Tag: discussion

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personal

Disappointment

It’s really the disappointment that wears you down

Sitting on a street curb in NYC

 

Me: You don’t care at all about that? It’s part of what makes a woman attractive.
Him: (laughing) Some like the attic, some like the basement. I’m a basement man, you’re an attic man.
Me: Well, that’s certainly a colourful way of putting it.
Him: (sighing) I still love her, y’know. Even though she’s evil.
Me: She’s pure evil. (patting him on shoulder) But I know. It’ll get better.

Take a lot of classes. Classes for wrasslin, fencing, law, etc.

Was talking to one of my instructors the other day, who’s been doing his thing for 20 years. We’ve known each other maybe seven/eight years. Told me outta the blue that he’s gonna be calling it quits soon.

This surprised me.

Me: Why?
Him: I can’t take the disappointment any more.
Me: (confused) The disappointment of your students quitting? Or the disappointment of them not practicing? Or of them not caring?
Him: (nodding) Yes.

It’s sad but true. My friends don’t wanna date cause it’s really the disappointment that gets you. Others have stopped looking for work. Still others have stopped trying to take those chances.

It’s bound to happen some time. He’s in his late 50s so maybe it’s time.

Still, it kept me up the other night. Something about teachers requires that they hope that someone listens, someone cares – no matter how many times they’re disappointed. It’s a hard and often thankless job.

So, climbed outta bed and practiced quietly in the dark. 1, 2, 3…

Location: in the back room
Mood: pensive
Music: It’s too late – much too late, too late for the young gun
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dating personal

Iron intelligence

As Iron Sharpens Iron

Small leak in my ceiling

Me: (discussing the triathlon) If there’s a competition in three parts where the first part is solving a computer problem, the second part is fencing, and the third part is cooking, I’d totally rock that.
Her: (laughing) You would totally rock that.

With the exception of maybe Jaerik, don’t think mosta you read when I wrote my favourite quote in the world from this dude named Schopenhauer that goes, With increased intelligence, comes increased capacity for pain.

Him: She left. Think I need to be by myself for a bit.
Me: Sorry to hear that, man. But I think that that’s not the way to do it – get out there and date.
Him: I don’t wanna get back out there.
Me: You gotta. Interacting with a buncha new people’s the best way to learn about yourself – as iron sharpens iron so does one person sharpen another. Plus it’s self-correcting: Say you do it for six months. In six months, let’s say you finally meet a great girl. You’re golden. Say your ex comes back. After six months of dating other women, you’ve learned that much more about yourself. You’re golden. Let’s say neither after six months. You’re still out there getting better and meeting women. So you’re still golden.
Him: I shouldn’t have lied to her.
Me: No, you shouldn’t have. But you did. And you can’t plead, argue, logic or beg someone to care. All you can do it take the pain and deal with it. Leave her alone – she’ll either come back or won’t. Either way, handle yourself first.

Speakinga Jaerik – since it’s now public knowledge – congrats for your company selling Islandlife.

The offer for manservant’s still open.

In other news, got a small leak in my kitchen ceiling.

Location: Still sweating at my pad
Mood: Still hot
Music: One fine day You’re gonna want me (Spotify)

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personal

Let it burn

Sometime we have let go of the old things we love to let in the new

A roof on fire in the big city.

 

Did you ever wonder why NYC’s, NYC? That is to say, how it became the biggest city in the world? Why not Boston, Philly, or DC?

In 1776, this massive fire occurred and pretty much wiped out the city as it was.

Afterward, the city made a decision in 1811 to set up the grid pattern we all know in NYC – doesn’t sound like much until you think that most everything past 14th street was forest.

Other places, like Boston, would have been like, “Well, there’s a tree where the road should go, and no one’s here anyway, so let’s just build a road around the tree.” But the plan said to cut down any tree and fill in any stream in the way of the streets – which most people thought of as insane and wasteful.

But cause they did that, the city grew in an orderly fashion and immigrants – like my folks – that couldn’t speak a lick of English could get around the city. So they came here.

Another one of my buddies called me today:

Me: What’s the dilly?
Him: Flipped the company. For $100M.
Me: Oh, NICE! Are you rich? More to the point, do you owe me money?
Him. “Yes,” and “no.”
Me: Wait – $100K or $100M?
Him: $100M.
Me: Do you need a manservant? I can be like Cato.
Him: That would be awesome. “I’m home!” WHAM!

He too had a hard life, as did Sheridan. Something about suffering makes y’want to succeed, to make things better.

Chris Rock once said that, “There’s something about being picked on that makes you work harder to make a reality where no body picks on you.”

It’s not true for everyone; some people that suffer stay broken. But the ones that get better – oftentimes – get a lot better. Bendy. The broken ones tend to get more broken.

