Category: Life

Three-fourths of my grandparents were WWII veterans and I wish I could express how much gratitude I have for that. Whilst I belong staunchly in the pacifistic camp, I nevertheless hold those who give their service, honor, and sometimes their lives in the highest esteem possible. Though I am, in the strongest terms, opposed to [...]

I’m taking a class in Latin with the person I’m married to, which is great, and interesting, and compelling. Thing is, we started the class something like five weeks ago and somehow rather broad-stroke elements like this in my life don’t get a chance to show up in autobiographical forums like, say, right here. That [...]

I have told you about the desert in two ways: how Millican Valley tried to kill me, and how a glen of meaninglessness in the desert led to the most important thing I’ve known. Now I’ll tell you about how they start to connect end-to-end in the ring that is my story and then I’ll [...]

Ten or twelve long miles south of Bend, Ore., on US 97 is a resort community called Sunriver, which most of you know already because you have been there with me, at times. Sunriver is one of those places that lacks its own meaning and is instead a pastiche of things that happen between people [...]

If I am to continue this thing of talking about 2008, or really about anything, as it is about me, I’m going to have to stop and tell you about this thing with the desert. The first time I knew of the Millican Valley was when it tried to kill me. Descriptively, the valley is [...]

The tubes are giving me a walloping so I do not have the stamina to correct all of the photographs I shot this weekend, traveling in (frigid) Central Oregon. But here is a sneak preview: p.s. This is a two-shot composite: first shot exposed for sky, second for foreground. Digital imitation of graduated neutral density [...]

“The pains we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all.” — Sophocles (from my journal, May 25, 2008) “AAAGH! I just dug myself a deeper hole! [Referencing social ineptness. Next to this is drawn a circle, filled in with blue ink. An arrow points to the circle and is labelled "My Hole"]. (From my journal, [...]

Sometimes the grandest of efforts have somewhat deflated outcomes. Take, for example, my grandly conceived, labor intensive, engineering miracle of a holiday ornament project this year. I decided I wanted to make something interactive, something that had a kinetic three-dimensional quality, something that could involve letterpress. Thus, after twenty or thirty hours of slicing and [...]

The following is text from an actual email I just sent. Someone was adopted. I’ve never spoken to this person before. Dear E—–, I am sorry for the delay in responding. I wanted to recheck some facts first. I think I can help you–and I will try. There are a lot of secrets in that [...]

“There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.” – Walt Whitman (from my journal, April 19, 2008) I am married to a [...]