yabbadoo

Rum-tum tiddle-iddle. I read some Winnie-the-Pooh last night and it is better than I remember. I need to get more than the one or two stories that I have. The writing has an elegance that is rare in children's literature, without being inaccessible. This is a day or so later and I'm a little sleepy but thankful for wonderful people and kind deeds.
Look at this a wacky picture I made after I let two of my students play with a silly program called Evolvotron. Let two sugared-up kids loose on a computer and who knows what will come from the other side. I think they sent my poor machine through a billion iterations but we got some neat stuff out of it.
I've been putting baby pictures in the "pictures of stuff" section. Feel free to comment or if you want them here, let me know. He is a cute thing, despite the nasal crying in the bit of night recently reserved for sleeping and stupidity. Drunkenness is overrated. Geometry knowledge represents.

babies, bits of a past adventure, and procrastination.

One picture is something I edited from a day hike I took on crazy hot time a couple of years ago. I went to Village Creek State Park which is on Crowley's Ridge. It's a different world on this long, low ridge that runs from Missouri to south of here. I am unsure of the geology of it but I believe it is the vestige of an incredibly old mountain. I remember it being insanely hot and walking down a sunken confederate road and these crazy trees with roots half naked.

Now, the next picture is about the widest I have seen Daniel James open his eyes. He is a cute thing and I was not one for cute.

I lied. Who knew that I am a rat bastard? My awesome wife likes to remind of such. I think I do a pretty good job of beating myself up about such things. Not as much these days. I can be quite good at defining myself through my flaws, both perceived and real. I'll probably keep doing so even though a the scent of better habits helps me through. Just jotting some silly notes down here is the baby step to getting serious about writing everyday. I lost the drive a coupld of months ago. I feel that is a natural stage in the process and one in which the successful define themselves by overcoming stagnated spiritual motivation with developed need. What am I talking about, I haven't finished one big story and wonder if I ever will. The motivation to write has dwindled and no I must work on rebuilding it. Standard Issue needs a good role model, right?
Before I forget, the strip of black on the right of the picture is a few curls of Jasmin's hair. She refuses pictures and that's the way of that. One of the twusts of hair fell out last night and I have kept it in my pocket all day. It was my charm for the for today and I hope to carry it forever.
Oh that note, sleep well and that's this..

4.20.09...part ii

Check it out folks. That there is Daniel James Wallace. I'll try to not put ten million pictures of him up here. He was born today. Earth day. 420. As far as I'm concerned, it's his day.. I'm kinda tired and feel like watching some movies and sleeping. Enjoy yourselves and smile well.

4-20-09. part i

So..my wife is in labor and I'm at work waiting and teaching. I don't know what all to jot and I am praying that the next post will be of pure joy. Worry doesn't suit me well. Maybe it does since no one knows when I'm stressed and anxious. This boring veneer of mine is getting a little better made everyday.
I thank the gods that I have a beautiful and loving wife and that my brother is so dedicated to his fraternal bonds that he is on his way to the waiting room to keep a post for me. Those that know him, speak dearly of his benevolent nature while swearing of his funky ways. He is a frustrating lad but that's just part of the fun.
Know not what else to say but I do say that I have been too long from writing. Rock on and send strength to those fighting through the pain and joy to those seeing light in the rain.

is it getting hot in here

I started studying global warming and a host of other environmental problems many years ago. Since then, I have had enough interesting conversation to develop my own views to a lot of confusion. I think one that stuck was when I was talking with this crazy fellow, Brian Jordan, about evolution. He's a punk as funk type of soul and a hellified artist. We got into the chat as he was giving me a tattoo for six hours and I needed to do something to get past the building ache and burn. I'm a strong believer of natural selection and evolution. It made sense when I first heard about it and books like Beak of the Finch firmed up my belief. Brian's response was "None of us where there to see it so how the hell do we know it's real?" Throw evidence all you want in the face of that argument but it a simple power to it. It allowed me to question what I thought I knew and that has led me to wonder about "global warming". Why is it easier to believe that Carbon Dioxide is the culprit rather than solar cycles? Maybe we just put out more heat by doing more work. That motor under the hood likes to be around 270 and it discharges excess heat through exhaust and fans. What happens when you air condition a civilization? You don't pump cold air into a building, if you want a hint. Silly ideas, sure, but could emissions be just as so? How did that start, anyway? Usually scientists start with the clean and logical theaory and work to prove or disprove it. Someone said, "gases" and it has been an evil debate to maybe prove it since. That doesn't follow the scientific method but we all follow the theory. Solar cycles seem pretty strong. I just read an interesting article at Discover by a Dutch scientist who figured that cosmic rays change cloud formations. It's all how the experiments are done and how the results are written. The carbon dioxide argument gets weird because folks want to charge a big ole CO2 tax. We could use alternate energy but we should also be focusing on efficiency. I'm about to give up on the political debate. I was happier not knowing and just as useless.
In other news, I see that the Boston Globe is teetering. That ain't good. Profit margins, not profits. It's the dumb problem with public trading. A loss is not making as much as you did. If you can pay the bills and keep the journalists fed and all that, the rest is gravy. Bastard owners just don't want to skimp on their gravy. What do they have to do with a newspaper? Be happy you got a dollar when you should get jack for doing just that. To top it off, the papers are all to ready to lobotomize themselves, forgetting that they have a big stick of power, to stay afloat. It might be best for some of them to grown a pair and start swatting back. Go out with a fight, not like a sideshow whore. What do I know.