Yeah, September was a rather dry month for journals. Sorry to those who have endeavored to keep up with me the past month. I almost feel guilty doing a journal entry when I’ve got so much email I haven’t answered…

But at least this way I can send an impersonal update to everyone at once…

The past week was mostly about work work work. Thursday involved buying a router to eliminate the ugly cords hanging over everyhing in the office (but didn’t resolve the other DSL-related issues, alas…), Friday was new tires for David and new pants for me, along with a gluttonous trip to Oakland/ Emeryville for dinner and desert with Dan, Jamie and the landlord. Yes, I actually have a likeable landlord still. I’ve been lucky thus far.

Yesterday David & I took a trip on his new tires, scoring me a few more pairs of pants (I actually have 5 pairs that I like now!), a few more DVDs (as if we need more…) and a trip to Treasure Island. The Island was a bit on the creepy side, similar to the ruins of Fort Ord, with only a fraction of the buildings in use. The population seemed to be very wealthy ethnic minorities, at least from the samples visible in the late afternoon. I’d be interested in seeing what the place looks like in another few years.

The hottest week I’ve ever experienced (living or visiting) in the City. The only choice I have is to be naked at all possible times. I don’t think David minds… Or the neighbors for that matter.

One more good thing about having the iBook is that I get to connect to the internet by dial-up even during a power outage.

So chew on this: apparently my parents are really freaking out that I don’t call them more often, but they have yet to call me even once since I’ve moved. On the one hand, I can’t feel guilty at all about not calling them more often when they don’t call me. On the other hand, they still make me feel all guilty when I do call them. The result: I call them even less.

I doubt they’ll ever much be able to make me feel guilty for any problems in our relationship.

So David’s trying to plan his next vacation, which he’ll have to take without me, unfortunately (damn probationary periods on new jobs!). Not exactly sure how well I’ll deal with being all alone again for a week or two when I’ve become so accustomed to having my boy in groping distance most hours of the day. But I’m sure I’ll deal with it…

Hopefully by spring I’ll be able to do another vacation. In other news, Chuck seems to have officially written off both myself and David - even though I actually got around to updating my link to him today, and I still think he should have kept the webcam going all the way down last Saturday morning… 

Damn, where did the week go?

Oh yeah, two specific places: work and other work. The long hours at work piled up this week, and will probably continue to do so for the next few weeks, as my company prepares to move our offices. The day work has involved preparations for moving as well as making sure all the everyday tasks are going smoothly so that we can handle a doubling or tripling of the load in the next couple months. The night work has involved schmoozing with the coworkers and generally confirming that I love my job. My boss is among the most rational and straight-shooting businessmen I’ve ever known, and my coworkers are all dot-com survivors hell-bent on avoiding the pitfalls they’ve all experienced over the past couple years.

The weekend should include a fun-filled trip to my home town , laundry, and maybe some miscellaneous house-cleaning on Sunday.

And now to contemplate the email and other piles of “to do” things which the long hours have made me ignore…

Back to Fresno for the weekend. To celebrate “Cow’ifornia” at the Big Fresno Fair. Highlights included pig races, boy watching and general gluttony. David shot most of the video, so I’ll let him do the full report (if he feelz like it).

Had a breakthrough in the bathroom remodel plans whilst touring the Lowe’s in Fresno, also. The very helpful staff showed me how I can accomplish my refurbishment goals for (probably) under 100 dollars. Kick ass.

So it seems some anti-war vandals attacked a recruiter’s office down in San Jose, spray-painting “a preemptive attack” on the outside windows, as well as breaking windows, torching cars, and being generally destructive. Note that most news sluts are still calling a potential attack on Iraq a “preemptive strike”… 
… How short memories are, and how oblivious jingoists are today. Some of us remember that in fact Iraq started the mayhem back in 1990, and that in fact the US has been under attack for quite a while. Just last night, troops in Kuwait were fired on. Just last week the same thing happened and two marines were killed. One could argue that we should “get out of Kuwait”, but that would ignore the fact that the Kuwaitis, by and large, really want our protection, and we really want to trade with them. I have always maintained that protecting our trade and financial interests is a primary (if not the primary) reason to engage our military. What other reason is there to have a military if it is not to protect the national interest of a nation of businessmen?

