Michael Jandrok left us at 2:18 am on November 10, 2019, surrounded by his loved ones in Lockhart, Texas. I’ve only known him for about 6 years or so, but I can say that he left not just me, but the world, a better place. Last week, when I found out he was going into […]
Today marks 120 days sober and I don’t know how to do anything anymore. Being the only person in a group who doesn’t drink makes me feel like I’m Doing It Wrong no matter where we are or what we’re doing. In large part it’s because drinking is a very normalized adult activity, and that’s […]
One of my long-time friends recently wrote on this topic and after a few days of musing I thought I’d post something similar. I’ve decided to stop drinking. Period. Not just a Dry February, not just “holding off to lose weight,” but a Dry For The Rest Of My Life. I have a complicated relationship […]
YA Twitter is eating one of it’s own. Again. I missed this the first time it came around because I was dealing with the flu, but luckily YA Twitter is the gift that keeps on giving so I didn’t have to wait long before this topic came around again. Last time, an angry mob came […]
I started this as an entry in my written journal (yes, it’s true – I still write a journal by hand), but this topic is near and dear to my heart and I felt it was important enough to write it out on my blog. I read this thread on Reddit and it made me […]
I met Lee Billings sometime in 2001, in the Cranky Editors group on LiveJournal. Lee was well-spoken, intelligent, and assertive; she was also friendly and genuinely cared about her friends, and while optimistic she was also a realist. She knew what was possible and what it took to make things happen. She was also unashamed […]
A little over 18 years ago, I enlisted in the US Navy. After 3 years of ROTC in high school, I was ready to go into the Armed Forces and serve my country. I loved ROTC. I loved everything about it, from the PT (well, maybe – I was kinda fat and it wasn’t the […]
It’s now the day after election day and current Democratic losses seem kinda grim if you’re looking at Texas – we didn’t flip a senate seat, we didn’t get governor or lieutenant governor, and we didn’t flip the whole state blue. Last night my Facebook feed was pretty bleak, with people feeling defeated and ready […]
Checking in with social media recently, specifically Facebook and Twitter, has made me feel like maybe everything really IS terrible. Maybe we really are only 20 years away from the sudden and inevitable collapse of the environment. Maybe we’re on the cusp of an imminent thermonuclear war. Maybe Jesus has spurned us for the second […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about Aziz Ansari, and the undercurrent of social training that enables men (and sometimes women) to sail past social cues and into the territory of violating another person’s space, or their bodies. Emma Gray writes, “I believe that Ansari didn’t realize in the moment that he was ignoring Grace’s cues, […]