Down On Ferry Farm

(are you seeing a pattern?) Went out to dinner with L-girl today. Ended up also watching a movie. Went to dinner at a restaurant inside a local mall. It was very cold as we sat there eating our food. We decided to walk around the mall but ended up watching a movie we both wanted to see. It was all very nice. I think Superman disapproves. I'm not sure I approve, per se, I just need to get back up on that horse and hanging around with L-girl seems to do the trick. I also (finally) received my iPod. I had it sent to the office and then I couldn't play with it until Saturday morning. I have loaded all my downloaded stuff on there and it barely scratches the surface towards filling it. I'm now starting to rip all my CD's so I can load them on there as well. It's a long and boring excercise but it will be very cool once I get it done. Superman and I went out to our favorite 'talkery' (that's where we talk and eat) but ended up not staying very long... so no ne

Tonight I was given my instructions. I have my marching orders and I intend to follow them -- as soon as I figure out what they mean. I was told, by my good friend Superman, what I was to do. Are you ready for this? I am to obey the following command: "You must win a victory for humanity". Wow, that's a tall order... or a short order -- I don't know. I'm still trying to find out what it means. I asked for examples but was given none. I tried to ask questions but there were just no answers to be had. It's one of those "Art of War" statements, right? The master speaks and then I have to figure out what the hell he means? I did a quick bit of research just now on the phrase (as quoted by Horace Mann). Seems to me it's about making the right choices for the right reasons. There are also larger questions that are tackled, mostly having to do with curing cancer or overcoming such overwhelming odds for which I'm not equipped. If I apply this larger-

(isn't it always about women?) Had a very nice dinner with one of our company's long-time clients (she's now retired). It was good to see that the people who worked most closely with her showed up. She's such a great lady and I was glad she came by for a visit. I only caught about a quarter of what she said because the restaurant we were in was fairly loud and she talks very softly. She's been gone from her company for about 3 years now, so we had a few laughs updating her on our perspective of what that company is up to. It seems that none of the people she worked closely with are still there but she did recognize some of the names we mentioned. Very few 'nice' occasions have happened to me lately -- I count that as one of them. Somehow, I got interested in watching this summer-series on ABC called 'Hooking Up'. It's about these women in NYC who, for my money, would have NO problem finding a guy. The cameras follow them around and interview them

I really like technology. In a lot of ways it makes my job and my daily life easier. It seems that most of the focus of technology these days is towards better communication. "There's this girl" I used to date who keeps in contact with me by text messaging my phone. Every once in a while she'll message me and I'll respond as positively as I can. Whenever I try and ask about how her life is going I'll get responses like: "I've been really busy" "There's a lot going on" "It's a long story" "You don't want to know" "My life has been crazy" etc. It drives me crazy. I think in a lot of ways she brings this drama on herself -- at least the part of it that is real. A lot of it is also 'oh, poor pitiful me' kind of stuff. I get my usual response from her and then wait a month or so before she messages me again. 'DubDub' and I dated about 3 years and I never met her family. I barely met

As mentioned previously, there are certain aspects of my job that put me into ethical quandries. There are also parts of my job where I am reporting numbers, counts, tallys, etc. I am given specifications before I produce those counts. I am only telling you this because I got blamed for producing 'wrong' numbers. I always say: "there are no such things as wrong numbers, it's just not what you wanted". Semantics. Anyhow, there was this whole big stink about these numbers and my only defense was to say "those are the numbers I was told to produce". I went so far as to put the way I came up with the numbers on the bottom of each page of the report. When I produced a copy of what I did for the President of our company -- that's when it sunk in. Vindication! I love that feeling. I'm as sorry as I can be about what happened. Apparently the numbers we reported got published and they weren't the numbers that the client wanted. Doesn't that sound

