I met a man last night at the business card exchange who told me his title is Rōnin.
“Wha?”
“A Rōnin is a samurai with no lord or master, that’s me! I work for myself doing computer repair, I have no lord or master controlling me.”

I thought that was pretty terrific. I wonder if he would mind if I borrow that?

And it’s something I keep thinking about today. I keep forgetting that I don’t have anyone monitoring me. I forget that I can do as I please! I often sit here at my computer and just putz. The reason why I believe I do this is because for so long (almost 15 years!) I’ve worked for other people and I was paid to stay seated whether I had work to do or not. And now it’s hard for me to push away and do other things. I somehow equate sitting here as being productive. It’s odd.

I am a Rōnin!

Found this fascinating:

So a couple days ago I went to a business card exchange and I got cornered. I met this guy before and he offered me a discount on my cell phone. He said if I knew someone who worked at IBM he could offer me the IBM 25% Friends and Family discount. 25% is 25% and I am extremely “LinkedIn” so finding someone I know at IBM wasn’t hard.

I called him one afternoon and gave him the name of my IBM contact and voila! 25% discount. AWESOME! Quick, easy, painless. So anyway, I am at this business card exchange and he corners me and tells me I HAVE TO GIVE HIM SOME LEADS! I was really shocked because I had no clue he was even expecting me to provide him any in the first place. I guess there was a string attached to that IBM discount. Certainly if I knew of someone who needed his services I would have tipped him but honestly I am more interested in finding my own customers right now anyway.

At any rate, I shook it off and went about my business. That evening and over the next couple days I have found myself thinking about him cornering me and demanding leads. Although I am fine with my reaction, I just can’t really believe it happened and I feel silly accepting his kindness thinking it was kindness blah blah blah.

As I normally do when I am caught in this type of a situation I think of Howard Roark from the novel The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Howard just didn’t care, he was totally single-minded and singularly focussed on his own being and his own goals. Howard didn’t entertain these types of thoughts and I wish I could totally exorcise them from my mind. BUT I CAN’T. It’s taken a few days and it seems I have driven it from my mind but it bothers me that it took me a couple days to get over it. Will I EVER become self-actualizing?

Talking about Ayn Rand, I AM STILL READING ATLAS SHRUGGED! I can’t seem to get through this novel! Truth be told, it just sits on my bedside table untouched. I never reach for it. I rarely read it. The weird thing is, I really want to read it. I really want to love it! I want to be one of those people who are so moved by it they get a tattoo on their back of Atlas… shrugging (of course my Atlas would also be frugging).

I just wish Ayn Rand could have opened herself up a little to some editing. Of course I am always wowed that she could write as she did… in a second language! She was Russian and didn’t learn English until her twenties! How is this possible? But there are other authors just like her…. Jerzy Kosinski and Vladimir Nabokov to name just a couple. It’s so humbling to think of these poor slobs learning English and becoming amazing writers and here I am, growing up with English as my first language and I am fighting off the desire to start each sentence with an I or And (and losing).

Did two presentations this morning and early afternoon. And then I did a business card exchange. I AM POOPED! POOPED!

Got stuff to say but I just can’t share. I wish I could. You’d love it all! Dang it! I miss being anonymous!

Why can’t stalkers be good looking with great jobs? Or at the very least mildly entertaining? I got a few weirdos after me and they all have foul breath and googly eyes.

Had a real nice time in Pittsburgh this weekend.  Only took about 4 and a half hours to get there.  We arrived around 10pm and went directly to Primanti Bros’ original location and ordered a Pastrami sandwich that came with a scoop of cole slaw, a runny egg and a mound of french fries in between two huge slabs of Italian bread.  It was good but I don’t think it was as good as Adam Richman (Man Vs Food) made it seem.  The guy had an orgasm eating it!  This was good but not food orgasm good.  In fact I doused mine in hot sauce just to pick up some flavor.

