habits follow me

and then there was today (the day after yesterday, even though it is technically already more than three hours into tomorrow, we won't count that against today)... i finally got to sleep last night and the phone woke me around noon, precious wanted to come over to visit... so we sat and talked and then went to lunch at the olive garden at her request cuz she likes it more than macaroni grill these days (we should not tell rasputin)...

so we both had food to take home for another meal, at least, and i found my wallet $70 lighter and i ate food i was not planning on eating and wait, it gets better, precious brought me some decadent fudge covered caramel filled cookies that she said were too rich for her... did i mention that i had raisin bran and rice milk for dinner last night and went to the gym and was all set to turn over a new leaf in diet and exercise (or at least took the first baby step towards the turn around?)...

so anyway, precious needs money... she wants to go away next summer and it's gonna cost about $4000... she's planning on fundraising... feel free to send donations to the send precious away foundation at your leisure over the next ten months... i do love her, really i do, but i'd love to see some of the $1500 or so i laid out for her car... or some of the $1000 raspy still owes me (and he's going to the ukraine in a few weeks... how come i don't have a few thousand to spend on a few weeks far away (or even some new toys)... waa waa waaah, i love the giving more than the receiving, so shut up and continue...

it was nice to see precious... she caught me up on her life the past week and reminded me about a slew of shows i want to see at the colleges in the area... sweet would be if she got me some free tickets through her connections who get her free tickets, but hey, i'm all about the giving, remember?... just seem to be wishing others were into it more often of late :)

so after i got home i jumped back on the net (except for softball tomorrow, this is my weekend for catching up on the net, relaxing at home, doing laundry, and considering unpacking) and resolved some email confusions so i think i now will get emails and be able to send emails after the bellsouth dsl goes away at the end of the month and i think i've set up comment notifications so i won't miss any more and i think i may have caught up on comments... sure did a whole lot of key tapping... and a little bt of laundry...

did i mention that the dryer knob is broken... not as obvious as the other knobs, but it would not turn cuz it was cracked inside where you cannot see it... again, wait until monday... luckily i had a wrench to turn it... the previous tenant(s) must have torn this place up but good...

i discovered that my internet connection is not going to allow me to watch youtube videos at all as they start and stop every five seconds or so and it does a mediocre job of streaming music... maybe if i find time to download them, but more time online is not in the cards as i want more life offline... and i'll miss some tv shows, movies and sports and other stuff, but the tv is probably not getting plugged in much while i am living here... so maybe i will find more intimate offline life and who knows, another the one might be right around the corner...

but at least for this weekend i was here on the net rambling on, so there are words all over the place, mostly comments and responses to comments, and that part of me that craves attention and conversation (not just ego, mind you) and reassurance and interaction impatiently awaits responses, but of course it's the weekend and life goes on and i know my place and all that jazz, so patience is the catch word of the day, or actually night...

i should get to sleep soon anyway as i do have a softball game tomorrow... and to be fair, i have little time during the week for the net most weeks these days, so just cuz i spent hours and hours rambling on and pouring myself into words for the first time in months does not mean everybody should, right?... but i didn't start it (naaa naaa na na naaaa :)

i am really loving lisa loeb... did i mention i went to see her thursday night?... i think it was thursday night... wait, maybe it was last night... no, it was thursday night... i got to go because both softball games were rained out... she was wonderful, a breath of fresh air, adorable and sexy all in a fun package with a cute and beautiful voice... she has a boyfriend in nyc...

she signed two cds after the show and i invited her to a game night next time she has an extra day to be in orlando on a game night (she likes games)... the best thing was the intimacy... she sang and did her thing within arm's length of where i was standing, though up on a stage (i think i did mention she has really cute knees)... musically, she's gotten to be kind of like a female tom chapin, only much more fun to look at and a voice i could fall in love with...

