In hindsight, I wish I never bought stuff as a kid

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I used to collect comic books at one point. I didn't go nuts or anything seriously devoted. I got sucked into the fad and bought a series that I liked. I had the first 8 issues of the comic, and was broached by a classmate who was much more serious about a swap. I got 16 comics for my  8. The ones I got had a central theme to them as being The Punisher, Wolverine, or New Warriors. I subsequently bought a random comic regarding Wolverine, Punisher, or Venom, but I soon forgot about my comics once I moved out of my parents' house and went to college.

I got married while in college, so I never had the complete removal of personal stuff from my technical permanent residence. I basically just abandoned my stuff thinking my folks would leave my room as is and I'd get around to it when I felt like it. I was wrong. My mom isn't sentimental and tossed my treasured things or let her animals pee on them for some in-explicit reason. My baseball cards and coin collection were salvaged from the demise, but my drawings and comics didn't.

Though I was angry when I learned of the above unfortunate events, I forgot about them much like they were the recollections of a stranger until reading an article about adult nerds being upset their retirement savings(comic collection) were being sold at pennies on the FACE value of the comics. I got angry about the loss then remembered that they were probably worthless anyways.

Getting mad about money spent on disposed items is not as silly as regretting paying for things that intended to be disposable. I bought a lot of toys that gave me many hours of joy, if I hadn't bought them, then I wouldn't have the memories and would have spent the money elsewhere.

Today, I had a couple errands which I figured K and B could tag along and give J some rest as D was napping between feedings. They both wanted to go to Target. K had a giftcard while B had toothfairy  money, while I had to see if they carried newborn diapers in the quantity boxes advertised.

My mission was a wash, so we ventured to the toy section. K wanted Lego Minifigs to the Lego Movie. he had enough to buy three, while B didn't have enough to buy one(but I would spot her the difference). K quickly picked three mystery packets and was content, while B wanted specific characters, a mermaid or girl with a stripe in her hair. I started feeling the packets for telltale signs of ones to discard. K assisted in the search until we came to a packet that didn't have moveable legs much like the girl with a stripe in her hair would have. B was content with the finding so we left with those four.

K would soon be crying when we got home, for he picked two minifigs he already had from our trip to the Lego Store on New Year's Day. Sad that B was patient to get a figue she wanted while the older K was haphazard with his decision. Maybe one day he'll be better with his money. Just last week he wanted to spend $4 on a digital edition of a 25 page Star Wars Comic, which I am glad I talked him out of purchasing.

Neither kid wanted to go get Pizza Pizza, but they wanted Crazy Bread. they didn't eat the Crazy Bread the last time I got it, so I didn't get it. Sure it's $1.99 if you bother to go to their website and print the $2.00 off coupon that is always there, but $1.99 is better saved than wasted in my book. Ironically, I bought two pizzas for $5 since I got my pizza card filled last time I was there.

Tonight, I watched the Playoff game in hopes of seeing Tom Brady cry, but the game was a blowout in his favor. I could have used that time spent elsewhere besides the tv screen.

Inbox purge galore

I have had a couple dozen or so e-mail accounts over the years. I use quite a few regularly. 1) I have my original school address from '96 that I was allowed to keep upon graduation as a gift, but can't use as my primary address. 2) I have my original yahoo account which I set up in '97. 3) I have a iwon.com account that I set up in hopes of winning something back when that domain existed as a search hub that I now use as a spam account. 4) I have my graduate school address, that I use when I want to seem less anonymous. 5) I have my ISP address. 6) I have a gmail account. 7) I have a "work" email as well.

I could have soooo many twitter accounts, but why would I do that? Back when I was young and full of ideas, I thought it would cool to create interactive extrapolations of characters to a book I was writing to give a ready made audience upon its publication. I developed the idea before social media boomed when things like collegeclub.com existed. The idea fizzled when I had other things that were prioritized thus left to be never followed though since it was tedious and ill fated given that I was basically spamming acquaintances with assumed names in hopes of getting a conversation going through those infamous forwards that you tell something about yourself and pass along like a chain letter. Not sure if trolls existed then, but it was of that same nature of antagonizing banter to generate a persona based on semi-fictional reactions. I needed dialogue and lacked a sense of character depth to think originally. Blogs didn't exist then, since Livejournal.com and Diaryland.com were years away to be able to appropriate others' thoughts. Very tedious endeavor it was.

Do chain letters still exist?

