more than a day late

hmmm files:

voxtrot, somewhat reinvented and ramping up the hype once again.

build something

birdhouse
remote-control waffle iron
sawmill
bamboo hula hoop
plastic log cabin
graduate english department
flying flyswatter
cement lacrosse stick
sleeping bag recording studio
waterproof notepad

isn't it better to make something you can't explain than nothing at all?

yogurt cheddar potatoes

i made these up, so the recipe is sketchy at the moment

ingredients:
3 medium potatoes
8-12 oz sharp cheddar cheese
10 oz nonfat plain yogurt*
sea salt
black pepper
red pepper

directions:
preheat oven to 350**
cube the potatoes and boil them
whisk together cheese and yogurt

when the potatoes are ready, stick them in an (approx) 9"x12" pan
sprinkle with salt and black pepper***
cover evenly with yogurt-cheese mixture
sprinkle with black pepper and salt
add small amount of red pepper

bake 40 mins or until topping browns as desired

this is a slight twist on a very familiar dish, but the yogurt provides a surprisingly refreshing taste. the red pepper should be just enough to enhance the flavor subtly; it is not intended to provide noticeable heat.

notes:
*i'm guessing on the amount at this point, but you need enough to create a sauce once the cheese has been mixed in. it would be easy to add a lot more cheese than i did, but that would make this less healthy in comparison to more familiar cheese and potato recipes

**a higher temp might be more ideal; i used this b/c i was baking whole potatoes simultaneously and had read that 350 would work for that task

***i forgot to do this before adding the topping, but i think it's the right way to go. i was also liberal in adding additional pepper after baking.

now in rotation

music is tricky; it seems like the songs that are most promising initially can turn on you quickly. to be more accurate, the stuff that's catchy right off the bat grows tiring quickly. here are some of the albums that have crossed in and out of favor with me lately:

beirut - march of the zapotec/realpeople holland

so far, i love the way all the pieces are falling together as a beirut sound seems to endure through all the disparate styles. the vocals seem to tie it all together effortlessly

sin fang bous - clangour

don't have an opinion yet, but there seems to be some substance. sort of an architecture in helsinki feel, and i've never been particularly into them.

the postmarks - by the numbers

haven't heard the entire album, actually, but tracks 1-5 are great. 'you only live twice' is, naturally, a standout. the postmarks are a band i believe has more going for them than i personally can detect.

m. ward - post war

yes, he has a new album out; this is the previous one. despite a longtime feeling of respect for matt's stature as artist, i hadn't bothered to listen to his solo stuff until quite recently. i love that he doesn't just show off his guitar skills; the songwriting, vocals, and sonic textures make this a complete album rather than an instrumental showcase.

time of the signs

the mobile web doesn't really do april fool's day.

just an observation.

sorry

i've just gotten home and my entire room is full of discarded cheese wrappers. there are about three fist-sized holes in the back wall leading to the closet, which means the closet has to be full of plaster dust, which means i need to go to the dry cleaners. my neighbors left a message on my cell phone about some noise they heard earlier, but no one was home today.

adeppp.i3

i don't care about your

no

no

stop now


ablip

joerp

-please stop reading and go purchase some cheese

crunchkrunchchrunch cruchn

we have taken your cheese

sowh us the wsiss chese

all are awanting chees!

will nt

not standfro this

no cheese!

i like swiss cheese

let's be honest, how many foods are iconic in nature because they provide an easy way to:

-attack someone you're debating (your argument has more holes than swiss cheese)

-des.

sorry, the rest of this message was destroyed in a robot attack.

fighting

mayhem

bad dialogue

yukky!!!./1

a theme develops

cake is good. i also like ice cream.

we are watching

we are the evangelists, we are artists producers and performers.
we are watching you, and eating your cheese.
we are forming small groups to debate your excesses.
we are party to your losses.
we inhabit phone banks.
we stay late in order to read your mail.
we have not learned manners.
we have abandoned ordinary lives in order to pursue you.
our mouths are dry with the thirst for redemption.
all along, our leaders have followed our progress.
they are grooming us for future success.
we wish to prove worthy of their remaining confidences.
our hands are bloody with the wounds of eager servants.

a brighter day seems to us only another.
our steps cannot be measured for all their numbers.
the battles we survived tore no limbs from our bodies.
the tales we brought back taught no stranger our ways.

your toast published successfully

we become jealous of a breakfast food. 'sorry, the toast is not available this morning; it's on a book tour.'

find me a dessert or two

today is one of those days when i tried too hard to enjoy shopping. i had not been looking for clothes in some time, but i felt compelled to give it a whirl this afternoon. the good news is i had been at the library previously, where i found a joshua ferris short story featuring the characters from 'then we came to the end,' a fact that made me smile a little. since i have a half constructed rock band following me around in my head, it was nice to think of him working on these fictional chicagoans before they were ready to be dumped into a novel. i read a page and a half of another story of his that was wholly different in voice, and decided maybe you can't make a career out of writing that unique 'then we came to the end' style. is it too unique to work consistently? somehow it might be distracting, or suited only for certain passages. i'm curious to see if it comes out in the other story.

hold out your hand

i don't want to smile for the camera or listen to what you have to say. i'm turning my head slowly to stare out the window. the lawn looks different than last year; most of the dirt patches are gone, and the flowers by the door seem to have blown away in one of the rainstorms. you're still talking to me, which is difficult because i'm not here.

park, 2pm

i picked all the leaves off a tree today and crumbled them in my fingers. i took bits of leaves and threw them on the ground. i made sure no one was watching me and jumped on the piles of leaf bits. i removed my shoes and socks and scraped them against the sharp pavement. slowly lowering myself to the ground, i lay down on my stomach and stared into the mashed plant matter before me. my nose prickled with their broken scent. i gathered my strength and blew them, each tiny stack, with breaths that sang softly to the trees.

viva knoxville

i have made little progress on the song 'g was a serial killer' (thank you semi-conscious brain for that one), but that's ok, because i should have plenty of time to work on it in graduate school.

i may have a broken laptop, messy hair, and a phone that looks like it's been chewed on (it hasn't, at least not by me), but i was privileged recently to find my favorite soda beverage, which i have not seen in stores since college. yeah, that's right. unfortunately, my primary source of this carbonated bliss is one hundred ten miles from my apartment.

don't be ashamed

i wore a t-shirt with your face on it today.

disappointed

i am struggling right now to accept the fact that i cannot compose lengthy pieces on a device with a tiny screen. perhaps i should just give up rather than try to explain what footwear people should wear with a sport coat. as a warning before your brain is overwhelmed, shoes that can't be worn with sportcoats (soon to be discussed) also do not go with preppy wool winter coats. the only way this will work for you is if you are the mildly hapless guy with a preppy girlfriend. if you want to be that guy, just hope she thinks it's cute and that it isn't just another reason she doesn't take you seriously. should you truly aspire to be that guy, note that this also means you pay full price at preppy chains for clothes you look silly wearing. you may think hipsters look weird, but at least they want to look weird.

personally, i have never dated a preppy girl. is that a new goal for the year for me? um...uh, writing it here means it is not happening.

