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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
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7:39 pm - Bicycle Commute
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Anyone who is likely to read this (well, probably manyones, anyhows) also probably knows that I'm working a different job, commuting from the city to yet another (at least a closer) suburb. Today I rode my free bike, child seat and all, to work for the first time. It was kinda fun, if exhausting as hell. I rode down the cliff Swinburne Street to the Eliza Furnace trail, which I took into the city, where I caught a trolley to Mount Lebanon. From downtown Mt. Lebo it was a pretty easy two-to-three mile dash down the hill to the Galleria, the awesomely not-a-front or tax shelter upscale mall whose movie theater currently employs me. The return trip was more fun, and by fun, I mean OH GOD UPHILL WHY?! Seriously, I need to get a lighter bike, or at least to take the child seat off. It's convenient for carting shit around on the bike, but LAME for adding additional weight and throwing off the balance.
Given my lack of exercise, I'm surprised today didn't tire me out more. Even though I did get off to walk my means of conveyance up the large crazy-ass hills, (not to be confused with large crazy ass-hills) I didn't need to stop to catch my breath when I was pedaling on the milder fairly straightaways (as much as such things can exist in Pittsburgh).
Of course, tomorrow my legs will probably be tighter than a squirrel's rectum at a bestiality convention, and I have to drive to work in order to get back to Oakland in a relatively prompt fashion after work. So I might lose all desire to keep combining exercise with transportation.
current mood:  tired
current music: Air Conditioning is Amazing
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
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2:04 am - Banana Boy
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This is what we do during band practice.
current mood:  giggly
current music: Charles Williams - Devil's Gallop
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, March 13th, 2008
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3:31 am - doing laundry
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Just now, in the pocket of a pair of khakis I have not worn in months, I found an index card that says only, "ego." It appears to be my handwriting.
I have no idea why I would have written the word "ego" on an index card and then stuffed it into my pants.
current mood:  confused
current music: washing machine
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Thursday, February 14th, 2008
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7:43 pm - Happy V-day?
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Apparently there is a radioactive waste site in Canonsburg. Who knew?
Yesterday my car broke down on the way to work, right before the exit to Southpointe. My radio died, then just about everything else did, too. Fortunately, I had enough momentum to make it up the hill of the off-ramp, enough of the way off the road.
Thanks to one of my co-workers, I managed to find a garage, who also towed my car. I had a couple hours to kill until they could find out the problem. Which meant it made natural sense to walk two miles across Canonsburg to the closest National City bank. On the way there, I noticed a large, fenced-off area, across the creek south of West Pike Street. I saw a rusted tower, which looked like a similar structure I'd seen near the Allegheny County Airport (not to be confused with Pittsburgh International), so I figured that Canonsburg had a small municipal airport.
Well, I asked my boss about it today, because he went to Canon-Mac, and found out about the waste dump. There's interesting stuff everywhere you look. Even in Canonsburg.
Funny, shouldn't I feel bitter and single right now?
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| Sunday, January 27th, 2008
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9:42 pm - State of the Union Address
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My favorite annual event in binge drinking politics arrives tomorrow night:
The State of the Union Address Drinking Game!
I still need to sort out a proper ruleset (which will probably continue to be a work in progress), but if anyone is interested in coming over for the event tomorrow night, leave a message or call me in real life.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
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3:27 am - news of the banal
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Today I celebrated my acquisition of Metroid Prime 3 with a champagne toast and some delicious barbeque-flavored potato chips. Only the highest of class for me.
Work was really easy, nice and steady, with almost everyone tipping me exactly four dollars. I was a bit worried at first, because I was so out of it at the beginning.
Yesterday a cop pulled me over for rolling through a stop sign, but he let me off with only a warning.
I called my old friend Will tonight, right before I got too deep into Metroid, and he seems to be doing well. He wrote a one-act play for a competition in Owensboro, about two people who take a road trip together, who represent the democrat and republican political parties. Along the way they kill a hitchhiker because he offers a third opinion. So awesomely unsubtle.
Also, tomorrow (Wednesday) is my mom's birthday.
I don't feel like spicing things up, but I want to start writing more. In the words of Boy George, "so there."
current mood: geeky
current music: The New Pornographers - Challengers
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
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5:29 pm - Video Games and Philosophy
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Lately I've become a fan of two mainstream games journalists through their online discussion of Manhunt 2. I just finished reading an interview between MTV News' Stephen Totilo and Jonathon Blow, designer of the award-winning independent game Braid. I love Mr. Blow's philosophy about games and their potential. More people need to read this interview.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
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10:38 am - short vacations
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I am here. There's a beautiful nature reserve and beach on the next island east, and the place is pretty nice and cheap as vacation islands go. Google maps is a pretty great way to figure out where to take a trip.
The only downside thus far is that the coffee at this internet cafe isn't all that great. However, I managed to pick the only place north of the Carolinas on the eastern seabord that isn't getting torrential downpours.
current mood:  good
current music: Nico - These Days
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
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11:26 pm - I can be pretentious, sometimes
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| Friday, May 18th, 2007
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12:45 am - This is not a good year for authors I like.
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| Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
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1:59 am - newsflash: 2006
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This just in for those of you who, like me, tend to lag behind the times:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is so superlatively fan-fucking-brilliant that someone really needs to invent a new adjective to describe its majesty. I just played it all day, almost nonstop, from when I awoke until just before now. I still want more, but my brain is fried.
