Birthday in the Woods

Taking a drive with Karen we stopped on the way to the coast to take a
walk in the woods.

Late Start

This morning I titled my journal entry “Late Start” because I didn’t wake up until eight. That is a good two hour later than usual for me and I hadn’t even been up that late last night. I had some strange morning dreams though. I seem to remember being Queen Elizabeth’s head butler and being pissed as hell at her over her attitude. I’m not even going to try to figure out what that might mean. Anyway, as I got to writing it started to come out that I was referring to more than the lateness of the hour. You see, I turn 39 tomorrow and I still feel like I’m just starting to figure out my creative side. All my journaling feels like I’ve been sketching for years without ever starting a canvas. Tomorrow feels like it starts a countdown. These are my final 365 days to produce something before I turn 40. It’s funny but I actually feel good about that. Getting back into the habit of writing daily is starting to turn some dividends. Out of the blue this week I’ve had a couple of new ideas about a play that I’ve been mulling around in my head for years. I spent this morning checking out a new writing program to start turning those ideas into something tangible. It would do a lot for me to finish a play in the next year. Even a lousy one. My creative life could use a little completion. 

20,000 Songs

So I hit 20,000 songs scrobbed last night on LastFM. It took just a little over a year to get there. My charts are not entirely accurate though. My last two iPods have not been supported. That isn't a big deal with my shuffle but I've listened to an awful lot of music on my iPhone since I got it, both in Kansas and on my daily commute now that I'm working again on Union Street. Still it is fairly good picture of the evolution of my musical tastes over the last year. Most revealing to me is the number of artists that I discovered over this last year and how high some of them ranked. Three of my top ten I had almost never listened to before in my life, Brian Eno, Tom Waits and the Decemberists. KT Tunstall, I Am Kloot, Rilo Kiley, Doves, of Montreal, Midlake (getting some good airplay this morning), Klaus Schultze, Andrew Bird, Eels, and  Iron & Wine were all new additions to my playlists that made the top 100. The most important musical discovery of the year (maybe my life) was of course Neutral Milk Hotel's, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. This is not to diminish the impact of Tom Waits', Closing Time or I Am Kloot's, I Am Kloot or Leslie Feist's, Remainder. Those last two albums along with In the Aeroplane and Midlake's, The Trials of Van Occupanther are the most under reported because of the iPhone thing. All in all it was a banner year musically and Last FM had a lot to do with it. Similar Artists led to numerous musical discoveries throughout the year. I'm curious and excited for the new year. I got my ear back this year. Thanks Last FM.

Astral Weeks

I was looking at my LastFm charts the other night and thought just how much "writing music" dominates the top of the charts. For years and years my favorite album to put on in the morning when I write has been Victorialand by the Cocteau Twins. For a couple of months it was Brian Eno's Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks. The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions was combined with Victorialand most of last year to kind of nudge me into consciousness in the morning. This week it has all been about Van the Man. I bought my first copy of Astral Weeks on vinyl over twenty years ago. It has remained one of my all time favorite albums through that entire time. If I had to pick a single desert island album it would probably be this one. It just seems to operate outside of time. I like that. I like it when music transports me and this one brings me to places that nothing else does.

Seasons of Light

Another short post this morning I'm afraid. I got up early but Monday is my early day at work thanks to a weekly conference call. I've been trying to work on four projects every day before I do anything else. Sometimes it's tough to get them all in before work. The first thing I try to do is copy at least one of my longhand journal entries onto my computer. I've been writing on the computer since the beginning of 2006 but I have about a thousand pages of longhand that I'm trying to play catch up on. Because I was running late I skipped that part yesterday. I had been working on my September to November 2005 journal but decided to skip around a little bit. I'm going to try to get everything I've written since I moved in here into my iCal by the end of the year. So this morning I started with October 29, 2005. That was a banner day for me. My first morning in my new apartment. It was fun entry to copy. To make up for missing yesterday I did the 30th too. There is a shell-shocked feeling to both of them. I was finding it hard to believe that I had found home. They are happy writings. 

The next thing I do is my morning pages. Since I use a computer now it's hard to keep track of what constitutes three pages. From copying old journals I think that three pages longhand for me ran about 500 words. So I try to put down at least 500 words to start my day. Then I look for a new affirmation. A daily quote to put my day in a positive light. I skipped that this morning. Oh what the hell I should be able to fit that in. I'm typing this sitting next to my Harvard Classics. Let's try the random search method. Carlyle rarely disappoints. Okay, here is a snippet, just a phrase to set a mood, "…most of us, looking back on young years, may remember seasons of light, aerial translucency and elasticity and perfect freedom; the body had not yet become the prison house of the soul, but was its vehicle and implement, like a creature of the thought, and altogether pliant to its bidding." That seems to fit with my fabled nostalgia. 

