Monday July 14 2008 ~ and now the prop has occupied my time

I've been writing here for the last 26 months. And by saying writing, I also mean coding. And slicing.And doing Save As. And cutting & pasting. And uploading. By doing this extra work, though, I've been able to maintain a tight control over usage standards and visual style. Y'all know how much I love some rounded corners.

While I still enjoy the writing and the posting I think it's time to let somebody else do all the heavy lifting. Lifter, thy name is WordPress. It's a robust blogging tool, that will allow me to do exactly what I'm doing now, but even more. And better yet, easily.

Unfortunately though, since all posts up until this point have been manually edited in Dreamweaver, I won't be able to port all the previous entries over to the new system and format. I guess I'll have to put a link up there to "Archived Site". Maybe I'll call it "In Rehab" or something.

Currently, I've pretty much posted once a day (sometimes twice) and that's usually in the evening once I've done everything I need to get done for that day. Sometimes this can be late and when I'm exhausted, which means either no post or an abbreviated one. I think moving into WordPress will also affect the timing of my posts, as I will be able to post anywhere (via iPhone).

So with that said, futurejunkie might be down for a few days at some point this week. Adios futurejunkie 4.0! Hola futurejunkie 5.0!

Sunday July 13 2008 ~ potential titles of future posts, v10

aspartylphenylalanine diketopiperazine
faster than live tv
make more money by marketing to fewer people
now i stand here waiting
71.0, 74.8, 73.8
reclective entity, mobile
can i hear that line one more time?
msg#:74411
robbie goes to happy hour
karma = social marketing
robots bootybots erotibots
heat kink
ask for a convertible
rez12
stop sign for no reason
the radioactive snows of yesterday
two days, two toilet showers and too many club sandwiches later
......
but wait

Thursday July 10 2008 ~ the countdown

If you've been anywhere close to me today or have been listening to Apple's (and the press') hype machine, then you'd know that tomorrow at 8am is when Apple releases the new iPhone 3G. But in addition to that, they are releasing a 2.0 software update for those of us who already own an iPhone, giving us the same features. Namely, access to the App Store on iTunes.

The App Store contains applications (duh) that will take the already remarkable into a place where it's really going to explode: 3rd party applications. This involve games, productivity tools, business apps and other helpful add-ons. Think: iPhone + Wii + book reader + ebay + music creation + social networking to the hilt.

Today they released an update to iTunes that allowed access to the store, yet no purchases or downloads. Many of the apps are free, but most cost only $9.99. Such teases! Needless to say it was gruelling today at work browsing through them yet not being able to download and use them. So while there have been special web-only apps available since its first launch, you can't use them underground in tunnels. But now, right at the last minute, I found some useful webapps that I'll probably keep the link to after tomorrow at 8am. They are:

Solitaire: easy, efficient, no frills, free. Great while waiting for the bus/train.

Text Sites: while it's great being able to render CNN's full site, sometimes it's easier just to get a text version. This utilizes Google's text-only translation to give you a quick easy render with links.

WikiSearch: enter your subject and it quickly searches Wikipedia, bypassing having to go to Wikipedia first and then entering your subject.

Wednesday July 09 2008 ~ receipts recently cleared out of my wall-et

060708 01:56pm Finn Maccools $121.90
061808 19:22:07 La Lomita $50.00
062708 12:13pm South China $7.94
062908 18:20:54 La Lomita $54.80
062908 10:59pm Trusty's Full Service $9.50
070208 20:31 Vigg's $20.70
070808 20:07 J & K Market $12.63

Tuesday July 08 2008 ~ guy on train, a continuing series: seven

Name, Age, Occupation, Hobbies and any other observations you may have that you need to share in the Comments section, please.

Monday July 07 2008 ~ all of which makes me anxious, at times unbearably so

There's not really much left to an evening after you've worked a full day, gone to the gym, cooked & eaten dinner, done your dishes, folded laundry, prepared lunch for tomorrow and spent some couch/scratchies time with Aris T'cat is there? Time for bed again. Keep yourself busy:

Here's a WaPo store about whinning car commuters coming into DC from the suburbs. Maybe the feds should close down L'Enfant Plaza (for more luxury condos, natch), move all those government agencies out to Tyson's and let them deal with the hassle.

Me and EFP did this outside of Balmer, hon, years ago, only it wasn't accepted as art. Instead, we were asked to leave the store. Frickin' east coast fascists.