so i'm listening to music and tapping on the keyboard and doing laundry and enjoying the space and any day now i might move in... even with the lack of tv or cable, poor internet, potential for the return of the roaches, mediocre management, small kitchen counter space, unfavorable lighting fixtures, noisy bathroom fan, poor cellphone reception, early pool/clunhouse closing times, and odd gates (i learned how to let someone in the gates today... they have to find my name on the front key pad and then the keypad calls me and i press 5 on my cellphone and let them in... i think they get to tell me who they are, but it didn't work right the first time so i'll have to ait until someone else visits to figure that out... the leasing agent neglected to tell me how to let guests in... also gave me a faulty remote access thing, which i was able to exchange today... anyway, there's always hope and tomorrow is another day and all that optimistic stuff :)

meanwhile, as i turn my magic mirror on the blogosphere, i see there's a new blog kind of aimed at communicating with me that i am actually meant to be a contributer too... i've never been in a shared blog before, so i'm not exactly sure how it's gonna be but i'll figure it out as i go along... as you already know, we're gonna do some deep cleaning or deep seas diving or something really dramatic... and deep... of course my tongue in my cheek will keep me safe and warm when my wits wander and who knows, maybe ten years of torture in the bowels of the earth will have a happy ending after all... not fairy tale ending, mind you, but hey, happiness is...

keeping in touch with friends
knowing that love will always be
true till the very end
and more than just a fantasy
even when we're away
or out of touch for a while
hoping we'll come again
will always inspire a smile
and when the dark clouds come
we can be so unkind
mistakes and selfishness
can tear a heart and mind
still there is always hope
for good intentions to prevail
and life will come to rhyme
even for ric and gail
cuz keeping in touch with friends
knowing that love will always be
true till the very end
is more than just a fantasy
and when we rise above
the foolishness and tragedies
to keep in touch with friends
to be the best friends we can be
keeping in touch with friends
that is still the best way for me
to be happy

and then i see that mikeyb has a new blog-o-sorts (sudden segue, aye?) and is moguling a new corporation again... i am not sure what my part will be in all that, if any, but i hope he gets really rich so he can adopt me and keep me in silk shirts and rich chocolates for the rest of our lives... now if he'd only let serenity keep her precious and idyllic blog space and commenters without chasing them all away, the blogosphere would be nearly perfect...

and my favorite blogger from across the seas (no offence q, she's cuter) pernickety stopped in for a surprise visit which is always a happy smile and someday she will hopefully come over and play... of course my other favorite far away blogger, quasar, also stopped in... i miss the time i used to have to read your spaces more (and especially miss those great space photos)... i feel humbled that you guys still stop by even after all this time of not venturing beyond my blog worlds... if you are still out there anna, you are missed and i hope to get to all of your blogs day soon (in spite of my backwards moving internet connection)...

and to all the multitudes (what., you though i had only one multitude?... dude!) of silent fans out there, keep your head up, your shorts dry, and remember you are welcome here anytime, even without your shorts... thank you for being...

so what else ya been up to? :)

cookie wars

apparently google, in it's infinite wisdom, does not have the capacity to merge blogger, blogspot, and google accounts correctly, forcing people who are long time users like me to choose between continuing a blog here or using gmail... for this reason, i very rarely use gmail...

i logged in early this week and the gmail cookie superceded the blogger cookie, so i had to jump through hoops to get logged in here again and did not have time to jump until this morning (and didn't really have time this morning, unless i gave up the fun i intended, which i did... google owes me fun now...

apparently, the fix is deleting cookies and cache and all that techno stuff every time... no going to happen, it takes too much time and defeats the purpose of auto-logging in...

i clicked on "help" links (i know, fool) and after an hour and a half, found no way to contact anyone other than through google groups... SPAM central, so there's no way i am putting an email address in that place... so i left my telephone number and this blog address and we shall see if anyone at google/blogger/blogspot cares about one small blogger who's been with them for years...

