As promised, my new blog Rubens's Muse has officially launched. Unlike The Make-Ready, which is meant to be a catch-all, Rubens's Muse is a theme-based entity. And it won't be for everyone. But I encourage you all to at least check it out.
Watch The Make-Ready for other developing projects. This is a very creative and productive period for the KRD.
As always, thanks for your interest!
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
05 August 2010
26 July 2010
What's New
Goodness. The world keeps spinning and I have lots and lots that needs a-talkin' about. Stay tuned for discussions about 1) a new blog! (I know, you think that I can't keep up with this one. It's true. But this is going to be a new project altogether.) 2) Why I am a crappy Victorianist and how I'm getting better. 3) Why I am going to FREAK OUT on Portland sports talk radio. 4) How tv has recently convinced me that I should only watch tv/movies starring Tom Selleck and destroy all of my music, replacing it with the entire Rush catalog. 5) Self improvement, and how I plan to achieve it.
My pupose here is not just to promise far off blog posts. It is also to alert you to the fact that I now have a twitter account. I TOTALLY want to make excuses for myself. But I am not going to. I am just going to tell you that it is out there. So far, I have mostly "tweeted" (GOOD LORD) about Rebecca Haarlow. And re-tweeted JBro's responses to my tweets about Rebecca Haarlow. If that appeals to you at all, you can check it out @Frissin.
I think that Jamie is getting tired of being my only follower . . . It is a lot of pressure on a girl.
My pupose here is not just to promise far off blog posts. It is also to alert you to the fact that I now have a twitter account. I TOTALLY want to make excuses for myself. But I am not going to. I am just going to tell you that it is out there. So far, I have mostly "tweeted" (GOOD LORD) about Rebecca Haarlow. And re-tweeted JBro's responses to my tweets about Rebecca Haarlow. If that appeals to you at all, you can check it out @Frissin.
I think that Jamie is getting tired of being my only follower . . . It is a lot of pressure on a girl.
14 June 2010
My Hiatus Hole
So, a few posts ago, OMD mentioned something about my "hiatus hole," by which he meant the hole that I appeared to have climbed into (fallen into?) that caused a protracted hiatus from this little labor of love.
What is funny about that turn of phrase is that I have a hiatus hole (literally, I'm not even kidding), which sort of caused me to fall into that other hiatus hole. I will explain:
About a year ago I contracted a pretty nasty stomach virus, thanks to my lovely, but continuously contagious, niece and nephew. (Who, by the way, are dodging grizzlies as we speak. But I'll save that for another post.) I never recovered fully from it. After a while, probably too long a while, I started looking for an explanation. For a long time I thought I had an ulcer. And I went around for several months treating myself for that. It went ok, except that occasionally I would have bouts of uncontrolled vomiting, which was not so ok. Then, over spring break, I had a really bad bout (no details--I know you don't want them) and I started going to doctors.
Sparing you all the doctors visits and tests, I will just fast forward to what I know now. I have a series of weird anatomical defects--one of them being a hole in my hiatus--that require very fancy and expensive surgery. (My nurse today told me that I'm receiving the "gold standard" treatment.) In short, I am going to have my stomach pulled down and into proper position (it has become a bit jostled). It is also going to get a little nip and tuck so that it will become sort of mini-stomach, which will serve me just fine. Although it is going to seem like I eat like a bird, only rather more often than I've been accustomed. THEN they will stitch up my hiatus hole, and attach some webbing--made of biological material, how cool and sci-fi does that sound?--over (around?) my diaphragm, in hopes that my diaphragm will get a little stronger and more resistant to tearing.
It all sounds worse, maybe, than it is. Because I have a super-star surgeon and he's going to do it all through a couple of tiny holes. And I have been promised that, although I will feel super, super crappy for a week, I will be able to work two weeks after the surgery. Amazing, huh? All of this will result in a much more structurally sound me! ('Though a me that has to give up beer and all carbonated bevies in the future. This is sad, certainly. But they aren't taking away my coffee and I get to live and stop vomiting all the time. One does not get something for nothing.)