Volkswagen designs (and builds) the 235-mpg car.

Saturday July 05 2008 ~ dreams one + two

6:00 am: The Apple website announces iPhone software 2.0 is available for download for existing iPhone (non-3G) owners. They stealthily announce this on a holiday weekend to get the fanboys downloading now, the mainstream media on Monday and the 3G owners on Friday when the 3G goes on sale. They do this to prevent an overload on their servers especially the one that is going to host the App Store, where iPhone owners will be able to download third party applications. I grab my iPhone to make sure this is true, and that I'm not dreaming it, and it is, in fact, true. I'm thinking that I should get out of bed to verify the webpage on the computer but I'm too sleepy. Not having turned off my alarm from the week it goes off, Never Gonna Get It by En Vogue is playing on the radio, and I realize that I haven't touched my iPhone to verify any software downloads. I check Apple's page and it is exactly the same as it was during the week, with no mention of advance software downloads. I go back to sleep.

Sometime later this morning: I'm standing with a few people that I may or may not know. I hear a soft voice crying out behind me and, turning around, I see a small boy who is hurt. His injury is to his left arm, but doesn't seem to be anything too severe. Oddly enough, his left hand is about the size of one of those spider monkeys, while his right arm seems normal sized. It is then that I realize that there is a bone sticking out just beyond his wrist and needs medical attention. I take his injured hand and oddly his entire hand snaps off at the wrist and I'm simply holding it. There is no blood and there is no screaming from the child. The people I was recently standing with are coming over and questioning me about what has happened, almost accusingly, and I'm trying to plead my case that I simply touched his hand and it snapped off and that there was nothing intentional about it. At this point the po-po is arriving and I'm starting to wake up, ending this storyline, perhaps thankfully.

Thursday July 03 2008 ~ thursday is the new friday

I'm lazy this morning, so I hop on the bus instead of biking down to the Metro. I wanted to crawl back into bed and thought maybe a closed-eye commute would be the next best thing. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea. Those who didn't take today off work possibly started their holiday weekend early last night? Or maybe they've saving their vaca days for something much more exciting.

Even my new roommate, Aris T'cat, didn't want to get up this morning. I put a little extra in his food bowl last night since I was in the kitchen chatting on the phone and doing dishes, and he was being all cute meowing and I couldn't resist. Since his food bowl wasn't empty this morning, then what's the point of getting up? I had to coax him awake while I was getting ready this morning. He's a cute, good kitty.

OMG today during lunch (Fuddrucker's) me and Aris T'cat's foodgiver, Mike, stopped by the smart dealership in Old Town. I test drove a smart fortwo cabriolet, which was a blast. It has one of those automated stick-shift transmissions, which means you can drive it in automatic mode or you can shift it without a clutch. It was a little sluggish in the auto mode, so I went to the shift mode (with paddle shifters, no doubt) and it performed pretty well considering it only has three cylinders. Me wanty. Badly.

I purchased a co-worker's fitty-dollah iTunes giftcard for $45. That iPhone App Store is going live next Friday and if my checking account can save 10% then I'm taking it. Bring it ow-on.

Monday June 30 2008 ~ randoms

I didn't go to work today. And while I won't go into the details of that, let's just say that I wouldn't have wanted to be on public transpo where there is no proximity to a public toilet. TMI? Maybe. I said I was sparing you the details, not the generalities. As sometimes happens in these cases, in the afternoon everything is a little more under control. Still, I'm not going to take a three-hour round trip commute just to show up and work for half a day.

Here are some tidbits I found while surfing around this afternoon:

Some fun graphs can be found at PLUSormin.us.

PalmerCash is having a 15% sale on tshirts until July 6.

An article about why not to design static Photoshop mockups.

Always fun: Overheard in New York.

A round-trip direct flight from Dulles to Munich for one week during Oktoberfest is $808.19, including taxes.

Saturday June 28 2008 ~ my new roommate

My new roommate moved in last night. His name is Aris. Aris T'cat. Say it out loud a couple of times and you'll get it.

