Did you ever read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? One of the gags is a beverage dispenser that thoroughly analyzes your anatomy while you're standing there, figures out exactly what drink you'd like best, and then invariably delivers the same sickly liquid. Think McDonalds. Think Coca-Cola. Think, "I 'like' the status message, 'Jane Doe is ( Read more... )

I found that one of the pieces of data I inherited from someone on our mother's side of the family, is incorrect. Our great great grandfather on our father's side was not named Francesco, but Giuseppe. I show my work here. This is like four months of solid research in the making. I'm pretty excited about it. Like I said on Facebook in a little ( Read more... )

I've been watching Anthony Bourdain's show with Kevin at night while we eat dinner, and yesterday I watched a couple older episodes on my own. He goes to really neat places, shows you some of the culture, tells you a little of the history, and then unerringly heads for the most delicious food available. I've seen him in South Boston and Macau, in ( Read more... )

Have I mentioned that I am grateful to have my back repaired? I've gone off my pain meds today, an act I might regret in the next few days, but I believe I am done with them. There's no remaining pain. My back just works.

I'm going to be 40 this year in September, and I'm afraid that I'll not have written anything in my life (this is already not true, but I mean longer things, books, or even an entire story) and am a fake, someone who has managed to think himself a writer without being one. I keep researching history and considering how to expand the novel to ( Read more... )

A writer friend who just finished his own memoir gave me this gem (among other solid advice) on completing a writing project: "Once finished, print it out. Fuck the trees. Your book exists ( Read more... )

http://emergingfrombroken.com/the-black-hole-of-emotional-neglect-by-pam-witzemann/ A personal account that includes details familiar to me: living in a dream world, feeling unlovable by design, not recognizing loneliness but wishing that someone else would notice and name it for us
http://emergingfrombroken.com/how-i-learned-to-self-abuse-by-pam- ( Read more... )

How's your shit?

I'm seriously asking you about your bowel movements. Do you shit regularly? Comfortably?

Or are you like Louis CK, constantly between shit emergencies?

Click to view

I have no BM problems to report. I usually have very regular, comfortable, solid shits, the kind that yogis and Japanese talking toilets look for as indicators of good health. I ( Read more... )

This happens so often, I'm starting to prepare for it. Starting to? Shit. I told Jason about this a few weeks ago and he told me to start carrying a stick for self defense in the woods, because this happens so fucking frequently. The woods are full of moronic dog owners who either don't realize their dogs are untrained or don't think this is a ( Read more... )

There's a post I keep meaning to write, called Casting for Racial Diversity for Well Intentioned White People, that would advise against doing everything that "Under the Dome," a new Stephen King piece of schlock running on Amazon Prime, does. Things like casting black people in random parts in an otherwise completely white, backwoods town. Or ( Read more... )