revjim.net

September 28th, 2009:

Another Place

Sep 28th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

As I have always done with this space here, when a particular topic becomes prevalent enough that someone is either loving or hating seeing post after post of that nature, then it’s time to move that content into it’s own little corner.

I did this once before with Photographs. This blog became consumed with Photos. I posted almost nothing but photos. So I moved them off and away. (Check out my photoblog at Arranging Light).

I even kinda sorta did this another time in the past with a very small subset of my life that needed a smaller audience. That site has since been taken down. But, it’s not quite the same thing since I was creating a new variant of content along with the blog.

In fact, when my daughter turned 1 year old I started a site for our family, chosen family, and close friends to chronicle her life and share photos of her. Again, this is not quite the same thing since the content didn’t exist before hand.

Well, this new site will be more like the Photographs move. I’m taking content that I would ordinarily publish here, and I’m going to start publishing it in a new place instead. I know that might seem lame and silly and confusing. But I LIKE having a place for everything and a thing for every place. Chaque chose à sa place, chaque place à sa chose.

So… I introduce to you, Amorphous.

(Yes, the name is something I’ve used in the past, as is the URL. I guess I really like it.) This will be the blog in which I chronicle the life of a man aiming to live clean, love dirty, and cry ugly. That person, is, of course, me. It’ll feature stories from my life, tales of adventure, epic road trips, and peaceful evenings in. It’ll dip into love, and life, and freedom, and tolerance. It will, of course, feature my beautiful, precious daughter, and many of the wonderful people that choose to share my life.

It will touch on lots of aspects of my beliefs including clean eating, attached parenting, tolerant spirituality, blatant loyalty, and abstract socialism. It will not, however, focus on any one of these things.

I will be moving away from a “I did this, then I did that” style of writing. Instead of being historically accurate, I will attempt to focus on feeling, and meaning, and purpose. Anything that doesn’t convey that type of thought will be left here at revjim.net instead.

I may even twist facts or ideas or people or reality in order to better make a point. This isn’t to say that it isn’t non-fiction: it certainly is. However, it will convey the truths that live within my mind which may not always be the same as the truths that may have been recorded by a competent observer. To further direct the attention, I will likely never use real names of anyone and, even then, reference people as infrequently as possible.

I’m not sure if I’ll be tweeting to revjimweb when I post there, making links on Facebook, or attaching this blog to FriendFeed. Would any of those things interest you?

I am most certainly not posting to revjim on LiveJournal. You will need to set up a syndication account (which I can do if there is interest) or use a feed reader. I will probably link this blog to friendfeed.

For those of you that subscribe to revjim – world in your RSS readers, you needn’t do anything. This site will be included in that feed. For those of you that subscribe to my writing piece by piece, you’ll want to subscribe to its feed as well if you’re interesting in this content: Amorphous RSS Feed.

Thanks for reading.

I survived the Texas State Fair

Sep 28th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
8 comments

This weekend was packed with fun, the highlight of which was the Texas State Fair on Saturday evening.

waiting for the train

I’m not a big “Fair” person. It’s not that I don’t like it. I can just usually find just as much fun doing my own thing in a less crowded space for less money. And if I bring a few people along with me, it’s just as good if not better. I guess I’m simple that way. But I really thought that Celeste would enjoy the fair, so I wanted to bring her. And Bonnie and Justin wanted to go too, which made it that much more fun.

We stepped on the DART Red Line at Parker Station at about 3pm. And we didn’t step back off until 10pm. Celeste loved every second of it, from the petting zoo, to the Ferris Wheel, to the Corny Dogs.

I had a bout of dad-fail on the way there. I packed two diapers into our backpack knowing I’d grab 6 or 8 more out of the car and then promptly forgot to do so. It wasn’t until we were well on our way on the train that I remembered. We stopped off at Lovers station to buy diapers. Of course a 27 pack was the smallest I could find so I left most of them on top of the trashcan at the train station. Of course, the two diapers I had brought would have been just enough. Oh well. Even worse, the next day I was cleaning out my backpack and realized I’d bought size 5s instead of size 4s. It’s not that I don’t know what size she wears. I’ve been the only one buying her diapers for 8 months now. I have no idea why I bought 5s but I looked for them on purpose. I can remember telling Bonnie “size 5″.

Texas Star

Texas Star

I was a bit frightened in the Ferris Wheel. Heights are heights and I am afraid of them in general. But I know how to overcome that fear fairly well when required. But having Celeste there made it more difficult. I would have been okay if not for the space behind the seats large enough for her to fit through and plummet to her death and her constant desire to climb them. None the less, we all made it out without learning how to fly and I only had to get stern with Celeste once, which I hated doing. I felt like one of those mean parents that are always yelling at their kids for silly things. I wonder if this is how is starts.

She loved it though. She pointed out the hundreds of red and green lights she could see down the street and continued to mention that she went “up in the sky”.

As usual, there was lots of strange food at the fair. I’m not really that eager to try lots of odd foods just for the sake of it. But, for some reason, fried butter just HAD to be tried. So I did. I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. It tasted great. Very buttery, of course. And the batter was delicious. But, at the same time, it was just too much butter.

Celeste loved it when I walked around with her up on my shoulders so she could see everything. This isn’t a posture she usually likes so those muscles on me are pretty weak. Every time I’d take a break she’s grab my face and turn it toward her (something she does in crowded or loud places to make sure you are paying attention to her) and would say “more up on the shoulders!!”.

The Little Pigs

The Little Pigs

The petting zoo was fun for her too. The moment she remembers best was the baby pigs. If you ask her about it, even now, she’ll tell you how there were lots of baby pigs, and a momma pig, and how all the baby pigs were drinking milk. She stared in awe for a long time. She also fed an Emu, pet a Donkey, and mimicked the bleat of a goat. She tried to feed a goat, one grain of food at a time. But the goat decided she was just too slow, took the food from her hands and ate everything, paper cup and all. Celeste thought this was hilarious.

On top of all of that, we saw briefly saw the car show, Big Tex, and the water fountains. Of course, the DART ride itself was an adventure as well, which Celeste loved. It took her a bit to get used to being in the train. Since we got on at the first stop there was time to get her acquainted with how it worked, walking on it, getting on and off it, etc. Once I did that, she was fine with it and eventually took to staring out the window, pointing at everything, and jumping up and down in her seat.

sun set from 212 feet

sun set from 212 feet

The only disappointment was DART on our trip back. On the way there the trains were not crowded and there were people directing you to the right location everywhere you turned. I don’t require this but it was nice to have. On the way back there was no one around and the information we sought out was incorrect. Additionally, there were not enough trains running which meant that we all waited longer than we should have and ended up on a VERY full train. Celeste and I stood for all of the first 12 or 13 stops. It was at the 3rd to last stop that there was finally room for both of us to sit. I didn’t mind standing so much. And despite being exhausted, Celeste didn’t seem to mind too much either. Lots of people offered us their seat, but I knew Celeste wanted the window and would only be upset if we got a seat but she couldn’t stand in the window and look out, so I declined when the offered. Lots of people commented on how good Celeste was being and at how smart she is. I have an awesome kid.

All told, the Texas State Fair was an awesome experience and I’m glad I decided to take Celeste.