620 Express

I meant to write about the 620 Express on June 20th for no other reason than the date, but I guess I lacked enthusiasm on that day, or else had too much coffee. Anyway, "620" is the secret code for coffee, if you didn't know that, and it's also the time of day (AM and PM) when I see the time and tell myself, "Time for coffee," and also, "Time to get on with things, or get on with the next thing." I wouldn't blame anyone if they were over it, this endless talk about coffee, and onto more important ideas in their lives, but I'm a simple person and like rehashing the same shit that gives me pleasure. There is really no excuse to write about it, but the good thing is there are NEW PEOPLE all the time (360, 000 born every day!) and each one of them hopefully will get to experience joy for the first time, at some point, and before everything gets old for them everything will presumably first be new.

I read a humorous article recently with the title Maybe Just Don't Drink Coffee about how it's impossible to keep up with the coffee trends, and trying to just causes anxiety, etc., and it's funny while having good points, and ends by throwing its hands in the air and settling for a Diet Coke. Which is actually what a lot of people do. And everyone knows, right, that Diet Coke is Pod People Fuel? Well, now you know. Then I read another article (which I can't find now, but there are TONS of these articles out there) about how we should drink a lighter roast coffee at room temperature and all that. Far from being annoyed by all the reassessments of coffee habits, I am endlessly fascinated, because really, it's no simple thing, a simple cup of coffee, and you can follow your obsession if it amuses you, why not? Every time I stay at someone's house I seem to adopt a new coffee method. Even quitting altogether is sometimes attractive. The biggest single improvement in my life was when I switched to exclusively black coffee, no cream, milk, or sugar (though for awhile I drank hot coffee with butter).

"Speed is just a question of money. How fast can you go?" That's the sign at the auto mechanic in the first Mad Max movie. I think it applies to a lot of things, and of course I'd like to only buy the best quality coffee beans (grown and picked by blissful farmers) and roast it at home, only dark when it makes sense and not to hide inferiority. And then massage it into powder and cold brew it in a NASA vacuum simulator and enjoy it while floating in a sensory deprivation chamber. Most often, though, I don't even measure the grounds I throw in my Mr. Coffee, and then I just try to pound a few cups before I start screaming at car alarms and leaf blowers. Every day should be a miracle, but it doesn't always have to be a symphony. Sometimes it's just nice to know that I'm enjoying my cup of coffee—even if it's kind of crap—more than that guy over there, not because of the coffee, but because of me.

Doughnut Day

There are a billion people in the world (probably more, but we can't even process a number that big) but I only know maybe 100 of them. Still, that's a lot of people, 100. And as it turns out, today was National Doughnut Day, but I didn't find out until way later, and by then it was too late. Of course, as soon as I heard about it I started seeing stuff everywhere, all over the internet, where to get your free doughnut and all that. Which got me thinking, do people really care about the free doughnut? How much do they cost, anyway? Do they not usually buy them, but then do on this day, not because they're free, but because it's an event? Anyway, the thing that got me was that no one told me. Not one of these 100 friends thought, Oh, I should mention that. Doughnut Day. But then I started thinking, Maybe no one mentioned it because I had given them my completed novel, The Doughnuts, and they either haven't read it, or have, and don't like it, and the mention of doughnuts therefore becomes awkward. Best not to even bring up doughnuts! Or maybe they know I'm Gluten Intolerant and can't eat doughnuts anyway, so what's the point?

Forgive Me

I'm still working on this new website. It's been kind of fun, when it's going well. Nothing is all that difficult about it, but of course, for me, I will find difficulty. But for the most part, it's looking pretty good, but some days I just don't want to deal with it. A few things weren't working out and I over-reacted, freaked out, and got a stress-related backache.

What has been most fun has just been trying out some ridiculous stuff, and writing some crazy and dumb shit, not worrying that anyone will see it because I've only shared this with like two people so far. So I figure I can write anything I want to and there will be a chance to edit it or delete it. Then it occurred to me that I might like the whole thing better if I never actually showed it to ANYONE. Which, of course, misses the whole point of having a website.

So I guess I have to start putting this website address here and there, since my old one has gone down, as the hosting expired. I guess the way I should approach things, which is the way I should approach all writing, is to write something in a draft, then come back to it and edit it. It's amazing how often something that seems OK when you write it comes across as ridiculous, foolish, and bad, later on. I thought that maybe the older I got, the less this would happen, but no. I'm just as capable of bad writing as I've always been.

So, I've got to go through and change some stuff NOW, I suppose, because I wrote and posted some pretty lame shit. But I'll fix it. That's OK. I want to try to free myself from constant self-doubt and criticism and just have fun. But I do want to have the option to go back and erase the mistakes I've made when a little TOO goofy. Anyway, the one place that I'm not going to do much editing is in this "Memo" section... because the idea here is that it's like what I might be writing in a notebook in a coffee shop, and so of course may well be boring or insane. So, anyone who might read this, if there is anyone reading it ever, please forgive me.

420

I'm painfully aware of the date, 4/20, and always make a joke about it, and even go on and on sometimes, even though I haven't smoked marijuana since 1989, and am not inclined to return to it any time soon (even then, I wasn't much into it).

Anyway, this is my first observation on this day, which happens to be the day I'm first creating this "blog" or "online journal" for my new website, which I'm working on right now, with quite a lot of impatience and frustration. Not that it's that hard, and in fact seems fairly easy, it's just that there is a lot to it, and I'm generally not fond of spending too much time tinkering around with anything technical, from computers to automobiles to musical compositions. Fiction writing is what I'm interested in; that's what I want to spend my time tinkering with. But for some reason it seems we have to all be good at all the things we're not good at.

I'm not even sure what sense it makes to have some kind of blog on this new website, but if nothing else, this might be a good place for me to complain about leaf blowers.