I went to the Wargo Nature center with my son and his friends recently to learn about how to tap maple trees and make maple syrup. It didn't take long before I was back in third grade, remembering when I did the same thing on a school trip. The third grade field trip I remember featured thick gooey mud on the trail to walk out to the trees. It was so thick I ended up having the mud pull my boot right off my foot and stepping right into some very thick mud in my socks - twice. Thinking about those old rubber boots with felt liners and Julie's post about "the in between" made me think about how and why this time of year used to be my favorite.
I lived in Richland Center, Wisconsin from kindergarten through third grade. The streets had quite a high crown and very deep gutters. When spring came we would get these fantastic overhangs of snow and ice from the edge of the street extending into the street a few feet. By March there would be water running underneath these ice ledges. Every day after school we would wander around town jumping up and down on these ice shelves and in the process damming up the streets with water that could no longer run to the storm sewer. I would come home soaking wet, head to foot but full of sheer joy that can only come from jumping in puddles and damming up the streets.
Last weekend I kept a sharp lookout for street ice shelves like that but couldn't find any proper ones to jump on.
March 2006 Archives
This weeks annoyance has been brewing for some time.
When I go out shopping I've been noticing this trend towards casual clothing that resembles the clothing that working men and women wear. The finish on the jeans look like the finish you could only get when you actually were working in a greasy envoronment. The rips, no doubt hand ripped by kids with real jobs in Indonesia, look like the kind of rips you get while working as a lumberjack, at a junkyard, in a railroad or in a mine. The trucker hats now even come pre-stained and frayed.
So who is wearing this stuff? Kids who never worked an honest day in their lives. (At least I know what honest work is, even if I type for a living now.)
So here's to all of you kids from an old fart, "You can wear the beer logo trucker hat with pride when you've changed a tire at least once, wondered where your next meal was coming from and had a job where you were actually exhausted and dirty at the end of a day. Until then you are a poseur."
There is a company in Lino Lakes that sells culverts. In addition to selling industrial goods, they create these amazing pieces of folk art which change with the seasons.
It's hard to drive past this thing without smiling back at the snowman.
Here is a list of things I've cooked in the last week.
- Roasted Turkey
- Turkey Stock
- Veggie Spring Rolls
- Cholle
- Chili - btw this turned out severly blasè. Don't use this recipe without modification.
- Cold Soba Noodle Salad with Salmon.
I need a lot more practice making the rolls look right. My burritos loook lousy too.
Do these guys rock or what?
Every once in a while an online quiz tickles my fancy. Since my birthday is coming up next month, I figured I would take this one entitled, "What Age Do You Act".
[Link courtesy of the next chapter.]
| You Are 28 Years Old |
 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax. |
It's very bad form to ever post poetry on a blog.
I came across this poetry writing exercise that seemed to good to pass up. This was inspired by a poem by Goerge Ella Lyons entitled "Where I'm From".
I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.
I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)
I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).
I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).
From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).
I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.
I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).
From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).
I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).
My take on this is beow the fold, read it for laughs. Send me yours or blog it f you aren't chicken. The inspiration for this came from the blog don't eat alone.
I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.
I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)
I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).
I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).
From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).
I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.
I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).
From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).
I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).
My take on this is beow the fold, read it for laughs. Send me yours or blog it f you aren't chicken. The inspiration for this came from the blog don't eat alone.
Continue reading Poetry Exercise.
It turns out that blogs aren't the best way to get your message out. It might be much better to just tape stuff on the outside of your car or truck. These "car logs" or "clogs" don't require the reader to have certain kind of web browser, no knowledge of CSS, HTML, RSS or any other technobabble.
[Special thanks to Amy and glt for the photos.]
[Special thanks to Amy and glt for the photos.]
I didn't end up making it the the Bryant Lake Bowl last night, but I thought I would share some thoughts from the last show.
