Thursday, July 30, 2009

It Finally Makes Sense to Me

Two facts you may have already gleaned from me:






1) I am a night owl, and therefore quite the "not a morning person"

2) I have been under the weather recently, and therefore I have been getting a lot more sleep lately.

Suddenly, everything makes a hell of a lot more sense. See, last night I was feeling kind of like garbage, so I hit the ol' hay around nine o'clock - a feat I have not accomplished since the ripe age of... I don't even remember when. I still woke up at the usual time, around 7:15, yet something was off. I wasn't really cranky. I didn't immediately feel a distaste for anyone I laid eyes on. My stomach was completely settled, my head was clear as a bell, and I felt a bit of a devil-may-care attitude as I woke up.

Suddenly, I realized: this is what it's like for those well-rested morning people. See, all those mornings that I was tired and frustrated, those smiling masses were waking up from their eight or ten hours of sleep, ready to tackle yet another day as the sun rises.

So what's my solution? Now that I'm feeling better, I am staying up until the wee hours of the morning writing a blog about the whole "wow I got sleep one night and felt like a normal human in the morning" thing. Perhaps old blue eyes put it best (not that this applies to me tonight or at all this week): "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."

Amen, Frank.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Just So You Know

I'm sick. Not in that fun, exciting "sick in the head" kind of way, either. Just the whole "I have a cold and should never be less than five feet from a box of tissues kind of what. Which is really friggin' boring. As a result, the vast majority of my life has been devoted to either being at work and blowing my nose, being at home and blowing my nose, riding the bus and trying not to blow my nose, and sleeping.

So unless you're up for a long diatribe about how much I dislike my mucous glands, I will just pack it in.

Thanks.

Friday, July 24, 2009

How I've Missed You...

So it turns out everything was all about coffee. I went back to the coffee shop in the first time in quite some time, and I think that a portion of my general ennui was stemming from my lack of late-night caffeination.

All of a sudden I feel alive again for the most part. I'm running into people on the street everywhere I go (a very classic Bill thing to have happen) and again, to the comfort of many people, the people I've run into recently have not been calling me a legend.

Also, tonight I finally finished reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. It's one of those books that is a "challenging read" -- it's 760 pages long, has (according to Wikipedia) over 400 characters, and isn't really about much of anything. It's artfully written, it's clearly a great literary accomplishment, but it's not what a vast majority of us (even folks with a background like mine) would consider pleasure reading. I will say this much: it's hands-down more enjoyable and engaging than I found Finnegan's Wake.

But I can't help but ask: why do I read these books? Yes, Gravity's Rainbow won the Pulitzer, and it was included in Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Greatest Novels, which oddly only includes English language novels from 1923-2005. But still, it bears the question, is it a status thing? (I hope not) Is it a mental challenge thing? (getting warmer) Really, I think it's just boiled down to the fact that at this point in my life, I feel like there are certain books that I should have read. And it's not just part of that BBC list or anything like that.

Am I alone here? Do you all have stuff like that? Movies? Books? Albums? Anything like that? I guess it's like peoples' desires to see all the Major League ball parks or to visit certain cities before they die or something like that. Now back to some more accessible, fun, light reading. Then Infinite Jest. THAT will be an experience...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Well Then

I have to just up and say it: I've never been quite to uninspired in my life. At least not in recent memory.

My days consist of the same wake-bus-work-bus-band practice-sleep schedule day in and day out. I haven't been to the coffee shop in probably close to two months, I'm tired more and more, and I just feel like I've fallen into a sedentary pattern that is really wearing on me. Hell, I almost talked about the weather again in this blog.

And on that note, I bid you a fond good day.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Oh Dear

Sorry folks, been sitting here trying to come up with something to write for damn near an hour.
Hopefully I'll have something for you tomorrow.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Abomination

I emailed this to a handful of my folks, but I had to post it here if you were overlooked in my email.

