StumpTown Blog

I love to make fun. I mean who doesn't like fun? So here is one way to make it as I recently posted to someone else's blog comments: Try this out, just for fun tomorrow. Whenever anyone tells you some simple fact about their life or day, smile knowingly, nod your head and say “it takes two to tango, if you know what I mean.” No one will but at least half the people you say it to won’t want to admit it and that is funny. For example, "Hey, how's it going? I just got the best deal on a new speed boat." "Well, it takes two to tango if you know what I mean...." Or, just try adding “if you know what I mean” after some obvious thing, like: I’m going out to get some milk at the store if you know what I mean.” This will freak people out, trust me. Then you have a little fun at the awkward moment and later they make fun of you for being such a dork and everyone has fun thanks to you. Sure you will get a lot of wierd looks and people will think you are compl...

Both of my sons share many of my better qualities. Both are witty and intelligent to an almost alarming degree and both lead secret lives as ninjas. Like my youngest son, I too have these really cute freckles and could charm the spots off a leopard if I were in the need of spots (which of course I am not as I don’t even have room for all my stripes). And my oldest son has already begun to see the world like a products liability attorney. Ok, in truth, unlike G2, I have no freckles to speak of and even less charm, but the last comment about my eldest is true. He brought me a Frisbee today that is your standard hard plastic Frisbee roughly 10-12 inches in diameter. It is made for or by the fine people at Colombia Sportswear Company and contains the following warning. Remember, I’m not making this up and this is on a large, blue, hard plastic Frisbee. “WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD – Small parts. Not for children under 3 years. For ages 4 and up.” This spawned the following conversation: G1: Da...

It isn’t exactly and elegant term, but that is of little consequence given its likely paucity of use. However, "Blogtigation" is the term I’m coining to describe when a dispute comes up on someone’s blog through the comments, responding posts on another blog or the like. For example, if someone wanted to argue that is better for our society to have so many “reality” tv shows that feature people yelling at each other and responded to my post and then I responded and then we went back and forth, we would be in informal blogtigation. Then, if each side got blog lawyers involved to help them settle the dispute you would be in formal blogtigation and be at real risk of being a huge dork and perhaps, with some luck at least mildly entertaining. Recently I have been retained to serve as blog counsel in some blogtigation over the name of a certain blog further confirming what you already knew about me being a huge dork and possibly even providing some entertainment. At least, I wa...

I just added a link to Ike Graul's blog called Trinisonic. I've been reading that blog for a while and should have added it long ago, but it takes me a while sometimes. Ike is a good friend and an amazing talent. I owe him for ever for agreeing to help me with my interest in writing music by arranging the first song I wrote and several others after that. Anyway, check out his blog when you get the chance.

I would describe myself as naturally curious. Not in a way that leads me to soak up knowledge like a sponge and constantly try to better myself, but more in a way of I spend a lot of time wondering why things are the way they are. Here are a few of my recent ponderings: 1. Why are Americans fascinated by reality shows that feature some rude, angry person belittling some other person to the point that the person is in tears? American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen, that new show about dog groomers that has to be one of the signs of the end times. They all (as it would appear by the previews) rely heavily on this and are all popular (well I don’t know about the groomer show, it just started, but the format is so identical to the dozens of design, singing, modeling, etc shows before it, that it proves the point anyway. I don’t get it. Who are these people that enjoy that and why aren’t we putting them in jail or sending them to the arctic or something? As I recently remarked to a friend: “W...

A good blog post sent to me by my friend Cheryl about slippery slopes reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to rant and rave about here for a while now. (Have you ever noticed that you may rant about something and may rave about something and may rant and rave about something, but while you will go off on a rant, you will never go off on a rave?) In undergrad, one of my majors was in philosophy. Like all other college degree programs, this one had various requirements before graduation. You had to take modern philosophy, ancient philosophy and existentialism. You had to grow a beard and spend at least half the day scowling intently at no one or no thing in particular. You received extra credit for obscure literary or philosophical references tattooed somewhere on your body. You had to do a 150 hour practicum sitting on steps and pontificating over things like whether Plato used the Socratic method or if a philosopher speaks in the forest and there is no one there to hear him, doe...