In which Twitter is down and I don’t know what to do

On October 21, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized1 Comment

I spent all day yesterday in bed. Understand that when I say that I am speaking damn near literally. During the 24 hours that constituted Thursday, October 20th, I spent all but maybe an hour in bed, and that hour was only for the occasional undeniable biological need and to get my son to school. Then there were the seven and a half hours from 11:59 PM on Thursday to waking up this morning and taking the boy to school again, and we’re looking at something like 31 straight hours in bed, almost all of that hard asleep.

Food poisoning– or, to be fair to Bob Evans, 24-hour rapid-onset intestinal distress that may or may not have been related to my dinner– is a bitch. I’m still kinda achy and queasy but I’m assuming that that’s because of the aforementioned thirty-some-odd hours in a row spent flat on my back. I was really hoping that when I woke up and rejoined the world that the election would be over, or at least Trump would have dropped out, but instead Twitter is down and as far as I know the election is still going on, which really seems unfair given the circumstances. I’m gonna need Twitter back if I’m going to make it through the day, guys. Like, now.

Ah. This is why. Yikes.

Spends half an hour in the bathroom. Apparently I’m not quite fixed yet. On the plus side, Twitter’s back up when I emerge.

So. Yeah. Anyway. I’ve owned an iPhone 7+ for a few days now, and I’m happy but unsurprised to announce that I like it. I got used to the extra size immediately, and little things like the fact that the screen automatically turns on when I pick the phone up (and, finally, rotates to landscape) are pleasing to me. I haven’t had much of a chance to fiddle with the new camera yet but I can verify that it handles dark rooms like nobody’s business, which is fantastic. It seems to not get along as well with my home network as I’d like, but that’s got at least a small chance of being my network’s fault. The fingerprint sensor is fast as hell and the haptics are on-point to a degree that is frankly frightening. Are we sure the new Home button doesn’t move? Because it sure as hell feels like it moves. It’s actually kind of creepy.

Tonight’s big plan is to watch Fox’s Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I’m hoping is streamable from Hulu or something, since I missed it yesterday due to the aforementioned near-death experience. Then… back to work, I guess. Anybody need furniture?

Whoa

On October 14, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn BlogwankingLeave a comment

I almost forgot to blog today– I’ve been cleaning all day because I made dinner for some old friends tonight, and we were sitting around the table and chatting and it hit me that I didn’t have a post up yet.

Doesn’t mean the post is gonna be a good one, mind you.

Have a cute Winona Ryder .gif:

mpgnlplxqfzj74enwggs

In which something’s gotta change

On October 13, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Work4 Comments

This is, I dunno, the third Thursday in a row that I’ve completely wasted. For several weeks now my Thursdays have gone like this: wake up, take the boy to school, come back home, deliberately go to bed, wake up sometime in the mid-afternoon, and laze about for the rest of the day.

I work three eleven-hour days a week. Those days I get home, hug my wife and my son, and go to bed. Maybe I read a bit. I can’t afford to waste a fourth day doing absolutely nothing when I only have one other day to get shit done during the week. We’re, like, a foot deep in dog hair around here. This nonsense has gotta stop.

Obviously, the solution is more caffeine. Way, way, way more caffeine.

In which I enjoy my daddy time

On September 16, 2016September 16, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn ParentingLeave a comment

Today was Parents’ Day at Hogwarts, so I spent the first couple of hours of my morning in the company of many preschoolers. I’ll admit it; the whole experience actually managed to make me miss teaching a little bit, and the only thing that kept me from randomly wandering the building after my son’s time was over and popping into other classrooms was the absolute certainty that I would eventually be found out and escorted off the property, and I’m not super interested in being banned from my son’s school, at least not before he’s in seventh or eighth grade.

But yeah. It was fun, and a tiny bit nostalgic; “Yeah, I remember this” sort of stuff. Even though it’s just preschool, there’s enough commonalities there, y’know? Tonight, the boy is spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s and the wife and I are Going to See a Show: specifically, Wicked, which has been in town for two weeks, a run that ends tonight. I’ve read the book but have never seen the musical. I used to be a bit of a fan of Gregory Maguire’s work until realizing that he was on a downward slope with each book he wrote; if he’s done anything since Lost I don’t know about it.

I have failed twice at adulting in the past two days; I spent the entirety of yesterday in bed (again) leaving the several boxes of vinyl flooring still in my car and despite dedicating an entire post to how I don’t want an iPhone 7 last week, once I discovered today that Verizon was gonna let me have one basically for free I caved and ordered it. Space black, not the jet. And, uh, a Plus. Which may prove to be a mistake, honestly, but I want the camera. So so much for responsibility.

Speaking of, it’s noon, and I’ve done damn near nothing in the hour and a half since I got home. I’m gonna go… uh. Yeah. Do something. Not in front of the computer. I just gotta figure out what.

