Didn’t get out much last week on account of it being sunny and seeming like it should be warmer, but it’s not all that warm.

Wednesday we had burgers at Quaint.

Friday had a couple a beers at Harefield in honor Emily defending her PhD rd 1. Then to the very packed sports bar to watch KU rd 1.

Saturday Mike and I went to Lowe’s to pick up a big garbage pail that we hope to put some fish in. Then to Home Depot to get some stuff we’d forgot or replace stuff we broke. I went to Home Depot again to get more stuff we may or may not need. See diagram above. Watched Hithcock’s Suspicion on TV that night. I kept suspecting I’d seen it already. I must have.

Sunday Esha and I went to IKEA and ate their food and bought their patio furnishings to the tune of 3 hours and $500. We also went to Lowe’s. We’re ready to sit on the deck, but it’s still too cold out. Went over to Mike’s to watch KU rd 2 w/ the fellas.

Monday a few ppl went to get some Thai food in out here Queens. It was all pretty good, but no one instagrammed.

Read The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, How the Culture of Abundance Robs Us of Satisfaction. I wasn’t impressed with this book. Too many definitions and anecdotes and not enough insight. I have read enough articles and already overexposed to the subject.

We spend too much time weighing, and then regretting trivial decisions. We acclimate to our lifestyles. We need to know when good enough is enough and move on. Use routine, rules and guidelines for your everyday decisions — leave your critical thinking for things that matter.

I’ve started in on some programming foundations.
Signed up for treehouse and think it’s great.
So far, I knew more than I thought and this is filling in some gaps.

Saturday we went to Tito Rad’s Filipino BBQ restaurant (over by the closed down auto parts store). Had grilled tuna belly, bbq pork, soup and some other thing. Pretty good.

Sunday I saw Man with a Movie Camera at the museum. There was a piano player doing music for it. Went to the Irish pub for St Paddy’s day. There was corned beef and cabbage, bored teens playing Irish music, and an old beardo dressed up like a leprechaun.

Monday I went to Wendy’s. Then to Sandman’s.

During the stretching section of some workout video I was watching, the trainer talked about letting your tongue relax, and letting it fall from the roof of your mouth. It kind of freaked me out because my tongue was on the roof of my mouth and the more I thought about it, the more my mouth felt “hot.” It’s kind of a curse to think about this, but I am glad to be conscious of it and remind myself to relax.

A google search reveals:

When many people are stressed, they press their tongue against the roof of their mouth and may not even be aware of it.
If you relax your tongue completely, it is very difficult to talk to yourself.

I try to incorporate stretches into my routine. After I brush my teeth, I stand in the corner of the bathroom and stretch my chest. Before I go to bed, I lay down on the ground and do various back stretches.

This week I wrapped up a quick freelance job and used some of the advice from ‘Design is a Job‘. Things went smoothly. Met with a potential client and can already see how some of the advice will come in handy.

Had a phone call with an interesting company, I’m anxious to hear back from them.

Last night Mike K, Greg E and I went to M Shanghai, then to the sports bar to watch KU, where many people joined us, then to Iona for Mike’s official birthday party, where more people joined. Then Esha, Laura, Gino, Jeff B and I went to M Shanghai. I had two full dinners at the same restaurant in the same night.

According to my bank — you can only have one best friend.

Checked out from the library. This copy is highlighted and there are scribbled notes. Curious if it was donated like this, or if someone did this while borrowed. I can not be sure if they’re creditable in their highlighting opinions. I came to read this book after clipping (and highlighting) an interview I read in The Brooklyn Rail — 

Q: The Housing Benefit and Social Security during the Thatcher era allowed you to live “on the dole” during your post-collegiate years in England, which may have encouraged a feeling of kinship with the Beats and the bohemian way of life. But in New York City at the moment, where everything’s so expensive, there’s a suspicion that certain people can afford to live like bohemians—to sit in cafés and try to write novels, for example—only because they’re supported by trust funds, don’t have to pay off student loans, etc. Do you think that bohemians still exist, and if so, where?

A: In Williamsburg! Bohemians have always been rich, either because they’re sons or daughters of industrialists or financiers or, as in Paris in the 1920s, because of the exchange rate. You know, Thoreau has his dad’s pencil factory behind him and a free place to live on Emerson’s land—I forget the exact details of the arrangement. Burroughs has his…whatever it was that he had! Living poor has often been an indulgence. I suppose I’d throw the question back at you and ask if you don’t think that is quite a good way for privileged kids to spend their time, trying to write a novel? It’s more honorable than being a merchant banker.

On a very different level, we have DH Lawrence who, although he hated bohemians, led what might be seen as a bohemian life and certainly hung out with a load of boho toffs. Obviously he didn’t have a lot of money and he was unbelievably thrifty. (One of the delights of the Brenda Maddox biography is seeing just how thrifty he was.) But at the same time, he always knew what a huge privilege it was, living as he did. So what if he had to travel third class? The countless small economies counted for nothing in the face of the huge freedom to do what he wanted. Same with me: I had to get buses instead of a taxi—big deal. At least I didn’t have to get up in the morning and go to work! And I still feel the same actually, still can’t bear to take taxis. My background is working class and it’s proved difficult to shake off the habits ingrained in me my by parents, who of course lived through the depression of the 1930s. I could live quite happily on very little money, because most of the shit on offer isn’t worth having.

and later…

So, yes, I try to be happy, but that is the hallmark of the basically unhappy person. Plus, I’m one of those people who was sort of born bored.

Last March I was in San Francisco and read the the only book I found by him at the bookstore there, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. Naturally, I don’t remember much about it other than the form and there was a bit of sex. I liked the book. I think I gave it to Kim when I moved last.

