Three's a Party

I've been working really hard to figure out who I should vote for this presidential election.  One the one hand, Hilary Clinton is a criminal with plans that will ruin our country, while on the other hand, Donald Trump is a criminal with plans that will ruin our country.  Every time I would make up my mind who I would vote for, I'd read a news story that proved that would be a bad idea.  Now I feel like I can't vote for either candidate and still retain my integrity.

That's why I'm not voting for either of them.  I'm voting for a third-party candidate, independent Evan McMullin.  He happens to be a member of the Church, but that's not why I picked him.  I picked him because he's the least terrible candidate to choose from.  Don't get me wrong, I think McMullin will do a fine job, but he's also the only candidate that doesn't turn my stomach just thinking about voting for them.  Some may say that I'm throwing my vote away by voting for a third-party candidate.  To them I say that by voting for McMullin, I'll still be able to vote and exercise my civic duty without supporting a candidate who I detest.

So if you're struggling with who to vote for, remember that you have more than two options.

The Wrong Approach

With the recent mass shooting in Orlando, many lawmakers are trying to block assault rifle sales throughout the US.  The idea is that the type of assault rife that many gunmen use make it easy to kill lots of people in a short time, so making those kinds of guns illegal will save many lives.

When I first heard about the latest push, I got very upset.  It's not that I'm a staunch supporter of the second amendment (I don't care for guns and I don't plan on ever personally owning one), it's that I get mad when people, particularly politicians, ignore the big picture in favor of flashy, trending topics.

The Orlando shooting had the most victims of any mass shooting in the United States, with a total of 49 fatalities.  And since mass shootings are becoming increasingly more frequent, that record may not stand long.  Those 49 people senselessly lost their lives, yes, but what about the thousands who lose their lives every year?  Mass shootings make the news because they are legitimately terrifying, but they overshadow the individual murders that take place every day.  In 2012, 8,855 people were murdered with a firearm.  Where are the politicians rallying for them?  In fact, from 1980 to 2008, mass shootings accounted for only one percent of homicides.  In other words, the number of people who die in mass shootings are statistically insignificant.

I am not trying to make light of the murders that have taken place -- a murder is always tragic, regardless of the circumstances.  I am, however, trying to point out that many lawmakers (and many average citizens) are going after the wrong problem.  While I can't find any firm numbers by a reliable source, everyone agrees that the majority of guns used in criminal activity are illegally obtained.  But homicides committed with illegal firearms don't make for good headlines, so they're often ignored.  To be fair, law enforcement agencies all over the country are working constantly to stop the flow of illegal weapons, but it's a task for which they are understaffed and underfunded.

After mass shootings like the one in Orlando, lawmakers feel like they "have to do something," even if that "something" is pointless and ineffectual in solving the problem.  Now, the argument could be made that if even one life is saved by banning assault weapons, then the effort was worth it.  But if we can save even more lives by going after illegal guns, why don't we do that first or at least simultaneously?

Should the average citizen be allowed to purchase a military-grade assault rifle?  I don't know the answer to that question, but what I do know is that the City of Baltimore saw 344 homicides in 2015 and zero mass shootings.  Are those deaths less tragic simply because they were spread out over the whole year instead of happening on one night?

I Cost Too Much

The other day at work, I was talking to my manager, Magda, about how I was having trouble with the copyediting work I was doing.  In the instance in question, I was having to argue my case for the edits I made to two separate managers who are not native English-speakers.  This wasn't simply a matter of using a dashes instead of parentheses, but of using the wrong word.

The document I was proofing was explaining how some new packaging would secure the product better during transit and kept referring to the bottom layer as the "lower wedge."  I can see why that word was picked since wedges are sometimes used to secure things (like a door stop), but there were no triangular shapes to be found anywhere in any of the diagrams or photographs of the packaging.  I finally quoted a dictionary and highlighted why the word didn't fit.  Finally, the product manager saw the light and we compromised with "pack bottom."

When I related the story to Magda, she pulled up an email that she thought was similar.  In it, one of the people from product information (the group that I met with back in October) was dealing with a similar back-and-forth over several emails and finally got fed up.  "I cost too much to be spending so much time on this project," he wrote.  Magda made it clear that his choice of words was too strong, but she agreed with the sentiment.  My time is valuable and if people are arguing with me over something, I need to let them know that they're wasting the company's money, albeit gently.

