2010-01-20 
 

love and breakfast cereal

Going back and tagging really old entries is...interesting. Some were, and still are, beautiful. Some were badly written and rather difficult to read because of that fact. And some were pure navel gazing, interesting to no one but my self in retrospect.

Well, until I become famous. When you're famous, suddenly what you ate for breakfast and other mundane details become interesting to the masses. So there's still hope!

Labels: blogging, memory lane, writing

* posted by me at 9:34 PM

(0) comments



2009-11-24 
 

lost

He opened his eyes slowly, like a lead character from a popular drama slowly coming to terms with suddenly strange surroundings, and wondered why it was so hard for him to come up with an original idea.

He spent the next moments of the new day getting ready for work and trying to erase the drama's theme song from his mind. This was made particularly difficult by the fact that though it lasted mere seconds, and was played by no instrument he could identify, the sound managed to echo an anguished yelp slowly escalating in terror. A yelp that too accurately summed up his current mood to be easily dislodged.

Labels: writing

* posted by me at 10:18 PM

(0) comments



2009-11-23 
 

the bargain

take my heart and shove it deep inside Yourself,
far away from the vagaries of the world
in turn I'll take your soul and suck slowly,
relishing each newly discovered layer

love may hurt, but it beats the alternative

Labels: g, writing

* posted by me at 10:33 PM

(0) comments



2009-10-26 
 

there's an echo in this room

Wow, it got empty in here. The smell of dust and disuse hangs in the air. Perhaps I ought to just shut the door and seal off this particular room, let it be discovered by some web archeologist out there in future world. An HTML snapshot of random man's life.

Except here I am, hovering in the doorway, unwilling to say goodbye quite yet.

Labels: blogging, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 10:33 PM

(1) comments



2008-10-01 
 

revisions

We are all, always, revising our own personal history.

Labels: blogging, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 5:55 PM

(0) comments



2008-04-09 
 

whither anastasia?

First, thanks to the snafu with Blogger, I lost my ability to blog. Now that it's all fixed, I've lost my...verve? Yes, I've been in a bit of a funk due to the interview thing and not much up for sharing the day to day, but also most of my writing time has gone into editing up this odd piece I've been obsessed with since last fall. It's undergone quite a few revisions since I dug it out of my past and it really did need some finessing. Overall I'm quite happy with the results, but...

I'm afeared it may be just a tad too twee right now. Probably ought to sit on it for a week before sending it off on its merry little way.

In other and only very slightly related news, since last fall I've been tagging my blog entries. A few every time I do a new entry, but given that I have over 900 to go back over, this is a long term project. That said, I have managed to hit about 500 or so already and was a bit surprised when I came across my original review of Queer Eye and there was no GAY tag to hook onto it. Thus, in honor of Margaret Cho, I just created "the gay" tag. (apologies to MC if the below is misquoted)

My mom used to give me messages like this: "Ummmmm... Scott called.... IS HE THE GAY??!!"
"Well, God, Mom, I don't know if he's THE gay... that's a lot of pressure on just one guy. He has to do the parade all by himself! 'I'm here! I'm queer! ...I guess I'm the only one.'"

I've heard that not being overly obsessive is a good thing, so I will not go back and find the other 100 or so previously tagged entries which "the gay" tag might also have applied to...at least not today.

Labels: dose of mikey, the gay, writing

* posted by me at 5:24 PM

(0) comments



2008-01-10 
 

where did those days go?

Logged in and realized that it's been almost a week since I last posted. Since my current unemployed status would seem to offer me time to actually come in here more often I need to think back.

Well, we had a weekend. Spent Friday night hanging out with Stuffed Animals and his hilarious wife. (she always has me giggling) This is becoming a Friday night habit I'm not willing to break.

Somewhere in there the weather started to succumb to global warming - or maybe just a shift in the jetstream - and we've been in the 50s ever since.

Spent Monday eve with Dude and Dudette, which was lovely and mellow and involved good food and good wine and great company. In fact, I think I need to start using a new nickname for them as a couple...Dudzes? The Almost Wed? Cute Young Couple? Maybe I'll keep it simple and call them the Sibs. That's what they are after all.

Headed down Cape on Tuesday so Mom could look at a new chair. Ended up spending some quality time afterwards on the Sandwich Beach boardwalk. (and enjoyed the oddly warm, albeit windy, weather)


G with the Sandwich Beach Christmas Tree

Yesterday I had a nasty misunderstanding with a good friend, but that's all over now though it made me realize that I'm skating on rather thin ice mentally with the whole money issue and need to keep tabs on that to prevent cracks.