The next day we rode the Duquesne Incline and toured the Andy Warhol museum.  How could I not go to the Andy Warhol Museum?  He and I share the same heritage!

Right after the museum we drove to Kelly O’s.  We found out about Kelly O’s from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  Guy Fieri visited Kelly and learned all about HALUSKI!  Talk about my heritage!  Watching her fry up all that cabbage, I knew I had to go and partake in some of that gassy loveliness!  Here’s the thing, Kelly makes her Haluski with BACON.  Yes, BACON!  This is pretty crazy since Haluski is typically eaten when you can’t eat meat.  And if you are going to eat meat AND eat Haluski, you just boil some Kielbasa along side it.  Still, the bacon was an interesting addition.  Pookie Bear loved it and ordered seconds.  I enjoyed it but must say that my Haluski is better.

We left Kelly O’s and drove home.  I was surprised I didn’t once have to stick my head out the window for air as I had feared.

Any regular readers from Pittsburgh?

Found this article, 100 Skills Everyone Should Master

I feel like I am on a good path because I feel like I’ve mastered almost all those skills. Here are the ones where I am lacking:

38. Drive a stick (Took lessons but since I don’t have one, I can’t remember)
42. Make a new friend (Hiya Audra and Erin! Same two since school)
44. Change a tire and put on snow chains (I think I might be able to figure it out but haven’t had to do so yet)
49. Simple mending (I can bumble my way through it but I should be better at sewing on buttons)
68. Know a second language (At least I have some German under my belt, regardless it is horrendous)
70. Write a quality love letter. (Again, never had to do it, so maybe I’d surprise myself)
86. Tie basic knots. (The only knot I know is how to tie a Karate belt)
88. Build a campfire (I might surprise myself here but I’ve never had to do it so who knows)

Bonus
Keep your living space clean (Yeah, this is my big FAIL! Although I came upon an idea yesterday. I always believed in a past life I was a gazelle because a palm reader told me I had been an animal who ran very fast. I am really beginning to think I was actually a bird and this mess that crops up around me is my desire to build a nest).

So what do you think about the 100 Skills list? Would you add anything to it? How did you do?

I watched The Hangover the other day and got a kick out of it. I recommended it to my mom and Lisa. They picked it up at the local Red Box, watched it, and declared it wasn’t nearly as good as I promised. I think you need to watch it in the company of men and their laughter and snorts will make it seem funnier than it actually is.

Speaking of hangover, I have a tiny one from the cheap wine last night. I think it’s because I didn’t eat anything substantive prior to drinking the wine. Chocolate Chip Cookies aren’t a good base for alcohol it seems. I feel like crap and why people would put themselves through this on a regular basis is beyond me. Of course I suppose when other people get tipsy they do more exciting things than watch silly cult tv shows from the 90s and blog about it. So maybe it’s worth it for them. I dunno. It doesn’t seem worth it to me.

Tomorrow my computer arrives. I can hardly wait. I tried to persuade Tom to bring it over yesterday and like a good man, he ignored my pleas, cries, snot dripping from my nose, “PLEASE TOM I NEED IT! I NEED IT NOW!”. That means tomorrow I will be cradling my new baby!

I am trying to remember my past computers. I’ve always named them HAL. Lisa names her’s D.A.R.Y.L. I think this is what I’ve owned (dates are estimates):

386 Laptop with monochrome screen & 500 megs of Hard Drive space- HAL (1993 -1996)
Pentium desktop – HAL 2 (1996 -2000)
Winbook – HAL 3 (2000 – 2003)
Hulking Toshiba- HAL 4 (2003 – 2006)
Tiny HP Pavilion (current) – HAL 5 (2006 – 2009)

Prior to my first laptop, as a family, we had a VIC 20, a Commodore 64, an Amiga 2000 and then an assortment of PCs.

My hope is that with this desktop I will stop the 3 year laptop cycle I’ve been on for the past 17 years. I want some permanency. Even if it turns into Frankenstein. And I figure once this laptop truly bites the dust, I can go the netbook route.