<a href="http://www.time.com/time/europe/generatione/index.html">TIME EUROPE: Generation Europe</a> 75123472daniel millerSaturday, April 06, 2002publish<a href="http://www.internet-tips.net/Tanstaafl/tanstaafl_bottomoffoodchain.htm">The Bottom Of The Food Chain</a> 75111474daniel millerpublishMicha and GS are back at her rental. GS sits on the small couch tucked up behind the small dividing wall between the front room and the main room. Micha dashes back and forth between the bedroom, off to the right, and the kitchen, directly in front. It�s a small enough house that two people could have a conversation from the far two corners if they wanted to. Hollow enough for it, too. Micha is trying to appear busy doing whatever it is she�s doing in the bedroom and the kitchen. Making tea and making her face as the case may be. Some mild music plays on the stereo, which is stacked up on the floor next to the bedroom door. GS is loungin�, almost laying all the way back, one leg propped up on the other�s knee, and he rests a nearly-empty glass on his ankle. He�s wearing oddly rust-orange socks, which don�t clash with, but don�t go with his dark blue jeans, either. In the glass is about three last sips of some mystery liquid, along with the remnants of three ice cubes, their lives almost spent, their yellowish, chlorinated selves slowly integrating with the drink. Like pacific islands as you fly overhead, their clear-water reefs looking like green ooze disappearing into the sea. Not that anyone here has ever been to the Pacific. We�ve seen some movies, though. That sushi one with Tom Hanks. Which reminds GS of one time Ethan Hawk was on the Regis and Kathy show, before Kathy left, and he quoted Tom Hanks as saying, �You can only eat so well.� Yeah. Micha finishes seeping her tea--I�m sorry, infusing-- No. What the hell are we talking about. Brewing. and comes over and parks it on the floor right in front of GS. She�s looking less mawvelous and more mother. Her tan, slightly wrinkled face is suddenly not so from vanity, it�s from taking the kids to the beach for a lifetime. Her eyes communicate caring not greed. It�s a moment. Literally. �So the safe.� No. �It�s this ancient job. One lock bar through half-inch steel right at the lock, and we�re talking 40-year-old steel here.� This is not happening. NTINH. �Brute force with some simple mechanics. It�s always worked for me. We grab the keys from pissed-off employee boy with some promise of a percentage of our score, which we will renegotiate after we actually get the goods, and we�re in and out of there in minutes. It�s flawless. I�ve mentioned that haven�t I?� NNN. TINH. That drink? I think there was a little scotch in there. Around the chlorine ice. �Ok.� 75095810daniel millerFriday, April 05, 2002publishok gonna give ya this one a day early since i probly won't get to it tomorrow....cheers, daniel 75095761daniel millerpublish...sittin' around, glasses dirty from use and still mostly empty, their owners nursing those last three sips for all their worth. That fluid inside representing all the life in that room. A real room filled with real people celebrating real lives. The Real World is anything but. We're talking real people, with funny clothes that don't match and undone hair that needed a trim two months ago. People with health problems and emotional problems and bad relationships and lonliness. People just hangin' out and livin'. Dealing with it. 75094997daniel millerpublishNeed to circle the wagons. We can all feel it. Watched a movie set mostly in Tucson. What wasn't there was a roadtrip. Reminded me of roadtripping in the southwest. Reminded me of the southwest. Not to mention the book I just finished was also set in the SW. Need to do some traveling around this weird nation again. I've been living in this funky hole for too long. It's like we're in a refugee camp down here and we just get to get out every once and a while. Otherwise we're just a few, banded together, trying to survive another day. 75094924daniel millerpublishHad this rev while on a ride early yesterday morning. Rides seem to ripe with revs. As I came over the hill where the ocean breaks out in front and then to the left of me, I could actually smell the salt in the air. I was thinking about Europe for some reason. Maybe because I was doing a European activity. Anyway, recently made some mention of the fact that Europe is thoroughly post-Christian, which is true. But I realized that in this country then, the jump is made that it is also very immoral, which is untrue. Which for some reason made me think about couples we know, and specifically about a couple we know here who are Europeans, and how most couples live together. And I realized it's mostly for economic reasons. There is no "get an apartment on your own" option in Europe. It's just economically impossible. So you either live with your parents or live with your lover. Simple economics. 