Pi and Primus

I went to the Primus concert last night at the Pageant in St. Louis.  It was truly a rock concert, as you could not hear yourself think.  Before the concert, I met up with some friends at a pizza restaurant called Pi.  Now, the restaurant  is of course named after the mathematical constant Pi (often represented by the Greek symbol π and given the simplified value of 3.14).  This value is a play on the fact that pizza's are round and pi is often used in calculations involving circles (pi is actually a ratio between a circles circumference to its diameter).  On the glasses at the restaurant, they had pi printed out to several decimal places.  This got me thinking..."Dan, why haven't you taken the time to memorize pi out to several decimal places".  This, for whatever reason, is a popular thing to do in the science community as the number goes out to infinity and it is a sign to other nerds that you have spent more Saturday nights alone than they have (which I suppose is a sign of nerd pride ?????)  For whatever reason, I chose the moment while the music was at its loudest to look up pi on wikipedia and memorize it as much as I could before the combination of the music and the numbers gave me a headache.  I actually had an another purpose in doing this as I was wanting to work on my ability to focus with a lot of distractions around me (a skill that will serve me well in the ER).  I was able to memorize it out to this length.

3.14159265358979323846264338

This is great first date conversation, right?

State Tournament

Last weekend, I went up to Peoria with my mom, dad, and aunt to watch my cousin Ben Jones play in the state tournament for Robinson high school.  Robinson ending up winning 1st place and Ben scored 22 points in the championship game!  Here are some pics I took with my phone of the experience.  The first pic is a blurry shot of my friend Jeremy, Ben can be seen in the middle of the third pic (yes, he's adopted), and a replica of the state trophy can be seen in the fifth pic.

30

Tomorrow, October 5th, 2009, I will turn 30. Should I be happy; should I be sad? I have to say I have mixed emotions about this one. I have some wonderful people telling me how great your 30s are. Indeed, something tells me that someone in their 30s are treated with more respect, especially in the business world. And honestly, I don't feel like I am "30"; I feel the same that I've always felt. On October 17, I will be running a marathon, and people have this shocked look on their face when they find out I'm turning 30, saying they would have guessed 25. My girlfriend Victoria says she loves the fact that I'm turning 30...noting that no matter what happens, I'll always be 3 1/2 years older than her (?!?!?!?!?). I tend to not make a big deal about my birthday as a general rule, wishing instead people would make a big deal about National Systems Administrator's day (see here). All things being equal, things are absolutely awesome right now, so if this is what my 30s are going to be like, they are going to kick my 20s tail :)

Where have all the posts gone

A neat thing about writing a blog is that if you haven't posted a story in awhile, you can post a story about how you haven't posted a story in awhile. Of late, my life has been filled with a lot of work, school, and other interesting things. I've been working on finishing up two new servers w/ new products on them at work and I have my first Bio test coming up on Monday. This weekend is Dairy Day, and I will do my best to post some pics from it. I've been able to spend time with special people of late, and they have been so supportive and helpful in praying for me as I've been going through a very busy time. More to come soon!

Bob

Quick, what do you get when you go to Wisconsin camping at the last minute and you end up at a campground outside of Green Bay? You get Bob. How to best describe Bob. Bob was the owner of the campground I stayed at a couple of weeks ago, he once dated a girl from Ladue, his sister is a judge (I got the feeling he didn't like her too well), and he may have experimented with drugs in the past. The group I was camping with was able to lure Bob out of his campground chores with Bud with Lime, and we got to hear Bob's life story. It turns out the campground we were on was once a field and mill complex. Bob was a little bit out of it by this time as we were all sitting by the fire on wet ground since it had just stopped raining. He somewhat reminded me of Norm MacDonald, only blond with a Wisconsin accent. I think our camping group made a lifelong friend with Bob, as he also gave us free firewood while he was talking down his sister.

Camping has been set "back"

Yesterday, my friend Doug woke up with severe back pain. We had to take him to the doctor and get him some medicine. He is in no condition to go camping with me, so our plans to go camping have been postponed indefinately. Even this morning, he was feeling better but he suffered another spasam as I asked "how are you feeling today." If you wouldn't mind, say a prayer for him because he is a hurting :(

Wii Boxing with Ivan Drago

I am down visiting my friend Beth in Houston right now, where I was able to meet her new boyfriend (to give my approval ha ha) see a Cubs game, and hang out with her son (who just turned three today). Since Beth is divorced, we had to drop off Jake with his dad for his birthday visit. Oh Jake's dad....

