Discrepant Awareness

Poem "Tantalus"

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:14:00 -0400

Here’s a poem that occurred to me the other night. I’ve been paring it down since...

Twitter Makes Life Better (Pt. 1)

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:30:52 -0400

A friend of mine shared a Thought Catalog post that traces our appropriations of people’s...

Hot and Bold

Thu, 26 May 2011 14:10:00 -0400

So I’m walking down the hall, enjoying my coffee, and reflecting on what I’d reply were...

Today I made a mental list of every relationship or serious romantic prospect I’ve ever had...

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:47:34 -0400

Today I made a mental list of every relationship or serious romantic prospect I’ve ever had...

A comment or two, if I may: 1. This is such a design victory....

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:44:00 -0400

A comment or two, if I may:

1. This is such a design victory. That degree of integration is difficult to attain and it adds a lovely aesthetic to unique functionality. My favourite part is the bathroom, but the desk nook is a close second.

2. His kitchen is bigger than mine. Seriously. Sigh…

3. Although it’s an extreme example, Jay’s lifestyle illustrates just what a spatially limited existence we can happily carry out if we’re only willing to be flexible and ingenious. I’m no environmentalist, but I feel a certain revulsion towards material excess. Reduction to something approaching bare necessity appeals to me, especially if it’s as charming as this little house.

4. Mobile, comfortable, sturdy, small windows… this is the perfect refuge for when the zombies arrive.
I’m building one.

My buddy Katie shared this awesome riff on Lululemon’s...

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:18:34 -0500

My buddy Katie shared this awesome riff on Lululemon’s advertising earlier today.

My favourite tag line:
“Live in the moment. Live in the moment. Live in the moment. Live in the moment. Maybe if we repeat it enough, this will somehow become usable advice.”

For someone who loves language and studies poetry, advertising like this is an ever-present eye-fuck. Aside from being essentially meaningless, “live in the moment” is to white-collared folks what “everything happens for a reason” is to blue-collars. It’s one of those things people say so they can appear purposeful without ever needing a single complete thought.
George Orwell must be rolling in his grave.

(Original image and fun links at seacowcoalition.com)

Today I had an idea for a screenplay I want to write.I really like this one too, but I don’t...

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:57:26 -0500

Today I had an idea for a screenplay I want to write.I really like this one too, but I don’t...

Sex and Love Among the Misanthropes

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:46:29 -0500

On sex and love:“Don’t think I don’t understand…I mean, what can any one of...

Epitaph for My Twenty-Somethings

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:41:00 -0500

“Shame and anxiety had marked Bill’s face. Already the skin was pouched and creased. If...

The N-Bomb. Those damn Neutrinos...

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:31:31 -0500

The N-Bomb. Those damn Neutrinos...: Well, I’m sure everyone’s seen this garbage...

The process of melancholy: “the bereaved abuses himself constantly but indulges in narcissism...

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:52:34 -0500

The process of melancholy: “the bereaved abuses himself constantly but indulges in narcissism...

Thanks, Genius

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:18:00 -0500

If I might take note of an extremely annoying phenomenon… PC users, ever shared a...

So.I’m single as of this September and I’ve had some time to process things a little....

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:58:00 -0400

So.I’m single as of this September and I’ve had some time to process things a little....

Metaphor Without Referent

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:11:00 -0400

This latest poem came about after I took a look at an image of Brueghel’s The Tower of Babel....

Whenever I break up with someone, I start inadvertently thinking about the Israeli peace process. (I...

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:51:00 -0400

Whenever I break up with someone, I start inadvertently thinking about the Israeli peace process. (I...

Return in Blue

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:24:40 -0400

Well, I’m home from a summer of work and work and trips and work and trips. (in that order) Just now...

I can’t remember the first time I looked at a world map, but I have a clear memory of the...

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:43:00 -0400

I can’t remember the first time I looked at a world map, but I have a clear memory of the...

Filing Poem

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:41:10 -0400

I wrote this poem while filing at the Dictionary of Old English, a process that’s a fairly...

(Un)pleasant Smells

Sat, 01 May 2010 21:01:00 -0400

There are a handful of conventionally unpleasant smells that I really enjoy. One is gasoline.The...

This is a picture I’ve been obsessing over for the last...

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:12:00 -0400

This is a picture I’ve been obsessing over for the last little while as part of my annual city-bound-in-spring, stir-crazy spell. I was prompted by a friend of a friend to look over the pictures from my 2008 trip to the Yukon and I just keep going back to this one.
It’s a picture my mother took of me overlooking part of the Salmon Glacier.

In any case, this image really speaks to me and my optimistically fatalist way of seeing the human condition. I don’t know how my mom nailed such a perfectly composed shot, but I think I’ll cherish this one for a long time. If you’ll forgive my waxing long, I’ll tell you why…

Here I am, an isolated man looking out onto a landscape, itself a stream of events and forces much older than me, which have been moving along for millennia. Somehow the scene impels me to make my way through it, although I know that it could consume and forget me without any memory of my existence beyond the next winter.
In spite of the scene’s fearfulness, there’s hope in it too. Even if I’m consumed by this experience, there’s beauty in that. But if I manage to navigate this epic channel of rock and ice, there’s a crystalline patch of shining blue to greet me somewhere in the distance.
The world in this scene is both immanently and existentially threatening, but there’s so much promise in it.

People should spend more time looking at glaciers, I think.