Showing posts with label donna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donna. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A few randoms, IV

[Some randoms I started collecting last week, but never posted. I've added the last three, so I could publish and then start a new post about the weekend. Number seven: This is my last full week in Berkeley! Eep.]

1. The guys downstairs are blasting John Mayer. It's slightly better than the non-music they used to play last year, but I still find it strange. Is it really necessary to blast Mayer? I didn't think that was the point.

[1b. David, was it really necessary for me to italicize twice? And I just did it again.]

2. The girls had been looking for roommates, so in a Craigslist post, they wanted to express that they would prefer Christian roommates. But since they couldn't explicitly require that (Craiglists rules dictate), we deliberated for a while and then came up with this: "We are two Christian females looking for roommates in our 3 bedroom..." Apparently this didn't help to filter out this looker:

Hi Christian Ladies.What's up? My name is Eric. To tell the truth,I am not Christian first of all,but I believe in God who is God of Jesus,Moses,Muhammad,Budah etc.So if it matters,you'd better not response to this email. Secondly,I am not a female! I am a junior transfer to UC Berkeley for this coming fall semester.I am a clean,organized,disciplined guy who keeps himself out of all sort of troubles all year long.So if the gender is just a matter of "Preferration" and not "Proliferation",I would be more than happy to get to know two young,bright ladies and take them as my friends.You know,more friends is never enough. Ok.I guess I said enough.By the way,I can send my pictures too and then, you guys can see what a good-looking roommate you could have! And I am not kidding! I look forward to your reply whether with a green light or a solid red. Take Care Eric

Wow is all I can say.

3. Watched a fascinating instructional video on the Abilene paradox - the paradox in which
"a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of any of the individuals in the group. It involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's and do not raise objections," according to Wikipedia. Glued to the screen, Maria, Sammypants, and I were surprised/impressed by how un-80s the skits were.

4. This is beautiful.

5. Best of this last weekend? Visiting Sharon in LA. Post to come on that pronto. Best thing after coming back from a weekend away? The feeling after hitting "Mark all as read" to the 40 some posts in Google Reader. [Of course I read all the important things from friends, and then I got to experience the great (albeit misleading) feelings of having accomplished something without working for it, while not feeling guilty. At least, not too guilty.]

6. Oh, and Digsy drew me another comic! Thanks!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A few randoms, II

I'm still alive, though it's been a while since I've posted. I meant to post Gmail tip #2 yesterday, really, I did, but instead I got distracted by Maria's guy friends from church giving us tips on boys. (And as cool as Gmail may be, boys are more interesting. Sometimes.)

I still intend to post on Gmail, but for now I just need to clear my system of a few randoms floating around. (Anna observed the "piles" accumulating when she saw my whiteboard at work, filled with todo items as well as random quotes, ideas, phrases.)

So, here's to erasing things off my whiteboard! (As well as the virtual whiteboard that is a blank Notepad file.)

1. "I should take you..." Since Sarah has gotten back from Zambia, we keep telling each other about the places we want to make sure we go to together before I leave, because we love checking out new places. I say, "I should take you to Pizziolo," she says, "I should take you to Kabana." Or Mama's. And on and on it goes. Somehow we're supposed to make this happen in the less than 15-20 days we have before she leaves for Denmark. It's been our running joke now to start every sentence with "I should take you...", but we know we really can't do it all. What I really want to be able to do is just stop there after the first four words. "I should take you." (Period.) Sarah, come with me! (And all the rest of you, for that matter!)

2. We checked one thing off the list today. Yay for amazing $2.99 breakfast at the Faculty Club. What could be better? I guess, at least in Anna's or Sarah's opinions, if we could have just laid there in bed and had the faculty serve us, that would have been better. But, all in all, I think we enjoyed ourselves, more so because of the Southern accents we adopted on the way.

3. Do you ever have that experience when someone gives you the word you're looking for to describe your feelings about something and consequently you feel immense peace? (Or is that just me?) For me, I can't remember who said it or in what context, but it hit the nail on the head so I wrote it down. It was this word: mealy. Not that I didn't know the word existed. But I'd been trying to figure out what it is about apricots that I don't appreciate. And now I know. It's that they're mealy. Ah, it feels so much better now.

4. Simple prayers. Lately I've had the experience of having friends pray for things for me (e.g., teaching InDesign, meeting with a friend) and I've been blown away at how God has answered above and beyond. It makes me wonder, as a wise friend once posed, "Are they just more plugged in than me?" It's true, I feel like these people are just more in touch, more spiritual, more whatever. And maybe it's true to an extent, or at least in some cases. But more often than not, that's not the case, and even so, it's not like God gives His good gifts to those who "merit" them in some shape or form anyway. But, still. So all that, in simple ways, has given me encouragement to pray for others - simple prayers, often. That, perhaps, even if I don't feel super spiritual or plugged in, I can still speak to a God who died for me even while I was yet a sinner.

5. Dorian Gray. Amusing quote from Lord Henry's Uncle George: "Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him."

6. My high school 5-year reunion is next weekend. Umm, yeah. (Weird!) But I'm going to be hitting up Palos Verdes with Sharon and hopefully David, too. (P.S. Yes, I'm coming to play. Have you asked my parents yet if it's okay?) (P.P.S. Didn't mean to make the shout-outs even. And even with the InDesign and Dorian Gray lines, neither has yet the advantage. Sharon 2, David 2.)

7. I love Digsy. Donna's comics are always great. And I particularly enjoyed this one from recently.

btdubs, all of your comments on the last post were hilarious. I think I have to say, Molly's hypothetical conversation is the best. Thank you all for reading and leaving your thoughts!