Disconnected from the .

Disconnected from the .

The new place is furnished in a way that can be called minimalist - its a strange life with no large TV in the living room, cable, Internet or home phone but one I have become very used to living in the last couple weeks.

The living room has three CD racks, a bookcase and a $30.00 wood Ikea Gorm rack in which I have placed a semi-cheesy stereo, a love sofa fold out bed leftover from my brother's divorce, a Buddhist altar and a 100 year old end table. On the wall a $7.00 spray-can painting I got in Tijuana. The dining room has chairs that we inherited - they where made in El Segundo (America at one time actually made stuff - really!) and have a turquoise vinyl skin. Matches well with the soft pink dining cloth covering the chewed up folding table.

KCRW news, coffee and a carb make up my weekday morning. Meals are mostly home-cooked due to living within a budget.
A laundryroom in the back allows for a washer and dryer

Other than a bookcase I have converted into a mini bar (With shakers, Tiki mugs, 7 kinds of hard liquor and mixers) I don’t have any extraneous stuff outside of a ton of inherited dishware, again made in America (Union Label!). A church rummage sale netting me a decent computer desk and 13 inch working TV (total price $12) both of which I placed in the bedroom - usually just to catch some Letterman before I doze off.

The one thing I need is a coffee table.

One of the things I can appreciate about the non-wired life is the pace seems - slower. My job glues me to the dual screen monitor and hours of flashing pixels streaming reminders, notices, e-mails, phone calls and constant stream of IM from my co-workers. A web server is off sync in Maine, a Hand Reader is blown in a Indian casino and a WAN in Hawaii is blocking our software and all of them need answers within the hour, I log intense amount of remote time. Time blurs by as I test, diagnose and respond fueled by coffee, green tea, vitamin C and in extreme cases Tylenol. Blurry eyed and mentally wiped out I come home.

The new place has inspired me to pick up something I have left behind 21 years ago (Jeez I am old) - a Strathmore newsprint paper pad and a set of pencils that include a charcoal and draughting - with a sharpener and Artgum eraser. Wood and graphite on newsprint paper just feel good right - especially the shads of gray that do not show up well on a computer monitor.

I did some basic sketches based upon a book I have - The Complete Manual of Sexual Positions, - and with some of the pics - I wondered..... how??!! - do they do Yoga? - and that looks painful!

Now if I just could get back on track with the exercise....iron and sweat also sound good right now.