04 Jan
So, although I opened the year with something of a political personal reflection thing, I suspect at least some people are interested in the more mundane “what I did” sort of posts around here. Those are useful for me, because it helps me remember when I actually did things, and it lets me share some […]
Posted in family, hobbies, life, movies and tv by: chuck
Comments Off on the chronicling of a vacation, more or less
26 Dec
Yesterday was a low-key affair, we all actually kind of slept in – presents weren’t getting well and truly cracked until after 8am. We went more for quality than quantity this year, which is perfectly fine with me. I got, among other things, a very fine, home made Jayne Cobb hat, some new pants, a […]
Posted in family, hobbies, life by: chuck
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11 Dec
It’s been a while since I’ve really gotten away from it all. It was time. My friend Jason and I spent Saturday hiking a little piece of the Appalachian Trail through Shenandoah National Park in Western Virginia. As you can see above, it was an excellent day for a hike in the mountains, even if […]
Posted in hobbies, life by: chuck
Comments Off on a grand day out, at peace with the universe
29 Nov
If there’s a theme this time around, it’s the idea that you can draw lines between all kinds of things, and despite the existence categories like “rock”, “country”, “r&b” or whatever, a lot of interesting stuff happening in the brackish areas where the borders bump up against each other. Each of these records, quite accidentally […]
Posted in cut out racks, hobbies, music, nostalgia by: chuck
Comments Off on cutout xxiii – walking the line between country and rock…again
28 Nov
The preponderance of little but cat videos for the last week should tell you all something. I took a little break from the grind. Over the course of my career thus far, I’ve traditionally worked with the kind of person who hosted their family’s Thanksgiving feast, so I’ve usually been the guy who stayed around […]
Posted in family, hobbies, life by: chuck
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25 Nov
I actually passed 50k on November 16, which says something. There might be a decent novella in the mess. I’ll get back to you after I play with editing.
Posted in books, hobbies by: chuck
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17 Nov
As you may be aware, dear reader, I’m a big fan of the kind of pop culture meta piece like this one from (surprise) Amanda Marcotte about what she perceives as the ascendance of mass-market mediocrity in modern American popular culture as being inherently more “worthy” than properties with more limited, niche appeal. I include […]
Posted in books, hobbies, nostalgia, political, stress by: chuck
Comments Off on I hope I’m not just channelling some lingering nerd resentment here, but…
17 Nov
I finished several things yesterday. It feels like I accomplished something. writing my NaNoWriMo project. A solid 50k + word first draft. Might be a good 35k word novella in there with some judicious editing. a first read-through on a huge pile of documentation. Useful and necessary for an ongoing extracurricular project. reading a book. […]
Posted in books, hobbies, life, movies and tv by: chuck
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02 Nov
I haven’t had a lot of time to be online this week. In between meetings, dealing with non-specific evening issues, not feeling all that great, and the beginning of NaNoWriMo (giving it another shot, this time with…an outline!), I just haven’t had much blogging inclination. I have seen/heard a couple of things worth passing on […]
Posted in hobbies, life, movies and tv by: chuck
Comments Off on mid-week linkage
31 Oct
For reasons that still kind of elude me, this weekend involved cramming more stuff into 72 hours or so than is really possible or advisable, but a lot of it was quite a bit of fun. Still, I’m finding myself dragging a bit, largely due to sleep deficit and a few aches and pains as […]
Posted in bitching, books, family, hobbies, life, movies and tv, nostalgia, stress by: chuck
Comments Off on there’s a problem with the pumpkins