People Nowadays Dress Like Shit.

Hey! It's been 8 months since I've written about my wonderful life here on this corner of the internet. Things that have changed....I live in Austin now. Oh...I have a dog. I've been listening to Silverchair for 30 minutes now and I just realized it. Changing song....oooooo aereosmith. not better. Alright. I can deal with Walk Away Renee. Anyway...I've been having this loud and angry conversation with a couple people and I really think I need to get it down on paper. Or internet paper. Fake paper. Here it is:
People Nowadays Dress Like Shit.

I started to notice this in church when i was around 10, I'd say. My father always told me that I needed to dress nicley when I went to church, I imagine, out of respect for the institution. I agree with that. Church is a place at which you should show your deepest respect for...whatever it is you happen to be respecting there. You should enter those doors with a sense of dignity. Over the years, I noticed, people started dropping the button up shirt, slacks, and nice shoes look for maybe a clean polo shirt, khakis, and less nice shoes. Then, Polo Shirt, Shorts, tennis shoes/sandals. Now, when I go to church, it looks like people are on there way to, or from a lazy summer picnic. I call bullshit. Why am I the outcast for showing up in a shirt, tie, jacket, etc. Anyway...thats church...whatever...fine, do what you want.

What I HAVEN'T accepted is people having similarly low standards when going out into public. There is a girl I work with who comes to work in thin coton sweat pants and a different oversized faded Pink Floyd shirt everyday. She isn't fat either. They make real clothes that fit her. She looks like she just got done mopping and waxing the floor and decided to come pick up a shift. She looks like she spent the night at her boyfriends parents house and had to put on whatever was available so she could go down and get a cup of coffee. She looks like she walked out her fucking door to grab the paper and said, "Well, shit...I don't have any plans today. I'll just keep walking to the car and go to work." She looks like shit. Absolute shit. Complete lack of self respect. And she isnt the only person. In high school, girls would come to school wearing pajama bottoms. That's not cute. What are you, some sort of bed- ridden vagrant (I realize its difficult to be a vagrant if you're bed ridden...or visa versa...but you understand what I'm saying) who decided to come get an education? I can't place the blame squarely on her. That isn't fair. I'm sure she's a very nice person. It's a societal issue.

Society seems to be stuck in this unhealthy gravitation towards slovenly apathy. If you're leaving your house, dress like your leaving your house. I'm not saying wear a suit or a dress to work. Just throw on a pair of jeans. Maybe a shirt that fits. leave your houseslippers at home. I've never claimed to be a sharp dresser, but one thing I will say for myself is when you see me in public, I believe you can tell that my intention was to be in public. I didn't "leap" there from Bed Land.

Thats all I have to say.

Take Care,
Daniel.

Insomnia

I'm slowly returning to the land of the living after being sick for the better part of 2008. I was looking back on it...and this has been a really shitty year so far. My car got towed twice and I've been sick for over a month. It's only March 12th... it's ok though. Good things are coming. I'm not going to be all negative. On an unrelated note, or maybe totally stress related...I couldn't sleep last night because I was obsessing over how one would cut a pie into 10 even slices, without doing a whole bunch of math...effortlessly...I mean, it's easy to cut 8 slices. Youjust cut it in half, then cut the halves in half, then cut the 1/4 's in half. I really couldnt wrap my head around cutting a pie into 10 slices. I was thining, maybe if you figure out the circumfrance...but...I forget how to do that. Anyway. It was really bothering me and I had to take a sleeping pill to go to bed. I've never taken a sleeping pill before and boy do they work. So.....moral of story....if your having a pie party, don't invite 10 people....and...when i find the girl who can effortlessly cut a pie into 10 slices.....i'm marrying her.

Austin, HO!

Dear Deb,
As you well know, I'm moving to Texas. But what you don't know...is why. I want to be a cowboy.

Now...I guess that's a good start. It was suggested to me that I begin with that..and there is truth in it. Really, though...I want to dance. So...I'm moving to Austin, I have an apartment now, I have a job....now I just need to stop haveing these reoccuring dreams that something horrible is gogin to happen right before I leave. It's all pretty exciting. I don't have much else to say. Things are looking up for old Daniel.

