8 Minutes On High

On a lighter note

August 30th, 2009 by Max

Justin showed me this and I’ve rediscovered it on Brigid’s facebook page. I’m not a musician but I still get it. And … I still like Pachelbel’s Canon in D (what? major?)

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Alone II

August 29th, 2009 by Max

I sit alone, more or less wrung out. I took a pill at like 5:30. Barb called late this morning. Woke me up. That was good. When you’re feeling alone have a friend call. Thanks Barb.

I’m broke. Wrung out. But maybe, more or less, ok. And for the first time in maybe a week, I’m hungry.

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Well

August 28th, 2009 by Max

I work for an amazing boss and a pretty damn good company. I guess I knew it.

They treated my rather unusual behavior with concern and compassion. She said “We don’t fire people for being sick!” If I needed time off they’d try to find … but really I need to be at work. My mind distracted. Sitting around isn’t my idea of fun. It wasn’t on Tuesday when I sat here alone, wondering if I should go in.

I had to leave, in my desperation, on Tuesday morning in a panic. I was half panicked what the result of that act would mean when I got to work today. I’m still employed. More than that everyone was kind.

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Today

August 27th, 2009 by Max

I slept. Gone to bed with the expectation of going to PA. I slept. So that was a surprise.

So I left for PA. And stopped in Owego to get breakfast. Called Dave and told him I was going to try to get to PA. I got as far away as Williamsport. Felt strangely dehydrated. A little nervous. I turned around.

Not many tears this time. Just exhausted.

Tomorrow we find how much damage I’ve done to my career.

My back still hurts.

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Alone

August 26th, 2009 by Max

Today I woke up. Doc had given me a beta blocker. Said I should go back. Liz talked about breathing. Said I should go back. I called the boss, she is home for three days for a funeral. I told her the whole truth. I told her I was home. Back ache. Panic. She was sympathetic. I said I probably wouldn’t be in today. I’d talk to her Friday. She comes back on Friday.

I tried to call Linda, she wasn’t home. There was a time she would have been the first person I called. I just wanted someone on my side – which I realize is ironic since no one is against me. There was nothing wrong in Altoona. It was just me.

I almost lost it talking to Doc. I almost lost it talking to Liz. But I held it together. I’m in trouble and I know it.

The people in PA don’t know what’s up. I called them and told them I didn’t feel well. I told them I went home. There’s still all that work to do there. No one knows what I’m going to do.

I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Last night I took a pill and went to bed.

I woke up. Early. On my own. I don’t know 6:30. I always wake up early when I’m worried.

Should I go into work? What will I tell them? Why aren’t I in PA. I couldn’t stand to stay here and listen to the news all day and not work. At least work would distract my mind. But if I go back to work, then why aren’t I in PA. I can’t go back. I might have another panic attack.

And there’s my back. It really does hurt. I don’t have to go in. I’m going in to work.

I still have the keys. I could go back to PA. I can’t go back to PA. “Why aren’t you in Pennsylvania?” “My back hurts.” And its true. God I don’t want to be alone, without direction, all day in this miserable condition. I have to go back in to work.

I stayed home.

Around 11 or maybe it was 1 Mike called. We had a brief conversation. Its funny now because I don’t remember it. Mike asked what was going to happen in PA. And then he asked if I was ok. Then I lost it. Mike graciously bowed out of the conversation. I couldn’t speak and hung up.

And then I cried like I haven’t cried since I first talked to Liz. I just sat there alone, and sobbed.

I called Mike back to apologize and to find out what was going on at work. I thought I’d gotten it all out. I felt ok. But I lost it again on the phone. So I called Liz back.

When Liz called me I lost it again. I’m a mess.

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Panic

August 25th, 2009 by Max

The best way I’ve thought of so far to describe it, is to imagine yourself as that bridge we’ve all seen on tv. A black and white movie of an actual suspension bridge in wave oscillation. Each oscillation getting bigger and the bridge bound to shake itself apart.

I felt like that bridge. Each succeeding wave of panic greater than the last. I felt as if my ribs wouldn’t hold it. I felt as if I would break apart. Rip apart by my own tension.

It was 4:30 in the morning in Altoona. The wake up call was for six and I was increasingly further away from sleep. How could I get through the day?

I was slated for 4 more days of being there. If I couldn’t get through the day, how could I get through the week? It just kept getting worse every way I thought about it.

