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Archive for November, 2001


2001.11.28 i believe there's someone wishin' nosebleeds on me:

what's worse than having to go to the county clerk's office to renew your registration and get a new title issued for your car? how about going to the clerk's office and having their computers go down and getting sent to another branch to wait with a million other people wanting to do the same kinds of complicated transactions.

me (taking a ticket from the number dispenser thing): alright! number 14! not long now…
woman at clerk's office: now serving…72.
me: shit.

try waiting for 3 hours, just to get to the front and find out that the stupid bitch that worked at the bank (and quit three days after she arranged your loan) forgot to notarize one of the important signatures on the title for the car. yep. waited three hours and couldn't do a fucking thing. i wanted to strangle someone.

so i have to somehow try to take care of that today. yay. more waiting.

other than that, it was a relaxing evening at home. scott came over (he's still in the in-between phase where he's sleeping at his old pace out of habit) and we played some guitar until he passed out asleep in the floor while i watched letterman. we watched the beginning of conan, realized his guests were all pretty lame, and he left and i went to bed. exciting times, i tell ya.

i've come to the forgone conclusion that bluetip's second album is simply…amazing. whenever i can't think of a cd i want to hear, i throw it in and it instantly becomes "what i wanted to hear." not many cds can do that for you, y'know.

this weekend is the hey mercedes show in cincy. i'll be heading up for that on friday night. thus far, i think i'm going alone. drat.

how about that seven questions with the puffin, yesterday, huh? pretty awesome? i wish that fucker hadn't quit posting to his website…

speaking of websites, i thought kate worked for nme. well…she doesn't, but she's got a nifty website, anyway…

my horoscope for today:
you know what you want, and you know exactly how to get it. as the moon enters your own sign, chasers of money or romance are suddenly finding themselves instantly rich. friends that expect you to entertain them certainly won't be disappointed, taurus. it's been a while since your birthday, but the toys keep pouring in. as long as you say please and thank you, you can expect to be the most popular person at the party.

damn…that sounds like a heapin' helpin' of positivity. i'm sure i'll find some way to screw it up…

- 11:22 am - PL :: 2 Comments
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2001.11.27 seven questions with paul fuckin' brown:

is it true that you have a sandwich named after you at the twig and leaf? and what is it?
not that i'm aware. but you could be referring to the now famous "louisville paul brown" – a variation on the kentucky hot brown. i haven't been to the twig in months (service was on the slide), so i'm not sure if the name has officially been changed… yet.

if you were a monkey or ape, which particular monkey or ape would you be? why?
a retarded, midget monkey. imagine the grant money for college! oh, and one with a tail.

if you could have one super power, what would it be? why?
that there telekinesis would be neat-o. imagine the depths of sloth i could achieve if i could move objects with my mind. life would be like sitting on the couch with the remote. i would become 600lbs and my skeleton would no longer be able to support my mass. than i would travel around by carrying myself aloft mentally. very chic, very baron harkonnen.
that or a tail!

so tell me about the last time you went "wild in the streets."
what i do remember is that it was the eve of the tet offensive. l.t. suggested that me and the boys take an evening off and head into saigon for some drinks and girls. next thing i know texas (we called him that since he was from detroit) slipped a mickey into my drink. next thing i remember was waking up to the sound of mortar rounds and lying in bed with four girls and a monkey.
was the monkey clothed?
…….uh….yeah….but in my uniform.
next question…
it was rough period in my life. i did get some help, mind you.

tell me exactly why you felt it necessary to make me a drunk.
you were one of many in a long line of moral corruption. i sensed the dark side inside of you, it had been there all along. i just caused it to awaken. besides, a good dependency is character building.

you apparently straddle the line of fandom between star wars and star trek. do you think a star destroyer could take out the enterprise?
oooooh! tough one. who's captaining the enterprise?
you pick.
well, definitely the enterprise if kirk was in command (motherfucker is insane). and if he loses his shirt, he can take out the death star, too. star destroyer is a hard ship to beat. it's freakin' huge.
you're tellin' me. what about picard?
he would talk the star destroyer out of firing and than invite vadar over for tea.
that seems like a cop out.
seems pretty realistic to me. diplomatic relations. peace in the galaxy. god bless you, jean-luc.
vader would never go for it.
they could compare scalps.
what about that new guy? whatsisname? from the new show? from quantum leap…
star destroyer.
hands down?
no problem. it would be "oh boy" and boom.

what are 3 things that people don't know about puffins or "the puffin," in particular?
1. i can eat my own weight in little debbie snack cakes. 2. i have feet not unlike water skis. and finally 3. i rock harder than jimmy chamberlain after a triple speedball and a bag of m&m's.

