The Aerie
Home with the kids today, Sapphire is out at a "Mothers of Multiples"
convention, her annual "get away with the girls" event. Trying this
year not to get neurotic about cleaning the house while she's away.
Many years I've tried to get the whole house clean "for her" while
she's away: in fact, I've usually just tried to get it clean to prove
to myself I can do it. But it always leaves me crabby and frustrated
come Monday when I feel like I've done nothing but work all weekend.
Well, recently a lot of people have been telling me "be more
selfish." They tell me I should spend less time working and more time
enjoying myself. Sapphire, Fairy, Tom, all of them have said the same
thing. So this year I'm trying it. I'm still doing a little
cleaning, but I'm not knocking myself out about it. I read a book,
took a bath, even played Monopoly with the kids... and lost!
Yep, their first game of Monopoly, and the eight-year-old twins opened
up a can of whup-ass on their father. First Golddew grabs the three
green properties just past the Jail and immediately starts churning
houses out. Then L manages to grab both Park Place and Boardwalk,
and mortgages himself to the hilt to get a pair of operational
hotels. Meanwhile I had diddly! Very shortly, Golddew rolled a 10
off Marvin Gardens and BLAM, lands on the $2000 Boardwalk with exactly
$1800 of assets. I resigned, since at that point I had about $50
myself, having landed on her hotel a turn earlier..
Then since he'd played alone so patiently while the three of us were
playing Monopoly, I played "wrestling" with D, my
five-year-old. Wrestling used to be just that, wrestling, tickling,
etc. Unfortunately he's developed his sister's old habit of directing
play down to the last detail. He spends most of his time bouncing
(literally) around the room while explaining exactly who each of us
are, what we're supposed to do and say, and what we do and say after
that. I usually have to just grab him and start wrestling with him to
get him to stop.
The weather was cool but lovely today, with bright sunshine. The kids
played outside till almost nine p.m. and I wasn't going to try to stop
them -- usually we have to throw them out of the house.
So one idle weekend day passed, let's see what tomorrow brings.
*Whew* Another crazy day! It's Wednesday already fercryinoutloud! I
walked into the Blue Moon this evening, and there was a new City
Pages. "Huh" I thought, "they're delivering on Tuesday now."
Days like this make it really hard to maintain perspective and focus.
Just making a few notes in a day-planner are about all I can
accomplish towards organization. Tomorrow promises no better, with
four separate meetings, in four different locations!
I got a radio installed in my latest crapmobile, making the drives a
little more pleasant, except of course I'm still waiting for an
antenna to come in, so my reception stinks. But the weather... ah,
spring!
Listening to the radio led to my breaking one of my personal rules --
not to call radio talk shows on my cell phone. But I felt this was
important enough to warrant the effort and expense I talked to
Governor Ventura, I think it was yesterday. Yesterday? Yeah, it
wasn't today, so it must have been yesterday. I asked him not to sign
this horrid "baby drop-off" bill, but he wouldn't listen. So soon
we'll have legal baby-abandonment in the state, and the adoption
agencies will leap for joy. "Free product to sell!"
Sorry, but as one of the kids who went through the adoption process,
I'm not a big fan of the system. It wraps itself in
'we're-helping-kids' sentiments, while treating the actual children
like a commodity to be sold. And it sweeps its abuses -- of
birthmothers, adoptive parents, and the children -- under the rug of
"closed records."
Sorry, screed off.
So I called, I talked to him, and he gave the
reasonable-but-unenlightened response that "if one child is saved,"
lacking of course any real evidence that any babies WILL be saved.
*Sigh*
But that was yesterday. Today, was a blur. And now it's Wednesday
night, and soon Friday. I can't keep up.
Oy.
My wife and I went out to dinner at Ciatti's tonight, which did
nothing to lighten our mood. After a holiday weekend spent with both
our families (we all know about families and holidays I'm guessing),
and some conflicts regarding kids and neighbors, we we in a dark
mood. Ciatti's didn't help much, well, not me at least.
They sat us in the worst booth in the house: my left elbow was by the
waitstation, behind my booth the hostess greeted new customers, and to
our right the new arrivals entered, and in front of us the waiters
passed with orders, and a table of people sat side-by-side staring at
us for half the meal. Of course, being in a foul mood it didn't really
register until now that we were eating on the equivalent of a traffic
island.
But there was more to it than that. For a few years now I've noticed
that places have a certain energy, as if currents of badness or
goodness flow through them. A hardbitten skeptic, I want to attribute
this to a combination of architecture, decor, lighting, etc. -- the
ambience of a place. Or it could all be some kind of mystic New Age
energy, to be dispelled with incense and crystals, who knows?
Anyway, Ciatti's has always had a deep, negative ambience or energy
for me, and tonight it had it in spades. Aside from our terrible
table, the clientele seemed to have mostly just risen from the dead.
Some were elderly and in wheelchairs, some were odd looking and on
oxygen, and some were all of the above. No, I don't mean to dis the
differently-abled, but place this all in a dark, gloomy restaurant
with bad food, bad service, and glops of negative energy oozing all
over the place, and I couldn't even finish my meal. Sapphire and I
talked in dispirited fits and starts, and finally, mercifully, left.
Then we went to our writing group at the Blue Moon. Again, the energy
factor, but 180 degrees different. Of course, the Blue Moon has
always been that way for both of us. I can go to the Blue Moon and
get eight hours of work accomplished in three. Just being there
cheers me up.
Tonight was no exception. Writing group went quite well, and by the
end of the evening we were both chipper, bubbling with ideas and
jokes.
So I don't know -- is it architecture, lighting and decor? The Blue
Moon is often too loud and too crowded to really be ideal, yet it I
can always work there. Only the armchairs in back were open, and
sitting in them is like sitting in a bucket, but for some reason I
didn't mind too much. And the half hour which we spent in a writing
exercise passed in a blur of creativity that I was reluctant to end.
Maybe there is a river of "positive energy" flowing through that
place.
Whatever it was, it worked!
The eggs have been dyed. The kids are in bed. Now we're just waiting
for the Bunny.
Today was great, bright, warm, sunny. Earth Day. At 4:30 I was
riding my bike along West River Road when I saw a piece of paper stuck
to a boulder about 34th Ave. I rode up to see why this paper was
stuck to the boulder: it read "Earth Day Post-Cleanup Celebration,
3:00!"
Spent the day at a bunch of chores: laundry, car repairs, laundry,
home repairs, laundry and, oh yes, laundry. Tomorrow will of course
be eaten alive by Easter.
Riding the bike was pleasant. I remember when I was a teenager in St.
Francis, riding my bike ten miles each way to school. It would be
nice to be in shape like that again!
I saw an interesting movie this afternoon. Well, a piece of it. I
have no idea what it was, except that it was one of those oriental
martial-arts films, badly dubbed into English.
The interesting scene I happened to catch was a battle in which two
people, a man and a woman, were fighting to see who was the superior
warrior in the midst of the public square of their home town, which
was filled with local residents. The twist to the battle was that the
loser would be the first person to touch the ground, for the battle
took place upon the heads and shoulders of those present.
Now, this has been done before and since -- I've seen "battle atop the
mosh-pit" on Xena and elsewhere. But the way the battle evolved was
very interesting. As the villagers scattered to avoid being walked
on, the battle between the two champions hinged upon how many of the
people in the crowd were willing to participate as the platforms upon
which their friends could depend to keep them elevated. These loyal
friends not only had to put up with their warriors standing on their
heads and shoulders, but they engaged the (literal) supporters of the
other warrior while so doing. In the end, the fellows on the ground
took much more abuse than the two on top, even throwing themselves
beneath their falling combatants in order to prevent their hitting the
ground.
I was fascinated by what these scenes said about the nature of
friendship and loyalty, the way in which we support each other, and
even on the way in which wars are waged. I can't believe the
filmmaker was not aware of this, and I found it almost touching that
he or she would embed such a profound contemplation on friendship in
the midst of a profoundly silly action-movie.
But no more big insights tonight, the Easter Bunny is waiting for me
to get to sleep. Night!
Man, I'm beat. Yesterday's aikido session with Leo was strenuous, but
it also involved this kind of squatting step forward, repeated several
times. Yes, I know, I ought to know what the Japanese term for "this
kind of squatting step forward" is, but I don't. There's a reason my
belt is white. Anyway, today I'm discovering an array of muscles
around my hips that I never knew I had!
Today was a hard-workin' day, too. Started at 7:00 and went till
6:00. Too much stuff to list, and mostly too boring to describe,
except it was fun working with a Cisco LocalDirector at one client
site.
The weather today finally cleared up. After ten solid days of cold,
rain and sleet, the sun came out and the temperatures hit the
Sixties... aahh..
If I ever needed evidence that the story of Noah was just a myth, the
past two weeks would have been it: forty days of rain? No human
would have been left alive on the Ark. They'd have been stalking each
other among the wombats, and pouncing from the cover of the emu,
driven mad by the incessant rain. Likewise Seattle must also be a
myth...
Had a long chat with my birthmother over the Yahoo Messenger.
Nifty little device, that. I realize that AOL and Netscape, and
Microsoft all have something similar, but the one from Yahoo actually
works. Well, for me it works, and the others don't. So that's what I
use. Practical, ain't I?
