11.30.2000
i can't believe the news today
So, the old company that I used to work for, Event Zero, has laid off 66 people and shut down their San Francisco office. Shocking. All that after their second round of funding of $20 million, barely any of it spent. All in the name of being profitable. 66 people...leaving about 80 left in the Boston area. Here, take this little chunk of change and skedaddle! Merry Christmas everyone!! I'm in a curious sort of awe about it. The phone calls and emails are pouring in from friends who were laid off. I hear the names of the people that are gone and my head is just swirling. Most of the creative department gone...knowledge management shut down...20 odd people no longer in professional services...couple people in HR...three people in marketing and three more in sales...seems that not a single department was left unscathed. Actually, my best guess is that all these layoffs are simply about looking profitable in order to seem more valuable to the potential company that is going to buy them out... Maybe I should buy those options up after all...they might actually make me one or two dollars more a share when they get snapped up.
Wow. Guess lots of people are free to go to my holiday party now...
I am realizing that I have never worked at a company and then, years later, just became bored and left. I have only worked for companies that were purchased, who went bankrupt, lost much of their workforce due to massive internal chaos, or were just plain closed (or in the case of when I worked for GE Capital, moved 3,000 miles away to a new coast). I'm knocking on wood now that this new good thing I have is not going to go by the same path as those previous places.
Fascinating how companies implode and explode...and how it isn't just about business. It's very emotional, the business of working...watching how people's lives are affected and changed by the things that occur at work. Losing your job during the holiday season, even with a month's worth of severance is very traumatic. Who hires at Christmas? Everyone is on vacation or too busy to be bothered. More and more I am grateful for being the first to get out of that place...to be gone before I would be in a place of struggling to figure out how to buy a plane ticket home, buy presents and pay the rent all when I just lost my job. I find that I am, indeed, one damn lucky woman.
All to make fourth quarter look good. Amazing. Bah Humbug!
3:17 PM | link | up| archives |
let it snow let it snow
Where is the snow? It was supposed to be here this morning but no, a gentle rain is falling instead. I am rather sad...I want the snow, the atmosphere, the beautiful white. Before I moved to Boston, I kept hearing about the terrible New England winters. Since I moved here nearly four years ago, Seattle has had far more snow than we have had hear. Pretty good for a rainy city with only 16 snowplows to their name.
Why are umbrellas traditionally black? Sure, part of it is just that they match with everything, but in a way I find that hard to believe. I imagine it must have something to do with the substance that they used to use back in the day to make the cloth waterproof. Funny how familiarity often breeds tradition. I too have a black umbrella, but with a twist...it's a MOMA umbrella, black with a blue cloudy sky inside. It's a little flash of color, but a bright one that lends a cheery feel to the dreary day of rain outside.
I do like rain though. It is that bit of Seattle that still remains in me. There is a quiet nostalgia that settles in. It's a feeling of being cozy, of renewal, of needing warm dry clothing, of the beauty that comes when you watch the droplets slide off windows, rivulets rushing down gutters, and taking in the aroma that comes when everything gets a bit wet.
I think it's the rain that drives Seattleites to drink coffee en masse. Funny though, when I was in Seattle's Best Coffee here in Faneuil Hall in Boston, the manager told me that when it rains here the business is terrible. Why is that? Why would it be different on one coast and not the other? Coffee is a necessity for me every day (and I am so far sans the liquid gold of it this morning) and rain isn't going to stop me from finding my way to a shop if need be.
I work in Boston's North End right now, the Italian district in town. Tucked away amidst tall apartment buildings, off the beaten path, is a little shop called Captain Jack's. It's a tiny little shop but the way they care about coffee reminds me of how Seattleites think about coffee...it's about taste, refined taste and that's why the Captain (and aye, he is a bona fide Captain) roasts his own beans. Most people think about Seattle as being the land of Starbucks and while that's true, they don't know about all the many little private roasters that are scattered throughout the city. The company I work at now buys coupons for our employees to get their coffee at Captain Jack's and wow, what a wonderful find. Mmmm...I'm heading over there soon to buy coffee for me now and beans for home...yummy.
