saying a lot without saying much

I censor myself rather often here, largely because I’m not always sure of (or, in some cases, particularly excited about) my audience. My post last Thursday inspired an unfortunate comment (which I deleted, ’cause I censor those, too — such a bad First Amendment defender I am in this domain! for shame, Liz!), and it …

mad craziness in northern Arkansas

Over the weekend, I went home to visit my parents, to help my father celebrate his 58th birthday in style (a trip to the 178 Club was in order!), and to assist with post-ice-storm cleanup in the backyard at my parents’ house. As it turns out, the situation in northern Arkansas was much worse than …

must. remain. calm.

For better or for worse, I am a passionate person. I feel things deeply … the good AND the bad. And, it takes only the smallest thing to inspire these deep emotions: I can be on top of the world just because I found an excellent parking spot or managed not to oversleep. Likewise, however, …

the power of believing

I really want to believe that the simple act of believing is powerful enough to make something true. For example, I want to believe that the warm front approaching this weekend marks the end of winter and the beginning of a long, mild, and lovely spring … I *want* to believe this, which is (of …

the ups and downs of the inter-web

I’ve been irreversibly addicted to the Internet since the summer of 1994, so I’ve had a little bit of experience with the emotional roller coaster that Internet-mediated communication can sometimes bring. It’s so easy to find people you know (or sorta know) online, and — thanks to sites like Facebook and MySpace — feel like …

well, I guess that’s one strategy

I’ve spent a not-insignificant chunk of my life teaching grammar to college freshmen and sophomores, so I have some peculiarly strong feelings on punctuation. And if one punctuation mark can get me all fired up, above all others, it’s definitely the apostrophe. I have been on a personal crusade against apostrophe abuse since I first …

I won! I won!

Saturday afternoon was Jeff Holmes’s final appearance at Bongo Java for the month of weekend shows, and my third consecutive Saturday hanging out and listening to his amazing music. It was a nice crowd and a great set, and concluded with an exciting giveaway. Jeff had brought three copies of the soon-to-be-released “No Clocks, No …

t-minus four weeks and counting

Four weeks from today, my spring break begins and I’ll be en route to Hawaii. That in itself is really exciting stuff, but the excitement doesn’t stop there, because I’ve got an awesome travel companion coming along with me. 🙂 Assuming we make it to the island of Oahu without suffering some catastrophic plane crash …

Wednesdays are just intense

I’m now a full two or three weeks into my new semester at Vandy, and so my life (finally) is starting to assume something resembling a routine. I’m a creature of routine, so this is a great thing. But what I’m discovering is that, no matter how hard I try to cram in as much …