The point of all this is: I have not felt well in a long, long time. I've managed to keep working, but it has been hard to keep up other things that take effort. Because I'm tired a lot. And a little undernourished a lot. And, more recently, I've been seeing doctors a lot. But it is all starting to calm down a little, and I've been feeling very good. And one of the first things that happened was that I got back to you all (however many of you there are), and that should make you feel good too.
Thanks for checking back and finding me again.
What is funny about that turn of phrase is that I have a hiatus hole (literally, I'm not even kidding), which sort of caused me to fall into that other hiatus hole. I will explain:
About a year ago I contracted a pretty nasty stomach virus, thanks to my lovely, but continuously contagious, niece and nephew. (Who, by the way, are dodging grizzlies as we speak. But I'll save that for another post.) I never recovered fully from it. After a while, probably too long a while, I started looking for an explanation. For a long time I thought I had an ulcer. And I went around for several months treating myself for that. It went ok, except that occasionally I would have bouts of uncontrolled vomiting, which was not so ok. Then, over spring break, I had a really bad bout (no details--I know you don't want them) and I started going to doctors.
Sparing you all the doctors visits and tests, I will just fast forward to what I know now. I have a series of weird anatomical defects--one of them being a hole in my hiatus--that require very fancy and expensive surgery. (My nurse today told me that I'm receiving the "gold standard" treatment.) In short, I am going to have my stomach pulled down and into proper position (it has become a bit jostled). It is also going to get a little nip and tuck so that it will become sort of mini-stomach, which will serve me just fine. Although it is going to seem like I eat like a bird, only rather more often than I've been accustomed. THEN they will stitch up my hiatus hole, and attach some webbing--made of biological material, how cool and sci-fi does that sound?--over (around?) my diaphragm, in hopes that my diaphragm will get a little stronger and more resistant to tearing.
It all sounds worse, maybe, than it is. Because I have a super-star surgeon and he's going to do it all through a couple of tiny holes. And I have been promised that, although I will feel super, super crappy for a week, I will be able to work two weeks after the surgery. Amazing, huh? All of this will result in a much more structurally sound me! ('Though a me that has to give up beer and all carbonated bevies in the future. This is sad, certainly. But they aren't taking away my coffee and I get to live and stop vomiting all the time. One does not get something for nothing.)
The point of all this is: I have not felt well in a long, long time. I've managed to keep working, but it has been hard to keep up other things that take effort. Because I'm tired a lot. And a little undernourished a lot. And, more recently, I've been seeing doctors a lot. But it is all starting to calm down a little, and I've been feeling very good. And one of the first things that happened was that I got back to you all (however many of you there are), and that should make you feel good too.
Thanks for checking back and finding me again.
11 August 2009
Hiatus
Loyal friends and readers and reader/friends: um. Sorry about that. I wasn't planning on taking a sabbatical for over a month. I'm not even totally sure why it has happened.
Part of it is summer. Summer makes me restless and I have a hard time concentrating.
Part of it is that I am awfully distracted right now. I have a lot of big, important, life things on my mind. And they aren't really the kind of things that I blog about. (Thank your lucky stars for that, people.) That has been making it hard to think, let alone write, about much else.
Part of it is that I'm teaching a class this summer that I am finding personally and professionally challenging.
Part of it is that I'm not seeing movies, or going out much, or listening to much new music, and so I don't feel like I have much to write about.
But I think I'm coming out of it. I have several things that I would like to discuss with you all. These topics include, but are not limited to:
* Frank Black's opening act at the Aladdin Theatre last week.
* The Limits of Control, The Brother's Bloom and Children's Books (if that sounds like the title of a boring academic article, you are right. But you will read it and love it).
* Something weird I have recently realized about my musical taste.
* Swapping book suggestions with my mom.
* Mountain cows.
Thank you all for still checking in with me, and for actually caring about whether I write. I don't know if I deserve it, but I feel awfully loved.
Part of it is summer. Summer makes me restless and I have a hard time concentrating.
Part of it is that I am awfully distracted right now. I have a lot of big, important, life things on my mind. And they aren't really the kind of things that I blog about. (Thank your lucky stars for that, people.) That has been making it hard to think, let alone write, about much else.
