Manlio Rules

friday night: we had the second to last show for the theatre thing. i actually made no mistakes, which was unusual. it was certainly better than last friday, when i ran tech for the show after having 2 margaritas and a beer at work. that was a trip, let me tell you

saturday night it was closing night of the show. Thanks to Sean, Ron, Debbie, and Susie for making it, it was nice to have people in the audience. We grabbed some food, and i had a few drinks. all was well

sunday i woke up, briefly considered shaving my head but decided against it (for now), went to the supermarket and then went to softball, where we proceeded to get KILLED. my team needs the following improvments

1. we need to learn how to hit
2. It would help if we could catch the ball
3. it would also help if perhaps we could throw the ball

I think those 3 things would really help us. we got mercy ruled after the 4th inning, i only got to bat once, and i made a grand total of 1 plays at 1B, mostly because the SS couldn’t field the ball cleanly necessitating a throw. oh, and no one in the OF could catch. our RF, who seems very nice lined up for a fly ball and had the ball go into her glove and then pop out. I did my best to not get frustrated, but then the other team started taking balls and taking extra bases (always classy when you’re up 15-0), and i got really mad. sigh.

after that it was danah’s going away party in dolores park, which was nice and mellow, amy stopped by and stuff. and then i went home, made some meatballs, and watched a little deadwood before practicing on my new electronic drumkit, which is pretty sweet.

but my friend gabe sent me this, and i thought it was really crazy. so if you haven’t read it, find out how crazy the guys in steely dan are these days:

Steely Dan’s open letter to Luke Wilson

ok, so i’m sitting here at work, and i have a few minutes to spare. So i decide that in preparation for bar trivia (which i’ve been doing weekly), i should probably look at the periodic table of elements, cause sometimes that comes up. nothing serious, i just want to memorize the first 20 or so, and know which ones are liquids (Bromide, Mercury).

so my co-worker comes into my cube, and asks: “why are you looking at the element table?”. and i tell her, and she says: “i hated memorizing that.”

and it hits me. all college testing should be done in a pub trivia format. think about it. at the start of the semester, you get your team. every two weeks or so, you compete in a bar environment on the tests. it doesn’t matter if you learn all the material yourself, but your team needs to make sure that they have all the bases covered, because you get graded together. so if someone slips up, someone else better be ready to cover them. i personally would learn everything, since i don’t trust that other people will do their share.

one problem i thought about is what would happen if people decided to just shout out the answers. but then i remembered my college days and realized that would never happen cause most people are hyper competitive assholes. just go to wharton if you don’t believe me.

another problem would be that this would be harder for art and english classes, though i love the idea of a team of people collaborating on an essay while drinking. i bet it would be hilarious.

i suppose the drinking would be a problem too, but not for me.

this weekend alex and karen were in town, so we figured we had to go to the beach, cause that’s what we do. so on saturday morning we headed for santa cruz. i have never been to santa cruz before. i think we chose the wrong beach. we lay out on the one right next to the huge amusement park. i have to say, listening to people screaming does not necessarily enhance my beach experience. in fact, quite the opposite.

after about 2 hours, karen (lobster arms) and alex were both about ready to go, so we decided to head back to SF. but first,
to make things even more disgusting, the old woman sitting near us (wearing a diaper under her dress/swimsuit) ashe waved me over and said to me: “can you guide my ass?” becasue she needed help sitting down. I did so, then proceeded to run back to the boardwalk, and only partly because my feet were burning on the sand. btw, i need some sandals or flip/flops, like 2 days ago.

so in case you’re keeping count, that’s 4 hours of driving for 2 hours of beach time. we are idiots. but we were having fun in the car, so whatever. after a quick (hour) stop at casa manlio, we went down to the mission to find karen a mission burrito (burrito = delicious), and then i bid them farewell.

a few hours later, marco called. he had been at yosemite, and was in north beach with some friends. i met them for dinner. parking at north beach = terrible. and the food at calzone’s was plentiful, but that’s the nicest thing i can say about it. afterwards marco and i went back home and watched tv till we both passed out. good loconte family fun.

yesterday marco wanted to bike over the gg bridge. which is a great idea, but i was exhausted. so we compromised and went to a giants game. the game was good, i really love that ballpark. he left last night, after a delicous burgermeister dinner.

and this morning i am back at work, after a grueling AM workout. my arms feel like jelly.

ok, so i keep forgetting to post this info.

