blogging Archives - Page 13 of 23

The days of whine and hosers

This will be a breakfast blog* post, just for my friend Dan:

30 December 2013: Took the bus to work early so that I could get my monthly allergy shot and not miss much work. There was a woman on the bus who was complaining about everything, sitting near the front of the bus. She was fairly loud, and about every fifth word was a vulgarity, no exaggeration. Worse, there were two or three women in that section who were listening to every perceived slight or projected hassle with rapt attention. After I got off the bus, I was SO relieved. My working theory is that some people LIKE to listen to others complain – I suspect they also watch those argument-driven reality shows such as The Real Housewives of Peoria, or wherever – but I found her exhausting.

31 December 2013: We went an hour southwest to Oneonta, NY. Two years ago, for First Night, it was about 50F (10C) at 5 pm. Last year, it was 34F (1C). This time, it was 14F (-10C).

First, we went to the new home of my parents-in-law. I mean, it’s new to them, and it’s nice, though they are still in the midst of unpacking. Sometime after I got there, I tried to post my blog post on ABC Wednesday, but I couldn’t GET to my blog. But I didn’t have time to investigate.

The trip to the motel was an adventure, with this sudden snow squall popping up. Do you know how there’s a covering at motel entrances? We were getting pelted by snow and wind WHILE WE WERE UNDER THE COVERING. It probably looked cool to watch, if one weren’t IN it.

Finally, after the wife and I got to the motel, I called the blog service provider. The blog problem wasn’t on his end; it was the dumb blogger who failed to update the Akismet, and my blog was under attack from Chinese spam. 20 minutes later, it was all fixed. Thanks, Shawn, and sorry!

That evening, went to venues with The Daughter, while The Wife went with her mother, and her father was off on his own. Among the acts were these Indonesian dancers, a woman and two children, whose music was not loud enough in the large room, AND who competing with the fire eaters just outside.

There were also belly dancers, and I was impressed, not only by their skills, but by the fact they didn’t have perfect bodies but put themselves out there; only one you would call slim. One of the young woman in particular, who my wife had seen months earlier, had particular confidence and charm. If there were snarky remarks, I didn’t hear them.

1 January 2014 (very early): The Wife and I stayed at a hotel, went to sleep c. 11 pm. Around 4:30 a.m., some folks were pounding on a door down the hall, complaining in a too loud voice about the fact that they had been locked out of the room. This went on for at least ten minutes.

Then it came to me: the absolute perfect putdown for these clowns. “You know that resolution you made not to be an a**hole this year? Well youve already broken it!” These things NEVER come to me in the moment.

But then I thought, in my foggy, exhausted haze, “Do I want the very first thing I say in the new year to be cursing out some strangers?” Instead, I opened the door, and said, in the most polite voice I could muster, “Hey, there are people trying to sleep here!” The crew mumbled some apologies, and eventually, we went back to sleep.

2 January 2014: Back in Albany a day early in anticipation of a snowstorm, which came. Shoveled a couple of times. The landlord next door hasn’t provided his tenants with a shovel, so they are always borrowing ours.

Went to the grocery store, listening to someone talking joyfully about being fired from her job, and from her retelling, I could see why. Everything was THEIR fault. She didn’t even bother sitting through the exit interview: “Am I fired? Then I’m outta here!”

3 January 2014: Shoveled the walk for the third time in the morning, when it was a balmy-2F (-19C). Got to work, and my computer would not connect to the network, so I couldn’t use it at all. Apparently, I’m at least the third person in my office to experience this. But the guy who could fix the problem was on vacation. His assistance came over in the afternoon, and after a few hours got me into my own computer at about 3 pm. My wife had TOLD me to stay home…

*Dan claims Ramblin’ with Roger is a breakfast blog, one a person reads at breakfast. I initially thought he was suggesting that I write about what I had for breakfast – I seldom do – but now, when I have a bunch of little bits that don’t warrant individual posts, I refer to those as breakfast posts. Like this one.

The blog at random

How do you sell dolls to boys?

This is a thing I’ve been doing at the beginning of the year: pick a post for each month of the previous year, using a random number generator. See how well it reflected that year just passed. Pretty sure I got this from Gordon, who lives in Chicago, who remains the only non-local blogger I ever met.

January:

In 1969, I HAD to root for the New York Mets over the Orioles, and of course, the Amazin’s won.

(Re: Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who had died recently.)

February:

What IS the solution to a fairer voting process?

(Cited Arthur@AmeriNZ)

March:

I’ve wanted to fly since I was a child, had the flying dreams and everything.

(One of those Ask Roger Anything responses.)

April:

“So here’s another question up for interpretation.”

