beginner's insomnia

im really tired right now and i havent really been able to sleep for the past few weeks...i lay down, turn on to my side and start thinking...loudly. and i have all of these conversations and tangents and i just really want to sleep. i just want to rest. i hope very soon that i can rest, im not sure how much more i can be stretched. i just want one night where i can lay down and not be restless, where the thoughts stop; if only for that night. and in the morning ill have the strength to fight it again.

i guess thats being home

PH + Poon + Poor Driving

so i mightve mentioned it a time or two but i live in houston. well, technically not houston but the houston metropolitan area. which is really just a slightly smaller version of LA. i digress. point being, its a town/city defined by its many labyrinthine roads...so consequently, your knowledge of said roads and behavior on those roads helps or hurts to define the image of this fair city. (side note: its summer time here. i know it may or may not officially be summer but walk outside here and tell me likewise. im sitting this afternoon getting a hair cut around 4:30PM and the weatherperson is telling me that with humidity it currently feels like 102F. so im already irritable). so im lazy and blessed enough to be able to afford an EZ tag, thereby allowing me access to some conceptually snazzy roads that (under ideal circumstances) allow me to get to work in like 15 minutes (and i live about 20, almost 30 miles out). problem being, i have to share the road. with people who technically took and passed the same driving exam i did. but youd never know. so its one of those road rage rants, but please understand these are simply my frustrations and observations based upon 5 solid years of driving on houston roads. and those observations are that generally speaking, the following groups of people cant drive for shit: women in general but more specifically 'burb moms driving SUVs (huge ones, of course), older asians, ghetto-fied cars and their drivers, luxury car owners. there, i said it. you people drive like f***wits. and im not alone on this folks. mind you, this only applies during the workweek and during general business hours. on the weekends you drive how you like and i deal. but to add injury to insult, the local county commissioners tried pulling a fast one and raising the tolls during "peak traffic hours" up to 2.50 each toll (they range anywhere from .50 to 1.50) so id be paying like 20 bucks a day to sit in traffic. no f****** thanks. and not surprisingly, people pitched a b*** fit not only because of the hike but equally so because of the audacity of the commissioners, who blithely dismissed any concerns by telling affected citizens to take the very winding, very hobbled and heavily lighted side streets instead if they didnt like the hike. mind you, these came from commissioners who never use the toll road since they live primarily inside the loop. punk-asses. finally, if ANY form of precipitation threatens the area all bets are off. people act a fool and start driving like there were bullets raining down. you can almost see them crouching down and creeping along. grrrrrr. ok, this is going nowhere. im signing off and going to bed, have some funny times to share from the weekend (and ill share very soon)

these bitches were legit...

so im doing some research earlier, doing a bit of work while im at it and decide to flick on TV for a few minutes to go in the background...of course, it sounds so nice on paper. and what ends up happening? i happened to flip over the Crufts Dog Show, and for whatever reason im sucked in. there went a good hour or so of my life...not that im complaining. i love dogs, and the ones in this dog show were magnificent, not to mention the elegance and grace given to the word bitch by the announcers. rarely have i heard the expression "Oh really, what a truly marvelous bitch on display!" given such gravitas. i loves it.

other than that, the only other thing to report is that apparently a Morrissey show in Houston draws an unusual mix of people...not so much as in lifestyle or clique so much as ethnicity. or so im told. he, if Moz speaks and they listen, then come closer still...he always has a soft spot in my heart. anyways, im exhausted and old, so im going to bed (but only after grabbing the track "Heaven" by I Monster...you can thank Macy's for that)

nightie-night

oh, and....

btw, that last post i made actually began Friday morning but i just got 'round to posting it now. hence the discrepancy in dates. ahem.

but i want to add in a couple of quick TV shouts: i love Law & Order, but particularly the one with Avi (Dennis Farina) as the detective...and i pine for the days of MI-5, but Hustle keeps me warm at night while i cant watch it. Grey's Anatomy has been a staple since it first aired a few years back (it hooked me with good writing, and ive decided to stay the course...uh, thats my excuse). and of course my old friend Fox Soccer Channel.

ok, i need to shower and then finish up some work (no, im not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow...it was nice to get stuff done on your day off) so i can trundle off to bed....put on a good CD why dont you, and curl up with a good book (im going to attempt to finish Blink by Malcom Gladwell)? there you go, you should feel better already...if need be, go grab some ice cream to get the full effect. and now im yawning...