In an attempt to thicken the surface a bit, I did turn to the best therapy I know of and finally typed in the first chapter of the ghost story that's been bubbling around in my brain for a while now. We'll see if I actually do something with that, but it was quite nice to sit up towards the top of the parentals' garden yesterday and tap away at it.

Today I'm just glued to the computer doing the odd job search and finally updating in here. That and playing Scrabulous on Facebook. Only on my first game and already pleasantly addicted to the whole idea.

Oh, should mention that I've been accompanied on all of the above, except the misunderstanding by G. (though he did offer sane and calming comments when I mentioned it all to him) The best bit about not having a job right now is getting to spend more time with him. Also, he's been a saint over the past few months with all he's doing to help out and keep a big smile on his face when I need to see it and really deserves a special shout out for being such a good monkey.

Labels: 1000 words, dose of mikey, g, shout out, writing

* posted by me at 10:43 AM

(1) comments



2008-01-03 
 

okay, now it's cold

Even with all the snow in December and the chilly wind and the sleet and the shoveling and the delays and icy windshields, I'd slowly been coming to think that maybe New England winters just weren't as cold as my memory told me they were.

Thankfully, today's subzero windchill factor proved that there's no need for an addition of ginkgo biloba to my diet. It cold.

Yes, so cold that the word "cold" in the previous sentence acts as a verb. "Be" decided to stay indoors by the fire.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 8:17 PM

(0) comments



2008-01-02 
 

a lifetime of paper

Spent a good part of my day continuing the search for the paper. Have I told you about the paper?

The paper is something I wrote during my sophomore year of college that I've been looking for over the past two months. Convinced that it would be in a specific box in the storage unit I stretched myself in all the wrong places shortly before Thanksgiving looking for it in there. While I did find journals and writing from the early and mid 90s, the paper was not amongst them.

Frustrated, I ate some turkey and took a break.

Shortly before Christmas I popped up into the attic to see if the paper lived on in some forgotten box. I did find a box full of fat clothes and other high school mementos that provided some amusement, but no paper. There were other boxes, but they were guarded by summer fans and a rather heavy bookshelf...and I had other things to do....like try on the fat clothes and discover that they once again fit me.

Today, energized by the new year, I crawled up into the chill of the attic and blasted my way through the fans and bookshelf to the boxes in the back row. So many boxes. I've gone through four already and found that those easily consolidated down into one box. Well, once I'd sent several reams of paper to the recycling bin. To be fair, most of this was photocopied texts that professors handed out over the years. No need to hang onto that anymore with most everything available online.

But to be honest, there was other stuff in there too. The usefulness of many of the scraps I'd saved has faded. Why, for instance, did I save a cup of soup pouch given to me by my first girlfriend? Well, yes, it did provide a hearty meal for some creature(s) as evidenced by the sawdust all throughout that particular box, but other than that I'm mystified by my motivation.

I did discover a metal filing cabinet amidst the boxes that holds old writing. Tomorrow's project will be to search for the paper in there.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 7:05 PM

(0) comments



2007-12-27 
 

penguin poetry

Christmas was crazy hectic and rather wonderful all at the same time. More on that at a later date.

Today, if you dare, experience something I found up in the attic in a box full of flotsam and jetsam from my teenage years that I've been trying to clean up. I'm pretty sure given the strata that I found this particular piece that I would've been about 16 or 17.

A good friend calls similar ramblings that he's found in his own archives bad teenage poetry. I'm pretty sure this fits into that category, but it makes me realize that I have little memory of exactly where my head was at during this point in my life.

I look as the haze of summer rises off of the sea;
the waves ripple onto the steaming sand.

A boat full of penguins lands at the wharf,
they waddle to the beach and play in the hot white sand.

The king penguin lets forth a roar,
and a great whale comes and spouts a geyser of snow.

I look as the arctic wasteland forms around me.
The penguins play in the snow as icy water ripples into nowhere.

Was this a metaphor for my life at the time, or was I simply dreaming of air conditioning on a super hot day? More importantly, did you need to read that? Probably not, but now I can safely discard the decades old pink napkin that I originally wrote it on. (And that does tell you something about where my head is at these days.)

Labels: dose of mikey, memory lane, writing

* posted by me at 10:11 AM

(0) comments



2007-11-14 
 

sore

Spent a few hours today playing a complicated game of move the boxes in our storage unit in order to get at some paperwork stored in one little box at the very back of the unit.

THe fact that this particular box was placed on the floor beneath several larger boxes and a piece of furniture or two made the game extra challenging. Any false move could have created an avalance with yours truly wedged underneath.

