MENTAL EXERCISE

Do this:

Picture a square. Now draw a line connecting the top left corner to the bottom right corner, dividing it into two triangular halves. Erase the "top" triangle, i.e. the one whose 90-degree vertex is in the top right.

What you have made is a graph tracking my level of interest over time in a team meeting wherein I discover a giant motherfucking wasp hanging out on one of the windows inside the room. Total time tracked on the bottom axis: Four seconds.
jon let this fly on 03 Feb 2005


TOTALLY NEW BUT ALSO THE SAME

I've changed the Dogblog into an actual blog now with the use of Blogger. Let's see if I can use the word "blog" again in this post. BLOG.

What's notable about this is that there's RSS happening. I hope that link works OK, for those of you who are into that sort of thing.

I suppose this means I'll want to change this to a Blogger thing too at some point. But not right now; I'm kind of tired. Anyway, enjoy the new/old Dogblog. From here on out, I'll probably be doing individual posts per dog, now that I don't have an archive of 143 dogs to put up.
jon let this fly on 31 Jan 2005


ENTREPRENEURIAL ZEST

I have an idea for a product and/or service that I call StabMail. It is up to you, the reader, to figure out exactly what it is, but I can guarantee you at least one thing: It is extremely useful. Or it will be.

It will be.
jon let this fly on 31 Jan 2005


THE WAY TO DEAL WITH DROPPED CELLPHONE CALLS

You've been in that situation where you're talking to someone, and then for whatever reason the cellphone network just drops the call?* And then that damn thing happens where you spend some time wondering if you should call back, or maybe wait for them to call back, but you don't want to pre-empt them because if you call at the same time they call then one or both of you will get voicemail or even a busy signal?

Okay. The way to deal with this -- as figured out by my friend Paul in New York -- is that the person who originally called has to be the one to make the reconnecting call. If we can spread this everywhere, then we have solved this minor dilemma forever and can cross it off the list.

This entry wasn't inspired by a particular incident or anything; I just figured it was time we started spreading the word.

* Back when I was on Sprint, there was a curious 7-foot-wide dead zone where calls would always get dropped right where the Great Highway bent on its way to meet up with Skyline Blvd in the southwest corner of the city. Now that I'm on Verizon, there's a similarly-sized dead zone right at the top of 17th St and Clayton.
jon let this fly on 28 Jan 2005


TOMORROW

Tomorrow, January 27th, is LJ Rabbit Hole Day. Since I have what amounts to an LJ RSS feed, I thought it was only appropriate.

PREPARE
jon let this fly on 26 Jan 2005


CUE COOLIO SONG

First off: Welcome, MetaFilter readers! Just so I will always have it, I'm going to put the MeFi post right here in probably the biggest act of internet vanity I have ever committed.

now then

Who wants to take a fantastic voyage with me in one of the biggest cars I've ever driven? Offer good for one night only. What happened is I took my (small) car in for service, and the guys need to hang onto it overnight, so they set me up with a rental. The thing is, the smallest car Enterprise had was this Ford Explorer. It is enormous. I'm glad I live in the Presidio; otherwise, it would be a hideous parking-despair generator.

Does anybody need anything hauled?

I have nothing else of import to tell you at the moment. Except that if you like the Dogblog, maybe check out the postcards too. People seem to enjoy those. That's all the self-promotion I'm good for at the moment.
jon let this fly on 24 Jan 2005


NEW YEAR, MORE DOGS

Dogblog update today for you. There are like sixteen new ones. The Dogblog is edging to the point of unmanageability in its present form (HTML that I hand-code myself), and I think it might be time for me to move to an actual blogging technology, but I have no idea what the best one would be. Does anyone know? I'm looking for something that would be, ideally:

- Cheap
- Easy
- Quick

Somewhere out there, there's got to be something that does all three, business-world cliches aside. Also, if that last sentence got the "American Tail" song stuck in your head, I apologize.
jon let this fly on 22 Jan 2005


DONE DEAL

I did it; I ordered all of the Robotech books I'm missing* from Amazon. It was ridiculously cheap even if you take into account the fact that shipping was about 3x more than the total book cost.

