Yeah, you do seem great.

Mermaids aren't furry.

Literally all the time, but OK...

Last Saturday night, bored, make an impulse decision to buy soccer tickets. Get some really nice seats, front row of the second level. Seats 1 and 2, on the aisle.

Get to the stadium moments before kick-off, head to our section, there's a guy and his wife sitting in the two seats on the aisle. I ask if they're sure they're in the right place and show him my tickets: seats 1 and 2, right on the aisle. He looks confused, apologizes, they leave. As my wife and I are sitting down, I see the little seat number I missed before. These are seats 20 and 19...the wrong end of the row from where we're supposed to be. I mistakenly assumed the seats were numbered left to right, but they're right to left for some reason.

Cringe, wonder if they'll notice or if they'll just take the open seats down on the far end of the row. Look over and I see the guy looking at seats 1 and 2 and scowling. The teams are lining up, the game has just started. I sigh and head into the concourse, catch up with the guy as he is coming back down from the right side of the section.

I apologize, say it was totally my mistake, offer to let them keep seats 1-2 since they're here already, guy insists on taking back seats 20-19 since that's what he paid for. Completely understand, sorry again for the misunderstanding.

While we're in the concourse straightening things out, the home team scores what will end up being their only goal of the game. We both miss it. We go on to lose 3-1.

A couple of my favorites, in no particular order...

Dessa - Mineshaft II Dessa writes some of the most evocative, lyrically dense songs I've ever heard.

The Gits - Guilt Within Your Head The Gits were a Seattle-based punk rock band that were poised to blow up big in the early 90s. Tragically, lead singer Mia Zapata was murdered just 4 days after they signed their first major contract.

Titus Andronicus - (I'm) Screwed A long-running and critically acclaimed hard rock band that's avoided finding mainstream success. One of the best live acts I've seen.

Ooo, my brother-in-law is in sales. What kind of commission do you make?

Shocked gasp!

A lot of lines have snuck into my regular vocabulary. Flibbertigibbet, I'm not arguing that with you, I'm soul sick and you're gonna see that, brain cloud, I have no response to that...

Joe vs the Volcano

It's the first movie I remember going to see (at a drive-in theater when I was 7). It was kind of a flop when it came out, but it's achieved a certain cult status for its surprisingly deep philosophy on fear, self-realization, and facing mortality.

Here's a more in-depth article, with pictures.

It's #14.

Also, I know these trash lists either include or exclude things specifically to be controversial and generate conversation, but seriously...The Lives of Others isn't on a list of 'best movies involving surveillance?' Really?

The last time a question like this was asked, I said it was when I enlisted in the US Army on Sept 5th, 2001 instead of Sept 12th, 2001. But in reality I probably would've enlisted either way (I was drinking the kool-aid back then) and when I enlisted it was on something called the Delayed Entry Program; I still had to finish my senior year of high school and didn't leave for Basic Training until June 2002.

The actual life-changing moment that came out of that was taking advantage of the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program right after I completed AIT. It's essentially a 2 week temporary duty to go back home wearing your fancy new uniform to convince all your old high school buddies to sign up and be cool like you. I took it, did a couple recruitment events, signed up no one, and just enjoyed some free vacation time. This was March 2003, just a couple days before we invaded Iraq.

When I graduated AIT (your actual job training after basic training) I got orders to report to Ft Hood. Another guy, Watt, got the same orders. We had gone through Basic and AIT together, had the exact same MOS. I took HRAP, he did not. At the time, there were 2 major units on Ft Hood: the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. Watt showed up at Ft Hood and was assigned to 4th ID. I showed up a couple weeks later and was told that 4th ID was all filled up, so I went to 1st Cav instead.

4th ID deployed to Iraq in 2003, 1st Cav didn't deploy until 2004. Because units were basically on a "1 year deployed, 1 year back home, 1 year deployed, 1 year back home..." rhythm this meant I ended up getting stop-lossed instead of getting out of the Army in 2006 when my original 4 year enlistment was up. While I was extended, I was selected to receive retraining on newer, modern equipment instead of the old crap designed to fight the Soviets I was originally trained on. This new training, and some contacts I made while on my second deployment, led to me getting a job with a defense contractor doing the exact same thing after I eventually got out. That job was overseas, where I happened to meet my future wife. And even though I'm in a slightly different field of work now, I can still draw a straight line between getting that experience and contacts and how I ended up where I am now.

The alternative, if I hadn't taken 2 weeks vacation in 2003, is that I most likely would have gotten out of the Army as scheduled in 2006 but without any training that was directly applicable to a civilian job and without the networking contacts to land an overseas contractor gig.

Want to make a "firing range" pun, but nothing's coming to me...leaving this as a placeholder in case inspiration strikes later.