Well, this is where I do some grand recap of 2009 and give some deep meaningful thoughts about the direction my life took and seems to be taken.
Meh. I don’t feel compelled to share.
The worst stuff is well known, and might get worse.
The best stuff is private and is only going to get better.
And I started smoking cigars this year, which is sorta in the middle.
oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please
After a week of mad dashes, 3am cooking sessions and tight travel schedules it’s absolutely amazing to me how seductive and easy it is to sit here at this desk and do nothing but cycle through email, Twitter, FaceBook, bloglines, fileplanet, drudge, Pandora and Cigar Monster all day.
Not good. Gotta figure out some way to keep that shit in check.
I’m in the final stretch here.
yeah yeah, I jumped on the formspring bandwagon a couple weeks ago in response to…hmm… something I’m sure.
It’s weird. It’s kinda fun.
So go ‘head.
What’s fun and creepy (a combination made distressingly common by the internet) is that you can ask questions anonymously.
Merry Christmas everybody o/
I’ve been away from home since Monday, probably won’t be back there until Sunday or so.
Posting will be lite, at best.
I’m in the throes of Christmas madness.
(This is what happens when I take my laptop on the train and forget my sudoku. I’ve got a bad feeling that spellcheck was a bit over-zealous and there’s a word or two in here that’s gonna look odd as a result. I’m sorely lacking in inclination to go hunting it down.)
It’s December 13th, a Sunday. I’m on the train up to Bean’s in a spur of the moment trip after I complained about not being able to smoke a cigar.
“Hop a train” he texted. I thought about it for a bit. It’s not such a pain in the ass getting up there (getting back is a bear.) Walk in the rain, subway, train. But it is without a doubt “doing something” other than marking time and I’ve been marking a lot of time lately. And frankly there’s nothing quite like walking in to a house where everybody smiles and waits their turn for a hello hug (the dogs are not quite so patient.)
So, with some mental calculations and a schedule check. There’s a train at 2:45 and one at 3:45, a little over a half hour away. I started tossing things in a bag. 2:05. Keys, wallet, transit-cards, Tonkatsu sauce, dvd, decent pants for the possibility of tomorrow. 2:10… CIGARS! I’d forgotten to put cigars in a case… what to bring? 601, CAO Maduro, something else (I’ve forgotten.) I tossed my last two Macanudo Maduro Ascots in the bag as well. (Shut up, they’re tasty.)
2:15, out the door. Raining like hell I call a couple phones until I get one of them on the line. “I can be on the 4:10 possibly or the 5:10 for sure. I won’t know for 40 minutes… unless you were joking…”
“Excellent, come on then.” A few seconds of small talk before I lose the call descending into the Borough Hall 4/5 station.
Oddly I notice the entrance is open on the weekend, a new, advantageous development. I swipe my metro card which had one ride (plus $0.50) on it and race down the stairs only to see it was the outbound train pulling away, not the Manhattan bound one.
No train in site, 2:20. No way I’m going to make it. Train leaves in 25 minutes and I’m not even on the… the subway! A nearly empty 4 train pulls in to the station as I recite my Grand Central Terminal commuting mantra “first door, second car” and get on the subway.
Leaving my bag on my back I check the time on my cell phone nervously every 12 seconds. My god I might make it.
A woman on the subway gives a French girl bad subway directions I finally realize as she gets off the train.
The subway pulls in to Grand Central and I’m standing at the door on the balls of my feet, knees bent. This was my morning commute for a long time so I’m loaded for bear. Time and positioning are of the essence getting out of the subway and up those stairs as the delay of a second or two leaves you floating squashed in a sea of tourists and other inefficient travellers. The door is right in front of the stairs and I’m out and up in less than ten seconds. People from that train will be coming up that staircase for several minutes.
Top of the stairs, ’round the corner, double-hop up two flights of stairs… 2:37. bias towards the right side of the hall to catch the schedule display, track 34 in 8 minutes. I stop at the ticket kiosk, travel card in hand and I chuckle at my nerdliness as my fingers fly across the touch screen like Commander Data in a rush. Beacon, adult, off peak, one ticket, insert card, printing ticket & receipt. Got it, gone. 2:38.
I dodge tourists at a trotting pace through to the other side of the station. I stop in the middle, realizing I’m starving. Pizza? No, thrall be a line. Resuming my run I round the corner into Zaros. There’s no line, just a mob of “ooh, look at the…”
“Can I help so…”
“Hey! Plain bagel, cream cheese, not toasted. Thanks!” I go fetch a coke zero and head to the distant register, since it’s closer to the woman making my bagel and where she’s likely to expect to see me when she turns around. I pay, get my change and bagel and bolt. (Track 34 is the closest track to zaros, after all. It’s as if I’d planned it.)
On the train. 2:41. Compelled to an east-side seat, but it’s at least north facing. So I’m good.