Mike, his owner, brought him over last night after work. And while I am doing Mike the favor by taking care of his cat for a month while he takes care of his parent's dog while they vacation to the Phillippines, I am thinking there it will be therapeutic for me to have a cat in the house, once again. So I opted to cook dinner so that Mike would hang out for a little bit, make Aris T'cat feel a little relaxed while he became accustomed to the new city surroundings. I had defrosted some chicken fajitas and some ground beef to make with some rice (my Mom's recipe). While at the grocery store picking up fixings, Mike decides he wants to do a variation on a recipe of his grandmother's, which consists of sausage & peppers,

---aris t'cat has just jumped into my lap, he's a very affectionate cat, and i get him to curl up like a holding a baby as i would do with the twins™ and he's purring and loving it and i'm tearing up and loving it, thinking of the girls and how they used to do this too---

some reduced olive oil/garlic/onion, the latter combo I have at my house. So this means we have three dishes, three larges entree dishes, and with the few beers that we've had it doesn't take long until we're both stuffed and playing with Aris T'cat, getting him acclimated. He's doing pretty darn well, being comfortable by lying down in the living room and I think everything is fine by the time Mike leaves for the evening.

This morning and afternoon is a bit of a different story. I realize cats sleep during the day so I'm not too concerned about it. Aris T'cat starts coming out, but he's a little skittish, alerted by the noises upstairs and the noises outside. As well as the noises inside, such as hardwood flooring creaking, credenzas wobbling when I walk by, furniture shifting on hard surfaces. Aris T'cat is a suburban, carpet-appointed cat. It's going to take him a while before he's keeping the peace in Northeast.

Thursday June 26 2008 ~ guy on train, a continuing series: six

Name, Age, Occupation, Hobbies and any other observations you may have that you need to share in the Comments section, please.

Wednesday June 25 2008 ~ "i feel foul-mouthed as i stand and wait for the underground"

These are the variations of public transportation I have to go to work and back. Keep in mind that this trip is 9.6 miles, one way, according to the google mapinatronator. First, let's start a benchmark: an automobile. Using $4.00 per gallon and an average of 25 miles per gallon, this trip has a daily cost $3.07 (9.6 miles x2 = 19.2; 19.2 ÷ 25 equals 0.768 gallons used). Depending upon the day, the weather and my gym schedule, here are my options.

Public Transportation Option 1
$5.60: Biking to Potomac Ave, Metro to Braddock, reverse for roundtrip.
Routine for gym and non-gym, pleasant weather.

Public Transpo Option 2
$7.30: Bus to Union Station, Metro to Braddock, reverse for roundtrip.
Routine for non-gym, rainy weather.

Pub Trans Option 3
$6.75: Bus to Union Station, Metro to Braddock, Braddock to South Cap, walk home from gym.
Routine for gym, pleasant weather, lazy.

Pu-Tranny Opt 4
$6.90 : Bus to Union Station, Metro Braddock, Braddock to Potomac Ave, walk home.
Routine for non-gym, lazy.

My daily run is usually a variety of these days, but here's a yearly average using each option as a daily routine, based upon 260 days working per year.

Yearly rate at PT Opt 1: $1456.00
Yearly rate at PT Opt 2: $1898.00
Yearly rate at PT Opt 3: $1755.00
Yearly rate at PT Opt 4: $1794.00

As a comparison, driving an automobile would cost $798.20 per year.

Monday June 23 2008 ~ another trip to the apple store, or, how to promote brand loyalty through outstanding customer service

Maybe I'm a little rough on my electronics. Or maybe I'm a little rough on all the white cables that seem to propagate my computer activities. My iPhone earbuds were 1) peeling their rubber tip off of the right ear, 2) mashing the plastic tip near the plug-in and 3) diminishing in volume and having a very "tinny" output. I decided to stop by the Apple Store on the way home from work to see if my earbuds would still be covered until warranty. Web searches that afternoon had delivered mixed results: some said they had no problem exchanging them within the one-year period while others were told they fell under the 90-day warranty. I thought I'd pop in, ask the question, hopefully they would say "Sure!" and give me new ones, and at worst case I'd drop $30 and get a new pair. I felt kind of guilty, because I think wearing them during the rainstorms we've had in the past couple of weeks may have [ahem] hastened their deterioration.

I walk in, and the first person who asks if they can help me directs me to the Genius Bar after I've explained what's going on. Like, you can't tell me 'yes' or 'no' if they're under warranty? I have to talk to a Genius? I guess the floor staff is just their for sales. Since I didn't think I'd need a Genius appointment, I didn't make one but the Concierge said she would try to fit me in as a standby. She asked me how much time I had, and while I had nothing pressing except my evening, I said 15–20 minutes and she said they could probably fit me in.

