Glasgow and Gloucester

Another week has gone by! What have I learned this week? I haven't learned anything new, but I have re-learned that a person can only focus and attend to so much. What do I mean? It means that I can only put up with a finite number of things before I start to get really stressed out.  I don't think I'm exactly unique about this either. However as I discussed in previous posts, I start to want to retreat a bit when too much is going on.

I might retreat, but my retreat may not exactly public. Externally I might appear to be fine, but on the inside I slowly tend to get drained. The difficult thing with this is that the more you put on everything is just dandy, the more physic debt you feel (you feel the gap between your public and private self). For me, this manifests in trying to conserve my speed, and a desire for time for myself. I notice my thought patterns even get altered, as "just trying to get through the day" results in me often finding the most efficient ways of dealing with situations -- often not resulting in explicit analytical thought. Sure, I'm thinking on intuitive level a lot, which is NOT not thinking, however, I can feel my attention span just being ripped apart.

So, what's a boy to do? Again, it's time to reaffirm some ideas, some old notions that now have some more resonance after going through some life situations. Numero uno, one has actively manage one's life to be an advocate for yourself. As I was telling Roadielocks, the western world encourages one to not think, just consume, devour, and enjoy. Being exposed to so much stuff, with so many consumer options, perceived choices, at such a velocity, we are conditioned to passively just go with it. But without an active effort to prune, limit, focus, we are left with a whole lot of shit. But with all the modern conveniences we have, why would one even want to do that?

The title of the post, you ask about? Well, we just went to Gloucester this weekend where I got to see the sea, which always clears my head, and we are heading to Glasgow (and Scotland) at the end of the month. I will have more opportutnies to try to clear my head.

If you're into this kind of thing, this clip of J Mascis and Kennedy is kind of amusing ("Kennedy you're insane"), check it out...



Bon voyage!

Life Without Cable

I don't really miss cable. It's been two weeks without our FIOS service, and we've been able to make do without our one thousand channels. Sure, I miss the Travel network, I miss Silent Sundays on TCM (who doesn't?), but not enough to justify our monthly cable expense.

I think in a lot of ways you have to wean yourself off all these services, products, and things. You get used to all these options, conditioned to expect all these choices. However, once you start to inspecting what you really need versus what you want, it gets a little easier. So with television viewing, you start to narrow things down a bit, and cut the cord on cable.

We just had the big blizzard of 2013 (yay!), and right before the storm I hooked up our new over the air antenna. With that, we are currently getting programming from our Apple TV through NetFlix and Hulu Plus and over-the-air programming.

It's good enough so far, I'll keep you updated.

Neurons Need Some Charging

This will be a short post, but I want to get something in before we start the week. The main theme I want to explore is keeping enough energy for yourself despite dealing with the everyday demands of life. This is a pretty lofty topic, but I we'll keep it short and sweet.

The past two weeks I have spent very little time at all on myself, and when I do want to start thinking about myself, I feel like there isn't much there. It's like my brain has put myself on a hold pattern. "Doug, you need to think about nothing for 3 days to recharge -- whatever you do, do NOT think." Okay, that might sound a bit reasonable, but when this happens, I don't have much choice in whether I'm available.

The reason why this is becoming a bit more pressing is this is the month to decide where we live. (I need to avoid short utterances, but this is it.) I was hoping to get more traction on this question, but it wasn't until this long weekend did I get to think more about this again. We're making some progress, and I think we have it now down to 2 locations.

There's more to this, but we'll wrap it up for now. Until later.

More Adventures in Minimalism

I just finished setting up the Apple TV. I have some mixed feelings about this as in minimizing I have somehow purchased another device for the house, albeit small. As I wrote earlier, cable TV is going, so we'll be using streaming devices. So in all, for the greater good, I'm fine with this, but I do realize some of the contradiction.

The purge continues as well. I have got rid of like fifteen to twenty pieces of clothing, which is great. I typically have favorite clothes (some people call this a fashion rut), so I don't really need six pairs of cords, especially when I only wear two pair. I found a fuzzy pair of pants that I thought was a cat, but it was really a black pairs of pants that turned into a cat bed. Those are gone. All in all, this is going well.

