Today's pharmaceutical industry: its advertising, promotion, and heavily subsidized drug research. Its general ubiquity in American society.
Imagine this:
You are living in wonderful old 1950s America, growing up on a farm in Iowa and your father is a WWII vet, whatever. Most of the food you eat is locally produced, if not on your own farm. If someone told you that 50 years from now literally millions of children would be on powerful psychoactive medications, you might wonder if we hadn't all been through a nuclear winter at some point, and needed special medicine to survive the fallout!
Here's just one example: According to one source, about four million kids are on Ritalin today, compared to one million in 1990. Use has doubled every four to seven years since 1970. More than 90 percent of Ritalin use is by Americans, and mostly children. So not only has an exorbitant, rapidly accelerating number of children been prescribed medication for various supposed mental health issues, much of what is prescribed is a known addictive drug - amphetamine (Ritalin, i.e, methylphenidate)
Considering the parallel epidemic of methamphetamine abuse in America, we ought to be doubly cautious, right? After all, Ritalin is a close cousin of meth. Wrong. In fact, methamphetamine is sometimes prescribed for the same condition - ADD or ADHD - under the trade name Desyrel.
I believe it is a useful exercise to imagine oneself as that Iowa farmer citizen of yesteryear - and to apply the hypothetical scenario that this citizen can see into the future. I think we would find that such a poor soul would think they had died and gone to hell!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Guardian article
I've been reading British news sources online lately. It's kind of interesting to compare how the Brits write news - their emphasis and their outlook on things. A peculiar breed, I must say. That's the enlightened conclusion I've come to.
No, seriously, the British media seem to be almost equally obsessed with tabloid / celebrity stories as the U.S. media - if that is possible - and with the trashy pop journalism that you find on cable news and on Access Hollywood type shows in the States.
But there's another strain in British media that is incredibly learned and intelligent; clever in its approach, and with a sharp, clear writing style. That's the stuff I like. There is a strain of liberalism, too, that in some ways goes beyond that in America. I have provided one link as an example: http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityaccess/story/0,,2035511,00.html
There seems to be a class-consciousness that permeates social commentary in Britain. But it's oddly equivocal; a dualism exists with that. You sense some subtle classism - like in this article, in the first paragraph - until you get to the next paragraph where your assumptions are flipped upside down! That's where the "liberalism", if you will, comes in with this piece. They are talking not about checking university applicants' parents' education as a means of employing subtle class discrimination, as one might expect in the England of old, perhaps, rather, it "is part of an effort to drive up the number of students from poor backgrounds getting into university", as the article has it. It's meant as redress.
The article just doesn't make sense in American terms. It strikes one as overblown and verging on the absurd. But then again, they say that trends - everything from fashion, to politics and ideology - start in Europe and only make their way west to reach the states later on.
So perhaps we can learn from British media what might be headed our way?
But much of the time I dare say that Briton's live in a peculiar sort of vacuum. Maybe their many years as an insular little island; a European backwater, have warped the British mindset to bizarre ends...
No, seriously, the British media seem to be almost equally obsessed with tabloid / celebrity stories as the U.S. media - if that is possible - and with the trashy pop journalism that you find on cable news and on Access Hollywood type shows in the States.
But there's another strain in British media that is incredibly learned and intelligent; clever in its approach, and with a sharp, clear writing style. That's the stuff I like. There is a strain of liberalism, too, that in some ways goes beyond that in America. I have provided one link as an example: http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityaccess/story/0,,2035511,00.html
There seems to be a class-consciousness that permeates social commentary in Britain. But it's oddly equivocal; a dualism exists with that. You sense some subtle classism - like in this article, in the first paragraph - until you get to the next paragraph where your assumptions are flipped upside down! That's where the "liberalism", if you will, comes in with this piece. They are talking not about checking university applicants' parents' education as a means of employing subtle class discrimination, as one might expect in the England of old, perhaps, rather, it "is part of an effort to drive up the number of students from poor backgrounds getting into university", as the article has it. It's meant as redress.
The article just doesn't make sense in American terms. It strikes one as overblown and verging on the absurd. But then again, they say that trends - everything from fashion, to politics and ideology - start in Europe and only make their way west to reach the states later on.
So perhaps we can learn from British media what might be headed our way?
But much of the time I dare say that Briton's live in a peculiar sort of vacuum. Maybe their many years as an insular little island; a European backwater, have warped the British mindset to bizarre ends...