After 30 minutes, I'm getting a little irate, and thinking that I should either make an appointment for Wednesday, or just screw it and buy new ones. She's starting to sense my frustration (which was my own fault) and sends over Josh, a Specialist, who asks me what's wrong with the earbuds. I explain, he shakes his head, says "okay" and goes behind the Genius Bar to do something on his MacBook. He comes back over towards me, grabs a new box of earbuds and goes back behind the Bar. Things are looking good. He comes back, hands me the new earbuds, tells me "I know you've been waiting here a while, and we want to accommodate you. Is there anything else?" I sincerely thanked him, by name, and told him to have a good evening. He smiled and said the same. Where else does this level of service happen? Not a lot of places, let me tell you. Here's Josh:

Sunday June 22 2008 ~ tweetin' my twitterz

I used to Twitter. I really did. Last year when I had a BlackBerry 7105t it was easy to send text messages and then that broke and I got a RAZR and then everything on that *@(#& phone took eight key buttons to push to accompish anything and I just stopt. Now that I've thrown that thing in the river and purchased an iPhone where everything is easy, I've start Twitterin' again. Plus I'm trying to max out my 1200 text messages per month.

For those above the age of fourteen, a little rundown on Twitter: You can post entries (called "tweets"—I don't make up these names) up to 140 characters long, telling the world what you're doing, watching, participating in or just random thoughts. Others can subscribe to your "tweets" (your entries) so, in a perfect world, you could send one tweet and all your friends would get the message. This would help in having to send multiple text messages to a group of friends. I guess I should say that while this is a web-based application, it can be entirely transmitted through text messages on your phone. You can find out more at Twitter.com. Think of it as an instant mini-blog.

Although I'm still working on the formatting, I've added my tweets up to the top there under "quick fix".

Saturday June 21 2008 ~ this is where i want to live

Friday June 20 2008 ~ guy on train, a continuing series: five

Name, Age, Occupation, Hobbies and any other observations you may have that you need to share in the Comments section, please.

Thursday June 19 2008 ~ the future academy of noise, rhythm and gardening presents…

Fourteen years ago, when I would be returning home from work at 5:15pm instead of the current 7:15pm, sometimes I would lie on the couch and wait for my friends to get off work and get home and make phone calls and figure out what we were going to do that evening. Lying on the couch, I would either listen to Blur's seminal BritPop-ushering Parklife or The Orb's double album Live 93. It would depend on how my day went as to which I wanted/needed to listen to.

I was first introduced to The Orb a couple of years earlier, hearing their 18-minute opus A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld either at a rave or on KTRU while hanging out at Ken's Kave. Of course, Little Fluffy Clouds was already a mainstay in the burgeoning rave scene in Houston, a scene that I somewhat participated in, but not heavily. Their second album, U.F.Orb had been released as well before the live album was recorded, and it was on the list of CDs to purchase but I opted for the double-live instead, and I'm glad I did. (I've since picked up U.F.Orb, of course.) Live 93 gave me some of my favorite Orb tracks: Assassin and Star 6 & 7 8 9. Valley is another good one.

After I moved to DC in 95, 3rd album Orbus Terrarum was released and it went into heavy rotation in my player. It only contained seven tracks, the shortest being 7:28. They were getting into their groove with the beat-driven ambient compositions, but it wasn't until 1997's Orblivion came out that they really exploded into my head. I listened to that album over and over and over, learning every sound and nuance. Fave tracks: Molten Love and Toxygene. Everything in my Orb experience was coming together, as they were appearing at 9:30 Club and I had a ticket. They were recording this tour and soon released U.F.Off—The Best of The Orb, including Little Fluffy Clouds recorded at 9:30 (only available on the deluxe 2-CD set). If you listen carefully, you can hear me dancing with my hands in the air on that track.

As with a lot of bands that reach an artistic zenith and then release a greatest hits compilation, things go downhill quickly. Which is exactly what happened with 2001's Cydonia. They were straying from abandoning their atmospheric, sampled beats and started introducing what I call "The Diva". Definition: when men play the instruments and produce then hire a female siren to wail over the track. Examples include M People, C+C Music Factory, Soul II Soul. Cydonia sukt big time. I believe I listened to it about three times before I put it away to start gathering dust.

2004 witnessed the release of Bicycles & Tricycles, which was a retreat from Cydonia and a step in the right direction to get them back on course, albeit a small step. Since iTunes was coming around at this time I could download this for ten bucks instead of the market-rate CD price of $16 and that aided a lot in my decision to continue with The Orb.

