Take More Photos!

Friday 27 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Good morning dears. I’m sleepy. Do I say that every Friday morning? Hold on let me go check.

I didn’t sleep very well last night. Ugh. I wonder if it’s easier to get messed with on the morning commute downtown when being sleepy like this.

I’m on the corner of 6th and Pine heading northbound and so far no one has messed with me. I might get messed with if I keep taking photos.

No. It’s pretty safe in downtown Portland (watch out now that I say that). I try to stay pretty alert though. There are a few sketchy people that I cross paths with sometimes during the morning commute, but I try to give them a wide berth.

It is really cold this morning. There was frost on the parked cars. I was just about to start thinking that winter was getting ready to head out. Not the case though. We might still get a winter storm?

I caught the 6:15 bus today. That dude is fast! He was downtown in no time. I should always try to take the 6:15.

I do need to take more photos. It’s true what the title up there says. I should take a bunch of photos of my morning commute. No. That’s kind of boring. Well yeah Noodle, it would be your job to use your artistic eye and capture the interesting shots!

Ugh. I don’t have time to use my artistic eye.

I had something interesting to say about the Star Wars poster in my bus stop, but I forgot what it was. It’s kind of nice to think about Star Wars while waiting for the bus. Unfortunately your memories of childhood and love for Star Wars goes sour when you remember how Episode I broke your heart. 3D huh? I don’t know. How good can something be when it wasn’t originally filmed for 3D but converted later? I won’t be seeing Episode I in 3D. Well, I might go if Seth goes.

I must have had too much coffee yesterday. That’s why my sleeping sucked. I need to get off the caffeine. It’s making me crazy. I will need quite a bit of coffee today to make it through the day. After today though I will start to think about cutting back.

I’m going to prop myself up in my cube today, keep my eyes open, and try to work really hard.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-27  ::  Noodle

the lunchtime typist

Thursday 26 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

I should go for a walk during my lunch breaks instead of sitting here typing on my computer. You know I keep saying it but I bet some exercise would really do me good. I didn’t go out to lunch at all this month and I think I’m feeling a bit healthier without my 2 beer and a burger meal everyday. If I got out, saw what the weather was doing and walked I would feel great I’m sure.

I need to get Martin’s exercise bike out from down in the basement and set it back up again. I think I used it once since those cats moved to Germany. I had such high hopes for being an exercise bike guy when Martin charged me to watch it while he was away. Now the Germans are planning on coming back to being Americans again and I’m sure they’ll be wanting to ride their exercise bike again. I hope the basement environment was okay for it.

When I get back from my lunch break I’m going to listen to the State of the Union speech that I missed a few days ago. I tell ya what kids, I am done with politics. It is so depressing and gross lately. Really guys? You can’t get anything done. What a mess. I think the thing I am tired of the most is the politics as entertainment machine. The news, commentary and punditry. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of good news or progress being made on either side. Oh and politicians are just the worst. I still like my guy Obama though. I’m not sure what he accomplished during his first term but I feel a bit more comfortable with him in the office than the evil alternatives. I don’t want to get into it too far because I don’t want to engage anyone who enjoys politainment. People are nasty on both sides I think. It’s an election year so I’m sure I’ll have more to blog about in the future. I hope Obama can win out over the other side.

I was talking to K this morning about how nice it was to be totally unaware of what was going on in the news this week. Hanging out with the kids not listening to, reading or viewing the news is a nice way to go. A far more relaxing happier existence than knowing about what is or isn’t happening in Washington DC or what horrible atrocities are going down in far off foreign lands. I know I’ve talked about the ignorance of bliss here a thousand times before. Oh yeah, I even wrote an award winning (I didn’t win anything) poem about it.

Thinking about the political world makes me tired. I wouldn’t be tired if I exercised more I bet. I could have gone for a nice walk at lunchtime. Gone out and got some fresh air… Oh look at the time… Lunchtime over..

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-26  ::  Noodle

Soul Sucking Jerk

Wednesday 25 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

First of all, let me apologize to the 3 people I almost ran over tonight on my way home from work. First lady, I really didn’t see you coming. Other two, I thought it would have bee unsafe for me to stop at that crosswalk so abruptly so I had to keep going. Oh wait, sorry to person 4 who I almost ran over in the library parking lot (I picked up some items I had on hold). I had the car today. I’m not use to driving home from work.

