Came back from DC a day early because someone else needed to; I’ll never pass up an opportunity to sleep in my own bed another night (I have more hotel points than I’ll possibly ever need…).

…And, it turned out Coulton and Paul and Storm were in town…my town (or, you know, the closest major city, which is only a few miles from my place); even if I was a little tired after this week, I had to go; they made the effort to come to the music venue equivalent of my front door, and I’d really kind of like them to come back again sometime.

As expected, the show was lots of fun (it always is, after all), and better attended than one would think for a Thursday night. Plenty of laughs, improv, and songs about monsters/robots/monkeys/mad scientists that are sad.

And this group, should events ever get back to them, will probably regret the unfortunate hand gestures in the promo photo the venue was using:

Anyway…tunes. I’m spent.

1. “Lost (live)” – Katy Perry
2. “Cho’s Rebuttal” – The Blibbering Humdingers
3. “Friends of P” – The Rentals
4. “Dancing Shoes” – Arctic Monkeys
5. “I’m A Fool” – The Clarks
6. “Hot” – Avril Levigne
7. “Dirty Eyes (Sex Don’t Sell) – The Raveonettes
8. “Dirty Mind” – The Pipettes
9. “Black Diamond” – The Replacements
10. “Ballad in B” – The Syn D’ Cats

Tuesday evening, after a work day that was stressful for all kinds of reasons that had little to do with the actual job at hand (though the triggering event came upon me too quickly to get nervous about), I shook off the resulting adrenaline rush with a few hours of literary shoulder-rubbing and political commentary (and yeah, a couple of dark beers) at Busboys and Poets in DC for a stop on Amanda Marcotte’s book tour in support of her new release, “Get Opinionated: A Progressive’s Guide to Finding Your Voice (and Taking a Little Action).”

As regular readers are no doubt aware, I’ve been a fan of Ms. Marcotte’s online writing for years now. Her take on the issues never fails to give me something to think about, and is just as funny and biting as it is informative and insightful. Having the opportunity to hear her read some selections from the book, answer questions about the writing process and her feelings on current events in politics and the culture wars, and to have a few minutes to chat with her as she signed my copy of the book was, for me, a big deal.

Also, I need to make mention that the venue was pretty damned cool as well – a combination restaurant-bar-coffeeshop-salon (in the intellectual sense)-bookstore with a great atmosphere, eclectic and engaging clientele, and a general welcoming vibe for those of us who are of a more progressive/liberal persuasion. Also, the food looked and smelled really good. I didn’t have time for dinner this time, but I will definitely be heading back before too long for just that purpose.

‘Twas a busy, yet thorougly entertaining weekend…

After jetting home (in a rolling, plodding sort of way on I-95) on Friday afternoon, Colleen and I slipped out for a couple of hours by ourselves to grab dinner and catch a movie – kabobs at a great local joint and a screening of Babies at the local art house cinema.

Quick review? Good stuff; it chronicles the first year of four different kids from different parts of the world. There are lots of great anthropological insights to be had, though they’re all inferred (thankfully, the filmmakers didn’t feel the need to impose some sage voice-over on it); simply showing the ways that families and childrearing work around the world, but also demonstrating that despite all these cultural differences, we’re all an awful lot alike: put a baby near a cat, for example, and the kid’s going to tackle and otherwise torment it, no matter what continent it’s on (thankfully, cats are mostly patient creatures).

I expect, however, that a lot of people will watch it more for the squee factor of watching eighty minutes of babies doing cute baby things.

Much of the rest of the week was occupied by a family camping trip with the cub scout unit at the Newport News Park, a huge chunk of public park land a little ways west of home down I-64. Even though the wind had the lake shut down, dashing our canoeing plans (and caused some disconcerting creaking from the trees above my tent), we had a nice time sitting around the campfire, making sugar napalm toasting marshmallows, and trying to spot animals (saw a bunch of dear, raptors, toads, and a quick little lizard).

And lesson learned: Want to keep a pack of pre-teens occupied and engaged for the better part of an evening? Hand ’em a case of MREs for dinner. For the record, the beef stew isn’t completely terrible, but stay away from the “strawberry banana dairy shake”; way too sweet.

Upon returning home Sunday, I had a decently productive afternoon, taking care of a whole pile of chores, making a good (but probably a little too spicy) Thai peanut chicken dish, getting a nice long bike ride in (after applying the lessons learned from this book toward getting the drivetrain and gearing dialed in properly), and finally watching the replacement copy of The Hurt Locker from Netflix – good movie, worthy of the accolades it received.