When parts of the game start looking like I just took salvia, but in a good flashback-y kind of way, it's time to stop.
current mood:  braaaaains
current music: Twilight Princess
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, April 27th, 2007
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7:59 pm - oh what a beautiful world
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Maybe I'm just oblivious, but I don't recall reading or hearing anyone talking about how things will be different. No one seems inclined to live differently. Maybe, in the wake of Virginia Tech, we've finally come to admit that we don't want to change. We want to keep living like we were, because god damn it was good enough. So we can ignore that more people than that die every day on the other side of the world in equally heinous, premeditated acts of mass murder. We feel less in control. Their deaths aren't news anymore. We can't relate to a half a million. Sixty people, maybe a hundred is about the limit before it gets too surreal to handle.
Sure, plenty of recriminations get laid at the feet of folks' pet political causes, like that disgusting douchebag Jack Thompson going on Fox News not even six hours after the murders to throw the first stone at video games. That man is seriously one of the biggest sleazebags in America. He's got to be the worst attention-whoring, ambulance-chasing attorney I've heard about.
Speaking of surreal, whatever happened to the first amendment? The kid is eighteen years old. He's a legal adult, responding to a class assignment. Not a threat. If my teachers acted like the one in that news story, a few things I've written would've gotten me arrested. Should the people writing novels about covert agents and sleeper cells and would-be terrorists, fiction, mind you, be arrested for helping to plan attacks? Should Tom Clancy, as red a Republican as ever there was, be arrested for having a lone crazy airplane pilot hijack a jumbo jet to fly into the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress?
To quote David Brin's wonderful axiomatic acronym: CITOKATE. Criticism Is the Only Known Antidote to Error. That is why the first amendment is so important. Why a really robust political system involving more than two parties is important. And it's exactly what is why the community of that high school is doing what is right, to criticize that teacher and the leaders, and to bring the kid back to where he belongs.
P.S. Greg Costikyan rules.
current mood:  blah
current music: Carlos Chavez - Sinfonia India (Symphony #2)
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| Thursday, April 12th, 2007
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12:50 am - so it goes
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| Friday, March 2nd, 2007
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9:34 am - mildly amusing only to me
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It seems Dave Karraker of Sony's ominously titled Corporate Communications has been watching too much 24. Regarding his (extremely short-lived) decision to blackball the gaming blog Kotaku, "I take absolutely no joy in sending you this note, but given the situation you have put me into, I have no choice."
The New Yorker has an interesting article on 24 and the image it presents of torture, to Americans and the rest of the world.
current mood:  sick
current music: Sirens outside
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
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10:05 pm - Everything Is Music!
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Time for some shameless self-promotion:
Tomorrow Night, Wednesday, February 28th at 8 pm, come see:
For Greater Consciousness opening up for the brilliant
Endless Mike and the Beagle Club from Johnstown, and the somewhat famed
Little Brazil
Only $6. While supplies last.
Kalon is playing on Advanced Calculus, Monday, March 5, from 9 to 10 PM on WRCT 88.3 FM Pittsburgh. Listen!
There is also a Kalon/FGC/many others show out in Harmony this Saturday, but I don't expect anyone to make the long drive. It will be at the Harmony Museum at around 5:30 PM. If anyone is interested, drop me a line.
In other news, it's about goddammed time.
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| Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
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2:19 am - the boy detective fails
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Just now, I finished Joe Meno's most recent novel, which I find as puzzling as its title implies and somehow feels like the right thing to have read today.
Maybe one of his orthogonal points is that we can never know enough. Or that might just be me, right now, wanting to know more about everything.
For the first time in awhile, I could go for a cigarette. Not so much that I find the corner store enticing me, but my nervous energy is triggering some lingering associations. I had a weird day and don't know what to make of it. Other than a great story that remains to be told. Later on. After I've slept.
current mood: confused
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, January 14th, 2007
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6:39 pm - I want to hide my head in the sand
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| Saturday, December 9th, 2006
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2:33 am - Circles
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Whether or not it's a natural cycle or one whose fault is entirely my own, I seem to live in a series of recurring patterns, the latest of which is coming to a head. In a good way, I assure you.
See, I have a tendency to get hung up on things waaaaay too much. Then I hit a turning point of sorts and loosen up just enough to get a few good things going for me, at which point I freak out, jeopardising those things I've gained by being relaxed. After a good long stretch of holding on too damn tightly to those good things, I just let them slip away. A period of worthless brooding and introspection follows, along with a lot of self-recrimination and flagellation. Metaphorically speaking.
At least for now I think I'm getting to the Taoist phase, which is generally a more productive state for me. Hopefully I'll chillax and stop being so uptight for awhiles.
Except, of course, for the fact that I have to give grievous injury to myself for using the word "chillax" unironically. Speaking of being uptight and risking things, this is a prime example of what an enemy the status quo is. Comfort and security are the greatest adversaries of reform.
current mood: always tired
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
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2:16 am - on optimism
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Perhaps there is hope, after all.
current mood: ambivalent
current music: The Lesser Birds of Paradise - I Envy the Photons
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
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2:21 am - this makes no sense but I want to commit thoughts to electronic paper
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A disgusting waste of your tax dollars. Who here wants to fund a blatantly religious message with little basis on what actually works?
The Bush administration. But I suppose it's too much to ask rationality of a man who launched a "crusade" to spread democracy in the Middle East.
Hallowe'en is the busiest two hours of pizza in the year. Between 4 and 6 PM, everyone and their mothers, too, wants pizza. No one wants to cook. NO ONE.
One of my managers wanted to put up a sign, "Abandon every hope, you who enter here," over the front door before dinner. It woulda been the best decoration evar. Evar.
So I made lotsa money then blew a big chunk of it on oh-so-tasty japanese cuisine. It was a case of the right place at the right time, because the sushi at Little Tokyo was magnificent, and I observed some degree of proper etiquette (mostly not mixing wasabi with soy sauce). Whatever the cause, the sushi chef gave me a spicy tuna hand roll for free.
And it was good.
current mood: tired
current music: deerhoof
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