Point is that I finally got the contents of the box out (as the box was wedged in just so) and took them home. Now, rifling through them was fun as they were mostly diary entries and half written stories from the 90s. That said, the pages I was looking for were not in the batch and I'm afeared I'll be heading back on the hunt again tomorrow.

Going to go take an extra stregth something or the other in order to dull the slowly growing ache in my back. AHHH. Thank you modern medicine.

Labels: cross country, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 5:30 PM

(0) comments



2007-09-04 
 

a precious problem

Just a few quick lines to note that it is near impossible for me to use the word precious anymore without having Gollum's little voice echo in my head.

Typing up a comment on my trip to the Grand Canyon and actually wrote,
Stopping on a bridge that crossed the Colorado river, I purchased a ring from a Navajo roadside sale that remains precious to me today because of the memories I associate with it.

True, the fact that it's a ring I'm talking about made the need to change precious to special even more dire, but still I'm a bit annoyed by the need. Precious was always such a nice word. I'd like it back please.

Oh, and for what it's worth, it's about three years since I started, but this weekend saw the final transcribing from original journal to web for the Incredible Adventure page, and pictures too. Whoot!

Labels: writing

* posted by me at 2:11 AM

(0) comments



2007-05-30 
 

well run dry

i have many good ideas at the wrong moment

moments late at night just before sleep

moments in the shower when all's too wet

ideas that i want to expound on

ideas that would make brilliant, scintilating blog entries

too many ideas to count

yet i sit here, brain-numbed from work, and not one of them comes to me

i'm left pondering the emptiness instead

Labels: blogging, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 5:35 PM

(0) comments



2007-01-08 
 

sparks

An experiment.

Original Text captured on PDA during walk to Muni on March 13th of last year. (Inspiration often hits by the statue of Georgia O'Keefe in Walton Square.)

the battery hed been carrying in his sweaty palm had some spark of life left after all and th resulting shock when the sweat hit critical mass, while minor, turne d out to be just enough to jolt him out of his reverie. that's when he noticed her. Standing on the corner of 3rd and mission, like a sail that had come unattached from the main mast, swaying gently in the breeze.

Text reworked today, January 8th 2007. I tried to remain true to my original intent from that March day.

The battery Jon had removed from the camera had some spark of life left after all. He'd been grasping it tightly in his right hand while maneuvering the camera back into its case, but with no trash can nearby, he kept hold of it and had soon forgotten it altogether.

The tightness of his grip combined with the heat of the day resulted in a shock when the sweat in his palm hit critical mass. While minor, it turned out to be just enough to jolt him out of the reverie he'd enjoyed since leaving the museum. That's when he noticed her. Standing on the corner of 3rd and Mission, like a sail that had come unattached from the main mast, swaying gently in the breeze.

Stay tuned. I may try to revisit this again in the future...if I remember. BTW, my intent was to capture the idea about the battery and the image of the woman in the breeze.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 10:06 PM

(0) comments



2006-05-01 
 

random thoughts

The scattered journals that tell the story of my life before this blog need to be taken as a group to get a true picture of where and who I was at any given time. One for travels. One for random thoughts. One for whining. One for drug or alcohol induced musings. One for story ideas. One for sexcapades. One for bad poetry.

Since starting this blog, I haven't reached for them as much. (Though I haven't tortured you all with too much bad poetry, and I do try to avoid mentioning matters sexual out of courtesy to G who isn't as keen to have that side of our lives exposed on the internet...and okay for those friends of mine who are about to call me out on that last comment, I admit that I'd rather not discuss them in a forum frequented by my parents, okay?)

Point is that I recently went back and reread some of the musings I was having at the turn of the century and realized something. Then, I had no clue what I was doing in life, but I was mostly having fun doing it. Now I have a pretty good clue about what I'm doing, but I worry about whether it's the right thing to be doing. I'm generally happy enough and realize that working toward a goal is a good thing, but if the world blows up tomorrow I'll really be wishing that I'd taken more time to eat, drink and be merry.

Still, the voice inside my head keeps telling me, "All may yet be very well." I'm choosing to believe it for now.

Labels: dose of mikey, g, writing

* posted by me at 12:31 AM

(2) comments



2006-03-25 
 

line for sale

Ever get a song stuck in your head? I have a similar problem right now. Every once in a while a line from some unwritten story comes to me out of the blue and gets wedged in my mind. Currently it's the following:

He had an exceptionally large nose that seemed to have been made primarily for the purpose of snorting cocaine.

Currently writing an elaborate fantasy piece and a short story about a practical joke that goes wrong. No place for the line in either of those.

Any takers? I'll let you have it cheap.

Labels: writing

* posted by me at 6:25 PM

(0) comments



2006-03-03 
 

green pen

Oh green pen...Greeny Greeny!
Writing on my sticky note pad so fine a line.