On a small level, I feel like I'm beginning to take a little more control of things, and doing a reset in a quiet and controlled way. If I have time, I'll try to write about my experiences with the Roku XS and the Apple TV, as I now have an opportunity compare the two side by side.

Adios Cable

So we're a bit into 2013, and without really having an explicit plan (re: some detailed spreadsheet to life), things are evolving pretty steadily. For a lack of better phrase, a lot minimizing has been happening, taking stock of how all my daily activities connect to each other, particularly my stress levels, consumer behavior, work-life, and prioritizing what I actually want to do.

A lot HAS happened, but the main thing to note is we are finally getting rid of cable. While it's a not a huge chunk we're saving, this is has the potential to be a symbolic victory, cutting the boob tube cord. I've talked about this the past two years, trying to find the right time to do this, and frankly, we seldom watch cable tv now, so now is quite a practical decision (it's easier for me to make decisions when they are more outcome based, rather than get overly philosophical with no real obvious better or worse). I ordered an antenna so we can pull in OTA (fancy shortcut for over the air tv), which I'll be getting later this week. That combined with Netflix on the Roku, and I think we'll be covered.

The one thing I will miss is the access to the Travel Channel watching Ghost Adventures. Travel Channel seems to have very limitation distribution on streaming services, as it's not available on Hulu and little access over Netflix. It is available on iTunes, but we'll cross that bridge when we have to.

We're doing other things as well, but wanted to get this captured on the blog. To my two readers, I hope you are well!

Historical Travels: Malcom X Ellan-Little Collins House

Background

For a while now, my goal has been to travel and blog about all the historical locations and haunts we've been to. Rosanne and I see a lot of places, and I always thought what better way to capture these trips but through a travel journal or blog. To kick things off, I'm going to talk about my little excursion today to the Malcolm X Ella Collins-Little House.



Most recent read has been Malcom X: A Live Reinvented, by Manning Marable, which recounts the life of (obviously) Malcolm X. Malcolm X was a man of many faces and places. He was born in Nebraska, moved to Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and along way spent some time in our dearest Boston. One of the themes of this tome is that the genius of Malcolm X was his ability to constantly reinvent himself, adapting to his situations in life and audiences. To make an underestimate, Malcolm X made a critical impact on American culture, with a great number of black Americans in the 60s, and resonating throughout all segments of our society since then. In trying to understand a bit more about this great American leader, today I made the journey to Roxbury, a neighborhood of Boston, which is close to our home in Dedham.

To give you some background, Malcolm X spent his early adult years on 72 Dale Street, Roxbury living with his half-sister Ella Collins-Little. There are better sources to read about his life rather this post, but these years are referred to by some as Malcolm's Detroit Red years. The name referred to the red in young Malcolm's hair, and also his time spent living in Michigan. His time in Roxbury was characterized by his coming of age as a young man (never having spent significant time in a city), and also time spent time learning the culture of the streets.


Let's hit the road!

About early afternoon I actually made the decision to head out. I hopped on the computer and starting searching for his address. Where was it? How could I find it? I did some simple searches like 'Malcom X Roxbury MA Home' and on my second hit I found his address: 72 Dale Street. After I got some food in my stomach, I entered my address in my smart phone, and I got some directions. It was more or less straight down Washington Street, and take a left. How easy?



I hit the road, and it's pretty easy going. The sun is out, and the traffic is moderate. I drive through Roslindale, and then I go through Jamaica Plain. Along the way, I drive by an old club I used to play at, The Midway. Everything looks the same, except again the weather is finally nice out. There's always a bit of grey to this area -- slightly industrial, not really bursting with color. While we usually terminate in J.P., this time I keep on going past to my new destination today.

Eventually, Washington Street takes you in Roxbury without any real official notice. There is no sign saying "WELCOME TO ROXBURY!" Roxbury is primarily an African-American community, so you do see more non-whites. I keep on driving, and pretty quickly I see Dale Street.

Once you take a left on Dale Street, you see Malcolm X park (it predates Malcolm as it was designed by Olmstead), and you start to see plenty of late 19th-century houses. If you're into Victorians, with their spirals and pretty detailing you will be pleased. Considering the degree of urban renewal in our cities, I was actually surprised this street was pretty much untouched. Anyway, pretty quickly I see 85 Dale Street, and before you know it, I drive by 72 Dale. Oops. I hit an intersection (that's fairly busy), take a quick left, and park my car, and plan to just walk over.

