About 30 minutes ago, I became one year older. I have a lot of emotions around this birthday, some good and some not so good. What follows might be a random/stream-of-consciousness mess but know that it will be largely unedited. It is just what it is. For example, I thought earlier tonight that I needed…
Category: Musing
Abandoned Buildings
Old, abandoned buildings catch the attention of my photographic eye. I’m unsure if that’s part of my pathology or if I just like thinking about the history of these old spaces. I took this image in December of 2005. I haven’t been to this area since I took this photograph, so I’m unsure what’s there…
The Trial Balloon
A few days ago, I posted a short narrative from my upcoming memoir. This was the first piece I wrote when I started the project over a year ago, and I see it as a cornerstone of the larger work. But I posted it early for a couple of reasons: how would readers from various…
Starting Again (Again) (Again)
I was once a prolific blogger. I had a couple of blogs under the pseudonym “PartsnPieces,” and I once wrote a collaborative blog (ProfHacker) for the Chronicle of Higher Education. I return here again today after a six-year absence because I miss this form of writing. I write on other forms of social media, but…
Starting Again (Again)
The post directly beneath this one was written in 2014, and it was a post about starting up the blog again. It’s 2016, and I’m about to write the post again. OK. I’m not going to write that again. I know that I’ve had a lot going on these past three or four years and…
Starting Again
Three years and no postings here at all. To be fair, though, I have posted elsewhere….in places I’d just as soon forget. So maybe a revisiting to this blog? My life has changed in some inexplicable ways, and I should document some of that. Here. Again. I start over. But my life has changed. …
15/365: Kickin’ It
In South Texas, leaves fall in December. In January, they are piled up high, smelling earthy and soft. As a child, I loved playing in the leaves, kicking them high in the air as I walked to and from school. I loved the leaves’ fragility, their texture, the sound they made scraping across the…
Good Things: Pre-semester Edition
Sometimes life is a challenge. If we believe the platitudes (and if we are trying to maintain sanity and light, why not?), we know that the challenges make us stronger people. I want to believe that. These days, I have my doubts. So, I look for those things that remind me that there is good. …
Good Things (“I Choose” Edition)
Today I choose: to ignore vitriolic rhetoric (in my life and in the media), to use my knowledge and perspective for good (yes, I need a cape), to focus on the future and its possibilities, to surround myself with the comforts that make me happy (sweaters, music, coffee), to learn something new, to focus on…
The Nail that Sticks Up
Years ago when I lived in Japan, the old proverb, “The nail that sticks up will be hammered down” made some sense. In a society where 128 million people live in a space the size of Montana, one has to be aware of and abide by societal mores and behaviors because without them– and without…