Beryllium

Going to bed, but I remembered to write something.
I've been meditating on 1 Tim 3:4 where it says that overseers must manage their own households well, with all dignity keeping their children submissive. I like it. It's such a practical and powerful one-stop shop for parenting goals.
NOT DIGNIFIED:
Shouting
Threatening
Intimidating
Bribing
Begging
Demeaning
Hurting

I believe discipline should be practiced in the home, but that it's infrequency is a direct measure of Godly parenting. That is to say, the better my relationship with God and understanding and applying of my role as a father, the less often my kids should need physical discipline. Have few rules, and the few are commensurately important to reinforce. Don't be a legalist or scorekeeper. Lead with your love, live as an example, and initiate _before_ there is a need to respond.

- J

Flourine

Today is September 24th, which means that exactly five months ago I asked you to be my wife. And you said yes! I still think it's remarkable.

I've been coming to really look forward to Friday nights. It's probably the part of my life I think about second-most (first-most being you). I love hanging out with those guys, and playing around in the little world I dreamed up. There's still a lot of ways I can improve as a Dungeon Master, but they're very patient about it and extend me a lot of grace. I won't miss it a huge amount when we're on our honeymoon, but I'll be glad to come home when we come home.

- J

Neon

I am increasingly unimpressed with Hyundai's customer service.

I was thinking about babies before I was thinking about how Hyundai of Kirland is lackluster, and that was a more interesting thought excusion. I was actually thinking about God and how He created us. He created time and space for us to live in, and then He made these little creatures who shared part of His nature. He loved them with all of His love, but also allowed them to choose whether or not they would love Him back. But regardless of their choice, He decided to love them and do good to them. It struck me that this is not so different from having a child, and it isn't coincedental. The end game of both the macro and micro process is the same: glory to God. The process is parallel for a reason. Someone who has children is capable - not guaranteed, but capable - of understanding God in a way that someone without children is not.

- J

Magnesium

Dave let Jade change his football call after seeing everyone else's picks, so he picked the most mathematically advantageous number and ended up winning. That's not magical powers; that's just gaming the system. This doesn't sit too well with me, even though I was fourth or fifth place. Greg picked 41 over my 40, but he did it blind so that's just my bad luck. If I had been allowed to re-pick after seeing Greg's number, I sure would have changed my call too. Of course, Jade's a hustler and he did ask. He didn't cheat, he simply asked Dave something that the rest of us didn't. We had all assumed no re-picks. This week that rule will hopefully be implemented.

Dana left me some oatmeal cookies this morning which was great. They're re-paving the asphault at the condo today, so I'll have to find a creative parking solution.
I slept hard last night. It was pretty great.

- J

Aluminium

For the second week in a row, my Monday Night Football prediction was dang close.
LAST WEEK
Prediction - Chargers: 21 / KC: 17 / Total: 38
Actual - Chargers 14 / KC: 21 / Total: 35

THIS WEEK
Prediction - New Orleans: 21 / 49ers: 19 / Total: 40
Actual - New Orleans: 25 / 49ers: 22 / Total: 47

I'm off by seven, which I'm guessing is far enough that I won't win (given that most people picked the Saints) but I'm surprised by how accurate my gut has been thus far.

IT ALSO HAPPENED TONIGHT: Kevin Klevjer called me with sound board trouble at his Movie Night I Wanted To Take You To But It Didn't Work Out (And Also I Kinda Forgot). (Or MNIWTTYTBIDWO(AAIKF) for short). And I was able to help, and the day was saved. =)

- J

Silicon

Good morning everything. I am at work, and all the things I'm trying to do keep giving me computer errors. Or we're missing the necessary supplies. I don't really mind, since it's no real problem or fault of mine, but I don't like the feeling of company money being wasted as I try to find workarounds. But it's a good day. I had an apple fritter at Sunrise Donuts, and sold my rainsuit, and some unspecified college football game is on in the background. And I read my bible, and I think I'm caught up on 1 Tim.

Last night's game was pretty epic. For the second time in as many weeks, the key changes I made to the combat encounters turned out to be the only reason that the players survived. They had made camp next to a mystical circle carved into the floor of a cave, and it turned out to be a portal through which bad guys suddenly began to spill. The "wave-upon-wave" nature of the fight made it interesting, since the players had no idea how many rounds of reinforcements there would be, only that the boss of the monsters was on his way. As-written, the boss was supposed to be this axe-wielding death machine berserker, but I didn't think he was a good fit for the fight so I swapped him for another boss from later in the same adventure: an extremely fat goblin who was deceptively quick and had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He was a great opponent, and everyone cheered when he was beaten.
The fight began well for the players, but the tide quickly turned against them as more and more bad guys joined the fray. When David's healer fell, everyone suddenly realized how dire the situation was. A heroic effort was made to fight through the enemy line, and on a last-chance dice roll, Josh's wizard succeeded at applying first-aid and saving David's life. Things were still touch-and-go for the rest of the battle, with all four characters coming close to death at various points. when they fianally triumphed there was much relieved sighing and celebration.
In the published adventure (from which I am constructing our game), the fight was supposed to throw all of the enemies at the players at once, with the much more difficult boss monster (who I will save for another fight later), and extra reinforcements. they wouldn't have stood a chance. As it was, I was genuinely worried that they wouldn't survive a couple of times during the night. I'm glad that I've played some 4th edition so that I can see where things need tweaking and rebalancing.

