The easiest job in Hollywood

I was channel surfing and I came across an X-Files rerun. Man, being the lighting director of that show must've been the easiest job in Hollywood....

Consulta a su medico si tienes este problema...

J- cracks me up. In Spanish class, she asked “¿Cuántos anos tienes?” instead of “¿Cuántos años tienes?” The latter means literally, “How many years do you have”, viz. “How old are you?” If you answer more than one to the former, I recommend you see a doctor immediately, preferably a proctologist.

The Ultimate "To Do" List

This weekend, I went to lunch in Old Fort Collins with my family and a few relatives at a brewery restaurant. The food was decent but I got more to chew on. In conversing with Aunt S., the world titleholder for the best fudge brownies and a model of vibrancy in old age, she mentioned a cousin's idea to compile a list of 100 things to do before you die. Certaintly, this idea isn't unique, with book titles about “1000 places to go before you die”, but I see great value to it.
In writing college entrance essays you have to think formally about the topic, but mostly in the context of socially-prescribed, straight-faced ambitions -- “If you let me into Distinguished U, I will work tirelessly to obtain the peaks of scholarship, and during summer breaks volunteer to give sponge baths to lepers in famine-striken countries.” You are confronted with having to do something, and if you're lucky you have ambitions or talents guiding you to want to do something.

The choices and possibilities have multipied from the times when one's station in life was relatively fixed. And this can be an exciting development, but it can also precipitate terminal indecision and aimlessness, and the regrets of lost time. For which I vouch. So there's nothing to lose in the exercise, whether the list is composed of improbabilities, trivialities, goals, achievements, obtainments, or a great motley mixture. It's probably best for a mixture...

Without making the faintest plans for what you want, it seems more likely that more of what you want to do will pass you by, and that the problems and tedium of the quotidian will distract you from what you want to achieve.

Here's to get started on my list, in no priority:

1. Spend one month on the beach and in the ocean. Try surfing and kayaking and everything else. Ogle, ogle, and ogle some more.
2. Learn how to scuba dive. Did it (the blue), so now my goal is to become an expert and to dive on every continent short of Antartica.
3. Become fluent in Spanish.
4. Research, write and publish a great book. On anything.
5. Spend 5+ years traveling or living abroad.
6. Help my family and friends with some items on their lists.
7. Overcome my people-phobia and its legacy. Kick it in the $#@!*& @ss! ASAP.
8. See as many live comedy shows as I can of comedians I like. Read all their books and watch their routines and shows. Write my own brand of comedy for the helluvit (that mocks self-help lists).
9. Learn to cook the Indian food that I love, so I can have it every day.
10. If in the next fifty years, somehow affordable space tourism comes into existence, take at least one trip “out of this world.“

Two Leagues Under the Sea

Here's another bleached out photo, the scuba beach at Aurora Reservoir. The weather was good this weekend when I went diving, but as expected it was a mud puddle, with visibility of less than 10 feet. I was tired as hell after four dives, probably from the cold of the waters (64°) and swiming and snorkeling out to the diving platform with 50 pounds of equipment. Diving in the tropics will probably be easier in many ways, surely more exciting scenary than water weeds and a Cessna. But it was good to get the open water certification and get the basic skills down, and good to know that I was able to equalize my ears. Judging by how fast I used up my tank I think I might be an air hog, however, so I'm probably going to at least get Nitrox certification so I can stay underwater longer.

That's it, no more glasses...

I'm sick of people asking me for directions. Just because I have glasses don't mean I have a compass!

I exaggerate, but it should be interesting to see if there are any differences, with my extensive knowledge of second-hand pop psychology.

(Instead of getting a scuba mask w/ corrective lens, contacts seemed a better deal.)