I had enough drugs to put me unconscious, but how could I work?

I couldn’t work, I couldn’t stay, but I knew the panic would ease if I were home. But I had work to do, but I was getting worse, I had to stay, I couldn’t leave … but I could barely breath. Home I could breath. Just get me on the road home and I could breath again.

I went home. As soon as I hit the road I started feeling better. When I found I’d gotten lost, the tightness came back. I asked the woman at the gas station 3 times to tell me the exit on the road back to where I got lost. She said “I’ll write it down for you.” She could tell I was in trouble. But back on the way home I felt better. When I got stuck behind the windmill blade truck at the construction, it got worse. Back in New York, roads clear it got better.

But I’d pulled a muscle in my back lifting my backpack. That got worse. I could barely get out of the car to get gas, but at least I was home.

I felt like I needed someone to talk to.

Ate two McGridles on the way, but I stopped for a Spiedie in Vestal. At least I was home. I sat there in the parking lot no eating my Spiedie, but at least it felt like home.

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How far do you go in the pursuit of good?

August 24th, 2009 by Max

Writing. Good writing. You can have an action thriller with pretty girls and explosions, maybe it will be a good movie, but a great movie requires great writing. Doubt, has great writing. Meld that with superb acting, and you have an oportunity for a classic. Doubt could be a classic.

I have a bias against Meryl Streep. I just don’t like her. And I have heard from an actor I know, that her dialects are sometimes inconsistent across a movie. Actually, I think this may be the case in Doubt as well. But it doesn’t matter. Her characterization of Sister Aloysious is so deep, with moral complexity, idiosyncrasy and ambiguity as well as a rich personal depth that while we don’t like her, we see a complex three dimensional character there.

Contrarily Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of Father Flynn displays an open simple love for his parrishoners. Father Flynn runs a new kind of church, or does he? We know for sure that Sister Aloysius runs an old fashioned school.

Sister James (Amy Adams) represents the innocence and naivete of the viewer and as are we, is pulled between the two, in trying to determine who is telling the truth, who is innocent, and what is the moral thing to do when you have no evidence but suspect a wrong has been committed.

I was reminded of the Salem witch trials. With Sister Aloysius as the accuser pressing harder and further with her acusations in her attempts to protect a child, this deeply complex character follows a wrong path in the name of right, pushing the mother of the boy who may have been abused, to the point of abusing the mom. How far do you go in the pursuit of good?

Crisp writing. Great acting. Doubt!

5 of 5 Smiling Maxes for Doubt crisply portrayed and brilliantly written.

Doubt (2008)
Director:
John Patrick Shanley
Writers (WGA):
John Patrick Shanley (screenplay)
John Patrick Shanley (play)

Release Date:
25 December 2008 (USA) more

Awards:
Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 32 nominations more
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)
Meryl Streep … Sister Aloysius Beauvier
Philip Seymour Hoffman … Father Brendan Flynn
Amy Adams … Sister James
Viola Davis … Mrs. Miller

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Meaning

August 23rd, 2009 by Max

Meaning

A friend of mine said the other day, that things happen for a reason. I wouldn’t care to speculate on why I got run over. I think its just bullshit. I believe in coincidence.

Anyway. Imagine me young. Thin. Sitting on the wooden steps in front of the house the 5 of us were renting. Its the kind of upstate New York humid hot summer day that makes you not want to lay your hands at your sides, especially if you’re not wearing a shirt. Wagner came out and sat with me. Me, waiting to get dressed to go to my new job as a cook. He just being social sat next to me.

My 1970 Mustang rolled down the gravel driveway. Backwards. You need to understand that it had sat there, next to the house all night. There was no one in it. It was in gear, in first, not running. Listen to a car on gravel sometime. It makes a crunching sound.

“Don’t get behind it” says Wagner casually.

But I do because I’ve pushed cars for years. I’ve pushed a lot of cars. Bigger cars. Up hill.

Oh yeah. Did I mention that the driveway fell away steeply as you backed down it. Backed down like the Mustang was doing on its own? I think I failed to mention the campground. Yes. We were out in the country. Big yard. Deer in the back. And children playing down the hill across the road in the campground below.

I got behind the car to push. Wagner took the door handle.

I slipped in the gravel.

Did I mention the sound of gravel? Well picture yourself laying in it, looking at the rear tire, rolling backwards toward your head. Imagine it. I still can. I had the time to tell myself that this was the way that I was going to die.

