Welcoming Change

How would you like having to nurse your twins in a stranger’s yard?

People love habit.  Having the feeling of knowing what comes next is comforting.  But you can’t fix problems or grow from a place of complete safety.  You have to take risks, spend resources, embrace the insecurity of undetermined outcomes, and dream of better things that might be.

The Best of Mikey (so far)

Since I’m nearing 300 posts, it’s time for another retrospective.  These articles were among those most viewed, but more importantly, I thought they were good even when re-read.

Thanks All Round

It’s been a good week.  The rest of the country has been uncomfortably hot, but until yesterday it was raining most days in my little town, and I sometimes felt sad without reason.  I chose to live at the geographic edge of a rain forest.  It would be silly to expect it to be drier.  Perhaps I’m still adjusting to not living in the artificial oasis of El Lay.

This One Starts Out Boring

Firing the big gun (1915)

My recent inability to access the most interactive features here on WP.com are producing interesting results.

Deja Vu All Over Again?

There’s a book (and later film) by Dalton Trumbo, one of the “Hollywood 10”, a screenwriter blacklisted in the 1950s.  It’s called “Johnny Got His Gun”.  In that story, a wounded soldier is only able to tap messages in Morse Code using the back of his head on his hospital bed frame.  His face and limbs were removed in an explosion.  Those caring for him assume he’s been de-cerebrated and has no original thought to contribute.  I feel a bit like that.

This Is Possible

It’s time for a re-statement of why I write here.  It isn’t just for me.  I have this strange vision of a place where almost everyone is welcome.  I’m committed to RADICAL INCLUSIVITY.

Awards, Schmords (Pt. 2)

My 7 Links

I.K. Brunel (1857), and his set of impressive links

This self-congratulatory award nomination was more fun than the usual “tell me secrets and nominate others” routine, because it requires you to mull things over a little in order to make choices based on their criteria.

Awards, Schmords (Pt. 1)

Everything is new to a puppy.

It’s time to clear out some backblog, er, blacklung, a-HEM, backlog on the blog.  I got nominated for two “awards” last week.

Room at the Top

Have any of you wondered what it would take for your blog to be one of the most popular out of thousands who write here?  When I got up today and peeked at this list, I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole.

The Post LESS Challenge

As I surf around WordPress and other blogging communities, all I see is encouragement about posting MORE.  How many times must I re-assert that more is not better? 

Tidying Up

This is what you see when you enter through my front door.

It’s Spring.  Time to clean up my Blogroll.  I don’t want this action to hurt anyone’s feelings, so instead of just doing it I want to explain a little.  In terms of design and possessions, I prefer less rather than more.

What, Me Stylish?

No one epitomized stylish more than Fred Astaire.  If you say that word, I think of him.  And don’t give me the “Ginger Rogers did it backwards and in heels” line.  Fred and Hermes Pan made up the routines.  Ginger only learned them

Oy, GeSPAMmen ach Ptui!

Yes, attacken I’ve been last lately,with enticed agreement comments attempkin.  Enjoyed have I to restrain over 200 hits fauxlicks fromm countirees like rooshuh, toorkey, n roomainia.  They’re even some from izreel and chihnah. Whiyem eye sohh speshuil?  Wel, no madder, Ima gunna killem!!!  Hearz sum examples:

“I’d be inclined to consent with you on this. Which is not something I typically do! I love reading a post that will make people think.”

Deluxe Gift Baskets (#4)

“There is only one disease – congestion,

and only one cure – circulation”

— Chinese proverb

Here are some blogs I read for body health info.  I want to be healthy for whatever time I’m going to live inside this bottle

Deluxe Gift Baskets (#3)

http://home.myfairpoint.net/vze6omtd/jorysquibb/index.html

Jory Squibb built a microcar, which he named Moonbeam.  It took 1000 hours and $2500 in materials – mostly Honda Elite scooter parts.  It holds two adults, includes a heater, goes 45mph and has a range of 200 miles on a 2-gallon tank. I know how to do lots of things, but not this kind of thing.  Here’s where I’ve been reading how to

Deluxe Gift Baskets (#2)

Tragedy Tomorrow, Comedy Tonight!

detail from the Universal Comedy Flow Chart, care of the Ministry of Secret Jokes http://www.ministryofsecretjokes.com/

There’s nothing I like better than a good laugh.  It’s better than a good meal.  A unique gift of the human species is the ability to observe tragic circumstances and see humor in it. There’s nothing we can’t find funny; funerals, starvation, alcoholism, bad smells and bankruptcy.

Deluxe Gift Baskets (#1)

Partially sage, I rose merrily, on time.  Fluffy snowflakes have erased the borders between roads and yards.  The coffee’s warm, and the fireplace glows.  What a fine time for reading.  In addition to my regular peeps (they’re on the Blogroll), here are some blogs that I’ve been enjoying lately.

They Aren’t Your Friends

Oh, how I despise uninvited attempts to sell me things!  If I decide for myself that I need an item or a service, I go shopping for it either in person or online.  Under that circumstance, if I come to your store I’m glad for your help in clarifying my choice of purchase.  If you try to create a fake friendship out of our transaction it won’t work.

Deep River

The Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1877

The musical song form known as spirituals began as a beautiful union between American slaves’ desire for freedom, their identification with Old Testament stories, and a post Civil War embrace of European choral harmonization in Black colleges like Fisk University.

The Fame Virus

I write these articles first and foremost because I like doing it.  They are like cryptic messages on little scraps of paper that I put in bottles and set afloat on the ocean.