Motivation

I read Athena's post while on the bus home and empathized with her immensely. I know how that feels.

And then a beautiful woman sat down next to me.

I realized that the universe was telling me something, so I put away my iPhone and struck up a conversation.

Her name is Sam, and, yes, it's short for Samantha.

Thanks, Athena, and Universe. I listened this time. • 6:23 PM 1 comments

Homeless Protest Continues

Here's why protests matter. Mayor Potter is obviously rattled by all the attention being focused on him for his continuing mishandling of this situation, and is making even more mistakes in response.

Shame on Mayor Potter for stonewalling and not stepping up and serving the needs of ALL of the community. Mayor Potter used to have a blog, but but it hasn't been updated in a while. But I did find his contact page. Be sure and drop him a note to let him know what you think.

Leonard, too, apparently, since he stood by Potter in today's blatant disregard of the City Charter. That's too bad; Commissioner Leonard seems like a nice enough guy. Give him some feedback, too.

Anyone hear from Sho Dozono on this topic in the last week?

And I'd like to re-iterate the thanks to Amy and Matt and the Merc for the continuing coverage.

I'm biting my tongue and clicking "Publish" before I go off on a rant about the lack of response from the Christian community... • 11:14 AM 0 comments

Yes!

Now that my books are newly-organized, I have one shelf entirely for what used to be referred to as my "reading pile". Only now, they sit on a shelf, separated out from the others, each book purchased with the intent to read it, and yet, because of a lack of focus or the intervention of other shiny things, like running or booze or strippers or iPhones, the books remain unread, alas.

That reminds me, I have another category of books that I forgot to mention: Unread.

So tonight, with my apartment completely clean and my laundry done and very little money remaining in my bank account until payday, I decided to pull out one of the unread books and read it.

I had many books from which to choose: a history of Portland, a couple of books on philosophy and consciousness, some light fiction, and many others.

The one I pulled out was recommended to me by Kevin, and is by Danny Wallce and it's entitled "Yes Man".

And now I'm logging off for a bit, to sit in my library, listen to some background music, and read.

G'night. • 9:17 PM 0 comments

Not able to tape the meeting?

The Mercury is reporting that Mayor Potter's staff refused to allow the homeless protesters to record the meeting today.

I thought I had the right, in Oregon, to record any conversation I was a party to? Of course, I'm not a lawyer, so...

...I guess I'll stop there.

Any actual lawyers want to chime in on the topic, though? Comment or let me know privately. • 4:02 PM 0 comments

Independent Film Review series

Found this list via the Portland Mercury, and haven't found it anywhere else. There's more than a few films on this list that I'd like to see again on the big screen, and more than a few favorites.

• May 12: The Virgin Suicides - missed this one!
  
• May 19: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
  
• May 26: Rushmore
  
• June 2: Annie Hall
  
• June 9: The Squid and the Whale
  
• June 16: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  
• June 23: Punch Drunk Love
  
• June 30: Secretary
  
• July 7: Foxy Brown
  
• July 14: In the Company of Men
  
• July 21: Storytelling

Every Monday night, 7:30 PM, at the Broadway Theater in downtown Portland. $5.

If anyone wants to join me next week for a little Hunter S. Thompson as told by Terry Gilliam via Johnny Depp and the less-geek-y del Toro (Benicio), just let me know. I'll probably show up drunk, y'know, to honor Thompson's memory.

It might be a very interesting experience to view "Secretary" with an audience, especially for someone mildly repressed like myself... • 9:12 AM 0 comments

Straighten

My apartment has never been cleaner.

Bathroom: ready for a surprise guest.

Living room: vacuumed and everything in its place.

Kitchen: dishes done, recycling put away. I even mopped the floor.

Bedroom: clean sheets, clothes folded and put away.

I even cleaned the windows!

Last room to do was my library. I had books in piles everywhere. Sunday I built one more bookshelf, then last night I sorted and alphabetized all my books into categories.

I have the following categories (from memory so I might miss one or two):

First bookcase

• Reference: dictionaries (yes, I have more than one), thesauruses, style guides, maps, etc.
  
• Computers
  
• Humor and Sports: This is just a few books but an important category.
  
• Textbooks: Just had a few and wanted to keep them separated out.
  
• Self-Help and Relationships: An area of special study over the course of my life.



Second bookcase

• Science and Philosophy: I tried to separate these out but had a hard time distinguishing in some edge cases. F'rinstance, Daniel Dennett's books on consciousness and evolution: philosphy? Or science? A bit of both, I think.
  
• History: General non-fiction books on various topics, including my recent purchases of specifically political works, like Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga's "Crashing the Gate" or Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?".
  
• Memoir and Biographies I've got four biographies of Philip K. Dick, and a few other memoirs and biographies. It's about a half-shelf worth.
  
• Religious Texts: The Koran, Bhagavad Gita, Bible, etc., and various books critiquing same.
  



Third bookcase

• Fiction: Everything else.

Now I want to find a program, like Delicious Library, and catalog them all. And my CDs and DVDs and other movies, too.

Yeah, I'm an organizing buzzsaw lately. Heh. • 7:36 AM 0 comments

Order out of less order

For the first time in a long time, all my books are sorted by topic and shelved. • 8:27 PM 0 comments

Go!

"Speed Racer" feels like an entire TV season packed into a 2 hour and 15 minute movie.

And not necessarily in a good way.

Visually amazing, though. Can't really follow what's happening a lot of the time, but still looks amazing.

Labels: movies

• 7:12 PM 1 comments

Showing up

The bride looked very happy.

The groom looked at me cautiously.

I felt awkward and out of place.

And then I left my ex-girlfriend's wedding reception. • 10:45 PM 0 comments

Futurama becomes bizarre

This black-and-white, unfinished preview of the next Futurama DVD, the follow-up to "Bender's Big Score", looks... um... bizarre.

Spoilers ahoy!



The tentacles reaching out of the anomaly and attaching to people, including Fry, creep me out. • 8:03 AM 0 comments