wasted days

I got a haircut the other day. It’s always fun to get a haircut from a different barber. Or barberess, to be pc. Because everyone has their own style, and I always find it interesting to see how this particular person does it. I had some serious doubts about the method of the guy who cut my hair on Sunday, because he kept sorta carefully lining things up with his fingers as if he wasn’t entirely sure how long he should cut that particularly section. He also worked in a really weird order. But hey, it all worked out. It always does. That’s the excitement. I can’t really explain why I like this so much, it’s just always fascinating. I also always regret having cut my hair so short, but if I don’t cut it short then it’ll need cutting again in two weeks. I’m considering shaving off all of my hair except my cowlicks. Then I could grow them long and have two locks of hair curving down my face. I think that could look cool. Although, probably, it’ll just look like I ran into the wrong end of a hedge trimmer. I’m not sure I have the posture for such a severe hairstyle.

background noise: The Cure

So Cordelia and I have been frequenting the meetings of WRFU. It’s a new low-power FM radio station that’s starting up in town. A low power FM station broadcasts at maybe 100 watts, which is next to nothing, but should be sufficient to cover C-U pretty well. It’s pretty exciting to be involved in something like this. Of course, I don’t know the first thing about radio, but I don’t think that’ll stop me. We hope to be on the air by the end of the year. So look for further updates on that as the time draws closer. In the meantime, a studio needs to be built and the station set up. Which in and of itself may be exciting.

It’s been a hell of a week. My sleeping and eating schedules are all fucked up. I sleep plenty, just at strange times, and eat enough if I can remember to. Sometimes food makes me sick, though. Like tonight. I tried to get down a full dinner, which was the first normal meal I’ve had in a couple days. I ate everything, but it made me feel sick. Dunno why.

The strangest thing has been happening to me. The nerve that makes up your funny bone, the one that’s exposed at the elbow and runs all the way along your arm to the end of two of your fingers, has been tingling almost constantly for days. It’s like there’s always a little bit of pressure on it. And when I rest my arm on something, not my elbow but just the area of my forearm that’s next to it, it puts more pressure on it and the numbness increases. It’s a somewhat singular sensation, and I’m not sure how healthy it is. If it continues for too long I actually may consider seeinga doctor, because it’s definitely not normal. It’s been going on since Monday, I think. It’s not constant, but very frequent. I think I just don’t notice it all the time.

Strange happenings around these parts lately. But I guess it keeps life exciting. Sometimes I feel as if I should be on the WB. But then, I suppose many people do. Which hints at the question of art imitating life or life imitating art. I’m tempted to guess it’s a little bit of both. It’s a topic that actually rather fascinates me, but I’ll save it for another time.

background noise: “99 Red Balloons” Goldfinger

I went to a show tonight, but it finished early. So, left with an extra hour before I needed to go home and nothing to do, I thought I would drive over to Meadowbrook Park and take a walk. I parked in the Race Street lot, and noticed two other cars there. I saw some movement in the garden plots ahead of me. I wondered about these nocturnal gardeners, why they were there so late. The same reason as me, perhaps, although why was that? As I got out of the car and looked along the park path, I wondered how good of an idea this had been. The path looked awfully dark, and I knew I would probably just get scared and go running back to the car. But I tried anyway. And I’m glad I did, because once I began to walk along the path and my eyes adjusted, the dark was no problem at all.

The path enters some woods. The sky was light, from light pollution, I suppose. Although perhaps from the late setting of the summer sun, as well. It was 10:30 but the sun can throw rays across the horizon for a while after it goes down. With the trees overhead the light from the sky wasn’t so visible, but there was still an ethereal glow about the place. The forest looked enchanted; I walked alone through the trees undisturbed by anything. And sharing the peace with me were multitudes of fireflies, more than I had ever seen before. There was a constant glow of them, literally dozens wherever I looked. Always lighting, going out, lighting again. It was beautiful.

I left the woods and walked along a path along the edge of the prairie, between the trees and the grasses. Here there was a little more light, and I was interrupted only by the occasional rabbit scurrying off into the underbrush. From the trees I heard a sound that I could not quite identify until I felt the first drops of rain upon my head. The clouds held their peace, however, and I continued on my way.

I walked all the way to the other playground. As I approached I could hear the cars along Windsor. I didn’t like that nearly as much, it removed me from nature and made me half-fear it again. I was going to walk over the wooden observation deck, but thought better of it. So I turned and walked along Windsor, but again the cars, although peaceful and pleasantly surreal in their own way, brought me too far back to civilization; the night sounds of the prairie to my left now frightened me a bit. But I knew it was just because the cars distracted me from being able to accept nature on its own terms, so I turned off of the road and back down a path that went straight through one of the expanses of prairie grass. I walked back, welcoming the increasing number of fireflies and solitary tranquility of the night.

