The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
(11-20 July 2002)
20 July 2002
-FIFA the PS2 game is no longer my friend. It did give us a quite funny
moment, but it also bruised my thumb & my morale.
-Sigh. Communication. Sigh.
-Mr. Dolan continues to be utterly wacky, though far less than his
webpage might indicate. Very good hanging out with him, though...
he's a good guy.
-I forget how much of my life is the way of an only child. These days,
I have more reminders.
19 July 2002
-Frickin' power outages.
-The Book List has been updated again, with 4 more entries, & allegedly
Tirrell, Greg, & Clea are on the way. Since the latter 2 are back
from Greece, which there were apparently mixed feelings on. 1984
made a run at the top, but it's still Hamlet by a nose. 384 total
entries at this point.
-Hey, I'm a serious guy.
18 July 2002
-Back from a longer than average drive from the old NYC. Very very exhausted.
-So this morning Em informed me of Ed's
rant (entitled "Come ON") earlier today about my comments after
the Tom Petty concert. I have quite a bit to say in my defense... most
of which will probably offend Ed & co. even more (I guess "co."
here is Kate, who replied in a more humorous & I would say reasonable way
a few days earlier). The main thing I want to make very clear is that
I NEVER meant the post (or anything I say here, really) to be a "poor poor
me, I am so oppressed" type comment. I am well aware that profiling
is a very serious problem for people who have actually difficult lives, which
is something which I doubt seriously me or any people who read my blog have.
My apologies to people out there reading who do have real problems, but
I don't know how they can afford a computer if they do. There's a part
of me that believes very firmly that I should spend my entire energy being grateful
at how many people I was lucky enough to be born better off than in this world,
but then it would lapse into massive guilt that I feel every day about being
better off than anyone. Instead, I've decided to devote most of my energy
in my life to making the world better, so that people aren't so much better
off than others. & I'll admit that probably comes out the least here,
where I make off-the-cuff & sometimes selfish remarks. So, yes, racial
profiling is much much worse than any profiling I'll ever experience. Granted
& then some. This is why I believe in things like open borders worldwide.
HOWever, I've had a series of times in my life when I get profiled for
smoking & doing drugs because of an aspect of my physical appearance. It
bothers me. It bothers me because I think smoking & doing drugs are
stupid, & I don't like being called stupid, much less being assumed to be
stupid. I don't think being gay is stupid, so the analogy from Ed doesn't
wash. The times that really anger me have been when people yell at me
for lying to them, because they assume that I OBVIOUSLY do drugs & am just
trying to lie so I can hoard my cigarettes/roling papers/pot. That bothers
me. Not as much as being born impoverished or being profiled in a more
serious way would. You'll note that I've complained about things like
detaining of people simply because of their race on this page before. But
just because one thing bothers me doesn't mean other things that bother me less
don't still bother me. I don't think it's reasonable to say to someone
that they should only complain about one thing in life because it's the worst
thing, & any other thing is just unnecessary because there's a worse thing
to complain about. Finally, the offered solution of cutting my hair &
avoiding Tom Petty is like telling someone to bleach their face & avoid
America. Isn't that offensive?
17 July 2002
[from New York City]
-Crazy collisions of worlds. Good fun, though. Also makes me wonder
when I'm going to see a lot of these people again... probably not till Deis
Nats '03.
-Kinda relieved to think that I'm not going to be back here for quite a while.
Just not my favorite place. I like lots of the people here, &
it's no Chicago, but I'd just rather steer clear for a long while.
16 July 2002
[from New York City]
-Well I guess I might manage to update from the road after all. Apparently Gris has invested in some DSL for
the apartment, which is making a crystal-clear connection possible. Neat.
-Even more crazy people appear to be incoming
tomorrow! Yay.
-About time I went to the United Nations. To be honest, a part of me kept forgetting it was in New York at
all. But now I've been & I own the coolest T-shirt in the world, with all the world's flags... including Palau, though not East
Timor.
-I love train stations. & it provided the gateway to the best Indian dinner ever... nine potato samosas & a side of
nan.
