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Downtown Ink

Just think: if I’d actually pursued a career in planning, I could have spent all my time coming up with grandiose schemes like this one, which will probably never come to pass (and probably never should)…

What is this fascination so many small and medium-size sunbelt cities have with downtown stadiums and “grand pedestrian plazas” with cutesy little concrete doodads? They’re just like those stupid “downtown mall” schemes which blocked off main steets by the hundreds in the 1970s and are now being ripped up all over the country after succeeding at little but turning Main Street into a giant shooting gallery…

And why is it that municipal governments, when faced with lots of colorful sketches of ideas which have failed miserably everywhere else they’ve been tried, always manage to convince themselves that their city is the one place in the whole country where the scheme will definitely work and will “save downtown”, as long as enough money is poured into it?

If people decide to return en masse to downtown Greensboro (or Charlotte or Fresno or wherever), it will be beacuse an interesting culture has developed there over time which provides something not available elsewhere. It will not be because of some grand city-financed “master plan” which redesigns everything and assigns it a cute little name. And spending a fortune to induce white suburbanites to use mass transit is just plain ridiculous in most cities of the south and the west; it’s never going to happen…

They’ve already rebuilt downtown Greensboro about three times since 1970. Strangely enough, its most prosperous times have been the years before and in between, when they just left everything the hell alone…

If this sounds like a rather conservative viewpoint, it’s not really. I don’t mind cities spending money. What I mind is cities spending money on complete idiocy…

Thursday Night

It’s midnight. I was restless and burdened with overabundant nervous energy earlier, so I cleaned up the house (so as not to return to a mess on Sunday) and then popped some Dragnet into the VCR. That did the trick. What is it about old police dramas that soothes me so?

In about 18 hours, it’s Fresno, Mark, and a much improved disposition…

Y’all have a good weekend now, y’hear?

Happy belated birthday to Becky. I hope you get what you want too. It’s amazing how effective bullet points can be sometimes…

Christmas Is Coming

Popped by the miniature Safeway on Jackson Street in the Financial District this afternoon on the way home from work. It’s my secret Safeway where I avoid turkey-crazed crowds on days like today. I’d never do all my shopping there, but it’s a great little hidden place to pick up things when I’m in the neighborhood. But even it was more crowded than usual today…

You can tell the holidays are brewing downtown. The Christmas Muzak has already kicked in at Embracadero Center, and the crowds on the streets look slightly less constipated than usual. They’re all still tight-assed suit monsters at heart, but around the holidays, they’ll sometimes actually even pause from their terribly important cell phone conversations to say “excuse me” when they ram into you…

Upcoming:

  • Food on Thursday, although I’m still firming up the details of where and with whom. Conflicting invites. Which is sort of flattering in a way.
  • Mark’s coming on Saturday. That’ll be much fun, as will the fact that I won’t be the one fighting the traffic on Sunday.
  • A visit from Mom in early December. Which means I should pay a little more attention to all that stuff that’s growing behind the toilet.

Randomly Tuesday

It looks likely that a this photo I took, of an old Safeway in Lodi CA in 1993, will be gracing the cover of a British retailing textbook before too long. There won’t be much money in it, but it’s sort of a cool thing to add to the grab bag of unusual accomplishments. It means I will have received income as both an writer and a photographer, at least. Not much income, but still…

That was the happy news following an exceedingly unpleasant day at work, in which I (a) tried to dispose of usless computer equipment which should have been leased rather than purchased in the first place, (b) wasted 90 minutes in a meeting where my presence was not needed in any way, and (c) killed off another 90 minutes in a series of related tasks so bloody asinine that I dare not even start discussing them…

The week’s almost over, right? Oh wait. It’s Tuesday. At least it’s McRib season again. That makes everything a little easier to take. As does the possibility of an enjoyable, rainy weekend on the horizon…

Random note to Jonno: my graphics were uglier than yours. They probably still are. And anyone who wants to see those REALLY ugly graphics from the pre-1997 versions of Planet SOMA will have to know the super-secret pre-domain URL, and I ain’t talkin’…

Randomly Thursday

The week from hell is now pretty much over, except that I can’t seem to log into one of my client sites to upload the latest batch of stuff. Soon even that will be over and I will be much happier…

Anyway, I shan’t be lonely for the next ten days or so. Mark‘s coming tomorrow night (yeah, that makes me happy), and Mom arrives on Thursday. I still haven’t cleaned to “Mom specs” yet; I guess that will cover the three days between visits…

Why is Family Guy not on tonight? And does the world really need boot-cut jeans again? Have the years since 1981 taught us nothing?

