this documentary about how codfish have been gill-netted into extinction in Newfoundland in Canada, so I went out to Burger King to get a Whaler fish-wich-type breaded deep-fried filet sandwich while there was still time.
* * *
I think I'm going to keep my diary more regularly now. Karla got me to thinking that we really do inhabit an odd little nook of time and space here, and that odd or strange as this little nook may be, it's where I live - it's where I am.
I used to always think I had to have a reason to record my observations of the day, or even my emotions, but now I think simply being alive is more than enough reason. Unshackled!
* * *
UV rays
. . . arms armor ammo health
Brillo
Chicken Marsala
WW3
backlit Plexiglas
N x S x T
Tetris
Tonopah, Nevada
locate the source of urges
cat food
System Seven
Woodside
Los Altos Hills
San Jose
Space Cruiser
8
17
32
487
Superstar
Fear Uncertainty Doubt
Crashed in a cornfield
COBOL
Steak house
Calorie factory
Format?
Reject?
MONDAY
Melrose Place night tonight. We double-clicked onto the "BRAIN CANDY" mode. We're all addicts.
We like to pretend our geek house is actually Melrose Place.
Tonight Abe said, "I wonder what would happen if we all started randomly going nonlinear like the show's characters. What would happen if our personalities became divorced from cause and effect?"
"We could take turns going psycho," said Bug.
Susan, writing the words D-U-R-A-N/D-U-R-A-N on the proximal phalanges of her fingers, said, "You already are psycho, Bug. That doesn't count."
* * *
Susan read aloud bits from the Handbook of Highway Engineering:
" 'Improperly installed or unwarranted signals can result in the following conditions:
-Excessive delay
-Disobedience of the signal indications
-Use of less adequate routes to avoid the signal
-Increase of accident frequency . . .' "
She paused and looked at the fire for a while. "I wonder if this guy is alive and if he's married?"
* * *
I called to see if Mom was feeling better, and she was. She's signed up for swimming classes at the local pool. But the big news occurred when Dad got on the extension line and shouted at me, "I'm employed!"
"Way to go, Dad. I told you something would come up. What are you going to be doing?"
"Oh - this and that. Michael is certainly one bright young fellow. Odd. But bright."
"You're working for Michael?''
"I certainly am."
"At Microsoft?"
"No, he's starting something else, a new company."
"He IS? What are you working on there?" (*Shock*)
"And he's living in one of the spare bedrooms - can you believe it?"
(Good God!) "Yes, I can. And your job description?"
"Here, your mother wants to speak to you . . ."
Mom chatted about being relieved with Dad's salary plus rent money flowing in. But the job description never arrived. Nor any clue about this mysterious new company.
* * *
We have a new word for vaporware: Sea Monkeys, as in, "ScriptX is really Sea Monkeys!"
Susan said, "Remember when you were a kid and sent away for that little nuclear family with Ddd wearing a crown and everything, and instead all you got was . . . brine shrimp ?"
* * *
Reading a book about viruses. Went into Boeing Surplus again. It was Monday, so all the new magazines were in.
* * *
Karla and I were here in my room, lying on my bed - bare legs akimbo - and we made this really embarrassing observation that neither of us have tan lines - that we spent all summer in the crunch mode to meet shipping deadline.
Karla began talking all Star Trekky again - the best thing about her.
She said, "I don't believe human beings store memory in our brains exclusively - there simply aren't enough storage slots or interconnective possibilities. And so if not in the brain, then where? I concluded that another viewpoint on memory was to see our bodies as 'peripheral memory storage devices.'"
Hence, *bliss*, shiatsu.
"You know yourself, Dan, that every sitcom ever broadcast is stored in
your brain -
* * *
I think I'm going to keep my diary more regularly now. Karla got me to thinking that we really do inhabit an odd little nook of time and space here, and that odd or strange as this little nook may be, it's where I live - it's where I am.
I used to always think I had to have a reason to record my observations of the day, or even my emotions, but now I think simply being alive is more than enough reason. Unshackled!
* * *
UV rays
. . . arms armor ammo health
Brillo
Chicken Marsala
WW3
backlit Plexiglas
N x S x T
Tetris
Tonopah, Nevada
locate the source of urges
cat food
System Seven
Woodside
Los Altos Hills
San Jose
Space Cruiser
8
17
32
487
Superstar
Fear Uncertainty Doubt
Crashed in a cornfield
COBOL
Steak house
Calorie factory
Format?
Reject?
MONDAY
Melrose Place night tonight. We double-clicked onto the "BRAIN CANDY" mode. We're all addicts.
We like to pretend our geek house is actually Melrose Place.
Tonight Abe said, "I wonder what would happen if we all started randomly going nonlinear like the show's characters. What would happen if our personalities became divorced from cause and effect?"
"We could take turns going psycho," said Bug.
Susan, writing the words D-U-R-A-N/D-U-R-A-N on the proximal phalanges of her fingers, said, "You already are psycho, Bug. That doesn't count."
* * *
Susan read aloud bits from the Handbook of Highway Engineering:
" 'Improperly installed or unwarranted signals can result in the following conditions:
-Excessive delay
-Disobedience of the signal indications
-Use of less adequate routes to avoid the signal
-Increase of accident frequency . . .' "
She paused and looked at the fire for a while. "I wonder if this guy is alive and if he's married?"
* * *
I called to see if Mom was feeling better, and she was. She's signed up for swimming classes at the local pool. But the big news occurred when Dad got on the extension line and shouted at me, "I'm employed!"
"Way to go, Dad. I told you something would come up. What are you going to be doing?"
"Oh - this and that. Michael is certainly one bright young fellow. Odd. But bright."
"You're working for Michael?''
"I certainly am."
"At Microsoft?"
"No, he's starting something else, a new company."
"He IS? What are you working on there?" (*Shock*)
"And he's living in one of the spare bedrooms - can you believe it?"
(Good God!) "Yes, I can. And your job description?"
"Here, your mother wants to speak to you . . ."
Mom chatted about being relieved with Dad's salary plus rent money flowing in. But the job description never arrived. Nor any clue about this mysterious new company.
* * *
We have a new word for vaporware: Sea Monkeys, as in, "ScriptX is really Sea Monkeys!"
Susan said, "Remember when you were a kid and sent away for that little nuclear family with Ddd wearing a crown and everything, and instead all you got was . . . brine shrimp ?"
* * *
Reading a book about viruses. Went into Boeing Surplus again. It was Monday, so all the new magazines were in.
* * *
Karla and I were here in my room, lying on my bed - bare legs akimbo - and we made this really embarrassing observation that neither of us have tan lines - that we spent all summer in the crunch mode to meet shipping deadline.
Karla began talking all Star Trekky again - the best thing about her.
She said, "I don't believe human beings store memory in our brains exclusively - there simply aren't enough storage slots or interconnective possibilities. And so if not in the brain, then where? I concluded that another viewpoint on memory was to see our bodies as 'peripheral memory storage devices.'"
Hence, *bliss*, shiatsu.
"You know yourself, Dan, that every sitcom ever broadcast is stored in
your brain -
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