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Friday, October 13th, 2006
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Because today was his birthday:
I will say this about my father, he never felt sorry for himself and he never wanted anyone else to feel sorry for him. He was always reluctant to be the center of attention and told me once that when his time came, we shouldn't make a fuss, should just put him out on the curb with the trash. I hope he will understand that we chose not to follow his advice regarding this matter.
There are two things that everyone here today should know about Phillip Carpenter. He loved the Chicago Cubs with a rarely seen passion and believed in his heart, every baseball season, that they had a chance at the Pennant. He was also convinced that he could make me understand Algebra if he tried hard enough. With these things in mind, it's absolutely no surprise to me that he was able to fight cancer for as long as he did. The man simply did not believe that there was such a thing as a lost cause. When the facts stacked up against him, he would just dig in and try harder. Eventually, and I believe to this day that it was only through his refusal to throw in the towel, I made my way through Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Calculus. And while things look dire for the Cubs now, I've got no reason not to think that they won't take it all the way to October next year.
I believe my father got everything he wanted in sixty-one years. A nice house, a steady job, a couple of kids who grew up good looking and smart. A devoted wife who loved him. A couple of cats, a doting dog, a big truck, and a garage full of tools. His grandchildren, Patrick and Kayla, upon whom, to have heard him tell it, the sun rises and sets. I am personally grateful to know that he lived to see my wedding, wouldn't have missed it for the world, he said, to the newest Carpenter, my lovely wife Katherine. Like me, he adored her from the moment he set eyes on her, wouldn't rest until she took our name.
I've been in school for the last twenty years, but I firmly believe that every important thing I ever learned came from my father, and it goes beyond Algebra. He taught me how to grill a burger, drive a car, pitch a tent, catch a fish. But I learned more from watching him. I learned to take pride in who I was, what I did, and what I owned. He taught me that no job was below me if it put food on the table, that if I was driving a rust-bucket Saturn, I should still treat it like a Rolls Royce. That it is perseverance, not dreaming that makes dreams come true. Through watching him with my mother, I learned what it means to be a husband, and it is through his influence that I know someday if I live to be half the father he was, our kids will turn out fine. It is through my father that I learned to enjoy the sublime pleasure of a cold beer after a hard day's work or a juicy steak, any time day or night. It is through listening to him that I learned to tell a story and through digging through his records after school that I learned what rock and roll was all about. Introducing me to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Johnny Cash did more for me than any teacher could have. It is because he retold me the story of O. Henry's "Ransom of Red Chief" a thousand times before I was ten and let me borrow his copy of Stephen King's The Stand when I was too young to understand it that I am a writer today. I can cite twenty names when you ask me who my influences are, but Phil Carpenter is the only one that matters.
I'm lucky that I had the opportunity to call him my father and my friend. That he'd say I was his drinking buddy when I'd come home on break from college. That we had little league games and cub scout campouts, lazy weekends on the bay delta, trips to Vegas, and all night bull sessions under the humming fluorescent lights in his garage. I'll never forget coming home and sharing lunches with him over reruns of MacGuyver and Gunsmoke when I worked at the elementary school down the street. I will not forget the simple joy he took in a chocolate donut. I will never lose faith in the Cubs and I believe that all of us, everyone here today and everyone who couldn't make it, all of his family, everyone lucky enough to have called him a friend will remember him with love for as long as we live.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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In four and a half hours, I'll be hobbling down the aisle with a steady heart and a broken foot.
Remember this day.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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My week in the hole is just about up and I've got this place so sparkling, Kat won't know a bachelor's been living here for the past week. T minus seven days till unemployment and holy sweet goddamn, t minus seventeen days until I shake this nagging bachelorhood.
I believe a "whoa" is in order.
Whoa.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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It's been months and months. I finished another semester at grad school, started another crappy job, and moved to San Jose. So much has happened that must be dull to my readers. I've churned out some fiction I'm really proud of in the last couple of months, but the move totally derailed the revision train and all of it sits tucked away in file folders for a new semester. I'm getting married in less than a month. On Thursday, I swifered the floor of my place in berkeley, left the key on the kitchen counter and walked out of the last place I'll ever rent on my own. The return to living in a shared space requires some adjustment. What are we going to do with all of these alarm clocks and microwaves?
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, February 3rd, 2006
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In the interest of reader participation, here we go:
I am leaving out instrumentals, and using itunes party shuffle
Rules:
Go to your playlist.
Hit shuffle.
Choose the first twenty songs - YOU CANNOT SKIP ONE*. If it's embarrassing you just have to live with it.
