Palms

Doodle Relaxation Tool

Written in Actionscript 3.0 in Flex Builder.

Church of God

Melon Shed

Hey, how's it going?

Don't you hate this conversation:

"Hey!"
"Hey!"
"How's it going?"
"Good. How's it going with you?"
"Fine. See you later."

Except for the "Hey" part, it's all just crap, right? Neither party really wants to know the answer to the question posed, and neither answer is honest. Well, maybe once in ten times it's honest, but it's usually automatic and crap.

Haven't you always wanted, instead of the socially-acceptable "Fine," to say instead: "Shitty. It's going shitty. This is the shittiest day I've had in weeks. I guess I should be glad you're at least pretending to care, but honestly? that just makes it worse."

I don't think it's just me. I don't think it's just because this was a really crappy day. Therefore, I officially form the Coalition for Honesty in Everyday Small Talk (CHEST). The two requirements for membership are:

• a solemn pledge that if you ask about someone's well-being, you actually want to know the truth, and are prepared to offer assistance if it is warranted, and
  
• you must answer truthfully even to non-CHEST members in order to promote the cause.

Benefits of membership are manifold: advancement of honesty in interpersonal communication, admiration of your peers for being so candid and forthcoming, and maybe possibly having a potential of perhaps on an off chance finding something real out about a fellow human being. And of course, the most important benefit: being able to say "Yes, I'm a big CHEST supporter."

Who's with me?

Oh, I almost forgot one other requirement:

• never ever utter the phrase "Is it [hot, cold, wet, windy] enough for you?"

(Well, "Is it wet enough for you?" is in fact acceptable under certain specific circumstances, but that's a topic for another day...)

After Careful Analysis

If you're not a fan of Elvis Costello you won't appreciate this. As much.

It turns out that my four-year-old son, the photographer, is a huge Elvis Costello fan. I know: odd, but I hate to judge or curtail his interests so I have one of his live shows Tivo'd and we get to watch it a lot. We seldom ever finish it, four-year-old attention spans being what they are.

So we're watching the show and I notice that during one song in particular my son is staring intently at the screen. He sits up straight, squints at the TV, and turns the volume up with the remote. (Oh, yes: he is all about being in control of the remote. American male.) He turns the volume up again, then again. I can tell he's striving to understand something, and I adore this aspect of him at this point in his childhood. I start to really wonder what's going on.

Finally he sits back, looks up at me, and says "Dad? He really doesn't want to go to Chelsea."

Grass

My four-year-old likes taking pictures. He has good instincts—a little bit spooky in fact: he took my profile photo and the one in the header. Here's one of his landscapes.