Facing your lesser failures.

Tuesday’s blog post was a heavy one for me.  There was some deep self-examination and reflection that went into that lengthy entry, and I’m proud of it.  But I can’t stay down for long, so I want to lighten things up a bit to finish off this week’s blog entries.  If Tuesday’s blog was an examination of some of my major character flaws, here are some lighter flaws of mine that I kinda-sorta need to work on:

I yell at video games.  Like, really yell.  This one has plagued me for years and I’ve gotten significantly better at it (mostly because I don’t want to wake up my toddler), but when I was a younger man I let my nerd-rage bellow out when things didn’t go my way in a game.  I could argue that I was venting negativity and bad feelings in a manner that caused harm to no one, but if I’m being honest I was just a grown man yelling at pixels.

I talk constantly.  My friends, my family, and anyone who’s come to see me at a convention will tell you that I have been “blessed” with the gift of gab.  I can’t give a brief answer.  I feel the need to elaborate, or explain my point, or add an anecdote or three whenever I open my mouth.  If you’ve watched any of our monthly vlog videos, you’ll see it’s a “blessing” that both Garth and I share.

I swear.  A lot.  I don’t even know I’m doing it.  It’s like linguistic seasoning for me.  I really need to work on my potty-mouth as my son gets older.  My wife has told me that she will, in fact, kill me if our son adds curse words to his vocabulary thanks to me.

I slap inanimate objects when I get frustrated.  Not punch.  Slap.  It’s a weird habit I’ve developed as a result of trying to keep my yelling (see above) under control.  Walls and tables are the most common targets of my aggravated temper-tantrums.  I tried slapping the couch once, but my hand bounced back too far and I almost hit myself in the face.

I’m sure there are more flaws and shortcomings I forgot (or neglected) to list, but these are the ones of a lighter nature that I believe will do no real harm to anyone if they go untreated.  Except for the swearing.  I really don’t want my wife to kill me… but I must admit that I find swearing toddlers funny as hell.