Another small step back on track was 2005's Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt. They were still slugging along, but no where their their heyday of ten years earlier.

While trolling around on iTunes this Tuesday I noticed that last week The Orb had released …the dream. Sampling the tracks, they sounded okay, so I downloaded it. I'm currently putting it into heavy rotation (without playing on shuffle—I'm listening to this in its album order, on repeat) and I'm enjoying it. They're back to the ambient & random sampling which is nice. Vocals are thankfully minimal. There's even some dancehall thrown in there to keep it lively. I could totally hear this being played in clubs, if DC still had clubs. I think it just might become my soundtrack for this summer. Early fave track: High Noon.

…the dream can be downloaded here or, I'm assumming, still purchased as paper and plastic if you know of any surviving record stores. They're currently touring the summer festival circuit in the UK, cross your fingers that they make it across the pond.

Monday June 16 2008 ~ dl on the dl

A non-date date, with fried food and cheese. And a movie that I've already seen. A roundabout flirtation.

A meeting on invoices, processes and billing packets unresolved. Also boating, parent's deaths and vacant lofts in Midwestern cities.

A man out of your league, yet close enough for instant information. The possibility of nothing with randomness that seems familiar.

Friday June 13 2008 ~ haikus from today / written in a chat window / makes the day fly by

scad does not sound good
but i've known a few people
who say scad not bad

must i open this?
i will leave it for monday
an early week gift

moon landing? yeah right
it is a big movie set:
area five-one

cut/paste from kathy:
"i like where this is going"
our own haiku chat

breaking news right now
that guy—red state, blue state fame
tim russert has died

dis 'ku 4 goldy
she dis my sentence structure
they correct—don't h8!

Wednesday June 11 2008 ~ jch 37–07

My mother had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, for about two and a half years. The disease was pretty far progressed by last June. She had lost muscle sensation in her arms and both of her legs. She was being fed intravenously and was not awake for much of the day, usually laying in bed during the day, trying to nap through the pain, until my father would put her in the electric wheelchair and bring her into the living room for some evening television. She didn't speak much at this point, since it tired her out so quickly, but we tried to involve her in conversations instead of speaking around her, so that she could listen.

I knew there was not a lot of time left to spend with her before she would pass away; I figured I had until autumn, but you find out that you never have enough time.

On June 7, 2007, a Thursday, my father had called me at work and said that Mom was not doing well. He said that she was wanting to stop all her ALS medications and wanted to die. She was tired and wanted it to stop. He said that I should come down and see her that weekend—I had planned on going down a couple of weekends later, for her 70th birthday. I purchased a train ticket for Saturday morning, my usual trip on the Amtrak Carolinian (train 79).

Friday morning my older brother Chuck called me, crying, saying that I needed to get down there as quickly as possible, before Saturday morning. I told work that I was leaving and might not be back for some time, and went home and packed a bag. Luckily a friend was able to loan me her car for the weekend, and I drove to my parent's house Friday evening.

What I walked into when I got there, I likened the situation to one of those doctor shows on television, where at the beginning of the episode everything is eerily quiet or calm and then they open the doors of the emergency room and it's all chaos. When I walked into my parent's house, there was no one in the kitchen or living room, and the television was off, a rare site. I walked thru the hallway to my parent's room, opened the door and there was the chaos. My father and oldest brother Butch were there, trying to calm down my Mom, give her medicine or something.

I went to the bed, almost immediately bursting into tears, and said hello to her and tried to calm her down. It was difficult to understand her, especially because she was so worked up. It was hard to understand her these days due to her shallow breathing anyway, but she her agitation made it more difficult to understand what she was actually trying to say, it came out as one big warbled sentence. My father chimed in, saying "That's what she's been saying, that she wants to die, she wants to die". It was hard for me to tell what it was she was actually saying, but I didn't doubt my father stating that she had been saying it all day.

I kissed her forehead and told her I loved her and that it's okay, and we got her meds down and got her dressed and she calmed down, almost instantly falling asleep. My father had stopped the ALS meds the day before but was still continuing with her normal doses of painkiller and sleeping meds, which was the best choice.

My Mom never really woke up again. There were flashes throughout the weekend where she would open her eyes for 15 seconds or so, but I don't think she was really focusing on anything at that time. I don't think she was conscious during those brief times when her eyes opened.