of music and menstruation

i was born when most of America was beginning to realize that only Wilt Chamberlein could hit 20,000 without too many repercussions, that maybe that extra line of coke was too much and that Simon & Garfunkel was the shit (uh, whats changed??). so taking all of this into account, i have a soft spot for the 70's, particularly the culture and music of the time. and apparently i'm not alone...and before i get too far into this, lets just establish here and now that i am not a hipster nor some arbiter of pop culture. my musical network comes from the occasional review, myspace, and just listening to one band and hearing like music. thats it. so with that wee disclaimer out of the way, im currently going through my quasi-70s revival phase. this phase prominently involves Priestess, Wolfmother, Midlake, Sloan as well as staples like Motorhead, the aforementioned Simon & G-funk, as well as some music from the age of Blaxploitation. if you dont think id have a tight man-perm right now (assuming my hair could pull it off), you dont know me very well. i just refuse to subscribe to the theory that as hip as you like, its impossible to keep up with music nowadays and profess to be "in the know" given the sheer volume of good music that is out there (if you dig hard enough). so im perfectly content to stay a year or two behind and just ingest the music at my own pace whilst attempting to keep a new-ish sound in my ear. so take that

for whatever reason (and there are several), the idea of a male menstrual cycle has been featuring prominently in recent conversations ive had. myself, im a strong proponent of the theory. why is it so impossible to think that females are alone (amongst homo sapiens) in being susceptible to hormones and cyclical activities? i mean seriously lads, dont you think theres at least a day or two out of the month where you are...off, for lack of a better description. mind you, not leaking blood (at least not involuntarily) and all but still somewhat in a funk. ok, so maybe its just me. and thats ok, ive no problem in admitting that. i know im out of it for at least 2 days a month, and generally my appetite (which would make most poverty-striken villages weep) jumps to refugee-camp levels. this weekend was a classic example, though i have to say its more about my occasional foray into gross excess: we painted my brothers house this weekend for his Bachelor's Party (we'll dab a bit more into it and the background behind it later) and my moms & pops hooked up the food. moms made a huge pot of beans and rice, and pops hooked up quite possibly a whole cow and a whole pig. its true. and im here to tell you the tally from my end: 2 plates of brisket, a bowl of rice and beans, 2 pieces of chicken, and (i shit you not) at least 12-15 ribs. at least. oh, and a piece of strawberry cheesecake. and a slice of pizza when i got home. and then a fudge popsicle. fuck me, im just reading this and its a miracle i survived without bursting like an over-fed goldfish. the point is, im fully expecting a shift in mood (btw, endless rain for 2 days straight doesnt help. and the occasional ray of sunlight to dry up the rain and turn the place into a sauna doesnt help either). in fact, i think the mood is already shifting. the whole point of this small tangent was that i have a greater appreciation for what it is women go through. mind, ill never ever understand it but i can at least appreciate things in terms of scale. so tip of the hat to all women pre-menopause. post-menopause is another critter for another day.

so to briefly expound on the Bachelor Party, its one of those things i love about my family. mind you, we're no angels but i dont think were given to salacious, flesh-driven activities. i found it refreshing that we would just get together at my brothers house and paint it while my pops smoked up and fed us farm animals. again, this is not to say we dress in argyle sweater vests with proper comb-overs and exchange neighborly chats. we all still know how to get on each others tits rather well, but its just interesting to see the difference a few years can make on men. or not (that was so i dont get tarred and feathered by the 2 female readers with piss-poor male companions).

lastly, today is Memorial Day...so i want to take this opportunity to thank the families of those who have loved ones who had to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country. those who know me know my thoughts on this current "conflict" and how wars are fought far differently when a politician has to pick up a rifle. but in the course of conflict Americans die...to knowingly face death and still do so is cause for memorials. the cause may certainly be debatable, but their sacrifice never is.

Il Campione

So this is how it goes down...AC Milan take the big shiny cup thanks to the predatory scoring of Filippo Inzaghi. As some of you may know about me, I'm a fan of irony. This is of course not lost on the British press, which is ruefully writing about the game and inserting the occasional comment about 1) that perhaps AC Milan should not have even been in the competition and that 2) Inzaghi was pretty useless during the Serie A season but is now the hero of the CL final. So it is the unwanted and the almost-discarded that has taken the prize in European football's biggest competition. Gotta love it. It's equally as fun to read the textbook-example of hyperbole that is the Italian press, particularly when it comes to anything Italian winning anything of note. To read some of the articles almost has you thinking Inzaghi was briefly possessed or assisted by an angel to score those goals.

