| How Do People Live Like This? |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|04:27 pm] |
Wherein I discuss the various stressful things in my life (at the moment) that are keeping me from responding to my current list of interesting and engaging people and keeping me from meeting new and interesting people
( Read more... ) |
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| Internet Vacation |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|03:33 am] |
I think it's time for an internet vacation.
Technology, especially new technology, is only useful if it improves your life and extends you in ways that better let you do what you want to do. Yes, the iPhone is a trendy, elitist prick gadget, but it's also the difference between "missing the fucking bus again" to "zomg, 2 minutes, time to run". It makes public transportation work a whole lot better for me, so it gets to stick around.
Around seven or eight years ago I stopped watching television as an experiment, and decided to continue to not watch television when I realized what a time sink it was and how drained I'd feel after watching it. As a technology, TV wasn't serving me and I dropped it.
I feel the same way about large swath of the internet these days. As we move more and more towards what the wonks are calling "the real time web" it feels like a never ending series of constant distractions and action items and nothing that engenders any real understanding of what's actually going on. The whole Google Wave thing feels so wrong, like the distraction machine turned to 11 and the expectation shifting from "you may be distracted at any moment" to "you will be distracted at any moment".
Even when I escape the constant stream of information, it's impossible for me to concentrate on anything of length on the internet. Once I pass 1,000 words of prose my mind starts wandering. I know there's something new and shinny just a click away, and because this is how so many people experience the Internet and money is made from page views, the writing becomes shallower and shallower.
Top 10 ways your internet shunning friends can judge you!
I suppose it's an early resolution, but I'm going to drastically cut back on how much of my free time is spent online, and how often I check my various hang outs and news sources. If I don't get to something, I don't get to it. Livejournal will still be a semi-regular read (assuming it doesn't vanish into the mist) but Facebook is on the outs and I've already stopped the Twittering for a month or two.
I have no ida how long this will last, and it might be be me being overwhelmed by jack-ass space monkey bankers and mortgage brokers, but I need to bust some kind of cycle, and this is the cycle with the biggest target on its back.
(And in case it's not clear, I don't care if YOU implant the internet behind your eyelid. Nothing to do with you, everything to do with me) |
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| kill kill die die |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|10:36 pm] |
I swear to fuck, having had to, for months, deal with all the mistrust and horse-shit that goes on in a modern project based agency and then dealing with all the mistrust and horses-shit that goes on when dealing with people selling you a house and then dealing with all the mistrust and horse-shit involved in having to deal with the people who will give you enough money to buy a house has me ready to lay waste to all I see.
This is when I'm glad for modern society's insistence that we don't carry around swords as a day to day thing.
Random: The shooting in Tualatin today happened in an office park where I did a gig a year or so back. |
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| Bus Ride Home |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|01:22 am] |
Window fog is sexier than sharpie marker.
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| Alive |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|02:52 pm] |
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ERP! I'm alive, still stuck in house limbo and job busy busy. My plan is to stay busy enough to forget its the holidays! Should hear about the underwriting on Monday, after which I can tell my landlord I'm moving, pick a day, get a truck, and then wrangle all of you into helping me! (I could probably do this before I hear back about the underwriting, but I'm weird about things like that) |
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| Happy Halloween |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|01:08 am] |
Halloween is both Goth Christmas and Transvestite Christmas, so needless to say you know where my loyalties lie. I"m sad to say all four howl tickets are accounted for, so there will be no free drugs for me this year (at least not for getting a satyr into the event)
Direct Link |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 30th, 2009|07:59 pm] |
Because that’s the thing, no one really knows what it’s supposed to be like, so we pretend we do. We pretend to be shy when they look into our eyes for too long. We pretend to make a fuss over making them breakfast in the morning. We pretend to feel a deep connection when we press our palms together. We pretend like we could lie here, in this bed, all tangled up, just like this, forever. We pretend that this time is different than all that came before and we are right, but it’s also still the same.
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| random |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|11:11 pm] |
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Chatted with a woman at the bar for a few minutes. A bit later she said "can I ask you something weird". Always game, I said "yes". She said "I'm going to have to call an ambulance for my Anaphylactic Shock, would you mind babysitting me until they arrive?" |
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| That Guy |
[Oct. 21st, 2009|10:09 pm] |
For anyone not on my Facebook (where I've put iTunes on shuffle and am recounting the music of my past), allow me to sum up my late 90's for you. Names removed to preserve the pseudo-anonymity that I crave.
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| stretched and out of the loop |
[Oct. 21st, 2009|08:08 am] |
Radio silence to continue for a bit. I'm feeling totally stretched between work and The House™. The house is almost settled, but I'd rather not say anything for sure until I sign over that huge-ass check.
Apparently there's been all kind of things happening in the queer dance/club scene that I've been unaware of. Blow Pony found a new venue and Sissyboy has returned in some kind of capacity (or they did a show in September, or something). There's also some smallish dance party happening in North Portland called Fruitcake that people are talking about like it's the second (or is that third) coming of Booty.
I'm happy for the events and all but I've found my interest in the club/dance scene waning. Not going away entirely, but I think I'm having a fundamental mental shift about what I can or can't get out of all that, particularly in Portland where all the interesting events seem to burn themselves out after a few years.
Finally, a candid drag picture taken close up with a flash that I'm not horrified by, from B's Zombie birthday party.
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| House House House |
[Oct. 10th, 2009|06:16 pm] |
So, earlier in the week my counter offer was sent for the house that's near both Richmond and Ladd's Addition, but in neither. Today I heard back, and it was a "yes, but" kind of response. Basically they're saying "hey, here's what's up with the property, and don't want to do any repairs that aren't for safety, so we only want to give you 7 days for an inspection period".
If I was selling I can see how I might do that, but my instincts say Horse Shit. So, I've written up my caveats about the shape I expect to find things in while my realtor (who is awesome) does the digging through the city records for me. This means someone may end up scooping the property up, but I'd rather lose out than buy into something with problems. |
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| Canabalt |
[Oct. 7th, 2009|09:16 pm] |
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You know, we've fucked up a lot in The Future™, but we sure can animate the shit out of running men, broken glass and birds. |
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alana_ash's journal