so i am looking at other site options, again, for blogging... or... i a looking at eliminating gmail from my email options... either way, it's inconventient and leaves me with a bad taste for google and blogger and blogspot... there's always diaryland (where i visited again, ever so briefly, this week for the first time in many months) or myspace (where some of you comment so sweetly, i gush) or... a few dozen other sites i already have logins for...

so that's partly where i've been...

i'll catch up on the rest of the week as soon as i find time... five entries or so will pop up suddenly as if they were always there (shhhh, don't tell posterity)... it's been fun and busy around here, which is why i do not want to jump through google hoops because i am spending less time online, not more...

i hope life has been fun for you this week, or at least not too annoying or painful, and you remember that you choose what to focus on every moment you are conscious... just because most humans are fools and choose to focus on the negatives and downbeats does not mean we have to be... so choose wisely, choose well, choose fun...

i'm gonna go brush my teeth and start my day now... thank you for leaving me a few words, you know how much your caring to do that means to me (and if you don't no worries, i'm bound to tell you again any day now in my own pathetically adorable snarky irreverently seriously sincerely goofy emo way, complete with semi-obscure references)... love you, honestly...

g'morn :)

email, gmail, female

a long long time ago, relative to the past hour, I opened a gmail account and used it three times, or some such few times, but at least one person responded there more than a few times... the last time I checked mail at gmail was either early 2006 or late 2005 (I could ascertain a more precise estimation of the last time I was there if that would please anyone, but I'll leave it at this until I am asked for more precision in carbon-dating my internet wandering, particularly in reference to gmail)... I visited my gmail today and found an email from early 2006 that was new to me, so I responded and this was my response in case you bump into anyone else who is looking for me where I am not (or seldom) these days (and years):

today is the first time I opened gmail since before you sent this email... email just holds so much un-appeal for me, I do not include it in my thought process when coming to the web... in fact, I'm on the web less and less these days... I spend my time on the web mostly updating my blogspot blog and less often, wandering around myspace reading and downloading music...

I tried texting you a while back (I had unlimited texting for a while, no longer have that) and seemed to upset someone when I did (I apparently texted your boyfriend or someone else who did not know me and did not seem to want me to continue, so I stopped)...

I am as I am, I mean what I say... I stay in touch poorly these days, but I do stay in touch where I am... those who visit my blogspot daily (there are a few) know this... you are welcome there... at myspace, I try to respond once a week... you are welcome there too... I may not open gmail again for who knows how long, but I did today, found your words (the only new mail here except for 500+ pieces of SPAM since early 2006 or maybe 2005), and responded to let you know where I am found most often... at blogspot and at myspace... if you are updating anywhere online these days, let me know in a comment at one of those places...

I hope life is smiling in your world today :)

ric
407-325-1482

there, now you can pass this along to all the people you know who have been wondering where I've been for years and they can find me here and communicate as they please...

I suppose email (and instant messaging and other communications like message boards, online communities, and other interactive sites) might expand my chances of meeting people, maybe even female people, maybe even a girlfriend... I think I'd like to consider making out with a girlfriend again, I mean, it's been a while and I do remember liking girls...

but before this entry turns into yet another questioning without answering session of will more online interaction really bring me more interaction offline? I will move along to the next segment (which will be the previous entry, or the entry below, which might make more sense as you are reading downward, so maybe writing a week of entries at a time is the way to go, but then, maybe not) and continue pondering whatever I will eventually be pondering when we get to the first of these catch up entries which will, naturally, be written last...

O . O



O

where are you from?

speaking of words and online interactions and meeting people and such and such (were we really?), the question (see title) is so much a part of internet life (and I can proudly say I seldom hear/read it, though that might be because people are simply not interested, which isn't something to necessarily be proud of, but I prefer not to hear/read the question because it is so vague and superficial and relatively meaningless to me because it has so many potential answers in the physical world alone and nobody is really asking for an accurate or meaningful answer...

kinda like when people ask what do you do? online (or off)... offline, sometimes I just look at them and stare and if they ask again I say I stare at people who ask me that question...

and then there's a/s/l (if you don't know a/s/l then you haven't been wandering online chat rooms or used instant messaging to meet new people very much)... offline, I sometimes sign "yes" in American Sign Language and leave people wondering...

what?... you weren't asking me if I spoke asl?...