I decided that I am going to load up the hours for February. Overtime is available so I’m gonna take it. Working more hours doesn’t sound like fun to me but we need to get a stack of cash to help us catch up. Let’s face it, I don’t have the most strenuous job in the world. If I can keep my self propped up with my eyes open then a few extra hours here and there isn’t too tough. The annoying thing about overtime though is that it cuts into writing time and other creative endeavors. Oh and I don’t see my family as much. It’s also a soul suck, but other than that it’s fine. We need to get caught up a bit. A tad behind we are.

Hold on one second. I’m going to go shave my head and face. I’ll be right back.
There. That’s better.

Actually I’m back now. I just read G a bedtime story about a naught little rabbit named Peter. I may have to get up in a few minutes. G doesn’t always stay down after the first bedtime declaration. It does get frustrating putting the kid back in bed over and over again. Eh, what are ya gonna do?

I need to stop writing my blog entries in the evening like this. The words don’t flow as easily. Oh wait. I’ve recently said this already. I’m more of a morning typer and thinker I guess.

I’m kind of sleepy now. I think I will cozy up and get warm by the light of the TV screen.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-25  ::  Noodle

chilling in the gray

Tuesday 24 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Rain rain and more rain! Another gray day at the Noodle compound.

Hanging out with the two little dudes today. We have had a good day. Nice long nap in the afternoon. Some playing. Some Lego building.

G Noodle was curious about what a booby trap was so we looked that up on the internet. My guess was right in that one of the origins of the term came from the sea birds called boobies. Apparently they were really easy to catch. I saved you the typing by putting the booby trap Wikipedia link right here. I didn’t find any mention of women’s breasts in the definition.

Oh yeah, K and I had an argument this evening about if eggs were considered dairy or not. One of us said no way. The results to that inquiry are here.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-24  ::  Noodle

Not much to report today

Monday 23 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Not much to report today. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and stayed over there the whole day.

Work day today. Not much to report about work.

My lovely family did pick me up and take me to Little Big Burger after my work day. That was super nice of them!

Now the lady and I are laying on the couch watching The United States of Tara. K likes that show more than I do.

The babies are in bed.

This baby is due for bed himself!

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-23  ::  Noodle

14 hours is nothing

Sunday 22 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

I’m feeling a bit better today. Thanks for asking. My neck is stiff and sore. The back of my neck hurts when coughing moves it. I slept on it weird I think. I’m a mess.

I was feeling better last night so I didn’t take any NyQuil. I love how NyQuil knocks me out at night. I’m trying to make sure I have cold symptoms though before rushing to take it. I think I’m someone who would enjoy sleeping pills. I should be careful.

I was pretty proud of myself for a few minutes this morning.

“Hey, I haven’t check my email since 6 last night.” I said. This was due of course mostly to my phone not being charged and not blinking it’s green light whenever I got an email or message.

K says, “What? Do think that’s good? I don’t check my email for 3 days sometimes.”

Oh. Okay.

I felt a tad embarrassed. I thought 14 hours of no electronic communication was a pretty big accomplishment.

“Do you get up in the middle of the night and check your email?”

“Well, no. I… I don’t get up to check it..” I stammered.

yikes.

So I got back to the office, and plugged my phone back in. Turns out I only had 12 emails during my electronic blackout. They weren’t really that great of emails either. Actually the library emailed and told me my books were going to be due soon. That’s something.

I do have a hard time waiting for replies to emails sometimes. I know they have got my email why aren’t they responding yet! Not everyone checks their email every 5 minutes. I know this. Still… Why aren’t they sending me an email back? Submitting my poems to online journals has made me a little bit more patient. Sometimes it takes months to be rejected.

Oh yeah another thing that annoys me about myself is waiting around and checking for comments or likes on photographs or stuff you post in Facebook. Come on! Who cares. Stop checking Noodle. Stop hitting refresh.

Twitter is a bit better for the tweaking internet checker. Stuff is always being updated on Twitter. It moves much faster than Facebook. There’s always something new popping up.

I think I might like Twitter better than Facebook. I may try to take a break from Facebook. It might be making me crazy.

