sense of doubt

Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #64 - whiskey time! Traverse City pt. six

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #64 - whiskey time! Traverse City pt. six

Hi Mom,

I worked most of the day, but I am now lapping up some delicious bourbon that Dad and I bought in Traverse City. Dad bought one bottle, and I bought the other, but somehow, I now have both. Most peculiar.

I was hoping to not only catch up on the under construction items in writing to you by today, Mom, but also get the comic book stuff posted before the start of school (tomorrow). But I have learned my limits. I can only do so much. I can only work so much. There's a point at which I must stop to avoid certain misery.

More soon.

In Traverse City, Dad and I visited the Traverse City Whiskey Co.

Here's some photos.

I now am the proud owner of a classic bourbon and a cherry infused bourbon whiskey from this fine establishment.

Rang in the new year with some!

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 65 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1509.07 - 19:28
and finished 1601.01 - 9:13

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #63 - our house - Traverse City pt. five

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #63 - our house - Traverse City pt. five

Hi Mom,

Still running behind. Have to get this posted, but first, I have to take the dog for a walk.

During our trip to Traverse City, Dad and I went to look at our old house on Long Lake. We showed up right at the time that the owner was cleaning the place, and so got to go in and look around.

It was amazing to see our old house where we lived from 1967-68 but then stayed many summers there after (most summers of my growing up years).

Here's some photos.

Damn, my paunch is too prominent

the entrance

my old room

closet in my room is just the same

stairs to my room are unchanged

cubby desk in my room is much the same

The porch is very different though

COMPARE above photo TO THIS:

Other cabins on the property

the Neighbors

the beach and the cove

the point

down the shore to the left

another shore view, left

Long Lake

up the shore, right

Above is the beach where my father filmed my sister and I running every year. We need to splice those film clips together to show us growing up.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 64 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1509.06 - 16:34
and finished 1601.01 - 9:32

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #62 - More on Traverse City pt. four

Dad and I at the Riverside Inn in Leland

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #62 - More on Traverse City pt. four - Leland and Suttons Bay

Hi Mom, Here's some more photos from my trip to Traverse City with Dad.

Riverside Inn, Leland

Tip jar, ice cream place
Sutton's Bay

Sutton's Bay

Fishtown, Leland

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 63 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1509.05 - 20:00
and finished 1601.01 - 9:37

Friday, September 4, 2015

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #61 - American Museum of Magic

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #61 - American Museum of Magic

Hi Mom,

Still in catch up mode, so this one starts incomplete.

Dad and I went to the American Museum of Magic before we went to Turkeyville on Thursday, August 27th, 2015. We forgot to get any pictures of ourselves at either the museum or at Turkeyville.

So this will be a photo document of the museum and some thoughts to share.

I love old magic posters, so there are several of those in this photo set.

classic cups and balls,
oldest magic trick

Houdini's milk can escape

Amazing collection of hand bills

Guillotine and
Sawing a Lady in Half

Disecto, which I own

Tarbell of the Tarbell Course in Magic
which I have just been gifted the eighth and final volume

Karrell Fox, I have one of his books

Magic magazines
I wrote for MUM and New Tops

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 62 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1509.04 - 18:51
and finished 1601.01 - 9:39

I am Christopher Tower the gmr

I am Christopher Tower (or Chris), and I am a writer of stuff. I grew up in Michigan; I now live in the Portland, OR metro area. I play Ultimate, ride a bike, and supposedly educate college persons while myself being educated in college. I am married with two kids, a beagle, a curly lab, and a fiesty pug/frenche mix. I like sushi. I love all SF, fantasy, comic books, D&D, board games, and Gnosticism. I am a Jungian. I am currently studying Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Walden University.

SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who is the Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard. This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Monkey Wrench Books

Chris's books

A Feast for Crows

by George R.R. Martin

This book is a little slower than the others. But if you become invested in this series, it provides key information about the history of Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea. It may not contain chapters with my favorite characters ...

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Do I really need to review this book? It's one of the best books I have ever read. Martin is a great writer. All the books are great, and I am loving my time rereading them. If you have not checked out these books, start here and get ready ...

The Golden City

by John Twelve Hawks

These books are immensely entertaining. Treat yourself to some strong writing, great action, compelling characters, and a mix of metaphysics and theology. The ending of this third book, which is presumably the last, is anti-climactic and so...

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

This was a fun book. Not OSC's best but very good OSC nonetheless. The best thing about is the time travel, slowing, and speeding powers of the characters and how OSC engages the reader in discussion of causality and time paradox. For fans ...

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

This book came to me via my wife Liesel who discovered it and urged me to read it. Beautifully written with compelling characters and a sense of the magical (yet realistic, somewhat). Funny yet full of the pathos that marks a good if not gr...

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.