And no, I don’t see why a nation of businessmen is a bad thing. Europeans can keep their identity-making monarchs and Asians can keep their smarmy neurotic dictators. I could never be more proud than I am of being part of a nation that puts individual achievement and aspirations first and national collective identity second.

Now these were the San Francisco days I was looking forward to… The relentless wind, the sun gone missing, the homeless back in their shelters (most of the time), and me clinging to my coffee morning and afternoon both.

It’s horribly out of fashion now, but I warn y’all that I’m composing one of those 100 Things About Me nonsenses. Coming soon to a link near you.

Yesterday I was surprised as the day unfolded to find that my office was moving. Relocating an office is tough work when there’s no outsourcing, and totally killer for a server farm. I’m glad I’m not a tech. They’ve still got their work cut out for them.

So today we were working on cleanup and damage control. And tonight I’m feeling extra hungry, but nothing in the fridge looks any good. Now to talk David into taking me out for dinner…

Speaking of whom… David and I are officially a first-person plural (well, we’ve been for a while…): I filed the paperwork today for our domestic-partner-permitted health-dental-vision-life plan. I do love my boy. Gotta keep him healthy.

I know, it’s been a week. I’ve finally hit that wall…

My energy needs to be refocused right now. I’ve noticed lately that I get too complacent with just updating the blog, and lose sight of my more complex and in-depth writing, to my detriment, I feel. I want to change my focus on this site to my subject writings and try to become a bit more thoughtful and coherent about what I write.

I also, soon, want to make more use of the other domains I own. There’s a few experiments I have up my sleeve, but again, they keep getting vitually thwarted by my self-imposed need to blog. I think the answer is to end my blog-dependency and let myself concentrate more on what I enjoyed when I fist started all of this: experimenting with my web presence.

The constant maintenance of a journal-style site is what I want to get away from. It becomes too comfortable and starts to feel like a trap once I’ve got a design and format that I’m relatively comfortable with…

Feel free to check up on me. I will unveil new material as it materializes. Until then, this ends this incarnation of my online journal.

There are three basic types of results from the activity of the creative mind: the raw, the refined and the contrived.

“Raw” is not necessarily normative, and describes the results of creativity in its most basic form, prior to any true product or end result. The raw result of a musician’s creative process is in most cases the melody before the rhythm, or the poem before it becomes lyrics or the written ideas before they are set down for actual instruments. Raw material is that upon which the final product is built. Whenever “Raw” is actually used to describe the final product, it is usually in the normative sense, meaning “unfinished” and “incomplete” or even “unsatisfactory”. The raw creation should not be the goal of the creative mind.

“Refined” is not always (though often) normative, and describes the product of creativity: the end result of the combining and processing of raw materials. Crude oil is a raw material for the refined gasoline which is sold as the end product at gas stations. A rough sketch is the raw creation out of which the detailed landscape painting becomes the product. In the normative sense, “Refined” can at best mean “the greatest end result”, “the final product” and at worst “fully realized”. Refined creations are the only rational goal of the creative mind.

“Contrived” is the usually normative description of that which was incompletely refined or re-refined from poor creativity. Those who strive to recreate what was created before them (without necessarily understanding the purpose for which the original product was destined) are guilty of contriving their creations. A modern parlor room decorated in tribal chic is contrived where a tribal hut in its intended and functional state is not. A scientist who lazily tries to merely reproduce the innumerably-reproduced is contrived in his objective. Original thinkers and honest productive men are never contrived in the outcomes of their creativity. Most of the flushable crap floating around our world today is, however.