Cerebral Flotsam And Jetsam - My Mental Maelstrom

02
Aug
2004
11:16

The Story of Katherine Marsh

Who is Katherine Marsh? A woman I met a grand total of once, and in fact I’m not even positive I’m spelling her name right. This story came back to me the other day as I was thinking about old songs I had written. One of them was called “Hey Katherine!” inspired by this event.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Well actually it was several years ago in a club, my band was hired to play a party for the Landscape Architecture Department at Texas A&M University. We showed up early for set-up, and I met our contact person, one Katherine Marsh. She was one of the graduating students organizing this shindig. We talked about the details, and she was very friendly, and personable.
Throughout the evening we chatted some more, and seemed to have a good rapport. We joked with each other, laughed, flirted, and generally had a good time throughout the evening. I definitely thought there was some chemistry. Of the good kind, that is. No the kind that makes beakers explode and pelts students with shards of glass.
At the end of the night she gave me a big hug, we said our goodbyes, and she exited the building. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I should have asked for her number or something. After a few minutes she came back into the club. She approached me and asked “So are you gonna call me sometime?”
I replied, “Not unless you give me your number”, which she then did.
I was flying high as a… thing that flies really high but is less clich� than a kite. I’m generally a pretty shy guy when it comes to things like this, and the fact that a cool, fun, pretty woman had approached me and given me her number made my night. Actually it probably made my period of time longer than a night, but it couldn’t be precisely measured without many scientific instruments. The rest of the night I had a huge smile on my face.
The next day I finally work up the nerve and call her. None of these stupid games like “never call a girl until 2.24 days after you get her number”. Voice mail. I leave a slightly nervous, possibly awkward, but hopefully endearing message. I can’t remember how long I waited but it was at least a day, possibly a couple. No response. I debate whether or not to drop it or call her again, and decide that I’ll give it one more shot just in case some circumstances prevented her from getting my message (such as voice mail glitch, alien abduction, or a problem in The Matrix). Working up even more nerve, I call a second time. This time I’m thankful I get the voicemail as it would be more awkward if she answered. One more awkward but hopefully endearing message later, I hang up and wait. Days, weeks, months pass. Actually just days, but in this situation, time flows in a different and painful manner. No reply. As a last ditch effort, I use my wily, efficient, and geeky skills to find her email address on the Internet. Well what if her voicemail is defective and eating messages? I must try a backup medium! So in a last desperate attempt (and at high risk of seeming stalkery, but hopefully in a persistent, endearing way), I email her.
I never heard from Katherine Marsh again. I have some theories on this.
1. She was piss drunk that night and woke up the next day realizing “I gave my number to that guy? Awww crap! Thank god for caller ID!”
2. I think at some point, after discussing my dilemma with band, our bass player went and talked to her and said something to her (I’m not sure what) indicating my interest. Now even if this were true, she would have no reason to come back after she had left to give me her number under duress. So while it’s possible, I don’t find it very plausible.
3. (My preferred theory) She was intimidated by her overwhelming and immediate attraction to me like a moth to the flame, especially considering her pending graduation, and decided that it must remain a love that could not be, for while her heart and soul might ache for eternity, the fulfillment of her desires might be too much for any mere mortal to handle.
4. Alien Abduction, she became a Pod Person, or she was a secret agent and/or Jedi and must live without love.

25
Jul
2004
11:58

Coke and Pepsi’s new “low carb” drinks

So Coke and Pepsi have both come out with new versions which contain “1/2 the carbs” of their normal drinks. I took the liberty of coming up with a new slogan for these (in my opinion) pointless drinks:
“For those who can’t commit to being healthy, but want to feel like they’re doing something!”

21
Jul
2004
15:16

My anime deficiency

For some reason, I have never been able to get into anime. I find this odd, since there are so many people I know who absolutely love it. People who I generally have a lot in common with, and like a lot of the same things. Somehow it’s just never hooked me. I’ve tried half-heartedly a few times and always found my inteerest wandering and thinking about going and surfing the net or something. I really feel like I should love anime. I will give it another go (in fact Jess has “Spirited Away” for me to watch), but I just feel weird. It’s like if everyone you knew, respected, hung out with, loved Krispy Kreme donuts, but you just found them bland. Of course that scenario is just ridiculous, for Krispy Kremes are the krack of the food world. I think my anime gene is broken.

