The upside of spam

Ha, a spam comment to my last post finally prompted me to deliver a long-awaited update. What have I been up to? True to my vow at the beginning of the year, I’ve been working on my career with an eye to some kind of improvement. So far it’s been mostly thinking, and not much action, but hopefully the latter will start happening soon. Sorry to be so vague, but I have to preserve the veneer of anonymity I have here as much as I can. Someday I can look back at all the things that happened on the job in the last few months here and it won’t piss me off as much as it does now. I can’t wait for that moment!

Ooof

So I went cross-country skiing for the very first time yesterday. It was my first time on skis in my entire life, as a matter of fact! Let’s just say that gravity had its way with me in cruel fashion. You know, the ground is very far away from you when you’re on skis, and I was demolished by even the slightest downslope. I hope my left knee forgives me for getting fallen on so many goddamn times. Ooof.

Today also marks the very early end to the annual challenge to try and get some cycling in every month of the year. Thanks to this year’s ridiculously snowy winter, I haven’t been on the bike since January freaking 1. Oh well, maybe we’ll have a drier spring than usual and I can make up some miles!

A new resolution

Now that we’ve stepped into 2011, it’s time to engage in a bit of self-reflection. And what better venue for that than my poor neglected blog?

You might think that my resolution is to post here more often, and that certainly has crossed my mind. But on the other hand, I’m thinking that that will be an secondary effect as I tackle my real resolution: in 2011 I plan to start marshaling my resources to figure out how the heck to get out of this crazy job of mine.

Why change jobs? I can’t argue with the hours I have, the PTO, the proximity to tennis, and the general lack of pressure to work too hard, but at the same time it seems to be slowly crushing my soul like a giant drill press carefully squeezing a lone grape. So there are drawbacks to staying here. Obviously there’s something beautiful about not having to do much of anything at work if I don’t feel like it, but on the other hand, after a certain quantity of goofing off I start to wonder whether I can respect myself. It’s a fine line, ha.

So what do I plan to do? Well, note how vague and weaselly the wording of my resolution is. I resolve to start thinking about how to plan to do something. The truth is that I don’t have formal training in very many practical areas. The publishing world has done nothing but contract violently in the last few years, so I wonder whether I’d be able to find anyplace else to do work that’s similar to what I do now. And if I throw open the gates to all possibilities, then I’m kind of mystified as to what I could do. So 2011 is going to be all about exploration and all that parachute-color crap. In the meantime, I’ll try not to notice how many ways my current workplace annoys me. Can I do it? Maybe I can at least try, and report back here on my progress.

Fuzzy yellow balls

I’ve been trying to figure out the most opportune moment to post to the blog, but you see what happens when I do that. Yeah, how did it get to be mid-July?? Anyway, here’s what’s been going on.

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, tennis, lots of tennis. So far I’ve been making quite the impact on the USTA team. Won the first match as part of a doubles pair, then got switched to singles and won the next two matches too. Those were both hard fought, and I learned that I (often) possess that ineffable quality necessary for sport known as mental toughness—which I suppose I knew already, but it was confirmed as I made it through those two matches with victory definitely not assured. That being said, my fourth match was a real rout, and not in the good way. I got totally pwned by this woman such that I was actually quite relaxed the whole time, in a “well there’s certainly no reason I should feel bad about getting beaten by someone so clearly better than I” kind of way. The funny thing there is that about four days later, she was disqualified by the USTA from 3.0-level play, and all her matches from this season awarded to her opponents. (I should add that she kicked everybody’s asses up and down, not just mine!) So I guess that match is now in my win column too, although only on a technicality. And finally, to catch you up, I won last week at singles too, even though I dropped the first set. In fact, I had a long moment where I thought about how much I actually was starting to hate competitive tennis, but fortunately that passed and I got back to the business of figuring out how to beat my opponent. Which I did!

So there’s one week left, and two matches, before the season ends. It’s been a lot of fun to get to know all the people on my team, and to play so much goddamn tennis. But it will be nice to have a break from it and get back to other things. The cycling is getting a bit neglected, for example. And it’s getting very close to vacation time for me and the Swami, which is a cycling tour in Scotland starting on the 23rd. There will be lots to report from that, so I’m assuming that August will be a better month for the blog than June and July. Also, I imagine that you intrepid readers might want a break from my incessant blathering about tennis. Did I mention that the Swami and I have been playing doubles too? Ah well, never mind that!