The last thing I try to do is this. Publish something to my blog. I'm having a good week of it. This is my sixth straight day publishing, and would have been my ninth day journaling if I hadn't lost last Monday's entry in a technical breakdown. Well that's it for me. I'm to work. 

Trouble Sleeping

Short post this morning. I went to bed early last night. I was asleep by ten. The problem with that was that when the bars let out around two I got woken up and couldn't get back to sleep until nearly five. That meant I slept in until eight and their went two of the hours I usually give over to my morning writing chores. Bottom line is that I've got to get my but to work right now so I'll leave you people that have Sunday off with a nice time killing website that helped contribute to this morning's insomnia. 

Not Always Right

I Got Into a Knife Fight With Al Pacino

It may be true that other people's dreams are boring to listen to but they can sure make for some colorful headlines. Plot lines rarely make sense in dreams so I'll just give you some of the images: Al Pacino, the second in command to the General in Woody Allen's Bananas, a daughter I don't really have, a machete and a butcher knife (used by me), the house I lived in as a child in Concord (second and third grade). The thing that woke me up was my failure of nerve when pressed to decapitate Pacino to save my little girl. Weird, wacky stuff. 

After that you're probably wondering what the hell I did last night before I went to be. Let this be a warning to you about 80's music. It can kill Al Pacino. Last night a song I loved came up on shuffle but it was a lame live version I didn't realize I had so I went looking for a better copy of So. Central Rain since my copy of Reckoning was on cassette and I haven't seen it in at least 10 years. As it is one of the great self-indulgent songs about loss I had to have more. So I started a new playlist called broken and started adding. R.E.M led to the Who's Bargain which led to Love Will Tear Us Apart which led to Atmosphere. Somehow over the course of the next hour I ended up with my bluetooth headphones on dancing around my apartment to General Public, Dramarama, Material Issue and even The Outfield. (Yes, Bourbon was involved). In case you have been in my apartment and are having a harder time picturing where in the hell I was "dancing around" than me in a knife fight with Tony Montana, I will just say that my furniture gives it a more authentic, crowded dance floor feeling.

Not So Black Friday

So today kicks off the Christmas Retail season. It's eight o'clock in the morning and many of my friends in retail working for other companies have been at work for four or five hours already. Not me. If fact I went ahead and loaned my only employee to a mall store for the day. I'll be working Black Friday alone. And I can't tell you how little I am stressed about it. That isn't to say that I don't hope to have some business. It's just that where I am and what I sell I feel confident in having a day that I can handle without breaking too much of a sweat. I can't begin to say what a treat that is. It is the "Priceless" moment in the Mastercard commercial.

I spent yesterday in Santa Rosa with my cousin, his girlfriend and a buddy of his from the Coast Guard school. It was a friendly afternoon. We spent the time waiting for the bird to cook playing Trouble. I had no idea that game could get so cutthroat. Anthony even wondered aloud if there had ever been a knife fight caused by the game. What can I say it was silly but it was fun. The food was great and there was plenty of it. All in all the best Thanksgiving I have had in a very, very long time. And a special shout out to Heather, Anthony's girlfriend for driving all over Northern California top pick me up and take me home. Thanks you guys. 

So I'm writing every day in my journal, I'm staying more clearheaded than ever, I've been sneaking down to Mt. View to get adjusted whenever I can, I've started posting here again, and I'm trying to write down one affirmation or wisdom everyday for inspiration. Today was Carlyle's opening line to Characteristics, "The healthy know not of their health, but only the sick." For me it is a reminder to recognize health and happiness when it descends on me. So we may get profitable today but I'm just not going to think about this Friday as black.

Thanksgiving

This morning I spent my Morning Pages stream of conscious writing some of the things I'm thankful for right now in my life. It was a friendly way to start the day. I should try to do it more than just on the National Day of Thanksgiving. Anyway I consolidated it down to a great big run-on list of things in little particular order. Here goes:

Colleen, Karen, Toni, Leslie, Jessica, Isabella, Anthony, Tanya, Susan, Holly, the other Anthony, the other Karen, My Job, Laszlo, My Apartment, Steam Heat, Rent Control, My Store, Union Street, Union Square, San Francisco, Cable Cars, The Bay, The Ocean, Music, the Jazz, Indie Cred and Alternative Nation playlists on my iTunes, My Two Macs, My iPhone, Regina, Jeanes, Seth, Roger, Yvonne, Biljana, Waqar, Mikkel, Troy, Jeff, Brandon, George, Fidel and all my other colleagues, Nicolas (who is becoming an invaluable friend. How the hell did that happen?), the knot in my neck notwithstanding My Health, Allen and the Pan inside of him. And of course John and Sarah who keep me social despite my instinct to be an Urban Hermit. 

