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2002

Again

I seem to be having one of those periods where I seem completely unable to answer simple email messages lately. Granted, I’m a little casual about it even at my best, but now my friends are even starting not to like me. And, as usual, there is precious little rhyme or reason to the messages which DO get a timely response…

So this is pretty much just a half-assed excuse to all the people I owe. I’m sorry. Please don’t feel slighted. I started tonight and I’m tentatively penciling in tomorrow night for a big catch up session…

Yeah, I know. You’ve heard it all before. Starting in about 1998…

So I took this quiz (watch out for lots of annoying pop-up windows) and my results had no bearing on reality (nor on any of my answers) and I’m not posting them. So there. Your mileage may vary…

Unrelated: anyone under the impression that Chicago is “the windy city” obviously was not waiting for a 12-Folsom on the Embaracdero this afternoon about 3:30…

My Book

So it was a crappy day (imagine me teaching a sensitivity training session ferchrissakes), but it got better tonight. I received a review copy of what I now refer to as “my book”: the one above, where my photo was used on the cover. That was pretty cool. Looks like a pretty good book too; a little-known fact about yer humble host is that I was planning to specialize in Retail Location back when I was still planning to get an M.A. in Geography…

Then I had a quick phone conversation with Mark, which we don’t do very often, maybe due to my strange phone phobia. So it still feels all “special”. And now there’s this bluegrass special on KTEH. So the evening’s gotten much better…

Love/Hate

I still declare, as I have for some years now, that there is no better meal available for less than ten bucks in San Francisco than a super carnitas burrito from Pancho Villa. There are probably damned few better meals available for more than ten bucks either…

Things I love today:

  • Carnitas.
  • Much easier parking in the Mission than there was a year or two back.
  • The Osbournes.
  • Him, a lot.

Things I hate today:

  • Pollen.
  • The Real World.
  • The aftereffects of a super carnitas burrito from Pancho Villa.
  • Moby. He’s just fucking creepy.

Endorsements

Avoided computer all night. Sat on butt, popped in new Chinatown DVD (finally) and watched it in its entirety. Wholeheartedly recommend this regimen to others as well…

I’m only going to offer the two election endorsements I feel particularly strongly about. I’m not a registered Republican (surprise!) and there’s not much point in my having an opinion on the primary. So:

  • Proposition 42: Yes. Couldn’t be any simpler. The gasoline tax is the cornerstone of the federal and state transportation programs; these programs are the very reason for the existence of a gas tax. To suggest that voting “yes” would somehow eliminate flexibility in funding schools and healthcare is ridiculous; this money was never meant to be spent on schools and healthcare in the first place.
  • Proposition 45: No. This may be one of the single most convoluted and cumbersome pieces of legislation I’ve ever read. Let’s see if I have this straight. Term limits are the law in California. But we can waive that in certain instances by presenting a petition with a certain number of signatures. In support of the incumbent. It doesn’t matter how you feel about term limits; this reads like nothing but a manual for disaster. Complete idiocy. I refused to sign the qualifying petition several months ago and I refuse to vote for it now.

Seattle on My Mind

In about three and a half weeks, I’m off to the great Pacific Northwest with Mark. It will be almost five years to the week after my last trip up that way. That was a great trip, despite the fact that the Seattle portion was marred by the presence of a whiny and pouting ex-dalliance. This time will, I suspect, be much more pleasant, if for no other reason than the fact that I’ll be in Seattle with someone who actually WANTS to be there…

I’m positively giddy at the prospect of a whole week with Mark. And at the prospect of a whole week out of San Francisco. And at the fact that I’ve found one of those rare appropriate uses of the word “giddy”. My biggest fear is that, just like last time, I’ll return so obsessed with the idea of moving up there (and with spending unmetered time with Mark) that San Francisco will seem even more dismal than it does now…

Interesting reading for your evening…

I may post one or two election endorsements later tonight; I’m getting a little tired of Winona’s face below…