Ya, I think I've decided not to put any pics on my opendiary page. I want to keep the focus on the writing, and not turn it into another busy, chaotic myspace profile. I already have one (search davidivus@yahoo on myspace) and no one ever looks at it except me, anyway.
So not much goin' on lately. Just chillin' out maxin', coolin' and relaxin', shootin' some b-ball outside on the street...
Ya. Maxin'. That's what I'm doing.
I wish I could meet some people and chat online. It'd be fun. I don't know. I'm just really lonely. A lot of people who would take the time to create an online diary I think might be in the same boat. It's a lonely world. Post-industrial world. Postmodern world. Nothing to do but work on your own vanity. Embellish it and fix it up and prepare it for online consumption. And try to be the most popular profile on myspace, right? That's the ultimate goal to strive for. Our purpose in life.
Somebody help mehh!
So not much goin' on lately. Just chillin' out maxin', coolin' and relaxin', shootin' some b-ball outside on the street...
Ya. Maxin'. That's what I'm doing.
I wish I could meet some people and chat online. It'd be fun. I don't know. I'm just really lonely. A lot of people who would take the time to create an online diary I think might be in the same boat. It's a lonely world. Post-industrial world. Postmodern world. Nothing to do but work on your own vanity. Embellish it and fix it up and prepare it for online consumption. And try to be the most popular profile on myspace, right? That's the ultimate goal to strive for. Our purpose in life.
Somebody help mehh!
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Seattle is...
What's up with Seattleites?
I think Seattle has a definite folk vibe going on; a particular feeling of community. And I mean folkishness in the German sense of the word - volk. Das volkenbladt. I think I can judge only because I'm a recent arrival (Fall '05) from the wastelands of suburban D.C., Maryland. There, as in most suburbs I suppose, it's everyone for himself. Greed and callousness is the name of the game.
The city has a European feel to it, and not just because it's majority white, unlike the east-coast cities. Sure, that's part of it, but it's more complex than that.
There is anecdotal evidence of Seattle's nature, I believe, in the everyday. For instance, people's driving habits: in what big city can you expect to walk a crosswalk with no traffic light and expect cars to stop and wait patiently? And in the middle of the city, close to downtown? Many people have mused on Seattle's driving idiosyncracies, often to complain. But that is only if you are the one driving - and, in all likelihood, only if you're an aggressive, impatient east-coast school of driver. But from the pedestrian perspective, things are entirely different. Try crossing the street in traffic on Georgia Avenue in D.C.! You'll be quite lucky if you come away with your life. The coarse honking of horns that is so common in a big city is notably subdued here.
Other seemingly trivial aspects of daily life can offer a measure of Seattle's folk-mindedness and overall civility. Walking down the street, you may notice that people look you in the eye more, i.e., they're not nervous or afraid to make casual eye contact the way humans are meant to when walking by one another. As a matter of fact, when I first moved here, I commented on this to my sister (who came to Seattle in '04 for grad school), and she agreed.
I think this shows a level of trust that is lacking where I come from. If you're afraid or mistrust the average stranger walking down the street, you're not as likely to look them in the eye.
There are many things. I'm sure we could all conjure some if we stop and think. And this is notwithstanding the various demographic issues that set Seattle and the region apart.
Seattle may be the last of the traditional American cities: it's geographic isolation has been its saving grace. Of course Seattle is no stranger to change. Recent projections have population growth accelerating rapidly during the next 30 years.
We, if there is a 'we' - and maybe I couldn't include myself since I'm not native - should be cognizant of what we have. They say you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone. Often true. But let us hope we can realize what we've got and keep it from going! I think many people are aware of how Seattle is special. In fact, I'm struck by the self-knowledge Seattleites have of their uniqueness, distinctiveness. But it is especially salient when one has moved from afar: another region of America as a standard for comparison.
I think Seattle has a definite folk vibe going on; a particular feeling of community. And I mean folkishness in the German sense of the word - volk. Das volkenbladt. I think I can judge only because I'm a recent arrival (Fall '05) from the wastelands of suburban D.C., Maryland. There, as in most suburbs I suppose, it's everyone for himself. Greed and callousness is the name of the game.
The city has a European feel to it, and not just because it's majority white, unlike the east-coast cities. Sure, that's part of it, but it's more complex than that.
