The Lockout, Part 1

When my wife and I arrived back home from our honeymoon, we moved in to our new house for the first time. About two weeks later, we locked ourselves out. I remember the date well, because it was the day we were celebrating my birthday (which was the day before my actual birthday).

The Moment of Clarity

When I was a freshman at Virginia Tech, I lived on the Upper Quad, where the Corps of Cadets lived. To be clear, I was not a cadet, but I lived in the civilian dorms next to where the cadets lived.

Big Time Scramble

When I was in second grade (about 8 years old), my best friend James and I had a game we’d play called Big Time Scramble. When we were going somewhere as a class and the door was closing in front of us, we wouldn’t grab the door, we’d try to run through it without touching it. While you were running through it you would say “Big Time Scramble!”, and the closer the door was to fully closing when you went through, the cooler you were.

One day we were walking back to our classroom. I had already gone through the door and James decided to go for a Big Time Scramble. He barely made it through, but the door closed in the face of the girl behind him. She told the teacher that he shut the door in her face and James got a talking to. I don’t think anything else came of it, but we stopped playing Big Time Scramble after that.

The Cats, Part 1

I promised pictures of cats, and I suppose I should deliver.

The Lockpick Master

At a previous job, the company-issued filing cabinets had extremely basic and easily-pickable locks. Occasionally when I was bored or thinking through a problem, I would try to pick the lock on one of my filing cabinets with a paperclip and a screwdriver. With enough patience and luck I could get the lock open, though it usually required at least ten minutes of fiddling. Sometimes I couldn’t open it at all.

Orcs

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The Storm

Why does the storm rage?
My ship is tossed about.

That Travelin’ Feeling

In 2012, I signed up with Hope Singles Corps to help with earthquake and hurricane relief in Haiti. It was my first ever trip outside the United States. I was 29 years old.

The Printer

There’s something anachronistic, something almost wrong about using an electronic device to produce a hard copy of a document. Perhaps in response to this fundamental wrongness, I have always found printers to be the least enjoyable piece of computer hardware to interact with.

Apocalypse

The old man stands in front of us, gaze unwavering. “So the choice is yours. Either…”