A Life For Itself

Blog

  • Lights and Horns – 31 March 2021

    Today’s Inspiration:

    Another really good meditation and journaling session this morning.  

    Today’s joy:

    Homemade cheeseburgers and quality train content on YouTube.

    A past joy:

    I keep seeing these videos up of people at arcades.  I’m thinking of being back at arcades on the Jersey Shore.  Ones that aren’t excessively dark with a ton of LCD lights in the games.  Ones without a zillion games that you need a card to play.  I really like those ones with the old video poker machines that used to be inside of casinos.  Ones with Skee-Ball machines that I used to also see back in the 80’s.  With prizes inside of glass doored cabinets lining the entire building.  That’s my kind of arcade, though, I will show up at the more “modern” kind since they’re closer to where I live.

     

  • Silence and a Submission – 30 March 2021

    Today’s Inspiration:

    A good meditation session this morning.  Got into a really good frame of mind, first thing.

    Today’s joy:

    Planning a new submission.  Listening and singing along to this.

    A past joy:

    Getting early dismissal from school because of Orioles opening day, down the street at Memorial Stadium.

     

  • Heartbeats, Municipal and Otherwise – 29 March 2021

    Today’s Inspiration:

    Listening to a group on Clubhouse where Robert Townsend and others involved in the movie The Five Heartbeats gave an oral history of it.

    Today’s joy:

    Meeting with my creativity circle.  Talking about the joys and the challenges we’re facing.  It felt good to get some things off of my chest with others who are actively working and doing their thing, too.

    A past joy:

    This morning, I saw that the Ravens were treating today, March 29, as the organization’s birthday, it’s 25th birthday.  On March 29, 1996, Art Modell announced, at the Inner Harbor, that the team that had just come from Cleveland, would be known, after a local poll, as the Baltimore Ravens.  I’m pretty sure this date was chosen for reasons other than the pieces being in place, as the date had also (and still does) carried more of a negative connotation among local football fans.  So, that was probably the organization intentionally adding something more positive to the local football history, specifically overwriting that day as the city’s sports history restarted in some ways.

     

  • Old Cookies – 28 March 2021

    Today’s Inspiration:

    all trauma and healing is storytelling

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    Reminiscing on Old Baltimore.  In my Twitter profile, that’s where I say I’m from.  For me, that’s 1980’s-1990’s Baltimore.  A lot similar to now.  Still, quite a bit different. 

    A past joy:

    Going to Mondawmin to The Great Cookie, when I was really young.  Even now, when I walk into Mondawmin, I smell cookies from the Great Cookie.  I always had to get a cookie from there when I was little, usually chocolate chip.   Snickerdoodles are their thing, but I didn’t really care for snickerdoodles until I got much older.  

     

  • Breathing Room – 27 March 2021

    Today’s inspiration:

    breathing room

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    I cleaned and rearranged my desk. It needed it and I ended up enjoying what I did. Freed up some space. I haven’t been writing at my desk with a notebook for a while and now, I’ll be able to when I want to. Admittedly, I feel comfortable on the sofa, still, using my lapdesk. But we’ll see.

    A past joy:

    I really like looking at the Inner Harbor cam on Earthcam. I wish they had another cam or two there like they do Times Square. We might get a couple of storms through here tomorrow and if so, I bet they’ll look good on the camera.

  • the summer day and the tv show – 26 march 2021

    Today’s inspiration:

    don't die. disappear for a while - austin kleon

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” episode 2 was really good.  I’m glad they made the choice to wrap up the state of the world as it exists after “The Blip” into the main conflict, whatever that is unfolding to be.  Plus, I got some reading done.  Plus it had a good, summer feel around here today.

    A past joy:

    I really enjoyed talking theatre last Friday evening.  I didn’t get to join the room if it took place this evening, but I had fun the week before.

     

  • the water makes it good – 25 march 2021

    Today’s inspiration:

    rev lola - the love of the work

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    Eating homemade pizza.  Watching more driving videos on YouTube, especially the one where the person driving was crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the contraflow lane on the newer, 3-lane bridge.  It’s a very strange perspective, given that you’re travelling eastbound and yet, watching eastbound traffic on the other bridge.  And it feels like you’re supposed to be over there, not in a single lane on the other bridge, with no separation between you and traffic moving in the other direction.

    A past joy:

    Jersey pizza.  It’s the best.

     

  • Writing at the Waterfront – 24 March 2021

    Today’s inspiration:

    gentle writing advice from chuck wending - 9 february 2021

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    Reading poems.  Reading maps.  Watching some storm chasing.

    A past joy:

    A bunch of times, I’d take my notebooks with me and sit outside of the Maryland Science Center and write for hours.  Take some food with me down there, eat, and get busy.  That one, I need to do again.

     

  • On the B Side – 23 March 2021

    Today’s inspiration:

    do not apologize for vulnerability

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    Watched today’s O’s game.  It’s just Spring Training, but it is baseball.  And started a poem.  One I don’t ever really intend  to share and I think I needed the intention not to share to really feel good about starting it.  And listened to 70’s R&B and Soul.

    A past joy:

    Hanging with my big cousin on Saturdays, listening to this on vinyl (“Rappers Delight” was on the A side, this was on the B side):

     

     

  • On Board with Books – 22 March 2021

    Today’s inspiration:

    boundaries

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s joy:

    Indulging myself on some videos about construction for Brightline and its line to Orlando.  They’re box jacking a tunnel into place under Route 1 in one of the videos, which was tweeted out by Brightline themselves.  A YouTuber has their own video up about the same process.

    A past joy:

    Going to the library.  I should do a list of my favorite libraries one of these days.  One of these days, I need to go the Pratt Library main branch again.