I'm spiffing up for my sister's wedding this weekend. Here I am, fresh from Rari's salon chair. He's a miracle worker.
Rari says keep the beard. So does Heather. But I'm not sure. What do you guys think?
Yesterday Heather and I were walking the pups through Golden Gate Park when we came upon Stow Lake. Heather noticed that, if you rent a proper rowboat (instead of the little paddle boats), dogs are allowed. Why not? Before I knew it, we were in the mucus-colored lake, Heather rowing Bug, Chieka, and I around. Yes, I can let a woman row me around a lake. I'm progressive like that.
Chieka, knowing full well what was happening, sat in my lap and vibrated like a scared thing. Bug, however, being the brave (and perhaps none too bright) soul that he is, immediately started patroling the boat. We were barely five minutes into our journey when he walked right up to the side of the boat and put his paws up on the edge.
I think I was about to say "Look how cute!" or some other stupid thing that us dog freaks tend to say whenever our dogs do anything remotely adorable, when Bug up and hopped right out of the boat.
There was a loud bloop sound and he disappeared completely into the pea soup. I should mention here that we were surrounded by three to five other boats at this moment, and everyone gasped.
Me, I was cool as a cucumber. I just nonchalantly threw my very expensive camera to the floor of the boat and prepared to hurl myself into the diseased water to rescue my beloved canine.
Fortunately, I didn't have to. His little head popped up like a tiny unhappy duck and he started, well, doggy-paddling for his life. I called his name, probably much too hysterically, and he paddled over. I scooped him out of the mire and brought him back into the boat, where he was promptly put on a very short leash.
It was only later in the ride, after Heather and I had said "I can't believe he jumped in the lake!" to each other several hundred times, that we put together what happened. All over the lake are gulls and ducks, having a merry time. Bug probably caught sight of one and decided to chase it. I guess he hadn't noticed that he was on their turf.
Bug sat in the boat, shivering and whining, and stared at the ducks with menacing intent for the rest of the trip.
In Merlin's latest 43 Folders podcast, the Perfect Apostrophe, he tells the story of the book he almost wrote. You should go listen to it - Merlin's a stitch, as always.
For the uninitiated, 43 Folders is a "Getting Things Done" blog about how to be more organized in business and life. When he and a colleague were invited to write a book about personal productivity, it was like a dream come true for Merlin. I'll let him tell you the story about what happened next, but suffice to say, the book never happened. The productivity expert procrastinated himself out of his own book.
"The fact is, I don't do this stuff because I'm good at it," says Merlin of his obsession with productivity. "I do this stuff because I'm really, really shitty at it."
First, to Merlin: Good for you. Blogging can be as self-aggrandizing as the worst rap music. It's so refreshing to hear a personal story where the guy doesn't get the girl (or in this case, the book) in the end. That takes guts.
But his post got me thinking. What do I do not because I'm good at it, but because I want to be good at it? And the first thing that sprung to mind was, well, what I'm doing right now. Writing.
My whole life, I've had two main creative outlets: Words and pictures. The pictures part has always come easily to me. Photography and design match the way I think so closely, I can't help but arrange my world visually. Design, to me, is like breathing. It's just something I do.
But words are hard for me. Words carry meanings that you can get wrong. Arrangements that influence how they're perceived. Exactitude in spelling and grammar. Can you think of anything harder for someone who thinks in pictures than communicating with words?
And yet, I write. I write a lot. I've written and edited for newspapers, magazines and websites. Probably the hardest thing I ever did was write Design for Community. A whole book, full of words. It took nine months.
As hard as writing is, I get far more pleasure from having done it than I get from taking a photo or designing a page. Maybe that's because it's harder so the payoff is greater, but I think there's something more than that. I think it's because I'm just not as good at it.
Three things in three categories that happened on May 16 :
Events
1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
1966 - The Communist Party of China issued the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
Births
1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
1965 - Krist Novoselic, American bassist (Nirvana)
1971 - David Boreanaz, American actor (Angel)
Deaths
1984 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor, and comedian (b. 1925)
1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
BONUS (because it's too funny to leave out):
Song: "May 16" is also the title of a punk/rock song by Lagwagon from their album Let's Talk About Feelings.
"Let's Talk About Feelings" is totally gonna be the name of my punk rock debut.
Oh yeah, this is where the magic happens.
Cowboy Bebob manga novels 1-3. They read back to front!
Late 90s. I went to a party as "disgruntled freelancer." I wore a robe and slippers, carried a coffee cup and keyboard, and whenever anyone spoke to me I just yelled: "Where's my check?"
- People you trust never have to say, "trust me."
- Anyone who says "I've got your back," doesn't.
- The loudest talkers generally have the least to say.