10:27 AM | link | up| archives |
11.29.2000
deck the halls
This weekend consists of several things...
~ buying a tree
~ putting up lights
~ buying more ornaments and decorations for the tree
~ baking treats and goodies...mmmm yum
~ sipping champagne while putting up the tree
~ buying a holiday dress
~ sending out my holiday cards
~ bugging the few friends who aren't telling me if they are coming to my party or not...hint hint for all you slowpokes out there
~ preparing for the other 50 or so that did tell me that they are coming.
So I'm in this party sort of mode. This weekend is a dinner party...something a bit more cozy than mine will be, but I really like those sorts of get togethers as well. I want to start having little dinner parties on a semi-regular basis, but I realize that my greatest hindrance to that is simply furniture. I only have a small two person table and only two chairs. What is a girl to do? And my couch is a futon...and I have one cozy folding chair in the living room. Portable sorts of things in a way. For my party I'm having to rent some chairs and a table...I have a whole empty room to put them in. I think that during this next year I'll have to be doing some investing in some real furniture.
And the bar is nearly stocked...helps to know someone who works at a liquor store. ;-)
And in the spirit of giving...chortle...check out my wishlist...
3:59 PM | link | up| archives |
11.28.2000
i am
alive, just been preoccupied. I'm feeling a bit crazy not writing and so you will definitely be seeing more of me sooooon....
11:42 PM | link | up| archives |
11.24.2000
post thanksgiving
it is barely 31 degrees outside today. I've been using the new inhaler prescribed by my doctor for cold-induced asthma...a terrible little annoyance that means if I walk from warm air into cold (and actually, vice versa), I start coughing, deep and hard until I am dizzy and near passing out. As I've gotten older it has seemed to get worse and so I finally mentioned it to my doctor. She says it's pretty common. So I've been inhaling now, in the morning and in the late afternoon, before I go outdoors. It's amazing how different my reaction to the cold is. I might cough a little, but not to the point where I can't breathe, which had been the case before. It's a little strange, to inhale in front of people...like last night, before I was heading into the night air, after a warm and wonderful thanksgiving meal. The whole family stood around and watched and I found that I couldn't get the breathing in quite right...just too self-conscious.
But it was the only self-conscious bit about the night, thankfully. Going to a new house for Thanksgiving is always an experience...an uprooting of your comfort zone that is mired in tradition and family and entering into a new atmosphere that is, as well, steeped in tradition and family...just a different one. The food and the wine was wonderful and I was very stuffed. But more important to me, being 3,000 miles away from home, was the comfort that I felt being there, the warm fuzzy (bear with me while I go into sappy sentimental mode) feeling of seeing several happy families together, sharing, under the same roof. And the wonderful bit about it was that I felt included...not an outsider looking in, but a welcome guest.
So my Thanksgiving this year was full of dubyas (the good kind, not the creepy, coddled, right-wing freak kind)--warm, welcome, somewhat wacky and all in all, wonderful.
And now we're heading toward the big X. Mas, that is. Lights are coming out, my big empty room is being cleaned and decorated for the holiday party in a few weeks. My kitty is curled up in his bed near the heater. I want to make hot buttered rum soon...mmmm. My cards are half-written and the ornaments are out, ready to be hung on the tree that I'll get next weekend. And the holiday specials will be on TV soon...Rudolph, the Grinch (the real one), Charlie Brown. Now if it would only snow. I'm jealous of Niki and all her snow.
4:05 PM | link | up| archives |
11.22.2000
33 days to go
to Christmas...that glorious holiday celebrating consumerism at its finest. No no no, this won't be a rant about how "Jesus is the reason for the season," although it would please my mom to no end if I did. I don't really find Christmas to be such a lost holiday, really...perhaps it is religiously, but in many other ways it isn't. Charitable giving is up during these months of the year, friends connect, cards exchanged, families meet, parties play out, events abound all over. Sure, there is stress involved, but for the most part, I really love the holiday season. I love all of the traditional pagan rituals (christmas tree, yule log, exchanging presents, holly, red and green, wreaths, mistletoe, etc. etc...essentially nearly ALL of what we do at Christmas, with the exception of the story of the nativity, is steeped in pagan ritual and lore) and at the same time, I love the carols, the angels, the candles, the sense of joy that seems to seep into everything. At least it is like that for me.
