Here is what is incredibly enjoyable about living in a high rise apartment with great windows. I am able to watch birds try to fly into a forty mile an hour headwind. I spent much of my afternoon doing this. These little birds would give it everything they had and would start to make progress before they were forced to give up and go in the other direction. I swore that I was going to see one try to go into the wind to just be flipped backwards. It was incredible and the few that made it through impressed the hell out of me.
Yes, I spent the day at home as Snowmegeddon kept me locked up in my apartment all day. I still worked mind you. Took a conference call, actually had the telecommuting options work, and took care of probably ninety five percent of the tasks that I needed to today. Through it all I got to watch a white out as it was just nasty out there. What was strange is that when I woke up this morning it really wasn’t that bad. The roads looked passable and it was more sleeting than anything. But man, when the storm started it was as bad as I have seen in a long time. I’m happy I was able to stay inside.
Well, Sunday is Valentine’s Day and…wait a minute. This Sunday? Quick, clear the roads. I have to get to the mall.
See, this is a wonderful example of just how much my life has changed. If you look at my blog posts for February from 2005 through 2008 you will see the exact same comments in February. I will discuss how horrible it is to be single on Valentine’s Day, how one cannot go to a bar or a restaurant on that night without wanting to wash their eyes out with bleach and how I will be engaging in my annual tradition of sitting in a darkened apartment while listening to Smiths CDs and slowly cursing humanity. One year I believe I auctioned myself off as a date for that night offering a) a free dinner at Outback Steakhouse (said free dinner not to exceed twenty five dollars) and b) a ticket to join me at the Air Supply concert that night. Surprisingly, I had no takers. Even last year I think I kept the cynical veneer up even though I knew that Kim and I were going to be in New Orleans that night so I really had no room to complain about anything in my life.
Now I even wonder how I had that view at all. I’m engaged to the woman of my dreams and I’m looking forward to the day. Sure, it is a Hallmark holiday and all and the fact that it can be turned into a huge production number bothers me but I just have to smile at just how well my life is going at the moment. I’ve spent years searching for what I have right now. Two years ago I was the quiet guy at the end of the bar trying to figure out where life would lead him. I’m still wondering where life will lead me but I now have a partner in the journey and that makes all the difference in the world.
End note and a sad one at that. I would like to note the passing of Captain Phil Harris. For those of you who watch Deadliest Catch you will know Captain Phil as the gruff leader of the Cornelia Marie who was somehow able to keep everything together from his boat to his crew to his family while crab fishing off of Alaska. He passed away this week from complications from a stroke that he suffered while unloading crab at the dock. It is very difficult to judge someone who you only know from a television show but Phil always seemed like a good guy. He looked after his sons and worked as hard as he possibly could. It is sad to see him go so early but if going while doing the work that you love is any consolation, he went out on the job that he loved.
Showing posts with label deadliest catch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deadliest catch. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
How can you run out of bait on a fishing boat?
My goal of writing an interesting take on the speeches that all graduates are forced to sit through (inspired by the recently released David Foster Wallace speech “This is Water”) will have to be postponed for yet another night. Due to a lack of sleep, lack of creativity and a new episode of Deadliest Catch my mind just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to write what I needed to so hopefully you will have that to look forward to tomorrow.
Instead I’ll just write about television including the strange addiction that is Deadliest Catch. On the surface I’m not sure you could ever think of a more boring show in existence. Let’s show a bunch of guys in a boat throwing steel pot after steel pot over the side and then retrieving the pots and unloading the crab. That is the show, week after week just more footage of guys crab fishing. Yet it is some of the most amazing television you ever see. All of these guys out there on the open ocean in the middle of the Arctic, just suffering like mad and occasionally nearly dying. You really can’t take your eyes off of it. Plus, I now firmly believe that every workplace should be required to have a fifty year old Hungarian who barely speaks English on staff. It just makes the world a more interesting place.
