Two links to the same blog, Always Growing, on wordpress with helpful comments on harvesting seeds for reproducing gardenias.

Probably. I look so different from when I started working a stable job for the city of L.A. I was so happy that I landed this job because not only was I back in the city, but my job was in a department I had been striving for since I left it in 1982. It was melancholia mixed with successful endeavors all in one. I kept one of those goatees that you see on the three muskateers, but trimmed close to my skin, and my hair was also trimmed every two weeks.

Now? My hair is tied in the back and my goatee is longer with razor stubble along my upper lip. Mustaches were always difficult for me to groom so I finally decided that I'm not a mustache kinda guy. If my hair gets any grayer, I'd be the poster child for Uncle Sam. The people who knew me back in my straight edge grooming days say they liked me better when I had short hair. I'm even offered dates, in the form of a bribe, if I would just get rid of the pony tail. Well, here's the deal. I've always been shy and never able to flirt with very much success back in the days when I did portray a presentable young gentleman-caller.

These set-backs in the dating game caused me a lot of stress that ended in drunken stupors. I'd been kicked out of places to the point of being physically dragged out of the premises. Forgive me if I decided that I would quit drinking that way and change the way I look so that I would hardly resemble the same bloke to people who've seen how far I can get in a bend. The way I look now gives me confidence that I can walk into a place without wondering if people still remember me. Yes, it's sad. I suppose one can look at it as though women everywhere have finally achieved their sweet revenge against guys like me. Although I'm really not such a bad guy.

If it's a bad thing to vow to stay in love with the first person who's ever stolen my heart, then I hope it's understood that karma is on my side where relationships gone bad are concerned. I'm a real fucking mess, but I won't change. Those hot young horny girls who think they can charm their way into my heart are mistaken. I'd blindly enter a marriage with a total stranger as long as she is who I know I'm in love with, but because sexuality is weird and some women you think you might have the hots for could actually be a dude, a former dude, a dyke, etc. I gladly hold true to my ideals of first loves being the one and only love there is in life.

Then there's the conspiracy of the customer from hell I will refer to as Mister. Mister dropped by yesterday and made threats in the form of suggestive inquisitiveness. Apparently, this person I'm talking about is similar to me in that they've always been known by a shortened version of their real name. Now they're finding that they are having identity theft problems with their account with their local library. It's weird because I searched for their account under their real name and nothing was in the system. I couldn't help wonder that something like this might be a way to make me out to be incompetent but I searched high and low for their account. The threat comes in the form of bringing this issue to the headquarters of library services where they might find it suitable to investigate even the employees habits in an effort to find some corruptness in the system. Oh, Mister came off as being genuinely concerned about the mistaken identity issue, but if Mister did bring the issue of having receiving correspondence to their address under a different name, I wouldn't run it past an investigative team cracking down on the little branch where I work to try to find the cause of the problem. Would they then overlook minor incidences like slackers who don't raise the American Flag? What a nag

I've updated a previous entry I made about the bookmark I used when I was reading the book Girl with a dragon tattoo. When I began reading this book, I couldn't help but wonder what year the story takes place. I'm sure I commented on it in one of the many lj entries I've written here. I just can't find it. Now that I've begun part 2, Girl who played with fire, it's become clear that the year I thought this story takes place in was wrong.

Despite what the chapter headings indicate in part 1 and 2, I thought it might be easy to clarify when the story actually takes place by matching days of the week with the month and the date. I'm well into part two (page 200), and I'm finding that taking on this little project of clarifying the year in which this whole plot is supposed to have happened just reminds me of how fictitious the novel really is.

I'm just making an entry that I can tag "music" to show some of the CD titles that I've attempted to suggest for purchase as part of the collection at the local library. Some of these might seem a bit lame, but I firmly believe it all depends on who's reading the least; plus, there's no way around seeming lame with titles for SLAYER and ALICE IN CHAINS if the opinionated happens to like stuff like SWELL SEASON and IDA MARIA.

