big dreams and the wrecking of childhood constructs.

it was cheska's birthday on the 6th. it was good to see the "berks"--the people i'm stuck with for the rest of my life. good for them. even better for me.

on the way home, conversation revolved around the dreams we had when we were children and the things we want to do before we die. may i present my list of short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals:

short-term: get rid of my zits. honestly, who thought i'd hit puberty during my mid-20's? i thought i skipped it altogether. this is what i get for chanting "[i've got] baby skin, baby skin" in our high school cafeteria while my other friends were comparing acne-removal notes.

mid-term: pursue post-grad studies, get a job at google (i'd gladly be their mascot), learn how to sing one song perfectly.

long-term: write something that means something (what? keep writing like that, and you're setting yourself up for failure. what a wonderful display of exposition) and become famous (neil gaiman type of famous). see the world... while seeing the world, i have a to-do list as well:

1. keep asking where the "fifteenth chapel" is while in the sistine chapel.
2. ask if ohana really means family, and if family really means no one gets left behind while in hawaii.
3. write something about sunset over the colorado desert while watching the said sunset.
4. do my rameses-as-voiced-by-ralph-fiennes impersonation ("moses! why can't things be as they were?") while in egypt.
5. ask a random greek what the meaning of life is (while in greece, of course).
6. while in an irish pub, ask an irishman what the pronunciation of "deimne" is.

which brings us to the wrecking of childhood constructs. "deimne" is the name of the main character in the wizard children of finn, a book most of the marcelo cousins have read (it was always lying around the house, waiting for the next kid to pick it up). while we were talking about it, we discovered that none of us said his name the same way.

"DIM-nuh"
"DI-mi-ni" (rhymes with "jiminy")
"daym-ni" (dime-knee)
"di-MEEN" (i was a kid, ok. it looked a lot like "denim" and i took my cue from there).

there's also "majere" in dragonlance. what if they decide to turn it into a movie? how will they say "majere"? i've come across five variants:

"ma-he-re" (like the spanish "mujere")
"MAH-zheer"
"mah-ZHEER"
"MAH-jr"
"mah-juh-RAY"

it's disconcerting when you talk about the same people and disagree on the pronunciation of their names.
nomenclature is potent, just ask rumplestiltskin.

on top of the name game, co-workers recently told me that what i thought was mamon is actually pan de regla. dammit. there go my childhood constructs. at least i still have my childhood dreams
(what a neat tie-in! you saw that coming, didn't you?).