Cadbury and the Boy

He took the creme egg right out of my hand and would not give it back. At one point he put most of it in his mouth, but would not bite down.



Later, it broke and he was not pleased with the fondant.

Dilate Me

Been frustrated for too long. It is my age, physical condition or general deterioration? The better the technology has become in the 44 and a half years I've been wearing glasses, the less I am able to see clearly using it.



Progressive lenses and I do not get along. This is the second pair in a row I've had and they have both sucked. I have not had a decent prescription for over twenty years. The lenses I've received have not come close to equaling the ones I had in Fredonia in the late eighties. I was able to see two inch high numbers clearly at a distance of about 15-20 feet. Any price in the liquor store shelves from the cash register was clear.

On Friday I'm heading to the ophthalmology department at OSU for a thorough exam. All I want is a no frills pair or reading glasses. No tri-vision poly anti-scratch coating hi-index lenses with bendable titanium sustainable recycled from pig's hearts frames.

I want a set of glasses I can see properly out of, is it too much to ask?

Batting Practice

There was a very good slam at Writers' Block on Wednesday night. Twelve poets signed up. That's lot of poets. I got the twelve spot and waited though some good poetry. People brought out some new work. I did an older one, one I think I've only read once, and not in a slam. It's about the local Craigslist Missed Connections and this worker at Microcenter who gets a lot of attention.

I was surprised it scored well and put me in second place going into round two. Here I did another poem I had only read once or twice, and again, never used in a slam. A piece of self loathing called I Got Nothing that was not my best effort and I plummeted in the standings as other poets did very strong work.

Finished tied for fourth place. Just getting into the second round was my goal, and I achieved that. Going to have to work a lot harder though. Bars have been raised, the pitching is live.

Twenty five years ago today I woke up late from my bed in the now torn down house on White Street. Turned on the television to see the noon news and specifically wanted to know how the Sabres did the night before.



Saw that, and Dan Rather instead. Had to work at East Main Liquors at two.

To escape that sad memory - the late 1970's was a strange time to be a teenager. Heavy metal, rock and it's various forms, disco were all in my face, demanding my attention. I tried ignoring it all, preferring to hide in the basement. How could you when these two were on NBC as a summer replacement series.



Then there's this.



That's where my head remains to this day.

Shaken Up

On Tuesday afternoon a 10 year old boy was sexually assaulted in the mens room of the library where I used to work. I still go here several times a week to do my library business.

I hope the young man recovers from this horrific crime and gets the treatment he deserves.

When I stopped by yesterday to pick up my stuff, all three of the local news trucks were there, and had filmed or were about to film for their evening newscasts. Attention the library does not need. Last week a teenager was followed out of the library then beaten and robbed as he waited for a bus a couple of hundred yards from the branch.

When I worked there, I was always worried about a crime happening that was more violent, and not hidden in a bathroom stall. A lot of people acted out in public areas back then, and may still do.

The staff I spoke to understandably had a rough day, and I am sorry they had to go through this. Obviously it is not something you want to happen. This hits close to home for me, being the parent of an eight year old. But it's not something the library staff are trained to fix, or even prevent. How can you stop a monster?

It's Slam Season

Time to break out the notebooks, piece together the fragments and find something new in the rubble as Writers' Block qualifying slams for the National Poetry Slam start tonight.

Sadly, my schedule in August does not mesh with going to Boston for a week so slamming for funsies will have to do, until IWPS.

I'm liking the new rules for this season. The main change being the 'no repeat' rule. This means I can only read my unicorn coughing muppets as hairballs poem once during the Nats season, and not in the Nats Grand Slam. If I chose to, I can also read it just once during IWPS season.

You have to have deep pockets if you want to be in a national competition!

Starts tonight at eight. Kafe Kerouac is the place to be.

What's the big deal about Oprah meeting her long lost half-sister, I did that last weekend.

Watched about half of the State of the Union address, though Olbermann's tweets were more entertaining. Was it just me or was Obama trying to channel Reagan with the domestic spending freezes and cuts? The pat down line ticked me off because you know we're going to be searched going onto high speed rail (if that ever happens) and sports stadiums soon enough. I was also wondering if Leno wrote the smoked salmon line. Overall, not really impressed. However, I did find this screen capture to be quite hilarious.



The boy has decided waking up at five in the morning is a good thing to do. As usual, he's not telling us why. Now he's on my hip, thinking about falling back asleep I bet.

Yesterday's Football and Getting on Youtube

Both games were fairly boring yesterday. I was perked up by my mojito stupor to find that Todd Collins had entered the game as quarterback for Chicago, replacing the injured Jay Cutler.

Collins played for the Bills early in his career. He was handed the starting job after Jim Kelly retired and was a complete waste. Until J.P. Losman came along, Collins was viewed as one of the worst quarterbacks in recent Bills history. So I laughed and laughed loudly whenever he took the field.

Collins did not disappoint, he played two series and was nearly picked off twice. Chicago then replaced him with third string quarterback Caleb Haine, but the damage had already been done.

I missed the second half of the Steelers/Jets game and put on Exit Through the Gift Shop a look at street art, an obsessed film maker turned artist and the elusive Banksy. A very entertaining look at insanity.

Sean FM has been taping many of the events at Writers Block these past few months and some of the work has been put on youtube. I got uploaded last night.

The link to Slam Poet Junction can be found here.

Thanks again to Sean for doing the taping, and for Scott Woods for doing the uploading.

It's that time of the year already - submitting work for consideration in the Columbus Arts Festival. The deadline is Saturday.

You Can't Win Them All

As I write this, the Blue Jackets have beaten St. Louis 5-2 for their first back to back road wins since November.

Tonight we braved the cold temperatures and headed to the Ohio State Hockey game. Last night they beat Notre Dame 6-1. I suspected that there would not be a rout tonight, and I was partially right. Notre Dame dominated and won 4-1.

The Fighting Irish are a very good team. Not sure if they're in first or second in the CCHA. There was no way they were going to be embarrassed two nights in a row and came out ready to play.

That readiness combined with Buckeye defensive errors, too many trips to the penalty box and, sad to say, poor play by goalie Cal Heeter were all factors in the defeat.

There was a good crowd on hand, the upper level was partially opened up. We were seated a section up from and just to the right of a growing student fan section.



It's encouraging to see the student support, and a growing fan interest. I think coach Mark Osiecki has a lot to do with this, he's certainly brought me back to the games putting a refreshing style of play and better attitudes on the ice every night. We'll be back in a couple of weeks when they return home to play Michigan State. The Friday night game has a teddy bear toss. I've been hearing about these things and await seeing this event happen.