things that are important

in a freak accident sunday, i destroyed the lcd of my working laptop. now i have two broken ones and an ancient but cute little computer i bought in my "i want to do computer support for a living so i have to own a couple" days. that four lb wonder helped me, in the days when campuswide wireless was new and exciting, to take notes in class while attracting curious attention because it ran linux. of course i can't remember my linux password or figure out how to free significant hard drive space on...yes...what may now count as my most functional machine.

i found today that it is much easier to spend money on awesome clothes than to spend ten times that amount fixing a computer. my "future" plan to survive with an even tinier linux book in grad school has now become my plan to avoid committing funds until i know if i was accepted. not getting in to school is going to feel like an enormous windfall, but now it is time to admit that i would still want to go in the future.

on a more frivolous note, be aware that shoes can kill any outfit. they can also save many outfits when chosen properly. my old roommate c said that nice shoes are the key to looking good for a date. you can render most well conceived outfits date- appropriate just by making sure to wear something a little nicer than sneakers. conversely, the right sneakers are the perfect way to tone down a boring office outfit and look appropriately laid back. i feel like it might be worth talking about the "right" sneakers. one easy rule: never wear running shoes with sport coat. the people who can break this rule don't need my advice to begin with. for all you borderline talents who think they can get away with it, i'm not sure i can stop you right now. just promise never, ever, to wear running shoes designed after 1993 with a sport coat. this is especially true for sneakers from germany's second finest athletic brand. like germany's next-to-best automaker, they have clearly lost their way stylistically. they seem to understand that they should make new shoes that share more than names and logos with classic models. still, they consistently get it wrong. one company that has been successfully building new visions of the past has no lengthy history of it's own to build on, and continues to shine as a fiefdom of the number one snowboard maker. it all goes to show, it's not so much who literally came before you as who you really follow and whether you've got the right concept of what to accomplish.

the winter coat concept does make it tougher to properly attire yourself in colder months. no matter what the season, you are still limited by this simple rule: an outfit should work no matter which combination of layers you end up wearing by the end of the day. possibly, you might think it's a waste to worry overmuch about which shirt you wear under a sweater. even if you never take the sweater off, it is the completeness of the outfit that is important. it might even help you stay a little sharper out there.

i'm sticking with you

it's okay that you hate my cat.

i won't worry about the carpet, it was old and ugly.

we might have to take fewer walks during daylight hours, but i'll get over it.

i'm getting tired of those sneakers too. don't worry about it.

whatever happens, i will never again criticize you for brushing your teeth.

your left ear is perfectly normal in size.

i will ignore your friends, i will continue to ignore your friends, and i will not retaliate when your friends compare me to various animals.

toffee is overrated anyway.

i promise to drive with the dome light on.

don't even move an inch

sense and sensibility
-jane austen

i'd read it before, but this time through i got more of the subtleties of it. i would enjoy studying some of the historical context of this book just to see exactly how snarky jane austen is; there are moments that i, the relatively uninformed reader, don't know whether she's trying for irony or not. i may not end up following through on this, but i can see doing some research to enrich my reading experience.

it's too early to be good early

put down the phone.

we are doing you a favor.

which brings us to this evening's entertainment

i brought gloves on my trip, for no real reason other than a desire to be prepared. i had long since given in the reality that no foreseeable scenario would leave me exhausted at the bottom of a snow-covered mountain saturday, but i still brought the gloves. around nine pm, having drugged myself with another dose of internet-streamed television, i decided to review some job postings i had repeatedly ignored. only then did i start to think about the applications i'd sent out a month ago. i'd given up already, but for a time i was hovering over my mobile phone every minute or two, desperate in the wish that a voice mail would show up offering a chance to interview for one of those openings. what i hadn't counted on, however, was an email reply. my resume has my present email address, but i'd applied to these jobs through a site that is linked to an email i rarely check. looking through the last week or two of messages, i found nothing of interest, but i remember that it had been some time since i'd applied for the job. sure enough, out of two applications i sent in early january, i was asked to go in for one interview. unfortunately, it took me a month to respond. after lobbing snowballs into the emptiness across the street, i came back inside to hang my gloves up to dry, calm down, and penitently seek a second chance at that job.

does the world exist any longer?

i'm just checking

...because i think it doesn't

no, really, make me try harder

i had a difficult time on the way home tonight, but then it's never easy to come home from a lousy day at the office and find a dozen people waving placards in front of your apartment building. it's even worse when they're shouting and pointing at you. i thought my wave of staff cuts had passed so gradually and carefully that nothing was really going to come of it. well, it turns out that my web team thinks i took took ideas they presented to me last summer and used them as the basis for the site's new template. they were out for a drink tuesday and ran into intern janelle (who still has her unpaid job, of course), who was there meeting a college friend of hers - my former personal chef, marc. marc left me two years ago because i had started talking about eating vegan for a week, a plan he saw as both ludicrous and potentially harmful. he was afraid not just that he'd be fixing vegan sausages and lentil soups for a week, but that i'd trick myself into becoming a full-on vegetarian. well, he was right about that.

so anyway, marc quit rather than watch his creative options become limited by what he saw as a permanent dietary change. he harbors a lot of bad blood, mostly due to the stale french fries he used to find in the kitchen trash on weekends, when his carefully prepared meals were going untouched. he always felt i owed him a better severance than i'd offered, but it was all in his contract. good grief. people wonder why i'm still keeping a legal team. please.

two years later, it was my bad luck that janet introduced him to piers and khaled, who have become increasingly angry with me these past few days, as they've slowly drunk away their own severance checks. upon hearing of my staff cuts (marc always hated the site, so of course he'd been out of the loop), marc made a few calls to some chefs who'd worked catered events for me in the past. most of them hate me even more than marc does. people don't seem to understand why i need professional help to serve popcorn and carrot juice, but i pay for quality, you know? i figured that my habitual use of craigslist was wise, considering i can never get one chef to work more than two parties. well, unfortunately for me, freelance craigslist chefs have some kind of web forum or something, and the url seems to have the words "no," "carrot," and "juice" incorporated in it. i've always been who i am, although my preferences may change, and i'm sorry that my ex-employees have so much pent-up anger over the limitations my choices have placed on them. apparently, my parties have resulted in an organized, angry online community of freelance chefs. they've always kept to themselves, stewing in their own frustrations with me and other past employers, but when they heard i was downsizing, marc had them ready for blood. thus, i arrived home to a mob of angry chefs and web developers shouting and jeering at me. just when i thought i'd successfully navigated through the situation without so much as throwing an elbow, marc and khaled came tearing out from behind a huge potted plant, savagely basting me with turkey juices and plastering me with giant capital letters cut from the newspaper. that seems like some seriously weird stuff to premeditate. it's funny what people spend their time on when they're out of work.

