I went and saw Iron & Wine(Sam Beam) on Sunday...reaffirming my belief that he is, in fact, one of the best song writers out there today. I also saw girl #1 (from my previous post). It was the first time I had seen out with her friends, and things went well. Although, I did leave feeling that something was "off". I chalked it up to her being in front of her friends with me for the first time, and not wanting to really let her guard down in this situation. I think I was right, because we've talked since then and should see eachother this weekend.

Leading me back to girl #2, where things have suddenly gone awry. I talked to her on Saturday, and that was because she had apologized for missing my call on Friday. The rest of my weekend was shot to hell, but I said I'd call her next week. I'm nothing if not reliable about this sort of thing and I called her on Monday...and left a message. Nothing. Today I find out she's no longer with the company that comes to our office - ??? what? I have no idea what's happened between Saturday and today but it's just flat out odd. I called her again tonight and said I hope she's ok, and to call me if can - but I'm not holding my breath. I know she wouldn't quit her job because of me, but I have no flippin' clue what happened! I'm more concerned about her well being than anything else at this point...

Nothing else to say, so I'll leave you with the lyrics from one of my favorite Iron & Wine songs..

Love and Some Verses

Love is a dress that you made
Long to hide your knees
Love to say this to your face
I love you only
For your days and excitement
What will you keep for to wear?
Someday drawing you different
May I be weaved in your hair

Love and some verses you hear
Say what you can say
Love to say this in your ear
I'll love you that way
From your changing contentment
What will you choose for to share?
Someday drawing you different
May I be weaved in your hair

night all...

Ooooo...yeah. I thought maybe I should update, but I guess this is largely for my own benefit lately. There's been a lot of stuff going on in my small corner of the world lately. Not only with work, but things are going relatively well on the dating front.

The woman I've been out with a few times (my latest internet hook-up) is going really well - knock on wood. She attractive, intelligent, good sense of humor, has dogs...what else can I say? The only problem here is I'm also extremely attracted to another girl. Things are casual, so I'm going to try something I have never done, and see if I can juggle the two for a bit Hey! I'm not getting any younger here, and I don't think girl #2 is thinking long-term serious.

#2 is really sweet, and by her own admission a bit neurotic. I invited her to our company's 10th anniversary party at the Seattle Aquarium (she works for the company that maintains the salt water tank where I work). She showed up a bit late, and told me she had been nervously pacing back and forth in front of the place trying to work up the nerve to come inside. We ended up having a good time and I called her a few days later - but she didn't return the calls. So I dropped it. I finally saw her again a over a week later. Apparently she just got flustered trying to call - (yes, the awesome power I have over women in full effect ). Long story short -she apologized about it, and we agreed to get together at some point. Yahoo!

Other things...Yes, I saw Neko Case (brilliant show!) - God her voice gives me goosebumps - far more impressive live too. Last weekend was spent in beautiful Whistler, B.C. No snowboarding (my knee's been wrecked from running) but I did go snowshoeing up on the mountain. It snowed from Friday evening straight through to Sunday morning - couldn't have been better.


Still trying to induce the lucid dreams and I'm planning on seeing Iron & Wine this Sunday...

I hope if you're reading this that things have been going well and you're spending plenty of time with family and friends!

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Fun for you:
Tin Man Alley -(Good reasons to be in Philly)
The Twisted Films of Pez

Bought this a while back and it's briliant:
McSweeny's Quarterly No.13

Good to know I wasn't the only one who though the female mice in Mighty Mouse were hot:
The Girls of Might Mouse
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Across the River

Nasrudin was standing near a river. A man on the other side of the river shouted to him, “Hey! How can I get across the river?”

“You are across!” Nasrudin shouted back.

OK. I haven't been around and if you feel the need to drop me off of your friends list, do it. I'm cool with that. I haven't been much of a friend lately, I'll admit it, so strike me down

I'm back dating, for one, and my best friend is moving back East in 3 weeks so any chances I have to hang out with him and his wife I do. They're some of the best people I know. I'm not one to keep a large circle of friends so they'll be missed around here.

Sunday. Well...Sunday I'm finally going to see Neko Case. I don't think I can add any more to that.

There's been quite a lot of things pinging back and forth in my head lately, Foremost is the fact that I did mange to induce another lucid dream. Unfortunately, it didn't last long before my consciousness was "reabsorbed" back into the dream state. It's a huge step in the right direction though. I'm also back into the online dating thing, and I'm meeting up with a very attractive and talented woman on Sunday afternoon - but I hold no preconceptions about this sort of thing anymore...e-mails and phone calls are nothing but words, until you actually meet them in person...

no offense to anyone here

Haven't been around much...again.

New music (well, relatively new):
The Arcade Fire - 'Funeral'
TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes"

...and both are excellent.

Lookee here! I'm all paid up and back in the swing of things. Seems a few things have changed around here while I was away. I appreciate you folks stopping by to say hello too - it's always nice to see that

let's see, since I was gone...
- My sister was married (nice trip back to NJ for that)
- Bush was re-elected (sucked! still upset about that one)
- Finished a few books: 'Stiff' and 'Lamb' (both are highly recommended)
- Been working my tail off

So life's been rather busy lately, especially at work. We're in the middle of a marketing push, culminating with a party at the Seattle Aquarium next week. It'll be really nice to finally sit back and be able to relax through the holidays. I'm going to try and jump back into the old dating pool as well. I think I've recovered sufficiently from my last debacle now to give it a go.

