Tagged by boutell 

(1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
(2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
(3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
(4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog."

So here's my 8 (I know you're dying of antici-pation).

1. I got lost within a 64 acre stretch of woods when I was about eight years old. I never really got scared and found my way out only a short while later.

2. Buying art supplies makes me feel like I'm somehow more of an artist. Consequently, I have a crapload of unused or partially used supplies.

3. When I write, it tends to be almost entirely made up of clichés.

4. I bite my tongue when dealing with others far more often than I should.

5. I want the perks of success without the effort required to attain it.

6. I'm ridiculously fortunate in the family and friends department. Like in the "no one should be that lucky" sense.

7. I am sensitive to a fault, and I fight like hell to keep from showing it.

8. I almost always feel like I should 'be doing more', but I almost never do.

I don't generally tag, but I would love to see the response to this from a pretty large group of those of you who are reading this, so if you have the time...

I never would have put the number this high, and I'm not too sure about the method that they use to get their numbers, but it was fun anyway.

It has nothing to do with the fact that it made me feel like someone's paying attention. Nothing at all...

... and Philly's Finest just rescued a woman who fell off the dock at Penn's Landing.

Correction: read "fell in" as "attempted suicide". At a charity run. Tact meeter anyone? (According to PPD.)

You know something? I've always found it funny how deeply movies seem to affect me. Tonight, on the long ride home from Va., Jimmy let me watch movies on his laptop. Two, in fact. It had been a very long time (for me anyway) since I had just sat down and watch a movie. Or two.

The two in question for the evening? Well, the first, I had actually already seen, but knew to be fun - Hitch starring Will Smith and the ever stunning Eva Mendes. Corny? Yes. Hoaky even? Absolutely. But I enjoyed it immensely.

The second? Equally cheesy, and at least as 'bad' - but these are the things I love - Click starring Adam Sandler. It's basically a re-telling of It's a Wonderful Life, if you ask me, but it really kinda did move me. It caused me to start thinking about the changes that I've seen in myself since I moved to De. and to the direction of my life. Not in the catastrophic sense that the movie portends, but rather in a 'watch the pendulum doesn't swing too far there Capt. Extremist' way.

Yes, I realize that I wasn't really in any danger of becoming a 'workaholic' or anything like that. Perhaps it would be better to say that it was what I needed to re-focus on the plus side of my life and re-notice all the amazing gifts that I have been given. Every day.

If you are reading this? I want to thank you for being a part of that.

/end Cornball

So I like to flatter myself by thinking that I keep a pretty neutral eye on the world. I understand that I am often a moody guy and that colors many people's view of a given moment in time, but I fancy myself above that. I like to think that - given my (cursed) ability to 'walk a mile in someone else's shoes' I tend to see things with a fairly unbiased mind.

I would like to point out here that I am not, under any circumstances, trying to say that I react neutrally to all situations and experiences - simply that I see them so.

Is this naive of me? Is it ignorant to think that I am the rare exception to the rule here? Am I not alone? Do you (either of the two or so folks who read this ;) ) think that you're able to see the world this way?

Here's the simple truth: I think that I'm being foolish. I think that I do have a greater propensity for not allowing personal bias to color my view of a given experience, but that this isn't enough. "Better than most people" does not equal "the ability to be unbiased". I think that I am swayed by my personal opinions.

Okay, you're thinking, so what's so earth shattering about this?

Absolutely nothing. I'm just thinking 'out loud' as it were.

Last night, my roomie and I were planning out our respective weekends in order to make sure we got as much as we could reasonably manage done. We've got a lot on our plates and making our schedules jive just really makes a lot of sense.

We were working on when we should call about bike, car, and hotel rentals and I said that it would probably be a good thing to do on Saturday morning because Sunday they would be closed and Friday night we might be free to do such things too late, and they would again be closed.

He then reminded me that we're renting in California - 3 hours time difference, so when we got free tonight, they would likely be open for at least another 3 hours.

This just kinda made me realize that my world has grown smaller over the last several years. The west coast doesn't seem that far away to me anymore. It was fun to see that - oh yeah, it is different. It is a little ways away.

That damn pendulum keeps on swinging.