Monthly Archives: December 2008

thinking

Since I decided I need to chill with the dating a month ago, I’ve still poked around okcupid. That’s made a couple things clear. While there’s still a feeling inside me desiring to meet someone special and live happily ever after and all that, I actually use okcupid as a venue to seek out conversation more than anything else.

Why? I have enough friends I figure, why not converse with them? I poke for okcupid profiles that have a sentance that sparks some though in my head, then send that message. It’s not pure I suppose, I still only message cute girls.  It seems to be something like:

  1. search for profiles of single girls in a general age range with photos
  2. scan photos for subtleties that I’m attracted to
  3. read profile for something interesting
  4. think about it and  write a response.

It’s not making small talk in an aim to date someone, especially since I feel like I need to talk and think more than date right now, it’s just interesting conversation.

Where am I taking this? What am I looking for? Why do I have to search out conversation from strangers?

end of days

Tanya’s in town from Alaska for Christmas. She leaves early Monday, so I packed in some time hanging out with her tonight. We got our usual banter in, and I tried to squeeze all of my relationship news from the last few months into the car ride from the SSAS to Squid and Ink. She asked me how much what I think about relationships has changed since then.

I recently removed a few paragraphs from my okcupid profile. That’s indicative of something. It’s been growing for over a year as a self-summary piece. But much of it was written a paragraph at a time and lacking cohesion. Maybe I’m lacking cohesion.

The yellow card magnets have been well recieved. I’ve given out about 400 of 1000, so I expect another order in a month or so as they get the attention of people I don’t already know. I’m keeping a pile at Squid and Ink and will probably slowly approach some bike places as well.

I’m getting up in five hours or so to go snowboarding, so it’s lame I’m still awake. I slept for a half hour or so but was woken up by one of the dogs flipping out. I slept in late this morning but also didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night because I stayed up watching the Matrix trilogy. Perhaps having coffee at Squid and Ink before bed wasn’t the best idea. Sarah made an awesome cake though, it’s name was full of words, I can’t remember any of them.

christmas

The goodish news, Dad’s home from the hospital and back to being himself pretty much. Which means he’s stubbornly refusing to deal with doctors and do much of anything about his health. His assertion that all they want him to do is stop drinking and smoking is a veil. While I’m sure they strongly recommend those things because he’s tearing himself apart with those habits, there’s more that could be done. Not surprising at all, but unsettling. It’s annoying that our family has both a worry gene and a stubborn gene. The two amount to having a devil on each shoulder throwing shit back and forth. It’s pretty shitty that he got himself in this situation and it took me calling my all of my grandparents and getting the closest to drive down the hill to check on him to find that he had hurt himself days ago and did nothing about it. Despite all of us having talked to him in the interim, he said nothing. It’s confirmation that he really shouldn’t be living out the woods alone. If he’s not getting help when he has the ability to pick up the phone, what happens when he can’t? Do I have to arrange some kind of neighborhood ‘check on Barry’ schedule with my aunt, neighbors and grandmother? None of them are savvy enough for a google calendar. Meh. This wasn’t the best move to get us to leave him alone.

So I’ll probably go down to the Phoebe House tomorrow with mom for christmas. Otherwise I’m home in Seattle until January 7th when I’ll go back to Maine for a week. The thought’s crossed my mind if I should try to arrange being able to work remotely for a few weeks and go back to stay at my dad’s. We’ll wait and see how the next few weeks go, and then what things look like when I go back to visit.

My yellow card stickers came in, which unveils bikealive. A number of people on .83 want a handful of them. I should email safety-third too. I want to distribute them all and get a vibe for the reaction. It seems more positive than I expected at this point.

Otherwise, I’m pushing hard to get some packages into Debian. It’s such an odd structure. I may be able to use some social connections to find a package sponsor. As soon as things quiet down I’m going to work more on that.

snow bound

Finally found a useful job for transparent windows: writing while watching the daily show in the background on a small laptop screen.

A less than ideal day. My phone spent the night running out of battery power and rebooting. Over and over because it was plugged into a charger. The battery is finally dying. The AT&T store in Seattle apparently doesn’t stock batteries for my AT&T Tilt. Which is kind of funny, and totally lame. I’m feeling more and more like buying a G1.

