Well, the “blizzard” was fun. I discovered that it’s possible to die of heat exhaustion in the middle of a frigid snowstorm when you wear too much wool in too many layers. Hooray for poor wardrobe planning!  But I do love the white stuff.

Last few weeks have been a treat:

1. My doctor’s visit was fun. Turns out, my thyroid is in mint condition — but, I have an extremely seriously low level of vitamin D in my system. This has a role to play in a bunch of biochemical processes, including calcium regulation, so we’re attacking the vitamin D issue as our first strategery for defeating the twin terrors of “Jason has no energy” and “Jason is in a mental fog.”  I have a prescription for a 50,000 IU dose that I take once per week for eight weeks, then get follow-up labs drawn. Stay tuned (and yes, I’ve already had my fill of “white boy needs sun” jokes, thankyouverymuch).
2. My dad had pretty major surgery this week. Keep him in your prayers.
3. The family Christmas this year was interesting. Brian was back from Iraq for a week or so; hence, we assembled last Monday for festivities. He is doing well, and that cheeky bastard has already lost a million pounds, which seem to have found a new home upon my thighs.  Sometimes life just isn’t fair. 🙂
4. With the cold I was able to wear my big fuzzy Siberian rabbit hat this week. As usual, I got questions and comments.  Good times. 
5. The hospital and writing are holding steady. More changes loom, but it’s too early to say what life will look like a month from now.
6. Duane seems to be settling in well.  He appears happy.  We’ve been doing a bit of online WoW lately.  I’m glad he’s OK; he was in a pretty bad spot just a few months ago.

Stay warm!

‘Tis the end of November, and all through the blog, not a text post was stirring, not even a blurb.

1. Thanksgiving was pretty good. It was just my mother and I, and a curious but tasty “turkey roast.” We ate a delicious meal (I brought a pumpkin pie), watched Dante’s Peak, and pulled in her boxes of Christmas goodies. And I got to play with Gunner, her adorable German Shepherd puppy. Meanwhile, Ryan and the crumb crunchers went back to the east side of the state for the weekend.
2. I learned that my dad needs major surgery soon. I have to give him a call.
3. … And I, myself, have been not-so-hot. For a while now I haven’t felt all that good; I’ve been tired a lot, and increasingly unable to focus, I’ve been more moody than usual, and my weight has been creeping up again. Wondering if our old family demon, the wicked banshee Hypothyroidism, is rearing its ugly head. I’m setting an appointment tomorrow for a complete physical with full blood work.
4. Evenings have been spent doing a fair amount of writing work for Demand Studios. On the upside, if I get into a rhythm, I can net the equivalent of $30 per hour churning out rebranded articles for ehow.com and answerbag.com. On the downside, I have to get into a rhythm or my effective hourly rate-of-return sinks to the $10 level. Ugh.
5. Haven’t seen much of my friends since “bad musical” night – mostly because I’ve been too exhausted to set things up. Haven’t seen Tony in a while. I did set aside time to have coffee with Alejandro two weeks ago, and Charlie yesterday, and I had lunch last week with Kate, but that’s about it. My social motivation is at an all-time low.
6. Life at the hospital has been interesting. My workgroup is undergoing massive restructuring. One of the damnable things about having a degree in political science, and hence exposure to political theory, is that I feel like Cassandra a lot: I understand the dynamics of things going on around me, but my warnings are often set aside for the easier fix that doesn’t require a change to the organizational culture. Yet the fix, because it doesn’t really correct the problem, is doomed to ultimate failure. And, of course, that failure reflects on me. Lovely.
7. I signed up for a Netflix account a few weeks ago, and have been getting DVDs of the fouth and fifth seasons of Stargate Atlantis. I enjoyed that series; it’s too bad it ended after only five seasons. Like its sister program, Stargate SG1, Atlantis’s unique charm is in its humor. The little things amuse: In one scene, four leaders meet, three colonels and a lieutenant colonel. Each one greets the other by rank, so the dialogue was: “Colonel, colonel. Colonel, colonel. Colonel, colonel. Colonel, colonel.” And one civilian character stood there and rolled his eyes.
8. Speaking of TV humor, I’ve decided that the most consistently funny man on television is Mike Rowe of Discovery’s Dirty Jobs. His deadpan approach to unpleasant situations, the faux-mocking tone he takes with some of the people he encounters, and the understated physicality of his work, make for an amusing hour of programming – more funny than any sit-com on network TV. Come to think of it, Discovery has been pretty good with humor. An episode of Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, set in the tundra of northern Sweden, had our affable host partnered with Will Ferrell. The episode showed a new, deliciously ironic side to Ferrell I didn’t appreciate, and the episode was so intensely funny that I was laughing out loud multiple times. Not an easy accomplishment.
9. I installed the beta of Microsoft Office 2010 yesterday, and I am quite pleased. In fact, I am writing this blog post directly in Word 2010; it has a “sharing” option that allows direct placement to a file location, or Sharepoint site, or blog. And the new Outlook is almost orgasmic; it has the new ribbon (which, e.g., in Word, is much more logical than the Office 2007 versions), and better handling of RSS. I am thoroughly satisfied with Microsoft’s major apps lately. Windows 7 is a remarkable improvement upon Vista and Office 2010 looks like a worthy upgrade to Office 2007. And I use Bing as my default search engine because I like it better than Google. If only Microsoft would provide harmony for its online services (integrating Hotmail, Skydrive, and the like into something much more unified and cohesive). If MS would get multiprotocol support for Messenger, which integrates into Communicator, I’d be thrilled to tears.
10. I recently finished Natan Sharansky’s The Case for Democracy. The first two-thirds were a fascinating insight into the political possibilities of linking human rights to public diplomacy. I can see why this book was so influential among the neocons during the Bush administration. Yet the final one-third disappointed; it was basically Sharansky saying, “Pfft, the morons didn’t listen to me and so the chance for Middle East peace was lost.” Nevertheless, it was a book worth reading and thinking about.

All for now.

Last Tuesday I turned 33.  It was a decent day; I had a whole box of presents from Ryan, Jess, and the kids — and Jess made me a very delicious chocolate cake.  Yum.  And my mother took me out for breakfast and forgave an outstanding “mom loan,” which was very nice.

Yet the tick of another year on life’s odometer does give one pause.  As is turning into my habit, I offer a few reflections on my key learnings from the year now gone.

1. “Family” is about never turning your back, no matter what.
2. The only way to truly understand another is to see the world from behind his eyes.  Our experiences give us a perspective, and this perspective colors what is real, for us.  Only by making the effort to understand this viewpoint can we be truly capable of empathy without pity.
3. Never underestimate the abject and mean-spirited pettiness of those who feel themselves wronged.  Especially when no wrong was committed!  I look at some of the things Edmund said and did, for example, and I have to wonder how anyone can sink so low and behave so cruelly — and for what?  What good came of any of it?
4. Similarly, people will find a way to rationalize away their encounters with honest-to-goodness moral evil.  They will avert their gaze, or compartmentalize it clinically, but they will not see it for what it is.
5. It’s never too late to be a friend.  I was a highly disengaged friend for Duane after he left for California (and then Korea), but after helping him get a job in Michigan, I’m looking forward to having him crash at my apartment for the next month or so until he gets himself settled in his own home.  Yeah, shame on me for not being the most careful tender of our friendship while he was gone, yet I hope it counts for something that I’m opening my doors to him now that he’s back.
6. The pursuit of excellence is hard … but it’s worth it.
7. Always take the time to notice when someone works hard to meet your expectations. 
8. There are a lot of fucked-up people in this world, people who suffer from vicious personal demons.  This often affects their ability to be a friend, or a co-worker — and it universally affects their ability to be honest.  As I’ve put out feelers every so often over the last year to expand my social circle (e.g., with Tim or Aaron), the initial nice-guy demeanor and earnestness about how stable and rooted their personalities are, ended up evaporating in a flash of bitterness or self-doubt.  There aren’t all that many people who are capable of balancing their demons within against the need to be a decent human being in public.
9. Inquisitiveness and open-mindedness are as rare as they are refreshing, which is why I like Charlie and Rick so much. 
10. Sometimes, bringing things to an end — painful though it may be — is the most necessary and most healthy way to deal with problems.

Let’s hope Year 33 is decent.