Inaugural Post

Our life is frittered away by detail, says Thoreau. With the MFA and its accompanied disillusionments in the bag, I have been working on some simplification of my own as I look for a new job which is a full-time job itself. I’ve written so many CVs/resumes that I’m almost tempted to log in “writing resumes” under “key skills.” The simplifying process started with Jean’s anticipated honey-do list—all the things we’ve been letting slide while I bivouacked in my office experimenting in the dark arts. After remodeling Maggie’s room via IKEA, we worked through all the other bourgeois hoardings in the house. I turned the attack to my computer. I think I have about 4 blogs, a LJ or two, a Good-Reads, maybe a facebook (I’m not sure). In sum, I dumped everything I could still remember the password on. The others will join the insane amount of net sterility out there. Does the internet have a John/Jane Doe system for web pages, blogs, etc? So from scratch, here comes my sole new blog (the Stygian, of course, is still there…needing much attention). Another reason for cleaning up my digital clutter is because I’m inevitably shutting down shop again to set up again…somewhere. So this time I’m trying to keep better contact with both past and present.

In other news, I’ve finally went Ipod. I grabbed the Shuffle. I couldn’t convince myself of anything larger. My life is quite music orientated, but I can’t forsee the ipod upstarting my existing fixes: 20gig MP3 in car, music library on PC. If I’m not in my car or at my PC, then I’m not listing to music. The Shuffle is for—*cough*—because I’m working out and running again. The longest I could ever foresee me running would be a marathon (a new goal), and that is 26miles, roughly four hours at an average pace. I think the running amount of time for the Shuffle I grabbed is right over a day. The iTunes interface/program rocks. My library is quite eclectic, so the random playlists are fun. As I’ve typed this post, I’ve heard Social Distortion (enjoying less as I get older), Slipknot (a band I’m still giving a chance), a string quartet covering Tool's Aenima, Mephaskapheles, something from Alexandro Bartos (didgeridoo), and a 7-Seconds’ cover of 99 Balloons. I had checked in to iTunes a few years back and was turned off. The body of music was shallow for the stuff I am most interested in. Different river now. I have scoured the net for Funeral Oration—the sickly underrated band from Amsterdam—and iTunes has the whole caboodle. 30$ up in smoke.

On the homefront, Maggie and I are spending another summer together at the moment. Pool, beach, parks, zoos, the Bee Movie, Jungle Book, Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Robots, imaginary cooking, endless hide-and-seek, Old McDonald, chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, watermelon, strawberries, feeding ducks, feeding fish, Butterfly World, jumping on the bed, Jamba Juice, Wocket in My Pocket, Fox-in-Socks and checking on the moon every thirty minutes it seems. Game on. Soon the Flickr will be up. Tomorrow she starts her first full day in her new “room” (2-3yr olds). They are potty training. She doesn’t do it, but makes Duckie, her half-blanket, half-stuffed animal, use the potty.