personal ← Alex Acks: Sound and Nerdery

Fixing Small Things 3

Jan

16

2021

Unintentionally, today ended up being a fix stuff around the house kind of day. I was planning to take it easy and get some writing done, so maybe this was me avoiding writing when my house is already pretty clean. But honestly, it felt really good to do. I had a light fixture falling a bit ...

Things I remember from the strike 2

Mar

28

2017

I grew up in a union house. My dad was a chief steward in the CWA (local 7750). I remember there being one strike (and the threat of others) when I was growing up. Looking at the CWA history, I’m pretty sure this is what I remember: 1986: Post Divestiture Bargaining 1986 presented CWA with ...

Let this be my act of defiance. 12

Nov

10

2016

Let me start with a geology story. I promise, there’s a point to this. When I was a geologist at the research company, I had a core come in. There was a ten foot section of it that I didn’t know how to describe. It was fine-grained, filled with burrows. So far so good. But ...

(Personal) Wish List

Nov

4

2016

My birthday is coming up, as is Christmas. As usual, putting this here for ease of reference for people close enough to me to want to throw a gift tied to a brick through my window. Everyone else, carry on, nothing to see here. In order of how desperately I need the thing: 2.5″ metal ...

Has it really been almost a month? 3

Sep

21

2016

I look away for five minutes, and suddenly it’s been almost a month since I posted anything in my blog. Well, hi guys. I’m still alive. To be honest, I can’t say I’m having that much fun with it, though. Basically, I’m deep in the pit of home renovation hell. Every time I walk into ...

Exit, pursued by student loans (a small plea for help) 10

Mar

23

2016

As of yesterday, I no longer have a job. I wish I could say this is because I’ve spontaneously become independently wealthy, but that’s not the case. I worked in the petroleum industry, and all you have to do is take a look at the per-barrel price of oil over the last year to understand why ...

Dear Santa ’14 1

Dec

5

2014

It’s that time of year when people are asking about wish lists and stuff, so here it is. Just like last year, the best present you can give me is to buy my books, love them, and review them! Gift certificates to the Alamo Drafthouse, Saint Harridan, Brooks Brothers, and Kiva Rum horchata from Minhas Distillery ...

More divorce thoughts 10

Sep

3

2014

Now that the cat is out of the bag, there are some more kind of nitty-gritty things about divorce that I want to talk about, because I think they’re dumb or annoying or just kind of funny. It’s okay that we’re okay. While we were going through the whole process, we kept having these weird ...

This is about failure. This is about divorce. 6

Sep

2

2014

I tend to be very careful, out here on the internet, about when and how I speak about my personal life. Ridiculous bitching about my period? Sure, why not. Navel-gazing about weight and body image? Sure. But all of those things are about me. When it comes to the people in my life and how ...

Adventures in Anesthesia 2

Aug

22

2014

I had surgery again today. Yay me. To get a bone spur shaved off of my left big toe and get the joint cleaned up. (Old kung fu injury, blah blah.) I’m looking forward to being able to run again once I’m done with the PT. Though for now I’m sitting on the couch, wishing ...