A very odd thing happened to me last week that now has me somewhat obsessed. It must have been Wednesday night, or rather, early Thursday morning. I usually wake-up briefly, rollover and go back to sleep in the early hours, which can lead to some very vivid dreams. It so happened that in one of these dreams I became fully conscious and aware that I was dreaming! What I now know is refered to as "lucid dreaming". I was able to completely take in my dreamscape with a "waking" mentality and was stunned by the sheer beauty of the vistas! I was sitting on a rock overlooking an ocean, with a high bluff (20ft maybe) behind me. beyond the bluff, I could see mountains and above them was the most surreal sky I could ever imagine. It was constantly in motion, changing colors and form, but always beautiful. A figure suddenly walked across the rocks towards me and sat down. It was a man, but had the appearance of being a statue made of grey marble. I remember I hesitantly touched his arm, and he slowly looked up at me. His face...well, seemed to be partly decayed and very sad and even somewhat frightening. I stepped back from him just as some sort of dinosaur skelton, made of the same grey marble walked by. It paid no attention to me and walked on down the rocks. I was suddenly aware of something up on the bluff, but couldn't make out what it was, so I turned back towards the ocean. The ocean was gone, along with the male figure. In it's place was a field and three paths leading off to left, right and straight ahead of me. People were milling about, preparing to leave (where I don't know). An old wooden cart carrying 4 beautiful women in the back began to leave down one of the paths. I tried to follow and ask where they were going but ran into another woman. OK, ran into her chest - she was standing on a box, in a short black dress and I looked up to see her smiling back down on me. She was quite beautiful and began to speak to me (this is what she said, I swear) - "I am for you." I was confused but happy about this, and replied,"for me?" She nodded, at which point I asked her what her name was. She told me it was "Cindy Hardin", and smiled again.

Unfortunately for me, I can't even get lucky in my own dreams because at that point I woke up. I was a bit confused but excited by the whole experience. All this probably would have been chalked up as just another "odd" dream, but I came across a certain book the very next day. In my building we have bookcase that is for residents to recycle books - leaving one you don't want and maybe picking up one that interestes you. A small paperback was on the top shelf and down the spine it read "Lucid Dreaming, The Power of Being Awake and Aware in Your Dreams", by Dr Stephen LaBerge of Stanford University's Sleep Research Center. My jaw dropped and as I thumbed through it, it described precisely what had happened to me and how, through practice, one can enduce lucid dreams using various techniques.

Suffice to say that I'm all about this now, and if anyone's experienced this please feel free to share. There's some good resources on the web, but I haven't had a chance to fully investigate them all yet.

If you're interested here are a few:

www.lucidity.com
Lucid Dreaming FAQ

Phew! I need to eat, and then go see The Incredibles - so I hope I can make the rounds later...and yeah that profile pic's gotta go. It's even starting to creep me out!

I'm up here at a an internet cafe on Broadway, in Capitol Hill. I've been without my internet access from home for a little while(some may have noticed ), and it looks like it will be a bit longer.

This sucks...I miss you folks and I hope you're all doing well!

Head still clearing...

FUCK!

If I could post 3 pages of FUCKIN' somewhat cohesive bullshit about what happened with my date tonight i would! But I can't!...


So fuck it!!! Let me jump to the chase...many beers and a few shots of tequila later, we find our hero at a bar called the Central. Enjoying a tasty beverage and listening to some metal band crank out their tunes! Good stuff! His date is into it, but she decides that heading into the girls' bathroom with a friend to get high is really the thing to do. I, don't see much harm in this at all, and off they go. - I won't bore you with the nothing that happened in between, but I was left standing by myself for over an hour. Yes, an hour. I wasn't sure what happened, but I figured at that point I had given the benfit of the doubt. I grabbed my dates belongings and gave them to a waitress I knew she was friend's with, along with another $10 (for cab fare back to her car). I said "I don't know where she is, but I hope she's ok." With that I left. I even called back to leave her a message, and she answered! but seemed puzzled by the whole situation when I told her I was back at home.

Crap. There's far more details to this than I care to commit to writing, but anyone that leaves a date hanging for an hour, no apologies, well that's just fucked!

I believe that there's something in society called respect...and I don't feel that I was afforded any of it at that point.

(and yes I am drunk, bitter, and feeling a little more self-righteous than usual).

and I ask you, is it bad when your date buys some coke while you're out? (and I do NOT refer to Pepsi's competitor here),

Saturday - saw The Black Keys...and sliced open my finger (5 stitches ).

Sunday - Van Gogh to Mondrian

Monday - Saw The Pixies!

Not a bad weekend. Well, except for the slicing of the finger part.

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So I've been out in pursuit of the fairer sex, but they've proven quite elusive so far. I was hoping that things would have panned out this weekend, but I wasn't recieving any positive signals from a girl I know - no negative ones mind you, but nothing that was significantly in favor of my wee neglected willie gettin' some attention (from someone other than his owner anyway).

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a girl I met online who seems really cool - she's a music nut, like me. Next week I'm getting together with another girl who, I recently found out, does nude artistic modeling

I'm such an idiot...

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Deep in my CD archives, that's where I found it and now I can't seem to stop listening to it (again): Trisomie 21 - 'Million Lights' - this is one of those 80's electronica albums that, for all intents and purposes, fell through the cracks...


Guilty pleasure: Yu-Gi-Oh (oh the shame! WHY?!!!!)


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Oh, and worry about this: 'A Protest Against a War on Terrorism Might be a Terrorist Act'

"Section 802(a)(5) of the Patriot Act defines “Domestic Terrorism” as “activities that… involve acts that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state and appear to be intended to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.”

According to this definition, Rosa Parks would have been considered an "enemy combatant” for not giving up her seat on the bus. Once designated as such, the government could have legally incarcerated her in Guantanamo Bay we might never have heard from her again."

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Work is crazy this week, and more than likely on into next week. I'll still check in and lurk on your journals if I can

and I'm out tonight (Sat.) to catch Eddie Spaghetti at the Graceland...it's the little things in life.