Today was the third Sunday of Advent — the sunday of Joy. I lit a candle today during the service at ERUUF (the first time I’ve ever lit a candle during the service before for a joy or concern).  Mine was a very special joy. As a kid I didn’t love the Joy Sunday of Advent as much as I loved the others.  Peace was probably my favorite (little activist kid that I was).Joy was also the pink...

This is the “Presto” Potato Peeler.  I have one of these that I picked up for free, but haven’t used.  After messing with it for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to make it work, I asked youtube to help me.  This wonderful woman demonstrated it excellently. It’s actually pretty neat, I’m going to try making homestyle baked potato fries later tonight.

For the first time since 2004, I can now genuinely say that I am putting effort and priority into my music. It started over this last Christmas holiday, when I was playing around with Mariah’s dad’s electric guitars and amps in the basement.  Then, when I returned home to Durham, I started picking up my acoustic for more and more hours each day.  Weeks went by, months of solidly playing, and then...

Last night, for the first time since becoming a dad, I stayed out past midnight in Durham. I had a lot of fun, discussed my potential future band w/ my potential future bandmates, and had some great discussions at Drinking Liberally, saw some great music (Pistil @ the Broad Street Cafe), and even played a little shuffleboard with the band afterwords at the Green Room.

What: Drinking Liberally, a weekly gathering of like-minded youngish progressives to share a few pitchers and talk some politics.  When George Bush was president we mostly commiserated, now we get to celebrate a little too. When: This Thursday & Everythursday 8PM – 10PM [But especially this Thursday] Where: Bull McCabe’s, 427 Main Street Durham NC Why: Because it’s lots of fun, and because...

Washing & Ironing: How To Iron A Shirt This is a video I watched just recently, after a life time of bribing other people to iron my shirts for me.  It started in student Congress, circa age 15.  Before that I’d gotten my grandmother or mother to iron them, though the times I needed an ironed shirt were few & far between.  Since then I’ve bribed roomates, travelmates, and girlfriends...

Many years ago I made a list of the 200-odd largest metropolitan areas in the USA.  Why just in this country?  I don’t know, I guess that was the Wikipedia entry I started with.  I know the list was actually just the continental US, ’cause it didn’t include San Juan or Honolulu.  Then I cut the list down, city by city, using different criteria. Here’s how it worked I hate the cold,...

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

In keeping with my recent movement towards Foreign Policy readings… I’m looking for a new book to read. Specifically, I’m looking for a book that is les than 600 pages, more than 100 pages, written from an angle that would not be described as neoconservative or right-wing, and in the category of non fiction covering one of these 5 topics: China:  Especially Mao through Now.  (Hey, that Rhymes!)...

For two main reasons, I’ve been doing a lot of foreign policy reading lately.   The first reason is that I realized I don’t actually have a super strong handle on foreign relations, at least not in comparison to my seemingly endless capacity to talk domestic policy and wonk out at will.  In an effort to better balance the two, I figured I should try to change my reading habits for a while.   The...