Hot news in several flavors

It hardly seems possible, but there’s been too much going on recently and it’s been keeping me from updating the blog. So here is a summary:

New wheels: Finally, after many, many false starts (going back a ways!) we bought a new car last weekend. The hard part is over now—the price research, figuring out which dealer might be less sleazy than the others, the horror of haggling, the feeling that, despite everyone saying that this is the bestest time to get a fab deal on a car, we paid too much. Now all that’s left is to pick it up later this week (after checking to make sure the VIN is correct and all that paranoid jazz). Once the new toy gets driven home, I’ll post a pic and give more details. Woo, first car bought in twelve years, how crazy is that!

New TV: It seems silly to have a whole paragraph about this, but it’s pretty momentous in Casa Snorklewacker to upgrade the TV. After all, it was only back in 2000 that I replaced the 13-inch TV with a very modest—nay, un-American—20-inch one. Now we’ve got a 32-inch HD display with all the widescreen goodness. And, I must say, Halo 3 looks goddamn good on it. Standard-def cable, not so much. Guess I gotta upgrade that too, hmph.

There is no “I” in team: Last Tuesday, I overheard the pro who runs my tennis clinic telling someone about the local women’s USTA team. It’s something I’ve been curious about, so I wandered over and inserted myself into the conversation. Turns out that the last day of tryouts was the next day, so I figured that I was too late to get in on it. But the pro called the guy who runs the team and basically browbeat him into letting me come in and do some hitting. Mostly this consisted of the pro telling me to just show up, never mind that the coach was saying that there were no slots, etc. So on Wednesday I did just show up, and they did let me hit. The good news: they let me on the team! The bad news: despite how that sounds, it’s pretty much noncompetitive to get on the team, and it doesn’t at all mean that they send you to actual matches. There are far more people on the team than they need, so at a minimum it just means you can come to practices and get a little coaching and drilling. Well, I’m happy with that. What’s kind of schmacky is that after five minutes of hitting the ball around, the coach put me into the 3.0 level, which I doubt I am. I went to the first practice last night and out-hit a lot of the supposed 3.0s—heck, there is one girl there who can’t consistently hit the ball with her racket, which seems pretty crazy to me. Surely I am at a higher NTRP ranking than her?? But anyway. The important thing is that my foot’s in the door, something which wasn’t even on my radar a week ago. And maybe I’ll meet some people. Everybody seems nice, and I did get some good coaching advice last night. And after playing tennis last night for three-odd hours (there was the usual clinic, too!) I can proudly say that I am still able to climb stairs today. I wasn’t sure whether that would be the case!

So there’s the update for now. Hopefully more updates more often from here. I also need to see the Star Trek movie, surely that’ll inspire a post. Stay tuned.

Peep watch

My homie Beerad, living a newly itinerant life, has set up a blog to document his travels. Go check it out! It’s guaranteed to be interesting or he owes you a deep-fried chili dog or something.

In other peep news, we saw the ever-elusive Sashe this past weekend! How funny to have a friend from freaking Malaysia be the first person to see the new crib. I subjected him to some Halo 3 playing, and he subjected us to this incredibly addictive (as in, danger of losing your job addictive) online game. I am warning you, don’t click on the link. Or if you can’t resist, kiss your spouse farewell—and mute your speakers.

Whew

Well, I spent a day off of work today doing two very important things: mailing my damn tax returns, and clearing crap out of the old condo. Success on both fronts!

It is pretty sad to see the condo all empty. Funny, it looks much more worn around the edges than it did when it was full of our stuff. I wonder if this is why brokers don’t like to sell vacant properties: because every scuff mark and dull spot just sticks out. It makes me realize that the place was nice in large part because it was home. And now home is somewhere else, and that’s the nice place now. (Although complete, box-filled chaos.)

At this point there are just a few last things to get, and a final round of vacuuming, and then that tragic chapter in life will be closed. How weird, how awful. Thank heavens it’s almost entirely in the rear-view mirror. These last couple of weeks have just been a full-on sprint.

Hello

Whoops, I promised myself I would keep up the blog, yet here I’ve been lax for all of December. Here’s a photograph of a chandelier made of shattered plates that I saw at MOMA in New York over Thanksgiving, as a gesture of apology.


Tomorrow we head to the family holiday festivities. Wish me luck. Otherwise, no news to report: no offers on the house, no more crazy neighbor encounters, no decent weather for cycling, nothing going on but the daily slog. I promise the next post will be more interesting. :)

Uncertain times

Recently it seems as though things are far less settled than usual, from the large-scale to the personal: the economy, politics, and a new (crazy) neighbor downstairs. I haven’t had much to say publicly on any of it the last few weeks, so it’s been a little quiet in blogtown. (For the neighbor story, even the purported anonymity of this blog doesn’t feel like enough cover for me to publish all the details; let me know if you would like the story emailed to you directly.)

