Travel: New York
Books: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the Second, The Reptile Room, by Lemony Snicket, The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

Monday: Flew in from SEA and arrived in Boston at like 7AM. Got like 2 hours of sleep on the plane. Went home and slept for 4 more and man, that did it. Woke up minutes before my noon and I felt WORSE than I had in days. Cold was back with a vengance. Emailed work and did all my work from home in sort of a weird sick daze. Took a call for our travel client, then a Kashi meeting, then a meeting on an RFP for an awesome Swedish company. Daily meeting about our problem client. Meeting about our own website. Answered lots of emails, but couldn't really "plow through" as I was so exhausted. Judi got home like 6ish, and I wrapped up at 7ish and cooked some dinner for us.

Health month has begun. It's going okay so far. I've been sick so it's been insanely easy. Got up and had a Lara bar (these things are going to save my life I swear to god) and a pint of water with some Emergen-C in it. Had another pint of water, some dry popcorn and a liter or so of unsweetened, uncaffienated green tea throughout the day. Dinner consisted of my Gai Gaprow recipe which is a wonderful thai basil and chicken dish that's super easy and super healthy. Had that over brown rice.

Did about another hour of work, then tried to read news feeds on my laptop on the couch and found myself falling asleep in the middle of a scintillating New Yorker article about Google. Read an interesting comment in Cameron's journal about research and presentations that I bookmarked for a future blog entry about marketing ideas that I have been wrestling with lately at work. Managed to play a round of Scrabulous against my fierce rivals gordonmerrick, lizenthusiasm, emmascully, Jayna, smapple, magneticwoman, Skaff and DMD. Gave up at about 10 PM and headed to bed, tucked in with Lemony Snicket 2. Lasted maybe 20 minutes. Passed out. SLEPT FOR FOURTEEN HOURS.

Tuesday: Woke up at ONE PM. WTF. Man I must be SICK. BUT, I think this is the day it broke because I found myself on top of things at work - FINALLY, for the first time since the 21st of december. Worked hard and nonstop through till dinner at about 8 PM. Meetings for Kashi, Hyundai, Problem Client, SXSW, and Partners. Picked up the Mirrors project for some new mirrors. Did some HR stuff. Did some resourcing stuff.

Health Month Update: Breakfast was non-existant because of the whole getting up at one PM thing. I weighed myself in the morning on a lark and I weighed five pounds less than the day before. HA. Right. Breakfast was a pint of water with Emergen-C and some quickstyle home made soup - low-sodium chicken broth, whole grain orzo, carrots, celery and a buttload of spices (thyme, rosemary, parsley, garlic). No mid day snack, though I was hungry. Actually that's not true I had a few unsalted peanuts, which are my standby during health month. Then for dinner I made Rick's Noodleless Pad Thai, which came off flawlessly. Added a smidge of water from the recipe on facebook, and used 8 dried thai chilis and a shallot to give it a bit more bite - worked brilliantly!

Worked for another hour or two after dinner and man, I was on fire, but I decided I was well enough to attempt this NYC trip tomorrow and my train was @ 6:15 (I am on it now) so I thought I'd force myself to go to sleep. I read and finished up Lemony Snicket 2 and tried to sleep. Tossed and turned - obviously a bit difficult to sleep a mere 9 ours after I slept 14 hours, but it is a testament to how sick I was that I managed without much difficulty. Fell asleep about 1, woke up at 5. Woo.

Tags: books, recap, travel
Current Music: "Stagger Lee (live)" By Cave, Nick & the Bad Seeds from Live in Perth

Books: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the First: A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Movies: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Charlie Wilson's War, Juno, The Host, Zodiac
Travel: Seattle
Bands: Buffalo Tom, Thalia Zydek

In keeping with busterbenson's respect for me to attempt a bit more public openness, I am going to try and not lock these posts. Which will be rough. I won't be able to mention specific clients or something, and I'm moderately nervous, but i think it'll be okay.

So, for the uninitiated, I have been keeping a little note on every day for the last... 3 years? This will be the third year. This stems from my uncanny ability, back when I was young and sober and living in Alaska and only like 16 to literally be able to recall whatever it was I did for every day back to the age of like 8. This ability is gone, but I liked having it, so now I use the written record to help. Also, my grandfather, who homesteaded in alaska in the 1930's, did the same thing, along with being a prolific writer beyond that. I always envied him for it. So I am trying to keep the dream alive. I do, sadly, tend to bunch them up. I'm going to try and keep that to a minimum as well this year. Shorter bursts. Hopefully one a week. Luckily, though, I am blessed with a full, busy life, so sometimes that doesn't work out.

( Recap since 12/27 )

Tags: books, movies, recap, rock, travel
Current Music: "Miss Abuse" By Bark Psychosis from Codename: DustSucker

This was an abject failure this year, no doubt about it. Like almost embarrassingly so. Ugh. My reading pile is pushing 90 books right now, and has been for years. It's maddening. I need to retire. At this rate, if I didn't buy another book, it would take me 4 years to read them all.

