I came across this quote as someone’s sig line:

"In a perfect world, of course, this would have given me superpowers. Unfortunately, all I have is the story, a faint feeling of foolishness, and a knowledge of what, exactly, electricity tastes like." – Miranda

You don’t need any more than that. Any more explanation would have ruined it. It gives you just enough information to construct any one of a number of wild and far-fetched stories – none of which are wilder or more far-fetched than the truth would have to be.

But Dann and I got to talking about our own experiences in getting shocked by electricity, and we remembered a man we knew when we were kids – he had been working on some power lines, and accidentally touched a live wire. The current flowed into one arm, across his chest, and out the other arm. So much electricity went through him that they had to amputate both his arms.

Then we remembered another man each of us had met independently – he had put his hand into a corn husker to remove a blockage, and it got chewed up. When they performed reconstructive surgery, his hand wound up looking something like a pig’s foot, with the remnants of his fingers sewn into two large members opposite his thumb.

What began as a humorous sig line and a sharing of anecdotes quickly led into reflection on the finality of our actions – neither of these men got a second chance. I soberly meditated on just how well-off I am, and how bad things could be – and how bad things might become, with a momentary lapse of judgment or a simply accident.

I got carried away and forgot the best part of the play last Saturday – in the final swordfight between Romeo and Paris, Paris’s sword broke off at the hilt and clattered across the stage. There was a moment of silence, as they both watched the blade skitter away, then looked at the broken hilt, and then looked at each other – and then they just jumped in and improvised the rest of the fight scene (which involved a lot of grappling). The actor who played Romeo told me afterwards that I missed the best fight of the play – it was a long one that had been choreographed with the cloak-and-dagger and cloak-and-rapier fighting styles, and looked really sweet. But I don’t go to the theater to see well-choreographed fights, I go to see the energy and unpredictability of a live performance – and this one delivered in spades. Kudos to all.

They had to use some girls to play guy parts, which kind of threw me. I’m not averse to crossdressing in performances of Shakespeare, since women weren’t allowed to be actors in Shakespeare’s day, and men played all female roles, but that was in the opposite direction. It’s especially weird when the girls were 14 and had some of the “dirty” lines Shakespeare wrote (“Aye, the heads of the maidens – or their maidenheads, take it in the sense thou wilt!”). I really don’t think they knew what they were talking about, though. When we studied “Romeo and Juliet” as freshmen in high school, our teacher had us ask the health teacher about the terms; he refused to explain them himself.

Quote of the Day:
Me: “Did you know ‘thou’ isn’t in the Microsoft Word dictionary?”
Dann: “Try finding ‘Netscape’ in there.”

Yesterday I went to see a friend of mine perform in “Romeo and Juliet” at the local theater. It was pretty good for a small theater; some of the actors (my friend included) were actually very good.

It was good to get out, and very good to hear Shakespeare again. That’s one of the things I miss most about being out of school – the great level of culture I was exposed to on a daily basis during my studies. I think when I start making more money, I’d like to be a patron of the arts. You know, buy season tickets to the local theater, go to orchestras, stuff like that. Things you have to wear a suit and tie to go to.

Although I didn’t wear a suit and tie to the play, I did wear a tie and a nice sweater. That’s one of the things I miss about my church – there’s no opportunity to get dressed up. I mean, really “dressed up.” I appreciate the come-as-you-are atmosphere, but if I wore a suit, I’d seriously stick out. I’m not complaining so much about my church (I wouldn’t change it for the world), but that my suit hasn’t been worn in months, and it’s almost too warm to wear it now. At “cultural events,” though, I could wear my suit with pride. I could sit down in a seat, close my eyes, and silently savor the music, without having some cheerleader shouting, “Put your hands together, Atlanta!”

I’ve had my car radio station set to the jazz station here in Atlanta, and I like to listen to it driving home. The mellow melodies remind me that it doesn’t matter how bad the traffic is; I’m going home, and that’s what’s important. Yesterday I switched it over to a “modern rock” station, hoping to get traffic information. I discovered that I did not enjoy the music as much as I thought I would, and the commercials were positively intolerable.

I went to a “Christian rock” concert once when I was in junior high. I wound up sitting in the corner reading a book. It was, in fact, a book I had borrowed from another nerd I had just met. We weren’t enjoying the concert as much as our youth ministers said we would. See, the stereotypical teenager has the appellations “wild,” “crazy,” and “extreme” tattooed to himself or herself (metaphorically, usually, but sometimes literally). What youth ministers often don’t realize is that the wretched “tyranny of the majority” (as J. S. Mill called it) keeps people like us hiding out in corners until we can find our way to a place of acceptance, where our tastes are not “oddball” or “weird,” nor even “cultured” and “refined” (which is the route of snobbery), but rather “valuable” and “appreciated.” Now that I’m out of school, a large city like Atlanta is the next best thing.

