I think it’s kinda funny that I got 14 eprops for linking to MarcoPolo’s story. I mean, sure, I enjoy getting them, but really…

Today is gray and awful after a few days of relatively nice weather. Groundhog day is a FARCE! Seattle weather fucks with your head. I’m out of milk, so I can’t make a latte and feed my Seattle head-fucky addiction. I had a long long emotional night. I’ve already started listening to Richard Thompson on repeat (“That’s all… That’s all there was… Say amen… Close the door…”). I need to eat.

Poor pathetic me.

X, the fourth housemate, got back from her travels. “Housemate X!” This has restored my confidence in my living situation a bunch. The other two (not me, and not X) are moving out before April, so if you’re one of the Lucky Ones, and you qualify, you could be the next contestant on the Chez Shui Show!

I have to brave the rain. I have to wrap myself in a plastic coat and move my feet one in front of the other.

Wish me luck.

Read this. It’s really really good.

I’m having fun over here. I’m searching on the web for the names of my REALbasic plugins. I can watch how my single email announcement propagates to a number of ‘reputable’ Mac sites unchanged.

Also, I was delighted to find that Eric Tejkowski, who wrote ‘REALbasic for Dummies,’ gave me an unbidden shout out for my AquaAwareMenuItem code (it’s in the middle of the page, after the tutorial). Why don’t people email you when they do this kind of thing?

The moral of the story is that I’d have essentially zero PR if it weren’t for Lorin Rivers at REALsoftware. If any of you Austinites encounter this guy, buy him a beer for me.

REALsoftware: Encouraging Its Users To Be Lazy.

Pardon My Politics

Interesting article on the Cheney/GAO battle:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20020201.html

Essentially:

a) If Cheney wins in court, it’s a total upset of the Constitutional balance of power between Legislative and Executive branches.

b) If you were Cheney, you’d stall, too, because all you’d have to do is appeal to the Supreme Court. The same Supreme Court that essentially appointed the President whose administration you serve in.

From the article:

“Osama bin Laden himself could not concoct a more hurtful blow to our democracy. For the Court to resolving the case against GAO (and the Congress) and in favor of the Vice President would diminish the role of Congress as drastically as a reveral of Marbury v. Madison would diminish the judiciary’s role.

“If Vice President Cheney were to prevail in such a suit, the high Court will have decided that Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch is limited to only what the President and Vice President are willing to permit. This would be an awesome realignment of power in Washington.

“Before Bush v. Gore, I would have said such a ruling would be impossible. Today, all I can say is it is a time for vigilance. This lawsuit, should it proceed, calls for close watching.”

Thinking of visiting Slovenia any time soon?

Be sure and watch TV channel 3 in the middle of the night.

“You wish
Well don’t wish for me
As if a wish
Could cheat the fall
Just believe
And leave it be
There’s beauty in what’s brief
There’s beauty in what’s small
That’s all”
–Richard Thompson, ‘That’s All, Amen, Close The Door’

I mentioned that K. quoted Richard Thompson to me. That was one of the things that brought us together; we both liked him. Him and Captain Beefheart, oddly enough.

If you ever want an encyclopedia of failed relationships to sift through and learn from, look no further than Thompson’s discography. At the moment I’m listening to his ‘Mingus Eyes,’ about a guy who affects cool in order to impress women. “Was a time she fell/But then she got wise/Brando mumble/Mingus eyes” It always reminds me of Ooola. I was affecting something; not cool for sure, but it wasn’t me I was trying to feature. “What a fool I was/What a thin disguise/Brando mumble/Mingus eyes”

Ooola was the name she took for herself. She was very insistent on having three ‘o’s. Don’t misspell, please. She was Retail Goddess for a burgeoning housewares chain. That was her official title. She was buyer and designer and copywriter and all that stuff. She was a living, breathing, chain smoking (cloves) design magazine. She was affectation and sincerity at the same time.

She dug boys who tried to sell themselves to her. You had to quit being you and become Designer You. This is all in hindsight, and maybe I’m selling her short (to extend the analogy). But even though there was room for romance early on (I was too scared), there was also little room for friendship later if you demanded too much (like maybe please come to a birthday gathering or go out to eat sometime).

So now the song I’m hearing is ‘Beeswing,’ which I used to associate with Ooola. “She was a rare thing/Fine as a bee’s wing” But it doesn’t fit anymore. She did make one of my most treasured possessions, though. It’s a hand-bound book of poetry and collage art. It came wrapped in a piece of plain cotton cloth, bound with string. I remember the time I knew Ooola as a slow-motion experience of opening that package. Carefully untangling the string, unfolding the cloth. Not of her, but of the mystery she constructed for herself. The book wasn’t wrapped by accident.

She had taste, she had class, she was on fire with life, and she was brilliant. And I was just too young to be her partner in crime, either as a lover or a close friend. Even though I was 26. Or maybe I just wasn’t daring enough, willing enough to adventure.

Maybe it was me I was unwrapping.

I’ve been watching about a zillion episodes of Babylon 5 all evening.

You know what? Babylon 5 rules more than Roy Orbison. The highlight of the evening: The two-parter where they steal Babylon 4. Zathras!

I was talking to MarcoPolo about Bab5, and he said he wanted to be G’Kar’s attache, to be near greatness and watch it unfold. I think I’d want to be Zathras, to be stupid and wise, and run the big machine that alters time, know everything and say things like, “Zathras live sad life, but Zatharas likely die sad death. So there is symmetry.”

G’Kar’s story arc is quite tasty though. Watching tonight, I kept thinking about how rarely we see a character develop so much in any storytelling form, much less on a science fiction TV show. Here’s a guy who watches his people get destroyed twice, the second time sacrificed for the greater good so that an important secret can be maintained, always getting the short end of the stick when it comes time to help out the ‘lesser’ races, tortured in a jail for a year… the show literally beats enlightenment into him over the course of five seasons. While he’s in prison, his journal is published, and he develops a following, which turns into something like a messianic cult. The reluctant zen master warrior. “Do you think wisdom is in this book? Here, put your face closer to the book so that you may see it better. Closer… Closer…” THWAK!