Dieses Wochenende war ein Reunion fur meine Muttis Familie. After doing a bit of housecleaning, I promptly forgot the music CD I had burned for the trip, hopped in the car, and drove over to Brecksville.. As the second such gathering, I had a decent idea what to expect, and it really wasn't that bad. We had a repeat of Badminton, and as before, I had a really good time, diving for everything I might possibly catch. We're all completely horrible at it, but that actually makes it better -- it wouldn't be the same if some of us were decent :) On average, if it came into our personal space, each of us had a 30% chance of hitting it, 20% chance of hitting it back over the net. I might be above par, but by no means am decent. All my diving to the ground has me nice and sore today. There were massive amounts of food (which I went light on, except for cake .. hehe), and the rumours that everyone on that side of the family is very loud is .. quite true. Ouch. I had some quiet moments... a nice nap on a lawn chair after badminton... interrupted by someone dunking ice water on me because I "looked so peaceful", and a nice quiet canoe trip in the lake.. prevented by someone docking the canoe incorrectly and it tipping over when I was pulling away from the dock, dunking me, my magazine, and my cellphone into the murky shore water. After some quality time with a hair-dryer, my cellphone stopped malfunctioning, and after being hosed down and a change of clothes, I stopped smelling like lake bottom mud. I am also now sunburned. Ahh, it's not so bad. Apparently my Dad has lost a lot of weight since being diagnosed with diabetes -- he's now my weight, and his pant size and my pant size are the same. The downside is that all my spare khakis have been mixed in with his, and there's no telling the difference. The upside is that I was able to take some of that massive collection of pants, some of which I'm sure I never owned, back with me. This is good -- I've managed to avoid spending money on clothes for awhile, and some of them are really very nice.

I had a conversation with a relative about working in business, and how he once was moderately high up the corporate ladder in a company he liked, stayed for 15 years, and that over time it stopped feeling like a family and more like a business, eventually having him fire people when their aged hands could no longer produce things as fast. He now works for a small town doing all sorts of random work, and is happy. Another conversation, over the phone, remarked at how, somewhere else, more of a human factor is provided for people, not requiring them to be inhuman cogs in a machine. Specifically, a secretary was permitted to ask someone waiting to wait a moment longer because they were exasperated by answering a particularly long and irritating phone call. This human factor is important, and just like finding concern for the planet, we must find room for people to breathe in our society. Wearing this tight corset at work ruins both that time and wastes the time when it comes off and we must recover.

I miss her. Looking forward to when she gets back...

I've been thinking philosophically, but on a topic which is sensitive enough a taboo in this society that I'm not going to talk about it on here. Basically, I'm attempting to question/justify/weigh/judge the taboo, temporarily setting aside the inculturation on the topic. You, dear reader, will likely never read anything about what I have to say on this topic, or any other similar topics.

I keep wishing I had a band, because I'd love to attempt some improvisation on some tunes I hear to play with their characteristics. For example, the theme to the movie Beetlejuice (done by Danny Elfman) is beautifully orchestral and exciting, brings impressions of flourescent fingers moving in the dark. For the Beetlejuice cartoon, an alternate version was written that makes it less orchestral, essentially snipping out all the buildup-material and expanding a bit the musical climax. It cheapens the music a bit, true, but when mixing it with other music on a mix cd, the fact that it starts out 'high' means that it's easier to mix with other high-energy-weird songs, where the original starts and ends mellow. I enjoy the original as music to appreciate better, but the other is better when I want musical candy. Speaking of which, the CD I got of Arab music is quite good. I'm ready to go for some more specific stuff now, I think.

On the agenda for today... clean my apartment some more, *perhaps* go climbing, figure out some more things for my old workplace that they asked about, and perhaps do some sit-ups and/or go running. I definitely will also be heading to the sink every so often to put some more water on my sunburned face to aid its recovery (it doesn't hurt, although it does feel odd).