Me, in my mind:
Me, in reality:
December 10, 2012
March 25, 2012
Dear 12-year-old Me
Here’s the bad news: the next two years of your life are going to be the worst.
But that’s also the good news. After you make it through these next two years—and you will make it, even when you feel like you might not—you’re going to go to a different high school than the rest of those stupid fucks and never see any of them ever again. You’ll go to a college most of them couldn’t even spell. From there, you will know successes of all sorts: academics, girls, music, career, family. You’ll be fortunate with good health, a supportive family, and opportunities aplenty. You’ll know most of them when you see them. Just pay attention and follow your gut.
Sure, there will be some setbacks, too. Nothing’s perfect and life can indeed be a bitch. But those problems won’t begin to compare with what you’re about to endure. So, buck up, work your way through this, and know for sure you are going to leave those vicious, dumbass hillbillies in your rear-view mirror in a hundred different ways.
Oh, and for god’s sake, when you and K. are the last two people at the Bridgeview drive-in on a hot August night in about five/six years? She will be trying to tell you something, dope. Pay attention and follow your gut.
February 10, 2012
work meme!
I manage software engineers at an options trading firm. Most of them are pretty senior engineers who are really good at what they do, so my role is mostly to make sure that they’re pointed in the right direction and then get out of the way. I set the overall technical strategy for my team, and to a large degree, the internal customers who use our products.
I also do all the non-technical bullshit work for them, dealing with budgets, plans, project managers, contracts, senior management, and human resources. More succinctly, I think of my job as “bullshit eater.”
I am good at what I do, the pay/benefits are decent, and I’ve got the team to a place where most nights I don’t take any stress home with me.
On the flip side, it’s not very satisfying, and I have grave concerns about the overall ethics of the industry. (I have no concerns about this place—these are good people.)
Ultimately, I need to find a way to scratch my technical and creative itches more consistently. There is only so much bullshit a man will eat.
January 5, 2012
8 things meme
Sure. Eight things I have done that most tumblroids haven’t:
- Lost $500,000 of someone else’s money in about two hours
- Made it back (took a while longer)
- Shared stages with a bunch of semi- or formerly-famous bands (Collective Soul, Foghat, Dave Davies, Steppenwolf)
- Won an air guitar contest
- Lost a championship softball game to Joe Girardi’s team
- Slept through and missed an audition for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Played first chair French horn for the Illinois high school all-state orchestra
- Skied the Matterhorn
November 29, 2011
6’1” 190
There are NFL safeties playing at that size/weight. It’s just about moving it around.
November 27, 2011
(31 plays)
A Day In The Life // The Beatles
This song was born on January 19, 1967. Just like me.
I saw something earlier today, a reblogged graphic thing about how much someone hated The Beatles. I can’t remember where/whom and I’m not gonna look now since I’m chill, but I gotta tell ya, I was in a foul fucking mood, and if I hadn’t been on the stupid tumblr iPhone app at the time, I’d have unfollowed someone.
October 27, 2011
5 & 5
Without overthinking it, which is to say barely thinking at all:
Love ‘em:
- Team Scholvin, both local and remote
- music
- lazy, tropical vacations
- scotch
- the point where a woman’s waist just begins to curve outward to her hip
Shove ‘em:
- winter
- exercise/gyms/working out
- waste
- authoritarianism
- liver
October 21, 2011
Two truths & a lie
- I’ve opened for Foghat.
- I’ve opened for the Marshall Tucker Band.
- I’ve opened for Uriah Heep.
September 29, 2011
Ooh, an art-in-my-house meme!
This one’s easy. Mom was an artist and art teacher. Growing up, our house was full of her work. It started coming down when she got sick and couldn’t create anymore; I assume it was too hard for her to see it all.
A lot of it disappeared, but some surviving pieces are scattered among the family, and this one’s mine.
September 18, 2011
Middle names
My dad’s middle name is Charles, which was his father’s first name.
My middle name is Kenneth, which is my father’s first name.
My son’s middle name is John, which is the UPS driver’s first name.
September 15, 2011
Hat meme!
You can’t really tell, but the best part about this hat is that it says BEARS but it actually has the Bengals logo on it. That’s a lot of bad football in one place.
June 10, 2011
