Geek Philosophy

Following Jen’s lead, I’m going to try to make up for a recent lack of posting by taking the easy out and doing a meme. Instead of writing it about Mel, it’ll be about me – I’ll ask Mel the questions and write down what she says. Here are the twenty questions, answered by my wife, and my comments on her answers.

1. He is sitting in front of the TV. What is on the screen?

“Video games.”  (No argument there)

2. You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?

“Oil & Vinegar.” (Sounds good)

3. What’s one food he doesn’t like?

“Seafood.” (Three for three!)

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order?

“Gin & Tonic.” (Those are good – her first answer was “beer”, but she changed her mind when I asked her what type of beer. Beer is also a good answer)

5. Where did he go to high school?

“The same place as me.” (Correct!)

6. What size shoe does he wear?

“8?” (Between 8 and 9, depending on the brand. Same size as her, so I’m glad she got this one right!)

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?

“Hockey cards.” (I would have said “nothing”, but hockey cards are probably the one thing I’ve ever collected.)

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?

“Turkey.” (Yeah, that’s what I usually get at Subway. Made by sandwich artists!)

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?

“Nachos.” (Si, señorita).

10. What is his favorite cereal?

“Granola.” (Yes, and yet another answer that’s identical to her choice.)

11. What would he never wear?

“A thong.” (As good an answer as any).

12. What is his favorite sports team?

“Vancouver Canucks.” (Maybe from October to May, but in the summer it’s “How I Hucked Your Mother“, my ultimate team)

13. Who did he vote for?

“NDP.” (Mel Lehan, for the man, not the party)

14. Who is his best friend?

“Me.” (So very, very true)

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do?

“Be clumsy.” (She *does* have a tendency to break the occasional dish while stubbing her toe and knocking over the cat food…)

16. What is his heritage?

“Newfie and Irish.” (I can’t be sure about the Irish, but I heard once that my family can be traced in Newfoundland back to 1770)

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?

“Double chocolate or goat’s cheese cheesecake.” (Double good. Now I’m hungry.)

18. Did he play sports in high school?

“No, not unless you count D&D.” (Hey! I didn’t play D&D in highschool, but I did spend 6 years kicking ass in Ju-Jitsu, thank you very much)

19. What could he spend hours doing?

“Sleeping or playing video games.” (Guilty as charged)

20. What is one unique talent he has?

“Confident humility.” (Interesting phrase – I like it. Described to me as knowing what I’m doing but not being too cocky about it)

There we go, 20 questions. There’s a lot going on that I should write about, but I think I’ll wait until everything has blown over before I sit down and commit it to e-paper.

Following Jen‘s and Scott‘s lead, I’m doing the Relationship Who’s Who meme. Mel had the idea to alternate answers, so here are ours.

What are your middle names?

Mel: Eric and Lynne – Chris for his dad, and me for my godmother Lynn (but “with an e” like Anne of Green Gables).

How long have you been together?

Chris: This May, it will be 10 years. It hasn’t been completely continuous, but we’ll be celebrating a decade together on our second wedding anniversary.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?

Mel: I think we knew of each other throughout high school, but got to know each other in our first class together (Biology 12) a few months before we started “going out”.

Who asked whom out?

Chris: It was an awkward high school thing. Mel probably deserves the credit – she organized the first date, and asked me to the prom.

How old are each of you?

Mel: Both 28 in 2009; I’m about 9 months older.

Whose siblings do you see the most?

Chris: Definitely Mel’s. She knows them better, and they live close by.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?

Mel: Cleaning the bathroom.

Did you go to the same school?

Chris: Yes, for high school and most of university.

Are you from the same home town?

Mel: We both grew up in a number of different towns in 4 provinces and 1 territory, but ended up going to high school together in what we both consider our home town.

Who is smarter?

Chris: Holy Loaded Question, Batman! IQ, probably me, but what does that prove? Emotionally, most likely her. We’re both pretty sharp, I think.

Who is the most sensitive?

Mel: Me.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?

Chris: We prefer to try new places instead of going to the same place all the time, but we’ve been hitting up Dharma Kitchen quite a lot recently.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

Mel: Hawaii. We’re planning a trip to Europe soon though.

Who has the craziest exes?

Chris: I don’t think either of us really have crazy exes. I have more exes, and at least one who acted a bit odd at the end of / after our relationship, so probably me.

Who has the worst temper?

Mel: Me.

Who does the cooking?

Chris: Mel, but she’s taught me a lot and I help her out. I’m referred to as the sous-chef come cooking time.

Who is the neat-freak?

Mel: Me.

Who is more stubborn?

Chris: We can both be stubborn, for sure. Mel’s more likely to be stubborn in the face of reason on an emotional issue, and I’m more likely to be stubborn in the face of emotion on a logical issue.

Who hogs the bed?

Mel: The cat.

Who wakes up earlier?

Chris: We’re both up decently early, even on weekends. Weekdays, I’m up earlier (only by 15 minutes or so). Weekends, it’s usually Mel who beats me by anywhere between 10 minutes and 1 hour.

Where was your first date?

Mel: We went on a group date with friends to see The Matrix on the big screen; Chris had seen it twice already.

