stuff. (and asides to the initial stuff)

Bestest Yahoo msg ever...

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:25:21 GMT

People on the interwebs can be odd. (i'm guessing the tubes that run it all affects them in strange ways) Anyone who (a) lacks a penis and (b) has pictures of themselves online I'm sure can attest to this.

But I am hear to tell you that it is not only the distaff gender that suffers this fate. I was rummaging through my Yahoo msg archive when I stumbled on this lovely chat. I saved it as it was too awesome to discard forever..

Now when this person first contacted me I was just about to go to sleep and I told her (if it indeed was a her) so. The rest is as follows. Note the time between messages:

jaylo28 (10/26/2005 10:04:47 PM): i am actually just about to crash for the night...i be a sleepy boy...

nlightndgal1976 (10/26/2005 10:05:21 PM): OKAY YOU KNOW WHAT?! I AM GOING TO MAKE A FEW THINGS CLEAR RIGHT NOW. If that little sentece there was some stupid test of yours to see if I'm a real person, then you can stuff the tests. Otherwise, I will respond to you and yes your response to what I just said does matter. I am also not a slut, prostitute, insane person, or a player I don't go online copying and pasting this IM and send it to all the guys all over the world. And no, I wouldn't have been suspicious of you if you had sent me a long IM.

nlightndgal1976 (10/26/2005 10:05:29 PM): I ALSO DON'T GIVE OUT MY PERSONAL INFO TO THE WHOLE WORLD TO JUST ANYONE. I'm not stupid, naive, or desperate for anyone or anything like that in my life.

nlightndgal1976 (10/26/2005 10:05:41 PM): I also wanted to let you know ahead of time that I have a pic but I just Immed you. I also did not see your profile nor do I see your pic in the IM chat window so don't assume that I saw your pic already. I will not forget to show you my pic so do not nag me about it. I will show you my pic when I am ready, not until then.

nlightndgal1976 (10/26/2005 10:05:54 PM): I am not a freak nor do I need mental help or counseling so you can save the insults. SO I HAVE TOLD YOU MY REAL NAME AND about me now it is your turn to do the same. I will not be answering any of your questions till then. And last I checked it was not a crime to make things clear ahead of time or type fast. i am a fast typer. So you need to read everything I just wrote and then only reply back to me. And Yes I just typed in all this, i don't do copy and paste stupid games.

nlightndgal1976 (10/26/2005 10:06:21 PM): as far as how I found your sn, I just got Win 2000 on my new laptop. It's my father's and only 12 GB. It's an IBM thinkpad. My internet is all f*cked up and somehow your sn popped up. I will tell you right now do not generalize me with other f*ckers on the net. when you talk with me talk about Sunny. got it?!

nlightndgal1976 (10/26/2005 10:06:44 PM): ): so you can start off by telling me your real name and about you like i did in my intro Im to you I will not be answering any of your questions until then like i said. Sorry I didn't write my Im the way you would have wanted me to ..

Umm...yeah.

So in a *nut*shell (ahem) while we men tend to just go for quantity of insanity, you ladies go for quality. And we love ya for it...

Unless you know where we live...

Overheard at the costume store...

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 19:14:55 GMT

"Wow, they sure have a lot of costumes here"

Yes. Yes there are. Grass is also green and kitties say meow when they talk.

*sigh*

Ok just a quick check..

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 01:46:37 GMT

Has everybody got there one allowed "I'm bringing sexy back" joke out of their system? Can we all get back to our non-sexy back bringing lives?

Yes?

Good...carry on.

Continuing the music theme...

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:46:15 GMT

My trip to Vegas for November has sadly fallen through so I have decided to take a lil 2 day trip to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. I will take the mighty Megabus there (8 bucks each way) so that plus hotel and admission to the RNRHOF will come to right around a hundred bucks. Not too shabby...

I have also started teaching myself to play the guitar.

My boss was kind enough to loan me an old guitar he no longer used and told me to learn Stairway To Heaven or I was fired. (ok that's only half-true, he threatened to fire me but Zeppelin was not involved)

So far I am good and terrible and frustrated with it but it's the good kind of frustration that keeps you going... Progress reports to come...

