sigh :

I can’t tell whether I’m attracted to these hot young real estate moguls.

Or perhaps I’m just annoyed/jealous at another MSM-alleged “trend” that I’m not apart of.

Like I even know how I’m going to pay to replace my blown car tire.

Damn them and their commercial real estate money.

fall reading list :

I like to think that I can get through the stack of nonfiction books near my bed — the 9/11 Commission Report, On Holiday, a swedish anthropologist’s look at the history of vacationing in the U.S. and Europe.

But since I’m convinced that no one else actually read the Report, despite all those weeks on the best seller list, I needed to read something fiction for creativity’s and sanity’ sakes.

Browsing through N.O.’s bookshelf I found No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. Confused as I am sometimes about his mind and the Japanese condition, I started reading.

As a side note, N.O. reads older Japanese books in English as the language is more contemporary than the original Japanese text. Japanese of only a half-century ago is as foreign to him as English from four centuries ago is to English speakers.

As often happens, though, I’m finding the Kafka-esque book is telling me more about myself than about him.

It’'s be a quick if depressing read. A needed break from consumerist holidays and terroism. More tk as I discover it.

I don't write the stuff :

What have I been working on? Laying out things that include lines like this:

Increasingly, large organizations are requiring real-time or zero-latency integration solutions that utilize mainframe-based events, data, and transaction resources to solve business challenges.

Oh... increasingly.

Huh?

three-way on a pumpkin :

I've been A.W.O.L. -- nasty awful cold followed by a swamped week at work.
So to tide you, my fair readers, over and in honor of this month's holiday. I give you a ghost gang-bang.

[UPDATE: Jesus, you link to a Halloween store and they change all their inflatables to Christmas the minute the clock the clock says November. So, I’ve uploaded a more different ghost gang-bang. Apparently, group sex is quite popular in the ghost community.]

instamatic :

Yeah, it’s totally a geeky art school fascination of mine, but I have no less than four Polaroid camera's at home. (And yes, I realize that the Instamatic is a Kodak product.)

I'm particularly fond of my iZone, whose less than complete automation allows for fun with double exposures.

The kids over at Polanoid are out to create the:

We are building the biggest Polaroid-picture-collection of the planet to celebrate the magic of instant photography.

Now I know have something to do with those boxes of Polaroids in my office. (Now if I could only think of something to do with all the medicine bottles I’ve saved.)

the ikea matrix :

IKEA goes Matrix style with it’s native Swedish site to hawk kitchen cabinets. Click here. Link via Speak-Up.

10,000 sitcom plots in the back of my head :

My (original) hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, has an interesting piece on developing video content for mobile devices.

In short, the “plots” have to be short and funny. How do the writers and content creators do this?

By tapping into the ADD-generations’ shared repository of situational comedy subtext, i.e. “10,000 sitcom plots in the back of [our] heads.”

My interest in visual anthropology starts with the belief that a culture’s visual story-telling language can offer the same sort of anthropological information (meaning, truth, etc.) in the similar way that studying language or kinship will.

As to what the truth and meaning in mobile media content might be, oh shit... I'm going to miss According to Jim.

housewares fetish :

I worked at a store in high school that has given me an incurable case of housewares fetishism.

I particularly have a thing for garbage cans. You know? Those $200+ brushed steel beauties from Europe? I'm faint just thinking of them. (Perhaps this is why, all I can afford is a $700-a-month basement apartment.)

Anyway, my Saturday walk around DC led me (shockingly!) to my favorite DC housewares store. It's all gay with cutie indie chicks who work the floor and the best assortment of wares in town.

Including the oh-so cool, and seemingly useless, Groovetube.

Although, as the folks over at Core77 pointed out about panels for your oversized HDTV, perhaps it's best used to prevent houseparty guests from plopping down for reruns on the WB.

Unless of course, the party includes psychedelics and/or some choice reefer.