I've been out of work for 6 months now. It's been an odd thing. I've never been unemployed my whole adult life. I feel like some kind of loser, some kind of homeless person, some kind of odd out of step vagrant, a vagrant with a checkbook, a vagrant homeless person with sensibilities of a working person, yet without work.

Work provides identity, provides a backstory to prove we have value.....

What do we do without our backstory??? Do we cease to exist. Is our backstory...

No, it's not a noisy bird, although that'd actually be a welcome alternative.

The overnight disturbance actually came from the batteries on my apartment's fire alarm. They're spent, and they need to be replaced by maintenance. When they get like that, the alarms make a frequent chirping sound that occurs every few seconds. I was sleeping great for four hours from Friday night into Saturday morning until those sounds began. And the pity of it is..................it...

This is a good point to demonstrate what is meant by a good Muslim.


Here is the objective point.
A Muslim by definition must comply with the Quran.
What is needed to be complied is in the 6,236 verses in the Quran.
Therefore if a Muslim complied with 100% of the 6,236 verses of the Quran, s/he is a 100% Muslim.
In practice this may not be possible and not all 6,236 relate to the obligation and duty of a Muslim.
Thus the truer Muslim is the more...

One day last week we got some snow, not a lot, about two inches. I decided to shovel my driveway anyway so it wouldn't turn to ice. I put my coat and ski cap on and spent almost 20 minutes out there huffing and puffing until I was finished. I was dizzy and weak when I came back into the house so I threw my coat on the sofa and plopped down in the recliner and closed my eyes while my ticker was still thumping like crazy. I must have dozed off for a little bit and got up to use the bathroom. That's...

I'll preface this by saying up front I'm a cat guy. I don't know if it's their aloofness, their athleticism, or just the way they stare at you. It's almost as if they look right through you. Yes, at times, the cat does assert its superiority to its human companion... Even if the vacuum cleaner does instill an unnatural fear into the 'domesticated' hunter.

So tonight I'm wrestling with my friends Great Pyrenees... He's a good boy. 2 years old, 85 pounds of pure muscle. And he's nipping,...