Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

My Rather Unpopular Obama Viewpoint
January 22, 2009

I’m astounded by the amount of news coverage the inauguration has generated. Are people truly interested in this or is it that the media is saying we should be interested and we’re following along like our usual sheepish selves? Nonetheless, I don’t recall a presidential inauguration coming along with so much publicized pomp. One might say that it’s because it’s historic, but I would say that every presidential inauguration is historic.

We will only have racial equality when we don’t have to point out what things are equal. I don’t consider this presidency a significant step, like so many news shows portray. We’ve been stepping in this direction for a long time. That there is a black president doesn’t minimize racial discrimination everywhere else. Maybe it serves as an example to many how race shouldn’t hold back your dreams, but it’s not the catalyst or tipping point or King’s dream realized.

Watching and Weighting
January 20, 2009

I haven’t mentioned to many people that I’ve started a fitness program. Ok fine, it’s a “diet”, but I dislike the word, and not just because it doesn’t incorporate the fitness aspect, but because there’s a stigma attached to it. It’s weird how “fitness” sounds great in my head, but “diet” sounds like I’ve got a problem that I should be ashamed of.

I started out on the “Special K Diet”, which simply involves replacing two meals a day with bowls of Special K. Oddly enough, that works. I have since become more interested in what I’m eating and what energy I’m expending, and I signed up for Weight Watchers Online to start tracking these things. (There’s another name that sucks, “Weight Watchers”. They might as well call it “Fat Club”. There’s got to be a better name they could brand it as.)

Take One Photo Every Day for a Year
January 13, 2009

I wasn’t coerced into taking a picture every day for a year. Actually, I kind of started doing it on the sly, without being asked, fully expectant to give it up after a week or so. Instead, I find it strangely rewarding to see the photos go online, and to see what my interests really are, even if finding photos to take on some days is work.

Other people’s photos look wonderful to me. Some people just do great photography. I think my photo-taking, when it doesn’t include portraits of the light post I ignored or the poor lighting, reflects myself in the same way that my writing reflects myself. By this, I don’t just mean that my subjects are what is me, but more than that – the underlying selection of subjects as a whole shows what kind of person I am.

Why Can't It?
January 10, 2009

My writing queue is a mile long, and a year overdue. I’ve got ideas aplenty, a paradox of choice, and an imagined readership (not in its quantity, but its consistency) that demands perfection.

I’ve just noticed, moments ago, that the blogs I most enjoy reading these days are short. Three paragraphs convey their entire message. Most of the time, the message is a simple impression. You read it and you feel… a certain way. It’s like sense memory – a whiff of a stranger’s prose puts you in a familiar place.

Feedback on Your Service
January 07, 2009

It will probably seem hypocritical to most people to mention this, but I really dislike the way that some companies handle customer service. Not that they provide no customer service, or that they don’t do it well, but that they try way too hard. I’ll provide a couple of examples.

I was out with the family recently for a lunch trip to Red Robin. Red Robin has unusually tasty hamburgers (they’re a 3/3 on the Burger Scale) and the service is always pretty good. It’s generally a good trip if you can ignore the price tag. I don’t really worry about service there. You know that thing that waiters do after they serve your food; when they come back and ask you if everything’s ok only when your mouth is full? That happened to us, but it wasn’t the waitress.