my own ramblings (with apologies to simmons)

thoughts while sitting at home on a friday, waiting for 18 rugby jerseys to dry so we can get them all dirty again tomorrow against yale grad school...

if keith foulke goes down for the season and nobody's there to hear it, does he make a noise?

there's nothing like the first sub-40 degree day in new england. nothing.

i don't care if there's 40 or 40,000 people attending a fair, there's still no better place to go people-watching.

if you dress up your dog in clothes, you deserve to be shaved like a poodle.

when i become a famous rock star (and i will), i won't wear any clothes i wouldn't have worn before i became famous.

that includes tuxedoes and t-shirts over $17. unless they're made out of tekware, capeline or any other waterproof/breathable fabric. then the sky's the limit.

i lived there. i became immersed in the culture. i love the place. i still have friends there. yet, outside of monty python, lock stock & two smoking barrels and the original italian job, i have a really, really, REALLY hard time finding british humo(u)r funny.

you don't have to smoke reefer to love jambands.

a beer at 3pm in the office helps promote a healthy work environment.

being stuck inside on a friday night sucks.

when you're a three-time superbowl champion in the midst of a dynasty, and you have a bad week (even though you lost to potentially the best team in the NFC), how in the blue hell can you be installed as a three-point underdog? vegas, help me out on this one...

it's going to be fun to watch the NHL again.

the police were the greatest trio of all time. and, once again with apologies to the sports guy, i will not argue about this. one of the top five drummers ever, a criminally underrated guitar player, and one hell of a bassist writing amazing tunes while being a consummate frontman. gold.

is there anything more intriguing than discovering a disposable camera you haven't sent to the lab for developing yet?

if there's a gaggle of female coworkers giggling together in a circle, do you want to know what they're giggling about? i mean, it could be about you, or it could be something so terrible you'd be scarred for life by finding out...

i'm completely out of touch with MTV. do they still show videos? help me out on this.

the weather's better in california right now.

somewhere, there's someone lighting a pair of skis in sacrifice to Ullr, the god of snow, right now.

if that someone is you, i bow to your buddha nature...

...it'll be me before too long.

i just ordered a new mountain bike. it'll be arriving within two weeks. i'm only going to be able to ride it for about two months before it goes into hibernation for the winter. despite that, it's still the unquestioned highlight of my past month.

is it necesarry to have more than four pairs of skis? what if you use all of them?

...wait, don't answer that. that question was just for me.

this has gone on too long... hope all two of you who read this found it as amusing as i did while putting it together.

mahalo.

new orleans - what now?

where would you rather go? las vegas or new orleans? this is a complete no-brainer for me. answer would be new orleans in a heartbeat - each day of the week and twice on sunday.

but, being as it is, i think we're on the brink of watching one of the country's major cities become a ghost town. are they going to rebuild new orleans? i saw a headline on last week that read THE BATTLE FOR NEW ORLEANS; can it go back to the way it was? i think that the U.S. has crossed a line that's permanent, and it's going to leave scars.

such a vibrant, exciting, mystical, spectral, ALIVE city can't be recreated or replaced, and the aura - the mix of emotions you feel there - the feeling that this place can't be real, that you're imagining all of it, and the sense that there's no law, and it's always teetering on the edge of anarchy - has never been more in your face than now.

now there's just a feeling of terrible regret and sadness - regret that this city is never going to be the same, sadness for the people dealing with the destruction of their lives. that's pretty much left of new orleans for me. no more stumbles throughout the french quarter, listening for the next secret jazz club i'll stumble upon, no more sights, sound and senses that you can't find anywhere else.

i'm so sorry for the people who lived or worked, or just loved new orleans. i hope that they can put their lives back together, whether it's moving on or moving back, if it comes back. but i just don't know. i hope it does, but i'm not optimistic. i'm just sorry.

at the same time, i have a very strange feeling in my gut about a)the folks who didn't leave when they were warned and b)the government that has, so far, not done its job making the situation. firstly, you were warned! i'm sorry, but you knew what was coming, but you chose to "ride the storm out." i have a feeling the next time your state declares emergency, you'll mosey out. and as for the good ol' u.s. government, get your shit together and do what you can to save those folks. witless as they may be, it's your job to get them out of there safe and sound.

the old ghosts of new orleans have left, with new ones of this tragedy coming in to take their place.

it's over. new orleans is done.