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October 31, 2008
Halloween
Witches hate raindrops and love pizza. So I guess it was a 50-50 kind of day for my Halloween character.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 06:02 PM | Comments (1)
October 29, 2008
Groan
I had grand plans for productivity tonight. Instead I made an exorbitant amount of criminally rich mac & cheese and then ate it while setting up a Facebook page. I'm the last person in America to join Facebook, I think.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2008
In the news
According to The New York Times:
I know the Times is wrong, because the sky fell along time ago.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)
The first day of the rest of my life
I ran, lifted weights, brought a sack lunch to work, cooked dinner, ate vegetables, ate fruit, and even consumed some protein. For the past month or so I've been failing in those arenas. Perhaps today marks a turning point.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2008
Living la vida Portland
Tonight I learned that during moments of enlightenment or epiphany the parietal lobe of your brain loses influence and spatial perception cuts out. Given the transcendent joy that sun beams, autumn leaves and distant volcanoes give me every morning when I drive to work, I wonder how safe I am during my glorious-but-perhaps-spatially-challenged commutes.
The conference was great, and so was seeing Rian in Eugene. So was dinner tonight, chili and conversation with friends. Ben's meeting a new musician in the week ahead, and he may wind up joining a fourth jazz band. I'm excited about the week ahead and the creative energies that Ben and I are both experiencing in our lives.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2008
In Eugene
Drove down to Eugene, Ore., after work today so that I could be here bright and early for Saturday's Building a Better Journalist conference. The lineup is amazing, with sessions on a number of subjects that are deeply interesting to me. I'm volunteering to help run the behind-the-scenes stuff, but I should be able to sit in on at least a few sessions, I hope.
Being here, I made sure to see Rian. Ryan's in town, visiting her. So the three of us had Thai food and played goofy video games for a while.
Now it's almost midnight and I have to meet the other conference organizers in my hotel lobby at 7 a.m. Last year when we did this I couldn't sleep all night I was so tense and excited. Now I feel like an old pro. I'm ready to pass out right away and stay unconscious until the 6 a.m. wakeup call.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 11:35 PM | Comments (2)
October 23, 2008
To sleep, perchance to blog.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2008
Today
The sudden wake-up blare in the early morning cold and dark seemed certain to color this day bleak. But then I saw the sun slant down and cast stark shadows on a world where trees explode in red and gold and a wrinkled volcano hunches on the horizon. A spiritual commute this morning. Sunny all day. Warm by the end of it.
Then I voted. Read from "Middlesex" for a while. Ate a slice of Stark Naked pizza. Sprayed Febreeze around the house. Watched "Corner Gas" and public television. Mmmmm.
Update: This evening, Ben voted too, and then walked his ballot to the mailbox. Civic duty fulfilled.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:10 PM | Comments (3)
October 21, 2008
Lesson learned
Don't pour a glass of wine and then do hand-stand yoga. Especially if you don't have stain-proof carpets.
"It was either this, or you'd have burned the house down," Ben said. "I'd rather you stain the carpet."
He's so sweet.
We bought our red couch because we figured it would hide coffee and wine stains well. Perhaps we ought to consider red carpeting as well.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2008
Skype!
Ross has been nagging me to download Skype for years now, and I finally did it. We're video chatting! My user name is "gotthisbecauseofRoss." If you're on skype, we can be friends.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 05:00 PM | Comments (2)
October 17, 2008
This is what I told the recent grads at tonight's journalism happy hour
There's no more fun to be had in the world than you can have at a newspaper. This is the most fun anyone can have in life.
One of the recent grads nodded his head.
"If everyone gets to have their 15 minutes of fame," he said, "then you get to be there for all of it."
