| the luckiest... |
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| 08:34pm 07/04/2008 |
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on saturday, i rode my bike 130 miles in about 9.5 hours. i added another 10 on with the ride to/from the start for my 2nd longest day in the saddle ever, after the Dease Lake Triple challenge that we pulled off last summer in rural northern british columbia. let's just say i was in far better shape last summer, but i made far better time this spring. same bike, same clothes, same weather (half dry, half-drizzly)...but better roads and less elevation gain made this a little less gruelling. that and knowing that i was going to sleep in my own bed that night, and that there were convenience stores with great frequency (ok, greater frequency...still 20 miles between, give or take). oh, and the 46 intrepid souls who set out on 200k with me at the crack of dawn. i spent about 5 miles drafting behind a pleasant recumbent, about 30 miles riding with a delightful fellow named mike, and the rest of the ride pretty well on my own, although i saw folks all day long, since it was an out and back course--the speed people passed me going the other way 10 miles from the turnaround, and i was seeing folks still coming for an hour and a half after i turned around myself. mostly, i was happy to feel great the next day, meaning i am probably going to do something nutty and try the 300k in two weeks, despite co-sponsoring a party that evening.
it was fortunate i had no troubles walking and that ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dark_knightly did me the tremendous favor of working out the knots in my lower back that evening, so's i could help kdaisy721 host a pretty fabulous sushi-housewarming party in the style of the old austin nuclear-sushi crowd. we had about 28 folks there, and a good time, and good food was had by all. we'll probably have more similar parties, since we like hosting, cooking, and eating, and we are well-provisioned for all 3. mmm. all-the-sushi-you-can-eat! all-the-sake-you-can-drink! yesplz.
also, new job goes well. plenty to do, reasonable autonomy, learning new things, helping people do their work. life is pretty good.
this post courtesy of 808's prompting. now, to go eat fishleftovers =) |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| happiness is... |
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| 08:51pm 03/04/2008 |
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...a bikely lunch in the park, in the (quasi) sun, no jacket required, with teknotus and bonnie, eating a lunch delivered to my office via bike!
...the new job failing to suck in so many ways.
...getting home from work at 5:15, having a couple beers on my balcony overlooking the world, and yumming up the red beans, rice, and chorizo (amazingly, bartering josephs makes a decent chorizo that is neither devoid of meat nor flavor, nor costing a zillion dollares).
...pedalling fiercely some miles to the north to hear the keyboardist from the decemberists play on an organ built into a pub, and having a pint of my favorite and winning a couple of games of scrabble on my cellphone by a hundred and fiftyish points apiece.
...cruising home to a warm cat, livejournal, cold beer, whilst i finish unpacking my home in anticipation of a fabulous sunday sushi festival celebrating the warmiing of my home.
yeah, i'm living the life. if you're not, change your world today!
*mwah* |
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| grab bags R us |
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| 07:06pm 25/03/2008 |
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i've been neglecting you, my pretties, and for that i apologize. i especially apologize to all of you who haven't stopped updating, and promise i've read everything on the old friends list, even if i haven't always had time to reply. i've been a busy little beaver, out having fun and maybe not saving the world, but i'm sure about the having fun part. i took tonight off from my regularly scheduled fun because, quite frankly, i was on the verge of overdoing it, and while i'm all about over the top and overeating, overdoing is a bit...overdone.
so what i have arrayed below is some of the tastier morsels of the while since you read me last. enjoy, or don't--reader's choice!
first off, i think i forgot to mention that i saw the mountain goats, sound-unheard, a few weeks ago. they were really great live; highly recommended show-experience, even if you're not into them (i literally had no idea even what genre they were).
second off, i am free! i escaped nike with no more than minor cuts and bruises, and mostly, i think, i left a decent taste in their mouth. i was no overachiever in my final days, but neither did i entirely phone it in. i turned in my badge, cleaned off my computer and cleaned out my desk, and rode out of there forever. i think i'll keep at least one of the friends i made working there, and i'm just glad i left before i started to resent the people in addition to the work and the bureaucracy that made it craptastic.
