Here I am installing a print that I bought from an SF artist called Simon Cox.
Check out his stuff at EE2F.COM.

There are two reasons why I am writing this post. The first is the fact that when I caught wind of the 25 Things meme that made its way around Facebook a while back, I was kind of overwhelmed by the sheer number of random things that I was being asked to come up with. 25? Jeesus, people. Don’t you have anything better to do? All out of sheep to throw at each other? I mean… 25? Really? Those of you who know me well enough know that my list would probably have some repeats in there. #3 would be the same as #17, #12 might look a lot like #6, and so on. No–we all have a lot of randomness to us, that’s for sure. But I don’t think I have 25 for you. 11 I might be able to swing. And I don’t think they are going to be that random. They are just going to be the 11 things pop into my mind. How’s that?

The second reason I’m writing this is because this thought crossed my mind as I was riding home today: When was the last time you actually updated this blog? With MORE than 140 characters? Are you trapped in your shiny little world of microblogging bliss, just spurting out “clever” little hints about what you’re actually thinking and feeling? It’s been a while since I’ve told you about the important stuff, like my haircuts or my Christmas tree or my bike rides, so it’s high time I do so. So here we go:

1 i love making lists
I have this amazing ability to make lists, and I make little square boxes to the left of each line item so that I can place a checkmark next to the appropriate item once it is completed. This organizational skill has spiraled out of control, however, as I seem to have about twenty lists going at any one given time. I will start a new list just for the sake of the fact that my last list is too far away at the moment, or will add things like “make new list” to my current list. I also have a tendency to add a task to the list after I have completed said task, just for the sake of being able to partake in the satisfaction of being able to check it off the list, even if it was technically only “on” the list for about 3 seconds.

2 i know nothing about wine
Despite my not-so-rare infatuation with Gary Vaynerchuk after listening to him speak at SXSW, I have no real idea what the hell he or any other person who tastes wine is talking about. I am never going to be the guy who after a little “sniffy sniff” looks up and says with confidence: Ah yes. Hints of boysenberry. Not too much oak. Great nose. No, I will look up after sticking my nose in the glass and say: Yep. That’s wine all right. No need to waste a bunch of babble on me, talking about the acids and the tannins and such. Just let me know if the bottle is open and full. Those are characteristics I can understand and appreciate.

3 but i love food
Despite all that business about the wine, I love food. Any food, any time. My love for eating and tasting stuff is the impetus behind The Snack Attack. One of the things that I missed while living in Sweden was the food in and around San Francisco, so believe you me I’m glad to be all back up in the middle of it. And Mexican food drives me fracking bonkers, I must say, and I would without hesitation eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner if my dainty little frame could support the added weight. In high school I worked in a law firm and one of the funny little lines that was commonly thrown around the office was Just wrap it in a tortilla and Anders will eat it. More than likely true.

4 getting divorced sucks
Or maybe it’s marriage that sucks. My jury is still out on that one, but I can tell you that even though my papers have only recently actually “been finalized,” I’ve been dealing with starting over after a marriage for months and months now and it’s just a bunch of crap. I can’t put it any simpler than that. I go through periods of confusion and sadness, guilt and worry, and I wonder if what the hell I just spent my life doing for the last however many years was worth anything. And it WAS, of course, it was worth a LOT… but I’m human (for the most part) and I just can’t stop myself from occasionally thinking about the property, the house, the fruit trees, the walks in the forest, the dips in the lake, and all the other stuff that that we did together, wondering if it will ever happen again. It’s just weird. Nutshell: divorce sucks. Don’t do it.

5 netflix is cool
I know it’s been around for a long time, but I have only had it for a couple months and I think it’s great. I really like the fact that you can stream TV shows and films as well. I just watched an episode of South Park last night. It was the one where Mr. Garrison has a sex change. Pretty funny stuff. It’s worth whatever hidden charges they are now deducting directly from my bank account because I did not read the fine print when I signed up for the the FREE! trial offer in March.

6 i want to write more songs
I wrote a song a few weeks ago while sitting on Ocean Beach and John Vars, the lead singer of the rock and roll sensation Sonic Love Tonic, has now turned it into a techno song called Get It Right. It’s sure to be a huge hit, and since I don’t want to be a one hit wonder I’d better get going on some more. (I’m actually fine with being a one hit wonder, come to think of it. Less pressure.)

