So I’m writing this post at Jiffy Lube while I’m waiting for my oil change. I’m doing it using my new iPod touch and Jiffy Lube’s wifi. The future kicks ass.
My mom has breast cancer. I’ve had that piece of data for 24 hours. It’s an odd thing to rattle around in the skull. The extremely good news is that she has the best type of breast cancer to get. That’s something I’ve heard and read a lot in the past 24 hours as well. I find it funny (in the way that only I find things funny). It’s like saying somebody has a really good gunshot wound. It’s technically Stage 0, which I hear is good because it means it hasn’t done anything or gone anywhere. It’s just chilling out in a duct. Success rate is about 95%. These are good things. But it’s still breast cancer.
Less than 20 minutes after I found this out, my mom and I were talking about iPods and what music we want to trade. I have and odd family. Am I worried? Yes. Terribly worried? No. And if my mom wants to talk about music, then I’ll do that. I’m the emotional swiss army knife of the family. My dad will be over-protective and over-analytical. My sister will be over-emotional. So I fill the gaps. I give her normalcy, because she wants normalcy.
I have a theory. We’re part of a lost generation. Too young to be Generation X. Too engaged and self-aware to be Generation Y. We’re X and a Half. We grew up in two decades of wealth and prosperity from our parent’s generation leading the world. We were in the shadow of Gen X and watched as they tried to re-invent culture only to see it be co-opted, diluted, and sold by the very people they rebelled against. To that degree I can’t blame hipsters. They saw what became of their elder sibling’s ‘cool,’ and they are so very afraid of it happening to their ‘cool’ that they don’t want to share. We grew up watching our parents show us that happiness was a nice house with a decent mortgage, 2 cars, and a nice suburburn school district to send your kids to. Generation Y has bought into this. They are the definiative ‘me’ generation, lacking deep individual culture, but focused on replicating the success of their parents. Generation X, meanwhile sits back and shelters themselves as they fade into the suburbs, still bitter at their cultural defeat by the hands of Abercrombie and Jive Records. So we’re in this limbo, trying to define success as financial gain and stability, while also trying to define success through idealism and expansive world-views. To succeed at one seems to fail the other. Gen X on one side. Gen Y on the other. Who are we? We really need another Reality Bites.
Normal is sometimes hard for me to do. But when you mom needs normal, you turn off your inner monologue. I am what people need. Whoever that is.
So as it turns out, Plano has the richest median income in America for a town or 250,000 or more. So, yeah, I now hate this town more. I’m frightened that the median income it over $77,000. On the flip side, I made my first royalty check today. It wasn’t much, but it’s something. My friend Mikey got a much bigger check that puts his yearly income above the $77,000 mark. Fucker. I would get out of this town if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s good pay, free health insurance, and a fun place to work.Not much else on the news front. I’m going to spend the three day weekend at the lake, which will be nice. I do this, despite having a friend in town, who I haven’t seen in a while. And a hot female friend also in town. But I’ll have fun at the lake. Where everybody has a boyfriend/girlfriend/fiance/wife/husband except me. God damnit. Why couldn’t I pick a female dominated career.
I’ve been using a Schick Quatro for a few years now. I got a new Gillette Fusion in the mail and decided to test drive it. First off, I was skeptical about this whole 5 blades thing. I always felt that perhaps my Quatro had too many blades, and 5 was kinda pushing it too far. But damn, this thing gives you a damn fine shave. I greatly look forward to using the mysterious 6th blade tomorrow to trim finer areas (no, not like that you sicko). Plus, they gave me coupons that will keep me in razor blades for the rest of the year for practically nothing. I suppose it wins for now.
Things I Did On My Trip to The Pitt/Lawrence
1) Recounted my trip up to Lawrence for move in day to a father and daughter on their way to KU in the middle of Oklahoma. They missed the same turn off that my mom and I missed. They saw my silver Jayhawk on my car and asked if I knew the way while I sat on my car as I got gas. It was all very Dickensian.
2) Screamed “Veronica Mars Fucking Rocks” in the middle of a wedding reception with 20 people jumping up and down around me. The best people on earth are dorks. The best dorks on earth are dancing dorks. The best dancing dorks on earth listen to The Dandy Warhols.
3) Listened to the new Okkervil River CD over and over again. It’s a fine piece of work, even if it is shot. I also tried to plot a way into working them in a video game. Developing…
4) Sang “Ooooooooooooooooklahoma! Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.” every time I crossed the border. It’s tradition. It’s important.
5) Mentally worked on my noveletta/video game script/screenplay idea. Eight hour drives through the middle of nowhere are a great place to get work done in your head.
6) Purchased a dapper new KU hat. Oddly enough, I never actually purchased a KU hat while at KU. I was given 2 before I ever came (neither of which I wore much). I feel like a better alumni.
7) Awkwardly called a girl while driving through Oklahoma to see if she “wanted to go out, but not this weekend, because I’m in Oklahoma, and I’ll be in Kansas, but I’ll be back next week, actually Monday, but I’m busy, so maybe Friday if she wasn’t busy, or next weekend if I don’t have to work, but I might.” Yeah. Smooth. Turns out her ex-boyfriend no longer has the “ex-” prefix. Whoops.
