Posts

Posted on

off to the woods


Happy Friday friends. I’m extremely happy today because we strike out early tomorrow morning (6am) for Ben’s 4×4/hiking/camping bachelor party weekend. We’re gonna bring GPS-enabled laptops and 12mi walkie-talkies, and we’re gonna drink lots of beer and explore some long-abandoned California gold country mines (despite the many ominous episodes of Lassie you’d think would’ve dissuaded us). I seriously can’t wait, we sent in a skeleton team a couple weekends ago to scout the terrain and the recon they brought back makes the place look astoundingly beautiful. I’m looking forward to dancing drunk around a fire and sleeping under the stars. We’re gonna cook steak on a Coleman stove, eat Ziplock-omlets for breakfast, and maybe even indulge at night in some clove cigarettes. Can’t wait.

Goodnight.

Posted on

things like public transportation


1 for 2 tonight, as I was able to get a haircut but lost the daylight before I could get the lawn mowed as I’d planned. Keaton’s officially sick, the doctor says she has an ear infection and she’s gotta take two different prescriptions. I feel bad for her, because her nose is stuffy and her eyes are goop-laden. We even got her that new ear infection inoculation too, because I was plagued with the things as a kid. On the plus side, she doesn’t act sick – she seems as happy as ever and smiles like there’s not snot on her face and boogers in her eyes.

Today I decided, on a whim, to swing by the public library. When Sharaun and I first moved to California, one of the first things I did was get a library card. I went through a period where I used it quite often, requesting books online and picking them up. That was a while ago though, and since then, I’ve let it fester. But, driving back from lunch solo today, I decided to stop in to pay my $2 and bring myself back “current.” I mainly wanted to see if they had a copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five available for checkout, as I’ve never read it and Ben’s recommended it to me several times. I figured I could take it along camping this weekend and maybe start reading it. Anyway…

I’d forgotten how much I love the library both as a concept and a brick-and-mortar resource. It has the same kind of socialist appeal for me that things like public transportation and open-source software do. It fits right into that “share for a common good” and “simplify” message that sings to my inner hippie. I mean, why pay for and stockpile books you’ll never read again when you can borrow them for free? The only reason I can think of is that you might not want the Bush administration to flag you for TSA screening because you checked out an annotated Koran. But, other than that – what’s not to love?

What’s more, when I look at my Amazon.com wishlist, the minimalist in me thinks “Why own books?” I mean, if anyone should know the virtues of the public library, it should be me. As far back as I can remember my dad has been a both a voracious reader and consumer of libraries. I recall him bringing home foot-tall stacks of books every week, reading and reading and reading.

Anyway… they didn’t have the Vonnegut book, nor did they have any Vonnegut books, which I’d guess are perpetually hot items. Marx is probably turning over in his grave.

A while back, during what seems like the forever-ago times when Keaton wasn’t here yet, I wrote about how I’d implemented a “baby budget” in the household. Sharaun and I took our spending down to a minimum and socked all her paycheck away as if it were non-existent, kind of a practice run for when Keaton did arrive and we became a single-income family. The experiment was a huge success, showing us not only that we’d be more than comfortable with just my income, but also that we had some great opportunities to adjust some spending areas. Well, Keaton’s now six months old and, as tends to happen with all once regimented things, Sharaun and I have let our budget slide a bit. So, in the interest of reclaiming our money with the least lifestyle impact possible, I’ve been doing some detailed budget analysis with the great freeware app, AceMoney. I consider us to be on the plus-side of avaricious now, and I’d like to center us more around a miserly creed. Hopefully one day we can not only pay off our own college loans, but start a fund so Keaton and her sibling(s) won’t have the same post-education burden.

Less than 300 spams from 100k, goodnight.