I went back a different way than I came, making a large circle. As I walked by the empty gardens of the retirement home, I had my only real scare of the evening. A deer jumped as I approached, and set my heart racing. I stood there collecting myself, coolly regarding the doe from about 15 feet away. I couldn’t quite make out in the darkness whether or not she was looking at me, but I’d like to think we spent a minute or two staring at each other and replacing our surprised fright with respect for another nocturne. The deer took a few steps away, going back to nibbling on the senior citizens’ gardening. I watched it for a bit more, then set off for the car.

I could see the car already when the deer surprised me, and so I quickly came back the parking lot. One of the two other cars that had been there when I arrived was gone, but somewhere in the public gardening plots there was one of those night gardeners, still working their mysterious green thumb by the light of the night. I couldn’t even see them until I was nearly back the car, no matter how hard I searched for a sign of movement. I would have almost liked to go say hello, but I imagine part of the appeal of working at night is the solitude. I didn’t turn my lights on until I was pointed away from the plots, hoping not to bother the night-time agriculturalist.

I drove away reveling in the experience. I should like to do it again. In fact, I think I will.

Man oh man. I’ve begun going to bed at 4 and getting up at noon. It works out OK, except I feel really disoriented when I first wake up and for the entire afternoon feel very strange time-wise, as if this day was way too short (it’s 5:30 already?!). Dan came over last night and stuck around for about 4 hours. We talked until the wee hours of the morning.

I’ve been doing next to nothing since I got back from Singapore. Mostly just downloading stuff and finishing my play. Which is now finished, so all I’m doing is downloading stuff and not sleeping normally. Maybe I’ll see if someone wants to come watch Network with me tonight. Yea, I think that’s a good idea.

Today we went around an island to the north of the main city. It’s much more rustic, corrugated tin huts and the jungle, basically. Some nice paved paths to ride bikes on though, so we rented some and bike about. There were some Boy Scout types there, I guess this is as close to the wilderness as they can get in this country. The police apparently also have a training camp on the island. There were a lot of no trespassing signs that said “State Land” on them.

Apparently most of Singapore looked like this in the 1960’s, when the country in its current iteration gained independence. It’s astounding how far most of it has come in the past 40 years: the city is nothing but gleaming high rises and spotless streets. It’s more developed and advanced than anything I’ve seen. But I suppose part of the reason for that is exactly this youngness: none of the buildings are more than 30 or 40 years old, so it all looks very advanced compared to many cities, which were built up over a much longer period of time. Maybe this isn’t true, its just speculation, but it seems reasonable to me.

Anyway, we wandered around for a few hours and then headed back for the hotel. It’s now 5, and I’m just sitting in the hotel room in my underwear trying to get caught up on e-mail. New pictures daily, live from the 21st floor. But no more, as tomorrow morning at some ungodly hour I’m leaving, heading back from the midwest. I’ll be back by Sunday night. Then summer vacation starts in earnest.

background noise: Riot, UK Subs

Today my dad and I went to an island off the southern coast of the mainland (or main island, actually, since Singapore isn’t connected to anything). It gave off an impression somewere between Disney World and Dr. No. We took a monorail around, mostly standard resort fare. There’s a gigantic lion/mermaid thing (the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore) almost on top of the island. It looked like some evil genius should be hiding out up there in the lion’s head trying to spot James Bond among the crowds of tourists. But hey, it was still fun. There was a really cool fountain sound and light show in the evening, with water jets and fire and lasers and music. Rather hard to briefly describe, actually. This keyboard isn’t being very responsive and it’s frustrating me, so I’m going to bed. Until next time,

Well things have been going well here. Zuke and I just poked around more yesterday morning, then my dad and I went to lunch on the river and poked around Chinatown. It was a national holiday yesterday, so the distribution of people was sorta strange. Many places were closed and some areas were nearly deserted compared to how bustling they should have been on a normal work day. And even many shopping malls seems less crowded than normal. But when we went to Chinatown there were people everywhere. Dunno why there and nowhere else. Maybe it was just a matter of time; we went there in the afternoon and I looked at other places in the morning.

I think Zuke and I will now go take the MRT (a combination train/subway, the most efficient and ridiculously clean form of public transportation I have ever witnessed) out of the downtown area and go check out the Chinese gardens. Might be interesting. And if not, we can just come back here and shop some more.

background noise: OK, Computer Radiohead