Where Did My Friends Go. A Haiku.

one has a flu now

others are doing work and stuff

and I'm stuck here. Alone.

By the way, How awesome is the Sun?

So...once every...I'd say 2 to 3 months, I get curious about what's happening in music. I'm not talking real music, I mean like...the Indie scene. I'll browse Pitchfork, take recomendation from various music blogs...sort of blindly...I usually haven't even heard of the bands that these others groups "sound like."(one thing I have learned is "sounds like the Pixies" is usually a negative thing). Anyway..I have the unfortunate disposition of being a singles guy, but also a huge fan of concept albums....so...I never know what to listen for. Again...I've lost my train of thought so I'll get to the meat of my story... I was dowloading songs based on snobby blogger recomendations and I noticed that the problem i have is not that the songs are bad. The songs are fine..really..I mean...they aren't bad at all and I commend the artists for making them...its just that...I can't see myself buying the album becasue...I really just can't see myself ever wanting to hear the song again, or any songs like it. You know how you usually buy an album becasue you heard a song that you could see your self playing a couple more times, and maybe in the context of other songs by the same artist? Well....I just don't see that with a lot of these new songs. I wanna say maybe its an age thing...but...I'm 22. Aren't these songs supposed to be geared towards me? I don't want to blame the artists becasue they're doing what the do. I'm just beginnig to feel more and more comfortable with the blanket statement, "I don't like new music." It's a real shame. I want my mind to be changed, desperately. By the way...there's this creepy billboard on the corner of Palms and Sepulveda...something about having a savings acct...but this guy is wearing a pig nose...think...costume design for the Alice In Wonderlad live action tv show from a few years back....and some guy is putting money in the top of his head...like...in his skull....it really creeps me out.

****UPDATE****

I found a picture of the creepy pig. Apparently it's name is Benjamin Bankes. I hate it. It's so fucking scary.

Lenten Promises

So I went to church yesterday at lunch and listened to the priest talk about repentance and damnation and soul cleansing and stuff. I got all did up with ashes for Christ and felt pretty good about it. Maybe made some commitments too. I promised, before God, our lord Jesus, Father Somethingorother and the pruney old man ashing me up, that not a single drop of alcohol would touch these lips for the next 40 days. I was doing really well to. I didnt have a beer the whole time I was at work...I didn't have one for the 2 minutes I was home....I was pretty proud, I have to say. THEN....my sister came and got me and took me to Barragans..the fine little Mexican Restaurant/Bar in Echo Park. Now....she's older than me, so naturally, she's smarter. She convinced me to slightly alter my commitment to Jesus Christ from "No Alcohol Period Ever for 40 days" to "No Alcohol Ever at home (or outside of a bar) Ever for 40 days." I was at a bar...Margaritas were only $2.00....this sounded like a good idea to me. 4 margaritas and 3 or 4 beers later...I guess maybe it was less of a good idea. So day 1 of lent....I have already fallen off the wagon...very very hard. Now I'm not sure if I should get up and try again, or just accept defeat. I feel guilty...like maybe I'm gonna get struck down now or something...or maybe my grandma will find the phone number to my home...I don't know. Something horrible is probably deffinately going to happen to me though. I think the real lesson here is "Eat more than 1 Ho-Ho before you go out drinking."

I have a Blog

It's been suggested to me many times before that I start a blog. I think it probably doesn't have as much to do with people's interest in my daily life, than the hope that maybe if I get talking about it out of my system on the Internet (where one can easily skim and ignore entire thoughts), they won't have to listen to it in person. That's OK. As long as I'm getting attention, I'm pretty happy. Once I actually have something to say, I'll write another one of these things, but for now...I'm just letting the world know...yes....the entire world, who will be reading this blog, make no mistake about that.....I'm not really sure, grammatically or punctuation...aly...how to finish this sentence...so I'm gonna start a new one. I'm letting the world know that this voyeuristic look into my fascinating life will be available. Thanks for indulging me.