Hi-Brow + Low-Brow = Uni-Brow

It's been a really long time since I posted.

I have nothing to say. I just wanted to see if I could guess my own password. It's all become a little fuzzy with the google password and all that.

I've been all about the facebook lately, but thougt I'd dust the cobwebs off blogger.

I think status updates on facebook are turning people into better writers. Like a haiku, it demands an economy of words that would benefit most any blog, including mine.

I've been a facebook fiend since discovering it. But it's worth remembering that even though it feels a little like socializing, it really isn't. And it feels like writing but it really isn't.

Writing and socializing are both things I need to do more of.

Facebook does help alleviate a sense of isolation that's developed since moving to LA. LA is not good if you've got a bit of agoraphobia, or a shitload of it.

I lived in Manhattan for fifteen years and it really rattled me. It's just too much stimuli. LA is better but it's still a lot. I've never lived as an adult anyplace other than these preposterously large cities and I often fantasize about living in a more human-scaled city. I'd like to try that some time.

I've got nothing to add on the election, I think I said everything I've got to say in my snarky status updates on FB.

All I've really got is that I've decided that idiots are toxic and I need to limit my exposure to them. I had to listen to that Sarah Palin - who is a world class moron. But for the time being, I don't have to listen to her inane bullshit anymore so I'm going to try to avoid idiots as much as possible. It's bad for the soul.

I've taken to pruning the trees around my apartment building and it's been the best thing. Physical activity, genuine aesthetics and having to work around and with both nature and her wisdom and the previous gardeners who have pruned those trees with no wisdom.

I'm feeling like I'm in a liminal zone. Whatever the previous lives I've led are over and some sort of new chapter is starting but I don't what it is and can't actually picture it.

I do feel that profound and some ways delicious agitation I tend to get right before I DO SOMETHING.

... oh yes they do, yummy yummy cock, yum yum they love it, yes they do ...

... this whole Craig thing has illuminated the republican outrage over the Monica Lewinsky thing for me ... the deal is that blowjobs are OK for male politicians as long as they're *giving* them ...

Republicans
restoring dignity to Washington
...one men's room stall at a time

... You know that ship that sunk off the coast of Greece?

... My dad was on it!

... He's fine.

... He and his wife have their passports, he has his wallet and his camera -- with good pictures of the sinking I'm told and that's it.

They were unable to purchase more clothes cuz they're in Rome and it's Easter. So they're called "the stinky survivors."

While on the ship that picked them up, there as an announcement from the Greek government assuring any and all help needed and telling any Greek citizens who to contact if they had any questions or conderns. Then there was a similar announcement from the Spanish ambassador. Then silence. Nothing from the United States embassy. My uncle Don, who was relating the story to me, said that swift boat asshole they just confirmed as an ambassador must have been sent to Greece.

I was in line getting my lunch before I went in to work, when someone yelled that an old man had fallen and split his head open. I put my stuff on the counter and said I'd be back.

When I got there, security and valet services had already stood him up and leaned him against a podium. They had also already called 911. I checked him out, asked him some questions. Someone got him a chair, so I helped him into it. I asked him a few more questions and got a closer look at his wounds. I told him he was probably fine, but that we'd let the fire department have a look at him and that they'd probably rule out anything serious, clean him up, put dressings on and send him on his way.

I stayed with him until the fire department got there, gave them a quick report, and was on my way.

Here's the thing, this was very basic, first-responder type stuff. I've given care at about this same level before, but for the first time, I was really confident about it. For the first time I was certain I was asking the right questions and doing the right things. It was so comforting to confidently move down a flow chart in my mind, ruling things out as I went.

Head wounds are dramatic, they bleed a lot, so folks were sparking out a bit and kinda talking at him. Within a couple questions I was feeling pretty confident I'd ruled out anything critical and knew I was most likely dealing with a dramatic but inconsequential situation. I kept my eye on him to see if any of that changed. If he were a young guy, it probably would have been clean him, dress the wounds and send him on his way, but he appeared to be in his 70s at least. Old guy's gotta get checked out.

So it's not so much that I feel like Mr. Big Pants for having EMT training but it's just that just yesterday I was thinking "what the hell did I do all that for?" and today I feel like it was well worth it. Like I said it was relatively minor. A Red Cross First Aid course would have been sufficient but the EMT training and experience, if nothing else, let me be the calm guy asking the right questions and keeping the patient calm. People are always gonna get hurt, and I'm always going to want to help and now I'm so glad I have just a little bit more knowledge and experience.

What I really try to remember is that I don't actually know shit about shit and focus on the basics -- scene safety, airway, breathing, circulation and then keep a close eye on all of the above.

And if you're going to come in late to work, coming in with blood on you goes a long way towards squelching a lot of questions about it.

every time I went to log in I read some shit about new blogger and google account and whatnot and I clicked away in a cloud of "whatever" but, yeah it turns out, if you actually read it, it made sense

here's the thing ... I moved ...

same apartment building, just upstairs to a larger space

Here's what I learned:
It's easier to move across town than it is to move up two flights of stairs
Not only are there nine types of vinegar, we need all nine of them

Right outside our window is a loquat tree. Lots of suirrels and crows are attracted to that tree, as are cats and spiders and one of my neighbors eats them too. I heard a noisy and unfamiliar bird in that tree the other morning, I had a closer look, expecting it to be one of the usual suspects, but it was bright, almost fluorescent green. There was a parrot in the tree outside my window! Or a parakeet, whatever, I'm not sure, not the piratey looking bird but the little green one. I had read about these feral parrot/parakeet colonies in San Francisco and Glendale. That evening he came back with a little friend.

Parrots!

President George W. Bush has declared January 2, 2007 to be a National Day of Mourning