All the doctors, nurses and specialists were telling us it was only a matter of days now, that they had seen this condition before. I drove home Sunday evening to pack for a longer stay, and also to pack up my one remaining Twin, Rattle, who had just turned 16 the previous month. She wasn't doing too well herself and I was a little hesitant to move her for an extended stay, but I couldn't leave her at home and so I brought her down to my parent's with me on Monday morning, June 11. It turns out that was the best thing I could have done because having her there with me brought me great comfort in the week that would unfold.

When I arrived Monday morning my mother's condition had worsened as expected. We were being told it was just a matter of hours now. My father spent the afternoon at a funeral home, making arrangements. There was a lot of family around, bringing over food and keeping us company and also visiting with my Mom one last time. Once my Dad got home I went to lie down in my room and spend some time with Rattle, since I hadn't let her out into the whole house yet. We took a nap for an hour or so and that's when I heard the singing.

A pastor had arrived, and wanted to see my mother, and while she had been a religious woman I don't think she went to church very often. But I guess the pastor wanted to say a prayer (we're not Catholic so there were no last rites) and then he started singing a song, I can't remember right now which one. I'm sure it was a familiar song, because my aunts and cousins were all singing too. According to my brother Chuck, my mother woke up again with one of those 15-second flutters and then let out her last breath.

When I heard the singing, I got up, dressed and was walking down the hallway as Chuck was coming to get me to join them. That's when he told me. So I wasn't with my mother when she actually passed away, until a few moments afterwards.

Later that week, as I'm attending viewings & funerals, I got to thinking about my mother's last conscious days, especially that Friday evening before she died, and how she lapsed out of this world shortly after I had arrived at the house. My two brothers and sister-in-law, niece and nephew and many other family members live close by, within a 30-minute driving distance. She had the chance to see them all and let them know her wishes. I think she was waiting for me to get there. I think, in that hysterical state that she was in, she wasn't saying "I want to die", but "I love you, Mike" (which is what my family calls me). After she said that to me, the last one, I think she found the peace to let go and slip out of this world while her ailing body lingered on for three more days.

Today I am meeting my family at Arlington National Cemetery for a flower-laying ceremony. This is one of the last pictures I have of my mother, taken in late April 2007. I miss you, Mom.

Tuesday June 10 2008 ~ potential titles of future posts, v9

saturday, july 24, 1982
stomp it to the death
procedure: 033-03
procedure: retrogram
top of the line
there is no blessing
i dreamt the impossible
there's no indication of what we were meant to be
9101148008600561396561
failure happens

Monday June 09 2008 ~ 3g or not to 3g

Today Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 2.0, called the iPhone3G, due to its advanced high-speed "3G" network. It also has GPS and a slightly sleeker form factor. Basically those are the new features that you cannot get with the free 2.0 software update, due July 11th. The free software upgrade includes the App Store, for downloading 3rd party software, improved mail functions with enterprise-standards, and other fun goodies.

The big news though, is the new pricing structure. The previous $399 8-Gig model is now $199 while the previous $499 16-Gig model is now $299. Not bad right? Apple even touts this as "half the price". Let's examine.

My current iPhone plan with AT&T is $39.99 for the lowest talk plan, with an additional $20 for the unlimited data. For iPhone3G owners however, the data plan will be $30. An additional ten bucks a month over the course if a two-year contract is adds up to $240 more than current users pay. Add that to your reduced purchase price and your real out-of-pocket cost becomes $439, forty bucks more than if you buy an 8-Gig today. Shrewd move, Steve.

Props to Melba for her mad math skillz!

Saturday June 07 2008 ~ 2 times

Today: brunch at Finn McCool's.

Today: nap.

Tonight: The Presets concert at Rock & Roll Hotel. Although The Presets cancelled, due to "health reasons". According to the doorman they had cancelled their Philly show the night before, and before that they were being rushed to the hospital after the show. Due to my wonky wifi connection these days I'm not able to check and see if there's a statement on their website or not, or whether we were on the end of their US tour and they folded early. It still pisses me off, as I was really looking forward to this show after missing them in Balmer, hon, last year.

