friend of the built environment

The only moral use of force is in self-defense. However, governments use force (through the legal system, which is maintained by the police and the military) every day, whether to uphold rights (which is the moral and just role of the government) or in the dubious effort to maintain “social order” whether this means controlling [...]

I went to San Francisco over the weekend. Despite the fact that it was San Francisco, David showed me an incredible time. He took me shopping. Outside of the City.
On my way up on Saturday morning, I managed a stop in Merced at a mildly trashy diner on the south side of downtown. The waitress who [...]

You know someone’s getting to you when you start to have dreams about them… Possibly material for a new essay… But not in the mood to describe in detail right now…

Happy birthday, yesterday, Andrea. You’re one of the few people whose birthdays I actually seem to remember, even though we hardly ever talk… Must be the Amazon.com thing.

I escaped Reel Pride with a trip to the West side. I toured Easton, Caruthers, Huron and Coalinga. Tomorrow I will take on Mendota, Firebaugh and Kerman. Fun.

Once again my neighborhood is being transformed into a plastic queer mecca for four days. Since Thursday, theReel Pride movie festival has threatened to plug up all the streets with middle-aged fag couples and bleach-blonde dykes walking arm-in-arm.

Each year for almost a decade now, the Tower Theatre has been home once each fall to this Gay [...]

I awoke this morning to a wonderfully rainy day. The air did need a bit of a washing around here. It did put a damper on my travel plans, though… Not that I can’t take the trip any other day. Considering my planned destinations were little more than a 6-hour trip or so in total, [...]

I’d planned to perform a special Veteran’s Day tribute at Open Mic tonight, but equipment failure cancelled the event altogether… Nothing around here can handle relative humidity higher than 12%, I guess, even if it’s indoors…

I should have come home and had some much-needed sleep, but it’s a restless night, and I ended up wandering [...]

Digging around for some rainy day music today. I love the rain. Too bad Fresno doesn’t get much of it. A genuine thunderstorm complete with torrential downpours today. Just Desserts, Mercury Rev and Radiohead on heavy rotation, spiced up with a little Cure here and a little SleepyD there…

And maybe finish it off with some [...]

The Nazi party of depression-era Germany is uncannily similar to the emerging Green Party in America. In ideology, political agenda and economic policy, it is almost frightening to review the implications on Americans should the Green Party ever come to a position of political influence.

Another reason that I have to obtain the digital camera ASAP: even the photo developers took yesterday off.
Update: A new essay entitled on applied philosophy. It started as an email, and developed into the targeted criticism of many of my peers which I’ve been meaning to level for some time now.

This week feels like it’s never [...]

His name is Greg Ramirez. He used me, he abuses himself. He’s been in and out of jail, gives consistently dirty urine to the judges, and can’t manage to hold a job. He’s years in arrears on his child support. He continues to demand my pity. Tonight he threatened me with physical harm (his words: [...]

I slept less than 2 hours last night, due primarily to nervous anxiety in relation to my encounter last night. I recovered slightly after spending some time cruising David’s journals. I realize that there are crappy users in everyone’s lives to some extent. David is a feel-good kinda guy.
I have to be at work in one hour, [...]

David’s coming to visit me this weekend, so I probably won’t be doing any updates or replying to any email if you sent it later than last night, because I’ll be too busy snogging. So there.

Back to the grind. Luckily it’s a short grind this week, and I should be having a ton of fun over the holiday. Should make a return to normality easy to tolerate starting next week… If you can call this time of year “normal” anyway.
Should be some promised updates over the next couple days… Or [...]

So it was an incredibly enjoyable weekend… But then, David is an incredibly enjoyable person.  I’m off to Vons and then to open-mic night. Hopefully I get to do my Veteran’s Day performance one week late, as last week’s event was canceled…
I should be leaving the 35mm world by the weekend. Goodbye rude photoprocessing punks…

I have most of the kinks out of the new set-up. Hopefully I get everything relatively smoothed over and functional as I browse it myself.
Fresno’s nice and foggy today. Already past noon and no sign of it letting up. This is good. I like the fog. If only it weren’t accompanied by such damn cold [...]

If anyone’s actually still reading this after my nearly week-long break from updates, thank you and welcome back…
I did Thanksgiving at ma & pa’s in Cambria, CA: land of boutiques, overpriced useless antiques and fine dining (read: “small portions and high prices”).
But the fact that we spent more time at home than on the ‘town’ [...]

Another night of precious little sleep. The sinus pain is nearly unbearable and nothing seems to be relieving it. Nyquil isn’t even offering me a comfortable coma this morning.
But at least I managed to catch up on the email and post a new essay in the down time. No work today. I’m sure I’d pass [...]

I finally got some sleep, and awoke feeling much better. Still a little sinus leakage, but overall, I actually should make it to work tomorrow.
On the up side, I may have missed open mic night this week, but damned if I’m going to miss coffee night with Amy tonight. And this time it will go [...]

Slept all day now I can’t sleep tonight. At least I’m feeling pretty normal now. And the rain has come, giving me a pleasant respite from the drab weather of the week thus far.
I’ve decided that I like Star Trek Voyager more than The Next Generation. I’m bored and I have to work in the [...]

I’ve pretty much recovered from my illness - which lasted longer than most that I’ve had in the past year or so. I’m still a little nasal, and didn’t sleep at all (again) due to the evil decongestants.
But at least I made it into work. If all goes well, I should be spending a short [...]

I have often been told that there is no way to escape the reality of government coercion: governments have to do a dirty job, and they must make and enforce laws which aren’t always fair or just, and these laws must be enforced and policed with police and guns. I’ve been told that this fact [...]