The Casey's clerk I met last night was planning to travel to Colorado, with her 4 kids and spouse, through the oncoming snowstorm, and into the already established mountain snowpack, for Christmas with the in-laws.
She seemed upbeat, but I would be cancelling.
I'm realizing more and more that I don't have a clue how to relate to teenagers.
I'm realizing more and more that I don't have a clue how to relate to teenagers.
I've spent so long pinning all my hopes on evenings of free time. It's difficult to break free from that. I need to minimize my expectations for what I can do in an evening. All the potential for self actualization does not rest in a single evening. And when you just need downtime, that's what you should be doing. Let your soul be your pilot. And your weariness is real But I also need to get a job.
The dilemma of "having a large, complex soul" that somehow in public manifests as a "thin, glassy trickle." From the Joyce Carol Oates feature in the 11/27 New Yorker. Struck me.
Recently began to use one of the British male Siri voices, and that was a good decision. They're better than the Americans.
My best friends are the librarians
On a side note, I tried to read Lauren Groff. Yes, Obama loved her - along with many others. It didn't click with me. Can't get past the name "Lotto." Lancelot? Give me a break. Who has time for it.
Johnny Marr finding that Gibson L-5 at the guitar shop was my favorite moment from this past months' New Yorkers.
Soccer practice in late November is maybe more tolerable than in mid August. But when it's breezy and about 50, things could feel better. Thank goodness for my midwestern wardrobe.
Do you ever see a random cozy building corner or an overpass and think That's where I would move if I didn't have housing.
There is also something solipsistic about the "laptop performance" concert. Which we also all can relate to.
It is the feat of harnessing a runaway laptop that is the engaging element of a live "laptop music" setting.
Will it be tamed or will it break or go its own way.
Morning pages: People don't understand the quantity of what I do because it is how someone else wants it. Someone else prefers it to be such and such a way.
I can't take the level of destruction happening in Gaza today. There have been 12,000 people killed. Indescribable horror and loss. Just so bad.
This record is growing on me. Used to very much prefer the more stripped down acoustic records - but this one might be the sweet spot of what constitutes a True Sound - Quintessential.
Checking out Scavengers Reign
Donating plasma is like practice for the medical intervention part of dying. Preparing to be stuck in a spot at the mercy of people in white coats. The build up and the fear and the release at the end when you get to arise and return home.
TIL that a business student in the 7os invented "calimari." As a business opportunity, of course, but also as a response to overfishing. There were still a lot of squids out there.
Recent reading: Biograohy of a Poem, Matthew Hollis. Had to return, but I plan to check it out again and continue.
I end every day wondering Did I do enough? The answer is always No.
If you buy a new phone case every couple years, it feels in your brain, and is perceived by the world at large, that you actually got the entire new iPhone that you are coveting somewhere in your soul.
If you buy a new phone case every couple years, it feels in your brain, and is perceived by the world at large, that you actually got the entire new iPhone that you are coveting somewhere in your soul.
I saw the phrase "jack up prices" twice while scrolling my RSS feed headlines.
You pick a few musical artists to accompany you on your journey. Then you buy their records whenever they come along, and get a shirt, and get out to the show at the local club.
This is the way.
Stray too far from this path, and it all starts to break apart.
Wordle 827 2/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Pound would pose the question 'What is money for?' And he would answer: That the whole people shall be able to eat (healthily), that the whole people shall be housed (decently) and that the whole people shall be clothed (adequate to be climate).
Wordle 810 2/6
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Did the writers and people of the Bible have any concept of human self-determination and actualization such as exists in the modern world? What would they think of it? Does the interplay between past and present matter? More pressingly, is the average reader of the Bible able to discern these matters at all? Do they care?
Wordle 801 5/6
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https://pitchfork.com/news/stars-of-the-lids-brian-mcbride-dies-at-53/
Wordle 800 2/6
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Currently #reading: "A Visit From the Goon Squad", Jennifer Egan On the up next pile, "The Books of Jacob," Olga Tokarczuk On the deep pile, "The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem"
Yes, I'm rediscovering my inner English major.
What is "raising a child," actually. What is "parenting."
What?
Yesterday I was parent of the year. Fully engaged in the work. Today I am eating everything in sight and trying to find a hole to live inside of.
