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Tuesday, 10 January 2012 (she reminds me of you) 11:13am After much back-and-forthing with the marketing guy, I've declined the current work assignment. It just doesn't pay enough for the stress, and I seriously burned out on the particular subject matter last year. They really want/need me to do it, and I should have said "no" sooner, and I feel like I'm playing chicken with them, or they're calling my bluff, or something. But, no. I just can't go back to those particular salt mines. 1:04pm Well, holy shit. It worked. They blinked. I don't have to do it. Feels like a huge weight has been lifted. I mean, seriously: the work order was asking for a miniumum of six hundred and fifty words for most pages, and pointing me towards examples which had about two hundred and fifty on them, tops, mostly in disjoined section and made up of marketing lingo that I can't really do much of anything with. And the money is not nearly close to enough. So, no, especially not with school starting in two weeks. Gotta make the most of this time, somehow. For today, that means erranding followed by the one-two of The Hot Tubs and dinner at Miller's Deli. 5:32pm We gave The Hot Tubs a miss—Marta could tell I wasn't quite up for it—and instead went straight to Miller's. And, not for the first time, I suspect that my gateway meat back into carnivorality will not be bacon (which it seems to be for most people), but will instead come in the form of a Brisket Reuben. I actually accidentally ate meat on Christmas at Edo-Ya, what I thought was tofu in my mom's soup but actually turned out to be chicken or possibly pork, and I didn't care for it at all. It tasted funny and it chewed weird, which is much more about me than it. | ||
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Monday, 9 January 2012 (letting go) 12:31pm The description of the class I'll be taking this semester: "Principles of information retrieval and their application to information systems and services. Emphasizing models of user information-seeking behavior, human information processing and their relationship to retrieval models in information systems." Par-tay! I now have fives article in the weekly's queue, only one of which isn't ready to go (a Q&A about fursuit-making with one of the founders of Further Confusion, the furry convention this upcoming weekend). And I just had a great idea for a new series of articles, one that almost feels so out-there that I'm almost tempted to bounce it past my editor first. But he might say no, so I'm gonna go ahead and start on them anyway and see what happens. 5:33pm Heading out to pick up Marta and bring her back home. | ||
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Sunday, 8 January 2012 (decisions and consequences) 10:31am Since my pancake cravings from last week have not entirely gone away, Marta is making them for breakfast. I could get used to this. Also, she loves me! 3:14pm We had lunch at Gordo's (thus satisfying Marta's own cravings for authentic taqueria fare), then decided to go the Cal Academy to see the reindeer again. As we were in line outside, the person behind us said i wonder if the hair matches the tail. My hoodie was up, y'see. We also were finally in the right place at the right time for the >snow, we visited the sandabs, and I really can't recommend the "touch an electric eel" simulator highly enough. bzzzzap! sometime after midnight Oh, thank goodness. The attendance dropoff for Transformers: Dark of the Moon at Bad Movie Night was not nearly as steep as it usually is for the second week. We didn't sell out, but it was a respectable audience, and most of the stayed for the long haul (and it's a painfully long movie). Hooray for momentum. | ||
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Saturday, 7 January 2012 (all about diffusion) 12:20pm Marta and I are at the Legion of Honor (which we get into free, just like the De Young and the Cal Academy of Sciences, because Marta's a member), broadening our minds and scaring the tourists. 2:08pm Thoroughly unrelated to the beginning of the year, I'm trying to lower my sodium intake. Thus far it's taken the form of curtailing or eliminating my hot sauce and soy sauce habits, and it's naturally a bit more difficult when I'm out in the world and have little-to-zero control over how my food is prepared. But goddamn, high in sodium or not, the Tortilla Chicken Salad (minus chicken) at Lou's Cafe is delicious. 4:11pm It always feels like a personal victory when a new piece of clothing—in this case, a Hot Chillys thermal undershirt from Sports Basement—which is size L fits me perfectly, and the XL is way too big. 7:33pm New ponies! | ||
