C.B. Potts's Blog, page 25

Good Morning Everybody!

I'm actually taking the day off. Which means I've swept the porch and written a blog entry and am fixing to do the dishes and feed the dog and if client pay days come through today (perhaps not today, but I am absolutely confident they will pay, this is not a catastrophe as much as the joy of holiday weekends coming on the 1st) taking Harmony in for the very last bit of back-to-school shopping.

Yesterday I cleaned our bedroom. You would not believe how much reading material can be pac...

A quick note

I've got an entry up on my other blog, where I talk about the 10 Questions You Need To Ask Yourself Before You Buy Anything. If you're so inclined, I'd love it if you read, comment, and if you think it's worthwhile, share this info with your friends who would like it.

The link-window is being wonky, so here is the link: http://crafttheory.blogspot.com/2013/08/10-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-you.html

Thanks!

Requiem, Observed

The Earth mourns her children, you know. Each of us in our own way. That's what night if for: saying farewell to the lost. With the morning, we begin again, welcoming the new.

The night he died, the crickets sang for hours; a constant chitinous scream. If you've ever set a masonry blade to marble, you know this sound: it is inevitability made audible. Even that which appears to be eternal isn't.

There was lightning. Of course there was. A million billion volts streaking through the...

Tuesday Morning, Thus Far

So, there's this. It was a long weekend up here at Chez CB: had you been able to see me, it wouldn't have looked like I was doing much beyond sitting in a chair in the sunshine (or perhaps examining the tomato patch or toasting marshmallows, depending on your timing!) but there was a lot of thinking going on. At the end of it all, I came away convinced that if I want my life to have meaning, I need to do work I find meaningful.

I am really worried by the world we live in. And as people...

Things I am Still Learning

Knowing when to have the conversation is as important as knowing you need to have the conversation in the first place. The time to have the conversation is not when "I want to rip off his head and shit down his neck" comes quickly and easily to your lips. For such a useful phrase, it's surprisingly underused in corporate communications.

It stormed last night. There was lightning and thunder, but what woke me up was Tim's flashlight light dancing erratically through the house....

I am really tired

You know you're tired when you have a lovely Stephen Pinker essay and can't even read the whole thing. I've written a ton of stuff today, and will write more anon, but now I just want to go curl up and have a nap. Tim built a lovely table and four chairs over the past two days; the garden is BOOMING - we have our first cucumbers - and I'm *still* recovering from a thousand mile weekend where we took the girls to the zoo and then to my Mother's retirement party.

Some day I w...

Rant On, You Crazy Diamond

Here are all the schism points:

You get to choose what you care about.

The purpose of life is to be happy.

Everything you need in this world is provided for you. The trick is figuring out how to get to it.

Other people matter. And they don't always see the world the way you do.

Everything is temporary. Good and bad.

The world is more good than bad.

You don't need nearly as much as you think you do. Let the rest go. Accumulation is an addiction. If you can't let go of your stuff you will...

Letters for The Daughters

There are people in this world who are made out of fear. Fear is a terrible thing; it's like a terrified kitten with razor-sharp steel claws sitting in your lap during a thunderstorm. As long as you are actively paying attention to the kitty, petting her constantly and soothing her anxious, jangly self, she's fine, but if you let your attention slip, even for a moment, the kitten freaks out and scratches your face to bloody meat ribbons.

The way people pet the kitty is by exerting cont...

Here We Go Monday, Here We Go!

The stories we tell ourselves about our lives dictate the type of life we're going to have. This is really important to understand, especially if you're in a place where you don't have a lot of financial resources. The one thing that you really can't afford when you're poor is believing everything people tell you about who you are and what your life is going to be like and most importantly, what you should want.

Oh I was just about to tell you a lie. I was going to say it doesn't...

Intention Is Not Action

I will stand right up and admit this: I thought for sure that George Zimmerman was going to be convicted. To me, it seemed clear that he was guilty as hell, and frankly, if I'm not allowed to go around obliterating everyone who frightens me and makes me feel uncomfortable, no one else should be either. Because between you, me, and the fencepost, had that been the standard, it would have been a bloodbath.

Things are really not okay in this country. We have the NSA monitoring phone calls, em...