Thoreau

03:58 pm:

---

"Thoreau's Journal: A Manifesto" I have always wanted a manifesto. This journal is pretty much me rambling about what I did each week. It is not intended to be amusing or to provide any sort of social commentary. It is a way for me to keep track of my life. So read at your own risk. And I am probably the only blogger in DC who does NOT write about his dating life (I can keep track of that just fine thank you), so don't expect any fun details.

---

08:36 pm: Hey all, I think this blog is done-at least for awhile. I might change my mind one day, but for now I am putting this thing on hiatus. Just not feeling up to it anymore. Have fun without me.
-Thoreau

03:24 pm: Hmm. I have discovered that I like playing video games again. This is not a good thing for my free time.

I used to play video games back in college and law school pretty regularly. they are a great way to let off steam and keep you enetertaind when you have down time. But when I got into the real world I kind of quit. Until this last sickness this weekend I don;t think I had picked up my Playstation 2 controler in a year or two.

But when you are sick at home and bored-well a video game seems pretty enticing. So started playing again. And now I am addicted. I have to finish thsi one game that I bought long ago...

Anyways, so on tuesday I had dinner with Gywneth and then played video games. On wed I cooked dinner and then played video games. Then last night I went to ellas and then came home and played video games. Kristin walked in the door around midnight and looked at me slumped over in the same position she had seen me in when she went to bed the night before and pointed out that to all intents and purposes I had not moved in 24 hours.

True that.

10:42 am: So this weekend was the weekend of the sick boy. I took off both friday and part of monday from work, and mostly managed to just feel like crap the whole weekend. Really did not do much at all-had dinner on friday, holed up on saturday watching movies, made a few brief appearances at superbowl parties on sunday, and had a few drinks after work with amandas co-workers on monday. But mostly sniffled and coughed and felt bad.

I think I am over it though today though-I woke up feeling tons better.

09:49 am: That's Josh Ritter. Last night he gave me a hug. And a beer.



( More pictures and the story... )

All told-an amazing night.

( For no real reason, here are a few pictures of cute dogs I know )

Oh and a picture of the games party from friday...

11:16 am: Sometimes articles that are at the top of the NYTimes most emailed lists are there for a reason. This one on food was great (even though I don't particulary practice what it preaches). It basically boils down to "Avoid the latest food fad. Don't worry about nutrients. Eat less processed foods, less food in general, and mostly plants and vegetables. And that's it."

So this weekend was particularly nice. Friday night We had a little impromptu games party at my house, spurred by Johnny 5. We played rather cuthroat trivial pursuit and taboo.

Then saturday Amanda and Her friend Stef joined me at frisbee. Well they didn't actually play, but they participated. And played on the playground. And with ollie, Clay, and the many other dogs that stopped by. It was a good game, even though I got stuck guarding some of the best players out there.

Then we hit up polly's for lunch, napped, and tried to be all hip and stuff by going to Flux and the Dc Counter Culture festival over in Arlington. They were supposed to be cool artshow/craft festival/performance art events, but turned out to be mostly boring. We came expecting fire breathing, and were left with bad synth music. But it was enjoyable nontheless.

Then we headed over to Charlies party, walked alot, complimented craig on his sweater, and headedhome around oneish.

Sunday was very relaxing, brunch and hanging around the house most of the day. I eventually left the house around 4 to go to Bookclub, which was nice and very small. Talked about the book for a bit, picked a new one at Olssons, and got a ride home with Hils.

Then I went to the third play in our subscription package at the studio theater- Labute's "This is how it Goes." I was seriously...affected by the play. It really was amazing. Not great-just amazing. It is this story of an interracial love triangle that explores the hidden racism that people suppress in everday life told by an unreliable narrator who turns out to be a monstrous racist (but who can not admit it to himself), but yet is still strangely sympathetic. And it featured a moment that truly took my breath away. I won't get into it too much, but any piece of art that can actually stun you and leave you shell shocked for even a brief moment is pretty impressive. There were plenty of problems with it, but I would still highly recommend the play.

