Astropus

Writers have to learn to, as either Ginsberg or Faulkner put it, “kill your darlings” — to viciously excise those self indulgent bits of plot or character or (much more often in my case) sentence or diction. It’s a lesson that is not much fun to learn, but any working writer is undoubtedly a mass-murder of darlings. A certified spree killer.

But sometimes I just can’t pull the trigger. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been a loyal Nikon shooter since getting my first dSLR for my birthday in 2007, and I’ve since built up a powerful collection of great lenses for the Nikon DX format. But, technology marches on, and now that Julie has invested in the Olympus/Panasonic Micro Four-Thirds system it just doesn’t make sense to keep two collections of glass. I’ve decided to try and sell off all my Nikon gear that’s served me so well for so long to fund a migration to Micro Four-Thirds as well. I could list all this stuff on Craig’s List or Reddit (and I may still), but I figured I’d give my social network a shot at some killer gear at great prices before I hassel with selling to strangers. Read on for the details on what I’m selling, and for how much.  Read the rest of this entry »

My 2-year anniversary of quittin’ the ol’ day job passed with no comment late last month. It’s been an adventure to say the least and more challenging that I imagined (and I am damn good at imagining all kinds of insurmountable challenges).

Overall, there’s nothing to complain about – or at least nothing that isn’t greatly outweigh by a corresponding awesome aspect of this grand experiment. The lack of a real, weekly paycheck was, of course, the biggest adjustment. Without going into financial details, the shift from a annual salary to a ad-hoc scramble for duckets would not have been possible without the support of Jules and some considerable sacrifices on top of that. Like retirement. I’m going to be working the word-mines until the singularity at this rate. (But that’s okay with me.)

Eventual that big red “outgoing” number will get smaller than that erratic “incoming” number. Or I’ll smack into the fiscal event horizon. Whatever. When you have the luxury of not working for a paycheck, money carries a lot less weight.

The real challenges have been more subtle than that. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m pulling astropus from the mothballs. More updates soon.

I’m excited to launch my new venture: www.beeroftomorrow.com, a site dedicated to spreading the word about craft beer!

I spent a long time thinking about how to best make an impact in the Los Angeles beer community, and it is my goal with the site to get people interested in the craft beer scene, especially the local and regional breweries around Southern California.

I hope that you will stop by, take a look, and even join the conversation in the comments or via social media.

And now that the site is live after a few weeks of development and writing, I’m going to treat myself to a beer!

Cheers!