((With apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson and to The Psalmist.))
"Half a league, half a league
Half a league onward
Into the shadow of the valley of death
Rode I, a wanderer.
"Forward, and with great praise!
Faith in the Son!" I said.
Into the valley of the shadow of death
Rode I, a wanderer.
... ... ...
Cannon to the right of him,
Cannon to the left of him,
Cannon in front of him,
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell
Boldly he rode as well,
For His rod and staff, they comfort me
And I shall fear no evil."
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Placeholder - Thunderstorm
So...I've been REALLY busy recently, and while you'd think that would give me plenty of material to write about, mostly I'm content to keep my thoughts to myself. I do feel a little bad about being so inconstant about updating, so in lieu of a "real" update, here's a short excerpt from a short story I've been writing. This is an original work, so please do not use, modify, or reproduce without my permission.
___________________________________________________________
You never want to go outside when it's raining in the city.
Two-hundred foot concrete towers suck a lot of moisture out of the air, and those same towers create a wind tunnel that turns slight breezes into noticeable headwinds that drive the rain everywhere. Any raindrops that make it to the ground are the ones that are actually trying to - raindrops with a death wish. I've heard it's worse in big cities like New York, where the rain is not only already dead, but looking to take its revenge on anyone unlucky enough to be out in it.
Tonight had been even worse than that. A grand mal thunderstorm came in, just before the restaurant closed. It was too late to call a friend for a ride - sunrise mornings and office cubicles would keep them in tonight - but it was too early for a taxi to be the safest way home. Not that it mattered; my wallet was empty except for a fiver. That meant walking. Sixteen blocks, in the stygian rain.
Piggybacking wireless from an apartment across the street (I had no idea how long that signal would stay up - they were pretty dense to keep an unprotected access point in this part of town), I resigned myself to getting pissed on by the leaking awning as I huddled over my hand-held, trying to keep it dry. I wanted to storm back inside, tell Boss-man to get it fixed, but he would ignore the complaint. He always ignored me. He might do something about it if I could get the Brat to complain about it. Nothing else ever seemed to work.
The faint glow of my hand-held flickered. Donate money, donate money, Jesus loves you, donate money, free porn if you give us your credit number. Nothing from Brother, nothing from the Twins, nothing from anyone. Brother had sent me a call before going on a first date with some girl. "I need a favor. I need you to tell me I'm fun to hang out with. Convince me." He said he'd call back when it was over. That was three days ago. Must be a damn good date. The Twins were racist, superficial, loud, and flaky as hell...but they hadn't moved up north like everyone else. They were always good for a drink or a quick fight, and sometimes that was alright. The glow flickered again. Dammit...battery's about to go. With a sigh I pocketed the device, shook water out of my hair the best I could, and stepped back into the storm. Sixteen blocks... I became one with the rain.
___________________________________________________________
You never want to go outside when it's raining in the city.
Two-hundred foot concrete towers suck a lot of moisture out of the air, and those same towers create a wind tunnel that turns slight breezes into noticeable headwinds that drive the rain everywhere. Any raindrops that make it to the ground are the ones that are actually trying to - raindrops with a death wish. I've heard it's worse in big cities like New York, where the rain is not only already dead, but looking to take its revenge on anyone unlucky enough to be out in it.
Tonight had been even worse than that. A grand mal thunderstorm came in, just before the restaurant closed. It was too late to call a friend for a ride - sunrise mornings and office cubicles would keep them in tonight - but it was too early for a taxi to be the safest way home. Not that it mattered; my wallet was empty except for a fiver. That meant walking. Sixteen blocks, in the stygian rain.
Piggybacking wireless from an apartment across the street (I had no idea how long that signal would stay up - they were pretty dense to keep an unprotected access point in this part of town), I resigned myself to getting pissed on by the leaking awning as I huddled over my hand-held, trying to keep it dry. I wanted to storm back inside, tell Boss-man to get it fixed, but he would ignore the complaint. He always ignored me. He might do something about it if I could get the Brat to complain about it. Nothing else ever seemed to work.
The faint glow of my hand-held flickered. Donate money, donate money, Jesus loves you, donate money, free porn if you give us your credit number. Nothing from Brother, nothing from the Twins, nothing from anyone. Brother had sent me a call before going on a first date with some girl. "I need a favor. I need you to tell me I'm fun to hang out with. Convince me." He said he'd call back when it was over. That was three days ago. Must be a damn good date. The Twins were racist, superficial, loud, and flaky as hell...but they hadn't moved up north like everyone else. They were always good for a drink or a quick fight, and sometimes that was alright. The glow flickered again. Dammit...battery's about to go. With a sigh I pocketed the device, shook water out of my hair the best I could, and stepped back into the storm. Sixteen blocks... I became one with the rain.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Berlin
I woke up this morning, and was reminded today is the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down (I was a very young child when it happened). I think it would be very good for today to be a day for reflecting on the past, and planning for the future.
Peace, love, unity, and respect all over the world!
Peace, love, unity, and respect all over the world!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Actual content
Here's a quick update.
Some of you already know this, but I wanted to make a more general announcement of it as well, so that people who might want to know wouldn't be left in the dark. :)
Last week I started a new job. Every few years counties in NC are required to do a community reassessment, re-evaluating community, health, safety, and environmental issues in that county. Wake County is currently in the midst of this reassessment process, and they're gunning for one of the most comprehensive, far-reaching assessments in the county's history. In order to handle the volume of information they're seeking, Wake County has hired on a dozen or more young people (mostly grad students) to go into the field and survey people in the community. I am one of those students! Now, in addition to working at the restaurant here in Greensboro, I will also be at different points in Wake County three days a week, administering surveys and collecting data for the county!