I appreciate people who understand the meaning of the words they use and want as little to do with those who don't, in case you haven't noticed, because misunderstanding is easy enough when we mean what we say, ya know?...

it's bad enough in everyday language, but it's so acceptable in human culture that our leaders kill our children by lying to us and get away with it by playing semantic game... and let's not even start exploring the religious abuse of language or somebody could be assassinated...

anyway, about from...

out in the wilds of myspace where newbies to the web sometimes surface for the very first time, the questions long laughed at by anyone with sense (and most often asked by everyone else) on the internet appear as if they are fresh and new and being asked for the very first time... this entry was mostly inspired (or at least fell right into the stream) by these questions and in particular, the title question as I was asked again as if for the first time this week...

and this is what I said:

thanks for adding me (I feel so much better about myself now... ok, I'm joking... mostly... I mean, being added to a stranger's list of myspace friends shouldn't mean all that much, right?... I mean, it's not like you know me, love me, respect me, think highly of me, worship the ground I walk on or anything, or even like me, but somehow being accepted, even like this, feels good... of course now it leaves me open for rejection if you ever decide I'm just too strange and must be deleted, but hopefully you will see that my irreverent sense of humor is as harmless as I say it is and maybe even be amused enough to enjoy keeping me around... there's always hope, after all)...

no wait, I can be serious if you want... just ask :)

meanwhile, catching up on myspace mail, I come across your question...

sometimes I think I'm from another planet, but them, just cuz I want to believe there's life elsewhere doesn't mean there is...

from is such a strange word...

you mean where am I now?... Orlando, FL, east side, near UCF

where was I born?... Paterson, NJ, a hospital, for a few days... I was then stolen by gypsies and whisked off to adventure...

where did I spend school years?... Brooklyn, NY, East New York, Canarsie, Flatlands...

where else did I live? (for more than a year)... Manhattan (NYC), Monterey (CA), Toronto (the other CA), Niagara Falls (NY), Buffalo (NY, Loughman (FL), Lake Buena Vista (FL)...

where else did I live? (for more than a few months, but less than a year)... San Antonio (TX), Ft. Lauderdale (FL), San Francisco (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Hopewell (VA), other places ... I'm getting bored, are you?...

I'm laughing at myself... I do that often... I am easily amused... the picture you have up amused me... it was enough for me to send you an add request... I could probably find other reasons if you'd like... Stewie definitely helped me like your page... not that I am into naked babies... would you like to know anything else? (feel free to ask... I may not be as strange as I seem :)

oh, and just in case I get kidnapped by gypsies again (or something) and disappear for a month, Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, and Happy Bill Paying Days (odd thing to celebrate, but heck, it's your calendar :)

seriously, I hope your Anniversary and Birthday are the best ever (until next year)...

thanks for being there, hope you remain :)

ric

and that is by far the briefest accurate response to the query in the title (of this entry) pertaining to physical spaces that I've ever summarized in words to my momentary recollection at this time...

I mean, I could have gotten all metaphysical about it, after all... I am from where I am, where I was, and where I will be... or even get literal... I am from the womb of an unknown woman... or further ethereal, I am from where I want to be, a timeless space of infinite love and trust...

or something like that...

for the record, the person asking has a calendar on her myspace that has her anniversary, birthday (both within the next month), and bills due for next month listed on it... so the reference was not merely nonsense or an attempt at an amusing close and allusion to my inconsistent communicating... and there was a naked Stewie there too...

so use your words as if you mean what you are saying people, cuz there are children out there, naked children, and they want to understand...

