Being a man
It’s hard being a man today. Today, we’re coached to be a “guy”, or a “dude”… little more than an 18 year old with a fat wallet. Being a man is different.
Getting a jump on phase 2
I’ve mentioned that I’m getting things together for some sort of emergency situation. Tornado, power outage… whatever. Phase 1 is collecting water. In the event that our water supply becomes unavailable or unusable, we need to have water.
That’s going okay and is still in progress.
Emergency Preparedness – Stage One
For whatever reason, I got a hair up my butt to prepare for some sort of a disaster. I’m not preparing for any disaster in particular (flood, tornado, zombie attack) but I just don’t want to be caught short if something bad goes down.
I guess I really started a few years ago. I bought a gasoline powered generator. It’s a fairly substantial unit. It has a five gallon gas tank on it and should be able to power my entire house in the event power goes out. I heard about a guy that bought one specifically to run his sump pump so that his basement doesn’t flood if power goes out in a major storm.
If I knew then what I know now…
I’ve been going through a lot of old college pictures and such lately. It’s got me to thinking… I wish I knew then what I know now. That’s not really a new sentiment. I think everyone goes through that kind of phase.
What would I have done differently?
What would I have made sure to do the same?
How would I have made sure that I maximized my time?
Something new to work on
I have very little time for people who are incompetent. I struggle not to call them names or to belittle them. It’s hard for me not to point out the mistakes people make and make them feel bad. I do point out mistakes, but I always try to consider peoples feelings and to be constructive.
This is not something that should change. God knows if people had treated me like that my life would be pretty different.
The Guy Club a.k.a. The Man Code
Over the weekend, I was supremely frustrated. I needed a buddy to vent to. The problem is that I wanted to vent about Flight Control (my wife) and the only person around was The Ace (the oldest child). The Ace is only 11 years old and would surely have blabbed.
I didn’t need that.
But it got me to thinking… when do we learn about Man Law? When do we learn about keeping guy secrets? At what age did it click? I’m sure I didn’t know about it when I was 11 years old. Was there a Guys Club at that age?
Just curious ramblings.
Cold water shaving
I recently read an article over at the Art of Manliness about shaving with cold water. They go through many reasons why men have shaved with cold water in the past. Ranging from time (in the olden days, you had to start a fire to have hot water) to power outages.
I decided to give it a try. Wow… it was not pleasant. More than anything, my fingers and hands really got the coldest. I miss that hot towel and warm lather luxury.
I’ll say this though, I got out of there with no nicks or cuts. Amazing! As far as cold water shaving goes, it really works better (in my opinion) but I’ll probably stick with the hot water method and deal with the blood.
People are people
I have been a fan of http://icanhascheezburger.com/ for a long time. This morning, something occurred to me. A lot of the videos they show are from people in other countries. They show videos of their cats doing silly things. A lot of the time, you can hear the people in the room laughing along with you.
People are people, no matter where you are or where you come from. I find comfort in that. Perhaps, somewhere in China, there’s a dude being hassled by his wife and kids just like me. :-)
Ooo… I’m gonna pay for that last crack.
Supporting Artists
I enjoy supporting artists. There’s a difference between art and science. This is obvious. I write computer code for a living. It is a science. There’s definitely an art to programming, but people can take classes and read books to learn what I do.
I could take classes for 1,000 years and never make art that anyone would want.
So I enjoy supporting “the little guy” or the independent artist. Here are just a few samples of folks I’ve supported.
http://www.vladstudio.com – $30 for a lifetime of desktop wallpapers
http://www.secondgearsoftware.com – very handy little Mac utilities
http://www.whiteknightlogic.net – $4 per screensaver… mesmerizing!
http://www.dubfx.net – street performer & beat boxer… amazing <<sample>>
The difficult we do immediately…
I don’t recall exactly where I heard it first, but I gather in the military, there’s a mindset stating that “The difficult we do immediately, the impossible will take a little longer.”
I really like this concept. It gets to the core of “doing the job”. I’m trying to instill this in my boys. Just do the job. It seems that they could get a job done with half the energy they spend whining and complaining about doing it.
It is something the population in general could benefit from.
Apologizing when you’re in the wrong
I am having a shitty day. Everyone has them. Today is one of mine. It’s one of those days where lots of little things go wrong in a short span of time. I cut my finger somehow. Then we were out of band-aids. Then I get to Walgreen’s, buy some band-aids. When I set the pen down on the register, it fell off. I get home and a bunch of other shit happened. Suffice it to say, I’m in my office now, trying to stay away from everyone and everything. I’m also trying to keep people away from me.
One of the things that made me snap was that I asked the Ace to take some scissors from the basement (why were they down there?!) up to my office where they belong. Naturally, being lazy, he put them on my desk in my office. WAS IT ACTUALLY NECESSARY FOR ME TO TELL HIM TO PUT THEM AWAY?! Anyway, I snapped at him and yelled at him. He put them away and then I heard him go to his room and shut the door.
After I had cooled down, I realized that I shouldn’t take my bad day out on him. I called him back down to my office and apologized. I apologized to him the way I want him to apologize to his brother.
Part of being a man is recognizing when you’re in the wrong, and apologizing for it.