Part of it is that I'm teaching a class this summer that I am finding personally and professionally challenging.
Part of it is that I'm not seeing movies, or going out much, or listening to much new music, and so I don't feel like I have much to write about.
But I think I'm coming out of it. I have several things that I would like to discuss with you all. These topics include, but are not limited to:
* Frank Black's opening act at the Aladdin Theatre last week.
* The Limits of Control, The Brother's Bloom and Children's Books (if that sounds like the title of a boring academic article, you are right. But you will read it and love it).
* Something weird I have recently realized about my musical taste.
* Swapping book suggestions with my mom.
* Mountain cows.
Thank you all for still checking in with me, and for actually caring about whether I write. I don't know if I deserve it, but I feel awfully loved.
18 February 2009
In honor of--
If you have been listening to Jim Rome for the past week, you know that he has become TOTALLY obsessed with guys by the name of Rex. For each of the last 5 broadcast days, he has had on someone named Rex. Today it wasn't even someone related to sports. It was Rex Lee, the actor from Entourage. In keeping with Rome's Rex week, I am reposting the following blog post from the old MySpace blog. I wrote it a couple of Valentine's Days ago. I am also considering resurrecting the "Bad Crushes and the Horrible Reasons I Had Them" series on The Make-Ready. God knows that I have about 300 crushes left from which to draw. Anyhoo. Enjoy this jog down memory lane.
In Honor of Valentine's Day's Approach
In Honor of Valentine's Day's Approach
Bad Crush #2
Ok, I feel a little guilty calling this a "bad crush" because it was actually a fairly good one. But . . . well, it does have an element of the ridiculous to it. Wait. For. It.
SO, my parent's moved into their last home the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. It was a weird move, because they did it while I was at camp (busy being a CIT, or counselor-in-training for those of you who are not initiated into mysteries of summer camp). I left, and we were in the house I grew up in, and I came back, and we were in this new house. I HATED it. I won't get into all the reasons why, but one of them had to do with the fact that it was the middle of summer (bad to begin with) and the house didn't have any window coverings, and was A LOT brighter than the house I grew up in. All the light was making me cranky, and I missed MY house. On top of all of that, my best friend had moved to Norway about six months prior, and I missed her awfully, and she was miserable as well, which I knew because of the 2-3 letters PER DAY I received all that summer.
The move had one silver lining though, which I found out about a few days after I got back from camp. Our builder had hired a college-aged handyman, and he was over at our house several hours a day, working on finish work (a deck in the back, landscaping, adjusting doors. He was very handy.) On top of being handy he was HOT, and in his early twenties. And I was a bored sixteen-year-old. I was in heaven. He did a lot of working outside with his shirt off (and, I don't need to tell you, dear reader, that he had a great chest, and a great tan, and bleached out hair) and I did a lot of taking him glasses of lemonade. It was all very 90210 (you know, when Kelly had a thing with Jake, before they spun him off onto Melrose?!).
If all this was not enough to send me into hormonal overload, he did the cutest thing ever, and it sealed the crush deal. See, we had moved into a new housing development, and we were in one of the first houses finished and occupied. So the area around us was leveled, but not really developed. A stray dog showed up one day. My mom got worried about it and started making sure that he had food and water. He was a mutt, but very sweet. My parents, of course, were not going to take it in (we have a family aversion to pets), but my mom was somewhat worried about what was going to happen to him. The handyman was VERY sweet to the dog, and it began to follow him around all day. In the afternoons, the handyman would take a break for lunch, and the dog would curl up next to him. Before long it became pretty obvious that he was going to have to take the dog. OK, so I'll admit that I'm not a huge animal lover, but I did think that it was adorable that the handyman felt responsible and nurturing toward this dog. I remember the day that he finally decided to take it home with him. I have this image of the handyman's truck driving away, the dog happily riding in the bed. He looked like he couldn't believe his luck.
The handyman finished the work on my house, which was sad. Then summer ended, and he finished working for our builder, and that was sadder. (Yes, I did just say "sadder"--get off my back, grammar police!) He went back to college, I went back to finish my senior year of high school.
