Why an Exploding Egg?

I chose the name Exploding Egg for this blog for a couple of reasons — the main and most sad one being that forkinthetoaster.com was already taken.

I was planning to write a blog about being new to the Portland area, but my friend and fellow computer nerd Amedeo convinced me that it’s smarter to make an all-inclusive blog as a central dumping point for all things crawling through your brain, rather than making several mini dumping points by content.

So I killed my idea for newtoportland.com, which I think was taken anyway, and portlandpirate.com, which despite my desire to wear an eye patch and fly a black flag, was too close to the name of a Portland Maine hockey team.

I decided instead to look at other interesting ways — beyond electrocution — to start household disasters, and the notion of tossing an egg in the microwave came to mind.

I also briefly considered doing something in the vein of chlorine gas — made with ammonia and bleach — because as a young and dumb 19-year-old I once mopped my floor with it. Fortunately I was saved by a roommate who realized what I had done when I said “hey, check it out, Curtis, the cleaning water is getting warmer and warmer on its own. Cool, huh?”

That was followed by a “Get outside, now!” and the destruction of said cleaning products.

So much for going to one of the top rated public high schools in Massachusetts.

Beyond that, and the fun of watching things explode in the microwave, the egg reference also reminded me of a little quote in one of my favorite books, Herman Hesse’s Demian:

“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God’s name is Abraxas.”

It’s a good image of starting over, something I plan to do, and not for the first time in my life.

Cheers,
-SueVo

Welcome to the Exploding Egg

Hi There,

Welcome to the Exploding Egg, a site to detail my strange and often misguided adventures through life.

I’m a Boston gal who is venturing to Portland, Oregon after spending the past 17 years in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I’m recovering from a 14 year bout of the disease known as print journalism. I suffered from a rare form of the affliction called science reporting.

With luck, the salt air and rain of Portland will relieve the final symptoms of this illness that has taken up so many good years of my life, and perhaps even find me a new outlet for my love of science that isn’t quite so prone to the fast-expanding flames of the news apocalypse.

My house in Albuquerque is set to sell at the end of April, and as long as all goes well, I should make a clean break to Oregon before the end of the month.

With that will come the next phase in my ongoing adventures, which I plan to detail here.

I hope you all enjoy this blog and feel free to interact with me.

Cheers,

-SueVo