So I walk into this restaurant (strung out from the road) and there are some people in there eating. An elderly couple in the corner, a guy sitting by himself reading the paper and what appears to be a man and his three daughters eating lunch. Two of the girls look like they're about 5 or 6 years old. The other looks like she's maybe in her late teens.... 18 or 19. The father looks like he's about 35 and maybe works construction, mechanic -- definitely a blue collar guy. Anyhow, I order my food, find a table and start eating. The elderly couple gets up to leave and they pass by the man and his daughters. "Oh, what a nice family", says the old woman. "Three such beautiful daughters", says the old man. The guy sitting with his 'daughters' looks up from his food, points across the table at the oldest of the girls and says "that's my WIFE". They older couple apologizes all over themselves and leave the place. I look over at the man read

You know, I know that L-girl and I are not dating... we're not joined at the hip, but it still pisses me off when I get dismissed. Previously I had mentioned that L-girl and I were supposed to hang out on Sunday (yesterday). Well, I called her and left a voicemail on her cellphone. Didn't hear anything. Later that night I realized "hey, I still haven't heard from L-girl". So I see her in the office: L-girl: "Hey" Me: "Hey. What happened to you yesterday?" L-girl: "What do you mean?" Me: (now visibly pissed off) "Uh... we were supposed to get together yesterday. What happened?" L-girl: "Oh, my daughter was sick and I wasn't feeling too good either". Me: "You couldn't have picked up the phone and just called to say that? You had to leave me hanging the whole day?" L-girl: "I didn't even know my daughter was sick until this morning. The baby's father kept calling and I didn't even ca

Every once in a while you go through an event in your life that restores your faith in humanity. By experiencing this event, you change your philosophy and see all the goodness that abounds in every great frame of this film we're living. I don't just 'want' one of those events, I 'need' one of those events. The question is: why? Why do I feel like I need someone in my life? What is wrong with my existence that feels like it needs something else to fill it, to make it whole? Where is this woman? When will she appear? I really want to know. I keep saying to myself, "You know what... you're done with women. You don't need them". But I do. I don't just need a woman, I want one. There is misery in my life without one. I don't want to drag her through that, I want her to save me from it. Misery, that is... Reading back through what I've already written, I notice how many times I say "I". Damn straight! In this instance it IS all

It is HOT in this part of the world. I saw my neighbor again today... Still haven't met him. There is a Sharpie on the desk in front of me. I did some work today, remotely. I really, really need to clean my house up. Not just straighten it up, I need to CLEAN it. I once heard that 80% of dust consists of human skin. I watched "Doc Hollywood" today with Michael J. Fox. I'd like to watch the DVD to see if the young lady in that picture actually comes out of the water naked -- I'm pretty sure the way they show it, she does. I've only seen the movie on 'regular' TV, never the uncensored version. Did I mention it's hot today? My air conditioner is working overtime these days. What is the problem in America that we have with nudity? I'm embarrassed that the whole "Janet Jackson" thing was such a big scandal. Puh-leez! Somehow I acquired a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. I bought something at Best Buy and they told me I was eligible fo

Tonight was our company's annual trip to a baseball game. A-girl was there with her grandparents. Another girl from the office, S-girl, couldn't leave me alone. Here I am trying to make points with A-girl and S-girl kept interrupting. I don't know if she has a crush on me or what but she just wouldn't let me go. I moved seats and she moved next to me again. Here I go again, attracting the wrong girl. I hate that. I was perfectly fine, doing my own thing before the game and S-girl sends me a text message that I need to come pick her up at the office. She had previously mentioned that she might need a ride to the game. So I obliged... and she got drunk as hell at the game. Mabye that's why she was so clingy. Amazingly enough there were a few people there who had never been to a baseball game so I tried to explain as best I could the rules and finer points of baseball as I know them. It is at this point I will tell you that I am in no way, shape, or form a baseball fan

So this guy is standing in line for concert tickets. There are 10,000 tickets to be sold but there are 20,000+ people standing in line for them. So the box office has a bright idea: hand out pieces of paper numbered 1 to 10,000 to the people in line. They can draw numbers at random and sell tickets to the first 10,000 people. So this guy toward the middle of the line gets number 9287. He figures "it's going to take hours to get to a number this high. I've already been standing in line several hours -- it's not worth it". So he hands his slip of paper to the lady in line behind him. So the appointed time rolls around to begin drawing numbers for the tickets. The box office manager reaches his hand into a large box with slips of paper numbered 1 to 10,000. With great anticipation from the crowd, he hollars out the first number he draws: "9287"