Jake's dad's name is Sergei. Sergei is a doctor here in Houston and besides being a interesting and very smart guy, he is your classic Russian "alpha male" Being that I was hanging out with his ex-wife (even though it was in a brother kind of way), I think he was a bit threatened. Wanting to show his dominance and pretty much embarrass me, he challenged me to prove my worth as a man in the only thing he had available at the time; Wii Boxing. Due to a lack of controllers, he set me against a computer opponent. Now, I have never played Wii boxing before in my life, and not only did Sergei want to see me fail, he happened to pit me against a female boxer. Thinking it was going to be the funniest thing he has ever seen and taking a guess by my appearance that I was not a boxer myself, he handed me the controls with quite the smirk on his face. Little did he know that I'm in the midst of my marathon training, and I was prepared to do whatever it took to not only defend my honor, but the honor of America. I found myself in a classic Rocky IV moment, not only fighting for vengeance of my fallen black friend and my country, but possibly for my life. As the Wii Boxing bell sound, the lady boxer came at me fiercely with all her might. Undaunted by her higher Wii boxing rating compared to that of my own, I danced and punched gracefully and with the force of a truck (stuck in the mud). As I whittled down her trivial pursuit like pie strength meter, I felt the confidence swell up within me. The Russian was amazed at my agility, and much like the crowd in Rocky IV, I think I started to turn him over to my side rooting for me. It was an epic battle, both combatants knocking each other down numerous times. Finally, in the third round, I was able to knock my lady opponent down one more time more than I had been taken to the canvas. Noting the time in the match was only about fifteen seconds and realizing that one more shot by my fierce female foe would level my cartoon boxer to the canvas, I knew what I had to do. I cowered my bum into a ball off to the side, evading any chance the lady boxer had of connecting another shot. As the bell sounded and the score was tallied, I couldn't help but to start to hum our great national anthem as I won on points. Feeling the pride of wining one for the US of A is something I won't soon forget. I not only won the respect of the nation, I won the respect of an Russian ex-husband of a girl I once took to prom eleven years ago.

For your viewing delight, here is a tribute to Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.

I hope you are sitting down for this....

Now there is no way that the title of this post can live up to the buildup of what I have to say, but I'm going to say something that is and will be forever true and yet some people choose not to see it; God is good. There is a somewhat throw away line in the movie where Doc Holiday refers to having what "alcoholic's call a moment of clairity". In my life, like perhaps many believers, I' have had my ups and downs in my faith. Is this just an up, or is this actual growth? I saw that as best as I can understand, this is growth.

I spoke to a friend tonight that grew up in a neighboring town. Life has taken us to different experiences, and to different geographic regions of the country. We each knew we had a special story to share with each other, and being the guy, I let her go first. She sharef with me what her story was and how God is working in her life..and I found myself getting giddy. I asked her if she was sitting down for what I had to tell her, and she said yes. I told her how God was working in my life right now, and I found her to be in silence. There we both were, after shareing, simply blown away by God. I'm glad I was sitting down as well. There is of course a lot more to the story, but remember, I'm in self-censorship mode. Stay tuned...all will be revealed to you.

God is good

The courtship of Apollonia

I was walking around the grounds of the Grand Watertower with a good friend today, and we were having a discussion about all sorts of things. Somewhere in the conversation, I romantized the idea that things used to be simpler back in the good old days when it came to relationships. You hear stories all the time about couples our grandparents' age going out on dates and the guy would propose on the first date. It all seems so romantic. At the very least, it seems like couples back in the good ole days didn't waste time. When I got home today, I flipped on the TV and found the movie "The Godfather". I was watching the part where Michael was in Italy and he met the girl Apollonia. He spotted her walking with a group of other women and some children. Stopping by a neighborhood establishment, he and his friends really started talking up this woman in less than honorable terms. When they discovered the girl's father was in front of them, Michael apologized to the father and requested to meet his daughter under the supervision of the family. It was at this time that a courtship began...all supervised. They were soon married, and they experienced love for the first time on their wedding night. They shared many things together; Michael even taught her how to drive. It was a lovely love story...except for the part in which she exploded in a car bombing.

Here is the view of downtown St. Louis from the Grand Water Tower.

What to get a college grad you've never met

After going to church today with a great friend, I had a college graduation party to go to today. This party was for someone that I know in the online world, but had not actually met in the real world. Being that I had never met her in the real world, I wanted to leave a good impression on her and her family. Some may look at a situation like this as daunting, but I didn't think much about it; after all, what could go wrong?