third off, i found myself on a heated toilet seat that sports a bidet on monday morning. i've never experienced a heated toilet seat that wasn't warmed merely by the previous user's backside, nor have i ever actually seen a bidet (except, oddly, in an apartment building in boston wherein the units didn't have their own bathrooms...a communal bidet?). my new building is kind of fancy. i like my new job, and i had no trouble agreeing to try not to work more than 40 hours per week when the HR lady requested it of me. i think i can get along pretty well with these kids, and their technical problems don't seem too heinous.
fourth off, we are settling into the new homeplace. kdaisy721 and i have yet to peeve eachother beyond the typical peeving we did even when not living together. we're almost a month in. we still love the place. if you're in portland, me love you long time and wanna show you the place on sunday, 6 april. we'll make sushi. save the date, expect full-blown invite soonly.
on sunday, with help from dark_knightly, i attached bunny ears to my bike helmet and led a group of similarly (or better!) attired folks across town to a big bunny potluck. i drank some beer, made some friends, went to a hot tub and watched "who framed roger rabbit" while drinking champagne before i returned home, many moons later. it was suggested that i really tie one on so that i might set the bar low on my first day of work. my new friends are quality =)
fifth off, i'm looking for an old used squeezebox. not the accordion or the who song. the network music player. have one laying around i could buy off you? ebay is strangely lacking. i've mailed a few craigslist people in various cities, but i can't imagine that working out well "yeah. just mail it to me. it's light. i'm good for the money!"
sixthly, i made probably the most complex, and maybe most tasty meal of my cooking career, weekend before last. mole chicken. two chickens, actually. we cooked for 5 hours straight. it was epic, tasty, and made approximate a metric fuckton of food. i finally finished it tonight. i will be cooking more with this particular partner in crime who shares my opinions about cooking Right and With Love. as many of my friends do =). I'd post a recipe, but i just couldn't do it justice. it was originally a frida kahlo recipe. authentic but with some fudging and modification, despite a largely successful effort to be all authentic (lard, 4 kinds of chiles, at least 15 spices..)
seventhly: have you had a pillowfight lately? why not? i joined a flash mob in a brief fun frenzy this weekend. whee.
lastly, courtesy mhat, the best interview question ever:
you open a terminal, running bash. you type in "telnet www.google.com" and hit enter. describe in great detail what happens. really. as much detail as you can.
i could probably write a novella. i'd only need the one question, as an interviewer or interveiwee, to see if this was really the right person for a unixy job. oh yes, my pretties. |
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Read 12 - Post |
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| more life and times |
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| 01:17pm 08/03/2008 |
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boxes decrease at a very slow pace. i was much more into unpacking at the last place, before i developed a busy social life. also, i may have hit my limit for intense unpacking sessions per year back there, and it's only been 4 months.
( a bike ride )
oh, if you use nike sportswear of any stripe and want me to pick some up for you, half price, the deadline for orders is thursday. i'll be going to the employee store on friday or monday and taking advantage of cheap prices. i'm not really in need of much from them that i use already, but i figure i might get a pair of those "nike free" running shoes to see how they feel, and i need some soccer cleats for playing ultimate frisbee this spring/summer. am happy to pick up some air jordans or livestrong stuff for you if you're wanting some. please make sure i have your phone number if you place an order so i can call about substitutions in case they don't have exactly what you want.
( about a job )
i almost bought a singlespeed/fixie on friday. i found one that looked decent, for cheaps, and i was one click away from getting a motobecane messenger in orange, until i read a little about their (lack of) quality control since being acquired by an oriental manufacturing conglomerate. so i gave it a miss and put the money in the bike account--i still want a cyclocross bike and putting money into that makes a lot more sense since it'll become my about-town and long-distance bike, and i'll keep the trek for actual zoom-zoom rides where i don't need to carry any cargo beyond a spare tube. so instead i wrote to peter white about finally getting a generator hub wheel made. i'll be using that wheel on my cyclocross bike, see? i want people to flash their brights at me on my bicycle because i'm ultrabright at night, and i'm tired of recharging batteries every couple of days for my decent-but-not-great headlight. algol_galaxia has this setup and so do many of the randonneurs, and it'll be a necessity to have really good lighting if i get in shape to do any of the longer races (300k+) which i am hoping to try some of this summer.
