It’s that time of year again where the most recent purchase of a new and fresh planner, journal, notebook, or calendar will completely change your life. This time things will turn around as soon as you crack open the cover and lace the little attached ribbon across Page One.
Except it won’t.
But it could.
It just needs your help. And attention.
Continue reading Rage Against the Screens!Today marks the thirteenth year since I first started throwing my thoughts, misspellings, and run-on sentences out into the digital world. I have to update several pieces of the “about me” section on here, but before I did that I wanted to take a look back on all the versions that have been on the various scrapes I began, and abandoned, before.
Continue reading Past Blog RegressionThis is another of those dropped posts where I was lucky enough to have the page caught by internet archive and a folder for the images I used.
The internet, and social media specifically, is a virtual ever-changing minefield of people vying for your money. Earlier this week I saw what has got to be the most ridiculous ad I have ever seen and decided to spend the rest of the week gathering shots of the different storefronts that have me on their algorithm.
Continue reading Ad AssassinsActually it was the reply to a tweet. The one below in fact. Suddenly, going through twitter in the morning before getting out of bed changed the trajectory of the entire summer and, in all honesty, may have helped my reconnect with a very long forgotten piece of myself. I’ve used the analogy before, but in this case I very much feel like Columbus who has discovered something that thousands of people already knew about. The Ghostbusters cartoon, that is The Real Ghostbusters, had a comic.
Continue reading It All Started With a TweetIt has always seemed odd to me how people can feel the impact of a person’s death if they had no immediate relationship or contact with that person. I suppose that passive relationships in the case of listening to someone’s music counts as much as anything because I find myself more saddened than usual on hearing of the death of Joe Cocker. It is always sad when someone dies and you feel some empathy for their family losing a husband or a father, or whatever, but the news today spun me into some ultra reflection of the music that shaped my life. Many (and there are many) obituaries talk about how unique Joe was as a person, and how humble he remained even after years of celebrity. NPR rescored the interview when he talked about his drinking and drug problems and his long climb back to sobriety. I knew none of that growing up in the 80s while my dad played his studio albums. (Once I figured out how to work the stereo I played it a LOT. This and Kris Krisstofferson’s Jesus was a Capricorn album, but that is another story.)
Continue reading Joe Cocker: the voice of my childhoodIf you have read (or will read) the first entry of this blog, you know (or will know) the story behind The Paleo Porch. A great many of you may have already made the connection with the Have Bones Will Travel slogan, too. But in case you haven’t, or maybe want to understand how circuitous my thoughts run, here is a brief rundown.
Continue reading Collision of WorldsSummer is drawing to a close and I have been working steadily on things I need to complete to justify getting signed embossed paperage from a large Tier I research based state university. I am lucky enough to work beyond my home department and as a result come in contact with a seemingly limitless procession of people, from all walks of life. This is my second go-round in graduate school, having completely a History M.A. at Lamar University way back in 2012. This time and location is different from the last, not better or worse just different. And that is something people, especially those from the same walks of life, have a hard time seeing.
Continue reading Well I never did.Stepping out into the well tested waters of crowd funding for science. It’s at least well tested for others, I have never done it. But, as part of the indiegogo project, I wanted to attach it to this blog as well as the Paleo Porch facebook page.
Continue reading Have Bones Will TravelI have touched more on family here than I think I intended. But, while that train is rolling, let’s just ride for a while. There is something interesting when you start looking at your family tree. I have mentioned before how in just a few generations you are directly related to more people than populated England in the 16th century. The idea that from all those strains you take your name from one, and hang some sort of cultural, ancestral, and /or genealogical identity on that is rather odd. I am sure it happens to others, but my case is really interesting since the only side of my family that has not been in America since the opening of the 17th century is the side I get my surname from.
Continue reading A Regular Family Business Part DeuxHere is something that I have shared with close friends. It is so much fun that it should go out on the record. I have traced as much of my family tree back as I can find at this point. Writing and coursework have gotten in between me and finishing. Not to mention records locked away somewhere in Dublin. Every single line of my family has been in the United States since the early 17th century. All, that is, but one. That one happens to be the one that gives me my last name.
Continue reading A Regular Family Business