I could have gone on I'm sure and in my journal I took some more elaborate notes on each entry but I've got to get ready. I've actually got somewhere to go this Thanksgiving and you better believe I'm thankful for that and especially Anthony and Heather for inviting me. 

My New Desktop

Check out this page on flickr for the whole explanation of how Mumbly Joe got this incredible picture of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It seems that once a year they light it up with the original kerosene lamps but this year they did it on one of the foggiest nights in memory which led to a hell of a picture. I've replaced my desktop and background on my phone with this one. 

Skating Out of the House

So yesterday I found myself about to spend another day off without leaving my apartment. I've decided since coming back from vacation to avoid this as much as possible. So I put on my shoes and walked down to the Cable Car Stop and rode up to the top of the hill. There I switched to the California line and ended up down at the Embarcadero. I was happy to find that the ice skating rink has been set up at Justin Herman Plaza and people were out skating on a Wednesday afternoon. While I didn't join them today I'm making it a plan to get back down there at least once this season. It looks like fun and I haven't skated in years. I snapped this picture with my phone. I think I'm going to have to return with a real camera next time.

A Couple of Links

I just can't resist adding to the viral nature of this link. It is just too cool. Online shopping should always be this fun.

HEMA

The second is a list of Open Letters To People Or Entities Who Are Unlikely To Respond. I include this because some of you are just twisted and because some of you may find yourself wanting to comment on the activities of certain Oldsmobile coupe owning neighbors after reading letters like, An Open Letter to My Neighbor Who Frequently Sits Alone Inside His Truck.

Election Day

I'm going to the polls in San Francisco for the first time today. Last year I forgot to file a change of address so I trekked down to Redwood City for my Congressional Vote. In what is supposed to be record low turnout in San Francisco I'll be voting on a variety of citywide issues. Here is my scorecard. Of course, it may be December before we know the results.

A - No
B - No
C - Yes
D - Yes
E - No
F - Yes
G - Yes
H - No
I - No
J - Yes
K - No
Mayor - Yes
District Attorney - No
Sheriff - No

For God Sake Would Somebody Do Something Today

I get one of those "This Day in History" emails every morning. It's
usually a nice mix of biography, historical events and cultural
milestones. Today I awoke to find this sentence in my inbox.
"Different Strokes premiers on NBC". Unless I am an executive of NBC
and am looking for the events that have shaped my network this is
pathetic. So somebody do something noteworthy today. Steal the
November 3 thunder away from 1978 because that is one weak way to look
back at the events that matter.

A Non-Halloween Halloween

This entry definitely goes into the "My Boring Life" category. I guess
I echoed the city which had cut out the traditional Castro Street
celebration after growing rowdiness cumulated in eight people getting
shot. Halloween has never been my holiday anyhow. I'm just not a dress-
up kinda guy. I guess I've spent my whole life trying to get a handle
on just who I am. It is far too confusing to figure out who I should
be pretending to be.

Some technical notes. After a week of upgrading, installing, deleting,
crashing, tweaking and in general computer geeking I think I've got
Leopard set up on my laptop how I want it. Despite what wasn't the
easiest upgrade in computer history I'm pretty satisfied with the
result. I know that everyone else was worked up about Time Machine but
I couldn't see what the fuss was about. Yesterday it was the last
major feature I set up. To tell you the truth I was impressed. It
backs up without me feeling a resource hit at all. More importantly it
restores easily. I can't tell you how many times I've spent time, and
computer resources on back-ups that when I want to restore a file
turned out to be absolutely useless. Last night I just popped back in
time a couple of hours and poof restored a file I had deleted. It was
easy and frankly the interface is fun.

The biggest change to my daily computing will be in the upgrades to
Mail and iCal. Having started journaling and blogging using mail on my
iPhone it is nice to be able to then back up my entries to my calendar
easily and quickly. Now if Steve can just get it together with to-do
lists and the iPhone all will be right in my digital world (yea right,
heard that one before).

Anyway today is the beginning of November. And November is my favorite
month. The air is crisp the wind is blowing, the world seems to be in
sharper focus. It has been two years now since I moved to this
apartment. That first month, that first November month, I spent here I
wrote more than any other in my life. It would be a nice to think that
today is the start of another big month of expression. So here is to
Fall days, thoughts expressed, words shared. Here is to November.