My parents named me David and that is how I introduce myself.

Since I don’t refer to myself as Dave whenever someone calls me Dave or yells for my attention using Dave, I tend not to turn around or answer.  That’s not my name, after all, why would I think you’re talking to me?  Am I being a dick?  I don’t know.  Are you being a dick by not calling me by the name I use?

I’ll often wonder if it’s laziness.  There’s too much effort involved in pronouncing that second syllable, so it’s easier to say Dave.  But what about writing emails, posting on message boards or IMs or Twitter?  I just don’t get it.

How you introduce yourself to me – how you say your name – that’s what I’ll call you.  When I’m contacting you or trying to get your attention, I will use the name you gave me.  It’s being considerate, I figure.  Hell, it’s common sense, is it not?  I’m not calling you Willy if you tell me your name is William.  Or John if you refer to yourself as Jonathan.

Whatever happened to asking for permission?  “Hi, I’m David.”  “Hello, can I call you Dave?”  The answer can be yes or no (in my case it’d be no).  Boom.  Done.  It baffles me that someone would take it upon themselves to shorten a person’s name.

Maybe they don’t know any better.  “Hey, I’m a nice guy, these person seems cool, I see his name is David and I know him as David, so I’m sure it won’t be a big deal if I call him Dave.”  Really?

I’m sure this seems like no big deal to other people.  There are more important matters in the world, bigger things to worry about.  But few things sour my mood then seeing something addressed to me starting with “Dave”.  You’ll be lucky if I continue to read what you wrote or continue to listen to what you’re saying.

It’s not my place to shorten someone’s name.  I really wish others would extend the same courtesy to me.

- One is a response of sorts to Derek (and Angela) regarding this blog and Twitter.  Every time I try to write here, something always pops up.  I run out of time, meaning the moment has passed; previous commitments crop up, like fixing a website or a forum, doing research for a podcast, doing something around the house, or spending time with Renee; or it’s just a quick little snippet, like an observation, something snarky, or a question; which is perfect for Twitter. I do have my tweets compiled at the end of the week, which is kind of in place for research or to aid my memory.  Often I’ll tweet something or converse with another person on Twitter and I’ll use the digest to recall tidbits.  This is because there are times Twitter is downright wonky and won’t work thanks to being over capacity so instead of being greeted by the fail whale, I’d rather use my blog.

But that’s no excuse to have post after post of tweets.  As Derek stated, he can go to my Twitter page for that (and he doesn’t have to since he reads them as they are posted.

With the weather getting warmer, there will most likely be pictures taken and where else am I going to upload photos?  Other than Flickr I mean.  So I’ll make yet another promise to write more.

- Speaking of Twitter, I’ve been using that service a lot more than FriendFeed lately.  Primarily with TweetDeck.  I still get a kick out of FriendFeed and continue to post to it, but I’m not happy with any of the third-party applications available for FriendFeed.  And the ability to customize TweetDeck to suit my needs is a big plus.

- I have to ask: does anyone else think that Madelyne Pryor is directing passengers to the airplane’s emergency exits in this panel?

I think that’ll do it for now.  I have a podcast to record.  Which reminds me: thanks to everyone that listens to Marvel Noise and 11 O’Clock Comics.  Means a lot to me and to the guys.  I know as soon as I hit ‘publish’ there’ll be a few more things that I wanted to mention here but forgot.  Maybe I’ll send a tweet…

]]> http://daprice.com/2009/04/19/some-random-tchotchkes/feed/ 4 http://daprice.com/2009/03/09/its-all-nanuuqs-fault/ http://daprice.com/2009/03/09/its-all-nanuuqs-fault/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:32:39 +0000 David http://daprice.com/?p=570 My friend Joy asked if I cared to elaborate on a comment I made on Facebook a few weeks ago, a comment where I wrote “the reason my wife and I are together is because of her dog”.

It’s true.

Back in early 2002 I was sent to work on Renee’s computer in her old office.  Apparently, there was some flirting going on, but I’m dense when it comes to that stuff so I wasn’t connecting the dots right away.  After we exchanged some emails (I’m verifying the date, we’re talking the first week in April), Renee stopped by my office during my dinner break one evening.  And she brought along a little fluffy four-legged friend.