• Babylon - W.A.S.P.
• Can't slow down - FOREIGNER
• Fortress round my heart - IDA MARIA
• Black gives way to blue - ALICE IN CHAINS
• World painted blood - SLAYER
• Strict joy - SWELL SEASON

Several decades back, I thought I would never find a job that I could hold on to which involved having my own desk, access to a telephone and a computer with Internet access. Don't get me wrong, many times I drudge getting up in the morning to go to work because it's days like these, Mondays, that can be busier for me than any other day of the week. I guess there is a larger percentage of lag time on other days of the week when I can just sit back and relax with a good book, and when you think about it, that's not too different from working for a publishing company in which all one does all day is read manuscripts. The only major difference, I suppose, is that the manuscript might put a person to sleep more often than an already published best seller might.

I'm always looking for ways to facilitate my job too. Thank god for computers. Computers have made my job here so much quicker, which means more lag time to read and web surf. Sometimes I'll just stare into place on a dream about working for a real publishing company. My job can be abbreviated as CT, but when I fantasize about working in a publishing firm, I distort all reality and call myself a copy technician or freelance typesetter, which I get from my full time (FT) status as a workerbee. That's crazy, yah, I know. It gets me thru the day sometimes, though.

Today was the grand opening of a new Silverlake Branch Library. One of the employees here in my own private hell hole was re-assigned to help out there today. Tomorrow, another of the employees will from MOPH will be there. The news is that the place isn't very large. It's just busy busy busy.

Nobody tagged me. I'm just stupid enough to try this on my own volition.

THIS IS A MEME GANKED FROM toadclubber
it is a two parter

fluffyblanket

sunflower

annamaryse

dogslaughter

missundead

Catherine Keener
Full frontal
Nastassja Kinski
Your friends & neighbors
Gianina Facio
Kingdom of heaven
Ana Garcia
NBC4
Natalie Portman
Closer
Nasim Pedrad
SNL
Zooey Deschanel
(500) Days of Summer
Maggie Gyllenhaal
The secretary
Jennifer Aniston
Along came Polly
Elina Löwensohn
Fay Grimm

When children learn, in their English Lit class, that Romeo & Juliet were teens, that people in that epoch married at such early ages, they become flabbergasted. That's how my friends and I reacted to this realization.

The concept of marriage, while I was growing up, came to be chastized as being synonymous with shotgun weddings because I didn't have money to for engagement rings, weddings, or housing costs. Maybe American culture has defined some kind of formality in which the parents of the female help out in the wedding festivities, but involving parents in teen love causes more friction in the lives of young people when they're too busy coping with the harsh reality of impossible love. If this is the way the young experience their first dose of in-law syndrome, then who can blame a society that discredits the unifying institution of marriage by cheating, divorcing, wife-wapping and marrying their partners out of convience?

http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/11/cory-doctorow-teen-sex.html#comment-form

In my.yahoo.com, the search engine allows registered users to customize their page. This is not to say that by registering a user name with yahoo.com, you are allowed to customize your default yahoo.com page as though it were your personal web site. It is to say, instead, that just like yahoo pops up with a slew of media news and stuff, one can alter this default page to display only the stuff you are interested in; so, a person can list favorite rss feeds from the the blogs they frequent most often, lottery results, sports results and movie listings.

This entry is about the movie listings portion. I rely(ied) on my.yahoo.com so much for this because it allowed me to list various movie theatres to keep tabs on what they currently have listed as showing. The run-time, starting time, address and phone numbers are all helpful when you don't readily have available the Calendar section of your local newspaper (L.A. Weekly). I've noticed one thing that's pretty cool too. It is a drop down menu in which one can select a date for which they are interested in viewing the title listings of movies. Although it seems a person can select up to five days ahead of time, this feature doesn't work. Maybe it's just this city that doesn't list their theatre's movies in advance on-line, but what's weird about all this is the loophole (for lack of a better term).

