100 THINGS
I've added my 100 things about Marjorie to the blog. Blogging really is a self-indulgent endeavor isn't it. Oh well. If you make it through the list your either really bored or one of my best friends.

FRIDAY FIVE
1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people?
Not really. I try though. That was actually the reason we created this blog, to make it easier to keep up with our friends and family.

2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why?
I love e-mail. You can do it on your own time. I'm not a big phone talker, unless I'm talking to one of my close friends who live in other towns-Karen, Kristina, and Alison, I will always be happy to talk on the phone with you. Meeting in person is always the preferred method of keeping up, but alas, it's hard to do.

3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it?
Nope. I used to instant message Mark at work, but honestly, if I want to talk to some immediately I'll use the phone. B00ut instant messaging can be fun, especially at work.

4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away?
Far away, sadly. I miss you guys!!!!

5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"?
Gotta love the choice of cliches. Only a truly shallow person would forget about the people they love just because they're away. However, that said, unfortunately distance poses a real challenge to relationships. You have to really work at keeping up with people's lives. It's the little things that add up to make a life, and if you lose touch with the little things, you feel out of touch with your loved ones. Luckily, with true friends, the people who really know you, when you finally do have a chance to visit, you can typically pick up right where you left off.

Like many who blog, I've created a list of 100 things about my favorite subject, me. It's not easy to come up with that many things about yourself. Try it if you doubt me.

I just took the last pill of my oral typhoid hormone innoculation. This is the "live virus" stuff. It comes with warnings like "Do not chew! Swallow as quickly as possible!" Doesn't exactly give one a warm tummy feeling. In fact, if I start feeling a warm tummy feeling, THAT'S when I'll really start worrying.

Right now I'm listening to Mali Music, an album of music from the country of Mali compiled by and featuring Damon Albarn of Blur (and Gorillaz). Mali is a dream trip of mine, so I'd already listened to some stuff from there before this album ever came out. Malian music has a style unique from other African music, which I've been slowly learning to distinguish. The album is actually a crossover -- most of the tracks were written by Damon Albarn, though definitely in the Malian bent. I'm going to enjoy this.

For the real experience, you can actually listen to Malian radio on the net.

At dinner tonight Marjorie and I were trying to come up with a term for the recent trend in movies, where the whole goal seems to be to make the user uncomfortable, by featuring good actors playing people who are a little bit nuts but still believable, putting them into uncomfortable and awkward situations, and holding the viewers faces in it until they're squirming in their seats. Films like Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl, Happiness, etc...

The best term we could come up with was cinema Solondz.

Later we went and saw a movie that was nothing of the sort. 24 Hour Party People is a dramatization of events surrounding the Manchester music scene in the late 70's through the mid-90's, particularly surrounding the bands Joy Division, New Order, and the Happy Mondays. Not bands I've ever been into, but still. Steve Coogan is superlative in the role as Tony Wilson, a TV variety-show host cum band manager/night club owner. Great nostalgic fun.

I SURRENDER!
I've completed all my "skills assessment" paperwork and was finally ready to send the packet when I discovered a beautiful catch-22. In order to pay the fee to process the paperwork, one needs to have either "a bank check in Australian dollars drawn by bank outside Australia that has bank clearance arrangements with an Australian bank" or "a money order issued by Australia Post" or" a bank check drawn by an Australian bank": or a "personal check drawn on an Australian bank account". So far the only bank I can find in the USA that has any "clearance arrangements with an Australian bank" is Citibank-which won't let you buy a bank check in Australian currency unless you have an account with them (we don't) and all the other options require either living in Australia or finding an Australian bank nearby...which seems to be damned near impossible (unless you live in Singapore, ironically there are several Australian banks there). So... I give up. I'm going to stop trying to muddle through all this paperwork myself and beg Mark to pay for a Migration consultant to help us. Sigh.

I should've enjoyed tonight's Monday Night Football game more -- I'm a big Eagles fan, and I watched the game with two friends who are fans of the Redskins. The Eagles walked all over them. But it's no fun to trash talk opposing fans who are going, "We suck. We just suck."

We're all in a football pool together. Right now, I'm doing marginally better than a person flipping a coin would do, overall.

We left before the big excitement. Apparently the cops in the stands used pepper spray to break up a fight, and the game was suspended for five minutes. Viva America!

It strikes me that I wasted yesterday. No new experiences and basically nothing accomplished besides some little things around the house. I hate when I do that. You only get so many days, you know?

