I’m thankful for… November 26, 2009
Posted by Ryan in But seriously.add a comment
I don’t want to go too much into details, but in many ways the past year has been the worst of my life. Yet there are still good thing, still things I am thankful for and for the time being I think I will simply list them since one thing I’m not thankful for is accidentally sleeping in and running late.
So, I’m thankful for:
Love
Family
Tricia
My job
My health
My mother
My cat
Having a nice place to live
Believe it or not, in a way, my ex-wife
So, enjoy your thanksgiving everyone, I’ll be doing my best to do the same, although I know this one will not be what I hope it would.
I play hockey! November 18, 2009
Posted by Ryan in How I see the world, I'm a kid again!.add a comment
Look, there I am. It’s a good thing you can’t see where the puck is and you just have to take me word for it that my angles are right, despite it looking like I’m totally out of position.
Then again perhaps you had no clue it even looked like I was wrong, whatever. I play in a recreational league, it is non-checking, meaning guys don’t just skate into each other like the pros do. Our games are in the evenings and to let you know the type of pressure cooker our league is I can’t recall the last time I left after a game without getting offered a beer, before a game isn’t 100% out of the question either.
I think that team sports are great, they can teach a whole array of valuable life skills and lessons and perhaps most of all they are very often fun. I don’t always win, in fact I’ve never had the joy of winning a single one of our league’s 6 month long seasons, but when we all have day jobs and your beer is just as likely to come from an opponent as a teammate the wins and losses of the thing are somewhat less important. I love playing hockey, in my life right now not a whole lot of things are just simply fun, so I particularly enjoy the one that is.
No totally sure where I meant to go with all this but I guess in the end my point is that I play hockey and I love it and we all need a thing or two in our life that we just simply love.
For the children November 1, 2009
Posted by Ryan in How I see the world.add a comment
When I was a kid Halloween was a holiday just for kids, actually pretty much the ONLY holiday just for kids. It was acceptable for adults to dress up to take the kids trick or treating, but nothing too complex (my dad used the same costume to go with us every year). And maybe one or two houses on each street were decorated, a little bit, just for the one day.
Now that I’m an adult I fend off many questions of what I’m dressing up a (guy handing out candy this year, again) and turn down a number of party invites. While I commend the female adult costumes as much as any other red blooded american male I can’t help but think this maturing of Halloween is a sad thing.
I remember hating how my dad could carve a jack-o-lantern so much faster and better than I could. I mean, I was like ten so I had an excuse, but my point is that there was this feeling of “How dare he! Doesn’t he know Halloween is for KIDS, just kids?”
I guess part of my problem could be my distaste for talking with anyone when I can’t see their face, such as over the phone, or if they have a mask or mickey mouse head on. But I think even more than that I have a bit of a problem with the recent trends in halloween celebrations because I feel like my generation is being greedy and stealing from the children. And after all, if we take halloween what do kids really have left that is just their own?
I think they deserve more than just Trix, you silly rabbits!
It’s snowing! It’s snowing! October 28, 2009
Posted by Ryan in I'm a kid again!.add a comment
There are some things in life that totally turn me into a little kid again, I don’t really know why, but I like it.
One of them is that moment when I first look out the window in the morning to see the ground covered in white. I know I may hate it later on when I have to drive somewhere or something. But even though it no longer portends a surprise day at home playing in the cold and enjoying hot chocolate I still love that first view of the white stuff (no, I’m not talking about Oreos this time).
So thank you mother nature for letting me forget all the problems of life, even if only just for a second. It is really greatly appreciated.
On advertising (mac/PC edition) October 28, 2009
Posted by Ryan in How I see the world.1 comment so far
I’ll fully admit that I’m not a good target for ads. I have a habit of not really paying attention and even when something does catch and keep my attention my poor memory often gets in the way. All of my favorite ads in history are for “some cellphone company” or “some investment firm” or something else I can’t remember.
At any rate I saw an ad today and I actually can remember what it’s for. It’s the new mac ad bashing the release of windows 7 (aka vista service pack 2). I pretty much remember most of this series of commercials, because I don’t like any of them. They are simply mean, just like political ads bashing an opponent. I believe if you or your product is so bad you feel the need to speak poorly of the competitor it says something about you, something not good.
This particular ad had the PC character talking very happily about the release of windows 7 and saying it’s going to fix all the problems of vista. The mac character then replies, saying that seems familiar. The ad then goes on to show a series of what are obviously flashbacks covering previous releases of windows operating systems, each time the PC character is saying it’s going to fix the problems of the previous version. I understand this is where they expect me to stop thinking and conclude that windows sucks and therefor mac must be good.
I’m not like that though.
I noticed that in each flashback the PC character is going through some substantial changes in order to match the time frame that the scene is appropriate for. Meanwhile the mac character pretty much changes clothes, not style or anything, just different jeans and so forth. This to me indicates that while windows has accepted that they have shortcomings and worked to fix them and adjust for the changing times mac has kept things basically the same with only minor and superficial changes. This leads me to conclude that I should purchase the PC over the mac because they’re at least trying to improve and only an idiot would think any operating system is ever perfect.
Like I said, I don’t think advertising works on me like it’s suppose to.
I have a blog!? October 28, 2009
Posted by Ryan in Uncategorized.add a comment
Wow, I have a blog! I wonder how the heck that happened. Also I wonder what I might blog about. (Is that right, can I use blog as a verb?) Anyway, you should certainly stay tuned, after this blog entry it has to be all uphill from here.