The tire ran over my head. Did I ever mention the hard head stories? Another car. Mom’s lap. The steel dash with the clock, now and forever at 3:23?

My hard head survived the gravel. And the rubber. But the car had broken my shoulder. I knew the front tire meant real death. The weight of the car was all up front. I tried to roll out of the way, but the car kept slowly turning. Turning toward me. I on my back. Tread marks swelling on my face. My shoulder blade broken vertically. I put my foot on the side of the Mustang pushed and almost got away. The front tire down bearing down on that same hard head really scaring me. If my shoulder hadn’t been broken I probably could have rolled out of the way. But the rocker panel caught me at my hip, and just rolled me up like a jellyroll. Turning and pushing the car rolled me till we both stopped on the rosebush. The car on top, in the ditch in front of the house, then me, then the rosebush. Did I mention no shirt?

My feet were sticking out from under the side of the car. My head was between my knees. My 1970 Mustang sitting on my ass. But the good news was we had stopped.

Wagner got the guys. Five bedrooms. Five guys. The four of them pushed the car up hill from the ditch and off from me so that I could get out. I was grateful.

I’d forgotten the heat. Never noticed the rosebush. They pushed the car off from me, just a bit, which was good. But they didn’t know it. Not so good. They decided it wouldn’t work and let the car back down. That was disappointing.

I don’t yell a lot. I yelled.

They tried again. Success. Three pushed the car. One pulled me.

We didn’t know my shoulder was broken. We didn’t know my back was broken in four places. But they could see the imprint from the right rear Firestone, so they drove me to town. The nurse just crooked her finger when she saw me.

I think the whole thing was coincidence. What could be the reason for such an adventure? Like I said. Its all bullshit.

There was this cute girl who worked at the hospital though. But that’s another story.

—-

I always knew that someday I’d write this story. Sage Tyrtle of Qn was looking for 3 minute stories. So I set this one down on paper. I always knew I’d write it. But it still raises my blood pressure. It took me 30 years to write it as a 3 minutes story. I tried to take a writer’s view and put it in a broader context. And yes. Its true.

Posted in Arts, Changes in the World In My Lifetime, Max's Theories | 2 Comments »

I don’t know what it means

August 22nd, 2009 by Max

but I like it.

And here is an ode to Sweet Home Alabama – written to the tune of Werewolves of London!

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What’s your favorite quote from Ghostbusters?

August 21st, 2009 by Max

I saw that Ghostbusters was on tonight and I watched it for one quote.

A friend of mine once said that this was his favorite quote: “Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a Sloar that day, I can tell you!”

It comes from here “”Gozer the Traveler! He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the Rectification of the Vuldronaii, the Traveler came as a large and moving Torb! Then, during the Third Reconciliation of the Last of the Meketrex Supplicants, they chose a new form for him, that of a giant Sloar! Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a Sloar that day, I can tell you!”

I realized two things. Its a really great movie! And there are a lot of classic quotes from it. Such as:

“Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.”
“They caused an explosion!”
“Is this true?”
“Yes it’s true….This man has no dick. ”

and

“Where do these stairs go?”
“They go up.”

and

“Dogs & cats living together. Mass hysteria!”

and

“Generally, you don’t see that kind of behavior in a major appliance”

and

” … when someone asks you if you’re a God, you say YES!”

Now I want to make two more points. They cut the “dickless” quote out on the tv channel I was watching. Really … on Two and A Half Men this week I heard Charlie Sheen talking about having his scrotal sack glued to his thigh! Censorship is all over the lot these days.

The other thing is, that since so many quotes from Ghostbusters it reminds me of how Shakespeare invaded our language with new words and phrases. I think Ghostbusters is a great movie. Even though I didn’t rent it. It gets 5 of 5 smiling Maxes. And you CAN watch it with your kids. They’ll smile to be in on the joke.

Ghost Busters (1984)
Directed by
Ivan Reitman

Writing credits
Dan Aykroyd (written by) and
Harold Ramis (written by)

Rick Moranis uncredited

Cast (in credits order) verified as complete

Bill Murray … Dr. Peter Venkman

Dan Aykroyd … Dr. Raymond Stantz

Sigourney Weaver … Dana Barrett

Harold Ramis … Dr. Egon Spengler
Rick Moranis … Louis Tully

Annie Potts … Janine Melnitz

William Atherton … Walter Peck

Ernie Hudson … Winston Zeddmore

“Maybe next time you won’t slime a guy with a positron converter!”

and

“And the flowers are still standing.”