Anyways, I have a lot of email accounts that I use daily for things, when I could get by with just one since I forward most of my mail to one account. I have my accounts set up to forward copies, so that I have full inboxes when I only rely upon one account for any extended period of time. I cleaned out several thousand email from a few account yesterday. I wonder how long it will be before they are cluttered again.

Having a blah day

Not saying I am bored or anything, but I've been feeling less than motivated of late. Could be I'm neglecting to take my vitamins regularly, or my thyroid is not happy with me. Who knows?

Dogs days of June, I guess. Baseball season has been filled with ups and downs, and I'm a junky. I can't give it up. I can give up Camels and Bass, but following well compensated athletes, I can't.

Something wrong with following sports when there's much more that is actually important to be accomplished.

I guess that all commercials placed during sporting events are dead giveaways as frivolous wastes of personal income for anyone watching such things knows how to waste time and money to be "entertained" without giving a second thought.

I gave up tv in that I feel no desire to watch things that eventually are available on DVD.

Just have to figure out how to stop being consumed by the radio and internet time bandit. If I sleep through such things, they will still happen without my needing to know about them when they occur. Infovegan concepts transferred towards productive activities that have gainful results beyond the lull of blah when the fix of following a winner doesn't manifest itself in real time and sputters in a numbness of frustration. If only I could program myself like a robot.

Friending Grandma

Facebook 101: Seniors learn to use the social network

She's one of a growing number of seniors joining Facebook to connect with grandchildren and former pals. Now, classes that teach the basics of Facebook are popping up.

I'm a 33, and I am a married adult with kids of which I'm proud. With that said, I wouldn't friend my Grandma J if she were alive. Definitely would not have friended her when I was in college or younger.

I still cringe when I think of being at Big Boy and hearing her say "masturbation" with regards to her catching an episode of the formerly hip show, Seinfeld.

I loved my grandparents, but they were old school family values Republicans.

I'm so glad social media and cheap cellphone plans didn't exist when I was in college. Life was simpler without 24/7 need to know constant contact.

Life is a guessing game

One thing about having freewill is that nothing is completely predictable.
Supposedly we are born as the result of someone's choosing to have a child. We don't get to pick our birth arrangements, so the upbringing is up to chance. No two childhoods are the same it seems since there are so many variables from family size, education, income, social class, and geographic location to name a few.
We grow up learning what we like and don't like. We try to obtain the things we desire, and we pursue the things that interest us. Variables dictate a lot of things but for the most part the true factors are individualized.

No one made me go to college. I had nothing better to do that was reasonable. My parents both had degrees, and my brother went to school.
I wanted to be something in the mold of a wanderer, like a daydream out of Salinger's most famous work. I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do for a living. I just wanted to write nonsense and watch people. A buddy of mine was in South America when I was finishing high school, so I had an opportunity to do the Butch Cassidy thing and run away from almost everyone that knew me.
Starting fresh with a new life was so appealing, but I chickened out. Being newly out of high school is when you go to college. Sure you can flunk out but if you don't go when you are young and dumb, then the odds are that you won't make the effort down the road when you have adult obligations.

Going to college is expressway to adulthood for sheltered people. No one made me wake up in the morning or to go to bed at night. No one forced me to eat. No one forced me to go to church.
I had to open a checking account since carrying cash was stupid and debit cards didn't exist. I remember having temp checks that no one wanted to accept like no one wanted to accept my American Express Travelers Cheques when I was photo ID-less in Merida, Mexico.
I remember being offered credit cards every time I walked to class. My first credit card was to Sears and I had never shopped at Sears. My phone rang while I was trying to sleep(it was finals week), and I said, "Sure, I live at 1978 Cannon Drive..." to get them to stop interrupting my sleep. Never used the card, so I closed it five years later when I realized I had 20 credit cards that I never used.

No one made me choose a major. I chose what seemed to be best suited for my skills but changed my mind when I decided that I didn't want to kill people as a result of my indifferent about my work. I changed my path until I saw a major that made sense, so I punted for grad school. Any degree was needed for grad school, so I pursued the easiest thing I could, English literature. Being able to write and read is something anyone with a pulse can due well enough to pass. Seriously, if you can't BS, the you have no business living.

Long story short, I made a lot of decisions that seem trivial, but in the grand scheme of things, they paved the way for my current state of happiness. Nothing is perfect for there's so much to do still, but having a wonderful family and home is something I don't take for granted. Jobs come and go. I have faith that what will be, will be. In the meantime, I work on the things I can control like tiling my kitchen floor.

