The Journal

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Nonetheless

An update: Have been accepted to the Information School's MLIS program at the University of Washington. Kristen's almost done with her thesis. Got a new car. Have been playing way too much Diablo 2 and Rune.

Books finished recently (to continue the list from the previous entry):

• Volcano Cowboys by Dick Thompson
• Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid
• Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
• Rendering in Pen and Ink by Arthur L. Guptill & Susan E. Meyer

Books in progress (in the order I'll probably finish them):

• The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkein
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
• The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
• Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra
• Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
• Ulysses by James Joyce

Well. I guess that's it.

Portal

I've been doing some renovating around here, if you haven't noticed. This website hasn't been updated for nearly ten months. I cannot fault my busy schedule, lack of energy, or forgetfulness. No, it's just plain procrastination, the bane of all existence. I meant to do all this a long time ago -- really, I did. <salinger>I swear to God. If I wasn't always running around like a crazy chicken with no damn head, I'd probably be the most productive goddam human being on the planet. I'm not kidding. I the craziest goddam jerk in the whole world when I'm procrastinating and all. Just ask old Kristen. She'll tell you. She kills me. She really does.</salinger>

So what have I been doing, instead of working on this website? Well, I've been reading. A list of books I have finished in the past 10 months:

• Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkein
• The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Game by AS Byatt
• Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
• The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
• The Penguin Anthology of Modern Fantasy by Women
• Selected Poems by WB Yeats
• Linux System Security by Scott Mann and Ellen Mitchell
• An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks

And some books I've been reading but have not yet finished:

• Ulysses by James Joyce
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
• Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

So far, I've been keeping up with my resolutions. All except the rock climbing one. While Kristen was in Europe this summer, I kept a daily journal, which I sent to her by email and is too personal to post here, so you'll just have to suffer. I've written quite a bit in this journal over the last few years that most people should not read -- I guess I'm just less exhibitionist than I used to be. There are some things going on in my life that really should not be shared with the world at large, like my family problems, my personal relationships, etc. Maybe you'll be able to decipher all those things from my poetry and artwork anyway.

What I'm saying is, the idea of a online personal journal is so passé, and you don't really need to know my internal monologue about me picking my nose or whining about my future. So, without any more discussion, I shall claim this journal to be ended, closed, etc. The words herein shall stand as a snapshot of my life from the years 1997 to 2000, an example of a youth coming of age at a millennial cusp, maturing along with the internet and wired society as a whole, and finally settling in a real life and living happily every after. Or they'll stand as a reminder to myself of how mundane and petty my thought processes are. Or how hypercritical I am of myself, belying my own insecurities and inability to cope due to years of parental criticism and the delusional guilt-ridden cult-like practices of pentecostal christians.

No matter. These entries will remain, regardless of their content or meaning, and I'll continue to journal away in the privacy (yeah, right) of my own password-protected software program on my laptop at home. Maybe I'll try writing on paper for once.

Kung hsi fa-tsui vs. Gong hay fat choy

I am coming to terms with the fact that my life may just not be long enough to fit in all the stuff I want to do. Like learn Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Japanese, and every major programming language. That's thirty years right there. Then there's all those novels and poetry and songs I want to write, plus the paintings, sculptures, computer programs, degrees, and, of course, the Mars colonization thing. How am I supposed to find time for all this stuff in the mere 60-70 years I have left?

Anyway. Welcome to the new millenium, give or take five years. At least it started out with a great party and a bunch of new resolutions. Here's my short list of New Year's Stuff To Do (in no particular order):

• sleep
• climb rocks
• eat food
• draw pictures
• code
• breathe
• write
• talk
• groom
• get down
• make music
• make money
• save money
• spend money

That just about covers it. And now the news:

I'm now working at the University of Washington Department of Orthopaedics as the Webmaster and Public Information Specialist. My free time is taken up with getting Yeti Arts up and running and doing some freelance graphic design and illustration. I finally feel like I'm doing something (a) good, (b) fun, and (c) worthwhile and (d) living comfortably.

Since it's my first journal entry in three months and the first in the year 2000 (which doesn't feel as dramatic as I thought it would), I feel obligated to write something truly special. Hmm. Well, I can't think of anything right now. Maybe later. Anyway, happy new and all that.

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