Note to a friend who asks, "you seem so centered and peaceful. everything about you... you have a very deep color about you. it's crazy. in fact, it drives me crazy because i would like to be as calm but thus far it has eluded me. what's your secret?"

Oh, the irony...I've been feeling anything but calm and centered the last week - ended up dateless at the last minute on New Years, got my car window busted out by some random punk, have been dealing with idiots at the body shop trying to get that fixed. GRRRRRRR!!!!! Today it was an accomplishment to have not punched anyone in the nose. (Well, the day's not over yet...)

Ok, I'm excited. It's the booty shakin' funk of longtime local superheroes The All Mighty Senators meets the primal futuristic "electro-acoustic psychedelic world dance music" of new B'more phenom
Telesma.

Oh. Yes. Thank you Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Apollo, whoever, for the musical bounty we are about to receive, Jan 20th, doors open 8, showtime 9pm, at the 8x10.

So my paramour and I get our wires crossed and I end up dateless on New Year's Eve. Well, that sucks pretty massively, especially since I don't find out until December 30th, not much time to make another plan. But I ended up going over to visit my friends Mike (my oldest and one of my best friends) and Cat for a quiet evening of converation and celebration. Ok, that's nice.

'Round about 2:30 I figure it's time to head home. Say my goodnights, walk out, and find that my driver's side window has been smashed in. Broke the wing mirror, too.

Mike and Cat, bless 'em, helped me clean up the glass, called the cops, and offered me a place to crash. But I was wanting to get home to my own bed, so drove the twenty minutes home getting rained on. Got the car into the shop today but it will be at least two days to get it fixed.

Here's all you need to know to understand the contemporary United States: according to an Associated Press-AOL News poll, 25 percent of Americans anticipate that the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur in 2007.

No Zelda's this week, so let's do a little writing exercise: freewrite on "animals are intermediaries between the physical and the spiritual"

animals are intermediaries between the physical and the spiritual, the remind us that we are naked apes, mammals, that any connection we have with the universe comes down to us through ancestors who were less sophisticated, more immediately connected to eating and fucking and trying not to get eaten, to the things we don't talk about in polite company

Every so often, I engage in a little net ego-surfing - type "Tom Swiss" into Google or Yahoo and see what comes up. I've found a few other notable people named Tom Swiss this way, but since I've been on the net much longer than they have, most references are to me, mostly from old USENET or mailing list posts.

Today I stumbled across an old version of my collection of quotations, must have posted it to USENET way back when. Share and enjoy.

Just finished my gig at Leadbetter's...generous tips and heavy drinking for the holidays made it a relatively profitable afternoon, my take on the bar was $19 and I made $29 in tips. Still, at $48 for four hours, $12 an hour, I'm really glad the day job pays a lot more than that.

Older guy, I'd guess 55, two stools down from me, here with a much younger woman (he's totally grey-haired, she I would guess at about my own age), his date or girlfriend. Wait, I see a ring - his wife? As I get older I take more pleasure in seeing people (both men and women) with significantly younger paramours. I suppose it makes me feel less guilty about been attracted to women ten or fifteen years younger than me...or five or ten years older...

JustGive.org makes giving charitable contributions easy. You can cut down on your junk mail by giving anonymously; you can search for groups that do work relevant to your favorite causes; and you can do it all with one-stop-shopping convenience.

Reuters reports on a study showing that some anti-heartburn drugs ("proton pump inhibitors", which shut down stomach acid production) increase the risk of hip fractures in older adults, by up to 44 percent. The longer the use and the higher the dosage, the greater the risk. The drugs may reduce the body's ability to absorb calcium.

(transcribed from scribbled notes)

I do some of my best thinking on barstools, perhaps. Or maybe just the loudest...

Xmas, oddly a time for introspection. Scrooge and his spirits, George Baily and his angel...all of us reviewing Xmases past, thinking of Xmases future...where have I been? Where am I going?

If, as they say, Xmas is a time for children, then it brings more questions, about family destiny. Will I ever watch a son or daughter unwrap presents on an Xmas morning? Is that what I want?

If Xmas is a time for family, what sort of family do I want? What sort of family has accrued to me, family partly of blood, partly of spirit, over the years?