Completely fucked up something with the transmission in my car. That’s going to be an unpleasant trip to the dealership tomorrow. I just need my car to live for one more year. Then I can trade it in, get my Prius, and not worry. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
It’s nice to be back. I forget sometimes how important it is to divorce myself from my contained reality in Plano, even if just for a few days. I get a little over-invested in work sometimes, so it’s good to see how other people are coping with life experiences that are not my own. It also serves to remind me that I really need to do a better job of getting out of the wake up-go to work-come home-sleep rut that I tend to get into. I fear becoming my Dad and not marrying until my mid-30s. Unfortunately, I know I’m about to go into a super-rut until mid October. It sounds more depressing when you put it on paper and realize it’s 2 months of your life without coming up for much air. I feel that sort of commitment is healthy for something like saving children in Uganda, or fighting wildfires, but not for game development. In response, I’m going to try to plan some sort of excursion for October. I’d really like to just go camping for 3 or 4 days and climb to the top of a mountain or something. Self-actualization always seems to work the best for me when coupled with feats of daring.
In the meantime, I recommend the following things to help pass the time:
Read: Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar – I saw this guy on the Daily Show. It’s going on my to-read list, which means I’m not going to get to it until December. Somebody please read it and see if you’re happier. (Half-Joke)
Listen: Madeleine Peyroux and Okkervil River. Okay, it’s a tie. Okkervil’s new album is a wonderful treat, but I probably would have liked it anyway. Madeleine Peyroux is totally my new Jazz crush. She sounds a little like Ella Fitzgerald because of her slightly Georgian (the state) accent. Plus she’s cute as a button and looks like she needs a hug if you see her sing. But alas, I don’t think I have the social standing in the American Jazz community to ever meet her. 
Watch: Sunshine. Such a good movie.
So there is a point in every Harry Potter book where you’re in or out until the end. It’s that point where you decide that it doesn’t matter if you have to stay up until the sun comes up, you’re going to have to finish the book right then. No more stopping. No going to sleep. No putting the book down. The flip side is you can back away, full well knowing that the next time you pick up the book will be the last. For Deathly Hallows, that spot is page 608, and it is the page I currently sit on. Those of you who are already finished know what I’m talking about. Those of you still reading will know shortly. Shit’s going down. It’s going to be awesome. But first I’m going to make myself a snack, watch TV for a bit, before I tuck myself into bed with my book and finish it tonight. If I don’t I fear that my body will kill me for woefully neglecting proper nutrition on mental stimulation beyond reading today.
So I was randomly recording HDTV stuff so that I have random stuff to watch when I’m bored, and I happened to record The Pixies on Austin City Limits. I came into the office and immediately grabbed all the old albums off our work network and declared that today shall be Pixies day. With the exception of one person, everybody just gave me a blank look and asked “Who?” So now I feel old. I tried to share with them by playing Gigantic as loud as possible. They didn’t seem to enjoy it on as many levels as I do. Bastards. Now I want to have a party night where I make them all listen to Death to the Pixies and watch Reality Bites.
I swear… kids today with their Ashlee Simpson and Fallout Boy. They’re going to have such shitty college radio in a decade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/us/14dewey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It’s kind of weird to think of that innocent looking Dewey Decimal system to have such negative social justice and equality connotations. I’d like to check out a library that is run like this Arizona one. Also…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html?_r1&oref=slogin
Also… librarians are kind of cool. I’m kind of jealous of nerdy, techie, liberal librarians living in NYC and having a wonderfully bohemian existence. Perhaps I picked the wrong career.
Haven’t written in a while, so let’s recap. 4th of July was fun. I got to see some fireworks up close and meet some interesting people. Unfortunately my new camera lens didn’t come in the mail until two days later. Luckily I got it in time to go down to the lake for the weekend, where I promptly lost my phone. Other than that, the lake was fun and I ended up with a really awesome tan. It was nice to see the lake full for once. Work has also been nice, but we’re crunching until the end of the month, so that’s going to be a lot of fun 10 hour days.
I’m going to try to find some time to go to Austin next weekend, and then begin to schedule the rest of my vacations. I’m going to be in Kansas in early August for a wedding, and I’ll swing through Lawrence for a bit afterwards. Also on tap is another trip to Austin for ACL, and probably a trip to NYC and a trip to Portland. I should be nice and poor by the end of the summer.
I post some photography soon, once I get Photoshop installed on my laptop.
Damn, I need to stop buying books until I can create a better reading schedule. I currently have 10 books to read when I’m done with the one I’m currently on. Word to the wise: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is not a quick read, despite quotes on the book jacket stating otherwise. I picked it up so I’d have something quick to read at a lakehouse. It’s a month later and I still dredging through it. It’s just not an engaging enough read to invest long reading sessions on it.
I also had this crazy idea to do 52 book reviews a year, each one centering around a 52 second YouTube video. But then I realized I’d have to devote almost all my spare time to reading, which I’m not willing to commit to.
Read: The Wild Trees – A quick non-fiction read for the summer. I burnt through in two weekends. Part of my love for this book is that I can totally see these people who explore giant trees being much like my friends.
Listen: The National – Boxer – The is music to listen to with the windows and sunroof open as you drive around the country at 3 in the morning. Dark. Deep. Haunting at points.
Watch: Knocked Up – Jesus Christ, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, you’re cheating yourself of the smartest comedy in months (if not years).
This is also going to be a good week for movies. I’m seeing a midnight show of Live Free or Die Hard tomorrow, a midnight showing of Ratatouille Thursday night, and then Sicko Friday or Saturday night.
P.S. T-Minus 5 days until no more meat. Stocked up on loads of fake meat tonight in preparation. Only a few more chicken wings left in the freezer before my apartment is meat free.