I relax, eat my yummie bagel and drink my delicious zero triumphant, totally soaking in my own moronic obsession with efficiency. The train pulls out and I start taking in the sights.
A 70 year old gentleman just got on the train at Marble Hill with his wife. He’s wearing a kilt. All well and good as the Scottish DNA in my system appreciates such things in a manner quite difficult to communicate without the wrong idea side-carring with it.
It was all well and good of course until he bent over to pick up his suitcase, answering for all time one of the great age old mysteries.
Then there’s the thin 6′2” auburn haired fifty-something somebody who got on the train at 125th street. I don’t recognize her, but I suspect most cosmopolitan women would. She got on the train with three bags heavier than she should be lugging, both by physical estimation and by her expression. Exasperated she sat in the closest available seat. She put one bag on the next seat in front of her, one on her lap, and the suitcase in the isle, nary a concern. I’ll bet she’s beautiful if she smiles without a cue. I’ll bet it hasn’t happened in twenty years.
She’s polite through her annoyance when asked to move the bag in the isle. People offer to help put it on the overhead rack but she ignores them (the same thing happened when she got on the train, different people.)
I write this all twenty minutes into the hour and a half train ride. There are a couple five/six year old kids waiting for their turn in the bathroom. The tall woman with the two inch hoop earrings looks at them discretely, wondering what happened with her life. Her blackberry held tight to her left ear.
I can’t look at people like that and be mad. Not the way I used to. They’re people who make life decisions out of expedience and baser desires. How can I claim a higher moral ground than that and retain any semblance of honesty?
We pass the Tapanzee bridge and I envy the people on the west side of the train (travelling northbound) the view. The Hudson is foggy and dank, it’s raining heavily enough that it won’t be ignored, but not so severely that it’s a storm. By all accounts my destination is covered with snow.
Hmm… north of Tarrytown the remnants of ice on the blasted rock surfaces that make up the train’s path and the fog now completely occulting the Hudson excites me more perhaps than it should. By all estimations it’s the very definition of “Mikey Weather.”
Time passes quickly at this end of the telling as I’m filling in details above. But past Croton Harmon station the western bank of the Hudson has completely disappeared even now that I’d moved to the western side of the train and cleared off the condensation so I could see. I’ve always loved looking out the window whenever I’ve travelled.
Patches of snow are more common on the ground now, past Cortlandt.
We pull in to Garrison station as I finish the paragraph about getting on the train. So I’m going to close this up and make sure I’m waiting at the train door when we depart Cold Spring, since Beacon’s the station after that.
And I wouldn’t want to miss it.
(Because it’s good to have Ozymandias up on one’s blog someplace, for reference)
Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelly
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Oh.
My.
God.
Now… if you don’t know about:
a) Text adventure games from the 80s (zork, etc.)
b) Siblings
c) What a grue is (see ‘a’ above)
d) Aol Instant Messenger
This might not make sense. It might not make much sense at all
However if you DO know about those things then this will make liquid explode out of your mouth and nose as you burst into tears of disgusted hilarity so violent as to cause a nerve on the outside of your skull to pinch, inducing tremendous pain.
And it will be worth it.
I want to add a feature to this site, something like a sidebar column, but different.
There’s a bunch of stuff I’m trying to figure out. Random nonsense. Sometimes I remember and go looking and sometimes after a cursory search I give up, forget about the question, then six months later wonder all over again.
Since readership here is starting to climb (having started to get back up off my considerable duff lately) I thought it would be interesting to have a sidebar section of just things I’m trying to figure out.
I figure it would show up on google searches for the same thing, some of you might have a clue about some of it, and it will at the very least remind me that there’s something I need to go digging for.
However, until I figure out how I want to format such a thing (with feedback forms for answers and discussion, etc) I’m going to try to just aggregate them here.
Note: There is NO order or topical grouping to these past random “A reminding me of B” sequencing:
After reading enough recommendations that I’m not afraid of wasting the money, I just spent $2.99 on “txtract” for android. It’s exporting all text messages (I hope) to csv now. It’s got options to export to html, csv or xml. I’m of course giving all three a shot.
UPDATE: Yeah, it works wonderfully. Definitely a must-have Android app for data packrats.
Hmm… I thought I had about eleventy hundreds. I’ll get to them when I get to them.
Nothin’ like showing up on someone’s Best Blogs list to induce me to tighten up my game.
Got a post (or perhaps a series) coming over the next couple (few) days (weeks) that some of you aren’t going to like, some of you are going to like and neither group is who you think you are.
WANT!
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Yeah, shoot me. I love the lolrus.
Disclaimer: All chain letters end with me. Enough people get pissed off by this stuff that I don’t forward it, tag people or anything like that. I personally find them a blast and would love to read people’s responses. But I’m not gonna put you on the spot.
Now then, on to it>
Can you fill this out without lying? You’ve been tagged, so now you need to answer all the questions HONESTLY. At the end, choose at least 12 people to be tagged. Don’t forget to tag me!