I sent an e-mail about 'why men are happier' to some of the women in the office. One of the statements was about how men have about 3 pairs of shoes total. That led to a brief tally of people in the office as to how many pairs of shoes they own. Average for women seemed around 35... average for the men was below 10. Why is that? Why do women feel the need to own so many pairs of shoes? Does it fill any sort of need -- like chocolate? Is it a pride thing? I don't know, I didn't get many answers. A couple of the women said they had recently gotten rid of several pairs of shoes because they were worn out or because they didn't wear them anymore. That average for women would probably have been higher. They also couldn't believe that I didn't own a pair of sneakers (aka tennis shoes). I have a comfortable pair of shoes that have rubber soles that double for any occasion to which I might wear tennis shoes.... so there is no need. I don't know that I've eve

From time to time, in my line of work, ethical dilemmas come up that allow me to either fight them or cave in to what the company wants. Sometimes I win those fights... unfortunately, today was not one of those days. I'm going to do the work but I told them I am doing it under protest. I honestly don't know what good that's going to do but it just makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing by absolving myself from the backlash. Of course, when things like this happened in the past it turned out that I was the one who had to clean up the mess despite my protests and "I told you so". So where does it get me? Madder than a wet hen! Glad I could vent.

So I had lunch with A-girl today. We went to a general restaurant and had a nice lunch. We ate, talked, laughed... it was nice. I couldn't do it, though. I couldn't have "the talk". I was cut off at the knees last night when I mentioned having lunch with A-girl to G-lady (another woman in the office where I work). So G-lady tells me "A-girl is so in love with another guy she's talking about moving to where he is". I smile, nod, and tell her 'okay' just to pacify her. When it came right down to it, I couldn't broach the subject with A-girl over lunch. I didn't want to make a ham-handed effort to bring up the discussion so I just let it go. I tried not to think about it as I was eating because it would, most likely, make me very nervous around her. I didn't want that. Instead, it was very comfortable. I'm still waiting on the backlash from G-lady.

A-girl postponed lunch with me today, she had other plans. We're going to shoot for tomorrow. Wish me luck. The suspense is killing me. I had to deal with her for legitimate work purposes. We laughed quite a bit. I don't know whether it's from nervousness -- maybe she's on to me. I was a little nervous, but I didn't let it show... tried to be confident, I hear that's effective. I didn't stutter or stumble once but I think I came across more 'glib' than anything. I don't know, we'll see. Nothing much else to report because L-girl is not here today (she's my 'work wife' -- we talk quite a bit in the office). She usually has some drama going on in her life that should probably be written up in a book somewhere. I'm at work and should probably be working. Let me get back to it.

That's what I'm listening to, John Hiatt's "Have A Little Faith In Me". I got my hair cut today. I was long overdue (no pun intended). It looks much better and is much easier to deal with when it's shorter. It's Sunday and I've been catching up on Monk, Season 3 on DVD. I'm collecting those as well as M*A*S*H (where I'm up to Season 8). I also have the first 3 seasons of Alias -- Jennifer Garner.... mmmmmm. I guess it's time to confess that I'm on the prowl. "There's this girl..." at work I'm going to call A-girl because I want her to remain anonymous. I'm going to try and invite her to lunch tomorrow and see if I can have "the talk" with her. If you're not familiar with "the talk", it's that conversation that two people have where one basically says "I like you enough to date you". I do like her enough to find out if we're compatible. She and I recently traveled on busines

I sat around my computer all the time reading someone else's blog. I figured "I could do that". So here I am. I don't have any life-changing measures to bring you. I don't have any life-altering advice to dispense. I just wanted to try and do a blog the way it should be done -- you pour your heart out to the computer and people kibitz. Well, maybe not the kibitz part. So, here goes nothing...