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Friday, 6 January 2012 (her smile is contagious) 9:13am Working from Marta's today. Dash is right down the street, but there's no point. I'm finding my groove here. 7:12pm Marta and I are back at the Black Light District. I'd had tentative plans with KrOB for more Jerry Lewis, and the horror host guy (who I've kept in touch with) has supplied me with some awesome new Jerry stuff, but I'm erring on the side of being warm indoors with my girlfriend. 9:45pm We just watched Black Swan. It really left me cold, even compared to The Wrestler. Then again, my favorite post-Pi Darren Aronofsky film is The Fountain, the one that everyone else hates, so as always, my taste is suspect. | ||
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Thursday, 5 January 2012 (rising and converging) 12:42pm Still don't have what I need from the marketing guy to go ahead with the new project, and ignoring the fact that I'm really in need of the paycheck it'll bring me, it's okay because the current article I'm writing for the weekly (the second one on the kittypr0n is kicking my ass far more than it should. There's just so much that can be said, and so few words to do it in. I'm also having to dig deep into the archives, and not for the first time, I'm glad I wrote about things as they happened back in early 2002, and in ten years I'll be glad I wrote about early 2012. 3:58pm Heading to Marta's place to hang out with her for a bit, and from there I'm taking the train into the Castro to meet up with Davina and Mouse to see Melancholia. All I know is that it's by Lars Von Trier and it's about the end of the world, and that's all I need to know. 10:57pm Melancholia is brilliant, if surprisingly unchallenging after Antichrist. Just a few quick cuts and it could easily be PG-13. | ||
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Wednesday, 4 January 2012 (it wasn't me) 10:17am I'm not feeling a whole lot better, but I'm already way behind on work this week, so I'm going to work. And it's already a quarter past ten, which I don't approve of at all. 10:35am Not exactly what I was asking for, Universe, but thanks all the same: I just got a "we need several different, non-overlapping articles on a single boring topic ASAP" work order from the marketing guy. The life of the mind, wheee. 12:41pm Went on a stealth mission to the Stonestown Mall in search of a particular calendar. No luck, and malls remain scary, though I was happy to discover that the old Borders (which closed earlier this year along with all the others) now has a used bookstore called Ode squatting in it. Very cool. 8:14pm Haven't actually gotten started on that work order because I have yet to get certain bits of information I require to actually do it, but that's okay, because it's given me time to get caught up on everything else. And, since Sarah had to pass on getting together for television tonight (I was going to introduce her to Cougar Town, as she's decided that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is not her thing, oddly enough), I'm in for the evening. Which is fine. Haven't had a quiet night at home alone for a while. I may even watch Contagion, just because. | ||
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Tuesday, 3 January 2012 (the occasional reversion) 9:13am Yep, I feel horrible, mostly in my throat. Nothing productive is happening today. 7:35pm Astrid just wrote with a job listing for a Research Library Intern at Lucasfilm. And I'm qualified! The nature of the "technical, art and production training" they're looking for is a smidgen vague, but I think I've arguably done all those things (and my film degree may come in handy there), and they prefer current Library and Information Science graduate students, which is totally what I am. Not going to get my hopes up too much, but I really, realy want this. Now I just have to go about getting it. | ||
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Monday, 2 January 2012 (household apocalypse) 10:01am Hanging out with Ilene today. It's been a while. 3:25pm It's been a good day. We've done some various bits of erranding, had lunch at Tao Yin (and I had sushi from them last night for dinner with Jim and Erin), walked and sat in Dolores Park, and are now heading to Marta's place to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, because I apparently haven't give up that crusade just yet. 7:51pm Ilene and Marta and I watched the first four episodes, had dinner, and are now at Yancy's Saloon. Except for the three of us, it's pretty much a sausage party. Very straight-boy heavy. Ick. 10:33pm Marta and I gave Ilene a lift back to her place, then returned to the Black Light District. Cannot complain about 2012 at all so far, beyond the fact that I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, and even that's right on schedule. My New Year's Cold is a beloved tradition. | ||
