Boondoggle

Ex-wife went down for an interview about 3 hours south of here. If she gets it, I won't be seeing the kids through the week like I do, which is depressing me a bit (and if she doesn't get this one, she'll keep trying. The new job puts her significantly closer to her boyfriend's home. gag!) The kids don't know the details of the where of her interview. I really don't want to leave this job, but I don't want to miss out on my kids' lives, either. Damn.

Elsewise, I now have a small glass bottle with a bit of sulfur in it sitting on my desk. It's a combination of an object lesson from our dean and a bit of perversity on my part. Incidentally, does anyone know if inhaling sulfur is bad for you?

I've been reading, but I can't remember what at the moment (sulfur? nah, just stress.)

I hope y'all are doing well out there in the RealWorld!

expectations

forty plus hours of meetings and desk work,
and I'm expected to know all the latest in
theology,
philosophy,
technology,
cataloging,
current events,
current literature,
and
anything else
anyone might want me to know

no time for hands-on with the technology, but I'm expected to
troubleshoot,
configure,
recommend,
step-in,
and explain why things are the way they are--
don't spend time with it,
but be responsible for it;
let IT handle it,
except when they can't act as quickly
(or as psychically)
as we'd like;
remind me
(without words)
that I'm a failure for not being able to fly with it

my house is a mess
(and my apartment's none too tidy, either)
my health report has my real age about six years
older
than my birth certificate
six years
closer to dying, closer to crying

my house is haunted
but the ghosts are all gone;
the spirits,
the faeries,
the gremlins,
the dryads,
the elves
...all gone
what do you call a haunted house
that's no longer haunted?

where again is that living water
where is that bread
that wine
that view of the world where
everything
just fits?

Hair Thair Be Dragons

On a whim I got my haircut over lunch today. The young lady asked "how short do you want it?" I thought for a second and said "Well, not buzzed. Something like an insurance agent or a Republican." So now my shadow no longer has cool hair that whips in the wind. Oh well (it grows back. right?!?)

Talking to the hair cutter, I discover she's a sci-fi/fantasy person working on a screenplay for a fantasy tale about dragons. Here, in Lincoln. Go figure.

OK, Winter, I think this post is MORE boring than yours was! ;-)

Uncle Bill's Bad Dog

Just Another Manic Monday

On the road to Bloomington this weekend I saw a red-tailed hawk perched on a speed limit sign on my side of the road. Hours later on the return trip I saw what appeared to be the same hawk again on my side of the road (roughly the same stretch of interstate). I guess I'm pre-scientific enough to take that as a good omen. At the very least it made me smile.

You Suck. No, not you personally. You Suck: A Love Story is the title of Chris Moore's latest novel, a sequel to Blood Sucking Fiends: A Love Story. No, I haven't read the new one yet, but Real Soon Now.

On the reading front, I'm waiting for my son to deliver book two of A Series of Unfortunate Events into my hand. I finished Moore's Coyote Blue (which just leaves Fluke and You Suck to read and I'll have read all of his novels!) I'm skimming a book on C# published by Microsoft Press (the first MS Press book I've ever read, I think), and I'm about two-thirds through the Blamires book.

I made another trip to the local used bookstore that's closing and picked up a few more items (yes, Dodo, a couple of them made it into your box!) One crazy thing I picked up was a book on assembly language for the Commodore 64. Good times, 8-bit computing. I'll probably never actually use the book, but the collector gene kicked in.

A friend tossed me the discs for the first two seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Not a show I'd recommend to everyone, but it has its laugh outloud moments. Enough folks have talked to me about House that I'm feeling compelled to start renting the first season of it (and I suppose I should take the plunge and start watching Numb3rs).

Words are cool. We've talked in this blog circle about words before. I wonder why certain words appeal to certain people. For instance, I like the word "brimstone." I couldn't tell you why, and I doubt that it's a universally appealing word, but I like it.

Well, obviously I'm just rambling, so I'll let you get back to your lives. Thanks for stopping by!

Interesting Thought

I was reading while eating my biscuits and gravy this morning and came across a sentence that made me stop and think:

"Your beliefs, as a Christian, are not yours in the sense that you have rights over them, either to tamper with them or throw them away." --Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind

I don't get to define what being a Christian means ("well, this is what being a Christian means to me..." NOT!) Christianity (Christ) defines me, or else I'm just another heretic. Of course there is an element of subjectivity and interpretation, but there is also a reality outside of me (or, more to the point, a Reality). I wonder how much of who I am is me baptizing what I want to be rather than truly wrestling with what a real God wants me to be.

The Fruit of My Aging

The older I get the more I come to believe that:

• I don't know hardly anything
• grace is the most valuable "thing" there is
• I am no better than the worst criminal
• no one will ever know how old the universe is
• loneliness sucks
• life is difficult, and there aren't always ways to "fix" the difficulties
• there is a real universe out there, even if we only know it through the interface of our individual thoughts, feelings, and sensations
• there's too much to read (even if no one ever wrote another word again)
  
• there's too much noise (in the world and in my soul)
• pencil and paper bring a type of happiness that I can't get with a computer
• much of what I believe may well be wrong
  

Not with a Bang, But a Wimper

Well, maybe this isn't the end of this blog, but it sure has seemed slooooooooow (for the record, I hate repeating vowels to make some kind of emphasis. The word should be 'slow' ...I'm a moron). 2007, the year I tried to blog but everything came out stupid.

This may be partly attributable to the constant sharp pain stretching from my elbow to my knuckles on my right hand. I'm guessing an RSI of some sort. It hurts all the time, no matter what I do. Any suggestions? (Beside the obvious: go see my doctor).

What, It's the New Year Already?!?

Those who are the self-appointed gatekeepers of the blogverse point out that "no one cares what you had for dinner" by which, of course, they mean that you shouldn't post about the crappy little mundanities that make up the bulk of your life. To which I say, "foo!" Not every post can be a deep commentary on some wayward aspect of our existence in this vast cosmos. And besides, I *like* hearing what's going on in my friends' lives. Yea, verily, even what they're eating these days :-) So, while I won't describe my own current culinary adventures, I *will* provide a brief recap of my Christmas break.

Working in academia has some advantages (great salary not being one of them), such as Christmas break. From December 22 through January 1 I was off work! The best part wad that during that entire time I had my kids (except for two nights and one day when they were at their mom's). That's really enough to say: it was a good break :-)

I finished reading The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor's reworking of the Alice in Wonderland material. The writing is not literary quality, and I've read a couple of negative reviews, but, overall, I liked it. Give me a good Alice story any day. Admittedly, there were things I didn't like about it (like dissing on Lewis Carroll) and some things were corny (like the AD52, automatic dealer, shooting 52 razor sharp cards a second!) Hatter Madigan, the queen's bodyguard and "original" of the Mad Hatter, was my favorite character (and, I'm guessing, most everyone else's as well... thus the spin-off comic book series Hatter M, eh?) If you like fantasy, the book is worth a quick read, but maybe not worth you're $18 (unless you're kind of a freak collector of Lewis Carroll related stuff... not that I know anybody like that!)

Santa delivered the kids' goods to my place this year. Everyone was happy and got way too much Stuff. My six-year-old daughter and I played soccer one afternoon. Neither of us have a clue how to play, but we had great fun anyway. Her mom had gotten her a soccer ball for Christmas, and then sent it to my place to stay. Same for the chem set she got for my son. It's cool, though: I colored my hands blue with a splash of a "minor skin irritant." I miss the glass test tubes and alcohol lamps of my childhood chemistry set. These new things are too safe for mad science. For the record, my daughter beat me 10-4 and is anxiously awaiting a rematch to trounce me again.

My son finished the Lemony Snickett books and is insistent I read them, so... it looks like I know my next fiction reads. I've also picked up Rucker's latest collection which I'm eager to get started.

Moviewise, I've re-watched movies the kids wanted to see: The Tenth Kingdom and The Little Vampire among the better titles. We also watched Superman Returns (I know, it was about time!) and last night I watched a Jason Lee movie I'd never heard of called Drop Dead Sexy, which was weird and funny and twisted and borderline necrophiliac (all of which could be said of The Corpse Bride, even though the movies have nothing in common). I've had a few people tell me to get to a theater and see The Nativity. Anyone out there seen it?

Well, it's good to be back online. Here's to 2007, may you find more wonder and delight and joy than you ever dreamed possible!