[Photo by glt] When "Halloween, Alaska" appeared at the Triple Rock Social Club, they were headlined by These Modern Socks and Mystery Palace, iirc. The first band was a little too electronica for my tastes, occasionally incarnating the spectre of video games past. I found myself liking one song but feeling some dread that the song would never end -- thankfully it did. The second band was a little closer to music I like. They weren't afraid to experiment with musical form and had no interest in the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus arrangement. Unexpectedly, one song appeared to be composed entirely of clever and interesting sounding bridges. I dubbed it, "The Bridge to No Where". I liked the second band better than the first. Both opening acts have a lot of potential, but wouldn't go out of my way to see either one at this point. Somewhere past midnite, came the main act. (Note to self, grab chair first thing when entering the performance space at the Triple Rock.) They were everything they were the last time I saw them. I love the sound these guys produce. The drumming was spot on and full of showmandship(like always), the vocals were haunting and well matched (just like before) and the keyboard/powerbook guy seems to have a gift for making electronica sound organic. I feel bad I never really notice the guy playing bass. Must be the curse of playing bass, people only notice when you are bad. The stand-out song for the evening was the LL Cool J cover, "I Can't Live Without My Radio". I still have yet to hear them play "State Trooper" live. With my luck they probably they played it last night and I missed it. I can't wait to hear these guys play again.
[Photo by glt] When "Halloween, Alaska" appeared at the Triple Rock Social Club, they were headlined by These Modern Socks and Mystery Palace, iirc. The first band was a little too electronica for my tastes, occasionally incarnating the spectre of video games past. I found myself liking one song but feeling some dread that the song would never end -- thankfully it did. The second band was a little closer to music I like. They weren't afraid to experiment with musical form and had no interest in the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus arrangement. Unexpectedly, one song appeared to be composed entirely of clever and interesting sounding bridges. I dubbed it, "The Bridge to No Where". I liked the second band better than the first. Both opening acts have a lot of potential, but wouldn't go out of my way to see either one at this point. Somewhere past midnite, came the main act. (Note to self, grab chair first thing when entering the performance space at the Triple Rock.) They were everything they were the last time I saw them. I love the sound these guys produce. The drumming was spot on and full of showmandship(like always), the vocals were haunting and well matched (just like before) and the keyboard/powerbook guy seems to have a gift for making electronica sound organic. I feel bad I never really notice the guy playing bass. Must be the curse of playing bass, people only notice when you are bad. The stand-out song for the evening was the LL Cool J cover, "I Can't Live Without My Radio". I still have yet to hear them play "State Trooper" live. With my luck they probably they played it last night and I missed it. I can't wait to hear these guys play again.
Mothman, in case you have forgotten, was spotted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
I, of course, froze up and forgot this bit of trivia when I was asked in public (ironically by the person who took the photo below).
Looks like "Halloween, Alaska" will be making another local appearance, this time at the Bryant Lake Bowl, for a "semi-acoustic" show on 3/19 @ 10:00 PM, see the Bryant Lake Bowl web page for ticket information.
I've been asked, "Will you be there?" Maybe. I would really like to see the band again, but it depends how my day goes.
I've been asked, "Will you be there?" Maybe. I would really like to see the band again, but it depends how my day goes.
My wife re-arranged my daughter's bedroom recently leaving the bed under the window. Before I turn in for the night I usually stop in the kids' room one last time. On Monday I stopped in like usual -- seeing my daughters face in the moonlight, with snow falling outside and her bear tucked under her arm ... it was a moment so beautiful it made my heart ache. A while back I mentioned a song with the refrain, "When I look at the stars, I feel like myself." That was how I felt, that night looking at Elise.
My parents didn't buy me war toys thanks to my father's stint in the Vietnam era Army. I did have a set of green army men growing up. I'm not sure how I got, I'll bet someone else bought them for me as a gift. Eventually, I lost most of them at camp in the sand behind the shower house.
It was a fun suprise to see one of my old friends, life size and walking around, at Disney. You may recall the "guys in green" played a role in Pixar's, Toy Story.
Undoubtedly playing with these plastic action figures, action figures NOT dolls, is the decisive factor that made me the shill that I am for the military-industrial complex.
Here are a few more pictures of our March snowstorm in Minnesota.