The party was being held at her parent's house, which was in a small town about 40 minutes outside St. Louis on the IL side. I hadn't had a chance to pick up a congratulations card for her, but I figured I'd be able to pick one up in town, stuff some money in it, and give it to her like I had it all planned out. When I came upon the town, I think I realized then that I was in trouble. The only thing that looked like it may even have a card to sell was a BP station. I waled in and I asked "Do you have any cards?" The woman working looked at me with a bit of a stunned look and said that they should and was surprised that I didn't see them. She said they had some with the word Aviator on them...as she was talking about playing cards. Desperate, I told her I was looking for a congratulations card (or a birthday card at this point, I was getting desperate). She said that they didn't have anything like that. I looked around and tried to come up with a suitable substitute, which I think I did; I got her a road atlas.

I had several road atlases to choose from, but I decided to get her the Illinois big highway map. Up in the Lake Michigan portion of the map, I wrote the personalized message of "Congrats on your graduation. May your future take you interesting places" (upon later reflection, I should have stated included the word 'to' in front of the word interesting). All in all, I thought it was a pretty clever solution to a lack of a card problem. She was also pretty excited because she said she needed a new map. I should work for Hallmark.

The random Asian family I befriended

I was at Vista Point looking at the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay when I asked a lady to take my picture. She was there from Vegas with the rest of her family, who was from all different parts of the country, including Maine and SF. They were trying to get a family picture and I volunteered to take it for them...all of them...with all of their cameras. I ended up taking several pictures of them and struck up a conversation with them. For that moment, I believe I was made an honorary Phillipino...(I was even told about a niece that wasn't present...just my luck :( As of this line, that nice family was leaving and they took a picture of me blogging about meeting them (I wish I would have got a picture of that. I've attached some of the pictures below.

In addition, one of the family memebers said to me upon learning I had traveled to San Francisco by myself said "That's sad Dan. That is very sad." :(

I wonder if Jerry and Elaine were like this...

I found myself in an interesting quandary tonight. I was invited to a birthday party of a girl that I dated for a short time. Obviously, though we didn't work out romantically, we have been able to become friends. At the party there was at least one other guy she had dated along w/ the current guy she is seeing. At the beginning of the party, she asked me if it bothered me, and I said no and made a joke out of it. As the evening wore on and I saw her holding her current guy's hand, I have to say it was bothering me a little bit. Not a lot bit mind you, but a little bit. I had to go upstairs and kind of separate myself from the situation (and write this blog post). Since being up there, I've been thinking to myself why it was bothering me. On the surface, she is a great girl, and I guess it makes me a bit sad that yet another nice pretty girl and I didn't click on the level we needed to on one level or another. On a more cynical level, I hope I'm not becoming the type of person that can't stand to see someone else happy. I really don't think about that, but I am willing to face the possibility that it may be hard to see someone else in a relationship and happy that I was really close to, such as my long term girlfriend in St. Louis (those who know me know who she is). Why is this hard? Is it because I don't happen to be with someone at this moment and someone I used to be with is? Does this make them somehow better or more desirable than me? If I were with someone and I saw someone I used to be with with someone too, would I take my mind back to a time when that person and I were together and compare the good to any current bad or difficulty I would find in my current relationship? The title of my blog refers to Seinfeld and how Jerry and Elaine were a former romantic couple that were able to be friends after the fact and see each other in relationships, to the point they would give advice to each other. Was it ever hard for them? As a human, I need to remember that emotions are not something to be avoided, rather if I have them, I should try to understand them and deal with them as best as I can. For me, its writing about them, and I feel better already. Any thoughts from my blog readers would be appreciated in the form of comments.

Peaches

I was walking in the field
When I came upon a tree
The shade provided respite
On my journey to where I was

The tree was filled with blooms
Of the most beautiful flower
So delicate to the senses
So warm to my tired eyes

As I let time pass beside the tree
I allow my mind to wonder
To where I may go next
And how will I know if I arrive

As my rest became sleep
And the tree became my shelter
So did I thank God for allowing
My journey to exist and be

As time passed with the tree
Those blooms became fruit
Filled with beautiful warm color
Whose sweet taste I long for

Under that tree on my journey
I had discovered Peaches
And may time and God tell
Where the journey's end

Molested by a dog

After my Young Republicans meeting tonight (woot woot), I went to my bi-weekly Thursday night party called Gin Bucket hosted by a couple of my friends. One of my friends has a new roomate who has a very big, friendly dog name Routu (sp?). Routu looks to be an Alaskan Huskie or something of that general descritpion; just a beautiful dog! I really like big dogs (little ones freak me outsometimes), so I made sure to play with him, pet him, and all and all try to make friends with him. Apparently, he misread my intentions. I'm not sure he was picking up more than a friend vibe from me, but when I wasn't looking, he went straight for my "man junk" if you know what I'm saying. At first, I thought it may have been him just playing, but then he went for it again and again with a higher level of aggression. I tried to back him down by telling him he couldn't do that since he hadn't even bought me dinner, but he kept on trying to put moves on me. At one point when I was standing up, he stuck his nose right in my butt and somewhat goosed me. I guess the moral of this story is that I am, as I have noted in the past, only able to attract the gays, weather they be human or "man's best buddy"

Kelley, where are you?