Adulthood is all about grabbing the stuff you wanted to hang onto in childhood.

Now it's a race to see which ones get here first. Checking the mail will be exciting starting next week!

* Almost all; there are five books in a sort of parallel series that I'm going to get once the madness overtakes me again. Which will probably be in a couple weeks, let's face it.
jon let this fly on 20 Jan 2005


OH HELL YES/NO

All right, people

I am flashing back to my elementary school days, when the Liverpool* library was the greatest place ever known to man. I had just discovered that some dude named Jack McKinney had done novel versions of the cartoon I had loved as a kindergartener back in California -- freakin' Robotech. The library had all of them. They were actually pretty good, too, was the shocking thing.

I now see that they're all available on Amazon used, in some cases for the ridiculous price of $.01. A penny. I could own them all.

I think I'm going to do it. Why not? Is there a hidden down side to this. Someone tell me. Hot damn, I love the internet.

* This was the name of the suburb of Syracuse, NY I grew up in -- not the place in England.
jon let this fly on 19 Jan 2005


SLEEPMUSE 1.0

My dreaming brain can be forgiven its carsickness excesses of the night before, because last night it gave me a dream that's been the inspiration for the single weirdest screenplay idea I might have ever had. And since some of you presumably know me, that's saying something.
jon let this fly on 18 Jan 2005


NEURAL SELF-SABOTAGE 101

I woke up at about 4:30 this morning with a headache. Not because I'd been drinking the night before, or had a cold, or hit my head, or any one of a thousand reasonable causes.

I am pretty sure the reason I had a headache was because I was reading something in a moving vehicle in my dream, and it had made me carsick. In my dream.

My mind is sabotaging my brain tissue for some reason. What in the jim-jam is that all about.
jon let this fly on 17 Jan 2005


NAAAAA, NA-NA-NA NAA NAA NAA

The soundtrack to Katamari Damacy has injected 640 billion cc's of cosmic-scale joy into my life (big ups to Stuart in Australia). I am uncertain how much of it is because I played the game while I was in Chicago and it was tremendous, or because the music really is fucking fantastic. The only things that I know are the following:

(a) I can't get the theme bit out of my head, and I don't give a shit
(b) I am considering buying a used PS2 just so I can play Katamari Damacy

In short, the mechanism in my soul responsible for the apprehension of bliss is functioning just fine. Not that I was worried or anything.
jon let this fly on 14 Jan 2005


A NIGHT OFF

Actually, nevermind about the Edinburgh Castle thing; I don't think that's actually happening, though it's possible Peter will still be playing. Go see him!

Mentioning fish & chips has definitely put the craving in me, though, and if I end up staying at work late, I know exactly where I'm headed for dinner.

edit: Wait, I think it is happening now. Oh hell, what do I know?
jon let this fly on 13 Jan 2005


SLIGHTLY MORE WARNING THIS TIME

What is going on with all these musical engagements falling out of the sky onto me.

Translation: There is a very good chance that Peter and I (in some combination) will be at the Edinburgh Castle on Thursday night, probably sometime between 9:30 and 10:30. Since we haven't rehearsed jack shit, it'll probably take the form of:

- Peter plays some songs
- I play some songs
- We go eat fish & chips

To be honest, the fish & chips might have to come first.

This isn't totally finalized yet, but if it doesn't happen, I'll be surprised. That means I have tonight and only tonight to do laundry. I am almost out of viable underwear, and I don't have it in me to battle the boxer-briefs this week. "Battle" is a strong word, actually, but I'm pretty sure underwear doesn't have feelings.
jon let this fly on 12 Jan 2005


MUSIC AGAIN

In what has to be the shortest warning ever given for a gig, I will be at Thee Parkside* tonight (Tuesday) for about half an hour sometime between 9 and 10, just me and my guitar. I think every song I'm going to play has something to do with girls. Are there other subjects for songs?** It's too bad I'm not a rapper; I could spend an entire set on

I am so tough -- LOOK at how tough I am, I am going to tell you right now, check it

or

I am the world's greatest party person and also the world's greatest sex-haver, time to get up ons

or

I am the only one out there KEEPING IT REAL on the microphone, you other MCs take note of how REAL I am