What if we all picked two or three websites and read them like we used to read newspapers. How would the world change?
Here, it was about maximizing profits and keeping overhead down. Show me how this is true.
As a former worship pastor, you feel almost complicit in something when you watch the Secrets of Hillsong doc.
One can feel one's heart beat fasting when one watches a visual entertainment.
I've been using the phrase "Fool of a took" a lot lately.
We should have stopped at landlines and email
Wordle 771 5/6
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My lan, I still get a lot of joy from installing software updates and from checking for app updates. Is this like adding things to your Netflix library? Or the joy of trying to pick just the right word?
Keeping things updated is a joy and a passion. Keeping things optimized and smooth.
Watching Glass Onion.
Wordle 769 3/6
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Wordle 768 3/6
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Wordle 765 3/6
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Reclaiming my mental space this morning. And restarting my Wordle streak. It's good to begin again.
🤬 Wordle 763 X/6
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Wordle 760 3/6
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I am genuinely impressed by Karl Ove's linking Cain and Abel to Hitler. "And his face fell. Lift it up."
The world is moms sitting in their minivans in a parking lot, furiously texting to whoever.
Wordle 756 4/6
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Wordle 754 4/6
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Wordle 752 4/6
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Wordle 750 6/6
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I don't think I've ever had this much green.
Wordle 747 3/6
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I just realized something. I think I impute disorganization and poor decision-making and lack of direction upon the group for which I previously worked because they hired me. Seriously: what were they thinking.
I'm alternately flummoxed and amazed at the ability of almost everyone to exist in their own private world and space whenever they want. To stream whatever song on their iPhone speaker and hold it up, or put in an AirPod to check out just a little.
The updated Minecraft soundtracks are solid and good. Worthy successors to the originals.
Did the advent of the internet inadvertently usher in a new monoculture, when it intended to foster a boundless flourishing of human thought and expression?
Without fail my favorite part of flying, when I so rarely do, is to catch a bird's eye glimpse of how people are using their phones now. What apps are they using. Are they still killing then. What do we do in our mindless time killing moments. What do home-screens look like. Endlessly fascinating details of life.
The essence of humanity is a group gathered around a fire telling tales to pass the time
Have you ever made the mistake of thinking anyone cares about what you like and enjoy? About your preferences in music or movies? About what you want to do in a given situation - how to spend the time? I have. Many many times. And it is a mark of my pride and selfishness that I keep thinking it matters - that what I think might matter to others.
Jesus said Don't put new wine into old wineskins. But I say to you Pour the fresh coffee into yesterday's
Good call for Pres Biden to Not make comments at the Hiroshima nuclear attack memorial.
I am not allowed to be tired
I feel whole when I do laundry.
The handbell choir played today, and it was beautiful.
To the parent who is playing their Switch during your child's violin clinic: What is wrong with you?!? Find some rhythm in your life.
Racism is the way your heart beats faster in certain situations and rooms.
M got a major hair re-do yesterday. It took two hours in the chair. And the dog barked at her when she got home. I didn't bark, but I gasped with joy.
"Originality is hard to define in words, but it is possible to describe and reproduce the emotional state it evokes. I try to attain that emotional state each time I sit down to write my novels. That's because it feels so wonderfully invigorating. It's as if a new and dif ferent day is being born from the day that is today. If possible, I would like my readers to savor that same emotion when they read my books. I want to open a window in their souls and let the fresh air in. This is what I think of, and hope for, as I write--purely and simply."
"Originality is hard to define in words, but it is possible to describe and reproduce the emotional state it evokes. I try to attain that emotional state each time I sit down to write my novels. That's because it feels so wonderfully invigorating. It's as if a new and dif ferent day is being born from the day that is today. If possible, I would like my readers to savor that same emotion when they read my books. I want to open a window in their souls and let the fresh air in. This is what I think of, and hope for, as I write--purely and simply."
Is it acceptable to encourage competition between your kids? To get one to want to be better than the other at a skill or pursuit? To let them know that "You need to push a little harder to stay ahead your brother - he's gaining on you." Or "Are you just going to let her be better than you?"
Does anyone else feel as embarrassed as me when you talk to your smart speakers?
I've realized over time that the beer in the recliner during the football game constitutes a male safe space that is simultaneously sacred and profane in our culture.