Andrea lookin' all luscious...
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/
blog of the lead singer from soul coughing. good rando stuff. was reminded of this band by reading down through my blog. made me think of spring break from first year of business school (which would be march of 1999) when i drove down to key west alone. everyone else was going on trips together to cancun, moustique, etc...i remember driving down to key west kinda bummed and alone and listening to the soul coughing album ruby vroom and the foo fighters album that has everlong on it (can't remember name right now). i camped out in a KOA from the trunk of my Jetta. i forgot my cooler so i had to stash all my food in a big Rubbermaid bin that had no insulation. a bunch of rando weirdos in the campground (some hippie college chicks from up north, some frat brain 30-ish dudes, one of whom was a PI and had been fishing with his buddies and fed us a warm-water lobster he caught and some chick who had come there with two other dudes) sat around a fire, and the hippie chicks sang and played guitar, and the one who sang could sing REALLY well, sort of like Ani DiFranco. The chick who had come down with two other dudes slept in my tent, which ended up being more uncomfortable and tedious than fun. And the next morning when I woke up, I discovered that I had left out the Rubbermaid bin and racoons had got into it and eaten my chicken. So I had no more food, and decided that the scene was a bust and hit the road back up north that day. I also had no more money.
Don't know how I got going on this...
blog of the lead singer from soul coughing. good rando stuff. was reminded of this band by reading down through my blog. made me think of spring break from first year of business school (which would be march of 1999) when i drove down to key west alone. everyone else was going on trips together to cancun, moustique, etc...i remember driving down to key west kinda bummed and alone and listening to the soul coughing album ruby vroom and the foo fighters album that has everlong on it (can't remember name right now). i camped out in a KOA from the trunk of my Jetta. i forgot my cooler so i had to stash all my food in a big Rubbermaid bin that had no insulation. a bunch of rando weirdos in the campground (some hippie college chicks from up north, some frat brain 30-ish dudes, one of whom was a PI and had been fishing with his buddies and fed us a warm-water lobster he caught and some chick who had come there with two other dudes) sat around a fire, and the hippie chicks sang and played guitar, and the one who sang could sing REALLY well, sort of like Ani DiFranco. The chick who had come down with two other dudes slept in my tent, which ended up being more uncomfortable and tedious than fun. And the next morning when I woke up, I discovered that I had left out the Rubbermaid bin and racoons had got into it and eaten my chicken. So I had no more food, and decided that the scene was a bust and hit the road back up north that day. I also had no more money.
Don't know how I got going on this...
Logan and Andrea crashed out after pizza, as if it had opium on it...
for the record we got two pies from Fivo's, large pepperoni and black olive, small just mutz ("u" pronounced as below). Also included in the order, which I only realized later, were a Fivo's calendar for 2006, and an order of garlic knots. It's little things like this that are easy to forget without the miracle that is this blog.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
not sure why, but remembered today this dude who was in a karate class of mine recently. it was a big class with visitors from all over the world because it was the day after the Americas tournament in nyc, and shokei matsui was teaching it.
anyway, this dude in the class was blind and taking karate. he walked in with a friend, possibly a relative, of his who also was a karate student. i admit it seemed odd to me at first that a blind person would take karate, but then i was like: fuck yes dude.
the coolest thing was watching him and his friend go through techniques as part of the class. we were doing some complex blocking combinations that shihan isobe from brazil was making us do, and the blind guy would stand in front of his friend, with his friend reaching over his shoulders to help guide his arms while whispering the names of the techniques into his ear. gedan barai, chudan soto uke, gyaku this, oi that. and the blind guy didn't miss a beat, not one, better than most in the class.
what struck me first was the courage of the blind guy to do what he was doing (probably for him its just what he does...and doesn't strike him as anything special). what also struck me was the closeness of the blind guy and his friend/relative. to be committed to standing behind a guy and whispering japanese names of karate techniques (at a quick tempo no less) right into his ear and sweating with him...very cool.
anyway, that was a good memory, so i wanted to get it out there.
anyway, this dude in the class was blind and taking karate. he walked in with a friend, possibly a relative, of his who also was a karate student. i admit it seemed odd to me at first that a blind person would take karate, but then i was like: fuck yes dude.
the coolest thing was watching him and his friend go through techniques as part of the class. we were doing some complex blocking combinations that shihan isobe from brazil was making us do, and the blind guy would stand in front of his friend, with his friend reaching over his shoulders to help guide his arms while whispering the names of the techniques into his ear. gedan barai, chudan soto uke, gyaku this, oi that. and the blind guy didn't miss a beat, not one, better than most in the class.