There is anecdotal evidence of Seattle's nature, I believe, in the everyday. For instance, people's driving habits: in what big city can you expect to walk a crosswalk with no traffic light and expect cars to stop and wait patiently? And in the middle of the city, close to downtown? Many people have mused on Seattle's driving idiosyncracies, often to complain. But that is only if you are the one driving - and, in all likelihood, only if you're an aggressive, impatient east-coast school of driver. But from the pedestrian perspective, things are entirely different. Try crossing the street in traffic on Georgia Avenue in D.C.! You'll be quite lucky if you come away with your life. The coarse honking of horns that is so common in a big city is notably subdued here.
Other seemingly trivial aspects of daily life can offer a measure of Seattle's folk-mindedness and overall civility. Walking down the street, you may notice that people look you in the eye more, i.e., they're not nervous or afraid to make casual eye contact the way humans are meant to when walking by one another. As a matter of fact, when I first moved here, I commented on this to my sister (who came to Seattle in '04 for grad school), and she agreed.
I think this shows a level of trust that is lacking where I come from. If you're afraid or mistrust the average stranger walking down the street, you're not as likely to look them in the eye.
There are many things. I'm sure we could all conjure some if we stop and think. And this is notwithstanding the various demographic issues that set Seattle and the region apart.
Seattle may be the last of the traditional American cities: it's geographic isolation has been its saving grace. Of course Seattle is no stranger to change. Recent projections have population growth accelerating rapidly during the next 30 years.
We, if there is a 'we' - and maybe I couldn't include myself since I'm not native - should be cognizant of what we have. They say you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone. Often true. But let us hope we can realize what we've got and keep it from going! I think many people are aware of how Seattle is special. In fact, I'm struck by the self-knowledge Seattleites have of their uniqueness, distinctiveness. But it is especially salient when one has moved from afar: another region of America as a standard for comparison.
opendiary
I just did an entry, but I'm back for round 2.
I created a page on opendiary.com. Cool, huh? Yipdeedoodah. Yippity-kaw-yaw-yaay!
So there presents the dilemma of where to do my "blogging" - here, or on my web diary thingy. I like blogspot's simplicity and the format. it's attractive. I have this kind of parched paper-looking template I picked. Opendiary does more utilitarian, though. Blogspot is more for show.
I don't know. We'll see, I guess.
If I can start connecting with people; i.e., if people comment on my stuff or I post on the opendiary boards, then maybe I'll continue here. Whatever. Big deal.
What will hopefully happen is I'll start doing something meaningful in my life and I won't have to waste my time writing stupid online journal entries! Other people's lives aren't so lame that they need to fancy themselves "bloggers". "Yee-haw. I'm a blogger" I guess people try to milk whatever kitsch-value there is in that.
I created a page on opendiary.com. Cool, huh? Yipdeedoodah. Yippity-kaw-yaw-yaay!
So there presents the dilemma of where to do my "blogging" - here, or on my web diary thingy. I like blogspot's simplicity and the format. it's attractive. I have this kind of parched paper-looking template I picked. Opendiary does more utilitarian, though. Blogspot is more for show.
I don't know. We'll see, I guess.
If I can start connecting with people; i.e., if people comment on my stuff or I post on the opendiary boards, then maybe I'll continue here. Whatever. Big deal.
What will hopefully happen is I'll start doing something meaningful in my life and I won't have to waste my time writing stupid online journal entries! Other people's lives aren't so lame that they need to fancy themselves "bloggers". "Yee-haw. I'm a blogger" I guess people try to milk whatever kitsch-value there is in that.
The World Wide Web
So, yet again I'm here reporting on more trivial happenings in my pathetic life.
I think I'll make this post public, because I know there are lots of people out there who want to read this pulp ;)
You know, I wonder, does all the pop-lit and blogging going online do anything to cheapen literature overall? Or just democratize it?
There is so much out there, it's like everyone is an amateur author, amateur journalist, amateur poet, whatever. So what does that make "professional" writing? Is there such a thing? And if so, what puts it on a different level than all the other pulp? I'm starting to think that a lot of these pro-authors who get published in "real" rags or on popular websites are not anything special. At least not intrinsically so. I tend to think all the bloggers and self-publishers are equalizing the playing field; democratizing the written word.
I'm a bit behind the times, because most people will say, "duh, that's common knowledge", but I think the internet has really revolutionized to much in our world. In so many areas. I think the great demarcation in history will turn out to the start of the digital/computer age. And you can place it, really, right around the turn of the century. Or five years, before, perhaps. It's interesting that this has happened at the turn of a millenium. Such a grand kind of mark. But I truly believe that in the world of ideas; the exchange of ideas, that the internet is revolutionary.
