The Unchanging Whole

It would appear that one cannot both be content with one's lot in life and desire change at the same moment in time.

One is either content with one's lot, or one desires change, that's all there is to it.

Now the paradox. Not all change is for the better, and it is illogical for a person to want change for the worse.  

And contentment often leads to stagnation.

So what's a poor soul to do?

Best To Keep Some Things From The Public

Ray walked up behind the couple waiting for the next elevator going up and stood a self-imposed mandatory distance of eighteen inches from them, give or take a quarter inch or so. He had created the eighteen-inch rule when he was fifteen, and so far it had proven to be an adequate means of keeping himself apart from people in public without appearing to be a misanthrope.

The couple entered the elevator and the tall man in the blue polo shirt and khaki pants turned toward the bank of buttons on the left. Casting a glance over to Ray, who had turned to the right and stepped as far back into the car as he could when he entered the elevator, the tall man asked, "Floor?'

Clearing his throat, Ray replied "eleven" in a raspy, almost squeaky voice, which he immediately hated himself for.

As the elevator doors closed and the car began to rise, Ray pondered a few things that had been running through his head that morning;

"...the Kaczynski manifesto is nowhere near as crazy as the government makes it out to be...he might have been a kook, but he wasn't cuokoo...why in the hell are so many of the people buying bottled water belly aching about the environment? Have they no sense? Does anyone really have any sense? Is the human race really worth saving? There must be thousands of people who have gotten away with murder...I need some coffee, I hope Lena made some coffee this morning. That woman is wearing an ugly skirt...Geez this elevator is slow...)

Ding! The elevator came to a stop at the eleventh floor. Ray walked out and immediately turned to his left, walked exactly 23 steps to the first corridor that intersected with the corridor he was in, turned right and walked another 119 steps down the long hall until he reached his office. 

He could smell fresh coffee brewing from inside the office and smiled to himself - "that Lena," he thought, "is an angel. Too bad she can't figure out how to shower more than once a week."

He looked at the sign on the door as he pushed down on the handle, "Dr. Raymond Carson, Behavioral Psychologist" it read. 

Ray chuckled to himself as he walked in, thinking, "Right, if they only knew..."

The Temporary Beauty Of Chalk Art After A Light Drizzle

                         Chalk Art Drawing, My Driveway, approx 48" X 55", One Of The Neighborhood Kids

What's Biting?

Advice For The Well-Worn

So I was at the gym this morning...yes, the gym, that place where people pay to lift heavy things repeatedly and sweat profusely in public.

Being at the gym in the morning is not unusual for me...well, it didn't used to be...kinda has been for awhile, though.

Just got too busy, too much work, you know how it goes.

To get to the point, while at the gym this morning and while using the stationary aerobic exercise device of my choosing I was reading an article in a fitness-orientated magazine about exercising when one is over the age of fifty.

It was all about being careful, with the usual instructions for proper stretching, using proper technique, cooling down, etc.

And it mentioned the importance of seeing a Doctor before starting an exercise program.

All I could think when I read that part was, "Dude, why do you think I'm at this gym? I saw a Doctor, he took one look at my fat ass and he said, Man, you have to get back to the gym."

I mean, "Duh".

Don't Look Too Closely

He was up until the wee hours of the morning again, thinking about everything that had gone wrong, and why everything had gone wrong.

When he had first met her he wasn't exactly smitten but he had been drawn to her by various aspects of her personality that, for lack of a better descriptive, were quirky,

The bold way she snuck visual sexual innuendos onto her desk at work, the ridiculous way she kept her hair, the fact that she rarely wore underwear, and even her crooked smile.

But all the attraction those things had for him had begun to fade.

What he hated most, however, was how she had grown tired of him, how everything she once found exciting about him now began to bore her, and how she had begun to be repulsed by what she initially thought was oddly attractive.

Lately he felt as if he had been put under a microscope, which was a feeling aggravated by the fact that it distracted him from all the closer scrutiny he had been placing her under.

None of which answered all the "why" questions he had but he was certain it was a big part of it.

Denver Pop Culture Con 2019

It's June, and that means it's time for the 2019 Denver Comic Con! Whoops! My bad! The gathering that was formerly known as the Denver Comic Con has changed it's name to the Denver Pop Culture Con, for a few reasons - the primary impetus being that the people running the show at the San Diego Comic Con have started to sue other organizations for encroaching on the words "Comic Con", to which the San Diego Comic Con owns the copywrite to.

Anywhatzit, the name Denver Pop Culture Con is actually much more encompassing and reflective of what the con is all about - the SDCC would probably be well-suited to start using Pop Culture Con themselves.

JR, MJM, and I made our way down to the Denver Convention Center yesterday. There we joined thousands of fans of pop culture and related sub-cultures. 

And of course, I took a few pictures.