J Marcus Daily
I’ll tell you this; I’m not quite accustomed to this kind of personal writing in my column. I’ve been told repeatedly that people expect content that is more personal in blogs. If you haven’t realized this isn’t your typical blog. I don’t want to be just like all the other complainers out there rambling on about their mundane day.
I like providing information. I like connecting with people about real subjects not with barely intelligible drivel about the latest fight someone had with their girlfriend. That being said, I do like the informal manner a column can take inside the world of blogging. And occasionally, I’ll write about my day or about how things are going in general in my life.
Even with so much going on in my life, I have a difficult time imagining people want to hear about my day. Some of them are not that exciting. I spend a lot of time with my son, Tristan, cleaning house, and writing. We do get to have adventures every couple of days, travel quite a bit, and are constantly meeting new people. Sometimes I think if Tristan could write, he’d have a more interesting blog talking about his day, than I do.
That’s why I try to provide information from some of the articles I’m working on, perhaps people can learn something while browsing these columns. Sure, they can read a longer, better-written version when it comes out in Popular Science or PCWorld, or even wait for one of my books. But, this is free and the articles are condensed and easier to read than the ones I write for magazine editors.
Okay, you can go back to your soap operas and Monday Night Football. I have to finish playing Doom 3 so I can get the review finished.
Over the course of the last three weeks, I’ve allowed my life to become cluttered and disorganized. Thinking I could handle a handful of big projects at once, we began to build a new fence on the side of our house to expand our backyard.
Simultaneously I had my den repainted and decorated. This 10X10 room holds enough stuff to fill both living rooms and the dining room in our house, which is exactly what happened.
Then my main computer in my office had a run in with the blue screen of death and so I had to rebuild and reinstall everything on it. All of this in the midst of my wife entering one of her busiest times at work. Her calendar has her home only 2 weeks between here and Christmas. Needless to say I’ve been trying to put the house back together again, get everything stuffed back into my cell and still take care of Tristan and work.
Oh, and the server went down and I had Internet problems so I couldn’t upload my column for the last three weeks either. While Simon worked on repairing and getting everything working, the columns I host were being neglected.
Here I sit, ready to get back to work. Almost everything is back to normal again. The column will return to normal publication, the house is finally livable again, and we have a new fence. I never realized how much affect having your life in a state of disrepair can have on ones mood and productivity. With messes everywhere I turned, I felt disconnected from myself, on edge and stressed out. I haven’t been able to relax in weeks, and I think it has a lot to do with things being a mess and not only because of the amount of work there was to accomplish.
Eastern Philosophies talk a great deal about having each part of your life centered and positioned for success. Through minding your Chi, a person can lead a more content and peaceful life. Until now, I hadn’t seen the correlation to my own life. Being aware of this makes me more inclined to do a little more reading on the Feng Shui. A Nuevo Cliché decorating philosophy that has become very popular in the last few years, there may be more to it than my skeptical self had realized.
This evening as a family, we tried out a new local restaurant. It turned out to be a quaint inexpensive pasta place with a good family atmosphere. There were other families there so we weren’t as concerned about bringing our loud three year old. Tristan has many different moods and tonight’s centered on being loud and messy.
My wife, Andrea, and I had a nice conversation and meal while Tristan bathed in his kid’s plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs. Not one of the easiest things in the world to eat, spaghetti gives even adults the occasional splatter on the shirt. Being three and under the tutelage of Oscar the Grouch required making sure that nearly equal quantities ended up in the mouth as on his shirt and the floor.
Andrea and I flipped a coin to see who cleaned up the table and who power washed the meal off Tristan. I think we both lost. While she cleaned up the table as best she could I headed off to the bathroom. Pulling his shirt off and running it under the water-helped get a majority of the mess off. At least until the sink was plugged up from the noodles and tomato bits. Reaching in through the bloody colored water I scooped handfuls of food chunks out of the drain.
Both of us walked back out soaking as Andrea was giving the waiter an extra tip for helping to clean up the scene of the crime.
Before I had kids, my thinking was much different than it is now. Like my tolerance for kids and their poor behavior. On this occasion, I knew Tristan wasn’t really being bad, just three. Three years, nine months and six days ago I would never have been able to handle sitting through such chaos. Odd how one little kid can change a persons perspective so drastically.
Due to a technical malfunction with our servers and ISP connection we were unable to publish any of the regularly scheduled columns. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please bear with us as we work out the kinks in our system. It does look like we are back up and running and Simon assures me there will be no repeats of this issue. He has also contracted some alternate means of getting a connection and updating the columns and websites if there are future problems.
So we are now back to the show.
Building a fence, no experience necessary or a lesson in marriage counseling
This week Andrea is taking vacation at home. My grandfather calls this a honeydo week. More accurately its been a test of the strength of our marriage as we put up a fence on the side of our house. No contractors, just two people who don’t know anything about fences making it up as they go along. Add to the mix the fact that I have a back injury that limits my participation.