I wish sometimes I could be you,
with your precise edge and happy color,
but I can only wax rhapsodic about your wonderfulness
and barr my ears to the coworkers who call me odd.

Labels: sharketing, writing

* posted by me at 2:03 PM

(0) comments



2006-03-01 
 

flat

When you let all the air out of a balloon, it seems to loose its beauty. Closer examination of the flattened rubber reveals an object that is beautiful in a different way; delicate folds and a mysterious powdery substance that leaks out from the inside.

Besides, it's fun to stretch between your fingers and create a snapping noise when you let go.

Labels: writing

* posted by me at 10:58 PM

(0) comments



2006-02-01 
 

insert text here

Witty opening remark.

Carefully crafted anecdote.

Self serving analysis.

Clever conclusion.

Labels: blogging, writing

* posted by me at 12:35 AM

(0) comments



2006-01-20 
 

slow burn

This blog will be 4 years old soon. I started on 2/2/02. There was something nice and round about that date that I wanted to preserve so I made an extra effort to get it up and running in time. There's something significant about hitting 4 years of blogging too, but I'm not sure what.

Maybe it's just that I actually started a writing project and stuck with it, albeit sporadically, for such a long time.

Pretty good, that.

Labels: blogging, writing

* posted by me at 6:57 PM

(0) comments



2005-12-26 
 

merry

Had a pretty wonderful long weekend, just me and G and a Christmas tree.

Noticed a lot of unrest during the preceeding holiday season. Folks upset about the commercialism and obligation of the holidays. I have to admit, I just don’t get it.

Okay. I understand that the holiday has transitioned over many years from a day of purely religious significance to a Vegaslike Extravaganza with bells and whistles and too many lights….but that’s just what they’re selling. You don’t have to buy it.

Christmas for me is still about remembering that peace should be our ultimate goal, spending time around a decorated tree with the family…oh and that guy who walked around 2000 years ago suggesting we all be a bit nicer to each other. Not his followers or those that came to interpret his words afterwords. Just him and a message of peace.

I moved out to SF before my extended family imploded,and in many ways I’m lucky for that. Going back for the holidays after the family tree trunk had been split was a bit more stressful than I would’ve liked with the new scheduling challenges, but I didn’t get to see any of them very often so it wasn’t very different than visiting during the non-holiday season.

It's also true that these days Christmas leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth, but that’s because my faith in eventual peace for this planet is a lot less solid than when I was a child. Somehow, back then, it was easy to believe that the crowd of people standing around me and singing Silent Night while holding slowly dripping candles truly believed in the underlying message of hope and joy. I guess I’m lucky that my family kept focused on that side of things instead of concentrating on the gifting and RECIEVING.

I’ve since been introduced to cynicism and keeping up with the Joneses. Slowly I came to realize that not every one who complained about the season was truly a Grinch or a Scrooge. They were overcome with the stress of trying to see everyone all in one day so that no one felt slighted….and some people assumed an OBLIGATION to give gifts. That’s not fun! I like giving gifts. I wish I had more money to do it with, but I somehow avoid the feeling of guilt if all I can do is send someone a card. Like I mention above, my parents always made it very clear that Christmas meant hope, love and joy. That it really wasn’t about the presents at all. That lesson stuck.

Now it’s true, my adult self recognizes that sometimes a Grinch’s heart will stay just the same size, and that Scrooges have been known to die miserly and alone. In a twisted way these facts make my clinging to hope more relevant. These people need the rest of us to keep believing that change can happen, they need to see the rest of us acting a bit nicer to each other if we’re ever going to convince them that there’s another way to be.

Sure it should last all year through and many people do try to remember that. But if for some it’s only about a month each year where they try a bit harder to be kind to one another amidst the flashing neon signs selling sales, I’ll take it. Maybe it’s some of them we ought to be helping. Help them let go of what they think Christmas needs to be.

What it boils down to is that the holiday is what you make of it. I happen to like Christmas trees, with simple lights and handmade decorations. So that’s what we do. G likes cutting down our own tree. So we do that too. I’d never cut one down before meeting him, but it’s tradition now, because we decreed it as such. It’s that easy. If you don’t like Christmas traditions…or Hanukah, Kwanza or Solstice traditions for that matter, change them into something more relevant to you and your world. The message this time of year, as much as any other, should be one of hope for what could be and joy for that which we already have.

Remember your power to decree your own traditions. If you decide that Christmas ought to be about expressing your artistic side through a house covered in lights, go for it. If you decide it’s only about calling out to a few special folks, then forgo the gifts, cards and trees, it’s really okay. Even if you decide it’s about nothing at all, that’s your choice too.

