Month: January 2005

Caveat: A week later [Maná – Muelle de San Blas]

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

Dateline:  Los Angeles

A week goes by, not much happens.  I leave for Amsterdam next Monday, AM.  That's when stuff happens.  I'll meet Bob there on the 11th.

Meanwhile, I had dinner with Wendy this evening, good conversations regarding our respective retirements (hers marginally more authentic qua retirement than mine, I suppose), etc.  Ate at her favorite place, La Dijonais there on Washington in Culver City. 

I will confess that I sometimes listen to sappy Mexican top 40 radio, when driving.  I got all sentimental, driving up the 110 home, thru downtown and the tunnels and the Arroyo and all that, very memory evoking – the 110 is the only stretch of LA freeway that I still vividly recall from my childhood visits to LA – so it's like my oldest "local" road-memory.   And road-memories are special, right? 

And for some reason, a snippet of Maná's "Muelle de San Blas" got me all teary, thinking about my long, interesting, complicated, and lately pretty darn OK life. 

So whatever.   More later. 

[I retroactively added this embedded video on 2011-06-24 as part of my Background Noise project]

Caveat: And the final score was…

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Internet & Blogging

Dateline:  Glendale, CA

I zipped back west after my brief stay in Kansas City.  I had this weird, but gratifying and very deep, self-aware conversation with my mother's cousin Bill Brown and his wife, Sheila.  Most unexpected and cool.  Subjects ranging from Aunt Milly's politics to Michelle's and my own flirtations with death, the nature of depression and the ethics of psychoactive medication. 

Stopped in OKC at a Starbucks, but there was no WiFi.  After staying in Tucumcari, NM, in a motel, I went on to Albuquerque, where I was online but didn't post.  And that almost brings us to now. 

Last night had dinner with Phil and Andrew at Villa Sombrero – a trendy mexican joint on York near Figueroa.   I suggested we plan a trip in the Ford Model A to someplace like Alaska for Summer, 06.  That would be cool.  Maybe I'll end up financing, but that's fine by me. 

Meanwhile, this afternoon I just completed the GMAT exam, and wrote two good essays and scored a 740.  Wow.  Just think if I'd bothered to have studied, e?

I'm sure someone out there cares and is reading this.  Perhaps a lonely AI routine in one of Google's servers?  Ok then, more later.

Caveat: wandering

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

Dateline:  Saint Louis

Well, I don't really have a reason to be in St Louis – no one to visit, nothing to do.  But after Jeff's wrestling tournament in Plainview, MN, yesterday (sadly, he was pinned in both matches I saw), I took wrong turn on I-90.  My intention was to go to Kansas City, but, true to my commitment never to backtrack, I decided to follow my nose.  And, after some snow in Illinois last night, I'm here. 

Icy and cold, but sunny.  Sitting in a Starbucks, as usual.  Trying to study for the GMAT (which I take in 6 days!) but not feeling terribly focused. 

On to KC tonight, then.  I hope to see Bill Brown (2nd cousin) and maybe my great aunt, Frances – if she's there.  She might be in Colorado. 

After watching Harold & Kumar with Mark and Amy, I'm craving Whitecastle.  Maybe I'll find one of those and have lunch.   Ok then.

Caveat: ya, so i’m a nut

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

Dateline:  Duluth

And just as it starts to get REALLY cold. It was down to about minus 20 F last night, and I was sorta worried my truck wouldn't start, but it did.  Good truck.

It's beautiful here – the lake is a hazy, steamy blue – surprisingly liquid despite the temperature and season.  The are several feet of snow on the ground.  Maybe  I really would consider living here.  Except that it's such a smallish city. 

So tonight I'll be heading back down to St Paul, and supposedly Mark and Amy want to go to Mary Chittenden's "moving to California" party tonight.  How ironic – considering my own thoughts of wanting to move to Minnesota.  Mary was someone who was a fixture during my tenure at the 1808 Portland Ave, where I roomed with Mark, Bob, Ken, and other despicables.  Long-time, no-see.  A ver. 

I got the truck stuck in a snowbank last night, trying to park at the motel (downtownish, 2nd @ 2nd approx).  A good samaritan in a beater pickup used a tow-rope to yank me out – he entered and exited his truck "dukes of hazard" style – through the window.  I guess the door didn't work.  Overall, it was an entertaining yet frigid experience. 

Caveat: Twice in one month…

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

Dateline:  Minneapolis

The Starbucks I tried in Lincoln, NE, and then the one in Owatonna, MN, both didn't have functioning WiFi.  So this is your next post.

Driving across Nebraska basically all night was a bit like a bad nightclub experience, but without the fun part.  Although there was an interesting soundtrack…  I guess that's what I'm getting at.  Crystal Method, Chemical Bros., Bob Dylan, and even, I confess, ABBA.  ABBA?  Jeez, why does that one album (SouperTrouper?) always make me remember so vividly that one party at A.H.'s cousin's in Colonia Roma, DF?    I guess that's really the main reason I listen to it.  I think it's cuz V gave me that cassette tape that then constituted one of like three albums I had while living there…

So back in Minneapolis, I immediately head for my old "haunts" to chase down a likely Starbucks… the one perched on the bridgecorner of 4th SE and 15th SE, kattycorner the nefarious McDonald's – the one that didn't hire me in 1992.  Ha.

This Starbucks didn't exist yet.  I think it was a lousy sandwich shop.

The U must be on break – e-22 is closed (the cafe over the bookstore).   However, crowds are gathering for some sporting event down the way. 

Caveat: So much for posting regularly…

Banalities & Journaling / Databases, Smartphones & Computers / Hiking & Travel / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / The Wonders of Work

Dateline:  Pueblo, CO.

I'm zigging and zagging my way cross country, basically from Starbucks to Starbucks, using their wireless access points to stay online.   

Quit my job at Paradise, now I'm looking at being a sort of independent contractor / consultant.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll try to keep things up-to-date.  The current road trip provides a good framework from which to hang commentary.  Stayed at Wendy / Aundi's last night in Santa Fe, had breakfast at Harry's Roadhouse, and had a great deep conversation with brother Andrew. 

As in… what is the nature of consciousness, among other things.  My short answer – it's quantum mechanical self-deception.  The capacity for self-awareness and deception do appear to be tightly linked in the chain of being.

More later, then.

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