Sunday, February 24

I was standing outside my sister's apartment tonight smoking when a couple of really funky drunk dudes, smellin of alcohol, with tattoos and long scrabby hair said, "DUDE! We just were shot at by the police with rubber bullets downtown! There were fuckin' riots downtown!" I looked at Chad and said, "Holy Shit!" I doubted these guys sincerity at first, even though one of them looked like he'd been shot in the forehead with a rubber bullet (had a big ass welt) but, to my dismay, it was confirmed when I got home and read this. What the fuck? A bunch of unruly teenagers throwing beer bottles at the police and chanting "USA, USA!" while they did it? Fucking LAME. The Mormons will certainly never let beer be consumed in public again, that's for sure. What the fuck was Budweiser doing serving beer in glass bottles anyway? A fuckin mess waiting to happen.
posted by Paul at 5:37:00 AM

Tuesday, February 19

Shiatsu

Had our first Shiatsu class tonight. Our instructor demonstrated a full session so everyone could get an idea as to what one looked like. It was really beautiful to watch. As many of you may already know, Shiatsu is a Japanese form for energy work based on Chinese acupressure. Shiatsu, which literally means, "finger pressure" is almost like a dance between the therapist and the client. Shiatsu is generally performed on someone while they are still fully clothed and it is usually done on a mat on the floor. Good stuff! good stuff!
posted by Paul at 10:26:00 PM

Sunday, February 17

Alternate Dimensions (from my journal)

Writing is a pain in the ass... especially when your hand is cramping... it would be so much easier to have a direct link to a computer screen. but there is an advantage to the time delay between my brain and the paper... involves a little more filtration... like watching a news ticker and writing down the pertinent ideas and images... which makes me think that if someone else was listening to my thoughts, even a me in a parallel dimension would walk away with a completely different idea of what was important even if we were sharing the same brain... right now 10,000 Paul's are writing down completely different journal entries based upon the same thoughts.

Forcing myself to write while my coffee gets cold and there is a chocolate chip cookie sitting right in front of me! ack! I wonder what my alternate Paul's would have to drink in their P.W.s Maybe one is eating a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie while drinking tea... and another one is sitting in a pub, eating the house fries while drinking a nice home brew. What fun! One is typing all of this into his (her?) Mac notebook while another one is writing in an old journal he found in a junk sale! What else... one has his girlfriend sitting across from him while another is sitting alone with a big happy dog at his feet... tee hee... one is going to an intensive photography school while another is sitting down to work out their programming homework.
posted by Paul at 9:52:00 PM

Saturday, February 16

Is a blog in new clothing the same old blog or does it change it's nature?... Changed the template on the blog, learning a little more HTML in the process; It's 5:30 in the morning now, so hopefully it was worth it... :) Tell me what you think!

Also go below and check out my sis' perspective on the Olympics.
posted by Paul at 4:46:00 AM

Friday, February 15

Ahh the Olympics!

as seen by Lori (my sister)

It's that time again, where the world gathers around their soul sucking television sets and watches the best of the best compete in athletic competitions. Lucky for me this year I get to see it close up and personal. The Olympics for those of you that don't know are taking place in my city. Salt Lake City is the proud host of the 19th Winter Olympics, yeah. For months now we have been hearing over and over again about the Olympic Bid Scandal, and about how the entire Salt Lake Valley (which is huge) will be full of tourists from other countries. Businesses will be booming and SLC will be submerged in culture. Ahhh how the politicians can paint a pretty picture. First off some business are booming, yes; but for the most part they are either staying even or going broke. In their haste to make the visitors comfortable here they forgot to make the locals comfortable. In fact Mitt Romney and Mike Levitt scared all the locals away. bravo boys.
As for the culture, well I think that even after the Olympics are gone that SLC will remain white, male, and mormon. With of course undercurrents of female, hispanic, and native american people.
enough with the bitter.

Things I've Done During the Olympics

1: Went to the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremonies (same as the real thing only free instead of $871)
2: Watched the 1st Medals Ceremony
3: Dave Matthew's Band Concert
4: Macy Gray Concert
5: Barenaked Ladies Concert
6: Watched the Budweiser Clydesdales (sp?) ride past the window of my salon, everyday
7: Entertained drunken Englishmen that over ran my salon
8: Entertained drunken Canadians that over ran my salon (hot, and good tippers!)
9: Saw the Olympic flame run past my apartment
10: Collected pins
11: Fought traffic
12: Been hit on by, complemented by, asked out by, many foreigners
13: Done a few other things I can't remember right now (brain fart)

of all of these things, guess how many I have a picture of or some kind of memorabilia besides ticket stubs.
Zip, Zilch, Zero, Nada!
yep, I'm the idiot.

I really wish the Olympics would stay here year round.
The salon I work at has been kicking ass, business is booming, and everyday I get to meet people from all over the world that are busy having a great time. Not to mention the novelty of being able to walk down main street with a beer in your hand wihtout any worries of getting in trouble with the cops, pretty cool. Hell you can even walk on the temple grounds with a beer and not get too much shit for it.

AT&T lets you make long distance phone calls for free, Coke, Samsung, Hallmark, Chevy, and countless others woo you with free shit and entertainment all day long. Everyday the Monster.com mascot walks by my business giving out free shit. People are protesting, people are shoving pamphlets at you about causes you had no idea existed left and right. Every nation has a restraunt here where you can try the food and experience the culture of that country. Main Street is a party everyday, and I swear they brought in scalpers straight from the streets of chicago.