I like that.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2008
Stop funding bad things
At Safeway this week the clerks are asking everyone to give money to breast cancer. Over the last few days, I've seen three or four shoppers agree to donate their change to the disease. I'm totally shocked to see such brazen immorality in public. Breast cancer is BAD, people. We should be taking its money away, not giving it more cash with which to wreak still further havoc.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2008
Out and about
Tonight I went to a public viewing of the presidential debate in a movie theater that had run out of food. I hadn't had dinner. I ordered a strong beer. Then I stood in the back of the room and drank my beer and heckled the on-screen candidates. Some people shushed me. Others cheered me on or joined in the heckling. My throat got a little bit raw from yelling. I learned to yell as a child, by bossing around my little brothers. After the debate I ate french fries. It was a nice evening.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 11:21 PM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2008
A new era in information consumption and distribution is upon us
"Media mediate human relationships," anthropologist Michael Wesch, who researches digital ethnography. I am enthralled by his video anthropological introduction to YouTube. It's strange to be sad about the death throes of my own median, and inspired by that which is replacing it.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2008
Strange discovery of the weekend
Vanilla ice cream drizzled with olive oil and peppered with salt is surprisingly good. I thought it was a hoax that I was willingly subjecting myself to, but after a timid sample I opted for seconds.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2008
Heading to Eugene
Ben and I are getting ready to head to Eugene in a little bit. I'll be hanging out with Rian. He and his big band will be playing the halftime show at what the University of Oregon claims is home to the country's largest indoor tailgate parties.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2008
The latest at work
My employer is struggling financially and may declare bankruptcy. Chapter 11 is the "good" bankruptcy. It's what the airlines repeatedly turn to when they want to keep flying, because it allows businesses to reorganize and survive. And the b-word isn't even certain, just possible. Still, worst-case scenarios keep flashing through my head. I love my job, my industry, my career, intensely. I can't imagine anything more fun or more fulfilling, and I don't want to have to reinvent myself if newspapers die.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 06:46 PM | Comments (2)
October 08, 2008
The best part of my day
Ben.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)
October 07, 2008
One thrilling political moment after another
Presidential debate highlights from Courtney Sherwood on Vimeo.
That presidential debate was so exciting. I'm really glad I filmed us watching it. Here's the movie about how we responded to the witty, down-to-earth, and completely non-boring presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Mostly featuring Ben.
Yes, by the way, I am having fun FINALLY learning how to make videos.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:52 PM | Comments (5)
October 06, 2008
My bits hurt
My legs are more sore from Wii Fit than from running three miles. I love the idea of a video game in which you "win" by beating your own record, and you play be doing exercise. I'm having motivation issues at the gym these days. Without a big run or something along those lines to aim for, it's hard to keep going three or more times a week.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2008
October
I can't get over the fact that we're almost halfway into October. I'm pretty much failing on all of my New Years resolutions. I did manage to check out a couple of library books on Chinese history - they're overdue, unread, on my dining room table. I'm very close to doing a pull up, but I've been saying so for months. Same deal with my savings goals, I've been close-but-not-there for months. The Portland Marathon was this weekend, and I did not participate. I'm doing a slightly less half-assed job at staying in touch with friends than last year, but only slightly. I contributed a chapter to a group novel writing project, and that was fun, but I haven't written anything substantial and fictional on my own this year. And I'm so over-committed that I'm struggling to follow through on anything. Maybe next year I should simply resolve to do less.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2008
Vegetable warrior
Brussel Sprout War from Courtney Sherwood on Vimeo.
Check out what we got at the farmers market.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2008
On again, off again
The switch has flipped. We have only two seasons here in the Northwest. Summer: long, gorgeous, sunny. Winter: mild, damp, chilly. It's binary, one season is on and the other is off at any given time. In June and October the switch seems to flick up and down and up and down for a few weeks, but eventually things settle into place.
In place of autumn and spring, during the flickering period of inconsistent weather, we have the season of break lights. As summer dawns, drivers remember glare, they squint, they wonder where those sunglasses are tucked away, and for a week or two they add 15 or 20 minutes to the commute because of it. The effect is the same right now, but the cause is different. We're remembering the dangers of slick, the need for new wiper blades, and we hit the breaks.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2008
Fit
We now have a Wii Fit system. I spent more than an hour tonight doing yoga and strength training video games, time I would otherwise been able to spend drafting a clever entry to post here. Sorry, readers. Sucks to be you.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2008
Over committed
I just finished the penultimate chapter for this "just-for-fun" novel writing gang I joined. It's badly edited and overdue, but it's done. Good night.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)