This is Hi-Fi

I actually watched part of an episode of American Idol tonight. I better check my temperature. In my defense, it was in HD. Now I have some appreciation for what it must have been like when people first got color TV.

The last episode of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search was on TV tonight. In what was no surprise, Alicia won. Only in America can a poor 19 year old girl with an 8th grade education win a million dollar contract for nothing other than a pretty face.

Long live the land of opportunity.

So this blog posting is about a week late, but during the super bowl week there was a great commercial:

SCENE: Woman in walk-in closet looking at outfits.
MUSIC: Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight

The music is cued and the lyric "She's wondering what clothes to wear..." comes on. Then it comes again. And again. She walks out of the closet and you see her her husband sitting at a table with a laptop.

She: "Honey?"
He: "Yes?"
She: "Cut it out"

As it turns out, it's an ad for being able to download music off the internet for SBC DSL.

Today, I'm having a conversation with a friend about what she will be wearing to a party and I use the word "outfit" on several occasions. I must put a stop to this. It's one thing when I get ribbed about being a little bit too metrosexual, but two of my female friends keep saying things like, "that's a little bit too gay".

I end up going to a Valentine's Day party that one of my friends was throwing. 30 seconds after walking in, I realize that one of my friends is wearing the exact same shirt. =( GAH! He always does this. Luckily he used to always do this to someone else.

Now I know why women discuss their attire ahead of time. This ritual prevents the "bopsy twins" syndrome.

Last Friday, I went to see the Austin Wranglers. Someone pointed out that they are Austin's only professional sports team that is at the top level of their sport. This requires identifying Arena Football as it's own sport other than football, but that works for me.

This was the first time I had been to an AFL game. In fact, I had never even seen more than 5 minutes on TV before. Clearly taking some cues from the NBA, they were giving away tons of little prizes. This included coupons to Rudy's, t-shirts that were shot out of cannons, and a metric ton of mini-footballs. They're even setup in such a way that if a football finds it's way into the crowd, the person gets to keep it. Clearly they had put a lot of time and effort into making it a fun event where a lot of people could walk away from the game with something other than just a good experience. Sadly, our beloved Wranglers are currently in last place at 0-3. I couldn't help but thinking that maybe they could save some of those mini footballs to try and invest in some better players or coaching staff.

An interesting thing happened while I was there. Sitting directly in front of me was a guy and either his little brother or his son (it could go either way). After getting up to catch a mini-football, the kid was coming back to his seat when he threw his mini football into the air towards the group of people seated in front of him. When his puzzled companion gave him the "What was that for?" look, he reached into his cup holder and pointed out that he had already gotten one earlier.

It's good to get those reminders that there are plenty of good people in this world.

So another quick and boring story about Jimmy's dating hang-ups. At a Chinese New Year dinner last week, a friend of mine asked me about dating preferences, and it inspired a couple different conversations.

One discussion was around the fact that they were incredibly amused by the fact that I used the term equal-opportunity in regards to my ethnicity preferences, but that's not that relevant.

The more interesting thing was when I was discussing how I had this phobia of dating girls that weren't born in the United States. Part of it is the fact that I love just about everything about being an American. The less rational part is that I have this subconscious feeling that foreigners are trying to find an American husband, in order to immigrate into this country.

It wasn't until I was talking to a friend of mine this morning, that I realized the reason behind my thinking. I'm permanently scarred from watching the show "I Married Dora".

It's clearly not my fault and this is the result of TV clouding my brain.

So has Jane officially found the right guy? This is an awful lot of talk about trying to balance work and family...

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Post 2

OK, I think I have to finally give in and admit defeat. I lost one of my belts about 2 weeks ago. I don't know how, but I did. 99.99% of the time, I take them off in the exact same place. Where the hell could it be? It's not as though I randomly go around taking my belt off anywhere in my house or out on the street. I haven't been on any trips recently either. What gives?

There was only place where I recently took my pants off, and I definitely wouldn't have taken my belt off. Before the peanut gallery jumps in, I was trying on some shorts at REI.

Yes, I'm on a Madonna kick for no apparent reason. Can I just mention how awesome of a day it is today? I'm so glad that Presidents' Day is a company holiday.

OK, I can't take it. 79 degrees and sunny. It's time for a bike ride.

So I'm in Park City, Utah and they've got part of the Resort Center roped off, because they've got some dudes clearing snow off of the roof and balconies. I guess some people will do anything for free lift tickets. In the grand scheme of things, working at a resort in a ski town, probably isn't too bad.

So a friend of mine has been reading He's Just Not That Into You, and has been telling me about little anecdotes for a while now. I sometimes wonder whether this will be an effective messenger. In my experience, most people have a really hard time seeing what's happening right in front of their face, because they can't have the view of an impartial third party. I think of a couple conversations that I've had with friends in what I would call dysfunctional relationships. The problems are usually so obvious and so blatant, that anyone can see them from a mile away. I dunno.

