Monday September 5th

Monday September 5th, 2005, Labor Day

April Showers has made it to level 32.

I just finished reading Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and before that Feet of Clay and before that Maskerade .

Bret Easton Ellis has a new book out that I should got take a look at. It's called Lunar Park.

Zuihitsu is mostly one-line paragraphs, written in a random order. The phrase "random order" is, of course, an oxymoron.

My girlfriend and I call these things "Octopus facts" when they are offered as non-sequitters.

I am in the middle, thanks to Netflix, of watching "Firefly," "Millennium," and the second season of "Dead Like Me."

Issue 5, "The Forest of Dread," the 5th "expansion" of City of Heroes, came out last Wednesday. Much rejoicing.

David Markson has written a few novels in the style of Zuihitsu. Reader's Block, This is Not a Novel, and more famously, Wittgenstein's Mistress.

Had myself a chai latté and a Top Pot donut from Starbucks a few days in a row.

I'll probably place random pictures up in this after I'm done jotting things down.

My girlfriend has gone to Alabama for a few days to see her folks. While she's away, I've been, shall we say, keeping to myself. That's not a euphemism.

I find I like moody soundtracks. I bought the soundtrack to Constantine, and "Alias," and will look for the one for "Millennium," if it exists.

Stewart Copeland, drummer for the Police, does soundtracks—he did Spyro the Dragon, and "Dead Like Me." I rather like it.

Dakota Jones picked up several new badges in the latest CoH release, including one of the three fire-fighter badges.

Joke: "My girlfriend says I am immature. She says I am so immature, I should see a child psychiatrist. I told her, don't be stupid; children should be outside playing, not practicing psychiatry!"

Went to New York a weekend ago. For a day. Manhattan. A few friends. New York is not as bad as I thought it would be, and not as amazing. Guess you have to live there. Or stay longer than a day.

Can't wait for Season 4 of "24" to hit the stores. Amazon says: no release date yet.

I sorta wanna see The Transporter 2. The first one had some of the most amazing martial arts sequences I have ever see outside of a Jackie Chan film.

Cleaned the house, top to bottom, and in that order, yesterday.

Dog sitting for friends who went to Burning Man.

Got my City of Villains pre-order "kit" in the mail a week ago. Hopefully I'll be on the beta test sometime this month, and able to pre-play before official release October 31st.

I am mediaphobic. Almost all forms.

I reread The Big U by Neal Stephenson (he of Snowcrash fame) recently. It's not as I remember it. Then again, that was 11 years ago.

Been writing songs for the guitar. I don't how to play the guitar.

Someone hit my parked car, a hit-and-run job. The dent was small, but just enough to make it so the driver's side door won't open.

When I say mediaphobic, I mean so-called "live" media, like TV, and radio. Also, almost all forms of journalism, anything "newsy."

On Saturday I spent 9 hours on a CoH Task Force. In the Shadow Shard. With Dakota Jones.

Friend from out of town visiting later today.

Woke up at 5 this morning.

I think things that are "amazing" and "awesome" and "beautiful" and "wonderful" are possessed of a kind of fascism.

We are too-eager slaves to media. We will listen to songs we loathe, just because they are on the radio. Are we waiting for a song we like? Shades of the Gambler's Dilemma, if you ask me.

Dinner last night: Aspiration (a broccoli-asparagus hybrid) yellow potatoes, red pearl onions, sourdough bread, and a steak. Cooked it myself.

Darnit. You have to risk media every once in a while, if you want to "discover" new songs, new TV shows.

I'm thinking I would like to get April to level 50 before CoV launches.

Downloading some song called "Bye Bye Boyfriend" by Fefe Dobson.

The Task Force on Saturday took so long, I pulled up my second CoH account on my other computer, created a character, and got him to level 4. This was all done during those points we had to wait for one person or another.

I really love the fall. I love the way the sky feels at dusk. I like the color of pumpkins against dead grass. I am looking forward to corn mazes.

Played Disc Golf yesterday; shot a 32 on nine holes. Not bad for not having played in 3 years.

Started Kickball last week. Wednesday. We lost to some kinda uber-team.

I have been making a point in this Zuihitsu of not purposefully inserting things just to achieve a random order. This reads as it would if I had used pen and paper.

Went to the Open Mic at The Comedy Underground last Monday. Friends where there to support me. Had a posh dinner with the GF right before, and that was nice.

Joke: "Joined a kickball team, and that's stupid, 'cause no one likes me. I caught the ball, right? And this girl behind me keeps yelling, 'Second base! Second base!" So turned around and grabbed her boobs. She gets mad, slaps me, now I'm off the team."

There's a rumor my next (work) team meeting will be in Las Vegas. Egad.

There's new art in my living room, if anyone ever comes over to see it. Keven Furiya.

I have a radio station as the last "song" on my iTunes playlist (I only use my PC to listen to recently found music, then switch it all to my mac). That way, when it plays through everything new, it just starts a radio station.

Had the first fire of the season in the fireplace last night.

A random Fefe Dobson lyric:"You never put the effort in to the things that really counted/ A word here, and a kiss there/ Could change the way it's turning out…"

I want to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose based on nothing more than the billboard I saw for it in New York. I'm mediaphobic because I know how easily it affects me.

Good god I drink a lot of water, if the bottles littering my house yesterday are any indication.

My second account CoH characters are: Toofpick, Ibuprofen, Nim Gamblejack, and Aegincourt.

Fefe Dobson, it seems, is a hybrid of Avril Lavigne and Lisa Loeb, with a touch of Pink.

Purchased a personal DVD player. Polaroid. I'm not sure how I lived without that thing before now. I use it in the gym.

Still working my way through "Alias" Season 2.

I couldn't remember Lisa Loeb's last name, so into I Google I typed: "lisa glasses guitar dweezil" and there it was. The power of memes.

Joke: "My therapist says I have an attitude problem. What a jerk!"

Got my car back from the Collision Clinic on Friday. There's a class act. In addition to the repairs, they washed and vacuumed it, and left me a red carnation in the passenger seat.

We've had a few new faces at the weekly coffee thing at Revolutions.

I had a dream last night wherein I managed to tame a poltergeist—still woke up and felt uneasy though.

7:30 am, time to wander towards Starbucks for a chai and a Top Pot. More later? Who knows. Don't hold your breath because nothing's more important than breathing.