Just don’t ever tell me that my Christmas is wrong because it differs from your ideas of what it should be and tends to be inclusive instead of exclusive. There’s a little kid in me still hoping for peace and I’d like to keep him alive as long as possible.

Merry holidays everyone!

Labels: dose of mikey, g, writing

* posted by me at 4:11 PM

(0) comments



2005-12-10 
 

spell check

Long story short, I sometimes use the Blogger interface as a spell checker when I'm typing in other web pages. I thought it would be funny to start saving each of these random strings here as a draft and eventually publish them.

I might be very wrong, but here they are:

I'm very good at covering dirt with flowers. Metaphorically speaking.

So I'm a happy pagan...or a virtuous pagan or something to that affect. Doomed to a peaceful sadness. That pleases me in an odd way, but I'm a little skeptical.

Unless they're wearing some stereotypical matching outfits that consist of too much gold lame, then the bad fashion cancels out the cute.

Waiting for the person in front of you to finish bagging up before you start scanning is not efficient at all and causes unnecessary stress to the person in front of you since you're standing there staring daggers at them while they do a bad job of packing up their groceries.

you didn't mention the helicopters flying overhead until well after midnight...those added to the general cacophony and gave the neighborhood a cozy wartime feel

All that being said, ties are a tool of the devil and should only be worn as headbands during serious air guitar sessions.

that being said, the flying car article rekindled the almost dead embers in my heart that used to rage for Jetsonian innovations

The opening "mirror" shot of the Thames and the semi-cultured notes made me feel as though this must be worthy television because it was British. Only later did I make the connection that Benny Hill shared the same distributor.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 12:33 AM

(1) comments



2005-07-31 
 

writing off line

I've been spending some time writing off line these days. Thoughts and memories that might distress some of my loyal readers. Good to get it all out though. Writing is good therapy...especially for reexamining demons from the past in the light of the present.

As for the present, I have nothing more than happiness to report. Dinner with KW and crew went swimmingly, with lots of laughter and fun times remembered. The only downside being that G wasn't feeling too well and spent the evening at home in bed. I really did hope he'd get a chance to meet KW as I've always seen her as a positive force in the universe.

On the upside, I now get to go back to Andalu with G at a later date. Too good to keep to myself.

Labels: dose of mikey, g, linkage, writing

* posted by me at 5:08 PM

(0) comments



2005-03-11 
 

haiku #1

this morning's haiku
washed away in the shower
leaving me with this

Labels: writing

* posted by me at 2:44 AM

(0) comments



2005-03-09 
 

very punny

Being prone to bad puns, today's title could've been any number of things, but sadly I had to choose just one. Fortunately for me, it's my blog, so I get to torture you with all of them instead of letting them fester inside my head.

Hair today, gone tomorrow.
A hair raising experience.
Lighter than hair.
Hair's looking at you kid.

Yes, after several months of barely trimmed growing, I finally buckled down and got myself a haircut. I'll honestly miss the shag-eared villian I was turning into, but a recent need to look "presentable" keeps me from going completely moptop.

So now I'm all clean cut, with some Star Trek type sideburns. Not sure if they'll survive the morning shave tomorrow, but for now I feel all hip and shit.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 2:04 AM

(0) comments



2005-02-26 
 

fairy tales

Over the past month I've had two reasons to contemplate the ethics of blogging. The first came, oddly enough, from a university student doing a survey about Ethics in Blogging. The second came from certain comments that folks made about the veracity of Secret Simon's site (new link to left). Here's the way I figure it:

Mikey's Blog Manifesto

I blog because I want to, not because I'm trying to impress the likes of you.

Achieving originality has become near impossible in most mediums, but even more so on the increasingly level playing field of blogs. Google shows about 2000 returns for "blog manifesto" and jumps to well over 400,000 when you remove the quotation marks. Blogging is not about being the first with an idea or the first to report on events, it's about expressing your thoughts on ideas and events.

I blog my own personal truths.
A. Based on Actual Facts
B. Loosely Based on Actual Facts
C. Based Completely on Imagined Situations
If I'm in a good mood, I might differentiate which of the above you're reading, but it's not my responsibility. If you know me personally, you might know the real truth, otherwise assume it's all C...It'll make you less cranky.

Reading a blog is a choice you make, not something I've forced you into. If you don't like what Famous Author says about Controversial Topic, you can put the book down. Likewise, if you don't like what I'm saying, click away.

If you disagree with my views/opinions feel free to say so, but don't be surprised should I delete comments that I view as offensive. My blog, my rules. If that disturbs you, find your own little corner of the internet to shout it from. I can't stop you, nor -believe it or not- would I want to. Freedom of Expression in all of it's incarnations is the right I treasure most as an American. Be it religious, political or other, if I'm not causing physical harm to another human being, don't tread on me. Try and take this right away from me though, and I will fight you.

