soapbox

I got a new CD last week and I wanted to plug it because I really like the band.

So, this crazy person really likes Tegan and Sara. I don’t know how to describe them.. I’d say they’re a mix of Elastica and Belly. You young folks probably don’t even know who they are.

Anyway, I’ll set my iTunes to share them.

So last week, my little violence fantasy was grabbing someone by the lapels and slamming them against the wall down by the mailboxes. (I should mention that I did consider the hooks in the wall and made sure that nothing like “Very Bad Things” happened.)

This week, my violence fantasy is just beating someone up on the green. He’s a little bit drunk and starts swinging. Of course, I deftly step out of the way, punch him in the face a few times, knock him to the ground, pummel his kidneys, and then grab some zip ties out of my back pocket, handcuff him, and walk away. No, I have no idea why I had zip ties in my back pocket. There’s some trash-talk dialog too.

I hired a guy to paint the house in CT this weekend and the negotiating was kind of fun. I talked him into cutting about $300 off the price by comparing his bid to some other bids and then I increased the savings another $200 by offering to let him put a sign in the front yard.

So, if anyone’s buying a car in the near future, let me know. I’d like to take on a car salesman now. The experience buying my car wasn’t that exciting. The first salesman I talked to didn’t believe that a 22 year old kid had a $21K check in his back pocket. The second guy, who I actually bought my car from, was the Costco rep so everything was basically pre-negotiated for me. I think I might be able to make a random salesman cry these days. That was always my goal in debate.

Isn’t a good thing.

I do think that we all need to be fairly introspective about our lives. It’s easy to delude yourself into thinking that you’re actually someone other than the person who you are. (No, I’m not going to give examples.)

Of course, the problem is that without talking to other people you have no idea if you’re basing your conclusions on reality or only on the things you imagine to be true. Telepathy would be an amazingly handy thing. Without that though, you can always investigate your own motivations for things you’ve done, think of better things, and then file them away for future use so that you don’t make the same mistakes a second time.

I used to always claim that you can’t move forward unless you know the past, but I’m realizing now that the past is as sticky as tar, so you need to figure out a way to keep the knowledge but shed the sludge.

Speaking of speeds, how fast do y’all drive? I used to drive like a grandma, exactly at the speed limit. Lately though, I’ve been having the speedometer needle flirt with the 70 mph mark, sometimes a touch above or a touch below, almost dancing.

I’d go faster, but I’m amazingly risk adverse.

Kirsten and I took advantage of the sunny weather to go for a bike ride yesterday. It was only like 11 miles, but it was definitely enjoyable (well, it was enjoyable on the emptier roads, not the ones with cars zipping by 6 inches away).

I’m never going to be a hard-core road biker, but my goal it to be able to do a 50 mile ride at a decent pace by the end of summer. Of course, I’m not exactly sure what a decent pace really is. Yesterday’s ride was only like 15 mph.

Apparently the folks in this office aren’t the only ones dressing out of Banana Republic. Sandy was wearing my pink striped shirt and the other guy (who Kirsten is going to have an affair with) was wearing another one that’s definitely from Banana. Of course, it’s more than a little bit sad that I can recognize these things by sight.

About the episode itself: