Category: Uncategorized

the great big collapsing birthday is coming up on saturday, and i almost forgot to realize that fact in time. now i can plan a big party, with my laptop as the guest of honor and my typing fingers as keynote speakers (get it?). and root beer floats. just because.

actually how about just the root beer floats and no lame blog party. everyone, please spare me the embarrassment of going back to read the initial entries, because i truly value the small scraps of respect i may have tricked you into having for me.

[now hearing this: trailer for the dangerous lives of alter boys, which i’m hoping to go see in a few hours.]

ugh. the morning after, so to speak. i think on occasions where you have a really fantastic weekend, you should be entitled to invoke some sort of buffer day, or even half-day, for the purpose of slowly coming down from your weekend high, so that the drive to work at quarter past eight early the next morning doesn’t send you into a deep and murky funk, not unlike the one i’m sinking into right now.

it’s so dark and swampy too, so it might be hard to get out. if i could just go to sleep and let it pass.

the precise problem, too, is that i know full well if i were just not at work right now i’d be perfectly cheerful. and if i were in bed looking up at the clock, then thinking, “you know, i think i’ll just roll over and sleep for another hour or so . . .” i would be in bliss.

weekend. road trip. friends returned from semester abroad. lovely.

so i left work at three on friday, darted home as quickly as the freeway traffic would allow me (not very), and we were off. a backpack, a pillow and a sleeping bag and it’s time to go to san jose. or mountain view, technically, but close enough. since former roommate/future housemate mike just returned to the states from scotland not more than a couple weeks ago, and we hadn’t seen him since december, it was the perfect plan. and it went smashingly too. probably the best weekend of the summer so far.

the six and a half hour drive was pleasant and filled with good tunes, the mandatory stops at flying j (truck-stop to end all truck-stops) and in-n-out were great, and once we rolled in at 11:30 the fun only just started. zany cruising around town, minority report at 1am, which i thought was pretty damn good, and sleep until noon. saturday led to a UHF viewing, lots of four-player halo on the xbox — which is outstanding, if you like shooting at your friends in virtual worlds — then a drive to the white-trash carnival known as the santa cruz boardwalk where we payed $3.60 to ride the nation’s 7th oldest roller coaster, “the giant dipper”; where i got covered in powdered sugar sharing a funnel cake; where i took the title in mini-golf (no one would bet anything on the game beforehand even though i kept pressing for “loser buys dinner” — which would have made it much more exciting and which sucks for me since i ended up winning); and where i had to fork over 6 bucks after losing an air-hockey rematch 7 to 6. i’d like to point out however, that i won the first round by a larger margin, thank you very much.

today we just woke up and played more video games, watched dj q-bert’s wave twisters on dvd, then drove home. i can’t say what a great weekend this was. just so much laughing with the four of us up north, and the great feeling of driving fast with good music and buddies on a sunny weekend. i wish i had more friends in mid-range other cities to drive to, but i guess this will have to do for a while. my wallet and my teeth will thank me at least, because i spend too much money and consume too much sugury soda and candy on road trips. my teeth hurt and i’m wiped, so it’s time to kick back and watch the animated clerks dvd for a bit, then hit the hay.

[now hearing this: badly drawn boy – about a boy soundtrack. really good stuff — laid back without being boring, which isn’t always an easy mark to hit.]

i haven’t switched this off in over two weeks, so it’s about time to change out the song of the week, i’d say, wouldn’t you?

well i have been a little lax in my new-music-seeking lately. mostly i’ve been picking up stuff i should have bought a long time ago, and listening to all the great cd’s i’d bought this spring. every once in a while you kind of have to let your brain catch up with all the new music you’re trying to soak up with it. this is one of those times.

i did download this great super furry animals song though, which i remember seeing a killer video for, and which i have been singing to myself lately in an unflattering manner. i just don’t have the gift. listen to the real thing though, it’s much better.

despite the fact that i really like my coworkers here, sometimes liking someone can’t prevent you from inwardly thinking they’re stupid. an example?

coworker is sitting at the desk/cubicle next to mine. coworker accidentally deleted everything in a very important table related to the company website. he freaked out and started mumbling curses to himself, and called one of the company tech-helper guys to explain the problem.

at this point he said, on the phone, after the guy must have asked him if he could call back in a couple minutes:

coworker: okay, call me back, because i literally just peed my pants just now when i did that.

oh dear. is it possible to still like someone you can’t help thinking is really dumb in a lot of ways? my brain (and my integrity) says no, dumb people are unacceptable, but part of me just says, “whatever. he’s a nice guy.”

and of course there’s another part who is glad there are people much dumber than me out there otherwise i wouldn’t look so damn smart in comparison, which is something i probably hold more dearly than i would like to really think about.

i’m really really looking excited about the fact that minority report is coming out this weekend. initially it looked interesting, but not that attractive to me. but since then i’ve seen some really good trailers, read a few exceedingly positive reviews, and found out — although i can’t believe i hadn’t heard this earlier — that it’s based on a story by the same writer that wrote the story that inspired blade runner. yeah, so they also made a movie out of one of his stories that goes by the name total recall, but still, BLADE RUNNER!…

now keep in mind, this is even in the face of spielberg’s absolutely outrageous offense that you can buy on DVD under the name A.I. holy god was that a pile of shit film. i was so excited about that one, being a former kubrick project, and being about androids, and it was the worst film i saw all last year with no doubt. it was so very, very bad! i’ve been somewhat tempted for the months leading up to minority report to try to hold my grudge against his past transgression and not see this new one just because that movie was so godawful. but now i’ve decided that i can’t resist and i’ve forgiven him. i guess i’m just a really sweet and kind individual with a lot of love to give.

and i’m sorry, but i am not currently available for dates; my love is reserved, apparently, for one special lady and steven spielberg.

[now hearing this: dj q-bert – wave twisters.]

the summer reading rampage continues in the wake of infinite jest, and now i’m on to the corrections by jonathan franzen, which is turning out to be really great. i’m very into it at only a quarter of the way through, so i will deliver a fuller opinion in a week or so. i had just finished nick hornby’s how to be good before i started this one, so i can deliver a complete verdict on that one.

the thing is, i’m a fan of nick hornby, and i’d say that high fidelity and about a boy, movie adapted as they may be, are two of the better books i’ve read in the past few years. they were just so insightful and pulled me right into the heart and mind of those characters. i was right there with them and i felt the heartbreak.

with how to be good though, even though i’m a fan, i can admit i was let down. it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t on a level with the others. i just didn’t feel myself really caring about the principle characters, and it wasn’t nearly as funny, and although it raised some good points and questions, i didn’t feel the same moments of dawning agreement with his quirky observations. so since all that was why i liked the other two so very much, well, this just didn’t do much for me. i’ll definitely give him another chance though, whenever that is.

the next problem, of course, is having extra money around to buy more books to read. after this one, i think there’s only one unread one sitting around the bookshelves. taking a month and a half to read one 1000 page volume will get you used to not needing a book budget for a few weeks, but i’d say in about 15 days i’m gonna be bone dry for reading if i don’t scrape something up soon. not that i don’t have a long list of things i’d like to read, it’s more about buying those and still having money left to live my rock and roll lifestyle. it’s times like this when i wish i had stock so i could hope it went up.

[now hearing this: burning airlines – mission: control!. and the thing is, it’s so good i can’t really talk about it.]

90 minutes into monday morning and already annoyed.

for one thing, i was blatanty cut off on the way to work today. now normally i don’t mind all too much when someone speeds up the right turn lane and then rudely and hastily merges back into the forward-moving traffice, and i just sort of yell playfully to myself and let them get on their way. i’m not really much of a road-rage, speed-demon, mess-with-me-and-i’ll-tailgate-you kind of people. but this one got on my nerves not just because it was so blatant and inconsiderate, but because the offender had a huge ugly car with two flailing ugly laker flags, one flapping from each side of his car. now some of you who read last summer and especially last fall might know how stupid and annoying those things are to me and will understand how that would sharpen my frustration. if you don’t, well let’s just say cars with flags of any kind flying from their windows just make me really angry. life is not a parade, people. i cannot stress that enough.

then, once i come to work, the first person i see asks me how i am. my reply? something utterly daft about how, well, you know, it’s monday. oh jesus. as soon as the words left my mouth, i was inwardly frightened by myself. if i turn into one of those office people who can only ever talk about how it’s monday, or how i can’t wait until friday, or what i did last weekend or am doing this weekend (i am excluded from talking about the weather all the time, since i live in LA where the weather never changes), i’m fairly certain i will have to find a different place to work higher off the ground so that i’m more sure to die when i leap from the office windows.

i know studying business and marketing wasn’t the best way to avoid the infamous office-life, but if i can’t maintain my personality somehow in the face of this collossal foe, then rest assured there will be drastic life-changes made. that’s what i keep telling myself anyway.

[now hearing this: nothing, again, because i’m answering phones and running around and i only have headphones and not real speakers.]

went out with some pals to catch the bourne identity this afternoon. as someone who doesn’t usually run out to see many action/thriller movies, i’m not surprised that i can only really give it a rating of ‘very okay’. not as in ‘very okay’ equalling a step above just plain ‘okay’; more like it was very definitely and entirely just plain okay. the kind of movie you walk out of thinking, “hey that wasn’t a bad way to spend my sunday afternoon”, but when someone asks you in a year if you want to watch their rental copy with them, you opt instead to read a book or magazine and only half-watch the movie, because frankly it’s just not that exciting on its own.

of course, in relation to something like that ya-ya movie about old crazy women, it’s the most wonderful film i could have hoped to be privileged to view. jesus, who would ever want to go see that movie? i’m pretty sure ads for that movie evoke more scoffing from me than even eddie griffin movies are capable of doing.

alright, that’s going a little far. i take it back. still, though…ya-ya? that’s awful.

oh, i saw this movie called cq last week too, which was also pretty decent. that one was ‘very okay’ as in just a step above okay, though. or maybe a half step. fun to watch, but again, i’d opt for reading over re-watching that one too. hopefully i’ll have better luck in the future (i still need to catch insomnia and plan to go out for minority report and the dangerous lives of altar boys in the next few weeks, so we’ll see).

[now hearing this: jimmy eat world – “goodbye sky harbor”; the best song ever over ten minutes, that i can think of.]

as i’ve grown older, i’ve found that saturdays have become increasingly precious and important to maintaining a positive psychological state. without the promise of an ever-nearing saturday, working a 40 hour week would be pretty unbearable — at least in the position i’m in this summer. (my dream, as far as careers go, is to have a job that if i don’t actively enjoy going to, i at least feel like time goes by quickly while i am working; because there’s nothing worse than having to watch the clock tick by. it’s one thing to do in a two-hour university class, which is bad enough, but doing it with a 9-hour day is a real nightmare). having the promise of pure leisure-time is vital to surviving what can essentially be seen as pure servitude. but this i’m sure isn’t news to anyone who’s worked a job that’s far less for themselves as it is for ‘the boss’.

and all the same, what do i do with my day of pure leisure? i sleep until 11 (probably the best part of saturday), i go to the bank to get quarters (for laundry), i go to the store to buy bread (i’m essentially out of food and have to make due until payday), i come home and make a mixtape and do laundry, read a little, and suddenly it’s getting close to 9pm and my precious saturday is slipping through my fingers. this is the day i look forward to all week?

without question. because i got to pick when and how and if i did any of these dumb little things, i sort of enjoy all of it on a level that work can’t really touch. unless you’re the boss, i guess, in which i certainly envy you. i’ve often pictured myself as a writer, not only because it would be incredibly cool and rewarding, but because there are no “hours”. you write when you want to write, as long as you get it done, and you sit on the couch and watch dvds or go to the movies or the beach or whatever else when you want to do those things instead of writing. if only every other occupation could work that way, i think that more people in the world would be much happier. but i bet a lot of lazy people would just stop working altogether then and nothing would get done, so thanks a lot you lazy sacks, for making my dreamworld impossible.

no, sunday isn’t as good because sunday holds with it the i-have-work-tomorrow dread. and church, if you’re extra unlucky.

[now hearing this: the flaming lips – “slow nerve action” from transmissions from the satellite heart. this cd is great, this band is amazing, and the song of the week i downloaded from cory at blackyellowblack from their upcoming album is unbelievable. boy am i looking forward to that one (yoshimi battles the pink robots if you didn’t know already).]