Puppet hangover
9:30AM, Sunday, February 05, 2006
I regret nearly everything about last night. My apologies to: Taiwan, America, my liver, my stomach, and my roommate Megan. That said, my iPod owes me an apology for running out of battery power on my ride into the city, thus leaving me with an awful drunken, silent ride home with nothing to do but write Megan misspelled and grammatically incorrect text messages, which probably all sent at once only when the train went above ground between Carroll and Smith/9th. Bleh.
And why am I not asleep!?!?
EDIT, 10:30am: An omelet would probably be a bad idea right about now, correct?
EDIT 2, 11:18am: This minestrone soup sure smells awfully tomato-y. But man, the sax solo in "Jungleland" really is awesome. Of course, the whole song is pretty fucking sweet.
EDIT 3, 11:39am: I can't believe how quiet my computer is now that I've put in a new hard drive! SOOOO quiet! And also, more disk space and whatnot. Since I'm already nerding out, here are some more facts:
1) The new drive, while being more than twice the capacity of the old one (80gb as opposed to 30), was about one third as thick. Technology is crazy!
2) I partitioned it into two pieces, so the computer thinks it has two separate hard drives. Ha! The joke's on the 'puter, 'cause how could you put two drives in a laptop?
3) Once I finally did the mirroring process correctly, the first partition of new drive is EXACTLY the same as the original, down to cached URLs in Safari and stuff like that. You know those sci-fi movies where someone finds out at some point that they're not a real person (i.e., they're actually a robot or a clone or something), and all their memories are false, and they've actually only been created like 5 days ago even though they remember their entire "lives," etc? That's what this new hard drive would feel like if you ever told it how it was really created.
4) My old drive, which is still completely functional (albeit LOUD), is now housed in a external drive enclosure, so I've got 30gb of extra space if I ever decide to do anything computer-wise at home other than surf the 'net.
5) I got a USB 2.0 card from Belkin that goes in the powerbook's PCMCIA slot (which I'd never ever used before) because the enclosure I got for the old drive (and new drive during the mirroring) is USB 2.0. Interestingly enough, the new video iPods are also USB 2.0. Hint to self.
6) This fucker is so damn quiet I can't stand it! I mean, how do I even know the freakin' thing is on?
EDIT 4 is the name of me and Lauren's office.
EDIT 5, 2:41pm: The thought just occurred to me -- between office-wife Lauren and roommate-wife Megan, I'm practically Mormon.
Get ready, bitches!!!
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Somnambulism
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Damn. I just slept for 13 hours. Haven't done that since my desert days. Apparently the FCP seminar Lauren and I went to yesterday took a lot out of me. I decided to take a nap at around 8:30 (after wasting a solid hour and a half watching Cartoon Network hoping to catch a Wulin promo), and whoa, now it's 9:30 in the morning. Considering how much trouble I've had sleeping lately, that's probably not such a bad thing.
But yeah, apparently there's not a whole lot we don't know about Final Cut. Which isn't all that surprising, I guess. Still, there was lots of good info about audio stuff (which I know next to nothing about), and a couple nagging questions we've had were confirmed in a "you're not crazy; that really is fucked up" kinda way by the seminar-giver. And there were free cookies.
And somehow... I have yet to figure this out... somehow this happened: we got out of the seminar (which was at LaGuardia) at about 10 to 5, drove back to Lauren's neighborhood in Queens, she dropped me off at the subway, and by the time I was walking up the steps into Park slope, it was just turning 6. I've never been able to make it from Queens to the slope that fast. What gives?
From small things...
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
So I was just watching Home Movies on Cartoon Network. The dude who plays the main character, co-writes the show, and is credited as one of its creators is someone I once worked on a short film with back in college. So what this means is that in less than two weeks, two people who worked on that short will have their own shows on Cartoon Network. One is a whole lot better than the other. And while that one is decidedly not mine, I will take solace in the fact that I am not nearly as much of an asshole as I remember that guy being. Then again, maybe he's not still an asshole. But probably.
Once again, I'm super tired, but can't sleep. And I think I'm starting to like Anime. Things are taking a surreal turn.
Should I eBay tickets to see The Pogues on or around St. Patrick's day? Two of three Killen brothers say "no!" I anxiously await the internet's opinion.