This year looks to be one of numerous parties and family sorts of events. Spending Thanksgiving with my friend's family (but fighting sickness...cross my fingers that I don't infect with my germs!!)...then next weekend is a party, the weekend after is MY party, then the next weekend is a party, then the weekend after is another, then off to my parents in Boise for Christmas (and seeing Niki in Minneapolis during my layover on the way there), and then back here for what I hope to be a bang-up millennium celebration. I am so excited by all of this. For years I have had very quiet holiday seasons and this year I feel excited about being part of the hustle and bustle, buying presents, getting a big tree, throwing a big party and seeing friends, getting dressed up, sending out Christmas cards (it's been YEARS since I did that), putting up decorations. I love the way that the season connects people. I love the sparkle, the cold air, the snow (maybe tonight they are saying!), the smells, the sounds. There is just something really magical about it all.
Tomorrow is the tryptophan day. Brothers and babies and hoping that I make a good impression on people I don't know. I usually do...I only bombed out with one set of parents in my past and they were a complete anomaly...with some insanity thrown in for good measure. It is always a bit strange to spend Thanksgiving with a family other than your own, I think. I love my mom's cooking, the traditional recipes that she makes every single year. The ritual is always the same...and part of it includes my father falling asleep on the couch while he's watching football. And then, after waking him, helping him untangle all the lights and put them up on the house. This year I'm not there...I hope he does the lights this year...to please my little 18 month old nephew, Cameron. He will be so delighted by Christmas I think...the lights, the presents, the paper and bows. Santa will overwhelm him for sure...not so next year when he's not the only child anymore.
That reminds me...my sister should know if her baby is going to be a girl or boy by now--her doctor appointment was coming up soon. I can't wait to call and find out. I've been charged with helping think up baby girl names but I'm not going to do the thinking if little Cameron is destined for a brother.
Happy Thanksgiving all.
2:32 PM | link | up| archives |
11.19.2000
that rock and roll music
Way back in the day I was a little punk rocker chick. In fact, for nearly three years I had my bangs in front of my left eye and as a result, my vision is completely fucked up. I have to wear contacts now and I have a stigmatism in that once-covered eye. Might as well have been wearing an eye-patch all that time for the good it did my eyesight.
And so last night found me at the Skybar, watching this kid who probably wasn't old enough to legally be in the bar, dressed in black except for his dirty white socks (sans shoes you see), growling something that I suppose was meant to sound rather gothically sinister as he strummed long drawn out guitar noise while he stood in between two large pillar candles that flickered strangely. And I wanted to run up and cut his hair...his bangs hung down in an 80s flashback sort of way, past his nose. I had this strong urge to go up there and shake him, not only to stop the terrible horrible racket emanating from the stage, but to counsel the lad in eyesight management.
But the highlight of the evening was seeing The Gravy play. It's been a long while since I've been out and about in the club scene and seeing them was a great way to end my long musical hiatus--they rocked. And it's no wonder...there was some serious long-term rock experience there. It turns out that my friend's coworker's boyfriend is the vocalist and that he used to be in the Cavedogs, a band that I used to really dig when I was back in college and when I was out doing the record/radio scene. Joyrides for Shut-Ins was my friend Thomas' favorite albums at the time and I think he wore the grooves thin (for all you young'uns visiting...yes, I'm talking actual black vinyl here). I wish that I had been far more diligent about journalling back then...I met so many people when I was doing radio and then when I was working at Virgin...it's possible that I caught the Cavedogs on tour but after so long, my memories of the time blur together. I remember meeting John Lydon, Mick Jones, David Byrne and icons like that, but the college bands are a bit more obscure. For a good bit of my life back in the early 90's, I was in a bar or a concert hall at least 3-4 times a week. I carried earplugs around in my bag...I was smarter about my ears than I was about my eyes.
