Dog Ear

 couple of weeks back I noted my thought that for Lent I’d give up storytelling. It seemed like a good idea at the time but I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to tell storytelling from simple discussion. For example, if you see a crime, are you storytelling when you talk to the police? Or are you fulfilling a duty as a citizen? It’s a bit… nebulous. And that’s me speaking as both a writer and an amateur astronomer. Now, I’ve long had a hate-affair with smartphones and the zombie-wander aspects of their users. Worse, if I’m killed on […]

hirty-eight messages wait for me on Facebook. This I know from my recent periscope peek. And my daughter Mulan has a repeating message that keeps deviling my email inbox, something requiring a response. Can’t see it. Can’t look. It’s a week into Lent and I’m still observing my no-Facebook pledge (with caveats – I use facey to put up notices regarding my site, such as the one the likely brought you here. I can post, but no reading, no clickthroughs, and certainly no scrolling). So, what’s it like? Refreshing in ways. Empty in others. When President Punchline comes up with […]

ell, it happened again last night. I have this… idiosyncrasy. Most nights I have no problem falling asleep. I just open the window behind my head, the night airs breathing around me. A kiss to the wife, the lights out, the hop of the cat coming in the settle across my legs (only after the lights are out, mind). And then, the bliss of unawareness, the detachments from work stresses, the latest Go game, traffic, club issues, writing problems, everything. Gone. But some nights I start to think. When I was a kid I’d lay in bed at night imagining […]

e’re into the third week of Lent (or there abouts). I’m sure there are people going cold turkey, sweating that they aren’t getting booze or porn or sex or bacon or whatever. But me, with my Facebook ban, I’m doing fine. Better than fine. Oh, I still need to pop in. I have to post up my updates (if you are reading this, you’ve likely come down the linky rabbit’s hole to get here). That’s fine. That sort of business drives this site and (occasionally) sells books. But while I can go into face to post up notices, I can’t […]

ell, crap. Now what. You might have noticed if you came in the front way that my website has earned a little crossed-padlock symbol in front of the name. If you try to log in (well, to comment) you get a warning that bridge out, no trespassing, and there be dragons. I’ve gone through a lot to keep this website up. I pay bucks to keep host and domain together. When I got hacked a few years back I paid a guy on eLance (no longer in service) to restore it (as well as to create a backup method). I […]

‘ll admit that it was an odd place to have this conversation, but that’s part of the story so I’ll include it. My co-rider and I were buzzing along the lip of an asphalt road, cars clipping by dangerously close, the rain hissing down. I was getting it from both sides – my tire was spraying grit up my butt, and the co-rider’s bike (in lead slot) was rooster-tailing water into my face. So I was already pretty speckled. The conversation, shouted over the passing cars and the patter of rain on helmets, was about anime. Japanese animation. I watch […]

was pleasantly weary and hungry following my 40 miles or so of riding the D&L canal on a rented bike in a recent visit to my buddy in Easton PA. I’d dropped the bike off, strolled home to the hotel, took a shower, took a nap, and now set out for dinner, We are Pirates, my current written companion, under my arm. With the Sunday evening slowly settling over this small Pennsylvanian town I found an outdoor cafe – crowded inside, which I couldn’t understand – the evening was so perfect. Settled down on the last outside table on the […]

o really, what was being anti-social in regards to social media (as a Lent objective) like? Freeing in some ways. Restrictive in others. First off – I’m a writer. Technically I create my own social media. I maintain a set of blogs and create content for them. I post broadly about the craft of writing and specifically about the craft of reading (i.e. book reviews). So I do have my creative outlet there. Without Facebook and an incessant need to click into it to see who liked me and who I needed to defend my views against (you trolls, you), […]

t’s eleven at night. I’m driving home after eight hours of work, an hour’s commuting, two hours of dinner with the buddies and then three hours of model train operations. And now I need to blog about the latter. To define – model train operation is where a group of train enthusiasts use their layout to simulate how a real railroad operates. There is a dispatcher controlling things by phones from a remote office. There is a yardmaster sorting inbound cuts to locals, and outbound strings for export. And there are the train crews, dozens of guys running freight, passenger […]