floorpie

You know what, though? I like writing and I miss doing it more often. I like a lot of things that I wish I did more often, truth be told. Writing being one of them, going to shows being another, laughing with friends, taking pictures, traveling. That’s not to say I don’t do those things, because I actually do all of them… I just wish I did them MORE. “And why don’t I?” I outwardly say inwardly to myself. I dunno. I really should just do the thing because life is achingly, surprisingly, tragically short. Do the thing. DO IT. It’s just a matter of priority, I tell myself; and it takes more than just a bumper sticker that says “Prioritize You”. What that bumper sticker should also say, in subscript of greater font size than the superscript, in bold and free of parenthesis. What that bumper sticker should also say, or more correctly primarily say to the point of just outright omitting the absolutely unnecessary first statement of “Prioritize You” because of course you should, that’s what we’re all here reading this bumper sticker down even and at eye level with the curb for. What that bumper sticker SHOULD say, and will say once I get a hold of my printing guy, is “DE-prioritize the other shit”.

Because that’s the real trick.

I have had this blog for 22 years. I have had this blog long enough for a baby born on the same day I started this thing to have grown up, graduated high school, taken a gap year backpacking around Europe, had his or her first kiss uncommonly late in life, gone to college, dropped out, fallen in love, broken up, become a NFT millionaire,fallen in love again, lost their fortune in the most recent crypto crash, and broken up again.

I really hope he or she is doing ok!

22 years. That’s just frankly obnoxious and I wonder why I keep it. I know why I tell myself I keep it: I have a list of the books I’ve read on here and use this to keep track. Never mind that I also have a Good Reads account and have since brought that list up to date, that’s hardly the point get off my back!

I also tell myself that I keep it because I host my main email through the same domain. Which I know how to transfer to another host so it’s really not a good reason and yet here we are.

Maybe it’s so I can scribble these kinds of stream of consciousness missives that no one reads every 8-12 months or so. Maybe. I don’t know. I wonder when I’ll post again?

In a stunning display of intense creative motivation, I am posting again… though this is really more of a postscript. For the spambots that follow me, I’ve been working on re-designing my photography site. It’s not done, needs speed enhancements, probably is rife with spelling errors, but by gawd, it’s up! It also has a link for buying photo prints, should you be interested. My joke has been that only my mom and myself will actually buy a print… but even my mom hasn’t, so I guess it’s all up to me.

Come visit me: www.dakfoto.com

Imagine my surprise and horror to discover that the last time I posted on this site was in 2017. Imagine it! No, seriously do it right now. Imagine my checking in on my site and chuckling at my own linguistic cleverness, looking to the date of my latest post, seeing 10.22.2017, going to the kitchen to make coffee that I have on hand but do not drink, making said coffee, letting it cool to a reasonable temperature, preparing a glass of water to wash my mouth out with afterwards because coffee is the devil’s hot bean water and tastes as such, taking a swig without swallowing, looking at the post date again, and doing a spit take of my coffee for dramatic effect. Just imagine!

I knew I hadn’t actually blogged in a while, but I would never have imagined that it was THAT long ago. I semi-frequently update the “read” part of this site, where I keep a running list of the books I’ve read; and, I semi-frequently read, so in my mind I felt that I’d been checking in on floorpie.net more often than I apparently had been.

I’m also surprised that, given the covid-19 pandemic, that there aren’t 2+ years worth of insane ravings on here. Where did all that energy go?? (seriously, where did it go? Can you tell me? It’s all a haze).

But I digress. Or not really, as I didn’t have a point to digress from in the beginning. Where does that leave us? I dunno. Will I be back more frequently? Doubtful? Maybe? Is my mind capable of long-form twitter posts anymore? Only time will tell!

Since my last trip to China I went to China again. I had a brief sojourn in Germany, which was my first time, and appropriately magical; but, then I returned for less than a week and headed out to Hong Kong…which, is strictly China but also decidedly not. I came to the conclusion, perhaps at least partly based on the sentiments in my last post, to take advantage of the fact that I was all the way out there, to travel somewhere else.

