I shouldn’t be so surprised to see so many who wish to graft the opinions of Rev Wright onto most famous member of his congregation. After all, there has been so little opportunity for scandal throughout the Obama campaign. But the accusations of associative racism (or worse, sedition) are manifestly ignorant, not to mention more …
Gary Gygax is dead. He created Dungeons & Dragons in 1974. I never met him. But I owe him a debt of gratitude that requires some explanation. When I was a teenager, I was into Christian Rock up to my elbows. The genre seemed a reasonable compromise between the music I wanted to hear and …
Twenty-five years ago, I wanted to be as cool as Michael Jackson. We all did. Everything he did was worthy of our attention. I missed his appearance on the Motown special, the night that he debuted the moonwalk, but I sure did hear about it the next day at school. “Did you see that?” The …
Post Rapture Journal – Page 1, originally uploaded by grabbingsand. Spent some quality time in the garage today, deciding what was treasure to keep or junk to toss. I threw away so much. Lots of old letters, particularly. If I haven’t read them or re-read them in over five years, then why not let them …
It’s Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, though it would appear that health and safety divisions are keeping a watery eye on most festivities. As I observed too briefly four years ago, Bonfire Night is becoming obsolete. Even the city of York, birthplace of the wanna-be revolutionary/terrorist, is forgoing the festivities entirely. It’s too expensive, …
Yesterday, my iPod and my iTunes had a fight. All of the gory details are detailed elsewhere. In the end, I reinstalled iTunes, reformated my iPod and as of this morning, all is well. I’ve much fewer songs on my iPod, only the tracks I really wanted to have today, but the rest of the …
“Elvis” Souvenir Edition (08/21/1977), originally uploaded by grabbingsand. The week that Elvis Presley died, the Chattanooga News Free Press (so-called before it merged with the rival Chattanooga Times) did a special pull-out section dedicated to the late King of Rock and Roll. A week after, they printed another pull-out, this one twice as long. A …
Fall is here. Summer may snap back in a week, but for now, humor me and let me believe that fall is here. Some of my fondest memories of falls long past center around Saturday mornings and afternoons spent in downtown Chattanooga. When I was in high school, a term paper assignment was a license …
Last night, I talked to my cousin for the better part of an hour. Via phone, she went along with me to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. Then I/we went home where I paced about the kitchen, doing dishes quietly with my free hand. They’d piled up a bit in the sink. These …
Tonight, twenty-two years later, teacher / astronaut Barbara Morgan gets to fly. You know, it hasn’t been a long time. [1985] was just yesterday. It still feels like just yesterday. As we go through training now, those memories still are there with me. For example, when we go flying in the T-38s (and we do …
NFDC Happenings From Tumblr