“I’m just jazzed about being on the show, man.”

My father wasn’t feeling well last night or this morning — a stomach bug that seems to have only hit him and the dog, both equally, although both are now very much on the mend. So I spent the morning running a few errands for him, picking up dry-cleaning, buying a few groceries, that sort of thing.

Then I sat down for lunch, and wound up watching Galaxy Quest for the I-don’t-know-how-many-th time. Hey, it was on cable, and I wandered in near the very beginning.

After that, it was editing stories for the Fall issue of Kaleidotrope. One of the great pleasures of editing is re-discovering why you accepted a story in the first place. I’ve liked all the issues I’ve put out — three online, free of charge, if you’d like to read them — but I think October’s may be one of the strongest and oddest yet.

And then tonight I watched Shane. I was worried it would be too dated and a little silly, but it was quite good. Not everything about it works — it is a little dated — but it’s deservedly a classic Western.

Random 10 9-7-12

Last week. This week:

  1. “Paperback Writer” by the Beatles, guessed by Kim
    It’s based on a novel by a man named Lear

  2. “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield, guessed by Kim
    I’ll play along with the charade
  3. “Just Like a Woman” by Bob Dylan, guessed by Occupant
    Please don’t let on that you knew me when
  4. “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye
    You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
  5. “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Kate Gibson (orig. Leonard Cohen), guessed by Betty
    Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
  6. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Emm Gryner (orig. Def Leppard), guessed by Kim
    Easy operator come a’knockin’ on my door
  7. “Listen to Her Heart” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, guessed by Kim
    You keep thinking that her mind is gonna change
  8. “Five Feet High and Rising” by Johnny Cash
    We can make it to the road in a homemade boat
  9. “Cutt Off” by Kasabian
    John was a scientist, he was hooked on LSD
  10. “Pads, Paws and Claws” by Elvis Costello
    She could be in pictures if she wasn’t all covered in fur

Good luck!

Mad skills

I needn’t have worried about today’s skills training session running too long, keeping me away from doing my work or keeping me at the office beyond when I would normally leave. It ended around three o’clock…and I didn’t go.

I really did have a lot of work to get done. My presentation skills may suffer for the lack of training, and I had to buy my own lunch, but so be it.