As with last year, and the year before, I blame The Economist. Each one is 120 pages! Shouldn't that count as 50 more books? And all those blogs! Come on! I read like 100 blogs! Those should count as books, right? Okay, maybe not like Perez or Gawker, but High Scalability should!

One of my resolutions last year was to read more books, and totally 28, I am up from the 22 of last year, even including the severe hit Against The Day gave me at the beginning of the year before I gave up. On the other hand, I did say I was shooting for 40. So I guess I didn't make it.

There's no way I could do it now, but I'm thinking after the election I might put down the Economist and EW for a year. God it gives me shudders even thinking that.

• The Perfect Thing, by Steven Levy
  
• 33 1/3: In Utero, by Gillian G Gaar
  
• The Man of Fifty, by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
  
• House of Meetings, by Martin amis
  
• The Female Thing by Laura Kipnis
  
• I Am Secretly an Important Man, by Steven Jesse Bernstein
  
• Lonely Planet, Micronations
  
• Mathematics and Sex by Clio Cresswell
  
• The Green Man, by Kingsley Amis
  
• Lonely Planet, Norway
  
• 33 1/3: The Stone Roses, by Alex Green
  
• Lonely Planet, Bahamas
  
• Who Killed Martin Hannett?, by Colin Sharp
  
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling
  
• Drop City, by TC Boyle
  
• Spook Country by William Gibson
  
• Adverbs by Daniel Handler
  
• Lonely Planet, Iceland
  
• Hack, by Melissa Plaut
  
• Syrup, by Max Barry
  
• Options, by Fake Steve Jobs

Tags: books, year in review
Current Music: "May Queen" by Black Box Recorder, From The Facts of Life

Bands: Perla, For A Minor Reflection, <3Svanvít!, Naflakusk, Eliza, Smoosh, Lights on a Highway, Jenny Wilson, Boys in a Band, Duke Spirit, Retro Stefson, Teenagers, Kimono, Singapore Sling, Computer Club, Loney, Dear, Trentmöller, Heavy Trash, Motion Boys, Gus Gus, Frost, Mental Overdrive, Amiina, Tied & Tickle Trio, Ms. John Soda, Benni Hemm Hemm, Lali Puna, Ra Ra Riot, Hafdis Huld, Annuals, British Sea Power
Travel: Reykjavik, Keflavik and Blue Lagoon, Iceland, New York, Los Angeles
Books: Spook Country by William Gibson, Adverbs by Daniel Handler, Lonely Planet Iceland

( Iceland Airwaves + Some Random Travel )

Tags: books, iceland, recap, rock, rocktourist, travel
Current Music: "Wayfaring Stranger" By Cash, Johnny from Unearthed

Books were a wash last year. It's the one new year's resolution from last year I really let go. I tried, I really did, but The Economist fucked up the beginning of the year, and the last two months have been killed by Thomas Pynchon's 1100 page "against the day," which I am nowhere near being finished with. Still, not completely shabby. Could have been worse.

Ironically, I complained about The Economist last year too. I did worse on books this year than last year, and that bums me out. 21 vs 33 last year. Of course last year, 12 of those were harry potter, narnia or douglas adams books which are all very quick reads. Still, nothing this year was really anything much to tackle.

• The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle by CS Lewis
  
• Motherless Brooklyn by Johnathan Letham
  
• How Soon is Never by Mark Spitz
  
• Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
  
• The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
  
• Culture Shock: Japan
  
• The Manual: How to Have a Number One The Easy Way by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (reread)
  
• How to Be an Artist by Bill Drummond
  
• Torn Apart, by Lindsay Reade and Mick Middles
  
• Laura: A Journey into the Crystal, by George Sand
  
• 33 1/2: Unknown Pleasures, by Chris Ott
  
• 33 1/3: In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, by Kim Cooper
  
• The Devil's Pool, by George Sand
  
• Elle Et Lui,by George Sand
  
• Gilliam on Gilliam, by Terry Gilliam
  
• The Futurist, by James Othmer
  
• Journey to Ixlan, By Carlos Castneda (I quit this three quarters through because it sucked.)
  
• Three Dog Nightmare, by Chuck Negron
  
• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, by Roger Crowley
  
• The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America by Dave Gilmartin
  
• Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, by Julian Dibbell

This, naturally, needs improvement, and so: a second year of resolutions to READ MORE BOOKS. I am shooting for 50 but will be happy with 40.

Tags: 2006, books, year in review
Current Music: "Misunderstood" by Wilco, From Being There

( literature and me in 2005 )

Tags: books, year in review
Current Music: Ale - Xiu Xiu

( And by year in review, of course, we mean only what we can remember, mainly from the last six months )

Tags: art, books, film, politics, year in review