what struck me first was the courage of the blind guy to do what he was doing (probably for him its just what he does...and doesn't strike him as anything special). what also struck me was the closeness of the blind guy and his friend/relative. to be committed to standing behind a guy and whispering japanese names of karate techniques (at a quick tempo no less) right into his ear and sweating with him...very cool.
anyway, that was a good memory, so i wanted to get it out there.
essays & effluvia: Paul: The Loud Talking LIRR Commuter from Hell
This is a funny blog...guy who identifies highly annoying commuters on the LIRR and posts pictures of them. Publishing this post using googles firefox add-in btw. Let's see how it comes across. Read more at bigpicture.typepad.com/...
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Alev's self-chosen gifts to Andrea and me...curiously non-christmas theme going on, i.e. a dreidel and dreidel stickers. Hey, why not?
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
pretty cool. it takes less than a minute from snapping the pic to posting here. cool except for all the horseshit text attached to the bottom of the message...
verizon is annoying. there's not way not to append all that marketing crap to picture messages. schumcks. i guess i'll have to delete it manually if i care that much, which i do right now.
ok, now using the go.blogger thing to post cell pix straight up from the cell...just need to figure out how to stop verizon from appending their annoying message at the end of every one...
more pix from cell below...mostly these are from 2004, and i just haven't put them on my site, and its easier to put them here for the record...
this is the background on my cell. its the first pic i took with my cell phone. dated 9/1/2004. i think i'll make it my profile photo...
just cleaned out the inbox and the gallery on my phone...pix below...cute one of zach, one of renee zellweger (barely visible in the sleeveless dress below), lots of lucy, one from a yankees game, some from my hotel room in london...had to post them as links to images hosted on my site in order to get them to load right.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
just thought of what could be a funny scene in a movie...there's a guy who likes to get drunk alone in his apartment, really drunk, then cook.
one time, he's making a chocolate cake all shitfaced and a friend of his comes over as he's pulling it out of the oven. he's all shitfaced and slurring his words and puts the cake, still piping hot, onto the table as he sits down to chat with his friend, who has already taken a seat at the kitchen table and is sort of laughing at his drunk friend cooking a cake.
the drunk dude takes a bite of the really hot cake, but starts to pass out, and mutters: "needs more egg and to be cooked at a lower temperature" as he keels face-down into the cake.
then the next day he's got a burned face, not too bad, but all red.
one time, he's making a chocolate cake all shitfaced and a friend of his comes over as he's pulling it out of the oven. he's all shitfaced and slurring his words and puts the cake, still piping hot, onto the table as he sits down to chat with his friend, who has already taken a seat at the kitchen table and is sort of laughing at his drunk friend cooking a cake.
the drunk dude takes a bite of the really hot cake, but starts to pass out, and mutters: "needs more egg and to be cooked at a lower temperature" as he keels face-down into the cake.
then the next day he's got a burned face, not too bad, but all red.
if you read from top to bottom, which is the natural instinct, it sounds like i think one wouldn't say abnegation or poultice unless climbing mount everest or in a war...
...except if you're like climbing mount everest and giving updates, or are in the middle of a war or something.
i might go pictures, sounds and video only...
i might go pictures, sounds and video only...
Fuck, that's right. I forgot my cell pix don't post right. I gotta fix that. Anyway, this is a pic from Mullen's, where I had a beer after work. click on it to see full size.
ideas for inane videos to post:
- only shadows
- only smoke/steam coming out of stacks - i see a lot of this from my office view
- only people's hands
- only people's feet
- only people's butts
posting a video link...click anywhere on this text, or you can right click on it and just save the file.
its a video from my website, i just linked directly to the file. i'll figure out how to get a small screenshot from the video up, thus sort of making this a video blog, which is still new to me, so it is interesting.
its a video from my website, i just linked directly to the file. i'll figure out how to get a small screenshot from the video up, thus sort of making this a video blog, which is still new to me, so it is interesting.
anyhoo...its just before 5 and i'm gonna leave work soon. i still have a bunch of gifts here in big boxes that i need to get home, and i didn't bring a bag today. annoying.
we close at 3 tomorrow and i want to ask the team out to have drinks to build some camaraderie (sp?).
we close at 3 tomorrow and i want to ask the team out to have drinks to build some camaraderie (sp?).
almost forgot the kibitz room, attached to canter's deli. i took a cab home from there once and the cabby talked about how they had always tried to build a subway in LA but couldn't because it was all sand, sort of chinatown-esque.
