drewmckinney.net

When I was younger and lived in South Carolina we had a big, ugly satellite dish. Even though it was a technological marvel for us as a family the dish and its system were outdated even by 1987 standards. Eventually the thing quit working altogether and the dish just sat there collecting slugs. My dad always had the idea of turning it into a gazebo and I thought he was crazy. I believe I even said to him, "Dad, that’s crazy." Well burn my pants, some Maker has done what my dad always wanted to do. My dad is no longer with us but I know if he saw this he’d look at me and smile without saying a word because he always knew when he was right. Let this be a lesson to all of you, there’s no such thing as a crazy idea. The Satellite Dish Gazebo with all the gory details, looks awesome!

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading and writing (although I’ve probably been doing more reading than writing…) and I haven’t felt compelled to post anything because it seems to me that mostly I’ve just been boring and have nothing interesting to say. Since I don’t have anything interesting to say, I’ll talk a bit about some of the interesting things I’ve been reading.

First, I’ve been listening to  SomaFM.com, specifically the "Secret Agent" station. I discovered this thanks to a post from Wil Wheaton and so far I haven’t gotten bored with the station. It makes for an excellent soundtrack when I’m writing and I feel like my neck muscles have become thick and muscular due largely in part to nodding my head for hours at a time while listening to groovy spy-ish music.

 I’ve been developing an interest in the psychology of marketing so of course there are a couple of sites that I like. MarketingSyndrome has been a great resource for niche marketing on the web. I’ve also been keeping up with HorsePigCow, the blog of Miss Rogue the Pinko Marketer. Her approach to marketing is very different from what most people are used to, definitely a must-read if you’re into marketing and stuff like that. I’ve also been reading the blog of Will Pate, the new Community Ambassador of Flock, my favorite browser, which I’ve come to learn is actually still under a "developer preview" version and not even beta yet. Wow, if it works this well as a preview I can’t wait to see what’s in store for later. I wish I were a developer so that I could say more technical things about Flock other than just "It’s cool because it works and it does cool things." Seriously though, it’s cool because it works and it does cool things. BeyondMadisonAvenue is a pretty cool blog about advertising, it has everything from news to gossip to thoughts of the day.

In addition to web reading I’ve been doing some of the dead tree variety. I’m almost finished with "Pretties" by Scott Westerfeld and I can hardly wait to pick up the third (and final – oh no!) in the series. I started reading the George Saunders collection by the name of "Pastoralia" and he just had an article in the New Yorker, so yay, a new writer for me to explore. I can’t say much about his work since I’ve just started reading him but he seems pretty funny so far. Extremely funny actually.

I’ve been doing some writing as well. Mostly working on a web site that I started a little while ago. I just started a new fiction piece that I should be working on right now and I’m also working on another travel sort of article that is due soon (and that I should be working on right now) with another article due soon after that.

That’s what I’ve been up to. What’s going on in your life? 

It had been a great Friday night. Drinks at Dalva with the Lady and a friend. Good discussion, wonderful stories, bottles of cold beer. The rain was present but only mildly so, a light mist that collected on my glasses and gave everything a frosty look, like I was watching the world through an icy pint glass.

Drinks ended and our friend had to go home so the Lady and I went across the street for a little dinner. Veggie burgers and turkey sandwiches. Greasy french fries that could have been cooked for another ten minutes because they were limp and lifeless, looking more like dead flowers than crispy delectables. Despite the fries it was a good dinner. Talking to each other about writing and how fucked up the country is. For some reason the waitress brought over a gallon of Tobasco sauce and set it on the table.

The wait for the train was ten minutes, strange for a Friday night in the city. The ride was uneventful, just standing there for the two minute ride home trying to avoid getting touched by someone’s wet coat. I held onto the overhead bar and tried not to notice the musty smell of homelessness and patchouli. A quick one block walk and we were home, the warm air of the apartment a comforting change from the wetness of outdoors.

Coats were hung and umbrellas were stowed. I drank a glass of ice water and thought that maybe I’d had one beer too many, the cramped feeling in my stomach causing a wave of bile to rush upwards towards my throat. I chased it back down with some more water and sat down to get comfortable.