(One of those Internet awards I responded to.)

May:

A ANNOTATE the text by writing down important details, ideas, words, or quotes

(My monthly writing about The Daughter, in which I kvetch about vacation homework. Complaining about homework becomes a recurring theme.)

June:

My paternal grandparents then moved upstairs.

(I swear I hit Father’s Day LAST year. In any case, pictures and memories of growing up in Binghamton, NY.)

July:

*”The most damning element here is not that George Zimmerman was found not guilty: it’s the bitter knowledge that Trayvon Martin was found guilty.”

(Obviously about a certain trial in Florida.)

August:

She was working for an insurance company for a couple years making more annually as she would for her first two years teaching.

(A piece on income inequality. The “she” is The Wife.)

September:

How do you sell dolls to boys?

(Finally, an ABC Wednesday post. This was K for Known As, Formerly.)

October:

Then Arthur wrote about it, and I was going to let it go as a topic.

(Arthur, AGAIN? Anyway, this was about NALT Christians.)

November :

I must say that I didn’t vote for Kathy Sheehan in the primary, and that one of her campaign workers inadvertently talked me into that position.

(Day before Election Day, I write about Albany’s now brand new mayor. Arthur is also mentioned in THIS post!)

December:

But I was always disappointed that certain seemingly simple songs often had ONE note (or more) that wasn’t in the standard scale.

A second ABC Wednesday post, which, considering I wrote one 52 times last year, is not surprising. X is for Xylophone.)
***
An animated portrait of my 2013 on Twitter, which isn’t terribly interesting as it might be because I don’t use Twitter very much; the one for Arthur is more interesting, but each is less than 50 seconds long.

Rhythm, or inertia, or whatever works

If I can’t write something at least every couple days, it feels quite likely that I won’t ever do so ever again.

I always remember this conversation, over 15 years ago, with my friend Dorothy. She was suggesting blowing off going to church choir rehearsal so so I could hang out with her and my future wife. As tempting as that might have been, I declined. It is better for me musically to get as much rehearsal as possible. Moreover, it would easily become the case that if I blow off one rehearsal, to blow off another, and another.

That’s because I’m basically lazy, and would rather read all day, or visit with y’all.

For me, the rhythm thing has long been true of exercise. When the local Y closed a few years ago, my opportunity to play racquetball regularly, which I had done for over 25 years, went with it. There was some recent minor holiday when I COULD have played racquetball at Siena College nearby, but it simply never entered my mind.

It’s accurately descriptive of work. I check my e-mail and whatnot in the morning. That first reference question is usually the hardest to finish. Once I’ve gotten my “reference rhythm”, I can generate more reference, unless stopped by a meeting or some other force.

I was thinking on this because, prior to this year, I had a very regimented pattern of going to donate blood every eight or nine weeks, barring illness or other legitimate circumstances. I’ve donated over 18 gallons over the years. But I did the apheresis thing early this year, and somehow that’s thrown off my standard clock so that I didn’t donate again until June.

This blog is much the same way. If I can’t write something at least every couple of days, it feels quite likely that I won’t ever do so ever again. Whereas writing begets writing. When I get stuck scribing one thing – “why won’t it write itself?!”, as I am wont to say – and as of this writing, I’m really stuck on one particular piece, I’ll put together something, ANYTHING -even if it’s a puff piece like this one.

The Normblog questions answered by Dustbury

People who are wealthy and think they did it all by themselves tend to annoy me.

practicingCatholic — Stolen from normblog

A couple of months back, Dustbury wrote about Norm Geras, who died in October of prostate cancer, again belying the narrative that no one dies from it; my father did.

Chaz wrote: “In the online community, however, he may be best remembered for the normblog profile, in which he sent four dozen or so questions to leading bloggers and asked them to answer any thirty of their choice.” Here is a list of all the hundreds of bloggers who answered the call.

I had opted to answer the questions that Norm posed to Dustbury that Chaz deigned to answer.

Well, except that the next day, Chaz wrote Norm’s instructions:

“Please NB that you should not answer all 50 questions, but (as requested on the document itself) just 30 of them — enabling you to select those questions most congenial to you and leave out any that aren’t.”

Chaz added: “The wisdom of this practice really didn’t dawn on me until I’d submitted my answers when I realized that this was how Norm knew what you really valued above all else.” Which means I’m going to chuck *Which English Premiership football team do you support? since it is NOT in my area of expertise.

But I will add some questions answered by John Green, but NOT by Dustbury, just because.

*Why do you blog?

Therapy is too expense.

*What has been your best blogging experience?

Getting comments about my grandfather, who died in 1980, years after I wrote about him.

