Ted Hardy

Of plane rides and people with poor senses of humor

My, oh, my, the things that happen when you are stuck in an airport. The frustration, the helplessness, the annoyance and the uncertainty, not to mention the anger, grief, shouting and tears. But amidst all that, you find people who let it all wash past them, are happy to just

A Smooth Imbecile

Michael Jackson once performed a song called Smooth Criminal. A band by the name of Alient Ant Farm went on to make that song cool. Last night, I made a Weird Al-esque parody of it… Smooth Imbecile. It is a well known fact, just ask anyone who knows me, that

Old friends with new website links

This past weekend was one of the best I’ve had in a long, long time. Not only was I able to be home for Jaime’s birthday party at my house, but a little play on facebook put me in touch with one of my best college friends, Aaron.

Shane Claiborne and Harry Connick, Jr. walk into a bar...

Moving on from my last report, I am one chapter further into Claiborne’s book. If you thought the last installment crazy, just wait for this one. Chapter 7 is entitled ‘Pledging Allegiance when Kingdoms Collide’ and its all about politics. First, I hate political conversations. They really frustrate me.

Shane Claiborne and economic inequality

So, for a few weeks now, I’ve been slowly making my way through The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. The idea expressed in the subtitle, living as an ordinary radical, intrigued me enough to pick it up off its comfortable shelf in the bookstore. When I found out that

Further frustrations with modern SciFi/Fantasy

Before I start, I just want to point out how much I just dislike some things. Trying to do a little research on this blog entry, I went to amazon.com and looked up a book that was the inspiration for what you will hopefully read. The listing for the

Pennies, but not from heaven

I have a small problem. Thankfully, because of the generosity of my parents in years past, and good instruction from my father, it has remained a small problem. It is called change. Specifically, pennies. Silver change is not a problem for me. I occasionally pick some up, but usually I

Possessions

Jesus and capitalism?

Strange things happen when we start talking about Jesus and popular culture. Having watched a great deal of material by Kevin Smith in the recent months only makes any observations more bizarre. For a few weeks now, I have been slowly reading through a book called The Irresistible Revolution by

Aging 30 John Mayer Continuum Lyrics

After the countdown

So, I’m 30 now. Not much has really changed that I can tell. I’m not exactly surprised by that, but having moved decades has changed my perspective a slight bit. Now, I sit at a restaurant, see a group of guys come in and realize how much younger

Watching Batman Begins

One of the strange things about growing up in a church is the odd lengths to which some people will go to prove a point. I remember one of my youth ministers loaning me a book about the occult presence within our society and how pervasive it really was. I

Foot pain and weird drugs

Unfortunately for any of you reading this in hopes of living vicariously through me, or who want to read about good dirt i’ve found to wallow in, should probably just stop reading at this point. Nothing quite so interesting as that, just one of those things that shows how

Greg Keyes Blood Knight Kingdoms Thorn Bone Epic Fantasy

My frustration with modern epic fantasy

The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes I love epic fantasy. Its a genre that I just cannot get enough of in my life. Robert Jordan, JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin and all the rest. I’ve read most of them and find some better than others. RJ used to be

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (In Praise of Older Women)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (In Praise of Older Women) A few weeks (months) ago, a friend forwarded me an email with the contents of the above link. Well, I say they were a friend, but anymore, I’m not so sure. See, while it is a somewhat humorous diatribe,

There is a countdown? What?

So, I’m starting the dishwasher in my kitchen, when what catches my eye? Yes, that would be the calendar hanging on the wall. Perusing the activities of the last month, I realize that July is nearly gone and August is approaching at a speed close to that of a

What is my QuickStop?

Clerks 2 I came into the Kevin Smith fandom fold very late, in comparison to so many people. It was fairly soon after Chasing Amy was released that my buddy, Forrest, introduced me to MallRats. I had heard of Clerks in passing, and had a vague idea of what it

Vroom Vroom!

The comments in my last blog, regarding my numerous hobbies, reminded me that I had been lazy about getting up a post about a watershed event in my life. After nearly two years, I finally started the first of the three motorcycles in my basement. The 1983 Honda CX650 Custom

All these thoughts... part 2

Well, its been two weeks and I think I’ve got a good, but by no means great, start on my financial plan. When I got home two weeks ago, the paperwork for the pension payout from my old job was waiting on me. Lets just say that complicated was

All these thoughts

There is nothing like a drastic change in your life to start the wheels of your mind, pushing them into overdrive. In the last two months, I have seen the most abject poverty China has to offer, have accepted a new job which skyrocketed my realized and potential income, watched

When PCs Get Uppity

A while back, I helped my parents purchase a new PC for my mom to use. For the first time in my life, I helped someone purchase a pre-built machine. My parents had one of the original Apple IIe computers in the early 80s, but I really don’t count

Thoughts on the Da Vinci Code

The Eternal Bachelor loves pop culture. I think it comes from the fact that, as a small child, I was exposed to so very little of it. My parents were awesome in instilling high values in me, but a depth of cultural understanding was just not something that mattered to

Chance encounters

Five twenty AM is way to early for any sane person to be awake, much less out of bed and getting ready to travel on an airplane, yet somehow I found myself doing this very thing today. Call me crazy, and you wouldn’t be the first to do so,

Three steps forward, two steps back

It is amazing what you will begin to enjoy once you are in the midst of it. My childhood is still scarred with remembrances of being told to go mow the yard. When your allergies to outdoor allergens are as bad as mine, you might as well be told to

A Warped Hansel and Gretel

Bread crumbs or popcorn? Personally, I think the later is a great deal tastier, but as has been said by many people, many times before, there is just no accounting for taste. I did my own impersonation of Hansel and Gretel last Friday, as I drove home after my last

Well-wishing good-bye

Awkward moments are the absolute worst during the end of any type of relationship. My last post reviewed my feelings on ending a relationship with one employer, but it is the personal portion, between myself and the coworkers I am leaving behind that really hurts. That hurt was eased, or

My Last Days

“And if our always is all that we gave and if some day, you take that away, I’ll be all right, if it was just till St. Patricks Day.” –John Mayer Someone once told me that she found Mayer to be shallow. Given what I knew of her life,