another random thought...which is the whole idea isn't it...
i think i will start randomly contacting people through their blogs. its really the whole point. for example, last night after andrea had gone to bed, i started randomly going through the blogs on blogger. came across one from a woman who was in the middle of her second divorce from the same man. it sounded horrible, and used it as a place just to vent, nothing else, everything, about the kids, all the day to day of what its like to be in the middle of a divorce. i didn't leave a comment because i couldn't do so anonymously, but that's wimpy.
i'll try to find the blog and say i hope it works out for her and that no one feels too much pain.
i think i will start randomly contacting people through their blogs. its really the whole point. for example, last night after andrea had gone to bed, i started randomly going through the blogs on blogger. came across one from a woman who was in the middle of her second divorce from the same man. it sounded horrible, and used it as a place just to vent, nothing else, everything, about the kids, all the day to day of what its like to be in the middle of a divorce. i didn't leave a comment because i couldn't do so anonymously, but that's wimpy.
i'll try to find the blog and say i hope it works out for her and that no one feels too much pain.
i'm really going on this bar thing. i will now try to find a picture of the random bars i've been to, at least the ones whose names i can remember.
Here's a couple from Ye Rustic Inn...damn google is good. Went there a lot with jer (sensing a pattern here). I remember one time meeting two girls and going back go their place. one was wearing a dog collar and passed out when we got there. the other was kinda bitchy and i think felt freaked out that her friend had passed out and that two dudes were there. she played soul coughing and i liked it and bought it a while after that. i remember some commentary about genghis khan or something about how there will always be thugs...
molly malones, on fairfax just up from tom bergin's. had live music often. would go with jer. i still have a cd from some band that played there. i remember they played a song called "she comes in many colors" that was really bad and jer would get mad when i sang it afterwards. this place also had a dartboard. one time jer and i were at the bar and i got up to take a leak, when i came back some steakhead was in my seat, i told him he had taken my seat and he didn't get up, then i was like c'mon dude, i just went to take a leak, and he got up and said "ok, cop a squat". again, useless memories
tom bergin's on fairfax. was right between my and my old girlfriend's apt. went there a few times with jer and her. met some rando chicks there once and i remember singing the thrill is gone, then one time we ran into the same chicks on line at a movie theater, which was funny, then drank champagne with them back at jer's place.i'm really re-living my 20s here. definitely pathetic.
coach and horses...english style pub. would go there with jer. also on sunset. this wasn't a favorite of mine...because it still felt LA, when i was in the mood for nyc pub.
smog cutter...a well known dive bar. again, mostly went with work folks, sang karaoke to jefferson starship once, usually hammered.
this is the cat n' fiddle. went there after work a lot, or one time with jer when we played darts and i was beating him until i ate a croque monsieur sando and then i sucked. its on sunset. i don't know why i'm thinking of all this stuff...probably because i'm older now, and can no longer hang out in bars all day, at least not without feeling guilty
which got me going on LA bars...
i will attach some pics of bars i remember in LA...spent a lot of time with Jer at them
i will attach some pics of bars i remember in LA...spent a lot of time with Jer at them
this is what got me started on it...for some reason i was thinking about being on wilshire, back when i lived in LA. every time i'd drive by it, i'd think of that warren zevon song, then get confused about the whole ed debevic/trader joe thing.
silly how useless trains of thought recur so many times and serve no purpose whatsoever.
strike is over...at least they agree to go back to work.
useless train of thought #1: was thinking about ed debevics for no reason, then thought of that warren zevon song that mentions lon chaney and his hair, then thought about trader vics then thought about trader joe's then felt confused between them all, then thought that there should be an authority on things to prevent confusion, someone who would nod and say: yes, that is confusing, but...
i said it was useless.
useless train of thought #1: was thinking about ed debevics for no reason, then thought of that warren zevon song that mentions lon chaney and his hair, then thought about trader vics then thought about trader joe's then felt confused between them all, then thought that there should be an authority on things to prevent confusion, someone who would nod and say: yes, that is confusing, but...
i said it was useless.
frigging strike is still on...i have to go in today. most of my team can make it in, and i feel like a schmuck being at home. its the week before christmas and they're busting their butts.
this is the view from my office. i switched desks about a month ago. i stare out the window a lot. for the random non-new yorker that comes across this: that's the empire state building on the left. this is looking east across manhattan...
annoying with the fucked up compression again. anyway, this is a picture of blood on a subway door recently...before the strike. it was on the floor too. click on it for full size.
