Author: briancollapsing

i’m just too full of stories and ideas today. it will probably be the most-blogged day i’ve had so far.

picture a small hispanic-run stereo equipment shop just enough outside of downtown so it’s in the less nice part of the “downtown” area. they’re always blaring bad music out onto the street from their very large speaker systems. only today, as i walked with work people to go get some snacks and coffee (but no coffee for me. snapple, thanks), it was finally playing for a willing audience. there was this really skinny, crazy white-haired old homeless guy standing in front of the big stack of speakers dancing (i think) what can only be described as a broken jig. he was just sort of hopping in place and waving his arms slightly, going from one foot to the other and spinning a little bit. we were on the opposite side of the street so i couldn’t tell if he was singing or saying anything, but it was great! and in addition to that, there had to be over twenty pigeons gathered around him, some flapping around. it’s like they gathered to watch the fun. and they were only around him too, nowhere else along the street. it was insane! working in the city makes for some interesting sights some days.

after the break i went back to the office and me and another worker got our collective minds smacked down at college jeopardy online. what kind of category is “decorative arts” anyway? we finished with negative thousands at least twice.

back to beggars though. i’m reading shakespeare’s twelvth night on the bus today, and the clown character is getting money from the duke by clever rhetoric and wordplay. sort of riddling the duke into paying him for his clever speeches. suddenly i had this great vision of the many panhandlers around our school and downtown LA going at it with that approach. having all these clever rogues cajoling me with their sharp wits, and me giving them coins for their mastery of language and double-meaning. oh, how much better would that be than people just shaking cups or saying, “yo man, spare some change?”. i wonder if there were even such things as clowning beggars, or if it was just a stage device. how would a drifter become so clever? perhaps i should enquire. or more likely i’ll just go on dreaming of a fantastic place presented to me by the stories i read. (sigh).

maybe that’ll do for today but i guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

i have more to tell from this morning before i came in, since work has been pretty dull today.

i was thirsty and knew we didn’t have anything at the office, so i went to rite-aid (drugsore) to get some juice or something. grabbed some tropicana twisters, which is my favorite line of juices, a pack of gum for later, and headed to the checkout. i was two spaces behind some guy that was taking forever, but i had my headphones on and couldn’t tell why. so the checkout lady suddenly leaves this counter and scrambles all the way to the opposite end of the line of registers (at least 30 feet away) and waves the people behind crazy guy to come down there. so i do (and the people behind me somehow think it’s okay to be in front of me in this new line… what the hell?) and the crazy guy, who is alone at an empty counter, starts yelling how he wants someone to check him out. he shuffles around a bit, yells some stuff i can’t make out, then waits more. the security lady and managers are out trying to calm him, and he yells more, and runs back and forth a little in front of the line of registers, then leaves. i guess he must have been some crazy bum with no money to pay for stuff.

which reminds me of ANOTHER story. my friend melanie, working at denny’s had a bum who was eating there try to leave without paying, and when approached on the way out the door, said, “i’m god, i don’t pay for meals”. melanie said even god had to pay at this denny’s, but he just hobbled calmly out. they called the cops but when they finally got there, the guy was long gone. haha. i should try that.

question: is there any circumstance in which you’d need a dollar instead of four quarters? a non-homeless guy on the street stopped me and asked if i had a dollar for four quarters, and i did, so we traded, and that was that. i couldn’t think of a reason i’d be on the street and need a dollar instead of quarters though, enough to stop people and ask. sometimes you need change for a phone or vending machine or bus fare, but why would you need the bill? yeah, i was puzzled too. if you have an answer to this question, please fill me in.

it’s time to do some serious blogging. first, last night, since i was too sleepy to elaborate.

i watched my first episode of real world 10 yesterday (don’t hate me). i basically hate all that stuff that’s not videos on mtv, even though, admittedly, i used to watch the first few years of real world back when it started (don’t hate me). my roommate put it best when he said, “you really don’t want to watch it, but there’s nothing else on, so you watch a few minutes. then you feel bad, so you change it, but there’s still nothing else on, so you go back . . . and you just can’t stop!” (don’t hate him. or me). but this is why i mention this at all. the young blonde girl on that show is really cute, and a large part of why i think so is that she’s got this perfect midwest accent. i know some people that live in the midwest don’t realize there is such thing, but once you leave it, people might tell you you have one. and you might be inwardly happy when you hear someone speaking in one. i am an example of this. when i hear a girl speaking with a little midwest accent it drives me nuts (in that good way). not too much mind you… some of that hardcore wisconsin accent isn’t very becoming in a lady. and not having at all doesn’t count against you. but girls with a touch of it are just irresistably cuter than they already were to me. some of my female friends from high school have that going for them and although they’re just friends i just think it’s wonderful when i get to hear them talk, it makes me want to hug them. so keep that in mind ladies (don’t hate me).

returning to topic though, i wasn’t sure if that girl was from the midwest or not, but apparently someone said she was from orland park. bingo! from illinois no less. perfect.

next topic: final fantasy: the spirits within. hot damn was that movie great. it was the coolest looking film i’ve probably ever seen in my life, and some parts it was so lifelike it was almost disturbing. and it was a decent flick too, at least if you’re sort of into sci-fi/fantasy type stories. otherwise you might find it a little out there or boring. but it’s worth it just to see the graphics i think. wow. great. worth the 6.50 for sure (i love going to the non-city theatres and saving a buck in addition to not having to pay for parking. thank you burbank, california). plus i got in-n-out afterwards. yummy. and i’ll even admit, yes, i was attracted to the computer animated lead character from the movie. she was very real, what can i say? and she was so sensitive and smart…. i know, i’m sick (don’t hate me).

lastly, i think, is another laker flag sighting. if you don’t live here, you may not know that during the basketball season, to show laker support (of which i was no part), people had these little plastic flagpole things that attached to their car windows and flew a notebook-paper-sized flag with the lakers logo on it. of couse, the week of the finals they were everywhere, and that was back in mid june i think. i said to my friends when they won, “i bet some loser people will have those things on their cars for weeks after this, and it’ll show how lame they are”. so since then, i’ve been committed to trying to keep track of the cars with flags i see farthest from the end of the season as possible. i think my last one was on the 7th or something, and i had pretty much given up on this little vigil. but today while i was waiting at the bus stop, a black woman driving an SUV still had one flying on her passenger side, right in from of me! it’s the seventeenth of july! it’s been (i think) over a month since the season ended! i’m amazed. hopefully this is not the end of the flag sightings either because i get a good laugh out of every one i see now.

i have more to say but i need to spread it out over the day, not use up all my time-wasting now. talk to you soon!

aw crap, i missed posting again on more time on tuesday. well, good morning wednesday then!

want to tell about getting stuck watching the real world and the cute blonde chick, and going to see final fantasy and the cute computer animated brunette chick… but i’m so very sleepy. normally i’m good til around one, but when everyone else is already asleep my body just starts taking the cue from its surroundings and the eyes don’t stay open so well. so more tomorrow.

or later, really, since this will appear under a big fat “wednesday”. good night, good morning, talk to you soon.

chugging along here rockin’ the cap’n jazz. boring mornings are just a tiny bit less boring when you’ve got some great cap’n jazz to keep you company.

i’ve noticed that lately it seems i’m listening to a lot of music by bands that aren’t together anymore. this was one, also castor and hum. living in the musical past… isn’t that a sign that you’re getting old? next thing you know i’ll be sitting around listening to led zeppelin and complaining about how rock is dead. not really though because a ton of great new music is coming out soon like jimmy eat world, hey mercedes and rx bandits. it’s a good month coming up here.

