Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Here is a little idiosyncrasy from my childhood. Somewhere around age 6 I got in my head the notion that it was possible that I could die and keep on keeping on in some sort of heaven/hell of my own creation. So every time the thought popped into my head I had to check my pulse to see if I was still alive. Even at 6 I understood that it was a little silly to assume that God/The Universe would create a reality for me compete with sight, sound, smell, taste and touch and miss such a minor detail as providing me with a pulse. With the aid of cognitive dissonance I eventually reasoned that God/The Universe might want me to figure out that I was not actually “living” in the real world and the lack of a pulse would surely be the path to my enlightenment. For the record by the time I was 10 I had given up on that theory. I actually hadn’t thought of this little ritual in some time but was reminded of it while reading Tim Pratt’s Dead Reign from his Marla Mason Series. One of the characters suffers from Cotard delusion, a psychological disorder in which the afflicted believes that they are dead. Please note I am not suggesting I suffered from this disorder, I was simply a child grappling with the nature of consciousness and reality.

So on to the dream… Last night I had what started off as a fairly mundane dream. Not really spectacular, vivid, creative or particularly enlightening. Other than some normal inconsistencies/dream logic, it was actually a pretty boring dream. There was, as I mentioned, some odd inconsistencies. Occasionally when dreaming I notice the dream logic and say - hey wait a second, that’s not possible I must be dreaming… Then I either go with the flow or take control of the lucid dream. Not this time. In what I am sure was some sort of synergistic reaction to Tim Pratt’s book along with the impact of my Mother’s sudden passing I was sure I was dead, I even checked my pulse. When I couldn’t find one, I had the sudden recollection of an impact and I just “knew” that I had died in a car accident. I woke up with such a fright that it was a good hour before my adrenaline was overwhelmed by the Lunesta and I was able to get back to sleep.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Let me begin by thanking everyone for the many wishes of congratulations, condolences and offers of help. As most of you are aware Melissa and I have a wonderful new addition to our family. Elijah Benjamin Feldman, AKA Eli, AKA The Grasshopper, was born on February 5, 2009. He was 6 lbs 7 oz, happy and healthy. Unfortunately our wonderful news was tempered by the loss of my Mother. My parents had been on a long planned vacation to Puerto Rico. They were scheduled to return prior to Melissa and Eli being released from the hospital. The night Eli was born my mother was playing blackjack and according to our cousins who were vacationing with my parents, repeatedly looking at the the photo of Eli I had emailed them. She was having the time of her life when she had a massive aneurysm at the tables and was officially pronounced brain dead and removed from life support about 36 hours later. My mother was a huge part of our lives and I do not have the words to describe the combination of one of my highest highs with my lowest low. I am still trying to figure out how to embrace the joys of having a newborn and grieve for my mother but if there is one lesson she taught me it is you put your children first. So for now that is all I can do.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

I was tagged and completed one of those “25 random things about me” and true to #25 I decided to repost to my blog.

1. Someday I will finish and publish a novel.

2. I have finished many shorts stories over the years and have never attempted to have any of them published.

3. I have an irrational fear of birds.

4. That said very few things in this world truly frighten me. I have driven a buck twenty bumper to bumper on a tortuous road, gone bungee jumping, cliff diving, skydiving and countless other youthful indiscretions.

5. And that said I have been terrified on a couple of occasions. The first was a month before Josh was born and we were driving to Holly Cross to do a tour of the maternity ward. We were stopped in traffic on 495 near magical kingdom AKA the Mormon Temple. Melissa stated screaming as a SVU plowed into us at highway speeds. The accident put her into early labor and it was hours before they were able to stop the labor and give us any assurance that she and the baby would be OK. The second time in recent memory was when I held my son for the first time.

6. Even though I am pro-science and highly critical of religious dogma, I am surprisingly religious. I have never doubted in G-d, only humanity’s ability to understand.

7. Most of my life I preferred to read what Academics call literature and now I prefer speculative fiction. I can even admit to truly loving some urban/dark fantasy that could just as easily be housed in the romance isle.

8. I am a terrible insomniac and Lunesta has changed my life.

9. I have been contemplating giving up meat on moral grounds but am not sure I have the will power to make it happen.

10. I’m a Mac, and a PC and a LINUX

11. As a kid I used to take things apart to to figure out how they worked, I still do.

12. I used to build PCs before it was considered easy.

12. I am very mechanically inclined but have never changed my own oil, mostly because I don’t like getting dirty.

13. I love to garden. I know that sounds contradictory but I don’t mind dirt dirt. It is the greasy and/or sticky things I don’t love.