At least there's some variation there. You feel me, doggs? AWW YAY-UH

* I am aware that this is a weird name for a bar; someone out there on the internet probably knows what the deal is. Could that someone inform us.
** 100% rhetorical -- nobody has to comment on how there are a billion other subjects for songs. I know.
jon let this fly on 11 Jan 2005


NO/HELP

Last night I was at a fairly crowded bar and noticed a couple of dudes standing in the little alcove right by the women's restroom. (womens' restroom?) One of them had a ponytail. I was pretty sure they had picked that spot just because they knew it was a place they could go to talk to girls. Anecdotal evidence from some female friends of mine confirmed this suspicion.*

I was of two minds, really:

Mind One: I gotta go over there and just say, "What the fuck are you guys doing? What are you doing? That is not on. It is weird and creepy. Just stop. You're making the rest of us look bad by association."

Mind Two: If I say that, though, aren't I actually giving them helpful advice (i.e. Don't do that) which they really don't deserve? I should just let them twist in the wind, uncomfortably, while everyone else laughs at them in their minds.

I did the latter. But it was a near thing, let me tell you.

* I should also mention that while I was at the bar earlier, I overheard Ponytail Dude say something to the female bartender like "Hey, you're looking good tonight!" (no response; she did not appear to know him) "I like your hair." Hopeless.
jon let this fly on 09 Jan 2005


SOMETHING I FOUND

The day before Xmas, I found myself in a large and surprisingly sparsely-populated mall with two of my female cousins. Since I really didn't have much of a purchasing mission, I wound up mostly tagging along, and at one point we ended up in a Delia's. (Delia*s?) Obviously, there wasn't anything in there for me (for those not in the loop/country, Delia's is a clothing store for girls).

Or so I thought.

Right next to the counter, there was a set of shallow bins mounted on a central spindle that contained trinkets. One of these bins was full -- full -- of tubes of lip balm in various fascinating flavors I'd never seen before in my life. The winner: Strawberry Pez.

Strawberry Pez-flavored lip balm, dammit

I had to have it. It's in my pocket right now. I'm goddamn addicted. The only problem I can see is that eventually I'll have to go into that store again to buy more, and Delia's is really just not even remotely a store for males. I'm not afraid it's going to turn me into a gay queer butt faggot or something, I just don't want to feel like a weirdo.

This is the price of addiction.
jon let this fly on 05 Jan 2005


CAN I SLEEP NOW

I have returned to the Bay Area and already I have a gig* at the Makeout Room tomorrow (Tuesday) at like 10pm. So if you're in the area, come on by.

My Chrismahanukwanzakah Tripstravaganza (TM) (C) was basically the best half-month I think I've ever spent. A worthy writeup will no doubt follow, but I've spent all day getting my shit together (including, among other things, putting a new battery in my car) and I am basically spent. Spent.

It is good to be back, though.

* When I say "I," I really mean "my housemate Peter and I;" he's the one with the guitar and I'm the one with the violin.
jon let this fly on 03 Jan 2005


I AM ALIVE

NEW YORK CITY

PLEASE BECOME WARMER OK

THANKS

My trip has basically been fantastic the whole way through. I don't have the time or space to tell you just how fantastic; that'll have to be later.

And it is not over yet
jon let this fly on 27 Dec 2004


THERE WERE FEW ALTERNATIVES

One thing about living in San Francisco is that if you didn't make any plans for dinner and you're fucking starving and you just want to find a place to park quickly, duck into, grab some food and go, you are basically screwed. This is mostly because parking just about anywhere in this city is an iffy proposition at best; likewise, so is the prospect of finding a parking spot that happens to be

a) Very easy to locate
b) Close to wherever this notional fast-food joint is.*

Add to that the fact that there aren't really that many fast food joints to go to if you're not in the mood for Mexican; I had that last night, and I am planning on having it again tomorrow night, so I was in no big hurry to have it tonight. I have my limits.

What I am saying here is that I have to confess that I went to the McDonald's in the lower Haight tonight. I ... I am sorry. They have a parking lot. And also I was at Amoeba anyway.