And so now my friend and I are debating on whether or not more music has come out of Boston or Seattle...I can rattle them off faster than he can: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, of course. Jimi Hendrix, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Young Fresh Fellows, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Presidents of the US, Posies, Built-to-Spill, Queensryche, Foo Fighters, Hole, Melvins, Bikini Kill, 7 Year Bitch, Candlebox, Everclear, Sleater-Kinney...and it goes on and on...
1:55 PM | link | up| archives |
11.17.2000
we all say hello and we all say goodbye
Niki is in town tonight...flying in from Wisconsin to go to a wedding. The Cubers (see my me/superstars section) are all heading down to our favorite watering-hole for pitchers of margaritas and to share old comradarie. And...to say goodbye one last time to the bar where we have commiserated, laughed, cried, gossiped, fought, and dare I say the "b" word--bonded--one last time. They're closing down the place in a couple of weeks.
The Cubers, so named because when we, a couple of years ago now, all worked together at the personalization company, Open Sesame, we went from offices to cubes except for the evil empire of upper management. We're a very tight-knit group and even now, as we all work in different companies, we still keep in touch. We don't get together as often as we should though...Niki is very much a hub in some ways for us...funny how there is always someone in any group or community that seems to be the "glue" for the rest of us. We all talk to each other...we're connected by instant messenger, but lately, we seem to get together when Nicole manages to find her way into town or during events such as Neil's or Heidi's wedding. It's great now though...we reminisce but we aren't bitching about work like we used to...we share, we laugh, we support each other. I look forward to these times a great deal...seeing everyone, drinking pitchers of strawberry margaritas, laughing with the waitress who knows what we order. There is familiarity, comfort and laughter there, in that group of people who are all over the map but still connected.
Suddenly the place where we have always met, for years, is going to be gone. Even now, as we are all separate, we go back to that place of familiarity...it has welcomed us, nurtured us. Gone. We'll be faced with the daunting task of finding a place where we can all get to, can park, that won't be too busy, that won't kick us out after four hours of sitting around talking and drinking. And who is to decide? We are so haphazard in our planning that throwing a new locale into the mix...deciding the new locale, will be an interesting exercise. Will this prevent us from getting together? Add to the inertia that we seem to have sometimes in coordinating times to see each other? I think in some ways it might, but we are always in the midst of some activity where we will see each other. Next is my holiday party...some of them will come (Jack, will you? Come up from New York, puhleeze?) and others I'll see at the next event...Joanie's wedding, perhaps? You never know.
3:57 PM | link | up| archives |
11.14.2000
silence: silencing, quiet or the absence of noise or sound
part of the Ampersand Project
I live in a world of sound...everywhere I go, I can feel the need to hear, to be bombarded with the sense of sound, the music of birds, the babble of conversation, the tapping of keyboards, my meowing cat, the soft patter of raindrops. I cannot imagine a world without sound...without the immersion of my very being in the world of fluttering, banging, thudding, tinkling, ringing, lilting, warbling, whispering, honking, clomping, tapping, whistling sounds.
When was the last time you were silent? When did silence come into your head, calming you, taking over the sense of you for even just a moment? I've been trying to think about the last time I experienced true silence and I'm not sure that I can even answer that. There is sound all around me at all times, even those times that I would consider to be quiet.
I have a friend that can't sleep without some sort of white noise in the room, typically a fan of some sort. The fan takes away the noise...the sensitivity to the way the outside world wants to creep in and take us over even in sleep. The white noise creates a sense of silence...a blanket of nothingness that keeps out the noise. It's interesting to me how noise can become silence...or feel like silence.
I think that the last time I felt silence around me was months ago when I was meditating on a regular basis. I found that taking that 20 minutes out of my day a couple times a week and focusing my mind gave me a sense of needed calmness during a time of extreme turmoil in my life. I was not in a place of silence but instead, I created the silence in my own head...a place where the only movement was that of my inner mind, the only sound came during the brief moments when I was focused on my breathing. But beyond finding silence I was BEING silent. No word, no sound, no response to outside stimuli.
