A pissing contest. Where did I commonly hear this turn of phrase? Doubtless in my corporate past. Something that was said vis-à-vis executive approval of speeches, most likely. Someone in a marketing department would look at a speech draft and pronounce judgment, then a different person on the CEO's staff would do the same and deliver an opposite opinion. While me, the hapless writer, would wait, nervously eyeing the deadline that everyone seemed to care about, but no one was addressing. While the Read more [...]

Now that I'm a writer guy, a bona fide author, and so on, you'd think I'd be scrambling to get to the top of the bestseller list. You know, right up there with Danielle Steele. But no, I'm scrambling, but sideways. Like a crab. Partly, this is because I am too old to believe in progress. Our most important product, remember...if you are old enough to recall Ronald Reagan intoning these words in the 1950s, his mellifluous Teleprompter voice targeting that most noble of creations, General Electric. Read more [...]

The 4:30 AM day is somehow ablaze, even though it is technically dark. Jane and I have been awakened by screeching mammals. She swears we have heard cats. I suspect raccoons. Either way, I remain awake, thoughts racing. Until the slightly more civilized hour of 6 AM, when I give up and we get up. Summertime, and the livin' is hot. This day, like its predecessor, is too warm too early. And in some predictable way, on hot days I fall asleep with fan-driven air wafting about the bedroom, then wake up Read more [...]

Strange days. I resent the few appointments I have. Today: book publicist, computer consultant, men's group. Yet with the 9 AM departure of Lorna, chief among the morning helpers on Team Filipina, the balance of the day looks frighteningly blank. What am I to do now, this yawning moment all emptiness and uncertainty? Well, I could prepare for the phone chat with the publicist. Or I could head to Peet's. For there is nothing like caffeination except more caffeination. So, Caffeine Nation, here I come. But Read more [...]

It must have been in high school biology that I learned the definition of life. Significantly, I have forgotten all the essential attributes except for one: movement. If you want to be a life form, you have to be on the move. If your ambition is to be a crystal, no sweat. You can hang out with the other crystals all you want. Which means you will get taught, as a subject, in Physics and Chemistry. Is that your crowd? You decide. Thing is, if you want to be in the biology textbooks, you'd better shake Read more [...]

Things are so much clearer, and certainly starker, at 4 AM, that it's a wonder I don't awaken at this hour every day. Gosh, but it's informative. Particularly if you go with the psychic flow, a course for which I opt this particular day. It has become something of a trend, this waking too early. A lot on my mind? Or not enough in my bed? Jane being very much under the career gun, and not always under the covers. And since we seem to be partners in sleep and, as a 4 AM e-mail might reveal, also Read more [...]