Personal Entries

Every Sunday (now) I write about something that isn’t directly related to teaching, although a number of these entries obviously are connected in some way.

A statement of purpose? – My opening salvo.

Frank Turner’s Tales From No Man’s Land… Expanded
A little bit of historical writing as part of my growing fandom for the music of Frank Turner.

American Lawyers Alliance awards banquet in San Francisco – Look Ma, I won a national award!

Student Travel: Costa Rica in July 2020 – An attempt to do another student travel trip… that just didn’t get any excitement going, much to my chagrin.

Inside a Nigerian Scam: The 411 about the 419: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 – The epic tale of stringing along a Nigerian scam artist in the hopes of keeping him from scamming an unsuspecting person.

Adventures in Genealogy: Part I, Part 2 – An ongoing series about my exploration of my ancestry.

Big Brother: The Good One – A look back at an extremely important experience and relationship.

The Little League Draft: Girls, Girls, Girls – The story of how my brother and I practically cornered the market on female baseball players in Piscataway.

Bob Watches Too Much TV And Should Read a Book – My guide to watching streaming TV shows. Updated. And again.

Rutgers Graduate School of Education – An examination of my somewhat weird experience in grad school.

The World’s Biggest Smile – The rewards of seeing unbridled joy.

The Glacial Movement Toward Becoming a Continent – Obsessing over weight gain and loss.

Home Video Games in the 1970s – From Pong to Colossal Cave to my Atari 2600.

Hail to the Commodore, but not Barry this time… – My years with Commodore computers.

Punked after getting my phreak on with ARPANET – dipping my toe in illegal activities as a teen.

Gaming Continued: The Arcade – Memories of video game arcades.

Adventures in illicit drugs and underaged drinking! – The mildest bad boy you’ve ever seen…

Come Together While We Stay Apart: Hillsborough Food Bank and Meals For Heroes – Some nice news for a change about people helping one another.

Remembering Adam Schlesinger (1967-2020) – Some ramblings about what the music of Fountains of Wayne meant to me, written in the hours after hearing of Adam’s death from COVID-19.

From the Files of Conjecture: Help Save the Youth of America – A long, long time ago, I can still remember a time where people considered not voting out of principle.

Civil Unrest: From the Comfort of My Easy Chair – Coming to grips with what’s going on around me without having to really worry about my safety or that of my loved ones.

My Black Friend Says… – Essay I wrote in 1993 about turning my magazine over to a new editor-in-chief and my perspective on racial issues at the time.

There Are Some Issues with My New Hobby – Figuring out how to become an intermediate cycling enthusiast.

My Agnostic Work Ethic – Perhaps a bit of a not-so-humble brag?

“There’s nothing wrong with a little agitation for what’s right or what’s fair” – A look back at Wells Keddie’s influence on me.

We know how to spend the time, who cares about the weather? – A look back at how I met my wife.

Intelligence, a Swiss Army knife and charm – Behind the wedding proposal.

MUSIC

• My Theme Music Journey – Five years of my life were largely focused on my activity with a Facebook group making one thousand songs, my own album, and much more.
• The First Original Song – A look back at surprising myself by actually writing a song which led to a full production and ultimately an album.
• Hiding in the Foreground, Part I – How I went from writing a couple of songs to creating an album full of original music.
• Hiding in the Foreground, Part II – How an unexpected writing partnership blossomed and led to the second half of the album.
• Facebook Live in the Age of Pandemic – Some meandering reflection of doing Facebook live “shows.”
• Ten Influential Albums – Whiling away time on Facebook, reflecting on some favorite albums.
• How Does the Wedding Playlist Hold Up? -The songs played at my wedding.
• The Worst Songs of All Time – A somewhat cringe-inducing post from my old website.
• Favorite Songs of All-Time (From 10 Years Ago) – From a series of posts I made on Facebook a decade ago.
• The Songwriting Jag – An overview of the most productive couple weeks of my songwriting life.
• My Concert History – Best I’ve been able to recall, but I’m sure there’s a ton missing.

TRAVELOGUES

• Way Out West (2019) – A journal of sorts for my educational trip to Montana and Wyoming.
• A visit to Yellowstone National Park – The cheapest blog entry yet: photos!
• Sierra Leone and Back Again (2018-2019) – The re-publication of my journal from Sierra Leone with an addendum about what happened when I came home.
• Egypt 2001 Journal – My first time traveling with high school students… unfortunately these were some majorly entitled brats. And more horror stories from the road.
• France 2002 – My journal from the most eventful, insane student travel tour anyone in the history of the world has ever experienced.
• Italy 2003 – My journal from a great trip to Italy with some of my favorite people.
• London 2003 – What happens when a couple of new parents take their six-month old across the ocean during a heatwave?
• France 2005 – A near mutiny, but a great trip nonetheless.
• Ireland 2006 – Probably my best ever experience taking students abroad.
• Costa Rica 2008 – My last non-Model United Nations travel. Hard to believe it was so long ago.