Obsessions about OCD

Contact with Blood. I was about twelve years old and in sixth grade at prison block number two, otherwise known as the local intermediate school. The building was square, nearly windowless, and soulless. It was the annual round of sex education, when school teachers round up the children and talk about one of the great [...]

Five Simple Ways to Lift Your Spirits

This weekend we returned to Standard Time—or, as I like to call it, Darkness Savings Time. This is usually a week where I can feel kind of meh, but I have made efforts to get on an earlier schedule, which helps, not to mention a daily dose of Vitamin D. I have some other simple [...]

The miracle that is the free market

I spent the early part of this evening running some errands. First I had to pick up my car from the shop. It needed a few minor (thankfully!) repairs. I got to the shop while the mechanics were still finishing up. While we were waiting, the owner was chatting me up about some musical questions. [...]

Clearly, I would make a bad businessman

One of the worst things you can do for your blog traffic is to disappear for the better part of a month. That’s what I just did. Long story short, work was busy: I spent at least a week preparing for what ended up being a fool’s errand. Then I got a last minute gig [...]

The Ice Cream Diet: An Update

A few weeks ago I explained my new diet, which involved, among running and other things, eating ice cream. After I lost ten pounds, though, I hit a plateau, and the result of this is that ice cream is only part of my day roughly twice a week. I am now running up to 4.5 [...]

Miscellany…

…lest you think I crawled in a hole and died… Speaking of dying in holes, late Saturday night I noticed a strange sound that I couldn’t quite locate. I thought perhaps it was the wind, then I thought maybe it was my refrigerator trying to run unsuccessfully. Finally, I located the sound between the walls [...]

September blues

I’m going to take a few minutes’ break from “shakedown mode,” as one reader of this blog has called it, to talk about ho-hum stuff.  If ramblings aren’t your thing, you may wish to skip this one. I have two jobs, both part-time.  In the summer, they slack off considerably.  (Don’t worry, I’m not a [...]