The Lady looked at me while she removed her earrings. “Well that was great! Did you have fun Sweetie?”

I looked at her and smiled. “Of course I did! Let’s do this more often.” I lifted up my shirt and scratched my belly. The shoes slipped off and I searched for the remote, invisible as always amongst the magazines and pile of books to read.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

I jumped up from the chair. “Jesus Christ! That’s fucking gunfire! It’s right the fuck outside!” I ran over to the window and pried open the mini blinds with a metallic thunk. I looked left and right but couldn’t see anything.

The Lady ran over to the window with me. “What’s going on? Was that gunfire?”

I pushed past her and ran for my shoes. “Yes! That was gunfire! What the fuck is going on? I’m going out there to see if anyone needs help.” I pulled on my coat and ran to the desk for my phone. “My battery is dead! Grab your phone, we need to call 911.”

We rushed down the stairs and out into the rain. The umbrellas were upstairs and we started getting soaked.

“The number is busy! Why won’t they answer? I’m going to call again. Damn it, it’s still busy!”

We crossed the street and two people were coming our way. “Don’t go down there, they’re still shooting.”

I asked her if anyone had called 911. She said she didn’t want to get involved and walked away as the sounds of screaming reached our ears.

“Help me! Somebody help me! Help!” There was all kinds of screaming and people were starting to head out into the street to see what was going on. I looked up the street and saw the first police car on the scene.

“Wait a second Honey, the cops have arrived. Let’s go back inside. It’s not safe out here. C’mon, let’s go.” I grabbed her arm but she wouldn’t move.

“The number is still busy! Fucking 911 won’t fucking answer!”

I started to pull her back across the street. “Please, come in. It’s not safe out. The cops have arrived, please, let’s go in.” As I watched the street I saw another three, then four, then five police cars show up. The woman was still screaming for help. “Please Honey, please come in.”

She followed reluctantly and we got back indoors, spooked at the last second by someone that was driving by in a suspiciously slow manner. We got back upstairs and looked out the window. The wailing of sirens started to fill the air as police cars from across the city were dispatched to the scene.

“Why do people have to shoot people? Why do they need guns? What the fuck is wrong with people?” They were all good questions but I didn’t have any answers.

I just got here at Shine, where the event is. I’ve never been here before but it’s a nice enough place. Nice and dark. I figure that I’m in the right place because there’s a couple of laptops and some guys setting up the visuals. Cool. There’s also some bar glasses filled with Creative Commons buttons.

For those that will be in the Bay Area on Monday the 30th of January and Tuesday the 31st of January, consider going to see a play. Now, consider going to see 12 plays. See, there’s this thing called “Sheherezade” (pronounced shi-hair-eh-zod) which is a fund-raiser for the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. It is a night (two nights this year!) of 12 ten-minute plays, each play being about one of the months of the previous year. This year local playwright (and my special lady) Cassandra Lewis has written the play for February, titled, “Altered State of the Union”:

Sheherezade is the annual “Year in Review” fundraiser for The
Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco, a night of 12 ten-minute plays
that celebrate surviving 2005. Altered State of the Union is a
comedic recollection of February, as God tries to reason with a
flustered George Bush.

Altered State of the Union
By Cassandra Lewis
Monday, January 30th and Tuesday, January 31st
8:00 p.m.
$20
Off-Market Theater
965 Mission Street (between 5th and 6th)
San Francisco, CA
Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco

The game is about to start and the phone has been put on silent. While I’m totally pulling for the Pitt I have a feeling that the Colts are going to take this. My prediction: Colts win by 10. I’m not a bettin’ man and I don’t know what the current spread is, but that’s what I’m sticking with. We’ll see what happens…

UPDATE 8:59 PM: damn, there’s a minute and twenty-four left. 10 points??? I was being far too kind. My Steelers let me down every year. I’m tired of rooting for a losing team…I’m not going to give them up just yet, but man, it tries my nerves. These guys can’t even get a first down. Ever.

UPDATE 2 9:03: sixteen points. EFFIN’A. We’ll see how they do next week but Bubba, they’re out of the playoffs. The Steelers are finished for 2005. Maybe 2006 is their year. I seem to think that every year is going to be their year. Football sucks.