Postcards from the Funny Farm

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I had a different sort of “www” this evening, I walked around Wal-Mart with my wife. She is amazing. When people talk about meant to be, I think of her and I. I had a bad day today and all I wanted to do was come home and veg in front of the TV. She made me get up off my butt and do the necessary shopping at Wal-Mart for the week with her we have been putting off. At first I was really grumpy but after just a few sentences with Sarah, my troubles began to lift. When I got home, I blogged about it on my new personal blog, Damien at the Speed of Life*.

I don’t know where I would be today without my wife. She listens and echoes back what I say. She offers editorial when she sees fit but mostly she’s highly supportive of the things I say or do. The internet is a great place to make money, but it can never offer what a simple walk with wife can in a million years. I usually don’t write gushing posts like this but I wanted to share with you all in a sort of personal diary fashion how important I feel she is. I have a feeling some of you can relate and we should celebrate it!

Do you have someone in your life that keeps you centered? Share about them in the comments won’t you?

*Note: Some time ago I started a new personal blog/diary at this url: damienatthespeedoflife.wordpress.com Stop by and say hello.

How many electronic items do you own that are obsolete? I went through my classroom the other day collecting old items like cables and tape recorders and even a record player to clear out some clutter. It was remarkable to me how many district-purchased things were now useless. I remember when I was a senior in high school in 1987, I had a computer class in which we worked tediously on Apple computers that ran programs from those disks that actually were “floppy.” It got me wondering about what might soon be obsolete that I use today.

It’s kind of a depressing thought to me to think even the very blog I write in daily will one day be replaced with something else. Certainly my Compaq laptop with 36G hard-drive memory and 500M RAM has been supplanted in the marketplace. I’m actually afraid to look at what is out there now, and my laptop is only about two years old. Oh, and do I need to go into much detail on this keyword: hybrids?

Anyway, without letting progress overwhelm me, I try to be a student of the marketplace. Mostly in blogging and educational tools, but in all other areas of my life where it seems to be an issue. For example, my wife and our kids and I are moving into our new home in 30 days. This is so exciting and I find myself reading up and considering all the features of a home audio and tv system. I don’t have the money to get them all right away, but nowadays that may be a “plus” for the long term. I want to “future proof” my home as much as I can. If that means paying a little more for some things, I think it will be wiser in the long run. One example I ran across are HDMI splitters. Ignore the fancy name, they are simply connectors that hook up the speakers to your sound system. I read the current audio cables people use nowadays will not be able to handle the up-and-coming-systems of the near future. This is, of course, only one example of what likely lays before me on my first-time-home-owner safari!

All this stuff is enough to make me want to wear earplugs when I go shopping for electronic stuff.

Do you ever walk through the TV’s at Wal-Mart and think: “If only I’d have waited a couple more months?”

I was thinking tonight about some things we men are truly ignorant about. I thought I’d make a list:

1. bedding. We men have no clue what a good thread count is and we would probably buy flannel sheets if you sent us out for some. Ladies: make sure you do not entrust this shopping task to a man.
2. matching colors. This is especially true on our kids. Wives: do not leave the picking of several clothes in an ensemble up to the husband. He can dress just fine, but will likely commit a fashion faux pas with your innocent children.
3. social etiquette. Men rarely know how to send a thank you note. In fact, if it weren’t for women, these wouldn’t get sent.
4. romantic movies. Men, if you must rent one of these, make sure you let her pick it. Trust me, I have tried this one and failed too many times! Oh, and if you’ve seen it already, don’t worry about it. Just watch it again and enjoy.
5. extended family relations. Men have no concept of how to maintain these. If men leave it to the women, it is a better situation, plain and simple.

Obviously there are more. Perhaps you can add a few to my list.