Also, my dinner** is sitting in a sort of congealed lump at the bottom of my stomach. I can feel it there, just sort of hanging out. I'm not going to be getting to bed anytime soon. This is my own fault. I have no one to blame but myself.

* I can find parking in any neighborhood in San Francisco with relative ease, but quickly finding the intersection of sets (a) and (b) is another matter entirely.
** Which, by the way, included those "chicken select strips" or whatever they are, which are surprisingly meaty for the amount of batter they feature. Surprisingly.
jon let this fly on 13 Dec 2004


VERY SOON NOW

Chaos is due to commence in a couple of days (Wednesday, to be precise) when I leave for the Chrismahanukwanzakah Tripstravaganza. I won't be setting foot on San Franciscan soil again until January 2nd, so tomorrow I am going to make the most of it and eat at Papalote one last time.

Apropos of nothing, I would like to ask the Gmail people why I have to manually hit "Refresh" on the inbox page now, whereas before it would usually refresh itself magically every couple of minutes or something.

edit: Cookie-baking contest at work results in a new question: Cookies for dinner? Y/N?
jon let this fly on 13 Dec 2004


SWEET SWEET LAZINESS

I have absolutely nothing planned for tonight and that is the way I like it. I'm not saying I'm against having something to do -- if someone informs me of something awesome happening tonight, I'm'a do it -- but having nothing to do is pretty sweet. My work week has left me pretty wiped.

Also I have plenty to do for the rest of the weekend; maybe I subconsciously realize that it would be better to spend tonight sleeping and storing energy. I think sleep is more valuable to me than money right now.
jon let this fly on 10 Dec 2004


MY NEW WALKING TECHNIQUE IS UNSTOPPABLE

I got these funky gel insoles for my shoes yesterday. I have to report a moment of confusion where I slipped the first one into my shoe gel-side-up, and experienced total frustration trying to get my foot in there; the damn thing kept sticking to my sock and bunching up at the toe. Motherfucker.

It then occurred to me to place it inside the shoe gel-side-down. The other side, of course, being a velvety soft surface that any fool would probably realize instantly to be the correct sock-facing side.

I did this mainly because there's a worn, raggedy spot on the heel of my right shoe that tends to eat at my socks and cause some irritation if I spend a lot of time walking, and given the amount I'll probably be doing in the coming weeks, I ain't need that. But also, these gel things are definitely making my walking experience more cushiony than it was before.

How about that.
jon let this fly on 08 Dec 2004


ALIVE!

Friday night was the kind of night you spend the rest of the weekend recovering from, more or less. I wasn't good for much on Saturday besides watching things on DVD and sleeping. A hearty thank-you goes out to everyone who showed up and made it exactly the right amount of fun, and also to my body for not completely eating itself.

A mail-call shout-out is reserved for Molly and Alex, who got packages to me containing all manner of goodness! There will likely be an update next week stemming from the contents of Alex's package, as it came from Australia and contains things that some of us need to sample.
jon let this fly on 06 Dec 2004


A QUARTER-CENTURY OF ME

For my 25th birthday, Mother Nature got some cash together and mailed me a package of microbes. As much as I appreciate the thought, I'm not really "into" the idea of being sick on my birthday, but I didn't have the heart to tell her.

I am still going to party.

GERMS CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO
jon let this fly on 03 Dec 2004


LET'S TRY THIS

What with my birthday coming up on Friday, not to mention that whole holiday season thing, I've decided to try putting together one of these. I hope I did it right; let me know if you can't see it.

It feels vaguely greedy of me, but I just want people to have some ideas for what I might want instead of, I don't know, a playing card smeared with peanut butter or something.

Nobody has to get these things from Amazon, btw -- if you're in the same city as me, feel free to go to Green Apple or Amoeba and get a used copy; do what moves you. I'm not your boss! Tiny is still your boss.

UPDATE: It seems that when people clicked on the link, it took them to their wish list. I've changed the link; let's see how that works.

