and money. The end result (hell, even the starting result) may not always be what you were looking for, yet you’re now out all this time and money. The process can often repeat itself over and over, with a wild variety of outcomes. This can become frustrating and discouraging for many people. This is especially true for introverts like me. But we still have to try, right?

We’ve all heard of these dating or matchmaking sites like eHarmony and Match.com that are supposed to help us weed out the ones that are less likely to be in sync with our wants and needs. In theory, this makes sense, but then you run into problems with people not being very honest with how they’ve portrayed themselves online. Misleading photos and bios that people post to make them look better or simply different than they really are – even if just slightly – might not be found out until later, after much time (and possibly money) has been spent getting to know one another online.

Yeah, yeah, I can hear some of you now… “but looks aren’t everything” or “what does it matter, if you feel something for them in the end?”. That’s not my point. What I’m getting at is how can a future relationship expect to flourish after the intial contact and basis for those feelings is based on a lie?

I’ll be honest with you: looks matter to me, to some extent. They’re not all that I’m looking at, but if I’m not attracted to a woman in some physical way, chances are that I’m going to pursue it much further. To some looks really aren’t that important, and that’s what works for them. Lying to me about your looks or showing me only your assets is just going to reveal itself when I actually see you – and I’ll be none to happy about it. Just put your best foot forward and be yourself!

The next two things that I find important are intelligence and logic. Contrary to what some may think, they do not always co-exist within the same person. Looks may get you attention, but you gotta have something behind that pretty face to hold mine for very long. I want to be able to discuss theories or unknowns with a gal… somebody that can challenge my mind, to stretch it further or in a different direction – and hopefully that I can do the same for them.

Humor is something that is highly subjective and differs dramatically between individuals. A gal that “gets” my sense of humor and can laugh with/at me and that I can laugh with/at (i.e., doesn’t take themselves too seriously) will likely become a friend, if nothing more is in the cards for us. Life is too short to not enjoy it!

Musical ability or interests are something that I definitely pay attention to. Music is such an influential thing. While my music interests seem to cover a very wide selection of genres and generations, there is some music that I just cannot get into. In fact, most rap/hip-hop & country make my brain hurt. There just isn’t any other way I can think to put it. A gal that can sing and/or play an instrument is a turn-on, for sure.

Dependability is a rather broad term that I could probably use to apply to many traits as a whole. People that are often late, don’t come through with a commitment (this applies to so many things), blow people off when something more interesting than what was originally planned comes along, don’t offer to help others, gossip and back-stab, like to create drama, blah … blah … blah … generally people that consider themselves the center of the universe and don’t hold true to much that they say or do. These people drive me batty – and they seem to be ever-so plentiful in Southern California these days. I don’t put up with friends being like this, which means I’m definitely not going to tolerate it in a relationship.

The accumulation of things and status don’t mean squat to me. If it doesn’t serve a useful function, if it means having to act a specific way that’s contrary to my personality in order to maintain – then it isn’t for me. With rare exception, I don’t tend to give frilly gifts. I don’t collect “stuff”. There are no “Jones’ to keep up with” in my mind. If you expect flowers and jewelry all the time, you’re barking up the wrong tree with me.

Know-it-alls and those who rest on their laurels don’t have much of a place in my life. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t go to college or if you hold multiple degrees and I could care less what your title is – demonstrate to me that you know what you’re talking about or doing and you’ll gain my respect.

Sex. Yep, I have to throw this in here. If I find a gal attractive, and I’m interested in her, I’ll get to know her. Women that invest a lot of emotional commitment into sex probably won’t be a good match for me. To me sex is a fun thing, a physical way to enjoy somebody in a more personal way. I dislike it when people put an arbitrary timeframe on when it will or won’t happen. When the mood strikes and the timing is right, why not? It doesn’t mean that I’m in love – or ever will be – just because I had sex with a woman. I’m still very good friends with some of the women I’ve been with in the past. While it was all fun and such, we just made better friends and I’m totally happy that we were able to go back to just being friends. The right kinda gal for me won’t put sex on a pedestal and make it out to be this overly important issue. It is what it is so either do it and enjoy it or not at all (and we’ll just be friends).

So there you have it, my likes and dislikes in relationships. Most of this applies to friendships, as well. I’m sure that I’ve missed something, but for the most part it’s there. Be sure to check out part 2 of this, where I bare all about myself.

Full Disclosure – Part 2

This entry got off to a running start.

So we’re all going to Hell today (it’s in Michigan, by the way).

I read about a 6′ 6″ grandfather who turns 66 today – so he’s 6-foot-6 and 66 on 6/6/06!

A remake of The Omen is being released today because of the spooky date, I suppose. I wonder if they’re going to put the gross elevator death scene in this one… no wait, that was in Damien: Omen II. I had fears about elevators for a short time when I was a kid after having watched that one.

And lastly…

The “5-Second Rule” Rules! We’re not all doomed today!

