Tuesday, 06 March 2012

The Freethought House website was just updated to include the latest information on the book I’m co-editing.

I’m pretty excited about this, and not just because I’m accruing four college credits for doing it. If you read this blog, it’s pretty obvious (I think) that I love books, so it’s great to have such an insider look into the creation of one.

There’s a tab at the top of Freethought House’s site called “Atheist Voices of MN,” which opens a page detailing the forth-coming book. The bottom of the page lists all the people who contributed stories and artwork for the book. My wife and I are both listed there and, I gotta admit, it’s a little weird to see my name in the antepenultimate position (it’s usually last).

The book is scheduled for a September release, but this may be bumped up to August. Stay tuned!

Wednesday, 07 March 2012

Last summer, I uploaded this video to YouTube:

It’s not a particularly remarkable video; my friend, Rhett, and I were just out and about for the day and I was just filming random things. I was borrowing the camera from my high school and, if I recall correctly, I had to return it the next day, so I was just using it as much as I could.
Anyway, when I rewatched the film recently, I noticed something – 44 seconds into the video, Rhett quickly points out the Nut Goodies for sale.

I don’t think I ever noticed this before. I mean, I must’ve noticed it in the moment, because, as you can see, I turn the camera for a brief second to stop focusing on Rhett and point out the snack he just pointed out. But I never paid attention to that again. Rhett and I were kicked out of KFC just the day before, so just being able to film inside a store was amazing to me at the time, and in subsequent viewings, I paid more attention to the people in the film, rather than the quick mention of the snack food.
Why did he point out the Nut Goodies? Who knows? My guess is that they just caught the corner of his eye as he was rounding the corner in the gas station, and he figured he’d give me something “interesting” to film besides the back of his head.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the day we made A Groovy Teenage Movie, and so, to mark the occasion, I purchased three Nut Goodies and, following dinner, Jennifer, Owen, Isla and I shared some tasty home-grown Nut Goodies.

Thursday, 08 March 2012

Today, I brought the book The Pocket Guide to Minnesota Place Names, by Michael Fedo, into our house.

The funny thing about this boring piece of information, is that I purchased the book on August 24, 2007, and I think today is the day the book finally made it into the house.
I normally don’t take four-and-a-half years to carry new possessions from my car to my house, but I can explain this odd occurrence.
On that day back in 2007, Jennifer and I were celebrating our anniversary. We visited the Oliver H. Kelly Farm in Elk River. In the gift shop, I picked up this book and thought it would be interesting to learn “the stories behind 1,200 place names in the North Star State” (as the front cover advertises). So I bought it.
On the drive home, I decided it would be an excellent book to keep in the car – as we are driving around the state, we can open up to the name of the place we are traveling in, and learn how it got that name. So I tossed it in the glove compartment.
Over the years, I pulled it out whenever I was waiting in the car for one reason or another, and read a page or two in the book. Yesterday, when I pulled up to Owen’s school to pick him up, I arrived about ten minutes early. So, as I often do, I opened up the glove compartment, and began reading the book. With only three pages left, I easily finished it. I tossed it on the passenger seat and got out to go get Owen. Today, I brought it in the house to add to my list of books I’ve read.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, don’t bother with this book. Despite the claim of 1,000+ stories in the book, it contains almost none. Most place names are given just a one or two-sentence explanation, often just by saying “this river was named after the local saloon owner” or “this city is named after the corresponding city in England.” Stories those are not.

Also – interesting article on the large bill for the new sports stadium.

Friday, 09 March 2012

Tonight, before bedtime, Owen and I watched some silent films. Ever since I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret with him last month, we’ve been meaning to sit down and watch A Trip to the Moon (the 1902 film that SPOILER! forms a key point to the plot).

So, first we watched the Georges Méliès classic. We easily found it on YouTube. It’s only about 12 minutes long, so give it a whirl here:

Make sure you watch this one, and not the one labeled as “OFFICIAL,” because that one has a lousy voice-over.
At the end of the film, YouTube offers suggestions for similar films, so we also watched:

The Haunted Castle, from 1896,

The Astronomer’s Dream, from 1898,

and The Merry Skeleton, from 1897.

Owen laughed and giggled numerous times with all these films. He thought they were so great, he kept talking about the funny things that happened. Thanks to Jennifer, we snacked on pop-corn while watching the films, too.

We next found Safety Last, the 1923 Harold Lloyd film, in complete form on YouTube. The famous scene from this film, in which Lloyd is hanging from a clock on the side of a building, is discussed in Hugo Cabret, and a two-page spread shows an actual still from the film. So Owen immediately recognized the film and wanted to watch it. I’m glad he did, because it’s probably the most significant silent-era film that I’ve never watched. We watched about a third of the film tonight, and then I paused it and said I was too tired to finish. So Owen and I went to bed. I hope we get to finish the film tommorow!

Monday, 05 March 2012

Since I’m working on my minor in history at Hamline, I guess I should devote a minor amount of this blog to noting anniversaries of notable events in human history. That, and I’m obsessed with commemorating this sort of stuff, anyway.

It was on this day in 1980 that a fully booked passenger airplane en route to Chicago met up with a triple threat: inclement weather, incapacitated crew, and a bomb threat. While still in mid-air, pundits gave up the passengers for dead, and multiple news outlets declared there was no chance of a safe landing. In an unbelievable turnaround, however, one of the passengers, a former army pilot during Vietnam, with the help of the two flight attendants, wrested the bomb from the would-be terrorist, navigated the storm, and brought the plane in for a safe, albeit bumpy, landing. Though the injuries were many, no lives were lost in the landing.

The pilot went on to become a space shuttle test pilot and married one of the flight attendants. A documentary about the event can be found AT THIS LINK.

Of the reluctant passenger’s rise to heroism that day, one of the passengers memorably stated: “The bro was on. Didn’t flip. But the folks was fleeking man, hey. And the pilot was laid to the bone, home.”

But I can’t do his words justice. Just watch the clip:

Saturday, 03 March 2012

Last week, when I was buying sheets of plywood for my garage, I had a few minutes to wait. One of the employees was cutting the wood into manageable sizes for me, so I wandered around the store. I found a bathroom faucet for sale, on clearance from $60 down to $28. It looked nice; a vast improvement over what currently exists in the downstairs bathroom. So I bought it.

 The ugliest bathroom faucet I’ve ever owned.

Today, I finally got around to installing it. Owen and Isla accompanied me to the local hardware store so I could pick up a few items I needed to do the job, and then I set to work. The connectors I bought were too long, so I had to go back and swap them, otherwise everything went smoothly.

Owen gave the faucet its inaugural run. He seemed pleased with the results. So was I.

But I didn’t stop there. No sir-ee. I also finally removed the keychain-slash-bill holder shelf that came with our house and centered it on the wall. Yeah, not sure what the bonehead previous owner was thinking, but there’s a narrow wall separating the back door from the mudroom, and he hung the shelf there…off-center by about an inch. It wouldn’t be noticeable on a large wall, but when the wall is only 10 inches wide, it’s obvious. It took me all of about four minutes to locate the exact center, mark it, unscrew the shelf, and rehang it at the exact center.

Sunday, 04 March 2012

In the continuing saga of home improvement, today I put these little caps on the bolts that come up from the floor and hold the toilet in place. I actually bought some caps yesterday but, seeing they didn’t fit, I returned them at the same time I swapped out those connectors. Boy, that was dumb of me. Turns out, you can saw the bolts down.

I wasn’t sure if this would work, since they are rather sizable bolts. But with a bit of olecranon tallow, I was able to hacksaw my way through both bolts. The new caps fit well, and they make the whole thing look better. Well, it’s still a place to take a crap, but you get my meaning.

Also, in an effort to gain more room in the garage (since I no longer have the workshop for my own use), I brought in several pieces of baby furniture (you know, like a swing, a jumper, and a car seat) and some cardboard boxes. I’ve never liked that these things have been in our garage, but we didn’t really have a choice when we lived in the apartment: there was just no room in our home. For a while, we kept them at my mom’s place, but when she hooked up with Keith, my kind, loving, considerate, friendly stepfather, he asked us to take our junk elsewhere. Or, rather, he had my mom ask us, since, you know, he can’t talk to us without suffering grave repercussions.