FURTHER UPDATE: I am now starting to see the reason why so many people have these things; they're fantastic repositories for "Oh yeah, I want to get that someday." I have absolutely no expectation, for instance, that anyone's going to want to pony up for those DVD box sets, but it's good for me to remember that I have a goal to shoot for.
jon let this fly on 01 Dec 2004


IMPOSSIBLE THINGS ARE OCCURRING

First off, I still can't find my book (see the entry below). But I need to talk about something else today.

As some of you are probably aware, a friend of mine acquired a rabbit some time ago, and in a stroke of complete and utter genius, named her Bizzle.

STILL BIZZLE
(BIZZLE)

She also owns a three-legged cat named Gremlin.

BIZZLE and GREMLIN
(GREMLIN ... AND BIZZLE)

A little while ago, she reported to me that Bizzle had begun eating Gremlin's food when he wasn't looking.

As far as I'm aware, cats are carnivores, while bunnies are supposed to be herbivores.

WHAT IS GOING ON THEN

HUALGHLBRHRHRUHGL
jon let this fly on 30 Nov 2004


MISSING

I've only left my house about twice since this weekend started, so it's sort of surprising to me that it's taken me this long to notice, but I seem to have misplaced my copy of A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Did I lend it to someone? I think I need one of those personal library kits (linked from CW a million years ago).

If you know what I did with it, could you let me know? I just want to know if I actually did lend it to someone, or if I've lost it, or what.

Thanksgiving was good!
jon let this fly on 28 Nov 2004


INSANE IN THE ... YEAH, YOU KNOW

Left to its own devices, my brain invariably comes up with nothing but stupid shit to think about more often than not. Why can I not turn that off sometimes?

Things I Would Rather Not Have My Mind Occupied With At Any Given Moment, Usually During My Drive To/From Work:
  • Mistakes I may have made a long time ago.

  • Distracting memories of nakeouts (I'll leave it to you to figure out what concatenation of words that one comes from).

  • Mistakes I may have made fairly recently, even if they're not really even mistakes, but it seems like they might be. This can be especially bad because the longer I go without meaningful human contact (the sort that resets my interaction schema to more normal parameters), the longer my brain has to go over these notional errors in minute and exacting detail, turning what might've been a minor verbal slip-up into a social apocalypse.

  • ETC
These are things I can stop thinking about given enough effort, but that it takes effort at all sometimes seems weird to me. Isn't it strange how little control we have over our own minds sometimes?
jon let this fly on 22 Nov 2004


IT IZ HAPPENING ... AGAINN

Imagine, if you will, that tiny mischievous elves have taken a strip of plastic wrap maybe 1/8" wide (about 2mm) and somehow superglued it to the top of your upper lip. Also, it's invisible. There's no trace of it on your lip, at least nothing your eye can see. That's what I'm feeling right now. No idea why. The last time this happened, I was in Colorado.

I am not in Colorado.

Someone tell me what is going on.
jon let this fly on 21 Nov 2004


WOOF

I have broken away from having strange dreams long enough to bring you people a Dogblog update for the first time in, well, a while.

Not much else is new; those weird black spots I was talking about before were gone this morning.
jon let this fly on 17 Nov 2004


WHAT IS GOING ON

There are some weird black flecks on my lower lip, concentrated in one area. It's as though I kept a charcoal stick there like it was a cigar or maybe decided to kiss a person made of gunpowder and coal. What the hell is that. Maybe I should just go to bed.
jon let this fly on 16 Nov 2004


DUMBEST DREAM EVER

Or, "the dream that was almost a really insanely dirty, weird dream, and has affected the tenor of my entire day thus far."

I was tied up in a pen outside, awaiting execution-by-sex-of-some-kind at the hands of "werewolf wives," i.e. the wives of werewolves who, for some reason, were not werewolves themselves. I have no idea where this came from. All I know is that part of my brain apparently has an excellent algorithm for simulating what it would be like to make out with Christina Hendricks*. I don't really know whether to thank that part of my brain or report to the nearest neurosurgery ward.

The dream ended before the execution-by-mystery-sex occurred. Thanks for that too, brain. Thanks a lot.

