Signed up for a premium Micro.blog account to host audio, so here’s a quick and dirty test. A cover of ‘Hard Times’ by Gillian Welch.
Reading
A Pattern Language
Christopher Alexander
- The kids are watching a movie (Spy Kids: Armageddon) and my wife is off with her girlfriends paddle boarding. We’re winding down after a somewhat stressful week while DW gets some much needed time for herself.
- I finished a big report I was writing for work early in the week, a few weeks early no less, so I feel like I can release some of the extra anxiety that has been burdening me unnecessarily. I’ve also been waiting on some pretty important work news since May and I still haven’t gotten any word about it. As a result, I haven’t been sleeping the best again and it’s made for some tougher …
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Getting into the spirit. #halloween
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This Michigan-Nebraska game is a blowout.
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At the in-laws’ place for my FIL’s birthday. This view will never get old. Columbia River looking across to Oregon from Washington.

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I can’t name a single song of Paul McCartney’s since 1980’s “Wonderful Christmastime”.
Pretty amazing considering every beloved Beatles song was written during a span of just 10 years but somehow the man hasn’t written anything memorable in 43 years.
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Reminder to always look at insurance billing in detail. Just had a crown put in and the dentist tried to charge me an additional $230 when in fact they owned me that money from overpayment. As if this stuff isn’t expensive enough 😬
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Imagine being such a megalomaniac that you start a magazine and put yourself on the cover every month 😂
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Dad, this is like a chicken nugget potato. It’s crispy on the outside, potato on the inside!
~My son upon eating a McDonald’s hash brown for the first time today.
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This is my lunch. Taquitos and chocolate milk.
-my wife
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Guitar
It’s amazing how critical we can be of ourselves and our art. All these years of playing guitar and singing and I’ve never released anything official because of fear of my abilities and anxiety about what others will think. I get a lot out of playing for myself, but it would be nice to put something out into the world.
I have been considering doing something ambitious and writing a song per week for a year. Maybe starting a second Micro.blog account for it and using the podcast hosting to do quick acoustic songs with no mixing or editing. Just let them be what they are.
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Guitar
Played a 00017 today. It was a return at guitar Center. Nice Guitar for the money. Ultimately passed on it but it was hard. Lol.

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Yesterday I got the news that after a nearly 5-month background check, I got my security clearance and can finally start the new job I first applied for way back in February and accepted in May. Now I can finally let the stress and anxiety of the unknown go and focus on more important things.
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Without a beard I’m feeling very Bill Murray-esque. Of only I had the personality.
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Ah yes, the $1000/mo student loan payments are back.
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I don’t care if it rains or freezes
Long as I’ve got my plastic Jesus
Sitting on the dashboard of my car
Comes in colors pink and pleasant
Glows in the dark cause it’s iridescent
Take it with you … when you travel far.
Get yourself a sweet Madonna
Dressed in rhinestones sitting on a
Pedestal of abalone shell
Going ninety I ain’t scary
Cause I’ve got the Virgin Mary
Assuring me that I won’t go to hell.
~Cool Hand Luke
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Finally got the garage mostly cleaned up today. Living in a small house, our family’s spillover ends up cluttering up the garage where it acts as a catch-all for everything from half finished projects to underutilized baby paraphernalia. Felt good to get it somewhat organized. Then we played.
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Yesterday we went to the rhododendron garden in Sellwood for the first time. Today, me and the wife are taking turns with the kids so we can alternate in the hot tub and sauna here at the community pool before we grab something for lunch at the new cart pod in downtown Hillsboro.
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Shaved my face for the first time in maybe a decade and people keep looking at me strange…including myself !

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Photography
First day of seasonal depression.

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I have very evidently entered the phase of adulthood where everyone I know in the Northwest is moving back to the Midwest. Another good friend announced they’re moving away from Portland so that they can finally afford a house. It’s getting pretty lonely out here. Honestly, if I could convince my wife, I’d move back to Michigan in a heartbeat.
Essays
Weekly Update, Sept. 22
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Every once in a while, a lyric so profound hits you in the face so hard that you never forget it:
Somewhere in the asshole of my eye
There’s a muscle which relaxes when you cry
Inoculate the Innocuous by The Unicorns
Happy almost 20th anniversary of the release of Who Will Cut Your Hair When We’re Gone?

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Photography
Day 22: Road. Snapped this while walking from 10 Barrel Brewing to Pioneer Square for the Built to Spill concert a few weeks ago. As a planner, this makes my heart go pitter-patter.

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Eastern Oregon is as backwards as anywhere.
