Saturday, June 23, 2007

++

"This is a revolution of the mind."

I go to the gym practically every day. I lift weights and walk on the treadmill. I don't like running on the treadmill, it just doesn't feel right. So I walk. Walk briskly, but still walk. I like walking on one of the treadmills under a TV, and that TV is usually on CNN. I think that Anderson Cooper is a wimp. He's a very small, frail man, but beyond that, his attitude makes him a wimp. He comes across as an internationalist and his first question to any problem is "who is to blame for this?" That's wimpy I think. His whole slogan of "we're keeping 'em honest" just makes me want to puke. It's not your job to keep anyone honest Anderson. It's that level of arrogance from the major media that we could all do without. I wish someone would finally get the gumption to respond to having a CNN mic shoved in their face by saying "I don't owe you guys an explanation for anything. Go pound sand, I don't answer to you." It's not just CNN, it's every major media outlet, including ESPN.

You get in ruts sometimes. It can either be an all inclusive rut, or just a specific rut. I got into a food rut something awful near the end of April. None of the things that I was buying at the store appealed to me. I had things in the freezer that I just didn't want to eat. Furthermore, I didn't want to grab take out from any of the places I usually frequent. It was a food rut. So I went shopping at a different store and bought different things. I expanded. I bought ground turkey instead of chicken breast, oyster stew for the hell of it. And I got out of the rut, cooking and eating things that I hadn't cooked or eaten before.

The same thing happens at the gym sometimes. You get into a rut of doing the same exercises on the same days, listening to wimpy Anderson Cooper while you're on the treadmill. I can walk three miles on three different days and finish each time within five seconds. There's strength in consistency sure, I mean I can curl more now than I could by consistently doing curls four times a week. There's also mental strength in it of course. But at the same token, as David Perno would say, I think that there's also strength in being dynamic. Change it up every once in a while. A guy in high school told me once that I was single because I wore the same pair of Timberlands each day. That was silly, I was single for other reasons too, but back then I was scared to deviate too much from a routine. Now, I think it's necessary.

Some magazine ranked Bainbridge Island as the second best place in the United States to live. It's a 35 minute ferry ride from Seattle, anything further I can't exactly explain. It has a good feel to it, and I like being out there. So Thursday night, rather than walk the same walk and listen to the same wimp, I drove down to the ferry terminal and walked onto the Bainbridge ferry. I stood outside at the front of the ship for the whole ride, just me. I took my work cell phone with me because I needed a clock when I got to the island, but I left the other phone and my blackberry at home. Sometimes I like truly being by myself without a chance of being disturbed by anything. People are slaves to their communicaes. I'm no different when I have them with me. I'll probably look at my blackberry 300 times during the day to see if I have any emails. But sometimes it's good to leave those things behind. I like not having the distraction.

There sure are a lot of jelly fish in Puget Sound. I counted a ton of them during the ferry ride, big ones too. People love the ferry, and I'm no different there either. I love standing outside at the front of the vessel, smelling the salt water and the Seattle breeze. It's hard to not be in a good mood out there. I was just standing at the front of the boat looking at the jelly fish when some guy with his kids approached me and asked me how fast we were going. I said I didn't know, because I didn't want to come off sounding like the loser who knew EXACTLY how fast we were going because he'd read up on all the features of the M/V Tacoma a number of times before. I just said I didn't really know exactly. The guy said "Looks like 16-18, wouldn't you say?" I said "yeah, I bet. We're moving pretty good." Good guess on his end, since we were going 18 knots at that point. He said he heard that the water was about 600 feet deep at that spot, and I looked it up later. He was right about that too. Smart fella.

I had been walking semi-randomly around Bainbridge Island for about a half hour when I saw a sign that said "Hawley Park" on the side of the road. There was a trail. So I start walking down the trail. About two minutes into that, I started smelling the salt water, and it was really strong. "Trying to get to yoooouuuu and that booty...." was how I felt, assuming that "yoooouuuu" was the end of the trail, and "that booty" was the water. The trail ended at a cove surprisingly near the ferry terminal. I'd been walking for 30 minutes and came to a spot that was 200 yards from where I started. There were some kids messing around on the "beach" area as well. What a great hangout for some high schoolers. It was a good spot for me too. I sat down on a piece of driftwood and watched the M/V Wenatchee come in to dock. When the ship turned such that a number of windows in the main cabin were facing my general direction, I stood up and proudly exposed myself. The high school kids didn't know what to make of this seemingly unprecedented move on my part. I looked over at them while still facing toward the incoming vessel and said "you kids want to see what your future looks like?"

But in all seriousness, I sat there for about 15 minutes or so and figured that I'd better get back to walking if I wanted to get on the next ferry back to Seattle. It took about half hour or so to walk back into town. I couldn't help but think how neat it would be to live on Bainbridge. I'm sure I could rent a place there if I really wanted to. But I dunno... I'd probably get tired of having to wait on a ferry every time I wanted to go into Seattle. It'd be neat to do for a month I bet. It'd be really neat to raise a family there, assuming that I didn't want to do that in Georgia, which I do. But if I had to do it somewhere else, it might just be Bainbridge. I could see myself there, even though the populous is overwhelmingly liberal.

