Category: sathead

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sundayitis ate my brain

sometimes I want to have something coherent and profound to say but just don’t.

not that that stops me from opening my big gob a good portion of the time regardless. ;)

lately this blog seems to be doing a lot of skating along the surface of things– mostly pictures and media posts and not a lot of commentary. i should perhaps count this as a boon, as I well know how durned bogged down in words I can get. just that I find it odd, kind of unnatural, like some sort of holding pattern. well, maybe there’s a change afoot. isn’t there always a change afoot? a foot achange? step-ball-change.

one change is that I’m trying to have less insomnia, because it is insalutary. except here I am, hello, awake. I blame navarone time. well, not really. I blame the cat and also the profound and irresistible appeal of the internet. and also the dog who seems to have figured out how to snow me into thinking he reeeeaaally needs to go out, even at 3 a.m. when apparently he doesn’t all that badly.

sometimes it seems my life is one long series of distractions that don’t really amount to much. uh huh. like I said, sundayitis.

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really liking people

I’ve realized something about myself– I have always gravitated toward love affairs and best friends– it’s the really really digging people, getting excited about other people, that gets me up out of myself. it’s kind of adolescent, maybe, and maybe exhausting and maybe difficult at times, but by and large the way I tick. it’s envigorating– and I think, I hope, the vigor I put into the world increases. whatever it takes, perhaps.

it is good to enjoy other people and to feel connected.

it’s kind of odd what a largely solitary experience moving to a city can be.

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telephone!

1. the telephone is a most excellent device! and weekends! I love free talk minutes weekends! I’ve had some absolutely delightful catchup sessions with a couple of friends yesterday and today, and this makes me feel that indeed there may be some speck of hope for happiness in my glum existence.

2. my friends with serious phone phobia, and you well know who you are, had better get right over it. because, A., some of you are in the process of making babies, and once kids are in the picture, that shit’s no longer gonna fly, and, B., I give great phone, yo.

3. when you’re traveling? and trying to connect up with people, you know? awesome.

4. the old free-with-2yr-contract samsung flipphone has been a real trooper– we’re well past that initial 2yr contract period at this stage, and now, finally, I come to retiring it– even though it has stood up to repeated cat abuse from charlie tuna upon its ring of my morning alarm, even though it has been the trustiest of devices, because now the battery is failing to keep its charge– and I jump on this as an excuse, at long last, to procure a qwerty keyboard. oh sms joy coming my way! no, not an iphone– dodgy reviews from a few owners conspired with that big ole pricetag ultimately to make me swerve on over to a crazy deal on a cute orange lg env through amazon. new phone number going out soon in email to friends and family.

5. scheduling friend catchup sessions can be difficult when you’re just not sure how you’re gonna feel on any given day (listen, phone phobes, I get it, I do)– the prospect of giving a thumbnail rundown on Things can be a little daunting when all that springs to mind is I hate my life and everything sucks— though you may well know it to be the farthest thing from the truth, sometimes it feels like it, yknow?

6. it is good not to feel so alone in the world.

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I am fetid

after the day of airline shenanigans and then two-now-going-on-three days in bed with the sweats/chills/coughs/bodyaches/fever dreams of flu, I am one rank typhoid mary. this virus is having its way with me, and I seem able to do little more than let it. occasionally summon my energy reserves to take the dog down the block, and then back to the sickroom. thus far have ingested one bottle nyquil, assorted packets theraflu and advil tablets, approximately one gallon juice, about half a gallon soup, and numerous cups of hot water with lemon and honey. I have hopes of actually making it in to work tomorrow. for the time being standing unclothed and letting water of any temperature fall on my unprotected skin sounds about like the least appealing activity I can imagine. so I stink. cough and stink. at present I totally get why flu is life-threatening for the elderly– being no walk in the park for those of us in the prime of life. I realize how entirely normal and prosaic all this is, but experientially it feels a whole lot more significant– like one day soon I shall look back on this as the week of some great purgative event.

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trapped in airport land

part I: I Should Have Called Ahead.
showed up in proper time for my afternoon flight out yesterday, gave heather a big hug and thanks for ever-incomparable hospitality, waved so long and watched her toodle off in the adorable blue mini. dragged the typical crap inside to check in– only to find that all flights into and out of chicago were canceled due to weather until the morning. oops. poor heather, having reached home, received my distress message, turned right around and came back, swooped me up and whisked me away to most delectable goodberry’s frozen custard confection, followed by an evening of further delightful conversation, wild mushroom risotto, and an early night to bed once more in the mmmmmmarshmallow guest bed.