Posted in Arts, Max's Movie Reviews | 1 Comment »

Derek Jeter

August 18th, 2009 by Max

Now has more hits than any other person who ever played Short Stop in the major leagues.

Arguably Derek Jeter is better than

Lou Boudreau, Barry Larkin, Joe Cronin, Honus Wagner, Arky Vaughan, Ernie Banks, Cal Ripken Jr. Ozzie Smith, Luke Appling, and Phil Rizzuto and Frankie Crossetti.

Yeah, he doesn’t have as many home runs as some like Ernie Banks, but he IS the Captain of the New York Yankees and he does have 4 World Series rings and yes and he has more hits than any other shortstop. Any. Ever.

He’s real good. And the operative word there is “is”.

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Marley and Me

August 17th, 2009 by Max

In case you haven’t heard Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston made a movie with a dog.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it because everyone has seen it. However … IF … by some chance you haven’t yet seen it yourself, I’m recommending it.

No metaphor. No in depth perception. Just a story about a family and a dog.

I don’t know who is more likeable, Jennifer Aniston or Owen Wilson but they’re both worth watching. You just like them. You’ll like the dog Marley too. And the end [spoiler]will make you cry.

Its a fine film. Its a nice film. Its fun. Its easy. Show the kids. Get kleenex.

I like a good clever movie that makes me think, so I’m not going to give this the full five stars but I highly recommend this movie. If you have kids its even good for life lessons.

[4 of 5 Smiling Maxes for Marley & Me]

Director:
David Frankel
Writers (WGA):
Scott Frank (screenplay) and
Don Roos (screenplay) …

Release Date:
25 December 2008 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy | Drama | Family | Romance more

Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more

Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)

Owen Wilson … John

Jennifer Aniston … Jenny

Eric Dane … Sebastian

Kathleen Turner … Ms. Kornblut

Alan Arkin … Arnie Klein

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The Duck

August 16th, 2009 by Max

Due to the interminable rain this summer, and associated cloud cover, I haven’t seen a shooting star. Hadn’t.

I think the peak period for watching the Persied meteor showers was a couple days ago. I looked around, but when I couldn’t find the moon (which would have made some trouble) I knew I wasn’t going to see the stars.

Tonight, in my car, listening to George Hrab in the Geologic Podcast, I was reminded that I should look again when he told his story of being in Ithaca and being “agog” at the stars. I’ve been agog upstate here too. In certain spots, we can have many many many stars.

So, out I go, in my car to find the perfect spot on the hillside to watch for stars that shoot. Except I don’t have a spot here yet. I usually go to my friend’s south of Binghamton and watch from their lawn in August, and February its just the porch. The city over the hill sheds some light, but I’m usually at least “gog”.

Up here, the roads are more narrow and unfamiliar. I stopped at at spot on a hillside road -there was a house I hadn’t seen. They’re probably thinking I’m casing the joint. A little farther down – a spot. I turn off the lights. There’s some trees but its dark. Then this guy walks down his driveway with a flashlight. Probably thinks I’m casing the joint. I roll on. Another spot at a wide country road intersection – but there’s a security light by this out building. So I roll on. I figure I’ll go to the parking lot by the school track. LOTS of security lights. I roll on. Looking for a place to stop. But there’s this road construction and the guy behind me in a pickup is lighting the inside of my car with his high headlights. I pull off in a church parking lot. Lights. And people. Probably think I’m casing the joint. I roll on. Find another intersection where I can park. And its dark. And what do I see? Fireworks!

Ok. Give up. Go home. There’s a lot of light behind my house becuase of the neaby high school. But with a bank of tall Norther Spruce which forms a corner, and sheds some fine shadows. Then there’s a tall shrub of some kind and my actual shed, which sheds darkness as well. Plus my house makes a concatonating shadow and if I stand on the side of the house in the shadow, its pretty da… Wait. What’s that over the street? A search light? Really? A search light? Must be from the tiny airport across town. Harumph!