[paul used to be the head of the household over at the now defunct (but still up) puffin-a-go-go. he's got a liver to match his feet, and you know what they say about a guy with big feet…]

- 11:42 am - PL :: 2 Comments
categories ::  7 Questions

 

2001.11.26 caught in the crossfire:

if there's one thing i hate, it's annoyingly stupid people. there's this guy that's walked by my desk five times today. this isn't really out of the ordinary, since i sit right next to a moderately traveled walkway. the problem is, every time he walks past,…he's singing to himself. even worse…he can't carry a fucking tune!

proposed conversation:
me: hey man…you hear that?
singing guy: huh? what? what do you mean?
me: that horrible fucking yapping noise! my god…it's coming from…your fucking mouth!

it needs to be done, people…

to top it off, i can't even eat my lunch in peace. i'm sitting in the breakroom, trying to eat my breadsticks (mmmm…bread dipped in cheese…), when these guys start talking about digimon. incessently. these are those typical anime nerds that you would expect to work in an internet place like this, but still… one of the guys was sitting there saying "evidently they are taking the card game and trying to make a cartoon out of it." well, moron…there's no trying about it. the finished product is on the tv, right the fuck in front of you. idiots, i tell you.

- 04:27 pm - PL ::
categories ::  Old Posts

 

2001.11.26 you're gonna go far:

last night ended up being pretty damn busy for a sunday. after work i headed home to help scott unload a van full of his stuff into the apartment. after lugging heavy box after heavy box up those stairs, we sat around, sweaty and breathing heavy, thinking "this isn't even close to a quarter of the shit." scott still had all the big stuff and assorted other detritus still to be picked up from his apartment.

we took a break, scott deciding to go home and get dinner while i hung out with the girl. she brought over it's a wonderful life, and we curled up on the couch to enjoy the movie. to be honest, i neither of us had ever seen it before. after watching the whole thing, i can definitely see why it's such the christmas classic. i've come to the conclusion that i really love jimmy stewart. the man is in two of my favorite hitchcock film (vertigo and rope), after all. i'm an admitted christmas sap, anyway. i go for all this shit, hook, line, and sinker. after the movie, the girl and i hung out for a bit, just talking and whatnot. it was a nice way to end the busy holiday weekend, i'd say.

and then scott and i moved most of the big shit. and took out all of jess' trash (bags and bags of actual trash). and moved and moved and moved until about 3am. seriously. i basically fell into bed and straight to sleep. do not pass go. do not collect $200. go directly to…sleep.

and now i'm sitting at work, looking at george "the animal" steele's webpage. if you were ever wondering what happened to him…now you know. i'd like to point out that i had no clue the guy was as old as he is.

tonight scott and i move the rest of the big shit. i think we just have the bed left. i'll be glad when this madness is over…

- 11:53 am - PL ::
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2001.11.25 thanks given:

well i'm back from the visit with the fam. to answer brian's hope that i enjoyed myself, i'll just have to say that my soul enjoyed the trip, my brain was a bit impartial, and my body is really really pissed off at me.

i've come to realize over the years that i have very very little in common with the majority of my family except genetics. this thanksgiving didn't make that whole thing any easier, since the majority of the extended family that showed up were the ones who don't normally come for the yearly Christmas festivities, so it's been years since i've seen most of these people for any extended period of time. i didn't even recognize one of my cousins. to top it all off, of course, i'm generally an anti-social person, not good in situations where i'm surrounded by lots of people. so i pretty much just went down to the basement as soon as i got there, and stayed there for the majority of the visit. so, while i think it was good for my soul to be surrounded by family and people who love me even though they don't know me, and it was good for my soul to be able to see my grandmother again and to crack jokes with her, i think my brain was fairly impartial about the whole affair, just kind of doing what it knows needs to be done, but not seeing any rational inherent benefit in it. maybe i'm still stuck in kid mode within the family unit… no kids, no wife, not even a girlfriend has ever been brought for a visit with me. so i sit downstairs with my 14 year old brother playing computer games, reading the week's comic books, never hanging out with the "adults" except when they call us to dinner…

ok. well. that line of reasoning is going to lead somewhere i don't want to go right now, with you. i think i can successfully avoid the "gorge of eternal peril" for a while yet. though i'm sure you armchair psychologists can name the tune i was singing in three notes.