I must say, I really enjoy having a boss who clearly has my back, almost as much as I do knowing that I'm a valuable commodity for my company.

Blizzard Aftermath

When I went out to my car yesterday morning, it was mostly cleared of snow.  The work that I had done on Sunday was mostly focused on the sides near the doors and the rear that would block me from backing out of my space.  When the plows finally came Monday evening, they took care of the rest.

At least, that's how it appeared.  However, once I was back in front of my car, I saw that the hood of my car had a pile of snow on it that was over three feet tall (that was connected to an even large pile on the adjacent hill) and the wind had blown lots of snow under my car.  I turned on the engine to heat things up in the hopes that would make it easier to get going.  The weather has been pretty warm since the blizzard, so my windows weren't frosted over, which helped.  After a few minutes, I decided to try backing out.  The snow under my car had made a sort of tall hump that prevented me from getting much traction: I would back up and my tires would spin.  I ended up rocking the car back and forth (backing up, braking, following forward, then backing up with the natural momentum of the car) and finally got free.  I still had to clear off a bunch of snow from the hood, but the worst was over.

The roads were all pretty bad.  I live in a suburb of Baltimore and most streets have multiple lanes, but in nearly every case, only one lane was cleared.  At first I was mad that city crews hadn't worked harder, but then I realized that we got 32 inches of snow in a day and a half.  To put that in perspective, Baltimore County received 42 inches of snow in all of 2015.  The resources to deal with this much snow just didn't exist.  The fact that I made it to work at all was kind of amazing.

Dealing with the snow has been a hassle, sure, but I haven't been in danger, so I really have nothing to complain about.

(In)convenient Home Delivery

One of the ways that online shopping advertises itself as being more convenient than shopping in brick-and-mortar stories is that you simply click a few links, enter your payment and shipping information, and your items are delivered right to your door.

Except when they're not.  I ordered some items from Amazon recently and, because I pay for the additional Prime membership, I automatically got upgraded to two-day shipping.  So, I came home on Friday expecting my package, only to find a note from UPS saying that they didn't deliver anything since no one was home.  I've had to go through this sort of thing in the past, so I signed the back of the note on the "X" and put the note back on my door on Monday morning.

When I got home on Monday, there was nothing.  No package, no note: nothing.  I become worried that the package got lost over the weekend or that one of my neighbors took the box right off of my door mat.  I looked up my order on Amazon to get the tracking number to see what happened on UPS' end.  It turns out, that they weren't asking for my signature with the earlier note; they just let me know that they would try again on the next weekday.  When no one answered the door on Monday, they took my box to an Access Point, which was located in a convenience store, though not one that was particularly close.  I called ahead and confirmed that they had my package before I left.  Once there, the process of getting my box was easy enough and I was out the door in less than five minutes.

Here's the thing: part of the reason I ordered online was to avoid going anywhere.  While I had other motivations (picking exactly the items I wanted, getting a better deal than was available in local stores, etc.), staying at home was still part of the deal.  And while I understand why UPS did what they did, they should have left me a note the second time to tell me that I would have to pick up my package.

The moral here is that I don't like being inconvenienced.  And these days, isn't the act avoiding inconveniences the American way?

The Challenges of Vehicle Ownership

Things are much better for me now than they were the same time last year: I've been employed with Danfoss for over a year, I live close to my job, I'm living within my means, and I have a much nicer car that's also in my name.  And while that last point is true, it was tested a bit last week.

After a good workout at the gym, I stopped at a grocery store on the way home to pick up a few essentials.  It was an uneventful trip, until I got in the car to go home.  I turned the key, but the engine wouldn't start.  It seemed like a low battery, except that my headlights, dome light, and wipers all worked.  I called the closest repair shop and asked them if they could see me that night.  They couldn't, but they invited me bring my car in the morning (the man to whom I spoke suggested that the working lights and wipers could mean that the battery charge was too low to start the car but high enough to operate the peripheral).  In the meantime, I still needed to get home.