I lock up my car, and I notice subconsciously notice "this isn't my neighborhood." It's fine, and I feel safe, but all my time living in pretty white suburbs rears its ugly head by a slight pang of feeling like I stick out. I keep walking, and I head over to the house. Once I get there, I see it:



As my wife noted, you would never really know it's an historical house. The house blends in, almost too well. It's actually one of the least maintained houses, as it's been unoccupied for a very long time. I stand there, take a photo, and I think about taking more photos, but I hesitate as this is still a real residential neighborhood. There is a marker, indicating the importance of the house, but that is really about it. I imagine young Malcolm X in the house, what sort of people may have lived there after. In some ways, you can imagine what it could have been like a bit, as the neighborhood has not really been all that gentrified. I keep walking in a weak attempt at imaging what young Malcolm X would have experienced walking around his neighborhood. I walk down the street, and eventually hit Warren Street. This street is a major thoroughfare, and I see a McDonald's and your typical shopping options. There are a few people walking around, but this is about it.

I get back in my car, take some audio notes to capture my immediate thoughts, and I head back.

Round Up

I enjoyed my trip today. If you're into visiting places with some historical background, check it out. This is clearly not a house-museum, as there is nothing really to see other than the house, but this is a clear reminder, that our historical figures lived like normal people even being major cultural icons. A lot of house museums put a gloss, a shininess to what might have been. Sometimes, these places may look too good. 72 Dale Street is actually worse off today (check out this PDF of the house -- there's a great photo in this document), but it actually underscores the realness of the neighborhoods and locals about the folks we read about it.

Thinking...

It's very difficult to make decisions. You get to a point where you have a gut feeling, you know it, you believe it, then you begin to doubt it. You begin the painful process of thinking. A while after you chew on the idea, the great idea goes by the wayside. What happened? Well what happened was you thought it out.

I'm tired of thinking. I think thinking has gotten in the way now for a quite a while. Thinking about this very idea makes me begin to doubt, think of how cliche this very notion is, but guess what? I'm tired of it. Thinking with your head reduces you to logic, a perfect rational creature. What am I not? What are people not? Rational. Listen to what people say, and listen to what you hear and think they're saying. Nine times of out of ten you probably going to be off a bit.

So what has thinking done for me? Well, for one it has kept me in one place for a while. Any momentum I've had recently has been when I stopped thinking and began to feel, and listened to the proverbial gut. Earlier this year when I knew things weren't exactly right at my last job, I had to seriously listen and acknowledge the physical sensation in my gut. I knew I had to do something, and I did. I was proud of myself. If I had listened to my mind, or just "thought it out," and I'm not so sure it would have turned the same way.

Let's continue. Thinking also puts a temporary stop on creativity. I'll put my hand to guitar, play something. The mind says, "oh no, that's not good enough. It's been done before." So what do I do? Seriously reduce my proverbial creative output waiting for the right set of conditions to be in place. Right sound from the speakers on the right day when I'm in a good mood.

I go through the day thinking about what I like and dislike. However, I find the older one gets the harder it gets to know directly what you feel. Do you like chocolate? Most people can directly answer that question. Yes, no, but very few maybe so's. When you think about your next choices, it all gets very gray. One feels safe, one can rationalize. Don't get me wrong, you need to think -- I do it all the time. But sometimes, you need to let non-verbal parts of you get their say too. When I overthink I begin to loose touch with myself.

Do you have a pet? Cat? Dog? I have 3 crazy cats. We got one cat recently named Sherman. We named Sherman Sherman because he's like tank. He's big, stocky, and he likes to walk into you with his little battering ram head. And when you pick him he purrs. He clearly enjoys his time with you. Sherman likes to be on your lap. Direct. He communicates to me without using words. "Oh yes, Doug, you have a very nice lap, and I like your company." Sherman isn't thinking if he's showing too much attention, and trying to purr because I expect him to. He's not that complicated. He likes to be on my lap -- that's it.

