Since I've picked up a few new readers the last few days, I feel like I should do something I've wanted to do for awhile: provide a very brief guide to the people I talk about most.

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OK, them's the basics. Any questions? Feel free to ask.

The rest of my journal may be found below. Scroll down to see it.

OK, this is a day late, but:

Happy birthday, michealblaise!!!

Yes, I have a 23-year-old stepson -- no one's more surprised than I am, I assure you. But in the nearly-a-year he's been here, he's embraced our family with both arms, and the rest of our 22 arms have embraced him right back.

Right now a party is going on for Justin in the main house, so I'm out in the sewing room tonight. I thought it best. I don't want to be the crotchety old guy upstairs, yelling down at the revelers below: "QUIET DOWN, YOU CRAZY KIDS." In here, on the other hand, it's nice and quiet -- and heated beyond belief.

Besides, I'll get to see them all when I wake up at 3 in the morning. I'm sure the party won't have wound down by then.

I did also get to see K and the kids -- I didn't think I was going to today. They were in the city, seeing K's aunt Marcia's show, "U.S.S. Pinafore." (Yes, Gilbert and Sullivan crossed with Star Trek.) I assumed they'd be home later than I'd be awake, but happily they got home on the early side.

Since they weren't going to be home, and the Mortons were at an SCA event -- Hundred Minutes War, the event Kt is running in New Jersey -- I took my sweet time getting home. I actually stopped at Palisades Center for awhile, just walking around. I got myself dinner, since I didn't think the food would be ready by the time I went to sleep. As it turned out, it was, but hey.

Now I'm headed to sleep, in a sleeping bag on an air mattress, with the Dalek (my mini-CPAP) for company. Till tomorrow, y'all.

Any minute now I will clean the bathroom.

Any minute now I will clean the bathroom.

Any minute now I will get off my lazy ass and clean the goddamn bathroom.

nounsandverbs's Guide to Working a Bizarre Schedule

1. Resign yourself to the fact that there will probably be a couple nights a week you just won't get enough sleep. Accept that and don't get frustrated about it. Just focus on how you'll get through the day.

2. If you are lucky enough to have a weird schedule that is at least the same from week to week, settle into a routine. On X night, you go to sleep at Y time, and you don't deviate from that pattern. Your body will adapt.

3. If you must take a sleep aid, make it a natural one. Melatonin works. Diphenhydramine -- the active ingredient in most over-the-counter sleep aids (and Benadryl) -- makes me feel like I've been run over by a truck in the morning.

4. Use caffeine in moderation. Guzzling coffee like it's going out of style will take a serious toll on both your physical and mental health -- and after awhile it won't even wake you up. Green tea is better. (It should go without saying that more extreme methods of keeping yourself awake, such as amphetamines, are a very bad idea.)

5. If you suspect you may have any kind of sleep disorder -- such as the one I have -- get it diagnosed and treated immediately. You've got enough problems without adding that one.

6. When you arrive at work, smile. Act like you're happy to be there, even if you're not. That attitude is contagious and will make for a much more pleasant work day.

7. You will be tired often. This is not an excuse for anything. Don't give yourself permission to be a cranky bastard to your family and co-workers, or to fuck up on the job, just because you're tired. This requires control. Control takes practice. Fortunately you'll have lots of that.

(7a. This should go without saying, but don't get behind the wheel of a car if you're too tired. Take a 20-minute nap first.)

8. On your days off, sleep late if you can -- but not too late. For one thing, if you sleep through the better part of a day, you'll feel like a lazy schmuck. Plus, your body wants to go back to a normal diurnal schedule. Let it. Get up while it's still morning and go to sleep at night.

9. You'll find it difficult to exercise on a weird schedule, but exercise as regularly as you can. (This is one in which you should do as I say, not as I do.)

10. Focus on the things that are good about your weird schedule. Mine, for example, allows me more time with my kids than a traditional schedule would, particularly given the length of my commute. There are plenty of negative things about it, and you'll spend your share of time wallowing in them, but accentuate the positive as much as you can.

What can I say? I'm in a music-posting mood lately. Can I start with the New Pornographers? Those of you who play Rock Band may know their song "Electric Version." And I did indeed search for that song on YouTube and got lots of Rock Band screenshots. I can't bring myself to post that shit. So instead I'll give you the next song on the album:



And I love the Pogues. I love the Pogues because you think you're listening to more-or-less traditional Irish music -- and then you listen more closely to the lyrics and you realize it's actually punk rock played on Irish instruments.



... but then Cait O'Riordan sings a song like this, and it's so beautiful you just fall in love with her, and then you realize she was dating Elvis Costello when this album was made and there's no way you could ever compete with a genius like that. So you just listen to the song as a consolation prize:

In our house, we have bookshelves lining the upstairs hallway ... bookshelves lining the wall in the dining room ... bookshelves on all 4 walls of my room ... bookshelves in the kids' rooms ... and the rule is, anything they can take off the shelves, they can read. Anything. They're welcome to ask us any questions about anything they read, but we censor nothing.

Now, there are certain books about which we've said, "This may not be of interest to you until you're older." But if they wanted to read them anyway, I don't think we'd stop them. It hasn't come up. But we opt for more freedom rather than less when it comes to books.

