Thankfully the kissing disease didn’t get me this time. Neither did any other ailment. Instead, I had five law school finals to contend with, and Skorloff was brave (and kind) enough to take on the blogging responsibilities of this here vessel. For that I am very thankful. We all learned a lot from Skoroloff. For instance, I didn’t know that “no self-respecting list of post-modern soundtracks would be complete without a quentin tarantino movie.” I also didn’t know that “we feed them every day which keeps them from starving and has cut down on the number of dead bird parts we find in the yard.” Neither did I know that “then i got old.” I’ll be damned.

What I do know is that I’m getting the hell out of dodge. My dad and I plan to take a road trip of sorts this weekend to somewhere in central Texas. Probably a state park. Someplace where we can canoe, hike, smell clean air, look at stars, and otherwise act like the rugged guys we really aren’t. Then E comes back on Tuesday and the wait will be over.

But before that, I’ve got a list of things to do:

on saturday night i went to celebrate jon's birthday. again, happy b-day jon. the fest was at a local tavern with a local band playing in jon's honor.the band was starchild (best link i could find; be patient, they're in there somewhere).

they rocked. they're not a cover band, but they did play a cover before i left: l.a. woman.

i really like the doors. i've liked them since i was an infant, i think. my dad liked them and i grew up listening to them. then again, i also grew up listening to john denver and helen reddy. nevertheless, i still like the doors.

i've heard a few bands play l.a. woman and i pretty much feel that it's a song that lends itself to ownership. starchild, for instance, played it pretty straight but even they molded it to their situation. bassist playing bassline instead of keyboardist. guitar solo in place of keyboard solo because they have no keyboardist. the singer was good but didn't have the presence of jim morrison. he more than made up for it with his guitar work. which, by the way (unlike the original), he played without a slide.

anyhoo - i like the doors. if you're ever in SA, check out starchild. if you're in a band, play l.a. woman; i might be in the audience.

- skorloff

first off, my tenure as pinch-blogger for p-man is nigh. he will be back soon to regale you with sweet-nothings of law school and equatorial travel (as if to say nothing of the great lakes). i appreciate that i rate high enough to kvetch about meaningless crap once or twice a year. thanks p-man, a debt of gratitude and friendship are yours.

2005 has been interesting. interesting like a proverbial greater-asia curse.

leaving aside the presumed cognitive dissonance you might feel from the following statement: i have been managing the development of the website for Enormoco for the better part of this year. this is new.

i have spent pretty much every spare dollar on fixing up a 75-year-old house.

i have been in the outer-proximity of several escapes from this mortal coil. each sad, each senseless.

i have watched 80 movies. most worth my time. a few sucked a green donkey's something-or-other.

i became a vegetarian. it wasn't that hard.

i experienced a profundity of joy, sadness, wonder and bewilderment. mirth, too.

i regret nothing in 2005. my regrets precede this year. i will likely plea-bargain them down to 2002 and prior. my emotional attorney is pretty good but i wonder if he couldn't work harder.

2005 is almost over except for the crush of social engagements.

if you know me, please stop by my house on new year's day 2006. i'm planning an afternoon cook-out. it's a party in a way. mostly it's a way to start 2006 and imagine that there's a better way. i hope to see you there, er, here.

I found the missing cd my computer came with that did exactly what I needed it to do: erase everything and start over. So I write to you from a freshly set-up laptop complete with external hard drive that doesn’t crash the computer. Hooray for technology.

My dad and I went to REI and got him a cool North Face jacket/fleece thing. It’s all part of my plan to help dad develop his wardrobe into something cool (for a mid-50s guy). It’s an ongoing project of mine. My dad could care less about what he wears so long as it doesn’t embarrass those around him and it doesn’t have holes. That’s all well and good, but unless someone else steps in, he’ll wear the same shirt to every occasion. Case in point: for each of the three of four times E and I have had dinner with my parents, my dad has worn the same shirt. It was time for some variety. Thus, the trip to REI.