* If you watched Firefly, she was "Saffron." Yeah, her.
jon let this fly on 15 Nov 2004


IN 2004, GIFT SHOPS YOU

I can't remember whose approach to gift shopping this is (even money says it's E or D or KS), but it's a good one: It's not so much about going out specifically for the season-specific purpose of shopping for people, but rather, every time you're out somewhere and see something that causes you to think "Oh, that'd be perfect for person X," you go ahead and buy it. This is supposed to be a year-round thing, and in theory it will result in a small pile of perfect gifts accumulating in your closet.

The idea is brilliant in its simplicity, but I'm not very good at remembering to follow through on it. I'm getting better, but there are still some bugs in the 2004 version -- I've got a list in my jottings notebook of items I've run across that would be perfect for many people, but I don't have an item for everybody. That's ... that's just the way it's going to happen, I guess.

So what I'm saying here is, if you end up receiving something from me this year, that's cool, but if you don't, it's not because I don't love you.

It's because we're enemies now.
jon let this fly on 12 Nov 2004


COOKIESODA

It exists.



Holiday Spice Pepsi tastes like what might happen if you had a mouthful of Pepsi and were also simultaneously eating a gingerbread man. The cookie-like aftertaste carries this impression across the strongest. The liquid itself is noticeably redder, too. It's kind of fascinating.
jon let this fly on 10 Nov 2004


CHRISMAHANUKWANZAKAH TOUR

Plans are underway for a massive trip-type undertaking involving my visiting cities of LA, Austin, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Philly around the Chrismahanukwanzakah* season, where I will no doubt be seeing many people.

People in the cities I wasn't able to fit in the schedule: Next time.

San Francisco Bay Area people: Party early next month. Details later.

ALSO

I finally made good on the notion I had a couple months ago to get some clothing for the top half of me. Three exceptional ladies accompanied me to various parts of the Castro and Union Square, and I acquired:
  • One (1) zip-up hoodie, black, with gray accents at the bottom and the ends of the sleeves.

  • One (1) black longsleeve shirt with, I don't know, a European collar of some sort? All I know is that it's about turtleneck height and it zips up, but I probably won't be zipping it up all the way a lot. Also, I'm not supposed to fold it down.

  • One (1) navy-blue longsleeve shirt with mysterious shallow, zippered pockets on the shoulders that are basically inexplicable. The shirt itself is pretty nice, though, I should tell you.

  • One (1) light red longsleeve t-shirt with thin blue stripes running from the shoulders down to the sleeves.

  • One (1) black track-jackety thing with a solid red stripe running down each sleeve/shoulder. Same deal with the collar and the not-folding.
The past two times I've gone shopping for new clothes now, I have succeeded pretty wildly, and I think it's because I know people who are rad.

* Invented by some marketing genius for Virgin Mobile, this nevertheless remains the best term for the holiday season ever invented.
jon let this fly on 08 Nov 2004


APOLOGIA

Whether you say it "sahr-ee" or "sor-ee" or the cutely Canadian "sore-ee," there are a lot of us who feel like we owe the world an apology for failing to stop The Bad Thing from happening.

Therefore

Sorry, Everybody -- we tried. We really did.
jon let this fly on 04 Nov 2004


FANTASTIC

I need everybody to know that I am going to try to keep a private .txt file journal at home for precisely those times when I am drunk, and see what sort of typos I produce that are inadvertently hilarious. How did I spell "America" with an X?

Also, I need everybody to know that a couple of nights ago, I had a dream where I had a working lightsaber.
jon let this fly on 04 Nov 2004


FUCKING FUCK

OK, this ids the only time i am going to post om my blog drunk, but FUCK YOU AMERICXA for picking the wrong guy

i mean what the FUCK

in a year it will be illegal to [not] be born-again

i am going to get jesus tattooed on my ass or sometething -- this will maybe keep them off my back for like a week or so

FUCK
FUCK
FUCK
jon let this fly on 03 Nov 2004


OKAY LOOK

Far be it from me to attempt to impose yet another layer onto an already-complex social fabric and yadda yadda, but I think it is about time we got some sort of definitive visual cue for when people in this country are single. We have one that says "Hey, I'm engaged!" and "Hey, I'm married!" -- this idea does not seem like a huge leap.

