Endless Monkeys

So, as of today, I have been married for one month.

After my first marriage absolutely imploded, I pretty much figured that another marriage simply wasn’t in the cards for me. I wasn’t totally closed-off to the option, but I wasn’t really looking to create an opportunity for another marriage either. Mostly I think I was looking to just be for a while. Dating was an option, but “getting serious” certainly wasn’t.

So one night I got bored and thought that maybe putting out a random “I sorta want a friend with benefits (fwb)” post and just see what happens. Of course, I invested a significant amount of my own humor into the post and got some replies, but mostly from women whom I felt weren’t a reall solid match with me. Sorta sucked, but since I wasn’t really looking for anything I really didn’t care. After a couple more posts, I just sort-of let things sit there and went on about the business of just doing whatever it was I was doing at the time (mostly working).

I got an email from @Koekjemom a couple weeks after I started putting posts out there. We chit-chatted a bit and seemed like we were both looking for the same thing, namely a FWB. So it was agreed that we’d be friends and, on occasion, have our fun and it would be kept very simple. So we started hanging out quite a bit and it was fun. After a while, a decision made at my house made me begin looking for another place to live and @Koekjemom suggest that I move in with her. It wasn’t meant to be for anything serious, but we figured it might be interesting at the very least.

So we quickly found out that living together was actually quite fun. Our similar personalities made it a pretty cool experience. We didn’t argue all that much (it’s incredibly rare) and actually got on quite well. The only real odd part was that she had kiddos and I was still under the “I’m not entirely certain I’d do well with kids.” Over time, I found out that I actually do enjoy the experience of being a step-father and the challenge of it is quite inspiring. So I began to adapt to the role of Family Man. Marriage still wasn’t in the picture, but we began to really feel like being together just “made sense” in that we went together so very naturally.

Fast-forward to about 2 months ago. @KoekjeMom’s job began doing lots of layoffs and hourly cuts in order to save money during this recession. Unfortunately, those cuts caused her benefits to become prohibitively expensive. As a result, I pretty much proposed the marriage option as a way to legally allow me to cover both her and The Gentlemen on my insurance. It wasn’t just because of insurance issues though. We do very much love each other and do want to be together. We’d talked about marriage before, but the issue was routinely tabled.

Honestly, the decision to get married was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

We had a quick ceremony at the Portland Chinese Gardens and it was nice. It was very informal and it was just us, our officiant (a good friendwe WoW with), a couple of witnesses, and our children. It wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t larger-than-life, it was exactly as we are: simple, but purposeful. We’ve been so happy in this and I look forward to every day even more than the previous day. I know this marriage is better than the last since Iactually felt different after the ceremony. In my first marriage, the actual wedding didn’t feel different. It felt like just another day. This time, however, it felt like something big was happening.

It still feels like it’s happening.

So to my darling wife… happy one-month anniversary. It doesn’t feel like 30 days at all. In fact, the time we’ve spent together doesn’t seem like time. I see things only as one adventure. Perhaps my greatest adventure ever. And I really can’t wait to see what comes next!

The time now: 1:18 am.

I sit here enveloped in the quiet of the apartment. The Gentlemen are at their Dad’s house. @KoekjeMom is asleep. I’ve finally decompressed enough from my week to begin sorting through some of what’s swimming in my head.

Tonight’s subject: what do I want?

Sure, a common refrain in this blog, but one I feel deserves constant reflection upon. After all, my life has altered so radically in the past month. I’ve gotten married and earnestly begun adapting to being a “Family Man,” I’ve begun serious work with a local social organization (my own, thank you), I’ve begun working with a local figure to update their website. These are all great things. But what do I really want?

I want more. I want to be able to give my family the life they deserve and also give myself the life I deserve.

But there’s more.

I want to challenge myself. Push myself outside of my Comfort Zone. I want to see what I can really achieve when I put myself to it. I want to know that I can step up and write with utter abandon. I want to see if I can just sit down and hammer out a well-crafted post that goes well beyond my somewhat-usual 500 word count.

By the way… this post won’t do that.

It’s something I’ve spent entirely too much time denying myself. Mostly I’ve been afraid that I would get a writing job and turn out a horrible piece of tripe, and be summarily fired for it. Yes, every writer has at least one piece they’ve labored over that turned out to be an absolute dog of a work. It happens. And in most of those situations they didn’t get fired over it. They were probably told to write better stuff and then asked whether or not they were still bringing something for the potluck on Friday. In my head, however, the truth does take a slight turn.

But that’s ok. Tonight I managed to push myself a bit more out of my comfort zone. A Tweet went out about blogging for a local station. I sucked it up and emailed them and got a response. It’s in my inbox right now. It’s waiting for me.

It wants more too.

The time is now 1:38 am

Dodgy title, but hey.. I am FINALLY in love with podcasts! And it surely took me long enough!

I thought I’d toss out a post and talk to y’all about the podasts that keep my iPod all happy. These are in alphabetical order and not order of importance. I really do like all of them equally. So enjoy these 10 selections. You really can’t go wrong with them, especially if you’re anything like me!

