The boatshow yesterday was a bit of a let down.

That was the only boat that was relatively exciting. And it was only about a 30 footer. This being lake country, the show was primarily geared toward fishing and ski boats. There were quite a few decent cruisers. The sailboat pictured above is only $105,000 which isn’t that bad of a price. it’s a little small for a long distance cruiser but wouldn’t be a bad first boat by any means. (I have misplaced the catalog that I got from the dealer, so I am not sure of the exact length, or beam, or manufacturer/designer. Forgive, but don’t forget.) The thing that was most dissapointing about the show was the lack of interactivity, no real videos, no books, no internet, just a bunch of (mostly) dickhead boat dealers and some boats.

Also, it was fucking hot. Really, really hot. And on the internet it said that you could take the Metro directly to Dallas Market Center, where the show was taking place. It turns out that the Metro stop is about a mile from the hall. A mile isn’t much for me, and wouldn’t be remarkable aside from the fact that I was there with my sister, my brother-in-law, my two nephews and my 2 year old niece. Things are a lot harder with kids. Especially in the 100+ degree heat. The boys seemed to really enjoy it though, so it was cool to see them excited by the boats. My advice is: don’t go, but if you do go, drive.

Today I have been building a wall of built-in shelves for my niece. I borrowed my dads table and chop saws and did a bunch of cutting, drilling, marking, screwing, sweating, grunting, climax… wait, I got confused by my verbs momentarily. The progress is slow, but any good job is 80% planning.

Monday will be my first week in 10 years without a cigarette. And I have been drunk twice, but that is a totally different story…

The patch/ not smoking is really starting to fuck with me. I am wide awake at 6:30 (4:30 Pacific time; the schedule that I am pretty much still on). My computer has something called “AM” written next to 6:30. “I AM too, little guy.” I can’t figure out what he is trying to say to me. “I know you are.”

I have no idea why I am up this early. I got rather properly drunk (Cape Cods, Shiraz, Bass) last night too ,which really stretched the non-smoking will-power. I never get up this early, even when I have to. The only times in my life have been the millions of times that I have sobered up in some girls bed and have been unimpressed with her face in the light of the morn’. In which case I leave a note that reads:

Dear I Forgot Your Name,

I just remembered that I had basketball practice this morning. You are welcome for the fisting. Call me, my number is four.

Totally sincere,
Steve

What in the hell is there to do in the morning? It seems overrated.

My (possibly) temporary index page is up. i’m not happy with the way the link text looks and there is an extra space in the “architecture” text. I don’t have the patience right now to go back and redo the steps it takes to fix it, because it may or may not be permanent. My judgement is kind of off due to the withdrawals. I think this page may be a little dark also. This shit is a lot of work.

*Update. I decided to go ahead and work on the design of this page also tonight. I think I like it. I would know better if I could smoke about it. I still need to make the changes on my index, but this may stay for a little bit. What do you think?

Still need that Flickr info. Also Technorati tagging. I tried to install a php plugin, but that is really something I shouldn’t be doing by trial and error. Help.

Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston are crazy.

Ok, so maybe not a newsflash, but has anyone watched Being Bobby Brown yet? Crazy is an understatement, they have totally fucking lost the plot. They seem to break into dance at the most inane moments. Like standing in line at a bank or something, or ordering a drink at a bar in the middle of the afternoon. And Whitney sings in very bizarre circumstances. The funniest one I have seen yet (and you have to see it) is when they are shhopping at Harrod’s and she says, “Bobby. I am not doing this with him todaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy.”

But. The thing that makes them the craziest bunch or crack-riddled freaks is the story they told about Whitney. And this is way more disgusting than anything else I will ever write, and they said it on national TV (well, on Bravo anyway). Bobby tells the story (with Whitney right at his side, mind you) of a time when Whitney was, I suppose, constipated. (They describe it as stuff that was too big to come out of her thinghole). So Bobby did what any loving husband (did I mention that they do crack?) would do, he went into her thinghole with his fingers and pulled the stuff out for her.

Note to every single girl out there: Not in a million fucking years…

I have yet to comment on the nomination to the supreme court. Mostly because I know nothing about him. I know that Fox News loves him and Air America hates him. i’m sure that I will have more of an opinion in a week or two, but I am too lazy and disinterested to do the research right now.

But all things considered, it might be a good idea to go out and get an abortion or two now, just in case.

I spent most of the night and morning brushing up on my Movable Type and CSS knowledge. MT is much easier to control than I initally thought. I am working on a new banner graphic, this one is just a placeholder. I also want to change the design of the sidebar and the post area a bit too.

I would like to add another sidebar, which I think that I can manage. Does anyone know how to make Flickr post (feed) to my sidebar instead of posting a regular blog entry? Something like this. I have a feeling that Geoff will be the one to help me on this, as he is always the only one who responds to my technical questions. And I appreciate it.

Day 4 (I think) without a cigarette.

I did a little work for my mom earlier [read: sitting in a nice house for 3 hours] and took Spanking the Donkey by Matt Taibbi with me. From what I have heard/read about Taibbi, he is the heir apparent to Hunter S. Thompson. I am about 100 pages into the book and would kind of agree. I enjoy his political campaign asides that deal with drugs, alcohol and other debauchery that one doesn’t neccesarily associate with a campaign (a Clinton campaign possibly excepted).

The parts of the book that I am enjoying the most are the stabs at his fellow journalists, and more importantly calling the White House press conferences what they are; a completely crafted, scripted sham. I saw Taibbi on The Daily Show and he seemed to sling the most contempt toward Kerry, though the first few pages are delighlfully devoted to what a dumbfuck “President” Bush is, and I always enjoy reading that.

Now I about to immerse myself into another great read; The Movable Type User Manual. I will have links to all of you soon, and will also rid this site of that awful fucking calender soon.

i’m scared to go outside because there are people smoking out there. I think this is the longest I have ever made it without cheating a little.

My fascination with boats has shifted a bit from sailboats to luxury motoryachts. Right now my boat of choice is this design by Palmer Johnson:

I am still more interested in sailboat design than I am Motoryacht design, though this could change. It is a nice contrast to the way I design, architecturally. Designing a structure for use on solid ground, I tend to think creatively first and then I consider engineering. But boat design seems to be almost exactly the reverse. You inject your design on a pretty strict set of engineering principles. It is kind of fun that way.

I woke up this morning thinking, “wow, quitting smoking is fucking easy this time.” At about 3, while driving, everything changed. I was dazed, I forgot I was driving. I couldn’t think of anything but smoking. This continued well into the evening and has subsided a bit now. But this isn’t fun at all. Add to the fact that I am frustrated by Movable Type / the internet / television / dead cell phone / everything and ,really, I just want to smoke about it.

On the plus side. I forgot how wondefully vivid dreams are while sleeping with the patch on. The constant nicotine kick through the night keeps my brain working even while I am “sleeping”, I am convinced. I don’t remember exact plot details of my dreams/nightmares last night, but I know that there were two good ones and they both woke me up. I also remember that they were in really awesome colors, which is notable for two reasons: a) I think I usually dream in B&W ;and b) I am totally colorblind but I don’t think that I was in my sleep last night. After my dreams woke me up I remember cloudily thinking of an analogy that linked non-patch dreams/patch dreams to basic cable/widescreen HD 1000 channel cable. I don’t remember how I phrased it but it sounded fucking brilliant at 4:00AM.

i’m off to read this book I just bought.

My site might look like this for a little while, because I just realized that I need to learn more about Movable Type. Typepad was a snap, but MT seems a little difficult right now. So gimme a minute.