I was exposed to Shakespeare in high school. We read several of his plays in various English classes. I took to it about the same as most high school kids. That is, I found it opaque and dull (like “classical” music). The first glimmer of the magic and wonder of Shakespeare came only when I became involved in staging some of his plays in drama class.
When I was a sophomore, I helped stage — and acted in — our high school drama group’s presentation of Hamlet (one of his greatest works). I’ve written about my high school drama teacher; he was a professional theatre person who’d gone into teaching (while waiting for his big break in Hollywood). Our production of Hamlet received rave reviews from local papers. “Better than most college productions,” they said!
As a direct consequence of that production, Hamlet is my favorite play!
Continue reading
8 Comments | tags: English, Hamlet, humor, language, masonite, Shakespeare, word play, words | posted in From My Collection, Writing
Today, July 4th, is Independence Day in the USA. For most this is a wonderful summer holiday involving picnics and fireworks. As with Christmas, the real meaning behind the day may be distant or lost. And I’m not here today to write about the True Meaning of Independence Day (United States). For the record, we adopted a rather important historical document 237 years ago today. If you live here and can read, you’re expected to know all about it.
It so happens that today is — or rather would have been — my 15th wedding anniversary (crystal). A decade-and-a-half ago, on a paddle wheel river boat, I got married. There was cake and fireworks.
It also so happens that today marks this blog’s two-year anniversary (cotton).
Continue reading
17 Comments | tags: Anniversary, cake, celebrate, die spammers, Douglas Adams, fireworks, Followers, friends, July 4, Marriage, Wedding | posted in Life, The Interweb, Writing
I misspent my younger days in the warm climes of Southern California. In particular, I went to high school and college there. I moved to the Midwest about seven years after college. For many, college was the end of anything resembling much in the way of time to call their own. I have many fond memories of idle times in perfect weather!
People who know me know I have a pretty intense work ethic. They also know I have a pretty intense party ethic. (Truth is I’m just intense. Period. Work hard; play hard; relax hard.) This past week — my first week into retirement — I’ve been relaxing hard.
And the weather has been just glorious this week. So far, retirement is aces!
Continue reading
1 Comment | tags: algebra, backgammon, humor, math humor, peach daiquiri, pi, retirement, weather | posted in From My Collection, Life, Math
The old grindstone!
It has been creating delightful occasions of frisson. After putting in a full work week, one enjoys the weekend, a bit of time off before returning to work. Except that this weekend lasts forever. This is not time off before returning to the grindstone, because that grindstone no longer hangs around my neck!
I promise to stop going on (and on and on) about this Real Soon Now. Quite a number of friends have expressed their jealousy (in mild jest, I hope). Just keep in mind that I jumped ship pretty early pension-wise, so how well this works out for me remains to be seen.
And you’ll have to bear with me if I blather on about work (or retirement) a bit longer. It’s a pretty major life change!
Continue reading
5 Comments | tags: Bob Marley, frisson, grindstone, Marriage, relationships, retirement, Soylent Green, work, yardsticks | posted in Life
A few hours ago I walked out of work for the last time. (Actually, it’s likely I’ll visit again, which of course involves both walking in and out, but that will be as retiree come back to visit. (Or possibly a consultant come back to save their ass, but that seems somewhat unlikely on several counts.)) Yet in the poetic sense, it was the last time.
It wasn’t quite as weird as one might think. I’ve been leaving in my head and heart for a while. Today was more like a wheel that’s been slowing down finally coming to a stop. A final turn. Answering one last email, and then out the door.
Today marked the end of an era.
Continue reading
25 Comments | tags: no questions, retirement, sleep, work, Wrigley Field | posted in Life
Only four more days remain of my career at The Company! It’s hard to believe (and not a little weird). The only thing in my life that’s lasted longer than this career is my life itself. I’ve never lived in one place anywhere near that long (and my romantic relationships have all been famously short).
This week we sort of edged part of the data chain into production this past week. Supposedly the rest is being pushed there this weekend. I’ve got four days to test in production, wrap up a career, and then I walk out the door!
As you might imagine, my mind is really not in the blogsphere right now!
Continue reading
10 Comments | tags: bosses, retirement, work | posted in Life
After a seemingly endless succession of gloomy, cloudy, drizzly days, we’ve managed to pull off a couple of blue-sky, bright sunny days! Not in a row, mind you, but Friday was beautiful, and today is downright glorious! Sunday is truly earning its name today!
The Minnesota Twins, bless their hearts, even pulled off a win against the Detroit Tigers yesterday (hoping for another today). That gives them a win-loss record of 30-35, only five games below the desired .500 mark. (It’s a no-go mojo for a team to play below .500 or a batter to hit below .200 (in infamous “Mendoza Line“).)
On a day like today one can’t help but to think about oranges.
Continue reading
11 Comments | tags: Batman, batmobile, batphone, Hamlet, humor, June, knock knock, orange, oranges, poetry, round fruit, silly | posted in Brain Bubble, Writing
Thursday and Friday of this past week were days 10 and 9 in [big booming voice] The Countdown to Retirement. I’m taking Mondays off in June (no more Monday mornings!), so I have two four-day weeks remaining in my 33-year career at The Company.
And it’s a good thing I decided to stay through June. The project I’ve been working on since last September still hasn’t hit production (through, I stress, absolutely no fault of mine).
This week we finally got to the point of end-to-end testing in the QA environment, and I’m anticipating we’ll start testing in production next week. Talk about taking it down to the wire!
As you might imagine, rather than lazily basking in the last remaining weeks of my career, I’m instead working my ass off!
Continue reading
18 Comments | tags: Bruce Willis, Looper, Mariano Rivera, Minnesota Twins, retirement, work | posted in Baseball, From My Collection, Life, Movies
There is such a thing as a shaggy dog story. It’s a story that winds on for as long as the teller can spin it. Eventually, as the audience gets ever more restless, the “joke” ends with the most banal and trivial of non-punchlines. The longer the telling, the more pointless must be the punchline.
Old dogs notoriously can’t be taught new tricks, but perhaps that’s because they’ve learned the tricks they care to learn and aren’t interested in jumping through new hoops.
This little tale is not a shaggy dog story, but about wise old dogs…
Continue reading
8 Comments | tags: dogs, German Sheperd, humor, jokes, panther, squirrel | posted in From My Collection
You may remember that early this year I said you should be thinking about elephants. I hope you have all been working on your assignments, because there are some important metaphorical discussions ahead concerning elephants.
And some jokes. Do you know why elephants are wrinkled? Because they’re very difficult to iron. And whatever do you do with an elephant with three balls? Walk him and pitch to the giraffe. [bah-rump-bump] (One pity about blogging… A line that bad really demands a rimshot, or other funny sound effect, for proper punctuation.)
Here’s another little gem from my collection. Just love a good punch line!
Continue reading
30 Comments | tags: elephants, humor, stories, telephones | posted in From My Collection
Logos con carne 