In the midst of all this uncertainty I want to focus on the truly important things in life: the Swami, music, cycling, tennis, friends. And I would like to wish for the following things to increase in this world: rationality, humility, compassion. Those are commodities that seem to be in short supply.

Goodbye Sandy Allen

Everybody, please break out your Time and Tide albums, Sandy Allen has died today. She was 6'3" at age 10; I didn’t break the 5-foot mark until I was 12!

Ups and downs

Down: Periodontitis diagnosed today
Up: It’s early-stage and can be reversed!
Down: Requires anxiety-causing procedures over a couple of weeks next month

Up: New tennis racket still awesome!
Down: Four cancelled doubles matches thanks to the crappy weather

Up: Tour de France!
Down: Lingering cynicism about the Tour thanks to doping scandals

Up: Obama!
Down: Obama’s stance on FISA

Big Up: going to Vermont for a cycling vacation next week!
Down: Ain’t no downside to that.

Angst trifecta

Got beat again playing doubles yesterday (new racket notwithstanding), George Carlin died, and Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” is stuck in my head. If that don’t just mean it’s Monday.

Whoa where am I

Due to the heat wave we just suffered through, I haven’t gotten around to posting in a while. Here are some ruminations on a few topics.

Obama! Wooot!

A tale of three tennis rackets: Finally, finally, I got around to demoing a few new tennis rackets to try and replace the craptacular no-name brand I’ve been playing with for the last seven-eight years. (Raoul, you will be especially happy to learn of this development!) So today I’ve got to decide between this Prince model and the RQS 9 (scroll down a bit) by Yonex (a brand I hadn’t heard of until this week, because I am a Not Cool Person). And I’m irrationally worried that a new racket will somehow screw up my game. Maybe I should lighten up about this stuff, huh?

More tennis: Man, did Nadal crush Federer at the French, or what? That was just harsh.

Jesus Christ, again with the tennis? We’re back in a doubles league and play our second match tomorrow. First match we got completely pwned by these two dudes that were probably 4.0 or maybe even 4.5. I don’t think I successfully returned a serve by one of the guys the whole match. Hopefully there will be somebody else a little closer to our level to play, or else this is going to be a real slog!

Hey, something that’s not tennis: Speaking of getting pwned, the Celtics put in an amazing performance on Thursday night. Down by 24? No problemo. What a game that was—good thing I didn’t give up watching at halftime. But can someone explain this game schedule to me? No games on Friday or Saturday nights? Total crap.

Sometimes I wish I was Catholic

Relax, that’s a line from a song. So I’ve turned the big 35 today, and I got this awesome peep cake from the Swami earlier, so I’m totally jacked on sugar right now. I took the day off work, which was schweet—now that’s a constitutional amendment I could get behind, that everyone should get their birthday off of work. Paid, I might add. Who’s with me!

Upswing

The last few weeks have been slowly crushing my soul, what with late winter weather (crappy, with extra crap on weekends) and some actual work at work (the horror!). But today was a much-appreciated break. Swami managed to scrape us both out of bed and we went cycling for only the third time this year. Even though it was only 30F, the sun was up and the roads were dry. Oh, and the wind was calm. All three are pretty much key for riding this time of year, believe you me. I absolutely cannot wait for the weather to improve, because getting on the bike seems to be critical to my soul’s happiness.

Then for lunch I hit an Indian joint named Punjabi Dhaba, which was damn good cheap Indian food. It reminded me of the best over-the-counter Indian place I’ve eaten, Flavors of India back in Columbus. That place was manned by just one dude and a woman I assume was his wife. I thought he was either really cranky or really rude, until one day I realized he was just insanely laid-back. He had this graceful method of ladling the food onto the plate, with just a little too much flourish to be blandly efficient. And the food, well, yum. Even with my stomach still full of dal and parathi, I still can get a little drool on thinking about Flavors of India. It’s good to know I can get that kind of fix here, just a 15-minute walk from the office.

So for now, the universe seems to be in alignment. Let’s hope it keeps up.

Oh, also, by the way, shouting out to a friend, good luck with the thing tomorrow. I’ll happily give you all the good vibes I got over here.

On the edge

Whoa, it’s been well over two weeks since my last post. I’ve been frantically getting ready for the trip to Manila and D.C., and at this point I think I’ve achieved Batman-like levels of preparedness. Anti-malaria drug, antibiotics, bug repellent, sunblock, hand sanitizer. Based on that list one might think we were heading for the middle of the Amazon, but no, it’s just bourgeois risk aversion over here. And speaking of bourgeois, I also have the portable DVD player, the digital camera, a schwack of movies, and lots of easy-to-read geeky sci-fi books.

