Well, as it's a subject I'll wax wistful on from time to time, more than one person has asked if I'm actually ever going to the gym again. Indeed I am. Kells works down at the community pool, which has a small workout room that's got everything I need, and last night I went down to check in out. Mark came along to do a little water-based physical therapy for his shoulder/arm.

Proof:

No in-room shots, as it's considered somewhat gauche to bring your digital camera to the pool. If I keep this up though there'll be plenty of narcicism to go around, fear you not.

Quick tour of the area:

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

I don't like YouTube's pixelization of everything -- see the original here -- and will be looking for other services to host some video. Any recommendations? (Update: now using MySpace, which takes a fucking ice-age to process)

I just deleted all my pr0n (that's pornography to you, mom) to make room for deadwood and my own goofball video editing (non-pornographic).

So yeah, maybe that's also a good thing. I've never been one to have that shame-based binge/purge relationship with porno, but I do think it can make the mind's eye lazy. It's like an erotic crutch. On the other hand, reaching into the realm of your own experience for fantasty purposes has always seemed like a potential liability to me. One you start imagining things, the odds are you'll want to do them -- visualize your success and all that.

I think I'll cut this blog post off now.

Last night we rolled down into town to see a ballgame, a great all-American summer activity. The hometown heroes are the Humboldt County Crabs, and they're a good crop. 11 and 5 so far this season.

We watched them take down the California Glory, who had a pitcher named "Sandercock," which makes a great crowd-heckle, and his penchant for passed balls gave rise to a great pseudonym:

Spaulding "Dirtball" Zandercock, arch nemesis to the infamous Wiley Weckmen.

One of the things Mark and I like to riff on is names for characters. With the right name, everything else just springs forth. For instance, just think of the possibilities if you had someone enter the scene labeled as Prof. J P Talkertion (and his saucebox of words). Crank up the boombox!

Off to a wedding ceremony for two girls down at the underground music club. No joke.

This kind of thing happens quite often:

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- College students in central China smashed offices and set fires in a riot sparked by administrative changes that made their diplomas less prestigious, students and school administrators said Monday.

Photos of the weekend riots posted on the Internet showed fires set in debris-strewn school courtyards and glass smashed in administrative offices, shops, cars and a bank.

...

There was no mention of the apparent riots in the country's state-controlled media.

Emphasis mine. Interesting to see stuff that finds its way out on the net, even with their American-made "great firewall".

Questions from a habitual gap-straddler:

How many different facets can a person have before they become suspect? What's the difference between a renaissance man and a dilettante?

Is it possible for people to be comfortable in many different cultural situations while still essentially remaining themselves?

The eventual question is one of where (assuming you're comfortable in a lot of places) will you invest your energy. There's an upper human limit to that shit, and if you spread yourself thin, where do you truly live?

When is it important to settle down and pick one thing?

This is my man Mark these days:

Oh yeah. And here's a little video of the beach down the hill:

Given the chatter about content creation and whatnot, I figured I might as well poke at my ego and check out my site stats. Looks like I've been doing well! (oops, a header might help)

The stats broke on the 12th, so the last weeks worth aren't in that tally of June, but the average of around 17,500 visits a month from 7,000 or so people is massively head-swelling. I don't know what broke w/my stats, but I just got a Google Analytics code so we'll see how that works out.

Fame and fortune, here we come.

Love Rose's Blog:

Out of nowhere I started missing Bill Clinton. I mean, I always miss Bill Clinton, but the other day I started thinking specifically about Bill in the White House and the whole Lewinsky scandal, and when it came out that he had put a cigar up her pussy and then smoked it later. And my main thought was "Now that's a president I can relate to!"

Think of it. Sitting in the oval office. You're the leader of the free world. What do you want to do with your unimaginable power? Declare wars? Seek profit? Help the needy? Build something giant? Well, there would be a little part of me that would like to use it to get chicks. And if I were president I would never ever seduce interns...but I would definetely think about it. Maybe ask jen to do a little role playing. And the cigar part is just the icing on the cake. Leaning back in the chair, talking to Desmond Tutu or some shit, smoking your pussy cigar. You've got the world on a string.

So, apropops nothing I got the camera here. Will play with it this afternoon and post some results.

The redesign has got to happen.

This blog gonna be changing. I'm going to be doing some content creation this summer. Some of it will be here; some of it elsewhere, perhaps on sites yet unmade.

It's been in my rhetorical space for quite some time that I'm trying to try a shift of gears, and now that I'm back and I've cleaned my room and gotten my head into a Jefferson state of mind, it's time to start putting the theory into practice.

"Brace yourself, because this goes deep."
On this site, I'm definitely going to be digging into the personal again. This means all the good interesting stuff of public bohemia; sex and drugs and love and consciousness and people and all the human stories that are part of an honest account of life. I'm going to go beyond restoring the juicy old content on this site: it's going to get a thorough overhaul.

A word on method: I want to be circumspect about the other people who are involved, so you'll be seeing a lot of pseudonyms in addition to a general lack of particular detail about anyone other than myself. I think this is the only way to be respectful, plus it can be a fun literary exercise. Hell, I might take a downright poetic approach at times. Tease tease tease.

Produced Using Only Our Bare Wit
In addition to this sort of shift in focus, I'm also going to be getting into some multimedia stuff. My video-capable camera should arrive tomorrow, and I also plan to do some audio, as well as maybe some charts, graphs and presentation-ish stuff. Mark is down to be involved in some of the content creation. It should be damn fun. You should see the man: the Seventies are alive in his hair. "Pretty like Frampton" only begins to describe the situation.

So there are going to be lots of projects this summer. I am scaling back on regular worky work, but I'm actually looking to increase my productivity. Part of this is about trying out new working styles, collaborations, about getting a strong rhythm on. Yes yes. Stepping up in a holistic way.

Ok for now. Look for new things in the coming weeks.