11:15 am: So on tuesday I had dinner with Gwyneth and then caught up on TV. We generally have dinner at Health Bar, which is the restaraunt associated with the U street Results (a notorious gay gym where she works out). When she sat down to join me the Waiter was actually visibly surprised, and mentioned "I never expect mixed couples here..." I was amused.

Wed was also amazing fun, although far less healthy. Can you guess why?


If you guessed we deep fried things over at Daves house you would be right. With not one, but two deep fryers. We turned this:


Into This:


All night long.

This clearly made me happy. As well as other people.



Well not Dave I guess.


Although he performed amazingly well as frymaster.

Brooke couldn;t sit on her chair cause of the excitment.


And anna came back! And made Clay do funny things!


Then last night I stopped in on ellas for a brief while, and then joined Becky and two of her friends at the... Gnarls Barkley/ Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert!!! It was frikking amazing-especially Gnarls. They had maybe 15 people on stage and just made the songs come alive. Although I think that most people were there for the chili peppers-the typical concertgoer was either 15 or 40.

The chil Peppers were pretty good too-but I had no idea that they were essentially a jam band. WAY too many ten minute long instrumental masturbation sessions.

Although I was entertained during those meoments anyways-mostly by the group of 40 year olds standing behind me. One woman, three men. Said woman was belached blond, surgically enhanced, and clearly... available. Said men, were all with potbellies and t-shirts tucked into dad jeans. All three men wanted women. All three men and women were extremely drunk. All three men KISSED woman over the course of concert. Two of the men touched her in extremely inappropriate places...AT THE SAME TIME.

I was confused. But at least it kept me intrigued.

05:00 pm: You should read this great article on why YOU should never play the stock picking game. You really should. It is easy, accessable, and might save you thousands of dollars one day.

03:16 pm: I love tradition, ritual, routine. I have expounded on this at length here before, but I was thinking about it again last night. Anything that happens daily, weekly, monthly-I am so in. I usually pick one place to go to for lunch and stick with it. I have eaten breakfast at the 7/11 near my house every virtually every morning for the last two and a half years. I love that frisbee happens once a week, that Ellas happens every Thursday, that I can count on things happening when they are supposed to. I can make a tradition out of somethign that has happened just twice.

I get nervous when my traditions get threatened. When people suggest that bookclub gets moved from sunday to saturday. That we try someplace new for happy hour. When someone who is a part of my routine stops being part of it.

It is not that I don't like trying new things-I love it. I am liberal, I love to explore, meet new people, try new foods etc. But I like to do that with a background of things I can count on. So I am fiercely protective of my rituals.

Anyways, last night ellas was closed for a private party, so we moved next door over to Gordan biersch for a few drinks. Which is exactly what happened the very first night of the ellas happy hour. More than a year ago Kevin and I and a few other people from frisbee thought it would be a good idea to keep meeting up for drinks, despite it being too dark to play. So we picked ellas. And that night it was closed for a private party...and we went to Gordan.

It all felt very full circle to me last night. I really do hope that ellas continues for another year.

I had a wonderful time last night though! Kevin and I caught up over a few beers, and then at 6:30 a whole host of other people all showed up at once. I tried a few garlic fries (which might be nice to have over at ellas) and drank far too many liters of the house brewed hefeweisen. Dirty talk as had (of course), and general merriment ensued. I took off around ten, and enjoyed the wonderful fact that the yellow line now runs all the way to fort totten, cutting what would have been a 13 minute wait to a two minute one.

04:30 pm: Friday night we saw Children of Men (really quite good) checked out the new Matchbox expansion (enormous!) had pomegranante margaritas at Rosa Mexicana, and basically had a darn good time.

Then on saturday I saw a UFO!



( Well actually I played frisbee )

But the person who had the most fun?


( Ollie of course! )

The rest of Saturday was very enjoyable as well. A bit of lunch, a bit of walking out and about, a bit of Home Depot shopping, and a bit of checking out this new place called Axis that just opened up a few blocks from me. All in all a great frikking day.