*What has been your worst blogging experience?

Some haranguing guy at my Times Union blog who was complaining every day about something I wrote.

*What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger?

Find a schedule and try to stick with it. Once a week or twice a day, but be consistent. Three posts in a day, then nothing for three days isn’t as good as once a day.

*What are you reading at the moment?

Xerox Ferox, which is a thick book of essays.

*Who are your cultural heroes?

Ben Franklin and Paul Simon? John Lennon and Thomas Jefferson? Actually, my first thought was Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

*What is the best novel you’ve ever read?

11/22/63 by Stephen King has supplanted A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

*What is your favourite poem?

Ever since I learned it was parody, it’s probably The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

*Who is your favourite composer?

Mozart, though I am quite fond of Beethoven.

*Can you name a major moral, political or intellectual issue on which you’ve ever changed your mind?

When I was 14, I supported the Vietnam War; when I was 15, I opposed it. I’ve gone through lots of changes involving religion, from fundamentalist fervor to rejection of religion to my current, always evolving beliefs.

*What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to disseminate?

Being civil and decent does not mean weakness.

*What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to combat?

Yelling the loudest does not make you correct. I think people confuse clever retorts with sound policy, which scares the heck out of me.

*If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be?

There needs to be a chance for third parties, and given the way the Republicans and Democrats rig the rules, we need another way to cast the ballot, such as Instant Runoff Voting.

*What would you do with the UN?

The problem with the UN is that the things it does well, in health care, e.g., is largely invisible. It probably should not put out the presumption that it can do peacekeeping.

*What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world?

Global warming, which will affect the availability of water (too much or too little, it appears), cost of fighting natural disasters, from mudslides to fire.

*Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come?

I’d like to be positive; not sure that I am.

*What would be your most important piece of advice about life?

Don’t be a schmuck.

*Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own?

Probably not, because she would keep saying stuff that would inevitably tick me off.

*What do you consider the most important personal quality?

The pursuit of honesty.

*What personal fault do you most dislike?

Self-absorption.

*In what circumstances would you be willing to lie?

Interesting question. As I’ve noted here before, I’ve been hugely influenced by the book Lying by Sissela Bok. Would I lie to protect someone? Maybe. But what if I lied and said someone was in the closet when I thought he was in the kitchen, in order to protect him, but he had actually moved to the closet?

*Do you have any prejudices you’re willing to acknowledge?

People who are wealthy and think they did it all by themselves tend to annoy me.

*What is your favourite proverb?

“A stitch in time saves nine.” I’m lazy by nature.

*What would you call your autobiography?

Rambling with Roger. Actually, I have no idea.

*What would your ideal holiday be?

A rail pass to places where they play Major League Baseball.

*What talent would you most like to have?

Play the piano. THAT’S not going to happen.

*What would be your ideal choice of alternative profession or job?

Teaching remedial math to adults, but not using that ugly Core Curriculum stuff they’re using in New York State.

*How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money?

I’d spend some time working on genealogy, working more with the Friends of the Library, and maybe volunteering for the Red Cross.

*What animal would you most like to be?

Golden retriever. I’m not a dog person, but I do like them.
**
Who would play you in the movie about your life?

Forest Whitaker. As a child, I have no idea.

*What is your most treasured possession?

A copy of Abbey Road allegedly signed by four Beatles.

*If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?

Labyrinth.

*Who is your favourite comedian or humorist?

Bill Cosby. Or Bob Newhart.

*Who are your sporting heroes?

Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

*If you could have one (more or less realistic) wish come true, what would you wish for?

Truth serum in the Washington, DC water supply, so we’d know for sure that Lobbyist A owns Congressman B, et al.

*If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner who would they be?

I must have answered this a half dozen times and never tire of it: John Lennon, René Magritte, and Jack Kirby, for no particular reason, except to see if Magritte would complain about the appropriation of his apple for the Beatles’ Apple Records; I suspect he would not care. They could talk about art from different perspectives.

Blogging, state of

Writing on deadline gives me agita

I had this really great week with my Times Union blog at the end of August. Thrice, a post was one of the highlighted posts. I say I do the blog for myself, but it’s also true that I have enough ego to enjoy when my efforts are appreciated. And the matrices are quite varied: visitors, of course, but I really appreciate it when people who’d NEVER commented before are moved to write; it says I hit a particularly responsive chord. I also like it when folks repost my meanderings on Twitter and Facebook.

This also made me happy: “Just a quick thanks for the work you do on the NYSDCA blog. I had someone asking for religion data today, and I thought, hm, I remember seeing something about that Continue reading “Blogging, state of”