I wasn't going to write this post. I said to myself, 'Self, you've written enough about this work thing. Everything isn't all about you. People are sick of you moaning about work. Move on." But then I realized that one of my selves was a moron, because what is my blog about if not me? For reasons that I still don't understand, a lot of you are interested in what goes on in the life of a fairly average guy who is teetering on middle age. I realized that I couldn't get away with a throwaway line at [...]
Well, A Free Man is going to have a little more free time available (I'll get to that post soon, I promise). One of the things I'd like to do with that free time is to get back to more frequent music blogging. So, let's get started with that, shall we? A Free Man favorite Wilco has released an internet only cover of Woody Guthrie's "The Jolly Banker". The band are asking for a minimum $2 donation with proceeds going to the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives . Download it here [...]
Reason #7,184 I love being a father: A caboose in my lunch bag. A tiny red wooden reminder of a little boy who just lights up my days. It was probably just the random dispersal of toys that makes our house a fairly constant mine field for those brave enough to venture barefoot but I'm choosing to think that it was intentional gift to brighten my day. And what a perfect day for it.* Dr.O'C may have a differing opinion, but for me this pregnancy is slipping by much more quickly than the first [...]
She never had an overwhelming desire to be a mother - I was the one that pushed kids - but she's turned out to be a great one. Patient where I fly off the handle, vigilant where I'm distracted, quietly confident where I'm shrilly anxious. In short, longed for or not, she is everything Boy Z (and Number 2) could need in a Mum and more. Happy Mother's Day, Dr. O'C! And Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, my Grandmother and to mothers from the USA to Australia, from Anguilla to Zimbabwe. But [...]
As a general rule, I try to avoid getting sucked into comment stream dramas - mostly because I have better things to do with life. In most cases, I don't even go back to a post after I've left a comment, just in case I've inadvertantly started something. I should stick with that rule. Dr. O'C is fully responsible for this one. Be forewarned - I've got no music no, cute pictures for this one - just a pretty heated rant. If you're looking for shiny and happy on this Friday it may be best to [...]
Jud asks, appropriately, "what happened to the cheery Chris?" Well, Jud, I've got a job that I hate but can't quit. In my second job, I'm spending my weekends busting my ass to get lectures done that my undergraduates yawn through. I've got a sick kid and sick partner and have been cleaning up far too much effluvia this week. I've got an ache in my back and I'm starting to feel a bit under the weather myself. While working on my latest lecture about inherited diseases, I'm discovered that I almost definitely have one of them. [...]
For those of you keeping track at home, I've been about six weeks without a cigarette during this latest quit attempt. Instead of smoking, I've developed the cross-addiction of obsessively reading the latest medical research about all the different ways in which smoking will kill you. This gives me a sense of relief that can, in a pinch, keep the cravings at bay. And smugness. Smugness gives you a good buzz. One of these recent studies caught my eye last week. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, writing in Cancer Research , described [...]
I decided not to quit. Yet. I'm writing this at work (screw 'em), and there are still a couple of hours before I leave for the day, so things could change yet. Basically if the upper management leave me alone today - let me listen to Coltrane and get on with my work - I'll make it through another day. If a single one of them comes down stairs and says a word to me, I'll probably walk out. I figured out how much money I make a minute (50 cents) and [...]
Since we're all friends around here - unless you've been culled, in which case go away - I'm going to ask you, my gentle readers, for some advice. Many of you know that I work two jobs. Nearly a year ago, a couple of months after our arrival in Australia, I took a part time job as a scientific writer for a company that is loosely a part of the pharmaceutical industry. Shortly thereafter, I was offered a short-term lectureship at a local university. I figured I could do a job and a half for a little while [...]
There are lots of things about being a father that hurt my heart. Not the least is watching Boy Z try to navigate the Scylla and Charybdis that are human social interactions. I know he's only 19 months old and at this age, he isn't really going to establish meaningful relationships with his peers. In fact, as a friend put it over the weekend, at this age they're like particles - bouncing around happily doing their own thing. Every now and again, by chance, they'll collide with another particle. That collision can be accidentally cooperative or accidentally explosive, [...]