You see, one has a choice of listing theatres, or movies. I usually list theatres and go down the list of movies at each theatre until I find something interesting. A small section is also reserved for upcoming movies. Here's where the trouble starts. We all know MEN WHO WATCH GOATS is scheduled for premier this Friday, but I cannot get the date selection to display which theatres this film will be opening at AND the upcoming movies section doesn't include MEN WHO WATCH GOATS anymore since, I guess, it's a film that doesn't qualify for the "upcoming movies" section which usually lists films as far in advance as two weeks. In the meantime, there is a blackhole in which the movie is non-existent. Isn't that swell‽ I would say it gives a whole new meaning to the term 'disclaimer'.

The what & why of blogging should have something useful for everyone who wonders about who their audience is or how to get one. Meanwhile, there's four more links to check out on the subject

This of course is food for thought on the subject I'm currently focused on: screenwriting. Just to note, I must remember to use the word "hump day" in my screenplay to refer to the precise date of June 15, 2005. Other than that, isn't it weird that the article about blogging did not contain reference to the programming technology called wikis? According to the graphic charts, that so many people are into blogging seems ashame since web providers like geocities which disappear from one day to the next gobble up all the hard work that people put into their personal web site. Now I have to try to google my own geocities site to see if any results pop up which I can access thru cached memory. I only read half of it, so that's probably the reason why. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-1-who-are-the-bloggers1/
http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-3-the-how-of-blogging1/
http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-4-blogging-revenues-brands-and/

Because I find that I can make people laugh by just being myself, I need to describe my desktop for a scene I'm writing. While I want to use a sexy rebel type entertainment as the background wallpaper, I also want to display all the file clutter that I have on one of my user accounts. Please understand, it isn't a pleasant thing to be the "funny" guy this way because when I do tickle somebody this way, I'm usually making excuses for myself to justify what it is that seemed so funny. Of course, this stuff is small and minor so it usually doesn't effect the relationship, but I'll admit that my lifestyle would make most people reading this fall from their chair and die of a heart attach laughing.

For now, I'll describe my computer desktop, then maybe expand the frame to show the clutter on the desk itself; so, I have my work cut out for me. Don't ask why. I have gotten myself to a point in the screenplay where things have started to look interesting and serious. It is now that I need to insert some light hearted insight to my life that would hypnotize my audience to like and understand where the protagonist is coming from.

I made a previous entry, but don't think it got posted. Darn. In it I described the movie poster for the film THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in which Lizbeth Salander mugs for the camera wearing a black hoodie and a spike collar. That's the wallpaper. Next, the clutter: ( Files and folders strewn around in no particular order )

That's funny right? I know it is, Schulz told me so. It's all in the deliverance and that's what I'm working on. Next… Oh yeh.

Dialog between editor and writer/not writer. It is a bizarre work relation to say the least and it should stay true to the conflict between bloggers and journalism. That's going to be a real bear because all I can think of is one person says, "Whatcha working on?" and the other person says, "I got a lead and I need to leave the office for a short while". But I think I have another way to convey this deliberate need to exit the office. You see, out of all the clutter, the protagonist finds his file and opens it. It contains a list of excuses that can be used to request a short absense (while this is still work related). The list should also be funny, because, guess what? I'm writing it

1. Lizard needs to be fed
2. pencil sharpener needs new blade
etc.

OK, I have my work cut out for me. Now I have to think. Lemme pull out my axe. I think better when I'm not thinking about what I'm thinking of.

Maybe those nasal headaches that come with the flu just take some getting use to and they're really still there. I do feel a little better, though I'm expecting my lungs will fill with fluid and I'll begin suffering a nasty cough soon. What will I do if I'm uncontrollable this Friday when I plan to go see MEN WHO WATCH GOATS? I just fast forwarded my Tivo to last night's Conan O'Brian interview with Ewan McGregor.

We'll see. Maybe I can just stock up on cough drops. I never eat the junk food at theatres anymore anyway.

Today was my free day. I took my bike in for the installation of the black muffler heat covers. The engine sounds muffled a bit, and I was advised to get PART 29264-08 to alleviate the resistance the muffler attachment causes to the engine. I think that's what the mechanic said. That part isn't cheap and I'm thinking of waiting until my 1000 mile mark when I take the bike in for service… but I still haven't made up my mind.