Note: all of these are available via iTunes.

1. Comic Geek Speak : a great podcast for all things comics-related. The best part is that they have an almost phobic aversion to being too serious, yet communicate a large volume of information. I like the camraderie between the hosts (a critical element) and the banter is pretty damn good.

2. The Dave Ramsey Show : @KoekjeMom and I are trying to get our finances together and Dave really does seem to have a fairly basic, common-sense program that can help lots of people out. There are certainly a high number of “I’m Debt Free!” callers and, even accounting for the fact that not all of them are legit, it’s still a rather high number. The podcast available on iTunes is a short one that runs about a half an hour. If you want more, you’ll have to subscribe to MyTotalMoneyMakeover.com ($10 a month and it seems pretty worthwhile).

3. ESPNsoccernet Podcast: y’all know I just LOOOOVES me some footy. This podcast helps me stay up to date on most of the important European contests (EPL UEFA FA Cup etc) and most leagues around the world. Great commentary and the humor flows quite freely all the way around. If you love the Beautiful Game like I do, give it a shot!

4. The Geek Show Podcast: I found this one by just typing “Geek” into iTunes’ search bar. Took a chance (it was the longest podcast available, plus it updated more than the others) and have totally enjoyed it. It’s just a group of geeks talking about what geeks talk about. The humor level in this cast is nearly off the charts. It’s pretty much like you’re just hanging out with them and it rocks on so many levels. Even if you aren’t a geek, you can totally get into this podcast. Srsly.

5. GeekDad: @KoekjeMom turned me onto this one. I honestly think it’s a GREAT podcast for folks like me who are geeky and also fatherly. It’s great commentary and they feature some incedible interviews. Of course, being part of the Wired Blog Network, they do have a better-than-average chance of getting ahold of bigger names in the geeky community. The first cast of theirs I caught featured an interview with Adam from Mythbusters and it was outstandingly good. Interestingly enough, Geek Dads got me into another podcast, namely NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” because of an interview with Peter Sagel.

6. NPR’s Fresh Air: I used to listen to NPR a LOT back in the day. I love the interviews and the news, but the talk shows are, far and away, my favorite part of NPR. While there lots of great shows, Fresh Air is my favorite. Terry Gross brings a pretty calm, yet intensely detailed interview style to the program. Amazingly, she exerts an impressive amount of control over her interview subjects, but appears to let them just go off onto whatever tangent they seem fit to decide on. Gross’ ability to get her guests to open up so willingly and so transparently sets a fantastic tone and makes each show into a true gem.

7. NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: I had heard of this news/game-show from other folks, but had totally forgotten about it until a chance listening to GeekDads and their interview with Peter Sager. Shortly after, I pulled an episode down from iTunes and was hooked instantly. A wide variety of guests ensures that the program stays lively and entertaining. In fact, my favorite moment so far was when Paula Dean was featured on the show and had to attempt to explain why, of all things, a salad was in her cookbook and the fact that the fruit in her fridge was the loneliest fruit plate in the southland. Honestly, this show is incredibly amusing and I think most anyone would love it, even if they aren’t news-junkies.

8. Outlandish: Another podcast that @KoekjeMom got me into. Being World of Warcraft (WoW) players, it can be tough sometimes to keep up with all the changes that the game undergoes. Thankfully, Outlandish is there to serve up the high points. Better still is the fact that WoW only accounts for about 45% of the total podcast content. The rest is the hosts just having a blast being friends and talking about whatever comes to mind. A warning: this podcast DOES sport the “Explicit” tag on iTunes and it’s well-deserved. Might want to make sure the young’ns are in bed before listening to this one. Trust me, it’s worth it.

9. Rawrcast: Another WoW podcast that has a similar spirit to Outlandish, but tends to delve much deeper into WoW’s changes, contents, and -to a small degree- the lore. The cast also sports the “Explicit” iTunes tag, but they aren’t as bad as Outlandish. I like that Rawrcast tries to be very thorough, but not too terribly serious. Where the folks at Outlandish sometimes tend to express frustration with WoW’s slow development cycle, Rawrcast tries to use the lulls to explore other content ideas, strategies, and WoW life outside of the actual game. A great listen and they also bring a unique parenting angle in that they do discuss their children and how the kiddos interract with WoW and how the whole family relates to WoW. It’s a damn good cast.

10. Strange Love Live: This is actually a local video cast featuring Cami Kaos and her husband Doc Normal. They interview local “celebrities” in Portland’s tech community. What’s great is that there’s an hour of “real” show and an hour or more of “After Hours” where everyone just lets loose and keeps things informal. The subject matter goes all over and it’s a TON of fun being in the chatroom when they’re broadcasting live. One of my favorite things about the show is that it’s so informal, but -much like Fresh Air- so very in-depth. While the podcast is good, the best way to enjoy the show is to get into the chat while it’s happening (airs 10pm on Fridays).

And there you have it. These are my ten “go to” podcasts for guaranteed entertainment. Got a fav of your own? Why not leave it in the comments and I’ll be happy to check it out!

