A funny thing happened on the way to Mari & Charlie’s brunch today.
We were in the middle of the no-man’s-land between Roxboro & Markham…you know, that part of The Worst-Designed Intersection in Durham (or is it in all of North Carolina?) where you’ve already crossed northbound Roxboro and are waiting for a break in the [...]

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I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t follow Sri Lankan politics and have no opinion about the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan government, or their conflict, which at long last appears to be drawing to a close.
But damn, isn’t “Tamil Tigers” the best name ever for a rebel group? Maybe now that they’ve put [...]

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I admire people who are slaves to routine. I really do. Up at 5am, morning jog, at their desk at 8:30am, blah blah blah fall into bed and fast asleep by 9:30. I suppose I have a routine, but it drifts like a fourth-grader’s attempts to sing on key.
Monday: Up before 6am. Work out. At [...]

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We’re having guests. I guess that means I have to vacuum the cat hair off the sofa.
I’m not very excited about this Super Bowl. My football viewing has fallen off since the 49ers started sucking (and yes, I know that was a loooong time ago). And whereas watching football used to be a brainless activity [...]

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So the last week was pretty amazing on a number of counts. (1) Barack Obama was inaugurated. (2) Barry and I were in DC with a few million other people for the occasion. (3) I met a whole bunch of cousins that I’d never met before.
We arrived on Saturday after a lovely drive up Route [...]

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Tomorrow morning, Barry and I leave for a bit of an adventure. We’re driving up to Manassas, VA, where we’ll be staying with a first cousin that I’ve never met. On Sunday morning, I’ll be meeting more of my Virginia relatives, the descendants of my father’s sister, who left New York with her second husband [...]

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I haven’t done much of a what-the-heckamagooza I’m doing blog post lately, so here it is.
I ended 2008 not having met my absurdly lofty business goals for the year, on the other hand, I made about the same as in 2007 while spending more time on personal projects. I learned to build a website in [...]

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That’s all your house is…it’s a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.” –George Carlin
I’ve been cleaning out the attic the last few days. I need to clean out the attic because it’s chock full of stuff, and I’m moving my studio to a home office, and I don’t [...]

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I want to emphasize this point: I was NOT looking for a job. Heck, I’m scheduled to speak at an IABC meeting this month about the joys of not having a job.
A couple of weeks ago I got an email from someone saying “we have a job opening, here’s the description, are you open to [...]

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In my “about me” page, I refer to the “mysterious Virginia branch of the family.” They are a mystery no more—I am now in touch with one of my cousins, who has filled me in on my many other cousins, a few dozen of whom live a mere 3 hours up I-85 in Richmond.
I have [...]

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