15 July 2002
[from New York City]
-Dunno. Just dunno.
-My toe, injured in basketball two days ago, still hurts like crazy. Don't
think I'll lose the nail, but walking in NY isn't a party.
-Strand is a good bookstore, but not quite Powell's.
-Dinner with Sep &
Katharine was fun, & there was much philosophical & non-philosophical discussion to be had. I feel like there are continual
alien aspects to my perspective that make it impossible for me to relate to people fully, but I nevertheless enjoy the diversity of perspectives
in existence. I also love coffee. Which is a long-winded way of saying it was all a good time, but I never know where I come from
sometimes. Nothing new under the tall buildings.
14 July 2002
-Much craziness. So many people around. But it's been very good
to see Dom & Beth & Brandzy & such. I also secretly feared
that I'd never see Michelle (via Brandzy) again in my life & so I got to
see her, though there were so many people around that it was kinda strange.
But that was good & now a goodbye that was necessary has been said.
-Now Em & I are heading back to NYC. With Dom, who needs to go there.
We'll be in that area till Thursdayish. So if you're in NY, we're
coming, & if not, expect updates & hanging out upon return...
13 July 2002
-Okay, I'll admit... FIFA Soccer is a good Playstation game. But ONLY
because it's got World Cup mode on it, so there's plenty of Irish pride to be
played for. Not that I'm a seventeenth as good as Dom, who can four-nil
Brazil with the Irish squad.
-Lots of bridge tonight. Maybe I'll post the scores later. But cards
are making me a little weary, & I don't really know why.
-Much discombobulation. Chto dyelat?
12 July 2002
-Went to TP&H with Em, Nik, & Lisha (filling in for ZimZim). High
quality, though the traffic both to & from Mansfield was abysmal at best.
People continue to be unable to drive properly in this state, & can
administrate highways with even less skill. But the set was good, though
less acoustic & post-Greatest-Hits than I would have ideally liked. Also,
seeing Nikki at a concert is CRAzy. Who woulda guessed? Acoustic
"Learning to Fly" was the certain highlight of the night, though "Free
Fallin'" was also quite solid.
-The lowlight of the night was being asked for rolling papers by some woman
in her early 40's (maybe late 30's). Gimme a break, people! The
profiling's tiresome... I guess anything the cops can do, the people of the
world can do better, but I get really upset when people think I'm just hoarding
papers or drugs or any manner of other garbage. Why can't a guy have long
hair (& sometimes facial hair too!) in this country without doing drugs?!
WHY?!
-I want to make a couple things very clear about Book List submissions, just
so nobody gets upset. First, you have to submit 25 books... no more, no
less. Also, they should be numerically ranked #1-#25. Other lists
will be read & thought to be interesting, but cannot (for obvious reasons)
be incorporated into the list. I'm just sayin'.
11 July 2002
-With 6 new people in (including both my parents & my fiancee), the Book
List is taking on truly epic proportions. While Hamlet &
Catcher remain 1-2, Gatsby is the new #3 in town. Also,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez now holds 2 of the top 6 spots. There's 320 books
on the list, so if you need something to read, you can't complain that I haven't
given you any ideas. Meanwhile, you're slacking if you haven't contributed
your own ideas.
-Apparently we should re-hold the fabled Cop-in-a-Box round in front of the
US House of Representatives. Then maybe they wouldn't have voted to arm
the pilots & make sure that proactive firearms will be aboard every plane.
Now pilots are an arm of law enforcement. Granted, they may be the
arm of the law I trust the most, but I still have my doubts about the whole
plan. At least Cop-in-a-Box was pure deterrent, ensuring almost without
question that a gun would never be fired on a plane. Now I guarantee we'll
have some gun fired on a plane & I doubt it'll be pretty.
-Happy Birthday Dom!!
Introspection, My Worst
Friend* (Current)
Ye Olde Archive (Past)
The Blue Pyramid (Source)
Tell me this is not the end...*
*-lyrics from an as-yet unreleased song, "The Same Old
Frontiers",
by SWClayton.