I got measured for a tuxedo this evening. Again. I was measured for a tuxedo last Saturday, as well. You see, I’m in three weddings this spring – two of them as Best Man. So, while all the blushing brides are planning their arrangements, I’m trying to organize bachelor parties for the grooms.

The problem is coming up with some creative events for Christian grooms – the traditional strip club just isn’t going to fly with us. One guy wants a LAN party, a computer party centered around multiplayer computer games. They usually last until about 6 a.m., so having it the night before the wedding would probably not be workable. A good cookout or barbeque might be fun – I’ll have to do some brainstorming to figure something out.

The tuxedo shop for the last wedding I was in screwed up my measurements pretty badly. My cousin’s, too – his didn’t fit any better than mine did. (No, we hadn’t accidentally put on each others’ tuxes.) I’m hoping this time they’ll get it right, and I can wear something that actually fits. It’s hard to look sober standing up there with the groom when your pants are too short and your jacket sleeves too long.

So I’m hoping they don’t get screwed up this time. To top it off, one of the brides is requiring the groomsmen to wear “Victorian Lilac”-colored vests. The things I go through for my friends!

I got a check in the mail yesterday! A year or so ago, I heard about a class-action anti-trust lawsuit against certain notable parties in the Recording Industry. I was eligible to be included among the plaintiffs. The charge was that “the Defendants conspired to illegally raise the prices of prerecorded Music Products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, in violation of State and Federal laws.” Of course, the Defendants denied any such thing. Frankly, though, I’m a bit suspicious when the cost of CDs has dropped to the point that AOL gives out massive numbers of them for free, and yet prices on the CDs keep getting noticibly more expensive. So, I signed up. The end result is that the Defendants settled out-of-court for about $67 million cash, plut $75 million in “charitable CD contributions to non-profit organizations.” Well, after all the tallying was done, I got my check for $13.86 yesterday.

A few years ago, that would have been enough to buy a CD.

Today is my two-month anniversary for keeping my blog. Sixty whole days! And at 500 words a day, that’s 30,000 words so far. Quite a bit of blogging! And as I’m writing this in Microsoft Word, and copying it to the blog entry screen, I can see that it comes to 56 pages so far (single-spaced). I’m quite proud of myself for keeping up so well.

Now the time has come, I suppose, to take a look back and evaluate how things have come so far, and speculate on the future. First, I’ve written some good stuff I know I never would have produced if I hadn’t disciplined myself to do this. Second, I’ve written a whole lot of stuff that the world could have done without. Third, this is taking up way too much of my time. The reality is, with Atlanta traffic, I usually only get 2-3 hours at home in the evenings before I go to sleep, and that doesn’t give me much time to eat and do other things.

Moreover, I’ve noticed that other people’s blogs are a lot more interesting than mine – because they only update when they have something worthwhile to say. Granted, I probably have more worthwhile things in a given period, because I come up with something worthwhile that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of, but the fact remains that visitors have to sift a large amount of chaff to get to the wheat.

So, where do I go from here? Well, I’ve decided not to feel it necessary to blog every day. I haven’t done much reading lately, and I seriously want to push my way through some goood books – and that’s time that’s normally spent blogging. In addition, I don’t feel it necessary to blog a full 500 words a day. I’ll blog what I can when I can. Sometimes, having a word goal helps you to think of more things to write about. Other times, it can just make you wordy. From now on, I’ll blog what I think needs to be blogged, and then I’ll just shut up.

I feel relieved to have this behind me. It’s been a good experience, but now I want to move on – try something else, focus somewhere else, keep exploring and learning and discovering. From time to time, hopefully at least a couple of times a week, I’ll pop back in here and report on where I’m going and what I’m doing and what I’m learning and any interesting tidbits or anecdotes about my life – but it’ll strictly be on a “when-I-feel-like-it” schedule.

I’d like to thank all the regulars on my messageboard, those who encouraged me directly or indirectly by participating – it’s a lot easier to find motivation to write when you know you have an audience! I’d also like to thank all the little people who’ve given their all to get me this far. I know I promised I wouldn’t forget you, but I have. Sorry. Hope all of you are getting along okay – whoever you are.