Nanuuq and I hit it off right off the bat.  But it was all a ploy.  Renee was using Nanuuq as a way to see what kind of guy I was.  And since the little furball was all over me – putting my hand on her head, jumping so I would pick her up, rubbing against me – I passed the test.

Shortly after that, as the three of us spent more time together, the bond between me and Nanuuq became stronger.  Not as strong as it is between her and Renee (Nuuq will still look to Renee when I give her a command, like “is it okay if I do what he wants me to do?”), but there were little things to take note of.  Things like her climbing up on my chest while I was laying down.  She did this on her own with no coaxing from me, something she wouldn’t do to anyone else.  Including mommy.  Also, because of our routine (I’d go to Renee’s before work and spend time after work before heading home myself), Nuuq would look for me, waiting at the door, not budging until she saw me walking across the parking lot.  I know most dogs are happy to see their masters, but I’m not the alpha (hell, I’m not the alpha with any of the animals in the house).  All I know is that while she’s mommy’s girl, Nuuq’s always checking on me making sure I’m not too far away.  And when mommy says no, she knows I’ll cave.  She has me wrapped around her paw.

…

Well that kind of got away from me…

Anyway, so when asked how did Renee and I get together, we say that it’s because of Nanuuq.  Sure, we met at work, but Nanuuq had to approve of me before there’d be any next step.

As for what kept me around after that, I can say it involves Will Rogers and Lost In Space.

As you can see, there’s a new look to the place.  I’m still gettin’ a feel for this theme, but the big thing I’m most jazzed about is getting those photos up in the right corner.  They are all mine (refreshing the page or changing pages will display a different photo), but I’ll need to tweak things so they are not stretched.  Which means I’ll have to reupload them to Flickr with the new dimensions and that’s probably going to be harder than it needs to be, knowing me.

I figured it was time to change since there was also a new version of WordPress that I’ve been chompin’ at the bit to install.

So there we go.  I hope to be back soon.  There are things I want to touch on, things going on in our lives and online.  Speaking of online, I have been adding links to the sidebar.  So even though I haven’t posted ‘real’ entries (save for tweets), I have been maintaining the site.  So look around, click a link or two.  Ya never know if something’ll strike your fancy.  And tell ‘em David sent you.

I parked, walked in, found the table for my district, and signed my name. There were a total of four booths in the courtroom, two for each district.  I was directed to one of them and immediately flicked the lever for Barack Obama and Joe Biden once I closed the curtain.  I voted for the other candidates running for various offices, opened the curtain, said my goodbyes to the volunteers, and came home.

Renee will stop at the town hall on the way home and hopefully have as easy a time as I had.

We’ll be watching CNN (after Indecision ‘08) into the late hours so I’m sure I’ll be in rough shape tomorrow.  But I hope that I will go to sleep with a smile on my face and wake up to realize it wasn’t a dream.  That Barack Obama is indeed the next President of the United States.

More later.

It’s also no secret that Renee is the stronger one between the two of us.  She has the smarts, the looks, I accepted this long ago and I’m cool with it.  To say I was oblivious to what was going on with the mortgage would be a massive understatement.  But I’m working on that, as unfair as it was at the time.

Right now we’re feeling beaten.  Aside from this long battle, 2008 has taken our dog, our time, our money, and pretty much our spirit.

If you’re unaware, last week GMAC closed its doors and laid off over 5,000 people, give or take.  Our broker was one of those people.  But he has our file, is working with a company he has a rapport with, and we should be hearing from him soon.  We were expecting to hear from him Friday, but that didn’t happen.  We didn’t hear from him today, either.  Friday was also the day Renee received some pretty depressing news at work.  Saturday we braced for the storm that was coming with the leftovers from Hannah.  We had a little trickle of water come into the basement, but nothing the dehumidifier couldn’t handle.  But I still freak out a tad when we get or are expecting to get some heavy rainfall.  Luckily this was mostly wind.  Sunday was the only bright spot in recent memory – we went for a drive, had a nice brunch, did some window shopping, picked up some bargain-priced books, came home and spent time with Nanuuq before doing the usual ‘get ready for the work week’ routine.

