This is my second blog.  The original was hacked by porn bots and was never able to clean it out – so it was blown away, and the blog was started over again.  Yeah, it was a huffy fit of rage.  Must have been.  There were a lot of good posts in there.  Then this thing started, and the ‘blogging spirit’ never came back; it was as if the ability TO blog was deleted along with that original blog.

Anyway – this is a good year to start a blog.  The world is, according to certain whacked circles, going to end this year.  Maybe it will only be the Internet – which is the same thing… to some (the same who believe the 2012 poo).  So, if this thing gets hacked again or just plain sucks – it, along with everything else, will be gone.  And, bits don’t fossilize!

Its January Freaking First.  2012.  New year.  Plus the irony is cool – the year the world was, in the feeble-minded minds, to end, the glorious MNAH blog popped back into existence.

No goals – just hope to populate this thing with lots.  Enjoy.

Lah-dee-dah.  What that really means is this: time goes by quickly if you get into a routine (or too much of a routine..) and everything bleeds into one blobby event.  Make some changes, and time will slow down for a while – depending on how fast the dust settles and if you let it.  The best example is the daily commute to work.  Let’s all assume everybody has a job where you do basically the same thing every day.  Even if every day is a little bit different – that becomes “the same old..”.  Let’s also assume you do not work from home – you walk, bike, bus, take a cab fly, crawl or even drive a car.  If you don’t pay attention – you’ll be taking the same 1, 2 or three routes every goddamn day.  You won’t notice the individual trees or broken street signs or  houses with too many ceramic lawn fairies or the way that street had begun to fall into a sink hole six years ago and abruptly stopped.  You just won’t.  It will all be the exact same shit - arguably not even a different day (unless you want to get all matter-of-factly on me..).  Is that you?  I don’t know about what you think about it – but a few years ago, it popped into my little head upon pulling into the parking garage at work — I couldn’t really remember the drive into work.  Or the walk.  Or the bus ride.  Not in the sense – mmmmm!  This is a tasty serving of steel cut oats I’m eating … whoah…  now I am sitting in my car… In the parking garage at work.  More like – I knew I drove in, and vaguely remember making turns and stopping for lights and yielding to signs – but anything clear.  I didn’t remember it.

My memory was never all that great (or even acceptably ‘ok”) – but this was momentarily scary.  What the hell?  On the way home I was aware of this non-memory recorded commute – and realized it was a sort of a function of my brain sick of recording redundant memories.  Why take the same photo every day at the same time at the same location in the same direction (unless your name is Auggie)??  Just take it once.  Or at least don’t take another photo until the scenery changes.  When the empty parking lot becomes a mountain of unsold condos – yeah, sure – take another snapshot.

Is it bad that time can seem to go by quickly?  For the record, personally, I don’t like it.

When I was about 22 years old – for the first time in  my life, a YEAR went by and it didn’t seem like all that much time passed.  Let’s see.. What was I doing?  I was out of school and was working.  It was a manufacturing job – unless something went wrong, we were a small clan of robots performing the same task every day.  I took the same drive or walk into work every day.  I went to the same grocery store to buy the same 13 items to make the same breakfast, lunch and dinners with.  That’s what happened.  Working became, why?  don’t ask – that’s a different story, everything.  Reading, writing, blah-blah-blahing all stopped – and all I did for most of my 20′s was work.  My boss at the time was the one who told me, “when a year flies by for the first time – that’s a sign of getting old.”

THEN.  I moved to Seattle.  Wasn’t married.  No kids no pets no grand dream job no commitments nothing.  The pitiful routine was about the only thing I did leave behind in that Rochester apartment on Averil Avenue.  Not far from a fantastically filthy bar, the Bug Jar, which I frequented every Friday after work.

I was six months away from turning 30.  I stopped working on animation and never entered another manufacturing company.  From the east coast – to the far north west.  Nothing was the same in Seattle.  No job nothing familiar wind replaced by rain.  Not even any Howard Stern!  I spent my time walking down 20th Ave NE, looking for a job, watching new-fangled-DVDs, and trying to settle into a boring routine.  And, for that first month being here – it felt like a year.  And, I only aged a month that year.

