Just Life Blog Posts

Now I know how fugitives feel. Skittish. Restless. Constantly looking over their shoulders, as though the next moment could be The One. Or not. Was that a car door? A tap on the window? Or just the wind? I know this feeling, because I'm at home toda...

It's cliche, I know, to complain about a Monday morning. Mondays are like opinions -- they all stink, and everybody's got one stuffed somewhere in their underpants. (Wait, no. That's different. Mondays are like birthdays -- except there's no cake or...

(Apologies to anyone who noticed the lack of posts in the latter half of the week; life's been a bit hectic for the past few days. Backfilling to catch up beginning in 3... 2... 1...) So there was a fair kerfuffle earlier this week, what with the el...

The very best part of my day today was this morning, when a lady in a lumbering Subaru made a rolling "stop" at the intersection I was pulling into, cutting me off, squelching my right-of-way, and nearly taking my front fender up her station wagon's...

I've never been incarcerated -- the occasional junior high school detention session notwithstanding. I've never been imprisoned, sequestered, detained or locked in. (It's sort of surprising, I know. You'd think someone would have thought to try it b...

I'm a science nerd. I'm pretty unabashed about that -- because even if I were abashed, there's not a hell of a lot I can do about it. I'm a computer programmer by day. My bookshelves are filled with science fiction and science fact books -- everythin...

It's good to be reminded, occasionally, that I'm actually a pretty low-key person. Oh, sure -- I can work up a good lathery rant, or get bent out of shape every once in a while. But compared to a lot of people, I keep my blood pressure somewhere sou...

I just don't understand the world. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not looking for another world to try. The commute would be a pain in the ass, for starters. And I probably wouldn't understand that one, either. But this one? Bewildering. Mostly, it's t...

My new-as-of-January job is in an office building in Cambridge, just a quick jog over the bridge from Boston. (Or a short swim under it, I guess, if you're the backstroking type. Me, I'd stay out of the Charles River. That thing used to be like the...

I've decided to give up acquaintances. Honestly, I've never figured out why we have them in the first place. They're like pocket handkerchiefs or Ace bandages or those twelve little jars of capers in the back of the fridge. Everybody's got them -- b...

Three lightning-quick points of order before we set sail tonight: #1. Contrary to my hard-earned pessimism from last time, I re-tinkered a bit and believe I've finally solved my spam comment problem. With custom code of my own, no less. I've been ru...

Today, I got an email. It was from Martha Stewart Magazine, and it loudly proclaimed, in the subject line: CHARLIE, We want you back! Now first of all, I want to be very clear about something: Martha Stewart Magazine never had me in the first place...

At nine o'clock last night, I was sitting happily -- and somewhat sleepily -- on my couch. Drinking a beer. Watching TV. Rocking the footie pajama slankie. (Not really. But it's a nice mental image, no?) That was nine PM, and my basically my plan f...

Apologies for my scarcity over the weekend. The combination of a busy schedule and a new pet project conspired to keep me off the keyboard for a few days. Rest assured, however -- just because I wasn't relaying the constant stream of indignities and...

As promised (threatened?) earlier this week, I was unleashed onto the unsuspecting radio airwaves last night, courtesy of Kris Earle and his Time Travel drive-time extravaganza on WMFO, Tufts community radio. You might think that you could click on...

I don't have a lot of opinions. I mean, not real opinions. Stuff like this -- and this and this and this and this and this and this -- doesn't count. Wow. That's quite a list. Okay, so maybe I have a LOT of opinions. But most of them -- in person,...

Tomorrow, I've been informed, I'm going to see Cirque du Soleil. My wife told me this, in approximately the same tone of voice my mother used when she told me I was going to eat my peas, or had better be getting my butt out of bed to go to school. I...

Tomorrow, the missus and I will be attending a wedding. That's not a complete shocker, but it is a bit unusual for us. We've aged past the point where summers are filled with wedding invitations and reception hall bands. We're more in the baby showe...