Also, today is my blog's 2nd year anniversary. <blowing candles>

UPDATE:
Statement from The Presets MySpace page

No show in Washington tonight due to illness. The Presets are so sorry about this, but due to illness we've had no choice but to pull the show tonight at The Rock N Roll Hotel in Washington. We're super bummed because it was the last show of the tour. We'd like to apologise to everyone who was planning on coming tonight, as well as anyone who wanted to see the band at the cancelled Philly show. Unfortunately the guys are so unwell, it's literally impossible for them to play, The Presets will return to the US in the coming months. Please contact the venue tonight regarding refunds on tickets, Sorry again. The Presets xx

Friday June 06 2008 ~ my two days with f5f

When Fab5Fabio (my moniker) comes into town I know I'm going to have some fun. F5F is a friend, ex-coworker and initiator of this here bloggie-blog. You see, it was Fabio's idea to start blogging when I was on my trip to Munich, and now it's what you see here, daily commute grumbles, cute boys on daily commutes and miscellaneous facts that you never knew you needed to know. So now you know.

Fabio was here for some business meetings so I was only able to spend time with him during meals. For lunches we took him to his favorite places (Five Guys, Bugsy's) and then MM had a bbq tonight where we made some shiskebobs with a great dry rub (F5F's recommendation). Later the heat pushed us indoors and even later than that the geekdom of the guys present forced us into a Star Wars mini-marathon. The question of the evening was if R2-D2 knew all these people in all six movies, then why didn't (s)he fess up any info?

I was also able to spend time with my future new roommate, Aris. He's the kitty that Heef is holding in the pic. He'll be moving in on the 27th and staying with me for a month, while MM (his foodgiver) watches his parents' dog while they're away. I'd spent time with Aris before, but this time I was very watchful of his behavior and was asking MM questions about his care. He's a great cat, very docile, and loving petting and human interaction. He reminds me of The Twins™ in this respect, so I'm sure we'll get along fine.

It was great having F5F in town and at work for a couple of days, he really did a lot to lift the gray cloud that has been hanging around the studio lately. Let's hope his goodtime feelings linger for next week and beyond.

Thursday June 05 2008 ~ guy on train, a continuing series: four (special platform edition)

Name, Age, Occupation, Hobbies and any other observations you may have that you need to share in the Comments section, please. Have fun with this one.

Wednesday June 04 2008 ~ ladies and gentlemen, a play in three acts

Isolation
I think if you commute in a car, where you can control your environment (temperature, audio, direction, speed and stopping points) you can become a more positive person. If you commute on mass transit, where you are forced to deal with strangers in a face-to-face basis, you notice and start to wonder about them, what their lives are like, are they happy? Is their life similar to mine? Are they headed towards a miserable day? Then you start wondering if you've been in situations they haven't experienced yet and vice versa. Is he what I'm going to become? Is she headed uphill or downhill? I don't think people in cars ponder these kinds of things; they're travelling too fast to notice, getting too aggitated with traffic, too focused on where they're trying to get to instead of where they are.

Humiliation
Today I had my formal review but it didn't really mean anything since I'd already been given the beatdown several weeks ago. At least my demotion will be out in the open now, while I try to save as much face as I can at this point.

Definition
Maybe I should get a car and start driving so that I can be focused on where I'm going instead of where I'm at. The truth is, I don't want to think about the future, it doesn't look bright and I lost my shades a long time ago. Maybe that's the true meaning of being a future junkie: imbibing in the drug called hope, but only really taking it to numb the pain.

Tuesday June 03 2008 ~ booked

Some time ago I was coerced into becoming a Friendster. Now I've been talked into being a FaceBookie. So if you're on FB you can ask to be my friend and I'll accept, because I'm trying real hard to get those friends into double-digit numbers.

I've done some fumbling around in the Facebook interface, and I guess it's like MySpace (which I do not have a profile on) but without all the garrish html piecing itself together and the song blaring out that you didn't want to hear, yet you can't seem to locate the volume to silence it. So I'm assuming these portals are for people who don't have blogs, or for those who want to present a more direct cohesive personality than "Tonight I ate pizza for dinner." Or "My commute sux. Let me tell you about it. Repeatedly." Facebook pages read more like a yearbook, saying which bands you like and which years you were secretly a member of the A/V Club. Apparently there's some Twitter-esque feature, too. Maybe I'll fill out my FaceBook page more than I ever did my Friendster page.

I'm still a little confused on how you find people other than doing a direct name search. And without "being their friend" their profiles are hidden, so it's not like on Friendster where you can bounce from person to person. I guess that's what Match.com is for then? Maybe I'm missing the point of FB.

Now it's time to order that pizza. Did I mention my yellow line train was stalled in the tunnel for half an hour tonight?