Point Proven

It's no secret I don't have a ton of confidence in my ability to actually achieve things by myself, but I'm usually determined enough to successfully finish anything that I happen to start. This weekend I set forth to tackle my first car repair (besides brakes) entirely on my own, because I didn't want to bother anyone else with my incessant...

Something to Prove

Nine years ago I didn't know the first thing about repairing cars, but when you deliver papers for so long you pick a few things up. Trying to fix things as cheaply as possible means I've employed the help of my father-in-law as often as I can, and I've watched him every time. Of course, there's a big difference between watching and actually...

Cautiously Helpful

As I climbed down into the ditch to shovel away the snow packed up under my car so as to hopefully drive away without sliding further in, a man in a truck pulls into the driveway across the street and gets out. I assume he is the owner of the house I was delivering the paper to. "Hey. I'm kind of in a precarious situation here with your...

I Apologize for Filler

Doing this One A Day thing has left me completely without ideas sometimes. So, I just write some filler content and call it good. I'm not proud of it, but it gets the day done. I've had this personal blog for as long as I've had Cerebral Pop, and even longer than I've been writing for Bitmob, yet, it mostly sat unused. Something would happen...

Sue Me

I've starting trying to write my one a day article at about 6 pm. It is now almost 9:30 pm and I haven't written a thing. I might be out of ideas. I'll get back to you tomorr...

Wishing Winter Would End

After we finished cleaning up from the biggest snowstorm since the seventies, a solar flare gave us all a much needed break from dealing with the snow. Almost all of the snow melted away last week, and I got to enjoy driving down a road without worrying about sliding off of it. Sadly, on Sunday morning we were dealt a harsh reality; it isn't...

Having a Kid Made me a Sucker

*Spoilers for Benjamin Button, unless you took a minute to think logically about how that plot would logically end.* As we sat and watched the end of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and that little baby closed it's eyes for the last time, my eyes welled up. It wasn't even the quality of the movie, I just immediately thought of my daughter...

Present Bias

On a past SModcast, Kevin Smith talked at length about people having a "present bias." They would assign so many tasks to the future, but once the future came they'd slack off. It's the classic "I'll start my diet tomorrow" issue that almost everyone has found themselves in. This is my problem every single day. The bad part about delivering...

This One A Day Thing is Hard

When deciding that I would write one post a day on my personal blog for the entirety of 2011, I knew it'd be hard. I wanted a sort of snapshot of a year in my life. A catalog of what it was like raising Emmy, frustrations, triumphs, and all. Of course, in order to have something to write about every single day, something somewhat significant...

On the Detroit RoboCop Statue

It is now official; Detroit is getting a statue of RoboCop. Of course, the fact that a ragtag band of Internet jokesters have managed to succeed in their somewhat ridiculous goal has angered many people. Of course that 50,000 dollars could be used for something much better, but you don't have to all of a sudden come to that realization...

Ruining a Life (For the Children!)

She's just begging to have her innocence exploited. Local news sources are buzzing about the case of Evan Emory and his "disturbing" YouTube video. The 21-year old musician asked a teacher if he could play in front of her classroom of first graders and record it for his portfolio. He then replaced the audio with another one of his songs,...

Making My Own Future

I'm not good at looking for jobs. After numerous seemingly sure-fire positions fell through, I've gotten pretty discouraged. Sitting down to fill out applications seems almost pointless. In fact, according to NPR it probably is because some 70% of jobs out there are never listed, you just have to ask around and get in from people you know....

Love

When my friend called me, it was a Friday night, sometime around 7pm, and I had fallen asleep watching TV on the couch. Suffice it to say I didn't lead a very exciting life back in high school, and I still don't. But that night I met up with my friend, a girl he was friends with, and her friend; my future wife. She was my first girlfriend,...

Bath Time

Bath time has always been my duty, and despite the some annoyances I enjoy it. Mostly it involves filling the tub, dumping the toys out and then letting Emmy play for at least an hour while I sit on the toilet (not using it) and get some writing done. After awhile I quick wash her hair and body and get her out, though, I still have to almost...

Away

I spent almost the entire day off of the Internet and without Twitter on. That was weird, huh? I mostly worked on a car. Like, I was manly or something. Don't worry, I don't get it either. I'm just gonna go to sleep n...

Becoming a Polar Bear

As a result of my broken-down car, I've been forced to drive my wife's seldom used vehicle for what will likely be several weeks. Fortunately, GM is paying to replace my transmission, but that sort of thing means they're going through the entire process with a fine-toothed comb. They don't just yank it out and put in a new one, they take...

Pooping

I enjoy sitting down to take a load off just as much as any other man, but I might go overboard sometimes. Often, I sit on the toilet until my legs fall asleep, reading a magazine, playing a handheld game, or surfing the Internet. When I got my laptop, there was a good month where I refused to have it cross the line into the bathroom with...

Piling IOUs

Sometimes, even though a lot of things are happening, you don't always feel like sitting down to write about them all. Every day is a slew of new tasks to get a car running, or to get it properly covered by insurance, or to find the appropriate paperwork so that the car company will pay for the repair of one. It's not exactly fun or exciting....

Not Enough Time

I barely have enough time to do my online duties these days what with all the car stuff going on, so this is going to be extremely short and completely random. Emmy opened her little mini-trampoline tonight. She seems to like it alright. Um, I'm just going to go to bed and regroup in the morning. I'm sorry you had to read th...

It Was the Transmission

You know when you get really bad news, and you have that sick feeling? I've become accustomed to that feeling when it comes to money. After only one year of having to fight to get the dealership to replace a transmission that only lasted me a couple months, I have to do it again. If they choose to ignore me this time, I guess I owe almost...

SuperBowl Snacking

My favorite part of the SuperBowl is gorging on a bunch of food that I really shouldn't be stuffing down my throat when I'm already so pudgy. Either way, a plate full of buffalo wings, mini tacos covered in Frank's Red Hot, mozzarella sticks, pizza rolls, and chips sits before me, and I feast. This year, something made me feel a little...

The Handheld Wars: Which to Choose?

It used to be I never played handheld games. Nowadays it's much easier for me to play a handheld game than it is a console game, given my work schedule, the child, and everything else I've elected to do with my free time. It's so much easier to be able to play a game on the couch, on the can, or while walking out to the kitchen to make sure...

Interview with Emmy

As I was sitting here trying to think of what to write about, Emmy was pestering me to watch videos on YouTube of that talking dog, Mishka. So I thought I'd just ask her some questions and write down the results. Bonus questions from Twitter! What's your favorite color? I can't tell you. Why can't you tell me? Because. Because why? Because...

I'm Switching to Horses

Remember that $15 part that I hoped would fix the car problems that started the other day? It didn't. My car is now playing games with me. Sometimes it moves, sometimes it doesn't. Here's the thing, I've been trying my best to ignore the fact that it has the exact same symptoms it had almost exactly a year ago; when I needed a new transmission. One...

Determination is All I Have

Last night Michigan got hit with the worst blizzard it has seen since 1978. Right before that storm hit, my car crapped out in the middle of my paper route. It limped it's way all the way to my parent's house, and I took my mother's car off to finish papers. We barely finished in time to rush back to town and make the city council meeting...

Emmy Turns Three, Still No Baby

Today is Emerson's third birthday. Most people say something like "They grow up so fast!" at this point, but to me it seems like she's always been this age. Watching someone grow day by day leaves you unable to really see what big jumps they're making. When I look back at pictures of her when she'd just turned two, I'm amazed that she looks...