As it is December 17, today we begin the celebration Saturnalia, the Roman festival for Saturn, god of the harvest, running through December 23, and landing, as most winter celebrations do, around the time of the winter solstice. Saturnalia, of course, is the pagan observance from which many modern Christmas traditions are derived, including the […]

Beyond the usual modest slate of individual gifts, our household traditionally also manages to find a collective gift for the whole family to enjoy; it’s a nice little reward for getting ourselves through the year. This year, rather than grabbing some large entertainment purchase (We’ll wait a while on a next-gen console, for example), we […]

My friend Steve is a very talented musician and songwriter. He’s played all kinds of interesting venues from honky tonks to places of worship. He builds beautiful native american flutes, and plays upright bass (airbrushed with gorgeous Betty Page pinup artwork) in a Rockabilly cowpunk band. He’s written and released lots of material over the […]

So yes, I only work four days per week (never mind that it’s ten hours per day). Doesn’t matter, I sit here on Friday morning, paying my bills, and I can’t help but reflect that this was one long week, at least from the point of view of this observer. Relativity in action, folks, look […]

I’m finding that for the first time in my adult life, my work group is made up primarily of people my own age. For most of my tenure as a civil servant, I’ve been the office “baby”, well into my late 30s. The federal service cadre I’be been part of is made up largely of […]

So, it’s the fourth day of the government shutdown. I haven’t been to work since Tuesday morning, when I went in for fifteen minutes to sign the letter telling me I was “non-essential” and changing my voice mail to reflect the fact that I won’t be available until congress gets their heads out of their […]

I have finished my first week at the new job. As I mentioned previously, I think it’ll be a good experience; it’s been so thus far. I’m still not entirely sure how to deal with the additional time I’ve found myself with. I’m still trying to convince my body that bedtime is no longer 7pm, […]

I guess it’s one of those date occurrences that really set off some people’s superstitious reflexes. Me? I don’t really care. Been an okay week, I guess. The usual annoyances are still annoyances, though some are at least winding down a bit. More to come there later, if we haven’t talked about it. If that’s […]

Just wanted to take a minute to point out (another) article over at The Av Club which I *almost* wish existed ten years ago when I fell into a particular rabbit hole, a Beginner’s Guide to Paul Westerberg and the Replacements, which does a nice job of running through the band’s history and evolution, and […]

I’m in kind of a countdown mode lately, both working my ass off and spinning my wheels at the same time. That description seems contradictory, but if you’ve found yourself staring down a big change on the horizon with enough time to brace for it and put a few lingering affairs in order before the […]