friend of the built environment

Sunday breakfasts just aren’t the same without you, baby.

Why is it that I have yet to find a web editing program that actually makes managing my site EASIER?!
I’ve now spent a whole day on each of FrontPage, GoLive!, and DreamWeaver, over the past few months. All of them are both way too complicated and way too difficult to use to make it worth [...]

[This was a comment on Switzerland's decision that day to join the UN... centuries and centuries of rational government brought to an end in one simple majority vote...]

I forgot to mention Saturday that it’s only 4 weeks (less, now) until my superfun road trip to the Great Northwest with David. It’s gonna be hecka hecka fun. I’ll be visiting my old old old old buddy Andrea, doing some down & dirty book shopping and even downer and dirtier snogging with David. Not to [...]

The best thing about the latest WTC replacement proposal is that the designers start out by declaring their particular memorial to the World Trade Center be temporary. I find it inspiring and comforting that the people of New York appear, for the most part, to be shrugging off the rhetoric of the odious Giuliani and [...]

A police helicopter has been circling my neighborhood for almost an hour now, and it’s getting kinda scary…
On top of that, my email isn’t working, though it obviously has nothing to do with my internet connection, conssidering I’m able to do this update…
I should have DSL by the end of the week, thankfully…
Damn police chopper. [...]

One recent politician’s ad in particular has annoyed me as I drove around Fresno the past couple of months: It shows a certain State Assembly candidate with his ugly daughter and two ugly sons and his rather homely wife, all lovvy dovvy for the camera, with the heading “He’s one of us!”.
Oh, is he? Well, [...]

Anyone who knows their history remembers that world trade barriers were at historical highs during the Great Depression. For some reason, world governments saw tariffs and sanctions as a method of stimulating (!) their economies. The result? More than a decade of stagnation worldwide. 
Since when were higher prices, making enemies and restricting trade a good [...]

I’ve been spending way too much time here lately. At least it distracts me from the fact that I haven’t been spending enough time at all with him.
But that will be changing tomorrow. My first time in Los Banos for something other than gas, fast food or a driveby. And I’ll be there with my favorite person. Yay. [...]

The day is going slowly, but that’s probably because I’m aching with anticipation to see David tonight. I’ve really gotta do something about this 200 mile separation. Soon…

A wonderful, eventful weekend with David. More firsts (I seem to have a lot of those with him), which included doing an overnight roadtrip with someone not in my family or not for academic or employment purposes. We did a quaint old style Denny’s in Santa Nella/Gustine, the white trash diner in Los Banos, the fried [...]

Seriously, I do plan to post a trip journal over at The Hyaena. I’m just still working on the motivation to do it…
While you’re all waiting for that, you should head over to the Message Board , where a cute little tiff is going on. I was briefly thinking of axing it, but it’s amusing [...]

I have always been skeptical of communities and collectives and groups. Even as an adolescent, I was a bit of a loner, and preferred being alone to having a clique or a band of friends. Ever since high school, I’ve never even had a steady set of friends, but rather spent most of my free [...]

An increadibly beautiful, breezy and cool day today. It’s also payday. And I’m seeing Amy for coffee for the first time in 3 weeks. I’m happy today.

I’m pleased to announce that Amy is now one of us. She’s been one of my best friends for almost 10 years, and now she’s even cooler than before. Well, best friend who isn’t more than a friend, that is…
The weather is still spectacularly pleasant and coastal-breezy today. I love it. I wish David was feeling as pleasant [...]

I’m still happy and loving the weather, but I need to get a rant in anyway. My latest tiff is with SBC and UPS. I signed up for DSL a couple weeks ago, which was supposed to be set up and ready to go today. Unfortunately, the equipment never arrived. So I call SBC, who [...]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s had problems with SBC DSL . Luckily, I got most of it resolved much quicker and with less than 100 hours on the phone, and it was working by midnight last night.
The weather is no longer quite so gorgeous, but it’s still prettier than Fresno should be allowed to [...]

For some reason I’ve been pondering dates today. A few notables that come to mind (in no particular order)…
der hyaena born: 30 June 1977 
hook-up with David :26 October 2001 
first music purchase (Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet): 1 April 1987 
stopped smoking (for good…): 31 December 2001 
started first “real” job: 25 May 1994 
left ma&pa’s house (for good…): [...]

Not only do I not have the motivation to get out of my sweats and actually do anything today, I don’t even have my favorite inactivity partner around to make my immobility more pleasant. And now I won’t be able to see him again for another 6 days…
Strangely, now that I have the DSL, I’m [...]

Lonely day. But I did manage to spend about 3 hours of it on the line with various customer service centers, and have added First USA Bank to the list of companies I hate and will no longer do business with. And you may also want to reconsider my earlier Earthlink reccommendation. Come to think [...]

Nice rainy day. Is it just me, or is Fresno way too tolerable lately? This is supposed to be the lazy little city where rents are cheap and the weather makes you stay indoors all the time. I have found that the past two weeks have had some of the best weather I remember here. [...]

I’m thinking of making a pot of coffee. Good thing I have decaf.
I wish Yahoo! Messenger had an OSX version… For that matter, I wish a lot of things had OSX versions. I’d be far more likely to buy and learn and use them, if so. OX9 stuff just bugs me, mainly because OSX environment [...]

Updated my Amazon.com Wish List. Anyone feeling generous?
I was surfing last night and once again came upon David’s old interview with Nightcharm . I knew I wasn’t the only one who thought he was one of the best writers around. I’m so glad I found him…

You’ll notice a few small changes (in terms of font size, I mean that literally). I also now have that nearly-annoying blog appendage: the “song of the moment”. 
I know I’ve ranted about him before, but I don’t think I’ve done it here, so I’m gonna get a snear in about a recurring hate fixture for [...]

Happy birthday Grandma. This week is lasting for fucking ever.

New and improved navigation, thanks to some stolen code and a few hours of experimentation. I think it looks much better.
Not that this week has been all that exciting anyway, but don’t expect much in the way of updates until Monday. I’ve really been slacking on my web work lately, and I just can’t seem [...]

For those of you who’ve assumed I’ve died, I’m still here and kicking, just not really on my web site. I’ve got lots of things that I want to do here, especially over at The Hyaena, but my priorities have been elsewhere lately…
Tonight will be coffee with Amy, and tomorrow night is an early Easter celebration [...]

Tomorrow I’m off to the northwest with David. Needless to say, I’m excited as hell. It will only be my third time out of California, the first being to Ensenada when I was about 10 and the second being Las Vegas a few years ago. This will most likely be much more enjoyable and exciting. Not [...]