A Prize In Every Box

This is a place for the random musings and life experiences of one Fliven, who looks for life's fun little surprises, even when its in a giant box of stale, tasteless foodstuffs.

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Location: Sugar Hill, GA, United States

The details of my life remain shrouded in mystery.

Friday, March 21, 2008

I've Just Had An Apostrophe...

Regarding facial hair. Its a weird thing. I've been trying to grow a goatee for about 2, 2 1/2 weeks now, and have come to some conclusions:

1. I am not a hairy man. There are those guys out there who have to shave twice a day or risk looking like Grizzly Adams, and I am not one of them.
2. What I lack in speed of growth and thickness I make up for in hair length. I have my facial hair long enough now to wax into points and go out for a part in a 3 Musketeers commercial or something. Another few weeks, and I'm looking at curlicues like Dustin Hoffman in "Hook". 6 months and I'll have a goatee that will rival Pai Mei (from Kill Bill Part 2).
3. Hair on face is same as hair on head. As in, fine and silky, not thick and bristly. Which means what when the wind tousles my hair, it also tousles the hair ON MY FACE. Somewhat irritating.
4. While my brothers have told me that if I grow my facial hair and wax it into points for the wedding, they will get me a brace of flintlock pistols as a gift, I'm not sure its worth it to have to smell and taste whatever I ate last in the space between my nose and mouth for 6 months.
5. On the upside, I could go all summer, shave off the hair, and not have to worry if there's a tan line or not.

In other news, I just paid all my bills and have money left over, which is always a fun thing. And I'm still in the running for a guitar on eBay, rather than trying to fix up my current one. I think for that one I may just replace the missing parts and then get it repainted. Won't be playable, but will look awesome.

That is all.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Guilty Pleasures?

Today has been a good day off. I've been 'puttering' around, doing random things. Got my car to the VEIP for emissions inspection, and bought a CD storage case at Staples. I did this because I have one for music, and now one for software/games and ROMS/movies & TV. I'm thinking of making the transfer from a DVD shelf to an album, but can't decide if that's what I want to do yet or not. Plus my DVDs are a mess, anyway.

So I discovered a new guilty pleasure this week. 'The Cutting Edge'. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I've probably seen it a dozen times, but still get excited when I happen across it on the Hallmark channel or USA or wherever. A lower budget 80's romantic comedy about figure skating...and I'm ADDICTED. How odd. But it got me thinking about the other romantic comedies that I have seen and enjoyed that are somewhat out of character for me...Return to Me, You've Got Mail, Dan in Real Life...am I becoming wussy as I get older? Is the fact that I would equally enjoy either sorting through antique teacups with mom or fragging n00bs with my l33t skillz on X-Box make me somehow less manly? Quite the metrosexual quandary. Not that I feel afraid to embrace the metrosexual lifestyle, in part anyway, but it's SUCH a mental gearshift. I mean, going from a discussion of drapery coordination and colors to the overclocking of a Hemi on a '69 Charger is almost a different way of thinking.

Not much else going on...looking forward to seeing Behtia in a couple weeks...we'll be registering, finalizing tux choices, nailing down a place, and other fun weddingy stuff. Also will be celebrating her birthday. Now here's a tip for those unmarried persons out there...find out when your significant other's family's birthdays are BEFORE you get too involved. B's dad and sister both have early April birthdays as well...bringing my grand total of birthdays between March and June up to at least 8. That's ridiculous. And I have maybe 1 or 2 for the other 2/3 of the year! People need to have more fall birthdays here!

My work here is done. Farewell.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Robble Robble

Being about a month in to Lent here, I never realized how much a person could crave a simple hamburger. MAD respect for the Hamburglar. Although if you look carefully, every burger he steals, and that are even on his tie, are cheeseburgers. Wouldn't make him the Cheeseburglar? "Robble robble with cheese"? I'll make it through Lent, anyway, but I think a trip to Fuddrucker's is going to be my Easter afternoon activity.

The guitar quest continues. Talked to one 'luthier' this past week, and the prognosis is not good. Have one more option I can explore, but it may be a bust, and end up as decor. Still, got it for a good price and it is a really neat piece.

Eddie Izzard's new tour is going to be here in May! Get your tickets now...

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Getting Things Together

Nothing beats having a wedding in six months to light a fire under you in getting all the little projects and nagging things done in your life.

The past couple weeks I have inventoried my belongings, gotten rid of a bunch of stuff I don't need, and completed several personal projects. For instance, I had my phone upgraded, and at the same time, scaled down my plan to the bare minimum. I have 4000 rollover minutes saved, so it should be about 20 years before I run out of those. I don't talk on the phone much. My siblings are aghast that I only have 18 contacts in my phone, as well. They have between 100 and 300 each. On the upside, it only took me 15 minutes to re-enter all my contacts into my new phone, so nyah nyah to them.

Let's see...oh, the coins I was going to sell, that I mentioned a couple posts ago, fetched a surprising $183! Sweet! Cash in my pocket! Its something I had been meaning to do for some time and finally got around to it. I also found out that I happen to be an undiscovered jewelry genius...or have jewelry luck. Last year, when I bought Behtia's engagement ring, platinum was $1200 an ounce. It is now a bit over $2000 an ounce. Which means I could (but would never) sell back the ring for at LEAST half again what I paid for it. How awesome is that? Got on board the plat train at the right stop!

Other projects have included phone rebates, sending my old electronics to a 2nd-hand place for refurb or disposal, cleaning out the car, and finally taking my guitar in to see about restoration. I'm doing that on Tuesday. My next task, probably next week, will be the daunting attempt of organizing and packing my library. I really don't need every single book and movie right up until moving day, so it makes sense to do it now., when I have the time.

Is it weird for a 30-year-old and a 24-year-old to spend their Saturday night discussing plans and downloading schematics to build a Serenity ship replica out of Legos? Don't answer that.

Can't think of anything else that needs posting...I'm looking forward to my next post, which will be my 200th! I feel that some sort of celebration or commemoration is in order.