~Saturday~ I had a lazy Saturday during the day at least. Around mid-afternoon, I made a grocery run that included purchasing a watermelon, which I later cubed up (and de-seeded even though it was a seedless watermelon) to take to Hugh’s party later in the afternoon.
I spent a little time looking at an article that was brought to my attention by Brad via Salon, and I find the notion interesting. It’s research that explores whether or not one can “deplete” one’s “active self.”
This is interesting to me on a couple of levels:
- It’s one of those areas I’ve never heard of, and therefore have never considered before.
- As someone whose active self is active a lot of the time, the idea that it might be a deletable resource is very, very intriguing.
Here’s the research if you’re interested in reading it yourself: Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?
I attended my friend Hugh‘s 38th birthday party, which was held at a friend’s house—the home of Mike (husband), Jasmine (wife), and Jubilee (child). Along with Hugh, Jubilee met me in the front yard, and she was absolutely precious and adorable. Here she is on Hugh’s shoulders:
Photo courtesy of Hugh Hollowell’s home page.
Later she got me out on the deck to play “bubbles” with her, which involved waving wands with shapes carved into the flat end of them and sweeping them slowly in the air to create (sometimes) huge bubbles.
We had grilled hot dogs, which were fantastic, and various kinds of chips followed by several dessert choices in addition to the watermelon that I’d brought. Hugh’s wife, Renee, had made a delicious cheesecake with raspberry sauce on the top along with an Oreo crust, and there was a choice of a Key Lime pie as well as some delicious brownies. It was all good and the watermelon was a big hit.
From there, I zipped across town to my friend Eric’s going away party, where I first experienced a usability error with a sign at the entrance to the gated community that said, “Visitors use the next gate.” The problem was that it was poorly placed, after the first entrance instead of before it, so by the time you saw it, it was too late. It was the equivalent of instructions that say:
- Power off your computer.
- Before you do, save your work.”
Ooops. Too late.
Although I was by far and away the oldest person at this party consisting mostly of an Abercrombie & Fitch and Aeropostale crowd, I had a good time. Eric’s friend Patrick is always a pleasure, and I had a nice chat with Eric about his imminent move to Dallas for a new job.
My last stop of the evening, at 11:00, was meeting Joe at Flex, where Bear Night was in full swing. Not too long after I arrived, (Fayetteville) Van arrived, which means the alcohol kicked up a notch at his expense, as he just keeps coming back from the bar with drinks in each hand each time for everyone.
At some point in the evening he told me that he had two tickets to see Chaka Khan at the DPAC on June 20th and he wanted to know if I’d go with him to see her. Cool!
When I got home, I think I’d pretty much depleted my active self. Just sayin…