Andrea called in her second string husband, my best friend Bill, to come in and help dig the post holes at the start of the project. The next day work was put on hold because of our son’s third birthday. Monday everything else in the world conspired to make this a wholly unproductive day. By Tuesday, the holes were dug and the first of the posts were set. Wednesday the other half of them were finally in the ground and we waited twenty-four hours for them to set. Today, after we learned how to use an electric saw (turns out we didn’t know as much as we both thought we did) and messed up a couple of our 2X4’s we got the frame in place. The rest came together quickly.
Without giving you the blow by blow account of this less than spectacular build, we each had different ideas of how the fence should be built. Mind you, neither of us know anything about fences. Well, aside from the obvious.
Do you mix the concrete with water by hand? Or do you dump the bag in the hole and bring over the water hose? She wanted to do it the hard way and mix it by hand. I’m willing to concede that the hard way in this instance is probably also the right way. Although I have heard of people doing it both ways successfully.
How about measuring out the distance between the posts so that they are exactly eight feet? Or end up cutting each of the eight foot 2X4’s to fit? Can you guess which way we end up doing it?
In the end, the fence is up and it looks good. It helps that there are a row of rather large trees blocking most of the fence. From the street you can’t tell it was built by drunken dyslectic sailors. We have a bigger backyard and it’ll keep Tristan in, that’s all that matters. The various disagreements will be forgotten as they give way to all new arguments.
Sounds like we fight all the time, and we really don’t. The main problem is that we are both chronically right. After spending this week with Andrea building this fence, I’d say more married couples should give it a try. It’ll definitely bring any of the issues in your relationship to light, and may just give you a new insight into how you mate thinks and behaves. If you’re not confident about your relationship, then DON”T EVER BUILD A FENCE, you might as well divvy up the CD’s and pack your bags now.
A waiting room at home. How many magazines do you read?
Magazines come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. You name the lifestyle and there are at least a dozen competing mags on the market. More and more American’s coffee tables don magazine collections typical to most doctors’ offices. Averaging 4.95 a pop on the newsstand consumers jump at the chance for 70% off for the subscription. According to recent studies in the publishing industry most a majority of households have on average 5 magazine subscriptions.
How many subscriptions do we really need? Or for that matter are these magazines really worth our time. While I might feel that book prices are outrageously high, it just isn’t so when compared to the price of an off the rack magazine. Why are we paying to increase the advertising revenue of these companies? With advertisements on nearly every other page they should be paying us to read their mags.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m part of the problem. I’m part of the industry. I write for magazines and get paid for my work. It’s a living. Still, I question the business and the cost to consumers even with subscription level pricing. Television is one product, that for all intensive purposes is free because of advertising revenue. Why should the magazine industry be any different?
Just think about these things the next time you fork over 5 bucks at the airport newsstand, or a telemarketer calls you at night to sell you subscriptions.
Cell Phones are everywhere. It seems as if everyone has one, and sometimes two, and they can’t stop talking. Obsessed with being in contact with friends, loved ones, business contacts, the babysitter and telemarketers people are on the phone in line at the supermarket, getting gas, in theaters right till the opening credits, even while out with friends. People are talking to the “someone else’s” in their lives more than the one sitting right in front of them, and it’s driving me insane.
I’m probably not the first to say it but I’ll probably be the most vocal. What the hell is everyone thinking? Aside from the ranting and raving I could do about the love affair with the cell phone in general, cell phone etiquette or rather the lack of it, makes me almost lose it.
I watched a woman at a department store pick out her clothes, go into the dressing room, and proceed to the checkout all while on the phone. Watching her across the way, I could see the cashier went through the entire purchasing process while the woman was still on the phone. It was one of the rudest things I’ve seen being taken as common place. We’ve all seen rude people doing rude and crass things but usually someone takes note of it or calls them on it. Here, it was just one more customer in a long line of them for the cashier. No one else in line seemed to even notice because a couple of them were on phones themselves.
Do we really want to hear about Jason not asking Susan because he’d really sleeping with Cindy but he would do Katherine if only he’d break up with Steve? They don’t even try to talk in a hushed voice, walking around as if they were in a special sound proof bubble they talk about private, intimate, and confidential things without a second thought to the people around them. Corporate America want to know what your competition is doing, just listen to the conversations of their employees as they are grocery shopping.
If more people would think twice about whether it really is necessary to call anyone at anytime, or be gotten a hold of for that matter, is really important to their lives or businesses. Has the world really changed so much? I can’t believe anyone is claiming bankruptcy because they weren’t able to talk to someone on the phone at a particular instance.
Am I the only person who seems to care about how blatant this has all become? I wish I had a device that could scramble cell phone signals if they came within five feet of me. Not to do any great damage, but to protect me from their blatant disregard for my space. Step to close and your calls get dropped. Unfortunately, a device like that would be banned by the FCC; they protect the public’s right to be assholes on phones. Of course, you won’t find that in their official charter.
Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, there are more and more people converted to the cause of the cell phone. One day I will look up and I’ll be the only one left who isn’t indoctrinated into believing it is my God given right to talk to anyone, at anytime, as loud as I like about whatever topic I damn well please. The day that happens, no one will take the time to read this column. And once they do discover this subversive anti-establishment writing, there will be a knock at my door soon after.
Sorry, gotta go there’s someone at the door.
Today, it is my pleasure to introduce a new column coming to the world of J Marcus. A daily column devoted to the upcoming magazine
Technovations. Highlighting the top stories in the world of technology, Technovations will become the single best source for information on innovations in technology. The magazine will make its premiere debut in September. Until then this column will provide a daily fix on the latest in technology with news, reviews, features and commentary.
I love electronics. Computers, game consoles, televisions and monitors, satellite, PVR’s and DVR’s, DVD recorders and players, digital cameras, home theater systems and MP3 players to name but a few of my favorite things. The list goes on and on, each day growing more complex and innovative. In order to sort things out I’ve pulled together a team of people who love electronics as well. We hope to give you a helping hand as you navigate through the amazing and sometimes treacherous world of personal electronics. (If you don’t think it can be treacherous try reading a TV owner’s manual in six different languages none of them passing for English.)
I’m excited to bring this Technovations column to the world. As a technology reporter and reviewer I see a lot of products and lots of befuddled consumers trying to understand this new electron world. When devices work as promised they can entertain, educate, and make our lives better. When they don’t it’s – well, damn annoying.
Technovations the magazine will be written by a team of talented technology writers. This column will be written by me much of the time; otherwise someone on staff will take a run at it.
I’m at a little bit of a loss. This will be the last week I'll introduce a new column joining the J Marcus family for a while. I’ve gotten used to adding a new channel of choices for all you discriminating readers and now it’s over. No more countdowns till the final release of a new publication. No more excitement, just the daily grind of producing some of the most entertaining and informative content on the web today. Oh, well I’ll survive. Us change junkies always have something new in the works, we wouldn’t survive if we didn’t.
If things get to stagnant or boring I’ll have to resort to creating a little drama in my life. Maybe cheat on my wife and then tell her, or perhaps I could have a big argument with a brother and write him off. Sounds bad to you, but we junkies have to get our fix. While I don’t like drama I do live for change and if I have to destroy my life to get it then, you know, you gotta do.
The good news is so far in my (semi) professional career I always have something new going on. Book deals. New manuscripts. Freelance articles for national magazines. That kind of thing. And Tristan seems to always bring something new into my life, being only three years old everything’s new to him. Being a first time father, nearly everything is new to me and more so when viewed through his eyes.
If you were looking for some hard hitting information today as you can tell you’re out of luck. This is a Sunday and even if it weren’t, it’s my son’s birthday, so no matter how important you all think you are to me; I’ve got a three year old to entertain and make a memorable day. You can wait 24 hours and look for my hard hitting Xfactor writing tomorrow.
MSNBC - The science and history behind a �Blue Moon�
Today was definitely a once in a blue moon day. After only a couple hours sleep, our son stayed in bed with us last night I got up to start my day. With my wife at home and at the start of her vacation we had a whole host of things to accomplish.
On the top of that list- moving our fence in our yard in order to make a bigger area in the backyard for our son to play. (And for me to get my hot tub) After going to the lumber yard to buy a few things we needed, I started to lay stakes and line up where the posts would go. The second string husband, Bill was being called in to help dig the post holes on account of the injury to my back. In the ninety degree heat he and Andrea dug and dug until we had 12 two foot holes for the 4X4 posts. We had to wrap the project up by 5pm because we were supposed to be at a barbeque an hour away by 6, oh and bring desert. Sunburned and tired Andrea showered while Bill and I talked about the Democratic Convention. Then we hurriedly made our way out of town to Dave and Aja's place. Construction on I-5 made the drive longer than normal, and barring any other excuses, we left late. (There you are I admit it. We left late so we were going to arrive late.) Stopping by a Baskin and Robins close to their house we picked up a ice cream cake for desert. We usually make something for deserts when we are asked but on this occasion we had other things going on so we let our money take care of the situation. The barbeque was nice and we had a lot of fun with the group of people invited. Aja has been reading a rough draft of a manuscript I've been working on and wanted the rest of the story. Finding a fan of my writing doesn't happen very often, so I have to milk it every chance I get. Then I drove us home and we made it back close to midnight. Here I am at one in the morning writing a column I should've written about 12 hours earlier, thinking more about three years ago when I was in a hospital delivery room while my wife was pushing (something she has yet to stop doing) this ball of goo out into the world. A ball of goo I fell instantly in love with and can't help being facinated by every day I'm lucky enough to be around him. Which is why Andrea chides me in the car on the way home for talking about him nonstop.
Boring day. Well, this kind of a day only happens once in a blue moon. This incidentally coincides with the phase of the moon on this evening. For the origin of the phrase once in a blue moon check out the article up top. If you think making once in a blue moon fit with today’s rather ordinary events then just remember, I only make these stupid stretches in my column once in a blue moon. Expect the next one to be in the next 32 months.