the way this worked out: when i started at work, an “introduce yourself” email was sent to all the UED folk in the company. In it i was asked to talk a little bit about myself, and i mentioned that i liked theatre and wanted to find some stuff to do out here. A week later, Jim emailed me out of the blue and said: “i do theatre. let’s hang out”, or something to that effect. we had a few conversations about his show, and it turned out that he needed someone who was familiar with music, video, lighting, etc… sound familiar? so yeah. this is the show. it goes up tonight and 2 nights next weekend. people who have come have laughed, but beyond that i won’t make any claims to its entertainment value, other than i’m pretty sure Richard Foreman would hate it, which i consider to be a high compliment.

so come on by

FRI & SAT, July 14 & 15
FRI, July 21
FRI & SAT, July 28 & 29
All shows at 8:00pm

Lila Theatre @ Off-Market
965 Mission Street at 5th

{ Get Directions }

Tickets $15-25
{ Buy Tickets Online }
or call 1-800-838-3006

i know, i’ve been bad about posting. what can i say? since i stopped going out every night of the week, life is slightly more boring.

anyways, here’s what’s going on:

1. theatre piece. i’ll post more about this later. this weekend and next, shoudl be pretty decent. if you’re in SF come on by.

2. alex/karen in town this weekend. i think maybe we’re going to napa. whether or not that’s a good idea remains to be seen, given that i’ll be driving and i like to drink. if anyone has napa recs, i’d love to hear them

3. there’s other stuff, i just can’t think of it right now and i have to get off the wifi bus…

UPDATE: next morning

4. ok, so i’m very hungover this morning. last night we had bar trivia, which we won, cause when you bring 8 people to bar trivia, you’re usually pretty covered. honestly i think we could have done it with 5 of us, though i will avoid mentioning which 5.

5. and then it was Alice/Harry/Sean/Debbie’s ‘welcome to sf’ party. i drank a lot and got to finally catch up a bit with alex without all the dball talk. Harry got his laptop stolen, and danah boyd and i discussed why she’s a rockstar (conclusion: because she’s danah boyd and fastcompany photographs her on motorcycles with laptops). there are photos of this (the party), i’m going to steal borrow them from willo as soon as she posts them.

update: ok here,

willo titled this: “me, manlio, and cutie dodgeball alex”. i take this to mean that i am not cute. i will cry now

6. this week i missed my 5:30am bootcamp twice and counting. i think i will make it tomorrow. it is hard to get up at 5:30. when i told harry what i was doing, he gave me the same look i would expect if i had told him that i sometimes strangle kittens while covered in baby oil.

7. work is ok. watching people use the products i design is alternatively wonderful and the most frustrating thing in the world. i think if you can’t figure out how to type your user name into a text field, you shouldn’t be allowed to own a computer.

8. i think that’s everything. oh wait, michelle gave me a wicker clamshell chair for my room, which is now way too crowded and i may need to rearrange. but it’s awesome. it’s a new level of laziness.

So, as promised on friday, i went to see Katie perform that night. She did a smashing job, as always, even though most of the people who sat and watched her were also friends of hers in SF who came specifically to see her.

The crew from the venue mostly talked loudly outside, including one woman who was apparently so excited at being given some sort of book for a present that she repeatedly YELLED: “you’re giving this to me? are you serious?”. She maybe said this 500 times.

And there was the woman who was getting a back rub during one of katie’s songs. i’m not sure what her dress was made out of, but given all the noise that it made when being massaged, i’m guessing sandpaper. if the dude rubbing her back had decided to somehow do it in rhythm to the song, i think it would have been pretty cool. alas, he did not.

But katie’s show was great for those of us who were actually there to listen to her. afterwards we went out to the mission and then to a lesbian bar in bernal heights, where a woman complimented my shirt and asked me where i got it, and i replied honestly: “umm… i think i got this at the Gap”. that was apparently the wrong answer.

other things i did this weekend included playing softball, playing DS Lite, and playing with Carmen

I, am going to see my friend Katie play guitar and sing. Katie is a friend from NY, and she’s an aspiring folk musician. She’s incredible, her stuff is like a cross between a bunch of people i’ve never heard of cause i don’t ordinarily like folk music, but the songs themselves are catchy and hooky, the lyrics stick in your head like warm honey cold honey (which is stickier than warm honey, according to hez (thanks hez!)), and Katie herself is the personification of a breath of fresh air.

so…

if you happen to read this and also live in SF (i think there are perhaps 1-2 of you), and you have no plans tonight, or if you feel like blowing off your current plans, check out katie’s music here:

http://www.myspace.com/katiesawicki

EDIT: ok, so stephen told me that he won’t go see any band that i’m suggesting through myspace. which is moot, cause stephen doesn’t even live in SF. But, just to show you all that katie also has her own website, if you’re anti-myspace, you can also check out katie’s stuff at:

http://www.katiesawicki.com

Then come on down to Femina Potens, which is at:

Femina Potens Gallery, 465 S. Van Ness (btwn 15th and 16th)

It’s an opening reception for an exhibit of women illustrators. According to the website, it is free. Katie supposedly goes on around 8PM. i’ll be there hopefully with some sort of beverage…

EDIT: that beverage ended up being red wine.

