Monthly Archives: July 2018

well my computer has completely died

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it was with me for 7 long years. it’s seen a ton. i wrote a ton on it. ive traveled with it, slept on it

and it tried to burn my legs time after time after time.

so now im torn between spending $1,200 on a used MacBook Pro

or $800 on refurbished MacBook Air

i want the Pro. I have a credit card that gives me a year of no interest on Apple purchases.

but heres the funniest reason i want the 2014 Pro… it has an HDMI output jack

something i have never needed or asked for, but because i know it exists i desperately want it.

if anyone ever claims that i am a smart person, please refer them to this post.

they say movie pass is dying

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you know what Springsteen says

everything that dies some day comes back

put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty

and meet me tonight in Atlantic City.

in other news, my computer has died so everyone is telling me to get a refurbished Mac from 2015

because that was the year they made the last great Macs

weirdly they cost as much as brand new ones.

which is sorta cool i guess because my now-dead one lasted 7 years.

and i used it every day

and i wrote to you almost every day.

and mama mia all the videos i saw on it and cubs games and work i did on it.

so i for sure got my moneys worth.

things i used to want, ranked

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1. an actual satellite dish

2. to be the manager of the Cubs

3. 12 kids

4. three wives

5. an ’82 Corvette

6. to read a book a month

7. to be a preacher

8. to be in the air force

9. for everyone to love me

10. a boat

11. a fridge in the garage

12. shelves that line my ceiling so i can put all my books

13. a Harvard degree

14. 5 acres on the Umpqua River

15. to win the lottery yesterday

16. to run MTV

17. to get an A in any of my college classes at UCSB

18. to be mayor of Isla Vista

19. to meet Angus Young

20. a farm

21. a fine collection of toupees

22. for people to understand each other completely

things close things open things spread things dead

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there was a shootout at the local grocery store last week. people died.

it can happen no matter how great or not great the neighborhood.

all of a sudden a bullet slides into your DMs and its hi st peter

so today we were gonna go to catalina but she changed her mind so its malibu, land of ten thousand wakes

we saw this doc last night about twins who found out they were triplets

fascinating though immoral insight into nature vs nurture. whats weird is they use Donahue clips from an episode i remember seeing at like 10 years old

where separated at birth triplets are reunited 20 years later and they look and act the same

and i was, even at that young age, all, well i guess it doesnt matter if you work out or study or try to better yourself, you’re actually not driving the car, you’re at disneyland and youre on a track, you have no free will. but what was good about this doc, if you can swim your way through the muck to get to the finish line is that aha you do have free will, fantastic talk shows from the 70s and early 80s dont know everything.

theres more to the story. these tracks are suggestions. life isnt disneyland. you actually omg can be a triplet and have unique thoughts and depending on who raised you *does* affect how you view the world

and if you are lucky enough to have had an educated, independent and loving mom like me, things like respecting women, reading, researching, and being a good neighbor are requirements, not bonuses.

theres a slow train coming, y’all.

so this day may change a bit more as it goes which is cool because do you know how many times ive done that to others, including to myself.

fuckit maybe we will just go to disneyland and call it a day

zigadenus asks, “who are you”?

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well, i was born a poor black child

while in high school i went to iowa to check out a college, i was poisoned by a group of undercover miscreants

collectively called the xbi

who convinced me to move to california and join them.

at first their intentions were good, but as time passed it became obvious to me that they werent who they claimed to be and i left

but you never truly leave the xbi.

in order to lure me back into their good graces they have attempted to bribe me with lavish gifts, beautiful women, and delicious tacos

in a way, this blog is an accounting of the lovely, but immoral things that they have done to and for me so that i would some day return and fly their black helicopter, chopper one. the one thing i really miss. a lot.

who am i? im the same as you, a temporary visitor to this mortal coil, skateboarding on the tightrope over clever and stupid, dreaming of a time when one doesnt introduce themselves by elegant words that could never fit on a business card, but instead hold up a lotus bloom and esp everything

on saturdays i drive for lyft

yesterday i was feeling so sick, so sad, so out of it

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i pooped like five times. i nearly cried when i got home. i told amber to hug me but she just laughed

because everyone laughs when im out of sorts.

so i said please just hug me PLEASE

and finally she did but it wasnt the best hug so i said, please go outside and find someone good at hugging and bring them here.

first she brought this big fat guy who lives in a tent on the corner.

and he was pretty good but it didnt work,

then she brought OJ in, but meh

then she paraded in the Swedish Bikini Team but they were too rough. i wanted a simple warm, gentle hug.

so then amber tried again but nothing worked.

so i clapped twice which turned the lights out, i sipped some water and just laid there with my eyes closed as she cooked some shrimp with tofu over rice.

and i ate it and felt better.

and i apologized to her for shunning all of her attempts at lovin me.

and then around 11pm i felt better and no more poops tried to explode in my shorts

and i took a long walk around Hollywood

and counted my blessings.

