Writing a post such as
Robert Nelson Drew or
Now for Another Cosmic Moment takes me a couple hours, what with researching, sourcing, fact checking, spell checking. And that doesn't count the five or six hours required to create the
Actual Innocence Scorecard that prompted the Drew post. Mostly though, I write slowly because I struggle to transform thoughts so clear in my head into pixelated text. I'm already ten minutes into this post. Only occasionally, when the muse hits, do I write quickly and to my satisfaction.
Given that I maintain this blog (in theory) only after earning a living elsewhere, trying to publish a series of books, directly assisting someone wrongfully convicted, and having a private life, hours are a precious commodity. I'm not complaining by any means. I've mentioned multiple times that I consider myself to be among the most fortunate of people. I would simply like more hours in each day, and more days ahead of me, then I won't ask for anything else. For now.
When I go Off Topic, however, I can finish a post in a few minutes, if I don't get too philosophical. That's one reason I post on such topics as
kittens riding the Roomba and
puggles. (The Skeptical Spouse described the picture as The Black Hole of Cuteness.)
There's another reason, however, for going Off Topic. At the same time life can be ugly, it can be beautiful. I must not lose sight of that.
I want to help correct a serious problem we have in our society, that of wrongful convictions. That effort has placed me waiting anxiously in a courthouse to see if they will take the belt and shoelaces from a good and decent (and innocent) man as they march him away from his family, probably forever. It has caused me to stuggle for the right words, as if there are any, when I first speak to someone serving two life sentences for a crime he did not commit. It has caused me to stay up through the night slowly composing a farewell post to someone with less than a day to live, someone who took a substantial portion of his final days to write to me, and to educate me.
I didn't expect this to be so personal, so potentially overwhelming.
So that I can continue, I try not to lose sight of all that is beautiful in this world. That is why I go Off Topic.
With that brief introduction out of the way, I now (finally) present:
A patent for a
beer keg hat. (Scroll down once you get there to see the cool picture.)
And finally, wavy beans. It's merely an illusion. Focus on one bean to make them all stop. Alternatively, lean back from the screen and blur your vision a bit. Do something, or you will go mad.