Being silent like that is different than being silent in other situations. Living alone, I find that I don't need to talk much but I do, to my cat, to inanimate objects, to television commercials. When I am by myself I find that I don't really WANT silence. Silence in my mind often equates to lonely. It's part of the reason I have a cat and why I turn on the TV or the radio when I am home. I'll often have the TV on not because I'm watching it, but more so for the company that the voices afford.
It goes back to my post from yesterday...we are not truly solitary creatures. We want company, and in a lot of ways, whether we realize it or not, that equates to sound. The idea of silence is a daunting one. I think about what sense I would most prefer to lose if I had to choose between sight or sound and I think that for me, it would be a very difficult choice between sight and sound. I rely so much on sound...I'm a very aural person who reacts keenly to voices, to music, to the sounds of nature and of the city. The thought of such all consuming silence is frightening to me.
Silence is very unsettling. I worked on a crisis hotline several years ago, talking to a wide range of people in crisis--suicides, split personalities, child abusers, child abusees, alcoholics, would-be murderers...and the most effective tool that we as crisis workers had at our disposal was silence. It is disarming and when you are in the midst of such heavy conversation, the silence begs to be filled. The person in crisis felt the need to fill that silence, telling us enough to perhaps calm them, convince them not to use the gun, to understand their need to abuse their son, or in many cases, time to trace the call.
Silence is something that humans are not sure what to do with. Think about horror movies or novels...when the room is silent you know that something is almost ready to happen...you tense your body so that the first sound, when it does come, jolts you out of your seat. The silence was the truly unnerving component of that adrenaline rush...the preparer for the fear you felt.
Even now I can hear a million sounds...there is no silence. There are voices in the conference room, the sound of a plane getting ready to land, a truck backing up outside, the hum of the printer, the whirring of the fax machine, distant phone, my keyboard tapping, the gurgle of water as I drink, someone coughing, the floorboards creaking from the law office upstairs, the sound of a stapler, car tires on the rainy street, a dog barking, speakerphone voices, a ship's low horn, a police siren, coughing, music from a nearby office...there is no silence here...is there, truly, anywhere?
4:43 PM | link | up| archives |
11.13.2000
migration and congregation
During the last few weeks I have been in awe of the way that the starlings are gathering in the trees at Faneuil Hall, thousands of fluttering black shapes dotting the tips of every branch, filling the air with a wild keening twittering sound. The benches below are marked with their droppings...one certainly doesn't want to walk below the trees while the birds are there. It is a beautiful but eerie sight, watching little portions of the flock break away from the group, swirl and swoop down in a deep dive into a tree three trees over. Are they migrating? Some are, of course...getting ready to head south for warmer comforts. But why spend three weeks in the trees in the square in front of Faneuil Hall? Chances are, this is a temporary roosting ground, a place to congregate and sleep, a common starling activity...to gather in large numbers to sleep. It's a bit unsettling in such an inhabited human area, however, bringing back memories of watching Alfred Hitchcock as a child.
This weekend included a visit to the Mt. Auburn cemetery, where, at dusk, there were hundreds of dark, sleek black crows gathering in a particular part of the grounds. They were everywhere, in the trees, sitting eerily on tombstones, creating a rather beautiful cacophony of sound. Walking through the stones, they would move, in groups of four or five, further ahead, out of the way. But if we stopped walking, they became even more wary, with half the flock scooping themselves up into the air and out beyond the area we were in. Smart, beautiful birds that seem less annoying in a serene setting such as a cemetery. Crows roost most frequently during the fall and winter, and most likely this was a small crow roost. Some roosts can be several hundreds or thousands of birds big. Apparently one roost in Ft. Cobb, Oklahoma in 1972 was estimated to hold over 2 million crows! Wow! Can you imagine standing underneath that flock of feathers? ewww.
For a lot of really interesting information about crows, check out the Crow Page. The FAQ is really interesting (except it is such a large file that it takes a long while to load so beware)...and I found myself lingering there, fascinated by answers to questions I just hadn't thought of asking, but had probably wondered at one time or another.
