back in business

so last week i was offered a position with a university. quite startling, as this was pretty much completely unsolicited. this new development in the life of lil' mikey carries with it several benefits. to name a few,

1. academia can offer a fair amount ethical and moral gratitude, some things i haven't been able to find elsewhere in my career.

2. while probably only half-time for now, the job is completely remote. as far as i'm concerned, this puts me about half-way to where i want to be. long live the internet, and long live location independence! i'm well on my way to eliminating hair cuts and wearing jammies all day.

3. consulting, while all bready and buttery and such, can use a little support. now i feel a bit less pressured to find a bunch of teaching gigs. speaking english has just become a supplement to my supplemental income.

my immediate future looks a bit different now than it did a couple weeks ago. if the farm in hirakata isn't wifi-enabled, then damn it, i'll have to put wwoofing on hold. to minimize the lapse of internet connectedness, i might just set up some living quarters immediately upon my arrival. this wouldn't be a bad thing, as i'm about ready for a kitchen and a bit of stability. it's been great visiting in the states, but i think that three months is long enough.

there could be a strange addiction to exploring different cultures. there are many things that i miss about japan even though i was only there for a short while. i think i mostly just miss how everything there is different from what i'm used to. it's like everyday you run to the tofu man or the gymnasium or just head out for a three hour walk, it's a completely new adventure. it's convenient being able to walk into a second hand shop in portland and ask for exactly what you need and then have the shop keep understand you, but where's the fun in that? much more entertaining pointing at things and playing charades.


"Pumpin' 4 the Man", by Ween - Pure Guava

"Big Boss Man", by The Grateful Dead - History Of The Grateful Dead Volume 1 - Bear's Choice

"Work", by Gang Starr - Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr

"Dream for Mollie (I)", by Oddjobs - Drums

"Working For Vacation", by Cibo Matto - Stereotype A

wearing jammies in a scholarly manner.

prost!

ate another voodoo doughnut yesterday. i used the "fuck it, who's counting" logic*.

covered yesterday in 10 hours what only last month took me 13 whole days. it was hard work getting out of the rockies, much easier to get back in this time. rather good weather in helena lately, damn close to 90 today. to make the most of it, we rocked the hell out of the helena ridge trail. there's this sweet program in town called "trolley to trail". basically you can head downtown in the morning and load your bike onto this trolley, then get dropped off close to the trail head. pretty sweet!

this was my first time mountain biking, ever. i mean i've ridden mountain bikes before, but never on an actual mountain. pretty much takes an entirely different set of skills than road biking. erik's in the woods killing things, allowing me to ride his newly acquired wheels. very sweet! took a couple quick spills and blasted the shit out of my shins with the pedals. sara at one point was flying through the air, somehow underneath her bike. it was an unbelievable time, and we both came away relatively unscathed. good times indeed here in the 'tan!




in other, completely unrelated news, today marks the start of OKTOBERFEST! so if you're capable, grab a ridiculously large mug of beer, a nice soft pretzel, and pump up these germanic jams:

"Die lustigen Holzhackerbuam", by Sepp Vielhuber & His Original Oktoberfest Brass Band

"Gaudiburschen", by Blaskapelle Herbert Ferstl

"Ziwui, Ziwui", by Das Mondschein-Trio

"Freut euch des Lebens", Franzl Obermeier und seine Blasmusik


*if you're counting, please refrain from counting.

tuesday snoozeday

after wrestling with computer maintenance issues for a while, i decided that maybe a nice picnic was in order. i was in for a lazy one, as i've been cutting back on caffeine intake lately. it feels good. perhaps not quite as good as the high you get after drinking a non-fat venti no-whip double white chocolate mocha supreme (double-cupped with insulator), but still good.

first i headed to the g-spot to pick up some g's, mostly lunch-type items to get me through the rest of the week. backpack fully loaded, i shuffled on to the park. one of the better parts about portland is the never ending supply of park options. i picked a new one today, and it reliably provided for a phenomenal late-morning/early-afternoon. finished mem's of the geish (easily one of the top five books i've read), got mad sun, and took a nice power nap. you know those weird shapes you see when you stare into a bright sky through tightly closed eyelids? the ones that you can never focus on, and craftily shift just ahead of your every eye movement? well, i damn near caught one today. it's only a matter of time, ol' shapesie.