next weekend i run my first road race since the marathon last year. the one that left me crippled enough to get knee surgery. i'm taking it easy and it's only 8k (with a beer and bacon rest stop!), but we'll see if i enjoy it enough to start getting in shape for tri season. i haven't done a triathlon since 2006 and i think i miss them. not sure, though =) there's a pool i can use a block from my house (and there's nothing here like barton springs...more like town lake but less clean) so i could definitely train like a madman if i feel the urge. we shall see.
ok. i've about warmed up from the ride this morning (mmm, journalling in bed) and will take a power nap before doing some power unpacking. go team! have a beautiful weekend, friends! |
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Read 10 - Post |
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| news |
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| 01:06am 07/03/2008 |
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whew. my computer is finally functional in my new home. the rest of my life, save for the kitchen and my clothes, is still mostly in boxes. i feel like q-bert up in here.
i got a new job. i start in 2.5 weeks. i am joyful about this. it has much potential and will, at the very least, be far more exciting and technical.
more later. |
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Read 10 - Post |
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| not a wasted day... |
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| 05:28pm 23/02/2008 |
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...but boy, i'll have trouble selling that one to anyone else.
mainly i've just been oddly lucky at scrabble, snuggled the cat, relived a little bit of my musical awakening at age 14 (i was a late bloomer) thanks to youtube and my all-encompassing 12,000 song playlist leading me down a twisty maze of hazily remembered (and i was entirely sober!) music festivals in the 90's. material issue, dramarama, the chameleons UK, pearl jam, live, and hell if i can remember all the lineups! somewhere in there were the soup dragons and lush, but that might have been lollapalooza. oh, the halcyon days. if anyone's google-fu is better than mine and can find (or if the 5 of you who were in dallas and into that sort of music at the time can remember!) the dallas, tx (fair park coloseum/starplex amphitheatre--it changed names somewhere in there) lineups for edgefest one, two, and three back in the early 90's, as sponsored by local D/FW radio station 94.5 the edge....well, my memory would thank you!
anyhow, oldschool videos, new heights of scrabble geekdom [my ranking is more inflated than ever...if i could play this well in person i'd be competing with the pros at tournaments. hah. before i got within 50 points of where i am now.i was challenged by the top-rated player online and almost beat him, followed by another guy in the top10 to whom i lost by 2 points], cat, a couple of episodes of the simpsons, and packing ever so slightly (ok, so i got the boxes out and thought "gee, i don't want to pack") counts for anything...yeah.
but tonight promises to be active as i get geared up to head out to a dance party at locations unknown with some bikey people, followed by brunch with a new friend tomorrow morning...
ahh, i am soaking in it. where it probably equals slack. a vacation from my vacation, yanno?
i have another half-finished post about san francisco that'll come your way...uh. someday. probably before my 2007-in-review post, anyway. whee. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| my kingdom for a decent title |
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| 10:55am 20/02/2008 |
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am enjoying northern california.
the skiing in tahoe (not taos, as i may have told you because i am geographically challenged) was decent if not great. the snow was all...melty, since the temperature ranged from a little above freezing to "if i'm gonna keep skiing i'll need to remove most of my clothing" which you'll be happy to hear we did on several occasions. i went shirtless-but-unzipped jacket for several hours at the end of the second day, which was initially a joke but actually turned out to be remarkably comfortable and besides which generated catcalls and at least once got us to the front of a long queue more quickly at a traffic-jammed lift near the end of the day. it made for some interesting injuries as i fell a couple times though--got a nice raspberry on my side (already healed) and managed to scrape my arm through my jacket somehow. nothing life threatening. the better story was the last run of the last day, during which i convinced ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) ariberman_blog to join me in stripping down to our boxers on top of the mountain. we had our customary mountaintop toast and then sedately glided down, tummies and calves exposed, taking some moguls, some snowballs, and a photo op with an incredulous lady. it's pretty invigorating to be flapping in the cool breeze, and then turn it into a performance in front of a crowd of hundreds (a few kids even followed us in hopes that they could laugh when we fell...and the most vocal fell himself, instead)--and let's just say our cheeks were warm and smiles were had all around. catcalls, witty comments, puzzled looks, and good times. ari and i were in fact feeling so warm and happy that we hoofed it back to the car in our boots-and-boxers finery and laughed it up as we had some celebratory post-skiing tailgate beers.