This is a screamo cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights". I applaud these silly lads for their ability to jump at the same time, and their well-coordinated side-stance headbanging. I do not, however, applaud their ability to NOT butcher an otherwise wonderful song.



Best part? They're a Christian metal band.

Read more here.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Legend?

Whenever I toss out the word "legend" I can't help but think about "The Legend of Boggs" but unfortunately, that's not what tonight's blog is about. Rather, narcissistically enough, it's about me. See, last night I was at an old stomping ground after hours (Seniore's Pizza, for you in the SF cognoscenti) and as often happens to be the case when in an old stomping ground, I ran into some guys who I went to high school with.

The two young gents were both about two years younger than me. I know it's commonplace to look up to the older guys when you're in school and all that, but apparently this has somehow hung on with a few of the fellas. See, as I was walking out of the pizza place last night, the two fellas I know started calling after me, saying that I was "A San Francisco Legend", as if all the people around should know my name and who I am.

A similar thing happened a few weeks ago with another friend from high school who is a few years younger than myself. He introduced me as "the legendary" Bill Bergstrom. So here's my thing: I don't consider myself to be the slightest bit legendary. I don't think I'm really exceptional, and while I'm not looking for a pat on the back or anything like that, I just wonder what the heck happened. I know I had high school figured out, I know that I was kind of a big deal back in the day, but I don't know what happened in the meantime. I don't think any of my current compatriots would call me legendary, though I certainly am held in high regard. Then again, I was also much smoother with the ladies. Guess maybe it just goes hand in hand.

Guess I have to change my description.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Only in San Francisco

Part of my job these days is to email users of our website asking them if they would be willing to help out by talking a bit about our site and their experience using it for some TV and radio spots and whatnot. Earlier this week I was doing just that, and I emailed a user, who for anonymity's sake we'll call Anita. Anita had an email address along the lines of "Anita_hottie", which was compelling.

Anita was one of the first of our users to respond to the batch of emails, and said something to the effect of "I'd be honored to help you out, I love using your site. I'm just not sure that I'd be the right person to go on TV. But I guess we'll have to meet in person for you to see what I mean. Much love, Anita" or something like that.

Naturally, being the curious type, I couldn't help but do a little interweb-sleuthing. What did I discover?

Anita is a man.

Anita is a man who cross-dresses.

Anita is a man who cross-dresses like a schoolgirl.

Anita is a man who cross-dresses like a schoolgirl on a "sissy porn" website.

So yes, there we have it. Welcome to the constant oddness that is my life. I am trying to find some friendly and wholesome housewife type to say how happy they are with our site. What did I end up with? A man who dresses up like a schoolgirl and gets spanked on the internet. I love my life.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

This is why I'm Hot

We all know my feelings about talking about the weather, but goddammit, it's too damn hot these days, and daylight savings time is really getting to me. I think it's my generally nocturnal nature, paired with my rearing in the fog belt of San Francisco, but the fact that it's usually daylight when I wake up in the morning, and remains light out until some time in the neighborhood of eight thirty or nine in the evening is throwing me way off.

See, I'm not going to say "I like the nightlife, I like to boogie" (even if it is true), but I will say this: I find to an increasing degree that I really need a certain number of waking hours after sundown for my well being and sanity. It sounds funny, but I really find that I feel far more awake and alive in the nighttime hours, I feel like much of my waking time with the sun out is spent waiting for the sun to go away. Yes yes, I know, I spend most of my daylight hours at work, and the night is when I go out and get into trouble and all that, but to be honest, I'm the same way when I'm at home. Still, I find it increasingly difficult to not roll my eyes when the people at work get all up on their "ooohhh I'm so happy it's so nice and sunny out today" - it's just another too sunny day for me.

So I say, "Up yours, sun. Quit following me around. Just to get back at you, I just might go visit Sweden at the equinox so I can spend like 38 hours without having to see you. Jerk."

As a means of illustration, this picture below would be me, if I were an Italian plumber named Mario.