December 2004 Archives

emilia was in town last night. emilia is nineteen.

she's an old friend. i've known her since before she was born.

madhavi and me took her and her boyfriend out for sushi. we ate gobs of sushi. and drank sake.

when the check came, a funny thing happened.

i realized that it was mine.

up until last night, i don't think i've ever been the one who, making more money, being more established, playing the host, naturally picked up the check.

i mean, i've treated people countless times before, but never quite like that. i saw the check come and i saw emilia offer her wallet, and i saw reflected in her myself. doing the same thing on countless occassions -- knowing full well that there was no way i'd be asked to pitch in.

and now the tables have turned. emilia is nineteen and i'm thirty-two. she goes to NYU and i work 9 to 5. i'm a decade older than her and it's my treat. it's payback time.

give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. i lift my lamp beside the golden door. i'll pick up the check.

so yeah. i've spent all day fiddling with the look of this new blog (read = teaching myself CSS). frankly, i think i've done myself proud.

there are a couple of things i still can't figure out. for example, why is my side column raised a bit higher than the main column?

i also definitely need to work up a good title graphic. no photoshop at work, though.

so now, before i leave it alone for a while, i ask you gentle readers and intrepid travelers to Troublonia all:

a) what do you think? anything look awful to you?
b) is the green/red too christmas?
c) are things laying out weird for you since you use Netscape 2.0? dude. frickin' upgrade already. for the love of mike!

happiest of remembering to write a new number on your checks eve! see you next year! unless i post tomorrow.

i have been playing with the style sheet for this site.

it's getting there slowly.

i am pretty damned happy with my troublonia passport though! i made that graphic myself. not bad for someone who never learned how to use photoshop!

anyone know how to get it to float down from the top by 10px or so? where does that nubbin of code go, i wonder?

i need to do something about the title bar text, too. i think i'll make another graphic...

i have so many things to write about and none of them are interesting in the slightest.

i mean, what compares with 70,000 people dead and numbers climbing fast?

i wonder how my favorite place in the world, the cove off havelock beach number 5 in the andaman islands fared? it faced northwest. those old growth trees? were they strong enough to survive the tsunami?

those chai shops weren't. they were just three sided shacks. and the entire livelihood of families. if those families are still alive.

it's like all the other headlines have melted away. elections in iraq? the ukraine? the united states? did i really care about those things?

now, i sure don't.

if you can, i think donating to an organization such as this one in Colombo, Sri Lanka, would be an awfully thoughtful way to mark the holiday season.

forget increased airport security. what we need more of is science. specifically tsunami alert systems.

i could have been one of those SCUBA divers who went out for a morning dive and never came back.

ladies, gentlemen, and distributors of spam!

you have found my new blog home, Troublonia!

i will in the near future have lots to write here. now, i'm kinda pooped after setting this up and dismantling the old blog.

any graphic designers out there?

somehow my MT-Blacklist died over Xmas. not even remotely sure how that happened. it got uninstalled and opened the floodgates to the spammer hordes. now it is, as they say in the computer biz, broken.

this means i better just suck it up and reinstall the whole goddarng blog.

yep! enough slacking! want to read old posts? do it soon 'cause who knows what this blog will looks like when i get through with re-building it!

all new! all different! a new name? a new look? a year and a half of old posts/comments still there? who knows!

it will be like unwrapping a present! who knows what will be inside....

i am sick.

i think i'll go back to bed.

damn, too bad madhavi is back today because i'm getting picked up on by none other than my new friend to liking very much, Olga!

she writes me via friendster:

hello my friend.
I the beautiful, charming and attractive girl
To me of 27 years, growth of 171 sm, weight of
50 kg, I dream to get acquainted with the reliable
person for life And having looked yours profile
you very much have liked me also I hope what
exactly you will find yourself this person If
my message of you has interested that write to
me not E-mail: lapka_hook@mail.ru
I with impatience wait for your answer Olga.

time to break out the fancy aftershave! it's gonna be olgarific!

fuck.

so much for my book idea.

i've been scooped.

at least i found out before i got too far into it.

i wrote them an email. maybe they won't mind me continuing their good work? i'm not sure how i feel about it now though. they've done more or less exactly what i wanted to do -- they just didn't write a book (yet?).

waiter. make mine a double.

good morning!

yes. it is monday and i, i have done absolutely nothing all weekend! sloth! i live it! i roll around in it! i smear it on the back of my neck so its heady odor can transport me back to bed when i let my head slump against the keyboard.

sloth! one of seven deadly sins? maybe. but if so, certainly the best. although lust does have it's place... but my finance was away this weekend, so sloth it is!

i just took a lil nap in marilyn mccoo's dressing room. she wasn't there.

i was exhausted. and i'll be here until 11:00 pm again tonight. and tomorrow, too.

even though i was beat last night, i slept like crap. i kept waking up.

it's a lot easier than last year, though. no major disasters. except having en vogue songs stuck in my head.

never gonna get never gonna get it.
never gonna get never gonna get it.

on friday i will be auctioning off used minor celebrity kleenex. and mumbling incoherently.

madhavi is heading to maine on thursday morning. want to entertain me this weekend?

it's my busiest week of the year, baby-sitting Peabo Bryson, Marilyn McCoo, James Ingram and En Vouge.

yeah. you're jealous. who wants an autograph?

today i'm slammed so no real blogging, but i wanted to share this (which i have not yet read) 'cause it looks fascinating and pertinent.

it's an article about the necessity for idleness from Harpers.

i drove past a bus stop bench the other day. it had a real estate ad which read:

why live anywhere when you can live in beautiful solano county?

with the possiblity of living in oakland actually viable, killing myself does seem like a practical idea. thanks real estate dude!

please remember to honor my wishes for a viking funeral.

last night, fire alarms disrupted the symphony before the show and again during the show.

last night, marvin died. my brother-in-law's father. he was in his seventies.

marvin was a fantastic guy. gruff and irrascable but so full of love. and i loved him. when jews were escaping persecution in the soviet union in the eighties, he would pick one at random and find him a job and a place to live. then do the same with another. "because that's what you do."

i keep thinking about how my sister is going to have to explain it to her daughter. zella is three and she just lost her grandpa.

the memory of the riteous is a blessing.

i went home sick on monday. i stayed home sick yesterday. i probably should have stayed home sick today as well.

but am i really ill? i don't believe so. just really tired and worked from hosting my mother-in-law.

she's perfectly nice, it's just exhausting. there's all this drama about madhavi's missing-in-action sister. mom's come all the way from australia and sister has not appeared. no one even knows where she is. last reports had her in SF, but...

Penn (& Teller) has a toussle with airport security and they threaten to blow him up. I mean offer to blow him. I mean blow it all out of proportion.

Something.

Read more.

also, i just took an IQ test and now NASA wants to study my brain. or blow me up.

ohmygod! chris isaak is here! in the building!

or his guitars are.

and, uh, i really only remember him because he was in that video where a hot model was fondling him on a beach.

yep. it's a slow news day.

tweet tweet tweet.

the little birdies sing and frolic in the sunshine.

tweet.

i realized this morning that if i write this book i'm thinking about, that i would be positioning myself as a writer for the wedding industry.