im gonna start working on a secret project soon

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im no good at secrets any more because the xbi trained me how to keep a secret better than anyone but f the xbi

therefore f secrets

but this is an important one because if everything works out right it will benefit society

and deep down thats all i really wanna do for the rest of my life.

yesterday i was at lunch with a young man and we were in the drive thru and the young lady cashier had a unique name

and i asked her how she pronounced it.

then i asked her if she had run into anyone with that name before?

she said her grandma.

afterwards the gentleman asked me, almost in an annoyed manner

“why are you so nice to everyone?”

which at first seems like an odd question, but when you put yourself in other peoples shoes, maybe they havent had such a great life. maybe others have been mean to them. maybe their path has been hard. and maybe they have seen how being nice doesnt always equate to others being nice in return.

so i said, im nice here because i really do love people. i love how differently everyone thinks. how weird it is that everyone sounds different. i love fashions ppl wear. and best of all i love everyones stories and secretly i just want them to tell me great tales of wonder and intrigue.

real life stories are a million times more interesting than fiction. why? because people being themselves is way more interesting than falsifying the record.

which is why nothing in here is true.

you can do this you can do this you can do this

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any time i think that something might be too hard

or that someone has set up a stumbling block for me to trip on

or that because no one else has done it before, i cant

i think about bob dylan who never wrote these words but epitomizes them perfectly

you can do this you can do this you can do this

fuckers known as the greatest lyricist and songwriter of all time

yet if you went up to 100 people maybe one of them can sing you a song of his all the way through

but it would probably take you 500 people to find that one.

does that mean that his songs are any less special? no it means that they are complex and twisted and gnarled and break the rules of what pop music is “supposed” to be like.

which should be the goal of creative people. and ps we are all creative people.

you can do this

dylan was booed when he omg dared to put down his acoustic guitar and plug in and play an electric.

he was criticized — and is still maligned for not being a great singer

when he recorded a number of “Christian” or “Born Again” records he was ridiculed and those magnificent pieces were considered unworthy for his canon.

but did he pay any mind? did he pack up the plantation? did he give in to those who were a few steps behind him?

no he kept moving. which is why you can do this you can do this you can do this.

being a leader can be lonely, the bugs hit your windscreen more than those riding comfortably in your wake,

you have to blaze the path by cutting down the weeds with your machete of love,

you have to shake hands with the natives and build bridges and repair roadways

the others can simply coast behind you and tell their friends how much progress They’ve made in half the time it took you

but you know

to lead means to make the map, to learn the language, to set up milestones and alliances

to follow means to look out the window and take in the view.

even in a road race of a thousand cyclists there’s only one leader

and with each strenuous pedal he’s saying

you

can

do

this

you can

do this

you can do this

because yes you can.

i have lived the greatest life and i am so thankful

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today about 666 present and former employees of the LA Times joined together to say goodbye to the Times building

our home away from home

our home

our home.

i saw so many people who i never thought would be there. i saw faces whose names i didnt remember. i saw people who looked EXACTLY as they did when I was last there.

and i love them all

it was all so sweet.

in many ways it was just like we left it

“new” carpet and equipment and tv and stuff but almost everything was in the same place.

yes amber and i took the tour last month but that was a limited thing and we didnt get to talk to too many people

but this was different, this was a real homecoming where we got to wander around the sprawling building. which was a little weird without a lot of the pictures that used to line the walls, and framed iconic newspaper front pages that saluted you as you walked through the ground floor.

there was the elevator that i once rode with Rihanna as she was visiting her then-boyfriend Chris Brown

there was the office i once received a gigantic bonus in

there was the bathroom i once took a cool selfie in

and there was the spot where my desk once was where i learned that Michael Jackson had died

and where i watched Barack Obama get elected.

i feel that i am so lucky because these are some of the smartest and sharpest minds in the entire game.

old cohorts who are now here there and everywhere. we are so spread out but tonight we were together mixed in with the young writers, some of whom, weirdly, i know too.

i am so happy, which is weird because i thought i was gonna be so sad. i thought i was gonna cry the whole time.

this was my dream job. this is where i had hoped i could work at for so long.

this is where i wrote about on this blog time after time after time, never truly believing i would ever work at

and then when i was gone, a place i had thought had totally forgotten about me.

i was so wrong. i am always so wrong.

turned out people did remember me. and some knew me who had never met me.

we talked and hugged and i drank and we took so many pictures and i even got a few parting gifts. which is crazy because the whole thing was a gift.

you can dream. you can tell everyone what you want. and at some point you might even get a shot at what you want.

and then its all about working working working to feel like you belong.

to feel like you deserve to be there.

i may never feel that way no matter how great our results were, but i was there.

i was in the game.

i got to see the thing from the inside

and i am so grateful, it’s crazy.

but you know whats really crazy? that in a few weeks this will all be gone.

the place where so much happened.

where everything and everyone happened

it will all be gone.

just more square footage to be rented out.

life is so bizarre

ask for what you want, then french kiss it.