• On Life and Love

    Creativity for the win.

    A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I wanted to write three creative works during the week following the post. I didn’t completely succeed, but I did write a private poem and a very, very short Julie Czerneda-like flash titled “Lost Prey“. Eh. The bigger success however, was the Bible as Literature assignment I alluded to last week. The assignment was merely to: “rewrite, retell, and/or revise a story from the Hebrew Bible into a work of fiction, your take on the literature of the Bible.” My response? The core of the debate in the book of Job as hip-hop poetry. It took me a solid week, but I…

  • On Life and Love

    Working together vs. being friends

    There are times when I see people (including myself!) stressing themselves out outrageously over some dispute with another person or organization and I want to go, “Stop. Not everyone you work with needs to like you.” I like it when people like me. At the very least, I like it when people don’t have to struggle to be civil towards me. But there are times when I get to decide that I’m only interested in investing enough energy in certain people to keep them working with me. Furthermore, there are times when, when I think hard about it, I decide that I actually don’t need to work with someone (or…

  • On Life and Love

    Laptop irkage

    As a senior this year, I see all sorts of people treating their laptops like crap (nothing new), happily proclaiming that the pieces of shit only have to last them a few more months before they can be destroyed. After all, they’ll be getting a new laptop or desktop after they graduate. (Insert smug smile here.) My question of the day: who’s buying this new magically-appearing computer? I hear enough people express this sentiment that I know some of them mofos have student loans. I don’t think big-ticket spending in the 6 months before the bill comes in is a smart way to go. Some of them are going into…

  • On Life and Love

    East nineteen ninety ninety-nine-nine-nine…

    T-dawg’s birthday gifts included two Bone Thugs N Harmony CDs; while not the kindest part of his gift, it’s the part that’s keeping me up and writing tonight when I want to be sleeping away the remainder of the week. I loved the Bone Thugs when I was a kid, although I never owned any of their CDs. I remember recording “Crossroads” off the radio and playing the tape until it warbled. “East 1999” never played long on the radio, I remember; I liked it a lot, but didn’t hear it enough for my tastes. Then and now, the Bone Thugs’ style struck me as so different and much more…

  • Uncategorized

    Hard conversations

    I had one half of a very difficult conversation today.  It was one I hadn’t really been looking forward to since starting therapy, but at least I had the easier half today, when it felt like many of my normal support structures are busy looking for their own support structures. I told my mother that I’d come to the conclusion (with some help) that my childhood had been abusive. She was surprised.  I gave examples.  She didn’t remember most of them. It seemed like a light clicked on for her, though, explaining my strange (to her) estrangement and deep-seated anger towards my father.  She’d been trying to figure it out…