I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little
words: Youโve got mail.
it was the last week of my birthday month. thank you for the secret luck wishes,
theyโve helped me take unexpected holiday and ride around afghanistan on my
horse with my dog and eat tacos. iโd like a little more, if you have some to
spare.
the week was nice enough. i visited the office. had dinner with becky avery on
the 40th floor. great hummus. the vegetarian duck was a filthy bitter mushroom
but everything else was delicious. except the creamed spinach tasted like fish.
but the mashed potato was wow good, and the brocolli.
zippy the zip came visit and i made white girl tacos with ground beef and taco
seasoning and the old el paso crunchy shells. my mother and me used to make that
when everyone else was out of town, weโd get one of those old del paso boxes and
a lettuce and some chicken and then weโd sit on the floor and eat it. thatโs the
only times i really remember us eating dinner with the TV off.
another good meal today too. we went out for eid for dinner and my waiter told
my girlfriend i looked like a dead pakistani woman. great tagine. what else is
there?
what else is there
iโm tired, a little nervous, everythingโs gonna be okay. tomorrow we must all
shower and eat well and worship the sun.
p.s.
maybe Greg Kinnear had a point, in his opening lines of 90s romcom Youโve Got
Mail:
Listen to this: the entire work force of the state of Virginia had to have
Solitaire removed from their computers because they hadnโt done any work in
six weeks.
You know what this is, you know what weโre seeing here? Weโre seeing the end
of Western civilization as we know it.
Name one thing that weโve gained from technology. One thing.
You think this machineโs your friend, but it isnโt.
a lot happening at work at the moment. letโs wait and see.
the data powered spiral to the bottom. imagine doing something because you
thought it was a good idea. not anymore. now you need data to back it up. but if
you want to do something brand new, something without precedent, what do you do?
look at data for similar projects? well thereโs no such thing as similar when it
comes to magic. and things that work are magic. survey people? well itโs very
difficult to communicate an idea. sometimes the only way to communicate it is to
show it, but then it already has to exist. so what on earth are we going to do?
we canโt just keep repeating these aesthetic copies of what went before. this
canโt be all there is.
i feel a bit sick, maybe i ate some bad fish. thursday was a long day, but it
was so beautiful at the end. itโs nice to walk around and have a little burrito
and walk around. zips handed over my birthday present. imported from italy. itโs
a dolce & gabbana bialetti french press. itโs fantastic. i havenโt received many
birthday presents in my life from people iโm not yet related to. iโve had so
many coffees from it already.
iโd forgotten how strong a psychological boon it is to have such a clean and
shiny home. it stays with you everywhere, even when you are walking around
outside.
zaina came over and we did a deep clean of my apartment. truly it is the
springtime. it was a wonderful time. one of my favourite weekends. my apartment
is twice the square footage now. i almost get bored walking from one side of the
room to the other, because there is so much space in here. perhaps a little too
eager in getting rid of superfluity. i no longer own an oven glove or a
toothbrush. but itโs worth it. itโs like iโve just moved in. maybe iโll throw
everything else away too. what a lovely birthday. birthmonth. did you know itโs
the anniversary of my birthyear? very sleepy, very sleepy.
iโm so relaxed, and i smell like pigs. we went to kent to brush a goat. the
sheep were so nice to meet. especially rupert, who is a very nice sheep. very
soft. really dig your hand in there and scrunch around. heโs made of wool and he
likes it. itโs fun having pigs eat snacks from around your feet. it was one of
the warmest weekends on record. the alpacas were nice too. hopefully they will
make for the cover to pet sounds.
rupert is behind me you can't see him
not the weather i mean. thatโs probably obvious.
we met a lovely horse later, on the way back to our airbnb. it came right up and
said hello. zaina made us a lovely ulster fry for breakfast. and we had assam
with milk. everything that hapepned was very good.
horse
a lot of the week was spent tidying up. this week will too. time to start eating
only cucumbers. spring is here. zaina bought me flowers. they are very beautiful
and blooming on my kitchen table. itโs nice to have flowers around. iโve been
speaking to them and feeding them and feeling their petals. and picking off
anything thatโs changed colour to look death.
really enjoying the sound recently of how whatsapp degrades recorded music. i
would happily listen to an album of whatsapp-downsampled tracks. feel free to
make one. iโll listen.
unfold quietly
thanks to everyone who beeped the beepulator last week, i enjoyed beeping with
you.
thanks as well to whoever keeps listening to my music on spotify. i get little
e-mails every now and again that tells me what people are listening to and
thatโs very nice to read.
sorry to everyone who has text me + i havenโt replied. iโm so bad at texts now.
i see all the red circles, theyโre on my mind.
weโre on the train now, almost home. will be so cozy to be in bed.
they say
this is the city
the city of angels
all i see is dead wings
ok letโs go
what has been going on? big week for snacks. not a big week for getting out of
bed and going around the world. maybe next week can look like that?
zeezy is in Oman, hi zeezy!
lots of progress on littlebook. made a little music too. appeared indirectly
on the front page of hackernews. lots of phone calls. my bed contains 3 stringed
instruments, 2 guitar pedals, 2 synthesizers and a microphone. iโve gotta go for
a walk. iโll do that now. see you in 20 minutes or so.
time passes
tick tock.
thereโs nothing but bears and deer out there! and sainsburys prawn
sandwiches with tasty seeds in the bread. thatโs a good sandwich right there.
would anyone like a cup of tea? iโd love a cup of tea. you know what? iโm going
to make tea.
time passes
water and beasts
been a while since i was out there on all those slippery black rocks with the
salty greens and the little snippers sneaking out the gaps and the water
crashing into bursts of violent white foam across ones little feeties. gotta get
out there soon. the salt and and the seaweed. yum yum yum. lay down on the
ground and get splashed on. wake up in the water. play some cards, light a fire,
long trip home.
weโre going to visit some animals in Kent next week for my 58th birthday or
whatever it is I am now. 23? iโm going to brush a goat, in any case. iโll be
brushing that goat. remind me that we need to bring cucumber sandwiches.
handing you a teabag and saying there you go, you get yourself a wee drink.
i just spent so much time building this little beepulator. i hope that you enjoy
using it. the javascript was nothing, but i got really lost in the css for a
while. nothing like a good time. i suppose i should make it so my RSS feed just
tells you there has been a new post, but not actually include the content.
because much of my posts are web-only, and wonโt work in a lot of RSS readers.
made the mistake of looking at tomorrowโs work calendar. now iโm hungry. iโll
add some features to lima which iโm now using
to configure my computer with docfiles to
finally maybe replace my insane emacs docfiles config. one day perhaps i will
even be able to free myself from emacs. it needs a few features: