Odds and Ends

First Impressions

Before my wife and I got married, I went through the usual process of meeting all of her friends. We're still friends with all of the same people and some of them have even gotten married, which means we do married couples stuff together. Liz told me that Mark actually disliked and distrusted me when he first met me. Apparently a lot of that was because he could not "read" me. This is what Liz said anyway.

I wasn't going out of my way to try to be outgoing and charming, but I wasn't exactly trying to seclude myself and cryptic. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I guess you could say I have a good poker face. Lady Gaga would be proud. Because of this, Mark couldn't "read" me and couldn't tell if I was one of the good guys or one of the bad guys. I suppose he assumed the worst and figured that I must be one of the bad guys.

Clothes Make the Man (or vice versa?)

One of the benefits of the down economy are all of the deals that are out there. Right now I have one suit. It's a fairly plain standard black suit. Every man needs at least one black suit for wedding, funerals, and interviews. I'm still surprised by the number of guys that don't have this. I suppose depending upon the profession that you have and the type of culture in which you dwell, it may not be a necessity at all. In fact, maybe it would be looked down upon if someone showed up in a suit, sort of like you were trying to show off.

Anyways, I've had my one black suit for about five years now. It's served me well with two exceptions.

One, the pant length seems off. I don't always remember it being like this but I feel that one inch of leg length disappeared out of nowhere. How it happened doesn't really matter at this point I suppose, but every time I put the pants on, I remember my annoyance at the pant length and keep telling myself that I should get them fixed or buy a new suit.

Two, it feels like eating Cheerios. Cheerios is the breakfast food that's good enough to keep you somewhat satisfied until lunch, but no more. You don't really look forward to eating Cheerios in the morning because they're plain and have no taste. When I was a kid, I remember hating eating Cheerios in the morning for breakfast because there were dozens of other cereals out there like Count Chocula and Boo Berry that were fun. This is how my black suit feels at times. It's functional, reliable, and sufficient but no more.

When my wife called me at work a few days ago and mentioned that she saw a sale going on at a local retailer, I thought that it couldn't hurt to check it out. I ended up buying one suit and getting two free. She seemed more excited that me. I normally wouldn't buy three suits but I think I'll be set for a long time as far as suits go.


Angry Video Game Nerd

I'm a fairly regular view of The Angry Video Game Nerd so I decided to add a good link to him on my blog link list. If you've ever owned any of those older video game consoles, I'm sure you'll enjoy his videos as much as I do. He can get pretty graphic with his language so if that's not your thing, skip it.