Building Castles on the Beach

It's time once again to get meta. Much like Chandler Bing's reasons for spending Thanksgiving in a box, my discussion today will be threefold. A kind of long bit of nonsense follows. But when has that ever stopped you? Point One : Following First of all, last week my little blog gained it's one-hundredth follower. It's been a long time coming, really, but still I rejoice. Now, if one-tenth of those people actually read my writing, I could die contented. So, congratulations to Heather M. Gardner from The Waiting is the Hardest Part . She wins nothing, but continuing to read this blog will enhance her knowledge, health, and appreciation of good music. In a way, then, she wins everything. Point Two : Blog Awards A couple-few weeks ago I was kindly awarded a blog award for nothing less than being a recently new follower of  Miss Farawayeyes at the   Far Away Series  blog. I've been dubbed versatile before. I'm not sure if it's due to my ability to do dis

NOTE: I wrote this post a couple of months ago in response to some Facebook mishegoss, yet I never posted it because it turned out differently than I had planned. Still. It's fun. Enjoy. Nothing about monocles in here. Uncool. In eighth grade, I was your typical jock, popular enough to win the student council elections to become president of Gold House. I wore Sperry Topsiders with no socks, pleated slacks, and Izod polo shirts with an upturned collar when I wasn't wearing a tie or an argyle sweater. I would have accessorized with a top hat and monocle as well, but it's really hard to see with glass in front of only one eye. Despite the supposed popularity of such a look in prep schools or Ivy League universities, public school eighth graders didn't wear ties if they could help it. It was the first time I realized I was differently minded. Fortunately, this particular peculiarity was socially acceptable; unfortunately, it was a gateway to a more severe sort of

Remember a month and a half ago when I said I was back in the groove , like Homer after the carnies vacated his house? I suppose I didn't so much "lie" as "not follow through." Since then, I've written scarcely a word that wasn't about a high school IB World Literature paper or an eleventh grade argument essay, and to be honest there weren't a whole lot of the latter turned in despite the arrival of the end of the quarter. I even abandoned my critique group since not living up to expectations was giving me the figurative ulcer. I'm now midway through my Spring Break, and I should have a lot more time on my hands. I do, but I don't. This was all a lot easier last year when the boy was immobile and would sit in his little chair or the crook of my arm without a fuss while I typed away at my chronicles. So, whatever. I'm going to have to make it happen. Feng Shui: Maybe all my mom needed was a few rocks to stack. By now you may

I have been offered the Liebster Blog award from two fellow bloggers: McKenzie at The Ubiquitous Perspective  and TJ at They Won't Get Us .  If I recall my seventh grade teacher, Frau Cathcart, correctly, "Liebster" means something like "Sweetheart" in German. That's sweet, right? Apparently the Liebster Blog award is to be passed on to blogs with fewer than 200 followers. Perhaps this is what's stoking my ennui this evening because the fact that I fall into that category makes me a tad sad. I've been at this for more than a year now, and it seems like any momentum I might have had has stalled. And every time I look over and see that Networked Blogs widget with my own little icon as my one follower, I get a little more glum. I only decided a couple of weeks ago to put that on my blog space, and I don't know what else to do but have it sit there waiting for some action, but it still reeks of desperation, doesn't it? I know it's mostly

Last week my wife and I had a Facebook duel with competing comments on a friend's post. It was Brad Pitt's fault. It was one of those posts where someone has taken a saying or a quote and pasted it onto a famous face or embarrassing picture in order to give the text heft. Sometimes the person actually said what they are quoted as to have said, sometimes not. For instance, Nelson Mandela did not say, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, blah, blah, blah." But the internet memes seem to think he did. I didn't create this...and I've just added to the problem, haven't I? People think these memes are funny or, worse, meaningful. They share them to Facebook and write things like "Wow!" or "So true" underneath. I don't get most of them. Rather, I don't get what most people see in these memes. I mean--and this is what I said in my Facebook joust with my wife--I say pithy stuff all the time and no one puts together a