Tower no more....

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:25:54 GMT

So I was incredibly bummed out to read a few days back that Tower Records (or I guess Tower Music nowadays) will be shutting down its doors for good soon. The Tower Records on Columbus and Bay St in San Francisco was where I bought the first music I could call my own.

When the sibs and I were younguns Mom would give us five bucks or so (enough so each of us could by one 45 single at 1.19 plus tax) and we'd take the half-hour bus ride (either the 47 Van Ness or the 49 Ven Ness-Mission plus a short walk or the 42 Downtown Loop that took us right to the store) there.

We'd end up in there forever just poring over all those slabs of wax till we found just what we wanted. I'd end up with such classics as I'll Tumble 4 Ya by Culture Club, Electric Kingdom by Twilight 22, Cool It now by New Edition and the title song to the movie Beat Street, Beat Street Breakdown. My brother and sister's selections were of course, inferior to mine. (look at that list up there, they'd have to be right?)

Even as we moved from place to place through the years that Tower was always where I went to when I wanted to do some serious music browsing (which is saying something considering SF has always been filled with kick-ass records shops) They had a vast import selection before imports became a lot more mainstream and even used to have private record booths where you could preview a new side to your heart's content.

Of course, the Towers here in Ill didn't hold the same magic over me so I didn't frequent them nearly as much in recent years but passing them by I always got a nice lil warm memory pang back to those bus rides knowing that once we were home we were going to wear some record grooves out.

Thanks Tower...

Stove update...

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 00:57:33 GMT

Got a letter shoved under the door earlier today..

So according to this it may be upwards of four months until all the stoves in the building are in working order. Four months! That is absolute craziness. They're knocking off 100 bucks from the rent for each month without gas and since the hotplate I bought can more or less do the trick for my cooking I guess I can survive. I can only assume that there are going to be a lot of people not renewing their leases when they're up. Myself included.

This better not interfere with my apt hunting this spring...

Heating things up...

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:55:40 GMT

There are some definite advantages to living in a vintage high-rise building. I have an absolutely stunning view of Lake Michigan from my apt window,the residence itself is gorgeous with a polished marble lobby and I'm a ten minute walk to the lakefront. It's a beautiful building in a great part of town.

One of the bad things, however, is an apparently archaic and labyrinth-like gas line system that has caused the management to shut down the cooking gas for the past week and a half.

This is not cool.

Now I'm more of a first-day hack short-order cook then anything approaching a chef but I do use my stove enough that this has become a pain in the arse. It took a week for the mgmt to even acknowledge a problem and they finally have taken a course of action which is good since there were rumblings of rent strikes and what not..

We've been told to go out and buy a hot-plate and deduct the cost from the rent and to deduct $100 from the rent for every month(!) we are without cooking gas. Now the month part scares the heck outta me but hey hot plates are awesome! Right?

This is the bad boy I bought at the True Value on Broadway (the bed bath and beyond only had jerky makers and deep waffle cone fryers) Looks spiffy in the box but hey I'm a design snob, how's it going to look with my kitchen decor?

Awesome! It goes great with my cast-iron white kitchenette! Phew...I was worried for a sec I wouldn't be able to invite people over for dinner..

Speaking of dinner, how well does it work? Will it actually provide proper heat to my pots and pans filled with tasty culinary treats?

Yes! My pasta is actually cooking! USA! USA!

My pasta and chicken dish turned out delicious and Jason is a happy happy boy. Hmm...I wonder if the plumbing goes out I can get a super-fancy electric toilet?

I.O., I.O., it's off to see improv I go...

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 03:10:52 GMT

Y'know, subject headers like the one above are the exact reason that editors exist in the writing/publishing biz. I'm trying to decide whether it's crazier that I put it up there or that I'm going to leave it there. Where are my standards? Why have I lowered the bar so?? Why won't I think of the children?!?!?!?

Oh well, I'm gonna call it a happy accident ala Bob Ross...