Today is the 2nd full day of our trip, and we're getting off to a slow start. The two of us had a few crazy days before we got here, and the lack of sleep might be catching up to us. Of course, it didn't help that the snow cats were out grooming the trails at some ungodly hour of the night, seemingly right after we had actually fallen asleep. We're both a tad lethargic today, but the fact that we've got 4.5 days of available skiing, makes it feel less pressing to be out on the slopes for every possible second.

We had a pretty good day with regards to the actual skiing. I fell a lot more times than I expected to, but those that skiied with me last year, know that I'm not remotely cautious on the slopes. I had this interesting problem where I would do a parallel turn to try and stop and would end up over-rotating. I would end up pointing the wrong way down the hill and have no idea how to turn, so I would just end up bailing. JB did a great job until encountering a "large embankment" of snow in front of a slow zone. Poor JB's boots didn't fit all that well, but swapping them out at lunch time seemed to help. When she went back in, they brought out another pair of boots that had more cushioning than the original ones. Of course, we were both left wondering why they hadn't just given her those boots to begin with. I think both of us will probably spend a bit more time trying to get our boots dialed in today.

I spent most of the day fidgeting with the adjustments out on the slopes, as well as spending the whole day with the walk/ski switch in the 'walk' position. Who knew that a switch even existed? Last year, on the cheapie rentals boots, I had no such switch. The other interesting thing to note is that I almost put my skis on backwards twice. I'm pretty sure that my beginner skis from last year were interchangeable. Thankfully, JB pointed out the big R and L letters on the skis. The guy at the rental place certainly didn't mention that fact. Maybe he was too busy flirting with JB. After all, she is quite fetching in her ski bunny outfit. If only she had a snazzier set of shades, her outfit would be complete. ;) Maybe we'll rectify that today.

I'm having a lot of fun just swooshing down the green slopes, but I hope I can make it to a couple intermediate trails by the end of the trip. Last year, I felt that I was capable of doing so, but fatigue had gotten the best of me. From what I've been told, fatigue is the easiest way to seriously hurt yourself. So much rides on your ability to put your skis in the right place.

Last year, after forgetting to bring my knee brace, I purchased a new one, half way into my trip. This year, after the first half day, I broke down and bought a second one for my other knee. I wanted to spend some more time strengthening all of the support muscles in my legs before my trip, but my short bout with the flu helped put a wrench into things. I'm not 100% sure that it would have actually helped, but I'll have to remember it for next year.

Anyways, I think it's time to get off my lazy butt and stretch out a bit. My muscles aren't quite sore yet (thank you hot tub!), but I know they will be, if I don't take care of my body.

I'll spare you the details of how we started talking about it, but one of our conversations reminded me of something that used to affect my dad. When I was a kid, we just to joke around a bit about how loudly my dad snores, and the funny noises that he would make. We had no idea what we were encountering.

After undergoing observation at a sleep clinic, my dad was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. They determined that the jerky snorting noise he made after the brief pauses in his breathing were the sound of his breathing stopping. This would happen several hundred times per night for a few seconds. Stopping breathing = lack of oxygen to the brain. You do the math.

I sometimes wonder how long it really affected him and how much of our lives were irrevocably changed. After undergoing several steps to treat his sleep apnea, he basically became a better person. While he wasn't a complete nasty SOB all of the time, he could probably be described as grouchy for a very good segment of his waking hours. Snapping at people when things didn't go his way, childish behavior, and doling out the silent treatment were normal occurrences.

Part of the reason why I gave this some thought is that a friend of mine recently took the SO on a "Meet The Family" trip. In passing, I mentioned to JB that I've never actually brought someone home to meet the parentals (My mom had met one of my SOs, but that's because my mom came to Austin, and not the other way around). JB mentioned that she was surprised. The two of us are habitual tangent-takers in conversations, such that the constant branching often leaves unfinished conversations. That was one topic that we never finished, but it reminded me of the fact that I dread the day that I do this for real. On some level, if either side is unhappy with the other, than that's how it is and I can't change it. On the other hand, I wonder who they'll meet. Will my dad be Dr Jekyll (the loving pediatrician) or Mr Hyde (the pouty evil side that still surfaces)? I'll worry about it when I meet Mrs Right (well I hope it's Ms. Right and she isn't already married).

Everybody's family is a little bit crazy, but often for different reasons. If you find one that isn't, you're probably not looking hard enough.

This entry is devoted to the my conquest of the first blue slope of my life. Seriously speaking, I could have done it last year or at the beginning of the trip, but we were going kinda slow since JB didn't feel that well, and I could still work on my parallel turns on the greens. Right before lunch, I took the hi-speed lift up to the top of Payday. There were some spectacular views, and I cruised down it in my usual semi-kamikaze style. I fell 3 times, never bad enough to lose a ski, and bounced right back up to finish it. Once was to avoid hitting someone that totally cut me off, so it's only like 2.5 times.

P.S. To those of you that had this song for your first dance at your wedding, we still need to go to Central Market for the knife skills!

Learning about personality types via mechanisms like Myers-Brigg is pretty interesting and downright fun.

