AN EXPERIMENTAL LIFE
For those who don't know, FSBO = For Sale By Owner. I've accomplished a lot in life by simply looking at who else is doing it and thinking, "if they can, I know I can". And if that's not enough encouragement, I like Charles Morse's maxim, "What one man can do, another man can do." I'm not talking about most FSBO sellers but about real estate agents, because I tend to professionalize the things I … [Read more...]
The general Protestantism of the culture (whether you're atheist or whatever, you're still essentially Protestant if you drink deep of it) is perhaps nowhere more visible than in its marketing: At Valspar, we believe there is power in color. I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities... (the President) I believe we're all equal... Belief, statements of belief, belief systems are … [Read more...]
Today on NPR, they read Anne Boleyn's last letter to Henry VIII, on the anniversary of her arrest. I think if I had been Henry's successor, and were I a Western Christian, I would have first restored the Church to Rome, and then ordered Henry's body exhumed, beheaded, burned, and the ashes cast into the sea. And lastly, I would have asked the rightful Patriarch in the Church of Rome to pronounce … [Read more...]
PART ONE: ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY I was looking at Celtic armor work tonight: Parade Helmet 350BC, Gold Torque 400BC, Waterloo Helmet 100BC (would originally have been golden w. red glass studs) and I remembered a conversation with a colleague last year or so on ancient machinery and ship sizes. Here are a few of those items: The Nemi Ships, The Antikythera Mechanism, Hero's steam and wind … [Read more...]
In effect, I've ditched the hard drive. There's still a drive to run an operating system and some software that hasn't yet graduated to the cloud, and still some local copies of temporary/transitional graphic files but, with a few nominal exceptions, there's really nothing on the hard drive I can't afford to have wiped out or destroyed. Documents are in Google Docs. Frequently accessed code is … [Read more...]
Revisiting an old hymn from my Anglican days, "Be Thou My Vision", I find it full of depth and meaning. But I realized that it uses some of the special language that grow from all religions, and that all cultures, tribes, and lovers develop, and it won't mean much to a lot of people. I'm fine with that. It's not for them, it's for us. But as I go through the coffee shop today, I hear the continual … [Read more...]
I was thinking tonight about several things I completed recently, and how they keep making life better, and mentally I made a list which I then expanded to include the last 15 years or so, which is a rate of about one new rule per year. In no particular order: EXPERIENCE: Live in the world, not the Midwest. Spend a year somewhere, living a daily, ordinary non-tourist life. Wherever you are … [Read more...]
A writer's job is to tell the truth. It may be murky, slightly off the mark, or distorted, but it's still the truth. You can tell when it happens because nearly everyone breathes a bit of relief, as though something pent up and trapped has been let go. A joke about pedophile Roman Catholic priests is an admixture of truth and cynicism, truth and dishonesty. The collective breathe easier, … [Read more...]
It's not perfect, but for a first time doing a replacement, it's not bad. This one was damaged by the handyman that replaced the adjacent tile, so decided to do it myself. Score the grout, carefully punch it through, break the tile along the damaged part, dig it out clean, then set the new tile like normal. Experiment: Success … [Read more...]
I think it's a regional disease. Even people with skin tones and facial features that indicate their parents or grandparents definitely weren't born in the Midwest sound just like everyone else. Constantly doling out approval or disapproval based on lifestyle. "She buys all this stuff that..." and "She just lets him do whatever he..." and "She actually likes that kind of sex. She likes..." Farking … [Read more...]
Stop it! Stop naming your kids Ashley and Amber. There are enough of them already. It's not cool - it's redundant. It's not like they're Apostles or something. What, do you really want to keep portraying girls as interchangeable? I've got a "don't cry" Susie, and she's got a "bed wetting" Amy, and they've got both the Amber and the Ashley. Stop it. They're not dolls. It's elitist, but I agree with … [Read more...]
I don't take the census of what people think where I live about koran burning. I fully expect to hear "Awl bern one them KO-rans rat now." But I've tried to think of what one could do to fundamentalist neoconservatism that would have the same impact. Not because I'd advocate it - that would make me an idiot as well. But because if you needed to convey how it would feel to people who possess no … [Read more...]
There are three historical certainties - all of them negative. 1) Jesus did not found a religion of fundamentalist evangelicals nor ever suggest such a thing. 2) History is not a blank where nothing meaningful happened from St. Constantine to Martin Luther. 3) Neoconservatives had nothing to do with the founding of the United States of America or, as they contrive it, "America", let alone the … [Read more...]
I was at dinner the other night, and a woman at the table behind me was saying, "I get tired of being told we have to sugar coat our history so as not to offend some group." Add to this a way of talking that probably couldn't tell you in what century the French Revolution occurred. I think that pretty much says it all - who she thinks "we/our" is. Who she thinks "some group" is. And what she … [Read more...]
Point One: I think David E. Kelley's tongue-in-cheek legal (and educational) dramas (like Boston Legal & Boston Public) set the same brilliant standard that John Hughes did with the teen dramedy (Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink). Hughes seemed to make real Disneyfied crap after Home Alone 2. I've been pursuing the legal drama thing hard … [Read more...]