i've never skied in warm weather before and it was kind of nice not to have cold feet and to be able to ski in minimal clothing and sunglasses instead of bundled and goggled, but the snow just doesn't compare to what we work with in portland, or what i learned on in colorado. our skiing was a different style, as the groomed-ice in the morning is fast, but scary, since there's a big penalty for falling--you'll slide forever and your gear may keep going without you--we saw some skis and poles yardsaled over at least a hundred feet more than once (including by the guy who accidentally went backwards off a doubleblack mogul run and rolled down the entire thing--only to stand up at the bottom and pump his fist--he beat his crew down by a large time gap =)(
the slush in the afternoon was, as kdaisy721 says, "forgiving", but otherwise not a lot of fun, since it made you pick up your feet to turn and felt like skiing on carpet--slow and soft. we picked our runs to minimize the hassle and the company and beautiful blue skies far more than made up for any suboptimal snowness.
got back into the city after a nearly interminable foray through cali mystery traffic and had some pizza and beer with cowquat which was a real treat, since i haven't seen him in forever. he promises he won't sprain both ankles just before our trip next year. i plan to hold him to it. we'll probably head back to tahoe since it's convenient for me and ari (the only 6-time attendees of the festivities, and so we get to make the rules) and the place we stayed was wonderful and *free*! it's been my cheapest ski trip ever despite having to leave my skis at home due to A Situation with wet paint between me and my skitravelbox.
yesterday i borrowed a mountain bike (yeah, with the shocks and the 2" knobby tires) and biked across the golden gate bridge into town to check out the museum of modern art and then went for drinks at google's first hit for "bicycle bar san francisco" which was kind of a wash except for the time i got to spend chatting by phone with meredith_mccraw and chicafantasma, always a pleasure. after the time was done killed, i met up with breakupgrrl and we had dinner, drinks, more drinks, dessert, and great chats about past, present, and the happy changes we've made in our lives--we both left a lot of comfort behind in austin and are rising to the challenge of making our new towns fit the new us and it's good. i miss all my austin people a LOT but i'm not sure i miss austin all that much--it was the people that did it for me. the network was nice, the mood was good...but the people are what can't be replaced by another place.
biking home through town (on the fortunately well-marked bike routes) and over the golden gate, i saw 0 other bikers. there are a lot of bikes around town and i saw people riding during the day, even though it was kind of portland-style wet and gloomy, but at night, the streets and bike lanes were empty. this in contrast to p-ville where without fail, i see other bikers, be it at 4am, 6am, or rush hour. the golden gate in particular is weird--the bike lane changes sides based on time of day and at night you have to get buzzed across--pedestrians not allowed, bikers yes, after a delay which i was told (by the gentleman who was thankfully hanging out at a nearby bus stop preparing to sleep for the night, and demonstrated the buzzer system which i hadn't noticed when i stopped short at the LOCKED bike route at 11:40pm) was so that they could "see me" and my bike to buzz me in. i couldn't spot any hidden cameras but the delay seemed organic on both ends of the bridge. weird scene. i guess there are a lot of jumpers and discouraging them is key.
i had my camera along and the view from the bridge is usually spectacular, sometimes because of and sometimes in spite of the weather. it was no different last night--i love the look of a city from afar, all blinking lights and none of the sound and fury that you feel being in the middle of an urban zone. it looks like an impressionist painting through strong sunglasses to me, and i love just sitting and feeling the wind and watching the city blink--headlights, police flashers, stoplights, and those tall blinky red ones that keep the planes out of penthouses. those are my favorites...maybe because they remind me of one of my favorite austin landmarks (ok, so i still like austin even if i'm falling out of love) which is the radio towers in the west hills. my 19th summer on this planet, i spent nearly every evening watching them come alive as the sun set between them and the night came out, blitzed in a lawn chair on the roof of my apartment building, bullshitting and just sitting with friends new and old. funny how a nature lover (favorite scene: majestic view from a mountaintop. got TONS of that at tahoe! even a nightscape including trans-lake 20 mile view, the moon was so bright!) like me can get so much out of a manscape like blinkenlights. but hey, life is good.
100 yards down the bridge, the fog set in and swirled around the streetlights and kept me company back into sausalito. no cars hounded me as i zoomed down the hills and into the warm bed of home and slept until after my gracious hosts abandoned ship, and now i write this and consider what to do with another two days in SF. it will probably not be epic, but it'll probably be great. suggestions welcome!
