The writer in me…

…is always looking for one thing.

There’s this girl who works at my favorite teriyaki joint. She’s very nice, always smiling. She knows my name and knows my order. She’s pretty, she’s sweet. She seems very smart; when I see her on break, she’s always studying. The other gals who work the counter are grumpy and scowl at the customers a lot. But this girl – I never see her so much as give a customer a dirty look.

And so I always wonder: What’s her flaw?

We all have them. Lord knows I have more than most. But it’s the interesting thing, the flaws. Character flaws drive every story ever written. The character who is just nice is the victim; the one things happen to. And they’re never written well. The nice character is never fleshed out as more than “nice”. Because if you dig deep enough into anyone, you find the flaws.

I don’t know if I’m a cynic because I started looking for the flaws, or if I started looking for the flaws because I’m a cynic. Maybe it’s a bit of both. Regardless, I know this: I always look, and they’re always there. I just have to get enough time to see them.

One of my "check every day" sites

If you're interested in politics at all, you should check out Devoter. It's a great "community blog" where anyone who is signed up can post, and it is dedicated to political news. Most of the posts come from the two founders (I think). I throw some posts in there once in awhile, if I beat them to it. It's not hugely popular yet, but I predict it could become a great forum for public political debate. It is trying somewhat to cast itself in the mold of Metafilter, which is hugely popular.

Now, onto the Two Minutes Hate:
You know what I hate? When you're scooping ice cream out of one of those cylindrical half-gallons, and you're near the bottom, and your knuckles hit the side and get ice cream on them, and you have to wash your hands right away or they get all sticky. I hate that.

Amanda Congdon gets deal with ABC

If you've been reading my blog since this post about Rocketboom.com dumping host Amanda Congdon, you know I'm a big fan of hers (read: lust after).

I knew at the time it wouldn't be long before Amanda got a TV gig that actually paid, thus converting internet fame into the more conventional type - and pay. And so it is. Ms. Congdon has gotten a deal to do some video blogging and TV appearances for ABC, and is working on something with HBO.

You go girl!

Not flooded anymore

So yeah, the flood waters receded on Thursday and we were able to get out and go to work. But if you'd like to see the pictures I actually took of the flood, hit my Flickr page here:
http://flickr.com/photos/mattbear/

Stuck

So, due to record flooding in the area, I am stuck at home today. Better than being stuck at work, I guess. All the roads into our town are flooded today. This is one of the roads out of town:













This is the town downhill from us:













Ugh.

Changing topics, sort of: I am often accused of hating everything, or hating a lot of things. The truth is I really don't hate more than the average person, I'm just very vocal about it, so people think I hate everything. However, I am going to take this perception and turn it into a new "feature" for my blog: The Two Minutes Hate. If you don't know where I cribbed that name, may I suggest you do more reading?
On most blog posts, I will tack the Two Minutes Hate at the end, where I will rant briefly about something I hate. Naturally, some posts will entirely be the Two Minutes Hate, like when I'm talking about certain topics.

Now, for today's Two Minutes Hate: You know what I hate? Global Warming. We are so screwed here. I mean just look at this flooding...this is record-breaking stuff. It's hard to deny there are some seriously bad things going wrong with our climate and environment. Damn it I hate Global Warming!

My worst nightmare...

It is well documented that my son has an unbelievable obsession with cars. Jen and I both have a fear of him getting the keys to one of our cars and trying to drive it. We keep talking about locking up our car keys so he can't get to them, and we should probably do that soon.

But here's a video of a dad with too much money and not enough sense, actually giving the keys to his brand-new $50,000 Mustang to his 14 year old son, and the aftermath of that decision. All I can say is: idiot.