Month: November 2008

I got taken out to dinner by some reps last night, in thanks for shouldering a burden for them on Wednesday. It was also a chance to debrief on some product developments. Last time they were in town, I dragged them to my favorite sake bar, which was a disaster, since there is more of a “meat and potato” feel to this group. This time, we opted for BBQ.

I’ve read good things about Daisy May’s, and was not dissapointed. Thier sweet tea was totally awesome, and I think the best thing about them is that they are across the street from Landmark Tavern one of my preferred scotch locations in the city, After getting our food, who was inside the seating area watching ESPN? Oliver Platt. He was there with a kid – probably in his early teens? Maybe a son? Maybe a g/f’s kid? I dunno. He was dressed all in white, and got immidiately nervous when we came in (there was nobody else there). I made eye contact, and he kinda gave this look like “please don’t ruin my dinner”.

I didn’t. The two people I was having dinner with woulda been total gawkers, maybe even asked for autographs. I didn’t mention Platt to them until he was on his way out the door. IMDB tells me he has done lots of stuff, but I will always remember him as “that guy” from Flatliners, my favorite Porthios, and his role in Bicentennial Man.

It was kinda a New York thing – it made me smile on the inside. After some fantastic dry-rub pork ribs (BTW, , the beef ribs here there are insane), I walked the reps across the street, and had them buy me scotch. I was good about it though, I coulda really broken the bank, and instead I opted for smooth, but not bank-breaking (especially since we had spent 30 minutes talking about economics, bleh).

i just found out that the person who i managed out of a firing situation at my last job has been in a coma for a week, with an unknown coronary cause! she has never regained consciousness since she collapsed, and is still in ICU, since they don’t know cause.

she may be a vegetable.

that sure throws a screwball into your day.

This is the first morning i’ve had to breathe in a long time, mostly because I’m keeping my out-of-office on from the ffing 6 hours of meetings i had yesterday.
More tonight, but i don’t really want to talk about work.

I’ve had some real boilers of potential posts out there in the past few weeks – the election, the economy, side projects… Big sweeping ideas for posts that I have in the subway, or that I am mulling over as I drift off to sleep.

What I lack is time to make them concrete.

Nano has been killing me. I’m trying, I really am, to keep my work going. I’m not even looking at wordcounts, partially because I know it will depress me, partially because I don’t want to try and rush the story. It has rekindled a project in me that i didn’t even know still had banked embers. It has also led me to procrastinate, but even doing that has been productive – I’ve done gobs of work on my RPG, and, as I said, come up with a dozen new ideas. My brain works differently when i spend more energy creatively. I wish i could do it all the time.

I’m filled with fear at where we have gotten – as a nation, and as a species. we are living in unprescidented times. As someone i was talking to last night said “I don’t think anyone ever has had it as good as Americans have had it in the last century.” I can’t argue with that, and yet it is still so broken – it could be so much better, not just for Americans. We are right on the edge between a layer of creation which could signifigantly change our species, yet it is so far from being done in a way in which it really will. I’m far more concerned with a new wave of bio-techno-feudalism than I am hopeful that change will come to us all in good, affordable ways.

Too much Philosophy, too much Theology, too much fucking theory. My head is busting with the stuff, and everything I talk about, everything I do, is echoing all that heavy thinking others have done before me. I’m beset by this constant sillibant soundtrack that comes and goes dependong on if I am actively thinking about what I am doing, or just going through the motions, as we are trained to do from a fairly early age.

I yearn for a lifeline, a brain-anchor, something absolute to cling to in the midst of all this, and sadly, I’ve not had that for a really long time. Reflecting like this doesn’t make me want to find one, it just makes me more jaded – my only dependable absolute is Murphy’s Law.

some days, the bear hits you with an 18-wheeler, backs over you a few times to tenderize you, then takes you to martha stewarts house, where she makes a show about how to prepeare you.

i’ve been at this too long. i need a break. fucking day 3 of nano and i’m already behind, with little reprieve in sight.

daylight savings sucks.