Katmandu
(8-17 November 2002)

17 November 2002
-Our green chile supply from the Frontier (via my parents' visit) is dwindling.  I remember thinking it was an absurdly large amount of chile to bring... it's taken us less than a month to wholly deplete it.

16 November 2002
-The second Harry Potter film doesn't seem much like a kids' movie to me.  At least as freaky as the first Jurassic Park flick, which was awfully scary when I saw it in theaters.  But pretty solid overall, with a couple small detractions.
-So nice to have a day free of everything.

15 November 2002
-Emily pointed out quite accurately that the tape I finished the day prior was not the first tape I'd made this year so much as the first of my series of (for lack of a better term) My Tapes with Rules completed in 2002.  Since 1998, I've made a handful of tapes specifically for other people, including a couple for Emily of late.  But The Wake of Recovery is the 21st in a series of tapes that I make more or less for compiling my own music taste, mood, etc. into an easy-to-hear package.  The key rule is that no song may be repeated, unless it's a recording by a different group.  There's other more obscure rules, but that's the main one.  It shocked me that it's #21 since 1998... I've been prolific, especially in the years prior to this one.  Anyway, I like it after a run-through listen.  If I do say so myself.
-In an interesting discovery, I just realized that this is the first tape I've made in the series since Twenty Februaries (February 2000, tape #13) to not contain a single song by Everclear.  This moment of fun with statistical analysis is brought to you by changes in my life.
-So many webpage things have been cracking me up lately.  One in particular that's just another prediction come true.
-Am considering a major addition to this page.  We shall see.
-Never has so much been driven for so little.

14 November 2002
-Quite early this morning, I completed the first tape I've finished in well over a year, The Wake of Recovery.  Though I haven't done my necessary tape-in-review listening session yet, it's awfully good.

13 November 2002
-Zim, I'm reading your page religiously.  Also, just because you may not have been mentioned as frequently as back in the days when we debated together, you still have an impact/presence in my life.  So don't despair about that... & yes, MIT 2000 is still one of my fondest memories of college & of all-time debate.
-This month is zipping right along compared to last.  But this is no surprise really.
-Not knowing whether 25 or 25,000 people will read my book as I write it is a mite frustrating.  Or just confounding.  The whole unknown of whether more than a handful of friends will ever think of me as a writer just befuddles me sometimes.  What can I do about it?  Write as much as I can, try to improve, submit to publishers.  In this cacophony of wills called a 6-billion person planet, that's all the control I've got.  I wonder if I'll ever want, if it all works out with writing, to start a publishing company just to exhibit that control.  I'm sure Random House would just buy it up anyway.
-At work today, the top Librarian for the whole Chapman system (she's traveling around) said she assumed that I had a Masters degree.  This indicates not only that she thought I was old enough to get it (granted, that could mean 23 or 24), but also that I express having that education.  Not a very significant event, but I like knowing that I can pass for someone who has spent more time rotting in school than I have.

12 November 2002
-I'm blazing my way through Tim O'Brien's latest, July, July... the man can write page-turners like perhaps no one else.  (Tender is the Night is still on hold after I stalled out on it 2/3rds of the way through... it's not tersely enough written for my mood these last few months I s'pose.)  Anyway, here is an individual (O'Brien) who really knows what it's like to never let go of things.  To feel & feel & feel some more.  To laugh in the face of Schneider when he tells me that time puts things to rest.  I feel a strange vindication when reading his works, that & the realization that I will never be the cleverest writer around.
-I'm beginning to realize that a good bit of my constant nausea & feeling full must have to do with how much water I drink.  Perpetual thirst lends itself to a belly full of bleh.
-& the cat's name is... Pandora!
-I don't want to be too hasty (as is often the way with me), but I think I'm back in that same groove I was in over a certain summer prior to senior year (college).  The writing may have finally been jarred fully awake.  Don't hold your breath for the completion, but 2k words last night seems very promising.

11 November 2002
-Mid-afternoon... when it all hurts the most indeed.
-So many things I'm working on in the back of my head it feels like they need a new staff in there.  Or new plumbing or something.  At least I don't have to pay for all this overtime.

10 November 2002
-Bowling in this town is EXPENSIVE!  Wow.  We're talking $4.50 a game, $25 an hour during prime time.  Ridiculousness.  But we had a good time hanging out with Em's high school friends & Em even set her record high score (160), edging me by 2 pins for the game win.  'Twas fun.
-So I broke down & got a hardcover of the new Tim O'Brien book, mostly because I had lots of fake money at Borders to spend.  Also, new Wallflowers.  Opinions on these pending.
-This week seems to be a reversal of the last few, with searches in quotes topping free-form for humor.  Check them out.
-I really do like the food court in Emeryville quite a bit.

9 November 2002
-Last night, I was falling asleep while reading a solid book, holding my future wife, & listening to our new cat purring in my lap.  I think in that hour, I truly discovered inner peace.

8 November 2002
-We have a cat!  She's a 4-year-old gray tabby/tortoise mix who ends up looking like a mottled mix of gray, brown, & black.  We got her at the no-kill animal shelter about a mile away.  It took her about 3 hours to really warm up to the house & us, but now she's feeling pretty much at home.  A name is pending.
-Another thing from the files of what I've been meaning to discuss... why does the American Plastics Council advertise?!  I could see it if they think big investors are about to do some sort of project involving plastics... but the ads aren't pitched to investors or engineers... they're targeted at the "common person".  What effect does said commoner possibly have on the plastics industry?  This looks like wasted money to me.  Plastics make it possible.
-Want more details on what our cat looks like?  Click here.  I might put a page around the image at some point, but for now it's just a jpeg.

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