What seems like a very long time ago, my family took a vacation. Vacations were a near rarity in my family – by which I mean the kind of textbook, campy Americana vacation depicted in movies. We spent lots of time at the beach, and plenty of time just hanging […]
Life
490 posts
I am lame. We established that a while ago [TAOMPH243]. Every now and then, I punch my name, or my domain name, into Google and Yahoo to see what turns up. Most recently, I’ve been curious to see if the changeover from cooleysekula.net to cooleysekula.net had taken in the search […]
My dad is a chemistry teacher, and a chemist by training. Naturally, a son who wound up as a physicist (and a daughter who married a physicist) must be a great disappointment to such a proud man. I’m kidding, of course, except the part about my sister marrying a physicist. […]
This has been quite a set of seasons for me and Jodi. The whole thing started for us just before the summer, as we were getting ready for our variety of shifts and analyses. I popped off to Moscow, then we headed to Minnesota for my vacation and her shifts, […]
Yesterday, a number of us congregated in an office at SLAC and did some hard earned slacking off. One of the issues that came up was the egotistical masturbation called “blogging”. The statement was made, in effect, that everybody who blogs should be lined up and asked to get a […]
There’s a lot of great music out there. I’ve had the good fortune to be part of a few bands, on and off, in my life, exposing me to some pretty music-saavy folks. I am largely grateful for the exposure to all kinds of music this has given me, crossing […]
**Mettle to Meddle** *By Stephen Sekula* He stepped atop the atoll, was it four years to the day? A little dog set near the shore, a shore that tasted both the ebb and flow of time and waves He spoke of bird, of beak, of barnacle, collected by the shore, […]
Not so long ago, my father asked, “When *was* the last time it rained where you are?” The fact that it hasn’t rained a drop on the peninsula since about April doesn’t surprise me, but always surprises folks from other places. Well, today the long dry spell is broken – […]
I finally heard from Jodi this morning. It’s been eating at me for days, not hearing from her. I know it’s a reflection of my being spoiled with technology, but not talking to her for just three days has really taken its toll on me. Coupled with all the other […]
When I stay up late to work, I usually switch in NPR’s “Day to Day” program. It’s taped earlier in the day, but here on KQED airs late at night. They were reviewing listener letters concerning a piece criticizing extreme religions and also criticizing the behavior of self-labeled “moderate Christians” […]
I usually consider the boundaries of the seasons to be somewhat arbitrary. Winter is my favorite. Starting on December 22, winter comes long after all the feature I associate with it: bone-chilling cold, snow, lots of dead vegetation (or, in the case of California: cool, rain, flourishing vegetation). This year, […]
I stayed up pretty late last night, rearranging the stereo and TV equipment in our living room (I get the “move stuff around” bug whenever Jodi leaves) and watching CSI and “Firefly”. Consequently, I was still sleeping when Jodi rang me from Dublin at 08:30. She and her sister arrived […]