Tuggy Jonez's Journal

6:26pm: shrug
okay i'm updating cos somebody bothered me to. i moved back to san francisco from oakland, and i do geek work again. i only lasted at the club for like two months. my friends are all getting married. i play world of warcraft, tho not as much as i used to. the end.

6:57pm: chief security officer
well i guess some of you don't know about my latest movements, so here's a quick update: i moved to nyc on new years eve, and now i'm moving back to oakland to do security for an indie rock that a friend is opening. i've tried to leave the bay area 2x now, failed both times, guess that's a hint eh.

12:53pm: the vodka suicides
i've been drinking vodka like i'm being paid for it. getting to be one of the regulars at the local bar. party! \m/

8:41pm: After almost two years, tomorrow I once again descend into the salt mines. Not at all nervous, tho jetlag will probably render me sleepless anyway.

10:39pm: tentative travel plans
7/14-18: rock hill, sc
7/19-21: charlotte, nc
7/23-24: chicago
7/25-28: milwaukee
8/1-2: toronto
8/3: central ny, wherever le lives
8/4-5: ithaca, ny
8/8-12: milwaukee
8/13-15: san francisco
8/16-9/9: china
9/10-?: australia
10/?-?: new zealand
11/?-?: singapore, thailand, malaysia, vietnam?
12/?-...: sf

8:54am: ok people. i'm going to burning man. the last time i went was 1997. i wonder how much it's changed!

9:57pm: i'm starting to think about moving again. jobs don't seem to exist here, but i keep turning down opportunities in la and elsewhere. what would i be leaving behind?

• friends
  
• great flat
  

huh.

i guess the thing that would worry me most is bailing on zach. we're three months into a year lease. i own 98% of the stuff in the house. if i took it he'd have nothing left.

i'm starting to flip out about money. the only positive cash flow i've had in seven months is a tax refund. unemployment should start rolling in soon, assuming the phone interview next week goes well. but that's barely enough to cover rent and minimal expenses. i can't justify throwing away $$ on non-essential crap anymore. i'm feeling so guilty that i canceled my big summer trip. the next irony is that if i got a job and started bringing home the paycheck, i'd no longer have the free time for that trip.

had a nice fantasy life for a year there, but i reckon it's time to trade in the bmw for the ford.

12:25pm: i'm listening to orcs talk, beat drums and play flutes, mouth harps and didgeridoos. check it out: za frûmi at aquarius.

zach and i went hiking on mt. diablo yesterday. so out of shape! didn't make it to the top of the mountain. on the way back down i passed a little kid sprinting up the trail and later a man pushing a baby in a stroller. i am shamed. therefore i am starting a training program. six weeks until i leave on my cross country trip. i will do a hike once a week until i leave. that combined with my strict regimen of cardio work at 24 HR ASS & TITTIES will have me sprinting up utah mountains.

we saw this giant spider on the trail. was definitely big enough to be a tarantula, but it wasn't hairy. also there were snakes (big ones) crossing the trail every hundred feet or so. none had rattles tho. the irony is that i never saw so many scary varmints in australia, even tho everything there can kill you.

after we came back down the mountain, we stopped at a sports bar in historic central whatever the town at the bottom of mt. diablo for a beer and some food. sunny day, cute waitress, crazy old sports fans. this is why i came back to california!

8:01pm: (killing time before i go to wb's house for a screening of hedwig)

i'm all moved into the new flat now (contact info available upon request). put my herman miller red corner desk together this afternoon and immediately loaded it with two laptops. not getting dial tone with the phone tho, which kind of pisses me off since i need to make like 10 phone calls tomorrow.

has anybody noticed that first round interviews are no longer face to face? i've done four phone screens just this week. i guess i haven't looked for a job in 5 years, but i don't remember this being how it worked. it's actually pretty cool tho, keeps all parties from wasting their time when there's obviously not a fit.

had lunch with ex-coworker tirso today. realized while telling a story that a quarter of my life has passed since i was 21. now that is fucked up and depressing.

more d&d this weekend. it's kind of awkward when i have lunch or chat at a party with somebody i haven't spoken to in a while. they ask what i'm up to, and instead of telling them about my exciting job, i say "well, i'm playing a lot of d&d". it's not like knocking on my neighbor's door and telling them that i'm a convicted pederast, but there's definitely a noticeable response. i immediately feel unattractive to women when i tell them this. that's ok tho, every one of you fuckers has a guilty pleasure. the difference is that i'm not ashamed of mine.