Once back in the downtown area I stopped off at a small grocery store near the ferry terminal. Don't eat when you aren't really hungry. Eating out of habit is how you get fat I think. And while I was walking around, I kept on thinking about how I wanted to grab something to eat for the ferry ride back. I picked up a bag of raisins, since when did those have so many calories? Each serving had 130, and there were four servings in the bag. I picked up the bag and walked it halfway to the register and then took it back. I wasn't really hungry, and so what if I look like an indecisive idiot? Sure they're just raisins, but it's my body. I should be able to put whatever I want to into MY body, but thankfully we have a government oppressive enough to protect me from myself should I ever decide I want to put some heroin in there. What a society this is. The harder you work, the more you make, the more you get taxed. Two consenting adults want to have sex, fine. But let there be a monetary transaction with it, and it's illegal? I want to buy cocaine with my own money and blow it up my own nose and I can't do that? Look, I'm not advocating any of these activities. I have no idea why you'd ever want to shoot heroin or sleep with a whore, but if it's your body, why can't you? Those activities don't harm anyone but you (and possibly the whore, but it's her own body too). I don't need anyone to protect me from myself. I have no desire to do any of those things that I mentioned, so I guess it's a moot point anyway. But it's my body and my money and I didn't want the damn raisins after all. I got a peach vitamin water instead. It was pretty good.

I love how people take pictures of the Seattle skyline on the ferry at night. You always see all these flashes going off. The pictures won't turn out at all. They'll just look like you took a very close up picture of a bucket of tar. Maybe you'll get a few dim lights in there, but probably not. I know this because I tried taking pictures of the same skyline from the same vantage point once upon a time and none of them turned out. A couple asked me to take their picture with the skyline in the background. Of course I agreed, but they'll be disappointed. But how could you not want to take a picture of that? It's just beyond words, what this city looks like coming across the sound at night. I'll never forget the first time I saw it, back in July 2003. I thought to myself then that I could really see why people fall in love with this city. It's worth getting cold to stand outside and see. That was my seventh ferry ride from either Bainbridge or Bremerton back into Seattle and the skyline just gets me every time. I can't wait to see it again.

You know Larry King kissed Marlon Brando once, on TV? King said afterward that he "couldn't stop thinking about it." I'm not about to do anything homosexual like that, because I find it disgusting personally. A lot like heroin use, but hey, if Larry King wants to lock lips with another man, that's his choice. And if he wants to say that he can't stop thinking about it, that's his choice too. I remember all my sexual encounters vividly. I think that when they cease to be seminal moments, it starts to lose some value. But what do I know? Whenever I do something out of the ordinary like take a trip to Bainbridge, visit Mt Rainier, or whatever, I can't stop thinking about it afterward. It's like my mind just doesn't leave those places. I went to sleep last night wishing that I could have sat on that piece of driftwood for another two hours, just watching the water, and watching the sky get dark.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

A great day to whoop somebody's ass

Want to know one way to piss me off? Get me intrigued about moving into your apartment complex, only to tell me that I make TOO MUCH money to live there.

Today is June 5, so I still have time, but I'm starting to feel some pressure about finding a new place. I gave my current apartment complex written notice today that I'll have my happy ass out by June 30. I need somewhere to go.

I am looking at a place tomorrow, and three places on Friday. I also have some calls into some other places that I really like a lot. So it's not like there's nothing out there, but I just don't like the uncertainty of not knowing where I'm going to go.

It's also very expensive to live in Seattle, especially the parts where I want to live. I can't afford to pay $1,400 a month for an apartment and maintain the flexibility to do the things I want in my off time. No place is worth is so much that you have to spend practically every moment there.

I have found some places in the $900s or even $800s, and I can swing that. I've been scouring Craigslist really hard the last few days, and there are some good leads there. I just got really angry looking for places online just now though. I found this place on apartments.com.... It wasn't my first choice for neighborhoods, so I don't suppose it is that heartbreaking, but still. I'm reading the description for this place and I'm thinking "wow, those are some great prices..." Dirt cheap deposits too. And then, down at the bottom, I see "income restrictions apply." To move into this place and live by yourself, you must earn LESS than $32,700.

Just how screwed up is this country when there is a mandate that you must be BELOW a certain to income limit to move into a private residental establishment?

There are a lot of things that I like about Seattle. The very first time I came here, I said "wow, I can see how this city would really get into your blood." When I had to choose a branch office to go with Amica with last October, Seattle was really my only choice. I don't regret that now, certainly not. And while it's not "in my blood" right now, I still see how it could be one day. But one of the things that I don't like about this place and that I've never liked about it is this overwhelming leftist influence. I knew what I was getting into here, but it still flashes at me sometimes and makes me angry. Today was one such day.

One a different note, I was talking to the people in my current leasing office today about moving out. The lease lady asked "What is going on with your neighbors?".... I found her question funny, because I probably have more grounds to complain about them than anyone, because of my apartment's proximity to theirs, and I haven't said a word. Not because I'm spineless or anything, but just because I don't like to bitch about stuff. But she asked the question, and I answered it, explaining that they were very loud, that people were usually coming and going from their apartments at all hours, that they slam doors and stand on the landing and yell at each other, and that they fight with each other a lot. The lease lady took it all in with very little surprise and said "Yeah, we've had some complaints. We've told the police about them."

To which I replied "Well, there's certainly no lack of police activity around here."


This will work out. It always does.