Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 30th, 2016 in Star Wars, Star Wednesday 
I have never been a comic book guy, neither as a kid nor as an adult. I can easily count on one hand all my childhood memories involving comic books. My great Grandma Brown had a small stack of them in her living room that I used to flip through each time we visited. One time, at a garage sale, my mom bought me a stack of horror-themed comic books. My dad had a collection of Star Wars comic books that he kept in his bedroom. That’s pretty much it. Many years ago, my dad bequeathed his collection of Star… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 26th, 2016 in College, My Life 
I am thankful for all the obvious things one should be thankful for (life, health, work), but one thing that hit me this week was how thankful I am for the graduate writing program I’m enrolled in. I’ve attended college for lots of reasons over the years — because I wanted to start something, because I needed to finish something, because I didn’t know what else to do — but right now, I’m going to school because I want to. We are paying for my classes out of pocket, and it’s not cheap. That’s not any kind of badge of… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 21st, 2016 in Main 
Gather ’round, children, and let me tell you about the days of old. If you’re in your mid-20s or younger, you probably don’t remember life before the internet. Those of us in our thirties, forties and beyond remember the world of catalogs. Other than the Thanksgiving Day parade, nothing else marked the beginning of the holiday season more than the arrival of 500 bound pages featuring photos of every toy you could imagine. Sears, Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penny, and other large department stores couldn’t wait to get their thick catalogs into the hands of children, who would flip through the… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 18th, 2016 in Main 
When I was a kid, I absolutely loved joke books. I loved reading jokes and telling them to my friends, although I usually forgot them almost as quickly as I read them. Morgan likes reading and telling jokes too, and although she normally gets them from websites and phone apps, when I ran across this book of jokes I just had to pick it up for her. First of all, it’s the “ultimate” joke book. If you’re only going to own one, it might as well be the ultimate one, right? Also on the cover, the book guarantees laughs for… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 14th, 2016 in MainI was home alone last week when I heard a voice behind me. “Thank you.” The little girl’s voice was as plain as day — not something you might imagine in your mind, but something real you would hear with your ears. I had just flushed the upstairs toilet when I heard the voice. I spun around to see who was standing behind me, but no one was there. Had one of the kids stayed home sick from school? I tip-toed out of the bathroom and looked around. All the lights upstairs were off. I stood still for a long… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 11th, 2016 in Main 
At the beginning of each graduate course I’ve taken over the past three semesters, students are expected to introduce themselves to their fellow classmates. The format varies slightly, but key bits of information always include giving your name, what your undergraduate degree was in, and where you earned it. This seems like it would be simple information to provide, but I get tripped up every single time. Let’s just say I didn’t take the express train to get where I am today. I first attended college at Redlands Community College. I started in the fall of 1991 (right after graduating… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 10th, 2016 in Main 
Tuesday night after class, a few of my classmates and I left campus and walked to a nearby bar. The bar has half-a-dozen flat-screen televisions mounted over the bar, making it well-suited for watching sporting events. Normally the televisions display multiple football, baseball, and basketball games, but last night they were all tuned in to the 2016 presidential election. In a booth not far from the bar, six of us gathered to watch the results of the election. It would be more poetic to say I was drinking because I had some inkling as to how the election would turn… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 2nd, 2016 in Main 
Halloween tip-toed in through the front door and left out the back without saying goodbye. The Halloween decorations (stored in plastic tubs up in the attic throughout the year) made it as far as the garage floor this year, where they remain. Both kids (with Susan’s help) made rather than bought their costumes this year. Morgan dressed up as the Joker as he appeared in The Dark Night. She and Susan put together a costume, and Morgan did her own makeup. Mason dressed up as a cockroach. He found the costume online for $85; Susan sewed a reasonable replica for… (read more)
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