reductions have arrived

i am sorry to report that i will be cutting my staff. first off, as head writer, i will now take a salary of nothing, and all freelance contributors will be paid in salted sunflower seeds. my design staff quit when i asked them to work pro bono, so i will now take over responsibility for the look and feel of the site. i quietly axed my personal shopper last weekend, which explains why i have been seen at area malls more than might be expected. my it staff has been empty for quite some time, as i let them go last summer when they repeatedly claimed they didn't know how to enable a blog roll for me. any future political commentary will be backed up by my own fact finding efforts, following the departure of both members of my research department. i am still attempting to fill a position on my legal team, as well as an unpaid staff writer's slot. the anthropologists behind 'ask an australian' never were permanent members of the team, although their contributions are missed. over the years, i have attempted numerous times to hire a literary critic, but they always quit when i talk about cormac mccarthy for an entire week.

i am not reading the signs

the other day, a security fix was pushed to all the computers at work. today, i noticed that the only font i can use for email or documents is some boring old computer font. i am glad that my system is free from the scourge of times new roman. so now somehow, the day has come that i miss arial.

i recently purchased a bright orange hat as a bit of a joke. then, thursday, i was looking for some decent headphones and found a pair that is 'tangerine' in color. i have not eaten any carrots since making that purchase.

did not see this one

i was planning to write about something i didn't actually believe, so instead i will write about nonsense. each time you sleep, do you start feeling like you've given up on the day? saturday, i kept thinking one more run down the slopes would be too much. so maybe i picked up bruises along the way, but i also learned more than i could have reasonably expected. the lame part is that i was afraid overexertion would lead to a rough day at the office today. instead, i somehow got two days' work done and felt great.

it has recently been brought to my attention that my parents, people who believe in fiscal restraint, would not be surprised if i bought a new car. seeing as they are probably too smart for my economic stimulus plan - buy a new american car - this surprised me. i suppose it's easy to get confused when one of your children is buying houses and cars while the other one is breaking personal records for television viewing (with a little help from the internet). ok. the age gap between us does not really explain the difference. some day i might get caught up in something seemingly significant, though. i spent a couple minutes today thinking about granola packaging. also, thank you to everyone who texted or called while I had no service this wkend. i loved having stuff to catch up on once i returned. some cell providers just don't believe in pennsylvania. be warned - i can switch to your competition without buying a new phone, and i don't care how many times you do things that make sense since you now have reminded me of your biggest fault. discounted wifi access for voice subscribers is great, but you provide no way to sign in. any chance you can just email that to me? seriously, i gave you an extra ten bucks this month for nothing. ok, forget it. i'm just not going to send you a box of chocolate/candy cane cookies.

seriously, really

we use an application at work to extract data, and it has a bug that makes the first file you save each day unusable. why can't i just save the file in the trash? i know it doesn't ordinarily make sense to save files in the trash, but in this case, i'd be saving a step every single day. save file, it's already in the trash, save file again.

deal with it

under the net
-iris murdoch

an irresponsible writer wanders his way through london and an assortment of ridiculous situations. reckless, suspicious, and lazy about most important elements of his life, the protagonist is self-centered and scheming but remains endearing. having read 'the sea the sea,' i was amused by the fact that both novels are built around the misadventures of wordy, egotistical, male narrators. i like jake from 'under the net' a lot better, and it's interesting to note that the narrative excess that burdens the first several chapters of 'the sea the sea' is never a problem here. murdoch's dry humor and fascinating characters make this a thoroughly enjoyable read. it is in print, but this is not a book you can walk into a chain bookstore and pick up, unless you're lucky. i struck out three times before tracking a copy down with the help of the internets.

that cost good money

i was talking with some friends last night, and the subject of dreams came up. naturally, i had a particularly vivid and unnecessarily scary dream afterwards. i had a bunch of these tiny pet animals, sort of like toys but actually living, that i was struggling to help back to full health. the weird thing was that a few of them were scary, like lions and stuff. one was some sort of lizard, which, when it regained its health, started breathing fire and destroying an elaborate cardboard city i had constructed. so essentially, my dream was some freaky variation on a computer game that i was never good at, and it was really freaking me out while i was having the dream. so, in case you were wondering, when your cute pet lizardy thing is still half dead, you have to keep in mind that it will soon be breathing fire again once it's healthy.

i also had some sort of dream about fixing the fake sausage i bought last week, which is the first time i can recall being successfully vegetarian in a dream. usually, when i have had dreams where i'm conscious of my dietary preferences, it's been because i've mistakenly eaten meat. then i wake up and eventually figure out that it never happened, which is always a relief. i don't think i've had that type of dream in a while.

we'll get it fixed

all right people, it's fixing time. stop whatever you're planning and buy an american car. maybe you don't have the cash; instead, write a check to the next bank you see advertisted on television. i'm not talking deposit; just make it out for a large sum, and mail it off, no questions asked.

ok, or buy some stocks.

just feed me

today, i got made fun of for showing up at the office at 5pm and cleaning the refrigerator. later, i discovered a white powder on top of my zero proof salsa. what is going on?

sheep

today is a turtleneck day. that means that when i unnecessarily put on a dress shirt and sweater, i made it a turtleneck. i own way too many items of clothing that i think is worthless 99% of the time and then find occasional pleasure in wearing. i probably haven't had this sweater on in over a year. that's just not sustainable.

no one needs more sugar, ok

please watch out. if erratic behavior on my part has increased, you must understand. i am being fueled by an experimental high technology sports-science beverage complex. they call it 'hot' chocolate.

cutbacks are for real

can we sell the smithsonian to help finance the bailout? i guess this wouldn't be the year to make the actual sale; let's wait and sell when the markets peak again, and just plow that cash straight into debt repayment. just a thought.

a free tip

it made my life better, from the minute i heard it. pass on the wisdom.


sweet potato fries are excellent with sour cream. if you order some, just ask for sour cream on the side.

upstaged

football game tonight, thus it does not matter that:

i am an immensely talented musician

i can pick locks with my teeth

four of my closest friends have super powers

i once read a novel while hanging upside down from the chrysler building

my third birthday party was televised


at times, i find it difficult not to smile.

yeah, but i did get the address already

let's say you run a website that hosts party invitations. why would you schedule maintenance for new year's eve? it's a holiday. that involves a lot of parties.

who even cares

things i would like to see in 2009, with little regard for whether it's time:

new albums from:

air
kings of convenience
rhett miller
(ok, i do actually know he's recording next month but i don't care about the album, i just want to hear the songs live, since even his solo material works in concert)
the shins
voxtrot
calexico
neko case
fionn regan
(i'd like about 3 albums from him...now...but patience is important. he's a good reason skipping the next 20 years of life might be worth it just to get 20 years of music all at once)
nedelle and thom
(probably never happening, but come on, please?)
the postmarks
(will happen at some point, similar feel to the above, and probably the more talented group)
fruit bats
(i should add that i don't want the shins record to sound a thing like this one and that i want this one to be awesome and i want to know why the shins had to steal eric johnson because it's not like they needed the help)
the elected
(nick never seems to sing very good songs for rilo kiley, so...)
kruder & dorfmeister
(never happening i'm sure, but i guarantee they'd provide some interesting material)
zero 7
(they might be better off without jose gonzalez' help this time around, like um, er, he's really good but maybe they did have to branch out)
explosions in the sky
(one of those 'you want to hear something as good as them, it has to be them' groups)
loch lomond
(plus national tour with 9 musicians and a ton of instruments; maybe they could bring adam selzer b/c i'm not even asking for a norfolk & western record)


books:

a novel by douglas trevor
adam langer novel not about nyc or chicago
cormac mccarthy writes something tragic and peaceful
jt leroy writes a novel about office politics
joshua ferris manages to release two novels and a short story collection, about any subject he chooses, really
a michael lewis novel and a nonfiction book about the music industry
nick horby novel, set in paris and beirut, about journalism students, with fictionalized book reviews (of real books) interspersed in the text
a chimamanda ngozi adichie novel set in the middle east
a blog by andrew keen, but only for ironic value
michael frayn novel about a scottish america's cup sailor
another gabe hudson story collection
malcolm gladwell authors a novel based on a short story by al gore, vividly detailing the life of a sudanese pirate.