I tried to pull a solo trip to Bali together at the last moment, but there were literally no reasonable flights to be had…and I don’t even mean that from a cost perspective, I mean that there were literally no flights without multiple layovers and 12+ hour travel times (for a flight that should be ~3 hours). So, lesson learned, Bali is not a place that you go to on a whim.

I tried Cambodia and had similar results, and was at the point of resigning myself that this was going to be “just” another trip to Hong Kong for business and I would be heading home afterwards as per usual, when a work friend of mine suggested Beijing. My immediate reaction was inward and was mostly “but I wanted to lie on a beach, not go to China…AGAIN,” but this time did promise to be different.

Oh, I just remembered that I also tried Singapore and that didn’t work out, either…I digress.

This time I would be going to China as a tourist. I would see the Forbidden City. I would see the Great Wall. I would see the cafe on the 6th floor of a Beijing office park that was a recreation of the Central Perk cafe from Friends. And I did. I saw all of those things and more and so the question to myself is now: what do I think of when I think of China?

And the answer is, without drumroll or fanfare, still factories. (insert laughing emoticon). I suppose that should be understandable given how many times I’ve gone and spent my days in factories and how many times I’ll still do so in the future; but, I will say this: the Great Wall, in particular, touched my heart and mind and still lingers there. It’s touristy, yes, but that does not diminish how amazing it is or the sense of awe you get by visiting. So, China, to me you’re now factories and one hell of an amazing achievement.

I’m in China…again. I’m not sure how many times I’ve been, but I think something like 30. The thing is, every time I’ve visited, I’ve been in factory towns both known and remote. Shenzhen is the most well-known, and the most high-tech and well-developed…but I’ve also spent a lot of time in towns with literal dirt roads, chickens in the streets, and non-ironic rickshaws. There’s things you see in towns like those that seem to be common…things like outdoor pool tables, garage shops with roll-up doors in a long row, and one Western-style hotel rising out of the poverty to service the business men.

I was thinking about my experience with China, which, if I may be so bold, is pretty extensive at this point…but at the same time, it’s an experience where I’ve never had the opportunity to see the country outside of various factory towns. What do other people think about when they think about China? Do they think about the Great Wall, the clay warriors, Bruce Lee? Is it the exotic and misty Orient full of ancient secrets and wonder?

Probably so, and that’s just as fair of an assessment as any. For me, though, it’s a totally different feeling…

People in LA, possibly most anywhere, whilst alone in public, scribble furtively in little notebooks. 

Not unlike, one might note, the one I’m writing in now.

I wonder if anyone else is scribbling about the pointlessness of their own writing. Given that this is Los Angeles, probably. 

I’ve had this site for a long, long time. In one incarnation or another, I’ve had it since the first days of Blogger when I was dating a girl who knew the guy that did the thing and I had (in my mind) the opportunity to turn what was a hobby then into what is a business now. Alas, I lacked the foresight or the fortitude or both and I simply plunked away at the keys, often several times a day. My interest waned, as you can see from my once bi-yearly posts nowadays, and the landscape has changed precipitously. Back in the day, there was no Facebook, or Myspace, and only barely Friendster and everyone trying to talk to each other on AIM. There was no easily accessible way to post about your emo angst or (not yet invented) cat videos.

So you blogged.

Now it’s so much easier to hashtag an instagram post and be done with it in 20 seconds.

But now no one writes anything anymore, and can’t discern a there from a they’re, and thus falls modern civilization.

[Superintendant Chalmers sees Principal Skinner’s kitchen on fire]

Superintendant Chalmers: Good Lord, what is happening in there?

Principal Skinner: The Aurora Borealis?

Superintendant Chalmers: The Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

Principal Skinner: Yes.

Superintendant Chalmers: May I see it?

Principal Skinner: No.

Yes, I have that kind of camera that people make music videos out of these days; and yet I instead went ahead and utilized 1989 technology to create a shorter, grainier video without sound. I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Ladies and gentlemen, the mighty Dettifoss: