June Status Updates

6/25/12: My life thus far has been composed of a series of violent growth spurts punctuated by moments of sleepy over-confidence.

6/23/12: I was going to write 'my body is trying to sabotage me', but then I realized I--as a materialist--can't say that. I would have to say 'I am trying to sabotage me', which sounds much more alarming.

6/21/12: My favorite parts of a project are the beginning and end. It's fun to create something, and it's fun to receive the payoff at the end. There's an anxiety in the middle though: What if this fails? Do you really know what you're doing? If someone dies because of this, will your insurance cover it? I'm really starting to think that's an important part of it though. It would be hard to enjoy the beginning and ending part if it weren't for the anxious middle.

6/20/12: I just saw my first anti-Romney ad. The most striking thing about it was that none of the photos they showed of Romney were bad. Usually the opposition tries to find the most unflattering images of their opponent that they can find, but Romney looks like a soap opera leading man in every one.

6/20/12: Oh, the humanity: I found a 'Big Texas Cookie' in my office desk. It is wrapped, but it doesn't have an expiration date on it. I vaguely remember picking it up at a staff meeting around 5 or 6 months ago. I'm thinking about eating it...how will this end?

6/19/12: Pearl Jam's 'Vitalogy' is the greatest mainstream rock album to come out in the 90's.

6/19/12: "In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt

6/18/12: I wish Ryan Kennebeck wasn't dead. I loved him. I think he would have been great in his 30's.

6/16/12: I wonder what it would be like to be normal.

6/15/12: Just had the uncomfortable and somewhat surreal experience of explaining to my oldest two sons why one of them is circumcized while his two younger brothers aren't. To hear the words 'because in the bible, god asked Abraham to cut part of his son's penis off to prove his dedication to him' come out of your mouth--and to see the look of stupified horror on the faces of your children--when explaining why you decided to subject one of them to a non-essential surgical procedure, is unnerving.

6/15/12: Spencer, Jack, and I watched 'The Grey' last night. Wonderful, inspirational movie. I'm adding Liam Neeson's character to my growing roster of atheist movie heroes.

6/14/12: someone wrote 'RAP MUSIC' on the tube slide at the playground with a big black permanent marker.

6/13/12: yesterday I took little Spencer to work with me, and he sat through the staff meeting I presided over. Just now, he walked into his bedroom--where Jack and I were playing table hockey--and read a draft of his next 'team meeting' to us from a green composition book he was carrying. He acknowledged that they hadn't been making as many comic books as they had planned, but reassured his team that he had a plan to order more supplies.

6/11/12: There's a man screaming into a bullhorn about Jesus across the street. He seems to be enjoying himself.

6/9/12: "No interesting project can be embarked on without fear. I shall be scared to death half the time." ~ frank chichester

6/9/12: I took Jack to the mall today to spend his birthday money (he bought a cool hat, a dr. Who shirt, and an Adventure Time sword), and there was a man in his late fifties wearing khaki shorts and a green polo shirt sitting on a bench. A teenage girl (maybe 18 or 19) wearing a loose, bohemian style blouse and a very short skirt walked past him. He looked at her with a very sad, hungry, longing expression. Clearly, he felt like he had missed some opportunities in his youth.

6/8/12: I think the movie versions of The Watchmen and V for Vendetta are both better than the comic book versions.

6/7/12: "So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life...and, just as a bonus, for some reason your zipper will always be down, especially when you are speaking to large groups, even if you're pretty sure you zipped the damned thing back up the last time you used it." - Genesis 3:14

6/4/12: Sometimes I think I'm in the mood to listen to intense metal music, but after about two or three songs I'm like, 'jeez, what's this guy so upset about?', and then I switch back to my regular snotty art rock.

6/4/12: Langston just sat absolutely still while I pulled a tremendous splinter from the heel of his foot with a pair of tweezers ('tremendous' may not be the right word here: lots of things look tremendous compared to a 1 year old's heel). I expected some pushback; at least a little crying. Instead, he was pretty interested in the whole procedure, and he gave me a hug when I handed him the splinter (which was basically the size of a table leg). I have some cool little people in my life.

6/3/12: Just because I am a nerd, I present my top 5 albums of all time:

1) Crash Test Dummies: A Worm's Life

2) Frank Black & The Catholics: Dog In Sand

3) Pulp: This Is Hardcore

4) The Bad Plus: These Are The Vistas

5) Hawksley Workman: For Him & The Girls

Please buy all of these albums immediately if you do not already own them.

6/2/12: I just got myself trapped in a stereotypical sitcom-husband situation: I was telling my wife about a girl someone tried to hook me up with in high school in spite of the fact that 'she was way too beautiful for me'. My attempts to try to walk back that statement (and the implication that someone who would date me wouldn't necessarily be less than beautiful) only dug the hole deeper. The only thing lacking was the laugh track.

6/1/12: cool, drizzly weather like this nourishes my dark little soul. This is a good day to listen to Morrissey at a high volume while cleaning the house with all the windows open.