Off The Cuff

No time for a long blog this week.  Instead I'm stuck doing training all week for work.  Which is actually quite nice, but doesn't give me time to write any essays about Batman or my feelings or anything.  What can ya do?

Instead, enjoy this lovely photo of my new look, fully realized.  This includes hair cut, 5 o'clock shadow and new glasses.  It's a whole new Stryder for a whole new season!

A lot of people have been asking about my motivation for changing up my look so drastically.  The answer - I don't know why.  Reinvention?  Boredom?  Perhaps I have been  feeling unattractive and wanted to make myself cuter?  I guess it's sort of all those things but then again, not really any of them.  Sometimes my motivations aren't fully clear, even to myself.  

Anyway enjoy...sorry for the shortness of this lovely blog.  Hopefully next week I can get it together and post something a little more thought out.  We shall see.  Happy April!

Mood Swings

Do you ever have those days when you are just moody and feel almost diseased without any good reason?  No root cause as it were?  That's how my day is going so far.  I feel tired and depressed and it's a struggle to even think properly.  My thoughts are struggling along as if through some viscous liquid.  Trying to think clearly today feels like how I imagine it must be for a person with asthma to breathe on one of those "smog warning" days.  I can do it but what should come easily is suddenly difficult and irksome.  

I have no good explanation for this, but there are a few things that seem to be feeding into this feeling.  I started the day at work today by hearing a conversation about a coworker who committed suicide over the weekend.  No one I knew personally at all.  Couldn't even picture a face to go with the name.  However it was strange because two people were talking about him and describing his traits, both physical and personality-wise,  and it occurred to me that they could easily have been describing me.  I could clearly picture almost the same conversation at work a morning or two after my own death.


While that is certainly enough to weigh on my mind for the morning, I also got really depressed when my favourite character in the book I'm currently reading was violently killed, suddenly and senselessly around page 300.  I know how foolish it sounds to be sad because an author stopped writing about a girl he made up, but regardless it had an effect on me.  The character was a 15 year old girl who'd already survived the end of civilization as we know it and managed to maintain some trace elements of both kindness and naivete.  She got hit in the head by a brick that was flung from a speeding car and lost both an eye and her life, about 12 hours later.  Anyway, I think subconsciously I am relating this character to something deeper in my own psyche.  I tried to figure out what and why, but as I mentioned, my thoughts are cloudy and impotent this morning.  Perhaps I'll figure it out later on.


Finally, I ran into a friend of mine on my break, which was nice.  Unfortunately she was called into work early today because her boss's father passed away.  Not so nice.  Another death mention, again in no way related to me.  Still, it's wearing on me. 


So I guess I have reasons for feeling as I do.  However, I don't feel that they are particularly good reasons.  I seem to have a low emotional tolerance or something today.  Sometimes I worry that I may have a chemical imbalance in my brain.  Things that should strongly effect me emotionally often fall flat, and other times I feel like life is completely pointless and meaningless without any good reason for feeling this way.  Perhaps I need therapy or medication.  Should I seek professional help?  I don't know.  These moods have been coming on strongly and frequently in the last few months.  So I ask again, is this common?  Do you ever feel this way?

The Defuzzening of Stryder

Before!

 So as the result of an off-handed comment at a bar regarding girls preffering clean shaven dudes, followed up by what seemed at the time a harmless Facebook status joke, it's come to this....the Defuzzening.  

I had hoped to document this with some photos but accidentally took tiny video clips instead.  My bad...

  

Regardless, the beard is history....I'm thinking I'll give it at least 3 months of beardlessness and if it hasn't driven me crazy by then maybe extend through October until it's too cold for this nonsense.  However, we'll see how I feel....my laziness is a major factor.  

In any case, I managed to switch back to photos for the end result - Voila!

After!

Oh no, my secret is out!

Super!

Next up....time for a trim and some new glasses.  Eventually I'll be half-way decent to look at.  Maybe....

Oh so thoughts?  Now that I have sated my curiosity regarding what lies beneath, should I keep on shaving or let it grow back out?  What say thee, internet?

OK Computer.

I had originally intended to write a blog about Batman for this week.  Then my poor old computer succumbed to what may have been one mega virus or 20 or 30 small ones.  The Caped Crusader will have to wait.

So since it was a Sunday afternoon and I needed a computer for this week I basically jumped in the car and impulse bought this lovely HP computer from Future Shop.  It was on sale and anything they have in stock is about 1000 times better than my old pile of crap.  Unfortunately, it's forcing me to stop living in the past.  I haven't used any operating system but XP for over a decade now.  Suddenly it's so long XP, it's been fun.  Welcome to Windows 7.  It amused me that the new box understands all my peripherals without having to use any discs, at least.  Actually it won't let me use the discs...they aren't compatible.  Not to worry, everything works great. At least so far....

Oh actually it's forcing me to use a standard keyboard until I get an adapter for my old, ergonomic one.  I don't know how people use these...all flat and with the keys all shoved together...drives me nuts.  If I have some typos or spacing issues I blame the keyboard.  

On a brighter note, I recorded a little video with my webcam since it suddenly has the ability to record  without smoke coming out of the processor.  I did this in one take so it's rough...whatever...it's just for fun.  Enjoy!