as far as my body being really really pissed at me after this trip, well, on Friday, my dad, my little brother, a 2nd cousin, and i all went for a hike up a mountain—a 10 mile hike up a mountain. we're talking about a mountain where you look down from the edge of the trail (that's just looped back around) and you see the part of the trail you just came from 50 feet directly below you, not at some angle away from you, but directly freakin below you. and you've maybe gone 100 steps. ok, so we're not talking scaling the face of some cliff or anything, but this mother was steep. when you consider the fact that for almost the past two years, i've been sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day, then coming home and sitting in front of the computer for a few more hours, basically never getting any form of exercising, and smoking until my lungs are ready to spontaneously combust… well, it was hellacious. luckily, i think my body adjusted after the first 30 mintues or so, and my breathing was heavy but steady. we made it to the top of the mountain and were treated with a wonderful view of the valley below, all the little farm-houses spread out, and the horizon as distant as any i've ever seen. we got some pictures of the view from the lookout point, hopefully they'll turn out decent and i'll throw 'em online here for you guys to check out.

our main purpose for the trek was a visit to hensley settlement where my dad told us they measured the corn harvest not in bushels per acre, but in gallons per acre. the settlement was peaceful and antiquated. my dad took great pleasure in pointing out where things were not quite as they should be "these fences would have been made from cherry" i believe was one comment he made. and my dad would know. when he grew up, things were still being done the old ways. he grew up in the mountains of virginia himself, away from most of the modern conveniences.

ah. well. i gotta run now, perhaps i'll finish this story later. needless to say, this was one time where my dad talked quite a bit. and by the time we got off the mountain, i was barely able to move well enough to drive us home. it was quite an experience, and one that i'm still paying for.

- 04:17 pm - PL :: 10 Comments
categories ::  Family - Nostalgia - Pleased/Like - Rants - Society - Travel

 

2001.11.25 spinnin' tight around your head:

[lame opening line]

i guess thanksgiving wasn't nearly as awkward as i thought it was going to be. i went over to visit "the girl" and her family. they're all a bunch of really friendly people. i felt at ease. there were only a couple of instances where a member of her family referred to me as her "boyfriend," and she jumped on those theories and shot them right down. needless to say, that stung more than a little bit. one thing about her family: the men are all firm believers of "the 'stache." all they need is a sharp pair of aviator sunglasses and we're right back in 1983, i tell ya. magnum p.i. was apparently a favorite show around the respective households. this is in no way a slight to any members of her family. they are all incredibly nice people. they just happen to have magnificent moustaches.

she and i were able to talk out concerns i had regarding the recent change in our relationship. most of the problems and questions i had with it are now smoothed over. i feel a lot better. it kinda goes without saying that most of my issues stemmed from my typical overanalysis and insecurities in issues such as this. right now the whole scenario gets a hearty "thumbs up." she also gets a gold star for being able to understand my incoherent ramblings and still being able to communicate with me effectively. it's nice to be with someone who's just as weird as i am. refreshing, even.

dinner was delicious. just thought i'd point that out. hopefully everyone else had a good feast laid out in front of them.

she and i ended up heading out to catch a movie later thursday night. we were gonna see rush hour 2 at the second run theater, then when that was playing too late, we decided to go check out heist. when we got to the theater, we saw that the newest jean pierre jeunet film was playing. amelie was an awesome film. i highly recommend it to anyone who liked jeunet's work on city of lost children and delicatessen. amelie is a love story told in the way you would expect him to tell it…unexpectedly. just a few notes: (a) dominque pinon is still funny, even when he's speaking a language i don't fully understand and (b) why the hell isn't delicatessen available in dvd in the states?

friday was the kilowatthours show at aslans how. they turned in a great performance and i recorded it. hopefully we'll be seeing it on transmission3000 soon. after the show, scott and i headed out with ben to cahoots to get our drink on. i ran into "the girl" who was also out with friends. this was prior to our discussion about the issues, so i felt pretty awkward. we ended up heading out to the back door because it was bound to be less crowded. she said she'd meet up with us there later, which was cool. we hung out there until dan and chris (the other 2/3 of kilowatthours) and their girlfriends got tired and ditched, hung out for a while, telling "the girl" stories about our semi-recent trip to manhattan, then headed right back to cahoots. scott and i stumbled in the door to the apartment at around 4 in the morning. we pretended to drink some more while we played some ps2, then i crashed out.

saturday was laundry day. the girl and i ended up heading out to see heist (finally) and it was a damn good movie. david mamet hardly ever disappoints, honestly. so i was 2 for 2 on the movie tip, this weekend. this was the night when we ended up having that previously mentioned "talk" that helped straighten my head out.

now i'm at work, no more coffee…facing down what's looking to be a long day. oh well…we all gotta do it sometime.

