The Black Flag

Me? Not so much.

Happy 30th, big guy.

So I had a very nice dinner last night, out and about with a slew of friendly folks, including two lovely ladies who had the misfortune to know me during high school. I'd link to their pages to prove that they are indeed lovely, but they have some kind of mutant ability to tolerate the inherent fuglyness of MySpace, and keep their pages over there. I don't hold it against them.

We ate at a Middle Eastern place called "Moustache" (yes, seriously), which is apparently known for its "pitzas" (yes, those are exactly what they sound like). I had the pitza with lemon marinated grilled chicken and red peppers, which was top notch. The hummus was authentic, in that it's probably more bland than most folks are used to.

I also had something surprising, and the real reason for this whole post: a bottle of Moroccan beer, predictably branded "Casablanca." The label says it's a lager; I've seen it described as some kind of european pilsner. I really have no idea. It tasted like a slightly stronger Corona to me. I'm sure "Beer People" will turn up their collective noses at it, but for the non-microbrew set, it was surprisingly good. Better than I expected from a 98% Muslim country, anyway.

We hit the place at 90 Bedford, which was roughly the size of my apartment, meaning our group of a half dozen waited over an hour to get in (no reservations, folks), but I'm told it's also the less expensive of the two locations.

The conversation was pleasant (Does everybody on the face of the planet watch Lost now?), and I am reminded that I should really see these aforementioned ladies more (one in particular I haven't seen in ten years). We'll see if lil' ol' antisocial me will actually do anything about that.

Well, the first of the month seems like an auspicious time to post my first entry, so let's get to it.

There's a line from Dashiell Hammett's The Dain Curse that says, "Thinking's a dizzy business, a matter of catching as many of those foggy glimpses as you can and fitting them together the best you can." Optimally, I'd like to use this LJ as a way to clarify that process for me somewhat; a place to think out loud and have some record of it, beginning to end.

So, in spite of the subject line, there's no set goal here. Perhaps I'll start treating it as a real journal, recounting small bits of the day to day that nobody right-minded should care about. Perhaps I'll just blow off steam, writing self-absorbed screed after self-absorbed screed. Perhaps I'll simply use it to post snide comments on friends' pages. Perhaps I just won't use it at all.

We'll see.