On Sunday Amanda, Gwyneth and I enjoyed a brisk outdoor brunch at St Ex, and then purchased the coolest secondhand lamps ever at a thrift store. I helped Amanda with some stuff while reading the paper, and then started preparing for the enormous poker game that I was hosting that evening.



( All told we had probably twenty people stop by to play, with two games going. )
Anyways, a great night indeed.

Then last night I cooked an adequate dinner and read some more of my current favorite book, Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion"

11:06 am: I had the weirdest, most vivid dream last night. I typically don't remember my dreams at all-maybe one a month or so. But this one took place between me waking up at 7:45 am, and then falling asleep and getting up for good at 8:15. It really did prove to me that so many of our dreams that seem to take forever really do only last for a few minutes.



Anyways, there was a long lead up that I don't really remember, and the set up and plot of the dream isn't really that important either. Suffice it to say that my mom and my sister and I were traveling to my mothers hometown of Springfield Vermont for some reason, and we got there at night via trains, cars and finally horseback riding.



But what was so amazing to me was the lighting. Seriously. In the dream the night landscape was lit in this amazing, supersaturated fashion. Kind of like the whole world had become spotlighted so that only certain features were brightly lit, but everything else was sharply thrown into darkness, and then the color saturation bar on photoshop had been pushed all the way to max.



We traveled through this canyon road lined with trees, with each tree individually shining into the darkness, but the night sky and the stars being clearly visible.



We came down a hill and then emerged into the town and the entire town was lit the same way. I couldn't describe it to you if I tried.



So I went looking for pictures on flickr to see if anyone had captured in real life what my dream was like. And I couldn't find anything just right. What i stuck in here aproaches the dream in some ways, but in other ways is completely wrong.



So I think my new project is going to be to try and make a photograph that aproximates what I dreamt.

11:29 am: Gerald Ford, I will remember you always for having the great good grace to pass away at a time appropriate to make it a four day weekend. Thank you.

I don't really rememeber much that has happened since I last posted. I am pretty sure I managed to keep myself busy doing things, frisbee, shopping etc. Kevin had a shindig too that was rather fun. I was promised pictures of that but have not yet been provided them...

And then there was the NYE party. Now that I remember. Even though some people might not...



( More pictures and story through this link )

It was a grand party.

Monday I had some frikking amazing quiche provided by andy and jen, and enjoyed their company for as long as my hangover permitted. Then I went and played poker for hours and passed out dead to the world. Tuesday was devoted to cleaning up, frisbee on the mall, and not much else.

Then yesterday I had the pleasure of experiencing a Tofu Tier. Which was much better than it sounds.

10:47 am: Xmas
I am back, safe and sound, carrying presents and an extra five pounds around my middle. Well, lets back up a bit. So on thursday, instead of going to ellas, I went home and did errands and packed and generally got ready. Michelle came over and had some dinner with me and had lots of fun playing with henrycat.



Then Friday I went to work, and then flew for awhile. A long while. I HATE layovers. I usually do almost anything to avoid them, but this time there wasn't much I could do. So nearly ten hours later I finally arrive at my mom and sisters house in the LA foothills, deliriously tired and ready to sleep.

The next morning we cooked for awhile, and then we all headed out to get Shiatsu Massages, a Xmas present courtesy of my stepdad Bob. It was a great way to start the weekend and certainly loosened us all up-although I think it really worked well on my sister Moriah...



Then we went to go see the ballet version of the story "the Snow Queen" because a few of my sisters friends were in it. It was ok.



Then off to wrap up our christmas shopping and catch a late movie-The Pursuit of Happyness. Again, just ok.

The next morning we went off to visit my mom and my sisters horse, and to spend an hour doing that most christmas of christmas traditions, cleaning up horse poop.



Having made a life choice to try and avoid as much poop as possible, I mostly took pictures and supervised, much to the disdain of my little sister.



