Apparently I find out what's on my mind by talking to strangers. The season has turned, and I've started running again, round the park at the top of the hill. This means that I run into strangers that, in earlier days of the world, I'd already be acquainted with - people who live less than a mile away and have for decades. Many of them have dogs ( Read more... )

The most recent thing to seriously jab at my self-image was my father telling me that I have a "dark" worldview. That's tremendously at odds with my view of myself. I discount the view a bit because it came during a discussion about health insurance, and I'm not shy about criticizing the Current Arrangement. Outside the context of that ( Read more... )

I feel great about today. Here's how my day went ( Read more... )

I dropped by my folks' place for dinner on Memorial Day. It was pretty awesome. When I'm on my own, sadly, I tend to do more "prepare food" than "cooking" - the distinction being that in the first case, I'm basically performing several variations on "boil water and put something in it" than actually going from fresh ingredients and combining them ( Read more... )

• A new scarf! Awesome. A water-filter pitcher: necessary. It's a lean year for most of us. Gifts are scarce - and I feel like I'm derelict in social responsibility because my moth-walleted self couldn't afford to do anything at all for gifts. I ought to pull together to write some little fluffy story for a particular nephew. I definitely feel ( Read more... )

Things I've learned recently from getting back on my bike:

• I'm not as out-of-shape as I thought. I just need to eat and rest properly; when given that I can push pedals all day.
• I spent 20 miles riding with my parents, both of whom are in much better shape than I am - so when I say "with," I mean "behind." The view didn't change much - it reminded ( Read more... )

My grandmother is currently in the hospital. She had a surgery on Thursday for a cochlear implant and some complications developed while she was with her son's family recovering.

She's out of the ICU now, and I'm told she's recovering.  My mum - her daughter - flew down to Coronado straightaway to see her when she heard.

One of the problems that ( Read more... )

I'm 25 next January, and a quarter-century suddenly seems a long time.  I've said "fucking kids these days!" without irony.  I started getting conscious of politics about ten years ago: my first serious memories are of the Clinton-Bush election in '92.  Sometimes I feel old.

My mother is 49 this October.  She gets pop culture references mixed up ( Read more... )

As I hear more and more friends' life stories, I appreciate my parents more and more.  My mother is hugely responsible for me being me, from writing in-character in a journal of mine when I was six (she did it when I was asleep) to homeschooling me (and serving on the board of the secular homeschooling association in the process).  She was a full- ( Read more... )

A quick pair of tales from the traditional wellspring, dealing with Rich and Poor. Rich and Poor have existed for most of human history, so it's always interesting to see how they show up in the mythology. These aren't particularly old ones (both are, if I remember right, from Ashkenazic folktales), but they have interesting messages.
The plump, ( Read more... )