In about grade one or two, I can remember what was likely the first time a teacher had given us a pop quiz.  The quiz consisted of 50 true-or-false questions, and every other student scored between about 30 and 45, as one might expect, according to probability.  I was the only student to score zero.

I do not have a story to go with this; at least ( Read more... )

I was three or four when I left home on my first adventure.  I embarked abruptly and unceremoniously with Mandy, my first and only friend.  All my acquaintances at this time were animals; horses, cats, and Mandy, the German Shepherd.  I loved the cats, too, but they were unreliable, and the horses were rather indifferent to me at the time.  But ( Read more... )

I was a Cub Scout once.  It wasn't really my thing; I did it for a few years but not long enough to become a proper Boy Scout.  It was basically a form of daycare; sometimes we went camping, sometimes we went out to some park and they made us play games.

On one such occasion, we arrived at a large park I had never heard of, and one of the ( Read more... )

That last post went a bit off the rails, I know.  I've been working through some things.  Pay no mind.

I always wanted to have a diary, a secret book filled with secrets.  I tried once but never had much to write about.  The book was eventually repurposed for monthly lists of my favourite songs and nonsensical scribblings.  I had secrets, of course ( Read more... )

After a recent bout of introverted nostalgia, I stumbled upon a sudden and disturbing realization while contemplating the perpetually-repeating rhetorical question in the background of my life asking why I would often struggle with simple things that never seemed to go my way. It was fairly obvious that my lack of basic social skills was a major ( Read more... )

(blows some of the dust off)

It's been a difficult few months. I'm sorry that I've been ignoring you. It is sometimes difficult to remember what's important.

"This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don't think it's a marvellous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be ( Read more... )

(Sequins ( Read more... )

I need to learn a way to exit this dimension of hellish events. It has become very hard to "think good thoughts ( Read more... )

If I were a superstitious man, I'd be forced to believe this spring was off to a good start.  Today I found $20 soaking in the rain on a busy downtown sidewalk.  Several people hustled and bustled past, each absorbed in their own version of reality.  No one blinked as I picked it up.  I may or may not have been invisible.  But I still have it, and ( Read more... )