Previous EntryMonth IndexNext Entry Wednesday, 30 October 2002  
Gazing into the Abyss: Michael Rawdon's Journal

 
 

Links du jour:

Lynn Johnston plans to end her long-running comic strip For Better or For Worse within the next five years.
The California Coastal Records Project will eventually photograph the entire California coast. It's more than half-done already, and apparently has been used in lawsuits over illegal coastline modification. The photos are beautiful.
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Thoughtful

The Spies mailing list server has been down this week, so if you haven't received a notification of recent entries, that's why.

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At Michael Walsh's dinner on Saturday, Lucy remarked that she thought I should change my journal title, as I don't gaze into the abyss, and I rarely even navel-gaze. I can't say I disagree, really, but I've always been horrible with titles (for pretty much anything) and I've never come up with anything I really liked better. Plus, of course, I'd have to change all my graphics. So inertia has pretty much kept things the way they are.

If you have any ideas, you could let me know, although catty comments will be frowned upon since I'm self-conscious about this sort of thing.

I could always retitle it Gazing Out Of The Abyss...

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Ultimate last night. Did I mention that I collided with someone last week and hurt my side? Debbi says I have a deep bruise. It's still a bit sore, but slowly getting better. I've also been having chafing on the back of my left foot from my new turf shoes, which has been a bummer, but I bought some mole skin (which I think Jenn had recommended to me three years ago, and which has stuck in my mind all this time) and it worked like a charm. Not chafing or soreness last night at all. Yay!

I had a couple of good defensive plays, but my best play of the evening owed a lot to luck: I had the disc near the end zone, and I heard someone behind me yell "Michaellll...!" I turned and only saw an opposing player running toward the end zone. I thought, "Hey, maybe a teammate is running along behind him!" so I threw the disc up and into the end zone at an angle to get it over the opponent, and darned if there wasn't a teammate right there to catch it! I got a nice round of congratulations from folks for that one; it felt great.

So here's the thing: I was as excited as anyone about the score, but my reaction to it was to analyze it, like I just did. To explain to people what had happened and how it played out. That was the really interesting thing to me, how it had played out. But after a few sentences I realized that no one else was interested in this, and - I guess - talking about how it played out could seem like more bragging than just patting myself on the back. So, feeling self-conscious about that, I started talking about how I'd never try that throw again because it wouldn't work a second time...

It was awkward, but I don't really understand why it was awkward. How the play was made, regardless of who made it, was fascinating to me. Was it just dumb luck, or was it good execution? Could I pull it off again? This seems like the sort of thing that fans of a sport talk about all the time ("Why'd he throw a fastball?"), and ultimate is a sport...

I don't really get it. Maybe it's my obsessive-compulsive personality, wanting to explore an interesting topic in great depth. It often baffles me when other people don't feel the same way. On the other hand, I also have my moments of wandering attention, so it's not like I'm entirely consistent...

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Signed off on my mortgage refinance last night. Great news: Not only will I be saving a bit more than expected, but I'll be skipping a mortgage payment, because of the vaguaries of deadlines. Whee! It was nearly an hour of signing my name, of course. Snore. But it's worth it.

Buying a house is like some late-night TV ad: The more you buy, the more you save! If I'd bought an ever more expensive house, imagine how much I'd be saving through my refinance!

Of course, I'd have had trouble affording food this past year...

 
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