Wednesday, August 29, 2007

there was

a fire in the dark, and the fire in the dark said 'you'

he liked to kick his way to lessons and the teachers liked his

all of us were losing, it was clear from the way we spoke

some were under fire, others liked to, water buries hope

Monday, August 27, 2007

tech update

- is it possible to make video phone calls from your mobile?

- in every country but the united states. australia's had the technology since the year 2000.

Friday, August 24, 2007

summer's last hurrah

i have a hard time imagining a lot of things. i've imagined myself having a really lousy time at a tubing event scheduled for tomorrow, so i won't be going. i imagined myself absolutely loving camera obscura live, so i had to drag myself away from the post-work tv meltdown to see the show. i saw about six fantastic songs, and ran into a half dozen folks i know, took some photos, and generally loved the experience. i felt so good i actually tried to find some of the people i knew after they wandered past without seeing me.

on the way home, i had a nice chat with some strangers, and later finished one of the books i had been about to complete. i stopped to take pictures of the temple and was mildly surprised to obeserve another fellow who seemed to be doing the same thing. i failed to finishe the other book, but made a good enough dent to believe those final pages are going to fall soon. i should mention that the non-fiction book i did finish had a fantastic ending. i found it both satisfying and inspirational.

tv habits

- in choosing tv programs to watch, is elapsed time since the show was released a valid concern?

- yes, there's no reason you should be watching something that's, say, 15 years old.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

pudding

-is it possible to eat pudding with chopsticks?

-yes, absolutely. good pudding can be eating with chopsticks.

Friday, August 17, 2007

i refuse to leave a mark

i'm not even sure it's worth talking about anymore.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

questions for the clever

friends, how often do you hide the fact that you know something? it can be polite at times to listen to someone's story and not reveal that you already know the secret they're about to reveal. however, it's probably a bit worse when you pretend ignorance just because you're trying to seem a little more normal. i was talking with a coworker about a humorous promotional stunt done by the founder of a european company. i know his name, and almost didn't say it, because i didn't want to sound like a nerd. however, i still acted like i didn't know how to pronounce his name or like i was just guessing what his name really was. thinking back, it is kinda sad. i think there are moments when it's important to back down and not be insufferably smart, but i wonder if a lot of people do this too often.

obligatory disclaimer

for the unknown readers who are happy followers of reading list, please be advised that i have finished three or four books recently. it's been too long since a critique has been posted, but look for that shortly.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

reawakening

somehow, things have been rather good this week. i'm not sure how to explain it. could be simply that the list of things that were significantly negative has dropped. maybe it's the result of giddiness brought on by too many nights of little sleep. i think rather that mysterious optimism has seeped out of any number of unknowns; an exciting confusion may be buoying me.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

services

we heard an impassioned message from our bishop today; he told us that repentance is sacred and that all of us will have times when we struggle and use it as we come back to Christ. he also implored us to write down our most spiritual experiences so that we have something to look back to as a source of hope. there will be times when it is harder to receive the guidance and assurance we need, and we should prepare ourselves by leaving testimony now of the way the Lord has spoken to us.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

loss

in the past 3 or 4 months, 3 of the hats i wear most often have gone the way of all the world. it's a shame, especially because they were all the most useful kind of hat - the one you can take anywhere, destroy, and generally abuse. i have definitely reached the point where it's time to buy a replacement. the hat i lost last night was a major loss. i'm not sure i'll ever see a black hat turn brown in such spectacular sunbleached squalor.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

you could still smell the ink

i got home late, on a sweltering day when public transportation massively failed and i spent four and a half hours traveling to work, mostly on foot. there in the hallway, a large window air conditioning unit sat, with a hand lettered sign imploring someone to give this fully operable unit a good home. i took it...

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

flounder

i can see myself getting closer to some sort of life that makes sense. it's interesting when you go to job interviews and people seem to be saying 'you're better than this, do something more interesting.' i wonder how hard it would be to, say, only apply to jobs at universities and wait until something works out. i wonder what it means to admit you're on a somewhat odd path given what you really want to do, and what it takes to correct that track. is it easier to do it today, or can you try to excel at the 'wrong' thing and let that lead you to the right one?

Monday, August 06, 2007

ask an australian - making sense of my world

today's question:

is it appropriate to put pita bread in the toaster?


absolutely not! get this straight: toasters are made for round bread, not square. you might set the house on fire.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

loyalty

since the family's favorite baseball team is in town, we went to the game last night and tonight. it has become clear to me that i'm much more interested in attending concerts than baseball games, but it's fun to be together with everybody. we do attract a fair amount of attention from various fans of the local team whenever we're on the road to see games. usually i have no identifying team gear, but my mom brought a hat out for me to wear and i figured i should wear it. my sister was making fun of people who were wearing stuff from teams that weren't playing, which is what i had originally wanted to do.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

victoria

it's taken a year and a half plus and 6 rhett miller or old 97s shows, but i finally got to hear 'victoria' again. i'd say they really hit just about everything; maybe it's just because i had my heart set on the one song for so long, but i left extremely satisfied with the setlist...i suppose that means i should do a celebratory dance.