Twelve years ago I bought my first DVD player in Rochester, NY.  At the time, there was only about six titles on the shelf – DVDs were brand new that year.  Laserdisc players were still being sold at the same time, something I was considering.  DVDs seemed to be a strange little hack, and the push for a hack on top of a hack delayed my purchase – Divx.  That’s not the MPEG-4 codec I’m talking about – the Divx DVD was a DVD format that was being heavily pushed.  It required a modem and somehow destroyed itself after a certain about of time or viewings.  The sales guy told me the plastic became opaque after you watch it.  Yes - disposable discs.  Great idea, they thought.  Each time somebody watched a movie – it raked in money.  The disks were a lot cheaper.  And, to be honest – by biggest “no thanks” to Divx was the idea of filling up the bin full of plastic.  Then, I must’ve thought about it – along with everybody else.  Nobody bought them, and then, finally, DVDs took off.

The player I picked up was a Magnavox – absolutely no frills.  Not even a remote, but that’s because it was a demo unit.  I had to call the manufacturer for a new remote.  I bought it with two DVDs: “Blade Runner” and “Contact”.  ”Contact” at the time, was an absolute showcase of CGI – and ideal for showing off the DVD player.  The transfer for “Blade Runner” was horrible and only single layer.  Great movie – bad DVD.  ”Contact” was a showcase in my little studio apartment to anybody who came in.  This was years before they started to pick up – that didn’t really happen until maybe 2000 or so.  People just didn’t understand the quality difference, thinking that VHS was good enough.  Ack.  I didn’t understand the technical details at all to the DVD format – what drove me there was a blind risk.  There was no way for me to know if this was going to even be around in a few years.  Remember – I was looking into buying a laserdisc player.  And, the reason for that wasn’t primarily the quality.  It was my love of widescreen, letterboxed, movies.  Money, the lack of, was the only reason why I didn’t buy a Laserdisc player two years before.

Slowly the advantages of the DVD became apparent after I got the remote control in the mail.  Little things like no rewinding tapes, being able to push the pause button and actually being able to see a clear image and turning off the DVD player 35 minutes into a movie – when it was turn back on. it plays from where the movie left off.  Sweet.  And, that quality!  Dogs and cats living together!  On the screen-size of 1997, DVD was as impressive as HD does today.  If you had a 25″ (square!) screen (…okay – almost square) you would be hard pressed to see any compression artifacting.  Then, i started to buy DVDs.  And, try to get people to see the light and jump on the bus with me.  Some did, but most didn’t give a fling of poo.  The fools.

In 1999, fresh to Seattle – the video stores were full of VHS with only one row of DVDs.  When I first moved to Seattle, in the Wedgewood area, and before landing a job –  the thing to do was walk down 20th Ave for a mile or two and eventually to the Blockbuster near University Village.  In the month before finally getting a job – I managed to watch almost ever DVD title on the shelves.  Those were the days.. *sniffle*

The DVD collection grew by about four titles every month – sometimes more, never less.  Silver Platters was my little pal.  After Thomas was born – spare time became something of a myth in my life.  When he started sleeping all night, I was able to go to bed with a laptop and watch a movie in bed.  That was the beginning of a fabulous habit of watching movies in bed.  In two years, I watched — maybe fifty films and a couple TV series.   By the time Christian was born, I lost interest in watching movies.  Just not enough time.

My 40″ has been connected to a now six year old PC – acting as a DVD player and good for streaming video from NetFlicks and Hulu.  For Christmas, the huge contribution was a mega new PC with glorious Windows 7 Professional, quad core CPU, 4 GB RAM and …. a Blu-Ray drive.

The jump from VHS to DVD was much bigger than DVD to Blu-Ray.  But, it is still blowing my mind.   The Thing going on now is renting a bunch of special effects heavy movies.  Even if they are movies I own and have seen a dozen times – like “The Chronicles of Riddick”.  I rented that BRD and just skipped around, watching the “sweet” scenes.  Same with “300″, “Star Trek” and a couple others.  GCI animated movies look the best – “UP” and “Wall-E” blow away brain cells.  The decoder on this PC is so much better than the old PC – the DVDs look a lot better.  But, that’s about the PC’s superhoodness.  This entry is about the death of the DVD.  Hmm.. Not really.  It’s about my little 12 year fling with DVDs.