I finally finished Crime and Punishment . I've been teaching it since before the Winter Break in December. Don't tell my students. I actually read it just for fun back when I was in college. Well, for fun and to meet chicks. I carried it around with me and hoped girls would ask me what I was reading. Okay, I wasn't that desperate, but it worked that way at least once. I was on the window ledge of one of the girls' dorms working as a window washer. (I'm not making this up. It was actually pretty good, easy work, until the weather got cold and the outdoor window washers became indoor bathroom cleaners.) Anyhoo, a girl in one room started flirting with me through her window, and when she saw that I was reading Crime and Punishment , she became so captivated by my mystique that she began stalking me. That's a slight exaggeration, but she did find out where I lived, met my roommate, and they got married shortly thereafter. I try to explain the power of carryi

This isn't the place we rented, but it looked something like this. Back in July, my extended family met in Vail  for our sort-of-annual meeting of the minds. I was the first sibling to arrive, with my wife and childrens, which meant that every time any of the other five sibs and their broods arrived, I was obligated to help unpack their automobiles and lug their stuff into the house. We had rented a three-story chalet (four, including the basement garage) with about seventeen bedrooms and a steep stairway up from the garage to the third floor. I was winded before I ever finished emptying my own car, and by the time the last group arrived and people were assisted up to their dormitories, I could barely breathe. I of course know that the altitude in the mountains makes it more difficult to suck in the air you need. But I live in Denver, so it's not like I was coming from sea level to the Continental Divide. And I've visited Vail--and higher altitudes--enough times to k

But I am, after all, irresistible AND sweet. I didn't want it to get out, but what are you gonna do? Gail at Chasing after the Stars  sent me this blog award. She added the Stylish Blogger award with it (which I already have and am pretending wasn't included), and she answered questions from the Blog Tag thing that's been going around like the plague an amusing playground game. (And if you don't know how I feel about tagging, read this . My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek.) Plus, strawberries. As with most blog awards, I'm supposed to tell seven things about myself. So, let's play a game: One of the following statements is a lie. See if you can spot which one. (If I get enough comments down below, I will reveal the secret answer, so check back often.) 1. I own almost 4000 musical albums. 2. I don't like dogs. 3. I've never read Jane Eyre . 4. There are nuclear-powered squirrels in my backyard. (Remember I said one of these is a "lie

As milestones go, I'm sure this is pretty lame. Nevertheless, I'm going to celebrate it. And you can join me as I post the equivalent of a sitcom clip show . (Check out that link if you're not familiar with the term. Or visit this TV Tropes site that I've been wasting my time with enjoying, reading some cool stuff about how TV, or fiction in general, is written.) (Speaking of tropes, that's the first time in fifty posts that I've used the blogging convention of crossing out a phrase to be funny. I still can't decide if that's cheating or if it's clever. But I did it anyway.) How about some self-aggrandizement : As I write this 50th post, I have 49 followers. Wouldn't it be poetic if this post brought the fiftieth? (Hint, hint) Much more poetic than hitting 5000 page views, anyway. A couple of weeks ago, dozens of backlinks showed up on a couple of my posts and suddenly in the space of just a couple of days, my view stats went to the moon.

I've been distracted lately and haven't been able to write full blog posts. I like to write complete, coherent essays for each post instead of a list of nonlinear or unconnected thoughts or ramblings. I also don't think of this blog as a journal where I can just tell you what happened today. But recently I haven't found the time or, really, the inspiration to write a complete post. Case in point: School has been out for over a week and I still don't know what to write about it. It was a strange year at my job, what with me taking off the equivalent of a summer vacation in the middle of the school year to be a stay-at-home dad, not to mention a tiring and frustrating year due to the country's current view that teachers are lazy, ungrateful water-flies . I hope to be able to make something of it soon, so I can post an end-of-year review. I somehow have found the time to add a couple of tabs at the top of this page. Check out the new About Me tab. Fascinating

I've been writing this blog for just over two months and I've been obsessed for at least seven and a half of those eight weeks. However, I start teaching again next Monday and I ought to psych myself up. Plus, I need to read Pride and Prejudice ; I can't let my students get ahead of me. Thus, I've decided that I'm going to take the next week or so away from the internetting. Rico Suave for sci-fi geeks. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that instead of imagining songs out of the pithy, clever thoughts she has--like she used to--she now conjures up a FB status update. Similarly, I find myself thinking in terms of blog posts. I'm eating Dots and really love how the gooey, chewy candy feels when it gets stuck in my teeth. Blog post! I just finished watching all the David Tennant  Doctor Who specials and now I wait for the season 5 series to be available for streaming on Netflix. Blog post! Xander was on his tummy during his doctor's visit last w