75092209daniel millerpublishfrom my current read: Generation X by Douglas Coupland "My friends are all either married, boring, and depressed; single, bored, and depressed; or moved out of town to avoid boredom and depressions. And some of them have bought houses, which has to be the kiss of death, personality-wise. When someone tells you they've just bought a house, they might as well tell you they no longer have a personality. You can immediately assume so man y things: that they're locked into jobs they hate; that they're broke; that they spend everynight watching videos; that they're fifteen pounds overweight; that they no longer listen to new ideas. It's profoundly depressing. And the worst part of it is that people in their houses don't even like where they're living. What few happy moments they possess are those gleaned from dreams of upgrading." 75088157daniel millerpublishshe pulled today, for example, is what Micha calls the "soccer mom." After her morning routine--CNN, a pot of coffee, masturbation, and an hour in front of the mirror with Cover Girl--she with her day. for you Today it was cars, so she called up her first car guy. We'll call him Vinnie. S She has a list of about 20 names--just for cars--and s that list. One phone call is it and she's on to the next one. If Vinnie hadn't been home today, it would have been on to the next guy. We'll call him Joe. Micha never. Women criminals are all bitches. It would inevitably lead to a fight. Fisticuffs. Why when bitches fight it�s called a catfight she�ll never know. constantly the list. So-and-so goes to jail. Vinnie knows of so-and-so who�s reliable. Micha has a set of questions for any new contact. She can sniff out a rat or a pig in two minutes flat. It�s like when Dr. Drew and Adam ask a bunch of stupid questions when new callers dial Loveline. Yeah, just like that. Dumbasses fall for it every time. So your baseball coach felt you up, huh? What position do you play? only the cars list. She only does cars. Vinnie won�t get another call for five months. Hopefully he�s not in jail by then. He�s a pushover. Micha gave him a blowjob once two years ago and he�s been giving her 10% more than anybody else since, hoping for some more. was, Micha was just in the mood and Vinnie looked like he had a pretty small dick. Micha doesn�t own a car or a house. She lives in motels or rentals and borrows a different car every day. Today�s soccer mom was very standard fare. Take the bus to the poor part of town. Try not to look too out of place as the only white person around. Find an apartment building and find the nicest looking minivan in the parking lot. Pull that damn slim jim out from under the back of her blouse--she used to just carry it on the bus but she got sick of the looks. Pop the door--four seconds. Jumps in the van and throws the slim jim on the passenger seat. McDonalds trash on the floor. Slobs. Smells like black people--that combo of dry skin lotion and that shit they put in their hair to keep it from afroing. Micha the only person who grew up in an all-black neighborhood and became a ract. Scratch that. Micha hates everyone. Two more tools come the pocket--her special screwdriver and a hammer. She puts the screwdriver over the ignition and slams it hard with the hammer. She has a special technique of holding the screwdriver through the steering wheel. That way, if she misses the end of the screwdriver, the handle of the hammer hits the steering wheel before the head slams into her thumb. Nine times out of ten, anyway. This time, however, she�s dead on the first time. Her screwdriver drives deep into the steering column. Now the hard part. She s s only some cracking noise of the steering column. She gives it another hard turn and the engine roars to before. She pumps the pedal a couple of times, knowing if the car she�s. Fuck. That�s for the movies. Some Brazilian music in the tape deck. 75070659daniel millerpublish<s><a href="http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10096-100-3959139.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-1.3959139">have</a> <a href="http://dealingwith.blogspot.com/?