I’m so damn tired

On September 14, 2016September 14, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Sixteen thousand steps yesterday, along with unloading a sofa truck, and another eight thousand today, on what was supposed to be a half day, and the managers have begun rather conspicuously training me in management stuff as of today as well. This was a 50-hour week. It would have been better had sales not been crap; as it turns out, the week after Labor Day isn’t the greatest time to expect folks to come out and buy furniture.

Point is, once I was finally home at 6, with a car full of new flooring for my dining room (because, sure, we have time for that new project, and I have time to learn how to lay flooring) there was nothing to do but sit in my recliner and stare at the wall and idly work on crossword puzzles on my iPad.

I have been spending a lot of time doing crossword puzzles lately. Apparently I’m 90 now. And possibly a woman. I associate fondness for crossword puzzles with women. Is that a thing, or just another way I’m weird?

My main goal for tomorrow is to not go back to sleep when I get home from dropping the boy off. Secondary goal is to vacuum. If I manage that, we’ll think about doing something interesting.

Adulting!

Also, this might be the greatest book cover in the history of humanity. It’s the question mark that does it for me. I don’t even know why I bother writing when there is genius work like this out there:

CsVUaqEWAAA5UgG.jpg-large.jpeg

EDIT: Guys, after additional research, I’m gonna need one of you to take the hit and order this thing. I’ll send you a free print copy of any of my three novels (novels, because I’m out of copies of BA 1) if you download this piece of magnificence and tell me about it. Please:

Screen Shot 2016-09-14 at 8.22.53 PM.png

Whoopsie (on 2000 posts)

On September 2, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking2 Comments

I really meant to eventually write a “real” blog post after my brief ode to a good morning yesterday, but events got away from me in the morning (in other words, I laid around reading and then took a nap) and then we spent the entire evening at my parents’ house. If I hadn’t gotten that post up early, I’d have entirely forgotten about the blog yesterday. Which would have broken a streak that’s nearing two years long now, but otherwise wouldn’t have been any kind of big deal.

I wrote my 2000th post on this thing a week or two ago. This is actually probably post 2010 or so, because the milestone slipped past me at the time. I noted it on Twitter, but haven’t mentioned it here yet. The post itself wasn’t exactly earth-shattering, but I’m entertained about the song I chose.

Some random facts:

I’ve had, so far, 377,623 pageviews and 204,501 unique visitors to the site.
The first post was June 4, 2013.
My best day had 12,451 pageviews. Today will probably have around 150; traffic’s been a bit down this year.
My most popular post, by far, is “In which I tell you how your religion works,” with 106,900 pageviews. The next most popular is the Goddamned Snowpiercer review, which has 22,872 and still is regularly in my top 5 posts every single fucking day.
I’ve had traffic from 195 countries, or at least what WordPress calls countries, which occasionally seems a little odd.
The top 10: The US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, India, France, Brazil, and Norway, in that order.
There’s been exactly one pageview from 14 places: the Cook Islands, Equitorial Guinea, the Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Iran, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sint Maarten, St. Martin (apparently a different place?), Syria, Tajikistan, and Togo.

On to the next 2000, I guess. 🙂

On America’s pasttime

On August 29, 2016August 28, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Stories3 Comments

This post will be of even less interest to the majority of you than usual, mostly because the vast majority of you aren’t local, but: I attended a AAA South Bend Cubs game at our local baseball parky-thingy Saturday night. The stadium has been there a long time, but I probably haven’t been to a game since high school. I remember enjoying the several games I went to, but “several” is probably the right word. And since college I have almost completely abandoned watching sports as a means of recreation. I know more than I pretend to a lot of the time but I literally can’t name a single currently working pro NFL or MLB player, probably not more than half a dozen NBA players, and not a single college athlete in any sport.

But anyway. There’s something about baseball stadiums, right? And I’ve never gotten to be in a skybox before, so being right behind home plate and in a spot where it was highly unlikely that I’d be hit by a fast-moving projectile was kinda cool. Plus, hey, cash bar that served free soft drinks and free catering. It was also a cool Dad Night, as my son knows nothing of baseball and had never been to a game, and I bought him a lightsaber to play with. He had fun too.

Local folks, if you haven’t found an excuse to see a game at Four Winds Field lately, go. Tickets are cheap and the experience is generally excellent, especially if you’re able to go on a night where there are fireworks. Just sit along the third base line so you can see them better. There are grassy fields to sit on in the outfield and bouncy houses for the littler kids and the usual concessions and all that other fun stuff. If you’re around, go. Even if you’re not into baseball, it’s a great way to spend a Saturday night.

Ran into a Trump supporter at work today, the first openly so individual I’ve actually encountered. I had to eventually stare him down and tell him that I didn’t discuss politics at work, and his wife clearly has grown to loathe him and his need to insert politics and crazypants into every conversation with every stranger he meets. I felt bad for her. He probably needs a therapist.

In other words, pretty much exactly who I thought he’d be.