Anyway, it's great. I can sit at work, typing up a proposal (as it so
happens I was doing) and every minute or two receive an comment, type
a quick response, and back to work. We had a nice long chat about
what makes people happy and what doesn't, and how to find happiness in
life. Everyone I know seems to be saying that I should be more
selfish and demand more happiness for myself out of life. Okay: I
demand you guys stop telling me that!
So that (the long workday) is why, if you haven't guessed, my brain is
putty, which is why my topic changes every other sentence. Hey, these
can't all be gems. I'm mostly typing with my eyes closed, slumped
back in my $200 executive high-back chair that I salvaged from a
dumpster because the support post was bent (I bent it back).
Man, these executives sure know how to live... too bad they have to
buy these crappy chairs. No, I mean, this chair is one that, since
I've found it, I've seen in ads from all the furniture stores for
$200. Sure, it's comfortable enough -- for free. But you know why
the support post was bent? Well, the chair had these cosmetic
telescoping cylinders to hide the support post -- under the premise, I
suppose, that looking at a stack of crappy black plastic cups is
somehow preferable to looking at a functional steel cylinder..
Anyway, these cylinders failed to telescope correctly, and when the
former owner sat in the chair, two cylinders jammed together on one
side and caused the pole to bend to the other side.
So he threw it in the dumpster for me to take, and here I am, passing
out in a free $200 armchair while typing my journal entry for the day.
Ain't life grand?
I can't go further without giving credit where credit is due. I mean, where do I come off putting up an ego-site? Well, I was inspired by a number of people.
First and foremost, Dr. Noel Johnson. More on him when I have an appropriate amount of time.
Next, though would have to be, in order Asia Carrera, James r Lileks, Sei Shonagon, Ana Voog, Luke Ford, and Dack Ragus.
(Note to self: I've got to figure out how to make these open in separate windows.)
Asia, of course, one has to admire. Has she got an ego? Yes. Has she earned an ego? I say yes. I've been following her bulletin page for about four years (I only read her site for the articles) and I really respect someone who can seize control of her life and stand
proud the way she does.
James Lileks will always be small-r to me. A funny guy, it's just too bad he never takes me up on the offer of breakfast at Al's...
I stumbled across Sei Shonagon accidentally, looking for websites regarding "[7]The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon." I was impressed by her site not only because of its easy style, but the fact that she is, arguably, an even bigger nobody than me! Yet here she was, courageously posting entries about watching videos, eating pizza, and chatting with her boyfriend. That takes nerve, and I admire it!
Likewise Ana Voog. I wouldn't say she's nobody, but I can't say that she's somebody either. I mean, it's one thing to bare one's artificially-enhanced breasts on the Internet. That's practically a fad. But it's another thing to claim that so doing is art. That, likewise, takes nerve.
Luke Ford? Like Ana, he takes his odd mix of gossip and chat-room transcripts and passes it off as journalism... and people buy into that notion! Amazing! Meanwhile, well, just reading his stuff makes it clear that he's, well, nuts.
Finally, there's my colleague Dack Ragus. I can't say anything critical about his site because I work with him, and if I did he'd hunt me down and beat me. He's a big guy -- well over 6'5", 300 lbs, and all of it solid muscle. So let's just say that Dack has a lot of courage putting his opinions right out there for people to read, and I admire that. True, he's a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, but still...
Anyway, I'm off to play Empire of the Petal Throne at M. A. R. Barker's house. For those of you who don't know what that means, don't worry. For those that do... eat'cher hearts out!
Awright, cool! I finally figured out enough about style sheets and
Frontpage to build this simple site. Thanks go in mass profusion to
the Web Developer's Virtual Library, which is simply a perfect tool
Hi, this is Bob, and you're looking at a New Year's resolution. It
took a lot longer to put together than it ought to, but what doesn't,
hm?
I'm cursed by Murphy's Law in regards to these things. Well, okay,
either that or plain dumbness. But everytime I undertake some kind of
project, I run into what seems like every conceivable glitch, hiccough
and gremlin along the way. But then, I'm a Murphyist by faith, so I
suppose that's inevitable.
Anyway, this is what I call my ego-site -- a place All About Bob.
Hopefully it won't end up as dead as my other site, but that one
just shows to go you the limitation of a site written entirely using
vi. Well, at least such a site as written by me.
This is also an example of my efforts to curtail some of my
over-commitments, which was my other New Year's resolution, along with
getting more exercise. After long absence I returned to the [Twin
Cities Aikido Center, this time in the company of my son Leo.
I plan that this site will grow slowly, but steadily, since I've got a
lot in my head that I want to put out here. For now, this is a good
evening's work.