- 11:13 am - PL :: 2 Comments
categories ::  Old Posts

 

2001.11.22 take life as it comes:

thanksgiving. the first of the big year-end holidays. the milemarker for the always famous "year-end depression." i'm sitting at work, right now. thanksgiving. work. i'm not here to actually "work," mind you. i just came in to check my email and grab a little free food. it's kind of a downer when you have to go to your workplace, the place you dream of escaping all through the week, to get a holiday dinner. it's not like i couldn't have gone to the store and picked up some bread and turkey slices…but…it's not a meal that should be eaten alone. it's one of those things that we're brought up spending with family and close friends. loved ones of all sorts.

today i sat across a breakroom table from a co-worker that i tend to cut up with quite a bit. he was talking about going to see some girl he met on the internet. i told him "that cup is poison, my friend." he laughed. that was about the end of that conversation.

i'm invited to go to "her" house later this afternoon. i think i've silently agreed to go by telling her to call me when they're going to be having dinner. it's weird. i like her a lot, but after a few weeks of dating, we're not really "together" anymore. this seems to happen to me a lot. this time i know it had nothing to do with me, thank god. she ended a three year relationship less than six months ago. she doesn't know if she's prepared for something serious, at this point. i'm wondering if it'll be weird…i've only met her parents once and it looks like today i'll be surrounded by the extended family. she invited me saying "no one should spend thanksgiving alone."

i'm thankful for my health. i'm thankful for my friends, some of whom i'm not even speaking to, these days. i'm thankful that i have a job that pays me decently for very little actual work. i'm thankful to have someone like "her" in my life, whether we're actually together or not.

and i'm thankful that i won't be spending the holiday alone.

- 01:51 pm - PL ::
categories ::  Old Posts

 

2001.11.21 you feed me to the lions:

ahh…the holidays. time to settle in to my (a) yearly holiday depression and (b) yearly flu/cold/illness bonanza. sound like a load of fun? you bet your bottom dollar it is, champ.

looks like my grandmother jetted off to florida for turkey day, leaving the rest of the family saying "fuck it. we're not gonna have a big thanksgiving dinner this year. we all just get drunk anyway." this would be fine and dandy, under most circumstances, but it leaves me completely alone on thanksgiving. seeing as i have nowhere to go to grab a free dinner, i was planning on sitting at home with some turkey slices, bread, and some beer. but it looks like i'll be rolling into the workplace for a catered turkey dinner, complete with (probably instant) mashed potatoes. i guess that's the one saving grace.

i'm supposed to do something with the girl later in the evening, and i hope that's not a weird situation. we're not really technically "together" anymore, but it looks like that's not totally out of the question in the future. i dunno. it's just really getting lumped into my big "list of reasons why i will end up being bummed out over the holidays." i should probably get working on finding reasons to not get bummed, huh?

hopefully matt enjoys his trip to virginia.

on the illness front, last night the sinuses started acting up. i woke up yesterday morning with a bit of drainage, but it cleared up within an hour or so. today, however, i'm suffering through a scratchy throat and a clogged nose. it looks like my thanksgiving weekend will also be one spent doped up on cold medicine. can't beat that, huh?

the show is still on for friday, but it's starting to look like my plans for saturday have bombed out, due to circumstances well beyond my control. i guess that's fine. i'll probably use the time to help scott get his moving done. what are roommates for, anyway?

i should probably be drinking clear liquids instead of coke, huh? oh well…i did go grab an early lunch at double dragon. i figure sesame chicken is just as good (if not better) for me as chicken noodle soup, right? today's fortune:

You have an important new business development shaping up.

actually…i can't think of any business i have in development. i would beg to differ, oh mighty fortune cookie…

- 12:40 pm - PL ::
categories ::  Old Posts

 