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Sunday, 1 January 2012 (repeated in various arrangements) 11:49am I admire people like Marta who can stay up til half past four, then sleep for eight straight hours. I've never mastered that trick. Heck, she even napped for an hour or so at the party—not because she wasn't enjoying herself, but because it was half past one, and as she commented before she put her head on my lap and went to sleep, she's not twenty anymore. It meant I couldn't move around the party anymore, but that was okay. We were sitting on the couch in the chill room, and it I got to chat with Porter as we enjoyed the pretty lights on the ceiling. Besides, it sounded like there were things going on in the other rooms, especially involving Davina and Mouse, that I wouldn't want to be around anyway. The journey out to Berkeley was largely uneventful. The bus felt only slightly less crowded than it might on any other Friday night, and the BART didn't feel particularly festive at all. The last BART back into San Francisco at three in the morning was nearly deserted—we were going against the commute both ways, I suppose—but the real challenge was getting from Powell and Market-ish to Davina and Mouse's place in the Richmond, since both Liam and Daisy's car and Phoebe were parked there, and Phoebe was blocked in by their car, which itself was part of the reason we'd stayed so long. Marta would have been happier to leave earlier in the evening (which is to say, not long after midnight), but there wouldn't have been much point, since we couldn't have retrieved Phoebe on our own. Of course, we could have just, say, gone straight home on the Muni and then retrieved Phoebe this morning, but for whatever reason, that didn't seem to occur to either of us while at the party (or if Marta suggested it, I didn't pick up on it). In any event, after the Internet informed us that next 38 Geary wasn't due for an hour, Daisy finally managed to flag down a limo, whose driver charged us each ten dollars. That's probably very profitable when you're shuttling people from one club to another, but when it's all the way out to the Richmond, even the sixty dollars probably felt like taking a loss. It was a great bargain for us, though, and it got us home before the sun came up. Otherwise, I would have been truly hosed sleep-wise, as opposed to just mildly hosed like I am right now. Oh well. Four non-consecutive hours should be plenty. I'm just glad I'm not actually on mic at Bad Movie Night tonight. 3:26pm Marta and I are having a late-ish brunch at Sun Rise, where, among other things, I'm satiating an unexpected pancake craving. There are also soooo many Walks of Shame going by outside, providing constant entertainment. sometime after midnight Well, that was unexpected. I don't know if was thanks to the promo by FunCheap SF or The SF Weekly's Night and Day section or both or neither, but that was easily the biggest turnout we've ever had for our annual kickoff of Snakes on a Plane at Bad Movie Night. We usually get a sizable crowd, though we don't always sell out—we didn't last year—but in addition to packing the house well over the legal limit, Rhiannon tells me that not only was there a line out the door, but she had turn well over a dozen people away. This after about six people showed up on Christmas Day last week, and most of our audience was surely battling hangovers today, yet they showed up anyway. It's the best kind of unexpected, but, holy cow. I can only hope this momentum carries on for a while. There's always a drop-off on the second weekend of the year, but maybe it won't be quite as drastic a drop-off. My only regret of the night is that while we were trying to get everyone seated (and certain audience members were being persnickety about our adherence to certain fire regulations), a boy who I'd heard comment on my tail earlier in the evening came up to me and asked if I was a cat, idenfitying himself as a fox. Since my brain was in a whirl, I was needlessly brusque and dismissive, saying i do have a tail, yes before moving on to the next thing that required my attention. I'm feeling really bad about that. There's no excuse for being so discourteous, none at all, especially to someone who was being open and friendly. After the movie, we watched the new Mr. Plinkett review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and we announced it several times and invited the audience to stay and watch it with us, but very people other than our hardcore regulars stayed. Of course, it's a schoolnight, and I also suspect that most people don't know what the phrase "the new Mr. Plinkett review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" even means. All in all, not a bad way to start the year. | ||
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