Anybody want to buy any previously enjoyed DVDs??

It’s going to be wicked amazing fun seeing this in IMAX 3-D on the opening day.  The CGI in the trailer blew me away – what is this going to look like on the big screen?  I’ll follow up this entry after I see it, and will let you know if it’s going to be a classic or just another blockbuster movie of the month.  Cameron isn’t the greatest at writing endings – that’s the only fear on this one.  He sets up the action better than anyone – why didn’t Lucas pay this dude to make his prequels?

I’m not a total Cameron geek – the only movie that modified my mind was “Aliens”.  That movie is on very short of list of great sci-fi.  It’s a must-see.  ”Terminator 2″ was really good, but that kid…  ”Avatar” is pg-13, so I’m expecting a lot of hollywoodness – and most likely a hollywood ending.  That’s fine.  If it’s half of what some people are saying – it will be worth it.  Don’t take too much from this – I like “The Chronicles of Riddick”, too.

It comes out today, so expect an update or two.

The new machine is a quad core horse of work.  It’s little – becuase it is not going to the man cave – but the living room.  It has Windows 7 pro, and will be used primarily for Media Center.  Windows 7 rocks.  (been using the final version for three+ months).  And, BLUE-RAY!!!  OOOWWW!  About time.  No plans on replacing my dvd collection.  Will rent for a while.  Until, probably, physical media is no longer the “media” of choice. 

So – I ordered it on-line early last week.  The frakken box came in this morning.  Wow – pretty fast.  It was a slightly modified machine, but they obviously had my configuration all ready to rock out the door an into my house.  It’s a Christmas present for all of us.  So, it won’t be set up on the tv un the 25th.  In the meantime, it will be the man cave.  I am tempted to swap the old Dell workstation for the new one..  Nah – I think even Thomas would notice how slow it performs.

It rained today.  The foggy streets and light rain was nice.  I love walking in the rain.  It makes things quieter than it normally is.  My excursion was a quick drive down to West Seattle.  After than I walked around Ballard again, but not in the commercial area – the residential area.  Walking around in areas with nice houses with nice gardens and nice people – is more motivational than anything else.  Motivates  me to getting stool done and move into a better area and house.  That’s all.  At least I was able to get out for a while and think.  It was easy – it was quiet.

I think I’m going to leave my new coffee house hang out and go pick him up from school (ok – pre-school) early.  Maybe do something before the hum-drums of daily life sucks the daily life outta me.

That’s it for now.

So – that Cuban sandwich was painfully amazing.  I mean, what could be exciting about a goddamn sandwich?  Bread and meat and stuff spread over everything.  No way, this place rocked.  Subtle use of spices and herbs, excellent skill grilling the meat and onions.  This place from the outside looks like a tin shack just north of the main Fremont area.  About a year and a half ago, I used to go on adventurous lunches and this place was noted, but never did make it there.  What caught our eyes was how insanely busy they were.  Word on the street was “it’s good there”, that translates to “must try”.  It’s the size of my garage (which is never used to park my car because it’s too small!!) and has only five to seven tables.  It opens at 11:00 – and by noon, the place is packed and the phone ringing off the hook.  WTH?  There’s not even a sign on the front of the building saying WHAT they are.  One look at the menu, and you’ll know..

The IPA was conveniently consumed a couple of doors down at one of Seattle’s final dumpy dive bars.  Sure, there are a couple dozen of them – but they are disappearing fast.   This place is comfy and is too bright for daytime visits.  But, they do maintain a decent IPA inventory – which is really the only reason why any of us really get up in the morning.

Hmm..  tomorrow… What else, after the stroll and photo-shooting?  Maybe start reading “The Third Policeman”..  and …  that’s enough.  Stroll, read, stroll and nothing else.  Maybe some coffee.  But, I will be thinking about that Cuban sandwich..