Blatant plagarism, High Fidelity style
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
First of all, happy birthday, Dad. Exactly one day younger than E-Streeter Danny Federici (which is even more appropriate considering the rest of this post). Now I feel like a dick because I didn't update on my Mom's birthday, which was Dec. 7th. Sorry, Mom.
Also significant, today is my one-year aniversary with my office wife, Lauren. In my sparse posts in the space of this last year, she pops up fairly frequently. We had a party over the weekend to celebrate, which was announced via the cutest eVite in the history of the world. And what a goofy statement that is to make. Anyway, I'm more or less convinced at this point that she doesn't, in fact, want to kill me, so here's to many more puppet and cartoon filled days together, sweetheart! I never could have imagined, all those years ago canoeing down the Connecticut River, what lay in wait for the two of us (by which I mean, of course, Taiwanese snipers).
Perhaps fittingly, I'm taking a page from Lauren's book and posting some song lyrics. I was initally going to say I was posting this with nobody in particular in mind, but as it happens I can actually think of several people to whom this song applies at the moment (in my FCP-addled brain, at least), for one wildly varying reason or another. This may explain why it's on my mind, which is why I was going to post it in the first place. Plus -- and this may or may not come across in print -- it has a great sax solo, and I just recently picked up my horn again.
And Christ, I hope you all appreciate this... this was one of those times when I found myself regretting doing this all on my own site, instead of something like Blogger. That was a lot of line break tags I had to slug in there to get the lyrics to read right. I suppose I don't need to clarify who wrote it, one-trick (stone) pony that I am...lord that's bad... anyway, here it is.
When I lost you honey sometimes I think
I lost my guts too
And I wish God would send me a word send me something I'm afraid to lose
Lying in the heat of the night like prisoners all our lives
I get shivers down my spine and all
I wanna do is hold you tight
(chorus)
I swear I'll drive all night just to buy you some shoes
And to taste your tender charms
And I just wanna sleep tonight again in your arms
Tonight there's fallen angels and they're waiting for us down in the street
Tonight there's calling strangers, hear them crying in defeat.
Let them go,
Let them go,
Let them go,
Do their dances of the dead (let'em go right ahead)
You just dry your eyes girl,
And c'mon c'mon c'mon let's go to bed,
Baby, baby, baby
(chorus)
There's machines and there's fire waiting on the edge of town
They're out there for hire but baby they can't hurt us now
Cause you've got,
You've got,
You've got,
You've got my love,
You've got my love
Through the wind,
Through the rain,
The snow, the wind,
The rain
You've got,
You've got my,
My love heart and soul
Not sure how long I'll keep this up -- can't be the most legal thing in the world -- but for now, here is the actual song.
This is a bad idea
Sunday, January 8, 2006
So apparently a bunch of guys from work have started playing basketball out on Long Island on Sundays. This... this could be bad. Because I find it very, very tempting. And I really shouldn't. Here are the facts:
1) I'm terrible at basketball. Sure, sure, I hustle, used to play OK defense, etc., whatever. Probably not the worst guy you could have on your team. But honestly, I'm not good. I was nearly dumped once when my girlfriend unexpectedly witnessed me playing basketball for the first time. It's not pretty. Years ago, when I lived in Queens, I once called Sean up as I was on my way to Brooklyn. He asked what I was up to, and I said, "I'm heading over to Brooklyn to play some basketball." He replied with, "Oh, cool." Then an awkwardly long pause, and, "Uh, you're not going to shoot, are you?
2) I am often injured while playing basketball. Longtime readers of this blog will remember this week in Phoenix, in which I obliterated my ankle on the court. I didn't have health insurance at the time and never got it fixed. Haven't so much as picked up a ball since moving back to NY.
3) Basketball is very frustrating. Unlike other things I've spent a lot of time doing, I've never gotten any better at basketball. Altogether, it's highly probable that I've actually spent more time playing basketball than any other sport, including baseball, which I prefer by a large margin. If you lived in Portland in the early nineties, you'll understand. The Trailblazers had made basketball almost a citywide disease back then (blazermania, the cure for which is, apparently, a terrible front office and a stupid rule-changing league). We played a lot of hoops back then. And I never got any better.
4) However, among this particular group of people, I might actually look pretty good by comparison. I mean, I work at an animation studio, after all. Nerd city!