Posted on

let’s go barefoot


Monday night and I’m mad it’s already 8:30pm and here I am just getting started writing, more mad because I’m doing my best to ignore the pile of dishes that I should’ve done first anyway. Sharaun’s at yoga and I put Keaton down about 40min ago. She cried for a minute, and then commenced to cooing and burbling the sweetest babytalk over the monitor. The sounds were like sirens calling a sailors to the rocks, making me want to go in there and talk right back to her or pick her up and swing her around. Sometimes, when I woosh her around in the air in a game where I pretend she can fly like Superman, she pulls her head tight into her body and her little neck ceases to exist. When she smiles like that, the arc of her smile is mimicked in her compressed rolls of chin – making an irresistible compact Ram-Man looking ball of cute. That’s an awesome baby right thur, I’ll tell y’all that…

Hey, wanna chuck this crap in the dustbin and head to the forest? We can bring some food and park the car and go barefoot. Let’s do that, huh? Let’s go barefoot. Because, you know, I get tired of this sometimes, the same desk and the same feigned interest and the same the same the same. So let’s just drop out for a week, put what we need in the car and drive away. We can stay as long as we want, we can wash off in a cold river and wake up to our breath steaming from our nostrils. We can sleep whenever we feel tired and scream if we’re happy. What you gonna say you gotta do, anyway? Ain’t nothing you got here you can’t get there, and ain’t nothing gonna come crashing to Earth while you’re away. Seriously, it’s not even gonna be a thing or anything. Let’s go barefoot.

Spent some time yesterday drafting up the Evite for the annual Halloween party. This being our 4th year running, I was able to lean on previous years’ invitations as templates. I can’t believe we’re closing in on that time of year again, and it only serves to make me worry that I’m running out of time to finish my wolf prop. If you asked me for a progress percentage, I’d have to peg it somewhere right around 50%. I still have to dream up the mechanization – and I’ll admit I don’t have any solid ideas on adapting that old ice cream machine motor to drive the wolves baying heads. I’m confident it’ll all come together though, it usually does. Won’t get much time to work on it this coming weekend, as I’m striking out again on another camping trip with some buddies – this one, however, being more rugged than last week’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink car-camping outing. In a combination 4×4/camp/hike, we’ll be taking some vehicles offroad in honor of Ben getting hitched. With full GPS-enabled tracking and some gorgeous old-California gold country, it should be a blast.

Hey people, hey people c’mon! No, for really. Check out that “blocked spam” counter over there in my sidebar there… I’ll wait… you check it out yet? Do it! OK, for real y’all, as I post this that counter says 99,282 spams have been blocked. I might turn 100k by week’s end. Each one of those spammies means a MySQL transaction that my host has to handle, because each little nasty actually goesinta the database, even if it will later be deleted. I think this is part of the reason my blog goes out lunch sometimes, y’know… just flakes out when it gets overworked. 100k spams, think about that… and that’s not even from sounds familiar “day one” either, I didn’t install Akismet until I was well over a year into writing (up until then I didn’t need Akismet). Dang.

Goodnight.

Posted on

just how i like it


Sunday night and, after a weekend spent cooking over a Coleman stove and warming frozen fingers in front of a campfire, I’m not at all looking forward to waking up and going to work. It was a good weekend though: eating the campground delicacies afforded by car-camping, walking with Keaton on the beach, and our little family huddling close in the tent to make the cold night a little more comfortable. Compared to stuff like that, work pales.

Now, since it’s Monday, you know I’ve got a new batch of photos uploaded to Keaton’s gallery. Including candids from camping, bathing, and and college football Saturdays. But, I’ve also got a new little tidbit of Keaton-news. Try and contain your excitement, but she’s finally cut her first tooth. It’s barely through, but it’s there. We tried tonight to take a picture tonight, but getting her to hold her mouth open isn’t an easy task. Anyway, it’s crazy how quickly she’s growing… and I just know she’ll be crawling around any day now. It’s too fast, really, it’s going waay to fast. Without going back and looking through photos from a month ago, it’s hard to even remember how different she was.

