I hate wrapping presents. It takes a shocking amount of effort to get them to not look like they were done by a five year old in a hurry. I used to work retail at a place that offered complimentary gift wrapping. I dreaded customers requesting it. I passed it off to my coworkers whenever…
Today was my daughter’s first day of kindergarten. Although, she thinks tomorrow is her first day due to the weirdness of the schedule. Either way, she is very excited. I will be very upset at anyone who diminishes that excitement. It is wonderful to see her so excited. Sadly, I’m having a really hard time…
I got divorced this afternoon. It was weird. We went to the court house, signed some forms, waited for a while, then went before the judge. We sat there while the judge read our agreement. After that, we stood and swore to tell the truth. Next, my Ex’s (that sounds weird) lawyer asked her a…
Philosophy Phridays is a series where each Friday, I go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, click on “random entry,” and then write about whatever comes up. This week’s random entry is Tense and Aspect. As someone who tutors English and frequently works with students for whom English is a second language, I find myself…
About three weeks ago, my brother got me a used vinyl copy of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes. It’s the original 1970 pressing and in really good shape for something more than fifty years old. I was in the middle of my Christmas music binge, so I just listened…
I look forward to Labor Day every year. It’s the unofficial end of summer, and I don’t like summer. It means the US Open is happening, and I love the US Open. It means the baseball pennant races are heating up, and I love baseball. It means a day off of work. I didn’t always…
New Year’s Eve has long been one of my least favorite days. There are two fairly universal traditions, drinking and staying up late. As someone who doesn’t drink at all, that holds no appeal for me. And as someone who has struggled with insomnia most of my life, I can’t get too excited about staying…
One of the hardest parts about dealing with a mental health condition is that the world doesn’t stop to give you time to get better. That means, in large part because so many people don’t understand mental illness, there’s a lot of pressure to continue living your life as close to normally as you can….
I just got home from a family vacation with two teens and two tweens. Throughout the trip, the young people controlled the music, so I heard a lot of contemporary pop music. I noticed something as I was listening. Many of the songs sounded as if they were incomplete. Not all of them, but a…
Recently, Gamespot ran a feature on Fantasy Strike, a new game from Sirlin Games which is attempting to make the fighting game genre as simple as possible. “Our game is so simple to play that even if you don’t normally play fighting games, you still might love Fantasy Strike,” the developers say. Making fighting games…
