Category: It Happened to Me

I’ve moved my birthday party photos over from the kode-fu.com server over to Blogware. The hosting service on which kode-fu.com “lives” is rather spotty, and Blogware offers the advatages of speed and a pretty nifty set of photo album features. The new home of the last year’s birthday party photos is http://accordionguy.blogware.com/blog/Life/Happened/TheBig35.

It dawned on me that with the exception of the card-dealer’s visor, I had everything I needed to go as “The Keymaker” from The Matrix Reloaded for Hallowe’en:

A quick trip to the dollar store later, I had a visor and some extra-long keychains to complete the outfit. To be faithful to the character (and partially just to appease Dad just this once — I don’t think he’s ever been a fan of it), I shaved off my goatee. A substitution of the contact lenses for an old pair of coke-bottle glasses, a change of posture and an expression assisted by lack of sleep the night before, and you get an older man with the keys that can lead Neo to “The Source”:

Yeesh. That’s just damned scary. I look ten years older. I could probably get a job in a convenience store looking like that: “Dis no ribarry! You read magazine, you buy, round-eye!”

Here’s a slightly better photo of me, taken by Melanie at Dorian’s Hallowe’en party:

And here’s one of Dorian and me at the same party:

I think I look much better with the goatee — it appears that my face needs some kind of frame. Thankfully, it’ll grow back quickly. The photographic evidence above also explains why I never wear glasses anymore.

Perhaps I should direct your attention to entries with better photographs of me.

Here’s a video (820K QuickTime) from my friend Dorian’s Hallowe’en party last night. These two lovely ladies are demonstrating “The Running Man” dance:

(Click the still frame above to see the video.)

Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while and you could miss it.”

— Ferris Bueller

Dad’s been waxing a little bit philosophical in the hospital. During my last visit, this little conversation snippet took place:

Dad: While it’s good to get ahead, you should make sure that you enjoy life while you’re still young.

Me (laughing): Dad, have you watched me at all over the past five years?

I’m worried about my Dad, who’s in the hospital at the moment.

Dad was the recipient of a kidney donated by his sister last year. To ensure that his body doesn’t reject this replacement hardware, he takes drugs to suppress his immune system. The price that he pays for an extended lease on life is that these drugs effectively turn him into a human analogue of Microsoft Windows: he’s vulnerable to infections of all sorts, and sometimes I just want to scream at the Manufacturer, who conveniently has a monopoly on this sort of thing.

He came down with a fever this weekend, and he’s now in the hospital with some kind of infection that’s manifested itself in his toe. This is no way to start a retirement; I was looking forward to taking him out to lunch regularly, not visiting him in the hospital.

If you’re the praying type, please throw in a good word for him (especially if you happen to be the coolest priest I know) or slay a chicken or goat for him if that’s your bag. If you’re not the praying sort, maybe you can spare a kind thought. Hey, if you’re into Feng Shui, could you perhaps straighten a picture or move your coffee table a couple of inches for his speedy recovery?

Thanks, folks.