I spent every evening this week repainting my apartment, and now that the weekend is here, all I want to do is sleep. Sounds fine by me.

[Strangely, no, I never did comment about my trip to Monterey. Here’s what I DO remember from it, now over 5 years later (in other words, there was absolutely nothing to report):

I went to what I thought was a queer bar, but had turned into a totally empty sports bar. Went to what was still the queer bar, and after being cruised by some yuppie creep for a half hour I went back to the hotel and slept.

I ended up going to Santa Cruz as well. It was pretty much just as unexciting.

I walked around downtown Monterey and Santa Cruz quite a bit, and ate at a total of 3 diners. I posted pictures of them somewhere after that, but now only remember it was “Grandma’s Kitchen” in Monterey and the ‘Santa Cruz Diner’.]

So I went to one of the most interesting ‘haunts’ of the Halloween attractions scene last night with Amy: Hobb’s Grove. We bought the ‘Combo’ package and enjoyed a very scary Hayride, somewhat scary Haunted House, and somewhat cheesy Haunted Forest. I also finally met Caleb - who runs the ‘Museum’ - which is pretty much the contents of his living room - everything from a case full of dead animals to a collection of human bones and autopsy equipment and literature, along with old Victorian coffins and x-rays of his own skull with a nail jammed in it. He’s a trip, and defiantly unpretentious…

I was reminded after reading an entry in David’s journal that I never gave plugs to the The Big Fresno Fair, which I visited last Friday. I played the ponies, I ate all the junk food, I bought little trinkets from a silly Irish guy, I watched the 12-year-old girls push their baby strollers. ‘Nuff said.

I went to get my iBook yesterday and it ended up out of stock. Ten more friggin’ days to wait. O well, that means I actually will have the luxury of an additional paycheck when the thing arrives. All the better on the finance charges. So don’t go holding your breath for any substantial updates to the side outside of this page until next month. But then, I doubt there’s all that many visitors yet…

Went to Open Mic Night at Club Fred last night just to see if it was a viable option for me. It turned out adequately diverse to warrant my delving for material for next week’s session. Hopefully I’m not so unpopular that I end up having ripe tomatoes thrown my way. Most likely I’ll be reciting a work-in-progress commentary on the recent Billy Graham visit to Fresno (my lack of attendence to which makes me feel like quite the minority recently).

I’m listening to Just Desserts. I need to buy their other CD. Speaking of which, whilst at Hobb’s Grove last week, one of the goulish entertainers was a fiendishly cute 20-something who was playing guitar for the crowds waiting in line for the haunted forest. His crooning voice was refreshing in the rather over-done pussy-rock/goth-punk atmosphere, and it bore an intriguing resemblance to the styles of Tom Laverack (Just Desserts’ lead singer). I cornered him at the hot cocoa booth and suggested he give Laverack a listen. He seemed too cold and tired to notice.

On that note, the nights are becoming comfortably cold finally. I hope it lasts for at least the rest of the week. I’ve most likely got a visitor this weekend from the City, and we all know what weather pussies San Franciscans are.

I got my iBook last night. I think I’ve finally found true love. I haven’t slept in over 30 hours now…

Superfluid He3 show tonight at Fred’s. Maybe I should call in sick Friday so I can catch up on sleep…

[A note on my computer history up til now:

1990-1992: First computer: a used Mac from some old Mac lab. An original MacII, if I remember right.

1992-1995: An Amiga with a bunch of cheap word processing and other office software installed. I used it mostly to play video games, though. I also got a little 1200-baud external modem with which I made my first forays into Netdom, mostly chat rooms and the local Fresno BBS, “LegacyNet”.

1995-1996: A Packard Bell all-in-one, with a tiny 15” monitor wrapped up into a box containing the CPU, 3.5” drive, 5.3” drive, CD-ROM, and various other things. The monitor went bad about 6 months in, and thus I had it hooked up to a second monitor for another 6 months before I literally threw the thing away.

1996-1999: Used computer from my Dad’s shop which was good enough to do my schoolwork with and look at porn online with. This was, strangely, the computer I had longer than any other.

1999-2001: Cheap Gateway computer which I used to finish out my Master’s Degree years, promptly selling it as soon as I had my graduate app in.

2006-Current: Performa - David’s main Mac from 1995-1999 (Currently loaded with OS 8.x, but being used exclusively as a television in my home office)

2007-Current: iMac BondiBlue/1998 - David’s Mom’s Mac from 1998-2007 (Currently loaded with 10.1 and being used exclusively as a net station and card catalogue in my home library)

2005-Current: G5/300 - David’s main Mac from 1999-2005, and my main Mac from 2005-2006 (Currently decommissioned after a foiled attempt to load 10.4)

2001-Current: iBook G3/600 (currently loaded with OS 10.4). Still in use when I travel and when I want to surf and watch TV in the living room at the same time at home.

2006-Current: iMac CoreDuo 2.4 - My current desktop machine.

Of course, you’ve probably noticed that in 2001 I started only keeping track of my Macs, and not getting rid of them when I moved on, and I even try to keep them in use to some capacity. Hopefully one day people will see my home as one of the most complete working Mac museums in existence...]

Visit from David this weekend. I knew I’d like him… We ate good food that was very bad for us, explored Fresno architecture… etc. Even managed a visit to Amy’s spooky halloween party Friday night. Avoided the cheesy halloween block party in my own neighborhood.

Hopefully some more hardware to be purchased this week: I really want to get a digital camera, in order to take full advantage of this sexy new computer of mine, but that will be dependent upon the price. I definitely need to score a floppy drive, since all I currently have is a cd-writer. Though I suppose I could always just get some RW discs…

Tomorrow’s open mic night. My first shot at Fred’s. Should be interesting… Bring your ripe tomatoes! Ah the landmarks of one’s life…

I once used the term “Liberals by Default” to describe both the majority of our society’s common men, as well as its intelligensia today. This is merely a more common version of what I see sometimes among people who surfacially resemble individualists, but ultimately could not tie their own shoelaces without help. I run into a lot of people who seem really into ideas or philosophy, but upon talking to them at length or getting to know them, I realize that they are actually like little kids, who have discovered a dirty word, and just spout it off repeatedly because it impresses people that they can talk dirty, or because it allows them entry into the “dirty talkers” club, when in fact they don’t even know the definition of their new pet word.

I endeavor to build bridges with just about anyone I see as worthy in my life. I am able to get along with, admire, and feel strongly for those who live benevolently, genuinely try to be logical, and operate upon principle, but with whom I disagree because we haven’t seen the same arguments or been given the same percepts. In such cases, I gain nothing by “converting” them, or trying to “sell” them on my specific beliefs. I can, however, still have a very profound intellectual understanding with them. Once again, if they are worthy of it, and see the same of me.

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