Let's just see it for what it is: two defensive-minded teams that score when needed to win. This is not Joga Bonita, folks. Liverpool counted on Gerrard in the advanced role (not a bad idea) to create and supply the lone striker Zenden (horrible idea. Just sign me up instead...all 240lbs of me). Milan counted on a defensive and midfield struggle and for Kaka to create (great idea) for himself and the lone striker Inzaghi (good idea, turned out to be great). And guess how the game turned out? Slightly discombobulated and the occasional good bit of flow from both teams, but neither gave the other enough to really dominate. Mind you, Pennant completely owned Jankulovski on the right (and for the life of me I don't understand why Rafa didn't push that point) but other than that, Liverpool did what Milan had predicted: played the long ball and hope that Gerrard could come up with something. Which, in fact he did...only he couldn't quite put it together. Liverpool had as many chances to score as Milan, only Milan simply took advantage more. End of story. And props to Pippo for doing what he needed to do to score. And while Kaka was contained most of the night (except for that completely sick spin off of his defender...I'm trying to remember who it was but he might still be on the pitch looking for his soul. Don't worry dude, Kaka has it in a jar with an angry hornet), he made it count when he slid through that perfectly timed through-ball to Inzaghi. So tip of the hat to Milan, go and celebrate this one

So its back to reality for me, I'm being faced with the prospect of having our developers re-create the project we've been working on for months. This ought to be fun...I love our development team, they're a fantastic bunch of cats but they have been seriously overworked and I hate to think that we're going to have to start from scratch in a sense. Oh and real quick, birthday shouts: my sister Marie (yesterday) and Nissi (today). You kids be good.

I think that's it for now, there's a very likely chance I'll update again later in the day. For now lay low and wait for my instructions

-M

recipe aint right until i make it right

so at the very easy prodding of others i decided to try my hand at a blog. this presumes two things:

1) i can write coherently
2) i have something interesting to say

both very shaky presumptions. but f*** it, its either this or i waste someones mobile minutes. and since i dont have too many friends this is probably the more tidy option

theres plenty of things to say, but first and foremost lets talk ball. stern-ball. nba draft lottery is tonight, and would you freaking believe the JailBlazers grab the 1-spot?? dont get me wrong, i wasnt exactly banking on the Rox getting the uno but still...the Blazers? im already pissed that they have Roy, but if they could add Durant or Oden thats terrifying. mix that in with a reformed Zach Randolph and the West has a new contender. AND, just to mix things up the Sonics get the 2-pick...wow. Sugar Ray, Rashard, and either Oden or Durant...eek. Unless the Rox can get a good pick plus a good trade and Adelman can do his thing, its gonna be a tough repeat for Houston.

other than that, the other top story is....Champions League action!!!! tomorrow son, tomorrow. im stoked about it. AC Milan and Liverpool...personally, im pulling for the I-talians. Liverpool got theirs last go-round, and with Kaka beginning to come into his prime i think the Reds are ripe for the taking (plus i want this one for Rino Gattuso). im so excited about this one...

friends, this isnt all about sports. no, id be speaking falsely. we have work going on, and that keeps me plenty busy. especially when you overlook glaring issues on your project that may set you back a week or so. thats really cool. you might even read about it in Pitchfork.

other news: as graduation gifts, i got my sister Elizabeth and my moms books to read. for moms, we got her some wisdom dropped from Mother Theresa as well as this lovely little novel (So B. It...yes i know, its a juvenile book but if you accept naivete and a pre-juvenile fascination of the world for just a couple of hundred pages youll enjoy, i think). for Reer we got What Is the What?, a great little ditty from Dave Eggers that recounts the tale of one of the Lost Boys from Sudan. i fully intend on pinching it from her when she least expects it.

so lets see, i think thats about it for tonight...gotta finish some work, make lunch and then head off to bed...y'all be good

P.S. For actual funny people with interesting views as well as kindred spirits to me visit www.nomas-nyc.com/scorecard ...im beginning to live by it