So I find a new spot of cross shadows and I stand in my newly mown grass. I think about laying down and watching for meteors, I even see Cygnus the Duck. Really its Cygnus the Swan, but I’ve always called it Cygnus the duck, just to be silly. I’m looking for Cassiopeia I know the meteorites are supposed to be coming from that general direction Or at least they were a couple days ago. I’m not sure how the movement of the earth both in rotation and revolution may have changed this. I see the big dipper. I spot it easily thought its fairly milky from the streetlight now on the other side of the house. I think I see Cancer the Crab, but I’m not sure that it’s not the Great Square of Pegasus. I shift my 2 liter bottle of Coke Zero to the other hand.

Was that one? Or was that the lingering image of a star as I moved my head. Yeah. I think it was.

No shooting stars. None. Its just cool, but not wonderfully cool, and dark, but not wonderfully dark, and still, except for the pickup truck with the bad muffler and the motorcycle guy with the bad muffler and why does EVERYONE that drives down West Main St rev their engines when they go by my house? Ok. Not everyone.

There’s a streetlight on the next block that I can see through the back yard. Its distracting. Then it goes off. The reflection on the back of my house is gone. Its just a bit darker. Yay.

Just one. Just one. If I see only one I’ll consider it a good day for watching shooting stars and take my Coke Zero which is now weighing heavily in the other arm, and go in. No questions asked. Just one shooting star. Its August 15th for Pete’s sake.

And there it is! Not a blazer. Not amazing. Just a nice bright normal shooting star going from almost straight above, to almost behind the trees.

So I stay out for just a bit longer.

No luck. Hey, I got lucky. I go in and turn on the ballgame.

Posted in Fun, Science | No Comments »

Revolutionary Road part II

August 15th, 2009 by Max

This young couple live in Connecticut. They have the house in the suburbs, the car, the kids. April’s husband (Leo DiCaprio) is an ass. We learn this right away when he tells her in the opening sequence how much he’s not an ass. We later learn he doesn’t want to become his dad. He works in the same place as his dad, and is pretty much as fake. No real effort at work. Except for the ladies.

One day April (Kate Winslet) decides they should move to Paris. Make their lives instead of merely reacting to them. A bold step. They’ll sell the house. She’ll be a secretary in Paris where that kind of thing pays well at the embassy. He can … well … just be “a man”. She dares him to be great.

Is this a story of triumph? No. A true American tragedy? No. Its just weird. The characters aren’t real, the “reality” is so manufactured that the only way this clunker can be approved is if it is meant to be surreal. The children. Almost in every case the children are somewhere else. As if real people never see their kids. Then the story takes a (twist?) when an unforseen pregnancy pops up. Quelle surprise!

What ensues is neither hilarity, nor real, nor in any way fun. Fine its a surrealistic tragedy. If, and its a big if, you consider April heroic, for becoming herself, against her programing. It could be considered a successful tragedy.

The only interesting character, the only real? character is the crazy son of the realtor, who is clearly placed, like the children, as a device to let the author explain to us how the characters are lying to themselves. His passion and eccentricity, is at least fun.

But mostly its an unrealistic look at the real world through the eyes of two people who mostly hate themselves.

And one more odd thing. Almost everybody smokes, and indoors, and yet we see about as much smoke as we see children. Its all a big plot device, but without sympathy – who cares?

Two of Five Smiling Maxes. [There's another one in there, you just can't see it]

As for Kate, clearly she needs a better vehicle c.f. The Reader, to bring out her best, though once again she brings that vacant stare to bare in this effort and while I suspect her face is just naturally interesting, and I’m sure she’s done her best here, without enough rationality we just don’t buy April.

And Leo? I still think he looks like a child. However in Revolutionary Road he is consistently good. We don’t like him at first … but maybe we sympathize a bit by the end.

Down 12% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Sam Mendes
Writers (WGA):
Justin Haythe (screenplay)
Richard Yates (novel)
Release Date:
23 January 2009 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
Awards:
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 20 nominations more
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)

Leonardo DiCaprio … Frank Wheeler

Kate Winslet … April Wheeler

Michael Shannon … John Givings

Ryan Simpkins … Jennifer Wheeler

Ty Simpkins … Michael Wheeler

Kathy Bates … Mrs. Helen Givings
Richard Easton … Mr. Howard Givings

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Playing to the base

August 14th, 2009 by Max

When I say that Sen. Charles Grassley was playing to the base, in this case I mean the baser instincts of man. Besides anger and jealousy, man’s bassist instinct is fear. With the exception of lust I think Chuck Grassely managed to play to pretty much all of the seven deadly sins.

