Life on the Rim

What have I been up to?

2010-10-27T17:46:00.000-04:00

Good grief, nearly three months since my last post. As reboots go, this is turning into more Rob Zombie's "Halloween" and less Platinum Dunes' "Friday the 13th". Sigh. Like I said, I've been busy. Since my last post in August... That's my daughter. Literally licking the plate clean. Emma turned 1. Complete with her first piece of ice-cream cake. Yay! And, I must say, I did write a blog post

Perspective with a crunch

2010-08-09T20:07:00.012-04:00

A Britax car seat, in "Cowmooflage": It died, so that my baby might live. So, the other day over on Facebook, I posted a status that "Perspective had slapped me in the face, and I kind of liked it." I got a frantic call back on the 28th from Marisa. The first thing she said was "Everyone's alright." That's never followed by good news. In this case, the bad news was that there was one casualty:

The bees! The bees!

2010-07-27T18:23:00.007-04:00

Ever have one of those moments where you feel like you're in a movie? This happened to me once before. So let's set the Wayback Machine for 2007. I had just moved up to Sussex County and I was driving down a highway I thought was 65 mph. It wasn't. It was 55 mph, as I discovered when one of Sussex County's finest pulled me over. So I'm sitting there while he looks at my license and registration

I was impressed, for a moment

2010-07-26T22:39:00.000-04:00

Something strange happened the other day. As you may have guessed from my rantings, I am on the moderate-to-left of the political spectrum, depending on the issue. But through work, I had the chance to meet my (current) state's governor, who is a conservative Republican. No, he's not the governor of the State of Confusion. Quiet back there in the Peanut Gallery. Where was I? Oh, yes, shaking

The Raiders Research Project

2010-07-09T15:51:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are not regular followers of my blogging history and Oakland Raiders fetish, you may not know about my other blog, the Raiders Research Project. Receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey is one of the candidates for the 2009 "AFR" First-Year Star award, as covered by S&B Report and the Raiders Research Project. The Project is something I started doing a few years back, a mix of my own

You can't take it with you... right?

2010-06-25T00:03:00.008-04:00

During this year, as my wife has been on (mostly) unpaid maternity leave and our finances have been stretched to the max, I have often thought about the near-decade I spent in Business journalism. One of the lessons financial experts stress to people, particularly young(ish) people, is to save as much as you can for retirement. Work hard, live frugally and put the maximum amount away. I

Has Facebook killed the casual blog?

2010-06-24T21:32:00.000-04:00

I was thinking about the purpose of my renewed blogging recently, and I was considering a little post sharing a cool website I found. That's something I used to do occasionally before the reboot, so why not now? And I realized: Facebook. See, nowadays, when I want to share a cool link, I just hit the little "F" button and it appears on my profile, where my 400 friends and "friends" can see it if

Opposites attract

2010-06-23T22:43:00.000-04:00

If you know my wife, Marisa, you know she and I are not always, shall we say, compatible. Our wedding was the happiest day of my life... until Emma! That doesn't mean we're not deeply in love. It just means... well... we are probably a textbook example of the theory that opposites attract. You know you've married a crunchy one when her joy at meeting enviro-activist Ed Begley Jr. is topped

Take your peace where you can find it

2010-06-22T20:14:00.000-04:00

My apologies for the lack of posts lately. Sometimes, I'm busy; sometimes, just not inspired to write anything. But today, I have some thoughts. Maybe "religion" is a hot-button topic, but it's not that kind of discussion. Stained glass is a beautiful thing, isn't it? What I want to talk about is something interesting I've noticed over the past year-plus at my new job. The College I work at is

Em and the art of genetic engineering

2010-06-07T00:07:00.000-04:00

One of the most fascinating aspects of fatherhood is not just watching Emma grow, but seeing how she looks and acts relative to her parents. As an adopted only child of different racial heritage from my parents, I stick out like a sore thumb in family photos. When you have a group of Eastern European Jews and one little semi-Vietnamese teen, it looks like the waiter snuck into the family photo.

Fatherhood and literature

2010-05-28T14:14:00.003-04:00

He's taller, but I'm wider! (I said "wider," not "whiter.") One of the interesting things about the past nine months or so is the effect the combination of having a baby and studying graduate English Lit is having on my relationship with my father. It's not that we ever had a bad relationship; I think we have a very good one. It's just that, sometimes, it's hard to relate to problems you don't

What ever happened to that novel, anyway?