The realm of philosophy and politics is now available to the masses, instead of the enlightened few who subscribe to the Economist, and have graduated college, or whatever. You get an internet connection, you have Lexis-Nexis at your fingertips.
Voila.
So these are just some thoughts.
I think I'll make this post public, because I know there are lots of people out there who want to read this pulp ;)
You know, I wonder, does all the pop-lit and blogging going online do anything to cheapen literature overall? Or just democratize it?
There is so much out there, it's like everyone is an amateur author, amateur journalist, amateur poet, whatever. So what does that make "professional" writing? Is there such a thing? And if so, what puts it on a different level than all the other pulp? I'm starting to think that a lot of these pro-authors who get published in "real" rags or on popular websites are not anything special. At least not intrinsically so. I tend to think all the bloggers and self-publishers are equalizing the playing field; democratizing the written word.
I'm a bit behind the times, because most people will say, "duh, that's common knowledge", but I think the internet has really revolutionized to much in our world. In so many areas. I think the great demarcation in history will turn out to the start of the digital/computer age. And you can place it, really, right around the turn of the century. Or five years, before, perhaps. It's interesting that this has happened at the turn of a millenium. Such a grand kind of mark. But I truly believe that in the world of ideas; the exchange of ideas, that the internet is revolutionary.
The realm of philosophy and politics is now available to the masses, instead of the enlightened few who subscribe to the Economist, and have graduated college, or whatever. You get an internet connection, you have Lexis-Nexis at your fingertips.
Voila.
So these are just some thoughts.
my dad
I've been neglecting my blogspot.com blog for some reason. Signing into it is a pain. Opendiary is easier, more user-friendly. I do think my domain name - davidivus.blogspot.com - is fairly good, though. I was surprised it was still free. You don't have to register it like you would a typical dot-com URL, 'cause it's hosted by Google.
I was briefly interested in Tiki-wiki - the whole wiki concept. I still think it's pretty cool, but it's complicated, and I don't really have the patience to learn how to navigate all that shit. There're a lot of concepts that you have to learn to create a user-interactive page, and I'm not sure where the page would go. But it's a great idea, the whole wikipedia thing about users being able to edit stuff on the site. I guess I just don't have a topic worthy of doing it for. Like if I was running some site on a particular thing, like budgies or something, or a news blog, maybe it'd work.
Anyway.
Unimportant, really. Just dabbling into the internet world out there. A big world. It is fascinating. Tons of possibility. I really admire the visionaries who founded start-ups and who anticipated things before everyone else. Definitely some smart people. Like Bill Gates, etc. There were a few people, only a few, who really saw computers' and the Internet's potential early on, and they've been able to profit from it, immensely in some cases. Pretty kick-ass.
I've always been proud of my dad along these lines, too. He had been doing research on traditional photography since the early '70s, and loved the darkroom and being a photographer. But when the digital age came along - and it rushed in quick - he was able to make that transition.
He adjusted his business, accordingly, to be a consulting company. Instead of focusing on traditional photographic processes, he learned that he could apply the same issues of permanance, in photography, to the printing of digital photos. Digital photography began to be taken seriously and used by fine-art printing presses and galleries, and thus a market developed for expertise in this new field. The permanence of the pigments and inks and dyes these presses were using became an issue. So my dad made likewise adjustments is his focus at his company, Wilhelm Imaging Research. I remember when popular-use digital cameras first came out - those under $1000, that is - and my dad got one. Somewhat surprisingly, he was very willing to accept the notion that photography was undergoing a revolution of sorts, and that a new order had arisen in tandem with the rise of computers and the Internet. Darkrooms were to be a thing of the past. My dad was born during WWII, so he wasn't young when this was happening, in the early to mid-90s. Others had a hard time adjusting, because it truly was a revolution.
Photography had gone fundamentally unchanged since the turn of the century, 1900, or earlier. But Wilhelm Imaging Research successfully shifted its focus right along with the changes in the industry, and became the leader in consulting on the permance and archival issues of digital "output", as he called it, i.e., digital printing, and the various technologies that were rapidly being deployed.
-d.g.w.