I reserve the right to edit and/or add to this manifesto at any given point without consulting you. So there.

Labels: blogging, dose of mikey, linkage, writing

* posted by me at 4:00 PM

(1) comments



2005-01-03 
 

memories of a day mare

I took my lunch break at my desk today in order to read through recaps of some of my fave shows on Television Without Pity.

I've avoided TWP for quite some time now because I knew that it would become like heroin to me, yet another maze to lose myself in on the internet. See, what I love about the internet is the words. Pictures, moving images, and sound all add to the experience, but I'm almost happier with a text-centric page since I've always had the ability to bring text to life inside my head. It's not as intense when reading non-fiction, but exists in a watered down form. The more descriptive the passage, the better the trip.

I don't read fiction as often as I'd like because this ability to shut out everything but the vision of what I'm reading can sometimes distract from important happenings in the physical world around me. This made itself clear again today when a link from a page on TWP describing an episode of LOST took me for a ride into memory town.

The author made a reference to a series of books I'd been quite obsessed with as a teenager. He also kindly linked to a web page recapping each chapter. Only a few lines to describe each chapter, but the characters and places depicted jumped back to life for me as if I'd only left them yesterday. Entire story lines were pulled from somewhere in my subconscious and began playing again.

Sitting at your desk and having a vision of a story you once knew is not the best thing to be doing at work. My parents used to tell me that they could've cracked an egg over my head while I was reading and I would only have noticed should the yolk come between myself and the pages.

The VP who stopped by didn't have an egg and it took him tapping me on the shoulder to break me out of it.

Now a tap on the shoulder may not seem a worthy alert based on my earlier mention of a cracked egg on the head so I need to confess to the following: It wasn't the tap that actually alerted me, but the fact that someone had "invaded" my cube. Funny how easy it is to feel territorial about a small square of space that the company truly owns.

Fortunately it was just after lunch, and the VP's a nice guy, but I don't think he would've been quite as amused if it had been a bit earlier or later in the day.

All that being said, I wouldn't trade my ability to fade into the written word for anything in the world. In fact, I plan to indulge in it a bit more often -at appropriate times of course- in hopes of avoiding a future workplace incident.

Labels: dose of mikey, linkage, memory lane, random review, reading, sharketing, writing

* posted by me at 11:03 PM

(0) comments



2004-12-16 
 

santa's woods

There could've been several entries tonight. I think I'm facing a bit of a psychic bottleneck due to a lack of time for writing.

the mistaken trick - a tale from my past, but perhaps a bit too ribald for the gentler reader (i do try to put most things through the e filter)

raises in strange places - which sounds ribald, but is actually an odd tale of my workaday world

teleportation troubles - a plea to inventors to finally create one so that i can visit the east coast on a regular basis without boarding a plane

LOST - ooooh addicted as of last night

but now i've lost the urge to type....the mouse elbow is begining to twinge and i've realized just how hungry i am and how late it is

so i'll leave you with some pictures of last weekend to ponder - we chopped down our own tree

Labels: 1000 words, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 10:39 PM

(0) comments



2004-09-13 
 

my turn turn turn

I'm putting myself away for safe keeping.

Wrapping myself up in tissue paper to keep the dust off

and Sealing it together with duct tape.

I fear that something bad's about to happen

so I'm running from it, running from the universe.

The event will come to me anyway.

Rip off the delicate paper

and Expose me to harsh reality.

Somewhere in my mind I know this,

yet Ignore the knowledge that's been given to me.

Feeling safe in cozy darkness.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 2:49 AM

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2004-08-10 
 

pause

The theme song from Cheers has been stuck in my head all day. Been online quite a bit this past week, but not blogging. Offline, but still on the computer, I've been playing with the Makin' Magic expansion pack for the Sims. Yes, it sucks time away just like television, but it works the brain a bit more than the other glowing box. Sometimes life needs to be about doing something cheap and cheerful to amuse yourself in order to save money, so I'm pretty happy with this course of action.

Of course I could write more too, but somehow I just haven't been in the mood this past week. I feel like I'm almost on the cusp of something. A bit like being on the far side of a wave as it rises. You feel the water tugging you up against the force of gravity. Trick is to paddle really quick to the crest and WOOOOOOOSH you're flying along.

Don't know that I have the energy to paddle right now. Might have to wait for the next wave.

That's the nice thing about the Ocean...there's always another wave.

