AKA Abraham Bacoln

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I was listening to music this morning using earbuds plugged in to my laptop (which in turn was plugged into a power outlet) and occasionally as I’d shift in my seat I’d get a strange crackle sound. I kept jiggling the cord, trying to find a short, but none was becoming obvious. Still, every time I fidgeted I’d get that crackle-pop again.

I finally realized what it was when I warmed up enough to take off my fleece jacket. As I pulled it off I felt the familiar tug of static cling between my jacket and my shirt, and then immediately got static electricity shock in both ears simultaneously.

Let this be some sort of strange lesson to you. May you learn from my experience.

’round here

This picture represents the fifth time that I have challenged my Cookeville peeps to identify or locate a local … um … thing. Guess I can’t really say place or building ’cause sometimes it’s neither of those things.

I’m constantly surprised and amused at how rapidly the answers come back. Either this town is exactly as small as I think it is, or my friends are just as observant as I think they are, or maybe it’s a combination of both.

Regardless, the activity amuses me to no end, and I’m always thinking of new places or things to photograph and use to quiz my degenerate Flickr friends. The first two were a bit hard and the last three a bit easy, so I’m going to try to think of something a bit more in-between for next time.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention I’ve tagged them all with ‘trivia’ so it’s easy for me to go back and relive the fun. Thanks for playing, everyone – I’ll try and think of a new thrilling adventure for you all soon.

222

Two years ago I attempted to start writing a little bit. Well, a lot, actually – I involved myself in the NaNoWriMo project which basically entails pounding out 1,666 words a every day for a month. I’ll have you know I didn’t make it – November is a hell of a month in which to attempt to dedicate hours every day to writing for pleasure.

Something in conversation over this Thanksgiving prompted a discussion of the Great Unfinished O’Mara(can) Novel and I dug around on my hard drive until I found it the other day.

I started re-reading it the two nights ago and I don’t even know what to say or think. I have an absolutely terrible memory so aside from the basic plot outline I didn’t remember anything about it. Besides, when you’re writing nearly two thousand words a day you don’t have time to dedicate them to memory, and besides that even it’s been two years – more than long enough to forget the details.

I’m finding myself pleasantly surprised by what I wrote. I’m actually enjoying re-reading it, and I’m sure any of you self-deprecating artists (in any medium) out there know that anguished feeling when you review your work and it just isn’t as good as you wanted it to be. For some unknown reason I’m not getting that nasty sinking feeling this time. I’m proud of my work.

I’m actually still awake, up far past my bedtime, because I’ve been treating myself to a few chapters. I can’t stand to read it all at once because … honestly, because I find myself savoring it. I don’t want to finish.

I don’t want to know how it ends.

Fortunately for me, I never finished it, so it doesn’t end.

Maybe I’ll have to do something about that one day.

Antithanksgiving (as opposed to anti-tank weapons)

So hey, I’m just gonna go ahead and buck the trend here, mmmmkay, and discuss something for which I am NOT thankful.

Two-thirds of the population is considered right-eye dominant. You know, that means that they (and I’m referring to ‘they’, not ‘us’, for a reason which … well, you’re smart, you’ve probably already figured this bit out) prefer to view objects with their right eye. It’s called ocular dominance if you want to read up on it some more.

Aaaaanyway, I’m part of the one-third group that’s left-eye dominant. Anyone that has tried on my eyeglasses for fun or profit has probably noticed there’s almost no correction in my right-hand lens. That’s because my right eye has nearly 20-20 vision – it’s my left eye that sucks. Astigmatism, if you want to get picky.

All this means is that I’m having to train myself to put the camera up to my right eye, which feels totally wrong to me. I usually don’t wear my glasses while shooting, and therefore doing any sort of manual focus with my screwed up dominant left eye is a royal pain in the ass. Plus if I use my dominant eye I’m always smashing my nose into the back of the camera. Smudgy.

THIS IS SOMETHING FOR WHICH I AM NOT THANKFUL. My body has cursed me with a preference for the lesser choice. Blargh.

Do you know which of your eyes is dominant? Doesn’t really matter, but if you want to find out, do this simple test. Look at a distant object, extend your arms, and form a triangle around the object with your hands, like this:

Close your left eye, then open it and close your right eye. Whichever eye is seeing the object is your dominant eye. Notice: do not attempt this while drunk.

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Okay, okay, fine, here’s a list of things for which I am thankful today.

I have my health, I have a functioning version of sanity, I got to eat a fantastic Thanksgiving lunch with my parents and an old family friend, and I also got to eat ANOTHER fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws, my brother-in-law and his wife, and their beautiful baby.

Seriously, my stomach is very thankful that my family’s tradition is an early afternoon meal and that my in-laws prefer supper. That makes it real easy for me to stay bloated like a tick the entire day.

Also, I’m grateful that I’ve a tiny Christmas wish list, meaning that I have been successful in eschewing overwhelming greed and materialism. Okay, yeah, so there’s a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens on there, but that’s the only thing I actually really want, and I think the parents are going to take care of that. The rest of you, you poor souls who torture yourself by reading my drivel, I love all of you, and having you in my life is gift enough.

I hope everyone’s T-Day was as simple, heartwarming, and relaxing as mine. You all deserve the best.

Ah-ah, ah-ah, that’s the letter two, my friend.

I was standing around with a group of my classmates discussing what a terrible fate it would be if our syllabus was correct and we did indeed have a test today. I threw a granola bar wrapper at the hallway trash can and to my amazement it actually went in. The guy next to me said, “Nice shot!”

I said, “Yeah, well, doesn’t happen often. You know, people always say, ‘You’re tall, do you play basketball?’ My usual answer to that is, ‘Come sit with me in the office for a day. Watch how many things I throw at the trash can and how often I miss. You’ll understand.'”

There was a pause, and he said,

“You should be in a movie. You’re like a character from a movie.”

“I … I suppose … I will take that as a compliment.”

“Oh, totally.”

Snow? I think not.

Yesterday I blogged that all I wanted was for it to snow, and snow today it did. Tonight I brought that up, and I asked everyone what they wanted me to blog about today, since it’s obvious that I control the world now. Everyone said, “Snow! Snow! More snow! Accumulation!” and then Matt said, “Bags of hundreds.”

So here you go, Matt. All I can think about now is Matt coming into possession of bags of hundreds. That’d be just about the best thing ever. I can practically feel it – all that stiff, rustly, crisp paper, that smell straight from the bank, and no exploding dye packs.