Me: I had a great idea! Prefrontal Cortex: <looking up from its copy of Pride and Prejudice> I thought I felt a headache coming on. Me: No, this one is actually good. PFC: Lay it on me. Me: So you know how Christmas shopping for Dad is impossible and awful. PFC: I’m in here so, […]
Today is World Mental Health Awareness Day, so in an attempt to honor that and generally shine a light on the subject, I’m going to talk about my own mental health a bit. This is of course dependent on the idea that I am capable of talking about anything for “a bit,” which given my […]
There are a few people, some close friends, some other folks I know, who will often say to me some variation of, if not the actual words, “I love your writing.” I wish they knew how hard it is to hear that. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to hear it. I have changed […]
I am only just now starting to realize where the time goes. Before closing up shop for the weekend at work, I was talking with one of my colleagues about my near miss with Peter Mayhew at Celebration Chicago. I started by saying “I was supposed to get Mayhew’s autograph at Celebration last year…” before […]
I have not been fully overtaken by the moving hydra. Not yet. In fact, I think I might JUST get past the sonofabitch. I am discovering reserves of ruthlessness even I didn’t think I had. Much like everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face, you can say you’re as sentimental as […]
A word, here, about challenging assumptions. I am all for self-knowledge, but Jesus, people, there’s a fucking limit. In no way am I a philosopher, and I think we can all be thankful for that, so I’m not much interested in answering difficult questions about the nature of the self. I don’t know what people […]
A word, here, about branching out. I have a bad habit of not doing the things I want to do. This is probably more like a “neurosis” or “debilitating psychological infirmity” than a “habit” necessarily, but I am casting it as a habit because improving or eliminating a bad habit is probably easier than fixing […]
A word, here, about bucking convention. It’s January 9 and my Christmas decorations are still up. This is, understand, very unusual for me. Over the years I became someone who was very, very adamant about taking the decorations down on January 6, the traditional 12th day of Christmas. Not because I hate Christmas decorations; quite […]
A word, here, about terminology. I talked yesterday about going on offense heading into 2021. Going on offense means taking steps, real actionable steps, to claw the life that I want back from Coronaworld. So yesterday and today I started working out what those steps could be. Some of them are easy, obvious things: just […]
A word, here, about traditions. It’s January 1st, so it’s time to write about New Year’s Intentions. The notion of New Years Intentions is an improvement on resolutions that I stole from a friend five-ish years ago and have found much more useful. As I say every year, New Year’s Intentions, instead of being a […]