alternative utility #1

This is one I can now vouch for: krazy-glue skin sealer

One of my pet peeves is getting paper cuts. Last week I slit my thumb and it hurt like a mofo. The next day, I hoped that it would begin to heal and close up. Instead, it repeatedly split back open. I remembered learning a long time ago that super-glue was perfect for closing up deep cuts... can't remember where I read it... and I vaguely remember super-glue being used in an episode of ER for some type of deep wound.

I had a tube of krazy-glue lying around, so I smudged a drop of glue over the cut. Once the glue dried, the cut was as good as healed. There is still a light layer of glue crust over my thumb like a thin callus, but it's smoothing out.

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Every once in a while, I take a deep dive back into a favorite artist/band's pool of work. Last summer, it was David Bowie and The Smith/Morrissey. The resurgent interest in two of my all time favorites was due to meeting a bloke from London.

He spent much of last year traveling the world (46 flights in 2005!). We met on the internet, and agreed to meet up despite him thinking I was a bit rude... which perhaps I was :) ... trying to remember the reasons why... perhaps I was not taking our online chat all too seriously and trying to be playful... In any case, we met up later that afternoon at the starbucks down the street... I was feelin' a bit cocky, knowing that he would be surprised that I was actually a nice guy (hmmm, arrogant assumption of one's niceness... an oxymoron? or just arrogance...)... anyhu, we ended up sharing a somewhat frantic but meaningful 24 hours together before he departed for Dubai. I have to admit I was touched by his youthful energy and enthusiasm, and his forthright feelings and sincerity, despite the minimal time we had actually spent together.

The highlight of our hanging out together was the eventual discovery or our mutual love of David Bowie and Morrissey. We watched several Bowie videos that I hadn't previously paid much attention to, such as "Be My Wife." It was quite lovely (and painful) scrutinizing Bowie at his ultimate low, smacked out on heroin and looking skeletal thin. We eventually moved on to Morrissey, and sang "Suedehead" at the top of our lungs. The block from London had a lovely singing voice, as he had spent many years as a recording artist. And if there is anything I can actually sing, I can sing Morrissey (or at least I'd like to think).

I have been listening to Tori Amos all day today. It all began when mikey pointed me to her 80's cornflake cereal commercial for Kellogg's 'Just Right' Cereal. Apparently she beat out Sarah Jessica Parker for the role, tho its quite silly that her talent was of no real use in the spot. She references this commercial experience in one of her most brilliant songs, "Cornflake Girl": "Never was a cornflake girl/thought that was a good solution/hangin with the raisin girls." (Take another good listen to the piano break-down near the end!)

It got me thinking again about how many references in her songs go over my head. But when I do figure them out (or read about them online :), it is ultimately very rewarding. I remember back in college when I went to a midnight sale for the release of her third album "Boys for Pele." I was such a tori-phile! After bustling back to my dorm room and listening through the album, I felt a bit lost, thinking... "wow, she's really lost it, I have no idea what she is rambling about..." But over the next several weeks, I began to just enjoy the dark emotional state of the album... and that was all I needed to understand. To this day, its still a challenging album - a lot of the lyrics remain a mystery to me. But I appreciate more than ever how raw the album sounds, and its place in her evolution as an artist, and the chapter the songs represent in her personal life.

alarming neighbor 'closure report'

If you haven't read the 'alarming neighbor' post (3/2/06 - two blogs down), read that one first :)


(cont.)

By the 2nd friday after I first noticed my neighbor's hour long early morning alarm, the situation got worse - after over an hour, the alarm kept going. This was the breaking point. I decided it was time to knock on my neighbor's door. I was still a bit nervous about confronting him because as you know from my previous post, he's perceptively selective in an anti-social way. So I did the 'knock-knock-quickly-duck-back' into my apartment approach a couple of times - but to no avail. So I miserably returned to my apartment, turned on some music and struggled to fall asleep. The ringing went on for 2 full hours! 6am-8am!

Saturday morning, same situation - it is questionable as to whether I was thinking logically when I stood firm at his door, pounding away like a policeman with a search warrant. In light of my other neighbor down the hall passing away recently (blog post 3/3 - 'dead alone'), I began to wonder again that something might possibly be wrong with this guy. After realizing that my knocking was in vain, I decided it was time to report the situation. And so I went downstairs to my doorman, but since it was the weekend and he didn't have the keys to the alarming neighbor's apartment, he told me I had to wait until Monday to explain to the super.

I began to feel that my friends were right - the doormen staff in my building are pretty useless, besides occasionally opening the door for us (occurring more frequently during the end-of-year tip season), and the friendly hellos. In fact, it amazes me how many people make it up to my door without having to buzz up. Furthermore, a few people have the keys to my place - and they all tell me that the doorman thinks that they live here - but I guess I can't complain about that cause I wouldn't want them to have trouble getting up.

On monday late morning, I approached a different doorman, who made me write out the complaint on an oversized index card for the super. But just as I finished, the super appeared. He informed me that the alarming neighbor had checked back into his extended-stay hospital last week, and that my other neighbor (who lives on the other side of the 'alarming neighbor') had also filed a complaint earlier that morning. He had checked the apartment, and there was no alarm to be found. He suggested perhaps it was a smoke alarm or something else.

And so I became agitated and told him he needed to check again. Because I had stood in front of my neighbor's door, and "I [KNEW] THAT THE SOUND WAS FROM AN ALARM CLOCK COMING FROM IN THERE." I wasn't the one who was crazy. I suggested he show up in the morning at 6am, so that he could track the sound. My logical suggestion seemed to convince the super that I was somewhat sane.

I slept through the next morning until the alarm rang. Fortunately (and unfortunately) it was my own alarm, as I had just began a new job which I will go into more detail in a later post. But no alarm from my neighbor's apartment.

I was later told that the alarm clock was in his closet. It was unplugged, but had batteries. I find this a bit odd, but I'll let the mystery be. I'm just glad that this ordeal is over.