I called my friend Erin and asked if she had a set of jumper cables.  She didn't, but her parents did and they were on their way to the church for tithing settlement and were happy to swing by to give me a jump.  After about fifteen minutes, they arrived and we hooked up our car batteries.  My car started right up.  I thanked them for their help before I drove around for twenty minutes in an attempt to charge the battery.

The next morning, my car wouldn't start again.  I didn't want to trouble my neighbors, so I walked over to the main office and asked if for a member of the maintenance staff to come and give me a jump.  The guy in the office is a bit of tool and said that he would pass the message along, but refused to give me an estimate on when I would be helped.  Two hours later, one of the maintenance guys knocked on my door.  He was very polite and more than happy to jump my car.  I, of course, went straight to the repair shop.

Since my car isn't that old and hasn't had any trouble with the battery before, I paid extra for an electrical system diagnostic, which simply proved that the problem was with the battery.  The guy working the desk was the manager and felt bad that I needlessly paid for the service, so he gave me a discount on the battery itself -- not for the full price of the diagnostic, but I still appreciated the gesture.  It took nearly two hours before my car was ready, but it hasn't had anymore trouble starting.

While this was a frustrating experience, I'm grateful that I have friends on whom I can rely for help and that I have the means to take care of unexpected emergencies like this when they arise.  When the last car I drove started breaking down, it proved to be a huge burden.  This time, it was merely an annoyance.

Tuesdays with Media: OED's Word of the Year, 2015

A little over a year ago, I wrote about the odd choices the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) made with new the entries they were adding for the first time.  This time around, I'll simply be focusing on the word the OED declared as the word of the year for 2015.  The word is .  For my readers that don't know, that little picture is called an emoji, and it's mostly used in text messaging.  Even when it shows up in other places, it only appears in text-based communication since it can't be spoken.

This year's word choice (excuse me, "word choice") is stupid.  According to the OED, they chose it because it "best reflect the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015," but it's still really dumb.  I accept that emoji are a part of life nowadays, but that doesn't make them words.  I think of words as a form of communication that is used verbally and can be represented on page or screen with text -- that is to say, words are verbal first and visual second.  According to the OED's definition, a word can be either spoken or written, so I suppose by their standard it fits, but it doesn't make it any less stupid.

And it's especially frustrating because one of the words that made it to the shortlist was "they" to refer to an individual of unspecified gender.  I've been arguing for years that this definition should be recognized because as a culture we've been using for as long as I can remember.  "They" is not only a real word, it's been in use for much longer -- emoji were first available English speakers (adopted from the Japanese) in 2000, but only really became popular in the last few years.

As with last year, this year's recognition feels like a bunch of lexicographers that are trying hard to be relevant in word that increasingly doesn't care about them ... and it's actually working.  I just wrote an entire blog post ranting about how stupid their decision was, but would I have done so if they had chosen "they" like I wanted?  Maybe, but I'm an English nerd.  I'm betting that this year's word got a lot of people talking, though I'd guess most of it was negative.  If the OED was going by the mantra "there's no such thing as bad publicity," then I guess they accomplished their goal.

But it's still stupid.

Tuesdays with Media: Lost in the shuffle

Where are the Thanksgiving songs?  Why aren't stores overflowing with Thanksgiving-themed decorations?  What about Thanksgiving-specific clothes or Thanksgiving candy?

I'm sure you've noticed that as far as holidays go, Thanksgiving is sort of a footnote these days.  Sure, we get special time off from work and school and we have traditions associated with the holiday, but it's largely ignored by retailers.  If you follow holidays according to what displays you find at department stores and grocery stores, we go straight from Halloween to Christmas.  This has been happening for years, but this year feels particularly extreme.

Usually, the Christmas displays start getting set up before the Halloween stuff is taken down, but there's usually a little bit of attention given to Thanksgiving.  This year, I haven't seen a single display reminding shoppers to buy turkey and pie and lots of side dishes.  It's just "Buy candy and costumes for Halloween!" and straight to "Buy presents for Christmas!"  I remember as a kid there were these Reese's Peanut Butter cups sold in the shape of a turkey -- those too are absent this year.