Looking back a few blog posts I realized that I just sorta let the saga about my hot water problems go unresolved. Here’s what ulimately happened:

After my last post about my water woes (haha… I just made that up!) I did manage to reach a live person at the apartment management company and she told me that they did have a water heater blow-out and that we were only down to 2 instead of the usual 3. She said that while we might run the chance of running out of hot water at peak times, we should still have plenty of hot water during off-peak hours – and I asserted that we didn’t have any hot water, just warm at best. The next day I found a notice on my door that they’d need to enter my apartment the following afternoon so a plumber could check it out and I managed to get the time off so I could actually be there when they came.

That afternoon (day 6 of the ordeal) of waiting for the plumber to show up was a total waste of time – nobody showed up or even bothered to call. I wasn’t very happy about that and called the apartment management to let them know about it. The following evening I found a message from the plumbers inquiring about setting up (another) time to come out. I never got around to calling them back.

Well, after a total of 8 days of cold, then luke-warm, and then warm showers, I magically started getting near-scalding water (if I turned only the hot water on). So I’m guessing either the temperature was increased (by our plumber neighbor – who was also tired of not having hot water) or they finally fixed the problem. What a pain.

As promised, I’ve uploaded and posted the photo galleries from both the camping trip to Lake Isabella and of Rece getting buzzed (only looks right in Internet Explorer). I’ll probably change the layout of Rece’s buzzed photo page, but hey, it works for now – sorta. Enjoy!

Warning: Extremely long post!

This weekend was a lot of fun. Rece and I joined Christine and Sam for a camping trip up to Lake Isabella. The plan was to camp out (in tents) for a couple of nights over Memorial Day weekend.

Day 1 – Saturday, May 27th

Prior commitments prevented us from leaving until around noon-ish on Saturday. This was fine, as the traffic proved to be fairly light – especially for a holiday weekend.

We had initially planned to borrow Christine’s friend’s new Ford Escape (an SUV), but interestingly enough my older Ford Taurus wagon (with 98,000+ miles) ended up having more storage space for our gear. We scrapped the idea of taking the Escape and instead opted for my wagon. I was a tad bit worried that this higher-mileage vehicle might give us problems on the trip, but it proved to be just fine for the job in the end.

Of course I brought my GPS receiver and pre-planned some geocaches to find along the way. I strategically chose a few going over ‘The Grapevine’ (as they call it) to provide a stretch for the legs and to keep the pre-teens from revolting out of boredom. The first cache attempt wasn’t much of an attempt at all. I led us up an access road to some powerline towers that turned out to be nowhere near the cache. We had to go back to the car – and still couldn’t figure out where to park in order to get to it. We simply gave up on it and continued along our way.

The second cache we went after turned out to be an interesting one. It was well hidden, but it was the fact that it was extremely windy (we got sand-blasted!) and there was a hot dog vendor in what seemed like nowhere that made it so interesting. So this hot dog cart guy was there, waiting for customers in the middle of nowhere, just watching us as we attempted to find this cache. As luck would have it, he got a customer just as Sam found it. I wonder how much business this guy gets here, since the prior log in the cache also mentioned the vendor in it – and that was from a week prior… odd.

After our caching break, we pushed on down ‘The Grapevine’ and on (then through) Bakersfield toward the hills. The drive along the Kern river was nice. It was a small 2-lane highway with fantastic views of the river and its rapids – sometimes it’s a bummer being the driver and not being able to take as much in.

The 2-lane highway opened up to 4 lanes towards the top and we discovered that it wasn’t as rural as we had expected. (they had a Vons supermarket!) The area was beautiful and the lake was so blue! A little further driving (past the Vons) brought us to our campsite. It was bustling with activity, as many people obviously had the same idea to camp over the weekend.

We both (us boys and them girls) had new tents, which meant a bit of a learning curve for both parties to set up. With just a little fiddling we both got set up and then went on to cook our dinner of burgers, fresh veggies, and baked beans – OK, maybe it isn’t such a good idea to have beans when you plan on sleeping in a tent later that night. This first night we had to endure some pretty rude behavior from neighboring campers – one group that blasted rap music until around 11 pm and the other that carried on loud (and drunken) conversation until at least 2 am (the last I checked my watch before managing to fall asleep).

Day 2 – Sunday, May 28th

On the morning of day 2 (Sunday) I woke up tired and a bit stiff in the joints… but since I was out camping, my mood was still happy. Christine and I went about getting the important morning stuff done (coffee) and then cooked a breakfast of sausage, eggs, toast, fruit, and potatoes – oh wait, forgot the potatoes… and the butter… and the sweetener for the coffee. Fine, off to Vons we go! Oh look, there’s a coffee place… and a donut place… we’ll keep that in mind in case we get lazy (which we never ended up doing, by the way). OK, so yeah, 3.5 hours later we finished eating breakfast… hmm… should we start making lunch now? Naw, let’s go geocaching and check out the area.

We discovered that there was a general store not 1/2 a mile up the road from the campgrounds, which was much closer than the 6 miles to Vons, while driving to our first cache. Yep, 3 crosses on a hill… oh wait, this is a multi-cache… and we’re in the wrong area to start… and Sam strained her ankle while climbing some rocks… gah! We gave up on this cache and went after another one nearby. It had a great view of the lake and we encountered a group of people at the cache location who turned out to be the people who originally hid it. We spent a little time talking with them and enjoying the beautiful day before moving on to explore.

