Its been a while

Sorry It has been so long since last writing. I could go on and on about how I have been busy with school, work and various other activities, but I am sure it would just annoy you and make you want me to just get to the point. After all the more people explain themselves the more it seems like they are guilty, therefore I shall just apologize and leave it at that. If anyone wants further groveling or apologetic gobbledygook you can consult my pr guy...(who does not exist).

Hauling Water

Most kids have to sweep the floors, take out trash, mow lawns and various other chores for their parents growing up. It is a kind of rent that kids pay for the free meals, clothes, and shelter they so un-appreciatively enjoy for the first eighteen years of their lives. My house growing up was no different in this respect. We washed the dishes, swept the floors, vacuumed the living room and hung our laundry on the clothes line outside. We also had one other chore until I was about twelve that we performed on a weekly basis. As we lived pretty far from civilization or as I call it today "stress", we were not on the priority list for the county of people who needed basics like water and electricity. We had electricity hooked up after the first few months on our land but water was something we would have to wait for. My dad being the genius that he is bought a pick-up truck and placed about five fifty five gallon drums in the back. Each week we would drive the five mile one way drive to our local "watering hole" as we called it (looking back now I realize we must have looked like a bunch of cattle when I would tell my friends I was going to the watering hole), filling the drums to capacity, and then driving the five miles back home.

The Bliss of a Cardboard Box

It seems like as a generation we have become dependent upon luxuries to entertain ourselves and our families. Home-made toys and games have been replaced by the video games and on-demand entertainment channels. Where you used to see children running through the streets rolling an old tire, you see kids who look half dead with glazed over looks from too much glare on their televisions. I am the youngest of a large family. Growing up luxuries to me were normalcy's to some of my friends. Allowance was considered spoiling, and junk foods were unnecessary expenditures not to mention unhealthy. This is not to say that my parents did not know how to have fun, they just knew how to have fun without all the extras that cluttered our imaginations and clogged our energetic minds. I can still remember the day that my mother took us shopping at the local Safeway in Kingman. After checking out and returning to the car we noticed that at the next door Sears store there were a number of empty refrigerator boxes getting ready to be thrown away. Seeing these we begged our mother for them with all the energy small children can posses. Being a good sport she spoke with the manager who informed her she could have whatever she wanted (probably because of the wide eyed hopeful children standing behind her looking about to cry if he said no). So with excitement and dreams of making airplanes, cars, and houses out of these boxes we set out for home with our new found treasures.

What exactly do women want?

I grew up with four sisters who had personalities that ranged from tom-boy to prissy. Regardless of their character traits my brothers and I were required to treat them with the utmost respect and dignity. Holding doors and speaking kindly were just normalcy\'s of life in my home. Once I started dating I noticed I had better luck than some of my friends who did not know how to treat women. In fact I really had all the luck since I honestly tried to treat girls who were my friends like I treated my sisters, and my guy friends treated them, well like they treated their sisters (which wasn\'t very good). Now that I am married I still do my best to hold the door for my wife, wait until she has taken the first bite at dinner to eat, and help with chores around the house. Although she appreciates what I do for her I never feel like her appreciation goes beyond the "what a great hubby I have stage". What I really want is for her to view me as the Mr. Darcie or Edward Cullen in her life. You know, the guy that is studly yet mysterious and charming. The problem I have is that when I mimic these suave individuals I usually get a reaction of uncontrollable laughing instead of uncontrollable love. For instance:

My New Ipod

Last Saturday I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday. This year Kassie went all out investigating and buying things that until I had them I didn't realize I needed. One such item was my new ipod that I can't seem to put down now that I have it. I carry it everywhere fearful that if I put it down somebody that knows how cool my music is will snatch it and I'll be left music-less and worse ipod-less (I'm not sure if those are words but nowadays you can usually add a less or other suffix after any word and it works!). Falling in love with my ipod was not instantaneous I would soon find out. I don't know if I was just having a rough day in the logical area of my brain or if I am just so used to Microsoft applications that anything Steve Jobs has come up with just doesn't mesh well in my brain. Either way my initial excitement was diminished quickly when I couldn't get the stupid thing to turn on. I tried every button multiple times and in different sequences just in case there was some type of encrypted code to turning an ipod on (like when Willy Wonka plays that crazy song on the keyboard before opening up his room of goodies). I finally decided to read the instructions which informed me that I would have to charge it before it would turn on, which actually makes more sense than it just magically working when it comes out of the box.