catching up x 4

and so four days zipped by this time and it's time to start catching up (as if this was the first of the four entries uploaded tonight just cuz it's the first I upload cuz it's the last I wrote so it falls into place in linear reading down the page)... this always makes for orphan entries ("little orphan entries", copyright 2007), which is what I am calling my next blog when I start it, which might be when I get the new computer, which will be sooner than never... little orphan entries are the entries that get no comments, no feedback, no notice, ya know?... cuz leaving a comment is kind of like adopting an entry, isn't it?...

anyway, not to belabor yet another unintended guilt trip (I really don't mean to, but I was brought up in a Judeo-Christian world by Judeo-Christian people and the foundation {or at least the residual secular everyday life stuff born of religions} of most everything is guilt tripping, after all, so it's kind of ingrained in my psyche even though I am not always completely human (but I suppose I am getting better at it, which is seeming more obnoxious with each step... or repulsive), let's get to the question burning everybody's lips (exaggeration is the second strongest influence, ya know) , where have I been?...

way back on today, or Thursday, as I was thoroughly enjoying putting my head into a Jar, I juggled some more work at work and trained the temporary data person some more and after getting home, I believe I zoned into something on TV while falling to sleep in the big green chair while waiting for Precious to call for her ride home (I'm almost ready to buy her a car myself so she might show some signs of independence cuz by now all her peers are off to college and not living home while she's still a couple or few years behind, just starting on her first job and still without a driver's license as she approaches her 19th birthday... of course if I could afford to buy her a car I'd have a new desktop and a new laptop)...

the phone rang to wake me and Precious tells me she has a ride, so i could have either gone to bed, gone out somewhere, or otherwise occupied my time with something other than nodding off while sitting and waiting for her call, but that's the way it is with any teenager who firmly believes the whole world revolves around her... I knew it didn't revolve around me before I was out of diapers, but then, I'm not very normal, or even always human, after all... and then I think I browsed the web and fell asleep and along came Friday...

in spite of intending to get out of work early at least one day this week, the week ended with me staying late every night cuz there's just no way to get caught up on two jobs while training someone to do one of them in a normal 40 hour work week...

once home, it was an ordinary Friday night, vegetating in front of the TV with the Sci-Fi channel and ordering from Paradiso (so I had food for a few days without having to clean up the kitchen so I could cook)... and Saturday was college football cuz Rasputin is a serious college football fan (Ohio State) and I get into the game day routine pretty easily... I seem to have lost all interest in fantasy sports these days as I've abandoned all the leagues I signed up for (but still may finish second in one of the baseball leagues, which is quite amazing as I've ignored the team all year)... I spent some time wandering myspace and sending out some more add requests, rather randomly this time... Raspy and I went to eat at the local Chinese buffet Saturday evening and then it was back to college football as I nodded off in the big green chair...

Sunday was another day of vegetation at home with the NFL on TV (the televised games are getting so very boring), eating the leftover Italian food, heading out for ice cream, and tapping away at the keyboard to bring you these four entries that you long anticipated, so tenderly read, and thoroughly enjoyed...

now all I need to know is what I can take with me on my business trip in October, like, do I have to buy new toiletries and shaving stuff there or do I have to wait in line to check in an overnight bag and wait for the airline to unload it (or lose it) at the destination extending the time in the airport another hour or few?... there must be some website where I can find this information so I can be prepared and not be looking for an all night store in Oklahoma City so I can spend unnecessary money so I don't smell or look disheveled...

well, that's not all I need to know, but that's one thing... I don't think I won the lottery again yesterday... not that I check, but I figure I'll hear about it on the news and if some idiot in Orlando won and did not show up to collect his winnings I'll check if it's me...

and what's this on 60 Minutes tonight about stores selling marijuana legally?... probably medical marijuana or something... while I have no interest in drinking anymore and very minimal interest in tripping or any other chemical mind games, I might share a social pipe now and then if the old weed was legalized... I should visit Sandy Eggo and explore meditative alternatives with the west coast mindset, aye?...

anyway, thanks for all the attention while I was away, you are appreciated... even when you are not around... I'll upload these entries now and let you get on with your mental orgasms...