Any of you who have ever seen my powerbook know that there are some screen problems with it. for those of you who never have seen my powerbook, the screen problems are basically this:

It has been like this since i got it 2 years ago. i sort of let it slide for awhile, because that’s pretty much who i am, plus i was using it for freelance work and really needed to have it every day or else i couldn’t have gotten paid. But about 6 months ago i decided that i should take it in, and ideally they should replace it, cause it’s pretty annoying. So i went down to the SoHo Mac Store and spoke to one of their geniuses at the genius bar. We’ll call him New York Mac Dude (NYMD). the conversation basically went like this:

me: So, my screen’s damaged
NYMD: Yeah, that’s not our fault. that’s accidental damage
me: what do you mean?
NYMD: I mean, that happened cause you either dropped it or you’re putting too much pressure on the screen
me: well, i never dropped it. and it’s always been like this.
NYMD: well, why didn’t you bring it in when you got it?
me: i needed it for work
NYMD: Yeah, you should have brought it in then. there’s nothing i can do now
me: but… why on earth do i have applecare if you won’t fix this stuff?
NYMD: i’m telling you, it’s considered accidental damage
me: but it was always like this
NYMD: well, that’s just your story
me: if you ever meet me again, i will stab you and bathe in your blood.

ok, so i didn’t say that last line. i did say something cliched like: “i’ll never buy another apple”, which was a hollow lie, cause of course i will. But i made peace with the little white halo and decided that even with all its faults, it was my computer and had always done its best and i shouldn’t look down on it cause it was a little different.

fast forward to a month ago. my powerbook is having major issues. Kernel panics, failure to boot, lots of issues. So today i brought it into the SF mac store, and spoke to one of thier geniuses. we’ll call her SF Mac Diva.

As she’s booting up the machine, trying to bring it back to life (which was very cute, btw, she kept putting her ear to the HD and listening to it, like it was a patient), she says:

Diva: Do you want to fix these white dots on the screen?
me: yeah, but i was told that it was accidental damage and i’d have to pay
Diva: That’s ridiculous. they’re all over the place. this is a known issue
me: yeah, but my book isn’t one of the ones from that production line
Diva: Doesn’t matter, this is really terrible. who told you we wouldn’t fix it? Someone here?
me: no, someone in the NY store
Diva: Well, i’m really sorry about that. we’ll totally fix this for you. And i’ll fix the case too.
me: what’s wrong with my case?
Diva: see these little dots here? (i had never seen these dots)
me: whoa. what are those from?
Diva: Oil on your hand. no worries, we’ll take care of it.

So, in conclusion, if you ever have problems with your powerbook, come out to SF. I know just who to talk to.

so, saturday night was Sean’s surprise party. i have never taken part in a successful surprise party, either as the subject (ahem, thanks to micah) or a participant. In any event, I met up with some of the CMU AEP mafia for dinner beforehand. for those of you who don’t live out here, most of the people that i’ve met went to college at Carnegie Mellon. i can’t decide if it’s a freak coincidence or if most of CMU just heads out here after graduation, but i’m talking like 75% of people are from CMU, and while most of them know each other, there’s enough that don’t to make it super odd.

anyways, from there we went to hemlock Tavern, which i think has become my official favorite bar in SF, although the Page wins points for being walking distance to my house and having a free foosball table. Regardless, Hemlock is great. It’s a lot like McLinchey’s in philly, except much bigger and with less 60 year old irish men there.

So sean showed up, we surprised him, he was excited, and everyone proceeded to get trashed. after last call we went back to sean’s apt for more drinks. i have very little idea how i got home. i must have wandered out and found a cab, cause i got dropped off pretty close to my apt. I also may have thrown up somewhere between getting out of the cab and getting to my apt. so if you live near me in SF (like, somewhere on page st.), and there was vomit anywhere around your place on sunday morning, i’m very very sorry and i will make amends if you come find me.

i think there is one picture of this night, but someone else has it. if i ever find it, i’ll post it…