Living in Bubblegum

I haven't made an entry here for like 2 or 3 billion years. By writing that first sentence I was hoping to motivate myself to start finger blabbing a little, but it didn't work. Right not lazyness and lethargy win. Maybe later.

Compliment

I'm not sure what made me think of this. I know I was writing someone an email when the memory popped into my head.

A family member that owns a retail store went on vacation and asked me to take a few Saturday shifts while he was gone. I'd open and spend the first few hours alone since the other person that works there didn't start till Saturday noon.
One particular Saturday at a certain time there was only one customer in the store. He was a respectable and sympathetic looking middle aged man. I'm guessing he was of middle eastern descent though he didn't have any features that placed him. - As I'm writing this I realize that somehow I cannot relate the details necessary to understanding why this was memorable to me.

When I was done helping him he said "Thank you. You are a true gentleman." - That was the punchline to this entry, the climax in this story. That compliment really affected me and I can't do it justice.
In the course of our lives, we probably get all sorts of compliments. In a lot of cases it's the compliments of people we respect or like that mean the most to us. A few flattering words from an attractive member of the opposite sex can make us feel quite good too. But here was a man I had never seen before and what he said touched me more than some of the compliments I had gotten from cute girls.
I suppose I can't do justice to his demeanor, the fact that looking and talking to this man you could tell that he had his act together, that he was very confident yet pleasantly humble, unassuming and calm, that he had this aura that somehow attested to him having had life experiences that were deep and numerous beyond what is typical of someone (only) his age.

I realize that if adjectives were sugar, the last sentence would give people a headache. The point is that this compliment somehow inherited value and meaning because of the impression the person who made it gave off. It had enough impact on me that this turned into one of the rare occassions where I was at a loss for words. While fumbling for my grace, the only regretful response I could come up with was:

"You too."

I oughta smack you

Punk, who do you think you are? You think the world owes you something? That you were born with a right to withdraw something from here without putting anything in?

Living a life of whims and whines. "I want I want..." Bastard, earn! You don't want to give up anything, nor do you want to be accountable, yet you want to be treated like an adult? You use fancy words, take hard classes, consider yourself a smart person, yet you fail to see your responsibilities? You take all the priveleges you've been given, including every breath you take right now, and act like you deserve and earned them. What are you doing? Tell me, what are YOU putting back?
Damn parasite, you digust me. Smug in all your superficial, inconsequential bullshit. Self important and hedonistic, yet completely ignorant to the big picture, be it your eco-footprint or your luck. Haughty and drunk on your faux-intelligence. Oblivious to truth because you just can't get enough of yourself. It's a bitter irony that wisdom will always elude you for your consistent lack of humility.

The worst thing is, that I might not be that different from you.

Notpron

A few days back a friend of mine, one of the smarterst girls I know, showed me Notpron, the self proclaimed hardest riddle on the internet. I went through the first 6 levels pretty quick, but it got hard fast. I had to cheat a little to get to where I am now, which is level 11. I haven't touched it in a few days, but I think I'll try to get back into it at some point. My friend stopped at level 49. I have to at least beat her.
If you're going to attempt it, you can't be a technophobe. You don't HAVE to know computers or HTML or messing with files, but you can't be scared of it either. Apparently some people learned about all sorts of things trying to solve these levels. It does take patience though.

Green Tea Procrastination

I don't like how certain things work out.

I'm somewhat of an insomniac. It's not that I can't sleep. I love sleeping. The problem is I love being awake just as much. So I'll stay awake for 20+ hours, and then I'll want to sleep for 10. The problem of course is that the earth rotates a little to fast for this sort of sleep schedule.
I can be tired all day long from only having slept two hours the night before, but come evening I become wide awake and will want to stay up half the night again.
There is an exception to this rule, an exception that I strongly dislike. I wish this exception had a human incarnation so I could slap it around and yell at it. That exception is when I really need to get something done that night. THEN, all of the sudden im tired at 10pm and want to slee, even though I might have slept 11 hours the previous night! Ugh!

And that's kind of how it is right now. I'm sitting at starbucks and I really should be doing a bunch of work, but all of the sudden blogging (which I haven't done in like two million years since my last entry) seems like something I want to do. It's all kind of pathetic when you think about it.

Talking about pathetic, I'm planning to go to Europe for a month this summer. I've already bought the ticket and made all the arrangements. Except one thing. Apparently my passport has expired. I have less than two months till I leave and I still haven't gone to renew it.

Talking about procrastinating, Taxes are always due on the 15th of April. Well this year the 15th of april fell on a saturday, so the IRS pushed the due date to the following Monday. So not only do I wait till a date way too close to the 15th, I actually used the fact that this year we have an extra two days and ended up doing my taxes on Sunday. Weak, I know.

Talking of weak, I'm going to ask my boss for a raise soon. He won't like it I'm sure. I'm not even talking about your average raise, I wan't $6/hour more than what I'm getting now. That's a lot I know, but I do have reasons. We'll see what he says.

An asian girl just walked in. I noticed the other day how asian baby girls or just any asian kids are like the cutest little creatures ever. I was watching this video on metacafe the other day just wanted to scoop these little kids up in my arms. Just too adorable. Most babies are, but asians seem to take the cake in kiddy cuteness. Come to think of it, there are a lot of asian women who retain that sweet calm demeanor as they grow older. Well not a lot, but the girl that walked in did.

I can't believe how many people they got working here. There's like more starbucks employees than total amount of customers that where in the store at any one given time. I gotta remember to leave a tip today.

I suppose I should actually do some work seeing as I'm going to be asking for a raise and actually want to move on with life.

I'm sad

I just watched Lord of War.

The world is a horrible place.

Spoiled Brats

A post I read on Mysterious In Blue's page made me think a little. We often hear others, or catch ourselves thinking how the younger ones have it SO much easier than we did. And this might be true. If I had had the internet and email all my life, my lazy ass would still be in touch with most the friends I ever had. Or if I had the cool high-tech robotic computer programmable lego's they have today, I'd be a mad scientist.
There are a lot of examples like that, but overall I wouldn't dream of trading my childhood with anyone from this generation. I've had so much fun as a kid with so many things that you just can't do anymore. And my dad and uncles and that whole older generation had it even better!

So I'm tired right now, but I'll update this entry soon and make a list of all the things that I think were better about my childhood and my generation than that of today's youth. So if you're over 25, or had the privelege of growing up in a country or an area where things are still a little more 'old school', post your comments on how and why your childhood was cooler!