Personal

I was leaving a parking garage late last night, and as I waited for the cashier to get me my change he surprised me by asking if I was interested in selling my car.

I finally went back to Aikido today. I went and joined the local dojo and attended my first class there, and I am so glad I did. While my body has forgotten a lot of what it once knew, I felt a joy in the practice and exertion.

I am amused. The Isthmus Daily Page, which is the digital version of one of Madison’s free weekly newpapers cited my entry where I wrote about my short trip to the Taste of Madison.

Okay, I have an embarrassing confession to make. I actually own a copy of The Craft. Yes, that teen movie about the four witches. You must understand that it has sentimental value because my friend Dan and I saw that movie (in the theater no less) quite a few times in high school when we were going through our “dark” period.

Once, many years ago I made potato gnocchi, because I desired their deliciousness. And they were yummy, but I swore to myself that I would never make them again. Why? Because unless you plan to spread your meal preparation over two days, it takes several hours to produce the meal, and it is really a lot of work during the entire process.

I was going to write a short little post about how unproductive my last few days have been. I had plenty of stories to tell about watching DVDs, reading and staring at the walls of my apartment.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a huge dork. There was a time in my life where I could have quoted the entirety of the movie Real Genius to you on demand.

I am really a very lazy person. This may not always be apparent to the casual observer because they may see me at work, where I am very focused and willing to help out with anything.

Well, I am finally starting to understand the way Linux works, and I am getting better and better at using and navigating it every day. This is really good, because although my friends and coworkers have this image of me as some kind of computer guru, I have secretly known that I am really just a retarded man-child among computer geeks.

Okay, I should have been in bed a couple hours ago, but I stayed up to try out a new Linux installation. SuSE 9.3 rocks my socks off. Not only does it support my sound card (a problem I had with other distros), I can even access ALL the files on my Windows partion from here without booting over to the other side!

Many years ago, I was driving through the suburbs of Chicago with my girlfriend at the time and I saw what had to be a very profitable arrangement. Driving down the road I noticed a retirement home coming up on my right.

Link to Part 1 Link to Part 2 Terrified of a world I could not mentally grasp, I attempted to exert control over my reality in lieu of understanding. This led me to paganism and the occult, and the attraction that magic could somehow give me the ability to influence the world around me.

Link to Part 1 In my nightmares I had come to associate logical reasoning with a monstrous figure that would tear me apart even as it embraced me. Intuitive and experiential knowledge I began to associate with a mystery woman and the intensely spiritual lovemaking of my dreams.

When I was in high school I used to have a recurring nightmare once every month or so. It was part of the most important spiritual developments in my life. I am running.

You observant folk may have noticed that my blog now identifies me by my real name. Now, those who know me might be a little surprised by this because they are familiar with what a private person I am, but I say screw that.

My friend Christina was just accusing me of being deliberately mysterious. Admittedly, this is sometimes the case. The important thing is that Christina has officially appointed me Minister of Intrigue. How sweet is that?

It was hot and miserable on the road at work today. I set up detours, dealt with summer school kids and was still somehow bored the entire time. I didn’t even have the energy left to watch all of Princess Mononoke (which I bought on DVD today), and that is sad.

It is hot and humid and I hate it. I would give anything to get rid of this heat. I do not enjoy the extreme seasons of winter and summer, and we have more than two months left of the latter.

So one of the coolest things my dad got me for my birthday was a new computer desk to replace the cunningly stacked boxes that I have been using the last few weeks.

Today at work a drunk crazy guy threatened to beat me up. It was unnerving as I am sure you can imagine. What was most unsettling about the whole thing was my reaction to it.