I know, Lonelygirl15 is over. I mean, she was interviewed on CNN, she made an appearance on the Tonight Show, she’s was on TRL for pete’s sake. But guys… and I know I swore never to write about this again… but guys… this cassieiswatching alternate reality game spinoff is really heating up. After watching the latest Cassie video, a freakish inverted creepshow featuring overt references to the murderous cult of Charles Manson, and which was also shot at the exact same locale as the last LG15 vlog.

The ARG professionals over at unfiction have arleady solved the first an second cassieiswatching videos (after they recovered items left at the same locations of LG15’s videos). The latest clue revealed a phone number and a cryptic voicemail, and I won’t bother documenting it further than there. So far, the “official” LG15 creators are denying that the cassieiswatching ARG (if that’s what it is) is part of what they’re calling the “Breeniverse,” but to me – it would be a spectacular plot device to start the LG15 videos, stage a fake “outing” of the cast, but have it all be part of the grander screenplay. An intricate ARG, of which the whole “LG15 is fake” thing was just an act.

In the “kinda freaky” department, they are building a Tolkien-inspired community near Bend, Oregon called the Shire. I wonder who will live there? Seriously, check out the video… incredible.

Goodnight folks, I love ya.

Posted on

neanderthal-moot


Thursday night. The ladies, including Sharaun, went out to have some drinks and talk about shoes and calories and Suri Cruise and shit like that. Meanwhile, back at the Bat Cave, the women suggested the abandoned men come together and have a night of bonding they could call their own. Man bonding, however, doesn’t really involve talking. Just TV watching, a case of Budweiser Select, and a 40-pack of Pizza Rolls. That, and, dad was left to get Keaton down – so I’d wager the women were able to cut loose a little more than our neanderthal-moot. But, let’s get serious y’all, how fun can cutting loose be when it’s comprised of Appletinis and gang-gossiping?

Is it me, or is Halloween now much more merchandised than I remember it being as a kid? I’ve been obsessed with Halloween since I was a kid, but I don’t remember it being anywhere near as commercialized as I see it today. Nowadays, come September, Halloween mega-stores pop up all over the place. They’re full of high-dollar assembly-line form-pressed scare-wares, fake blood and costumes galore. We had nothing like this when I was a kid. We went to Kmart and walked down the one costume aisle; the same aisle where, if you were lucky, there’d be a squeeze tube of fake blood left, and maybe a spraycan of hair color. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new Halloween, love the “made in China” 500% markup props strewn about suburban lawns.

Heck, I remember my brother and I stuffing a pair of dad’s old pants and a long-sleeved shirt with newspaper and old towels. We’d cinch a masked basketball to the stuffed torso, smear the whole thing with fake blood, and hang the whole thing from the basketball hoop. It looked great, right down to the tied-on shoes pretending to house feet. We’d stuff another dummy all broke-bodied into a plastic trashcan, not have light on either when the big night of trick-or-treating came around, and be absolutely giddy about the whole thing. I still like that “pioneer” style Halloween moxie, still like trying to create my own tombstones rather than buying the bulk ones from Target. To end this mess: I’m just glad Halloween is gettin’ the respect it’s so rightly owed.

Tomorrow if Friday, God-blessed Friday. I’m leaving early too, to head out to the coast for a weekend of camping. Since it’s family-style car camping, the normal rules of “primitive” camping are thrown out the window – and we’re free to haul in the big tent, air mattress, and coolers full of beer. Not only that, I can bring the iPod and portable speakers, and Erik’s bringing a small black and white TV so we won’t be college football deprived. I’m looking forward to huddling around a daytime fire to cut the chill, perpetually sipping a beer, and squinting to watch the action on the pitch. Good times.

‘Night.