*mwah*! |
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Read 7 - Post |
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| stream of consciousness: do what you feel. |
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| 12:30am 14/02/2008 |
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over the past few days, i've seen bike-lane-guy on a recumbent, and on a unicycle juggling. people take their art/culture collision seriously here. strangely, i have yet to find tiebiker (my icon for this post) up here, but i suspect he's around. there are so many things around that i have yet to discover. this fills me with hope and joy.
i got the sweetest velotines card (ok, me and 3,000 other portlanders) from my friend aaron, and i'd like to share it with you:
http://www.yourbodypower.org/velotines.htm
it pleases me so much that biking is not just cool, not just functional, but culture here. it turns out, this is what i was looking for. speaking of nontraditional valentines, this be your one-stop shop for anti-valentines day sentiment, courtesy of ndrtoon. quite a class act there =)
tonight i headed down to a perlmongers meeting and was graced with a rehash of damian conway's best perl practices around a table with about 30 other perl afficionados. having read the book, i was maybe less into it than i might have been. but it was neat to meet some geekfolk and i'll probably go back when the topic sounds more engaging. pulling up to the place, finding no less than 20 bikes locked up outside this warehouse made me feel like i was in the right place, regardless. also, i had the opportunity to describe BMC's Remedy software as follows:
"my least favorite technology of the week is BMC's Remedy. it doesn't sing or dance, it just offers me a limp bouquet of excrement...", which gave me far more joy than using said software ever has, despite the fact that it's what makes my job have any action--i'm lightning-fast on the trigger with owning tickets that come in and taking the opportunity to actually help people, even if it's just in the form of filing another ticket for them with people they don't know exist. i feel like i actually get to do some work in non-glacial timespans. yes, i am still valiantly hunting for a new job!
speaking of new jobs, i turned one down this morning. i interviewed yesterday, and the interview went merely ok (imho). the guy who was drilling me had a ton of specific questions about stuff i didn't really know about: exim, split-view bind, serious routing, and telco circuits. i was totally honest about what i knew and what i didn't and i guess i was "close enough", and in their price range. i was offered the job within an hour of finishing the interview (crazy!) however, they aren't in my *travel* range. i tested the commute out there this morning before deciding, and it took a freaking hour to get there. their office is about 4 miles from the train, on a stop about 10 minutes further than where i head to now. basically, i'm just not interested in spending that much time travelling every day. sure, it's my time, and i love reading and riding my bike, but being committed to an effective 10-hour workday is just not my scene. i want *less* commute, not more! summer will be beautiful with its plenty-of-time-to-ride-both-ways long days, but we're not there yet, and while i don't *mind* being wet while i ride...i'd rather not. yanno? and the job didn't sound a lot better than nike. different, to be sure, more exciting, but really scruffy, and i bring enough scruffy with me--i need some neat already waiting for me. seeking some sort of balance...
tomorrow i leave to go skiing with ariberman_blog and cowquat and friends. i am so jazzed! it is my sincere plan to seek out breakupgrrl and tankgirl76 and see what havoc i can wreak on the town for the few days i'm there after we're done skiing. cos, if i'm gonna fly somewhere, i want to make it *count*, not just dip my toe in the water. so we go to taos for a few days and then i bum around san fran for a few days before returning to the grind and (eek!) moving in with kdaisy721. speaking of, girl is suffering the plague i just got over and could use your wellwishes. since approximately 0 of you know her. but she deserves the double-mad-props for (unbeknownst to her) convincing me to ride home today. i left the office and it started raining and i was feeling pretty meh...and then i realized i had no good reason not to stay on that bike until i reached my home, and then i felt like a million bucks. minus a few percent interest in sweat =)
even lance loves it here and has respect for the culture, see? you know you want to follow me out here, austinites:
http://bikeportland.org/2008/02/13/lance-wants-his-hometown-to-evolve-into-a-place-like-portland/
i made some pretty killer thai green curry last night (and reorganized my recipes page this morning.) i maintain that it is because i cook with love (btw, thanks for turning me onto that concept, shaynabelle) that everything i make ends up tasting so good. i had a ton of basil leftover so i turned it into pesto which i'll have to use when i get back. of course, there was just a *bit* too much to fit into my chosen container, so i spread what was leftover onto some toast. holy wow, i'll be having intense dreams tonight. strong stuff to put down before bed. but intense and tasty like i like it =)
and now, orbital makes me feel like the world is an even more perfect place. find your joy, do what you feel, and be not half-assed, my friends. |
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| 04:33pm 06/02/2008 |
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i may have the plague, but at least being unemployed for 6 months last year paid off in the tax return department. no, wait, i gave the government a 0-interest loan of how much money for how long? sigh.