This is what happened to the last JW who foolishly tried to talk to us.

So…yeah…anyway…our stuff’s been out in a dirty garage for two years.

When we moved into our home almost six months ago, I didn’t even think about it. All that stuff had been in the garage already, so I just absent-mindedly put it in the new garage.

But today, with Owen’s help, I carried the items into the house and put them in our attic. They’ll stay cleaner and safer in there and, should we need any of it again (or wish to get rid of it), it will be a lot easier venturing into the attic during a cold winter’s day than out to the garage.

Friday, 02 March 2012

This evening, Jennifer and I once again engaged in a conversation about my middle name.

She’s not excited about this idea. She said something like, “But it’s who you are – I remember when we first met, you used to always tell people your whole name.”

“Yeah, I know, and that’s just it. So many people hate their middle name or are embarrassed by it, but I had no such issues; I was proud of my name and I liked to tell people my whole name.”

Actually, the notoriety I afforded my middle name was not initially born out of pride, but out of a need to distinguish myself from my father. My parents, in a masterstroke of creativity, bestowed upon me the same name as my father and, upon my sister, the same name as our mother. The four of us were James and Diane and James and Diane.

This was super-cute, and despite what everyone evidently thought, there were no name issues at home. After all, the big people were known as “Dad” and “Mom,” and the little people were “James” and “Diane.”

But it wasn’t so cute as the kids became adults. Our mail got mixed up. People called asking for Diane, and I’d have to ask “Which one?” My mom hated being called “Big Diane.” My Dad confounded people by introducing himself with the “childish” name of “Jim” or “Jimmy,” while calling his young son the authoritative sounding “James.” My sister took to filling out forms and signing up for magazines as “Michele Diane” (a swapping of her first and middle names). I, meanwhile, signed my full name, or at least put in thie intial – D – to distinguish me from my father.

But I don’t like my middle name anymore (I’ve written about this before).

So I want to change it.

But will it mess with my identity?

I pointed out to my wife that she changed her name, and she said she had to, ’cause we got married.

I rebutted that she did not have to. I distinctly recall initiating a conversation regarding which name we would take.

Jennifer reminded me that I was insistent we share a last name, and that I presented an argument that claimed my last name was better. At the time, she readily conceded. I knew she would, because she had lamented how she disliked that people always pronounced her name wrong, or didn’t know how to spell it. I assured her there were no such issues with my last name. So, we went with mine.

Jennifer also noted that she now uses her maiden name online, but I pointed out that she only does this so that people who knew her in her younger days (before she married the man of her dreams) can find her.

I want to have a name like I used to have – one that I am proud of and that identifies me as the person I am. If I’m going to be named after someone (as all three of my names are), then it better A) not be a stupid name, and B) not be named after an asshole.

Jennifer brought up the issue of money, so I – being the spendthrift I am – asked how she would feel about it if money was no concern. I don’t remember what she said. I think I was getting too tired.

Anyway, I don’t know. Maybe it’s silly. Maybe it’s not. Over the past two years, I’ve removed my middle name from everything that I could; even when forms ask for my middle name, I simply put the initial.

Thursday, 01 March 2012

Well, we have now completed 60 days in the year they call “2012.” Here are some things I’ve done so far…

*Officiated a wedding

*Took Owen to three “Build and Grow” events at Lowe’s

*Continued in my internship as an editor with Freethought House

*Gave speech #8 (the one with the standing ovation) and #9 in Toastmasters

*Took a business trip to Janesville, Wisconsin

*Completed editing two issues of The Minnesota Atheist

*Hosted two episodes of Atheist Talk

*Began a history class at Hamline University

*Went to the movies twice

*Insulated and installed a ceiling in our workshop, signed the lease with our renter to begin renting it today

*Read 10 books, not counting the book I reread.

No wonder I’m tired!

Oh – in other news, CHECK OUT MY WIFE’S REVIEW of the book Secrets and Wives. I was glutted with a backlog of books to read for reviews and class, so she offered to read this book and write a review. Go wife!