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2004 August 21st Saturday 23:37PDT - Hall of Fame

Monday evening, while Tony was asleep, i borrowed his truck and went out to do some shopping. At Walgreen's Pharmacy on Barkley Boulevard i found some capsules of Yohimbe Bark for an excellent price. Then i took Telegraph Road over to the Guide Meridian and stopped at Best Buy. They sold me a spindle of blank CD-R discs and a storage case. From there, i walked down the street to the new Michael's Arts and Crafts, as they had their grand opening sale, where i perused the selection of picture frames. I elected not to purchase any at the moment; then i walked back to the truck, and drove all the way across the city to North Samish Way. At the corner of Bill McDonald Parkway, i went into Arby's Restaurant for dinner. Then i drove through the main campus of Western Washington University, past the construction near the new natatorium, over the ridge of Highland Drive, ending finally on a steep descent into South Hill Apartments. Once i was home, i put everything away, and had tea with Tony.

We blended Black Chai tea with peppermint, plus some Morning Thunder with Brazilian Maté. I had some leftover take-out from Xing's, and we watched Tony's videotape of The Queens of Comedy. Then i went back to bed for quite an extended length of time, not rising until 13:00PDT on Tuesday afternoon. While Tony was still snoring, i quietly got up and made a pot of coffee with allspice, mace, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and vanillin. Then i listened to some downtempo music from MixMaster Morris as i sat at my desk. I spent a couple hours reading articles, checking e-mail, writing and generally putzing around. With the exception of some cosmetic superficialities, my feet seemed to have healed from their latest bout of Erythema Nodosum and felt fine, to my relief.

I found an old album by Fluke on a VHS tape, and used my iMac to convert it to MP3 format for archival in my library. This requires several steps: first, SoundStudio is used to capture the analogue audio from the VCR (via my Pioneer receiver); second, i chop the album into individual tracks; finally, i convert the AIF tracks into MP3 files on my FireWire hard drive, with the appropriate tags. I still have a couple dozen VHS cassettes-- and potentially way over a hundred hours of source material-- which i wish to archive thusly.

Several episodes of enteric distress required me to take some prescription Diphenoxylate and Atropine (a.k.a. Lonox/Lomotil) to prevent any further diarrhea. But i tried not to let this dampen my good mood on Tuesday afternoon, and i spent time at my computer, organizing music files and plotting the future of my data library. In the early evening, i borrowed Tony's truck and drove to K-Mart, where they had a good price on Duct-tape. I went into the dollar-store in Sunset Square hoping to find some Number 6 Cone Filters for my Melitta coffee maker, but they had none. Then i drove to Target at Bellis Fair, where i purchased a replacement wristwatch battery for Tony, as his had died during the previous week.

Then i drove along Squalicum Parkway toward the waterfront, and as i passed near the Creek, i saw a young deer at the edge of the woods. Its fur was a uniform russet, which looked like the same color as the skin of a yam. It was nibbling at the undergrowth, and didn't look up at passing vehicles. I continued through downtown, over to North Samish Way and stopped at Arby's. I brought home some mozzarella sticks, onion petals, and sandwiches for me and Tony. We ate the deep-fried items, but then i wasn't feeling well enough to eat a sandwich, so we put the rest in the fridge. There was a lovely sunset, and we watched the air traffic which steadily flew to and fro over the Georgia Strait and Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