plague not withstanding (ok, it withstood, and made me bike really slow and breathe through my scarf lest i break down into a cacophony of cophs) ignite portland was pretty neat last night. totally not what i expected since it seemed like a techy geek thing but was instead a life-geek thing (there were a couple of life-hacker type presentations, but mostly it was a totally random spate of stuff from sushi to rockets to biodiesel) and of course it was full of interesting people. thanks largely to teknotus, i was introduced to a few bikely characters, several techies, and most strangely the inventor of the wiki and extreme programming. i mean, it wasn't odd to meet someone who's changed the world so much as it was weird that the talk was of zombies and offal rather than things tech.
funny thing, actually, ivo's post about geek fallacies which was the last thing i thought about before leaving for the event totally played into that conversation. ah, synchronicity, you are everywhere in my life. and it is good.
hopefully this plaguey-ness will blow over before the weekend. i have two easy nights tonight and tomorrow (sure, i was too sick to work, but i'm not too sick to play!) before a weekend full of big biking. no bike move this weekend, but i have about 20 miles between home base and the start of the midnight mystery ride, which will of course involve more biking and then a ride to wherever i will lay my head. and sunday is a local tradition, the worst day of the year ride, which will hopefully not have weather to match its name. also, hopefully my lungs will be happier so's i can actually keep up with some people during the 40-mile jaunt (there's a shorter option if i'm feeling totally craptastic. don't worry, i'm not going to kill myself...)
some good news is that my tax return is plenty to cover my smidgen of remaining moving debt, refill my cash-living-buffer to 6-month levels, and cover the costs of my fine vacation to san francisco next week. i'm going to see ariberman_blog and catch some snow down in taos. the time off of work will be recharging and the new-work prospects are in high gear--interviews in the making, resumes flying, and connections gelling--i am feeling pretty positive this week.
some other good news is that with my 6 months of unemployment, i made little enough money to qualify for that stupid $600 check that the man is also supposed to be ruining the country financially with stimulating the economy with, and i shall indeed go forth and stimulate! i was going to be all responsible but since responsibilities are covered, it's time to go out and get myself a cyclocross bike. it's coming up on commute-to-work-everyday-bothways season and i really want something a little more sprightly but still sturdy and cargo-worthy (which, sad to say, my sexy red texas4000 bike is not so much. i mean, it's sturdy enough, but it really wants some wider tires for these slippery streets. you can't even get ice tires on it (which i have purchased, because i'm nuts like that), and a rack would be kind of sad, since it's currently half the weight of my tank and i don't want to beef it up anymore.) i will of course wait until the money is in hand, because i'm practical like that, but it makes me happy to know that my stable shall be growing. it will probably disturb kdaisy9600 that i am planning to further grow my bike stable before i grow my ski stable, but hey, i have priorities.
that's what's happening in the land of _fool for today, kids. i'm off to do some laundry, feed myself, and finish reading the alchemist, which was thrust upon me in a chance in encounter and which informs my current situation to a large degree, so far. i can only imagine how strikingly relevant it will be by the end. you should seek out or anyway find something strikingly relevant to your life--it's pretty invigorating. as life should be. IMNSHO. |
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| 03:21am 02/02/2008 |
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ok, there's something to be said for making the best guacamole in the world, homemade chips, homemade pitas and mediterranean salad with the most fabulous bluejayway, co-enjoying public transit on the way to a party with nobody i knew, dancing to madonna, playing (and kicking some ass at) some drinking games whose rules i never fully comprehended (but i know i was winning!), meeting a fellow t4k kid, and then spending about 3 hours naked in a hot tub while the cold rain came down, getting chased out the door by a girl who wanted my phone number, and finally riding 5 miles home safely to a warm cat, warm bed, Tortoise-the-band, and sleep. yeah. that's the shit.
