Back in college, I wrote an essay for my Philosophy in Literature class about a muddy metaphor Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. makes in his novel, Cat’s Cradle.** I just now finished editing the footage from this weekend’s Muddy Buddy (video below), and, watching everyone again - reliving the tingly joy of being exhausted and filthy - it reminded me of a certain reverence for nature depicted through Bokononism,* the ‘made up’ religion mentioned throughout the book.

I won’t get too far into it, but especially with everything that’s going on these days in the world, and in this country, there is a strange comfort in knowing that a drove of wild hooligans need no better reason to get together and act like a bunch of animals than just that. If anything, it says something about the demand for a feeling of community and release that is created by such an isolated society.

Anyhow, doing this race was really something.

• Read eliza’s entry about it.
• Check out the narrated photos: [set menu] [slideshow]
• Play the video below. Or view it [here] at blip.tv. Highlights include a man finishing ahead of his partner despite his prosthetic leg falling off. (His partner carried it for him.):

*From ‘Books of Bokonon’:

“God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. ‘What is the purpose of all this?’ he asked politely.

‘Everything must have a purpose?’ asked God.

‘Certainly,’ said man.

‘Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,’ said God.”

**From Wikipedia:

“The book was adapted into script form by Richard Kelly, the writer and director of Donnie Darko [one of my favorite movies]. A film adaptation of ‘Cat’s Cradle’ was expected to be made in 2007 but now it appears unlikely to be produced.”

WTF!

I gats a job! A probably-short freelance gig that’s definitely pretty weird for me (consulting??) — but it counts. Now I can goof off without feeling bad about it. Or do the other 3,000 kinda-mandatory things on my list. Not that I won’t keep hunting.

Other great news:

• I’m posting this through our very own and thus-far speedy cable internet connection, the installation of which was prompt and professional, although finding an ISP in my area was practically like pulling the curtains on a shadow government. (I know you’re there!!) I finally found a backdoor route, and am saving about $20 a month because of it. Double boo-yah.
• Our costumes for Muddy Buddy (this weekend, holy crap), or at least our idea for them, are coming together. I’ll keep it a surprise until afterwards, though it’s one of these. Now it’s time to, uh, start training.
• Ross, my old hurdling buddy from high school, tracked me down all-internet-stalker-like to tell me he’d recently sliced his knee on something and like a flashback had vivid fits of nostalgic bloodthirst. Man, it’s weird, and so is hurdling, but I know what he means. To this day, when I see a guardrail, a chained-in parking lot — anything that prevents my direct walking route — I sometimes feel a gravitational pull to sprint straight-ahead and karate kick that ish in half. In the good ol’ days, Ross and I would often take home 1st and 2nd place at league meets, and relish in our DOMINATION. Today we passed back and forth Photshopped images of each other in thine midst of battle. Here’s my favorite, of his head on Gail Devers’ body:

Anyhow, it was great to hear from him. That’s all for now. 10-24.

I was just updating my Flickr account today, adding some captions and things, when I discovered this little stat.

Apparently over 1,000 strangers — by way of their own scouring of the internet, mind you, not even a ‘peeing’ photo tag to assist their search — have enjoyed my candid snap of eliza’s quick pitstop in Virginia.

I’m not sure which emotion appropriately describes how I feel about this.

…Elation?

Close enough.

eliza and I went pumpkin picking this week. Autumn in San Diego is more of a season than we expected — trees do shed and leaves get pretty here — but the outing proved to be a much stronger and welcome dose of the east-coast Fall we know and love. After playing around like kids for a while at Bates Nut Farm, we hiked the nearby… Hellhole Canyon. Which, while its title couldn’t be much more badass, is less steep and treacherous than it is spookily beautiful.

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So we’re here! Found a really nice little place in Pacific Beach and some cheap furniture. We can finally sprawl out after what was a long and wonderful trek.

I haven’t updated in weeks because it proved either impossible or too difficult/time-consumptive a task on the road. But since we found a roof for our heads, we also discovered a neighbor’s usually-amicable wireless network, which, even tho it likes to take long naps at unpredictable times, is so very clutch I almost feel obligated to go knock, give her some sort of cake, and thank her for passwordlessness.

. . .

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