Getting home and back on the internet I was greeted by an email from Jetblue announcing that my flight tonight was cancelled. Last night’s was as well, and the news is that thousands have been stranded at Seatac during our fun little storm here. Flights were filled up until the end of the week, and those were filling up by the hour. I gave up and rescheduled for a week in January.

This sparked a couple hours on the phone with my family talking about my dad and his state. It’s summed up by telling mom I was sad thinking about dad slowly dying. Between his emotional problems and his health problems, which feed off each other, it’s a solid downward slope. With the last couple of months feeling like I had a number of human problems to spend time thinking about, it was disheartening to add this to the pile of issues I’m not spending enough time considering.

I feel like I’ve caught the short end of the stick when it comes to what I’m made up with in regards to relationships. I’m thinking that compromise is too deeply ingrained in my personality. My first two relationships weren’t until I was in my late teens and were both long ones. Although different, both had issues where I felt hurt but wasn’t able to resolve that. Some part due to inexperience, but certainly some part due to feeling that I could fix everything by sucking it up and moving along. Which only resulted in a rotting feeling inside me until the end.

I don’t seem to know what I want from a relationship. I have pretty good ideas about what I like about people though. At times I feel like I’m feeding some sort of chemical, primarily trying to counteract feeling lonely or horny. Which would be unfortunate, but on some level, I suppose that’s all we’re ever doing. Even if we’re doing something noble or selfless, it’s really because we feel it’s the right thing to do, right? This makes me not want to be in a relationship, so I’ve sort of put a moratorium on them. I’m still open to dating, but have drawn a line in front of having a girlfriend again for bit.

It’s interesting that I’ve always been of the mentality that when I was dating someone, it was generally exclusive, and I jumped quickly from that into a relationship. Many people have looked at me funny about that, but I’ve done it because it felt right. And honestly, I did think about it but didn’t see any reason to go any other route. Now I feel like there’s a reason, but I’m not sure exactly what it looks like. Or, what it will look like at the time, but I feel like it’s more a fear of where I will end up if I don’t account for it.

I’m not the one you want, babe,
I’m not the one you need.
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Never weak but always strong,
To protect you an’ defend you
Whether you are right or wrong,

It ain’t me, babe. I was once accused of having a type. To some degree, sure. I only like girls I think are nice, I have an idea of what I think is cute, and a distaste for high maintenance. But who they were? They were all very different people. It seems like I need to find some way to learn to harness my feelings better, both to not fall in love with girls I like, and not want to sleep with those I find attractive. Both laudable, yet nigh impossible goals. I suppose the trick is all in the actions because we’re bound to feel the ways we do, and entitled to, but what matters is what we do about it.

I’m pretty sure I need a walkabout, and it’s upsetting that I’ve got this pile of medical bills and miscellaneous debt about to deal with first.

I’ve related figuring out that there’s no such thing as “the right girl” to losing your religion. It’s a strenously large pile of responsibility to shoulder all at once, and brings a frustrating little sidekick who is intent on killing and romantic notions by convincing you that it’s not about who you want to spend the rest of your life with but who you think you could spend the rest of your life with.

Which maybe is why when people get older they seem to have less relationships? Maybe there’s just that much more disenfranchisement with age.

One of the things that I talk[ed last night] about is taking a shine to OKCupid profiles that show some level of unique personality. That’s there is someone in there that likes what they like because they enjoy it, not because liking it gets them friends. That is, liking indie rock makes them fit in with people and gives them something to talk about that makes them feel special, and if not for that, they’d be lost. I think one of the things that people like about me is that I have strong personality. I’m often saddened by how rarely someone calls me up and says, let’s go do this. Especially girls. I’ve felt this way nearly as long as I can remember, so I suppose I’m accustomed to it somewhat. Or rather, I think I expect it. I seem to have a habit of dating quiet girls, because I dislike loud and obnoxious people usually. I wonder if I feel like I’m missing strong but not arrogant girls, on a level that I can feel but not pinpoint? Like I was saying before, where I’m naturally compromising, yet knowing something isn’t right, but I’m not confident enough to say it.

And is that something that I’d feel better about if I just said it, even if it wasn’t true?

OkCupid Recommends: btmspox. He is also interested in apatheism!

Thanks. Does he? Maybe I should talk to this character, perhaps he’ll have some insight for me. Part of me wishes I could find some direction in other peoples writings, but I know that my problems are my own. Although finding a good bit to read my help get me thinking in the right directions.

