I've been keeping up with it fairly well, although I do admit that the last few weeks I've been fairly lax with getting the laundry done. Brought it in yesterday morning, and came back to the house. When I returned to my room, I looked down at the stripped bed, and realized that I was in something of a quandary. All of my linen sheets were at the laundry (a chinese laundry. There's a couple of closer ones, but there's just something about bringing my clothes to a chinese laundry that makes me feel like things are going to get done right. Or at least done according to my skewed and quite possibly racist view of the world), and the only sheets I have left are a set of pale blue flannel sheets. Which, on one hand is a good thing because they are pale blue (which matches the walls of my bedroom), and very warm. On the other hand, using the flannel is a serious admission that we've gone past fall and jumped into winter. And I'm not sure I'm ready to admit that. Not that the world is particularly interested in my preparedness for it's changing seasons.

There are parts of winter that I'm looking forward to. Looking towards spending more time with the computers, which I feel I've been neglecting recently. There's some audio work that needs to get done, always something on the home server that could be dealt with. And if there's absolutely nothing else to do, I imagine I could even generate some content for Alltooflat. As a last resort, of course. One thing I'm looking forward to is the Christo exhibit, The Gates that will be going up in the park sometime after Christmas. I used to hate Christo for some reason (potentially because he's a French artist born after 1925, nearly all of which I have some issues with). But I'm psyched for this for a few reasons. First of all, it's something interesting occuring during the winter, after Christmas. One of my big problem with winter is that it's a lot like me: The part everyone is looking forward to just comes too soon. The Christo exhibit will give me something to look forward to after the holiday season.

Another reason I'm really excited is because I really like Christo. First of all, he's referenced in at least one episode of The Simpsons, putting him in such elite company as Jasper Johns. Also, one of his works of art (the huge umbrellas that lined a highway in California) killed someone. And I like art that goes ahead and kills people. I mean, nothing makes a statement quite so well as an inadvertant homicide - seriously beats a manifesto for making people listen. It's one of the reasons I Richard Serra so much (I seem to recall one of those big installations fell over on someone). I don't mean to be heartless - I wouldn't like an artist that went ahead and killed someone on purpose: I'm sure that Serra was horrified when one of those torqued ellipses caused the untimely death of a worker (and arguably sure that Christo was upset when his umbrella pierced a passing motorist. I'd be full on sure, but again, there's the French artist thing). But to be able to make something really cool and potentially fatal is just plain impressive.

And since I'm talking about art, I feel it important to mention that I saw this exhibit of David Altmejd (at the Andrea Rosen gallery in Chelsea), and was deeply moved by the total and abject coolosity of his piece, The University 1, which is the geometrical structure on the far left of that tiny picture that you can barely see in the picture in that link. It's difficult to explain, but there were alot of square, a lot of mirrors, and a serious transformation of space around the installation. Really good stuff. Try to stop by if you get a chance.

All sorts of really funny things have been going on. You know about the RPS tournament (and if you don't, you should really read our log of the adventure. Then it was a trip to Vegas with some college buddies. Stayed with my uncle, who moved out there a few months ago. It was a completely absurd trip, made even more absurd that I made enough to pay for the entire trip (including meals and strippers) by parlaying my Texas Hold 'Em winnings into big gains at the craps tables. I met a very nice stripper out there, named Dusty. I think she liked me. Really felt a connection between us. Seriously.