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Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Ladies and gentlemen and whatever else may happen to pass by:

My Discworld is moving.
Following the herd to Google universe and alighting upon this URL:

http://mydiscworld.blogspot.com/

I'm also attempting to move beyond just Facebook and get my photography habit on yet another Google province:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.wolfgang

Having moved and planning on staying moved for the foreseeable future some 600+ miles away from my family, I'm attempting to facilitate the opening of windows into my life particularly for you my relations. Since I'm pretty sure you're the main ones who read this guy anyway ;)

See you on the flip side!
Lot's Wife

I came across this in Jeremy's college literature textbook.
I've never really wondered about the woman in this poem.
So this is thought-provoking.
I'm not saying that God is not in tune with day-to-day living.
On the contrary.
I believe God is far more real than most religion gives him credit for.
I'm sure he's well aware of the all-consuming peskiness of gray and how infrequently life on earth ever presents itself in black and white.

While Lot, the conscience of a nation,
struggles with the Lord,
she struggles with the housework.
The City of Sin is where
she raises the children.
Ba'al or Adonai --
Whoever is God --
the bread must still be made
and the doorsill swept.
The Lord may kill the children tomorrow,
but today they must be bathed and fed.
Well and good to condemn your neighbors' religion;
but weren't they there
when the baby was born,
and when the well collapsed?
While her husband communes with God
she tucks the children into bed.
In the morning, when he tells her of the judgment,
she puts down the lamp she is cleaning
and calmly begins to pack.
In between bundling up the children
and deciding what will go,
she runs for a moment
to say goodbye to the herd,
gently patting each soft head
with tears in her eyes for the animals that will not understand.
She smiles blindly to the woman
who held her hand at childbed.
It is easy for eyes that have always turned to heaven
not to look back;
those that have been -- by necessity -- drawn to earth
cannot forget that life is lived from day to day.
Good, to a God, and good in human terms
are two different things.
On the breast of the hill, she chooses to be human,
and turns, in farewell --
and never regrets the sacrifice.

--Kristine Batey, 1978

I shared it with my roommates this morning.
Hilary said:
"We do become attached to this earth, to the temporal. It is part of what being human is."

Thursday, 04 September 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited.

September hit and bam! It's fall in Nebraska. It's like it decided to be autumn all at once. "Enough of these 90+ degree dogdays of summer!" shouted the Midwest clime, "Let's get moving toward turning this perpetual wind to the ice chisels of winter asap!"

I busted out a turtleneck on 2 Sep. I wore a cardigan yesterday. Today finds me in my old AU hoodie, always a favorite standby. My Hudson Bay point-blanket is on my bed now. I'm a little nervous that I've put it on so quickly. The red wool is the heaviest thing I own (it's a 6-point blanket too...look 'em up. Heavy-duty stuff) and it's only the first week of September.

But...I love it. I really do.

My blood always starts boiling a little in the fall. Time to get up, get moving, get changing!

I bought a new lampshade the other day. I'm finding that wine is not only an excellent drink, it's one of my favorite colors.

Ordered some of my best prints from iPhoto. About 10. I'm noticing that I like to edit my photos in black and white and sepia. Need to stop that. Need some color!

Decided on a paint chip from Lowe's. Intending to paint just the back wall of my room a medium sky-blue shade. What do you think, a gallon or a quart? It's not a big room, it's just one wall, and there's a good-sized window in the middle of the wall. I'm wondering if I could do it with a quart.

I'm excited that I'm staying where I am, at least for the time being. I miss my dog...yes, Lilo resides elsewhere now...but I'm convinced she's got a much better deal going. A lot less stressful for her than it was here, I'm sure. And not having a dog at this moment takes a lot of stress away from housing worries. It's shallow. But it's a relief. A sad relief, but there it is.

Relationships are good, work is starting to slow down (by a hair, giving me enough time to write this life update), and Halloween is on its way! The candy is in the stores, the costumes are out, and the decorations are as cutely tacky as ever. Here's hoping I can convince a few people to check out a haunted house this season.

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Currently Listening
Invisible Ones
By Orenda Fink
see related
Open window.
Breeze.
There it was.
Look outside with determinedly fresh eyes. Perhaps summer is such a given now that the scent, the color, has been missed.

No.
The color is still the same. Dry, overbaked.

But that breeze. There's something new. Something that gets my traveler's foot itchy.

I look for fall as early as is decent every year. It's not like winter...you toddle along and suddenly there's six inches of snow on the ground and a windchill of -14. Winter is an annoying relative that's dropped his bags at the door and announced, hands on hips, "I'm heeeeerrrrre!!!!" Immune to all hints that leaving at a more respectable time this year would be acceptable.

Fall only catches your attention as it's waving its hand farewell out the door.

So I try to keep my eyes open. To see every bit of fall that's there. The breeze is the harbinger. Deeper notes, earthier smells, leaves that smell and sound not so young anymore.

Most of my life transitions have occurred in the fall. Childhood vacations, new college semesters, breakups, moves. Maybe that's why now, I'm starting to be ready for something new.

Bring it, fall. Let's do this thing.

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Currently Reading
The Man Who Made Lists
By Joshua Kendall
see related
I recently tried to finish the book listed here.

I failed.

Interesting that I failed, actually, because not only am I list freak myself, but it was a biography of Roget, the author of the most famous thesauraus (often not even called a thesaurus, but simply Roget's).

Lists are both the bane of my existence and its flotation device.
At the end of each work day, I make out a list for the next work day. This enables me not to piddle around of a morning wondering what I should focus on today.

Tomorrow's list reads thus:
386279 art to prod.
chs 1, 3, 5, 7
381083 chs 1-5
291696 Mail chs 1-3
345177 QS-ch2

It's an ambitious one.

I'm trying to come up with a grocery/shopping list. So far, it looks like this:
Face soap
Conditioner
Face powder
Blush
Lunch meat
Chicken
Noodles (?)
Soy sauce (?)
Tomato juice
Some sort of fresh vegs/fruit ?
Rice

Basically I just want something to eat. Having no microwave is certainly forcing me to branch out a bit. To different fast food places and the pre-made stuff at the grocery store.

Other lists are less tangible. Such as my To Do Between Now and Thanksgiving list:
Find an apartment
Lock down some furniture
Push 8 books off my schedule
Write 2 articles for the OWH
Pack (this is one moment in my life where I actually could use more stuff than I have)
Move
Figure out what I'm going to do with my dog...do I bring her back from IN or do I try to find a place for her there? Or find a place for her here? Or keep her? If the latter, that determines what apartment I find plus how much I pay and here we go again...
Hash out what I need in a job...find something new? Stick with what I'm doing and enjoy but is difficult to do long distance and sans benefits?

Then there is my Bucket List. I've already crossed a few things off:
Go to Disney World
Live in another state
Live completely on my own
See a Cirque du Soleil performance
Visit several Western states (CO, AZ, CA) and Canada/Alaska
Visit Australia
Visit an Oriental country

Lists.