So given all this, it's no surprise that I think no books should be banned from high school libraries. My librarian friends can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this, but in a school library you're looking for things with some recognized literary or scholarly merit. As long as those criteria are satisfied, I think subject matter should not enter into the equation.

I also think, however, that school should be a place where students and teachers can have frank and reasonable discussions about what they read, to help them process information that may be unfamiliar to them. In my house, I know that this is done. In school, I have to trust the teachers and administration. My trust has not always been validated.

In any case, I find that subject matter that's age-inappropriate (for lack of a better term) generally goes right over the child's head. They can't really process it, so they just let it go. As they grow, that information starts to register, and then they ask questions, and as a parent you deal with it.

The worst thing you can do, as a parent or an educator, is to be afraid of this process. That's where the urge to ban books comes from: from fear. But as a parent, you can't be afraid of your kids being kids. And what is it that kids do, every second of every day from the day they're born? They grow up, that's what.

Part of that process is being curious about the adult world. And that's healthy. Kids know better than anyone else that they'll have to enter that world someday. The prospect scares them, excites them, fascinates them. As a parent, sometimes you find yourself in the role of gatekeeper -- having to say, "This you can do right now, this you must wait for." And that is the essential interplay between kids and parents: they want to fling wide the gates of freedom all at once; you want to keep them in the realm of childhood as long as you can. Your job is to open those gates in a controlled fashion, but a steady one. They can't stay kids forever. Their job is to grow up, and your job is to let them.

Books are one way they will learn what kind of adults they want to be -- and, more importantly, what kind of adults they do not want to be. And hey, better they should acquire that knowledge while laying on their bed, nose in a book -- at least then, you know where they are.

This has been an absolutely lovely day so far. Really has.

If I ever again go six months without a walk in the woods, kick me and make me go. I feel more relaxed and peaceful than I have in a long time. Where we live is so beautiful. I don't get out in it nearly enough.

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

It was a fairly busy and annoying "Friday" -- but Jellyfish makes it all better. Yes, have some!

Apparently Jack's class is singing "Thriller" in chorus.

That makes me feel old. BUT IT'S STILL AWESOME.

ETA: And this, from Kt's journal, is even more awesome.

The netbook I'm posting this on is a Linux machine. Using a Linux machine is kind of like going to McDonald's in France. The food looks vaguely familiar, but a Quarter-Pounder With Cheese is called a Royale With Cheese.

Surfing the web on a BlackBerry is kind of like playing with Fisher-Price My First Internet. Everything's very small and scaled-down for little hands.

Oh, well. I'm sure the iPod Touch has an app where you can wave it at the Linux netbook and the BlackBerry and turn them magically into Macs.

And I leave you tonight with this song by Firewater. Dance, mofos!

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Note to self: make some time to go out with a camera -- which the Millstone conveniently has! -- and try on some glasses. Make it a point to try on some gold frames and half-rims -- because the site I'm looking on does not have my current style of glasses with a magnetic sunshade, which I DO want.

This concludes this Entry Of Interest To No One But Me. Have a nice day.

I love when the Captain attacks my feet.

Not much to say today. Just can't get over the ability to post from Ajanti whilst getting an oil change. So clever, these folks from Cupertino.

Yup, more car maintenance today. Hopefully this'll be the last of it for awhile. Then bills and filing and finances -- a few more nagging backlogged things off the agenda.

When am I getting back in the gym? That is a question. But one thing at a time.

Tonight I made the tenderloin my MIL got us for our anniversary. I'd never made a whole tenderloin before, so I looked up some recipes. Some said marinade it for 8 hours. Some said high heat. Some said low heat. In the end I chose to just rub the whole thing with salt, pepper and garlic powder -- tons of it. (Tenderloin is tender but nearly flavorless.) Then I grilled half of it on low heat for a long time for those who like it more well-done, and the other half I seared on high heat for a shorter time for those of us who follow the path of rareness.

Then Kt and I went to an SCA meeting, so I didn't get to taste the resulting filet mignon until now.

DAMN, is it good. K made bacon mashed potatoes with it. My arteries are crying, "Oh, God, why?" But who needs arteries when you have food like this? We had no red wine to go with it, so Jameson's it is.

Now I feel incredibly full and decadent. So worth it.

Are you kidding me? I gotta agree with divalion on this one: I'd choose seppuku.

The closest thing I have to an answer is to list some CDs I've already listened to enough to know every note on them. "Abbey Road," of course. XTC's "Skylarking." A few others. But if I could only listen to one CD for the rest of my life, I'd grab a guitar and a microphone and make some new ones.

Reading this post by theferrett hit fairly close to home. I'm quite the fan of New Relationship Energy myself, in the broadest possible sense of the word "relationship" -- I like getting to know people. So, to a large extent, this journal (you have been warned) is a baited hook I leave in the water at all times, waiting to see who I attract -- not in a creepy way, in a genuinely-interested way, but there you have it.

Still -- how could I do otherwise? This LJ has brought me a lot of the good things in my life -- my current family structure, for one. It's brought me unforgettable people and relationships -- and yes, pain too, but that's all part of it, and I wouldn't trade any of it. Not a thing.

If wishes were fishes, I'm the Gorton's factory. How could I not keep that line cast?

New headlamp is on the van. And now both cars need oil changes. Next time I go to my mechanic's, I'm bringing a tent and a sleeping bag.