Tweak
Tweak is my dude. He was the second fish I got after I got after the monster, Black Tooth Grin. Tweak is an electric yellow cichlid. Black Tooth is an aggressive orange some-kind-of-African-cichlid-or-another, and easily five times Tweak’s size. They are the tank’s...
What Goes into the Forge
I’m a bit of a nerd. We’ve covered that, right? Among a pile of distractions that I’m not super proud of, I have a thing for this History Channel show called Forged in Fire. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a competition reality show, and each week a different cast of...
I Just Like Dixie
“Can I go get it?” I ask as soon as she throws it. “It” is just a flashlight tossed into the intake of an F-18 Super Hornet. “She” is the super-hot flight engineer for the Canadian Air Force. Yes, I know, it sounds shallow. But she has been explaining the inner...
From Trier
Purple, green, and yellow lights sparkle in reflection on the rain-soaked cobblestone. We arrive in a group, but a sudden downpour sends everyone scattering. Everyone but me, of course, so despite the diminutive heart the oldest city in Germany, I quickly find myself...
The Cost of Things
I don’t remember who said it, but it has stuck with me long enough that I should probably credit them. The gist is this though: To live an extraordinary life, you have to be willing to give up some of the things that come with an ordinary one. In the last two weeks,...
Fail Big
I don’t know how many times I’ve begun this post and deleted it in the past few days. My fingers keep typing justifications. I want to explain the hows and whys. The bottom line though, is that I’ve taken some professional and personal lumps the last few months....
L’appel du Vide
The French are good at two things: Eating snails and making up words that we don’t have in English. Seigneur-terraces is their word for people who sit at coffee shops and take up tables for hours without spending any money. When I waited tables, we used to call them,...
The Burden of Proof
You probably know by now that I have basically eschewed politics, given the finger to both sides, and hunkered down as a spectator to what I think has become the XFL of global politics. What that allows me is the freedom to watch it without having a team, the same way...
When Pigs Fly
I’m tired. Are you tired? I feel like these last few weeks have been exhausting, and I haven’t even let myself get involved in the fray. No worries though, this is a safe space. For the moment anyway. My “job” consists of a lot day to day maintenance. Just boring...