Of course it's also true that you have to time that paddle to the crest just right. Paddling too fast or too soon just puts you too far past the near side of the wave where you're liable to be pounded down instead of forward.

Ah rationalization. I'm very good at it.

Labels: dose of mikey, spirit, writing

* posted by me at 1:21 AM

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2004-07-20 
 

onward and upward

In a recent post I was kvetching about Netscape's gremlins snatching a long rant from under my nose and blah, blah, blah. I know there's code under here somewhere, but Blogger's made it even easier to not think about it by giving me this very user friendly interface. (which you can't see, but it's all very Wordpad up in my menu bar.)

No more figuring out what the correct character replacement for "<" or ">" is. Everything changes.

In other news, I discovered a title today. I can't tell you what it is, because in my own personal cosmology giving away titles before they're ready kills stories. This is a story I don't want to kill. It's been brewing in my head for quite some time now and I'm hoping it comes out in one piece. As if it were a cake that's liable to get stuck in the pan. I hate it when that happens. So hard to frost.

This again probably means nothing to y'all, but I did discover something else today that I can share. Sometimes it's good thing to be stuck on public transportation without access to a notebook to write stuff down in. It forces you to keep it all in your head and whole chapters fall into place in the time it may've taken to find a pen and get a sentence down had you been elsewhere.

In other news:

There's a story I've been telling myself for quite some time now, and I've gotten quite good at it. It's the story of my life.

You might think that your own life story would be an easy one to tell, but try it someday. What actually happened yesterday becomes too easily veiled by all the moments inbetween. Each one a single translucent sheaf thinner than the finest silk, but by the time you try and reach through to 100 yesterdays ago, the veil has become a solid and impenetrable wall. It's easy to think that you only need to concentrate on the big events, but it's often the smaller moments that end up affecting us most deeply while the events that memory tells us were all important can easily trail off into inconsequence.

Whether you find yourself weaving in and out of anecdotes like a toddler who's only just learning to walk, or leaping back and forth between topics like a crack-head who's just had a smoke really depends on your energy level at the time, but weave and leap you will.

Anyway, they say everyone has a story somewhere inside of them, and this is mine. It starts just outside TS 1.

I had just stomped out one last cigarette before walking into the main terminal. This was shortly before breaking the habit became mandatory again due to unforseen interactions between the fake shmoke and Mincom technology. True, they couldn't actually kill you anymore and were no more physically addictive than bubblegum, but I jumped on the fad when it started back in the 30s and found myself loath to give it up when it changed back from fad to fringe. It should've been easy. Another RubberDog(tm) to store up in the attic until the inevitable recraze hits. The thing is, I found the actual act of smoking to be a calming one. The deep inhalation on the first fag of the day, the quiet moments to myself, the secret camaraderie between the few smokers left. I kept at it along with what trackers let us know was 7.2% of the population and had soon had memorized the few locations where smoking was still permitted. (Even though they were safe and smokeless, the XYZ crowd that was running the country refused to repeal any of the archaic laws. Turns out this was a good thing, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.)

See what I mean about weaving? I've told myself this story every day for the past two years and still wind up going off on tangents.

So I'm outside TS 1.

Labels: blogging, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 12:35 AM

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2004-01-14 
 

mailing anastasia

Interesting that you should write me about Spalding Gray. G just mentioned it last night and we got into an odd convo which I heard like this....

G: Did you hear Spalding Gray's missing?
M: Umm....no...he sounds familiar...who is he?
G: You know, the actor swimming to Cambodia
M: From?
G: New York.
M: (disbelieving) He is not!
G: Yes he is, it's in the news!
M: Why would anyone do that?
G: Disappear?
M: Swim all that way!

Yes, I can be a lunkhead sometimes. I never saw STC but I have seen other things he's been in.

ANYway. I'm feeling the winter right now. I'm trying to live in the moment, but find myself obsessing about it in a way that's not very healthy. I'm self diagnosing myself as a minor depressive, but I don't want to get help. I'm afraid of losing myself if I start taking an antidepressant. I just need more sunlight and a nice GnT in my hand. I keep remembering a moment in time from the White Party several years back where I was sipping on some fruity drink and laying in the sun with a bunch of friends, all of us quietly grooving and letting the trailmix do its business.

Where's my Golden Ticket?

In other news:

He rolled over and hugged the pillow to himself, breathing in the light scent of product and sweat that permeated it. In the absence of his lover, it would have to do.

Note: G and I are fine. It's just something that came to me last night as I was computer widowed.

Ruminating on: The importance of siblings. Familial and otherwise.

Hmmm. I think you just helped me write a blog entry. Thanks!