oh, and i just checked out the indieblogs list for some reason, and guess what? i’m at 36 now! so maybe it’s like i thought…i must battle my way to the top! or maybe a bunch of the people before (ahead of? better than?) me dropped off the list for some reason. doesn’t matter to me, i will take my small victory as the first of many on my way to the pinnacle. look out #35, you’re next!

it happened again! i caught the bus the same time i always do, but had to go to the bank once i got downtown, so i figured i could be a few minutes late today. nope. i still made it two minutes early! i can’t even be late when i try! this is slightly disturbing somehow.

plus, as i rolled up to the doors of the bank, which is set back from the street quite a ways with a big paved square including a fountain sitting in front, a security guy of some kind came yelling (albeit politely) at me that i couldn’t skate there, it was illegal. at least he said, “it’s okay, you didn’t know” as i went into the bank. i began to wonder at what point they draw the line between the sidewalk, where i’m at least assuming it’s legal to ride a skateboard, and the illegal zone, if there’s no division, just a big paved expanse. either way, it didn’t stop me from skateboarding across the square again to get where i was going on the way out. take that, establishment!

just when i thought i might get to do research again, or (gasp!) maybe even something truly productive, i find out i get to spend the morning doing the crap work again. damn job, when are you gonna get more rewarding? it being the middle of july though, i only have about a month left before school starts to worry about it. sadly, i probably won’t have time to work here even part time once classes kick in. i know, isn’t that heartbreaking? of course, that means it’s back to sitting through business classes, and don’t even get me started on that… i don’t know if i ever decided what was worse, sitting through accounting classes or sitting here at work. here i get headphones with music, but there i could talk to my friend spencer and not pay attention. plus those were only two hour classes, not 8 hour days. really i think i’m just looking forward to the change. change is fun. i need more of it, in the way of breakups of routine. maybe entirely new routines. but less in the way of friends leaving the country. COME HOME JOSH!

okay, i have to record this idea i had, before i forget it: if i ever own a sailboat, and i have to name it, you know like in gilligan’s island they were on the s.s. minnow, i’m going to name mine the s.s. boat. it’d be hilarious. “check out brian, riding high on those waves in the s.s. boat!” aaah, it’d be great. unless of course, some other very clever person already had this idea and took the name (i’m assuming you have to register these things somehow…). in that case i may have to resort to the s.s. ship or the s.s.ess. i should probably stop before you die laughing.

sadly nothing exciting happened tonight either. i got my hair cut and had a bowl of cereal for dinner. i don’t know what else happened to all those hours between work and now. but just like the song says, i love you tomorrow, you’re only a day away. of course, i don’t even like the sound of music.

(joke)

oh, i did get some new books in the mail today. this is my reading process: i buy new books before i finish the current book, so the shiny new things on my shelf entice me to diligently keep at the one i’m already into. it’s worked quite well thus far. and who wouldn’t want to start a book with impaled human skulls on the cover? (see last week’s link to h.p.lovecraft book). so i’m off to the globe for now to read of clowns and lovers. i always find myself relating more to the clown. does that mean i’m doing it wrong?

25 minutes until monday’s over, and this seems like a good way to dispose of a little bit of that time. it would be better if i’d had any good experiences today to tell tales about, but i haven’t really. not even any good inspirational ideas to expound upon. i’m just coming up blank today. i went to the post office and the bank before i came to work and still managed to get here a few minutes early, that was my only event today. i think i have some inner compulsion to be early to everything. i thought it’d be nice to be the one who came in a little late today but even running errands didn’t put my past 9:25. i’ll have to try harder next time not to care. i think i’m getting my hair cut after work today too because i’m getting a little furry. don’t need that. time to return to clean cut brian.

the excitement for today will definitely not start until i get home. so i’ll let you know.

oh yeah one more thing… thanks liz, i feel much better now. collapsing now has friend number three! really moving up in the world, i am. honestly though, it makes me happy that this has put me into contact with a handful of really cool people i would probably never have met otherwise. you guys are great and hopefully the magic will continue. any interested parties, you know what to do.

