Ultramundane.com -- It's Just Not Natural.

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United States, California, San Francisco, The Mission, English, Spanish, Casey, Male, 31-35.

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Friday, July 20, 2001

Parenthetical Remarks.

How to Sing the Blues. ("I wrote a song about it; wanna hear it, here it goes...")

The Smart-ass Guide to New York. (Not as good as the San Francisco one, but that may just be me.)

Lyle Lovett and Motorcycles. (We saw Lyle in concert on Wednesday--it was a great show, but no motorcycles.)

Bachelorette Party Ideas. (For Jason; my favorite is the Life Saver Shirt, though my first thought was of Earl from Red Meat.)

11:14 AM PST (link)

Forgetful.

Left the house this morning without the leftover sushi I intended to eat for breakfast. I'll have some Odwalla juice and a croissant. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

Also I seem to have left the cookies baked last night by The Roommate, so I can't give them to people here today. Bad me.

I also seem to forgotten what I do for a living, how to speak coherently, the very purpose of my existance and am in serious danger of forgetting my name.

Lots more coffee.

10:39 AM PST (link)

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

Je préfére l'Espagne.

All I wanted to know was the correct usage of "Bien sûr" and "Ah, mais oui" and other common phrases. But along the way I learned:

"Je pense que ce vin a déjà ete bu."
I think this wine has been drunk before.

"Il y a un rhinocéros jaune dans la baignoire."
There's a yellow rhinoceros in the bath tub.

"Vous avez des plats végétariens?"
Do you have any vegetarian dishes? (usually answered with derisive laughter)

"C'etait la meileure orgasme de ma vie."
That was the best orgasm I've ever had. [link via Groc]

Wait, I was supposed to practice my Spanish! Zut alors!

12:06 AM PST (link)

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Train of thought?

It's sad how easily I can get derailed lately. Today I was working so well from 10 until our 1 o'clock meeting, and then I just ran out of steam. It didn't help to hear that a co-worker I like is leaving to become a teacher. That just makes me fantasize about a new career, a new life. Or a career that seems really interesting (but a lot of work), or about careers that I would have been once upon a time. Even about careers for imaginary people. Basically, any career except the one I have now.

Maybe it's just time to catch the train home.

07:24 PM PST (link)

Monday, July 16, 2001

The Bubble.

"[Guerilla Queer Bar seeks] an alternative to vapid gay bars by creating a vapid gay bar. In a write-up by one of the founders, it was stated that 'GQB refined the concept of a metabar, where the physical location is less important than the people who occupy it.' It's too bad that these people wouldn't go into any of these bars on their own."

Amen, Camper. Yes, it's certainly easier to go to a new place with people you know. But it's not the bar that makes the experience vapid....

Update, Tuesday AM: Camper rewrote his opinion a little, but the point still stands. I recognise there's an unfair assumption at play here, so I should give the people of GQB the benefit of the doubt--they may not be vapid like the Castro Bar scene they're trying to avoid. I liked the idea of GQB when I first heard it -- no doubt they started with the best intentions. But my world is not a strictly gay ghetto anymore. I don't think I'm the target audience here anymore, so in some ways it's not even my place to criticize. I just hope people get what they think they're getting out of the experience.

Maybe Camper and I should go to one of their events. I'll buy us a couple rounds, Camper, if we can ever get service at the bar.

05:30 PM PST (link)

Sunday, July 15, 2001

The French aren't all bad.

French Gnomes Helped on Way to Spiritual Freedom

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - More than 70 garden gnomes were found on the steps of a cathedral in northeastern France after an undercover operation by the shadowy Garden Gnome Liberation Front, a regional newspaper said on Thursday.The kitsch creatures had been abducted from their green, floral homes and assembled on the steps of the cathedral in the town of Saint-Die, La Liberte de l'Est reported.
A banner of the Gnome Liberation Front, which aims to ''free'' gnomes and ``return them to the wild,'' was found at the scene.
Local police who gathered the little statues declined to comment to journalists in an effort to contain what appeared to be a spiraling of gnome abductions in the area.

This is the second covert operation by the Front in as many days. Motorists in eastern France were surprised to find more than 100 gnomes, snow whites and other gaudy garden statues on a roundabout on Wednesday. Some were arranged to spell out ''Free the Gnomes.''

02:00 PM PST (link)