I am betraying my neighborhood coffee shop..  I like that place, but time to try out something new.  Not too far away is Fremont Coffee.  This place has always been too packed to stop in for a visit.  Holy crap – the coffee is way too good here.  Not good for my health.  I downed a double half full americano in 15 seconds..  Time to get maybe a split shot of the same.  Neptune has a unique coffee – fairly bitter and earthy with a super sharp but short taste.  Not my favorite – because I prefer to drink without cream.  Neptune kinda begs for cream to be added.  Want a latte or cap?  That’s where they totally excel.  Back to my new home..  It’s perfect.  Dark lingering bitterness with no attack to your senses.  Argh.  This place is a huge old house converted into a coffee shop – there’ are several little rooms with mismatched furniture.  Comfy.  I circled around for a while, like a dog, until settling on a tiny copper-topped table next to a drafty window.  The baristas are cool and know exactly what they are doing.

That’s all.  Just wanted to blerb about this place – since it got me into a crazy good mood.  Why??  Oh, yeah – I don’t think I mentioned before..  I took this week off.  The whole week off.  Yesterday was spent cleaning my manly man cave and panicking over the sick amounts of work around the house needed.  And things to be done.. and and and.  How fucked up is this: I don’t KNOW what to do with myself!!  Last year I took a week off all to myself and had a blast.  It was spent wandering around the corners of Ballard, downtown and Capitol Hill.  This time I don’t really feel like doing anything.  It seems best to finish cleaning my windowless man-cave and start reading for my next VMware cert.

Sucks!  I used to like to just walk around residential areas, looking at the houses and not thinking of anything.  Now, there’s too much to think about.   Tomorrow I am going to leave the laptop at home and try out a Cuban sandwich shop for lunch.  Then wash it down with an IPA at the Buckaroo – while reading “The Third But, now, I am going back up to get that second americano..

There was a golden era of dreaming for me.  It was immediately following my first college semester.  Full time student, new to it all, working, etc..  All that added up to maybe four hours of sleep a night (on average).  Being eighteen – it was possible to get that little sleep, somehow (how nice would that be to get away with now??).  I don’t remember having any dreams then – that wasn’t the Golden Era.  It was the break after that first semester.  When I finally started to sleep again.  I will someday write a post about that first dream I had.  Holy Fuck – it was intense and seemed to last for an hour.  And, I had no problem remembering it.  The dream was so intense, my fascination of dreams grew and became a bit of a focus of mine.  There was a stream of smaller dreams after that first one, but as I caught up with sleep – they lessened and became nothing.  There’s no way for me to tell you how incredibly intense those first couple were.  It was better than any movie – and I seemed to be slightly aware of being in a dream.  Most of the time I remember the dream.  These few were actively in the present – and hoping for something to happen was very much there and often felt heard.  That’s not the first time that’s happened – when I was younger the dreams were pretty intense.  And, I had a certain level of conscious involvement.  Nothing like what I read about in books – books about people controlling their dreams.  (non-fiction)  I would read those books trying to learn how to do it – that was when I was in high school.  Several years before the Golden Era of Dreaming.  There was also a very long period of nightmares – that spanned from maybe the ages of six to eight, or thereabouts.

What prompted this entry was a dream I had the other night – maybe two days ago.  Most of the dream has been forgotten, but one detail was a catalog I was looking at in this dream.  The time period was in the early 70′s and the catalog was for a store, similar to Sears.  The actors from the Brady Bunch were models in the catalog.  Marcia and Jan were exceptionally good to my eyes.  They were into a barely-retro 60′s get up.  Super-high boots that went up to their butt cheeks and little non-functional jackets with fur hoods while exposing their stomachs.  The piece of the dream that really interested me was a stupid little detail – it was apparently a fad of the day.  A little transparent plastic .. thing that little kids would curl up in.  Kind of like a seat, but it made no sense.  And, looked really uncomfortable.  It was vaguely in the shape of a ladybug, most of the detail was in a cover that sealed the kid in.  It just looked idiotic – to adults and parents.  But to anybody under twelve – it was the rage.  The staged look of glee on all the packed away children looked annoying.  At the same time, it reminded me of being a kid, and seeing things on TV and print that made me want them – only because the kids in the ads were enjoying them so much.  That part of the dream isn’t so earth-shattering.  But, where the hell did my mind get the idea to make transparent bowls with lids – big enough for kids to lay on their backs with arms and legs pulled tightly to their chests..  in the shape of ladybugs????

Talking out loud moves dreams from short term memory to long term, right?  Does writing blog entries about them make you dream about them again??