There are even sales that start on Thanksgiving.  We're all used to "Black Friday" sales going out of control, but they're so popular that stores are starting things even earlier.  Unfortunately, they're happening earlier and earlier because they're popular.  Basic supply and demand dictates that if people didn't go to these shopping events, stores would stop having them.  We as a population have decided that we like giving up Thanksgiving for a chance to get a good deal.

This is particularly troubling for me since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Yes, I love to cook and bake, but that's not why I love Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving because the holiday is about being with family.  Even in 2013, when I spent Thanksgiving with the Simciks, I was still spending it with family, just family that I'm not related to by blood or marriage.  Thanksgiving is just about spending time together and relaxing.  Yes, we eat a big meal, but that's just an activity we're doing together.  There's no stress about gift-giving, like with Christmas, and since it's a cultural holiday rather than a religious one, we can say "Happy Thanksgiving" to people without worrying about offending them.  And, yes, I'm excited to bake the turkey again this year, but I'm more excited about for whom I'm baking it.

Too bad for the people that are giving that up, because it truly is their loss.

The Itch Returns

My apartment looks like I recently went a coke bender and, no, I'm not referring to the cola.  There are piles of while powder all over the place: in the bathroom, in front of the couch, in front of the desk, down the hall, and plenty in the kitchen.

The substance is sodium bicarbonate or baking soda.

You see, on Monday, I was in the Larsen's backyard for less than thirty minutes, but that was all it took for the she-mosquitoes to feast on my delicious blood.  I knew I had been bit at least a few times, but by the time I got home, I counted twenty bug bites on my legs.

I took as much Benadryl as was safe, but it made little difference.  I woke up Tuesday night with my legs involuntarily twitching from the intense itching.  I looked up different remedies and decided to go with applying a baking soda paste.  Thankfully, the paste took the edge off enough that I wasn't fighting the urge to rip my own skin off.  But due to the way that the paste would dry and flake off, it meant that I needed to work from home on Wednesday.  Thankfully, my temporary manager was fine with that solution and I was able to regularly treat my bites throughout the day.  Enough of the irritant had passed through my system that I was able to return to the office the next day.

Since I'm still applying the paste when I'm home, it doesn't make sense to clean up yet.  I'm hoping to be through the worst of it by this weekend.

Siding with the Opposition

We live in a world with shifting views, especially with regards to faith and religion.  I recently heard about a survey that found that people of my generation are the least religious of any previous generation, to the surprise of no one.  With so many people firm in their stance against what I believe, I've mostly gotten used to being in the minority where religious devotion is concerned.  Perhaps that's why I get so annoyed when I have to agree with the opposing side.

As you're probably already aware, Kim Davis, the Rowan, Kentucky County Clerk is refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.  She cites her religious beliefs as the reason for the refusal, despite being ordered to issue the licences by the Supreme Court.  She says she is more concerned about God's judgement than the opinions of opponents and doesn't want her name and signature on the marriage licences of same-sex couples.  All of that makes sense to me; the part where she loses me is that she refuses to resign.

She is an elected official, put in office by the people of Rowan County, Kentucky to serve them in a specific capacity.  One of her responsibilities is to issue marriage licences, including to same-sex couples.  I find it unfortunate that the Supreme Court is requiring all states to recognize same-sex marriage, but that is the law.  If Ms. Davis doesn't want to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples, then she should quit.

It seems these days that more and more people are confusing what religious freedom and freedom of speech means.  For example, when I worked at IHOP during college, that particular location required all employees to work both Saturday and Sunday.  I asked that I not have to work Sundays due to my religious beliefs and they acquiesced.  If they hadn't, I wouldn't have worked for them.  The first amendment protects our rights from being infringed by the government, not by other parties.  With the case of Ms. Davis, while she does work for the government, she also agreed to perform the duties of her office when she signed up to be a county clerk.  If she doesn't agree with what those duties are, she certainly has a right to protest, but once the judgement is declared, she needs to either grit her teeth and issue marriage licences to the qualifying people within her county or she needs to resign.

One of the reasons this particular case is so frustrating is because so many people who are not religious will see this woman's behavior and label everyone who is religious as "crazy."  We as human beings tend to categorize things, even people, so for the many people out there that don't have any religious friends to serve as a counter-example, Ms. Davis is serving as a symbol of all Christians, making us all look like zealots who are standing in the way of "progress."