Humans congregate too...just watch teenagers at the local mall or the "pit rats" in Harvard Square. We flock to bars, to parties, to concerts. We crave association with our species, we find safety in numbers and we find variety and entertainment as well. People watching at the Good Life in downtown Boston was a great example on Saturday night...watching jazz, talking about the singer's hot pink painted on pants, the big fat man farting behind us and the waitress whose blouse was slightly open between her buttons. We watch, we are fascinated, we are amused, attracted, repulsed and amazed. Congregation is natural, inherent and part of who we are as people--as much like animals in this way as the crows are, dark and sly on the cemetery walls.
1:29 PM | link | up| archives |
11.10.2000
dot.com fever
is still around. Our ears perk up when we hear about companies such as Pets.com closing their doors, content-rich sites such as women.com considering folding and even once-defunct companies such as boo.com changing into a fashion advice site. The dot.com mania is still around. We watch the stock market wondering what will happen when the new dot.coms open up, or if the remaining ones will make an impact during the Christmas season. We watch anxiously at the consulting firms that are laying off people left and right, Razorfish, Breakaway, Viant, Event Zero, Zefer and iXL...the ones that built the tanking dot.coms. I get a little freaked out everytime I hear about the troubles of Kozmo.com--what will I do if I can't order my movies for delivery, medicine when I'm sick or toilet paper when I suddenly realize I'm out?
And now, to celebrate the dot.com frenzy, you can immerse yourself entirely. There is now a dot.com Monopoly edition. Instead of a hat, you can be a mouse. Instead of a car, you can be a pointer hand. Instead of a boot, you can be a computer. And instead of Boardwalk, you have Yahoo! Who wants to be the banker???
2:07 PM | link | up| archives |
11.8.2000
The Latest Love News!
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - When you're in love, your eyes light up, your face lights up - and, apparently, so do four tiny bits of your brain. "It is the common denominator of romantic love," said Andreas Bartels, a doctoral student at University College London who presented his research Tuesday at the Society for Neuroscience. He used functional MRI, a brain scan showing the brain over time instead of a still picture, to examine 17 students who said they were truly in love - and whose statements were backed up by psychological tests. When the subjects were shown photographs of their sweethearts, different areas of the image lit up - indicating higher blood flow - than when they were shown photographs of friends. The friends were the same sex as the sweethearts, and were people the subjects had known about as long. Anywhere from six to 20 parts of the brain showed increased activity, varying from person to person, but only a common denominator of four were found in all 11 women and six men, Bartels said.
~
Wow. And it figures...I just picked up Diane Ackerman's Natural History of Love today. Perhaps I'll feed you all little tidbits of love from time to time...
3:56 PM | link | up| archives |
amazon fucked up
strangely enough. maybe it was a disgruntled worker handing out freebies. whatever the case, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's not on my order anywhere and I definitely didn't pay for it but in my recent shipment, I recieved the new U2 album, which I hear is terrible. But hey, it was free and so that's okay.
I think the country might have fucked up too. If Bush is elected, it will be a sad day indeed. The country votes an idiot into office...someone who can almost match Dan Quayle with the idiotic things that roll out of his mouth.
11:45 AM | link | up| archives |
11.7.2000
(in)famous?
my pic is in the collage that can be found on the front page of nervecenter. oooo ahhhh. I'm a Nerve posterchild. I like that...to have my pic on a site dedicated to "thoughtful hedonists." Funny that it's my corporate pic too...
7:40 PM | link | up| archives |
and FINALLY
niki gives her opinion of Charlie's Angels. I agree. Drew does have more jiggle factor...
1:54 PM | link | up| archives |
opinion
people are opinionated about two things in particular... politics and religion. They fuel the fire for debates across the globe and most people have a strong stance on the topics. True, they might keep those thoughts to themselves, not stirring up trouble. They might say they are apathetic, but if you truly push those people, they'll let you know what they really think about abortion, about greyhound racing, about the state of healthcare, gay rights or about whether or not God is a man or a woman.
Today when I got off the T, I was bombarded with sign-toting animal rights activists and one man in particular who was holding two Halloween masks of Gore and Bush and was having a dialogue between the two plastic heads. He was campaigning for Bush and of course, he was acting just as idiotic as the man he was trying to promote. Mind boggling.