Sorry. Pretty lame journal entry. I’m worn out and I think I’d rather be reading my book now…

Randomly Sunday

I’m a little tired, there’s not an unclogged artery in my body, I have this sort of goofy grin on my face, and there are random articles of clothing scattered about the living room. Good weekend, all in all. Y’know, after a really shitty year, I’m quite happy with the way the last few months of it seem to be playing out…

Yes, Mom. I really like this guy…

If I could just get rid of the lingering health problems and find a job which paid a little more and sucked a little less (or even better, more freelance), I’d be happy as a clam…

Random ponderings for a Sunday evening:

  • Just what the hell IS a tin woodsman? Were they all big old screaming queens like the one in The Wizard of Oz?
  • Has it really been 18 years since I last sat through the aforementioned movie, one drunk night in Greensboro?
  • How do certain plants sense that you’re just about to give up and throw them away and suddenly start putting out new growth?
  • Will there EVER be a normal schedule for first-run Simpsons episodes (and other Sunday night shows) on our local Fox affiliate in San Francisco? And will said station ever have a website with even the bare essentials (like actual program information) on it?

Found Money

I love it when I’m cleaning up the house and find money. And by that I mean actual paper money. It’s especially nice when it happens about half an hour after I paid lots of really nasty bills…

I may go spend it on ice cream and 7-Up at the corner store since I’m parked too well to risk driving anywhere better and losing my space…

Mom’s Coming

Mom‘s here tomorrow afternoon. Guess that means I should clean the bathroom tonight. It also means my email responses and exciting journal entries will be even less reliable than usual over the next few days. Try to conceal your disappointment; do some Christmas shopping perhaps…

While I’m at it, I should update that Wish List, just in case anyone cares…

Also on my mind on a cold Wednesday afternoon:

  • The potential of not engaging in any creative attempts at keeping warm for two and a half more weeks.
  • Where to stash the porn ’til Mom leaves.
  • My rumbling stomach from not eating lunch today.
  • The cold I have this nasty feeling I’m getting.
  • How much I secretly want that kid in the Dell Computer commercials to die a slow and painful death.

Mom’s Here

Mom’s here and comfortably asleep in the living room. I headed to SFO this afternoon expecting to find a madhouse of people standing in line being frisked and strip-searched. Instead, it was just plain creepy there. No one in line at the ticket counter, no one at the checkpoint, no trouble parking, and we spent about three minutes waiting for her suitcases at baggage claim. It was just plain weird; everyone was saying so…

Spiffy new redesign for Mark, who’s on Mom’s itinerary for Saturday. Later tonight will bring dinner with Dan, Jamie, and hopefully Sarah, maybe at The Dead Fish…

I think I’ll skip introducing her to my cardiologist at tomorrow’s appointment, though; I think there’s enough adventure on her plate for now…

Stockton

 

Quick thoughts on Saturday in Stockton with Mom and Mark:

  • The Denny’s at Charter Way and I-5 is in fact the Denny’s from hell. And our waitress was bad sitcom material.
  • Introducing Mom to a current accessory was amazingly drama-free, which speaks volumes about both of them.
  • I rarely find a lot of stuff in Stockton thrift stores, but when I do find something, it’s really fucking cool. Pictures to follow.
  • Sucking face in the men’s room was a wonderful thing, but it only served to make my current sexual frustration about ten times worse.
  • Wow. Who knew there were Simpsons cereals available?

I think I coughed up most of the remnants of my cold-allergy thing on Saturday morning, but there may be a little more on Sunday morning. Sorry for the vivid image; I’ll try to be more subtle if further updates are required…

Now, having forced Mom to sit through Harry and Tonto (I like it, Dan likes it, and that’s endorsement enough), I’m gonna have a wank and go to sleep. I probably won’t be fantasizing about Art Carney…