Okay.
Here goes.
My entry that will forever float in the virtual/internet community.
File it under “s**t happens,” or the “Randy does stupid s**t” file.
But how do I begin my absurd, tragic, comic, mystifying, mundane tale? Continue reading
This weekend I’ve been busy trying to put some “order” into my life. I think it’s partly seasonal–locating and unpacking the cold weather gear–but this year my effort is more radical than usual.
Since I decided to leave academia for good after completing a one-year teaching appointment at the University of Minnesota last academic year, I worked at a local golf course in order to pay my bills and play some golf. But as I tired of the customer service lifestyle there, I realized I could not continue to put off what I have been talking about doing for some time: making a career of writing.
Both academia and any other work were distractions because focus tended to be on matters (including teaching which I have always had a love-hate relationship with) other than writing. So a few weeks ago I finally said, “Enough!” I quit my golf course job and started preparing to write. Continue reading
Good morning, friends.
A brief note to inform you that I am in the process of trying to optimize my web site. One of the first changes I am making is creating a new tagline to something more manageable and interesting, but still connected to Bruce Lee’s “no way, no limitation” mantra that I have adopted for myself.
In fact, it–No Way (Man)–was the title of a Blogger site I never did anything with. (I never figured out how to cancel the site so it simply floats in virtual reality taking up space.) Continue reading
Last night I didn’t sleep well, for whatever reason I’m not sure. But after working on my web site for ninety minutes after the late news and watching The Daily Show with John Stewart, I retired to bed with Baldo taking up half the bed. (He’s a large, handsome Siamese seal point that I took in as a stray six years ago this November, the story of which I will tell at some point.)
Three hours after going to sleep I awoke. I lay in bed for another hour, my brain working overtime thinking about things I needed and want to do. I eventually resolved to just get up and DO something.
So I’ve been tired all day and have napped off and on between going to the dentist to have one of the temporary crowns reseated after it came off for the second time (only to have it break a couple of hours later while eating), going to the grocery store twice, and doing assorted computer stuff. Continue reading
I’ve watched some of the first two episodes of Ken Burns’ most recent attempt to capture the “authentic” American historical, cultural, and political experience for viewers of public television. (Those bourgeois consumers who pony up with contributions to view something more civilized like British sitcoms or Masterpiece Theatre since the federal government gave up any notion of a general public good except as it serves and is defined by the pursuit of commercial, private profit.)
I’ve never been much of a fan, frankly, of Mr. Burns. (Here I go without even summarizing what I’ve seen because I assume, perhaps incorrectly, anyone who reads this might be familiar with his corpus of documentary beguilement.)
I was reminded why I become intellectually queasy with him and his work with my brief, unplanned, and impatient viewings of parts of the first two episodes (of six): 1) “The Scripture of Nature” and 2) “The Last Refuge.” Continue reading
I was taking care of all my little bedtime preparations a couple of hours ago including taking garbage out to the dumpster while trying to distract my two cats, Baldo and Chica, from their preoccupation with food, when I noticed how pleasant it was outside.
Baldo and Chica had followed me outside—they follow figuring, based on past experience, that I’ll eventually give in to their food cravings and persistent pleadings—and I sat down on a picnic table bench between my father’s unused motorized chair (where Baldo has recently taken to sitting as if it is his) and another nearby bench where Chica normally sits (and which she would eventually settle on).
I sat down, straightened my back and stretched my neck—my body’s principal stress indicator—and looked up at the star-filled night sky before closing my eyes and deeply inhaling and exhaling. Continue reading
I watched “The Office” tonight.
I continue to be amazed by how incredibly accurate the representations of different kinds of privilege are represented in the character of Michael Scott, the manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin paper company.
A certain kind of cluelessness is at the center of the gender, sexual, racial, and class/corporate privilege that he enjoys and which serves his interest in exploiting, demeaning, and controlling his underlings.
His heterosexual privilege was evident in the opening scene tonight as he called in Oscar Martinez, the queer Latino employee, into his office to ask him, unbeknownst to Oscar at the moment he entered Michael’s office, how he should approach his upcoming colonoscopy. He specifically asked Oscar what he should do to make the procedure more pleasurable and whether he should address his concern with the doctor performing the procedure so they could make it as pleasurable for both of them as possible. Continue reading
Monday afternoon, after spending a lovely three hours in the morning with my dentist getting some old crowns removed in order to replace them with lovely new ones and finding out my cobra dental insurance is crap; I decided to go to a new movie release. (I also needed to get away from my cats. All they want from me is food and they know I’m weak. So my best judgment hinted to me, “Get out of the house!”)
Anyway, I saw Soderbergh’s “The Informant” starring Matt Damon, who I generally like and who I really liked in the “Bourne” series. (One of the best action/thriller/hero/spy kinds of movies I’ve seen. I thought he was exceptional in those.)
I’d read that it was “Coen” (brother)-like and the TV trailers for it seemed fun so I anticipated it with some good feeling. But ten to twenty minutes into it I was having a hard time staying awake and I wondered it the movie would improve. Continue reading