nostalgia

Chrysalis

June 18, 2016June 18, 2016 Chief Oddball

Halfway through 2016, I've finally decided what this year represents for me: transition. But not just one. Indeed; the first few months could be looked back upon as nothing other than a transition to hell, a waking nightmare that I always feared -- or even knew with certainty -- would one day come true. Since hitting that rock bottom, I've found a new transition underway: a transition to a new phase of life, a new and hopefully healthier outlook. But God has it been a hard road getting here.

The Lift Factor

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 Chief Oddball

Lately, my son Connor likes to spend bedtime with me playing "the elevator game". It started one day when I slid a stuffed animal up and down the side of his crib while making elevator noises. Now it's morphed into a full-blown soap opera, where each night we visit One Harvie Plaza, the posh corporate convention center and apartment tower that's filled with elevators.

The Big Save

June 30, 2012June 30, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

There have been an unusual number of changes around here lately. Some of them even affect situations that have remained static for so long that I’d begun to doubt their ability to change at all. They’ve all brought with them a scent of opportunity on the wind, a feeling that now is the time to be bold and to make a grab for something that always seemed just out of reach.

Time Heals Wounds. Journals Reopen Them.

May 4, 2012May 4, 2012 Chief Oddball

I love trips down memory lane, so occasionally I’ll go back through bits and pieces of my past in all their various forms. These include audio recordings, old TV shows and movies, classic video games, and of course journals (Oddball Update has been around since 1994, it just didn’t go public until 2003).

New For The Nineties

April 12, 2012April 12, 2012 Chief Oddball 5 Comments

Ever look at the trending topics list on Twitter to see what the perfunctory social network’s users are talking about? Each new trend is like a flash mob that the Twitter biomass collectively contributes to for five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes before it slowly dissipates and then winks out of existence.

That People Mover Sound

September 1, 2011October 3, 2011 Chief Oddball

Back in high school my friends and I used to goof on the Detroit People Mover, the little unidirectional skytrain in Motown that doesn’t go much of anywhere. It’s a driverless ICTS train powered by a linear induction motor, manufactured in Canada by the now-defunct UTDC.

Footage: Downtown Detroit ca. 1954

September 1, 2011October 3, 2011 Chief Oddball

Whenever my grandmother would tell me stories of how great and grand the city of Detroit once was, I never had any frame of reference to envision it. Now that I have seen this footage of Detroit shot in 1954, I think I understand.

From the Typewriters of Babes

August 21, 2010May 8, 2012 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

I like to read before going to sleep, because the act of shifting my ever-active brain’s focus from real-life concerns to fantasy ones makes it easier to fall asleep in the first place. Sometimes I read Star Trek novels, sometimes other fiction from my favorite genres (sci-fi, fantasy, suspense, et al), and other times I read old stories that I myself wrote, going as far back as the late 1980s.

Getting Seasonal

December 2, 2009September 21, 2011 Chief Oddball

Every year it’s the same thing. The same commercialized rush for your shopping dollars, the same rotating playlist of seemingly half a dozen Christmas songs on at least one local radio station, the same daily avalanche of direct mail catalogs and coupons from every company you’ve ever done business with in your life.

January 9, 2009January 9, 2009 Chief Oddball 6 Comments

The weather here in Thailand has been different this week. After nearly two straight weeks of rain, the sun came out, the cool breezes returned, and the wooden doors of our house finally started closing more easily again. I, however, was affected in a way more profound than simply not having to smell mildew in the open-air bathroom anymore.

Tag: nostalgia