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Ruined

Originally uploaded by -Radium-

An awesome high-key shot by -Radium- (via Flickr Explore).

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been wearing a rather unusual shoe called Vibram FiveFingers (VFFs). While there are lot of things I love about these shoes, there is a dark side to them as well. So as a public service, here’s the top 10 5 things you should consider before trying out VFFs!

1. They’re so comfortable, you will dread wearing “real” shoes.
2. Strangers will talk to you about your shoes.
3. Psychologically, walking “barefoot” feels great… until you walk into a public restroom.
4. Your posture and stride will improve and you’re likely to lose that back pain you love.
5. You may be liable for injuries incurred when people do triple takes at your shoes.

So, remember, think before you VFF!

If you’re planning on taking a Microsoft exam before the end of the year, make sure you go to the Prometric site to sign up for a discount voucher!

http://www.prometric.com/microsoft/careeroffer.htm

Looking forward to seeing District 9 tonight!

My internet connection seems to be going in and out more than normal tonight, which means writing a blog entry is a bit of a risky enterprise right now. But oh well, here it goes!

This week has been “downtime” for me, since the next contract hasn’t started yet. I’m really a upstanding kinda guy, but I do have a terrible addiction…

Yes, I’m taking about reading. I’ve read four five full length books since returning from New York City on Sunday. I can’t help myself. I’ve started a sixth & seventh as we speak.

In some ways, the Kindle has been a godsend. For starters, it’s a lot cheaper to read books on the Kindle. That’s a good thing when you plow through multiple books a week! But the biggest downside to the Kindle is that it makes feeding my addiction so much easier! Finish a book? No problem, just hop on over to the Kindle Store and get your next read without having to leave your chair (or bed).

It’s amazing I’ve managed to get anything productive done all week!

But fortunately, I have. Not as much as I hoped, but I’ve covered all the really critical bases – got through my mail, deposited checks, sent in tax paperwork, etc. I do still have a big backlog of photos from the Winchester Photo Meet and our trip to New York City. But with Cindy’s help (reminding me that is), I’ll get through those soon enough.

This week has also been weird for me because I’ve suddenly become a dog owner & home owner (I’m house sitting while my folks are in Panama). In the past, I’ve been here when they’re gone, but it’s only for a day or two and I feel no real compulsion to be productive around the house. But with a whole week here, I’ve suddenly found myself thinking things like “That grass looks like it’s gonna need mowed soon” and “Let’s see if we can find something fun to do with the dog today before the sun goes down”.

Overall, it’s been a great week! Pretty much the only downside has been that Cindy isn’t here to share it with me.

I’m generally pretty happy with Movable Type (my blogging software), but I’ve spent an hour today trying to get the “Pages” area to populate correctly and it just isn’t working. This is obviously a bug, which I suppose means I should upgrade to the latest version. But I’m too damn busy to be wading into an upgrade right now. So I guess the pages will just go un-linked for the time being. :-/

I bowled a 211 tonight – six straight strikes in the opening frames! That was too crazy to believe. I normally bowl a 75! hahaha

My grandfather passed away this last weekend. This was the culmination of a long down-hill trip over the last few years. It was hard to see him at our last Christmas party. He was so withdrawn and disconnected – a shell of the man I knew growing up.
But in my memories he’ll always be the Grandad Hagan from years ago. Living in the house on the hill over the interstate. Playing with the weimaraners. Cooking incredible filet mignon. Playing old LPs on the stereo. I remember sitting in his house and looking at the huge grandfather clock that had a face that told the phases of the moon, not just the time of day. My brothers and I used to play with plastic soldiers in the hills around the end of his driveway. We would dig through the cabinets in his living room and pull out board games and puzzles and science novelties to our hearts content.
Grandma Hagan passed away a long time ago. Going to her funeral is the earliest memory I have of really meeting death in person. I don’t think it gets any easier to say good bye to family or friends. When I help carry Grandad out of church for the last time on Wednesday, it will be a sad goodbye. But he will live on in our memories, which I think is all any of us can hope for.