Premo Sculpey is $0.77 a block, but I don't need any.

It is a sad state of affairs people. This is an opportunity that doesn't come around often, and I would like nothing more than to walk out of Michaels with $40 in clay. Premo usually runs more than twice this price. But alas, I cannot force myself to get more than three blocks I actually can use. I have stocked up in the past, and have enough for now. Since I am trying to be good with money, and already have my eye on a couple of graphics books in excess of $50 a piece, I shall have to hold off.

Ah yes. Here I am, four years out of school and lusting over what are essentially text books. Not that I recall lusting over any of my textbooks while I was in school. My wife doesn't get it. Why would I want a boring book about computer programming to read for FUN. She would understand if I needed it for work (I bought one of those recently), but I will read this for fun. In fact it has indirect work applications, but still, even if it didn't, I would still want it and read it for fun.

This disconnect in mindsets has caused some consternation. If I ask a question of you in the vein of "Why does/did that happen?" Chances are, I want to really understand. I hate not understanding something. Sometimes I'm too lazy to actually DO anything about it, but I still hate it. So, if she or a member of her family (she is particularly sensitive about them, well they are her family) asks me why about something. Well, I tend to start from the beginning and explain it. From my experiences, when people have asked me a question and wanted a full answer, I would often labor on trying to explain it (specifically about computers) to the frustration of both of us, because I was working under the impression that they knew something fundamental that I took for granted. (There are a lot of things I find I take for granted that I shouldn't)

So to stave this off, I explain from the ground up unless I know my audience is knowledgeble. This works well with computers, because most people don't have any more idea about how their computer works than I do about my car. In fact, most people regard them as basically magical devices. You turn them on, they work, or don't, and you put up with quirks, because the only thing worse is dealing with the Computer Wizards (see, we're even referred to as Wizards). And besides, that whole field of computer magic is obviously unstable or they wouldn't all have these problems. When my wife asks me how my day at work is, and I want to explain some particular issue tha requires some knowledge that I don't believe she has, I'll figure out an everyday example and explain it. Often she didn't care, but in this case, I'm the one who wanted to communicate my day, so she has to deal.

Well, so I treat any request for information that I know the answer to the same way. Ask me why the Aurora Borealis occurs, and why you don't normally see it in Virginia, and I'll confirm that you are familiar with the Earth's magnetic field, and solar flares, maybe touch on the solar wind. Then I'll explain about the Van Allen belts, and magnetic field strength and ions etc. Well, apparently this means I think her family is stupid. I treat them as if they are honestly seeking knowledge, and that if they knew the background information (which they most likely don't because they never took an interest before, which is fine) they would already know the answer. So I start with the background and explain. I specifically don't treat them like someone I feel is incapable of understanding the answer and just say "because it does." Heck, if they ask me, they should know I'm going to answer the question the best I can.

Apparently I'm condescending (and I can see how it could be interpretted that way) and should just answer, "because it does/is". Okay, perhaps they don't want the long version. Perhaps when someone asks me they might just REALLY want to know if the answer is simple or complex. Maybe they just want me to say "That's actually a bit complicated, do you want me to answer it fully, or did you just want to know if there is a simple answer?" And I'll try and do that from now on. But ladies and gentleman, here we have a classic case of a disagreement in a marriage due to the way two different families relate. In my family, when we asked a question like that, we knew my father was going to give us as complete an answer as he could, and so we either didn't ask, or prefaced asking with some statement to indicate we wanted the simple answer.

That is not how she grew up. Neither way is right or wrong, but those differences can cause strife if you don't identify them. But I'm warning you now, that if you ask me why something is, I'm going to do my best to give you as complete an answer as necessary.