is it wrong to want these things? i just want more great writing, and to learn a few things about parts of the world i've never seen.

go 2009!

albums that came out this year

i can't really say i bought much music that was released in 2008. did that jens lekman album even come out this year? the new thievery corporation left the least impact, for me, of any album they've released since i started listening. i heard 'the mirror conspiracy' first, but that is such a crucial release it would have been a certain revelation to anyone taken in by their first disc. i did get the privilege of listening to 'the richest man in babylon' when it came out, and being wowed both by the musical developments and the bold expression of the duo's politics. i had 'the cosmic game' pegged as the letdown album, especially with the sorts of collaborators they brought in, but it managed to find new sonic territory while wisely branching into higher energy levels. the guys kept it real by abandoning the transcendentally cool territory they'd layed out so perfectly in 'mirror conspiracy.' other downtempo artists have failed to achieve that first step - finding the art of cool - and my frustration with the genre as a whole helped lead me away from regular listening as 2005 wound to a close. back for a taste of the latest release in 2008, i was impressed by a couple of tracks but found the album to be only a modest pleasure to hear. it might be that i'm more of an americana/folkish listener these days, so cheers to all who got more out of the new disc.

i never bought 'blame it on gravity,' because i take in the old 97s live and almost exclusively live, but from the tour, it seems like there are some decent songs there. i look forward to hearing them when they've been around the block a few dozen times.

i thought jennifer o'connor's latest, 'here with me,' was a total treat, despite her lack of artistic development on this record. for her next release, she may need to branch out a bit more, or figure out a way to do the same thing but make it sound new. at this point in her career, laboring in obscurity, i don't think it matters that the record spins nicely along where her amazing 2006 release left off. there's plenty of room for her to grow her audience just by getting in front of people; i personally would welcome more of the same. that's probably the key - she remains core to my listening fancies, and thus in my book she can get away with repeating herself. after all, when you go to an amazing concert, all you want sometimes is to be able to come back and bask in that exact sound for as long as possible. it's also easier to hold territory that provides a solid grounding. o'connor's emotive edgy storytelling is easier to repeat successfully than the quiet bliss of 'mirror conspiracy.' i think rob and eric of thievery corporation wouldn't have wanted to stay put if they'd had the chance; their globe-trotting musical journey has to be a rush. it might not be as exciting, but i think they'd have something to say, musically, about a trip back to the states and a few long winters of joe pass and bill evans. they could always mix in old friend jobim and find some fascinating new possibilities. maybe even jean-michel jarre; i'm not sure they've really covered his turf either.

use your resources wisely

i have something that most people might not, which is a large collection of albums i own and have not yet listened to. yesterday seemed an appropriate time to raid that stash, so i rewarded myself with a listen to something brand new. i'd heard a lot of the songs live, of course, but now there's an enticing new selection on the portable device for whatever mood convinces me to seek out the brand new.

keep trying

i was telling my parents how their new place could use a hoop in the driveway, and besides the fact that it makes little sense to oblige me when i live hundreds of miles away, it turns out there's a rule against it. i also don't see a rock wall in the basement. at least they didn't say they were getting an indoor pool or anything. the Christmas tree, though, looks great.

context

spending sixteen dollars to mail something overnight seems bad, but maybe not when i paid more than that to get it printed. buying six boxes of cookies seems ridiculous until you...yeah, it's ridiculous. i haven't eaten six boxes of cookies outside of work in the past year. is that weird? i have developed distinct patterns of things i will eat at the office but not at home. that's all busted now.

it's funny being back in my neighborhood and seeing how different things look now that i've been away for 3 years. i used to have such a hard time with grocery shopping, but my perspective is completely different now. there's one store 2 subway stops away, and that is so much more convenient than just about anything i've done recently as far as shopping goes.

missed opportunities

a modest blanket of snow fell friday, slowing the city and disrupting my travel plans but failing to ruin anything significant. i spent the evening at the airport waiting with friends who hoped their luck was better than my own. everyone made it out but me, and only the weather-induced pitfalls of my journey to the airport prevented me from making it out on my flight, which took off on time. a few hours later, the remaining flights were cancelled. having lost the purpose of my evening, i was buoyed by the modest hopes of friends that their journeys would end by midnight.

my own journey was far from fruitless. i discovered that wheeled luggage rolls well through small amounts of snow, but drags heavily in even an inch and a half. transportation officials can misguide you, shuttle buses don't always appear, and stubbornly pressing forward to join waiting crowds is not always a poor choice. i found that a modest suitcase can quickly reach fifty pounds in heft, and that sometimes it's better to just check a bag even if you might not get it back for several days. i found myself surprisingly happy to return to the unheated apartment and unroll my sleeping bag for one more night. on saturday, i learned that we'd actually done our landlord a disservice by not complaining; he could have fixed the heat on thursday morning and been free to enjoy his weekend. i don't mind having missed the chance to play in the still-falling snow, when it was nothing but beautiful. instead of standing in wonder at the flakes that melted on my sweater, i played my snow games in the slush, the puddles and drifts that lulled the city to somnolence with their momentary power. i slept soundly in the warmth of the sleeping bag, preparing for a new day with flights that would fear no weather.

from the notepad

music that sounded good last week:

husky rescue

club 8

the american analog set

jenn grant

one of those items really doesn't fit with the others, to the extent that it makes me feel a bit ridiculous. that's the beauty of lists.

we are cold and indescriminate

sometimes it is not worth caring about things. if i stopped caring about having new clothes to wear, i might have some extra savings in the bank. if I managed to avoid reading ill-conceived books by people with lousy ideas, i might have time to catch up on the past three years of alumni magazines. if I stopped caring about how loud the to king clock was, i might be asleep right now.

since there is nothing better to do, i will reveal something trivial and hitherto unknown. if i could see a concert by one musical act i have seen live in the past three years, i would choose to see feist again. there are a couple reasons for that choice. i've only been to one concert of hers, it was phenomenal, and the gap between what you get from her live show and from her recorded material is huge. she's the opposite of the magic numbers, who seemed overmatched on stage but have recorded decent stuff. i don't mean to take anything away from feist as a recording artist, because the studio tracks are well done. they aren't lacking except in comparison to the live performance i witnessed. i should add that the magic numbers may have suffered somewhat because of a lousy venue. the worst neko case show i saw was in the same place, and that was honestly a fairly unexciting show as well. she's been great the other two times i have heard her live. so it's possible the magic numbers have had better shows elsewhere.

