Category: personal

The Joy of Festivus 2012

It is for the rest, and the best, of us!

I’ve said this before when it comes to Talking Time, but you won’t find a better group of people on the internet who are all giant, lovable nerds. I did Festivus again this year and it was amazing as always. Here’s part one of my report! This year I was the giftee for TT member, upupdowndown. Below is my report.

So, after having driven for 10+ hours across the cultural (and sometimes actual) wasteland that is California I arrive home to find a package!

“New Balance shoes?! That’s for old people!”

I open it up anyway!

“Huh, just some bubble wrapped jars and a piece of paper…”

Greetings Falselogic!

It is I, upupdowndown, your NINJA SANTA OF DOOM. Prepare for your GIFT-RELATED ANNIHILATION.

“I like where this is going!”

Your first present will help instill a sense of dread and unease that will soften up up for the killing blows yet to come: a copy of It’s Even Worse Than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. Quake with fear to the diagnosis of possibly fatal sickness in the body politic

“This should be uplifting!”

That quaking and unease will mean that you’ll never see my next attack coming: a selection of spice mixtures and mustards from the Colonel De in Cincinnati’s Findley Market! You always claim that nothing good comes from the flyover states, so I know you will not be expecting this dose of DANGEROUS DELICIOUSNESS.







“I sure could use that Butt rub! Oh wait, it says not for topical use…”

(the spices all smell amazing and Mrs. Logic and I can’t wait to try them, I didn’t open the mustards yet but I’m excited about them too)

the final element to this shipment, the one that will destroy you utterly, is the one that I took a much more active hand in creating. behold my own home-canned apple and spice vanilla pear butters, and tremble, for once you taste them, you shall surely perish! They were made this fall with organic local fruit (for extra malice), and you now own two jars of the apple and one of the pear

“I can’t wait to rub these all over Mrs. Logic’s bod… I mean all over my morning toast, good sir!”

(I can not wait to try these butters they look amazing! Is there an ideal time to open these? And once they are open how long are they good for in the fridge?)

Just in case you have survived all of this, I have prepared a BACKUP PLAN. I have subcontracted out your utter (re)destruction to the Craft Beer Club, who will be sending you TWO shipments of a variety of craft beers in January and March. Please enjoy your fatal beverages responsibly!

Wishing you a very murderous Festivus,

UUDD

“Woohoo!”

(This craft beer club looks amazing they send 3 bottles of 4 beers with each shipment 12 microbrew varietal beers? Woohoo!)

Thanks to UUDD for this super amazing Festivus gift! I, and the missus, are stoked to be using the cooking stuff right away!

At this point I’m waiting for the beers to show up!

2012 Goals: How Did I Do?

Not as good as this guy…

Happy New Year to you all! This post is late but you know how it is with the Holidays. I kind of wish we could find a way to spread them out a little better. The gauntlet from Thanksgiving to New Year is killer for whatever normalcy you have in your life. No wonder I feel the need to make resolutions come January 1st. My life gets completely frazzled and torn out of shape by December 31.

Here’s my goal post from the beginning of last year.

Let’s see how I did!

1. Pay off credit card debt – This has been a millstone around my neck for too long. I want it gone by the end of the year.

Done!

2. Climb Half -dome – Now is the time to start planning this.

Nope!

3. Cut down on distractions – I spend too much time reading stuff. It’s all very interesting stuff but it doesn’t serve any higher purpose. It’s just another way to distract myself from my life.

I got distracted and failed to keep this goal. Though I do think I was better at being focused

4. Write a poem a week – 52 weeks, 52 poems

Um, kinda? I got through February, so eight poems and I did start the SSPP (Surreal Space Poetry Project)

5. Draw something once a week – 52 weeks, 52 doodles

Nope!

6. Continue meditation – Extend meditation time from ten minutes to twenty, add evening meditation.

Meditation came to an abrupt stop with the time change in 2012 and then the move…

7. Step away from the television and computer – I have a great dog, a beautiful wife, and wonderful friends. I should spend more time with them instead of tapping keys.

I did do this!

8. Fix my knee, start running, cycle more, swim more, do some free weights – I figure with all the free time I have why not make myself better with it?

Did it! Except until the move to San Diego but one of my goal’s for this month (Jan ’13) is to find a weight gym

9. Intentionally left blank

10. Intentionally left blank

Yeah, I don’t know what that was about!