If you’re the former, sing it with me – We don’t need no water, let the @#$@#$ burn…

 

Location: near Grand Central
Mood: ambitious
Music: she all fly But I can take the heat
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Inflated

Location: all over Queens, yesterday
Mood: crazy busy
Music: I take the mile, let me show ’em how

Broadway in NYC downtown

It’s funny but Sabatoa quoted my last entry and had 173 comments back and forth about various people’s opinion as to the number.

It’s interesting what resonates with people and what doesn’t.

———-

Harvard and Stanford law schools have eliminated grades; other law schools’re officially – and artificially – inflating grades. Ok, the pass/fail maybe’s alright, they did still make it into Harvard and Stanford, yeah? The grade inflation’s, however, is uncool.

Not saying that a number’s all y’should be but y’should have earned that digit. In fact, all of your digits should be real.

It says something that people borrow stacksa dough to pretend like they got more than they do; the average American’s $15,519 dollars in debt. That means $15,519 wortha their stuff really isn’t theirs.

Ditto for those inflated grades.

Why would anyone want something they didn’t earn?

On a related point, what’s the pointa working at jobs y’hate, to buy things y’don’t need, to impress those y’don’t know?

YASYCTAI: If you got credit card debt, pay it down. There’s nuthin you need so much to be in credit card hell. (a while/2 pts)

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personal

Parasitic fear

Location: off to see KG Betty in midtown
Mood: busy
Music: My feet is my only carriage

Koreatown, NY

This recent BusinessWeek article says that some sick people given live parasites have gotten better. Evidently, we live such sanitary lives that our bodies, which spent hundreds of thousands of years fighting something, had nuthin to fight. Ergo, it starts fighting itself leading to stuff like Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, peanut allergies, etc.

By introducing parasites to the body, the body has something to fight besides itself.

But you knew this, yeah? That the suffering cuts the fat to show the muscle underneath.

———-

Been writing like a madman; some stuff for fun, most for business. None for scratch, but figure that’ll come when it comes.

Summer’s usually my busy season and it’s still busy but slightly more cause I’m doing stuff wouldn’t have time to do if I were busy making coin.

It’s unnerving, the uncertainty. Then again, my fear is my only courage.

YASYCTAI: Write something for fun. (120 mins/1 pts)

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personal

Attractive goes away

The 73rd Street Train Station in NYC
Me: Vitamins?
Her: Packed.
Me: (thinking) Clothes?
Her: Did you just ask me if I packed…clothes?!

The girl went away for a business trip the other day so I did what you might expect someone like me to do – I defrosted and cooked four pounds of corned beef and a head of cabbage.

Ate about half of it in a day.

I should not be left alone to my own devices.

———-

As usually happens round this time, a buncha people I know broke up with their significant others. Something about spring make y’wanna clean up I suppose. Excepta course my buddy from four months ago; he may have finally thrown the deuce to the girlie that cheated cheats on him AND her fiance.

He keeps telling me that I don’t know the situation. But it’s like Lolita, y’know? See Lolita’s essentially about a middle-aged guy that wants to rape this girl – terrible, yeah? But if y’read the book, y’start thinking, I guess that’s not so terrible.

It an example of what we writers liketa call unreliable first person which’s a fancy waya saying, look at it from my pointa view.

Yeah, from his pointa view she’s got a reason she’s banging him and some other sucker. But she’s an unreliable first person, like The Talented Mr. Ripley or Diary of a Madman. Anything’s explainable given enough time, ink, and paper.

To my buddy she’s this attractive, misguided chick. But to all of us, she’s just an attractive dirtbag.

And attractive goes away, but dirtbag…man, dirtbag’s forever.

Location: Midtown in an hour
Mood: sympathetic
Music: it’s time To reassess the situation and decide what’s mine

Categories
personal

Hedy: King of two, Jack of four

Hedy Lamarr is one of my heroes; she should be yours too

Heady Lamarr - not my copyright, obviously

Met up with this nice fella who congratulated me on some of the work in one of my professions.

Him: At some point, you’ll have to pick one. You can’t be a Jack-of-all-Trades.
Me: I’m not, I’m King of two, Jack of four.

Hedy Lamarr was this major actress back in the day. If you said her name round the 30s/40s, everyone knew her like we know Angelina.

She was also a major spy for the allies against the Nazis, which is pretty cool.

But that’s not even the coolest thing about her. The coolest thing about her is that she changed my life; and yours. In fact, she changed the world.

She came up with the underpinning of Wifi and secure cellular/mobile calls.

In other words, I couldn’t write this sitting in bed if not for this actress.

  • The fellas I fence with probably only know me as the best fencer in the class.
  • The fellas I wrestle with probably only know me as the worst wrestler in the class.
  • My clients probably only know me as a tech lawyer.
  • My other clients know me as the guy with that fancy new designation.
  • You folks probably only know me as a NYC insomniac with an incredibly nerdtastic blog.