It get even harder when you coordinate your decisions with a partner or group. Now you need to coordinate your feelings, preferences, thoughts, which you may not even be positive about in the first place with another. Their stuff in their mind is changing too, and now changing even more in anticipation of you! What can a person do? Keeping it strictly to your brain space and thinking, you could be constantly adjusting your thoughts to what you think other people's thoughts are of your thoughts. This goes on and on, and then basically, you're stuck. Ooops. You get stuck in a loop. Over and over again. And again. Tired. How'd this happen?

Well, on days like this I'd like to thank the brain. And also on the fact are brains are kind of messy. We're smart enough -- we can think, put together some fancy ideas, but sometimes we hit some walls. Ouch. We're not so smart to realize we're stuck in this ridiculous loop! Especially when you're stuck in the loop with somebody else. Couple's therapy anybody? We just get stuck in these patterns thanks to our little brains. Sometimes I just want to remove it from my body.

So if I'm not using my brain, what am I using? I'd like to use my gut, or my intuition. They may be different, they may the same thing (I tend to think they're probably different, I was reading someplace, they are in different chakras). After all this time, I think you've accumulated enough experience where you don't necessarily need to actively think all the time. You can hopefully sort out the chestnuts useful from the garbage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it works more often than not, I think I'm good. There's just too much out there (not fooling myself this is just happening now to us in the "information age"), and it's hard to figure out.

So what am I do? (Besides finish this long post without pictures.) Continue going at it. What's it, you ask? Experiences, life -- accumulate and treasure those (even the bad ones), and put them to good use -- at some point. You may not use them immediately, but you may put them to use at some point. The brain has taught me one thing that's been useful. That thing is perspective. Having a brain gives me self-awareness to know I exist, others exist, as well as their other perspectives. I just can't forget that I am here, even when I'm surrounded my zillions of people and ideas floating about. I need to acknowledge and respect my feelings, yes, my thoughts, and yours too along they way. Just don't make it so complicated.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Back from Maine...

Roz and I just got back from Maine, and again we had a really excellent trip. We got to see Chris, Chris, and Ruby, who we don't see enough of, and I actually get to spend real quality time with Rosanne too. It's trips like these where I get to take a step back and really get to appreciate what I have around me and enjoy life. While I like Maine (quite a bit), I'm not exactly sure if it's Maine itself that makes everything taste so good. I think it's being around people, focusing on the people you care about, and sharing and enjoying life with them.

While I fear this post might be a bit maudlin (maybe it's just me, but it seems like whenever I talk about more emotional stuff I feel a little naked, exposed -- I have need to wear another layer of clothing), I think it's important to reflect before the usual cycle of work (wash, rinse, and dry) begins again. I'm always asking myself if life is moving faster and why. I like to wear my little philosopher's hat now and then, and dig a bit deeper. Part of me wonders if this is just the experience we all feel as we get older. Some things we all experience, and maybe this is the case with me -- I'm no different. My other theory is life is getting more complicated, busy and noisy (hello constant world of Facebook). Here again, I say yes it might getting more complicated now, BUT I think I may have heard this before with folks times past. People always look back to the good ol' days when things were simple -- before TV there was radio, before industrialization there was make my own pencil in my backyard with my own widdling knife from own tree (blah, you get the picture). Anyway, at the end of the day it probably doesn't matter if life is getting faster and why -- it just matters to value the things you care about. It's been said before, but life goes by quite fast.

Roz and I are always looking at different places to move too (it seems like that's what we do, other post for another day), but it probably most important to look inside. As Rosanne mentioned today, it's the feeling we have when we're at all these places. We feel more complete as people, less stressed, and connected. While a lot of these places are great, it's really how we're feeling on inside that connects us.

We got to spend an awesome time with CCR (no, not the band!). I got to kayak and reflect with Chris as we hear the call of the loon, watch fine cinema with Chris, share a pickle with Ruby and relearn the power of "No" in conversation, and get to read out loud The Last Stand to Roz as we drive the open, tree-lined roads of Mid-Coast Maine. At this point I'm already beginning to have thoughts of tomorrow creep into my head, but before that happens, it's time for my own early mid-year Thanksgiving (had the pie at Moody's) -- thank you for an awesome trip this year!