Labels: dose of mikey, g, spirit, writing

* posted by me at 7:28 PM

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2003-07-29 
 

snap, crackle, pop

G built a fire and it's time to go sit in front of it, so I'll keep this short. I'm excited about a new idea I have, but having lived with myself for over 33 years now, I know that one of the worst things to do with a new idea is to talk about it too much. Must let it germinate for a while, gain nutrients...grow. The hard part is realizing when it's time to let it out....but it'll certainly be a little while before I share it with all and sundry. That being said, I do have some sonagrams if anyone's interested. Just let me know. :) <----- oooh, emoticon in a web entry...how lazy!

Labels: dose of mikey, g, writing

* posted by me at 12:07 AM

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2003-06-29 
 

malapropism

Just a quick note to say that caveat emptor would have been a more appropriate expression than TANSTAAFL in yesterday's blog. Last night I had a dream in which I was reading a Heinlein book and one of the characters was explaining the difference between the two phrases. The subconscious mind is a strange thing.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 11:19 PM

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2003-06-01 
 

i love him

He's here.
I love him.
He invades the corners of my mind.
I love him.
When I'm on my own.
I love him.
Far from me, in someone elses mind.
I love him.
When I'm far away.
I love him.
Others come and go...
I love him.
When he's gone for a walk.
I love him.
Far away from anything I thought.
I love him.
When we're fighting.
I love him.
He'll never leave me.
I love him.
He's mine.
I love him.

Labels: g, writing

* posted by me at 9:03 AM

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2003-05-21 
 

mini-prayer

I want!
I want!
I want!
but i don't really need....

i have love, food, shelter,
steady income, support from friends,
so many options of what to do with my spare time...
i have spare time
i have good books to read
i have someone to snuggle up with on a quiet evening
i have quiet evenings...

Yet sometimes I still make it seem so rough,
so don't test me like Job.
I'll fall flat on my face.

Labels: writing

* posted by me at 1:27 AM

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2003-04-28 
 

lament

It's not my time to cry yet.
You think it's maudlin, what I do-
imagining a future that has not come, that may not ever be...
but I know that within me I have the strength
and that I shall be asked to bear the burden
some sun dappled day not yet come.

I stand strong now
like I will then
waiting for the day when i must
stand alone.

Labels: g, writing

* posted by me at 2:56 AM

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2003-04-17 
 

rising

This article on empire is a bit of what I was talking about right here.

It's actually something that I've thought about quite a bit. Shortly after college, I had a whole story treatment developed. It was going to be a series of three books under the grand title of The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. The first book was called Empire Rising and started off with a nationwide group of GenXers taking over the government. (by using their powerful positions as assistants and temps of course) I was rather excited about it for a while, but got a bit overwhelmed by the Tolstoyesque scope I was planning and ended up having to talk it all over one night with a friend and too much beer. Since then I've recognized the fact that talking about an idea stops it from developing inside myself...once it's out in the open, I lose the need to get it down on paper. Ah, what might've been.

Labels: dose of mikey, linkage, writing

* posted by me at 12:56 AM

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2002-06-07 
 

write on

I'm finding that more and more of my friends are actually popping onto this site to see what's up in the life of Mike...and some strangers too. Overall it feels good, though a little intimidating. The intimidating part is actually good as well. One of my main reasons for starting this site is that I love to write, but I've always been afraid of putting myself out there. What a wonderful way to get over it! Knowing that someone from Singapore or New Zealand just peeked into my site is cool, but it also forces me to let go. I have no control over how they'll interpret my words or how they might use them to judge me as a human being. I need to have confidence that my intent comes through. More importantly, if someone doesn't like what I have to say, that's ok.

In a related topic, want to give a shout out to Bunny G. Rock on!

Labels: blogging, dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 2:10 AM

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2002-06-03 
 

long walk

Went for an incredible walk today. G was feeling nappish and I'm really trying to get out and about more, so I headed on up the hill and didn't come back for a full hour and a half. I'd almost forgotten how great it is to wander the tops of the hills and just think. Halfway through my walk I came to the realization that I'm ready to write again. Really write, not just this random journal entry stuff. What hit me may sound simple, but I'm only human. Sometimes it's hardest to see something when it's right in front of our face.

The thing is, sure it's been a while, but if I don't start writing again now, I'll always have some excuse to push it away from me. Too busy, too stressed, too tired, too something. So I'm just going to do it.

I decided all this as I was running up the long flight of steps that connects Diamond to the end of Collingwood, just as I was reaching the top, and the wind really picked up - almost lifting me up the last few feet. It was as if nature herself was patting me on the back for finally figuring things out.

Now comes the hard part. Now I have to actually do it.

Labels: dose of mikey, writing

* posted by me at 1:09 AM

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