fear nothing

my revolutions
-hari kunzru

this has to have been one of those books i grabbed because i liked the cover. yes, i have not given up on that habit. they're easy to show off; people with good taste will just think you have stylish books, and people who are into books probably still won't have read them.

this was one of the more suspenseful books i've read, and it did a great job of revealing both the past and the present gruadually, which helped heighten the anticipation. the stories that unfold are: a sixties activist's journey into radicalism, and his struggles in the present to face his hidden past. it's set in britain, and a few landmark events are historical, while most are probably not.

stuck

i am making cookies with millet

i am clearcutting the forest outside

i am making sure it's okay to be afraid of people

i am shopping for honeycombed seating

i am wrapping all my belongings in clear tape

i harbor an overwhelming disdain for people who use combination locks

i do not understand what you are trying to convey

i would like a side of fries with my omelet

excuse me while i paint stripes on my neckties.

last week, i sold my best work to some guy jj saunders

define easy

i played a new board game this weekend and had a lot of luck winning. it seems a lot easier than the train game i've been playing with friends recently, because this is the type of game where the first one to finish is the winner. there is a clear goal you work towards and you know that getting thwre first means you win. with the other game, your ultimate goal is a lot murkier; you know you have to defeat the other players but it's hard to know how to accomplish that. as my friends and i have obtained familiarity with that train game, i have found it increasingly rare that i win or come close to winning. perhaps my strategy is totally wrong. i think it's safe to argue, however, that the game with a predefined end point is easier. you still have to balance risks and strategize, but yo always know what will be enough to produce a victory. there's a while other level of strategy involved when you're racing both to a defined end of gameplay and an unknown point total that will produce a win.

the debate continues

normal, abnormal, normally abnormal. it's strange the way some people insist on telling me i'm weird, others that there's nothing so weird about me. could be a matter of perspective, just one of these words we get caught up over, one way or the other.

at times i just can't seem to do ordinary, though. i can act it, when there's a reason. i can dress up like something that doesn't feel like me, and that's fine as long as i'm comfortable with the character i need to become. once in a while, i get caught trying to fit in, and i absolutely fail. that must be when i'm the most normal.

thinking a bit ahead

i'm going to get a jump on the whole giving thanks thing.

i'm thankful for a number of things i won't mention. some that i will say i am thankful for include:

cake

friends, especially when they're patient

hot water

anyone who does nice things at work

words that just sound funny

silence

i'm having a very difficult time with my list, unfortunately. there won't be any more entries today, but perhaps i can think of some more things. it seems to have been a really good idea for me to have started early.

finders

interesting album of the moment:

summerland
-nedelle and thom

if cryptacize isn't quite your thing but nedelle's voice intrigues you, checkback on this 2004 effort. i'm on my initial listen, so i can't offer any depth of analysis. so if you need some pure pop harmonies, give this a whirl. you can pretty much guarantee you've never heard these tracks before. there was a pint in my life when i realized obscure but worthwhile music like this must exist somewhere. honestly, most of you own dozens of albums you'd rather listen to than this. personally, as this is one that's new to me, there isn't much i would rather hear tomorrow. 'in time it snows' is an easy crowd-pleaser.

it could be a cost-saving measure

i purchased two pair of pants yesterday, at one of these stores that doesn't give you a place to try anything on. turns out they both fit, except that they're too short. now, the way things used to be, pants that did not come with specific lengths were always fine on me. so, are we entering an era of shorter inseams, or am i just unlucky?

for anyone who cares, person of the week is a fairly frivolous honor and probably won't be given to barack obama next week. it's really a prize for good writing, more than anything. he won the presidency, so he shouldn't be too disappointed. i have no candidates immediately sticking out at this moment. maybe james mercer. does he seem like a good person of the week? it won't be james mercer either. seriously, dude, why did you have to steal eric johnson? oh, and that time the fruit bats opened for son volt, you think jay farrar was confused about which eric johnson he'd set up as his opening act? i mean, it's entirely possible the other one would have made some of those angry people in the crowd less angry? maybe? i don't mean that's what i would have chosen. just wondering.

person of the wk

deborah solomon

for the best use of 'pithy' i have seen in some time...in an interview nonetheless. how would you like to be interviewed by someone who uses the word pithy in such excellent fashion? you better bring your a game to that interview, that's all.


i was going to make this the journalist of the week, then thought writer of the week, but consider this to be an award that will almost always be handed out for feats of written excellence.

three hours ago

i had to get up early today, which means that besides watching tv like most saturdays, i have managed to head all the way up to the church and back, purchase a charger and a pair of scissors, and...um...watching extra tv because i got up earlier. yah.

sea legs

i originally woke up about half an hour early this morning. i was tired so I went back to sleep. ended up sleeping in another hour and a half. opps. somehow i was still feeling lousy and tired. at that point i just didn't want to bother with a costume, but figured i'd be regretting it later if i left the stuff behind. good decision. not sure how i'd forgotten this, but i really enjoy dressing up as things. everyone at work got my main costume, and thought the other random ones were pretty funny too.

getting it wrong without even trying

i've been writing a lot on my pocket internet device, not knowing there was actually no easy way to get that text onto my actual computer. this is a problem. i can spend a bunch of money to fix it, or...i don't even know. i'm not happy about this.

i'm also not happy that my best idea for a halloween costume consists of dressing up as a specific company executive. that has bad written all over it. actually, the thing i'm afraid of is that someone else will have the same costume idea. i think i'll revert to the old standard: dress as a specific former employee.

two weekends ago, i lost the charger to my mobile phone. more accurately, i left it in my hotel room. it's been turned off almost constantly since then. this is not helping.

north for the weekend

i'm lucky to be on vacation once again, this time watching some leaves. there are some amazing towns in northern new england. i think i like the idea of traveling to more than just the cities, but this seems like the first trip in a while where i have done that. highlights have been the beaches and some incredible cliffs.

one thing that can be tricky when eating out regularly as a vegetarian is finding something you'll enjoy. diners are always a good idea, i think, but i hated the fake mexican food i had at an unnecessarily fancy place for lunch. there were so many grilled red peppers. i think red peppers are a scourge. the key for me is to find somewhere that will serve a vegetarian dish that is noodle or rice based. i need something like a normal non-american meal minus the meat.

running on not very much

i am on vacation. this particular vacation means hanging out with the people i would normally hang out with if i had never moved two point five years ago. it also means sleeping in. hopefully, it does not involve overmuch concern that my company will decide to stop letting me be an active part of our web marketing efforts.

today's (complete) menu:

one (1) vanilla soy drink

two (2) almonds

small amount of granola

half (1/2) of an imported chocolate bar with nuts and raisins

one (1) grilled veggie burrito

one (1) side of chips with salsa

one (1) cranberry something and corn syrup drink

one (1) serving of lasagna with meat that i carefully removed


i'm hoping for pancakes tomorrow.

