Happiness, Part 2

Sorry for being in absentia on Friday. Things at work got away from me and the next thing I new, the weekend was over. Funny how those things get away from you. I'm going to experiment with the schedule a little and switch Monday and Friday. My non-gaming, non-science posts require me to be creative, and by Friday, I'm pretty much entirely devoid of creativity. As I'm a little fresher on Monday, I think that posts that require creativity would be better served by coming out then. Plus, a gaming post on Friday will prepare you for a weekend of digital tomfoolery.

That being said, I'm going to continue my post from last Monday and give you a small taste of what makes me happy in life. This is an effort on my part to focus more on the positive things in my life, rather than the negative. Plus, I'm tired, this is easy and it helps to continue a theme I've already started. As you can see, being lazy makes me happy. So, in no particular order, here are a bunch of things that make me happy.

My wife's ass - My wife has a great ass, a fact that makes me very happy. Don't get me wrong, the rest of her is pretty cool too, but sometimes, a man needs to sit back and admire the beautiful things in life, and my wife's ass is one of those things.
My son's legal wranglings - My son has started negotiating when we tell him to do things. When we tell him not to touch things, he says that he's not touching, he's "pretend touching". If we tell him not to play with something that isn't a toy, he's not playing he's "just holding it". Now, normally this would be very, very annoying, but as anyone with a young child will tell you, kids' behaviour comes and goes in phases, and the legal wrangling phase means that the "why, why, why, why" phase is over. Huzzah. Plus, it's always nice to see your kid behaving the way they're supposed to. And pretend touching is a pretty clever defense.
My daughter eating a banana - When we adopted Ben, he dind't have any issues other than pretty much constant ear infections that were fixed with ear tubes. Abby, on the other hand, is small for her age and needed to go to a speech therapist to learn how to eat. Once she figured out that teeth are for chewing, she treated fruits and vegetables like we were feeding her iron filings. At some point, something changed and she started eating bananas. I can't stand the foul things, choosing to think of them as Satan's fingers, however Ben loves them, and now so does Abby. Seeing my daughter not only eating, but eating something that isn't a cracker, makes me very happy.
Pearl Jam - I've gone on about them before, but Pearl Jam makes me very, very happy. Their new album kicks ass, the latest recording of their Washington, DC show is amazing, and the band is sounding better than ever. I love the fact that Eddie is in his 40's, as it gives me hope for rocking out well into old age. I also like the fact that the press is rediscovering the band, not because I need to see The Jam in the press, but hopefully this will help get more people interested in their music.
Good movies - Ah, the joys of Netflix. Without it, Linda and I would have missed out on a bunch of fantastic films, because we wouldn't have thought to rent them at the video store, or we wouldn't have wanted to risk spending 5 bucks on something outside of our comfort zone. Netflix has allowed us to see some really good movies (some really crappy ones too) with some amazing performances. Over the weekend we watched "Brokeback Mountain" which, all "controversy aside" was a wonderful film. Last year, we watches "Sideways" and I loved it so much I went out and bought it soon afterwards. Paul Giamatti was a revelation. Maybe it's because I'm growing older, but the flash-banginess of ye olde action movie is losing out to well acted, well told stories.
Superman Returns - Except for Superman. Then again, "Superman Returns" was well acted and well told, but it happened to have a fair amount of action too. When Supes returned, triumphantly saving a plane full of people in the process, I had tears of joy in my eyes. It was nice to see Superman back in fine form, not just for those of us who grew up with Chris Reeve in the role, but for my kids, who now have a Superman movie to call their own. Well, in a few years when we let them watch it anyways.
Without A Trace - The show "Without A Trace" makes me happy. The fact that they won't release season 2 on DVD in the states makes me unhappy. The fact that they now show it on TNT makes me happy. The fact that they don't show it in order, making us have like 30 episodes from 2 seasons saved up on the Tivo makes me unhappy. All in all, it all comes out to being happy, but I would be a lot happier if they'd just release the damn DVD's in Region 1.
Guitar Hero - More on this later, but this game helps me unleash my inner rocker. The jump from Easy to Medium is quite substantial, mostly because of the addition of one stupid, blue fret button, but the need to keep on rocking is a cavernous void that can only be filled by rocking, rocking and more rocking.
Zaxby's - Every Wednesday night, Linda and make the kids dinner and after they go to bed we get take-out from Zaxby's. Linda is partial to their fried house salad, while I find their Wings and Things to be a big box of crack in chicken wing and chicken finger shaped pieces. I don't know what they put on their chicken, but I'm thinking it's heroin or some shit because I'm hooked. Their fries dipped in ranch dressing is worth the inevitable quadruple bypass surgery.

So there you go. My wife's ass, chicken fingers, Superman and digital rocking out all come together to weave a tapestry of happiness that is my life. I'm sure I could come up with a post of equal length of things that piss me off, but that won't get us anywhere. Unless, of course, next Monday rolls around and I have nothing to post about.