Sigh.
So I know what you are thinking. Nothing THAT ridiculous about the story. But I have been keeping for you, reader, the detail that does make this crush silly and embarrassing in retrospect. The handyman's name?
Rex.
I kid you not.
Ok, I feel a little guilty calling this a "bad crush" because it was actually a fairly good one. But . . . well, it does have an element of the ridiculous to it. Wait. For. It.
SO, my parent's moved into their last home the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. It was a weird move, because they did it while I was at camp (busy being a CIT, or counselor-in-training for those of you who are not initiated into mysteries of summer camp). I left, and we were in the house I grew up in, and I came back, and we were in this new house. I HATED it. I won't get into all the reasons why, but one of them had to do with the fact that it was the middle of summer (bad to begin with) and the house didn't have any window coverings, and was A LOT brighter than the house I grew up in. All the light was making me cranky, and I missed MY house. On top of all of that, my best friend had moved to Norway about six months prior, and I missed her awfully, and she was miserable as well, which I knew because of the 2-3 letters PER DAY I received all that summer.
The move had one silver lining though, which I found out about a few days after I got back from camp. Our builder had hired a college-aged handyman, and he was over at our house several hours a day, working on finish work (a deck in the back, landscaping, adjusting doors. He was very handy.) On top of being handy he was HOT, and in his early twenties. And I was a bored sixteen-year-old. I was in heaven. He did a lot of working outside with his shirt off (and, I don't need to tell you, dear reader, that he had a great chest, and a great tan, and bleached out hair) and I did a lot of taking him glasses of lemonade. It was all very 90210 (you know, when Kelly had a thing with Jake, before they spun him off onto Melrose?!).
If all this was not enough to send me into hormonal overload, he did the cutest thing ever, and it sealed the crush deal. See, we had moved into a new housing development, and we were in one of the first houses finished and occupied. So the area around us was leveled, but not really developed. A stray dog showed up one day. My mom got worried about it and started making sure that he had food and water. He was a mutt, but very sweet. My parents, of course, were not going to take it in (we have a family aversion to pets), but my mom was somewhat worried about what was going to happen to him. The handyman was VERY sweet to the dog, and it began to follow him around all day. In the afternoons, the handyman would take a break for lunch, and the dog would curl up next to him. Before long it became pretty obvious that he was going to have to take the dog. OK, so I'll admit that I'm not a huge animal lover, but I did think that it was adorable that the handyman felt responsible and nurturing toward this dog. I remember the day that he finally decided to take it home with him. I have this image of the handyman's truck driving away, the dog happily riding in the bed. He looked like he couldn't believe his luck.
The handyman finished the work on my house, which was sad. Then summer ended, and he finished working for our builder, and that was sadder. (Yes, I did just say "sadder"--get off my back, grammar police!) He went back to college, I went back to finish my senior year of high school.
Sigh.
So I know what you are thinking. Nothing THAT ridiculous about the story. But I have been keeping for you, reader, the detail that does make this crush silly and embarrassing in retrospect. The handyman's name?
Rex.
I kid you not.
07 August 2008
I Don't Want to Get Pissy, But
OK. So first of all, I want to thank you if you are reading this. I think that most of you know how very, very pleasurable I find writing the blog, and how much I like the fact that you read. And comment. I especially like it when you comment because it means that this can continue to be a way for us to keep in touch.
But I am begging you--all of you--please don't criticize the grammar or the spelling in these posts. Part of the joy of writing in this format is that I don't have to worry so much about those internal editing voices. This is good for me. If I have to start worrying about you guys being the grammar and proofreading police, I'm not actually going to want to write any more. And I want to keep wanting to write. Also, please consider the following points:
1. You can bitch all you want about the content of my posts. That's great.
2. I wouldn't criticize your blog (if you have one, or if you were to have one), on the basis of your grammar, punctuation and spelling. I really wouldn't. That isn't my style.