Next week the players will meet Ech, the runty goblin. I am excited by this; he's going to be a great source of role-playing for the group.

- J

Phosphorus

I skipped chlorine and sulfer because they suck.

It's a good day. Technically it's still morning, but the day has a momentum of 'positive' going on that I like. Holy cats, though! I just realized how far behind I've fallen in my 1 Tim memorization. Not cool.

Free pizza for lunch from The Boss, and good music on KEXP. It is a good day.

- J

Argon

My brain is still scuba-diving in clouded water. I know that everything will be okay, and I know that there is a great deal of momentum carrying us along, but it's straining my eyes trying to see it clearly.
Maybe it'll help to write a list.

THINGS I AM THINKING ABOUT

Follow up with S_____ M_____ R_____
Write back to Erika
Plan moving my stuff / start packing
Write to Other Dudes about That One Thing
Pray
Catch up in 1 Tim memorization
Pay ECS
Pay Mercer View
Get ribbon to Mike's Amazing Cakes / pay for cake
Find out about storage rental rates / sizes
Finalize tux order
Get marriage license
Reconnect with Ari re: schedule
Coordiate wedding volunteers
Dance with Erin
Take car to Hyundai for service / plate drilling
Sketch out day-of-wedding checklist
Follow up with non-response invitatees
Sell tickets
Sell helmet
Sell couch

Also I'm dropping a lot of letters from my words as I type. Tiredness / stress / tiredness. But writing it out helps, since I have a hard time thinking about more than one thing at a time. Much to do. Limited hours. I am grateful to God for a job that lets me take a two-hour lunch when I need to.

- J

Potassium

It's so early in the day, nothing has happened for me to chronicle yet. I am abandoned to my own uninfluenced brainwave activity. This is a dodgy proposition.
The guys didn't come over this morning, so I actually was able to get some other things done. Apparantly Taylor has moves to Queen Anne, so he won't be part of the group at all anymore. I feel pleasanly productive wedding-wise. I think I should be more excited, though. I mean, that's the way normal people are suppoed to feel, right? A mounting buzz of excitement. I don't have that. I just feel good about everything. I'm totally confident that this is the right thing to do, we're doing it in the right way, the timing is great, and everything is going well. I don't have any reservations, cold feet, nervousness, pangs of anxiety, or dark premonitions of doom. It feels right. Right enough that I forget how big of a life-change it is. Right enough that it's obvious. The only thing I'm stressed about is moving. Spending the rest of my life with you is like the easy part, and selling or carting over all my stuff is what's churning my brain.
Shrug. No complaints. I'd rather be weird than spend the next three weeks as a big ball of neruoses.

-J

Titanium

Long day pretty much over! I am very pleased by this. I feel like my posting has been reactionary lately, merely focusing on whatever emotional butterful I'm currently chasing. Even now as I sit down to write, my brain carefully blanks itslef and purges all ideas I may have had for writing subjects. I'm like an etch-a-sketch, seriously.
There is so much going on right now, but I'm happy about most of it. All of it, I guess. Even the tough stuff. I'm sure I had more to say, but it's gone.

- J

Vanadium

I've hit the frustrating curve of apologetics once more, which is briefly: I spend an hour or more carefully constucting a well thought out, polite, biblically sound response to each of a series of questions; my conversational partner then spends ninety seconds poking holes and/or demanding further answers and/or dismissing me and/or declaring that our differences cannot be reconciled.
I feel like I have a better head for what to expect now, which makes it easier to know what things to focus on and what to ignore, but it's still tiring. We got pizza today for I.T. Brent's birthday, so that's good. Although it was Pizza Hut, so that's bad. But NFL football starts tonight, so that's good. I think i'm still net-positive. I asked David K. if it might work to watch the Seahawks season opener at his place on Sunday, and he said that would probably be fine. Nothing is set in stone, so we can talk about how we're feeling as it gets closer.
Love you. Love that we're like-minded.

- J

Chromium

Didn't sleep much. Dear future Jeremy: mochas can be made decaf too. It's true!
This morning I was lying in bed and thinking about how I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you. It was weird to think about... I've never done that with anyone before. Like, after we get married you'll always be around. Everything will be in the context of "together".
It'll take some getting used to, I imagine. I hope I'm not bad at it for too long. I mean, I guess I'll have a while to get good, but I want to be good right away. Or at least feel like I'm improving.
Bedtime is going to be SO different than now.

- J

Manganese

I am resolute in my refusal to drink coffee today. I don't want my brain to lean on a substance over bed-going-to-time wisdom. Ten thirty last night, which is still too late by, like, an hour, and I didn't sleep great. Which at this point needs to be my working assupmtion when planning my evening cutoffs.
Geoff is out with an eye infection, and our printers don't feel much like working. Between both unfortunate circumstances it's going to be a bumpy week. A nap on the couch seems prudent.
Looking forward to tonight. And the rest of my life.

- J

9/1/10

Heather my coworker told me she doesn't eat bacon because she's a Christian. This bothered me enough that I looked up some verses (i.e. Jesus saying "eat whatever you want") and facebooked them to her. I hope this was okay. It really surprised me when I heard it. I was all, "... but... what? No, you're thinking of Jews. We have a whole new testament. It's awesome!"
I'm sleepy. I blame blood loss. Dang vampiric doctors. At least I'm caught up on hours for the day.
Right, I need to drink water.

- J