hey there folks! yes that’s right, i made it back safely from my trip to las vegas. all in all it was maybe a 6 or 7 on the good weekend scale. it was free, at least, since my girlfriend’s parents paid for the room and the meals and stuff. they even paid for me to play crazy taxi at the arcade with my girlfriend. so in that regard it was good. also i got to see the pirates like i wanted too, and that was at least sort of cool. and the dancing water fountain at the bellagio. i have to admit, some of the hotels there are really very nice looking from the street. they obviously put a lot of time and money into designing them. that being said though, i’m pretty sure i’ll never go back to vegas again.

it’s just not my kind of place, is the thing. i really have no desire to gamble, for one. i’ve taken a statistics class, i know that casinos arrange their games so it’s mathematically always true that they come out ahead. and that means even though, yes, SOMEONE has to be the big winner every now and then, i don’t think it’s worth it to hope it’s me. maybe i would feel differently if i was good at poker, which is one of the only games where you play against other people and not just the odds. but i most certainly could never be a slot machine junkie. seeing people play those things makes me so sad. they just sit there, putting nickels or quarters into a machine and pushing a button. how is that fun, or worth the money you eventually lose? i don’t get it. it’s just really pathetic. my girlfriend did it for about 15 minutes just because her mom was, and she had an extra roll of change, and i honestly was far less attracted to her during and immediately after. so ladies, don’t let me catching you pumping nickel slots if you want to win my heart.

the wedding was surprisingly dignified and tasteful for a vegas setting though. the guy who performed it (what do you call that guy when it’s not a religious ceremony?) made it seem very proper and it was a solemn occasion even though it lasted only about 15 minutes, again because there was no religious wedding mass to go through before the actual vows were taken.

can’t think of any really good stories from the weekend though. i saw a 3-d movie at the m & m world called “i lost my m in las vegas”. oh, here’s one: we were on our way to breakfast (me, girlfriend, her brother and parents) and were collecting her grandmother from one of the aisles of slot machines on the way to the cafe. while we were standing around waiting for her to finish, a casino employee security guy told us we couldn’t be on the casino floor because we were under 21. i told him we were just on our way to breakfast. he told us we had to stand on the tile of the food court (15 feet away) and wait; we couldn’t be on the casino floor. so we did. it was very stupid. i wanted to hop off the tile onto the carpet, and back onto the tile while the guy was looking at us, saying “in the casino, not in the casino! in the casino, not in the casino!” a la homer simpson, just to show him what a fool i thought he was. but as they always say, he was just doing his job.

final vegas observation: far too high a percentage of the vegas crowd are old, fat, or ugly. sometimes two of those things and not too infrequently all three. hanging out by the pool was therefore far less exciting that i hoped, since there was no one to check out in my age bracket. no good.

final vegas observation for real this time: i felt dirty being in the gameworks (big arcade) at around ten pm on friday, because all the teenage high school girls of questionable morals (strumpets) that can’t hang out in casinos are forced to move on to the arcade. we just wanted to play pod-racing and we were surrounded by all these hoes. it made me feel very embarrassed to be there, seeing a bunch of little girls get hit on my dirty guys a few years older than them. eeww.

high point (possibly) of weekend and end of vegas trip discussion: catching the end of adventures in babysitting on the hotel tube when we got back around 1am on friday night. sweeeeet. and i swear that sara in that movie is the same as sarah in the crow, even though imdb says they aren’t. i smell a name change. someone back me up on this.

since i got back, i’ve opened some mail (cd’s from jade tree, five bucks from justin — tape’s on the way tomorrow — and check from random ebay guy — your item’s on the way tomorrow too), and had dinner. nothing very exciting. it’s good to be home but home means work in the morning. at least it’ll be pay day. that means i can buy more cd’s and cross them off the “buy these cd’s” list that’s taped to the wall next to my desk. this has been a long blog and i should find something else to do so goodnight moon.

final note: it’s good to be blogging again.