Last night at dinner a friend made a comment on something that struck me as odd, too. Whatever happened to the story about the three guys who locked themselves in the plane bathroom? It was probably nothing, but it was certainly a more serious deal than that Florida nonsense that's been all over the news, Chicken Little style, for the past few days. It almost seems like the former story was squelched. I can find no follow-up articles anywhere. Strange.

Always take the weather with you
It looks like we will not be going camping again this weekend due to a forecast of rain for the next few days. Oh well, maybe we can try again next weekend.

Today I'm trying to finalize all the paperwork to send in my job skills assessment to the Australian teacher assessment people. It's amazing how much information they want. What's even more amazing is that I was able to locate paperwork from the last five years. It's more than helpful that my father is a tax accountant and has a lot of my information on file at his business, thankfully. Otherwise I would have had to call my former employers and beg them to write a letter stating that I worked for them at one time, and I'd rather not. Anyhow, on Monday (hopefully) I'm going to put this stuff in the mail and get the process started, which makes me feel like I have at least a little bit of control over our future, even if I can't make it happen as quickly as I'd like it to.

Friday! And I'm actually working this week, so I can almost appreciate Friday for all its implied freedom. Because it's Friday, I was going to do the "Friday Five" but the questions bored me (about school, what you liked and didn't) so I'm skipping it.
All in all a rather interesting week. Creepy, in lots of respects. Speaking of creepy, I did an assessment today in the filthiest house I've ever seen, really, no exaggeration, and I have a high gross-out factor. For those of you who care about what I do, I provide assessments to babies and toddlers from birth to 3 years old, in order to determine if, based on a standardized test, they are exhibiting any developmental delays in the following areas: communication, cognition, fine/gross motor, adaptive behavior, and social/emotional skills. Sometimes I go to people houses to do the assessment, today was one of those days, and this house was soooooooo gross! There were roaches everywhere, climbing all over the walls, furniture, and I imagined, me. Plus the little guy I was there to assess was only partially dressed running around in just a diaper, plus he didn't seem very fresh if you catch my drift. But lucky for me, he was really affectionate and wanted to climb all over my lap, give me hugs, the like. Poor fellow, it wasn't his fault he and his home were filthy. The mom there didn't even seem to notice the bugs....but she didn't seem very clued into much honestly. Ah the joys of working with the public! Honestly though, I love my job, and I've missed it lately so it's nice to be back at work even if it's only temporary. Anyone know of any Early Intervention jobs in Singapore or Australia? I'm a great employee! Sigh.
I've rescued Beau for the night. He's one of my parents dogs, and is currently in deep shit at home for raiding the garbage again. He'd been locked out of the house all day, restricted to the yard, which for him is serious punishment because he and his sister Sadie are extremely spoiled and have a doggie door so they can go in and out, and in and out, and in and out of the house all day at whim. He's so bad, but I love him. He's the smartest dog I've ever known, but he's lazy, a classic underachiever. His sister on the other hand is the classic type A dog personality. Even though she's almost 20 pounds lighter than Beau, she's the Alpha. Beau's a definite Beta dog 'cause he's such a slacker. Mark tolerates both the dogs, but doesn't exactly like them. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see Beau's come for a visit ;^)

It has occurred to me that there is a problem with this whole blog thing. Not with the blog-as-disposable-entertainment, which it's fine for, but more in the blog-as-personal-diary arena. I don't know about you, but I'm hoping someday to look back and read this thing as I would a personal journal written down on paper. The problem is, all the links we post here will eventually go bad. I mean, say I tell you that this is a cute site, and I really like this one and this one and this one, and I even submitted this and this and this. Ten years down the line, I'll have no idea what I was talking about, because the site I'm linking to will likely have gone tits up.

I'm not sure what the solution is. There's obviously a need to archive the pages, but you can't really rely on the Wayback Machine to get the page you linked to, especially if it's something ephemeral like a news story. A DIY archive mechanism is needed. But I don't want to link to my local copy until the original link goes bad, because I'd prefer to refer people to a dynamically changing site rather than my static archive.

There's a product idea in this, I suspect. Think, self, think...

Well, we made it through the anniversary, with only a few minor incidents. I'm grateful for how normal it seemed in most respects. Still, 9/11 is going to be a nerve-wracking day for the rest of our lives.

You can bet that numerologists are going to have a field day with this. Why, it's the biggest coincidence since Lou Gherig came down with Lou Gherig's disease.

I was going to prattle on today, but perhaps a more subdued tone is more appropriate. The truth is I'm kind of numb to everything, and I'm a little ashamed about that. My cynicism towards our government is running higher now than at any point this side of my high school everything-is-fascist days. I believe almost nothing they say. And I believe last year's tragic events are being used to promote other agendas.