a diamond in the rough. i was all walking around the coop, wondering what the hell to buy when i saw the pastry section. i hadn't had a voodoo doughnut yet, and this gem cost the same as all the little ones! pretty much had me at hello.

enjoying the voodooie sweetness. i actually felt sick about 6/7 of the way through this ol' 'nut, but decided to press on. i used the classic "when's the next time you'll eat a voodoo doughnut" logic. plus i took a hellaride later in the afternoon.

so when i drop some line like "i'm living the dream", "life keeps getting better", or "give me a high five", perceive no jest. rest assured, i mean every word.

now, who wants a high five!? whoo!

desperately seeking solder

you'll have to excuse the lack of musical and philosophical updates, but these last few days have been the worst of my recent life. just joking, they've been the worst ever! no, that was another joke. actually they've been quite good, just a bit quiet...

long ago the headphone jack on this machine started acting up, followed shortly by the microphone jack. i quickly discovered that i could simply jam the sharp end of a pen into one of the holes for a little temporary audio rebirth. this genius strategy treated me quite well for about 4-5 months, until the other day, when i jammed a bit too hard. not sure exactly what happened, but now neither the speakers nor the headphones work. coupled with a lack of ipod capabilities, i've been sitting in silence since saturday.

this morning i decided it was high time to put an end to all this nonsense and break this bad boy wide open. twice dis- and re-assembled to no avail. i've determined that i need some tools that i simply don't have, at least not right away. if i can get my hands on some solder and a tool with which to heat said solder, we could be back in business. meanwhile, for my sake, please don't take your itunes libraries for granted.

thankfully this entertainment shortage will allow me to spend more time in the sunny ol' park. i'm almost finished with one of the better books i've read, and the skin cells are once again alive with solar radiation. additionally, a solution has presented itself which will enable me to once more visit the great state known unto thee as mawntanner. a friend is moving to austin via wisconsin this week, and has agreed to swap a ride to helena for some gas and a place to crash. the return details are fuzzy, but i have a few options in mind. it will be a quick trip, and sadly there is no time to run it back with a bike ride. anyone heading to portland from points east early next week? while i can't promise continuous conversation, i'll put a lot of thought into the things i say. plus i'll bring snacks!


just for a multimedia fix, here's some pictures of a lovely day up at the sauviest of islands:

peach fuzz

friday fryday

this morning i made a serious business decision to choose a range of descriptors and dynamically select the most appropriate.

gonna be mighty warm today, sunny and all that. there was a moment of sheer panic earlier this week when i realized that my tan was prematurely in the fade. immediately i headed to the park, disrobed, and burnt the shit out of the ol' shoulds. by now the red has subsided enough to head back out into the blaze and catch some serious solar action.

it's incredibly easy not to eat meat in this town. even the middle eastern food cart has veg options. a lot of times when it's food i'm after, i've put eating off long enough to be crazy hungry at exactly that time, and i mostly don't feel like waiting. you know when you heat up oil, and then you put things in it, and they taste real good real quick? i'll be surprised to make it through the day without any sort of furaido poteito.

hence, the duality of friday fryday.

today i offer some solid island grooves in the spirit of hot weather, sunshine, and, well i guess not really fried food.... maybe just the hotness and the sunshine. and pineapples.


"Fever", by Susan Cadogan - Trojan Upsetter Box Set

"Clear De Road", by SuperBlue & Fayann - T & T Soca 2004

"Young, Gifted, and Black", by Bob & Marcia - Trojan UK Hits Box Set

"Murder She Wrote", by Chaka Demus & Pliers - The Story of Jamaican Music: 1982-1993 Dance Hall Good To We

"Singer Man", by The Kingstonians - Trojan Originals Box Set

"Hot Like A Melting Pot", by Dennis Brown - Reggae Roots Vol. 4

"Rudy, A Message To You", by Dandy Livingstone - Trojan Originals Box Set

"AIDS", by Yellowman - This Is Crucial Reggae: Yellowman

fence fruit.

que buen día

man, you know how sometimes you just wake up and know that things are generally going to kick ass that day? this is, without doubt, one of those times. unbelievable sleep last night giving way to crisp air this morning, plus the clouds burned off already! suppose one might say i'm megahellapumped to live this one out.