Do Not Worry

It's been a busy weekend, full of a lot of activities -- I'm actually surprised how much I (and we got done) this weekend. I'd like to start this post with a short passage from Hemingway:

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know."

I had picked up Movable Feast again after seeing Midnight in Paris for the second time. It was a great movie, and I heartily recommend it. Woody Allen really captured the beauty of Paris similar to what what he did for NYC in Manhattan, plus he touched on some timeless themes about how we live and we fulfill ourselves, be it through jobs, passions, higher pursuits, etc. I was very taken with the Hemingway character in the movie who spoke with a direct voice, full of insight coupled male heroic bravado. Anyway, in regards to the quote, I connected with it on the level of how do we actually say anything meaningful in life, art, music, or whatever. My brain at least is always thinking on some many levels, I frequently prevent myself from starting AND completing many things. I get sidetracked and ask too many peripheral questions. How do you stay focused? Something a 12-year-old could tell you, focus on the truth. Thank you Hemingway.

This weekend I also attended the Design for Drupal conference at MIT on Saturday. This was a big event focusing on the designer community (hence the name), engaging and to integrating it into the larger Drupal community. For those not familiar, Drupal is a VERY popular content management system-- essentially a tool that lets you manage your website without knowing fancy code. I had an excellent time there, and it's been refreshing so far with my new job to be in a position of actual doing. At my last job, I grew accustomed to what seemed like a million meta-conversations that seldom resulted in getting anything done. Related, it's been nice to focus on the facts at hand (website development, meeting new people). If you live in a sea of gray long enough, you begin to forget what the truth is.

After the excellent conference, Rosanne and I got to eat some dinner and we moseyed our way over to the Brattle Theatre to watch a classic. As you probably don't know, I've been focusing a lot more on film this year (yes the film as in the higher culture variety as some people like to make fun of me for,), and part of that mission has been going to great places like the Coolidge Theater in Brookline, the Dedham Community theater, and now the Brattle. We got to see a restored version of African Queen that was great. Some parts of the story I didn't totally buy (why did they have to sink that German ship if Boghart had a decade's worth of gin and food?), but the movie really shined in the interactions between Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Good stuff!

Today was equally action-packed as we went to the Wilson Mountain Reservation in Dedham, the Arnold Arboretum, and also found a new friend. Walking all around the parks today, Rosanne and I made the obvious conclusion we needed a dog. How can you not walk a trail without a dog? That's what we thought too. Based on that, we visited the Angell Memorial shelter and the Animal Rescue League. Well, we didn't see any dogs, but we did bump into one fine cat. In one of the crate/cage things we saw this little guy named Russo. Russo had almost died when he was dropped off, as he was suffering from a serious wound. He was basically saved by the the emergency vet in Walpole (same vet we took Wyatt too last year), and has been recovering for the past two months. We met him, and he had the best personality. Just a few moments ago I was hanging out with him and he was purring like he's know me for 10 years. We really connected with him, and we took him home. The little guy's eight years old, and it felt to bring him home --welcome to the family!

Much Happening

What better time to squeeze in a blog post than right before the weekend closes. Reading Roadielocks on a regular basis, I get to see my lovely wife share with the world with her verve and lively prose, so I will use her as an my inspiration for today's post (been a while).

Just a quick word of warning, this initial post will not contain photos -- so I'll be violating my own sacred code of blogging (thou shalt always have photos in thou post). Let's get on to it.

Yesterday was sports-theme day, as RL and I went to the Bruins parade in the morning/afternoon, and I also went to the Revs game by night. First, let's talk the parade. While I was hesitate about waking up early(ish) on Saturday, it seemed like a good idea to experience parade. Winning in Boston is big, so I really couldn't pass this up (one million people felt the same way). RL and I took the commuter train in, and I was hit by the fact it seemed like the entire student body of Dedham High was at the station. I never knew so many 14-year-old's were into NHL hockey. It could have been a lot of worse (basically got some bad jokes and fashion), we made it to South Station okay.

We plunked our buts over at Government Center as we waited for the Bruin's brigade show up with with Lord Stanley's cup. We got to see the Cup (held by Tim Thomas), and the whole Bruins team strut their stuff. It was nice that the pace of the parade was actually a lot slower than previous parades have been up here, so you actually got some time to process what was going on. I remember at a Patriot's parade everybody passed in what I thought was 15 seconds.