What I should do is turn all of this stuff off and get going on some serious writing. Oh wait though. I use the computer for typing. Oh yes, and I have to keep updating the Noodle Journal. While I’m on here I could just peak briefly at what’s happening on Facebook right?

I should probably take more days off from being plugged in. It wouldn’t hurt to be more in the physical world I bet.

Maybe make more of an effort to go and get out into nature.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-22  ::  Noodle

the aches

Saturday 21 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

I should really stop writing posts about having a cold. Nobody wants to read that. I’ve got the aches. A bit of a soar throat. A bit of a headache. I’m on cold medicine. I have been lounging around the house trying to convince everyone that we should all take a nap. What a lame way to spend my Saturday off.

I left my phone charger at work so if you are trying to get a hold of me send an email. My phone is dead. Didn’t the reverse of this happen a week ago where I left my charger at home while at work? It’s kind of nice to be without the shackles of the phone for the day.

During my illness today I started watching the original Star Trek television series on Netflix. I think I’m going go through the whole series. Good stuff. Boy those were some primitive special effects. I remember watching quite a few of them with my pops when I was a kid.

That’s all we have now. Netflix instant view. Streaming. We’re not paying for cable. It’s served us pretty well for the most part. They aren’t very fast with the new releases though. We’re getting Netflix through our Apple TV box. If we were desperate to see something new we could rent it through iTunes and watch it on the TV. We have rabbit ears to try to get our regular digital TV stations in but that rarely comes in. We don’t see much local news or TV. I don’t think we are missing anything. The internet would tell us if something was coming our way locally right?

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-21  ::  Noodle

TEETH

Friday 20 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

I forgot to brush my teeth. It’s gonna throw my whole day off. I can just feel it. I usually don’t forget. I think I must have been in a hurry or something. That’s not true though. I wasn’t feeling rushed or anything.

I was awfully groggy this morning. That’s probably why brushing my teeth slipped my mind. I really think it’s time for a new bed. Gosh if we had a new bed with a nice new mattress we would be in heaven. Probably finally well rested. Time to save more of our pennies.

Yes. I was groggy this morning. I got on the MAX, I was riding along with my eyes closed and I was startled when someone yelled my name. It spooked me. I looked around and didn’t see anyone I knew. Nobody was looking my way. I noticed a guy across the way that looked like he had just sneezed or coughed. I think that’s what it was. A sneeze or cough that sounded like someone blurting out my name.

Gosh. Hearing voices now with yesterday’s post on ataxophobia. I swear I’m not trying to make it sound like I am going insane. It’s just coming out like that.

Then I almost fell asleep and missed my stop. I know I am going to do that one of these groggy mornings.

K texted during the day and said that Johnny may have said what sounded pretty clear as a “Ma Ma”. How sweet. He’s been saying “Da Da” for a few months now. We think it has been directed at me.

Nobody keeled over from being exposed to my bad breath at work today. I actually don’t talk much during the day so I was pretty safe with my stinky mouth. You may be wondering why I don’t have a toothbrush and toothpaste in one of the drawers of my desk. That’s a great question. I should invest in a work toothbrush. Good idea. My coworkers will thank me. An after lunch brush is just what this guy needs.

I am going to try and get in and see the dentist sometime this year. I’m not looking forward to my dentist visit. I don’t have any cavities yet, but I did recently notice a dark brown spot on one in the back. I don’t have any teeth that hurt though. Argh.

Now it’s the end of the work day and I am home all safe and sound. Work was unremarkable. I shan’t remark on it. Wouldn’t it be great to get a paycheck without having to go to work for it? I can’t expect to do nothing. I would get bored doing nothing. I wouldn’t mind doing something and getting paid for it. My own something I guess.

What to do on my Saturday weekend? Sleeping in would be nice but unlikely.

You know I hate to say this, but I think I feel a cold coming on again! Am I going to have a cold all winter? Oh well. I’ll have some Nyquil and whiskey tonight and that should take care of it.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-20  ::  Noodle

Lazy Man’s Ataxophobia

Thursday 19 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Have you been to the website “Things Organized Neatly” yet? It’s a pretty simple idea. A blog (I guess) where they feature nicely taken photographs of objects arranged in an organized fashion. It’s very clean and tidy. More and more these days I am drawn to neat and organized things. In artwork I think I am more into minimalism and planes of stark emptiness now than the horror vacui I use to be into.