Mom, though, had other ideas. She insisted on taking him to MACY’S, which I adamantly protested, to get him a jacket. They went without me and came home with two faux-suede jackets, one brown and one tan. They are hideous. They are not in conformance with my plan. They look like something a wife would buy her husband because they get the job done. Shameful. We’re not just trying to get the job done – we’re trying to do it with some style. Dad chose the North Face jacket. He liked it. Mom didn’t. I say let the man keep the jacket.

Believe it or not (believe it) Mom and I got in an argument over this. I know that probably sounds a little weird to a lot of you, but please consider 1) my mom and I argue about pretty much everything and 2) the arguments are always good-natured. There’s no real animosity there. Just complete obstinance.

Rather than take the hard line and require her to return both of the Macy’s jackets, I opted for a compromise. Take the more abominable jacket back and leave the North Face jacket status quo. At least then he has a choice between the two, and one of the jackets is clearly heavier than the other and therefore in a different category of jacket. I think that strategy was a winner. There was no protest and I haven’t a word about it since yesterday.

Up next: no more wearing white tennis shoes with everything. Instead, these, in mahogany. I have something similar and they’re great. No laces to futz with and they go with most everything.

It’s called Chanukkah, or Hanukkah, if you don’t like the ‘ch’ sound (which many of you probably don’t, and I won’t hold it against you). Yes yes, I know there happens to be some other holiday with trees and lights and the “sucking up [of] energy into a void of tackiness” also on the 25th. But this is the first time I can remember Chanukkah’s first night coinciding with Christmas.

Christians have it easy. Their holiday always falls on the same day. December 25th. No muss, no fuss. But for Jews in America, Chanukkah is an elusive bastard, shifting around from early-December to mid-December to late-December at will. Actually, it’s not so much Chanukkah’s fault as the difference between the Christian (Gregorian) solar calendar and the Jewish solar-lunar calendar. While the Gregorians add an extra day every four years, the Jews add an extra month every now and then. The exact calculations of when to add the extra month are too complex for me to explain here. I also don’t understand them, so that’s another excuse.

What all this hullabaloo means is that Jews are faced with the same question every year from their non-Jewish (or Jewish and absent-minded) friends: So when is Chanukkah this year? My usual answer: damifiknow. The Gregorian and Jewish calendars are in a constant state of flux, so it’s hard to tell when things will happen.

OK, I just really wanted to use the word “flux.” Great word.

So, whatever your holiday fancy, whether it be hanging tacky lights on your rain gutters, lighting 36 candles, or doing something else that’s vaguely religious or cultural in nature, remember this: there were times when doing these things was forbidden. And there are people in the world who want no other gift than to be with the ones they care about, and for some reason, will not have their wish fulfilled. Those of us who can have that should be thankful.

And since we’re already being sappy, why not top it off with this: in light of Skorloff’s astute observation a few weeks ago, we at particleman.org hope you enjoy your tradition - however lame it might be. And trust us, it probably is lame.

Links to particleman.org’s Chanukkah past:

Specifically, the La Jolla* neighborhood. La Jolla is basically a peninsula, so beach is everywhere and land is kind of expensive – or at least I imagine it is. So here’s my solution. I’m building my pad right on the beach. On the sand. I’ll set up shop next door to the seals. It’s probably illegal and the authorities will probably try to tear my house down, but if I take a few seals hostage – I mean, as guests – they’ll think twice about bulldozing my bachelor pad. They’ll resort to legal measures that obviously won’t work, since everyone knows “legal measures” is really code for “what the hell do we do now.”

The trip was great and the wedding was beautiful. I danced a lot and, as planned, everyone quickly and uniformly vacated the premises, some covering their children’s eyes to shield them from the abomination that is my dance moves.

I might subject you to one of these posts later on.

*pronounced La Hoya, for reasons i refuse to believe or accept. I still want to call it La Jolla.

i'm going to a wedding in san diego with E, her parents, and her grandfather. E's cousin is getting hitched. now that i've already met the fam, i get to meet some of the extended fam. wish me luck.

happy holidays, be safe, et al.