My sis kissed her horse,


while I got to know some of the other residents of the stall. This one was quite touchy feely,


while the little minature horse was quite the pain in the neck and kept pretending to head butt me,


and this horse posed prettily.


Then we headed off to the Getty museum. I had never been before, so I was very excited. It was pretty awesome, more for the grounds than for the artwork though.


The place was amazing. We had lunch out on this patio overlooking the entire city, with gardens underneath us, and the gorgeous day around us. It was nice. We looked at art for awhile,


and then Moriah's ghost was crowned emperor of Rome.


My ghost was not impressed,


and I told her Highness to talk to the hand.


My mom was quietly amused.


The place was pretty bright too-I like this picture of me my sis took.


Then we headed off for a tour of my old haunts in Hollywood. It was fun-I heard a bunch of stories and a bunch of old memories resurfaced. Then we headed home for dinner and an evening of setting up the computer I had gotten for them as a christmas present.

The next morning moriah woke up way too early, so she and I went out searching for a place to get a christmas movie while my mom slept in. Finding said movie turned out to be surprisingly easy for 9am on a christmas morning, and we soon returned and watched it.

Finally mom awoke, Bob came over and we opened presents.








We made an enormous breakfast of three different kinds of crepes,


which was later topped by the even bigger dinner we had that evening.


In between we went to the park, went on a drive, and later went to a movie. All in all a grand christmas weekend.



Oh and my little sister is quite the budding photographer. Here are a few of my favorite shots that she took after she appropriated my camera for much of the weekend.



This guy just stood there posing for the camera...


I think I look like I am in morrocco or something in this pic




She loves pics of eyes.

10:21 am: Hmmm. Good week so far.

So Tuesday evening featured dinner with the gywneth at Health bar, and then desserts and games with Craig, anna and donny late into the evening. I kind of love that I was able to fit in meals with two sets of friends in a single night. Plus I won (kinda) my first Settlers game against craig and anna ever. It was a picture perfect night with friends. I even took a few pictures. I also got my new lens for my camera- it is a sigma telephoto zoom lens, 28MM-300MM, and pretty fast too 3.5 to 6.3. The autofocus is a bit slow, but I love the Macro at a distance feature. Anyways, I played with it for awhile too. Oh and I got some awesome presents from gwyneth.

Then last night Amanda and I exchanged gifts and then headed off to try out Rays the Classics. Which I enjoyed, but not immensely. The food was pretty good, but not awe inspiring, the service was adequate, and the atmosphere...kinda sucked. It was a good night out, but not really my new destination spot.

I am off to California tomorrow-must pack and stuff tonight.

10:58 am: This has pretty much become a photoblog at this point...

So this was some of the food at the potluck last wed,



and this was allyn looking shocked at how good those wienies were.



Criag knows how to make wienies. :) Kevin thought they were a bit hot,



while charlie was amused.



So on to friday. Which was generally much fun. I went christmas shopping, then got loaded on scotch, had good french fries, met a bunch of new people, avoided cigar smoke, and generally did the kind of things you do when you are at a christmas party.

And then saturday I got to take amanda's Ollie dog,



to frisbee


and then went scarf shopping with the amanda.



More holiday parties, and then lots and lots of watching Arrested Development. Best discovery ever that the Video Game network actually shows reruns all the time...

Then Sunday was great pancakes, more shopping, and my favorite way to wrap up a weekend, a good poker game. well good for everyone else but me I should say. I lost a bundle.

10:44 am: So here are a few pictures from last saturday's frisbee game. Hopefully next week I can get some better ones. I have become terribly obnoxious-I take pictures constantly now. Wed was Rea's holiday potluck, and I know I took more photos than I took bites of food. The food was great though... Then yesterday was drinks with the boss, his boss, and his boss. Then I went to ellas and was able to relax.

Holiday parties today...











and then a slighty different version of frisbee...

11:37 am: Oh my, oh my, how does the time fly.

Well on Thursday I turned older. It rocked, despite the look on my face in this picture.



For most of the night I was at least this happy.