The dumpster story

My parents always tried to instill the benefits of hard work in me and my brothers and sisters while we were growing up. If anything was worth having it was worth working for, or at least that was my parent's philosophy. When it came to money my parents were equally frugal and cautious. We ate basically homemade everything so getting any store-bought foods like cold cereal was a major treat. Getting cold cereal with sugar in it, or soda pop was an extraordinary treat that we would only have once in a great while. I remember a time when my brother and I first saw the kid's movie Three Ninjas. Immediately we wanted to be just as cool as those kids. They had all the cool fighting moves as well as the coolest bedrooms. The only problem was that everything in the kid's bedrooms on the movie was considered a luxury to my parents. Basketball hoops, bean bags, bunk-beds, they had the complete works of a bedroom that I have ever seen. A real dream for a couple of young boys. There was no way we would ever be able to earn enough money to buy all the cool stuff the Three Ninjas had and there was also no way we would convince my parents to just buy us everything.

The Power of Math

When I was sixteen I went to a dance in our town. I was a pretty awkward kid, gangly and scared of girls. Dancing was not my idea of fun but staying home was even worse. My clothes were not cool and a little baggy on me, and my hair was so big it made my head look over-sized. Luckily My sister would always come with me to these dances and try to help me loosen up, but most of the time I would only dance slow dances with her friends (fast dances were completely out of the picture) and then mingle by the fruit punch. I remember one dance in particular where I felt a little uneasy and fearful of all the girls. I was sure if one of them talked to me, or wanted to dance, I would either st-udder profusely or drench her hands with my sweaty palms.

On the Road Show

When I was about nine years old my parents decided they wanted to attend our family reunion up in British Columbia Canada. Being that we lived in Arizona at the time, this was going to be quite a long drive to make with five kids. Regardless of this tiny fact my parents plowed forward getting food ready along with sleeping bags, board games, junk food, and whatever else they thought would keep us entertained. We had this really old motorhome that smelled like dust and old shag carpet that we decided to drive on our vacation. It had the old 2x2 foot fridge with the wooden door on the front and a sleeping area above the drivers area. It also had one of those bathrooms that is a shower with a sink and toilet all in one. Looking back I have no idea why we decided to take this thing to Canada as it was getting up there in years, and probably was a road hazard. Away we went anyway happy and excited to get out of the hot desert into the Great White North.

Welcome to my new blog

Welcome to the Nerdy Joseph Blog! When I started this thing I knew I wanted a name that was catchy as well as easy to remember. I wasn´t feeling very creative until my wife started calling me a nerd when I would do certain things that I thought were normal. At first I was offended, I mean really who wants to be called a nerd? Those are the guys who are upside-down in dumpsters and getting swirly´s in Junior High. Then I realized one day there might be something to this whole nerdy thing. I am a programmer by hobby, I love star wars, play chess daily, and I understand the majority of what Sheldon is saying on the Big Bang Theory. Plus Nerds usually end up with bunches of money and who doesn´t want that right? I decided at that point I should embrace my destiny and become the full nerd I was meant to be. Now instead of being offended by my label as a nerd I am happy to be numbered in the ranks of the geeks and four-eyes. I feel welcomed by my new found friends on techy websites, and chess clubs, as well as empowered by the vast amounts of geeky information they provide. The name of my site really crushed my fear of people making fun of me or disapproving of my honest writing. It released this desire to be creative and honest regardless of the consequences or rewards.