August, 24, 2005 archives

luck is coming your way.

you are almost there.

this is something i’ve thought about writing about a few times, but it felt like i was running the risk of offending someone, or at least of making them uncomfortable that they had caused me to write it. c’est la vie.

file this under “things i would change about myself if i knew how” — i hate making phone calls. absolutely detest it. avoid it to the detriment of my own well-being. i still haven’t set up an appointment with accountant to get my 2004 taxes done because it involves calling to make that appointment.

it’s just one of the ways in which i wrestle with what you could call limited social energy. another is in spreading out my plans so i don’t totally short-circuit on a busy weekend. jonathan rauch’s article from the atlantic monthly, “caring for your introvert,” sort of explains the principle. (if you have a los angeles public library card, you can get the full article by doing a title search in the “magazines - general interest” databases.)

and of course, it is a lie to call it something i would change if i knew how — i do know how. like changing in any other way, it takes practice, patience, and hard work. so maybe it is something i’ll work on eventually, but for now i’m frying other fish. fixing my phone phobia can wait.

the los angeles times reports about graffiti-style murals in boyle heights that don’t pass muster with the art cops. there’s even a few (undersized) pictures.

at grand performances, the emcee usually points out that the state of california spends the least amount of money on the arts, per capita. here you have privately-funded art that the government is deciding has to be destroyed just because it didn’t get to stick its fingers in the pot. be careful what you wish for.

i like to use analogies, allegories, and metaphors, and i find that sometimes i have used them without having intended to do so. for example, after considering what i wrote earlier, i think telephone calls are a metaphor.

it is funny to be walking along the street and have a drug deal happen not more than a few feet away. sometimes, like today, it is almost exactly like in the movies — a couple of quick hand-offs, and then the two parties are on their separate ways.