Monthly Archives: January 2013

100 Days

upcomingI’ve been encountering a bit of blog blah recently, and it’s tempting to go on another hiatus until I retire and don’t feel the work pressure and negative energy. But I have a growing backlog — new ideas keep popping up — and I really do enjoy the writing.

Things are returning to normal around here; page hits are finally back to their low numbers. The party has died down considerably, and that lets the host leave the remaining guests so he can whip up some new treats (and maybe open that bottle of wine I’ve been saving).

Speaking of which, I meant to open two bottles this weekend, but life did one of those unexpected detour things. I’ll pour both those articles very soon, but today’s snack catches up on some things.

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Another one lost

rainAnother co-worker lost a battle with cancer this week. This is the second one washed off the sandbar, and the universe is now 2-0 on taking really good, wonderful people long before their time. Throw in unexpected brain aneurysms, and it’s 3-0.

(On the other hand, my mom beating it three times kind of evens the score. Throw in several strokes, and you’re talking about someone who’s pretty good at dodging bullets. Wonder Woman as a Music Teacher and she — literally — sneers at death! She’s just slightly awesome!)

But today raise a toast, shed a tear, tie one on, fly the flag at half-mast, beat the drum, read a poem, howl at the moon or hug a loved one. The fucking dragon won a round this week.

RIP, Sharon. You leave a hole.


Bread Whine

Bread is Good!It happened again last month. My heart is broken, I’ve lost my love and now I have to find a replacement. I’ve been in this position before; the “good ones” are so hard to find. And even when I do find one, the relationship never seems to last.

I will admit that my tastes have evolved over time. It used to be that simple and refined… and white, very white… was my preference.

Actually, it was all I knew. Back then, it was all white. But as I matured, my horizons expanded, and I came to prefer more complexity and a darker coloration. I rarely go with white now — only for rare occasions that insist on it. I’ve learned the beauty of going brown!

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BB #16: New Bubbles

Circuit BrainIt’s been quite a while since the last Brain Bubbles. What can I say, work has been sucking the bubbly out of me these last months. It’s like when all the oxygen is removed from water. No bubbles, and the fish all die. But being, in my own weird fashion, a cynical optimist (or am I a naive pessimist…I can never keep them straight), bubbles still do happen.

It’s also the end of that whole 12 days of Christmas thing. It’s now truly all over, and you can take down the decorations and toss out the tree.

It’s time to move on to the new stuff! Today’s edition of Brain Bubbles looks at some new things…

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Counting Change

counting changeYou know what bugs me? Well, a lot of things bug me, but this post is about something that’s bugged me for a long time. It also concerns a lesson learned about things that bug me. And it’s about why this post is being written in the first place.

Let me start with that last one. (Because it just now happened again!) I have notebooks, Post-It Note collages and scribbled note collections of blog post ideas. But new ones pop up constantly (like the idea I thought of while writing this paragraph). Some of the new ones are so demanding, they shove the patiently waiting ones aside. The backlog is building, yet my time is short. Very aggravating.

Which brings me to the post’s point: my aggravation about counting change.

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Looking Forward

looking forwardDid you feel it? The Earth swung past a certain point in space; there was a little spacetime “bump” as we ran over the notch. Didn’t you feel it?

It’s kind of an important point in the cycle. Lots of people stay up to watch it happen. (Although, I grant you, the whole thing is about 10 days late. Problem is, back in the day it took them a while to recognize what had happened.)

To commemorate the occasion, some will look back and some will look forward. And some will riff on how this is an arbitrary moment in time that doesn’t mean anything at all, really.

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