/2002_02_01_dealingwith_archive.html">fun</a></s> Update: <a href="http://www.swynk.com/friends/lesandrini/CompareDocs.asp">have</a> <a href="http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/mia/m/i/mill6858/Micha.html">fun</a> 75070569daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.flakmag.com/features/hateus/">the amazing flak mag blog</a> also look around that cul site! 11431877daniel millerWednesday, April 03, 2002publishi don't know when greenbelt might run this so here's a little ditty for you all: [the unamerican] 2 last week my father-in-law bought a new boat. here in south florida boats are a very big deal. it�s kind of a double-edged sword: on one hand, the water is the main source of natural beauty and enjoyment down here; on the other, boats are prohibitively expensive for all but a few. a third edge is this: from a boat, in south florida, the world seems like it is inhabited entirely by millionaires. every house you see is not just a nice house on the water. it is a dire exhibition of gross abandon, a sick display of disgusting amounts of money, a message to the world that says: <center>you will never earn enough money. you are not a success until you have this.</center> �this� being a 20 room mansion on a piece of property on which the taxes alone amount to the GNP of a small African nation. gold fixtures. four car garage. brick paved driveway. big ass boat out back. pool, jacuzzi, and a sauna (never mind just being outside down here is the same thing). private room for a small, useless dog of some kind. so my brother-in-law took us out on the boat this afternoon. we were on our way back when a boat going the other way caught our eye. on its side were emblazoned the letters: WWJD. there was also not one, but an entire school of those little christian fish painted on the side of the boat. <center>JWOB. Jesus Wouldn�t Own a Boat. that much, considering his track record on material gain and property ownership, is fairly certain. he did hang out with boat owners, though, so i guess i�m still ok going out on somebody else�s�even if fishing in these depleted seas is a joke.</center> this on-boat message took the entire fish culture phenomenon to a new level. for about five years now, there has been a battle on america�s streets between. first there was the fish. then the darwin fish-with-legs. then the jesus fish, this time bigger, eating the darwin lizard. this tit-for-tat battle played out on the backs of range rovers and lincoln navigators across this great land has carried on through a multitude of variations, bringing much needed relief to a once struggling car-bumper paraphernalia industry. this was, of course, all but wiped out by the american flag sensation following september 11. so it was good to see someone staking out some more vehicular real-estate on the side of that boat today. go team. the entire �earn� thing plays itself out here daily in the everyman�s struggle to afford and maintain a �better� home. my friend, scott, and i have both been recently questioned about our deliberate avoidance of this particular ladder (we both rent �small� apartments--anyone in any other country or new york city would laugh out loud at this description, however): �why do you rent when you could own a home?� scott put it best when he replied: <center>�Because I could care less about the American Dream.�</center> 11431447daniel millerpublish'Continually, indeed, as it stole onward, the streamlet kept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without playfulness, and knew not how to be merry among sad acquaintance and events of sombre hue. '"Oh, brook! Oh, foolish and tiresome little brook!" cried Pearl, after listening awhile to its talk, "Why art thou so sad? Pluck up a spirit, and do not be all the time sighing and murmuring!" 'But the brook, in the course of its little lifetime among the forest trees, had gone through so solemn an experience that it could not help talking about it, and seemed to have nothing else to say...' <a href="http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Nathaniel_Hawthorne/The_Scarlet_Letter/XVI_A_FOREST_WALK_p3.html"> 1 </a> 11425156Johnny Citizenpublish<a href="http://www.emotioneric.com/">Eric Conveys an Emotion</a> 11424790daniel millerpublishplease correct me if i have that part of speech wrong! 11415875daniel millerpublish�So see? This guy is a real asshole! He deserves to be scored.� Good Son�s mother had never even used the word score before, certainly not in the form of a future progressive verb. Micha doesn�t even know what a future progressive verb is. 11415854daniel millerpublishmight double pump a little Micha action today. stay tuned to this space. 