why can't every night be like this? oh yeah, because i'm not actually 22 anymore. bad excuse. |
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Read 19 - Post |
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| in the whole wide world... |
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| 10:24pm 29/01/2008 |
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i am uniquely poised to take the world title in naked distance non-recumbent bicycle racing.
i just hit a new high ranking to demonstrate my online-speed-scrabble-with-mandatory-dictionary-following, though there are provably hundreds of people better at it than myself, it is a good bet that all or most of them have put serious time into studying wordlists (unlike me) or have eidetic memories (also unlike me). it made me happy enough to post this. now i have further to fall...
i may be the most outspoken-even-when-sober straight, non-porn-acting male advocate of male genital waxing north america has spawned in my generation.
and i am, on this planet, the most perfect person at being me.
what crazy, silly, strange, and definitely rare skillsets, domains, talents, or otherwise are you master of & willing to admit? |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| the morning after |
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| 10:54am 26/01/2008 |
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had a delightful, 80's-riffic, very, evening with twilite_embrace yesterday. we made some killer lasagna, burned some bread, watched heathers, petted the cat, and got about 3/4 intoxicated. it's a point of intoxication i like (really, i guess anything past halfway is pretty fun, until you hit around 1.01x and from there it's all downhill. or that's how it works for me anyway. wow. it's been over 6 months since i got drunk enough to puke. go me!)
anyway, after she went home, my inebriation plus laziness led me quickly into a dreamy sleep and as fortune would have it, i remained em-boxerated instead of completely naked, and thank goodness since i was woken by a knock at the door and went "mmmrfle" and walked over and opened it without really thinking...and there was a very cute little girl standing there in the hallway offering me her remote control. the exchange went something like this:
"whaa?"
"you should take this."
"why are you giving it to me?"
"we...don't have a radio anymore."
"hmm, i think you should still keep that."
girl backs away slowly and closes door. i exchange looks with pixel.
at this point i think to look down and am happy to report that mr. happy was not peeking out the happy slot in les boxeres.
i have answered the door naked before and scared off some guy who i think wanted to mow my lawn. which was fine. i was hoping it was someone soliciting for god, but soliciting at all and BEFORE I'M AWAKE is really a peeve. i had never considered the fact that i might end up traumatizing little girls. even ones who wake me up at 8:45 deserve better than that.
now wakened, cat demands feeding and my tummy is grumbling a bit too so i hit the kitchen floor still in my boxers and realize an apron is in order before i start frying anything. silk boxers are not proof against bacon grease burns.
but i'm struck by the myriad lasagnamaking leftovers in the fridge so i go a little bit different direction, and finally give in after about 12 years of wondering: howcome spaghetti sauce isn't a general purpose condiment?! so i made italian breakfast tacos: sausage, green pepper, garlic all fried up, eggs with italian seasoning, over ricotta in a tortilla with some shaved red onion. and i tried the following toppings:
1) some kind of garlic-herby marinara
2) alfredo
3) nothing
i am happy to report that the marinara won hands down. alfredo was a distant third, although it is in general my favorite pasta sauce and i typically use my own recipe. i am also happy to report that i might actually manage to use up the rest of that ricotta, which is someting i've probably never managed before after buying a full container. i really need to start basing my recipes around the package sizes of food, since it is a perpetual problem--what *do* you do with a half-cup of alfredo sauce, if you're already set on lasagna leftovers for the week? i ain't cooking more pasta for Some Time--i get pretty easily pasta'd out. so by the time i get back to it, it's taken up space in my fridge for so long it's grown a colony of taint and then i get to throw it away. argh. i need to live in a whole foods world, where i can go in with a cup and get a cup of X, Y, and Z, and 2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary (which the lasagna recipe called for, but for which i was not interested in paying $1.99...apparently the stuff *doesn't* grow on trees around here. i'll be planting some at the new place since it is fucking indestructible which puts it at the "challenging" level for my green thumb abilities instead of just about everything else in the world which rates "impossible")
also, i dreamed about missingwatch and chicafantasma. it was a night of hug-filled dreams also containing burning couches and gwynn learning to drive a stick-shift so we could drive around the block because, after all, we needed waffles!