Who is more jealous?

Chris: I don’t know if either of us are really jealous. I’ll say Mel, but only from logical deduction – I’m not jealous at all, so if she has even the slightest bit, she’s it

How long did it take to get serious?

Mel: 6 days and another 3 or so years.

Who eats more?

Chris: Probably me – I can finish off my plate and hers as well if I need to.

Who does the laundry?

Mel: I sort it, and am in charge of deciding what does & doesn’t go in the dryer.

Who’s better with the computer?

Chris: Well, I’ve got a degree in Computer Science and do it professionally… so I’ll say me. That said, Mel was the first of the two of us to learn HTML and have a blog (in the ’90′s, even!).

Who drives when you are together?

Mel: Usually Chris, because he will go to sleep if he’s not driving.

I’m late to the party, but I’m going to do this 25 things meme anyway. I won’t be tagging anybody, though – everybody I know has done it already.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. My name is Christopher Eric, after my parents Christine and Eric. If I was a girl, I would have been Erica Christine. Yes, my parents are mind-bogglingly creative

2. The first time I lived in a city larger than 30,000 people (after age 5, at least) was when I moved to Vancouver when I was 18. I’d be fine if I never lived in a small town again.

3. I recently became a manager at work. I’m enjoying this way more than I thought I would, but it comes with its own challenges.

4. Under the right circumstances (i.e. when I’ve recently shaved), I look very young. I’ve been asked for ID at bars for the past 10 years (since I first went at age 18), and whenever I go to student / industry functions everyone always assumes that I’m a student. I’m okay with that.

5. If I won the lottery, I’d do the requisite travel-the-world thing. After that, I’d buy a place near a university and take classes that interest me. I could see myself getting degrees in math, music, history, philosophy, law, and likely more.

6. In 1989 or 1990, several Bulgarian refugees came to the small town in Newfoundland where I was living. I made friends with one the kids, and we used to have sword fights with hockey sticks while he yelled “hockey”, one of his few English words. At one point I tried to teach him how to actually play hockey, but he wasn’t interested – sword fighting was more his thing, I guess.

7. Money Part I: I’m a thrifty person. If my wife was out of town for a week, I would probably eat a combination of canned goods, microwavable things, and instant noodles. It’s not that I can’t cook, I just don’t like spending money.

8. Money Part II: When I was 7 or 8, my parents rented The Adventure of Link for me. After getting stuck on day 1 of a 3 day rental, I cried to my parents in apology for wasting their money – I’m sure they were quite amused. I’ve gotten more reasonable, but I still don’t like wasting money.

9. Money Part III: My thriftiness helped me learn to like beer. I had never had alcohol growing up so I had never acquired a taste for beer. After spending my first year drinking $4 mixed drinks and ciders while all my friends drank 25¢ beer, I decided that I needed to convert. The first day of my second year, I walked into a campus bar by myself and ordered a pitcher of beer. My dislike of waste meant that I had to finish it, and afterwards (well, maybe a few days afterwards) I was a convert.

10. Speaking of beer, I’m not a big beer drinker (I rarely have any in the house), but I do enjoy a good local brew. I’m in a brewing club with some friends and we’ve made some delicious (and a few not-so-delicious) brewskis.

11. I didn’t think I was a cat person until grade 10 or so, when my parents effectively adopted a neighbour’s cat, Buddy. The cat and I bonded, and in December 2004 I became the owner of my own cat, Boots S. Kitten Esq. III.

12. I’ve been a video gamer for over 20 years, but I wouldn’t consider myself a hard-core gamer. I don’t really like First-Person Shooters, and although I love traditional RPGs (I’ve played 10 of the 12 numbered Final Fantasy games) I’ve never played an MMORPG (think World of Warcraft). That said, I’m really enjoying my (relatively) new Xbox 360, and there is a large (and growing) list of games I want to get my hands on.

13. When I was in grades 6 and 7, I often walked to school in the middle of the winter. In Whitehorse. That qualifies me to use the old cliché “When I was your age, I walked to school in -50˚ weather.”

14. I haven’t traveled very much. I recently went to Mexico, and I’ve been to Hawaii, but other than that I’ve only been to a few provinces and a few border states. Mel and I plan to change this in the near future.

15. When I was 8, I was the lead trumpet player in a Dixieland band. We were invited to play at a Liberal party convention in Gander. Someone took a liking to me, as I was invited to come back the next night to play a solo for newly-elected premier Clyde Wells. After I was done playing and was leaving the building, the first words I said were “Can we go to KFC now?” Hey, I was 8.

16. I’m very lucky to have known my wife for my entire adult life. I wouldn’t recommend that most people should marry their high school sweethearts, but I’m sure glad that I did.

17. One of my pet peeves involve websites that use arbitrary password strength requirements. You know the ones – everything from “password must be 12345″ to “password must be between 600 and 602 characters and contain the names of at least 3 popes”. Minimum password strength I can understand, but by requiring passwords to have, say, at least one number, they’re actually shrinking the problem space and making passwords easier to crack (dictionary attacks aside).

