I literally don't remember when I first met tugrik; it's been at least 15 years now, and probably closer to 20. It says a lot about him (and a bit about me, I suppose) that in a lot of ways, it really doesn't stand out for me; he's just Been There, consistently, since right around when I first moved to California, even if he hadn't quite figured out yet that he was a Californian himself. :-)

And that's the thing: he's always been there. tugrik has a knack for finding ways to contribute, to help fill in other people's needs, and to do whatever needs to be done to turn folks' projects into a reality — including his own, of course. And somehow he manages to do it without calling attention to the fact that he's doing it. It's not a false modesty, there's no 'awww-shucks' about it; it's just Who He Is, it's his essential nature, and so I think he never really stops to think about it.

And yet — keeping FurryMUCK running smoothly (and have no doubts that it has run smoothly; things have been much better at furry.com/Belfry than at any of our previous sites, by far) for the last 10+ years has really been among the least of his accomplishments. You may or may not remember, but he's a published author; builds things like satellite trackers for fun; randomly helps out building things like Gristleizers for friends... and so on. When Team Grey Goo ran our puzzle event this spring, it wouldn't have been nearly so impressive without his assistance; even with deadlines being unexpectedly short and with source material shifting regularly under him, he still managed to turn in awesome work in plenty of time, and the physical puzzle he manufactured for us was one of the event's highlights with everyone. And then he runs photography for pretty much every con he has a chance to, creates prints (and much more complicated media, for that matter) for artists and other creatives just to give their work its best showing... takes care of sick cats... and this is STILL all just the tip of the iceberg (seriously -- I've edited this post three times now to add more). I'm flatly agog at just how much he gets done, how much he does, and how effortlessly he seems to do it all. He's not exactly an inspiration — I can hardly even imagine aspiring to the sheer volume of projects that he manages to tackle — but in a lot of ways, he's a role model, a shining example of just how much can be accomplished by the truly determined, and what a little effort (okay, a lot of effort) can get you.

And he doesn't get to hear how awesome he is nearly often enough.

A wonderful, happy (and not yet belated!) birthday to tugrik.

Hey, Seattle-area folks!

I'm planning to go to the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibition at the EMP tomorrow.

Anyone want to come along?

I'm planning to meet up with folks at Center House between 2 and 3, and head into the EMP at 3:00. The museum will be open till 7, so that should be plenty of time to see the exhibit.

Who's interested?

Recent events have made me think about the whole idea of lying and the people who find it very easy to do. So I just thought I'd post a general commentary about the concept in general.

I have always been pretty strict about always telling the truth, and had a really difficult time lying to anyone. I was so compulsively truthful that one time when when I was working at a movie theater as a kid and was asked if people were stealing candy I couldn't deny it (and one person reading this might remember that incident;). I didn't name any names at least). I'm a little better than that now, but I still very strongly believe in honesty being the best policy and do NOT like to lie to people (and hate when people lie to me). I also tend to assume that other people are being honest with me, which makes it even worse if someone proves me wrong, since that trust has been broken.

And really why do people do it? I guess some people start with little white lies but sometimes lies pile on top of each other and the next thing you know you're lying to everyone around you about just about everything. I've known a few people over the years who have taken this to the extreme where I'd consider them compulsive liars, and when it gets to that point people really do know because it gets VERY obvious. And people have a really difficult time trusting people who can lie that easily.

And why should anyone trust someone who lies that easily? If they can lie about one thing what's to stop them from lying about other things? For example, if someone is lying on a resume why should any company trust or hire them? That sort of thing can get you blacklisted in a career. If they're lying to cover up an affair why wouldn't they do the same thing to the one they had the affair with the second someone better comes along? And if they're lying to make a company look in better shape than it really is (which some big companies have tried in the past) once the truth comes out (and it always does) not only will potential investors and clients refuse to do business with that company but it could find itself out of business before it knows it and the people doing the lying could wind up in jail. Look at Enron. And in general, if you find yourself lying to cover up something, maybe you should think about why you're doing that something to begin with. If you're so ashamed of something that you feel the need to cover it up, then maybe you should reconsider whether you should be doing it.

Whether it's business or personal, lying is not a nice thing to do to people, and there are definite consequences if and when the truth comes out. Lying in business could leave you with no income or worse, as mentioned earlier. Lying in personal matters will make your friends have a lot of trouble trusting you, if they can ever trust you again. Long-time friendships can be irretrievably lost over lies, no matter how good the original intentions might have been. It can be difficult or even impossible to forgive people once they've proven themselves to be liars.

So I'm not saying everyone has to 100% say the truth at all times, but people need to watch out for when the lies go way too far.

For a few reasons:

1. They made my LJ look dumb
2. People who want to read them can add me as a twitter friend
3. People who really want to see my twitter updates in LJ can add bostontwitter as an LJ friend

Think I posted this once already, but if you want to read more of my inanities incisive witticisms, I'm much more active on Twitter nowadays.

As a reminder, you won't get my replies if you're not also following their targets, so don't be intimidated by the volume of @-spam on my feed. =)

(and yeah, the Music should probably be "Land of 140 Words".)