3. I do try to proofread several times before I actually post. I don't always find my own mistakes. And sometimes I'm doing other things alongside the blogging, and I'm a little distracted. I am not trying to offend anyone's sensibilities. Not only that, but I DO think about you all a lot when I'm writing, and I try to produce content that most of you will like. And I try not to offend anyone either. So I am attentive to audience, whether you appreciate it or not.
4. You do not have to read the blog. Seriously. If it annoys you, or pisses you off, or bores you (Marcus), just don't read anymore. But please don't make me feel badly about writing. Reading is not a requirement of any of the relationships I have with any of you.
5. I am sorry that I don't have a sense of humor about this. But I really don't.
OK, that's it for now. My apologies for how un-fun and un-entertaining this post is--but sometimes a little editorial moment is necessary.
Thanks again for being my audience. I do appreciate it more than you can know.
But I am begging you--all of you--please don't criticize the grammar or the spelling in these posts. Part of the joy of writing in this format is that I don't have to worry so much about those internal editing voices. This is good for me. If I have to start worrying about you guys being the grammar and proofreading police, I'm not actually going to want to write any more. And I want to keep wanting to write. Also, please consider the following points:
1. You can bitch all you want about the content of my posts. That's great.
2. I wouldn't criticize your blog (if you have one, or if you were to have one), on the basis of your grammar, punctuation and spelling. I really wouldn't. That isn't my style.
3. I do try to proofread several times before I actually post. I don't always find my own mistakes. And sometimes I'm doing other things alongside the blogging, and I'm a little distracted. I am not trying to offend anyone's sensibilities. Not only that, but I DO think about you all a lot when I'm writing, and I try to produce content that most of you will like. And I try not to offend anyone either. So I am attentive to audience, whether you appreciate it or not.
4. You do not have to read the blog. Seriously. If it annoys you, or pisses you off, or bores you (Marcus), just don't read anymore. But please don't make me feel badly about writing. Reading is not a requirement of any of the relationships I have with any of you.
5. I am sorry that I don't have a sense of humor about this. But I really don't.
OK, that's it for now. My apologies for how un-fun and un-entertaining this post is--but sometimes a little editorial moment is necessary.
Thanks again for being my audience. I do appreciate it more than you can know.
01 May 2008
Reply to Uncle Moo
Ok Marcus. I could swear that I told you to shut your trap about If Lucy Fell. I'm not SJP's greatest fan or anything, but I love that film. Get over the fact that you watched it on my recommendation and hated it. That Eric Shaeffer guy is interesting. I like the stuff he does. And I do think that Bwick Elias is a good Ben Stiller character.
Now that I am done being pissy with you--one thing that is interesting about your comments on my blog is this: you often challenge my own sense of what the editorial policy of The Make-Ready is and should be. #1: you asked me to write on a specific topic (that piece of crap movie Legends of the Fall). Do I take requests? I have decided that I do. This has proven to be a hard post to write, because I have come around to your way of thinking on the matter. I am going to have to watch the film again in order to do the topic justice. And that is NOT something that I look forward to. Additionally, Qwanty has registered some mild objections to this topic, because she knows that I can't talk about the film without talking about her. The writing that I have already started on this subject does indeed discuss the circumstances under which I saw it, which does implicate Qwanty. I'm still working through this. But rest assured that I have not forgotten the request, and I will fill it at some point in the future.
Challenge #2: This has been brought up by your last post. Do I allow comment-ers to plug their own sites or posts? I've decided that, yes, I do. But I will also state here, for the record, that I have not yet read Marcus's contest blogs, and thus cannot recommend them. So, while I will allow you to drum up interest, I will not authorize or legitimize the product. I think that this is a reasonable policy going forward. (Of course, I will indeed read these gems. We are family, after all.)
In closing, Secretary as Christian allegory? Hmm. I may not think about that too hard. It sort of ruins the effect for me. Is that what you were trying to do? Is this some kind of perverse psychology trick? If so, you are a bad, bad preacher man. I invoke the voice of Beavis here (and I do think it is both apt and appropriate) when I ask, "Butthead, why do you have to ruin everything that is good in my life?"
