MUSICAL MUSE (REDUNDANT?)

In anticipation of an acoustic show I will probably have sometime within the next month at the Bazaar Cafe (on California b/w 21st and 22nd), I've completed writing a song I call "Parallel Universe Girl." I think it's pretty good! There's another one I'm just calling "The Dress Song" that doesn't have any verses, but at least the chorus is there.

Pretty much all of the songs everybody seems to like ("Pass the Matches," "Relativity," etc) have been written in short bursts of creativity similar to this one. That bodes well, I hope!

WHY, BRAIN TISSUE

I think the thing I hate the most about headaches (which I get pretty infrequently) is that they happen for no reason. Obviously I'm not counting hangovers, or the headaches I can get from inhaling newspaper-smell too deeply, or motion sickness, or etc etc. I mean the ones that come out of nowhere, like the one I've got right now. Why is this occurring.

Time to stomp on it with ibuprofen.

PHANTOM DELICIOUSNESS

I don't know if this counts as "hallucinating a smell." Basically it feels like I'm smelling something that I know isn't actually there; the sensation seems to originate from a point in the exact center of my skull. Do you guys know what I'm talking about?

The smell I "think" I'm smelling is garlic mashed potatoes.

In other news, they put another toilet paper dispenser in my favorite stall in the bathroom here at work. I didn't think to check the other stalls, but I'm assuming the change was made unilaterally. This means each stall now has the capability to dispense four (4) rolls at once. That's a damn lot of toilet paper.

WHAT DO YOU DO

I went down to LA this past weekend to send my buddy Dennis off in style (he's moving to Oregon). During a brief stop at Best Buy in Hollywood, I thought I saw the girl who plays Calley (sp?) in Battlestar Galactica. I didn't say anything, though, because she looked kind of tired/stressed out. I am pretty sure this was the correct thing to do.

DEPRESSED WOODCHUCKS?

On the drive to work today on southbound Skyline between Westridge and Westmoor Aves: three (3) dead animals. I think they were all either raccoons or woodchucks. Big guys. That's a damn lot of roadkill for a one-block distance. What the hell was going on.

RAINBLOG

In what's probably not a surprising turn of events, Nature thwarted my morning jog roughly twenty steps outside my front door by unleashing a torrent of rain that turned out to dissipate by the time I left for work. Since I was already up, though, I did what I think of as my Tues/Thurs exercise, which is a bunch of situps and pushups. What do I do tomorrow, is the new and exciting question!

CONSIDER ... THINGS

I accidentally sort of dissed David Foster Wallace tonight. In a very small-time, easily-resolved way, but still. Still. Brief story follows.

My excellent friend Genevieve alerted me to a reading he was giving tonight at a church all tucked away in the upper Haight, and I went with her and her boyfren Anthony. It was spectacular. DFW is pretty much one of my favorite authors.

I got a copy of his new book, and after he signed it with pleasant small talk, I got a picture taken with him.* Figuring I'd taken up enough of the dude's time (and not wanting to hold up the line), I quickly ducked out of the way, totally missing when he held out his hand for me to shake. Just as quickly, Genevieve and Anthony and also Mr. F. Wallace's wife** pointed out what had happened. ARGH! MORTIFICATION! Also, humor. Relief. We shook like respectable men, and the three of us who were not married to him made our exit. There was a very long line.

Also, completely unrelatedly, the first Dogblog update of the year went up like five minutes ago.

* The picture is here, though it is somewhat blurry. My camera is old.

** Whose name I already forget, which further proves what a huge chump sucka I am, but she was very nice.

THE ORANGE STAR ARMY'S GOD IS A GOD OF VENGEANCE

Breaking in to inform you all that I beat a mission in Advance Wars: Dual Strike that was causing me some problems. The strategy involved moving swiftly to capture a port, from which unstoppable battleships were produced, and subsequently proceeding to lay waste to the land. It feels like more of a victory than it was because the previous three times, I got flat-out pounded.

My Nintendo DS is the very best thing ever for waiting in lines, particularly at the DMV.

NEVERMIND AGAIN

I'm just going to go ahead and say that I am not hardcore enough to wake up and go running when it's raining outside. I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to happen every time I mention my Golden Gate Bridge running idea.

As predicted, my muscles are pretty sore today. What's that saying? "Pain is just weakness leaving the body." Yeah! That's right! Do it up! Get it on! GO MARINES! SEMPER FI!!!!!!

What

THIS TOOK EFFORT TO TYPE

Having restarted my alternating morning workout/running routine,* I am prepared to admit that I may have overdone it with the pushups. I could barely use my arms all day. I'm distinctly not looking forward to how sore I'm going to be, either; I've been getting a sneak preview and it's no good, no good at all.

I used to be pretty all-right at this. I'll figure it out again, I'm sure.

* Tomorrow (Wed) is Golden Gate Bridge running, assuming they open it up, which I feel like they do at dawn. Will the sun be up at 7am? ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT.

A COUPLE OF THINGS

1. The revised rules for ULTIMATE TEAM CARDBOARD FORTRESS BATTLE are finally done and posted. My best guess is that the weather will probably permit planning for a second game sometime around March. See, I need to give at least two weeks' lead time in order for people to gather boxes, and weather (really rain) is a big factor, as cardboard + rain are two taste sensations that should never be combined. So I need to wait until I can be reasonably sure I can pick a date that won't get rained out. Right now is not that time.

2. I've been doing this thing where I eat hot dogs with:

- Avocado
- Salsa

on a lightly toasted bun, with tater tots on the side. This is a pretty great thing to do with hot dogs, you guys.

BEST BLANKET SO FAR

I purchased for myself an electric blanket yesterday. The feeling of getting into a bed that is already warm is completely excellent. Do you remember those days in high school when you'd wake up and then find out there was no school for whatever reason, and climb back into a bed still warm from your having slept in it? It's like that, but I get to have it every night.

I'm aware that the same thing also happens when you're sleeping with someone else. OH WELL

A BLOO BLOO BLOOOOOO

The point is that I really enjoy my electric blanket.

BUT IT'S STILL HERE

Mother Nature was apparently working some rough chuckles while I was away on the East Coast; there are blown-down tree branches all the hell over the place, and cable was just restored here a few hours ago after being out all weekend.

For some reason I always feel like there should be Tremendous Changes wrought while I'm gone, such that I'll return to a completely different thing somehow, but San Francisco and all my people are still more or less the same. My house, oddly enough, is the most changed -- I have a new housemate and some furniture is different. Also the thermostat is broken. So there's that.

Also, my mom reads my blog now.