Ok, so I check out the improv. A lot. IO, the Playground, Comedysportz, Second City and so on. I love the stuff and dabbled in it for a very short while. It's one of the most amazing things to see when it's done right. And these folks do it right..

The IO theatre (with fancy spelling cuz improv is art)
was formally called ImprovOlympic until the USOC or IOC (one of those acronyms) decided it wasn't down with the usage of "olympic" and oila the name is IO and they have a fancy new front facade now. Tres' snazzy..

IO has free improv every Wednesday at 8 and it is truly an awesome time. Check it out if you have the chance. I was there last Wednesday. How was it you ask? Well I'll tell ya... (pretend you actually asked..it helps the bit tremendously)

The show started with the troupe Revolver. I hadn't seen them before but they were pretty good with some great bits about an alcoholic Robin Williams and a fella who had a bit of a problem with super-fast growing pubic hair. A hilariously hirsute time was had by all..

The second Stottlemyer and they might very well be my favorite improv group ever. They weave in and out of the different establishing bits well and their callbacks are great. There was a bit about a Superdad/Douchebag that was funny ha ha...

Closing out the show (as they always do on Wednesdays) were Carl and the Passions. They are always reliably funny and this night was no exception. The three siblings sleeping in a cave and being confronted by a "rape bear" was easily the most outrageous thing of the evening. Simple math; rape bear+kids in a cave=the funny.

What's that you say? Where are all the pics of these finely honed comedy machines in action? Well I was too into the show to get shots during but I did get an artists' conception of the night commissioned so here ya go..

So there ya go. Improv fever...catch it!

Ahh sorrow-drowning...

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:27:15 GMT

..were you an Olympic sport I'd be spoken of in the same revered tones as Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis and the last USA basketball team that didn't eat it. Alas, you are not and as a result I'm just a fella that likes his rum...

"Any world that I'm welcome to...

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:11:21 GMT

..is better than the one I come from"- Steely Dan

I think I need to be on another planet sometimes. Or at least the moon (Room for one more up there Colleen?) I'm riding my bike along the lakefront earlier today and it was pretty crowded with folks taking advantage of a decent day when it was supposed to be ugly. So I'm heading up on one of the sidewalk crossings, stop signs in all directions for the cars so I go to pedal on through.

This one car, on my side of the street, barely slows down at the stop sign and I have to seriously slam on my brakes to avoid pulling a TJ Hooker on their hood. Now that's fine and all; shit happens in this crazy world but the looks of absolute glee on the driver and passenger's faces as I almost plow into their Pontiac just left me shaking my head for the rest of my ride.

Maybe I'm overreacting but why would the thought of someone you don't even know face planting on top of your vehicle bring such joy to someone? I just don't get people sometimes...

On a funner note I watched the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated a lil earlier and it was an enjoyable watch. Check it out if you're interested in how and why your favorite flicks get the ratings they do...

Travelogue for the non-traveler...

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:54:53 GMT

Ok here's the deal; short n sweet. I scoot around this fine town of Chicago a fair bit so I'm gonna snap some pix with the ol' Canon and talk about where I've been.

Could be fun...right?

So I rollerblade. A lot. It's great exercise and if you live a few minutes from the lakefront how can you not wanna be there as much as possible? (In summer and parts of fall anyway; just the mere thought of winter on the lake makes my genitals recede just a lil bit)

Normally I skate north for about half an hour and then turn back but the last time I went with a skating companion (hi Shirley!) we went south towards Hyde Park and the views (as you can see) were just amazing...

Took these after I stopped at a lil snack shop on one of the beaches where, in true used car salesman fashion the counter guy talked me up from a medium drink to a large. (what can i say i'm a sucker for a big beverage holder)

It did hit the spot though...

And speaking of spots...that's the name of the place where I went to watch a friend perform improv tonight. The Spot on Broadway is a cool bar with an upstairs area containing an almost comedically small stage. The show did have its moments (Bicycle!) and it was great seeing Cynthia again.

In keeping with the theme I did take a photo of The Spot but it was dark and my camera is not the best in night-time but I added a visual aid which I think works just super...

Aight, that'll do it for now...Bicycle!!