Again, I agree with Ms. Davis' beliefs and I understand her dilemma, but if she doesn't like the job for which she signed up, she needs step down.

Tuesdays with Media: Paperman

Wreck-it Ralph was a fun animated film released by the Walt Disney company in 2012.  Attached to the feature was an animated short called Paperman, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the year it was released.

I don't care for it.  (Spoilers below.)

Sorry for all the ads.

The style of the animation is quite clever: a three-dimensional environment that's rendered in a way so that it looks hand-drawn.  Plus, it's black-and-white (except for one character's lipstick), which helps it stand out from the crowd.  And the story is told without any dialog, making the short film a completely visual experience.

So why does this award-winning short get no love from me?  Two reasons: story and figure design.

The story is simple enough: a young man meets a young woman at a train station on his way to work, they have a "meet cute," and go their separate ways.  In his office job, he sees the girl from the train station across the street at the neighboring building.  He ignores his duties and tries to get her attention by throwing paper airplanes her way.  They all fail to get her attention, but they end up meeting up at the end anyway.  The credits roll beside still shots of them talking in a coffee shop.

The basic message is that when you meet the "one," nothing else will matter.  Love is your destiny and anything that gets in the way is bad and wrong and out to destroy your happiness.  I hate these kinds of stories.  Relationships take work; I don't care if two people are "meant" to be together or not, because if they don't work on their relationship, they'll be "destined" to break up.

Also, is this random girl that our protagonist met once going to want to support him when he gets fired from his job?  While we don't see the unnamed character actually get fired, we do see him run out of the office despite his angry boss silently reminding him to get back to work.  Too many movies and TV shows teach that you need to "follow your heart" to be happy, but these stories ignore that doing so will still have boring parts.  I sought out my current job and I've never been happier with a place of employment, but there are still plenty of assignments (or parts of assignments) that I don't really like.  Would the story have been that different if he had rushed out to try and find her on his lunch break, only to run out of time and have to head back in once he finds her?  He'd give her his number and they'd still be able to meet at the coffee shop, just without risking his job.

And then there were the character designs, or design (singular) in this case.  Look, I get that many people equate "thin" with "attractive," but the female character just looks unhealthy.  When we first see her at around the 20 second mark, the first thing I thought of was how ridiculously skinny she looked.  Not only does she look like a light breeze will knock her over, but they made her waist even smaller.  Her waist is so small that her head is actually wider.  That's insane!  Plus, they've made her eyes so big that they're bigger than her hands (which also look undersized).

Look, I get that animation allows creators to design characters with unnatural or unrealistic proportions, but if they're pushing the limits of femininity, why not make the protagonist look like a Greek statue?  Instead, he's also thin, but looks much more natural: his eyes are more proportional, his waist is wider than his head, and he even gets a large nose to give his design personality.  The woman's face is pretty but boring.  With so many girls developing body-image issues, I disagree with the filmmakers' decision to present such an unrealistic vision of feminine beauty.

While I commend the creative team for mixing old and new styles and limiting themselves to a story told without words, I'm disappointed that they chose such a tired, cliché of a story to tell with characters that are in dire need of a cheeseburger.

Paperman is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

You Think This is Bad...?

I was talking with Ian last week about how Maryland is a state with a lot of move-ins.  At work, at church, wherever, I'll met someone and eventually it will come up that they're originally from some other state.  Since I am too, it helps me feel at home.

Apparently (according to Ian), a common complaint from non-native Marylanders is that state taxes here are very high.  I laughed out loud when I heard that.  Being from California, things seem downright reasonable here!

As an example, a few weeks ago I pushed a yellow light too much and ended up running a red light.  I was caught on camera and mailed a ticket, proof of my transgression.  I was annoyed that I had been so reckless, but I happily paid the $75 ticket.  For those unaware, a similar ticket in the San Diego area would be around $300.  Technically fines aren't taxes, but the two are connected.

Ultimately, I moved to Maryland because I couldn't find work in the Golden State and my new home state has treated me rather well so far, so I feel just fine about any taxes and fines that have come my way.