14. I have studied Christianity more in depth than Judaism.

15. I hated being Jewish as a child but happily identify with Judaism as an adult.

16. My favorite game is Gin provided I am playing with my wife. She is a knocker!

17. My mind works best when I am multitasking.

18. I can listen to an audio book or watch TV while reading and follow both. I know this makes me a little odd but I was a multitasker before modern communication necessitated it.

19. My wife never ceases to amaze me.

20. On any given day Lifeguarding was my favorite job. Bar-tending was the most fun, and Teaching the most rewarding.

21. Even though I don’t LOVE it I am very good at HR an assume I will keep doing it forever unless I do #1 more than once and really really really well.

22. I am terrible with names.

23. Having a child (soon to be children) has changed my life in unbelievable and indescribable ways.

24. Yes I do get asked about the other Corey Feldman all to often and how funny is it that my best friend’s name is Tony Orlando.

25. Most of my life I have shared easily but with few. With Social media (blogging, facebook, twitter) I now share with many but no longer with ease.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Happy New Years everyone! Annoying resolutions post most likely follow.

In the mean time here are some interesting search phrases that brought people to my site. What are the key phrases that bring people to your sites?

corey s diaper

i hate mornings

baltimore harbor boats

port discovery baltimore human resources

port discovery hr

could this day get any slower

i hate the coreys

favia coffee machine comparison

what is wrong with house

i hate mornings help

free ebook download mike carey vicious circle

man bag backpack

back ground corey check

corey feldman - where is he now - dec 2008

wrong

free tor ebooks

did cory feldman have a baby

melissa and corey Feldman

health clubs

i think still the fundamentals of our economy are strong hurt

kidville Rockville

kidville blogs

suck water from flat roof

looking for a job or need a job or job search or job hunting or unemployed or got fired or layed off

mike carey vicious circle lit

american economy is strong

corey feldman and obama

corey feldman religion

how do u ping someone with an iphone?

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

The always funny and insightful Laurie Ruettimann AKA Punk Rock HR and I are having a slight disagreement regarding internet use at work. Laurie was blogging about Signs You Need to Start Your Job Search. Basically Laurie is saying never stop looking. I couldn’t agree more – network, grow or die. However she ended her post with “This is the sign you’ve been waiting for, yo. Start your job search today. Look for a job from the comfort of your warm cubicle with free, company-sponsored high-speed internet and your cushy Aeron® chair.” Here is where I disagree. My response “Agreed except for the part of doing it from your cubicle/office over company internet. While you have those things sure, but not on or with company property. Never know who in IT or otherwise is watching.”

This of course lead to Laurie’s latest blog post Using The Internets on Company Time in it she asks HR professionals and Managerial types if you have or would fire an employee for browsing Monster.com at work. For me it is simple, your company most likely has a policy against it, you are most likely an employee at will and Job Hunters are not a protected class. Don’t do it at work.

What do you all think, post here or there.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Last night sometime – Showered, change into fresh and clean workout clothes, took sleeping pill and read until I fell asleep
5:30 am - Alarm, hit sleep timer
5:41 am - Alarm, got up. (Already dressed in gym clothes sans shoes)
6:15 am – brewed double shot espresso
6:20 am – Deiced windshield and made my way to gym
6:35 am – Started treadmill and last night’s Daily show on my iPhone

I seem to be missing 34 minutes between getting out of bed and brewing my espresso. I did check my email, deleted a few junk mails that slipped through the filter and confirmed one person on facebook. Total computer time 3 minutes - no more. Maybe another minute to put on and tie my running shoes. I didn’t blackout or fall back asleep, yet I have 30 minutes I simply cannot account for?

