|
Thursday, 10 December 2009 (polyvinyl symphony) 8:47am There's a neat article about Bad Movie Night on examiner.com. Yay for press. 7:11pm Marta and I had dinner at Kiki last night. Much like Spices! II, I'm surprised it took us this long to make it there. (The reason, of course, is that we don't go out to eat very often for financial reasons.) We then came home, watched a couple more episodes of Clerks, then crashed. After we woke this morning we humped like teenagers in car, then I took her to work and drove to the Serramonte Target. My ostensible reason to look for xmas lights—I use them all year long, but 'tis the season to stock up—but this is also the only time I really enjoy shopping for clothes. Cardigans! Long coats with faux-fur lining! The rest of the time, shopping for clothes is just painful. (Looking back at those pictures from 2005, I can't help but notice I'm wearing shiny black pants. Inspiration!). The only thing I actually got was a sequined tank top which fits right now, but doesn't look so good with my huge flabby stomach sticking out. It'll look awesome twenty pounds from now, though. Which is why, after I came home and cleaned for a while, I went to the gym. This is the only way it works. Gotta go every day, or at least as many days as it possible. Chip away. | ||
 | ||
Wednesday, 9 December 2009 (false denials) 10:37am It's weird to think that my workweek is going to end in about an hour and a half. In addition to the whole "getting paid enough to not have to worry about paying the bills," I'm looking forward to just working forty hours a week again. I like the routine. It centers me. Of course, it helps when I actually enjoy my job, as I do here. And even though there are no promises being made, I think I have a really good shot at being hired on full time. If nothing else, my supervisor (also conveniently the head of the IT department) has bought me the kind of mouse and keyboard I like, as well as getting me a snazzy monitor, the kind he says he originally got for himself when he started here, so he knows it's good. And my work computer itself is a Mac. I'm not entirely sure what kind—it's a Mini, that's all I know for sure—but he assures me it's an older model, and that he'll soon be providing me with a much newer kind which goes a lot faster. So, yeah. Quite a few bucks are being invested in me, and I can't believe they would be doing that if they didn't want me to stick around for a while. It also helps that my supervisor is very happy with my work so far, and other people in the office have already started to ask for my help with various webmonkey-related things. This is all good, and kinda like when I started at Cubik, I'm feeling very lucky to have landed such a perfect job. I just have to ride out the financial trickiness until...whenever it's no so tricky. I do believe that they'll hire me for real as soon as they can, though, even if it won't be until after the first of the year. A lot of people have considered 2009 to be a very bad year. And I'm the first to admit that it wasn't my best, what with the whole losing my job and the upending of my life which resulted. So many of my clothes don't fit anymore because of my routine being so thoroughly interrupted, and that bothers me, but I also know that I've gotten into shape before—just a year ago, for pete's sake!—and I can do it again. It may not be with Raphaela, and in a perfect world I'd be able to start working with her again, but it will happen. And then there's Marta. She's the reason why I can't consider 2009 to be a truly bad year, because in a truly bad year her and I wouldn't have come together. Sure, we've had our difficulties, like that whole "breaking up" thing, and we'll always have problems because we're both profoundly flawed human beings and that's life, and it's better with her than without her. If anything, right now I feel a lot like I did in late 2005: at a new job, I'm in a love with a new girl, and everything's completely different than it was a year earlier. I know that it was the closest I'd ever come to undiluted happiness in my life, and I was (thankfully) conscious of it at the time. (As covered in chapter six of Bottomfeeder, "Flame," sure to hit bookshelves someday.) Things have changed, my life rearranged itself, and that's okay. That's what keeps things interesting. And when I look at pictures of myself from 2005—me and Ali at a work event right before we played hooky together, or in the back yard at The EndUp on a sunny, slightly E-ified Sunday afternoon, or at Unimatrix Zero after NakedSword's holiday video shoot—I see a level of happiness which I'm not too far off from right now. Or maybe I'm already there and don't quite realize it. Either way, it's up to me. 12:43pm Wow. Noon on Wednesday is definitely the best time to hit the Presidio YMCA. I practically have the joint to myself. Just so I'd know, I weighed myself. Holy fucking Jesus, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing: I'm pushing 220. Inspiration. That's gotta be what it is: inspiration. Because muscle may weigh more than fat, but those thirty pounds ain't from muscle. Right now, I have weight to lose and fat to burn. | ||
