Thrilling Lunchtime Adventures Vol. 7

Bossa Nova, naturally.

I'm seated by myself at the end, outside. Sitting next to me is Gustavo, who I meet. We both order iced tea and favorite dishes without needing a menu, and we end up talking throughout lunch.

It's a lot easier for me now to talk to total strangers who begin talking to me. I used to be frightfully shy, and didn't want to see, meet, greet, talk to or know new people, and then bitch about how few friends I had and how bad I was at meeting people. But it's easier now. Maybe I'm more approachable. Maybe I give off a better vibe of fellow humanity. Maybe I set off mild levels of gaydar.

It was nice. We discussed relationships, mostly, but overall it's just nice to live here, and know that there are people who are nice too. Maybe that's the vibe I give off. I love being here.

On a side note, I'm vastly improved from a week or two ago. I can breathe without wheezing. I don't know if or when I will ever be able to enjoy cigars, pipes or hookahs again, though, and that's depressing. Asthma sucks.

phyllis morris

So on Robertson there's an Anawalt Lumber. It's expanding into the lot next to it, in what I believe is the longest construction period in history, moving concrete blocks and dirt around in some intricate game of Stratego without actually building much. You may think it took a long time to put together those big ol' pyramids in that country at the upper right end of Africa, but that's nothing compared to Anawalt's construction phase. Maybe.

Anyway, for some reason the fence in front of the construction lot has had several big banners stretched across it from time to time. Each of them has had a quotation by a "phyllis morris." They're vaguely irritating, and the various banners have gone like this (paraphrasing from memory):

"minimalism is for those without much to say." - phyllis morris
"there is no room for twin beds in a happy marriage." phyllis morris
"never design for your husband." - phyllis morris

Well, 1) Thanks, Phyllis, for not understanding minimalism and what it means. It's an idea that conveys meaning in as little as possible, that speaks as much with its whitespace as its content, ideas without fluff. There is beauty in clean lines and simplicity. Ask the Japanese. Besides, these signs are a thin black sans-serif font on white, as minimalist as you can get. The bannermakers weren't thinking. 2), Um, okay. Sure. No problem. Huh? I dunno... maybe she was referring to the I Love Lucy Show. 3) Read: Go ahead and decorate the house with as much flowery embellishment as your cheesiest women's magazine or your Martha Stewart catalog allows. Please only your fellow female tea-party and embroidery enthusiasts.

Well, Phyllis, it turns out, started designing in 1953 with a gaudy poodle lamp, and moved on to create truly intricate furniture and things. You can see it here. It's fairly frightening but elaborate in a rich kind of way. It's like Victorian with its snuff box overturned on its own breasts. So I can forgive her for her opulence. I just don't understand why it's pasted on the outside of an Anawalt lumber construction site.

This is a test of the Polar Broadcasting System.

This is only a test. If this had been an actual post, it would appear on the page and you would be able to read it. However, it isn't, and you can't, except for the part above where it's describing how you'd be able to read it if it was an actual post.

This blog is probably going to mirror my LiveJournal. Forgive me for being on LiveJournal, but I joined a while ago, dammit. But here it is, and it has actual writing on it, not this porridge of English: Polarbase

Now to look around and figure out how to futz with the HTML and the BBCode, if there is any...