I've decided that I need to start qualifying my conversations with a scale. I will call it The Richmond Scale.

Because the plain fact is, life is not awesome. But it's not bad. What I'm doing with myself is really a great move for my career. It's kind of like a year of ... oh, say, dentalwork. Or a strict diet. It is not pleasant. But it's the right thing to do.

In light of that, things may not actually be awesome for the rest of the year. So when my friends and family ask me how I've been or how my weekend was, my first inclination is to answer them on the Columbus Scale: I'm away from my best friends and all of my family. Nobody here is nearly as goofy and bizarre as I want to be. I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. So if I look at my weekend with that perspective, I'm naturally going to answer the inquirers, "my weekend sucked. my life sucks." But that's not really true.

Thus, I developed the Richmond Scale. When I look at my weekend using this new, improved scale, I take into consideration that I'm just plain not going to have the lifestyle I spent 23 years cultivating in Columbus. Looking at my weekend under the Richmond Scale, I must say I had a rather good one. I spent time with new friends. The weather was quite nice. I got my Mystery Science Theater 3000 volume 6 in the mail (finally!). Those things are quite satisfactory.

The end.