Category

Musings

• 09.13.09
  Moving Boxes
  2009, Important, Musings, Writing (0)

  by raien Skittles (written July 19th) Apartment moves are traumatic. I realized that about five minutes ago as I dug through a recycling bin to find something I'd lost. It was a red plastic heart that had been filled with Skittles at one point -- one of many things Nora sent me last Valentines Day. She paid over $20 to Express mail it to me so it would arrive on time for Valentines. I'd kept the box it was mailed in for the last 5 months because it was filled with some nice memories. Yesterday, I filled it with year-old notebooks and binders ...
  
  
• 07.06.09
  Michael Jackson Jokes
  2009, Important, Musings, Writing (1)

  Michael Jackson Jokes by N i c o_ I met a 78 year-old man who told me that he thought he'd die before Michael Jackson. We'd met across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theater while watching the crowd of people stand in line to see Michael Jackson's Walk of Fame star. I hadn't planned to be there to visit Michael Jackson. Nora and I had planned a trip to see some LA landmarks -- Grauman's was one of them. Until Michael Jackson died yesterday, the last time I'd thought about him was when Matt Ruecker and I proposed the theory that a DJ ...
  
  
• 01.18.09
  Lowery v. Motor Works
  2008, Important, Musings, Writing (0)

  My Day In Court. photo by wallyg A headline like, "Circuit City Bankrupt; Closes 567 Stores," doesn't hit as close to home when you're in school and not looking for a job. If you do have a job, you're one of the lucky ones. The self-doubt and rejection of not being able to find work gets replaced by the slightly less threatening specter of fear that you might be downsized or replaced by a computer. None of that seemed to be relevant though during my visit to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals until the bailiff announced the next case, Lowery v. Motor ...
  
  
• 12.26.08
  Can I borrow a cigarette?
  2008, Important, Musings, Writing (0)

  She's My Best Friend A lot of people I hear from sound sad. Christmas and the New Year does that to people in a way that you don't realize when you're still young enough to look forward to presents and you're barely able to stay up past midnight to watch the ball drop. They're sad in a way you don't really understand until you graduate college or the first year you spend a holiday away from home. There's a snack machine that sells lottery tickets at the grocery store. The last time I saw it, every roll of tickets -- from Easy ...
  
  
• 12.11.08
  A Love Story
  2008, Important, Musings, Writing (0)

  Planned Parenthood. I walk by the San Diego planned parenthood everyday on my way to school. The security guard is out front everyday -- out the glass doors, down the ramp, on the sidewalk -- from 8am to 5pm. At least those are the hours I see him -- 8am when I get to school and 5pm when I leave some days. There are two ways you can enter a Planned Parenthood. If you're one of the lucky ones, you're a 22 years old girl in blue jeans holding hands with some guy who must be your boyfriend. He's wearing basketball shorts. If ...
  
  
• 11.17.08
  The Paradise Hills Sanitarium
  2008, Important, Musings, Writing (0)

  Where I Live. On November 14th, a new guy moved into the half-way house I pay almost $500 to live next to in San Diego. He owns one pair of black jeans and a shirt that says "West Virgina" that he might have gotten on a trip to that state's visitor's center in a previous life. Judging by his looks, heroin or crystal meth played a big role in one or more of those previous lives. He seems to have never washed his hair in his entire life. As a neighbor, he is better than the woman who shrieked like a metronome ...
  
  
• 10.21.08
  He Had Enemies, For Instance, In the Steel Trust
  2008, Musings, Writing (0)

  Preparing to read McSweeney's Volume 25 (with a story written by Pagett Powell in it) has gotten me nostalgic for the time when our nations pre-eminent humorist, Powell, would wax philosophical to his creative writing workshops. The following is some of the wisdom he imparted to us, said by Powell and transcribed by Danny Djeljosevic, during workshops in early 2008. On growing older: “I'll need some of you to hold my hand, others of you to procure pills…” On religion: “Jesus is the secret friend that is approved of for adults.” On criticism: “Good criticism sometimes makes sense in five ...