But this should not be a day for finger pointing. Stay safe today. Grieve in your own way. And let those that lost so much at least serve as a reminder to be thankful for what we have.

HIGH ALERT
We (the USA) are on "stage orange high alert", due to "credible information" about a possible terrorist attack. The most likely targets, in their estimation, are American embassies and military targets in Asia. Scary, especially as we actively pursue a move to S'pore, but honestly not surprising. There's been radical/fundamentalist muslim groups actively wreaking havoc on that part of the world (particularly the Philippines and Indonesia) for some time now. Still it's a little daunting.
I guess we can only hope for nothing to happen. Anywhere.

I suspect every blog in existence will have a special 9/11 entry containing reflections on last year's tragedy. I'll start mine a day early with a straight description of my experiences on that fateful day, while I gather my thoughts for tomorrow's inevitable opinion piece.

I heard the phone ring twice while I was in the shower. The third time it rang I was able to answer. It was Marjorie, telling me to turn on my TV, and omigod can you believe it. Like everyone else I'm sure, I spent a long time staring in disbelief.

The drive to work was of course spent listening to the news. When I arrived at work, everybody was in the cafeteria watching the TV, in an eery silence. We all had to eventually trickle back to our desks, but we took every chance to check back with the TV, or at least surf news sites. I remember most of the major ones were offline, just from the sheer volume of hits.

I remember doing some work, but everyone was having a difficult time concentrating. A rumor began spreading that President Bush was going to be heading into Dobbins Air Force Base, which was right near us. This was the excuse that everyone needed, and most people bolted, out of fear of getting stuck in traffic while blocked off for a presidential motorcade. I stayed a while longer, though.

Marjorie and I watched TV long into the night, and pretty much solid for several days after, when we weren't at work. I remember a point a few days after where I had to just get up and pointedly turn off the set. It was just time to start thinking about something else. Marjorie thanked me.

For posterity, I want to try and describe a feeling I had in the days following, a feeling I have lost now. It was the apprehension that hit you whenever a plane flew overhead (once flights were resumed), or even just being outside. It was like, the sky was a roof that could collapse on you. And the airplane, which had always symbolized to me this wonderful freedom to be able to explore the world, had suddenly lost its innocence, like a longtime companion lapdog that one day decides to maul your hand. For good or ill, this feeling is gone now.

Forgot to mention, today's Singapore news is, not surprisingly, more non-news. The contract is being renegotiated, so our chances are still alive. I'll keep reminding myself that that's a good thing that it's a "maybe" instead of a "no". Sometimes it feels like we aren't any closer to our goal, though, and that sucks.

WASTOID
I'm really starting to crave more structure in my life. I have an offer to go back to my old job, but typical of bureaucracies, it's taking forever to get the paperwork signed by all the powers that be so I can actually work. Due to the limbo that is our life, all structure is fading away-I can't pack because we don't know when we're leaving, but I'm not working. So instead I'm sleeping late, watching too much t.v., basically being a loser. Oh well.
This weekend was fun. Mark decided that he should go to Backstreets (the local 24 hour gay dance club) before leaving Atlanta, and so, not wanting to deny him an experience, I agreed. We spent Saturday night going out to several clubs we never frequent, but it was a blast. Backstreets is still a freak show, but not quite as wild as it used to be. Apparently either the city of Atlanta or the State of Georgia have cracked down on them so they are no longer able to sell quite as interesting a variety of "novelties" as they used to, now nipple clamps are about as racy as they get. Overall, the whole night was the best time we've had in ages so I think we're going to try to shake up the local routine a little more often and squeeze all the life out of our time in Atlanta while we're still here.

I would've gone to this, but I had more important things to do. Besides, my Vans are kind of scuffed up right now.

Last night was a night for excess. We went to an Atlanta landmark and haven for 24-hour debauchery, Backstreets, until the wee, wee hours. The clientele there is predominantly gay; they even have a drag show we caught part of. It was a great time. I even danced for the first time in years.

I must put out an exceedingly straight vibe -- I've never been hit on by a man, and last night was no exception. It's been going on like that so long that there's a running joke that I have to buy a drink for the first gay man who hits on me. Marjorie was the recipient of a clumsy come-on -- from a man -- right in front of me, though.

Today was all about recovery. We both were feeling crapulent as heck all day. I love that crapulent is an actual word.

I had a dream last night, which I won't relate to you, because other people's dreams are typically boring. Suffice it to say it involved a supermarket, a kid from my elementary school, and me getting shot through the leg. What was strange about it was that I remember thinking, during the dream, that I would really have something good to blog about today. How sad is that?