Funny thing’s that I’m none of these things in my head.

People always wanna peg you as one thing or another; makes it easier for them to know how to treat you. And when y’re young, you don’t know what you are yet so you try on different things as you figure it out – the bow-tie wearing conservative, the flower-power girl, etc. That’s fine when you’re a kid.

But at some point you gotta be something more than a cliche.

Be anything you wanna be; but I hope you aspire to be more than a cliche. Hope you aspire to have more than a big screen TV.

May be a dork, yeah, but I’m the only dork of my kind.

Location: no place special
Mood: conflicted
Music: my tears don’t show, but oh honey, they flow

Categories
personal

Lasagna in Damascus

Location: same since July 1997
Mood: wanting Indian food
Music: forget the past. Do you want to dance

Indian food

Me: I guess I’ve lived within the same five blocks for the past..jeez, 13 years? That’s hard to believe. What about you?
Him: Hmm… (counting) I’d say I’ve lived about seven more places than you since July 1997. (thinking) More importantly my cat’s lived in seven more places that you since July 1997.

Don’t handle change well; I like my home.

With the exception of cheap Indian food, most everything a fella’d wanna eat’s usually within a ten minute walka my pad.

This week, had Italian, Mediterranean, Asian, American, and Mexican; and it’s only Thursday. My mom was always pretty agnostic when it came to cooking – she made a mean chili and some killer lasagna in addition to Chinese food.

No wonder I was a fat kid.

The Economist just had this article noting that sushi’s insanely popular in Damascus – probably the last place you’d expect. The gist of the article’s that exposure to food’s the first step in exposure to different people, culture, etc. In short, food could potentially equal freedom.

That sounds about right to me.

YASYCTAI: Find a new place/thing to eat. (90 mins/1 pt)

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personal

Stay Gold

Friends are the family you choose

Menu and candle at a bar with Jaymay singing

Cool thing about my city’s that you’re only $2.25 away from adventure. The lady was working so I called up a buddy.

Me: Jaymay’s playing downtown 8PM. You in?
Him: I dunno…
Me: You’re single. Never turn down an invitation.
Him: I’ll meet you there.

Jaymay in concert 2010.04.28

Great concert, seats and venue. She was super nice.

Me: So, I’m gonna do the stupid tourist thing and ask for your autograph.
Her: Do you have something to write on? (takes paper and writes)
Me: Are you writing something mean? (turning to girl next to her) Is she writing something mean, like in high school?
Her: (laughing and shaking my hand) Thanks for coming, Logan.

Jaymay autograph

Have more stories for you; saw a great flick, baked a ham, and cut another friend loose.

Suppose I’ll tell mosta them to y’next week.

The cutting of the friend, I’ll tell you now. In a nutshell, your friends’re the family y’choose. When you’re a kid, y’choose them cause your mom tells you to or they got the locker nexta yours. Whatever.

But as an adult, there’s really only one reason to call someone your friend – Someone’s your friend if you can answer this in the affirmative: Will this person, to his/her own detriment, look out for me?

If you can, do the same for them. If you can’t, cut em loose.

Been alive now for 13,500 days. Only got 12,780 days left here.

No time to waste it on anyone whom I can’t answer that question in the affirmative. You don’t got that kinda time either, kid.

Location: two hours ago, Rockwood Music Hall
Mood: entertained
Music: winning you with words because I have no other way
YASYCTAI: Go on a (short) adventure. It’s $2.25 here; what’s it where you are? (180 mins/2 pts)
www.loganlo.com
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personal

Thought of kindly

Location: in fronta three screens all damn day
Mood: drained
Music: not sleeping, cold wind blowing in the middle of the night

Green arrow traffic signal in NYC

Spent the last four days cranking on a project. Just submitted it to the client a sec ago. So here I am with you, like old times.

Spoke to another old friend used to see every day. Lost touch, as things go. She had some static that I heard about so dropped her a line.

Her: Y’know, you gave me advice about things that I tell people to this day.
Me: Like what?
Her: (thinking) Well, a long time ago, I used to have to walk through this sketch alley to get home so I carried a knife with me. You told me to carry a small metal pen instead and showed me how to use it. I’ve been telling people that for years.
Me: (laughing) No kidding!
Her: (laughing) Yep. Plus I tell all my girlfriends so there’s a group of women here in San Fran that carry metal pens, all because of you.

Recalled another girl that dropped me a note a while ago thanking me for something I wrote once. Suppose it’s like that Donne poem, y’know – islands and all of that.

Funny how the things we say and do live on beyond our memory of them. It’s good t’be thought of kindly.

YASYCTAI: Call up an old friend for no real reason. (45 mins/1 pt)