With those twenty songs you must post a lyric from each of the songs.
See if anybody can guess what songs they are from. If they are guessed you can cross them out. Try to get rid of all of them.
1. long, long time between now and my death, but i've gotta have my fun, so I've chosen what's best.
2. hello, i'm sorry i lost myself. i think i thought you were someone else. Pop Song '89 (REM)
3. moving equiment, where's the equipment? soon we're going home. Hi, We're the Replacements (They Might be Giants)
4.this thing is your mission, the lone-wishin condition.
5. everyone i ever knew was so kind and coy. i was with a girl, but it felt like i was with a boy.
6. you need the money, so you've got to play it dumb, but if you play it long enough, it's just what you become. The Happy Prole (Quasi)
7. You lost your suitcase in my hotel room, a subway token from your Ma.
8. hurt my knuckles punching the machines, the taste of scotch rich on my tongue. This Year (The Mountain Goats)
9. That's where she still was the summer she turned 17, 1983, three weeks after me. Twin Falls (Built to Spill)
10. no muss, no fuss, no spills, you're tired of kitchen drudgery.
11. great seekers of violence, go away.
12. They're will be time enough for sex and drugs in heaven, when our pheremones are turned up to eleven.
13. I know you can't speak, i know you can't sign, so cry right here on the dotted line.
14. You've got no need, but still you want. So, go and book that restaurant.
15. I Like an eyeball. I Like a square cut. I Like a funny car. I Like a monster truck. Disseminated (Soul Coughing)
16. Keep your mouth shut, you're squacking like a pink monkey bird. Moonage Daydream (David Bowie)
17. lift that fork, eat that snail. garcon, summon up a new cocktail.
18. we both grew up, but i heard she changed from a new wave fan to another kind. She think she's Edith Head (They Might Be Giants)
19. hound's tooth coat pockets are bulging with nebutal.
20. this town is filled with thousand dollar bills, laminated songs, contaminated lawns.
no cheating!
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Comments: Read 15 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, December 9th, 2005
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Finished my last story for workshop today. I'm calling it "Jaqueline" or "Living in an Abandoned Firehouse with You". The second title is a bit cumbersome and cribbed from a magnetic fields song that captures the feeling I was going for in the story.
Just got back from the post office, mailed off another batch of Satellite Fictions. Tonight is a reading at the makeout room and I'm wondering if it would be bad form to try and pimp some books there. I'm making another thirty this afternoon. Small Press Fest on Saturday. I'll see you there, right?
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Comments: Read 11 or Add Your Own.
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Monday, October 10th, 2005
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3 cups of coffee a load of laundry an arts and crafts project lots of stories and ben folds five's first. i wouldn't trade my monday mornings for anything.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Thursday, October 6th, 2005
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Bay area drivers need to tie their shit down. I lost part of a mirror due to a flying pipe on i-80. In other news I think I'm sold on Mike Doughty's band, and Kat and I know where we're getting married.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, September 25th, 2005
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I don't say much, but I'm still here. Time's been doing weird things, lately, running through my hands. The weeks zip by and barely register. Grad school is exhausting and wonderful. I feel myself growing as an artist, which is weird, because thinking of myself as an artist is new to me. People find seeds of meaning in my stories that I never knew I'd planted. I'm starting to roll with it. I'm wrapping my head around the idea that I may never be totally sucessful, but that I could create something with meaning. That I in fact have created, and continue to create things with meaning. Kat and I are getting married. It's another thing that's easier to wrap my head around than I ever thought it would be. These unforeseen turns of events. They're wonderful.
I used to live for worry. It was the driving force in my life. Again, I'm learning something new: to be content.
How's everyone else?
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Comments: Read 9 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
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1. Living in the East Bay. I grew up here, and I've never forgotten that it's the best place in the world. It's close to San Francisco, but the rent's a lot better.
2. No-distance relationship. Having lunch with my fiancee on a whim, what a novel idea.
3. Philip Roth, The Plot Against America. It's a pretty good book. I bet you can find it used.
4. Grad School. It's buying me time to pay off my undergraduate loans, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, April 13th, 2005
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taken from neesypea
* Reply to this message telling me which of these 30 artists you have also seen.
* Take the ones from my list that you have seen, and post them in your own LJ.
* Add more until you have 30.