Existentialism is a term that has been applied to the work of a group of 19th and 20th century philosophers who, despite doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject – not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.

I seem to know what’s reasonable from a relationship, but not what I want to get out of one. I’m caught in some kind of survival mode too often by default. These are human problems, and require human interaction to move forward. It’s not an academic problem, so it’s not one that I should try to resolve by removing myself from people. But there’s a matter of attacking it in small enough doses that I’m not overwhelmed with feeling responsible for hurting other people.

While I acknowledge that these are my problems, I’m not confident that they aren’t also situational. That is that my type isn’t luring me into this place in a playing the victim sort of manner.

At the moment, I’m feeling tired with being unchallenged by people. I don’t yearn for the memories of being told there was something wrong with me that I had to fix, but I feel like a certain amount of understanding that’s leveled against me is too accommodating.

Very few people seem to ask me how I feel, none of them ask why.

christmas time

Winter Storm 2008 here in Seattle. It started in the early morn with something called Thundersnow. Very little happened yesterday as the roads were snowy and icy. Seattle doesn’t get much snow, so it’s pretty slow to react to these situations. Later many of us braved out on bikes to Greenlake for the .83 December Race and the Race of Champions.

I’m a little dissapointed in myself for not having written in a couple weeks, moreso about anything that means anything. As it is, I’ve been pretty busy. My cast is off and I’m down to using a brace sometimes. Most things wrist related are back to normal so I’ve been resolving being stir crazy and been out again more.

I got myself into a bit of relationship mess about a month ago and I suppose I’m still settling from that. Sitting here thinking, I probably haven’t backpeddled as much as I should and I definitely haven’t thought (written) enough in the aftermath. But the anxiety is mostly gone, I bought myself a used Bianchi Volpe, did some “charity” work and some “work work“. I need to do more of the latter I think in my off time. I’m not entirely sure when that is. I leave Sunday for the better part of a week in Maine to see the family.

I had a bit of a conversation with Eric this morning upon getting into the office about people getting uptight and stressed out about the weather. I’m fortunate that nobody gives me a hard time if I come into the office late. Although part of that is from the type of work I do, and part is from having a boss that understands that, a lot of it is because I do work hard and do get work done.

It’s a reminder to not let life get too complicated. I last thought about this while reading The Last Viridian Note. Which is… important…. Which is why I feel at the moment I need to find some more time to not do anything. But when? Not now. Got to get some work done before vacation.

google relationships

In the midst of emails about breaking up, anxiety, and life being generally hard, gmail gives me this advertisement:

Girls: Just Been Dumped? – ExBoyfriendGuru.net – Get Him *back* in 7 ½ Days Flat. Dirty Psychological “Mind Tricks”.

Fuck you google.

runner

I’m down to 400 comics of cyanide and happiness left. Which means I’ve read over a thousand of them this vacation. I used to try to explain to people about how soda is a “heavy liquid”, but nobody got it. I’m glad someone finally did.

Thanksgiving was fine and all. We somehow had a lot of Ayn Rand discussion, I blame Wendell. So it was funny that “Atlas Shrugged: Updated for the Current Financial Crisis” came through my feeds today.

The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind is available for download. I haven’t read it yet, but want to soon. In the search for a way for your life to leave a mark on the world, I have pretty strong feelings about technology and the public domain. If you happen to not be familiar with the concept of open source, I urge you to spend some time thinking about it.

I’m all caught up in reading and uploading photos from Thanksgiving to facebook and flickr. So it’s super late, so I don’t know how much I’ll have to talk about at this point.

I’m not as tired as I was when I was reading unfortunately, since it’s late and I should be sleeping. It’s been a very difficult day for me. The worse part about relationships is the risk of hurting someone’s feelings. I don’t take that well. Mother says I agonize because I have a good heart. I suppose. It’s difficult getting to the point where I’ve come to terms with the consequences of my actions. I don’t think I ever can convince myself that the collateral damage of making the right choices is acceptable enough that it doesn’t still bother me. Today’s movie marathon included Serenity, and I think about Mal’s character talking to Shepperd Book at the fire about digging his own holes and it not making sense.

Book: You got a plan?
Mal: Hiding ain’t a plan?
. . .
[Mal mentions that he could have left River behind.]
Book: It’s not your way, Mal.
Mal: I have a way? That better than a plan?

And that’s pretty much where I am. Keep reading that over and over ’till you get it.