11415649daniel millerpublishBlack Sheep Music & Lyrics by Martin Sexton F 133211 C x32010 Dm xx0231 Bb x13331 (x1333x) G 320001 (320033) Verse: F C Dm Bb Sittin in this lonely town wonderin when things are gonna change Dreamin my life away and it seems them dreams they turned into a bunch of dust clouds Gettin my nerve up but my past is pullin me down wonderin how long this black sheep can stick around Somebody told me once before you can never go home again once you leave say anything just to steer me away from the truth of what I who I am and what I believe So I thanked him for his two cents with a shake and some sympathy and I packed up my blue jeans and I headed for the big prize of my freedom Chorus: F C Dm Bb Bye bye black sheep black sheep of the family Bye bye black sheep how that means so much to me Bye bye to my friends and to my family bye bye black sheep goin off and set my soul set it free Bridge: G Bb Times they were changin I did just a little re-arrangin take a couple chances my progress it advances C F/C/Dm/Bb to that prize of my freedom Verse: It's written in the stars that steel bars never will a prison cell make once I find that sweet home or a place I like to call home anyway some people will say I'm crazy singin out loud like I do here on the street when I got a song I sing it out loud and if you don't like that my friend well I'm gonna say to you Chorus 11415610daniel millerpublishwas just having some revs while listening to Martin Sexton's black sheep. trying to figure out if i'm living by faith or just an unemployable slob. then i thought most of the people i would consider to be living/have lived by faith would be considered slackers if they were judged against the american dream economy. they're really just smoochers aren't they? the only creatives you would really respect are the rich ones, aren't they? money=respect=meaning. guess jesus' life was meaningless. well anyway good thing He didn't come to the USAmerica. 11415589daniel millerpublishFrom Bono's interview with Gear magazine: "...if you want to write the book, sing the song, paint the picture, make the film, you have to reach under your skin and pull open your ribcage. For me, music is praise. Praise to creation. Even when it gets ugly, or brutal, as long as it's truthful I think it must be beautiful to God. That's why craft alone is so suffocating for talented people. Because they can't go there, because they're being clever, or they're being interesting, or they're being funny. But great work is made by open heart surgery. "...people look at someone like me and think, "He wants the world to love him." No. He probably wants one person to love him, and we all have to fucking hear about it." 11414758daniel millerpublishsome serious cockney slang in this tune. double check it for me. and find the triple-meaning behind some of the line! :) Closed for the Year (Little Bo Peep) 80bpm by dwm Verse: G D C G I�ve been tired from wasting all this time I�ve been tired from never ever stoppin� But I will just cut another line There will never be an end to all this poppin� These pills that come in red, white and blue They�re made to keep folks like me and you From thinkin� too much about the way They never mean a goddamn thing they say Bridge: Am G Em D Am G D Come and get me Uncle Sam Come and get me big blue Come and get me Little Bo Peep I�ve lost my tail feathers, too Chorus: G D Em C // G D G Hey, sorry, we�re closed for the year It�s winter now and there�s nobody here Check back in six months my dear Cuz sorry but we�re closed for the year Verse: I was feeling a bit Moby that day What I really needed was a good night�s sleep But I climbed out of bed climbed into my Toy-o-tay Started the engine and pulled into the street Lit up a smoke, took a drag, felt suddenly young Lit up down the road towards the setting sun Next morning pulled up to this store Read the words no one could ever ignore chorus // solo // bridge // chorus 2x 11414586daniel millerpublishhey sorry no micha yesterday. will have to remedy that today. 11414569daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.momentsofsimplicity.co.uk/">Moments of Simplicity</a> 11413084daniel millerpublishFinally got my bike squared away after a few tries and went on a nice longer ride this morning. Not a bad morning for a ride all and all. It was actually good practice in persistence. It took three tries to get a solution to the problem. Each time I would get frustrated I would take a break and then come back to it. I finally used one of my spare wheels to get that tube and tire to work. 11346651daniel millerMonday, April 01, 2002publish"We are taught in countless ways to value the product, the prize, the climactic moment. But even after we've just caught the winning pass in the Superbowl, there's always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. If our life is a good one, a life of mastery, most of it will be spent on the plateau.... Where in our upbringing, our schooling, our career are we explicitly taught to value, to enjoy, even to love the plateau, the long stretch of diligent effort with no seeming progress?" From FedEx to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, we're over- conditioned to want great results overnight. But all who have truly mastered anything know