I come from a very strange country. Witness the recent brouhaha in England about the cancellation of a long-running favorite telly (TV) show that I used to watch as a kid - "One Man and His Dog". This weekly half-hour show (no commercials, remember - it's the BBC!) was a competitive sheep-herding event. And each week, up to one fifth of the entire population used to watch it! We're talking about a show whose high point of excitement was when Shep, the sheep-dog, would lie down instead of responding to his masters "yip-yips" and whistles. There was a hilarious article in the New York Times about the cancellation the other day. The article talked about the spectacular taciturnity of the contesting farmers. In an interview, one contestant "admits to being quietly confident" and compared to the rest comes across as the "Donald Trump of the sheep-dog world". Lord, my whole family used to watch this show. Part of its attraction comes, I acknowlege, from the scenery - the English countryside is admittedly beautiful. But the article suggest, and I agree with it, that in a world of increasing urban complexity, and suburbanization, the show returns people to their rural roots. In any event, it's won a stay of execution from "Auntie Beeb" (as the British call the BBC, perhaps because of the organization's habits of telling its viewers that it knows what is good for them).

Jeez Louise, it's Wednesday evening already. I had a whole week of work to get things done, and it's more than half over and I've gotten nothing done, barely. While I made an effort to Y2K-test my two PCs yesterday, I was thwarted by the new Y2K-testing software I bought from Macafee, which, ironically, was so full of bugs that it wouldn't function. But the real reason I'm not getting my stuff done is that there are so many other pleasant distractions. Friends, among them. Having all this free time has allowed me to catch up with people I don't see often enough, whether by long-distance telephone, or by getting together.

Today I had lunch with Wendy, my best friend from my old job across the Bay in Berkeley. They've finally finished their Y2K project. About time, considering they're a software company. After lunch, I spent over an hour wandering around catching up with all the people I used to work with. Going back there and feeling welcomed made me again think about those same missing collegial feelings from my current job.

Yesterday afternoon, I hung out with Tony. We went to see "All About My Mother", the new movie by Pedro Almodovar. It was a paen to womanhood - I found it very touching, and visually splendid. Almodovar has an incredible sense of color. Tony and I also went CD shopping, and I bought an old favorite Pet Shop Boy's album, "Behavior" which I hitherto only had on tape.

Listening to the first track, "Being Boring" left me unexpectedly sobbing. Not sure why really. It's true that the words are incredibly moving - the loss of friends due to Aids - but it's never affected me quite that way before. Perhaps it was due to nostalgia again. I always used to listen to that album when I was biking to work in Philly. I was in the prime of my young gay life, and the lyrics of the song talk of changes in (obviously) a gay person's life over a couple of decades. Thanks to petshopgirl_13 for the lyrics. Even now, just writing them down here brings a sob out. Wow, the power of music to bring back feelings and memories.

now i sit with different faces
in rented rooms and foreign places
all the people i was kissing
some are here and some are missing
in the nineteen-nineties
i never dreamt that i would get to be
the creature that i always meant to be
but i thought in spite of dreams
you'd be sitting somewhere here with me

Brett's current drive to work-out harder is inspiring me too. I talked to Cecilia today about how I could get a bigger chest. Mine always seems so miniscule. She gave me some bad news and some good news - the bad news is that it's hard for someone with a very tall ectormorphic physique, and the good news is that I could make some progress by not only working out the chest harder but by eating more carbohydrates! Does that mean more tarts and cheese-filled pasta? Unfortunately no - more rice - yukk, boring (: Today, though, we started off on working out harder, and she put me through the most intense work-out I've had in years. I'm going to try to add fifteen minutes to each work out so that I can finally start working out each body part twice weekly, and we're going to concentrate on the negative part of the movement. This requires a lot of work for Cecilia, since it means I'll be lifting much heavier weights which she has to help me with.