Prince Died Today

Prince was awesome and fun and weird and more than a little bit crazy. He died today at the age of 57.

He did many great musical things in his life, one of which was to boot Kim Kardashian (who?) off the stage during a concert. He didn't even get mad, he just treated her like the clueless trash that she is.  Legend.

I Broke Up with My Audi

The Prius

I broke up with my RS4. It was a breakup, because I was emotionally invested in it, but: it wasn't working out. In economic terms it wasn't worth the investment. In more plain language it was fucking killing me, which it would have to be in order for me to sell it because I loved that car. I still love it, and driving it was fun (sometimes) but living with it day to day was a nightmare.

It never actually left me stranded - it was too well mannered for that. Instead it just cost a fortune to own and operate. Every few months some new thing would go wrong during 'routine' maintenance and I'd be out another two to three grand (or more!). At some point the juice just isn't worth the squeeze, so I sold it a (considerable) loss and moved on to a known, reliable, robust quantity.

Opted to lease a Prius. That's it in the picture. Don't be confused by the logo - it's a Prius - same engine, same hybrid system, blah blah blah. It's pretty nice! Lots of features! The best part is I don't have any maintenance costs and it's covered by a warranty (obvs.) so basically I just have to show up with a check for three years and it will work very well. If I'm going to have a car payment I might as well have a new car. Be sure and wave if you see me on the road.

Enter the Dragón

(Posts are infrequent because there isn't much to report.)
I live in a moderately shady neighborhood. Not much in the way of street crime but there are a lot of motels that rent by the week, drug-addicted homeless, mentally ill homeless, and local trash that doesn't bother cleaning up after their dog. So I see a lot of weird shit, both literally and figuratively. A surprising amount, considering that the area is largely suburban, with a few streets zoned for shopping and food and a few others zoned for industry stuff like auto shops and furniture shops and offices.

Dining at the mexican eatery just around the corner is always interesting. The fajitas are adequate, and it draws a mixed group of white collar office types, some blue collar types, students, and whatever homeless guy felt like a burrito that day. Winos having an argument on the lawn while a table of students enjoy taco Tuesday is, well, typical Tuesday. What was not typical was the kid walking down the street with nunchucks in his back pocket (or 'nunchaku', if you're that person). Skinny jeans, hoodie, and nunchucks, all casual like. You know, just in case you need to get down with some kung fu on your way to the burrito spot? No idea. It was pretty great.

I have never owned nunchucks but coveted them as a young person, even though you were more likely to hit yourself than someone else. And - it bears mentioning - they aren't very concealable. And I'm also not sure they are strictly legal. They are less illegal than brass knuckles, but maybe more illegal than a pocketknife, so I guess homie was on his way to/from martial arts school and kept his clothes/pads/gear onsite but didn't have room to store his 'deadly' weapon. We'll never know.

The fajitas were pretty good, btw.

Don't Give Up The Butter

Wrote some words, deleted them. Wrote more and different words, deleted them again. They were dumb and you are not. Thanks for stopping by.

Good and Chill Jamz: Wild at Heart by Alfred Hall (Pegato Remix), plus: I Went There: Foster City / San Diego

Greetings reader! Not much to report this week, as per usual. We have a good and chill jam courtesy the internet. Perfect for your weekend morning or your weekday commute. Or any time you feel like a good and chill jam. You do you. Free download!

The week took me to a decent hotel in Foster City, which I had never paid any attention to but is now a hotbed of commercial activity because it is much cheaper than, and adjacent to, San Francisco. Meeting was good but the highlight was catching up with Ze Newbs at lunch, who works in the area. Fun for me.

Later in the week I had to go to a very expensive work dinner down in San Diego, so I made my way there and stayed in an impressively janky hotel, in theory to save my employer some money. The dinner (including tax and tip) was over $400 a plate. Good thing I made an effort to save some cash on that hotel stay! I would have much preferred if they took me somewhere for $100 a plate and then handed me $300 in cash. That would have been much excellent. Dinner bill was inflated in part by the drinks and wine but it was mostly food. (I skipped the drinks - I almost never drink at work dinners. This confuses people sometimes but I don't drink at work during the day so why would I drink at work during the evening?) Nothing like corporate-sanctioned gluttony to make you want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork.