the horror

a good friend and sometime-reporter-of-suspicious-activities will be marrying soon.
he diverged from the traditional course for his bachelor party: paintball and steaks.

although i tagged the "do not add me to your promotional mailing list" checkbox on the waiver form tablet, i am nevertheless reminded that that paintball venue is having a wonderful zombie-themed costume paintball maelstrom event for halloween. i clicked "unsubscribe." i would recommend the paintball outlet. not sure there's a whole lot of regional competition. the place was well run, the scenarios diverse and fun.

in the spirit of zombie halloween horror, i have redacted identifying particulars of the members of the bachelor-party party in the creepiest sadako fashion i can short of printing glossy on photostock and having at it obsessively with an old ball-point pen before scanning it to post from the "after" photo below.



it was my first experience with paintball since that time my high-school teacher shot me in the back of the head from twenty paces a lot of years ago (where are you, teacher with photo of younger self-with-bong in your office whose name i can't remember?).

it is much more fun to face those shooting you with paintballs,
and to do it armed with a paintball gun.
it is much more fun to also shoot.

pretty much exactly what "playing guns" always should have been.
some people appear to be very serious about paintball.

apropos, sort of , of the sadako redaction, here's babymetal's head bangya!!!
although maybe gimme chocolate is more seasonally appropriate.

a one

a winter's day in a frigid polar vortex
i stare at the screen
troubleshooting windows or lying on my back
consuming content idly on my mac

i am a one
i am a zero!

i have my apps, a smart phone to inform me
i know where the deals are!
i've no newspaper subscription, no landline ties me down
i'll rent a bike and drink microbrews downtown.

i am a one
i am a zero!

we've NPR to talk about together
but nothing else in common
your fav'rite band sucks! but that's okay with me
if you weren't square i wouldn't be edgy

i am a one
i am a zero!

and a one's pretty sure
and a zero doesn't count

(cf.)

sic, or the criteria, bare, with me

at the spare of the moment at the bottom of the rung
they plan to automate taking the scan function down

after much thought internally and with my family i feel self-assured that
growing your employees can be a challenge that is not only unethical but also morally wrong.

this is the criteria bare with me.
we needed to very clear who repents whom

identity protection added for tracking purposes
to make sure that we always make sure we made the change but didn't see any affect.

it would be a nice jester if you comply with applicable regulatory regulations
so we can avoid confusion and duplicity, vexatious litagancy. miss compunication,

i am not very good at writing legalize, so forgive any errors .

on background

so: there's this chair, an unexceptional, inexpensive, somewhat old, simple rolling desk chair, in my bedroom, which had rested, out of the way, by the front window. recently, i moved it into the narrow walk between the bed and the dresser, where the comforter sloughs off the foot -- the better to work on a laptop running next to the alarm clock on that dresser -- where it has been for several days, although i move it a bit to get to drawers or squeeze by to operate the windows. it is light and rolls easily, if never straight.

i am accustomed enough to knowing what's where that i often leave the lights off.

just now, on the way to turn off the attic fan, i walked into the room, turned the light on, looked around, and, turning the light off, left again, unsure why i had so purposefully crossed that threshold. the sound of the fan immediately reminded me, so, without turning the light on again, i walked in, skirting the area where laundry might lie, and made my way toward the switch for the fan when my foot fell onto one of the arms of the chair's wheel array.

that's lucky, i thought, as, to trip over this chair in the dark could be dangerous. i imagined a number of ways the molded plastic might maim me in an uncontrolled fall and carefully moved it aside.

i switched off the fan meaning to open the windows; i headed that way until i bumped into the chair.

i can't believe it, i thought, how could i do that twice in such close succession? i found the chair's swiveling back with both hands, moving it to the side, and made my way around the foot of the bed.

having opened both windows i strode, between the bed and dresser, once more, right into that chair.

jackass, i thought, bitterly surprised: i hadn't even walked carefully, like one might, knowing a rolling-office-chair-of-potential-concussion-or-worse lurks, somewhere, there, in the darkness.

anyway, i told you that story so that i could tell you . . .

something.

i don't recall.

sic, or a none issue

Will economic growth falter when stimuli expires?

Due to urgency we have preponed the mock drill
by one month and conducted several trainings:

18 workmen were reduced from our manpower strength.
Remaining shop floor manpower issued cotton cloves and air plugs
for safety operations will seize as of that date for system upgration.

Libertation.

This is exactly the type of value-added services
lots of sympathizers, few advocators are pending the contract after a very though year!
Please provide information for our data updation, remaining cognoscente
of the following:

While attending a knowledge transfer session
on risks and mitigants of the wholistic valitity in the investment decisionning process, concern
about the potential lack of asymmetry
drank the confidentail Cool Aid, finely
receiving the ideas that are actionable
to accodate the tranx or create a precedence for lowering volume
as the fitment of product increases incidence rates.

sic, or run it back down the flagpole

I want to share key learnings from the meeting with you.

Recent evolvement in the deal status has only evolved
in the last couple of months. While it is important
to preserve the tenants of the original agreement, this will give some
context for the business rational for the proposal:

The model has seen some success
over time but also faces go-forward challenges. The platform will be
architected to meet that need:
The aggregator decisions the proper routing.

This was 180% away from your position.

They are considering our ask for more favorable terms
but have indicated further discussion would need to include a serious give
from X. Please advise on how we progress this.

bookbrick and the growing backlog

Some weeks ago I began describing some of the books I have read and acquired lately, and the post ran a little long, so I decided to revisit again when time permitted. Most of that was an effort to clear the decks for the xmas lode.

You see, my sibling and I exchange scrip redeemable at a popular online retailer of books (and almost everything else) and we might both have gone a little overboard this year, because I had a hard time spending all that scrip on stuff I actually wanted, or, to be a little more precise: I had a hard time calling to mind all the objects that I want and on which I would have liked to spend said scrip at the moment when I was trying to redeem it. I had several books in mind, but after I added them to my cart, the scrip balance was still troublingly high.

Two things I browsed but did not buy: ProTools software (DJ Pebkac's still climbing the not-very-steep-or-high learning curve of Audacity, but, while harboring music-authoring ambitions, has little time to devote to learning such software), and traditional Afghan "pakol" hats - which did not seem to be available for a head so large as mine.

The bookbrick arrived some days later:


Pictured, from right to left: The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse; Thelonious Monk, The Life of an American Original, Robin D.G. Kelly; Buddha volumes 1-8, Osamu Tezuka (graphic novels); The System of the World, Neal Stephenson; Rule 34, Charles Stross.

stupid zombie

swallowing TV
news whole without reflection
zombies are stupid

* *

lacking brains but w/
insatiable appetite
zombies are stupid

* *

get educated
and lurch outta those bloody
rags, stupid zombie

3434

i am acquainted with a young playwright associated with the Young Playwrights' Theater, whose production of the one-act play, "3434," a dystopian cautionary tale, i enjoyed the opportunity to attend:



it recently came to my attention that the production is available on youtube in two parts. the first part is above; the second part is below the fold.

8 zombie haiku

1.

like a bullfrog croak
strokes a summer ev’ning’s calm,
tomb-side, the cry: “brraaaaiiinnnss!”


2.

zombies, mai-tais, and
a hurricane or two are
all okay with me


3.

if you’re lucky they
leave enough brainstem so you’ll
be a zombie too