part II: Yaawwwwwwnnn– And For What?
arose basically at Insomnia Hour, 4:30 (3:30 cst) to make my 6:30 a.m. flight– cabbed it to the airport in the pitch black, wound my way through the longlong snaky lines through security and down to the gate, only to discover no evidence of my fabled flight, only the previously scheduled and long-since filled 7:03 one. I should have suspected something was afoot on the basis of the agents’ shifty eyes yesterday and this morning as they scrambled through terminal screens and printouts in search of my “flight” and then were all, oh– oh yes of course– flight 9578– they’re just building that one. um, building it? never a good sign. basically? it never existed, I now realize. I am but a pawn in their game. how exactly it benefited the airline personnel to invent this crack of dawn flight when no one ever had a hope of flying us out before 11 (if then…), I’ll never know. now they have hoards of hopping mad chicagoans mobbing the podiums, their own little circle of transit hell, and everyone’s day is wrecked. oh, air travel, thou harsh hearted mistress. it’s never fun being lied to– even when it’s as impersonal as an airline doing it.

part III: Remaining Zen About It All
so here I sit in Cyber Cafe, sipping not actually terrible coffee and eating greasy airport egg “panini”, counting my blessings– most wonderful visit just enjoyed, respite from chicago’s snow and ice for a weekend of raleigh’s blooms and victorians, a coupla bars of wireless access. the only real loser, ultimately, is my employer, cheated irredeemably out of half a day’s labor, possibly more as time will tell. but what can I do? I sit at the whim of the aviation gods. at least I can get online (don’t get me started on the airports and hotels that charge for access in this day and age), vent my spleen in rather pointless bloggery, and attend somewhat to emails and digital biz. que sera, que sera, que sera. nothing in the end is really all that doggone critical– only annoying, and annoyance is fleeting. just like those beautiful waves of clouds out the window before me, rolling across the horizon in untroubled flightpaths.

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3 a.m. carolina time

the insomnia knows no time zones.

beginning to suspect I may be operating on navarone time, which could substantially foul up my calculations for a certain device I’m contractually prohibited from discussing. likely as not, documented inconsistency of staircases in my “chicago” apartment building denotes a glitch in the matrix.

meddling with the time-space continuum is no job for sissies.

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to do list, 3 a.m.

  • wash 5-6 loads at pirate laundromat (braving 100 yds of treacherous snow & ice) done! yeargh!
  • vacuum house, so that pet-sitting friend is not horrified by squalor and fur tumbleweeds sort-of done— that is, did not employ a vacuum per se
  • check flight information for north carolina done
  • pack for trip done, slap-dashedly
  • think up something clever to contribute to blog of navarone story jam regrettably, not done
  • pick up bottle of herbsaint for most delightful nc friends attempted, I swear, but half dozen places called not carrying
  • get cash done
  • figure out ground transportation to and from airports done, thanks to most excellent friends
  • pick up coworker at 8:15 corner of lawrence and california done– well, more like 8:45…
  • solve certain new product line wallpaper emergencies done and never done
  • give animals pets and love prior to desertion done
  • consider bank balance and other matters of irresolvable dilemma not done, probably just as well
  • refuse to look too hard at ongoing Life Questions done!
  • do dishes and clean up spilled cat food done!
  • remake bed with clean sheets (once washed) not done– rather, freshly washed sheets dumped higgeldy piggeldy for pet-sitting friend to make bed herself
  • walk dog done!
  • fill up car’s gas tank at the cheaper station near work done!
  • clean out disastrously untidy car not done– rather, rendered further disastrously untidy with basket of last-minute dried laundry– why indeed interfere with a good run of grunge?
  • lay out clean towels for pet-sitting friend done!
  • write note/instructions re: pet care not done– good thing pet-sitting friend is so ace
  • um, sleep? not done
  • acquire time machine I am contractually bound to silence on this matter.

(the upside– weather in raleigh:

Detailed Local Forecast

 

  • Today: Abundant sunshine. High 54F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
  • Tonight: Mainly clear. Low around 35F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
  • Tomorrow: Partly cloudy skies. High near 65F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.)

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calling all camcorders…

back when I was a grad student heavily involved in teaching various forms of “writing” with media (traditional verbal in various genres, yes, but also visual/interactive), I had a great resource at my disposal: the university’s media lab for teachers– we could checkout digital video cameras for various projects, play with them to our hearts’ content, and turn ’em back in, ta da. it was awesome.

so now, unsupported by great mother university and back out in the rillworld, I wonder how to get my mitts on a little handful of digital video cameras for an event thingy I have in mind to put together, say 3 or 4. I’ve taken a peek around at rentals in the area, and could do it for $35/day per camera. alternately, I could put a call out to friends and friends of friends for camera loans and hope that I’m not setting myself up for a format nightmare when it comes to compiling footage and also that nobody’s beloved camcorder gets accidentally dropped. it’s kinda challenging to figure out.

see, this is the problem with being a dilettante and having my hand dabbling in about a zillion different areas– all my knowledge is pretty superficial, sometimes little more than anecdotal or briefly experiential, whereas others geek way out, research the thing top-to-bottom, and create a mental catalog of various highly technical points of note. me, I cannot be bothered– quick n dirty does the job. idle and lazy, from some perspectives. eh, it’s all in the name of play.

so that’s the littlest wee thumbnail peek at my current project, just hatching. more later as it develops. shoot me any advice you might have about corralling cameras when you have a minute– all thoughts welcome (via email if you can’t comment here). thank you kindly. xo, sat.