What is this?

In brief, I just needed to consolidate all past personal blogs I've accumulated over the decade or so. I flipped around blogs a lot and now Blogger isn't allowing FTP uploading so I thought I'd better archive things while I could. So, tada. 10 years of blogging, 2200+ posts, 12 megs of files. And now I'm going here. [Edit 1/2018]: Going here actually Atelman, Nooooo!

jon wow - jan10 to jan18
jdotyang - oct08 to dec09
hyperwest [a] - may07 to nov08
diorama - may06 to apr07
anachronic [a] - aug02 to apr06
inner life [a] - jun01 to aug02
yellow brick road [a] - oct00 to aug02
apollo world. - college homepage

NYE 2009

George's first editing effort from her new Macbook. She learned how to edit and created this whole thing in just half a day. Bravo!

Select One

I've got a gripe. People who don't reply to an "are you in/out" email. Yes, I'm talking about you. I know, I know, for awhile I was against Evites, but that was because I could pretty readily assumed to be going. It's not like I have much to do. But when people are trying to make plans and particular people choose to not respond until the last minute, or to not respond on at all, well, it's rude.

Case in point. For our SF trip a few weeks ago, one friend continually called the other to confirm if they were going. We needed head counts, needed to arrange tickets to Stevie Wonderfull on Saturday night, and nobody knew if he was actually coming. Emails, calls, texts, and repeat repeat over, there was still no word. When we finally got him on the line, he pretty much lied that he'd gotten his ticket. I said "fuck it" and just let him fend for himself.

The same thing tends to happen when people are in relationships or have kids. Really? You're so busy that a quick "Sorry, can't make it" email can't come out of your smartphone? I find that hard to believe. So answer or be counted out. That's all I have to say.

You, Me, Us

Having failed spectacularly at pretty much every resolution I made in 2009 (the list was supposed to only encompass Jan-Mar too), I did at least one thing. I started podcasting. Hooray for me! It turns out I didn't even need a microphone because the built in mic from my laptop is pretty decent and with that and Garage Band, I'm able to just sit down with someone and start recording.

So for the past few weeks I've been dragging people into the studio with me (meaning any empty room) and making them talk to me. The idea is that it's just a slice of conversation from my life. Actually, that was the original idea. Now I'm working on being a better host, directing a conversation, sticking on topic, and basically making your fifteen or so minutes worthwhile.

The early episodes were a little rough -- but still amusing -- and I'm far from taking my podcast game to the heights it will soon be. However, it's been amazingly fun for me to do and I like it even as a historical account of conversations with friends. So yes, if you'd like to listen in and subscribe, the information is below.

So far I've covered some very fun topics and I'm hoping to get one a week up, which will be easy because I've already got another five or six in the chamber, so to speak. Next move is to figure out how to podcast with someone who's not directly in the room with me, so I can get episodes with friends from all over.

Podcast summary:
"You, Me, Us" is a podcast dedicated to talking with friends and people I know. The idea is to get interesting people to talk about something interesting for 15-20 minutes. Bear with me here, awesomeness is around the corner.

Main site: http://youmeus.posterous.com
Blog RSS: http://youmeus.posterous.com/rss.xml
iTunes link: here
You can also find it by searching for "You, Me, Us" in iTunes.

Ashes and Wine

You can't dig someone else of a bad situation. I mean, can you? When people are down in the dumps, you can try to help them out and drag them out but usually they'll come up whenever they're ready to come out. I subscribe heavily to the idea that a person knows how to self medicate. If they need some drugs and rock and roll, they'll go find it. If they need friends or television, they'll find it. But what happens when you see that the path they're headed toward is a terrible one?

People love to use the phrase, "we're all adults now." I disagree. We're totally not adults now. We're basically still children. In fact, the more I learn about adults (anyone five years older than me, I still have a high schooler's mentality of what constitutes "older") the more I'm skeptical that anyone evolves past the child stage.

If you're a shitty seventeen year old, and then a slightly better but still shitty twenty four year old, there's a good chance you'll just be an almost not as shitty forty year old.

What changes, I think, is the amount of people who can or want to feel responsible for you as you get older. If you're a real drag to be around when you're old, you'll just find yourself in pothole after pothole, with less people to lean on as the years pass.

This is a working theory.

Hey there...

I'm over at Alabama Street, where we used to hang out all the time two years ago. In the time since, Alabama Street has taken on a totally different significance. A block down from this house is the girl I'm dating, who was only a few hundred yards away all this time, and I've been over the plenty the past few weeks. She's baking cupcakes now and maybe I'll sneak over to snag one later. This house, with it's little front yard, where we all used to smoke and conversate, was the cosmic focal point of new friendships, reconnected friendships, and finally, failed friendships. So things are plenty different now.

Tonight, Daisy is working the ukulele, dropping a medley of pop and Hawaiian hits. She's currently working a Plain White T's song, at my request. Raqstar is holed up in the "champagne room," which is partitioned off with a baby gate, to prevent the dogs and cats to run in, and to keep the studious atmosphere in. Shawn is making a video for one of his classes and through the closed door we can hear each manic and high energy take. None of these exact things have happened before but it all feels overly familiar, in a good way.

Dewdrops

There are two groups of young adults: people who haven't stopped working since their twenties versus people who've had at least a year off. Speaking as a candidate for presidency of the latter group, I wonder at what point the former group throws up their hands and says, "I need a break!" I hope the answer isn't simply "retirement." For people who are near my age, that's almost a decade of straight work. That sounds crazy to me.

How can you go ten years without having not taken more than two weeks off (and probably not consecutively)? I guess people can break up the work monotony with school or some such thing, but there are some people I know who've never stopped. If people are worried about escaping the rat race, isn't this exactly what they've been engaged in? Where's the exit lane?

This is like having stellar attendance in school. What's the point? You get recognized with a ribbon or a special announcement at graduation but then you start to think, "Wait, what is this award for?"

If you're going to go down, why not go down slacking?