The Lautner Hypocrisy in Pictures

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You can't call me a pervert for having liked this...

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A Thought: On The Lautner Hypocrisy

The Lautner Hypocrisy: The phenomenon by which women who called men perverts for finding Britney Spears attractive in the infamous school girl video, who raised hell when Demi Moore stripped in Striptease or ever made someone feel guilty for buying Playboy for something besides the articles fail to see the irony in unashamedly reading 50 Shades or lining up around the block to see a shirtless, oiled-up 17-year-old kid.

You've lost the high ground, ladies.  Embrace it.  It's not so bad down here with the rest of us. Read more!

Photo Set: Beyond the Sea Wall

Jennifer and I took a drive down to Morgan City, where I've got some family, and made a stop at the sea wall.  She took the camera to the other side and took some excellent pictures of the water, the bridges and one of the little lighthouses.  Enjoy.

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A Thought: On Magic Mike

Seriously?  The 7:40pm of Magic Mike is already sold out at one of our local theaters.  Won't all those women's copies of 50 Shades get lonely?  For shame. Read more!

Dragged Into the 21st Century

So this is a thing that happened.  On Monday, I went to answer a call, flipping my old, reliable Samsung open.  To my surprise, with no warning, this happened...

So I was forced, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century on Tuesday.  I'm no Luddite, by any stretch.  I love technology, it never ceases to amaze and excite me, for the most part, but there are certain aspects of it of which I am terrified to fall prey.  So far, though, so good. Read more!

A Thought: On Quantifying Love

When asked seriously, the correct answer to the question, "How much do you love me?" is very nearly always, "Never enough." Read more!

A Thought: On Who We Are

It's as much the things we outlive as those which will outlive us that define who we are. Read more!

A Thought: On Conflict and Cake

The world may be a cold, bitter place, filled with chaos and strife.  But there's also cake.  We mustn't forget cake. Read more!

A Thought: On Ballet

I like ballet, and the The Nutcracker, but every single time I hear The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, I just keep waiting for the straight block and it never comes. Read more!

A Thought: On the Importance of Impermanence

It is the inherent impermanence of all things in this life which is the root of it's greatest highs, deepest sorrows and grandest adventures, the terrors and the triumphs, disappointments and desires, that drive us with the consciousness of every moment slipping inexorably by. Read more!

A Thought: On Love and the Permanence of Existence

There is no way to write of love without falling into cliché.  It makes sense, of course, as it permeates everything we are, everything we do, in some way or another.  It is the deepest of human drives to want to feel wanted, to be needed.  I once read that for infants, when something exits their line of sight, it literally ceases to exist for them.  Maybe some vestige of that lingers in all of us as we grow older and reason tells us that it isn’t true.  Maybe we’re terrified, in some dark corner of our psyches, that if someone doesn’t remember us, doesn’t miss us when we’re gone or think of us in our absence, that we’ll cease to be.  And how could we ever prove it wasn’t true?

So we seek out love.  We seek to make a connection in the lives of others, to find an anchor, in their hearts and memories, that will keep us safely in the world.  If we’re very lucky, we find a handful of people who’ll carry us through their lives, a few more who will carry us in their hearts once our roads have parted, and all we have to do in return for that most astonishing of gifts is give it back, to bring them with us, to keep them here.

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A Thought: On Dependent Happiness

True happiness can never be dependent upon the misery of another. Read more!

Advantages to Being Crippled: One-handed Egg Cracking

When the morning pain is regularly too much for you to cook breakfast without leaning on the cabinet, you become exceptionally good at effectively and expeditiously cracking eggs one-handed. Read more!

LEGOs: Kinda art, right?

I spent just over six hours today co-building a 1/4 scale LEGO R2-D2 today (pictured below).  It was strangely fulfilling.  I also learned to make some delicious food.  It was a good day.

More pictures to come...

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Easy Solutions: The Unclaimed Bike

Should a bike suddenly appear, chained outside your front door in such a way as to impair your ability to get in and out, which, when asked around, no one will claim for fear of having to get up and carry it up the stairs to their apartment to block their door, one may find said owner with ease.

First, find a bike chain of your own.  Chain said bike as intricately as possible where it has been left.  Attach a note to the chain which reads, "As no one was able to account for ownership of this bike, I have taken the liberty of securing it a bit more until the owner returns.  If you are the owner, you can find me, and the key to this second chain, in <insert your own address>." 

Rest assured that the owner will appear very quickly to lay claim to the bike, at which time you can express to him or her the inconvenience of where it had been left, but reassure them that, should it happen again, you'll be right there to chain it up for them and unlock it at your earliest convenience, should they need to get to it.

Problem solved! Read more!

In Memory of Ray Bradbury

I wrote no more than a week ago about having read and re-read Ray Bradbury’s, “Zen and the Art of Writing.”  While the collection has definitely had an impact on my writing since I first got it more than a decade ago, Bradbury’s influence goes much, much further back than that.  I don’t know that there’s a single real writer of sci-fi, fantasy or even horror, amateur or professional, who’s put pen to paper (literally or otherwise) in the last fifty years who can’t say the same, even if it’s once or twice removed.

As a kid, Bradbury brought horror home.  If Vonnegut was the voice of small town America, loud and real and deep, Bradbury was the whisper that carried through the trees on windy autumn evenings of something just outside the purview of the world we know.  And I loved it.

When I got older, he took me off to faraway worlds filled with adventure and, something vastly important and which it seems is so often overlooked in the genre today, he made me genuinely think, truly question the world in which I lived and the direction in which it was headed.  That’s the mark of a master in any genre, and more so in sci-fi and fantasy. 

What’s more, he did what all true artists in any medium who’ve achieved a modicum of success are obligated to do, which was foster the next generations, seeing them not as competition, but rather as new voices which needed to be heard.

Ray Bradbury died last night, at the age of 91.  Whether you realize it or not, if you read, if you watch movies, if you’ve attended school, he’s touched your life in some way.  If you’ve experienced his worlds, go back and do so again.  If you haven’t, head there now and I promise you won’t be disappointed, though you may lose a bit of sleep.

Amazon's Ray Bradbury Page Read more!

A Thought: On Martyrdom

Before you declare someone a martyr for making a valiant sacrifice, make certain the hammer and nails do not rest in your hands.  And if they do not, save your voice, take them from those hands who would use them, and help the martyr off the cross. Read more!

Awesome Things About Life: Feeling Like MacGyver

Awesome things about life: Repairing a laptop with nothing more than duct tape, ingenuity and perseverance and feeling like MacGyver. Read more!

A Thought: On the Value of Education

We will never fix this country's education system until the country begins to value education.  If your child grows up hearing that education isn't important, or that it's a worthless pursuit, in your words OR your actions, they will not seek to achieve. Read more!

The Dalai Lama on Connectedness and Gratitude

"Our good fortune is dependent upon the cooperation and contributions of others. Every aspect of our present well-being is due to hard work on the part of others. As we look around us at the buildings we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, or the food we eat, we have to acknowledge that all are provided by others. None of them would exist for us to enjoy and make use of were it not for the kindness of so many people unknown to us." -  Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama Read more!