I am amazed at the way the Internet connects people together, sharing information and misinformation. Yesterday a good friend sent me a letter apparently written by one of George Bush's former classmates. It was intelligently written and basically shared his horror at seeing such a lazy, coddled, not-so-bright sort of guy running for the most powerful position in the world. I was fascinated by the letter, but mostly because I had no surety of its authenticity. Was it really written by someone who went to school with Bush? Or was it written by one of his antagonists? Here is this letter making the rounds to email box after box, spreading opinion and potentially swaying people with the words contained within.
I think that this election will be a really interesting one for the history records...the way that the Internet and the power of the people change the way the election works or doesn't work. The whole voteswapping thing is a case in point. People rallying together across the nation to swap votes in order to make sure that the Green Party gets funding for 2004 while at the same time, keeping those Nader votes from putting Bush into office. Wild. Someone told me that there is even a vote selling site...can you imagine? I can see that being illegal, but the voteswapping isn't...you can vote for whoever you want to as long as there is no money changing hands.
But on the good side of things, there is a lot of information there. I can download the official voters guide for MA to help me make a more informed decision. In the past, I've waited till I've gone to the polls and then just read the ballot summaries. Now I can go in, speed through the questions and be out of there.
It is exciting to be a part of this whole Internet thingy. The connected world. Children born in the last 7-8 years will never know the world without email or the Net. When I'm 70 I'll be part of the minority that does. Wow.
12:25 PM | link | up| archives |
11.6.2000
another random list
of things.
~If you are a Massachusetts resident, go here to support AIDS victims during Thanksgiving. Buy a pie and help save lives.
~I lost my T Pass after only using it once. Grrr.
~My friend Joanie's dad has a site called GeeksforGore.
~I'm shocked and amazed by the way people are using the power of the Internet to sway votes. Check out this story on voteswapping.
~If you are in Massachusetts and aren't sure where to vote, go here.
~I got the adapter for the DVD. My DVD guru hooked it up to my stereo for me...wow, the surround sound rocks. Need to get another splitter to make the surround sound work with the TV. It's amazing how much clearer it is than video. I can see why my good friend John is such an aficionado. Hey...I wonder if the surround sound will work with my Playstation (not PS2...that will happen after xmas prolly)? Imagine killing zombies in the dark with the freaky sound...
~I talked to my ancestor, John Billington, when I was down in Plimoth this weekend. He told me more about his son who got lost and the Indians took him to Cape Cod. They had to gather a whole mess of pilgrims to go down and rescue the boy. They lined up on the shore, muskets in hand, waiting for the tribe to turn over the boy, which they did without hassle, although they could have easily battled the pilgrims and won. The child had been lost for several weeks and passed around from tribe to tribe. The Indians had braided his hair and adorned him in traditional Indian garb. Of course, he thought it was a big lark, but the pilgrims were quite concerned and very relieved to have their son back.
4:24 PM | link | up| archives |
11.5.2000
i'm so jealous
of niki. It has to be more fun than a dented Kia. Or a Mercury Sable with a lumpy bondo job. Poor Sable.
But she didn't tell me if Charlie's Angels was a matinee movie or a prime time flick...
11:02 PM | link | up| archives |
money money money
seems to flow into my hands and then right back out. Rialto was wonderful. I had a really interesting chicken dish that I thoroughly enjoyed. The goat cheesecake was AMAZING. And I bought a DVD player, finally. But wouldn't you know it, I have to go buy an adapter because my shitty tv doesn't support the input. That is on the agenda for the day...that and picking up my laundry.
I took my laundry to be done by someone else because I have no time these days. Its the first time I've done that and the cost isn't so bad at all...perhaps $5 more than if I had done it on my own and believe me, that's worth it. But there is something unnerving about letting someone else wash, dry and fold all your undergarments.
Today is a very lazy day...the rain is delightful. Woke to thunder, just a few claps of it, but it was a nice waking up. Breakfast at home...omlettes...mmmm. Going to buy the adapter for the DVD and then watching Fight Club, which, by the way, was once recommended by Scott at Spoonfed, who was right when he said I would like it.