So yeah, today, still no word on our refinance.  And even though we have proof that the mortgage has been paid every month and in full, the shitheels at ASC (an oh-so-wonderful Wells Fargo company) have been reporting that the payments are late and are only partial.  And it doesn’t look like Equifax believes us or the evidence that supports our claim.

Tonight I called the woman that I love and adore that I would do anything for (and do anything to) and she sounds crushed.  And that’s where the feelings I described come into play.  The idea that I can’t do anything to make this right, to make her feel better, to ease her pain and frustration makes me ill.  I try to scream, nothing comes out.  I’m even too damn spent to cry.

Maybe typing out my various and assorted thoughts will help somewhat.

There are people worse off than us.  Without a doubt.  I wish I could help them.  But as this pity party proves, I can’t even help myself or my wife.

We just want this over.  We mistakenly assumed that 2008 would be ‘our year’.  We get it.  It’s not.  You win.

Happy fucking birthday to me.

One of my favorite bits is pretty recent and something I refer to almost weekly.

[youtube]9O1UcjrOZVk[/youtube]

Rest in peace, George.  Give ‘em hell.

Sunday night, all set to record Marvel Tales, but agita starts kicking my ass. Okay, no problem. I’ll record Monday morning. I’d rather have the house to myself. Along with Nanuuq, of course. But no! I end up oversleeping and congested, unable to breathe out of one nostril. Joy. Okay. I can still go for broke Monday night, right? Nope. Because I didn’t finish my notes for the week’s new releases. All right. I’ll finish writing them up and record that Tuesday morning. Which means Marvel Tales will probably not be part of Marvel Noise 33. But I have to get something out there because there’s audio that’s been sent in.

Woke up today, feeling better, and all set to go after my shower and breakfast. But why can’t I connect to the Internet? And what’s up with the phone? Wonderful. Time to troubleshoot the modem and router. While I’m doing that my neighbor comes over to fix our gate (the wood sticks and is a bitch to open and close). So I run the power cord through the window while he’s working on that. He finishes and I go outside to thank him. He lost a drill bit, so I help him look for it. After a few minutes searching I find it and clean up the wood shavings. Connectivity is back and all is well in the world. But now I have to clean up, get my dinner together, and get ready to head out. Meaning there was no recording.

The drive in was uneventful, but once I got to work, why it’s more fun! Profile issues prevent me from logging in. Actually, I can log in, but things are screwy thanks to software I’m testing. So I spend time tweaking my profile, locally and on the network. Of course, bringing down a new profile means everything has to be reconfigured. I’m finally working everything’s running smooth and Outlook decides to crash. Which means I have to close all of my other programs and windows because Outlook is the first application I open. I just can’t have the database or ConsoleOne or Explorer be the first item on the taskbar.

So now everything is okay. Dinner went off without a hitch until my yogurt squirted me while I was opening it. If I wasn’t so tired, I’d probably laugh.

I have no idea if I’ll be recording anything tonight. We’ll see how I feel.

And it’s only Tuesday?!?!?

It’s always nice to drive out to Adams Fairacre Farms

Catching up on Spectacular Spider episodes from the past couple weeks while working on my little something for the upcoming comics podcast theme week.

I need to reconfigure the Treo since it’s screwed up more than one birthday (sorry, sis!) and May has bunch of ‘em.  I’ll be suffering for awhile if I mess up ma’s or Renee’s.

I’m enjoying the introduction of Spidey’s rogues gallery in this cartoon.  Shocker was cool with some nice continuity, as was Doc Ock.  Good stuff.

I really want to see Iron Man.  Preferably, before it’s on DVD. Not holding my breath, but stranger things have happened.

This really caps off a nice week.  Had some great times with Renee (always fun to see and hear her laugh) and I had a blast chatting with Vince and Chris, which became the first episode of the new 11 O’Clock Comics podcast.  Thanks to everyone to gave it a listen.  Speaking of Chris Neseman (and podcasts), this week also  brought us the return of Around Comics.  And it was glorious.

And with Doctor Octopus apprehended, I think I’ll call it a night.  I want to record Marvel Tales tomorrow morning (Uncanny X-Men!) and the last thing I need is for my allergies to act up.