| ||
Tuesday, 8 December 2009 (the forgotten arm) 9:08pm Nope, no gym today, either. It's been cold, y'know? Really, really cold. There was frost on Phoebe this morning, and reports of snow and hail in parts of the City yesterday. The gym is inside, obviously, but still requires a certain degree of not being bundled up to get to and from the car, and...yeah. Plus the fact that I'm still not crazy about the Presidio YMCA. It's not very welcoming. But it's what I've got now, at least Monday through Thursday. Which isn't to say there hasn't been any excercise. I've been at The Dark Room this evening, playing Wii Sports with Jim. He bought the Wii console a while back but didn't get it hooked up until now, mainly because I asked about it. I didn't care for the boxing game (I don't like hitting), but I think I may be addicted to the golfing and tennis games. They're nothing compared to a good half hour of cardio, to be sure, but muscles were definitely worked. | ||
| ||
Monday, 7 December 2009 (a girl in need of a tourniquet) 1:12pm After having worked for a NakedSword, it's weird to reacquaint myself with the concept of "NSFW" (Not Safe For Work). The concept simply didn't apply. 10:22pm I've been watching a lot of Lost at home. It's my new thing, evidently. No gym this morning. Tomorrow? | ||
| ||
Sunday, 6 December 2009 (save me) 11:10pm I did manage to not mess up any of the sound cues in Brian last night. Hooray for small miracles. After the show, Marta and I hung out with Sadie's old roommate Phil, who moved away last year and is visiting this week. And he hosted Bad Movie Night this evening. It was a lot of fun, though not many people showed up, which I'm blaming less on the movie (The Polar Express) and more on the fact that it was rainy and cold. | ||
| ||
Saturday, 5 December 2009 (no way to distinguish) 2:36pm At Mocha 101 again. I'd orginally planned on getting here when they opened at eight, but I'm slothful so I didn't make it until around half past ten. As it happened, they were plenty late in opening themselves, and I didn't get in until eleven. In any event, here I am now. Heading into The Mission around five. The plan is to have dinner with Marta, and then not mess up the sound on Brian again. What could go wrong? (Nothing, that's what.) | ||
| ||
Friday, 4 December 2009 (port de la montagne) 9:55pm It's my second weekend doing sound for Life of Brian It was inevitable that I would make at least one big error, and it happened tonight, leaving the castmembers stranded as they waited for a cue that didn't happen. Alas. At least that's over with. Hit the Stonestown YMCA this morning, then spent most of the day writing at Mocha 101. This book wants to be written now. Sooner rather than later, anyway. | ||
| ||
Thursday, 3 December 2009 (why are you fearful) 1:01pm Marta came over last night. I made a Big Salad, we watched the original pre-Miramax version of Clerks followed by the first episode of the animated series. Then we went to bed and had lots of rough, sloppy sex. It was an excellent evening. I'm at Mocha 101 again. Upstairs loft, my own table, lamp, outlet, wifi, mocha, no glare from outside. This, I think is where Landing on Water will be mostly written. | ||
| ||
Wednesday, 2 December 2009 (love to see you shine) 5:14pm Got up at five this morning, made it to the gym by sixish or so. Near as I can tell, if I make it there by half past six, I've pretty much avoided the rush. (Now, if I can only stop eating so much late at night, especially my renewed love of cottage cheese with Russian dressing, I'll be doing all right.) Left work at noon, given that I'm only doing twenty hours. Feels weird, but there it is. I got more requests for help today, which is good. It's all about becoming indispensable. At Mocha 101. I'd hoped to get back to work on Landing on Water—it's at thirty thousandish words and counting—but instead I've been working on diary and Dark Room stuff. Which is okay, too. It needs to be done. And while it's not especially good writing, the Bad Movie Night listings are sorta becoming a body of work in their own right. I'd like to think so, anyway. | ||
| ||
Tuesday, 1 December 2009 (living just enough for the city) 8:39pm Made it to the Presidio YMCA at about a quarter past six this morning. It was better than it had been yesterday at a quarter past four in the afternoon, that's for sure. I didn't go again after work, but I do hope to get back into the twice-daily rhythm. Everyone seems to like me at the office, but I made one particular fan today—a woman whom I'd only met briefly before asked me to help her with a problem she was having with Joomla. When I figured it out for her, it was as though I'd removed a thorn from her paw. And it was all within earshot of my supervisor, which couldn't have hurt. Also got my first paycheck. It's probably a little bigger than they'll usually be because it includes the Symposium this past Sunday, but it's still nice to be getting paid again. For as grateful as I was to get UI (and will no doubt continue to be), I was never particulary proud of it. | ||
| ||