farewell lunches can really stink

when you order the wrong stuff. i don't know what my problem is. at the most recent one, i got something that was totally greasy and found myself completely unwilling to eat it. i was almost positive that it was going to be something i wouldn't want to eat, and it was. i ate the sides, and was terribly hungry later in the day.

farewell lunches are not about the food. they're fun, but they're not about you anyway.

when being yourself isn't enough

i can give detailed biographies of more than a dozen jazz musicians

i listen to the radio

i like pets

i wear blue shoes with my blue belt

my mobile phone is on silent

one of my many hobbies is knitting

people have been known to imitate my voice because they want to hear it all the time

so it's not a waste of time

john moved to new york in the aftermath of a snowless winter and took a room for two months in a dismal apartment. he hung on to a long-distance relationship while wishing it was over. one more than one occasion, he wondered how the walls of his apartment were put together. he wandered empty grocery stores hoping to see something that looked like food. john bought pasta and sauce and tried to plan ahead.

he slept on the floor, without a mattress, and with no furniture whatsoever. it was his only single room since college. he dreamed of filling it with ingeniously constructed furniture. he would build it out of cardboard and hope.

he took a few photos out the window, and occasionally heard the meowing of a stray cat. the neighbors played the exact same record weekly, blaring patriotic anthems from a long-forgotten film. other neighbors danced with their children in the streets to the vibrant sounds of their homeland. a homeless man occasionally slept in the unnecessarily large atrium of the building. on other occasions, john would do his laundry and meet the same man, sorting through endless plastic bags. this man was also a neighbor.

the days passed, and john's roommates warmed to him a bit. they told him of their desperate efforts with girls. they shared jokes that the understood a lot better than john did. the roommates told stories that were new york-centric, because they lived in new york. they seemed to be people who were meant to be here.

well meaning

one of my co-workers asked me, at 3:30pm, in front of my manager, if i wanted to leave and go shopping. i was not interested in shopping.

all of a sudden, it's midnight and i'm fighting with some web site where i want to delete the account i just set up because i did it wrong. i swear plenty of good things happened today, like when our graphic designed totally made a landing page banner in minutes even though somehow no one had asked him to do it yet. there was also the lemon filled donut i bought, that was a good thing. i also remembered to charge my phone before it died, and the old tv shows i watched via the internet were pretty entertaining. i found a hotel for my upcoming trip, and officially got the time off for both of the upcoming weekend trips.

a day home from the office

you know those ad campaigns where they try to give personality to a brand? well, i think it's time for my own, and it's not even about soda. i'm home sick from work today, so let me present to you:

a day home from the office.

a day home from the office says:

'i've watched twelve episodes of a one-hour drama series today'

a day home from the office means:

'i'm eating the last carrot'

a day home from the office is:

incredibly relaxing

now, take this into account

i am officially fifty percent less irresponsible than i was as of friday morning. i also called my brother-in-law today.

oops, my bad

we don't own any table knives. how silly of me to have forgotten that.

carmakers: you have lost your minds

special pricing on most 2009 models? it's not even 2009 yet. clearly the whole 'making things seem special by releasing models with next year's date' thing has gone way too far.

lovely

when everyone is gone and you're sitting around trying to finish things, eating plain crackers...yesterday's leftover white bread is an excellent find. mmm...

lost in the woods

i have an actual life, i just don't want to talk about it. after weeks of staring into the vending machine, seeing flashes of purple that always turned out to be overpriced water, i found numberless grape sodas this morning and bought one. it was warm, unfortunately, so it was like drinking carbonated cough syrup. i put it in the fridge.

later, i attended a farewell lunch where i made the mistake of allowing the waiter to botch my order. i knew he misheard me, but he'd taken so long to get through everyone else that i didn't want to gum things up even more. i ended up with a curried chickpea dish, which i strongly doubt was actually vegetarian. tragically, i made that conclusion after pretending to eat it. there were a few points where i just wanted to leave that place and go back to work, but i kept telling myself that patience is an important skill to cultivate. there was also the issue of the four dollar white rice to go with an admittedly affordable four dollar main dish of side dish-style chickpeas. what place charges a dollar for naan but four for rice? in the end, i paid way too much for food i barely ate, and struggled to stuff down other forms of calories after returning to the office.

hurricanes lost

one of my friends was deeply disappointed in the lack of impact the weather had on our saturday. there just wasn't enough rain to make her happy. i was wise enough to bring my recently purchased shortboard out in the storm in case i needed protection from the elements. several hours of my saturday were spent indoors, suffering from the burning humidity brought on by the storm. in other words, there was little chance of my agreeing that the storm did nothing.

no food zone

i feel like it's been especially difficult lately determining what to eat for lunch. the unfortunate reality is that anything readily accessible ends up being part of my meal once i get hungry enough. that leads to some odd choices; fresh fruit and candy have been a big part of the afternoon meal yesterday and today. there are ways around this, but i haven't been keen on getting greasy takeout when i have nothing else to eat. it doesn't seem possible to really fill up on fruit and carrots, and i know none of this is a good thing, it's just that there are times when taking care of everyday needs gets tedious and you don't like any of the immediate solutions you see.

when there are no more options

i'm trying to do the less than an hour awake and at home thing tonight, not super successfully. i also have this idea that i'll be back at work less than twelve hours after i left, but that is even less likely. i spent too much time at the office, but while i was killing time just hoping people would agree on dinner plans, it turned out i'd forgotten some crucial stuff. at first glance it seemed so crucial that someone elsewas checking email at 7pm and wondering where the reports were, but honestly who's going to be around to even use that info after 8pm. it's like i made the mistake and things are no different really than if no one had caught it until tomorrow. we're not doing anyone any useful favors getting an email out that late in the day.

a winter scene

i am looking at a picture of myself, drawn by a close friend. it seems at first like i'm stuck in somebody's still life; my head floating in a bowl of oranges and strawberries. somehow, though, there's like this glacier bearing down on me; the irresistible force of nature, or a slow pressure that will break everything in its path. somewhere on the glacier are two bears, a pond with several fish, and a cluster of pine trees. these know nothing of glaciers, of irresistible forces, or of pressure, and exist solely for their own purposes. one of the trees has a nest in it, high in its branches. there are two eggs in the nest, and a feather falls gently from the nest to the ground.

maybe this means nothing

i noticed this a long time ago, and i'm surprised it's taken me this long to put it in writing. since my most recent move, a lot of my stuff has remained in storage around my apartment; there just hasn't been enough space to unpack it all, and i've also gotten used to doing without. i haven't had a real pillow; my pillow case has a couple t-shirts stuffed in it. my roommate, on the other hand, has a normal pillow with a t-shirt for a pillow case.

home, one day early

i got on the first car, knowing it would be the closest to the turnstiles when i reached my stop. a man was standing, staring intently out the front window the train, his cart of luggage behind and to his right. as the train accelerated, i noticed the locked wheels of the cart sliding reluctantly against the mottled blue floor. i wondered if i should say something to the man - 'you know, your cart is actually moving. the wheels won't turn, but it can still slide.' i imagined him arguing back, thought of providing some retort about friction and how it wasn't enough, in this case, to keep something from moving even when it's barred from moving easily. the wheels, the cart, its progress along the floor became a matter of great interest. at one point, i leaned accidentally against it, presumably releasing the brake, for this sluggish friction-bound object suddenly moved several inches away from me, as if my slight brush against its handle was powerful and decisive, clearing the grey-wheeled infringer out of my path. somewhere in this drawn-out examination of my situation, i realized my hypocrisy. my own luggage, two decidedly non-wheeled bags, were lying on the floor, their coefficient of friction assumedly much lower than that of the creeping cart.