I’ve blogged about my landlady before. She’s older, probably somewhere in her 70s, and most definitely from the South. She does a great job keeping the apartment in tip-top shape. The weird thing is that she has a habit of parking her car in the driveway when no one is here and sitting in the car. Waiting. Either she’s waiting for the A/C guy to show up, or the heater guy, or the plumber, or some other repairman-person. It’s so freaking weird. I invite her in for a drink but she smiles and politely refuses. I don’t get it. It might be 100 degrees outside, but she refuses to leave that car.

What happened today really freaked me out. I had been running errands all morning and stopped home for some lunch before heading out again. I had to go out to my car for something and didn’t bother to look up at anything else around me. After I found what I needed, I closed the car door and then, to my surprise, heard a familiar female voice calling my name. I was in such a rush to get back in and eat lunch that I almost screamed like schoolgirl when I heard my name and realized Landlady had been sitting in her car next to mine the whole time. What the hell? It’s like 40 degrees outside, and she’s sitting in her car. She said she was waiting for a washing machine guy for the Lady Upstairs (whom I have also blogged about). I asked her if she would like to come in for a drink, perhaps some tea. Again, the polite, “Oh, No Thank You.”

Landlady, you’re weird. You shouldn’t sit outside in your car when it’s 100 degrees or 40 degrees. It’s not healthy, and just a little bit abnormal. Maybe even stalker-ish.

Well, looks like computer won this fight. But it hasn’t won the battle. Once I got all my files off of the hard drive and onto my dad’s computer, I realized that not only is the “resource” cd the computer came with lacking a copy of XP, but my backup image of the factory setup is also gone. So I have nothing to install even if I can swipe the drive. What I will do, though, is buy a legit copy of XP (groan) at a reduced price thanks to my friend who is a student at an unnamed university here in town.

Also, that road trip I talked about? Yeah, not gonna happen. The weather in central Texas is going to turn hellish this weekend. Cold, I can handle. Rain and cold I cannot handle. I’m not that manly (and neither is 56-year-old dad). So looks like pops and I are just gonna kick it here in town. He needs a new light jacket, so we went to to REI and got him a cool fleece top. Then we saw Aeon Flux, which has gotten terrible reviews, but at matinee price, I don’t mind watching Charlize Theron frolic around the screen in that smokin’ hot outfit. Yes, I’m easy to please. The movie was pretty good if you're looking for a sci-fi action flic to kill some time. It was definitely a guy movie: sci-fi plot with some social commentary stirred in, topped with enough action sequences to keep most any male happy. Damn the reviewers, we liked it.

Tonight was Heather’s birthday party, so I got to hang with her and Andrew at Rudyard’s, a new (to me) dive. Her landlord’s band was an opening act and they were pretty good, so I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

Damn this thing. It won’t let go of my files. I’m trying to transfer my precious files over to my roommate’s server before I give the hard drive a clean sweep but it won’t loosen its grip. I swear it’s pissed off at me for neglecting it for so long. I was able to get about 3 gigs worth of Word files, Aeon Flux episodes, and The Office episodes over to his computer before it wigged out and refused to reconnect. It won’t even recognize his computer’s existence. Just an hour ago it was merrily transferring files over; but now, noooooooo, it has no freaking clue a humongous server with lots of free disk space is sitting right here waiting to store all my mp3s and whatnot. Damn technology. Finicky and unpredictable. Sounds like women.

Ok that last one came out of pure frustration. Sorry for the jibe. Computers still piss me off. Especially mine.

I started reading the Lance Armstrong book. Good story so far. I’m glad he got a co-writer. Homeboy Lance can ride a bike, but he ain’t no Tolstoy.

quoting:

"Our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach [intelligent design] as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom."

the "preview" button on the comments now works again. not that any of you noticed it broke. the server went and got case-sensitive on me and i had to root out the offending capitalization snafu. i return you to your regularly scheduled whatever.