Posted on

it and the was


Wednesday night, and the sparse entries continue as work has been somewhat of a wringer lately. Less time to capture random thoughts into the cellphone as that night’s blog ideas, or something. Or less desire to sit here writing them. Something like that. Going camping this weekend over by the sea, that’s called “coastal,” y’all (not “coastal” like the Florida slang-for-cocaine “coastal,” but real-life on-the-coast coastal). Supposed to be pretty chilly and windy, somewhere in the 40s. Guess we’ll have to huddle-up in the tent at nights. I’m looking forward to it as a slight getaway, and hoping it gives me that release. Moving on…

Sharaun and I have decided to pull out all the stops for our first Keaton-havin’ Halloween party. Not really for the party, but for us… as we’re planning to fly my folks in as babysitters. I just didn’t feel comfortable pressing forward with the planning while the question of who’d be watching Keaton lingered. Knowing my folks’ll be here and with her that night makes me feel much better about planning my yearly apex of personal debauchery. Although the party is actually pretty mild as parties go, I feel better with Keaton in good hands. Plus, my folks are planning to stay a couple extra days to hang out – and I’m glad they’ll get this “tweener” time (between regularly scheduled holiday visits) with Keaton. She’s changing so much, I know if I only got to see her every few months it’d be a different little person each time. For that reason, I wish we were closer to our parents. That, and we wouldn’t have to buy plane tickets to get grandparent-babysitters for our Halloween bash. Nah, I’m just effin’ with ya… it’s really the sentimental one.

I’m so excited for Fall and Winter to officially be here, for all these, and more I likely couldn’t think of, reasons:

  • Seeing Keaton in thick, snuggly, long-sleeved shirts and warm comfortable pants for the first time ever
  • Turning on our fake gas-powered fireplace
  • Grey rainy days spent inside wearing sweatpants
  • Halloween (Keaton’s first, by the way)
  • The smell of the air on a cold, dew-damp morning
  • Taking Keaton’s first pictures in a pumpkin patch
  • Not having to mow the lawn for months at a time
  • New albums getting “stuck” as wintertime albums in my head
  • Keaton’s first Christmas

Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome.

I was thinking the other night about how it’s sometimes hard to find certain bands on filesharing networks/sites. I’m talking about bands with very short, non-standard, or ridiculously common elements to their names. Most search engines have trouble with strings like “and” or “it” or roman numerals and symbols. I think it’d be funny to see and up and coming band “obscure” their work from easy filesharing-fishing by naming themselves “It and The Was,” their album as “I Be,” and simply naming their tracks as incremental roman numerals, I, II, III, IV, etc. Try weeding out the results for something as search-string un-friendly as that.

Goodnight folks, I love ya.

Posted on

entirely devoid of rhythm


‘Nother long day at work, this time starting at 7am for a meeting with those cagey Europeans and home at 6pm after closeted think-tank style meetings most of the day. I actually welcomed the brainstorming though, it’s fun to think occasionally. Sharaun is forcing me to watch some new dance-competition show. These infernal dance shows… am I the only person who just doesn’t get dancing? I mean, I see two people up there… bouncing around smiling… but I just can’t get an idea of “skill.” To me, it’s almost like that disease where people can’t discern one face from another. To me, it’s all walking around and spinning – I just can’t differentiate it. Sharaun claims this is because I am entirely devoid of rhythm… and I’m inclined to believe her. I just can’t see dancing. I figure that’s OK though, because it sucks. Oh, and I’m putting off getting up and doing the dishes… pretty standard stuff.

I’m tired of having to wait a few days for the latest leaked album, but am torn about begging invites to the biggest “zero-day” leak tracker sites… as I have visions of server raids netting memberlists and IPs and even share ratios. So, I’ve decided that the prestige of being 1st to the party just isn’t worth the time in jail – and I’ll wait until the stuff trickles down to the mid-level feeders like me. But dang, sometimes when I want to hear something… I want to hear something!

So, in what I hope is the last time I write about this, here are the two best wrapups of the whole LonelyGirl15 debacle. Enjoy.

Goodnight.