I was briefly interested in Tiki-wiki - the whole wiki concept. I still think it's pretty cool, but it's complicated, and I don't really have the patience to learn how to navigate all that shit. There're a lot of concepts that you have to learn to create a user-interactive page, and I'm not sure where the page would go. But it's a great idea, the whole wikipedia thing about users being able to edit stuff on the site. I guess I just don't have a topic worthy of doing it for. Like if I was running some site on a particular thing, like budgies or something, or a news blog, maybe it'd work.
Anyway.
Unimportant, really. Just dabbling into the internet world out there. A big world. It is fascinating. Tons of possibility. I really admire the visionaries who founded start-ups and who anticipated things before everyone else. Definitely some smart people. Like Bill Gates, etc. There were a few people, only a few, who really saw computers' and the Internet's potential early on, and they've been able to profit from it, immensely in some cases. Pretty kick-ass.
I've always been proud of my dad along these lines, too. He had been doing research on traditional photography since the early '70s, and loved the darkroom and being a photographer. But when the digital age came along - and it rushed in quick - he was able to make that transition.
He adjusted his business, accordingly, to be a consulting company. Instead of focusing on traditional photographic processes, he learned that he could apply the same issues of permanance, in photography, to the printing of digital photos. Digital photography began to be taken seriously and used by fine-art printing presses and galleries, and thus a market developed for expertise in this new field. The permanence of the pigments and inks and dyes these presses were using became an issue. So my dad made likewise adjustments is his focus at his company, Wilhelm Imaging Research. I remember when popular-use digital cameras first came out - those under $1000, that is - and my dad got one. Somewhat surprisingly, he was very willing to accept the notion that photography was undergoing a revolution of sorts, and that a new order had arisen in tandem with the rise of computers and the Internet. Darkrooms were to be a thing of the past. My dad was born during WWII, so he wasn't young when this was happening, in the early to mid-90s. Others had a hard time adjusting, because it truly was a revolution.
Photography had gone fundamentally unchanged since the turn of the century, 1900, or earlier. But Wilhelm Imaging Research successfully shifted its focus right along with the changes in the industry, and became the leader in consulting on the permance and archival issues of digital "output", as he called it, i.e., digital printing, and the various technologies that were rapidly being deployed.
-d.g.w.
It's Saturday and I just got back from my sister's birthday brunch at Salty's in Alki, West Seattle. Delicious! What a decadent treat that was. An all-you-can-eat seafood brunch with crablegs, shrimp, salmon and loads of cake and pastries and fruit. It truly was the most gluttonous session of face-stuffing I have ever partaken of. Reasonably priced, too, considering. Everything was of excellent quality. Somehow I just can't imagine a place like that on the east coast. If there were, it'd be twice the price and probably not as good or as fresh. The last thing I had was a slice of vanilla cheesecake. Lord have mercy. I went back for seconds. So I ended up stuffing down three slices of cake and a bunch of fruit, plus coffee, for dessert. Postively gluttonous. But heavenly.
This is what it means to be American!
This is what it means to be American!
Seattle
I just moved to Seattle a little over a year ago and I still don't really have any friends. Just my sister's people - Jesse's family, et. al.
I have some acquaintances here and there, but I need some real friends. I guess it's really not that easy once you're in your twenties. But it certainly shouldn't be impossible. I think people here in Seattle are somewhat standoffish. I mean, they are polite, but there's a certain reticence, Victorian if you will.
I'm not just looking to meet girls, although I wouldn't mind...but just friends in general. That's important especially when you no longer have your parents around. I used to live with my mom outside D.C. in Maryland. We were a pair, a bit co-dependent, perhaps. So I'm on my own now in the big city. Bright lights, big city.
I'm thankful I'm not in an east coast city or in L.A. Seattle is an extremely livable place as far as large U.S. cities go. It's safe, and it has multiple little self-contained neighborhoods that give it a sort of small-town feel. It's much more spread out than the east coast.
There is a huge college presence - the U of W and others. Many students and graduates wandering around, so that's definitely a plus.
As for the job market, I think it's competitive - I'd say more so than D.C. and Maryland. There're more young people just starting out, I believe. The city itself does have the highest, or one of the highest rates of college grads of any population in the U.S.
So much for my detached analysis of my living situation...I'm being absurdly dispassionate, so I'll stop.
Maybe that's part of my problem - I'm too scientific about everything. Stop analyzing and start living, I hear the catchphrase...I get it from my dad, I think. He was scientific about life to the point of dysfunction: he stopped caring about his family (if he ever did).
So I'll try to be aware of that and not make the same mistakes.
