Brainsprain.net

String theory is out, man.
Let’s get where it’s at!
Eleven dimensions.
Dig it. Daddy-O!
Parallel universes hum along.
Don’t cross the streams, Ray
even if they come in dozens.

This morning, they’ve closed most of downtown Austin because of the mysterious deaths of about a dozen pigeons. The fire department was called in to collect the animals and send them to a lab to figure out what killed them. Preliminary air tests showed nothing out of the ordinary that might have caused the birds to all die together.

What strikes me most about this situation is how we might have responded to this same event prior to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. We would have completely disregarded it and it wouldn’t have even merited a mention in local news. Terrorism has affected us so fundamentally that everyone — myself included — is anxious for these lab results.

To me, the most likely explanation is pranksters or the cold, but we’ll see.

Update 12:53pm: Looks like there is no credible threat. See the complete story here.

fitful truth
piece within peace
marvelous dancer incarnate

found like sickle cells
on museum walls
in crimson and orange bubblets

drapes on my mind and shaking hands
a summoning cloth
my chest grows taut in silence

beat per beat
in fire drummer hammers
my eyelids collide with the future

garage doors pulling themselves
open with the Genie electric
call of my shotgun alarm clock

I rise and continue
and continue to rise
because the arrow of time flies forward

Actually, don’t give me a beer. I am allergic. However, isn’t she lovely? The new face of Brainsprain is kind of low key, but I like it. I have spent the day researching artwork and deciding what it is that really makes me go. It has been a very effective use of my time. I find that I pretty much like a little of everything. One thing I have determined, however, is that I just don’t get Jackson Pollock. I feel like I could take a canvas and a bunch of left over house paint and do one of those in my backyard and you would not be able to tell the difference. Does anyone feel like doing this experiment with me? If you have some leftover house paint, bring it over. I am going to make a Pollock and sell it to my friend Sean for the cost of the canvas.

Yesterday I was on the phone with a client to determine dates for a course they wanted us to teach. They are notorious for going down random rat-holes that have little, if anything, to do with the subject matter at hand. During the discussion of the roll-out, they suddenly took issue with the name of the product we would train their users on. To simplify and to avoid naming names, let’s pretend I work for McDonald’s. If I had, the conversation would have gone a little something like this: Read the rest of this entry »

Hooray!   Domain transfer complete and successful.  The gallery will soon be completed and included as a link from this page, but in the mean time you can get to it here.  Please note that it’s incomplete and mostly just a placeholder at this point.

When my doctor asked me to get a sleep study, I really didn’t have any clue what to expect. I read all the descriptions online and found them vague and not particularly useful. I therefore decided to write as complete a description as possible for others so they might know what, exactly, to expect. This is an account of my sleep study. Your mileage will vary. Read the rest of this entry »

With the new year, we’ve got a new look. We’ll be adding things right and left, and we’ve both pledged to keep up with the posting. We’ll also be adding picture galleries soon, showcasing Colleen’s art. Enjoy!

Chad