Tony sat at his desk, surfing the Web on the G3 iMac, and i lied down on his bed for a nap. I slept for a while, and had some odd dreams, which i don't now recall. I awoke and asked Tony to cuddle with me, so he got into bed and kept me comfortable until i was asleep again. Hours later, i awoke from a dream which was like a movie: it seems to be a movie by Woody Allen, and i am in the audience but i am also one of the actors, as i sit between Matthew Broderick and porn-star Chad Knight. Matthew and Chad are making me horny. The movie is sort of a musical, kind of like "The Producers" by Mel Brooks-- in fact, Mel made some kind of tiny cameo. There is a scene with dozens of people dancing, and they are standing waist-deep in water, doing some sort of swimming acrobatics, sort of like an aquatic choreography. One of the male leads asks me (not the real "me", but the actor "me") to marry him in this story. This proposal takes place during a quiet moment, the music has stopped, and the rest of the cast and audience overhear us; some of them gasp because this request for a "gay marriage" is supposedly shocking or comical. I (my character) decline the offer, stating my obstinate opposition to stupid conventions such as marriage. Then there are more dances and songs. I woke up and told Tony about my silly dream, then i went back to sleep for a few more hours.

Finally, at 09:00PDT on Wednesday, i was ready to get back out of bed, as my nap had become a full night of slumber. Tony and i watched our tape of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as i drank my coffee. Then he fell asleep, and i checked my e-mail, read some news articles (depressing, as usual-- when will i learn?!) and viewed some webcomics. There was a thick blanket of fog on the Bay, completely blocking my view of Squalicum Harbor, limiting visibility to less than one kilometer. Bright sunshine caused much of the mist to evaporate before noon, but the Lummi Reservation was still invisible, about seven kilometers away.

In the early afternoon, i browsed my Yahoo Groups. Then i played with some of my bondage gear and masturbated happily. Tony continued to sleep on my bed, and i kept the blinds pulled to shade him from the glare of the summer sun. The fog had lifted, but a haze was still limiting visibility to the edge of the city. After some lunch, i played Mah Jong for a while.

In the evening, i spent hours reading about astronomy, cosmology, and geophysics. Then i got about eleven hours of sleep. At noon on Thursday, i was awakened by the noise of heavy equipment around the neighborhood. A crane was moving rocks and debris away from a section of the Georgia-Pacific property along the waterfront. A neighbor was using a power-saw to work on some carpentry. Someone in the distance was running a lawnmower. An occasional train or airplane passed by. There were a few sailboats drifting over the sunny Bay, but a haze obscured my view beyond the city. Tony and i had our coffee, and i took all my usual pills.

After i took a shower, i went downtown to the Post Office and mailed a couple of videocassettes to Kenny. The sidewalks were still decorated from the previous week's annual Chalk Art Festival. Then i came home and had lunch: a bagel sandwich of salami with sweet and sour sauce. Then i converted some more old analogue audio to a digital format, while i putzed around with my multi-tasking operating system. I played some Mah Jong against the computer while it was crunching digital music. Then for the rest of the evening, i put a lot of thought into the organization of the iTunes database in which all the hundreds of hours of MP3 files are cross-referenced. When i finished with the playlist housekeeping, i used my Dot-Mac account to save a backup copy. Then Tony and i watched our tapes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Graham Norton Effect. I read some articles in The Village Voice, while Tony watched other television.

A rather huge barge was pushed away from the pier by a tugboat whose engines could be heard all the way up here at our window. Seagulls were squawking loudly, and the sky was covered with lovely clouds at dawn. The moisture floated high in the air, and the peaks of British Columbia were all visible. In our apartment, i spied a huge spider in the middle of the kitchen floor. Some primal anxiety in my amygdala made my hair literally stand on end; i whined to Tony about the horror of such an ugly arachnid, fetched a fly-swatter and squashed it with several strong blows. Tony was a dear, and cleaned up the gruesome mess with a paper towel, as we had a little laugh. If there's one thing throughout my life which has consistently elicited the higher-pitched tones of my voice, it's the appearance of crawling arthropoda.

Tony made us a salad with a broad variety of vegetables, which was delicious and nutritious. I played a game of Fast 5Faan Mah Jong on Yahoo Games, which was extremely fun. I came in second-to-last place, and they were extremely challenging opponents. The whole process of sixteen dealers through a Game of Four Winds took only a couple hours, despite dozens of stalemates. While i sat at the iMac, Tony lied on the bed behind me; and on the VCR, we had our tapes of Kathy Griffin and other stand-up comics. Griffin really does a terrific job of making me laugh about celebrities and people in general. The featured performers on CTV's Comedy Now were also quite funny.

