I've just sat down from a lovely daylong drive from the heart of nowhere back to Raleigh, NC. The heart of nowhere, in case you were wondering, is in Georgia, just across the state line from Chattanooga, where we were vacationing with my girlfriend's extended family.

Haha! Just kidding, of course, that's completely unfair. It's unfair for several ( Read more... )

*Haha! See what I did there? That will be the last STI-related joke I make in this blog.

My girlfriend and I went to the Washington D.C. area to visit a couple of friends this weekend. It was a great time and good company, though it turns out it's surprisingly hard to find things to do in our nation's capital. I'm pretty sure the whole city is ( Read more... )

I ran a 5K on Saturday, which is not something I'd recommend to anybody. Sure, there is the personal satisfaction of accomplishing a goal, the admiration you get from others and of course the benefits of healthy exercise, but there is an important factor about 5Ks that people often overlook: it's a freaking long run ( Read more... )

As the years pass by and we get older, the moments that shaped and defined us can fade from our memories. Images that once seemed sharp are now fuzzed around the edges, and new generations know little of the trials of their forebears. It's important for us to preserve those histories before they are lost forever. And with that in mind, I'd like to ( Read more... )

I wrote this a couple of days ago but for some reason it didn't get posted ( Read more... )

When I looked at Facebook this morning, these two items ran consecutively in my news feed, posted about four hours apart:


( Read more... )

I've never had a problem going to the dentist. In fact, I've always rather liked it. My old dentist, in Ohio, had a hygienist who filled her little corner of the office with zebras. She had a gentle touch and would let me read while she cleaned my teeth.* It was kind of relaxing. So I never understood people who were afraid of the dentist, and I ( Read more... )

Apropos of nothing, today I saw a car with a license plate frame that said "I'd rather be tapping you out." For those of you who don't know what that means (hi Mom!), in ultimate fighting competitions, a combatant who has been bludgeoned into submission will quit the fight by tapping repeatedly on the mat. So "I'd rather be tapping you out" ( Read more... )

I love video games, but I've never been able to enjoy myself at an arcade. Well, that's not entirely true; I enjoy being in an arcade, and wandering around, and watching other people do those crazy DDR moves where you hold yourself up by metal rails. I just never put money into the machines ( Read more... )

As most of you know, I spent 10 days in Japan in late March/early April. I haven't written about it for several reasons, including: 1) It took a month for my mind to process all the life-changing wonders that I witnessed in Japan, and 2) the notebook where I wrote down everything that happened is in the bedroom, and I always think to write my blogs ( Read more... )