If you ignore the politics and drama of the 2002 Olympics, they kickass. I am definately glad I stayed, thought at one million dollars to keep the flame lit, I don't know how long I'll be here after (those gas bills are gonna be a bitch!)



posted by Paul at 10:56:00 PM


how many men out there would get pregnant if it was a possibility?
posted by Paul at 1:06:00 AM

Valentine's Day

Both eleated, tickled, humbled, and scared by the events of this v-day.

Elated/Ticked: Tonight was the "Reproductive Systems" lecture in Anatomy... learned all about peenie's and gynie's... learned that, yes, it is a technical possibility that a man can carry a baby. (Albeit an extremely dangerous, life threatening one. ) All a fertilized cell needs is a blood vessel to latch onto. This is how ectopic pregnancies occur (outside of the uterus.) In fact, last year a woman in Ogden, Utah, carried a baby to full term in this manner. I almost fell out of my seat when I came across this site: www.malepregnancy.com too bad it's an elaborate hoax. Maybe in 50 years??

Humbled/Scared: A member of our class is in an abusive relationship that they feel that they can't get out of. Police may be called, teachers are reaching into their pockets to pay for counseling. The student may drop out of school, which they have specifically said is their only support network. Props to Lauren for posting tips on how to assess wether or not you are in an abusive relationship.
A friend of a student dissapeared tonight, they were supposed to go on vacation this weekend directly after class with the student and were wating for the student at the school. After class the friend had dissapeared. No one had seen them in several hours and the friend had not communicated to anyone where they went or had transportation to get anywhere. The student was very worried. The friend had been very excited about going on vacation and had put all their luggage for the trip in the students car. I hope for everything that it was the result of a miscommunication. but what if?

phew. prayers and thoughts going out to both of these people.

What a strange Valentine's Day.
posted by Paul at 1:00:00 AM

Wednesday, February 13

question brought up over coffee (actually chamomile tea) tonight: If you could get into a fight with anyone in history... who would it be?

One answer came immediately to my mind, I suppose I'm not one for history...

posted by Paul at 1:53:00 AM

Olympic Blues

So I got laid off from my temporary Olympic job this morning... seems to be the state of affairs with the downtown businesses. Where people were expecting mad crazy lines and mad crazy profits... they get slower business than before the Olympics... this, of course, is my own observation and I have no idea how Park City, UT is holding up... from a USA Today blurb I saw this morning, they could be getting all the business there. Oh well, like I've said before... there is going to be such a post olympic-partum depression when all of this is over. A collective "that's it?" All kinds of money spent on security and tourism and not a lot of business for the local guys. Of course NBC is raking in mad cash but how is that helping SLC?

note to self: stop describing things as "mad."

posted by Paul at 1:47:00 AM

Monday, February 11

Mind Assault

The rule of the game is to get the most obnoxious song, or even the most mundane song, it doesn't matter, stuck in a friend's head. All that matters is that it gets ingrained on that ever repeating half-conscious loop that is the white noise of our everyday thoughts. A good example is "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega (the DNA remix.) My friends and I play Mind Assault with fervent regularity. Today, I was mind assaulted by my own radio. I woke up to my alarm clock radio blaring Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" and I have not been able to get it out of my head, ALL DAY. Dude. This is seriously worse than the time I had the hiccups for three days. "don't stop believin', hold on to that feelin'..."


posted by Paul at 11:41:00 PM

Olympic Updates

So the Olympics, or the Molympics as some news magazines have dubed them, officially started last Friday night with the Opening Ceremonies... Since we can see Rice-Eccles Stadium from my rooftop, where the Opening Ceremonies were held, Chad and I stood up there in 15 degree weather drinking beer and smoking cigarettes hoping to see some fireworks. The angle was all screwy, so we really didn't get to see the torch being lit, but we did see some of the fireworks before we retreated from the cold and back into my hobbit hole-esque basement apartment.
While I haven't been able to see any events for lack of funds and transportation, I have been working downtown in the middle of everything and have had some interesting moments:

Saturday I was walking home from work and got caught up in a Korean drum recital featuring girls in kimono type outfits drumming gracefully and boys with caps on their heads that had streamers coming off the top... the boys would do these intricate dances with the streamers... all very beautiful and graceful.
Meanwhile, a Scottish Fife and Drum core comes marching up behind me, bagpipes blaring and tons of sculpted scottish calves being flashed under intricate kilts. yum! (honestly, I think it's the socks that do it for me, or maybe the idea that there isn't any undergarments under those garments)
Of course all of this great cultural melting pot occurance was taking place in lily white Mo-mo land in direct view of the LDS Temple, which made it all the more poignant.

Today, I was walking home from work again and saw a marching band, a 6 foot Durex condom walking down the street and posing with people in pictures, about two dozen men from various countries of various ethnicities and with various accents scalping tickets for various Oly' events, an "Abortion stops a beating heart" truck with giant photos of aborted fetuses on the side (at which the 10 people standing on the street corner with me all said, "gross!") as I moved past the LDS owned ZCMI church, I saw a group of super-right wing evangelical christians (think the "God Hates Fags" people) protesting the LDS church! Signs such as "The Mormon's Jesus is the Devil's Brother" and "The Book of Mormon says Blacks are Cursed!" etc, etc. Now there seems to be a theme somewhere in all these sightings, with possible exception of the marching band and the scalpers. But the Anti-abortionists, the safe-sex advocate condom mascot, and a bunch of evangelical christians? seems like they could all work together and accomplish alot. I don't know if I would like the result but still...

Until tomorrow!
-Paul
posted by Paul at 11:22:00 PM