I do wish we were blowing off the family Christmas, though, but maybe experiencing it through a haze of jet lag will actually turn out to be better than the usual lucid suffering. See you all on the other side—hopefully, though, I’ll have a chance to post from the road. Regardless, I promise a full report at the end of the month when normalcy returns!

The global village

We hung out with Sashe yesterday! Since he now lives in Malaysia, I haven’t actually laid eyes on him since 2004. It was great to catch up, especially since he might not make it to kaskasero’s wedding.

It’s interesting to think that I know people from all across the world. And some good friends I’ve never met in person, even, thanks to the wonders of the Intarwebs. Even a cranky misanthrope such as myself can benefit from human contact once in a while, hm!

No speaky da language

After studying foreign languages for more than fifteen years, I just bought plane tickets for my very first trip overseas ever. (Those two facts together demonstrate most of all, perhaps, the extent to which I’ve faked it so far in my life.) I was supposed to go to Ukraine in June, but that fell through in spectacular fashion. But this time, no screwups allowed: I gotta ticket for Manila in December and I intend to use it. Why Manila? It is a pertinent question. The simple answer is, kaskasero managed to get himself engaged to be married, and there’s no way I’d miss that wedding. Even though it means 25 hours of traveling—one way—and lord knows how many vaccinations. Oh, and I know one whole word of Tagalog: tinga, or something stuck in your teeth. At least I’m ready to eat out, right?

Bang a gong

Whoa, it’s October. How did that happen?
I’ve been quiet, but not idle. A week ago yesterday we rode our second Hub on Wheels, and this time we made it the full 41 miles—our longest ride ever. Only one minor mishap, despite many, many unskilled cyclists out there on the road with us. It was fun, but three hours of pretty much unwavering, teeth-gritting concentration. Yes, cyclists are masochists.

I’m also happy to report that Sashe has reemerged, yay! And I finally got a book to press; the first one since I took over the manager job two freaking years ago. The next one better not take so long.

In possibly surprising news, Halo 3 came out last week and I haven’t bought a copy yet. True, we technically have an Xbox 360 since we have kaskasero’s on long-term loan, but it’s not actually hooked up yet! And yes, I confess I’m still playing the same game of Morrowind that I started in May of 2006. (!) Don’t worry, Halo 3 will get its day at some point. Of course, it’s hard to imagine anything will recapture those heady early days of Halo. Man, the first time you go through “Guilty Spark,” you wonder if your heart can take it.

The final update is that I’ve had two dreams about seeing U2 in concert in the last week. As usual, my subconscious is failing miserably to convey to me whatever incredibly important message it has to deliver. And last night, I dreamed I was trying to explain permanent hearing loss to some chick on the bus who was blasting T. Rex out of her headphones super, super loud. Can anybody explain what the heck this all means??

A little catch-up

It’s been way, way too long since I posted, sorry about that. I’ve been waiting for a theme to surface that covers the last couple of weeks, but it turns out I got nothing. So here’s a summary.

New nephew! Welcome to Earth, Corey Michael.

Work kind of sucks. Counting on other people doesn’t work when they’re slacking fuckups. And getting a lengthy lecture from the Usual Suspect is enough to sour my cornflakes for days. At least I have an office door I can close when it all weighs on me a little too heavily. And, of course, there are good points such that I shouldn’t stalk out the door with no plan for the future. But still, right now it’s generally bleah.

Tennis is better. Despite my automatic feeling of disappointment for getting demoted down a skill level, the last three matches have been a lot more enjoyable than the first three. And not just because we won two of them. (Although: hooray!) When I play people who are a little more laid-back, it’s a lot easier to temper my naturally psychotic competitiveness. Having said that, I do have a bit of advice for people who play in social leagues: please, please, keep the score carefully. Giving yourself a boost by announcing it’s 15-15 when it should be 0-30 makes you look like a tool. (I’m glad we ended up beating them anyway, despite losing more than one game due to the crappy scorekeeping.)

Cycling is an obsession. But you dear readers already knew that. Last Saturday we rode 35 miles, the second longest ride ever. And it felt great. Just signed up for this year’s Hub on Wheels, too. This year the goal is 45 miles!

Hooray for Crowded House. Not only did they kick ass both nights I saw them in August, they had Kufala sell discs of the complete live shows. I’ll happily pay $20 to get a soundboard-quality recording, over a free one taped by the audience that sounds like shit on toast.

Live Nation/Clear Channel sucks. Thanks to their dickishness, CH shows performed at their venues have been pulled off Kufala and can’t be sold. Monopolistic jackasses. At least their bogus patent got busted. Still, there is work to be done to bring these bastards down.

Happy Birthday to MWL. Somehow I missed the first anniversary of this blog. I bet nobody else noticed, either. But how about that! Blogito, ergo sum.