Category Archives: Abstract Absurdist Otherness

Read it and weep! I’ve published and now, I be damned! There are some diamonds in this coal. Proceed with cautious carelessness.

Eat Yerself Fitter

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Goosebumps. Right now, listening to Martin Luther King’s last speech in Memphis. It was 40 years ago tomorrow that Martin Luther King was slain in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel. Brian Williams on NBC did his bit, solemnly intoning how it was 40 years ago when the media was still relatively independent of big business and right wing agendas. Now the media is owned by big multinational corporations and Muppets like Brian Williams just tow the line in the guise of looking impartial. I have no idea what it was like in Lodi NJ 40 years ago. I don’t think there were riots.

As far as I knew there weren’t any black people in the part of Lodi that I grew up in, or people of any color beside white back then. I couldn’t even tell you the reaction to Martin Luther King’s assassination was at my family’s house, or at school. I was in kindergarten then anyhow, being beaten by Sister Mary Octavian most days for unknown reasons. I did have some racist teachers that told me some racist things about black people back then. But I wisely ignored most of that as well as the lessons they taught.

Today was a weird day. This one woman, Phyllis, that I occasionally help out submitted an expense report that was submitted and paid a few weeks before. Somehow it slipped by me, but not past Greg Stevens who came in feeling ill and really grouchy. Not a pretty sight. So there was some running around, looking for previous expense reports. Found them, Phyllis had submitted them before. She didn’t know and neither did I. Still it didn’t make me look too good. As I walked to get my lunch, I kept repeating to myself, “I didn’t do anything wrong”, and I didn’t. Nothing happened, the expense report had to be rewritten and resubmitted and that was no big deal.

The big deal was later on when I had to deal with the guy who is becoming the number 1 torn in my side, Tom Chin. Carla, the former receptionist phoned and told me she never got her tax forms. I put her on hold and asked Tom Chin if we could make a copy of her W2 form. ‘She doesn’t get a W2 form, she gets a 1099!’ Ok, can we make a copy of the 1099 then? ‘This is the second time she called about her 1099. What happened last time? I gave it to you!’ He didn’t give it to me, it was actually done by our bookkeeper.

But there is no talking to Tom Chin once he gets on a tear. I learned that a few months ago. I tried to explain what happened then, but he just talks over me. I think it actually makes him feel important. But he was so annoying and frustrating that I wanted to punch him in the face. I didn’t do that, of course, nor did I tell him to go fuck off and walk out the door. Instead I made arrangements to meet Carla and hand her the damn 1099 form.

Had a nice walk down to 34th street, having a Padron and listening to the new B-52’s record which is growing on me. One more day to get through this week. Tom Chin will be out, though he didn’t tell me and I doubt if Greg Stevens will be in and hopefully Phyllis will be out as well. It would make it almost a 3 day weekend. Oh and the space that I was trying to rent out and get a nice cash bonus for it was rented and I ain’t getting any cash bonus. I don’t mind. I mean I wouldn’t mind the cash, but it’s one less headache. One less thousand dollar headache.

Mercury Rev- Holes

As It Is When It Was

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It’s a gray day yet again, this time it’s a Thursday gray day. Not so bad. Just always on the edge of a storm today. Last night, pretty quiet. Finally got this week’s New Yorker. That’s what sows down my catching up I think. Well, that and not reading it when I have the opportunity. I have been slowly reading a book about the Beatles. It’s a good read so far. I’ve read dozens so far and they always end the same. The band can’t stand each other and they break up. Sorry about the lack of spoiler alert.

I did attempt to go to bed earlier. I was getting ready for bed around 10:45 when Bill texted me that he was on the bus home. I had no idea that he was coming over last night. I texted him back that I was going to bed. He usually texts me when he gets on the bus at the terminal, but apparently this time he texted while he was on the bus in Hoboken. He was in the apartment about 10 minutes later just as I was closing my eyes. I got out of bed and gave him a kiss, chatted for a minute, then tried to go to sleep. Not that easy since he was soon in bed next to me and soon after that was snoring. Still, it was good to hear the sound of concrete being jack hammered, which is the sound he sometimes makes as he drifts off.

I woke up around 6:00, Bill still sleeping. I asked him if he was going to work and he was going in later. Soon I was out the door walking up to Washington Street, listening to Hot Chip on the iPod. Got to the office, most everyone was going to be out of the office at a seminar across town. That made things pressure free and I was able to take my time starting up the office. It took me about 15 minutes instead of 10, that’s what I call coasting. Ran a few errands, dropped off In The Valley of Elah at the Post Office.

Eventually I strolled up to 57th street to get my Thursday lunch, Penne with chicken and pesto. It’s just a nice reward that I give myself for getting through most of the week, and the garlic breath keeps people at a distance. There’s a slight undercurrent of melancholy in the office this week. DNA Inc, shares office space with TechnoBio and TechnoBio is leaving at the end of the month, relocating the office to Washington DC. Some are going, some aren’t but the New York office with be closed regardless. Nice people, hate to see them go.

Some have left already and we’ve said good bye over the past couple of weeks, now it’s the core group and it’s cleaning out of offices and throwing stuff out. They’ll still be paying half the rent according to the lease, but no one will be there. That’s the nature of the economic beast.