If you could soup up a DeLorean and travel back to 1989 to ask 17 year-old not so Free Man where he would be living in twenty years, he would have probably told you Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans. One of those old genteel port cities of the South, slowly crumbling into the sea. One of my many problems as a 17 year old was that I spent far too much time in my own head - a place of fantasy and a hyperactive imagination. As a 17 year old boy from the suburbs, the reality of those cities would [...]
Day 3 of 'Voluntary' Underemployment -Number of cigarettes smoked: Incredibly, still zero. -Number of Panadol taken in the vain effort to stop the pounding in my head: 17 -Hours spent wondering just what the hell I am doing: Oh, thousands. And I was at work for half the day. I made the mistake, however, of taking Boy Z down to what I can best describe as the third circle of hell - Westfield Marion Shopping Cente r. I learned two things in hell. One, after two weeks of school [...]
Day 1 of voluntary underemployment. Number of cigarettes smoked: Remarkably, zero. Number of times threatening son with bodily harm: Seventy hundred General mental state: Huh? I know I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again - you ladies (and gentlemen, pardon me) who spend more time at home with kids than at work have got my respect. I don't know how you do it and maintain anything resembling sanity or the capacity to form a cogent sentence. I only had half a [...]
I don't know much about global economics. Actually, I don't know much about much, to be honest. I know a little bit about the genetics of maize and the U.S. Civil War and 20th century Southern literature, but none of those things pay the rent these days. I'm off track already. Australia seems to have been relatively insulated against the economic tribulations that have been causing wailing and rending of garments in the U.S. and Europe. Things have seemed to tick along nicely here - certainly the housing market is robust enough to keep the prices high. Dammit. [...]
I've often been told that I have the face for radio. In fact, during my first stab at college I was briefly employed as a DJ in a Top 40 radio station in a neighboring town. Actually, I was employed for one whole day. I was hired to man the dials for the early morning shift on a Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, the Friday night before my first shift had been a pretty heavy one - a big fraternity party - and I'm pretty sure I was still a bit drunk when I turned up for work. I got through the [...]
I had planned to continue with the politically charged posts today, based in part as a response to Damon 's comment from yesterday . But I've still no internet at home and upon my arrival at work discovered a steaming pile of crap that needed to be dealt with yesterday. So, it's a Moon Pie day - sweet and fluffy. It may surprise you to hear that I'm not really a man's man. I don't know how to fix a car or mend a whole in the drywall or build a chest of drawers [...]
I don't write much about politics these days - too stressful - but for those of you that are new around here, I'm a pretty liberal guy. In fact, I'm a committed socialist - and proud of it. One of the reasons that I can't imagine moving back to the States in the near future is that I don't fancy going into debt to pay hospital bills or college tuition. I'm firm in my belief that the State has an obligation to offer a helping hand to its citizens in times of need - I don't believe that any other [...]
It's starting to feel like Autumn in South Australia - a little bit cooler, shorter days, the occasional drop of moisture in the air - which means that we'll be doing less of this.... ...on Boy Z and Papa Party Days. But not to worry. We've been working on some indoor entertainment. A lot of you may not know this but, being the good father that I am, I've made Boy Z's troubled teenage years much easier for him. In a moment of parental [...]
"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein I am a dedicated carnivore. Vegetables are cute and all and make the plate look real pretty, but I see no need for them beyond decoration. Potatoes are a bit like Styrofoam packing peanuts – they serve as good filler. But the meat is the essence of any meal that graces A Free Man's table. In my opinion, Vegetarianism resides in the same neighborhood as other deviant beliefs like Republicanism and Fundamental Religiosity - I recognize that it [...]
Well, this week kind of got away from me. Add moving house and a continued lack of internet at home; multiply by the normal amount of day-to-day crap and what you get is one blog post a week apparently. The lack of home internet thing is the biggest factor, I tend to read and write after the dinner's made and the kid's in bed at night and without internet at home, I just don't have any good writing time. We had to wait months to get the net up and running when we first moved to Oz and it looks [...]
A Free Man
iamamiwhoami: kin - Teaser
Album Review: alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: Here
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
