Weird

So I really messed up yesterday. There's a reall nice
woman across the hall from me in Wean. She's always super
nice and we talk from time to time. It turns out she's into
numerology and astrology, so she asked when I was born. I
wrote an email to my mom asking her.

From: seanmcl@cs.cmu.edu
Subject: birthtime
Date: February 15, 2005 4:17:13 PM EST
To: cjhumphreys@earthlink.net

Hi Mom,

I have this kind of weird friend who does numerology and
stuff and wants to know when I was born, clock-wise. Do you
remember? How's everything going. I'm falling behind in
school again ((sigh)) See you soon!

Smiles,

Sean

When she replied, of course I forwarded the answer. Doh!
So my friend replied with "So do I qualify as your weird
friend?". Obviously I hurt her feelings. So I'm a
jackass. But I started thinking about it. It's just not
nice to call people "weird" or whatever, even in what was
meant as private communication where she was not suppose to
be involved. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I
have such labels attached to people in my mind. In this
case, it's not a big deal, as there's nothing wrong with
being "weird". In fact, probably most of the people I
admire most can have that word applied to them. But in
general, I think I have flippant epithets labeling people
who I genuinely like and care about. Maybe everyone does
this to some extent, but I need to be more careful about
what I say. But that's the point! It should never even
occur to me to say mean things about other people behind
their back. Grrr... I'm really embarrassed about this.

On a lighter note, I was with a friend at blockbuster. We
were trying to pick out a movie, and it was clear she didn't
really care. I kept trying to make her decide though, so I
said "OK, I'll give you a choice of 3 things I want to see,
and you can pick one."
"OK"
"I-Robot, Return of the King, or the Crow". (I was in an
escapist mood).
"Um... how about I give you three choices and
you can pick one"
"Great!" (Finally, some display of interest.)
"I-Robot, Return of the King, or the Crow".

Ha! I'm still smiling about that.


"A number of my fellow religious-studies students--muddled
agnostics who didn't know which way was up, who were in the
thrall of reason, that fool's gold for the bright--reminded
me of the three-toed sloth; and the three-toed sloth, such a
beautiful example of the miracle of life, reminded me of
God."
--Yann Martel, Life of Pi


Panther Hollow in the fog.


Amazing sunset on the way home...


Everglades buddies.