Weekend

So far I’ve managed to get almost nothing from Thursday’s list done this weekend. I’ve been busy, mind you. I just haven’t been busy doing any of the stuff I was supposed to be doing…

I’m working on it today. Really. I have a lots of nervous energy from a weekend without Mark around. Must channel it positively. I even skipped my Sunday breakfast today; I didn’t want to eat blue grits alone. That’s the first sign of a hominy problem, y’know…

Anyway, I’ll get started after I look at this again (link via Carroll). Great article…

I hate those weekends when I’m more tired at the end than I was at the beginning. And I’m not talking about the satisfied and contented sort of tired…

Randomly Thursday

It’s turned out to be a seriously hectic week and I never quite expected that. And it may be a fairly hectic weekend too. Oh well. It will help keep my mind off where I won’t be…

On the agenda:

  • Working on a new site, and maybe doing some preliminary work on another new one too.

  • Shooting a solution containing boric acid directly into my right eye. Several times.
  • Catching up on long-neglected email.
  • Laundry and severe spring cleaning.
  • A blood-letting tomorrow so that I can learn that my condition hasn’t really changed much since the last one.
  • Definitely a movie break on Saturday night.
  • Popping downstairs and smashing in some idiot’s windshield if his car alarm doesn’t shut the fuck up really soon.

Oh God. I’m Charlotte Flax from “Mermaids” too. There has to be some significance here, but since I’ve never seen the movie, I won’t take a stab at what it might be…

Which Winona Are You?

Thanks to Mark via Sarah. Or vice versa. Y’know, you two really need to meet at some point…

Pretty Pictures

In the spirit of adding new content without having actually to write anything new, I’ve added a few jounal entries from the past year which, for one bad reason or another, never made it to the front page. Some of them were rants, some were updates for which I didn’t yet have pictures, etc. Just to make it fun, I’m not going to say where they are either…

You can also see some recent pictures which, for one reason or another, never made it to their respective places in journal entries. Of course, the biggest reason is that I didn’t get around to capturing the pictures until the journal entries were already way old. I’ll probably move them where they need to go soon…

Duncan’s Stunning New Brolly, West Portal, SF

Mark and Rick, West Portal, SF

Stupid White People

So I’m in line behind these stupid white people at the Burger King tonight. I bet you’ve been behind the same couple. They’re upper middle class and vaguely overeducated Baby Boomers, they’re eating fast food on a lark, and they just don’t get the concept. Especially the “fast” part…

These are the sort of people who mull over every item on the menu, pondering its relative fat content. As the line gets longer and longer, they ask the poor guy behind the counter about the ingredients on every sandwich, how the onion rings are cooked, whether the chicken is a frozen patty, etc…

The husband can’t quite figure out what a combo meal is. First he just wants a sandwich. Then he decides to get a drink. Then he goes for broke, makes the cashier void one more line item, and orders the whole combo. He asks if the drink is included and then changes his mind twice when ordering said beverage. I’m amazed at this point that he doesn’t ask for a wine list…

Finally they finish and get their food. Four subsequent customers manage to order their food in half the time it took this one couple. I am not surprised, somehow, to notice they drive away in a Volvo. I’m even less surprised when they try to turn into oncoming traffic on a one-way street on the way out…

Sunday Night

I hate Sunday nights. Just when I’m getting used to being curled up, comfy, and cozy from the weekend, I don’t get to be anymore. It’s right about now that those 189 miles seem like about a million…

But now I’m sort of grinning. And sort of tired. And sort of pondering putting that extra blanket on the bed to compensate over the next twelve days…

 

It was a good weekend: pizza and Quiz Show with Mark, Dan, and Jamie on Friday night; record stores, subways, Escape from New York, and Ethiopian food with Mark on Saturday; and the post Chinese New Year street festival in Chinatown today. And then there was this morning’s blue breakfast, but that’s a story for another time when there are pictures…

Wow. Tad’s has a website now. Cool. And it’s less than six months ’til this year’s birthday bash. Mark your calendars…