During the past few days I've come to learn a lot about my own blog. F'rinstance, according to Google's statistics this site is getting many, many more visits than have been accounted for by the site's meter. How many more? Well, let's just say the actual hit count is now well over two million, if I've figured it right.
Wow.
There's a "tags" tab in the sidebar, containing the names of labels for posts given them. But I've...
Monday, March 23, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
AAAAAANNNDDD... We're back!!

So... the blog has a new look.
Not all thanks to me, no doubt. I had help. Thanks/blame Brian Fesperman, "Weird" Ed Woody, Stephen Shumate and maybe a few others for encouraging me to keep my sanity during this process, especially just today as some serious kinks were worked out of the new template.
Please note that the redesign doesn't have the post's full...
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Pardon our dust
Methinks it's time to change things up a bit around here.
Don't be surprised if this blog experiences some trauma during the next few days or so. I've a hankering to get creative with templates and Photoshop. Hope to have a new look ready to go soon ...
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Help a friend with a missions trip to Guatemala!

To be honest, this is the kind of thing that I'm always leery of doing on this blog. I really do wish that I could do what I can to help everyone but there's only so much time, and so little of me, to spare toward the effort. However when such a wonderful longtime friend asked me to spread the word about what she'll soon be doing, I couldn't resist. It's...
Friday, March 13, 2015
Blow-by-blow account of "We Are The World"

This past week was the thirtieth anniversary of the release of "We Are The World": the multi-multi-multi-talented collaboration of most of the biggest stars during the era. It was a song to inspire relief from hunger in Africa. Recording legend Quincy Jones miraculously corralled all of that musical force in the wee hours of the night right after the American Music...
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Die in this game and you can never EVER play it again

Thank the Lord this isn't a Super Mario Brothers game. Or a Fallout title.
So here's the conceit: if you die in Upsilon Circuit, you get perma-permadeath. As in: you'll never play the game again. Not because you won't want to play but because you literally can't play. Ever again. You get one life, one chance to make it through. And that's...
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Time and mind
Who can say where the road goes,Where the day flows?Only time...
And who can say if your love grows,As your heart chose?Only time...
-- Enya, "Only Time"
Manic-depression has a time dilation effect. There are periods when time slows to a snail's pace. There are others, like what I'm going through right now, when time goes by too fast.
Either results in the same thing. An oppressive sense that time and life itself is being...
Sunday, March 08, 2015
The astounding eye-popping artwork of Cameron Hobbs

What's Your Mindset? by Cameron Hobbs, 2015
This is someone to keep an eye out for, because he's going to go far. Way, way far. Cameron Hobbs is the son of a dear friend. A little over two years ago she began posting some of Cameron's art on her Facebook page. It was... well, a lot better than most kids at the age of 12 can do, that's for sure. ...
Friday, March 06, 2015
I gotta get this out of my system...
$7.49 for a box of one-dozen original glazed.
What. The &%$#. Is WRONG. With you. Krispy Kreme. ?!?
In a different time and a better reality, those were something that all and sundry enjoyed to no end. Not anymore.
They used to be a dollar a box. And then two dollars. Just a few short months ago it was five bucks and change. Now it's closing in on eight dollars a dozen.
Donuts should not be...
Friday, February 27, 2015
He lived long and prospered

"Of my friend, I can only say this: Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."
-- James T. Kirk, eulogizing Spock. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Leonard Nimoy
1931 ~ 20...
Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Big White-out of February '15
During last night and into early this morning, a huge swath of the state got blanketed with 4-8 inches of snow. Here's how it looked at my house around 7:30 this morning.
...
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Tammy wants to sing to you...
Behold her beautiful singing voice!
Been too long since I've posted any pics of Tammy. I happened to catch her right in the midst of one of her yawns (which, it must be said, sound hilariously cute):
...
Monday, February 23, 2015
Let her go? Queen Elsa arrested near Charleston for FROZEN weather

Disclaimer: I have yet to see Disney's Frozen, so I have no idea about how extensive Elsa's criminal activities go. I'm assuming they are pretty pervasive, given how much I've heard it talked about by numerous children I've found myself around.
Just days after police in Harlan, Kentucky issued a warrant for her arrest, Queen Elsa was located this morning all the way...
Sunday, February 22, 2015
I suppose nothing good lasts forever
The Walking Dead may have jumped the shark tonight.
I'm not the only one with that estimation. Many others are expressing the same thing.
This show has gone political, and far too blatantly so.
This episode had one and only one purpose. It was one scene. A scene designed to throw something into the face of viewers. And that's all that this episode was meant to do.
I don't care for that no matter what one's persuasion may...
Movies I've Never Seen: First edition has Chris abiding THE BIG LEBOWSKI

This is the first installment of something that I've had in mind to do for a few years now. I think this is going to be a fun new feature of The Knight Shift.
Here's the deal: my DVR is loaded... and I mean loaded... with movies that for some reason or another I've never watched before in my entire life. They've just been sitting there, waiting for me to take...
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Catherine Rose: Mother, genius, communications pioneer

Catherine Rose and her daughter Alexis
It is an honor and a privilege to be able to say that I have been able to count Catherine Rose among the friendships that I have made through this journey in life. She and I were in high school together and shared many conversations back and forth from our swim meets. Catherine is, literally, one of the most powerhouse...
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
From inside the chrysalis
The realization has been growing in the past several weeks and months that I have not written much of the kind of serious material that I used to do.
Okay, not exactly true. There have been dozens upon dozens of pages of written work that I have been producing, for the past nine months. But it hasn't seen the light of day because it's all for the book I'm writing about having manic-depression.
(Well, that isn't exactly true either. ...