(By the way--I'm TOTALLY in "training" and I hope that by the end of the summer I'm up to actually taking a run with you. I finally finished Bowerman and the Men of Oregon and it totally inspired me. Have you read it yet? If not, borrow my dad's copy and read it. It will make you proud to be a freaking Oregonian!)
Now that I am done being pissy with you--one thing that is interesting about your comments on my blog is this: you often challenge my own sense of what the editorial policy of The Make-Ready is and should be. #1: you asked me to write on a specific topic (that piece of crap movie Legends of the Fall). Do I take requests? I have decided that I do. This has proven to be a hard post to write, because I have come around to your way of thinking on the matter. I am going to have to watch the film again in order to do the topic justice. And that is NOT something that I look forward to. Additionally, Qwanty has registered some mild objections to this topic, because she knows that I can't talk about the film without talking about her. The writing that I have already started on this subject does indeed discuss the circumstances under which I saw it, which does implicate Qwanty. I'm still working through this. But rest assured that I have not forgotten the request, and I will fill it at some point in the future.
Challenge #2: This has been brought up by your last post. Do I allow comment-ers to plug their own sites or posts? I've decided that, yes, I do. But I will also state here, for the record, that I have not yet read Marcus's contest blogs, and thus cannot recommend them. So, while I will allow you to drum up interest, I will not authorize or legitimize the product. I think that this is a reasonable policy going forward. (Of course, I will indeed read these gems. We are family, after all.)
In closing, Secretary as Christian allegory? Hmm. I may not think about that too hard. It sort of ruins the effect for me. Is that what you were trying to do? Is this some kind of perverse psychology trick? If so, you are a bad, bad preacher man. I invoke the voice of Beavis here (and I do think it is both apt and appropriate) when I ask, "Butthead, why do you have to ruin everything that is good in my life?"
(By the way--I'm TOTALLY in "training" and I hope that by the end of the summer I'm up to actually taking a run with you. I finally finished Bowerman and the Men of Oregon and it totally inspired me. Have you read it yet? If not, borrow my dad's copy and read it. It will make you proud to be a freaking Oregonian!)
07 January 2008
New Year, New Blog
Welcome to the Make-Ready, my new blog that will be very much like the old blog, only not on myspace and maybe featuring some pictures now and again.
Some of you may know that The Make-Ready (or the Make-Readys) is my latest choice for a band name. But, let's face it, I'm never going to actually name a band, and I don't really want to waste a cool name. So, here it is. For those who don't know (and I assume most people don't--those of us who are interested in printing presses are sort of few and far between), the make-ready refers to the process of preparing forms for printing by positioning plates for the most clear overall impression.
Um. But it also just sounds cool.
And it refers to process, which is sort of what a blog is, right? At least for me. It's a place for process--a place to try out ideas, to move, to adjust, to work out--resulting (in the best cases) in a clarification of ideas, positions, thoughts.
The list over at the side that I've titled "At the Ready" is just a fluctuating list of stuff that I currently think is cool. (Perhaps I should add the word "cool" to the list, since I seem to want to use it over and over here.) I'll try to keep it pretty up to date.
Yeah. So that's about it. Check back. Comment. Haunt. I'll probably keep writing regardless.
Some of you may know that The Make-Ready (or the Make-Readys) is my latest choice for a band name. But, let's face it, I'm never going to actually name a band, and I don't really want to waste a cool name. So, here it is. For those who don't know (and I assume most people don't--those of us who are interested in printing presses are sort of few and far between), the make-ready refers to the process of preparing forms for printing by positioning plates for the most clear overall impression.
Um. But it also just sounds cool.
And it refers to process, which is sort of what a blog is, right? At least for me. It's a place for process--a place to try out ideas, to move, to adjust, to work out--resulting (in the best cases) in a clarification of ideas, positions, thoughts.
The list over at the side that I've titled "At the Ready" is just a fluctuating list of stuff that I currently think is cool. (Perhaps I should add the word "cool" to the list, since I seem to want to use it over and over here.) I'll try to keep it pretty up to date.
Yeah. So that's about it. Check back. Comment. Haunt. I'll probably keep writing regardless.
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