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Vicious Circle is book two in Mike Carey’s urban fantasy/detective noir series which chronicles the adventures and challenges of Felix Castor, reluctant exorcist.  In the London of Carey’s envisioning, the supernatural world has bled into our reality.  There are ghosts, lugaru (French equivalent of a were), demons, and other things that go bump in the night.  Most people can see ghosts but a few special people can exercise a certain amount of control over dead and undead.     At a young age Castor stumbled into his abilities by unintentionally exorcizing the ghost of his late sister.  Castor is a fascinating protagonist.  He is not a fighter, a lover or preternaturally powerful.  He is a wisecracking reluctant hero just a minute or so off the egg timer from hardboiled.  Carey paints a vivid picture of London and draws some fascinating supporting characters.  You have an old friend Rafi, inextricably bound to a powerful demon after Castor tried and failed to free him from possession.  Nicky the zombie, a computer hacker and conspiracy nut… and Juliet a succubus that I can’t say too much about without unnecessary spoilage for book 1, The Devil You Know.    

I thoroughly enjoyed book 1 but Vicious Circle is certainly a more polished product.  In this installment Castor is hired by a couple to find their kidnapped daughter.  While not an actual detective, Felix takes the case due to one very unusual circumstance; the girl was already dead when abducted. Along the way he will run into a powerful religious sect, a rash of apparent demonic possessions, an exorcist with abilities that seem to significantly outclass his own.  The book is fast paced, funny and does a fantastic job of blending the fantasy and detective genres.  While not completely necessary to read The Devil You Know first, it is entertaining in its own right and does help with the back story.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

I have never been more proud to be an American. 

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

If this turns out to be legitimate I seriously question Joe McCain’s commons sense. While I don’t expect the Senator to be his brother’s keeper, I am left wondering what sort of urgent family political business he is attending to. I hope Joe McCain is at the very least fined for his audacity.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Palin/Obiden Debate - Senator Obiden or O’Biden?

She did say O’Biden, I thought I was hearing things! At least she can say nuclear. Oh well, strike that, no wonder Biden kept talking about the current administration – It was almost like listening to Bush in drag

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

I don’t have a formal commenting policy, not that I have tons of commenters or anything.  But I have never “not approved” a message that was obviously spam free.  Today I received a comment on my McCain post that I still have sitting in moderation.  The commenter basically stated that McCain and Palin are way ahead of Obama in the polls, called Obama an idiot and stated that he would “go the way of Jesse Jackson and leech money from the African American Population.” Clearly I don’t agree but the reason I haven’t approved it was because he/she wrote it claiming to be Barack Obama.  Had it been written in third person, as much as I disagree, I would have approved it.  It’s a personal pet peeve of mine; you want to post something anonymously, that fine, just don’t pretend to be someone you are not.  I am curious what other bloggers do.   What do you moderate?   What are your comment pet peeves? 

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

John McCain: economy is ’still strong’

Would someone please tell me what the hell McCain is smoking? If you need any more proof that the good Senator is out touch with the majority of the American population and you know reality, watch this video and pick up a copy any major newspaper and take a gander at the massive economic fall out before us. Unless you are living with your head in the sand or on some sort of mind altering substance, you might just come across little hints the economy is in serious shit - You know things like the Sub prime crisis, massive increase in home foreclosures, not to mention the increasing number Bank failures for starts. How many of our aging baby boomers have portfolios with so called long term “safe” investments built on a foundation of security that is Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Lehman Brothers. How many people woke up this week to the realization that they would no longer be able to retire?

“the fundamentals of the American economy are strong.” - WTF?

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

According to a recent email, Tor is restarting their monthly ebook giveaway. 

- New giveaway e-books

More details next week–but yes, we plan to resume giving away selected e-books on Tor.com, at least one title per month. To download them you’ll need to not just visit Tor.com but register as a user; the downloads won’t be accessible until you do. Registering on the site takes maybe thirty seconds if you type particularly slowly…so Act Now, Act Without Thinking, get over to Tor.com and create yourself a user account today.-

I am excited to see the return of this program.   The previous incarnation certainly exposed me to writers I might not have otherwise ever picked up.  It looks like this time around you have to register and actually go to their site.  This is not a bad thing.  Tor.com is turning into a fairly significant portal for the SF community, think Blog, Social Networking and original fiction all wrapped up into one.  There have been some great stories by the likes of Charlie Stross and John Scalzi.   I haven’t had a lot of time to thoroughly explore the site, but from what I have seen if you are an SF fan you will want to check it out.  Truthfully I have been avoiding the site because it is so damn cool it can quickly turn into a giant time sink.  My user name over there is coreyjf – shocking I know.  Feel free to follow…