don't think too much

one of the more amusing things about the passing of time is the sudden discovery that you can honestly say things like 'i've had that for something like 10 years,' or 'we've been doing this trip for twenty years.' the family/church camping trip has gone on so long that i can hardly remember it not being an entity. i've gone from one of the proud few who'd been to them all to missing it due to geographic impossibility, on into skipping because college seemed more exciting, and back and forth between wanting to have my own life and desperate to get outside and do something tough. it's not just a camping trip, it's also an annual hike that i'm certain will be more difficult this year than most. of course, i could be wrong about that, but i'm probably under-fueled and certainly in sub-optimal shape. i did find the high-tech hat i bought last year, so at least i've got the equipment down. weather remains a concern, so there's a distinct possibility something not completely difficult will be substituted as a practical measure.

whatever arrives first

summer's been mild; weather-wise, it has been outstanding. it wasn't the greatest for me overall, but there have been some highlights. i certainly am better off right now than i was at the start of it, which is really all one might ask. what i am beginning to remember is how great fall can be.

there are three types of milk in the fridge

i am against a lot of things, but i like muffins. i also like biscuits.

where's my education?

a friend asked yesterday about the cost of applying to graduate school. it's not cheap, and for some programs it's probably extra expensive, but i have never thought it was hard to spend the money on applications. these past couple days i've been getting emails from one of the schools that accepted me this year. they don't seem to have successfully excised my name from their list after i chose not to go, but it's weird to think i could be starting classes right now. it's definitely not a waste to give myself the option, it's just weird that i always end up deciding i don't want to attend the schools that accept me.

yes, the moment has arrived

the new jennifer o'connor disc arrived tuesday. honestly, i haven't gotten my copy yet, but i did one better than that. saw her perform most of the songs from the new effort, and it's definitely worth your time. if you check out her stuff online, be sure not to listen to 'i was so wrong dump remix' first, because it's a bit weird. any of the other stuff she's streaming is excellent. just buy the record, k?

that didn't go so well

sometimes it's more fun to watch from the sidelines. or the bench. i barely made it to any of the games this year (scheduling conflicts), and so it didn't matter to me whether i played or not. the other team was better than we were, but on a rare day where things go right we might have been able to win. it wasn't a big deal to me, but i guess i've attached greater weight to different trivial matters than company softball.

championship day

my third year playing company softball. first year we were terrible; last year we were better and made the semis; this year we're inconsistent but made the finals. definitely the best team we've had this whole time.

i'm in favor of lunch

just saying, if it comes down to skip lunch or eat lunch...you're wise to eat lunch.

these are not from the backlog

...the're just short

the pat hobby stories
-f. scott fitzgerald

an amusing collection of material he wrote close to the end of his life, these stories are brief, sometimes effortless episodes from the 49th year of a whiskey-soaked hollywood writer's life. fitzgerald doesn't dazzle here; he's just out to amuse us, but in doing so he presents a hollywood that is tangibly real.

not everyone gets a shot, seriously

the cult of the amateur
-andrew keen

andrew keen has to be the world's biggest fan of knol, and if he's not, he's even more of an idiot than he lets on. he actually talks about a similar-sounding site that started up 2 years ago. not having heard of it, i'm assuming it hasn't done well. keen may just be a nostalgic fool, relentlessly attacking the participatory internet, but he has a few points that are worthwhile. the problem is, his main point is that too much participation is bad. stop making music, posting videos, or writing online; if you're good enough and try hard enough you can do it professionally. then andrew keen will give you a shot. this is actually what he says, straight up. he's afraid the record labels will disappear, no one will have the million dollars (yes, literally) and year's worth of time necessary to make a decent pop record, and he won't be able to find anything good because there will be too much lousy music out there. he relies on exaggeration, assumptions, and hyperbolic rhetoric to further his arguments. it's probably not worth reading the whole book unless you're like me and you feel forced at times to investigate viewpoints you immediately hate. what keen seems unwilling to accept is that technological progress brings change. this book is the yin to michael lewis' yang in 'next,' but lewis is the better writer. it's hard to read someone so bitter - he hates craigslist because it's free, youtube because it's not limited to professionals, and online music stores because they sell songs for too little. he talks wistfully of the days when a giant record chain provided deep selection and knowledgeable staff. all i remember about that place was high prices. you start feeling a bit sorry for him when you realize that he liked the world a certain way and just wishes it wouldn't change. he fears that iconic newspapers will continue to decline, somehow assuming nothing will take their place. he whines that cherished reviewers will, someday soon, have no well-paid platform from which to guide us to the most worthy culture and media. he only acknowledges that new media platforms still give rise to hits and influential figures when he's using that fact to reinforce one of his complains such as his assertion that bloggers, even popular ones, don't make appreciable money.

keen's best point is essentially borrowed from mattathias schwartz, and at least partially quoted and cited. it is that online poker poses a definite threat with is intensely addictive action. keen leads this section with the same shocker schwartz begins his article with, and does not cite schwartz for the story itself. citing and quoting schwartz on other elements of the poker story is fine; this is how books are written. the problem is, keen doesn't want web content to be recontextualized and repurposed. he rants about tagging and remixing content, when that is essentially what he does with schwartz' article, using its most effective and relevant elements to add to his own text. this is one more example of keen's shortsightedness; having railed extensively against the internet's application of a concept that's generally accepted offline, he actually employs the same concept for his own purposes. how he used schwartz' article is at least mostly ok; his hypocrisy is not.

i think one of the worst things keen does is to call illegal downloading and legal paid-for downloading of music the same thing. both threaten the music industry's status quo, and keen likes cultural institutions to endure unchanged. somehow, he never seems to consider the positive consequences of things he dislikes. if the barriers to producing music, for example, are lowered, there may eventually be so much music out there that no one will finance a million dollar recording effort. to keen, that's a problem; the million dollar estimate is from a musician he admires, and he wants that man to be able to go on the way he always has. he doesn't want future talents of the same magnitude to miss out on their chance to make a million dollar record. it might comfort andrew keen to know that that record doesn't have to cost a million dollars if technology has radically democratized production of music. even more importantly, that democratization means more talented people will have a chance to make something great and share it. keen argues the opposite is true, and i think it's a shame he can't see that history argues against him.

not really re-visted

thus far, history may have stolen my series on first albums from canadian indie groups, but it's time to revisit that never-written material this evening. it's hard to ignore 'funeral,' but i ignored it for several years until i actually bothered to obtain a copy. 'apologies to the queen mary' is probably the most important to my meandering explorations of music, as it's a lot more rocking than just anything else i had at the time dave gifted it to me (thanks). i'm going to say, however, that 'feel good lost' is my sentimental favorite for right now. i'm going to go on and add that i do not by any means own every first effort from every worthwhile band up north. as it is, i'm more likely than not to ignore exciting new bands (see above) until some chance encounter that proves it's not such a bad idea to just give something a shot when people are enthusiastic about it.