Ten years go by quickly

I remember it being a Wednesday, and the call that made it memorable was around 10am. We celebrated her new job by going bowling. We had made a pledge to get shoes and to bowl regularly once one of us got a job. We also figured a new car would be in order since driving 90 miles a day wasn't advisable for the car we had, so went car shopping after we ate and bowled. We looked at one car, and we brought it home after doing paperwork galore.

In hindsight, I find it hard to believe we were able to get a car after being unemployed since graduating five months earlier.  Then again, car dealers want to sell cars and if you drive it off the lot you are most likely gonna want to keep it.

Still have that car today, for what it matters we still have those shoes as well. We just don't bowl as much as we hoped.

Too much Steak'n Shake is catching up!

I have a closet of shirts and pants that I have worn sparingly the past ten months. The clothes were loose on me last I wore them, but they were a bit snug this morning as I got myself presentable.

Have I gained weight? Not really since my weight has been about the same since I got my thyroid situated, but even then I carried the weight well. I wore the same pants even when I gained forty pounds within a six month period. Of course I had lost about thirty pounds from having a funky work schedule that meant I napped  a few hours a couple times a day and never ate a real meal, which meant I really only gained a net ten pounds. Once the thyroid was regulated, I dropped 30 for a net loss of 20. I was very active running up ladders and unloading trailers, so once  I got a desk job, I settled on my natural weight between the two extremes. I weigh that now 8 years later.

I am craving Steak'n Shake, and Steak'n Shake always leaves me feeling full. I like feeling full.

There was a time when I didn't eat much and lived on coffee, water, rice and oatmeal. My apartment in grad school wasn't even a studio, so my only sink was in the bathroom. I had a coffee maker, mini fridge, a microwave, and a toaster oven to utilize food. So if I ate out, I went with Dingo to Ponderosa to get full and enjoy American Spirits and listen to his exploits.

We eat weekly at SNS for about a year now because a family of four can eat ridiculously cheap on weekends. I guess that I should start running or something, but I've been saying that for years and have the unworn shoes that mock me. My feet aren't changing size, so I will wear them one day.

Hopefully I get out of my jobless funk and get a structured schedule again, as long as it doesn't take away from my weekly SNS.

Again, Smoking is easy to quit

Saw a clip of Jim Parsons discussing how he quit smoking on Letterman and had to laugh. The story sounded familiar.

Accidental cold turkey

There was a time in my life when I smoked cigarettes and drank beer.  When I was growing up, I found the behavior repulsive, and vowed I'd not be like my parents and do either.
When I smoked and drank, I had no intention of being a parent for I was a dumb college kid that had no idea what he wanted to do with himself. I had a vague notion of being a librarian, so I went to grad school. Only one school in the state was accredited by ALA, so I applied to said school and moved upon graduating with my BA.
Aside from an uncle and cousins, I didn't know anyone where I moved. I wasn't the social butterfly, so I focused upon my seemingly expensive schooling(I wasn't on a minority scholarship like I was during undergrad). I spent a lot of time cooped up in my studio apartment, but somehow, I befriended a few classmates. Three of us would go bowling on Wednesdays. I'm a horrible bowler, but I enjoyed it for they were my best friends(one would become my wife while the other was best man at said wedding).
During winter break, I got hired in the reference department, which made for a fun new year given that I had full schedule since I was taking 15 credits(8 was considered full-time).
To be honest, I don't recall much, but I smoked a lot and somehow managed to get engaged. After I finished my spring finals, I didn't feel like smoking. Can't explain why, but I just didn't feel the need to buy or bum any smokes until I had moved some furniture one day a month or so later. I was enjoying a beer and a smoke on the balcony of my apartment with my friend that helped me move when my fiance came out and said "what are you doing? I thought you quit!" I never said anything to that effect, so imagine my surprise.
People have a hard time believing I ever had such a habit, but they have a harder time believing that I quit the way I did.

Cooking, cleaning, and child rearing

Recently, there's a lot of talk about whether or not motherhood is a job or not.
I learned while as an undergrad in my modern American literature survey class that such a conversation is not well advised to pursue.
Keep in mind I wasn't much of a critical thinker at 19 and not a fan of American literature because I'm a male Medievalist that liked sagas and legends over fluffy prose.
Anyways, we read and covered Willa Cather's My Antonia.
With it being a survey class, we only spent one day discussing said novel. In hindsight, I'm not sure many in the class actually read the story, since the discussion was painfully quiet. Nonetheless, I had read the whole novel, so when the prof asked me of my opinion of the work, I replied that I was disappointed the title character ended up "just being a house wife" when she had so much potential to be something more dynamic.
Let's just say the professor wasn't receptive to my response, and I still cringe when I think of her.