I feel much more relaxed and calm when things are clean, together and tidy. I think I have suspected this for a while, but noticed it recently when I cleaned out my cubicle at work and pulled all the posters, pictures and scraps of paper off my cube’s walls. Clutter is really starting to get to me. Clutter is making me crazy. Hmmm… Let me diagnose this with the help of the internet. Fear of clutter would be called ataxophobia? Fear of disorder or untidiness. Alright. I don’t know if I am fearful of disorder. It’s probably not a full blown clinical phobia to be sure. I am noticing annoyance, stress, uncomfortable feelings when confronted with clutter. I feel better and more productive when there is order and tidiness.

Okay okay. I know. Who do I think I am? I’m not totally a slob but I am not what one would describe as a meticulous, tidy, organized and neat person. I have holes in my clothes and did you see that sloven scraggle of a beard and hair I was keeping until recently? We keep a pretty fairly clean house and I’m not complaining about my family members (except for maybe Abby the dog who is a freaking slob) but the clutter we have hidden away or stuffed into drawers, corners and closets is bugging me. Thinking about all the garbage that could be thrown away in the basement stresses me out for example.

I get it. I am mostly responsible for the clutter. If it bothers me then I should clean it up. I would love to throw half of everything away I think.

The problem is I am lazy. I have a desire for order and tidiness but am unwilling to do the work for it.

The website says that OCD may be a cause or a result of ataxophobia. See that’s what I think I need. More obsessive compulsion. I need to get into some serious health risky cleaning, pruning, organizing and garbage tossing.

Maybe everyone feels this way. Maybe I don’t have a phobia. Maybe it is a normal human condition to be more comfortable in a orderly tidy environment. Perhaps I am using my self diagnosed mild case of ataxophobia to hide from feelings of out of controledness in other areas of life.

Perhaps I need to get a to do list going. Yeah, making some lists will give the illusion of order.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-19  ::  Noodle

Slush

Wednesday 18 January 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Last night we were in the middle of a winter wonderland. At around midnight or so the snow was coming down in bucket fulls and stacking up nicely on the ground. White, fresh, pure snow. It looked like our house had been transported to a ski village. Come morning time when we got up we greeted with globs of muddy slush. The beautiful snow has been melting away throughout the day. The weather report is calling for rain and temperatures in the 40s. I wonder if the snow will be back this week?

Despite only being slush and probably fine driving conditions, K’s school called a snow day and didn’t open. K has been hanging out with her dudes today. Snow days are always fun no matter if your a school kid, their teacher, or a white male in his last 30s staying home with his kids on a day off of work.

Slush is a pretty awesome word isn’t it? I should use slush somewhere in my writings. Slush would be a good title for something. “Mr. Noodle’s second book of poetry is titled “Slush” and will be released by Copper Canyon Press on the 23rd.”

We had a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon and donuts. I washed a couple of days worth of dishes. Not sure what’s in store for the rest of the day. I hope there’s a nap scheduled sometime in my near future. I nodded off for a few minutes during Spiderman cartoons after breakfast and dish washing.

I tell ya, I can’t keep enough lotion on my hands these days. My skin is so dry! It’s important for my hands to stay soft and supple you know. I try to keep my hands hard labor free. Hold on. Let me reapply.

I’m kind of craving a good movie or some good art viewing. Maybe I should take a stroll through Powell’s and look at some cool books. K and I need a good television series to watch. We have finished up all our current ones. Maybe it’s time to start our biannual Twin Peaks viewing again.

Some good new music or a new album or two would be nice as well. I’ve heard tale of a new Mars Volta album on it’s way. I would love to check that puppy out. I am also looking forward to the rumored new release of How to Destroy Angels.

Oh… Hello. Where was I? I just got up from taking a couple of hours of nap with the lovely lad G. Now I am all groggy and in a nap daze.

Oh man. I’ve got to get some adventures fired up! Shake off this slush and kick it into high gear. I can’t be sitting around napping this whole year. I’ve got to do something!

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-01-18  ::  Noodle