that the formula for MASTERY is long stretches of diligent effort, broken up once in a big while by "pops" to the next level. Since that's the case, we oughta take joy in our rehearsals -- after all, that's where the greatest will spend the majority of their time. 11342961daniel millerpublishTried to go on the club ride on Saturday. Went to get my bike and i had a flat tire. Yes, I could've fixed it and MAYBE made the ride, but it just took the air out of my tires, you know what I mean? Anyway I was up anyway so I just worked on my site for a couple hours. So I fixed the tire later on Saturday and everything seemed tip top with the bike. Sunday morning I was hungover and if I was going to get up at 6:30 that would have made for 4 hours sleep, so no club ride. This morning I was EXTRA determined to go on a ride, but again, when I went out in the garage to get the bike, now the OTHER tire was flat. This time I didn't have a club ride to catch, so I started about fixing the tire. Now Saturday, I had gotten four new tubes. My flat problem is mostly because I'm dealing with ancient tubes and the rubber is just worn. So I got two tubes that fit (supposedly) my one set of tires, and another 2 tubes for my other (skinnier) tires. (I have kinda fat tires on my racing bike right now, because I noticed roads here aren't the best.) Saturday the one tube for this size tire went on without too much problem. But this morning the other tube just would not work with this rim/tire. The area around the stem is too fat and the stem won't poke out of the rim. It's an aero rim so it's a bit wider than normal, and this tube is a bit fatter than normal. So it appears I'm screwed. I need a special long stem tube or something... Bullocks! 11342865daniel millerpublishSorry, it seems weekends i can never post. I only have the next bunch of days planned out, tho, so it's funny i just have to get to it. It's like exercise. Actually if yer reading this, can you send me a little <a href="mailto:mill6858@bellsouth.net">feedback</a> and let me know how you like it so far. What about the strange case changes? Good or bad? 11342679daniel millerpublish�Crazy little fuuuuuuuck�� Micha�s voice changed dramatically from jolly to sheepish as GS began to shoot her a very dirty look. The look didn�t even extend to her--he just started to turn his head, and her voice trailed off like a daughter who had just direly interrupted her father�s home improvement project. Turns out this guy makes quite a sport of hunting upper-class dogs. He scopes out a neighbor for days, maybe weeks, before finding the perfect time to go get the dog without getting caught. He has a special serum he brews up in his home chem lab. When it comes time to nab a dog, he loads up a hypodermic and grabs a couple doggie bones. He lures the dog to the edge of its yard with some high talk and the bones, and when it�s close enough, gets it in the neck with the hypodermic full of the super doggie-death concoction. Then he just sneaks back to his little foxhole. This couldn�t happen in any other neighborhood. In other neighborhoods, people know at least a little of each other. They pass each other on their way to work in the morning or while mowing the lawn on the weekend. Word would get around the neighborhood dog community and the surviving dogs would start to give Dog Killing Guy a hard time every time they passed by. But this isn�t just any other neighborhood. This is a neighborhood where the minimum net worth is 100 million. People don�t go outside but in their tinted Benz or Rolls. People don�t see their neighbors. They don�t go for walks but on their treadmills in their exercise rooms with their own AC units, before chillin� for a little bit in their own personal sauna. They sure as fuck don�t mow the lawn. They don�t even look out their windows at their beautiful view of the water and their perfectly maintained-by-illegal-aliens landscaping. And so DKG is free to do his thing. He�s just lucky some Old Rich Ladies still let their toy dogs out into the yard to take a dump every now and again. He�s just lucky some ORL�s don�t have private rooms for their Pomeranians, complete with a doggie entertainment system, exercise course, and a little piece of Astroturf for them to shit upon. Some of them do. But because DKG is lucky, in that even in his neighborhood there are still some dogs that manage to get outside once and while, he is able to go about his nasty business; and Micha and GS are able to stand outside of his ficus barrier, peering in on his sick enterprise. That and because Micha also just happened to be scoping out his place for a while. That and because DKG just happened to be the owner of the jewelry shop that Micha wanted to score. 11342591daniel millerpublish