me

i have a terrible memory for names, dates, events…. this, sadly, includes important birthdays and anniversaries. thankfully in this age of smartphones and facebook, i’m pretty well covered.

and so it is today. scanning my facebook thread while walking from the parking lot to my office this morning, i was reminded that nine years ago today one of my old high school friends married a wonderful woman who is absolutely perfect for him.

i traveled to my place of my childhood to attend the wedding, bachelor party, and other gatherings. plus spend quality time with so many friends i don’t see nearly enough.

matching their style, the wedding and the reception and fun that followed was a well-tuned balance of elegant and goofy fun.

i had dinner with danny and lindsey and their two adorable daughters this past august while on my extended post-convention vacation.

i can’t believe it’s already been nine years. but so it goes.

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apologies for today’s late-afternoon post. while brainstorming topics for this post earlier, i kept getting side-tracked.

with a lack of anything better, i thought i’d share what i’ve been doing today: collecting and reading various news articles and reports on the benefits of increasing the minimum wage. so far, i’ve identified and begun to read through about 200 pages of studies and policy briefs.

by the time i decide to draw the line on resource collection, there’s no telling how many hundreds, or even thousands, of pages i will have identified as necessary reading.

more details on this effort as we get closer to opening day….

my problem with all this reading, though i find it interesting and useful, is that my brain has an annoying habit of getting drowsy whenever i try to sit and read. anything.

i’ve poked around online looking for solutions, but the only useful information, advice, i’ve found is not to read in bed. the idea being to disassociate reading from bedtime. it makes sense and has helped a bit, i still find i can’t sit and for any stretch without dozing off.

with so many pages to read on the minimum wage, not to mention a potential graduate school course load not too far off, i’m wondering if anyone else has this experience. if so, what if any steps have you taken to address this annoying, seemingly uncontrollable habit?

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no music monday video today…. i’ve been in a bit of a funk the last few days and couldn’t bring myself to sit and do a video this weekend.

still, i think this picture will more than make up for it.


this was not a halloween costume. in 2000 (i think) i went to oberlin’s famous drag ball. i have pictures of other friends who attended (and dressed in drag), but thought best not to embarrass them without prior permission.

the dress, hat, necklace, and clip-on earrings were acquired at a make-shift thrift store on oberlin’s campus just for the occasion. unlike others in our group, i refused to don make-up or shave anyplace that i didn’t normally shave.

i may still have the dress… somewhere, but seriously doubt the thing still fits.

anyway, happy halloween!

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digging through stacks of photographs my mother sent me, i came across a handful of printed black and white photos i had taken and printed, myself, in high school.

i loved photography. my very first camera was a canon ae-1 and i carried it everywhere with me the last couple years of high school. that’s the only time i’ve had pretty much unfettered access to a dark room.

the darkroom at shawnee mission south was one of my favorite places and i spent countless hours there.

in these days of lightroom, photoshop, and cameras built in to our smartphones, film photography is all but dead. for a time, i refused to give up my film cameras as a protest to a transforming art form. i got over it.


taken during an excursion to downtown kansas city in high school. while no big deal now, it felt exciting when i was 17.


taken in the open lawn behind shawnee mission south high school. this is becky, who was helping me with some random shots (rotary phone outside). at the time i thought it was a cool idea.

now i mostly just like it as a nice portrait of her.


for a long time, this staged photo (that’s me) was one of my favorite works. i still like it, but like the one of becky and the phone i wonder now why i thought it was such a great concept. that’s high school for you, i guess.

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