Pounding Down the Files

Short post, tonight - I spent the last couple of hours (after Yesenia went to bed) getting together some voiceover narration and various Dave performing clips for a video to promote Resonant Motion, a not-for-profit that I call myself the 'Director of Communications and Social Media' for, which mostly shakes out as me offering advice and building the site.

Came across a couple of interesting artifacts in my dig, including performance footage from my 40th birthday party, which I'm definitely going to share some highlights from, here.  At some point!  These things take time, you know…

Anyhow, everything has now been uploaded and sent to the director / editor, which means I can brush my teeth and go to bed.  Or, I could brush your teeth and go to jail.  Your call.

D.

Sleeper

Christmas is about home.  It's about family, and celebration and blah, blah, blah.  But at least as much as anything else, Christmas is about forgetting about bad and lame shit for a little while. Somehow, the colored lights and the tree keep it at bay.  That, and getting to see everyone you know and care about and drop out of your own life and into theirs for a little while.

But we finally arrived on the other side of the holiday season yesterday, with one last round of socializing and the breaking down of decorations and packing everything back into the attic for another eleven months.  And that, of course, is when the mopiness lands square on my forehead.  Yesenia thinks it's the new diet, a theory which certainly has the ring of truth.  But it's also those doldrums a-comin' in, once the lights go off and the party fades away.

I have about two-and-a-half weeks before I return to school for the second round of coding courses (which will most likely be PHP and Advanced CSS, if I read the calendar correctly), and I have a few projects that need my time and attention between now and then, so that's okay.  But as many close readers of the Rambler will have deduced, one of my big things is THE WAIT.  That interminable period between one thing and where you want to be.  No colored lights to celebrate that, unless someone makes strings of gray and beige LEDs.

Actually, I can't even imagine what a gray light would look like.  Really, I don't think it's physically possible.

D.

Zinflated

So, after almost two months of wanting to go to the new Zinburger at "The Stores at Nanuet" (oy), we decided to make a trip tonight.  The last time we tired to go - a weekend lunch, after a matinee of Frozen - there was going to be a forty minute wait.  That's too long.  When Yesenia is hungry, she starts to get cranky, and the longer she waits, the less enjoyable the meal will be for her when it finally arrives.

Tonight, there was a ten minute wait.  Which, for a Thursday in the middle of a cold January, is kind of surprising.  But good for them.  We grabbed beer (Naragansett Cream Ale) and hard cider (an Orchard that is Angry), and then had a turkey burger (her) and a veggie burger (me).

Annnd…?  Well, it was my second time at a Zinburger, and I knew what to expect and enjoyed it.  Yesenia, who has being hearing hype about the place from me and many others for the last few months was pretty disappointed.  "I don't get the whole 'fancy' burger thing," she said.  Actually, the ironic quotes around 'fancy' may be mine.  I replied, "Well, it's not that fancy.  It's just burgers."

She shrugged and ate a few more fries.  Now I have a mission, which is to get Yesenia a good meal that makes her happy.  Any suggestions?

- D.

Sleep Not

Another Tuesday, another major bout of sleeplessness.  And here I was prepared to go to sleep without having Rambled.  I'm hoping that the Rambler isn't a thing I only do on those nights when the magical insomnia tour isn't dying to take me away.

I sort of had it in my head today that I wanted to write a longish post (or series of posts) digging into my political philosophies, but it's tough to write that stuff without coming off hectoring,  It really takes a spine of steel and a soul of coal to be a pundit, I think.  It's one thing to be an expert opinion when you're frequently right.  It's something else entirely to be able to keep it up even when you're pretty much always wrong.

So, no politics for me.  And I know I've still got the pictures from the third Yarn Barn entry to post, but that's the type of thing that requires a little more brain power and gumption than I can summon at a quarter to one in the morning.  As the Rambler is sometimes a victim of my going to sleep before I write that day's entry, so are the more ambitious entries a victim of the lack of energy that one has after midnight on a work week.

So I guess I'll just leave you with the promise to write something more cohesive and purposeful tomorrow.  Good enough?

- D.

Les Epiphanies

Last night of Christmas, people!  I used to not think anything about it, but the whole twelve days thing is pretty big in Latin culture - thirteen days, if you count the effort that they put into Christmas Eve.

Anyway, for me?  It is not to complain.  I genuinely lovee the way Yesenia transforms the house for the holidays, and any excuse to extend the colored lights and scent of pine for a few more days is all right by me.

D.

When the Wind Blows

Writing this a little past midnight as Winter Storm Hercules (which feels like it should have an exclamation mark, doesn't it?) howls up my street on its way into New England and upstate New York.  Yes, yes - I know that Rockland County is considered 'upstate New York' by people who live in any of the five boroughs, but since I can get to midtown Manhattan from my house faster than almost anyone I know in Brooklyn, people should probably take the fucking artesianal cheese out of their eyes just stop calling us 'upstate,' already.

Ahem.

Anyway, W. S. Hercules! is probably going to complicate our big plans for the weekend, being the throwdown to celebrate Yesenia's 40th birthday - which is today, as I write this.  I've written a little about the lady before, and anyone who reads this probably already knows how awesome she is, but I'll say it again, because it bears repeating: I am a very, very, very veryveryvery lucky man.  And I know it.  So here's hoping that the weather drops everything it has tomorrow so that Saturday can be free and clear for my baby's birthday.  You hear me, W. S.?

"W. S. Hercules!" - if there isn't a comic out there about Hercules taking a job as a 1920's stockbroker, feel free to make one and use this name.

D.

Into the Newish Frontier

It would be altogether too easy to blather off several reams of observations about the meanings of a new year, both personally and globally.  I'm going to resist this temptation.  I'm also not going to Ramble about the highs (some) and lows (some) of the year just past.  One reason for the elision is that, as I grow older, I grow more and more bored with simply looking over my shoulder and playing monday morning quarterback to myself. Another is that if I couldn't be bothered to get up the energy to write about 2013 while it was happening, I sure as Janus don't have any burning desire to pick through its bones after the fact.

So, let me just trail off with an off the cuff and therefore wholly unconsidered list of resolutions for 2014:

• As ever, Ramble more
• Rebuild copper-man.net so I don't always feel vaguely embarrassed sending people there.  The site was thrown together in a haze of post-layoff anxiety, and it shows
• As part of revamped site, add big gallery of archival content.  Specifically,  I'm going to scan and vid the best of my old flipbooks
• Finish both albums and then figure out what that actually means
• Lose the 12 pounds gained in the last year
• And would it kill you to read a book every once in a while?

Thanks, all - and those of you that i know as friends, i also resolve to be a better friend.  Another thing I realize as I grow older is the importance of friends, so if you are my friend, thank you for your  friendship, and i hope that your own 2014 is a benevolent and rich year.

-D.