18. I hate having to pick favourites when it comes to thing I like. I really can’t say what my favourite band, food, movie, or game is. I can quickly list things in each category that I really, really like, but if I had to choose just one it would take me a while.

19. I would love to get my M.Sc., but I’m not willing to leave work to do so. I’ve seen some online courses available from American universities (notable Colorado State University), but they’re more than triple the price of local options. Unfortunately all the graduate-level computer science courses at the local schools are in the middle of the day at their out-of-the-way campuses so I’m unable to get to them. Perhaps in a year or two I’ll be able to convince work to let me timeshift a bit.

20. I’m a bit of a picky eater (no seafood, no broccoli, not a huge fan of baked goods), but nowhere near as bad as I used to be. For a brief time as a kid I would only eat the crusts of pizza as I didn’t like any other part. I didn’t start eating sandwiches or salads of any type until university. If you had told 17-year-old Chris that 27-year-old Chris would prefer a mostly vegetarian diet, the young me wouldn’t believe it (and probably say something like “yeah – NOT!”. Ah, the 90′s…).

21. For some reason I tend to over-think all of my blog posts, which really slows down my posting speed. This post is no different – I started it 5 hours ago and I’m only 80% done.

22. I enjoy watching hockey, but I wouldn’t really call myself a hockey fan. I’ll watch the Canucks play if we’ve been losing recently or winning recently with equal enjoyment, never getting on or off the bandwagon. I don’t “believe in our boys” or say things like “this year is our year” – come on people, it’s just hockey. The only reason that the Canucks are my favourite team is that they’re far easier to watch on TV than any other team. If I moved to Calgary tomorrow, I’d likely stop caring about the Canucks and cheer on the Flames.

23. My wife just baked cookies for us, and they smell delicious.. I take back what I said in #20 – she’s convincing me, one baking session at a time, that I actually have a sweet tooth.

24. I really like math, and always have. When I was in 1st grade, I borrowed my brother’s high school math books and taught myself about algebra and Cartesian coordinates. In university I did several courses in number theory (and learned more about the Chinese Remainder Theorem than anyone should know), and sometimes wish that my job involved more math.

25. For the past 3 years, I’ve spent 6 months of the hockey season in the top 3 of my hockey pool at work, only to plummet to 6th or 7th in the last month as my players fall apart. Currently I’m 2 points out of first – hopefully I can stick it out till the end of the year.

What’s a blog relaunch without a few memes here and there? I requested 5 questions Jen of WorldWideWatercooler and, just like that, she delivered.

1. I often have moments where I’m sure I’ve said something completely boneheaded and left a terribly negative impression with someone (totally unwittingly). I end up replaying it a few times in my head, wishing for a do-over. I think (hope!) everyone does this. What’s your most oft-replayed do-over moment?

While I have had course had moments like this (I try to review the interactions I have with others on a pretty regular basis), no one moment really stands out from the pack. So, although I can think of a few that have happened in the past weeks (like misspeaking on the phone to someone at the UBC tuition desk), there’s no long-running, constantly replayed do-over. This could mean one of two things – either all of of my slips of the tongue are equally benign, or perhaps they’re all so awful that it’s hard to pick just one.

2. If you were into resolutions, and you were going to work on something for 2009 that you had to sum up in one word, what would that word be?

I think the word would “Create”. From increasing the efficiency and production of my team at work, to cooking, to gardening, to writing this blog, I want to work on creating more this year. It wasn’t a particular resolution, but it’s what immediately sprang into mind when I read the question.

3. Which one place on earth would you most like to visit?

Hrm. That’s a tough one. There are a lot of places I’d like to visit (most of Europe, New Zealand, South America), but there’s never been a single place I’ve always wanted to go. Since Mel and I are planning a trip to Europe sometime in the next 2 years, that’s going to win out. If I had to narrow it down to a country, I’d say either Austria or Switzerland. Either way, I need to brush up on my German.

4. If you had a completely different career – not in computers, or music, what do you think you’d be doing?

I could see myself doing something in theater – I’ve enjoyed the acting and stagecraft aspects of the musicals I’ve done just as much as the music itself. Another possible career would be doing some sort of work for with an environmental organization (David Suzuki maybe?). The last thing that springs to mind would be a university professor – if not computers or music, I probably would have gone for math.

5. Four Hour Workweek: Brilliant or Bullshit? (if you haven’t read it, feel free to speculate)

At first I thought this said “four day workweek”, and thought that it would be great to have a long weekend every week. Then I realized you were talking about The Four Hour Workweek. Unfortunately, I haven’t read this yet – it was on my radar a while back, but I haven’t thought about it in a while. I don’t want to speculate too much on the practices put forward in the book, but from what I understand the book presents a way to structure your life (responsibilities, income flow, etc.) in such away as to only require 4 hours a week at “work” (for some definition of work), with the rest of your time doing things you really want to do. I like the idea, but without reading the book and actually having some of the things work for me (or fail spectacularly for me),  I can’t really describe it as either brilliant or bullshit. Maybe I’ll put it back on my to-read list so I can give a better review sometime in the future.

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If anyone out there would like me to fire off 5 questions their way, please drop me a line (chris at this domain) and I’ll try to get them to you in a day or two.