The Big Bang Theory ended its season last night on a rather odd note. They brought back the Penny and Leonard relationship with Penny seeming to fall for Leonard as he goes off with the guys to the North Pole to search for sub-atomic particles. Sounds like a perfectly logical summer vacation to me. (Personally I loved the line “we’ll be able to drink for free at any bar in a college town with a strong science program.”) What this show did portray correctly is the fact that guys like Leonard just cannot take subtlety. We (and I mean that in less than the royal sense) are just unable to read between the lines. Despite the fact that we are brilliant when it comes to relationships we are dumb as a box of hammers that went to school in Arkansas. But we really mean well.
As for How I Met Your Mother at least we can rest assured that Stella is not the mom. However, I am completely confused as to where the series goes from here. Robin isn’t the mom, Stella isn’t the mom, we were just told that Ted is finally on the path to meeting the mom yet there is no one left for it to be. Meaning that there is no logical character that we know about who could potentially be the mother. Though I still hope that the last scene of this season will be a knock on the door and Ted opens it to see Victoria standing in the hallway. That would be a great ending to the season.
(Sorry, I’m just a hopeless romantic at heart and think it would make a great ending to the story.)
I know that part of the story (of the show and of life) is that the journey is what is important. That everything we do until we meet the one is what makes it possible for us to find that certain someone. But it is interesting that we as the viewer are beginning to feel Ted’s frustration. We want to get to the ending or at least a new beginning. But that is kind of the point. Life doesn’t work on our own timelines. Forcing something just makes it go pear shaped. I haven’t learned much in my life (at least in terms of things that don’t involve differential equations) but I’m beginning to realize that at some points you just have to let the universe be. Things will come around much better than if you try to force reality to match your own visions.
Instead I’ll just write about television including the strange addiction that is Deadliest Catch. On the surface I’m not sure you could ever think of a more boring show in existence. Let’s show a bunch of guys in a boat throwing steel pot after steel pot over the side and then retrieving the pots and unloading the crab. That is the show, week after week just more footage of guys crab fishing. Yet it is some of the most amazing television you ever see. All of these guys out there on the open ocean in the middle of the Arctic, just suffering like mad and occasionally nearly dying. You really can’t take your eyes off of it. Plus, I now firmly believe that every workplace should be required to have a fifty year old Hungarian who barely speaks English on staff. It just makes the world a more interesting place.
The Big Bang Theory ended its season last night on a rather odd note. They brought back the Penny and Leonard relationship with Penny seeming to fall for Leonard as he goes off with the guys to the North Pole to search for sub-atomic particles. Sounds like a perfectly logical summer vacation to me. (Personally I loved the line “we’ll be able to drink for free at any bar in a college town with a strong science program.”) What this show did portray correctly is the fact that guys like Leonard just cannot take subtlety. We (and I mean that in less than the royal sense) are just unable to read between the lines. Despite the fact that we are brilliant when it comes to relationships we are dumb as a box of hammers that went to school in Arkansas. But we really mean well.
As for How I Met Your Mother at least we can rest assured that Stella is not the mom. However, I am completely confused as to where the series goes from here. Robin isn’t the mom, Stella isn’t the mom, we were just told that Ted is finally on the path to meeting the mom yet there is no one left for it to be. Meaning that there is no logical character that we know about who could potentially be the mother. Though I still hope that the last scene of this season will be a knock on the door and Ted opens it to see Victoria standing in the hallway. That would be a great ending to the season.
(Sorry, I’m just a hopeless romantic at heart and think it would make a great ending to the story.)
I know that part of the story (of the show and of life) is that the journey is what is important. That everything we do until we meet the one is what makes it possible for us to find that certain someone. But it is interesting that we as the viewer are beginning to feel Ted’s frustration. We want to get to the ending or at least a new beginning. But that is kind of the point. Life doesn’t work on our own timelines. Forcing something just makes it go pear shaped. I haven’t learned much in my life (at least in terms of things that don’t involve differential equations) but I’m beginning to realize that at some points you just have to let the universe be. Things will come around much better than if you try to force reality to match your own visions.
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