Love and Penguins
Just a thought from 25 August 2006 about Life, Love, Stories.

There's an old story. I don't know if it's true, but it goes like this. Penguins mate for life. And there's a moment when some boy penguin is looking over that infinite expanse of black and white when one female penguin stands out. And he stands out to her. And then, well, that's it. Of all the penguins, these two are now together for life.

A couple months ago, Heather and I went camping with some friends. One morning, we emerged from our tent, bleary eyed. There were a number of dogs camping with us, too, and one of them came trotting over to me, happy as can be.

And I did what I always do. I reached out with both hands and gave him a nice hello rub. Slowly, in my early morning haze, it occurred to me. Something smelled bad. Really bad. I looked down at the happy dog and something in his eyes said to me, "Yeah, I met a skunk. Kicked his ass."

I brought my hands to my face and gave them a good sniff. The smell was intense. Skunk smell is bad from afar. But up close, it's like pure essence of death.

And my first thought, of course, was: I've gotta share this with Heather!

"Hey, baby." I said, walking to her, arms outstretched. "Smell this!"

And as she was bent over, hands on her knees, gagging and on the verge of vomiting, I knew I'd found my penguin.

Booma
Just a thought from 22 August 2006 about Life.

When I was 16, I became a vegetarian. Years later, I spent the summer in Alaska. When my friends and I went fishing, I decided that if I could catch one, I'd totally eat it. So that's what I did. I figured, once you take a fish's life with your own two hands, you're allowed to eat it.

Last night I fired a gun for the first time. My friend Ford grew up around guns in Nevada, so they were always a normal thing. Me, growing up outside Los Angeles with semi-hippy parents, I wasn't even allowed a cap gun.

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Hey San Franciscans: Come Get Intimate
Just a thought from 15 August 2006 about Event, Fun, Love, Powazek, San Francisco.

My fellow San Franciscans, got plans Friday night? If not, come watch me get intimate with Heather Gold!

Inspired by Shabbat Salons, comedian Heather Gold brings the talk show format into the 21st century. Her live talk show mixes thinkers, entertainers, doers and the audience with humor, curiosity and yes, a little soul.

This Friday's show is all about "Intimacy" and features comedian and survivor's rights activist Betsy Salkind, author/spoken word artist Michelle Tea, and yours truly, talking up digital intimacy.

It all happens the JCCSF, 3200 California Street, from 8:00-9:30pm. Hope to see you there!

UPDATE: It went great! Heather posted a great wrap-up.

New Photo Book: Apple Sweat
Just a thought from 8 August 2006 about Books, For Sale, Fray, Life, Photography, Travel.

What do you do when your trip to New York City just happens to coincide with the biggest heat wave since 1936? Make some photos, of course!

I took my favorite Lomo shots and put them together in a book I'm calling Apple Sweat: The 2006 Heat Wave from NYC Streets. Take a look!

In ALA: Where am I?
Just a thought from 8 August 2006 about Design, Elsewhere, Writing.

Whoops, I did it again. I let a long-simmering annoyance with some quirk of current web design spill over into a rant that the kind folks at awesome web design rag A List Apart, enablers that they are, were kind enough to publish. Some will call it obvious, but if it was so obvious, it wouldn't be such a frequent problem.

Enjoy.

10 Insights on Blogs from PEW
Just a thought from 1 August 2006 about Blogging, Internet, Weblogs.

Notable insights from the PEW Internet study on blogging:

1. “The most popular topic among bloggers is their life and experiences.”

I knew this and you knew this, but it's nice to see the numbers back it up. What do bloggers write about? Life, baby. Same as it ever was for anyone with a pen and a notepad.

2. “The blogging population is evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse.”

See? Anyone who says there are no (fill in the blank)'s blogging is just not looking hard enough. We're ALL in here. Now can we please get over what color we are and what's in our shorts and focus on what we all have to say?

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