Kelley,

I have been trying to reach you...I know you are no longer at the big C for some reason, but, of course they won't tell me why. Could you email me at danallen79@yahoo.com and let me know what happened?

Symphony Happy Hour

Tonight I went to St. Louis to attend a happy hour put on by the St. Louis symphony in order to meet and greet some of the musicians and staff members. There were several people there, and I enjoyed the conversation. I am looking for a way to get plugged into the classical music scene of the area, and I believe there will be some opportunities for me. I also saw and old friend, which was very nice and special.

I have a blog fan!

Laurie from "Yellow House" fame let me know today via FB that she had read my entire blog and she was going to have her husband read it as well. This made me feel so good because I never know if people read this thing, let alone enjoy it. You may never know how much that little note meant to me...thank you so much :)

Friend featured on "A Prarie Home Companion"

I received an email this evening from my friend Jonathan. He informed me a valentine's day poem he submitted to the NPR show "A Prarie Home Companion" was read during a show by none other than quasi-communist and huge lib Garrison Keillor. A link to the show in question can be found here http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2009/02/

Congrats Jonathan!!!

The Last Gin Bucket!!!!! or not

Tonight was Gin Bucket, and I had a really good time. For some reason, I felt like I broke out of my shell a little bit more tonight and I felt really connected to the people there. There was a lot of great food, drinks, friends, and conversation. There was some talk of having to lay off the Gin Bucket Thursday because of a new roommate coming into the picture of the house where it is hosted, but we all have high hopes that the party will soon carry forth.

I realized that I already have a lot of stories involving my new mall pants. I told the one tonight about trying to wash them and using the air dry setting on my dryer, only to come down the next morning to find them frozen, which was not good since I thought I had ruined my new pants via some type of freezing fauxpau. As it turned out, they were fine and they still make my non-existent butt look pretty good. I was told by two people today that they had read my blog and liked it, which keeps me going, even though some people can't figure out how to comment....KELLEY!!!!

A good weekend, Bowling, and Wheel of Fortune

I have had a good weekend up to this point. I went home to see the rents on Friday. I dropped off the clothes I'm giving away to them because they are going to take them up to my Cousin's to give to some needing kids in her classroom. On Saturday night, I went to see my friends Adam and Suzie in Evansville. I went to college with them, and I also went to HS with Suzie. We ate dinner with another college friend Sara and her little son (Sarah's husband had to work), and another friend of Adam's named Dave. After we ate, we all went bowling. At the ally, we ran into another friend from college named Ermil.

Dave was an interesting character. First, he was a Minnesota Vikings fan (insert puking sound here). He was a pretty good bowler, and even had a Vikings bowling bag and a Vikings bowling ball used exclusively for spare attempts. I gave him a hard time all night for it of course since I am a big time Bears fan. At one point, I was facing an 8-10 split, and I asked him if I could borrow his Vikings spare ball. Knowing that I had no chance of picking up the split, I just took the Vikings ball and placed it in the gutter and slowly rolled it down to the end as a show of my protest to a sub-human football team.

It turns out that in 1987, Dave was on the show Wheel of Fortune. He had the taping with him of his appearance and we all watched it after we went bowling. HE COMPLETELY DOMINATED, WINNING ABOUT $37,000!!!! Despite his good fortune, there were plenty of laughs from the show. First, his outfit was, shall we say, interesting. Comprising of a white sweater vest, a tie, what could only be described as gray plaid pants, and gray Nikes. Next, when showing off a watch that was a prize, he kissed the hand of Vanna White (and he was quite eager to do so). But, and the end of the day, what can you say...he won $37,000 and will always have an interesting story to tell if he goes out to pick up women. As a side note, the commercials we saw on the tape were super funny. One featured Demi Moore in a Diet Coke commercial (Diet Coke used to have one calorie, now it has zero calories...big improvement). All I could think during the commercial is how her future husband was nine at the time of the commercial's shooting.