Tuesdays with Media: A Real-world Troll

About a year ago, I defined what an internet troll is in order to explain some principles of proper communication.  Today, I want to focus on why some people become trolls in the first place by using as an example, someone who does not limit themselves to saying terrible things on the internet:

Not all trolls live under bridges.

Donald Trump is currently pretending to run for the Republican Presidential nomination, but don't be fooled into thinking that he's serious about it.  Since he announced his candidacy, he's only said inflammatory things that would be sure to be passed around every news outlets.  Are there other candidates that are campaigning that we should have stronger borders?  Sure, but the rest are diplomatic about it, not saying that Mexicans "are rapists," among other terrible things.  Even his supporters thought he crossed the line when he implied that a female debate moderator was acting crazy because she was menstruating.

Trump has no previous political experience, his company has filed for bankruptcy four times, and he's changed party alignment as frequently as most people change socks.  This is not a man that has any real chance at becoming president.  The only reason it looks like he has a chance right now is that there are way too many GOP candidates right now.  Once things shake out a bit, Trump will drop out, just like he did the last time he ran.

If you're of the opinion that any publicity is good publicity, like Trump apparently is, then trolling is a very effective technique.  If, however, you actually want to both make a positive difference within our country and convince people to agree with you, then you may want to stick with showing how diplomatic you can be.  So, for the foreseeable future, expect Trump to show up in news headlines -- in strictly negative ways.

Weird Sadness

Allison's been served.  That means that our divorce is finally moving forward.  This is something that I've been working towards for months.  I've had several confirmations from the Spirit that this divorce is needed and necessary and I've been frustrated with the delays we've had with making this happen.

So, imagine my surprise that when I had finished making arrangements with Allison for her to receive the summons, that I broke down crying.  After all the pain and frustration I've already experienced, I didn't think I had any tears left.

This is another reminder that love is complicated.  You hurt someone and they hurt you and they hate you and you can't help but get angry when you talk to them and the best thing for both of you is to end your relationship, but you're still sad to see them go.  You remember how they laughed at your jokes and how they pushed you to be a better student and how the smell of their mouth was the most wonderful aroma you've ever experienced.  Despite all of the reasons that prove you need to go your separate ways, you're still sad about it and wish it could have ended differently.

Not knowing how to process these feelings, I shared them with Allison.  She confessed that she was sad too, adding that it was "weird."  Yeah, after all this time, it is weird to feel sad about getting divorced.  Weird, but, again, for the best.

Mouth Ulcer Attack

I am prone to developing mouth ulcers, known colloquially in the US as canker sores.  Unlike cold sores or fever blisters, which are caused by a virus, we don't really know what causes canker sores.  Some are caused by trauma (like accidentally jabbing the side of your mouth with your toothbrush), but others just seem to show up without cause.  Luckily, canker sores pose no harm beyond discomfort and are easy to treat.

The two most common ways to treat canker sores are the potato method and the salt method.  For the potato method, simply cut out a piece of a raw potato and place it next to the sore.  This works because there are some enzymes in the potato that kill the infection and promote healing.  If I use this method, I'll usually do it while I sleep.  This usually only takes one treatment to see a significant difference.  For the salt method, you rub common table salt into your sores.  This works because the salt dries out the sore and the infused iodine helps to kill the infection.  This is usually my preferred method only because I don't usually keep potatoes in my kitchen.  If you rub salt in your sores, be prepared for it to hurt -- after all, you're literally rubbing salt in a wound.  If you rub the canker sore long enough, one treatment will be enough.  Since "long enough" varies from sore to sore, it can sometimes take several treatments before true healing begins.

There's also a third treatment: hydrogen peroxide rinse.  I'm not suggesting that you actually gargle with straight hydrogen peroxide, but using a rinse with hydrogen peroxide as the active ingredient can work well.  I discovered this third method while shopping this last week.  After unsuccessfully treating three canker sores multiple times, I was getting rather frustrated.  I happened to walk down the oral hygiene aisle for something else, when I saw a bottle of Peroxyl, which boasted that it "promotes [the] healing of minor oral wounds," so I picked up a small bottle.  In the two days that I've used it, it's made a noticeable difference.  It stings a little while in the mouth, but it's nothing compared to using salt.

While I still don't know exactly what causes me to develop canker sores, I now have a new way to treat them.