Reuters reported that hometown airlines, NWA will begin charging for the right to sit in an aisle seat or an exit row. The program is called Coach Choice.
What are the airlines going to think of next? Personally, I'm expecting pay toilets to be available sometime in the spring of 2007. Maybe in 2008 you can bid for the right to be seated next to people with good hygiene.
[Link courtesy of boing^2]
Once in a while I have a question for you.
Where are you?
Now I suppose I could ask you to just leave a comment, but I would rather have you plant your flag on the timbu map at frappr.com.
If you feel uncomfortable with frappr's request for a email and name feel free to make a suitable name and location.
[Link to frappr courtesy of "grace notes"]
I saw my first Robin of 2006 today. It wasn't hard to spot the red-breast in this kind of setting. If you are curious to learn more about the Robin, check out this website with Robin Migration info. [Photos by glt]
The SXSW music festival in Austin has a download which contains free mp3's from over 900 bands.
You'll need a bittorrent client to get things going. More information can be found on the SXSW ipod/schedule page.
Release 1
Release 2
Last year, there was a ton a great music in the download. I'm really looking forward to hearing what is new this year.
My latest obsession -- stencils. No, not your grandma's country kitchen stencils. Check out stencil1 and stecil revolution and the Children's Media Project.
I've been enjoying the blog don't eat alone which was brought to my attention by Real Live Preacher. Milton's recent entry "reasons to blog" resonated with me. He talks about food, cooking, God, depression and family all in ways that make sense to me.
I love a good book review, especially one that skewers the writer. If you haven't read the Garrison Keillor's review of 'American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville,' by Bernard-Henri Lévy you really should check it out.
"And good Lord, the childlike love of paradox - America is magnificent but mad, greedy and modest, drunk with materialism and religiosity, puritan and outrageous, facing toward the future and yet obsessed with its memories. Americans' party loyalty is "very strong and very pliable, extremely tenacious and in the end somewhat empty." Existential and yet devoid of all content and direction. The partner-swapping club is both "libertine" and "conventional," "depraved" and "proper." And so the reader is fascinated and exhausted by Lévy's tedious and original thinking: "A strong bond holds America together, but a minimal one. An attachment of great force, but not fiercely resolute. A place of high - extremely high - symbolic tension, but a neutral one, a nearly empty one." And what's with the flurries of rhetorical questions? Is this how the French talk or is it something they save for books about America? "What is a Republican? What distinguishes a Republican in the America of today from a Democrat?" Lévy writes, like a student padding out a term paper. "What does this experience tell us?" he writes about the Mall of America. "What do we learn about American civilization from this mausoleum of merchandise, this funeral accumulation of false goods and nondesires in this end-of-the-world setting? What is the effect on the Americans of today of this confined space, this aquarium, where only a semblance of life seems to subsist?" And what is one to make of the series of questions - 20 in a row - about Hillary Clinton, in which Lévy implies she is seeking the White House to erase the shame of the Lewinsky affair? Was Lévy aware of the game 20 Questions, commonly played on long car trips in America? Are we to read this passage as a metaphor of American restlessness? Does he understand how irritating this is? Does he? Do you? May I stop now?"
On the Road Avec M. Lévy, Reviewed by Garrison Keillor in the NY Times
Reviews this scathing remind me of the day I asked someone "... is there some sort of internet archive of cliche?" -- "Yeah, Tim I thought that's what your blog was."
I did a chin-up last week. I was 18 the last time I did that. It's been way too long.
A word to the wise, if you do something this week that you haven't done since you were 18, do not blurt out "Guess what I did yesterday that I haven't done since I was 18."
You have probably heard about the death of Don Knotts.
I watched a lot of Andy Griffith when I was a kid. One repeating theme of the show was Andy's kindness to Barney. Barney was annoying, difficult and emotionally overwrought -- but always Andy watched out for him and was kind to him even when any rational person would have been far less forgiving. It's not that Barney was bad, to the contrary he could be very sweet, but he was difficult.
These two TV characters have always meant a lot to me since I have always wished I had the kind and decent character qualities of Sherriff Andy while privately fearing my inner Deputy Barney tendencies.