Getting tired...
That's about it for me tonight. Maybe I'll come back when I've thought of something else to write.
I have some acquaintances here and there, but I need some real friends. I guess it's really not that easy once you're in your twenties. But it certainly shouldn't be impossible. I think people here in Seattle are somewhat standoffish. I mean, they are polite, but there's a certain reticence, Victorian if you will.
I'm not just looking to meet girls, although I wouldn't mind...but just friends in general. That's important especially when you no longer have your parents around. I used to live with my mom outside D.C. in Maryland. We were a pair, a bit co-dependent, perhaps. So I'm on my own now in the big city. Bright lights, big city.
I'm thankful I'm not in an east coast city or in L.A. Seattle is an extremely livable place as far as large U.S. cities go. It's safe, and it has multiple little self-contained neighborhoods that give it a sort of small-town feel. It's much more spread out than the east coast.
There is a huge college presence - the U of W and others. Many students and graduates wandering around, so that's definitely a plus.
As for the job market, I think it's competitive - I'd say more so than D.C. and Maryland. There're more young people just starting out, I believe. The city itself does have the highest, or one of the highest rates of college grads of any population in the U.S.
So much for my detached analysis of my living situation...I'm being absurdly dispassionate, so I'll stop.
Maybe that's part of my problem - I'm too scientific about everything. Stop analyzing and start living, I hear the catchphrase...I get it from my dad, I think. He was scientific about life to the point of dysfunction: he stopped caring about his family (if he ever did).
So I'll try to be aware of that and not make the same mistakes.
Getting tired...
That's about it for me tonight. Maybe I'll come back when I've thought of something else to write.
cracked
Monday, February 26, 2007
For some reason I keep checking my email obsessively. I used to not even use email for anything. Period. I really don't get new emails much anymore, and it's depressing. Even mom doesn't send much anymore. Getting lonely.
I need to check and see if my entries are set to public, 'cause I don't know if I really want everyone reading everything I write, or do I? Maybe I do. Perhaps I need to reify my humanity in the face of the exaggerated building up of the ego a guy inevitably attempts with online profiles - we're all studs on myspace, right? Catch my drift?
Oh, I just scrolled down and now I see that each entry can be set to public or private individually. Okay. duh.
So let's be done with this so I can do another entry before I have to go.
For some reason I keep checking my email obsessively. I used to not even use email for anything. Period. I really don't get new emails much anymore, and it's depressing. Even mom doesn't send much anymore. Getting lonely.
I need to check and see if my entries are set to public, 'cause I don't know if I really want everyone reading everything I write, or do I? Maybe I do. Perhaps I need to reify my humanity in the face of the exaggerated building up of the ego a guy inevitably attempts with online profiles - we're all studs on myspace, right? Catch my drift?
Oh, I just scrolled down and now I see that each entry can be set to public or private individually. Okay. duh.
So let's be done with this so I can do another entry before I have to go.
Seattle espresso...
My sister Sarah is currently on an I-Tech work trip to Guyana for her AIDS curriculum work. She went on a leisure trip to Surinam, too, for a couple days when she got there. Haven't heard much, though.
Getting hungry...
Man I love Seattle espresso...Vivace in particular is the best. Victrola, too. Yes, indeed. But try buying just one a day - you'll be down $3 more or less, right? Well, pretty soon you find yourself needing two - and I can assure you, these places aren't giving free refills like it's Coke. So now you're down $6 a day. Now multiply that times 30, and per month that ain't no chump change.
So I'm limiting myself to one or less of these delicious espresso/cream concoctions per diem. I'm telling you, though, try resisting the double allure of caffeine and deliciousness. And I mean delicious as in texture (the frothy, smoothness of a latte) and that unmistakable essence of coffee bean. Add the aroma plus the fresh-faced beauty of Seattle college-age girls, and you have a recipe for...I don't know what. Something not easily resisted.
Plus, when your life is boring already, you know.
That's why the Seattle espresso scene is so popular, and why they can get away with charging so much. I went to the Broadway Vivace on Saturday around noon, and the line was literally out into the street - there were like 25 people in line. Crazy.
So like I said I'm getting hungry. Time to go to Dick's.
Getting hungry...
Man I love Seattle espresso...Vivace in particular is the best. Victrola, too. Yes, indeed. But try buying just one a day - you'll be down $3 more or less, right? Well, pretty soon you find yourself needing two - and I can assure you, these places aren't giving free refills like it's Coke. So now you're down $6 a day. Now multiply that times 30, and per month that ain't no chump change.
