the view from the top of Bela Tola by selfish crab.

Where I end my side-trip detour to Hotel Weisshorn, and return to the main path, viz a viz the Swiss hamlet of Gruben.

hotel weisshorn by selfish crab.

The whole point of my side trip was to visit this old historic Hotel, and then walk around it.

]]> http://www.selfishcrab.com/2010/03/04/day-10-photos-hotel-weisshorn/feed/ 1 http://www.selfishcrab.com/2010/03/03/socialnet/ http://www.selfishcrab.com/2010/03/03/socialnet/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:56:53 +0000 Selfish Crab http://www.selfishcrab.com/2010/03/03/socialnet/ Apparently, there is something about my friendship that causes diaspora. Or is that just the late twenty-somethings talking.

Ascending Col de Torrent by selfish crab.

I am trying to do one day per week.

One acquaintance (I disclaim friendship explicitly here) recently told a story about corresponding with a young gentleman by telephone, twice a week, for over 8 months, as coordinated by their parents. In his pictures, he seemed “hot”. But yet within five minutes of their first meeting, she knew “he was a dud.” His indictment? When asked his favorite ice cream, he replied, plainly, “vanilla.” My friends cackle in commiseration when they tell this story.

One friend, when rebuked by her parents for being too picky and not openminded enough, upon rejecting men by their bushels based on their profile pic, replied, “Don’t you want the best for me? You don’t want me to settle, do you?”

This concept of Settling, and the extreme fear of it, is utterly toxic. Rather than being contrarian and saying that you, yes you, should be happy with settling, I posit that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SETTLING, and therefore, put aside your spindler nightmares and retire your old maid fantasies. Are expectations of a mate required to be reasonable? If not, then let me inform you that my soulmate is a former Victoria Secret model, who gave it up not because of her love of food– no, her body is like that naturally– but rather, so that she could finish her PhD degree in nuclear engineering, who does the Times crossword in ink, who curses in Cantonese, who is quietly filthy rich. Anything less than that would be settling.

Modern romance sometimes reminds me of a lukewarm Apple product launch. There’s a checklist that’s never complete (Screen is too small, not enough space, no flash support, no multitasking / He’s not tall enough, not cute, isnt my ethnicity, there’s no “wow” factor). It’s all the same problem. Unjustifiable expectations. Love is simply over hyped.

[this post didn't come out nearly as well as i thought it would; maybe next year will bring the definitive valentine's day post.]

“Michael, Michael, do you know SQL?”.

Blank stare.

“You know, databases. SQL, right?”.

Long silence, because I hadn’t mentally prepared for this scenario.

“No? SQL. You haven’t learned SQL yet? S-Q-L. Like MySQL.”

Filling time with an awkward grin.

“Not yet? Don’t you go to school now? I thought you went to some camp for this.”

Partner overhears, intervenes: “hm, no probably doesn’t know that.”

“Oh okay it’s just that I found out our firm website has an SQL injection vulnerability and I thought if you wanted to later we could draft a malformed query to see what can happen maybe cause some hijinks or something yknow if you werent busy. Hey it’s cool no big deal okay gotta get back to go back to work hey slap me five wait what yeah naw dude.”

And so it stands, in ascending order of awkward interactions:

5. Waitresses
4. Middle aged co-workers
3. Small children
2. Children of middle-aged co-workers
1. Animals; pets

Day 7 was one of my favorite days of the hike. Some choice photograph and videos here.

IMG_1178 by selfish crab.

I went to Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, Canada. And snowboarded my heart out. And took a few photos and videos.