Trying to Stop being Clever

I watched The Wall last night and this morning. I didn’t watch it twice, it just took me that long to get through it (for family reasons). It evokes so many feelings in me. Not to say that my life in any way mirrors that of “Pink.” But I saw it as a child (I was 11 when it came out) and it had a lot of impact on me at the time because of so much subject matter that I was only marginally familiar with, and because of the unusual, mysterious animation. It was the first time I had seen a movie which incorporated an album with which I was overly familiar. So when I initially saw it it was deeper than just seeing a movie for the first time, it already had a backstory of a sort because of the experience of hearing the album many times, and tying in the emotions that brought out in me. So when I saw it this last time it not only had the bundled effect of reminding me of when I would listen to the album in my room at my dad’s house, and when I would watch the movie with my friends, b

My daughter is amazing. When people compliment her to me I’m not sure how I’m supposed to react. Yes, she’s of my genes, and I’m partly responsible for her beauty, not with anything I’ve done, but even so, when someone says, “You have beautiful eyes” it’s not because you’ve worked hard to sculpt the eyes you have (typically), but still you say, “Thank you.” And yes, Delilah has my eyes. And they are beautiful. But if they say she has beautiful eyes, is it appropriate for me to say “thank you”? It seems like it, but then I don’t deserve credit for my own eyes let alone hers. People say she’s so smart, and she is, but can I take credit for that? If they say she’s very well behaved, it seems even more awkward to say “thank you” for that, but in fact it’s more appropriate because her behavior is one thing I do have something to do with. More often than “thank you” though, I find myself responding to “she’s so smart, she’s so beautiful, she’s so sweet, so well-spoken” with, “Yes s

Great things happening at home. Delilah is getting so big, so grown up. I’m starting to feel it. Starting to get sad about the loss of innocence. She hasn’t lost that much of it, but the little bits are starting to hit home. She’s recently started saying that she doesn’t love Woody anymore. Seems innocuous enough, but let me put some perspective on it. When she was really little, like a year old, she would sit and watch, completely absorbed, any of the Toy Story movies. Woody was her favorite. Then, after seeing Toy Story 2 about 7 million times, she really took to Jessie. But she still loved Woody, the ol’ Woodster. So nowadays she’s saying “I don’t love Woody. I love Jessie and Buzz.” That’s fine, of course. It’s up to her to decide who and what she loves (we’ve even had to accept and not punish her for saying, “I don’t love Great Gramma!” because we can’t change that), but it makes me sad, and reminds me of the birthday I had over 30 years ago when my brother gave

What must it be like to come up a geek and find yourself in fashion? When I was young we struggled, and then came Revenge of the Nerds, which I think was a big turning point. Decades later Napoleon Dynamite comes out and the point is driven further into the general consciousness: it’s cool to be geeky. Do the dorky kids of today even recognize the sacrifices, the challenges, of those of us who paved the way for them? I doubt it. One of the charming things about geeks is their lack of awareness of current trends. Well, as someone who spent his formative years around Ham radios and early home computers, let me tell you this victory was fairly easily won. Of course, I didn’t fit neatly into any one category. Sure, I was a geeky nerd sort, but I was also a member of the “slacker” crowd, being generally dirty and stoned, and I was also overlapping the border of “heavy metaller” or whatever they were called, with my Judas Priest t-shirt and my long-ish hair. I wasn’t trying to not

I’m feeling really melancholy today. I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s any single thing in particular, but a variety of things weighing on me. Maybe it’s partly the downer of having so much band activity concentrated in a short time, to suddenly having none. I know part of it is my being overwhelmed by the room project at home and the hurdles associated with that. I have nothing to look forward to this weekend except house cleaning. That wouldn’t be so bad if I knew where to put all this stuff that needs to find a place to go. A little of it is a feeling of powerlessness, as my desires seem to have little influence over my course of action. Even my actions seem to be powerless. I feel like I’m spinning my wheels to no effect. People seem to be treating me with an indifference or even mild distaste lately. I must be doing something wrong, but I don’t seem to have too many options of what I can do. I’m trying to make a difference in the life I live with my wife and daughte

What is less than a flash in a pan? A spark? In this metaphor, what causes the flash? Is it a grease fire? Is it oxygen suddenly being allowed into an enclosed space which has burned away its available store of it? In either of these scenarios, where would a spark come from? Maybe I’m delving too deeply into the logistics of the metaphor. Let’s say a spark is a significant step down from the flash. What would be smaller than the spark? What would be the next step down? A pop? A sizzle? Even that seems too much to describe what I’m thinking of, considering the size of the pan. Maybe a little bit of a hiss. The things I hope would make a permanent dent in the pan create little more than a noticeable change in the temperature for a brief second. If that. If we do what we do because we love it, does that predicate that somebody else will love it also? Will the love we feel for what we do be enough of a thing for someone else to love, even if what we’re doing is not? The

As a child I often lamented the fact that i was so common. I thought of it as boring. Boring brown hair, boring brown eyes, the most common blood type. I felt like there was nothing interesting or unique about me. Well, today I learned another thing about myself that is exceptionally common. I have the most common fingerprint type. It's a short story, but I suddenly became interested in the different fingerprint types, and what they say about us. I saw one presentation which suggested that the "Arch" type print is most common among green-eyed people. I did not find any characteristics particularly associated with the "Loop" variety of print, just that it's the most common, and of course it's what I have. While this would once have been a source of grief for me, further indicating just how dull and boring I am right down to my skin and blood, I look at it now as a blessing because if I ever needed a blood transfusion I'd have no trouble findin

I wanted to say a few things about the Honda Fit. And the soundtrack for the new Muppets movie. The Fit is a really fun drive. This is coming from a 2005 Chevy Aveo hatchback to a 2012 Fit. The cars appear similar in overall stature and shape, but they feel very different. The Chevy was fun, but I always got a top-heavy feeling in it, and didn't feel that steady. The Fit really is "Go." It's got a nice gear ratio that gets me up to a comfortable speed in second gear, and I can't even feel when it leaves first. It's zippy, it corners nicely, and I hardly think twice about squeezing down the right turn lane even when there isn't a lane there. It's a lot of fun, and fast, and goes anywhere. And I'm so lucky my daughter has good taste in music. She wants to hear that Muppets cd over and over, and it's a really good album. One of the songs is nominated for an Oscar, and will almost certainly win, and it has Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parson