Category: Personal

I’ve been coming down to LA so often that I think I’ve finally reached an amicable relationship with the city. As a resident of San Francisco, I’m contractually obligated to hate LA, and I still do. But now that I’m not looking for the city to impress me anymore, and I’m just interested in the…

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks locked inside my apartment, hunched over a keyboard and staring dumbly at the deadlines that keep flying by. I’ve got that sickly pallor back, I’m back on the sauce, my days and nights are completely reversed, the laundry and the dishes keep piling up, and even the cat…

I’m sure the San Francisco Animal Control People do a fine job with the fixings and the basic health exams and all that. I just think it’s irresponsible for them to be releasing pets without doing a proper psychological examination first. The problem, see, is that my new cat is batshit insane. There are plenty…

It’s tough being a dog person and living in the city. Even if I had an apartment that allowed dogs, it just doesn’t seem right to me having one without a big back yard — not just for the dog’s benefit, but so I can just let him run around without my intervention if I’m…

“Watashi wa nihongo ga mada heta desu” means “I’m still bad at Japanese.” And although that’s a demonstrably true statement, the correct response is supposedly 「いいえ、そんなことは ありませんよ」, “No, that’s not true!” I’ve been taking classes for the past ten weeks at a local school, and last night was the nerve-wracking final. It’s actually a pretty…

I’m currently down in the Lesser Los Angeles area (calling it “greater” just doesn’t feel right to me). The weather has been perfect today — sunny with just a few clouds, the temperature in the high 70s or low 80s with no trace of the San Francisco chill I left this morning. I spent the…

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I recognize it’s vitally important to keep the internets up to speed on my whereabouts. I just got back from a week-long trip down to southern California, cementing my coveted status as The Most Boring Business Traveler Ever. I’ve complained about Los Angeles so much that I’ve…

No two ways about it, the past two weeks have sucked. I think I left the apartment only once the entire time, my days and nights have gotten completely reversed, and each day I’m looking more and more like a mugshot of Ted Kaczynski. The key difference, of course, being that he managed to get…

I’m currently under contract to get paid money for stuff that I write, which means that I am a professional writer. And when you’ve been a professional writer as long as I have, you know how crucial it is to master pacing. It’s a tricky concept to explain to you amateurs, so here’s a simplified…

Before I give anybody the wrong impression, I should point out that the past few months have been just great for me. Being under-employed suits me just fine, and for the first time in a very long time I feel like I’m on top of everything and just plain content. Still, it’s getting really hard…