“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma”

Well duh!!! He would be right, if only he were talking about reality. But rather than be a responsible politician, Chuck Grassley picked up the mantle of fear monger and advanced it far down the field. He should know better. He should be ashamed!

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Revolutionary Road to ho

August 14th, 2009 by Max

Reality. Most movies try to find it. To display some real part of the human experience. To tell us something that is real.

The Reader comes closer for Kate Winslet than does Revolutionary Road.
At first The Reader just seems like a coming of age story, and while I make no claim to understanding women, seems to almost bring us a real woman – it just doesn’t quite get there yet.

Kate is compelling, but perhaps gets a little too much mileage out of a soft, open, non-expression that works well for her because her one eyebrow naturally curves up giving her a more or less constant relaxed but curious expression. Its complicated.

And so is Hannah Schmitz.

As the story goes on we learn more about Hannah. She’s illiterate. She was a prison guard accused of war crimes. She’s proud. We first find her in a genuine selfless act of kindness.

Her story is a story of almost mechanical thoughtlessness. She just didn’t think. She always reacted.

[Spoilers]The more we learn about Hannah, the more sympathetic she is. This is difficult when at first she seduces a 15 almost 16 year old boy. A story that must surely look different if the genders were reversed. We also learn that despite being a Nazi, she is guileless though not guiltless and we are forced to contest the now familiar WWII Germany questions about why no one stopped this and who is to blame.

We never see Hannah as a guard, but we feel some sympathy for her as she explains, mindlessly, why she did not try to stop 300 women from burning to death during one night of intense bombing. “What was I to do? Let them loose? I was a guard!” (Or words to that affect).

Our young boy, now in college hears the false claims that she was the ring leader and that she wrote the report, something he knows to be false, but which he allows to stand. “Have we learned nothing from the past?” Rohl asks?

[End spoilers]

I felt for the characters, who I thought were at once weak, not sympathetic, strong and sympathetic. So cudos for the writing.

In the end I’m haunted by my own sympathy for Hannah – so clearly Kate did something right, though I wonder if we did need to see the war years.

Four of 5 Smiling Maxes. Definitely NOT for children. It probably would make you uncomfortable watching with your teenagers, but might be worth the conversation afterword. Considerable nudity and sexuality in the beginning. Moral quandry and angst later!

Overview
User Rating:
7.7/10 32,327 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Stephen Daldry
Writers (WGA):
David Hare (screenplay)
Bernhard Schlink (book)

Release Date:
9 January 2009 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more

Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 11 wins & 24 nominations more

looking at life from both sides more
Cast
Ralph Fiennes … Michael Berg
Jeanette Hain … Brigitte
David Kross … Young Michael Berg
Kate Winslet … Hanna Schmitz

Posted in Arts, Max's Movie Reviews, Video Rentals | No Comments »

What are you doing right now ?

August 6th, 2009 by Max

In a hundred and forty characters or less?

I’m still not completely convicted of the need for twitter. I tweet. I read tweets. No less an internet hero than Mur Lafferty was the first person I’d heard of who promoted twitter. Mur is also the best twitterer for style at least.

But I’m not sure that I’m that interesting. I’m not even sure you’re that interesting.

Still I’m going to continue to tweet. Gotta keep up with the kids I guess …

Posted in Changes in the World In My Lifetime, Fun | No Comments »

Desperately seeking fish

August 6th, 2009 by Max

Ok. Tuesday I left the confines of my home sweet home to the cats and the Reverend who will take care of them. Today? A little walking. I’ve been doing a lot of walking lately. A little cook out. A podcast or two … and not a little bit of fishing. Its all from shore. There’s no boat (for us at least) on lake Winipisaki or whatever the hell its call. But a good stone treelined shoreline with plenty of cover. A bit of a sandy bottom but otherwise she’s made for action.

No fish. I tried everything in the tacklebox including all the old favorites. A swath of Rapalas. A Pheobe. The old standard Daredevel and this years new favorite, the stinky purple worm.

These have nearly all been attractive to the little fish hiding in the rocks near shore. Small bass I think. But so far nobody big enough to eat them have tried to eat my baits.

What should I do?

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Graduate

August 1st, 2009 by Max

Collages

Posted in Arts, Other People's Theories, Photos | No Comments »

Images of Leah

August 1st, 2009 by Max

Posted in Arts, Changes in the World In My Lifetime, Photos | No Comments »