20
Jul
2004
8:39

Prison or sanctuary?

So some friends of mine are putting in a good word for me at a company that I’ve wanted to work for since I moved here. As far as “jobs” go it would be about as good as they come. In fact it would be one of the jobs I have been actively pursuing. However, something dawned on me last night that is also kind of scary. If I did end up getting this job, I would not want to leave it. That sounds like a good thing, I’m sure, and it is in many ways. However that puts a scary angle on my acting/film crew/music work. If some opportunity arose, I would not leave my job to pursue it unless it was a proverbial “big break”. If I got some kind of offer for a month long PA job, acting job, music tour, etc., I couldn’t take it because I sure wouldn’t quit such a great job for a temporary gamble.
So this raises the question, “Which is more of a prison: a job you hate or a job you love?”
Now to be fair, I would still pursue it all to the best of my abilities and work around my job as much as I could, while also being far happier at my job and outside of it, but still it’s a scary prospect in some ways. Considering I haven’t even had an interview yet, I realize this is putting the cart before the horse, as it were, but I’m a ponderous guy.

19
Jul
2004
8:56

Geek Alert: Roboform

I make so many entries about browsers, programs, mice, etc, that I thought maybe I better start prefacing them with “Geek Alert”. I’ve thought about implementing the “category” function of Movable Type, but always talk myself out of it since I really don’t think it would serve much of a purpose. Besides it would take lots of fiddling.
Anyway, my newest geeky find is Roboform. Very cool. It saves all the information you could ever need to put into online forms and easily fills it in with a click. It can also save logins and passwords, but Mozilla does that on it’s own so I don’t really care about that feature. I love it however whenver I need to fill out the whoe “name, address, blah, blah”. To make it work in Mozilla, just be sure to download the Netscape/Mozilla adapter (available on the same page).

18
Jul
2004
7:44

Rock and roll life

Drove 3 hours to my band gig yesterday. Played one and a half sets before the sky unloaded on us and we had the tear everything off the stage as quickly as possible and put it in the garage (we were playing a wedding reception at a really nice house in the country). We then sorted out all the haphazardly rescued equipment,and drove, soaking wet, 3 hours back home. Got about 4 hours of sleep, and now must go to work. Rock and roll, man, Rock and roll.
On a side note, does anyone else ever hesitate making a new blog entry when the last one you’ve made hasn’t got any comments yet? I’m always afraidit will just get buried and ignored if I make a new entry. My “I Robot” entry hadn’t had much time online, and I almost hesitated in making these last two entries. Then I did obviously. Just me?

17
Jul
2004
11:04

I, Robot

Actually a very good movie. Now to be clear, don’t go expecting Asimov. As the end credits say, “Suggested by Isaac Asimov”. However, don’t let that stop you. Also don’t let the misleading trailer (as the majority seem to be these days) stop you. It’s not a mindless action flick. Jess was expecting something just above crap, and ended up liking it quite a bit. There is plot, and mystery, and actual story!
On a side note, while this movie aims to an anti-prejudice message (don’t worry, it’s not preachy or heavy-handed), it spreads it’s own prejudice; prejudice against red lights in technology. Don’t worry, no spoilers ahead, just generalizations. No specifics.
Anytime someone wants to show and “evil” robot or computer, or toaster or coffee maker in a movie, it always has some ominous glowing red light somewhere. Someday when robots rule the earth…er…serve mankind in useful ways, there may be some dapper robot who likes the color red and decides to have a red light put in his head. Maybe his creators put red lights in him because it matched the new ad campaign colors in their new campaign, “Robots! They don’t eat old people’s medication for fuel!” Now this robot would be oppressed, feared, and probably attacked by mindless mobs everywhere he went because of the years of conditioning teaching us that red lights in technology=EVIL!
However, there is an upside to this issue. There is an easy way that we can keep all technology and future robots safe and subservient. Simply never install any red illumination anywhere in them. No red light, no evil. I’ll await my Nobel prize in the mail, thank you.

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