My head’s honestly somewhere else, so I’m going to leave the commentary to a minimum.

Hopefully the camping trip this weekend will make some things clearer.

1. “Knife going in” – Tegan and Sara
2. “A Little Bit Lonesome” – Kasey Chambers
3. “Androgynous” – The Replacements
4. “Jonas & Ezekial” – Indigo Girls
5. “Brick By Brick (live)” – Katy Perry
6. “Money For Nothing” – Dire Straits
7. “Life and How To Live It” – R.E.M.
8. “Crocodile Smile” – Innocent Nixon
9. “Windowsill” – Arcade Fire
10. “The Letter” – The Clarks

Carrie Vaughn wins an internet from me for her post calling attention to how women are so reluctant, due to social pressures or the patriarchy or whatever other influences, to simply accept compliments or declare their inherent worth or ability without qualifying it, and how this is really a very harmful thing.

As a father of daughters, this is exactly the kind of thing we ought to be calling attention to.

The general trending topic she points to specifically addresses women, who really do feel a lot more pressure to qualify their worth when they receive a compliment than men do; it’s just the unfortunate way the world works (although there are a lot of great people out there doing their part to change that in large and small ways every day).

Also, without diminishing in any way the experience of the women this movement is describing, I can say that I think this message does, at least for some of us, does apply across gender lines. Somewhere in my formative years, I, the burly white man of privilege, absorbed the same lesson – that acknoweldging one’s own abilities, embracing one’s awesomeness, as it’s described, is unseemly and frowned upon. I’ve struggled with this for years; I can’t accept a compliment without cancelling it out by pointing out a flaw I also posess; it’s a reflex, and it’s a damned tough one to overcome.

To illustrate this point; I’m going to quote a piece from the lj piece I linked to above; they’re the words of the author, but it could honestly be pulled out of my head any given day of the week; showing exactly how often we do this to ourselves:

I am Karen Healey and I am awesome. Today I helped out friends who needed help with moving even though I left before a lot of my friends and I feel bad about being so lazy. I came home and made a cake with a fantastic rum-chocolate ganache but the cake itself was pretty dry and I should have paid more attention to the recipe, I’m an idiot. I then sat on the couch and read a book instead of doing all the work I have lined up. I am very proud of my reading skills. They are excellent, and so am I when I am not lazy, dumb, prejudiced, boring, offensive, and scatty.

That’s just one paragraph…as much as I’m a fan of self-deprecating humor, I like the way the marked up version reads better.

So, to reiterate – we (especially women who are under serious social pressure not to) should take opportunities to embrace our awesomeness, to celebrate our worth and our talent and our efforts, without qualification. It’s good for us, and we really ought to be good to ourselves more often.

Usually, when I’m present at a ball game, those in attendance are treated to a pitcher’s duel; many strike-outs, the occasional pop fly, three up, three down, rinse, repeat.

Last Night at Nationals Park was, thankfully, a little different than the norm.

Last season, I went to six games, and was present for one home run, and for that, I had my back turned. Last night, I saw four, three from the Nats, including a big one from Adam Dunn into an upper deck (too bad it wasn’t mine), as well as an amazing diving catch from Roger Bernadina:

And miracle of miracles, the Nats even won, beating the Atlanta Braves 6-3.

All in all, a great game, and an excellent evening out.

Happy Star Wars Day

I really wish I could write as well as Slacktivist.

Only this year, you’re covered if the man with the tan shar-pei is hearing-impaired:

Happy First of May, everybody!

I really don’t have much comment – the little stuff I usually put here has been creeping into the blog proper this week. It’s been a week.

My biggest complaint is that the Hurt Locker Blu-Ray netflix sent apparently doesn’t play in my PS3; not sure if it’s a mastering issue or that little sticker thing they put on the hub unbalancing it; could be firmware or BD Live connection thing…

Ah, the pleasures of a developing format. I do know, however, it’s annoying: I was looking forward to watching that this weekend. Maybe I’ll try a few things before I send it back.

1. “Paradise City” – Guns N’ Roses
2. “Our American Cousin” – Molly Lewis
3. “Never Say Never” – Earth To Bob
4. “One of the Boys” – Katy Perry
5. “Still Feeling Blue” – Kasey Chambers
6. “Big Jack” – AC/DC
7. “Lay It Down Clown” – The Replacements
8. “Calling All Angels (live)” – The Wailin’ Jennys
9. “Come on Up to the House” – Sarah Jarosz
10. “Born Too Late” – The Clarks

Oh, and don’t forget like I almost did – Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!