(EDIT 02/28/2005: Just went back and apparently the Keirsey Temperament Sorter isn't free anymore. No biggie, just google for Myers-Brigg and I'm sure you can find a free test somewhere).

Going on a ski trip for about 5 days with a single person can be pretty taxing unless you really know someone very well. I certainly know that I can be a pain in the butt about some things. In this case, we know a lot of little facts here and there about each other. However, we're not exactly best friends and on the grand scale of things, we're relatively new friends. When you know someone really well, you have no trouble reading all of their signals. When you don't know them that well and you misread some signals, things can get kinda dicey. This morning was a case in point. JB was clearly in a fairly crabby mood, that may have been reasonable, given the circumstances. We spent most of lunch barely acknowledging each others' existence. I could tell she was not super cheery, and I tried to cheer her up, but it was failing miserably.

I know enough about her, to know that on the Introvert/Extrovert scale she is pretty far to the I side. Should I have known better than to try and engage in any conversation, at all? I don't know. It's always hard to tell. I'm not a person that tries to fix everything or everyone's problems. However I generally like to think that if it's in my power to try to cheer someone up, I do so. A small part of it is them, but to a large extent it's me. For one, it makes me feel good to be who I am. I also like to think that I'm not a completely insensitive prick that is oblivious to my surroundings. Most importantly, if this is someone that I'm going to spend 90% of a 120+ hour continuous period, having a stormcloud around isn't going to make my world any better. I know one thing though, after being snapped at a couple times, I knew I needed to just walk away and leave her with some alone time. It's hard to be introspective enough to say "I need to be alone, right now" or "I need to be around other people, right now". I guess I can't fault her for not doing that.

I sometimes get mislabelled as being placating, when it's really just that I have a personal stake in the outcome that might be non-obvious. I guess I don't want to go back to shutting people out of my life when it's convenient to me. I know that was a major issue with one of my past friendships/relationships. I like to think that this is part of becoming a better person, and not necessarily a different person.

Today, I knew enough to eventually just walk away...

Yesterday was the 3rd full day in Park City. After my aforementioned conquest of an intermediate slope, I switched over to snowboarding in the afternoon. I have to say that I'll eat my words. I never thought snowboarding would be as hard as it is. After a 3 hour lesson yesterday afternoon, I had more bumps and bruises than after 2.5 days of skiing. I can't lie down in certain ways. My butt hurts. My hip hurts. My back hurts. Yet today, I'm going back for more. I'm determined to walk away from this trip with some semblance of aptitude on that damn thing. I don't think I ever travelled more than 50 ft without falling yesterday, but I'm close. SOOO close...

Tomorrow is officially the last day of the trip. Today was my last chance to really turn things around with snowboarding. After that first 3 hour segment, it wasn't clear that I could win a bet that would require me to travel 50 feet without falling. It took me 3 runs, to finally do a whole run without falling. All before lunch, too! Unfortunately, it didn't really last. Right after lunch, I tried to get off the "First Time" hill and try one of the harder beginner slopes and "Three Kings" chewed me up and spit me out. I even managed to break one of my wrist guards. Thankfully, it wasn't my wrist that got broken. In the end, I'm not sure if I'll try it again. I know I can get to the point where I am somewhat proficient. I'm just not sure that I care to be. I dunno. I'll play it by ear, tomorrow.

To be perfectly honest, I had some doubts about whether going on this trip alone with JB was a good idea. All in all, this has worked out pretty well for me. In some ways, I will leave with more questions than I started with. In other ways, I just needed to get the hell out of Austin and clear my mind. In total, I guess I'll be returning to Austin with a somewhat occupied mind of different topics. Oh well, it still works for me.

It's really tough to be around JB in some ways that I didn't expect. For one, she makes a great shopping buddy. Gently pushing and prodding me not to be lazy about my choices, I ended up with a cool red fleece that I probably wouldn't have purchased otherwise. I really like it. If she wasn't there, I probably would have bought the tan or charcoal one, instead. For another, she snores like a drunken sailor. On one of the nights, this kept me up all night, and I could barely get any shuteye at all. OK, OK. That's a big lie. It was actually a bunch of snowcats in combination with some garbage trucks clearing the snow that was cleared off of the roof that I mentioned earlier.

I love Park City. Two straight years with a fun ski trip. Next year, I'll probably branch out, just to try something new. However, I'll definitely miss this place. Given how much money I've spent, I bet that they'll miss me too...

JB was right. I was wrong. Publicly stating it here. I'm going with the "lack of sleep" + "dehydration was clouding my thinking" excuse.

I've got the fever. It's been striking several times per year for the last couple of years, and I've been able to fend it off. This time, I think I don't think I can win. I think I'm going to enter the world of dog ownership.

Today, on a whim, I decided to stop and see "my puppy". By "my puppy", I mean my ex-girlfriend's dog. This is a picture of him from just over a year and a half ago.

That cute little puppy has now grown into a handsome dog that is over 70 lbs. When I kneeled down on my knees to give him a hug, he managed to headbutt me in the jaw. Ouch!

I wonder if his mommy told him to do that?