The Myth & The Majesty

I love my job, but it is the kind of gig that makes having a social life difficult. Lucky for me, this weekend there's a young adult camp going on that I've been periodically joining. (And, okay, maybe I know the deans pretty well.) Anyway! This lack-of-a-social-life thing has been on my mind lately, so when this post came up on SDL, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's entirely possible that I need to take his advice. [Side note: It has a very Hyperbole and a Half feel to it. If you're unfamiliar with H&H, go check out the Alot post . Please.]

And now I need to go looking for other Tiny Desk Concerts.  

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. -Philo of Alexandria If there is one thing I truly lack, it is grace. I'm not talking about physical grace. Don't get me wrong -- there are those that will immediately point out that I'm not exactly lithe and light on my feet. I'm talking about grace, that innate ability to be kind to those around you despite whatever it is that's on your mind. The quote I opened with is one I borrowed from the Truth Box series over on SDL , a weekly reminder that you never really know what the person next to you is going through. We as a species are very, very good at pretending everything's okay, or at adopting a tough face to deal with life. In the process, we get very selfish and forget that life isn't really easy for anyone. We treat each other badly for reasons that make no sense, ignoring that we're all human and we're all struggling. I am just as bad as anyone. This week, moreso than many

Warning: I'm about to talk about the weather. Around this part of the world, the weather is rarely a conversation default so much as a genuine topic. I mean, this is from an M-Hill climb in January.  These are my coworkers. They're pretty awesome.   And then in April, this happened.   This past April actually set a record for snowfall in a single month in Rapid City. We got 48 inches in the space of 24 days after a March that included multiple days of 70-degree weather. It was nutty and confusing and really, really messed up plans all the way across the state. We got snow; Sioux Falls got solid inches of ice that destroyed trees and knocked out power all over the city. (I guess I'll take the snow...)   For that matter, the record for the most freakish temperature change is held by Spearfish, an hour northwest of here. In 1943, the temperature rose from -4 to 45 degrees (Fahrenheit) in two minutes' time. This is a glass-breaking, body-shockin

Wanna hear something crazy? I've been at this blogging thing for ten years. For an entire decade, I've regaled you with stories of my jobs and my life, from the squished gerbil  in my daycare days to the obnoxious glee that I have now about my location and occupation. I've told you about all sorts of daily problems and some of the more interesting things. I even told you about Grocery Store Guy . I wrote a short blurb about an amusing but mediocre movie and it became the default search term for someone . For ten years, you've seen me through relationships, locations, jobs, attempts at philosophy and photography, and a whole lot of random. You've let me grow up on this blog. You've seen blog name changes (hence the now-unrelated URL) and about a dozen different layouts. You've come and go, but in general have increased in number, which has kept me writing. I know this isn't a place people visit for profundity. Heck, sometimes you might just be t

This made my year.

There was the moment in Starbucks when I got really, really excited about the fact that The Cure had worked their way into the mix of otherwise kind of boring indie music playing on the shop speakers. The one where I realized I too was referring to our incoming summer staff as "the kids" even though a couple of them are older than me. The point where both 5:30AM and 11:30PM became normal hours on the same day. The one where I noticed that the comedians I've been listening to on my Pandora comedy station were all younger than me. The day I realized that if I didn't leave, a "day off" mostly just meant I didn't wear the official staff shirt. The time I noticed that yes, you could go down a pants size without actually losing weight. Some of it is simply getting older. Some of it is the complete and total change in lifestyle. The bottom line is ... I feel different. I kind of like it.

Raise your hand if you never expected to think, "I am so tired of seeing pictures of other people's food." Yup. With all the crazy advances in technology in the last two decades, we haven't managed to maintain a consistent form of etiquette as a human race. As such, I am proposing some rules. * Some Social Media Guidelines to Avoid Irritating Everybody Not just for baking cookies. 1. You have the right to post as many Instagrammed photos of your food as you would like. I maintain the right to bonk you on the head with a spoon for each one. 2. When two people meet and want to add each other on Facebook, it is the duty of the one with the more common last name to find the other. 3. All caps is yelling. Yelling isn't nice. Try to be nice. 4. You can set different privacy settings for different people. Find them. Set them appropriately. Your relatives and your college buddies shouldn't see the same things. 5. If it's not something you