Tuesday, December 29, 2009

From Williams, Arizona

I've kept a travel journal since the 7th grade but they have always been rushed entries that barely resemble comprehensible sentences. This is because I usually start getting motion sickness from writing too long in the car or I'm too cramped to really write something of substance. But after reading Vikram Seth's "From Heaven Lake", I think it'd be cool to travel the world with your buddies and just write travel logs about them. They'd be titled "The Daring Travels of Dvdgao: (Place)" or something. Here are some excerpts if this ever actually happened.

1. The tap water in Williams is icy cold. Finger numbing cold. I never thought of Arizona as a cold place. I thought wrong.

2. Today at the Hoover Dam, I cupped some water in my hands and tried to toss it down the 1000+ feet into the Colorado River, but it just splashed onto the side of the dam. It looked like someone took a pee off the dam.

3. The Best Western we're staying at apparently provides full breakfast (not Continental!) and free wifi! Treasure Island which we were staying at earlier did not provide these amenities, but instead provided constant smokiness and room service that took two hours to get to our room. Best Western, truly the best in the west!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was a homeless man's combination of Seth and Bill Simmons.

2009 Wrap-up Post to come.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

E100: Bane of My Existence

Dvdgao9 (5:10:46 PM): Vikram Seth > any of these guys
Dvdgao9 (5:10:48 PM): my goodness
TisforT1MMY (5:10:54 PM): haha
TisforT1MMY (5:11:16 PM): i'm not sure there are many authors who are not > any of these guys
Dvdgao9 (5:11:40 PM): well, me for one
TisforT1MMY (5:11:58 PM): you could definitely do what they do
TisforT1MMY (5:12:00 PM): make up random terms
TisforT1MMY (5:12:06 PM): make it sound legit
TisforT1MMY (5:12:22 PM): "yes, im going to call this.... SUPERPHILOSOPHY"
Dvdgao9 (5:12:57 PM): hahaha
TisforT1MMY (5:13:01 PM): "what is superphilosophy? it's philosophy without actually thinking. By excluding the thinking part, the philosophy is therefore purer in form"
TisforT1MMY (5:13:03 PM): etc etc
Dvdgao9 (5:13:09 PM): true.
TisforT1MMY (5:13:16 PM): do i sound like i could belong in Norton's Anthology?
TisforT1MMY (5:13:36 PM): yeah. i rest my case!
Dvdgao9 (5:13:44 PM): "It is important to note that the beautiful transcends the imagination, superceding the natural tendency to transcribe the sublime"
Dvdgao9 (5:13:54 PM): eh? eh??
TisforT1MMY (5:15:06 PM): "yet, the ugly actually is superior to the beautiful because the shock factor forces our emotions out more efficaciously"
TisforT1MMY (5:15:20 PM): this is easy
TisforT1MMY (5:15:23 PM): lets write a book
Dvdgao9 (5:15:24 PM): hahaha
Dvdgao9 (5:15:25 PM): lets do it!
TisforT1MMY (5:15:26 PM): and make people take classes on us
TisforT1MMY (5:15:33 PM): and fail them just cause
TisforT1MMY (5:15:36 PM): we feel like it.
Dvdgao9 (5:15:41 PM): Horng: "On the Subject of Efficiency"
TisforT1MMY (5:15:46 PM): hahaha
Dvdgao9 (5:15:59 PM): Gao: "Essay on the Perplexing"
TisforT1MMY (5:16:38 PM): we'll get jenny and diane deanna carly to all chip in on this
TisforT1MMY (5:16:41 PM): and we'll have an anthology
TisforT1MMY (5:16:51 PM): we'll publish our own books
TisforT1MMY (5:16:54 PM): and mark up the prices
Dvdgao9 (5:17:00 PM): bible thin pages too?
TisforT1MMY (5:17:07 PM): yes, because they're cheap
TisforT1MMY (5:17:11 PM): and the students will HAVE to pay $200 for our book
Dvdgao9 (5:17:20 PM): hahah
Dvdgao9 (5:17:39 PM): we got to get some foreigners too with cool sounding names
Dvdgao9 (5:17:47 PM): de Berkenmuller
Dvdgao9 (5:17:57 PM): McAlifixander
Dvdgao9 (5:18:05 PM): Podsednik
TisforT1MMY (5:18:43 PM): LOL
TisforT1MMY (5:19:03 PM): and we need one name that is subtley perverse for comic relief
TisforT1MMY (5:19:18 PM): Deeck