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Tropical storm/Hurricane whatever came and went this weekend.  Shockingly our above ground power lines held and we were not deprived of necessities such as coffee and hot showers.  We did however have a roof leak.  Climbing on my roof in the middle of a tropical storm is just not as much fun as it sounds.  Fortunately we found the leak before it could destroy our memory foam, OMG the best money we have ever spent, bed.  My roof was covered end to end in 4 inches of water.   It looked like a giant baby pool.  I sloshed my way to drain; look down the three stories to our patio and garden (we have a walkout basement), grateful that I have no fear of heights, and see standing water in the gutter housing. I reached in as far as I could - no leaves, no crud, and no luck.  The block was probably somewhere down the side of the house.  I figured I had two choices.  I could stand up there with a bucket for the rest of the storm or I could rip the gutter housing thing off and let the water drain down the side of the building unencumbered.  I choose option number two.  We have a decent size townhouse; so needless to say, it took a while to drain.  I have a gutter person coming out to give me an estimate.  My understanding was the previous owners had replaced the roof sometime in the last few years.  Hopefully it is under warranty. 

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

This day is dragging.  I am starting to wonder if time is actually slowing down.  Wait a second, didn’t the Large Hadron Collider  go live today.  Is it possible we are all being sucked into a black hole and time is literally slowing down?

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

We all have our perceptions of self; things that we see as defining us. Me, I like to think of myself as observant. We moved into our new place about 6 months ago. For the first 3 months I would drive and/or walk by the house pictured below with a general sense of unease. I had a feeling that something was wrong with this house but I could never quite put my finger on it. Now, I didn’t give it a significant amount of attention, which considering the fact I found it slightly disturbing, is probably not unusual. What really bothered me was how long it took me to notice. How quickly did you see it, comment or email, unless of course this is your house, then please note - I think it is a perfectly lovely house.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Say what you want, but I got myself a new Diaper/Man Bag.  I know, I poo-pooed the Ju-Ju-Be on twitter. Actually, I admitted it was a great bag and my wife had and loved it, but I was looking for something a little more masculine.  We went to Great Beginnings on Saturday, can somebody please explain to me why a large retail story is not open on Sundays.   After trying multiple bags including some book bag backpack style bags, Ju-Ju-be was the clear winner.  Not only is it a backpack, but with a simple pull of the strap it becomes a shoulder bag.  It has two side pockets for bottles and two large pouches on the front that close with magnetic snaps, which is seriously convenient if you need to grab something quick.  Main compartment is zippered with lots of organizer compartments for baby stuff.  On the backside there is a pouch for the changing pad, as to not take up precious interior space.  This bag was seriously well thought out, spacious and comfortable.  Fully stocked I can still drop in my Macbook and a hardcover or two.  They actually had a couple androgynous styles to choose from but I decided to go with something fun.   

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Yesterday we took Joshua on a quick day trip to the Baltimore Harbor.  From our house it is a about a 45 minute trip, an hour if you miss the exit to 95.  The gods of weather smiled kindly on us.  When we first arrived it was beautiful and sunny so we took Joshua out on his first paddle boat ride.  We had to fudge his age by 6 months, but he’s a big kid and managed to pass for two.  We ended up picking a gianormous dragon shaped paddle boat.  Next time we are going for smaller and/or electric.  We all had a blast but Melissa and I were exhausted by the time we done.  After working up an appetite we decide to grab some lunch a Cheesecake Factory.   In general I am not a big fan of chain restaurants, but typically Cheesecake is pretty passable.  Not so much this time.  It wasn’t particularly bad, but wasn’t good either.  Service was fine, Cheesecake rarely fails in that area, but wait times were very long which is never fun with a toddler.  Back to the weather gods, it poured while we ate, by the time we finished it was dry and cool enough for a leisurely strolled to the kids museum, Port Discovery. 

Port Discovery was a blast.  Honestly Joshua was a little too young for most of the exhibits, but there was still plenty for him to do.  He loved to water works and the wooden train.  The place is pretty impressive; I am looking forward to going back when he is a little older.  Apparently our good weather karma continued as it poured while were in the Museum but once again cleared up for our walk back to the car and drive home.   Photos are on my Flickr & facebook pages, along with our Saturday hike at Great Falls. 

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. You can comment here or there.

Had to install new version of Livejournal cross poster.  Fingers are crossed!