After the parade, RL & I got to walk around the city, hit the North End, culminating with a visit to the Common. Along the way we did to see one pretty funny event. After we left the North End, we snaked through the Bank North Center, and low and behold their was still major Bruins activity left to be had. We saw the Duck boats returning (now empty), but I also got to see this very TALL guy on this bike. I got to see Chara on his bike zoom by the Duck boats giving the some folks a pretty hardy cheer. Pretty cool! As RL mentions in her blog, this kind of got me motivated to get the bike rack on the ASAP.

Later on, we headed back to Dedham to see our friends, Curt and Marieke. I saw the Revs tie with Chicago with Curt (excellent company, frustrating game) and Rosanne got to see Bride Wars (I think) with Marieke -- a good ol' gender divide, boys do the sports, girls do the chic flick. Definitely a good time!

Today, we were able to resume our tour of religion by going to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Dedham. Here were my takeaways in brief:

• Nice people
• Very white (however, most places around here do)
• LONG mass (75 minutes long)
• Seemed very similar to a Catholic mass with all the overhead and singing
• Cool sermon on the holy trinity -- use of 3 musketeers to help explain concept
  
• Too much book juggling, one second it was the Book of Common Prayer, then it was the hymnal
• Everyone took the wafer (Eucharist) together at the alter -- seemed very communal, none of this one at a time business
  
• Didn't like the alter was behind this ornamental gate, seemed symbol of some kind of hierarchy
• Got to see an old co-worker unexpectedly, very nice!

We are already have visited a Unitarian church (written about in an unpublished blog post), so we need to figure out where we go next. I'm thinking the Shakers -- what do you think?




Af

Daily Repetition

Just left Seth Godin's Road Trip in Boston, and it left me with a number of thoughts, but we'll limit it to a few -- we need to start somewhere. It's been a while (2009 really), so I can't move too fast now, or I'll get blog whiplash.

I'll be honest with you all, I have not read Linchpin yet, but I got a number of takeaways from today's event. Seth focuses a lot of on what he calls the lizard brain to talk about the primitive brain and it's subconsciousness that drives a lot of our instincts. We've inherited this lizard brain, and we've layered on top of it the cerebrum and cerebral cortex, higher brain centers where human cognition occurs. The big kicker here is that there is a constant conversation, sometimes conflict between the cognitive, rationale, "human" brain and the survival-based, reproductive-centric lizard brain. Why do we panic at presentations? Why do we get could caught up in a quick emotional tizzy? Why can't we think straight and more like Spock? Yes, it's the lizard brain.

The other takeaway I got today was Seth talking about the rigor of sharing his thoughts through regularly updating his blog. That kind of struck a nerve, especially relating to discipline and rigor since I haven't updated this thing in a while. Seth stressed not creating perfect content, but content that could have a positive impact on his audience. How many times do we focus on getting all 100% of the effort in, and not actually get anything done? I've been incredibly guilty of that, so here's to a first step (thank you, Seth, for a great seminar today and motivating a new post!)

Other news: this weekend I went to New Orleans, which was great, but I've been paying all week. My sinuses have been killing me, and I can't wait for a big nap.

A new post coming soon!

In a few days, I'll be posting my first official post for 2010.

See you in a few days!

Cotton

I'm in a new band.

See my videos on YouTube. It's a family band. It's good.

Where Have You Been Oh Cotton?

Hi...it's Sunday morning, and Roadie Lox wanted to see my blog. Oh great, I said! I haven't published a post in say, 5 years. I definitely wanted her to see the blog again, and so in honor of a yearly post and mother's day, I say hello to you, Internet!

GOOD MORNING INTERNET.

Blog blog...where is the blog?

Hi everybody,
I'm losing my blog steam! I haven't been blogging as much -- it seems like I only have time nowadays to actually do something or blog. So where is the time going? House and work. These combined create bad blog content or no blog content. Booo!

Hopefully, tomorrow, I will post photos of our journey to Maine to see Summer Sweater and Personable. We had a great time, and I'll try to give some highlights of our trip to Portland.

