Dead Nature

I think the band Savages could improve if they dressed in '80s dead wave, specifically Siouxsie & The Banshees. I never got to see Siouxsie live, but it bands like this were part of my MTV education, and everything was art.

1988 was a good year for me. I think I can remember every tape I owned and I know I can remember the CDs I purchased from Tower Records. I know Tower Records, like Borders, is now kaput, and I wonder what the Mountain View store turned into. Probably a parking lot.

Yes, tapes. Cassette tapes. Man, I'm old. At least I was apres records, right?

Fingertips

Writing at length on a smartphone is a bitch. It also sucks to write an a sluggish desktop which is what I have at home. One of these days I might stumble on some old IBM keyboard which would be PERFECT.

My college was a total Mac campus. This was the late '80s, so Steve Jobs was slummin'. I didn't program on a Mac but I loved their keyboards. Form factor is important, you know.

I use a small Dell laptop in this job with a smallish monitor. I feel like I'm back working at a bank. Good thing I still scribble notes and doodles to maintain my sanity.

Harrapatuta

One would think that not having a TV or cable would gives me tons of free time for sleep, walks, and if it was 1995, reading.  I do catch a show now and then but the days are painfully quick.  Being old(er) sucks the big weenie in the sky.  At least an NFL football game seems to last forever.  Even an average game gets dissected in HD from every possible angle. If the backup to the backup running back has a sprain, you get to see the sideline reporter catch a bit of audio and there just happens to be a therapist or orthopedic surgeon to explain why this sprain is all right ("Walk it off, Rudy!") or serious.

I "suspended" my Netflix account but I sort of miss it.  It's still one of those badges of honor with me, like the magazine subscriptions I still keep paying for yet never read.  On one of the shelves, I have National Geographic, Smithsonian and a few cooking magazines.  The Smithsonian and NatGeo subscriptions weren't originally mine but I inherited it.  What I should do is sneak them into some doctor's office.  I'm sure they'd be just as interesting as the May 2003 edition of "People" or "Us."  Ok, not really.  I can't imagine where I could find slight cerebral people who can appreciate "The Lost Kingdom of Boom Shakalaka" or "U.S. Banana Boat Diplomacy of 1898."

I was a few minutes into an episode of "Covert Affairs" (Amazon Prime) and I had to stop watching not so much because of the story - spies, pretty Blonde, scary operatives with scary agendas - but because I want to travel and see something unfamiliar.  It's quite upsetting to think that most people - read: me - never move more than 100 miles from where they live.  I don't know about you, but short vacations don't count.  I know of someone who's on a short vacation to Scandinavia and another family in Portugal.  It's probably help if I bothered to learn Spanish or some other useful language.  In college I tried to pick up a smattering of Polish (girlfriend) and even Chinese (friend).  I have a panoply of computer languages that I even get to use, but it's not really the same.  I know I can learn a foreign tongue if I just immersed myself in it much like picking up some cold, hard application.

Forty Days

It started to rain today. Actually, I heard thunder and lightning. My little umbrella is on its last leg. 

My usual quiet pre-work ritual has been interrupted by someone sitting at my table. He is evil not because of coffee house geography but for the fact that he just left his plate, cup and shit on the table. Nope, can't be bothered and I'm too stupid to bus my own table. I bet he doesn't recycle either. The other distraction are three guys talking. I can't drown them out with my phone. I really can't stand other people talking because it's inane, boring without a shred of wit or humor.

Maybe I can find a zone today. Any zone would be nice. Boredom is the absolute worse thing in the world. It's way worse than a hang nail or charlie horse.

Stereo

I think I get to downtown Seattle, but I like having the basement of this place all to myself.  Down here I can't hear cars or buses or crappy rap music.

I guess I should be reading but I usually listen to XMU and click "like" whenever I see a pic of some abandoned dog. I'm a sucker, I suppose.

If I could, I'd start working earlier than 9am. That's way too late. Actually, I really wish I could work at night since there's nothing to do. I heard that A&E cancelled "The Glades." Now I know why I got rid of my TV and canceled cable. This blows but what else do you expect from our big media overlords?

I don't think I'll be able to make it to the book club. I don't know why I even bother.  So far I've been in two book clubs and I haven't really like either.

The new Sleigh Bells single is so overproduced that I want to rip my eyes out. I need to dig up some old school tunes made with real instruments. Besides, they really stopped making decent music in 1998.