I'm going to need a while to juggle my finances and see where I'm going to take the money from. As it is now, the GPS application I downloaded on my phone is worthless because I cannot hear the direction over the roar of the motor. I don't know how to turn up the volume. I've already tried and I'll have to call somebody at the cell phone company for guidance, and if no resolution is found, I will cancel that feature. It was good while it lasted. I didn't seem to have trouble hearing instructions on the rental. Maybe my engine is louder because the engine is bigger.

I wanted to buy goggles and I'm waiting for the peeps at H-D to call back, but maybe it was not meant to be. Although the clerk promised someone would give me a jingle before they closed, I've been keeping my ear to the ringer but it's already 5:30PM. They close at 7PM. Maybe there's still time, but I'm finickle that way and if I am lead to believe that something was not meant to be, no matter how small the reason, I'll change my mind. I still have a copy of the prescription to my lenses and I can shop elsewhere.

I was checking out the leather gloves at the Harley dealership in Santa Clarita and I looked up the ones that I purchased at Glendale Harley. I have the finglerless gloves and in between the fingers, where a duck's foot might have webbing, there is a stitched loop for ease in pulling off the gloves. Well, I didn't find that feature in any of the fingerless leather gloves at the Santa Clarita shop. That tells me that their items might be slightly less sophisticated.

Fuck, listen to me. I started out with the idea of ranting and I ended up gossiping. God, no wonder people think I have a feminine side.

Just one of the pages has gotten to the point of being really frustrated with this work environment in which we all have to be in together. The page can't stand it when I take an item (like a book, a CD, a DVD, etc) from a patron because when I place them on the sorting shelves (in this case trolly carts), I do it carelessly and sloppily. That's just to show you the kind of guy I am, messy. You should see my living arrangement.

I'll say this before going further, her and the boss are bosom buddies. Anyway, I have one of the coolest boss' to work for because she's so lenient on all things work related. She tries to be fair and the most challenging thing I imagine for her to resolve right now is how to be fair in a situation where I like to be sloppy and her page refuses to touch things that have passed through my hands. You really have to know the goings on around her to catch my drift.

In a nutshell, my boss comes out of her office to where all the public interaction goes on in my department to straighten up the trolly carts. She is, of course, working on stuff unrelated to what I'm insinuating, that she is going out of her way to make her page happy without ruining my day be being a demanding that I be more neat in my arrangement of the sorting trucks. How sweet. Where was I going with all this?

Well, I was working on something earlier, an entry in screenplay format I'll probably have ready before Friday, but all of a sudden I can't hear myself think. I mean, what if I'm sitting here waiting for my next customer while I blog my life away and this background action is actually taking place the way I describe.

I think I'm coming down with something. My sinuses are acting up. I'm sneezing and I'm a little moquiento. Yuck. I took a Zicam, but I didn't have a chance to check the exp. date on the box. Those things taste horrible and yet I eat them not knowing whether they will be effective or not.

I'm stuck in a rut over the next scene I'm working on that involves some highly sophisticated communication interaction between an editor and a freelance writer. I wish I knew more about this kind of thing, but it looks like I'm at a point where I have to do some research by reading journalism boards where striving writers are anxious to find work in these harsh economic times. I would rather research the effect on journalism blogs are having since that's been something people have been discussing in news and stuff. Really, I'm just lazy. Research is a real bitch sometimes.

While I consider myself having researched the mothman occurance and how the hell something like that ever made it to the printing plate, it was easier to identify which search results would lead me nowhere and which search research were getting me closer to understanding the publishing business. Truthfully, if I want to avoid all that, I must just put a cork on the screenwriting creativity until I finish reading about Hearst. That's going to take awhile because the second installment to the Millennium trilogy is almost available. I'm now number 5 on the waiting list. But, considering part three won't be released until October 2010, that would be plenty of time to finish a book with ten thousand pages in it.