http://improvist.org Dan Brian's blogs, photos, music, and projects. en-us Marie has started blogging a bit here, at the Glass Bead Network. http://improvist.org/Blogs/2008/3/1204765005-entry.xml Marie keeps our pictures up-to-date, as usual. Recent additions include gymnastics, record snow falls, and astonishingly cute kids. My life is a blur as of late, with little time and less sleep. But the final beta for the Glass Bead Network is now open. We will have our "commercial" launch late next week, which means that we'll start advertising. Four years of my life coming down to a couple of weeks to gauge interest. Whee! I'll be asking everyone and anyone to help publicize it, but that's later in the month. I've started some minimal blogging over there; eventually I'll probably move everything. http://improvist.org/Blogs/2008/2/1203532000-entry.xml It's that time of year again when we show all of you up with the sheer awesomeness of our Christmas blog post – YULE EDITION: PART DEUX. The Brians will always remember 2007 as the year that they did not go to Disneyland. 'Nuff said. Here are a few highlights: Tess got glasses! An aggressive fungus destroyed our lawn! Annie ate a wide variety of vegetables, including celery! Garron won second and third place in an obscure photo contest! After weeks of digging, Danny found our septic tank! Marie finally learned a guitar song that was not Radiohead! Garron broke his toe! Tess won the school's turkey gobbling contest, brought home a frozen turkey! Both Annie and Tess had plugs of ear wax removed! from both ears! Garron conquered level 31 in Lost Planet! Marie read, like, a zillion books! Danny turned thirty-five, became concerned about joint health! So you see, pretty exciting stuff. I dare you to try and beat it. So what if you got a new job, a new house, or a new baby. We got a new mini-vacuum cleaner. It's been that kind of year. Merry Christmas! http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/a12/1197084223-entry.xml It's 4 out of 5 now, with just Annie left. Photos here. http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/a11/1194465829-entry.xml My Ron Paul signs have been up for a while. This comes as no surprise to friends or family. I happen to think that Paul is the best chance America has at real change and leadership at a time when a vote for pretty much any other candidate is a non-vote. Some good coverage: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/06/paul/index.html http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/a11/1194465819-entry.xml According to a letter I received from a yellow pages company, I have a new profession: sky writer. Yep, there was a listing with my name and next to it was the title of my services: Marie Brian, sky writer. After a moment of bewilderment, I realized that all of this had somehow come from my registering for a DUNS number, which was a requirement for one of my doomed submissions. Over the phone, the operator had asked me what my profession was. I said that I was a writer. (Which seemed like a total lie, but what else was I supposed to say? Don't answer that.) Somehow this information was misheard as "sky writer." I bet that operator was really impressed with my unusual skills of flying aircraft and farting clouds that read, "WILL YOU MARRY ME AMY?" or the ever popular, "SURRENDER DOROTHY." http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/a10/1193158111-entry.xml I usually go through my kids' backpacks everyday to see what is what with homework, calendars, etc, and today I pulled out a flier for the elementary school's annual "Reflections" contest. I said to Garron, "Hey! Why don't you enter the Reflections contest this year?" And he looked at me with all of the world-weariness of a fourth-grader. "Mom," he sighed. "I'm not going to enter that contest." He shook his arms with disgust. "It has a theme -- 'I Can Make a Difference.' Isn't that the stupidest thing you have ever heard?" Oh, he is so our son. Except, really he is more Danny's son, in this case. When I was a kid I would have been all over that Reflections contest. I would have figured out a great way to incorporate the theme! Like maybe I would have written a killer essay that would have made the judges cry over my thoughtful ideas to end world hunger or save the whales, etc. And then when, as usual, I lost and the prize was awarded to some adorable little blond girl who had made a neat diorama out of popsicle sticks, I would have crashed in despair and lamented the unfairness of Life. But, no, Garron is above all of that. Thank goodness. And now indulge me in showing off a bit of Garron's writing. He is "starting a book," he told me. It is entitled, "The Dark Brotherhood Chronichels" (His spelling, and I wish that you could see his funky gothic penmanship.) And it begins with "Chapter One: Midnight Havoc": http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/a10/1191521793-entry.xml When people comment about how much television my kids watch, I like to come back with "well, they watch educational shows like Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs." That just sounds better than "Sponge Bob", which is also a favorite at home and not as impressively highbrow. Mythbusters is great. It's a show where they, uh, bust myths. (I'm lazy. Go google it or something.) And Dirty Jobs is also pretty self-explanatory, but they use the word "dirty" more in a literal sense as in "soiled with dirt; foul; unclean," and not so much "obscene; lewd." The host, Mike Rowe, performs real life dirty jobs such as cleaning garbage and treating sewage. Yes, it's gross and I don't watch it except occasionally when the dirty job involves something non-poo like clouds of flour at a bakery. I can stomach that. (I also like Mike Rowe. He reminds me of a gentlemanly lumberjack. You know, the kind of guy who can swing an ax and recite poetry at the same time.) Now I'm worried that I might get an outraged letter from the school principal, because lately Tess loves to say, "When I grow up I want to have a dirty job." http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/9/1188693417-entry.xml The other day Garron reached a critical milestone in his young life. He broke his first bone. Not only that, he sliced his foot in the crack between the pinky toe and whatever the name of the toe is next to the pinky toe. A big nasty gash. After doctoring him with neosporin and band aids, we decided that it would be wise to take him to a real doctor since his toe was looking possibly gangrenous and like it could fall off if he did a single jumping jack. Garron hobbled into the doctor's office with a stagey limp. The doctor asked Garron how this happened with his pen poised. Garron took in a deep breath and started, "Well, I was playing Rollercoaster Tycoon on the computer downstairs and my sister, Tess, wanted to watch me and I was like nooooo, you can't because you're so annoying and then she screamed at me and I screamed at her, and I closed the door on her like this and then we started pushing and I began to chase her and then, see, I hit my foot on the desk . . ." Because of the doctor's perplexed expression and frozen pen, I interrupted, "He hit his foot on a sawhorse really hard and sliced in between his toes." The doctor nodded his head and wrote that down. Garron tells a story the same way I do. Which is crappily. It reminds me of how when I was little I saw a mouse in the bathtub. It was the middle of the night and I came creeping into my parents' bedroom to tell them. I began the narrative like this: "Mom? Dad? Remember how I was telling you that when I was playing at Karen's house the other day we saw a mouse run from her backyard into ours?" My groggy parents stared. "Well, I think that the mouse came to our house and into my bathroom and fell into the tub and I think that it's the same one, and it's cute even though it doesn't look like a mouse in a cartoon." It took my mother a moment to catch on. She nudged my dad — "Larry, I think she's saying that there's a mouse in the bathtub." Long story short: Garron ginsu-knifed his foot, broke his toe in the process, and learned that the Fine Art of How Not to Get to the Point is hereditary. http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/8/1188430285-entry.xml Dick Cheney explains why invading Iraq during the first Gulf War would have been a bad idea, and not remotely worth the cost. http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/8/1187113790-entry.xml The Glass Bead Network is opening its first beta launch on Friday. Head over and sign up! http://improvist.org/Blogs/2007/7/1183481129-entry.xml