Author: cheerfulchaotic

Contrast

Up at 6ish this morning. And I still can’t believe I got up that early. (look, ma, no alarm clock). I rolled around in bed, conscious, but not liking it for awhile. Reread some Octavia Butler.

Last night, I went out on a gay.com date. I think this is like repeatedly slamming my head into a brick wall. Sooner or later, I will learn it’s just a bad idea. Hopefully sooner. Afterwards, I picked up some nasal spray. This was a very good idea. It took a little while, but it no longer hurts to swallow. Yay =)

Anyway, after I got up, put on my biking clothes, and picked up Greg. We went for a 22+ish mile bikeride that took a little over two hours. From squirrel hill, to oakland, panther hollow trail to eliza furnace trail through downtown to the three rivers heritage trail, from one end to the other, and back the way we came. I experimented with carrying a bag, with a big rubbermaid container of granola, one quart water bottle, change of clothes, a few papers, and a book. It chafed a bit (I was wearing a sleaveless shirt), but not too bad. Still, it would wear thin over the course of two days.

I must get saddlebags (or panniers or whatever they’re called) for my bike. Would make my bike infintely more useful =)

Got in to work to make the joyful discovery that today is bagel day. Yay bagel day. Not quite as ravenous as last time I biked ~20 miles. Will sleep well tonight.

Showered, changed, working. Feeling mellow.

Toronto trip and other foo

Okay, I’ve made arrangements, going to toronto this weekend. Weird. Off the cuff vacations in far away cities. I’ve never done that… oh who am I kidding 😉

Still, it’s looking like it will be fun. I am dazzled by what little I’ve so far seen of spupeh‘s skill and diligence as a host. I must go and learn from him. And hopefully have fun in the process (as I expect I will =)

Plans for boston are gelling. Soon I will re-attempt to solicit donations.

Falling behind in Spanish. Must drill vocabulary. Everything else is fine, but my vocab needs serious work. I’m also not so swell with irregulars. Maybe this is a bit of the S v N dimension of my myers-briggs pti. <ponder>

Have materials for research paper. Will probably do some reading while in toronto.

biking today

Greg and I ended up not going out on our tentatively planned bike ride today. Instead I meandered over to Gatto to pick up stuff, only they were closed. Bleh. So, instead of biking directly back, I took a circuitous route, along penn, then alongside the rails, then on braddock, then up past ap2a‘s place, thinking about the fact that he didn’t have an lj, and lo and behold, when I got online today, he had just gotten one. Biked past the irish community center, and only stopped once at that freaking annoying hill. Thought about taking the high level bridge over to the water front, but decided to go food shopping for burritos & guacamole with my sister her roomies & Tom tomorrow evening instead. Net, probably 4-5 miles. Slightly less than an hour biking.

Will plan for more biking wed morning.

Finalizedish vacation plans

June 7-9th (0 vacation days taken): Toronto, baby. Hi Chris. How far is the downtown hostel from desireable locations, and how are cabs and/or public transportation to/from that location? Sample their fine veg*n restaurants, enjoy multi-colored money, be as non-obnoxiously American touristy as possible.

June 14-16th: home & rest

June 20-23rd (1 vacation day): Boston & bikeathon (I will endeavor to arrange to see Tim, gothfru & harem, Ernie, shimmerjemmy, meerkat and what not. A large group dinner (pasta?) the night before biking might not be a bad idea)

June 28th-30th (.5 vacation days): Chicago pride. Fuck the parade, I’m just going to the concert and hanging with friends (hi inqueery probably brown elephant diving too. Will avoid spectacles to the extent possible.

July 5-7th: Recovering at home. Probably busy cleaning up.

July 11-17th (4 vacation days): Bay Area. Check out Berkeley’s ITS, hang out with friends, kick it with innsmouth, radi0actv, kidkero (damn, I’m getting tired of typing <lj user=”blah”> so I quit. You get the idea. Also, want to hit herbivore and millennium again. And both Teas.

July 19th-21st : stay home, chill.

July 26-28th (0-.5 vacation days): Minneapolis (very tentative), Visit Seth, if I can pin da bitch down. Maybe sample settsimaksimin‘s swim team. Possibly meet interesting parties in the way up north.

Over Labor Day Weekend (2 vacation days): bike to DC, hang with sister, and other dc residents. Also tentative.

Note that this process would completely bankrupt my vacation days by the beginning of semptember. But, taking long trips in the middle of classes is always a bad idea.

