Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Just got married… Who would’ve thought?

After making it well into my 40s as a confirmed bachelor, I long ago came to the conclusion that I would be single for life. Sometimes I was fine with that idea. I dove into my hobbies–collecting music and going to concerts, reading sci fi, bicycling, getting involved in online forums such as Reddit. Other times it could be quite lonely. Anyway, it was my life. I got into a groove and got used to it. I met some nice girls on occasion, but they never really did much for me and I didn’t excite them.

Growing up in a small town and living in small Texas towns most of my life, I was surrounded by people who were focused on family and community, who were very religious and very conservative. I was all those things too–at first. Along the way I read and thought a lot and became a liberal atheist, socially liberal at first, then the whole ball of wax. Not small town material.

I still like small town folks, but there’s always going to be a certain distance. I’ve changed a lot and I’m not changing back. Not a good recipe for successful dating. There are enough people around me who think I’m going to hell. I don’t need that from my significant other. It would be hard to overlook and I don’t have the patience for it.

Enter Melissa, my wonderful wife as of Jan. 10. We did what you’re not supposed to do. We met on Craigslist, which a lot of people think of as a meat market, but it turned out to be perfect for us. Her ad jumped out at me right away–lots of things in common and she could write and use correct grammar. You don’t see much of that on Craigslist. She had to weed me out from a long list of losers, but she saw a potential companion in me as I did in her.

At some point we realized we were having more than just a lot of fun dates. Dates turned into a relationship and we came to the conclusion that we have a bond we’re not likely to find from anyone else. I decided it was time to end my bachelor ways. They had a certain appeal, but it’s time to quit being alone and join team Melissa & Charles. There will be crises and bumps in the road–we’ve already had a few–but we’ll weather them together.

Posted on

David Simon, creator of The Wire: American society ‘a horror show’

What to use this blog for? I already have a WordPress blog that I use for music topics. Or used to before I got so involved with my girlfriend who became my fiancee and will soon be my wife (I will again once I get settled in, promise). 

I suppose I can use it to rant about random topics that might annoy my conservative friends and family members who haven’t yet unfriended me on Facebook. 

I recently read part of a speech about the state of American society that really struck a nerve. David Simon, creator of the TV show The Wire refers to our society as a “horror show,” where capitalism has won a nearly total victory and there is no real social compact.

He is so right. We will let you die in the gutter and say you deserved it in this country. Social Darwinism tells us those people just weren’t good enough, didn’t try hard enough. Why if they’d just pulled themselves up by the bootstraps that successful people won’t admit they inherited, they’d be productive citizens, millionaires even.

Prosperity Gospel preached in our churches tells us if you worship hard enough and have enough faith, God will reward you. You’ll have enough, won’t get too sick to work, won’t lose your job when the company outsources your department to another country, won’t lose your home when the banks gamble with everyone’s money and jack up the economy. Born poor? Got laid off and wound up on the street? God’s obviously punishing you for some reason.

It’s almost like a dream sometimes, hearing myself talk, when I used to be first a Christian fundamentalist and later an idealistic libertarian, but the fact is, none of those ways of thinking turned out to be true and I’d rather change my mind and admit I was wrong than live in denial.

I’m not sure there’s any way to fix this now that the capitalist machine has purchased the American electoral process. Maybe will come to, as Simon put it, “the brick.” I almost felt like revolution was upon us during the Occupy protests, but face it: if we have a revolution in America, it’s those crazy Tea Party types who have all the guns. Not that I was fond of the black bloc anarchists who mucked up the OWS protests. 

I guess for now it’s wait and see. Maybe democracy or some wealthy person like FDR with a heart for the poor will come up with something. In the meantime, Sing While You May. I have a job and a woman and live in Austin, which ain’t a bad place to be.