2010-05-27T19:28:00.001-04:00

Perhaps you may recall the novel I started way back in November of 2006 for National Novel Writing Month. Tentatively called "Throne of the Living Dead," and later "Gun Dead," it was subtitled "A High-Firepower Melodrama in XX Parts" (with "XX" a number dependant sheerly on how many chapters I had written), and well on its way to living up to the name. Guns, zombies, gore, cheesy action... and

Life on the Rim reboot

2010-05-25T12:43:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed it's been a long time since I posted anything. What can I say? I've been busy. "Why haven't you posted about me?" For starters, of course, there's Emma Claire ("Baby Bear"), who is now nearly 9 months old - which probably says something about how long it's been since I posted. Second, there's the matter of my quasi-new job, which has been an ongoing 18-month transition

You are what you eat

2009-07-29T19:53:00.000-04:00

Some animals are dogs.Some animals just think they are dogs.Right, Oreo Cookie?Aside, sorry for the fundamental lack of postage lately. Watch my Facebook page for more regular status updates and the like.

Our new addition (no, not that one)

2009-06-16T18:01:00.004-04:00

So, do you know the purpose of the proverbial canary in a coal mine?To wit:Early coal mines did not feature ventilation systems, so miners would routinely bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the canary in a coal mine kept singing, the miners knew

A twit tweets

2009-06-14T21:34:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed the new Twitter feed at the top of the page.Yes, I joined Twitter.No, I'm not yet sure why.Maybe it's because I get several compliments on my Facebook status updates.Maybe it's because I like to blather on about exactly what's on my mind at any given moment.Consider it an experiment. We'll see how she runs.

When animals attack... the downside

2009-05-28T20:05:00.003-04:00

The other day, at 5 a.m., Marisa and I were awakened by the crashing and howling of animals at the foot of our bed.Pumpkin, as she is wont to do in her role as Attack Cat, swatted Norton.And got a claw stuck.In his face.Ah. Animals.Can't wait to add a baby to this mix.

Karma's a... well, you know

2009-05-28T18:55:00.000-04:00

Sayeth the Associated Press:NEW YORK (AP) — NBC set a low-water mark of historic proportions for TV viewership last week.The network averaged 4.4 million prime-time viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.While it's not the smallest ever recorded by ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox, it's the smallest to come in a week outside of the summer doldrums of June, July, August or early September.As a "Life"

A couple of interesting shows

2009-05-26T19:04:00.003-04:00

Recently, Marisa and I managed to take in a pair of non-Broadway productions, both of which proved quite enjoyable dinner-and-a-show "date nights" for us.The first took place at Centenary College in nearby Hackettstown, and featured students performing a show called "The Many Deaths of Shakespeare," which was written and directed by a CC professor, Dr. John S. Lennox. The concept is a college

A confession

2009-05-13T07:47:00.000-04:00

I realized today that I forgot to vote yesterday in the municipal election!I was all set to do it, and just somehow forgot.This upsets me, because anyone who knows me or follows my blog knows how important voting is to me.I know you could say it was just for mayor of my little home-township, but still.My apologies. I feel like I just let one of my most important duties as an American slip

An open letter to USA: Save "Life"!

2009-05-12T18:06:00.000-04:00

I sent this letter to the USA Network today as a way of joining the campaign to save "Life," my favorite TV show, by moving it from NBC, which canceled it, to the NBC-owned cable network, known for its quirky dramas such as my second-favorite, "Burn Notice."Help me and thousands of other fans save "Life"!As a huge fan of "Burn Notice," I wanted to join the thousands (millions?) of fans

Uwe Boll Mad Libs, Part II

2009-05-11T18:47:00.004-04:00

In the last post, of course, I asked you to come up with a list of words for the Uwe Boll Mad Libs project.This, of course, is the story that goes with it. So get out your notes and play along!Remember, use yesterday's words in the proper order you wrote them down. This one's a bit longer than your average Mad Libs, but hey, don't all of Dr. U's films feel that way?Ready? Begin!When (German name)

Uwe Boll Mad Libs, Part I

2009-05-10T14:25:00.001-04:00

Somewhere in my feverish brain, I came up with an idea the other day: Let's play Uwe Boll Mad Libs!Why? Because we can.You know Herr Dr. Boll, right? The man who brought you everything from "House of the Dead" to "Bloodrayne"?Well, here's what we'll do: Today, I'll give you the categories, and you grab a pen and paper and write down your answers.Tomorrow, the story will go up, and you can see if

A honeymoon video...

2009-05-08T20:34:00.004-04:00

... Not that kind, ya pervs!In an effort to learn more about making slideshow movies to create one for work, I turned our little honeymoon photo slideshow into a YouTube video. I lost the captions somewhere en route, but it's 99 photos and two turns through Travis' "Flowers in the Window," our wedding song.Seven minutes and change.Enjoy!

Random Raider coincidence of the day

2009-05-08T18:46:00.005-04:00

I posted this over at Raiderfans.net, but perhaps you'll find it interesting, too. It's celebrity and all that.Beat writer Jerry McDonald reports a quarterback named Danny Southwick is on a tryout basis at the Raiders' current minicamp.Just a camp arm, no doubt, a 27-year-old former AF2 quarterback who wound up at Occidental in 2007, his fourth or fifth college.So, a few years back, the Raiders