Vacation plans

& only 6.5 vacations days to spread around the summer. Any thoughts on these plans? =)

Previously arranged:

Jun 21-23rd (boston, for ms bikeathon)
Jun 28-30th (chicago, for cgmc concert)

Desired destinations:

DC: Aaron & various ljers 😉 $260 via direct flight, $110 from Canton, by way of pittsburgh (???), plus about $30 for bus to Canton. $116 (before AAA discount via train)

Toronto: Chris, and the fact that I never saw all that much of it while I was out there for pride, lo those many years ago.

Minneapolis: Seth, whom I haven’t seen in years, and a variety of ljers. Plus a desire to see the town minus the feet-thick layers of snow =)

San Fran: Check out berkeley‘s ITS, see Ken, all my cmu & sf-irc homies.

Portland & Seattle: Never been & have friends there too.

The times.

Jun 7-9: Too close to get good tickets anywhere (except toronto evidentally), pride weekend in dc.

Jul 12-14: Mid July, Aaron becomes available in DC to hang out. Or is this the weekend he’s in sf checking stuff out?

Jul 26-28: Last weekend free before the vacation time freeze surrounding Fresh Start sets in.

Relationships, definitions & stuff

When [redacted] and I started dating, I said something pretty stupid. Well, I said alot of pretty stupid things, which is only natural for one has virtually no romantic experience. But one of the things I said was “well, we’re sleeping together, and we spend alot of time together, so I guess we’re boyfriends by observation.” This particularly peculiar and somewhat insensitive comment fell out of my mouth, because a) I really liked [redacted] and wanted to keep him around b) He had just asked me if we were boyfriends c) I didn’t feel ‘ready’ for that yet d) I was afraid he would go byebye if I said we weren’t.

Years later, when not on the spot, I came up with a much better, much simpler response. “Not yet” . But the history lesson really isn’t the point.

The point is, what distinguishes a boyfriend from a friend? From a fbuddy? Since it matters so much to me to have someone there, what does it mean to have someone there?

I couldn’t & still can’t come up with good answers. A point to ponder. Hrm.

My philosophical affiliations

Another virtualexile inspired post.

I’m not a fan of religion. Faith and belief, I admire. An internally directed search for belief also admirable. Since I had my profound break with christianity, I’ve assembled my framework from bits and pieces of the philosophical raw materials of unitarian universalism, taoism, and secular humanism. The Rede of Wicca works its way in there too.

I believe that the origins of the universe, like the existence of an omnipotent entity, are entirely unknowable. (SH) I believe that expression and interpretation are two fundamental acts involved in communication and that it is impossible to express any sentiment such that anyone with intelligence but without shared communicational schemas can understand it, which should hardly be controversial. I expand from that point to claim that no communication is perfect or entirely reliable, but I’ll try not to be any more pedantic about it than I already have been. (da big T or D, or whatever).

Ethically speaking, I believe that we all ought to contribute to the public good, while maintaining a relatively laisez-faire attitude towards how others lead their lives, to the extent that they do not detract from public life, or others private lives. We should strive for efficient and moderate consumption of natural resources. We should value both harmony and freedom as the competing principles that they are, in service to the welfare of society and the individual. I strongly believe in egalitarianism. And investing in the future. I _think_ that we all ought to do our best to enjoy ourselves, but as was noted in an earlier comment [in virtualexile‘s journal], that may not be my strongest suit 😉

I reject fundamentalism, much like a strict constitutional interpretation. It is a devotion symbols rather than what the symbols represent. Any articulation of values is subject to fundamentalism, but that does not mean that the articulation is at fault. This is what I love most about Taoism. Their canon starts off saying that some things cannot be known, cannot be expressed with perfection. The point of this is to suggest that we ought not trust symbols unconditionally. Symbols often obscure or misrepresent. =)

Eating Alone & day in brief.

I haven’t eaten with anyone since the wedding last sunday. This sucks. I don’t get alot of purely social contact. I think it was wednesday evening that I played scrabble with jane and roommate. (must convince Jane to join lj. I’m feeling a clay-ark-ian urge to assimilate.) I might also have hung out with Tom briefly last night. Other than that, I haven’t really be face-to-face social with anyone other than coworkers, classmates, my instructor, and James (and then only to have the ‘wanting different things’ conversation).

Argh.

I have a new desk. I’m no longer in direct line of glare from the window, my whiteboard is accessible, and I have shelves for my books.

Intense though brief storm today means power is out for much of shadyside, squirrel hill, and east liberty (and probably other neighborhoods as well). One killed by collapse of a roof at kennywood.

Erk.

Stuff.

Watched “El Mariachi” for spanish class. Sorta a prequel for Desperado. Strange, violent, kinda stylized, but not actively painful to watch.

I _really_ have to practice my vocabulary. Grammar, syntax, irregularities, not a problem. Vocabulary? Muy Grande Problemo. Ugh.