2:48am: all of my chick friends seem to be getting laid.

3:07pm: i've noticed that livejournal seems to be a lot more popular with the people i know in australia and new zealand than the ones in san francisco. ends out working ok, cos i can chat with my peeps here over beers, and y'all over there can keep up.

at xep's party last night, about 8 people asked me how long i'm gonna be in sf. so here's the status as of today.

i'm planning to make sf my base for this year. hopefully at some point this year i'll get the aussie pr visa. that will allow me to head back to au pretty much whenever i want, which may be next au summer. but i'm not thinking that far ahead, cos circumstances tend to dramatically change within weeks and months, let alone across an entire year.

i'm having a great time enjoying my friends, playing d&d with matthh and others, preparing for a couple of big gaming cons, noodling on software projects. job hunt is under way, and i've got an agent looking for an apartment. when the wather warms up a bit, i'll be out doing some hiking and camping as well. also trying to get back into theatre tech, volunteering for the int'l film festival, and things of that sort.

so there you go. all is well. looking forward to moving into a new home, furnishing, getting to know another neighborhood. very happy to be an american again for a while.

1:34am: turn and run
exhausted. just returned from several hours of helping elly move house, topped off by a late dinner at sparkys. felt like the old days when i hauled boxes as a summer job. a bit out of shape tho, arms are weak. has been a long time since i've worked that hard physically. feels good.

mind consumed by the martial symphonic metal of bal-sagoth, reminiscent of the conan soundtrack. perhaps it's the theme music of the social war currently being waged in the hills and hoods of san francisco. friend versus friend, brother against brother. bombs dropping everywhere. no one will escape unscathed.

speaking of metal, saw the movie "rock star" yesterday. was blown away by marky's mark performance. nobody plays the charming, slightly dim witted boyo like him. sprouted wood for ultra desirable everygirl jennifer aniston. the club scene after izzy's first steel dragon gig is possibly one of the sexiest film scenes ever made. bacchanalia at its finest (and seemingly most attainable).

11:43pm: don't stand so close to me
spent the day nursing a head cold. wonder who i got it from. haven't been sharing the shower with anyone or playing suckface. maybe i can infect everybody in the office.

helped elly move some stuff into her new apartment. she thinks she's taking a step backwards, moving into a "early 20s dorm". but, well, she is in her early 20s. and she doesn't have a full time job. if anything, she's been a little bit spoiled by the dot com riches that allowed her to afford the nice flat with the boyfriend. but she knows it, and the complaints are comedic, not whiny. she's looking forward to having her own place again, with no boys to fall in love with her and make demands on her. i'm very happy for her.

made plans for visiting my mom. flying into savannah; meeting tyler for lunch in columbia; chilling in rock hill for a few days, going to my brother's football game (he's a coach); driving up to ithaca; and winding up in new york city. staying at the w on union square, where condoms are provided in each room, as if i have some use for them. looking forward to this trip, a last hurrah of sorts, before i return to australia for good and put the old nose to the grindstone.

overall, a general malaise. have done some things i wish i could take back. but it's not a black and white situation, and i feel very conflicted. i don't have a lot of hope that anything will turn out well. somehow we all let things go way too far. if this was a film, the audience would be groaning and shifting in their seats, empathising with all and siding with none.

6:24pm: i don't actually keep a journal. i just didn't want to have to post comments anonymously.