I propose a dot system of some kind: You wear a colored dot in an agreed-upon spot whose color signifies a certain thing. Behold:
  • GREEN - "I am single and pretty much available."

  • YELLOW - "I am in kind of a transitory period and not feeling it in general; do not approach unless I come on to you, basically."

  • RED - "Don't. Just don't."
The thing I'm trying to figure out is where the dot goes. Forehead's out; they already have dots in India, and I would like this system to be globally applicable. How about on the back of the left hand? Not like a real big thing, just a sticker or something.

I would really appreciate this, people. I can't be the only one!
jon let this fly on 31 Oct 2004


CONGRATULATIONS

City of Boston, I wore the Varitek shirt again last night, the shirt sent to me by one of your ablest agents. I notice that your baseball team emerged devastatingly victorious after what could safely be called "a dry spell of some note." City of Boston, I'm not going to say outright that these things were directly connected, but I must point out that such a thing cannot be logically excluded. In conclusion, please arrange for a cake of some sort to be delivered to my residence, and we will consider it even.

Also, congratulations to Merlin for making me laugh so goddamn hard.
jon let this fly on 28 Oct 2004


WHAT DO YOU THINK

Should I put some sort of contact info up here on my blog somewhere? This is something I've been wondering for a while now.

Feel free to comment with your answer. By which I mean "please tell me what you think."

(Also, apropos of nothing, be aware that there is once again new Get Your War On.)

Thank you in advance for your answer on my highly unscientific survey!
jon let this fly on 26 Oct 2004


BRAILLE TO THE NIGHT

Rocktober continues -- Interpol tonight at the Warfield. Basically perfect. "Obstacle 1" was played second! Shawn, who went with me, summed it up in that it was a show with "a seriously nice signal-to-noise ratio," i.e. they hardly played anything we didn't really want to hear. Fantastic.

The bassist is weird, though. Has anyone else seen them live? Did you get the distinct impression the dude was channeling Crispin Glover's Charlie's Angels character by way of a gothy S&M Boy Scout in Nazi Germany?
jon let this fly on 26 Oct 2004


THE EARTH IS NOT A COLD DEAD PLACE

Explosions in the Sky played tonight at Cafe du Nord. For a band that's all instruments and about 50% "contemplative noodling," they rocked so hard it was basically awe-inspiring. Life-affirming, even. My brain has been rewritten a little by music.

But there was also a lot of standing. My calves feel sort of like they've had 9" railroad spikes hammered into their vertical lengths. I am going to bed.

I wonder what my dreams are going to be like!
jon let this fly on 23 Oct 2004


THINGS TO DO

I have things I need to do! This entry will be my way of remembering:
  • Figure out pictures for the art project with C

  • Make the copies of albums for S

  • Just go out and buy the Daily Show book already

  • Also you need a squeegee

  • Shirts still need to be bought -- next weekend maybe

  • Oh SHIT that's Halloween
jon let this fly on 21 Oct 2004


CROSSING FINGERS

  • Tomorrow (Wednesday), I will be wearing my Varitek shirt in an effort to shore up Boston's cosmic luck factor here on the West Coast (shirt courtesy of Awesome Steve).

  • I added two more postcards.

  • The small Dogblog update I promised has arrived, including one more on the Guest Page.

  • Remain awesome.
jon let this fly on 19 Oct 2004


MORE POSTCARDS

I went on a minor postcard-making kick this weekend and came out the other end with about seven more. How about that!

I got a few more pictures for the Dogblog, but haven't put them on my computer yet. That update will happen maybe tomorrow or Thursday or something.
jon let this fly on 18 Oct 2004


DO IT UP RIGHT

It's time for Child's Play again, bitches!

I picture myself putting on a Santa suit and calling down toy strikes from some sort of tactical toy platform in low geosynchronous orbit. Oakland is definitely going to get hit, but maybe DC will too, just because.
jon let this fly on 18 Oct 2004


GOOD QUESTION

When I log into the app that lets me do this blog thing, there is a little greeting message that shows up on the "main" page. Today's was:

"Good Day jon, are you in a mood of adding some news?"