5) I could use the exercise. And it's far too long until the only sport of consequence starts up again.
6) Health insurance! I have it now... it might actually be worthwhile to break both my ankles, just so they can re-heal correctly this time.
Clearly, this is a matter of high importance to readers of the internet.
So this is insomnia... lame
3:24 AM, Thursday, January 5, 2006
I worked until midnight, got home around one, talked to roommates, finished a book... WHY CAN'T I SLEEP?!?! Three AM? Goddammit, I have to be up again in like four hours! Why am I not the least bit tired, especially given what the work week's been like so far (crazier even than normal)?
I basically had a minor nervous breakdown yesterday, and now everything seems slightly new and different and at a somewhat fresh perspective... is that why? Is it because I'm out of NyQuil? Would it be weird to go to the store and get some? I mean, I suppose I could do that... this is New York and all. But that would probably be a recipe for a tough morning. And why in hell did it take me three tries to correctly spell "recipe?!?"
Man oh man am I going to be tired tomorrow.
New year, a new page in the blog
Monday, January 2, 2006
That sounds about right for the pace I seem to be at these days.
2006 means it's now been a decade since the year that I missed. 1996 was a black hole for me. I was one year out of high school and working in a cafeteria in Hillsboro, OR, making a hellish 3am / 6pm commute to and from work each day. I went through two cars and almost literally did nothing but work and sleep for that entire year. I remember it as more of a single experience than a calendar year. Scott and Sean and I refer to it as the year that I missed, as I have weird gaps in my knowledge of the mid nineties... for example, I'd never seen anyone do the Macarena until last year. And wasn't there a presidential election that year? It was a strange time. However, that's where I first came up with the idea to go to film school, and I remember sending out form letters to colleges to get them to send me information again (the flow of college brochures that had seemed unstoppable only a year or so before had dried up). Also, near the end of '96 and my employment at that job, I came out to New York for the first time, to visit NYU. They were still using subway tokens back then. I still have a few lying around somewhere.
Anyway, so it's been ten years (almost) since then... I think I started that job in February of '96. That came right on the heels of my purchase of my first car, a black '84 Alfa Romeo spider. Which, of course, was the source of all the trouble. This all seems like eons ago, somehow even farther back than high school or even late childhood. But barely a year later I was starting at Hampshire, which seems like yesterday... weird.
The upshot is, I suppose, that it's now 2006. Wild.
It's weird sort of only occasionally writing here. It feels very self indulgent to just recap snippets of my life and cast them out onto the internet. I mean, in Phoenix, it seemed like it had some value as a cautionary tale / train wreck in progress kind of thing. That being said...
So now it's 2006. Here's the recap: Once again I set myself up for air travel misery, arriving in Newark at 6:30am on the 31st. I went home and napped on the couch for maybe half an hour (my room was in use by a houseguest), then got up and went into work. This was, let's see... about 24 hours without any real sleep. By the time Megan and I and various others met up at the restaurant we were eating at it was closing in on 36. Maybe that's why my hands wouldn't stop shaking. Or maybe it was the insanely slow service at said restaurant, which made me and hour and a half late to meet up with Dane, Rian, Amy and Lauren. At the world-famous Grassroots, of course. I was a wreck when I got there with exhaustion and stress of having been so delayed (the restaurant thing was horribly close to recurring nightmares I have in which I'm trapped in a meeting or something as time ticks by, slowly erasing the possibility of doing something I really want and/or need to do), but loosened up quickly and started having fun. We then all went, with the help of Dane's Sidekick and Mapquest, to a burlesque show. In spite of the twenty dollar cover, I didn't catch a single glimpse of the show. Anyway, by the time we got there it was nearly midnight as it was, so there wasn't much left to see.
After a brief but wildly entertaining jaunt into a fantasy world in which Lauren and I will soon be embarking on an endless road trip attending Final Cut Pro seminars across the country, people started to head out. Some of us went to another bar, some of us went home, some of us sang songs on the street and got other people to join in.
So it was a fun night. There were several subplots that don't concern me personally and therefore will go undescribed here, but I think pound for pound everyone had a pretty good time. I'm still pretty tired... going into work today was kind of surreal. I'm hoping to get some decent sleep tonight, and should probably take the opportunity to hit the sack right now before anyone else gets home to distract me.
