12 of 12 June 2007

Okay, I'm going to try this without having to split it up into a bunch of different posts. I realize that I'm a few days late...and that I didn't have a 12 of 12 last month, but my camera was broken in May (I fixed it), and I have been helping my brother and sister these past couple of days. I suppose I'll get back into an actual posting routine once I get back to Annapolis instead of the fluffy "written-by-someone-else" posting I have been doing this month. So, here we go with a 12 of 12 from home in good 'ol Austin:

I like to start the day with a little breakfast and reading the paper. Sometimes, during the summer, Regis is even on the television at the time. Ahh, the joys of daytime television.






Since I was holding Coleyfest XX (Part deux) today, I had to sweep off the deck of all the leaves that had accumulated over the past few weeks. This broom is one that we've had for a long time from the contractor who remodeled our house six or seven years ago.




Because several of my friends really like playing basketball, I figured it would be a good idea to pump-up a bunch of the balls.

p.s. I was right.





Midday brought a load of laundry to put up in my closet (I came out afterward, don't worry) while listening to a couple podcasts on my computer. You'll notice the infamous green pants at the lower end of the picture (and the new ones).





As you might expect, a day is not complete without some trivia. Fortunately, when I'm at home, I get to watch a game of Jeopardy! pretty much every day. If you're a bigger nerd than I am (I didn't notice this until just now), you'll be able to tell something about the game just from this shot.




I realize this picture is sideways...perhaps it's appropriate to describe my cooking abilities. Anyway, I succeeded in making what I thought was a pretty good potato salad for my party (though I did have to get my sister's help in boiling the eggs and potatoes).




My sister and I have taken to playing an almost daily game of chess in the afternoons. I'm horrible at it, and she's pretty good, but I've been managing to hold my own so far. I'm a checkers man, myself.





Now is the time to don the traditional Coleyfest garb. I actually used a different t-shirt this year, and my hat was pinless, but I think the same effect was there.






Another key element of Coleyfest prep is to blow up the pool toys. This ball holds way more air than it looks like...and it pops a lot easier than you would think, too.






Although it's sideways, I think this picture demonstrates elegance and grace as Robin flips through the air, trying to kick Clara's volleyball. Shortly after this photo, Robin was hit very painfully by that same ball.





A good anchorman shot of four of the guys dangerously jumping from four different angles and heights with four different poses. I thought it was pretty cool.






Now, I've been thugged out by Master B and Sirobino and I'm ready to blow out the candles. I even got to light them myself this year--I think I'm growing up.

*edit* That awesome hat I'm wearing in the picture was on the television tonight. It was part of a cool outfit on "So You Think You Can Dance".

What is Redefinition?

"Most of my other fourth-grade pipe dreams never came true--the X-ray vision, the helicopter that could go into outer space, Mr. T at my birthday party..."

-Some dreams are a little more improbable than others, but I really do believe in following your dreams and the fact that anything is possible. Indeed, I think that there are varying degrees of improbability, and through work and a little luck (blessings?) and being in the right place at the right time (Holy Spirit?) we can do anything we want or are called to do.

"[Dylan's] a healthy, normal kid, who just happens to be an obsessive information sponge. And there's nothing wrong with that. After all, we're currently living in a Bizarro society where teenagers are technology-obsessed, where the biggest sellers in every bookstore are fantasy novels about a boy wizard, and the blockbuster hit movies are all full of hobbits and elves or 1960s spandex superheroes. You don't have to go to a Star Trek convention to find geeks anymore. Today almost everyone is an obsessive, well-informed aficionado of something."

-TLF, I think you had something to say along those lines. Perhaps we just need to help people realize their inner nerd. Find that special something inside of them that makes them unlike everybody else. That thing inside of each one of us that makes us special and makes us able to contribute in our own way to our growing world of knowledge

What is Demolition?

"Human beings are amazingly adaptable. The first time we sit down behind the wheel of a car, for example, we are overwhelmed by everything...But after a few months of driver's ed, even the most neurotic teens can cruise blankly along, navigating without a second though, at speeds that would have shocked any pre-1900 human, totally unaware of their surroundings unless something goes wrong."

-My brother is learning how to drive right now. Texas law says that an under-18 year old has to hold a learner's permit for six months before they can get their license, so he won't actually be able to drive until October since he got his permit late. But right now, he's sometimes driving us around town and it's an interesting experience. I don't mean to say that he's a bad driver (I think most people have trouble when they first learn), but it's serving to show another difference between him and me. I'm sure I'm biased, and I probably don't remember everything, but I think I took to driving pretty quickly. I think I was a lot less nervous about everything going on around me than my brother is, and that's what helps me when I'm on the highway or in traffic downtown or something. I try very hard in my life to not get stressed, and I think that it carries over to help with driving.