Apartment Pros and Cons

I like my new apartment, but there are some things that were nicer about my old place.  Here's a list of pros and cons regarding my new home.

Pro
It's close enough to my office that my commute is only about twelve minutes long.

Con
I have to figure out a new morning routine since I don't have enough time to listen to the scriptures on the way to work.

Pro
I'm halfway underground, which should make a huge difference in my heating/cooling bill.

Con
I'm no longer on the top floor, so I get to hear my neighbors whenever they move around, despite them not being particularly noisy.

Pro
The rent is much lower than my previous place, meaning I don't need a roommate in order to live comfortably.

Con
I'm not in as nice a neighborhood.  I don't fear for my safety or my property, but there's a reason this place is cheaper.

Pro
I get free access to a pool and a small gym.

Con
Being that the neighborhood isn't as nice, I don't have access to several miles of non-busy streets to go running on, so I may end up using the gym more often than I'd like (I ran for about an hour yesterday, but nearly all of it was spent on the sidewalk of a main road).

Pro
I've already found a tasty and inexpensive Chinese/Japanese restaurant within walking distance -- the only Chinese or Japanese places near my old place were either expensive, not very good, or both.

Con
I have yet to find any Korean restaurants in the area.  My old place had five or six Korean places nearby and they were all great.  Maybe I just haven't found it yet...

Pro
I'm where the Lord wants me to be.  I'd put a "Con" about how I'll miss my old ward, but that would make my complaint appear to have equal weight to the Lord's desires for me, which it does not.

So, while I'll miss certain things about my old place, it's nice that I've so quickly found things that I like about my new home.

New Fatigue

When your average day at work consists of you sitting at your desk typing -- occasionally getting up to discuss a project with a coworker or work on a side project (like taking product photographs) for a couple of hours -- it's what your body comes to expect.  Unfortunately for me, the entirety of the last two days has been spent standing and shooting video, leaving me exhausted both physically and mentally.  I know, it lame of me to complain that I didn't get to sit in my comfy office chair for eight hours, but it think the change in activity was more mentally tiring since I had to think about different kinds of problems and how to fix them.

I don't want to insinuate that I'm dissatisfied with my job.  I'm just happy that I'm a technical writer and that the videos only count as a side project, at least on day like today.

At Least One Native is Restless

Yesterday at work, I received an email requesting my help proof-reading some instructions.  As I've mentioned before, this isn't an unusual request, so I thought little of it when I opened the attached document.  What I found was different from what I usually work on.  For one, the document was written by someone in my office who is, presumably, a native English-speaker.  For two, the document was much longer than those that I normally help out with: nearly thirty pages as opposed to three to five.  Still, this is a standard part of my job, so I dove right in.

The documents that I normally proof have been reviewed at least once already.  I usually just catch some awkward phrasing that slipped through or fix punctuation errors.  This time, it was pretty clear that whoever worked on the document before me hadn't even read through it once.  There were three sentences that just ended in the middle (something like "To set the temperature access the. To set the time ...").  Three!  One or even two would be surprising enough but three makes it seem like he was trying to slip in mistakes.  Remember how it was really long?  Well that wasn't that big a deal because the last half of it wasn't written: it was just a bunch of headings and sub-headings, but no body text.

I tried really hard to be as polite as possible with the questions I asked ("This sentence appears to end in the middle. Was that intentional?"), but I had to correct so many errors and ask a lot of clarifying questions that I wonder if the original author will be offended.  If he takes offence, I'll be honest and point out that I had to ask so many questions because the instructions he wrote were so unclear.  Maybe it'll be fine and he'll recognize that I'm just doing my job.

Who would have guessed that proofing a (presumed) native English-speaker's work would be so much more annoying than a non-native one's?  Maybe the stuff from Danish writers is more fun because I can look for patterns to learn about some of the difference between the languages.  Whatever the reason for the difference in enjoyment, I was very pleased to discover that the page count was inflated.

You Don't Even Know Me

One of the recent times that my sister, Margot, visited, she commented that I needed to share my thoughts on a matter because my face was blank and she didn't know how I felt about it.  I was a little surprised, but I guess I have trained myself to have my "standard face" be one of no emotion.  That could allow some people project onto me emotions that I'm not actually experiencing.  Perhaps that's what happened yesterday.