time to escape the grips of this wonderful machine and get in some solid L-I-V-I-N. well, maybe after a solid 'net fix. first up, some audio supplements:

"Kiss", by Prince - The Hits/The B-Sides

"Three Day Night", by The Books - Music for a French Elevator and Other Short Format Oddities

"Ya Mama", by The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II

"Hotel California", by The Gipsy Kings - ¡Volare! The Very Best of the Gipsy Kings

"Albee Square Mall", by Biz Markie - Goin' Off

"Joppa Road", by Ween - Chocolate and Cheese

namesies

back when i was like 3, simply learning proper english was exciting enough. after about 10 years of that bullshit, however, i realized how much more fun it was to derive and use slang, abbreviations, and alternate pronunciations of otherwise boring words. one way this has manifested is through the days of the week. let's face it, saying "today is tuesday" is totally your mom's way of doing things. instead, try using the more illustrious "it's tuesday-boozeday mu-fucka! whoo!" see that? way the f more exciting. others include:

-Sunday Funday (probably a bit cliché these days)
-Wednesday Friendsday (admittedly a bit lame, but totes soash)
-Saturday Fatterday (it's a stretch, i know, but it's probably my least healthy day of the week.)

now, my fave day of the week is friday, hands down. this is mos' def' a throwback to my pre-2009 lifesteez. these days friday simply signals a time in the week when i'm about to have a lot more folks with whom to rip shit up. it occurs to me this morn' that i've not yet come up for a decent alter-nomer to describe this most spectacular time in the 7-day cycle. this is truly a case of creative dragonass.

i was never much for smoking on drogas, otherwise i'd probably just go with "friday-highday" or something. i'll also not accept "friday-guyday", due to it's implication that hanging out with women is a sub-par experience. if anyone has any good ideas, maybe you could help me out maybe? winner gets to choose the genre of the next musical selections.

and now, just for the sake of switchin' it up, please find brief collection of solid inspirational tracks below.

"Sunday Part II", by Cibo Matto - Stereotype A

"Friday On My Mind", by David Bowie - Pin Ups

"Like Clockwork Springs", by Daedelus - Denies The Day's Demise

"Groundhog's Day", by Primus - Frizzle Fry

"Summer Days", by Phoenix - United

"One Day", by RJD2 - In Rare Form...Unreleased Instrumentals

aaaaaasshole.

hot streak

so you head out for the night, it's all dry and whatnot. then maybe there's a bit of rain, just enough to give the streets that fresh summer tar scent. you wrap things up and head back to your designated city quadrant. you know that little strip of dirt you get on your pants while biking sans fender? pretty sweet looking eh? even better, apparently, on white linen. what an idiot! otherwise incredible riding weather we've been having. now to find some..... soda water? baking soda? fountain soda? shit. it's something in the soda family. i'm sure of it.

emission volition commission

F climate change. apparently we can just keep on truckin', then engineer nature back to the way it was intended. says so right here. wonder what it will take for people to realize that we aren't actually in control of the natural world, we're but a small part of the whole.

now, all over the planet, people are constantly monitoring the populations of other species. we determine how many of a certain type of animal there should be, when there aren't enough, and when there are too many. overpopulation we call it. then, as generally prescribed, the hunt is on. i wonder if anyone out there has put a number on us? we clearly can't keep going at this rate, but i guess procreation is mighty instinctual. there's a fairly interesting debate you can find here. the "background reading" section is particularly informative.

at risk of sounding redundant, it seems to me that rather than trying to tackle population/consumption driven problems at a macro scale, maybe some simple consumer education is in order. portland's one of the greenest places i know, but could still come a long way. what does that say about the rest?

check this story out. maybe it's old news for some. there are these groups around town that campaign for people's surplus lawn space, cultivate it, and pay said people in harvested goods. awesome. it's always nice if you take the growing initiative on yourself, but this is an effective way to motivate the other folks. 'twould be supertits to get something like this going in japan and wherever the hell else i end up. i really only see two main hurdles:

1. i don't speak much japanese
2. the only people with lawns are farmers

the first is really just a motivation issue. the second is a testament to their efficient use of space. maybe i could just pass out city friendly planters with translated watering instructions.

hope everyone's enjoying the jams. two new ones this morning.