2001.11.20 a bit lean:

ok. so it was a moderately interesting weekend. er, well, saturday wasn't much to write home about, but sunday was a lot of fun. i got up (gasp!) early and ran out to the grocery to pick up a few things. then, after waiting about an hour and a half for the dishes to wash, i began preparing a breakfast (lunch, at this point, really) that would have made Shamu cry. oh, it was a bountiful feast… homemade venison sausage (thanks dad!), omelets with ham & cheese, crispy strips of bacon, and biscuits (thanks Pillsbury!). why do i think you will find this interesting? i dunno. but i was really proud of myself for pulling all of this off, and wanted to toot my own horn a bit. it's funny, i don't do it very often, but i really enjoy cooking. paul's dubbed me Iron Chef Kentucky for my skill on the grill (though i'm sure 90% of the grillmasters out there could put me to shame…), and i think everbody just enjoys watching me work the grill because i enjoy it so much. likewise with the breakfast thing. i had a blast getting everything together, and was thrilled that it all turned out so good (granted, i forgot the biscuits in the oven and they got a bit too brown and crispy on the outside…).

then, of course, last night me & the boys picked up a boxed thanksgiving dinner from K-Roger, heated that sucker up, and went to town. it was actually really damned good. of course, we were all expecting pre-cooked, piping hot from the box dinner, so the hour & a half we had to wait while the food was (re)cooking really stoked our appetites. now, of course, we've got probably 3 or 4 pounds of turkey meat in the fridge that we'll have to finish off in the next few days.

basically the past two days were the "days of gluttony" for us, but do you hear me complaining? hells no.

now, i'm getting ready to head to virginia tomorrow on an alteration of the traditional family thanksgiving. normally, my folks stay in their hometown and have a big breakfast social party thing they throw every year. then we usually have thanksgiving dinner there at home. this year, they've decided to go spend the week at my grandma's house. normally, we go to grandma's for christmas, so this year it'll be a bonus to get to visit her twice.

on to another topic… if you guys have been by today or yesterday during the day… you may or may not have noticed a slight difference up there where the pics of brian & i are… i made a neat little tweak to the site over the weekend that provides a webcam activity indicator of sorts. i've been wanting to implement this for a while now, and finally got around to it. basically, if one of the webcams is active, the picture changes color a bit, and the rollover tooltip changes to "webcam active!" it really was a little simple tweak with the help of php, but since i'm in a my-own-horn-tooting mood, i figured i'd tell ya about it. of course, since brian's home computer is kaput, his cam won't be on much until he gets a new one, and since i'm heading out of town, mine won't be on again until next week. not that anyone would really want to see my silly ass sitting and staring at a computer for 8 hours, looking bored. but it's there anyway.

well, happy thanksgiving, folks.

- 04:25 pm - PL :: 3 Comments
categories ::  Bipolar: News - Computers/Tech - Family - Friends - Pleased/Like - Travel

 

2001.11.20 i'm living in cloud cuckoo land:

last night i went over to help my aunt and uncle clean out their computer. they've built up a terrible amount of junk over the last couple of years, so i was over there for a little while. they eventually decided that they wanted to build a new computer, all together. this is cool, everyone needs a little computational speed in their lives, right? there's a point when that pentium 100 with a 4x cd-rom drive just won't cut it anymore…

i skipped the coffee this morning. sorta. i stopped off to get some juice and ended up grabbing one of those bottled frappucinos. damn it. but i'm drinking orange juice right now. does that count for anything? at all?

looks like the holiday weekend filled up pretty quickly, even though i think i'll be sitting at home eating turkey sandwiches on the actual thanksgiving holiday. i'm supposed to hang out with the girl (no longer the girlfriend, long story) later thursday evening, post-family commitments. kilowatthours is playing friday night at aslans how art gallery. and i have a few odds and ends to take care of saturday. next weekend i'll be heading up to cincy to see hey mercedes at bogarts.

and then i need to start thinking about christmas. ugh.

when i walked down out of my room, this morning, i was still surprised to see jess's door open and her room and closet completely empty. if you've ever seen the room before, you know that this instance and when she was actually living there are complete polar opposites. for the most part, even when she "cleaned" her room, you could barely see the floor. now the house feels so big and empty. kinda like when matt moved out. i was alone in the vastness of the third floor, not knowing what to do with all that room. it's the end of an era, really. all of the original tenants of the apartment are now gone. soon it'll just be me and scott.

oh yeah…and clyde.

- 11:31 am - PL :: 1 Comment
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