days of naze

japanophile
10:03 PM

Today I was talking with someone about my love of traditional Japanese culture. Japanese gardens, sushi and sashimi, Akira Kurosawa, kanji, art of the Meiji period, bushido, and shiatsu... I finished Lone Wolf and Cub - Volume 13 by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Jokima 2 days ago and I'm still completely in awe. Black and white drawings of exquisite detail. Panel after panel of silence -- a personal yet cinematic perspective.

"So, why do you love Japanese culture?", she said.

It's a simple question, but not such a simple answer. I couldn't give an answer in the limitations of time that we had, so the only correct answer I could give her was, "I don't know. It just seems right to me."

July 28, 2002

there can be no doubt
08:46 AM

Lance Armstrong is a cycling god. He completely dominated the field and won his 4th Tour de France today. But it's clear now that he's not content to be up on Olympus -- he wants to be Zeus. He's after Indurain and 3 others who won 5. To me, that's the question: can he get 6? With good health it seems as certain as the sun rising.

July 25, 2002

voting with my feet
11:04 AM

I briefly shared Wint-o-Green Life Savers with Maggie Powers a few years back. She's a gifted writer, talented singer-songwriter and she's from my neck of the woods. Ben Brown's and Ani Moller's new company just published Maggie's book Hand Over Fist.

The book sounds cool and I try to make a special point of supporting web writers and micro publishers. It's such a kick to see people making art and putting it out there themselves. And at $6 US, how can you go wrong? You should buy a copy. I just did.

July 23, 2002

full immersion in the data stream
10:11 AM

"What makes Lineage a distinctively Korean experience is that when players assemble to take down a castle, they do so in person, commandeering a local PC baang for as long as it takes."

A fascinating look into the convergence of pervasive broadband with a strong social culture.

July 22, 2002

stories of race & class
09:05 PM

I just returned from a screening of NorthEast Passage, a film that documents the conflicts set in motion when a predominantly African-American section of Portland, Oregon changes under the forces of gentrification. There aren't any easy answers. From the voices in the film, it seems that class is at the center of the conflict, moreso than race. It was very encouraging to see the theater sold out for the second night in a row.

Earlier in the day, I saw a very powerful film called The Color of Fear. A small group of men from various backgrounds and ethnicities confront their experiences with racism. The emotions are charged and occasionally explode. But the greatest explosion erupts only after one denies the reality of his fellow men's experiences. With repeated comments like "your feelings don't have a foundation", it was clear that he was trying to invalidate their experiences as a defense against a truth he could not confront.

Longtime Readers have heard me say this before: in the end, stories are all that we have. Everyone has a story. Listen and you will hear them.

lost lizard redux
07:12 AM

Mr. Yellow, Jack's uromastyx, has escaped for the 4th time. Jack, whose contact with the little fellow is primarily limited to his daily feeding, was beset by wailing. The screen was in place over his tank, so Yellow is becoming something of a Houdini now. The farthest he has made it from the tank is about 5 meters. Luckily, the lizard can live on almost no water and food for fairly extended periods of time. It's bizarre how a creature with such a limited range has eluded us for so long. 19 hours and counting...

July 20, 2002

in a related story: surprise, surprise...
11:25 AM

"...under Neuheisel's watch, [Colorado] committed 51 violations of recruiting rules".

"Neuheisel [aka New-Weasel], now the coach at Washington, says neither he nor any member of his staff committed violations intentionally."

No, of course not.

July 19, 2002

i love it
07:41 PM

"We're back."

"I think it's safe to say that college football in the city of New York consists of Rutgers and Oregon."

July 16, 2002

defiance
08:31 PM

"I love Tom Courtenay: because he is the man who stands, fist raised, in front of the tank, realizing too late that the tank has no intention of stopping."

a really good question
07:54 PM

"Are there more people or more trees?", asked David (6) at the dinner table.

I told him that there are about 6 billion people on earth but I didn't know how many trees there are. My guess was that it would be pretty close. Jack (9) thinks there are more people. Anybody out there know the answer?

July 14, 2002

brush with letterman
09:31 PM

"If you go, you'll miss the flight."

As promised, the first new days of naze essay in an embarrassingly long amount of time:

I Was Not Interviewed by David Letterman

happy anniversary to me I
12:26 AM

I started days of naze 4 years ago today. I look back at the amount of material I launched with (most of Stupid Things, all of Strung Out, most of Brush) and I see now that I never could have accomplished that if I hadn't begun the work in 1997 (about a year before launch), well before David (my second child) was born. Blogging has allowed me to add new content to the site and overall it has been a boon. But the essays are the foundation and the structure to the site.

Another old friend found me through the site and caught up with what has gone on in my life. A reader from China read my Letter to Jiang and had a few points of contention. These are some of the reasons I continue. But mainly it is because I have more stories to tell.

I've been working on one that is long overdue. It will go up later tonight. Thank you for reading.

July 13, 2002

Is this damn thing on?
09:57 PM

Is this damn thing on? (Oops, sorry. I've been trying to post for 36 hours. Blogger's template server has been having seizures evidently. At least the post below was saved even though it wasn't posted until just now...)