Yesterday evening, I was driving home from mutual where I was helping to supervise a joint activity between the Young Men and Young Women of our ward and a neighboring ward (it involved plenty of water balloons) when I stopped by a nearby grocery store to pick up a quart of milk.  I had had an enjoyable evening and had gotten a chance to talk with some of the other adults with whom I am friends, so I was feeling pretty good.  However, when I walked up to the store's entrance, a woman who was waiting for her ride told me to "Cheer up: at least you don't live in Texas" (I assume she's referring to the floods that are currently affecting the people of the Lone Star state.)  I quickly went from "neutral" to "majorly annoyed" and I said what first came to mind: "You don't even know me."  I never stopped walking during our exchange, so I went inside and never heard her reply, if she gave one.

I recognize that she was trying to be nice, cheering up a guy who she assumed was not having the best day.  But my day had been fine.  She was making assumptions about how I should express myself when I'm alone.  In doing so, she replaced my "simply not smiling" with a scowl.

There's a bit of a parallel here with women who get told something like "You'd be prettier if you smiled" by random guys as they're walking somewhere.  No, I don't have it nearly as bad -- I'm a college-educated, tall, white, Christian man; I am a member of the least oppressed group in history, not withstanding the Church's early years.  But regardless of gender, why do people feel the need to give advice to random strangers on their mood?  For all that woman knew, I knew one of the victims that the floods claimed and her comment could have caused me to burst into tears.  I could have been from Texas and missed living there, in spite of the recent events.  I could be dealing the sea of emotions that comes with getting divorced.  And so on.

I should say that I calmed down pretty quickly after the interaction and by the time I had paid for the milk, I was back to "neutral."  Still, I find it very bizarre (and, yes, frustrating) that someone told me to cheer up when I recognize that I'm the happiest I've been in years.  A lack of tears doesn't mean someone isn't sad, just as a lack of a smile doesn't mean a lack of contentment.

Tuesdays with Media: The Public Life of Celebrities

Before I begin, watch this clip from an interview with Robert Downey, Jr.:

That's a shortened clip from the full interview that Downey did to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron.  The interviewer, having asked all the questions he had about the film, asked the actor if he would mind answering some personal questions.  Downey lookeds a little weary, probably because he'd been giving interviews for hours and just wanted to be done already, but he smiled and agreed to the more personal stuff.  The interviewer brought up Downey's dark past (he struggled with addiction) and you see Downey's whole countenance change: he starts breathing heavily and his eyes are filled with a mixture of pain and anger.  Despite the interviewer being a completely insensitive jerk, Downey simply got up and ends the interview, not once saying a mean word.

I bring this up because celebrities have troubles that the rest of us don't face.  Everyone has things in their past that they aren't proud of, but we don't have people bringing them up to us well after we've overcome those troubles.  I'm not proud of the fact that it took me eight years to get my four-year degree, that I've struggled with depression, that I'm getting divorced, or that I had a rough start to my career as a technical writer, but I don't have to talk about those things to complete strangers.

Now don't get me wrong, celebrities have a lot of perks that come from living in the public eye (lots of celebrities get paid more than I make in a year just to attend parties) and that often makes up for having to deal with the less desirable stuff.  But the fact that you can't completely move on must wear down on a person.

I recently gave a lesson in the Teacher's Quorum about repentance and the fact that we can move beyond our faults through the atonement is a fundamental principle of the gospel.  I am not suggesting that by being in the public eye, celebrities can't take advantage of the atonement, just that constantly (or even occasionally) being reminded of your past mistakes must be hard.

I don't know what kind of person Robert Downey, Jr. is, but he showed great personal strength by not cussing out the interviewer.  Sure, he may have only held back because there were cameras rolling, but his behavior was still commendable.  I think this particular event stood out to me because I could empathize with him.  Not the cameras and all of that, but feeling anxious while talking to someone and wanting to be anywhere else.  Most of us don't have the luxury of being able to walk away from someone that's offending us, but most of us aren't having our personal demons shoved in our faces either.  So while there are enviable aspects of being rich and famous, it comes with some pretty substantial negatives, too, and I wouldn't wish that lifestyle on anyone.