Simple Pleasure #458:

Picture driving on a two-lane road that curves to the right. You're in the right-hand lane, but want to change to the left hand lane. So, you still turn the wheel to the right to follow the curve, but not as much right ("Still favorite, but not as MUCH favorite!"), so as to drift over to the left lane. You're turning right, but going left. I love that!

Not so much is new. I've got some minor projects at work that are keeping me busy. Not busy enough that I can't enjoy some lunchtime chess, though.

I just played two games over lunch, and I'm surprised at how personally invested I get in the games. That is, I really enjoy winning, and really get kind of grumpy when I lose. Norm and I discussed it a little bit, that chess feels like an intellectual game, and on the surface appears to have some relationship with intelligence and brainpower. I highly qualify those remarks because I'm not convinced it's true. However, losing can tend to make one feel "dumb", while winning tends to make one feel "smart". As I suggested to Norm (and maybe here, I don't remember), perhaps it's because, in chess, when you make a mistake, it is typically made immediately clear to you with negative consequences. Nothing to do but accept them, try to learn, and move on.

Diana and I watched the first half'ish of "The Great Escape" last night. Very cool movie. I was pleasantly surprised that they used the Hogan's Heroes theme as their main theme! (Ha!) I'm looking forward to watching the rest soon.

I had to ditch out of the movie to join my workboys on World of Warcraft (et al). Tuesday night is when we try to make a special effort to get on at the same time and chum around together. Good times. I think our extended group is about 25 people. Pretty incredible. I'd love to get a big screenshot of all of us gathered together. That would rock.

That's about it. My birthday is coming up on Monday. There's been some talk about getting together on Friday night and "doing something" for it. People have asked what I want to do, and my heart isn't really in it. I'm not depressed over my birthday or anything, but I just don't know what I want to do to celebrate. A nice dinner with friends is a good start, and something fun after that. What I really want is someone else to take care of it all, 'cause I have no goddamn idea.

The big three-oh. Who'd have thunk it. I really haven't invested anytime thinking about the implications (are they any?) of turning 30. Gwen asked how I felt about it, during our Seattle visit, and I honestly said that I really didn't care. As I told her, I usually try to pick my fights, and there's NO getting around this one, so I might as well face it with dignity. Actually, that really makes it sound like I put some conscious effort into it. More accurately, I guess I knew all that deep down, and so it never really came to the surface.

Anyhoo, now I'm just rambling…