anyway. felt random & felt like sharing, so you get this mishmash. sorry there's no foodporn (i'm always too hungry to even think about taking a picture by the time it's ready), or erotica (dreams last night were not sexy despite a glut of sexy ladies), or even nudity (actually i think that you probably agree that much is for the best, considering my unexpected audience), but at least there's recipes =) |
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Read 11 - Post |
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| hope. |
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| 06:40pm 25/01/2008 |
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i came home yesterday to the rotten news that my favorite politician, Dennis Kucinich, had announced plans to withdraw from the presidential race. He is one of only two politicians on the national scene whom i actually respect--Lloyd Doggett being the other. In part that's because I'm not very politically aware and there are no doubt other good people who I just don't pay enough attention to be fully aware of--chicafantasma points out John Conyers and there are certainly other progressives out there...but frankly, I care less and less about national politics as it shapes up to be another cycle of "nobody i want running the place, a lot of people i don't want running the place; laws being passed which i'll continue to ignore when i disagree, hoping my combination of encryption and openness is enough to keep me out of jail".
i know i should care, but it seems pretty hopeless sometimes to look at it from the point of view of "things i feel like the country should do actually happening". my views are not majority views; i'm stuck over in a corner with gandhi and chicafantasma at the end of the bell curve and i'm happy there--not happy with the market share, but i believe what i believe and i've never been in the majority in many of my opinions anyway...so hey, nothing new really except an increasing need to insulate myself from awareness of what's being done (not) in my name.
of course, i really need to start following chicafantasma's example and donating money and effort to transnational causes like amnesty international which *do* work towards the enactment of my views, and of course, the even better causes like creating public health and curbing starvation in third world countries---oh, there are plenty of good causes in the world. and i have nothing but myself to give. something which makes little difference on a national political scene, but which can hopefully change the lives of some people whom the system has fucked if applied intelligently.
so i'm pledging $200/mo to causes great and small. amnesty gets this month's piece of the pie. i'll probably plow a couple months into the texas 4000 for the goodness they've done in my life and continue to do in others'. but i need more causes. there are infinite causes. share with me the story of your pet cause. inform me. because my research-fu is weak and while i'm giving up on national politics for this while, i'm plowing that energy into personal connections. i was going to go off on local politics being a surrogate for me, but i am fortunate to live in one of the few utopias for people like me in this country--oregon is incredibly into sustainable energy and bikeability, two issues on which i see variability being possible politically, so i'm happy with how things are hanging here. so what i'm focus on instead is personal connections--yeah, i'll take a cue from the g-man and "be the change i want to see in the world", on an interpersonal basis. it's not political, it's personal. and that's where you come in, and your ideas too. help me find an outlet--even when i don't have time for causes, because i make time for people and fun overmuch maybe, i still have resources.
and that's what brings me hope. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| you probably don't care |
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| 12:57am 24/01/2008 |
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the decemberists put on a really great show. the band energy was on par with they might be giants, who hold most-energetic standing in my book. and energy is often what engages me and makes a show fun. i was yawning at the start but i was grinning madly and bouncing along with the crowd at the end. in fact, i can't imagine a better use for the sprung floor at the crystal ballroom than the end of the sea shanty (belly of a whale) song--the refrain is played faster and faster and faster and absolutely everyone was bouncing in time with it and the floor was compressing and expanding by at least 2 inches every bounce for a good minute and a half. yay, bouncy!
as well, the band was very audience-engaging, this time even topping TMBG with the stopping songs to give audience direction, putting on a play, crowdsurfing (lead singer, who practically kicked us in the face as he entered the crowd. no harm, no foul.) and inviting approximately 80 people up on stage to finish the last song with them.
surprisingly good and energetic--i'll definitely go see them again, though i was ambivalent about seeing them in the first place.
some thanks are in order: annamaul93 for turning me on to them. artnchicken for waking me up to the fact that they were coming to town and finding the early-purchase tickets. meghan, who's lj-less, for accompanying me. portland for being their hometown and perhaps bringing out a superior following. kdaisy721 for not-quite-killing the ol legs during our run, considering i went and stood for 4.5 hours immediately thereafter.
if i enjoyed their music as much as TMBG, i could see them being a favorite band. unfortunately, they're good-to-verygood but not amazing to my ear. c'est la vie.
now for z. |
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Read 6 - Post |
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