Take it easy!

You know. I have this great post I’m working up about podcasts, but it’s gonna take a while. Actually, it should be up Thursday. However, I still wanted to post, so I think I’m gonna do something else today.

Enough preamble… let’s blog it up!

So how are ya? Doing good? Me? Fantastic. I really couldn’t be doing better. Well, I could be nauseatingly rich, but that’s always going to be there, so I don’t worry much about it.

What else? Well, it’s finally starting to show more signs of Spring here in the ole Pacific Northwest. Two warm days followed by two weeks of rain and overcast skies. Hooray! In all seriousness, I do like the spring here. Oh sure, it’s not like Oklahoma Springtime (good breezes, mid-70’s weather, tornadoes, storms, weather chasers from other states who have no idea how pissed off Mother Nature really is), but I like it all the same. I’m hoping to get back up to Mount Hood sometime soon and see if the alpine slides are open again. Boo yah.

So what else is out there. I’m glad to see that the Blazers are doing well in their season. I’m not a basketball fan, but I can appreciate when a team that usually has a dodgy reputation begins to really shine. It’s great and I wis them the best of luck. I probably won’t become a slobbering Blazers fan, but that’s just the breaks. In better news, the Timbers’ season starts up this Saturday and we’re doing an away over at the Vancouver Whitecaps. I really hope the Greens give it their all this season since we’ll be an MLS side next season, so we really need to go out with a bang.

In other news, I’ve taken a chance and tossed my hat into the ring to become a writer over at GeekDad. It’s pretty sweet since it’s a part of Wired magazine. So I won’t be writing for Wired directly if I get the nod, but there are opportunities and that’s great. An announcement was recently made that they got about 160 applicants and decided to stop taking new ones. I’m hoping I’m one of them since, well, I sent mine in and all. However, I’m not 100% confident in myself since I don’t have much of a presence on the site (comments and othersuch). However, if I don’t get it, I’ll at least be on their radar and that’s always good. It’s also a small victory for me since I never really try to sell myself to others. Of course, the last time I tried it, I managed to snag a writing spot over at OurPDX, so who knows.

BTW: GeekDad.. if you’re reading this… pleasepleasepleaseplease?

Aaaaaaaaaaaand enough shameless pandering on that. PLEASE?!

OK, done. So what else is there?

Well, not much. Today my friends Athmet and Rhemedy are getting married. In fact, as I write this, it should happen in about 15 minutes. They’re following a similar path as me and @KoekjeMom in that they’re doing a fast wedding for some insurance and legal benefits and will have a “proper” ceremony later. Of course, there was some talk about a 4-way wedding, but that would be awkward, so prolly won’t be happening.

Altho the cake made for that event would seriously rock.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s about it for now. I know this is a somewhat rambling update, but I do so like to keep up a decent frequency on my writing. Check back Thursday for a better post.

Be good!

Hey folks.

So that whole “I’m gonna stop blogging here” thing was a bad idea. Well, I’m sure it’ll happen eventually, but not for some time. At the moment, I need to bust my monkey butt on Deviant Advice. So, for now, you’re free to follow my shenanigans here. Easy-peasy.

So what’s up? Well, let’s recap:

• I got married.
• I’m still writing horrendous advice for OurPDX
• I’m obviously writing for Deviant Advice
• In fact, I added a new writer and he’s planning a debut piece tomorrow
• I picked up what could be an AWESOME side gig doing some web work for someone and, frankly, I’m lovin’ it

Pretty damn big list and, honestly, it makes me giddy to sit back and look at it. I’ve also begun to really look at my writing and the fact that it needs to be diversified. As a result, I’ve hooked up with Pro Blogger’s 31 Days to Build A Better Blog program. I do plan a post about it later on and how I feel about it so far. The program itself is on day 9 I believe, but I’m only on day 6. I think I’m going to try and play leap-frog here in a bit and get caught up with the group.

So what elseis going on? Well, work is still there and, unfortunately, it appears I’ll be there for quite some time, at least until my writing can take off and earn me a decent living. Please note, “decent living” includes benefits AND a healthy 401k match, so if you’re reading this and thinking “you know. I should hire this man.” Just putting that out there.

As I write this, me and @KoekjeMom are getting ready for Brother J’s 10th birthday tomorrow. It throws her that he’s going to be 10 tomorow. I, however, am taking it all in stride. I’m pretty sure that it’s the fact that he’s, you know, her biological son so there has to be a bit of a stronger connection there than what I have with him. I’m sure when me and @KoekjeMom have The Daughter, I’ll probably view things differently. Or perhaps not. I do understand that 10 is significant, it’s double-digits and all, but I reserve my excitement for much more significant ages like 13, 16, 18, and 21 (hell, wrote a column about that last one). But we’ll see.

And I think that brings us up to speed doesn’t it? Well, there’s more stuff to talk about (there’s always more to talk about, really). I promise a pretty good-sized post about my weddin’ n such, not to mention some ideas I’m having about helping out The Gentlemen with their first blogs since I think that it would be pretty cool.