July 12, 2002

first, puff the magic dragon. now this?
03:50 PM

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

You never change your socks

And the little streams of alcohol

Come trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats

And the railway bulls are blind

There's a lake of stew

And of whiskey too

You can paddle all around it

Elizabeth (in 2 year old voice): "Mo'[re] Candy Mountain! Mo!" I don't think her grandmother was reading the lyric sheet when she got Elizabeth hooked on this one...

The first mention I had heard of the Big Rock Candy Mountains was back in 1986. Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, in their epic ballad "I Saw Jesus at McDonald's at Midnight" ask, "Is this the Big Rick Candy Mountain?" Turns out that they were not in the Happy Place but in the Bad Place.

July 10, 2002

a ratbastard's last bid for freedom
10:00 PM

Kilt or no kilt for the groom? The battle rages on...

July 09, 2002

disturbing
10:10 PM

The name of my assigned domain host e-mail server is...Gollum. "The messagessssss. Yesss, we wants them! Give them to usssss. My precioussssss." I've always said that my domain host does have a part to play for good or ill...

telling
08:13 PM

"...in the press room..the chatter would soon have turned to dark musings about the character of the man inhabiting the Oval Office. But that was when the president's name was Clinton, not Bush."

July 08, 2002

see you in sf
08:05 PM

It's official: I'll be at JournalCon 2002, October 2-4 in San Francisco. It will be 3 years since my last SF visit (which seriously rocked) and my third time meeting a whole gang of web writers face-to-face.

I'm really looking forward to meeting Steve Amaya and Chuck. Both are excellent writers and Steve is a killer with the b&w stills, so we should manage something better than what I got with the disposable camera last time. If you plan to be there and want in on the mutual admiration festival, shoot me an e-mail.

Some of what I noticed on a walk through the neighborhood
01:41 PM

a tombstone of a man who died at my current age back in 1910

a shirtless man happily dragging a large stick on the sidewalk

a Deco motorcycle and sidecar for sale

a compact red brick apartment building across from Laurelhurst Park

a 20 meter diameter red and yellow painting of a sun on the pavement of an intersection

July 06, 2002

it's harder than it sounds
03:17 PM

The challenge? Name all 50 states within 15 minutes.

I got the first 44 within 5 minutes. But I could only come up with 5 more before time ran out. Sorry New Jersey! [via kottke]

revenge of the playboy covergirl
10:16 AM

Christine Nielson of Portland suburb, Gresham, is featured on the cover of Playboy's "Girls of Enron". At a local signing, Jennifer was there to catch a few prime tidbits:

"The guy who was two places ahead of us was her ex-boyfriend"...

July 04, 2002

eros quotient
09:34 PM

I scored (har, har) a 95% on the MTV Sex Quiz.

reconsidering the pledge
06:44 PM

I've never particularly disliked or resented the pledge of allegiance. I've considered it a means of demonstrating appreciation for being a citizen. But neither do I think the words of the pledge achieve the necessary poetry or direction that they could. In actuality, I do not pledge allegiance "to a flag", but I do pledge allegiance "to the republic for which it stands". And as most of you know, the pledge is a still a fairly recent development in the history of our nation.

Wouldn't it be nice to switch to something better?

How about the 2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence?:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men ['humanity' would be fine] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Or how about the preamble to the Constitution?:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

July 03, 2002

up your nose
12:55 PM

Elizabeth had a runny nose with slightly smelly mucus. I took her to the doctor and they treated her with antibiotics. Probably a sinus infection. We went through the complete course of antibiotics and it seemed to help a little, but didn't completely make it go away.

I took her back to her pediatrician. He refers us to the ears-nose-throat guy. This new doc's nurse wraps up Elizabeth in a blanket. Elizabeth (2 years old) is very unhappy, struggles and cries. I do my best to soothe her, but it's just too much for her. The nurse holds her head as the doc uses a tool to widen her nostril. Another thin tool goes in the nostril and seconds later, pops out...with a small pyramid of foam rubber. (WTF!?) "O.k., we're done", the doc says. He asks if he can mount it on his bulletin board with the assorted beads, coins, toys and paraphenalia that he has extracted from other children. "Absolutely!", I tell him, with barely concealed glee

July 02, 2002

net tunes
06:27 PM

Yahoo's Launchcast has cemented my love for internet radio. In the last 30 minutes I've heard the Psychedelic Furs "Ghost In You", The Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary" and a Flock of Seagulls "Space Age Love Song" on the 80's Alternative (ack, I hate that term) channel. I also get a very cool mix on my personalized station, based on my ongoing rating of tracks.

Of course, now that bandwidth and service have converged to provide excellent internet radio, the music industry is bent on killing it. Bastards.

July 01, 2002

more e-mail trouble
10:16 PM

While I'm now getting POP3 e-mail, it seems that I've been receiving a disproportionately high number of e-mails with a subject and no body. I initially wrote this off as spam because the return address was often unfamiliar. But today, the day after I tweaked the layout of my site, I received an e-mail with the subject line of "frameborder". Time to consult the great domain host again...