Cerebrate Good Times

I was talking to a friend this morning about a project she's working on. She purchased a new townhouse to rent for side income, and she is in the process of finishing her basement along with working her full-time job. The more we talked, the more I realized that raising kids is a lot like finishing your own basement on the side. And while she doesn't have children, we are both experiencing a lot of the same things. And both seem to stem from some level of insanity, getting into this mess. Most people probably don't know everything about construction when they begin finishing the basement (I mean, what really IS a wall, anyway?). You look up a lot of informational videos and muddle along the best you can. If all else fails, duct tape. Similarly, no matter what your experience with kids is before becoming a parent, having your own is different. Parents virtually always feel out of their depth, just taking it one day at a time. You can always give them medicine if they won...

I like assigning objective numbers to things, even when they’re not literally quantifiable. So I think we should create metrics to measure characteristics that are actually subjective. For example, in the show Futurama, someone uses a “funnkometer” to determine how cool someone is, and the coolness units are called “megafonzies.” I was talking with my buddy Rob (go buy his book ) and we came up with a couple. Insanity will be measured in “Kims,” after Kim Jong Il, and stupidity will be measured in “Palins.” What else can we measure, and what are the units?

Last night the moon looked fantastic, either full or very nearly full, with that veil of clouds common in the fall. In short, it was an October moon, slightly eerie and perfect for the Halloween season. So I thought it would be fun to write a poem about it. And then I thought maybe it would be more fun to write a collaborative poem about it. So here's the deal. If you're reading this, you have been drafted to draft it. This will be a free verse, poem, so everyone leave a couple words, or a line or two in the comments. I will arrange them and add some more content to finish the poem. If everything works out, I'll post it in a separate post. Aaaaaand... Create!