Til tomorrow!

I'm going bald

Today, I made the cruel realization that I am going bald. For the past ten years, I've been living in denial of this twisted fate. I thought I had received my Sisko hairline (simple receding), but after today's haircut I was greeted with the classic Spano look: a barren follicle wasteland. Yes, honey, I'm going bald.

I started asking myself when this started. Was it three years ago, two years ago, or was it actually the past 6 months when things took a turn for the worse. Three months ago I noticed those small tufts of hair that old bald people get. What are those things? Little pubic hairs? Why even bothering having hair when you just have those tufts?

I guess as a kid you think you can trick mother nature. Oh no, not me, silly fate. My hair will be good, and I will escape the dreaded inherit from your mother's father rule. I will triumph and prevail. I will have my hair. However, this triumph over fate and biology was not to be mine. Yes, honey, I'm going bald.

Other news...
Rosanne had insisted I blogged tonight, as I've lost some inspiration of late. What else has happened? Well, we did a few things this weekend:

* Had tasty donuts at Anna's in West Roxbury
* Bought cat food at Pet World (Kitty City)
* Went to Drew Farm orchard
* Went to giant estate sale in JP, bought magazine holder
* Got haircut/discovered I'm going bald
* Read about N-tier architectures
* Moved air conditioners that weighed 40 pounds each
* Watered the plants

I will post pictures hopefully tomorrow. Seeing Mogwai tomorrow night as well.

Good night!

Stooping to New Lows: Sleeping Cat Video - Wyatt

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, we are today featuring Wyatt passed out on a chair. As I point out in the video, he's a handsome guy, and for an additional bonus, you get to hear me use my "jo-booboo" cat voice. (Is that how you spell that?)



Take notice, fellow thought leaders, I believe today I raised the bar some, eh?

Trying to sell stuff on Craig's List + Slater Mill

Today has been productive. I've been sick, went to Slater Mill, tried to sell a dresser and also edit in Final Cut Pro. I had some successes and some - you could say - challenges.

First, I awoke feeling like the way I did yesterday: stuffy head, fairly woozy, and just plain slow. Every word that came out of my mouth seemed to be in slow motion. Things did not really improve much until early evening health-wise. That being said, I still had a good day with Rosanne going to Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI. I'd like to say we went for historical considerations, but rather, we went because we just saw Slater Mill on Ghost Hunters, one of our favorite programs on TV.

The Mill

We drove down to RI, which is not too far from us. I must say Rhode Island, while very close to us, has its own special flavor. Everybody we saw was very nice today, but this had to be one of the most bizarre historical tours I have ever taken. First, there were only two employees today working the mill -- they would rotate from being at the door and giving the tour. Giving the tours, both guides had a simple earnestness that was very admirable, but done with a local flavor that gave it a very unique twist. Our first guide mentioned how if a 12-year-old boy started bleeding into a machine, he just had to clean up the blood, and make sure he could continue working. To clarify, she mentioned that this mill only produced white thread, so the red would not do and hopefully the boy would still have enough blood to finish the job. We got a lot of little historical facts just like that to keep the day interesting.

While learning about history, we were also seeing if we could capture any ghostly encounters. Frankly, the only odd thing we saw were among the living, but we could definitely imagine some young child spirits there, since children were basically the main workforce for the whole factory. The machines we saw were imposing and ghastly -- imposing for most modern adult men -- let alone for a small child.

All in all, if you are in the area, do check out Slater Mill. The staff worked very hard and we had a great time.

VIDEOS!

I'm going to try to include more video in this here blog, so please enjoy me drilling a hole in a piece of wood at Slater Mill. The drill is powered by water, by a very large wheel -- very impressive.





Craig's List

Since I got my new old dresser, I'm trying to sell my old dresser. If you talk to me in person, I often complain about Craig's List, and once again, I've been stung. I was waiting tonight for like 90 minutes for the purchaser to show up to no avail. I had to put the cats in their respective rooms too so they wouldn't escape during the transaction. So in addition to waiting, I got to hear the cats howl. Yay.

Cat on Table

Tonight, Wyatt is playing the role of a table ornament...

More Great Content!

I'm now on Twitter -- what's left for young Cotton, Facebook? We'll see.