Grade: Satisfactory. Room for improvement in areas.

I’ve done goals for the last two years (2011 and 2012) and I don’t think they’ve done much for me. Either I have anxiety over them and feel like I’m not accomplishing anything or it feels like I’m being coerced into doing something by past me, future me doesn’t like that. I might do goals/resolutions for 2013. But, before I do I need to think long and hard about them as well as how to make goals that I won’t forget about or just not do.

 

 

Breathe. Then Write

I suppose the idea is to get over the fear of writing. An empty screen is a terrifying thing to face. But, all you can do for it is to fill it up. Don’t have any ideas? Don’t think any of your story arcs or characters are worth committing to zeroes and ones? Too many donts can keep you from doing anything. Keep you from writing, keep you from going out of your house, keep you from ever getting out of bed. It’s okay, you do those things (I hope you do) and you can do this thing too.

Breathe.

Set aside the words in your head that are crushing you. Set aside the words in your head that keep harping that you don’t have anything worth saying. You have stories, you have tales, you have characters, you’re practically overflowing with them. What you don’t have is confidence. You won’t get it just sitting there.

Distracted.

The internet isn’t going to get your work done. I know it’s hard to believe after spending hours on it, how could nothing have been accomplished? You feel so tired, as if work has been done. And you have so much to show for it! Data, information, news, trivia,the fact that echidnas have a four-headed penis, the theory that this universe is just one of many trapped in an intricate ten dimensional multi-universe that all might be nothing more than a simulation on a computer somewhere (the computer may also be a simulation?!) What you don’t have is any writing. You haven’t worked.

So, write.

You just need to write. Slowly, ever so slowly the white on the screen diminishes. Words appear one after the other. After another. You’re going to need sentences to keep them all together. Write more. Soon the sentences piling on top of each other. Keep going. Then, there are paragraphs holding your sentences together. Don’t stop. You’ll soon find yourself needing pages to hold your paragraphs and chapters to hold your pages, a book for all your pages. And, you’re done. Like that. Until, you have to do it again.

Time later for making sense of what you wrote. Time later for editing. Time later for plot, protagonists, antagonists, meaning, moral, movement, conflict, pace, etc., etc…

It all starts with the same blank screen. And, the terror of filling it with something. Breathe. Breathe and write.

 

 

For more thoughts on writing:

The Fear of Writing or Holding onto Dreams

 

Opening my First Birchbox

Birchbox for December 2012

During this Thanksgiving D started watching re-runs of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I had watched the show when it first came out over a decade ago and had enjoyed the show for its mix of fashion, interior re-decorating, and reality television surrealism. Looking at it as a person in my thirties though I noticed how much they focused on skincare. I then looked in the mirror and noticed that I had not been taking care of my skin. I don’t know if I had ever spent more than a minute in my entire life thinking about my skin. It was beginning to show. Most prevalent were the dark marks under my eyes. So, I started looking for skincare products.

What a minefield I had entered. Weird names, absurd claims, and no where clear answers to well-defined problems. I don’t know what I had expected. Something more like a hardware store, I suppose. Looking for a screwdriver? Aisle 6. Looking for nails? Aisle 3. Looking for eye cream? Aisle 7. Instead I got aisle after aisle of odd shaped jars and tubes full of all sorts of creams, saturated with all sorts of chemicals. What I needed was clarity and all I was finding was more confusion. I was going to need some help…

D recommend Birchbox, it’s a subscription service that sends samples of beauty, grooming, and lifestyle products to subscribers every month. With this, hopefully, I’d be able to find some skincare and grooming products that worked for me. And maybe I could get rid of these dark bags under my eyes.

I signed up at the end of November and this last weekend my first box came!

The contents

The Contents

 

Tall Drink Body Hydrator by Guythority

Face Scrub, Face Moisturizer, and Lip Balm by Lucky Tiger

Shave Oil by Toro

Wool Knit Tie by the Knottery

I’m really liking the Lucky Tiger line of products but the Toro shaving oil is terrible.  I don’t know what to do about the tie, maybe I’ll wear it to my next job interview. I don’t know if any of these boxes will have an eye cream, but at least now when I go to buy some sort of grooming product I won’t be doing it completely in the dark!

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