Especially cause people kept bringing me greasy food all night long,



and this lady



made me a cake.



Friday I was a bit sick. So I took it off. I lounged most of the morning, did a bit of shopping and fondue making, and that was the day. Mostly recovery and errands and cheese.

Saturday was a good game of frisbee (which pictures were actually taken of but not yet processed), and then the passion party...

The more said of which the better, but perhaps the less said the less incriminating. suffice it to say that this lady..



showed off these things



to these people.



And then I stopped taking pictures. Well not before these people made fun of me for taking too many.



After the very successful passion party, many of us adjourned to craig and swans place for a housewarming extravaganza. It was fun. Then amanda and I headed up to a silver spring for yet another party, featuring coffee drinks, enormous TVs and inappropriate dancing. Also enjoyable.

Sunday was lounging, catching up on calls, and Hils Party. Which was so much fun. Her place is just so cozy. Good food, only a small bit of games, but great company.

Oh and then monday was a bit more christmas shopping, sushi with the becks, and then picture processing. I managed to take nearly 300 of them.

Here are a few of my other favorites.

Rea Being Rea


Amanda looking French


Mela Smiling


Kevin switching genders


Henrycat looking like he is hungry


Ollie looking distant


Allyn looking lovely


Mandie too


And the roomie too!

10:33 am: Annual first Sentences meme (taken from delaneybird)
This requires you to take the first line of the first day of the month you have on your Livejournal entries of 2006.

January: The pic above links to a bunch of pics from the party...

February: “The State Of The Union Is STRONG!!!”

March: Last night I returned a long lost scarf to its owner and had dinner with the scarf’s owner at Bens chili bowl (such a very very overrated place).

April: Hey all- I arrived safe and sound in antigua yesterday, and immediately was swept up into the whirlwind that is michelles life here.

May: I have a sunburn (on my head not my ass), and this time it isn’t a tanning beds fault.

June: I got my annual review yesterday.

July: This weekend I sang the Happy Birthday song three nights in a row…

August: Ok, so does ANYBODY actually watch the movie at screen on the green?

September: Topics to be discussed, the effects of 26 hours of travel, fashion fads of asian youth, the perfect 5 star hotel, breakfast buffets of the gods, then seeing the temples of the buddhas, river buses, polluted streets and street shopping, drinking where the guidebook tells you to, and SWAN!

October: Lets see, I guess my last entry was on Thursday.

November: So frikking busy at work nowadays... SO busy.

December: So the gift receiver enjoyed the best job of wrapping I have ever done, although mostly for what was inside and not what was outside.

09:27 am: Well sometimes birthdays start out good and get shitty, and sometimes they start out shitty and get good. I hope this one is the latter. Cause if not...

I walked in to work today and was told that the project which I did a really good job on, slaved on for two months yet still really enjoyed, and that was a significant responsibility good for my career... just got canceled. Two months of work wasted.

Life sucks sometimes. Anyways, the day had better get better!

The last few days I haven't done much. Worked, and then gone home. I played with my new toys, watched TV, mostly hung out and relaxed.

02:09 pm: So the gift receiver enjoyed the best job of wrapping I have ever done, although mostly for what was inside and not what was outside. I guess appearance really doesn't matter.

The weekend was very, very good. Friday I did nothing. Scratch that, first I ran into Scott and then Lorin and jaime on the metro, so we all had dinner at Ben's chili bowl. Then I did nothing. I watched TV, and played video games for the first time in nearly a year. I loved it.

Saturday was busier. Played frisbee, then played poker, then played with amanda and her friends for her birthday. Ceviche has great drinks for great prices-I am amazed they aren't more popular. Anyways, it was a wonderful night out.

Sunday was also just about perfect, featuring brunch, phone shopping, more poker (this time at my place) and ... butter.

Monday was devoted to a conference for work. I hate wearing suits.

Oh and so I get two new toys in the mail today!! this and this.

Somewhat surprisingly, both of them were significantly cheaper less than a week ago when I bought them.