To do this, copy this entire message, then go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, delete my answers, and type yours. Easy peasy!
Next, tag 12 people (in the right hand corner of the app). Click Publish (at the bottom). Have fun! :)
No.
1.What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
Brussel Sprout with butter & garlic. lots and lots of garlic.
2.Where was your profile picture taken?
(This’d be my facebook profile picture over here)
In the Galapagos Islands. The Pirate picture that sometimes cycles in was taken in west midtown Manhattan in “some bar.”
3.Can you play Guitar Hero?
Never tried.
4.Name someone who made you laugh today?
Ron White
5.How late did you stay up last night and why?
I actually don’t know. I had an epic email I wrote and sent a smidge after midnight and went to bed soon after.
6.If you could move somewhere else, where would you?
Someplace with more mountains than buildings, more grass than concrete.
7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
No
8.Which of your friends lives closest to you?
Mr. Wood. About three blocks from here.
9. Do you believe ex’s can be friends?
Oh it’s POSSIBLE, just not bloody likely. I do have exactly one for which I’m particularly thankful.
10. How do you feel about Dr.Pepper?
Diet Dr. Pepper is one of the great largely undiscovered treats. Regular I don’t much like.
11. When was the last time you cried really hard?
I don’t specifically remember actually. Either not long enough ago or not recently enough.
12. Who took your profile picture?
I don’t remember. Could have been any of a couple dozen people.
13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
My niece, Emily.
14. Was yesterday better than today?
Yeah. I expected to get stuff done and didn’t today.
15. Can you live a day without TV?
I haven’t owned a TV in about a decade.
16. Are you upset about anything?
Son? You have no idea. But I’m not gonna make it anyone else’s problem.
17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?
Absolutely. Most of the time. Not when they’re undertaken out of boredom. There’s got to be something behind it.
18. Are you a bad influence?
No.
19. Night out or night in?
Mostly in. When out, make it count.
20. What items could you not go without during the day?
Pants.
21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
My sister and new nephew :)
22. What does the last text message in your inbox say?
Ha! None of your business.
23. How do you feel about your life right now?
There are two tons of weight on both arms of the scale.
24. Do you hate anyone?
No. That’s not to say there aren’t several people I wouldn’t kick the everloving crap out of on sight. But I don’t hate them.
25. If we were to look in your facebook inbox, what would we find?
Not much. I don’t use facebook messages to communicate. Some well meaning spam. A couple quick notes from friends.
26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?
Yes. Consistently for a very very long time.
27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?
Not to my face.
28. What song is stuck in your head?
None at the moment.
29. Someone knocks on your door at 2:00am, who do you want it to be?
She knows who she is, you don’t need to.
30. Wanna have grandkids by the time you are 50?
That would be a pretty tough trick.
31. Name something you have to do tomorrow?
*sigh* laundry.
32. Do you think too much or too little?
10 much.
33. Do you smile a lot?
Yep. I’m usually beaming like a retard on pudding day. No matter how bad it gets I’m still giggling about something.
34. Do you think that the people you are tagging are going to answer with the truth?
I’ll never know. I don’t tag people. I’d sure like to see the result of anyone who reads this and has a blog though. I always wanna know but I rarely bug people about it.
(h/t Tamar o/)
This guy will never pay for a drink if I’m in the room:
(Hat Tip: Perlstalker)
Why we split up
She told me we couldn’t afford beer anymore and I’d have to quit.
Then I caught her spending $65.00 on make-up.
And I asked how come I had to give up stuff and not her.
She said she needed the make-up to look pretty for me.
I told her that was what the beer was for.
I don’t think she’s coming back.
*snicker*
Well, I was going to write a post about social behavior and my declining tolerance of the lack of basic decency in the world using an example of someone who’s on my side of the political line, but whose belligerence in making his point is so repulsive that I jettisoned him as an acquaintance on that basis. Then I was going to have an example for contrast. It was going to be a whole thing.
But frankly, I’m laying here in bed with my auxiliary back up laptop and I’m drifting off to sleep, so I’m not going to say any of that at all as I’ve not that kind of energy at the moment.
I really want to overhaul this site. I’ve been blogging for nearly 8 years. This piece marks nearly 4000 posts in that time. Thousand. And if I wanted to find a funny link, song review, recipe or block of source code I’ve posted in all this time, I don’t think I’d be able to.
There’s got to be some reasonable way to structure articles, posts, links and comments such that they’re reasonably organized without the dominant format of the site being a time stream, which is utterly useless for anything you’re not intending to be read as a feed with what is for all intents and purposes a series of expiring pieces.
A wiki is almost there and indeed that may be what I start with (having dug up the wordpress wiki plugin I was writing last year and started noodling with it again.)
Yeah, that’s it. Just wanted to start getting some of that down.