After finding just one more cache deciding against going after a couple of others, we turned our attention to checking out downtown Kernville. This is a very cool little town, with all sorts of shops (most of which you’d expect in a tourist area) and a quaint town square. There was even a petshop that sold ice cream… anyhow… We decided to check out the museum, which turned out to be one of the most interesting and fascinating museums I’ve ever been to. If you ever find yourself near Kernville, this is a must see! (free to enter – but donations are welcome)

We went back to camp after our day out and made what Sam called ‘Hobo Stew’ which was simply a bunch of veggies and stew beef thrown in a foil pouch (that we made the night before we left) and placed over the campfire on the grill. We left them on for about an hour and spent the time drinking quite a bit and talking/laughing with some of our camp neighbors. The stew was delicious and I don’t think any of us were able to actually finish them completely. Christine had quite a bit more than I did to drink that night and we spent the evening relaxing by the fire and laughing quite a bit. Eventually we all went to bed and settled in for a good night’s sleep. The rude neighbors didn’t make a peep this night and I was able to get in an amazing 9 hours of sleep!

Day 3 – Monday, May 29th

Christine awoke rather early and a bit hung over on Monday morning. She immediately set out upon the task of making coffee and, ultimately, breakfast. Shortly before 9, Rece woke me up and I was delighted to find that I felt well-rested and not a bit sore as I had been the morning before. As I was putting on my shoes I got a good chuckle out of one of the other neighbor’s method of waking his camp-mates. He had started playing the guitar with lyrics that went something along the lines of…

“It’s time to wake up, so get up you fuckers…
It’s time to wake up, so get up you fuckers…
Wake the fuck up you sleepy fuckers…”

The singer’s voice and humor reminded me of my brother Danny a lot, as this is something he would have likely done in the same situation.

Breakfast burritos, fruit, coffee were on the menu for breakfast and it was very yummy! After eating we packed up our gear and were happy to find that we had a lot more room in the car now that we had used up most of our provisions. With a bunch of bungie cords and a cargo net, we securely strapped the tents and chairs on the roof rack of the car (something I needlessly worried about breaking free on the way up here as well). We broke camp at noon, right on schedule.

The trip back down the mountain was pleasant, with the view of the river and rapids and mountainous cliffs. At the base we stopped to admire a man-made waterfall that roared out of a hole in the side of the mountain. We then continued our journey back, stopping at the Flying-J truck stop for a bite to eat. The rest of the journey home was sedate, as we were all rather beat from camping.

After getting back to my place and unpacking, we ordered a pizza and then proceded to buzz off all of Rece’s hair. He wanted it done and we finally had the time to do it. Christine took pictures of the process, which I’ll post later today or tomorrow (along with the camping pictures).

This was a very fun trip to an area of California I’ve never been to before. The Sequoia National Forest is a beautiful place – even though the area we were camping wasn’t much of a forest. My only real complaint is that the restrooms were disgusting and there simply weren’t enough facilities to support a full campground. I even opted against taking a shower the entire trip because of this (one more day and I’d have started to smell pretty bad, I’m sure). Aside from that, everything was great.

I’ll be posting pictures of all this in the next day or so. I’ll make a post with a link to the web page when I’m done.

Finally, a reputible tech magazine has put together a list of horrible tech products. For me, the best part is that I’ve been trying to tell people about how bad most of these products were/are as far back as I can remember! Check it out:

PCWorld.com – The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

Hell, just yesterday I overheard a conversation in the office where one gal was telling another gal that AOL’s free email service was great. There was little option but for me to interrupt their conversation to say, “Anything AOL sucks. Try anything BUT AOL or Hotmail unless you like lots of SPAM.” Grrr…

As promised, I’ve posted some pictures from this past weekend’s hike. You can find them here.

Guess what this is…

That, my friends, is the empty void that used to be occupied by my drum set!

Yep, after 13 years I finally set my drums back up!

At this point I’m stuck, as I now have to pick up some parts for the set. It is in a semi-playable state as-is, but I’d like to get it cleaned up a bit and in more of a final state before I can actually start to seriously think about playing.

I’m so excited about playing! (despite the blank expression in the above picture). Okay, that’s all – I just wanted to post an update about this.

This entry paradiddled into a double-stroke roll!

Believe me, I’m not trying to say that global temperatures aren’t rising, but I have a difficult time believing that our burning of fossil fuels is the biggest factor in it. Here’s an article that argues against the commonly accepted notion that our actions are the sole reason for the global increase in temperature and says that while CO₂ levels might be a contributing factor, the sun itself is actually hotter. Nothing we do here affects the sun.

We’ve only recently (relative to history) been able to track changes in things like this. Such short-sighted analysis of what amounts to a blip in the timeline of the history of the planet doesn’t seem right to me.

UPDATE EDIT: I have since realized that my thinking on this topic was seriously flawed. Climate Change is definitely a real thing and it is for sure being made worse by human activities. I’m keeping the original posts up, as I think it’s important for people to see that opinions can change after new information is learned.