Web-log / 2018

October

Closeup of a Willamette white oak leaf among leaf litter in a forest floor
2018-10-31

T-minus seven days

I voted in the first election I was eligible to vote in: the 1990 primary. I don’t remember who or what I voted for. Straight...

2018-10-30

Here’s a new one

I checked my email at lunch today and had about 30 seconds of panic when I received this email from my own email address: Hello!...

View over the shoulder of an old man reading a FROZEN picture book to a very young toddler. A woman and a young school age boy are putting together a FROZEN puzzle on the floor
2018-10-28

Four years ago

Missing my dad this fall, as I do every fall now. We visited with my mom today, carved pumpkins and so forth. We reminisced about...

Digitally distorted photo of a young girl on a bicycle smiling and flashing the “V” sign. The Image is “bent” such that she appears twice, slightly superimposed over herself
2018-10-15

Time and Consciousness

Putting a thumbtack in this one for later: The sensation of cause and effect — time and its directionality — is actually the perception of...

Closeup of two plastic alien toys hanging from a rearview mirror; out of focus in the background is the scrubland of eastern Oregon
2018-10-05

I used to be an uncle

On our bike ride home this week I told my kids about my ex-wife. We were talking about the definition of “aunt” and “uncle,” and...

Still from MOONRISE KINGDOM of the young leads in a forest in what is clearly mid- to late- spring and NOT Labor Day weekend
2018-10-04

I finally saw MOONRISE KINGDOM

OK this review is a) six years late and b) really short but For fucks sake if you’re making a movie about camping set very...

September

Screenshot from Strava showing my GPS track for David Douglas CCX, with the heart rate failing to start for two mi and then jumping to 203bpm
2018-09-02

Apple Watch review, update

Jenny kind of badgered me into unpackaging my Apple Watch. (It is my birthday present after all.) I decided to wear it to my first...

August

Still from RUNNING MAN with Arnold Schwarzenegger in a gold jumpsuit
2018-08-26

Running Man 2017

Watching Running Man (1987) set in the EXTREMELY FUTURISTIC YEAR of 2017. There are lots of things they got wrong (say it with me now:...

Closeup of a pair of kids’ water shoes on a rock at the side of a river
2018-08-22

I was back on Twitter yesterday

I went back on Twitter yesterday for the first time in about two weeks. I was dying inside just dying to know what was happening...

View of the eastern sky at sunrise; the sky is is cloudless, yellow; sun is orange
2018-08-16

♥ Reality TV

Discerning whether something is real or a fantasy is no longer a salient problem for daily existence.

Closeup of a “Cyclocross Crusade” sticker on the window of a minivan, wet with rain
2018-08-15

Melancholy

Posting eulogies for my puppy and then re-reading the eulogy for my father led me into the dangerous blind alley of nostalgia via re-reading old...

Closeup of a small black puppy looking at an object offcamera
2018-08-15

熊

We have a new puppy, Kuma. Kuma means bear in Japanese. She is a rescue. Half German shepherd, half [???], and all teeth. Kuma loves...

Shot on a beach of a woman and three children in front of a temporary shrine made in the sand. Reads: “Bismarck we love you” with a large heart made from Bismarck’s ashes, and other small bits from the beach like sticks, rocks, and shells
2018-08-15

Bismarck

A few days after our puppy Newport died, we took Bismarck’s ashes to his favorite beach (Arcadia). We made a little shrine for him and...

closeup of a black shorthaired puppy being held by a person
2018-08-15

Newport

In early July, just after our trip to Newport, we got a new puppy. His name was Newport. He lived with us for seven days,...

Underwater photo of sperm whales sleeping, tail down
2018-08-09

Three MOBY-DICKs

On Matt Haughey’s advice I just downloaded my Twitter archive and it’s humbling. The tweets alone — which might reasonably represent “original writing” on my...

May

January