I slept from shortly after 09:00PDT until 19:00PDT. Then Tony and i got up and had our coffee before the sun set. Colorful high-altitude clouds were smeared across the sky to the North, and the area beyond Vancouver was just barely visible through the haze. While i used my computer, our broadband connection from Comcast stopped working three separate times. Each time, it resumed functionality after a few minutes. This was irritating, but not terribly important. Also, my e-mail relays from V3.com stopped working for a total of four days this week. They sent me an apologetic note afterwards. Tony often says, "It's a wonder that anything on this planet works at all-- you'd expect it to all fall apart, given how stupid people are." I agree.

Before midnight, i spent a while in the kitchen, making pea soup with vegetables, seaweed, herbs, and seasonings. Then while i ate, i spent more time on my computer, further adjusting the organization of files and entries in my iTunes database. After i was satisfied with my efforts, i used my Dot-Mac account to perform Backup operations on important items. I also sent a couple of albums to my friend Kelly using the YouSendIt website. I checked my Yahoo Groups to see what was new this week, and followed links to a few interesting pages. Photos and stories from sexy guys who seem to share many of my interests in dildos, bondage, and other kinks were a source of positive stimulation, so i masturbated happily. Around 04:00PDT Saturday, i was feeling tired already, despite being awake for only nine hours thus far, so i decided to lie down for a nap.

I asked Tony to lie down with me, and he snuggled up close as we fell asleep. I awoke at some point during the morning to use the bathroom, and it was raining heavily outside. I masturbated, went back to sleep, and we stayed in bed until 13:00PDT. It was still pouring when we got out of bed and had our coffee. One tugboat left the pier as another pushed a huge barge up to the docks. The precipitation was so heavy, we could only just see to Squalicum Harbor. I thought about little bits of my dreams that i could barely remember: making biscuits, it's the 1950s and there aren't many chemical additives to the dough, the batter isn't picture-perfect and uniform like in modern times. The biscuits are fine, they just don't look identical to each other. There is melted cheese. A video game. A woman involved in the game, which also features some play between the Three Stooges. Larry, Moe, and Curly are slapping each other again. There is some castle at the end of the game, some final rounds which have to be played on the various levels that rise higher and higher, the turrets and balconies at the top on the way to the goal.

I listened to Coldcut and DJ Food in the early afternoon as i sat typing. Then i went to Yahoo Games and played some Fast 5Faan Mah Jong for a while. That was rather exhilarating. As the rain continued to come down heavily, i read some news articles and ate a bagel sandwich. In the evening, i played some more Fast 5Faan, and i had a super hand, which i sent to Alex for recording in the Hall of Fame of Pure Suit Hands. I was sitting West during the West Prevailing round. The winning elements were Purity of Wan (6Fans), Flower of Own Wind (1Fan), and Season of Own Wind (1Fan). The structure of the hand was as follows: concealed chow678, pair99; melded chow345, chow123, simples pung666; flowers1/2/3; seasons1/3/4. Tile Points were: going out +20; flowers and seasons +24; exposed pung simples +2; only one suit X8; own flower X2; own season X2; Total= 1472. Alex posts to the Lion's Lair message boards any winning hand snapshots over one thousand points. I put an excerpt of the screenshot on my Iron Dog profile.

I listened to old music by Aphex Twin, Portishead, and Serious Smokers. The rain stopped before midnight, and there were many bright lights on the barges and tugboats at the piers, shining on the waterfront near our neighborhood. The sky was too overcast to see any stars, but i really love this kind of weather-- it's mild and enjoyable, never too hot in August, compared to the ghastly summers in Vermont.

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