Date: 2002-05-23
Time: 12:44 p.m.

there's an alley behind my apartment called 'frear alley'. since I moved in, jesse and I have often joked about removing the first 'r' in 'frear' with paint and 'hanging out' there in leather jackets, white t-shirts, and ripped jeans, cuz then we'd be the 'fear alley gang', and we could shout "DON'T MESS WITH FEAR ALLEY!!" at people who came by.

well the fantasy has become a reality. yesterday jesse emailed select individuals with the following:

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From: FEAR ALLEY GANG <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 5:05 PM
To: fear alley gang <[email protected]>
Subject: First meeting of FEAR ALLEY GANG- Wednesday, May 29 at 9PM
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NEXT WEDNESDAY 9PM

IN FEAR ALLEY

FIRST MEETING OF TOUGHEST GANG IN UNIVERSE: THE FEAR ALLEY GANG

AT THIS MEETING WE WILL BE DOING THE FOLLOWING

� DRAFTING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEAR ALLEY GANG

� SETTING A TIME AND DAY FOR THE BIWEEKLY MEETINGS OF THE FEAR ALLEY GANG

� DISCUSSING VARIOUS STRATEGIES FOR MODIFYING THE EXISTING "FREAR ALLEY" SIGNS SO AS TO MAKE THEM READ "FEAR ALLEY"

� HANGING OUT, ACTING TOUGH

� MAKING SURE THAT NOBODY MESSES WITH FEAR ALLEY

� ADJURNING TO FISH'S PLACE WHERE WE WILL BE PROJECTING "STYLE WARS" ONTO A BIG FAT WALL

FEAR ALLEY GANG MEMBERSHIP RELIES STRONGLY ON THE FOLLOWING TWO QUALITIES

� A LEATHER JACKET

� TOUGHNESS

LEATHER JACKET MAY BE SUBSTITUTED FOR BOMBER JACKET, WHITE T-SHIRT/BLUE JEANS COMBO, OR SOMETHING OF SIMILAR TOUGHNESS. TOUGHNESS IS MANDATORY

"FREAR ALLEY" (SOON TO READ "FEAR ALLEY") IS PARALLEL TO 1ST AND 2ND STREET IN DOWNTOWN TROY WITH INLETS AT BROADWAY (NEAR MONUMENT SQUARE), STATE, AND THROUGH THE PARKING LOT NEXT TO FISH'S PLACE (14 1ST ST.)

PLEASE FORWARD THIS INVITE TO ANY INTERESTED/OVERLOOKED PARTIES WITH LEATHER COATS AND TOUGHNESS TO SPARE

***********

... so it's on. if you live in the 'capital district' and you're tough, you know what to do and where to be at. yessir.

blam. in other news, last night I had a dream about XML and XSLT. not only is this incredibly lame and stupid, it's symptomatic of a problem I'm having lately where I'm geeking out enormously in order to avoid the real world (read this for extended list-based commentary). the geek world of markup languages and namespace transformations and all that hoohah is conveniently void of emotional conundrums and vexing personal paradoxes and all that shit, and it's real great, but really when your dreams become polluted with that crap you know it's time to just stop.

so yeah in light of this I'm taking it easy today. not too much code. a bit of design, maybe, but generally my feet are up on the desk, or tapping gently on the floor along to the beat of the ongoing beastie boys marathon coming out of my computer speakers. yes indeed. that's how it is. also I'm gonna send maqui some flowers, I think, cuz that's how I feel.

only actually I'm kind of hesitant about that, right, cuz I sent her flowers once before already, and I gave her some in person earlier on, and so like what else is good for a boy to send to a girl to say "you're great and I like you"? like, I'm not going to send diamonds and all that, and but I know that she likes blue things, and things with stars on them, but what??! the 'capital district' is not the greatest purveyor of cute things you can use to show emotion like that, giftwise. is there some magic website that has it all and will ship it fedex? cutestuffforgirls.com? I dunno. it's rough and tough.

anyway yeah so yeah. now I'm going to try to find some decent lunch in this town, which in the back of my mind I know is a futile endeavor, so I'm already ready to hate whatever I end up settling for in the food realm. if you know of good lunch places in troy and you're holding out on me, you can fully expect to have the FEAR ALLEY GANG on yo' azz in no time. BLEAH!

+++fish2000+++


ps. margaret yang is back, and she's really making a go of it over at grover cleveland.

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