I read too many blogs about GTD (getting things done), & good habits, & start-ups, & entrepreneurs, etc. Consuming loads of advice without acting on any of it. They’ll recommend some book, I’ll look at it, and it’s all common sense and generally pretty boring. Now, instead, I’ll see if they have a long interview with the author on youtube or a podcast. I figured I’d do this with Dyer. Lo and behold, he’d been on This American Life. I listened to this segment 3x and it resonated with me. The whole book is exploring all the things we do to avoid ‘working’ — an issue I have.

The perfect life, the perfect lie, is one which prevents you from doing that which you would ideally have done, painted, say, or written unpublishable poetry, but which, in fact, you’ve no wish to do. People need to feel that they’ve been thwarted by circumstances from pursuing the life which, had they led it, they would not have wanted. Whereas the life they really want is precisely a compound of all those thwarting circumstances. It’s a very elaborate, extremely simple procedure, arranging this web of self-deceit, contriving to convince yourself that you were prevented from doing what you wanted.

Most people don’t want what they want. People want to be prevented, restricted. The hamster not only loves his cage, he’d be lost without it.
…
I’ve devoted more of my life to thoughts of giving up than anyone else I can think of. Nietzsche wrote that the thought of suicide had got him through many a bad night. And thinking of giving up is probably the one thing that’s kept me going. I think about it on a daily basis, but always come up against the problem of what to do when I’ve given up. Give up one thing, and you’re immediately obliged to do something else.
…
Should anyone flatter us by asking what we’re looking for, what we are searching for, then we think immediately, almost instinctively in vast terms. God, fulfillment, love. But our lives are actually made up of lots of tiny searches for things like a CD we are not sick of, an out-of-print edition of Phoenix, a picture of DH Lawrence that I saw when I was 17, another identical pair of suede shoes to the ones that I’m wearing now. Add them together, and these little things make up an epic quest, more than enough for one lifetime.

The TAL segment does sum up the book, but the rest of it is really enjoyable. I read the whole book in less than 3 days. It was nice to read along with someone else’s thoughts and struggles about living a creative life.

The answer to my slump is to just get on with it.

I’ve moved from W. Mass back to Queens.

Doing some freelance work.

Enjoying the outer-boroughs.

Month of January
Went to NY one weekend for FEAST.

Prob went to some shows at work and drank beer at the Mohawk?

Can’t recall…

February
There was a staff party at the Elk’s. I went to the local bars after. Ended up at the Crystal Hardhat and running into Martin, Lydia and Marty. We watched the biker band for a bit.

I watched a lot of documentaries and movies about the finance industry.

March
Went to San Francisco for a weekend. Jeff flew in from Minneapolis and we toured the sites and took in the sights. We had lunch some place, went to a Korean bath house, went to SF MoMA and YCBA, had pizza in Berkely with Liz, met up with Jenn at the CCA, ate vegan mexican food, shopped, had coffee, saw grandmas cleaning garages, went to a park on a hill where all these people were hanging out drinking and doing drugs in broad daylight, went to some bars, saw a drag show, ate breakfast, went to another park where people were talking about ‘policing the chill’, took naps, ate Doritos on a bus, stood in a line for two hours to get into a daytime dance party, ended up going to a bar called ‘Naps’ instead, ate sushi, then tacos, went over to Mellisa’s, walked a lot, went to a beach with lots of dogs, urban hiking, ate a burrito, Jeff left Sunday night, had breakfast with Jenn and Ryan B, met up with Liz and Heather at a fancy hotel and swam, and had Korean food. San Francisco is a real chill place and no one is all bossy moo cow at you.

Went to see No Age at Bennington student center. Super loud. Lots of co-ed hugging.

Esha and I drove down South for Spring Break.

NAMA > QNS

QNS > West Virginia. Their regional gas station is called ‘Sheetz’. We stayed with Esha’s former roommate Greg and they gave us the dirt on all the local happenings. There’s not much happening. We drove an hour to the top of a mountain. Then it got dark 15 minutes later, and we drove an hour back.

On the way to Nashville we stopped through Lexington. Pretty nice little historic district there. Ate breakfast at a very efficient place called Doodles. The people the next table over were talking about guns.

Stayed a night in Nashville. Got drinks at a speakeasy-type bar that was similar to Brooklyn’s speakeasy revival bars. The people sitting next to us were talking about guns.

Stopped in a small town in Mississippi and had lunch at a florist / cafe ‘Figs and Twigs’. A neighboring store was called Kountry Kids Kloze. Nashville to East Texas to stay a night at Esha’s parent’s house. They gave us the grand tour of Orange, Tx and we discussed various familial details.

Went on over to New Orleans. Stayed at a real nice little B&B house on the outskirts of the Quarter. Just down the street from Buffa’s bar. Again it was my inaugural watering hole for the visit. Went Jacque Imo’s the first night. Esha thought it was great. I thought it was good. I’d recommend it, but describe the menu as ‘fun’. We’d planned to see Rebirth Brass Band next door at the Maple Leaf, but we were too full, tired, etc.

We went on a ghost tour of the Quarter. Though many of the stops were about vampires.

Went to a nearby plantation. They mostly talked about the good parts of the plantation, and not so much the slave stuff.

The best meal of the trip was lunch at Coquette.

One night we’d waited too long to get to dinner, and ended up at the Hi-Ho lounge where The Stooges Brass Band was playing. It was a messy, fun show. My favorite thing in live music is when bands don’t stop between songs. These guys never paused. One song went right into the next. Very loud too.

Stayed a night in Asheville and had dinner at a place called The Admiral. Walked around downtown the next day but realized it wasn’t much different than any other hippie college downtown and left. I wish I’d dug up more Black Mtn College info before I’d gone.

We had no car trouble.