Category: People

Gordon Atkinson is Real Live Preacher, in case that’s not clear.

January 12, 2005 /

I don’t know why I don’t immediately subscribe to everything Sumana mentions, because her taste in blogs is pretty impeccable. Case in point: Real Live Preacher, whose journal I started reading only because she belted out its praises day and night. His entry today about lemons, among other things, is touching and real and sublime.

It’s so hard to make things that are quirky in real life interesting in writing. Real quirks tend to seem forced when written down, and people who lift quirks from fiction are just annoying. Gordon Atkinson’s ability to write about the facts of his life as he does is extraordinary; he illustrates the beautiful potential that public journals have, and almost always fail to fulfill.

December 30, 2004 /

Apparently the Xorphorum is dead. This doesn’t mean a great deal to me, as I haven’t read or posted there in months. I know how to fix the problem, but since email and the LJ feed comment threads pretty much fulfill my desire for discussion of my work, I don’t have any real motivation to do so–except for the thriving Acid Zen Wonder Paint fan community which has grown there. It would be pretty callous of me to leave them homeless.

So I’m probably going to delete all the fora but that one and turn over ownership of the whole kit to Stephen. I’d be happy to host the AZWP forum in perpetuity, but it’d make more sense (and give Stephen more control) if it were hosted under his domain. Then again, moving the forum would mean starting it over from scratch–user accounts, posts, everything. Hmm.

Stephen, what do you think?

December 29, 2004 /

In addition to Caitlan’s car, which (after its acrobatics last Wednesday) is totalled, Ian’s car is now a danger to drive; he’ll probably have to sell it for parts. Regarding Mom’s van, the mechanic told her to keep driving it for what time it had left, then leave it wherever it broke down.

Jon and Amanda, on their way to Tennessee for Christmas, skidded on ice and ran head-on into a truck. They’re okay, but the car is gone, and Amanda’s collarbone is broken.

It has been a bad December for cars, and for my family; but I am shaken by how much worse it could have been.

A year ago I was writing about the earthquake in Bam. I thought an earthquake death toll of around 50,000 was the worst I’d see in my lifetime. I was wrong, of course.

Update 2330 hrs: And my grandparents flipped their truck on ice on their way to Florida for Christmas. They are also miraculously okay, and also currently without transportation.

December 24, 2004 /

Joe died very early Wednesday morning, in his sleep. The first report from his autopsy hasn’t established a certain cause of death; his heart was greatly enlarged, and he had a little cardiovascular disease, but was otherwise healthy. They’ve established that it wasn’t a heart attack, a stroke or an aneurysm. His sister Laura, a nurse who specialized in cardio, believes it was a rhythmic irregularity that could not have been predicted: he had no risk factors except that he was a male in his fifties with some family history of heart disease.

Ian, Caitlan and I are here in Richmond with my mom now, staying nights at Joe’s house near Lancaster to take care of the dogs and keep the fire going (it’s heated with wood). Caitlan flipped her car twice on the way to see Mom that morning; the car is probably junk, but Caitlan is okay aside from some whiplash. She’s attempting to incorporate her neck brace into various turtleneck ensembles.

Weather and other delays have moved things to after Christmas. The visitation will be at Spurlin Funeral Home in Lancaster from 3-8 pm on Sunday the 26th. The funeral will also be at the home, at 10 am on Monday the 27th. After the funeral we’ll proceed to Blue Bank Farm in Casey County, where Joe will be buried in our family cemetery, next to my father and my mother’s father.

Thanks to everyone who has sent condolences and well-wishes. I appreciate all your words; I don’t have time to answer you individually right now, but your kind thoughts mean a great deal to me and my family.

Donations may be made, in lieu of flowers, to three things Joe loved: the Garrard County Humane Society, Kentucky Educational Television, or St. Mark School.

The Christmas my mother was displeased

December 13, 2004 /

I think this is the best story about my parents, although there are many great ones.

In 1988 or possibly 1987, my father gave my mother all of the following as Christmas gifts:

  1. A typical Texas Instruments calculator with a slide-on case.
  2. A small calculator with metal buttons, fitted into a glass paperweight.
  3. A calculator with an AC adaptor, which could print its calculations onto a small roll of paper.
  4. A thin calculator that was part of a checkbook.
  5. A calculator with tiny, tiny buttons, which was integral to a digital wristwatch.

I think it’s only natural that he got a second, matching wristwatch as a present to himself.

December 8, 2004 /

Leonard says that it was in fact Zappa, and offers further quotage:

“In every language, the first word after ‘Mama!’ that every kid learns to say is ‘Mine!’ A system that doesn’t allow ownership, that doesn’t allow you to say ‘Mine!’ when you grow up, has — to put it mildly — a fatal design flaw.”

Maria notes that in fact it’s usually more like “no,” then “mine,” then “mama.” I think that only makes the quote more interesting, as does the fact that it relates not at all to free culture, and very well to the MPAA/RIAA model of purchasing and licensing. To quote Leonard himself, “‘own’ ‘it’ ‘on’ ‘DVD!'”

More on this later.

Update 12.09.2004 1615 hrs: Maria wishes me to state that though she has studied development, she is not in fact a developmental psychology student, and that I have never stated any facts about her or quoted her accurately, and also that I should be dragged out in the street and shot.

See? I did it again!