So I'm limiting myself to one or less of these delicious espresso/cream concoctions per diem. I'm telling you, though, try resisting the double allure of caffeine and deliciousness. And I mean delicious as in texture (the frothy, smoothness of a latte) and that unmistakable essence of coffee bean. Add the aroma plus the fresh-faced beauty of Seattle college-age girls, and you have a recipe for...I don't know what. Something not easily resisted.
Plus, when your life is boring already, you know.
That's why the Seattle espresso scene is so popular, and why they can get away with charging so much. I went to the Broadway Vivace on Saturday around noon, and the line was literally out into the street - there were like 25 people in line. Crazy.
So like I said I'm getting hungry. Time to go to Dick's.
Myspace etc.
My myspace page is davidivus@yahoo.com - I mean, if you search with that email address, you'll find it. Otherwise the headline is just "David". That address itself is inactive.
I'm having a lot of fun adding pictures and captions and stuff to my myspace page. I put on pics of The White Stripes and the Shins' Anita Robinson - their female vocalist, and her Alabama folk group Viva Voce. It is really easy to add HTML to myspace. It really is a great site, I can see why so many people like it. Opendiary is good, but it's less social-network oriented, and that's fine. It's not supposed to be. It's an online diary. But I'll confess, I do enjoy reading notes that people leave on my entries. I think Myspace can get addictive (especially if you're horny). Every time you log out there's a picture of a really hot young chic. I don't know what message they're trying to convey with that...
Anyway, I'm still bored out here in the middle of Seattle. I suppose I shouldn't be, for that very reason - I'm in the middle of Seattle, America's greatest city. But as cool a city as it is, I have heard more than one person comment that it's a hard city to make friends in. It's hard to penetrate the little cliches, and people are a bit standoffish and shy sometimes. I am, too, and that makes it doubly hard in some ways, I guess.
Speaking of meeting people, I ran into Deb at the coffee shop - Vivace, today. It was nice. She was going to work and stopped by for a "nico", a strong little espresso drink with cinnamon and orange peel in it. We chatted and she told me about her job, what it's like working at the Des Moines library, and about how she picks some of the books that the library orders. So she reads a lot, especially young adult books, and makes recommendations. Nice girl, Deb is. Very nice. Sometimes I wonder why she likes my sister. I tend to think that she's more fond of Jesse, and is just friends with Sarah by default - because they're a together. But whatever, what do I know.
C'est la vie, la vie, la grande vie.
I'm having a lot of fun adding pictures and captions and stuff to my myspace page. I put on pics of The White Stripes and the Shins' Anita Robinson - their female vocalist, and her Alabama folk group Viva Voce. It is really easy to add HTML to myspace. It really is a great site, I can see why so many people like it. Opendiary is good, but it's less social-network oriented, and that's fine. It's not supposed to be. It's an online diary. But I'll confess, I do enjoy reading notes that people leave on my entries. I think Myspace can get addictive (especially if you're horny). Every time you log out there's a picture of a really hot young chic. I don't know what message they're trying to convey with that...
Anyway, I'm still bored out here in the middle of Seattle. I suppose I shouldn't be, for that very reason - I'm in the middle of Seattle, America's greatest city. But as cool a city as it is, I have heard more than one person comment that it's a hard city to make friends in. It's hard to penetrate the little cliches, and people are a bit standoffish and shy sometimes. I am, too, and that makes it doubly hard in some ways, I guess.
Speaking of meeting people, I ran into Deb at the coffee shop - Vivace, today. It was nice. She was going to work and stopped by for a "nico", a strong little espresso drink with cinnamon and orange peel in it. We chatted and she told me about her job, what it's like working at the Des Moines library, and about how she picks some of the books that the library orders. So she reads a lot, especially young adult books, and makes recommendations. Nice girl, Deb is. Very nice. Sometimes I wonder why she likes my sister. I tend to think that she's more fond of Jesse, and is just friends with Sarah by default - because they're a together. But whatever, what do I know.
C'est la vie, la vie, la grande vie.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
my blog, y'all! Yes Yes y'all!
Wow, what an attractive blog I have...
Now, if only anyone would read it...
or if I would even post anything...
or if I would even care enough to want to post anything...
Now, if only anyone would read it...
or if I would even post anything...
or if I would even care enough to want to post anything...
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