strictly speaking, it must be a novella

corruption
-tahar ben jelloun

translated from french, this morrocan novel is remarkably short. the protagonist is one honest man trying to stand for his principles in a society where everyone seems to be taking or handing out dirty money. he struggles with a lousy marriage that's not completely his fault, but this is primarily a tale of inner turmoil. i didn't think it was great, but the main character's philosophizing didn't work for me the way it probably should have. its told in terse prose, and manages to avoid the monotony that i find in many tales related by introspective first person narrators.

nostalgia

question: do you find yourself wishing that the world/your neighborhood/your life still was the way it was back when ____? i've been reading a book lately that is borne of a lot of authorial angst, all of which basically stems from the regret that certain cherished institutions have vanished and the fear that that more will do the same. have we reached the point where we're like this, or will that come later in life? personally, of course, i do look backwards a lot, which is a new phenomenon since i moved here. i think of it that way at least, and i don't recall other phases of my life where i've had to think 'things were better back when...' all that often.

development

some days there's pie
-catherine landis

a story about a small town girl who runs away, first from home, then from the man she left with, this is a book of characters and relationships. it's a journey that mostly takes place in one place; a chance connection between two women that grows into a deep friendship. in a way, it seems closer to real life than many novels, because it's hard to form an opinion of people until you hear the narrator share hers. the narrator has a peculiar refusal to contract the phrase "did not," which, given her background, seems odd. maybe i just missed the secret explanation for that.

stuff i don't own

riot on an empty street
-kings of convenience

that one track - i'd rather dance with you - gets annoying. as fun as it is initially, don't judge the group by that song. after several dozen listens, it may end up being the worst effort on this disk. different tracks keep popping up on internet radio and they've all been worthwhile. i've heard misread, gold in the air of summer, cayman islands, and surprise ice. none of them have the pretentious/infectious beat of i'd rather dance with you, and i am fine with that. seems like a new record is in order from these gents, but i see nothing on their fairly terrible website to indicate that it's happening.

a little more

crossing california
-adam langer

i read a brief review of this book and it disappointed me. i don't really review books, and i probably don't do a good job of explaining them, but i do recommend books, and you should read this one. spanning the transition between 70s and 80s, carter and reagan, it introduces us to several mostly jewish chicago teens and their parents. there's a trick of narrative overlap where one character will experience something and we soon bump up against the same event from a different point of view. i started wanting to become friends with these people, which says something about me and about langer's ability to write. he's good at it, and i like clever people. the best thing is that all the characters are flawed, and many of them are appealing for different reasons. i think generally if you know most people well enough you'll like them; langer has made sure i like his characters by giving me enough insight into the soul of several of them that i can excuse their shortcomings. 'half of a yellow sun' was good for the same reason; in that novel, most of the main characters had done something fairly awful, yet they retained their appeal.

a partial accounting

the last summer of the world
-emily mitchell

i read this because it involves wwi, a subject i'm curious about lately. this is the other book with the photographs, which appear as captions only before we hear a story that fleshes out what happened before the picture was taken. the protagonist, edward steichen, is a historical figure, and an imperfect one. the author does a decent job of making her characters flawed without making me hate them.


half of a yellow sun
-chimamanda ngozi adichie

set in Nigeria in the 1960s and dealing with the civil war with Biafra, the book seemed daunting because of its size and subject matter. the characters were fascinating and convincing. i expected a lot more blood, and while i'm glad there wasn't too much to read through, the horrors of the war affect everything in the landscape of this novel. it follows the lives of a select group of privileged Biafrans, who are brought lower and lower as the war progresses, but who are never personally dragged as deep into the terrors of warfare as many of their countrymen. their education, money, and social class allow them to escape or ameliorate certain elements of the wartime suffering, but their own suffering remains frightening.

beached

we were supposed to go to the beach today, but it rained like crazy and it was a long ways to travel if we were going to end up soaked. instead, we went to a rooftop pool at my temp roommate's friend's place. it was a lot of fun. i can't even remember the last time i went swimming.

what's wrong with this picture?

i can't sleep and suddenly it occurs to me that i have the chance to find out once and for all if the clock on this one web app from work is based on eastern time or not. apparently it is, and apparently it isn't designed to work on open-source browsers running on the platform none of our office machines run. thus, a bunch of wasted post-midnight time doing...work. yeah, that's right...work.

i'm not hiding

i tried to listen to one of the new css tracks...it just made me angry. then i had to go dig up somewhere i could actually listen to something from the first album.

august tomorrow. august is the month the new jennifer o'connor is out. i will continue to mention this.

taking a break

someone at work suggested i take a vacation. the problem is, i was afraid to leave for fear that i'd enjoy myself and then be reluctant to return. that was maybe a month or so ago. i'm still planning and thinking about future travels, but i wonder whether it's a good idea to do so. in the past, i have had relative success taking short vacations; 3 days plus a weekend seems like a good break. it has seemed like going away longer than that (which i've done maybe twice in the past four years) can be counterproductive. if i'm away from work long enough, i get too comfortable not being at work. in the past, i have had stretches where work was my favorite part of my life, which is a good thing to keep in mind.

measuring stick

i figured out a rough way of gauging the relative popularity of musical acts, and i'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before. this past week, i logged in to one of those streaming music sites. it had been a long time since my last visit, and they had recently redone their site. handily, each artist that plays now shows up alongside several other similar artists, with the number of listeners and total streams for each. using this metric, i first discovered that norfolk & western are way too obscure. i'm not sure what the deal is; little wings has a lot more listeners and they're both obscure and a little grating at times. so now norfolk & western will have to square off against loch lomond for the title of least known portland act that i like. what disturbed me even more is the absolute paucity of jennifer o'connor listeners. something needs to change about that. new album's out in august...ok?

not any more

next
-michael lewis

there's one reason i read this book: i like lewis' writing. someone on the subway asked me if it was any good, and i had a laugh with him about the fact that it's not really 'next' any more since the book was published 7 years ago. this was a good book to read in my spare time, although it was only worth it really for the writing. he didn't show off too much, so that element wasn't as good as it could have been either. there are some good stories here, but let me go ahead and recommend an article by lewis that you should read first. it's about his return to new orleans following hurricane katrina. it is well worth your time.

maybe it was a waste

i saw three movies today. it's possible that i could have wasted my time, and then again it's possible that there are worse ways to waste time. i saw a huge action movie with my roommate, a quirky independent comedy by myself, and a classic with several friends. i wore a different hat to each one, which was somewhat inevitable but actually a natural choice. given the fact that i didn't like the way the first hat went with my t-shirt, and that the second is old and needs to be protected, it made sense that i kept switching. i wore the same shoes all day, which was unfortunate considering they're not good for walking. i finished the novel i'd been reading, and found the opening pages of the next one to be much more interesting than i'd expected. it's been a little while (four books ago) since i began a new novel that was engrossing from the beginning.