"The first astronauts to walk on the moon reveled in the almost religious experience, composing grandiose paeans to the diaphanous clockwork perfection of creation as seen from space. But just three moon missions later, astronauts were trudging around up there sniping crankily at each other about the endless rock samples NASA was forcing them to collect, and hoping they could knock off early and play a little golf. Even the most alien and demanding situations quickly become routine."

-I really hope that I never lose my found appreciation for life. I remember what it was like to just go through the motions of life and not ever have real feeling or love for the world around me. It's not a good state. Even though there is sometimes sadness and other bad feelings in this world, at least we have good feelings and the other happy things to make up for it. It's far better than having nothing at all.

"Back on my very first day of Jeopardy!, I had the spur-of-the-moment idea to write my name on my podium in a different style every game. Now that I've had to come up with over seventy ways to write the three letters in my name, I deeply regret this little whim."

-I'm not that creative, but I thought it was really cool when he did it.

"The Double Jeopardy round is better, with Nancy [Zerg, The Anti-Ken] answering only four questions during the entire round, but, as I should have learned from Anne Boyd's final game, Jeopardy! players who live by the Daily Doubles die by the Daily Doubles."

-Two things. First, I argued from Ken's downfall--after seeing the show--that Nancy didn't beat Ken, rather, he lost the match. This, from his own mouth, validates my theory. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm not the Daily Double wagering Jeopardy! strategist. My only chance is to really get the buzzer timing down.

"Now, at long last, I know the end of the story and can go home to my family. Maybe now I can stop being Ken Jennings, nerd folk icon, and just be Ken Jennings, nerd, like I was before. I have finally, as they say in drama classes and twelve-step programs, achieved closure."

-I know it's kind of weird for me to be so into Ken, but it's also a weird feeling for me to have a hero who's...well, alive.

"Even Alex wanders back onstage, with his tie loosened and in his shirtsleeves. I've been watching Alex Trebek since I was ten years old, and in two decades, I've never seen him out of a suit jacket. The effect is disconcerting and uncomfortable, a little like seeing your parents naked."

-I can't imagine that. I guess it would be similar if Bob Barker were in anything but a suit (though I think I have seen a photo of him playing golf before in a polo and khakis).

What is Recognition?

"...I fulfill a childhood dream when I'm asked to appear on Sesame Street--Grover and I dutifully extol the virtues of eating fresh fruit. I'm the punchline of a Mad 'fold-in.' The novelty of Googling my own name, initially a new favorite pastime, wears off when the hit count passes fifty thousand (also when my wife discovers how many Ken Jennings fan sites seem to be run by giggly teenage girls)."

-Awesome. I really like Sesame Street and MAD. And, of course, Google. Yes, I'm one of those immature twenty-year-olds who still gets a subscription to a gross-out joke, cartoon satire magazine.

"The kids are more fun, gazing shyly upward while some boastful mom assures me that her little genius wants to study harder in school now, so that he/she too can be a big strong Jeopardy! champ someday. I'm genuinely touched to see that my own juvenile Jeopardy! obsession is alive and well among the tube-sock-wearing, non-gym-rope-climbing mathletes of the rising generation. The future of trivia is in good hands."

-My brother criticized my fashion the other day, and one of the several things he commented on was my like for tube socks versus cut off ones. Apparently, all my clothes are the same and either make my look like an old man or a six-year old nerd. Also, I never was good at the gym rope event.

"Thom [McKee] was a contestant coordinator's dream: a handsome navy pilot with thick blond hair and piercing blue eyes, newly married to a pretty young wife. He was also an insanely good trivia player..."

-So...does that mean I should dye my hair blond? I did have a fruity little blond streak in my hair from one of my trips to Mexico a few years ago. I don't think it really went well with my whole persona.

What is Tradition?

"There's one thing wrong with a contest where the players are sitting at home with seven minutes to come up with each answer, and you've probably spotted it already.
Google."

-That's true for any at home trivia these days, but Google and Wikipedia allow us to learn more and more things whenever we want.

"We may not own every TV Guide back to 1974, but at least we're both computer programmers, professional nerds. The least we can do is offer our backseat Googling abilities."

-People of the new generations do have certain skills or natural instincts to turn to the Internet for answers that older generations do not.

What Cancer Cannot Do...

Cancer is so Limited...

It cannot cripple love,
It cannot shatter hope,
It cannot corrode faith,
It cannot destroy peace,
It cannot kill friendship,
It cannot suppress memories,
It cannot silence courage,
it cannot invade the soul,
It cannot steal eternal life,
It cannot conquer the spirit.
-Author unknown

My Great-uncle John just died in May. He is the first of my Granddad's (mom's dad) four brothers and two sisters to pass away, and my Granddad is taking it pretty hard because he's the only one that doesn't live up in the Platte City/Kansas City area and he couldn't make it up there for the funeral because of his health. This poem was on the back of the funeral program and I read it this morning and liked it.