AM I INDEED

I guess I must be! Except there isn't much to tell. I read a bunch of books and have begun contemplation of the Writing Solution (I can't be lugging around 300+ pages of manuscript every time I want to work on my various projects); its final form will probably be something like what Warren Ellis does. Guess that's about it for now. Happy Friday!
jon let this fly on 15 Oct 2004


O TRAITOROUS IMMUNE SYSTEM

It was either the massive and inexplicable change in weather or my recovering-from-cold buddy Jake, but either way, I am succumbing to the cold I thought I had successfully evaded a little earlier this week. For the next couple of days, I expect to be made the Mayor of Odwalla Town (it is next to Chicken Soup City, bordered by the Echinacea/Goldenseal River and the Sea of Zinc Lozenges). Also I'm going to eat some saltines.
jon let this fly on 13 Oct 2004


O CAPRICIOUS WEATHER BARONS

Apparently today it was hot in San Francisco, like in the 80s or something according to my housemate Jim. This I do not doubt, because it's almost midnight and I could walk around outside without a jacket if I chose to.

What the hell is going on.

Also, I think Daylight Savings is coming, isn't it? Does this mean we gain an hour? I believe it does.

MY LIFE IS EXCITING BEYOND YOUR WILDEST IMAGININGS
jon let this fly on 11 Oct 2004


ATTENTION LIVEJOURNAL TYPES

My pal Yishan is some kind of gorramn genius and has basically put together what amounts to an LJ RSS feed for this blog of mine -- I hope that link is what you need to do it up. Be aware that when you first add it to your "friends list" or whatever it is the young people are into these days, it will sort of spam it with all the current entries, but that'll be like a one-time thing.

Please be advised also that it would be a good idea to come back to this blog to leave whatever comments you'd like, though, 'cause I ain't checkin' more'n one.
jon let this fly on 11 Oct 2004


OH DAMN

I have made a mistake. Today, like every Friday at my office, is Bagel Day. The bagel I have in front of me is not, however, cinnamon raisin like I thought it was. It is chocolate chip.

I do not know how I missed that.

I have already spread cream cheese upon it.

I have erred. I'm going to eat it, but if you don't hear from me again, I am almost certainly dead.
jon let this fly on 08 Oct 2004


AND THEN THERE'S FISH

Talking with my coworkers a little while ago, we realized that the implicit hierarcy of meats that humans typically tend to enjoy goes something vaguely like:

- Chicken
- Beef
- Pork
- ... and then there's fish

I am going to start a fast-food fish & chips chain called And Then There's Fish.
jon let this fly on 07 Oct 2004


I DID SOMETHING WEIRD

A little while ago on one of those "internet messageboards" I frequent, we had a thread where we "remixed" people's avatars.

So this:



Became this:



I ... I don't know, either. But I really like it for some reason. What is wrong with me.
jon let this fly on 06 Oct 2004


THE SIR MIX-A-LOT CONJECTURE

I realized something last night at a party where I witnessed an entire roomful of dancing women sing and dance along to Madonna's "Like a Prayer" -- the same sort of thing that happens when the Gloria Gaynor version of "I Will Survive" comes on. They all know the words! They have a dance they do! It's like some sort of awesome feminine power ritual or something.

What I realized is that we dudes don't have one of those. There isn't a song we can all rally around, sing and dance along to like we're reconnecting with some primal reinforcing power in our lives. Except one.

And that song is "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot.

This is the Sir Mix-A-Lot Conjecture, and I'm putting it here on the internet for everyone to confirm or disprove as they see fit. But I'm pretty sure I'm right.
jon let this fly on 03 Oct 2004


DUMB THOUGHTS I'VE BEEN HAVING ALL DAY

I can't seem to get rid of these.
  • If we were living maybe 50 years in the future and ray guns were around, would Sanrio make one? What would it look like?

  • Would it be possible to make a guitar out of glass? What would that sound like? I bet it would be stupid-heavy, though.
Seriously, what is going on.
jon let this fly on 01 Oct 2004