11:57 AM | link | up| archives |
11.3.2000
waiting
for two things:
1. to go off to a wonderful dinner at Rialto
2. for niki to give me a report on Charlies Angels!
6:59 PM | link | up| archives |
11.2.2000
PISSED
two bad things tonight.
1. The city of Cambridge can go @(#*$#(*&$ themselves. Damn stupid flippin tow-truck took my car away because I forgot to move it for street cleaning. I remembered to move it for the Wed street cleaning but then forgot to move it to the other side of the street for the Thursday street cleaning. $100 bucks down the drain...$50 for the tow, $50 for the ticket. GRUMBLE GRUMBLE.
2. Snakebites is closing...the cubers (see my me/superstars section) watering hole is closing down...the Cottonwood Cafe as well. Lots of memories there. NOT a happy evening for me. Where in the hell can you get a pitcher of margaritas if not there?
Thank god for zombie killing saviors.
9:34 PM | link | up| archives |
random thoughts
~it sucks being in a higher tax bracket and seeing how much money they take out of my check...nearly 1/3 of my pay
~i'm very sneezy these days.
~my bond girl name is Fawn Alloverme
~i'm looking forward to zombie killing tonight and Rialto tomorrow night. Great way to combine crass and class.
~it's getting dark so much earlier...and colder. It's amazing to me that it's getting dark at 4:30.
~Northwest has cheap christmas flights to Boise, ID ($380) in case you care.
~Charlie's Angels comes out this weekend...what can I say? I'm a hardcore Drew fan. Besides, it's a cool flash site.
~If you are into delirious puking pain, go here.
~strangely reminiscent of some of what Open Sesame used to do.
~and I had a massive huge chortle when I heard on the news that George W. Bush believes that he has the state of Washington in the palm of his hand. What an idiot. And really...you have to be INSANE to vote for a man who uses subliminal messaging in his campaign. The man isn't even in the White House yet and he's already employing the subtleties of mind control? How completely terrifying is that? And the man says he was "convinced" that the RATS over the ad wasn't to send a subliminal message? What a complete and utter blockhead. Scary scary shit.
5:12 PM | link | up| archives |
11.1.2000
slightly annoyed
so someone has been calling and hanging up on me when they get my voice. Wrong numbers? Doubtful. I have a feeling I know who it is and really...isn't there something better to do in your life than call and see if I'm home and then hang up? How does it change your life to know that I am here? If you don't have the balls to talk to me, why call?
I am suddenly propelled back into high school and early college...when I didn't know how to separate my self-worth from my emotions. I used to do that...call after the end...just to see if they are there, to fuel my wondering fire. It never got me anywhere. It left me feeling worse than before. Sure...the adrenaline rush was there...the oh my! he picked up the phone and the subsequent oh god! what could I say? I used to hang on to relationships...hell, I still do in a lot of ways. I wonder what happened to that guy, Kalun, that worked at MCA records when I was working at Virgin when I was back in college...that torrid couple week affair knocked me flat on my ass. I wonder what happened to him and I know he's in New York. Ned, who is married now...is he happy? David A, who was a sexual friend for nearly two years and last I knew he was marrying a cop...he bought her a gun for Christmas when I last talked to him seven years ago. I wonder. I wonder about those people who I cared about during the last few years and who couldn't take me into the fold of their lives for whatever reason. But I can't really hang on...it makes no sense. The past is a good thing...it teaches us about the future. It teaches us about ourselves. Grasp onto those learnings instead.
Hanging on doesn't do you any good--just like it doesn't do me any good to wonder why I wasn't good enough for those people that left me hurting. It's NOT about being good enough. It's about being right. I wasn't right for Kalun. I wasn't right for Ned. I wasn't right for Dave. And in the retrospect, I can really see that they were not right for me.
I have new things in my life that are right for me. THAT is worth holding onto...the now...the future. Look to the past to learn how to make your future better...the past doesn't do much good otherwise...it just makes you bitter and miserable.
So I'm stopping my lecture here, and now. I've ranted. You have succeeded in thoroughly annoying me. Congratulations. Is that what you were hoping for?
6:11 PM | link | up| archives |