7 i eat a salad almost every night
I started making salads in Sweden, and am a big fan of salads with meat on top. Or fish. To me, a nicely seared piece of steak or fish on top of a great bed of greens and vegetables, with a little dollop of wasabi or horseradish on the side, is just heaven. Here is a pic of a great ahi salad I made a couple weeks ago. Yeah. I know.

8 i REALLY like my cat
Tailer is the most amazing cat ever. He’s my best little friend and he’s been through a lot of shit with me–a lot of dark Swedish winters and a bunch of great treks in the forest. And to top it all off, I stuck him in a little tiny bag and brought him on the plane with me, from Sweden to California. He’s a rock star and I’m always super glad to see him. He also plays the piano and scuba dives, which apparently is pretty rare for a cat.

9 i never want to meet this guy
I am not too sure what is going on here, but I think it’s VERY VERY wrong…

10 i don’t mind being alone
Spending a whole bunch of time alone in the middle of the Swedish forest will do that to you, I guess. I’ve always appreciated my privacy, I think, but after living in a really isolated environment, your inner hermit takes over and you figure out that it’s pretty cool to be alone. I had my own business in Sweden, so I set my own hours and then wrapped up nearly every day in our great kitchen having a beer or a glass of wine while I made dinner to really loud music. Loved it. Sure, people would come by occasionally and I would leave the property and go in to town, but for the most part I was flying solo out there. When Sanna was away for work during the winters, I would often go a week without seeing another human being. It was a real trip, and it had its ups and downs, but in the end I think I learned to like myself better and not mind hanging out alone. All thanks to isolated country living at its finest.

11 i have a love/hate relationship with my bike
I ride a 10+ year old Gary Fisher mountain bike that weighs a TON. I mean, it’s pretty sturdy, but my derailer is pretty wonky and the gears jam every now and then, and occasionally the chain jams itself into a weird place and causes me to not be able to pedal, which is not so good. People whiz by me all the time and I just keep on chugging. But a heavy bike means pretty fast on the downhill, so that’s a good thing.

So there you go. My eleven, for what it’s worth. Now to bed so that I can sleep. I don’t really like to sleep, but I force myself to do it once a day, a fact that would have made the list if the name of this post had been Mine 12. But you know the rules…

You heard right. I just got this email, so it looks like I’m pretty much set from now on, as far as money goes…

My dear friend,

I am writing you with honesty over a project I want you to undertake on my behalf due to the deteriorating ill health (cancer ailment) which has totally weighed me down over years. When my late wife was alive we deposited a huge sum of money Hundreds of million in dollars (To be revealed to you later in confidence) which were derived from our vast estates and investment in crude oil market with a financial firm in europe.

Recently, my Doctor told me that I have limited days to live due to the cancerous problems I am suffering from. Though what bothers me most is the stroke that I have in addition to the cancer. With this hard reality that has befallen my family, and me I have decided to will this fund to you and want you to use this gift which comes from our effort to fund the upkeep of widows, widowers, orphans, destitute, the down-trodden, physically challenged children, barren-women and persons who prove to be genuinely handicapped financially.

I took this decision because I do not have trust over my relatives and partners. I do not want my hard earned money to be misused or invested into ill perceived ventures. I want you to stand as the new beneficiary to the funds. My happiness is that I lived a life worthy of emulation. Please always be prayerful for me. Please assure me that you will act just as I have stated herein.

Yours sincerely,

Mahmoud Al Bashiru
For further correspondence -
malbashiru@aol.com
GLOBAL OIL & GAS MARKETING SERVICES,
UNITED ARAB EMIRATE

Yes, he said “vast estates” and “barren-women” and “new beneficiary.” *sigh*

Oh happy day.

Every now and then people ask me what I do for a living. Well, there’s a lot of little tiny things that I do with newsletters and copy-editing and words and alphabet-related stuff, but my main responsibility is to meet with the talent and talk about how their profile pages and their blogs are purrforming in the cat blogosphere. Yes, I just used the word purrforming.

Quite often, headbutts are involved. Watch:

You can see more of Skeezix here. He’s a good cat, and a hard worker. He also writes for us on Catster’s The Cat’s Meow blog…

[The story behind the headbutt is that another blogging cat, Jeter Harris, heard that Skeezix was coming in to the office and told Skeezix to give Snuzzy a headbutt for him. So he did. Who's Snuzzy? Right. There's that to explain. Snuzzy is also me. Don't worry. It's confusing - I know... Lots of hats, but I rotate them frequently.]

Did any of that make sense? No?

Good.