Summer Inventory

It’s summertime and Jason’s free.
His 9-month contract lets him try
Personal projects. It’s now July.
Time for summer inventory?
He’s dug a hole but hasn’t filled it.
Thinks writing is a blog or update.
He stays and gets up rather late.
Reads online rants about who killed Lit.
Still, he walks the dog when Gus is antsy.
He watches Netflix with his wife.
He gave his son a pocketknife.
Gets wine that's neither cheap nor fancy.
What can Jason show for gain?
Inventories can’t explain.

Recent Google searches that turned up Middlebrow

Two recent visitors to this site found it with these google searches.

"eye poke Moe block" (finding my brief post on the Three Stooges)

"is my husband a bad husband" (see previous post)

I hope my blog helped.

The Bad Husband

The bad husband opens a bottle of wine on Wednesday night.
The bad husband watches television on the internet.
The bad husband watches Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do with Son.
The bad husband encourages Son in his desire for a pocket knife.
The bad husband eats all of the chocolate.
The bad husband tells Son to spray the car, even though a window is open.
The bad husband watches House Hunters on Hulu while Wife tries to write.
The bad husband comments on things.
The bad husband breathes loudly and fails to appreciate.
The bad husband fails to spray Son with mosquito repellent; he says to Son, "Go have fun out there!"
The bad husband roars.
The bad husband feels he is unloved.
The bad husband queues up another episode of House Hunters: this episode about finding an eco-friendly house in Oregon.
The bad husband feels he's doing something right for once.
The bad husband sighs.
The bad husband sleeps.

A New Post!

Greetings internet peoples. I know I haven't been blogging regularly. But you see, I've been so busy. I've been starting new books and not finishing them, and I've been not doing yard work but all the while making extravagant plans for the back yard, and I've been learning how to play the beginning of "Sweet Home Alabama" on my classical guitar. Maybe it's my summer of ennui. Maybe I'll just sit out the rest of June. Yesterday, a friend said, "Do you know what the opposite of ennui is? Offui." That's my kind of joke.

This morning, Son lobbied for a new Lego set, a model set from a Lego City series. It's the police station. "Dad, I need the police station. Every city has a police station." There's some form of syllogistic reasoning in there, but I can't parse it out. At least not until July.

John Hodgman Roasts Obama

Foulab--Repurposing Hardware

My favorite is about six minutes in: the guy who makes music from old Nintendo and Commodore game systems.

via Unconsumption

Today

I took Son to his first experience of Korean BBQ at Ejo on 7th East and 33rd South. Son was into it. He loved the little grill in the middle of the table. He loved that he had his own little bowl of miso soup and his own little bowl of rice. He loved using his chop sticks. (He's already better with them than I am.) He even liked the kim chee. One of our goals as a parent is to make Son a more adventurous eater. We don't want one of those kids who wants only hot dogs and mac and cheese. So far we've succeeded.

After dinner we came home and watched Gremlins. It had been over twenty years since I'd seen that film. It hasn't aged badly. Son loved it.

Finally, I'm reading a novel so trashy on my Kindle that I fear the University might revoke my degree if they find out. I think graduate degrees are supposed to inoculate one against this type of fiction. I guess it didn't work.

The beauty of the Kindle, by the way, is one can read trashy fiction in public and no one knows. I would never read this particular novel in a public space; I have a reputation to maintain. But with the Kindle, with it's black, leather cover--so serious looking--well, I could be reading philosophy or literary criticism. No embarrassing book cover art to give it away.