Of abnormal psychology and meeting women

Many years ago, Royce and Jana (the “untamed librarian,” in Royce’s words) were taking an abnormal psychology class together.

One slow day, they decided to relieve their in-class boredom by stringing together every symptom they could think of into one long word…then figure out what it meant.

The result:

Pseudocoitoxenohematomysonecropyrobestioacroclaustro-ochlohydrophobia: The fear of being forced to pretend to have sex with the unfamiliar bloody infected corpse of a flaming animal at 15,000 feet in a small crowded wading pool.

Later on, when I was hanging out in the Yahoo chat rooms, I attempted to use this for a screen name, but it was far too long. Instead, I pared it down to pyropedonecrobestiality, and used that as my default chat name. One day the name caught the eye of someone else in the chat room, who figured that anyone who’d use that for a name had to have both a sense of humor and a few brain cells to rub together, and they struck up a conversation…

…and that’s how Prairie and I first started talking. Eventually (after somewhere over a year) we actually met in person, and things gradually went on from there, but at least at the beginning…

Yup.

I met my girlfriend because the chat name I was using declared that I was sexually aroused by having intercourse with the flaming corpse of an underaged puppy.

Bet’cha there’s not too many people who can make that claim when asked how they met their significant other.

iTunes “Mind Your Own Business” by Pigface from the album Easy Listening… (2002, 3:25).

6,000+ Pictures

I’ve just passed the 6,000 picture mark in my Flickr account…I figure I’m averaging about 10 pictures a day uploaded. Can anyone say photo whore? ;)

This, then, is picture number 6,000:

Cal Anderson Ducks

Ducklings! Cute widdle fuzzy ducklings looking at their fuzzy widdle tummies!

Excuse me…I need an insulin shot now.

First Time in Five Years

Every so often, I get the urge to hack off my face fuzz. Most of the time, I manage to talk myself out of it — I don’t really look my age most of the time to begin with (or act it, but that’s a different matter), and going clean-shaven just makes me look even younger.

However, every few years I actually get up the nerve to see just how goofy I look without the beard. The last time was five years ago (and no photos exist of that round), so I figured it was finally time to give it another shot.

Me Without Face Fuzz

End result — well, I definitely look younger…the most popular estimate has been somewhere around 20 or 21 (which really isn’t bad at all for a guy who just turned 33). It’s hard for me to look at myself without thinking I look goofy this way, but I’ve been assured that I look fine, and that it’s probably just me being so unused to looking like this.

I still think that I’ll be letting the beard grow back in rather than stay like this.

iTunes “Keep On the Sunny Side” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The from the album Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972, 4:27).

Mother’s Day

It’s late in the day, so most won’t read this until the day after, but…happy Mother’s Day to all the various moms I know (and, for that matter, all those that I don’t know). My own mom is, of course, right at the top of that list. Other important moms that I know of: my sister-in-law Emily; my aunts Pam and Susan; Prairie’s mom Char; my friends Erika, and Melissa…and I’m sure there are more that I might be able to bring to mind if it weren’t just after eleven at night. ;)

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you.

Pink

coComment Enabled

I’ve been seeing rumblings about coComment for a few weeks now, but finally decided to take a closer look when I noticed it up and running on a post at The Republic of T. coComment is a service that lets you track the comments you’ve made on other weblogs, keep track of when people have responded to them, and so on…basically, trying to make sure that those comments you leave don’t just disappear into the great bit bucket of the ‘net.

So, I’ve signed up, and have enabled coComment integration on this site (for all future entries, at least…all entries on the main page have been rebuilt, the rest of the 3801 entries will be rebuilt eventually) — Movable Type integration was a snap with their included instructions. I don’t figure a huge percentage of my readers will be using it, but it’s there for those who want to.

iTunes “Bring on the Dancing Horses” by Echo and the Bunnymen from the album Pretty In Pink (1985, 4:00).