Between the survey work and having class in Durham every week, I'm going to be on the road quite a lot in the next few weeks. It's one of the unfortunate side effects of living in Greensboro, but working in and around Raleigh! The surveying period should be over by the end of the year, so I should have a little more sanity in my schedule by then, but for the next 6-8 weeks, I'm not going to have a whole lot of free time or money (even though it looks like it's held steady for the past couple days, the price of gas is on the rise again). If the rest of this job goes like my first few days in the field, this is going to be a really good experience with some fun and interesting people!
And now you know. :)
Some of you already know this, but I wanted to make a more general announcement of it as well, so that people who might want to know wouldn't be left in the dark. :)
Last week I started a new job. Every few years counties in NC are required to do a community reassessment, re-evaluating community, health, safety, and environmental issues in that county. Wake County is currently in the midst of this reassessment process, and they're gunning for one of the most comprehensive, far-reaching assessments in the county's history. In order to handle the volume of information they're seeking, Wake County has hired on a dozen or more young people (mostly grad students) to go into the field and survey people in the community. I am one of those students! Now, in addition to working at the restaurant here in Greensboro, I will also be at different points in Wake County three days a week, administering surveys and collecting data for the county!
Between the survey work and having class in Durham every week, I'm going to be on the road quite a lot in the next few weeks. It's one of the unfortunate side effects of living in Greensboro, but working in and around Raleigh! The surveying period should be over by the end of the year, so I should have a little more sanity in my schedule by then, but for the next 6-8 weeks, I'm not going to have a whole lot of free time or money (even though it looks like it's held steady for the past couple days, the price of gas is on the rise again). If the rest of this job goes like my first few days in the field, this is going to be a really good experience with some fun and interesting people!
And now you know. :)
Placeholder
When the house is empty, I usually turn on some music to fill the silence (I know some people do this with the television, but my desk faces away from the TV set, so sometimes I honestly forget we have one!). This morning started out with The Ting Tings and VNV Nation. What an interesting day this has the potential to become!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Mid-day update
So, while I was writing my previous post, I was actually involved in another project. I realized last night that my change jar was almost full...which means that it was time to count and roll all my change and take it to the bank! I picked one of the Genius mixes on iTunes to listen to while I was counting, and let it run while I did my thing.
End result? $45.50! That's quite a lot! I was quite happy to hand over all my rolled coins to the teller at the bank, because that amount of money is going to cover gas for all the running around I have to do for the next two weeks (assuming the price doesn't go up too fast!). Now, starting over is going to be the hard part. Change-wise, I've got about 14 cents now, so I've got quite a ways to go before my change jar fills up again!
In other news, I went to the Carolina Renaissance Faire the weekend before last! In case you somehow missed out on that news (and I made a pretty dang big deal about it, even if I...forgot...to blog about it. Oops...), here's a link to a photoset from my trip.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95781046@N00/sets/72157622457027987/
((right now I'm getting an error message when I try to access Flickr, but this should be the correct URL. I'll double-check the link this evening after work!))
Be well!
End result? $45.50! That's quite a lot! I was quite happy to hand over all my rolled coins to the teller at the bank, because that amount of money is going to cover gas for all the running around I have to do for the next two weeks (assuming the price doesn't go up too fast!). Now, starting over is going to be the hard part. Change-wise, I've got about 14 cents now, so I've got quite a ways to go before my change jar fills up again!
In other news, I went to the Carolina Renaissance Faire the weekend before last! In case you somehow missed out on that news (and I made a pretty dang big deal about it, even if I...forgot...to blog about it. Oops...), here's a link to a photoset from my trip.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95781046@N00/sets/72157622457027987/
((right now I'm getting an error message when I try to access Flickr, but this should be the correct URL. I'll double-check the link this evening after work!))
Be well!
"I have no idea what to do..."
...is probably what my iTunes is thinking. I recently gave in and decided to try out the Genius feature that comes with iTunes, and after it went through all my music, it split it all up into "Genius mixes" that are supposed to all be related to each other based on some complex algorithm that takes tempo, genre, and iTunes store recommendations into account.
WELL, the "Rock Mix 3" that Genius came up with makes no sense at all. In the past 20 minutes I've jumped from Indigo Girls to Ludo (which you really should check out if you're not yet familiar. Love Me Dead is a fun song, and Save Our City is about the zombie apocalypse!), Fountains of Wayne to All God's Children (gospel-influenced southern rock), Journey to Blue Öyster Cult, COMBICHRIST, and now I'm back to Indigo Girls (also Voltaire, Neuroticfish, Alice Cooper, and Queen).
This doesn't make much sense! XD
WELL, the "Rock Mix 3" that Genius came up with makes no sense at all. In the past 20 minutes I've jumped from Indigo Girls to Ludo (which you really should check out if you're not yet familiar. Love Me Dead is a fun song, and Save Our City is about the zombie apocalypse!), Fountains of Wayne to All God's Children (gospel-influenced southern rock), Journey to Blue Öyster Cult, COMBICHRIST, and now I'm back to Indigo Girls (also Voltaire, Neuroticfish, Alice Cooper, and Queen).
This doesn't make much sense! XD
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