{"id":895,"date":"2005-05-18T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-18T20:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=895"},"modified":"2005-05-18T15:10:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-18T20:10:00","slug":"quarante-epices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"quarante \u00e9pices"},"content":{"rendered":"

On an unbearably slow day here at work, in the spirit of propagating a little time-wastage, perhaps it might interest you all (though not me in the least) to hear about my immediate family. Props to Emily<\/a> for the idea!<\/p>\n

Dad<\/b> (Edward, 54): Senior electrical engineer at IBM, where he’s worked ever since he graduated from NCSU in ’72, and even before then (co-op). Likes golf, cribbage, model trains (though he rarely works on his room-filling train set upstairs), and recently, coin collecting. I gave him a crash course in eBay and he hasn’t looked back. Not artistic or abstract, but very analytical and can figure most anything out if he applies his mind to it. Disciplined, diligent, financially responsible. Raised in a low-income military household with an alcoholic father, and in spite of that worked hard through college and afterward to build a strong, stable family and financial life. Not a book reader but those he does read he absorbs very well. Morning person. Has no knowledge of popular culture whatsoever and has a habit of spontaneously singing a verse or two from a cheesy ’60s pop song that he doesn’t remember anything else about. Landscapes the yard to relax–the lawn is the envy of the cul-de-sac and beyond. Our personalities are the most dissimilar out of anyone in my immediate family and I hardly knew him until my mid-teenage years when I started dealing with standard high school stuff (girls, grades, sports, etc) that he could relate to and talk about. His conscious adaptation of his parenting style to respond to the various life stages his sons have gone through is something I admire to the ends of the earth.<\/p>\n

Mom<\/b> (Cindi, 51): Renaissance woman extraordinaire. Homeschool teacher, Odyssey of the Mind coach, ESL and Worldview teacher, young women’s small group leader…and the list goes on. The most incredible cook I’ve ever known–her baked chicken or pot roast is to die for and her desserts are superb. Can’t recall ever having experienced her bomb a dish–she’s always gotten it right. Voracious reader (at least a dozen walls in various rooms in the house are covered by full bookshelves), always on the up-and-up with regard to popular culture, cultural trends, and especially politics. She’s the reason behind the half-dozen or so newsmagazines that arrive in the mail any given week. Night person. Took it upon herself to expose her sons to a wide range of cultural experiences–performances, museums, sightseeing trips (especially when we lived in Europe) and more. Our personalities are relatively similar. When I have an original (to me at least) thought or observation about relationships or sociology or politics or what-have-you, she’ll usually be the first to hear about it. She’s one of the few people with whom I feel like I can explain myself adequately and phrase things the way I want to in conversation. Certain people just have that effect on me.<\/p>\n

Paul<\/b>, 23: Mr.P, a.k.a. the Gentle Giant. 6’1″, around 225 lbs, and wouldn’t hurt a fly. Meteorology grad student at NCSU, wants to be a storm chaser eventually. Came in first place in a southeastern U.S. forecasting competition participated in by some pretty weighty names. Big but surprisingly nimble for his size. Very athletically adept. He’s one of those people who actually plays better in the heat of the game–he’ll make shots he wouldn’t normally make, which is contrary to how it works for most people. Was NCSU Intramural athlete of the year a couple of years back when he participated in every sport except cross country. Co-coaches a neighborhood baseball team and has been a church youth group leader for the past 5-6 years. We share an avid appreciation for Spongebob. Loves all sports and has an amazing knowledge of players and stats. Used to be an enthusiastic birdwatcher but that’s waned lately. Has a very expensive digital camera and takes wonderful pictures. Very silly sense of humor, and a much better storyteller than he thinks he is. Quite artless with regard to females (to the slight consternation of my parents), a quality he and I share to a degree but David seems to have managed to avoid. Looks the most like my dad out of the three of us (which still isn’t all that much).<\/p>\n

David<\/b>, 20: Divad, D-Qwon, etc… He has an LJ so I have to be careful what I say, heh. Tall (6’3″ or so) and *lean* varsity soccer player for NCSU (we’re a big family). Mechanical engineering major. Can build most anything out of anything. Has constructed a rocket-powered skateboard, swiveling water balloon launcher turret (with me), remote-controlled Battlebot<\/a>, only slightly scaled-down trebuchet<\/a>, a long string of vehicles for Odyssey of the Mind (both ride-able and smaller-sized), among many other things… Great welder. We can geek it up about technical topics for hours on end. Very intelligent and great student; he has my dad’s analytical mind coupled with an ability to operate in more right-brained circles as well (he’s a very good writer, for instance). Great cook–has pulled off some very exotic dishes. The most social of us three and has the widest group of friends and acquaintances. David’s and my personalities are more similar than Paul’s and mine–in some respects we have pretty similar approaches to relationships so there’s always a ready conversation topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On an unbearably slow day here at work, in the spirit of propagating a little time-wastage, perhaps it might interest you all (though not me in the least) to hear about my immediate family. Props to Emily for the idea! Dad (Edward, 54): Senior electrical engineer at IBM, where he’s worked ever since he graduated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}