Category: Life

I forgot to mention the new plog.

Friday night I met my new cousin, Scott. He’s 32, lives in Conway, and is married with 3 kids. He’s working on a master’s degree in history at UCA.

Scott was put up for adoption by my aunt Cindy when he was born. He grew up in Cabot mostly. He never thought much about tracking down his real mother, although her knew her name. A few months ago, he saw her name in a UCA donor list (her alma mater as well as his). He’s a lot like his mom – big Democrat, and an impatient driver who attempts to school other motorists in proper technique (must be in the blood).

Anyway, we had a birthday party for him at aunt Cindy’s house. He and his wife have the same birthday. There were two cakes – one for them, and one for Scott’s “first” birthday. He has two daughters and a son, and they’re all adorable. They are so much like the rest of us, I can’t even tell you. DNA does make a difference. Since Cindy has five siblings I had to make Scott a chart. Hopefully he’ll be able to make it to a McCorkindale Thanksgiving or Christmas to meet the remainder of us weirdos. So far the only blood he has met are his mom, his half-sister Clara, uncle Barry, my brother and I.

The weekend also featured a reunion of the Harrison gang over at Brian’s house. Mostly we all ate meals, watched Stephen perform, and wandered aimlessly through town. Then we watched Mallrats and Goonies and drank. It’s really our little version of the American Dream.

Oh, and here are Brian’s pictures from our trip to Scott, Arkansas.

Early voting is going on down the street from my office at the Laman Library. I went in at 8:00 this morning and came out at about 8:30. I was in the first dozen when they opened the doors, and I’m certainly glad I was a few minutes early because right now there is no parking and a long, long line for the three voting carrels. Four years ago I did early voting and I was in and out in a few minutes. Here people are packing the place. I think the entire country is ready to get this ordeal over with.

In other news, why does this never happen? Why is this so often a one-way street? And what does that say about Western Philosophy?

Here’s a recent self-portrait, taken purely to impress The 655 Mile Woman

I had a good weekend. Saturday I met up with a girl from San Diego who found me on MySpace.com. She was looking for cool people to hang out with while she’s in Arkansas for an art show and to see her parents in Hot Springs. Her name is Meredith, and she’s friends with The Old 97’s and the Samples, so she has some fun stories. I took her to Vino’s and Damgoode Pies and played a ton of CDs for her. She’s here
for a couple of weeks so we’ll hang out again soon, probably to see some films at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Then Sunday night I went out to meet a lawyer named Sarah. We had a good time, so we’ll probably go see a movie or something soon, too.

Man, months of nothing and then two dates in a weekend. It’s almost like having a life. Tonight: laundry! Tomorrow night: Norah Jones at Alltel Arena with Heather.

Today’s Plog features a trip to scenic Scott, Arkansas, and last night’s moonrise. Whenever a full moon rises and it appears larger than normal, for some reason it flips the switches on a part of my brain that demands I give all my attention to the sky. I first saw the rising orb last night on my way back to the laundromat. I immediately ran around trying to get a good angle to shoot from but I was bound to the ground and all its horribly intrusive artificial light sources, and of course those blasted trees. So I drove up the hill from my apartment to Knoop Park and took pictures there.

It was pitch black with only the lights of the city and the moon to guide me so I had to watch my steps closely. While I was making my way down to the park, I encountered three people on the park’s stone terrace reading aloud from the book of Genesis. Making my way down to the lower patio, there was a man and his son looking at the cityscape. The boy was about 4 I guess and he was asking questions like what’s the difference between Arkansas and Little Rock, and the dad was explaining everything about everything. All the while I was taking pictures of the sky. The boy asked me why I wasn’t taking more pictures of the city and the best I could say was, “because the city’s always there.”

I came to work this morning to see something peculiar in the parking lot.

My office sits at the bottom of a steep hill leading up to Interstate 40. The driver insisted he was OK, but he seemed to be limping. I heard from the cop on the scene that he didn’t have insurance. He had Minnesota plates, so I’m not sure if he was just passing through or what. I’m also not clear on what happened exactly, but the speculation is he fell asleep at the wheel. Fortunately for us, the damage was superficial. No structural damage to the building, no loss of expensive or sensitive equipment. He just bashed in a closet. A little to the left and he would have taken out our A/C; a little to the right and he would have taken out our phone line and T1 connection. And the fact that this happened at about 6:30 AM means our cars are OK.

Last night DeLaine and Richard and I went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It’s the single most fabulous visual presentation I’ve seen since, well the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but still…maybe it’s better to say that it is the most original visual presentation I’ve seen since Star Wars. My dad is going to freak out when he sees it because it is essentially an old Republic serial with a CGI budget and modern film technology. It’s retro sci-fi, and it’s gorgeous to behold.

Yet another Plog today. Somebody stop me. For those of you keeping score at home, we currently have no less than three new Plogs right now. In case you missed them, they can be found here:

September 13
September 16
September 18

Also, I thought of something fun to do with the bulletin board: picture captioning. So click here to caption some weird old postcards I found in a Bryant junk shop.

Dark Hearted Disco Queen was lamenting her distinct lack of donutty goodness this morning. Try as I might I couldn’t send the tasty chocolate glazed treat through the computer to her in Indiana.

Last night rain came down in a peculiar way. I could only hear it. I was eating my dinner and I heard the sounds, but looking out the window, I could receive no visual confirmation. Were I deaf I would not have known it was raining. I had to stare very intently at the leaves outside my window before I could see some wet effect on them. I opened the window, and immediately my view was crowded by those two cats that live in my apartment. We smelled the air and watched the ground turn dark with moisture. Good times.

Last weekend I got my violin fixed, went to Chris’s birthday party at Heather’s (birthdays on September 11 deserve twice as much drinking as regular birthdays we figure), went out on the river with David and Emily, then went to see Hero, which was quite good. Pictures from the river in the new Plog.

I recently discovered that my web host offers a free bulletin board service. It’s really easy to manage, so I set it up here. I think I’m going to set a permanent link here for journal comments eventually.

Also, something that will always make me smile, no matter what. Four words: Pudgee the Phat Bastard.