* put a * if you have seen them more than once
1. Radiohead
2. Wilco
3. the mountain goats *
4. pavement
5. Weezer*
6. REM*
7. Death Cab For Cutie
8. beck *
9. soul coughing
10. mike doughty *
11. John Vanderslice*
12. The Moldy Peaches*
13. Jets to Brazil*
14. They Might Be Giants*
15. Tom Petty
16. Meat Beat Manifesto*
17. Orbital
18. The Prodigy
19. modest mouse
20. The Dirty 3
21. Bright Eyes
22. Deerhoof
23. Tori Amos
24. On
25. The Cure*
26. Quasi
27. Failure
28. Badly Drawn Boy
29. Belle and Sebastian
30. Jonathan Richman
Dishonorable mentions
31. Metallica
32. Savage Fucking Garden
work was insane today. those kids are nuts.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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I just got off the phone with Peter Orner at San Francisco State.
I'm in.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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Copy this to your journal and fill in your own answers...
1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:13
2. Diamonds or pearls? all I can do is offer you my love.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
4. What did you have for breakfast?A smooth and melty mint with half a bottle of peach snapple
5. What is your middle name? Anthony
6. What is your favorite cuisine? Zankou Chicken, Palermo's Pizza Soup. Los Angeles, you will always hold good food over me.
7. What foods do you dislike? onions.
8. What are your favorite Potato chips? chedder and sour cream ruffles. I want to eat them until I am sick.
9. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Billy Bragg and Wilco, Mermaid Ave.
10. What kind of car do you drive? 2004 honda accord
11. Favorite sandwich? The French Dip.
12. What characteristics do you despise? a refusal to be resposible for one's own action.
13. Favorite item of clothing? novelty pants.
14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? I dunno.
15. What color is your bathroom? White & Rust
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Well, I did get two pairs of jeans from Anchor Blue that I never take off. But otherwise, labels can blow me.
17. Where would you retire to? Sunny San Diego. It's a great place to have nothing to do in.
18. Favorite time of day? After work?
19. Where were you born? Palos, IL
20. Favorite sport to watch? Like a sucker, I still watch the Cubs.
21. What fabric detergent do you use? Tide
22. Coke or Pepsi? coca-cola
23. Are you a morning person or night owl? I fell a shift toward mornings coming on.
24. What is your shoe size? 13
25. Do you have pets? handsome pete. R.I.P. Red Fish (II)
26. What did you want to be when you were little? I've wanted to be a writer since I found that archaology was really just dusting off old pieces of pottery in the desert. boring.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Friday, January 28th, 2005
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Thanks for all your kind words.
I'm so fucking pumped, I can't believe it.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, December 8th, 2004
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How it works:
Copy and paste it, then bold everything that you've done.
Add a couple things of your own to the end.
01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
( Read more... )
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, December 1st, 2004
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well, it seems that i have two jobs waiting for me in the fabulous bay (yay, gay) area.
02/01/2005.
see you there.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, November 30th, 2004
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Monday, November 22nd, 2004
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by special request
1. dancer #1 who was dating my best friend at the time. august 1998. my parents' driveway in danville, ca.
2. future college dropout. september or october, 1998. trojan hall, room 364. after a chrystal method concert, while watching pulp fiction.
3. goat boy. november 1998. colonial house. he didn't even tell me his name, but still complained about my sloppy delivery.
4. lesbian. late january, 2000. 1157 w. 27th street, apartment #1. the large bedroom. after a mu-ziq/vibert and cole show.
5. a friend. march, 2000. hillview apartments. after drinking too much at a party.
6. dancer #2. april, 2000. living room floor in irvine, ca. while listening to the violent femmes after watching a john hughes film, probably starring molly ringwald, with john cussack in a supporting role.
7. child-prodigy. november 7, 2000. near the corner of 30th and shrine. i voted for nader. she drank a lot of peppermint schnapps.
8. first year bio major at caltech. february, 2001. caltech campus. she had just finished making out with duane.
9. indie cool queen. may 2001. bathroom in regal trojan. giving a friend cigarettes to kiss you is the first step toward giving a stranger money to have sex with you.
10. girl from santa cruz. july 21, 2001. pool party in the valley. i'm not sure what we were talking about before it happened. afterwards, she went to bed, and i vomitted for an hour.
11. quarter japanese goth girl from the internet. september 2001. she liked my livejournal and talked me into going clubbing with her. she started spending the night to give her roommate privacy, the world blew up, one thing led to another, and before i knew it i was single again, but this time i had a cat.
12. our new freshman, september or october 2001. i showed up at ground zero one night and saw her. took a seat next to her on the couch and told her that #11 had broken up with me. half jokingly, i asked "so, you wanna make out?" and pretty soon we were back at my apartment.
13. the lanky white guy. october 2001. it was a party, chemicals were swimming all over my body and he started snogging with #12 on my bed. my territorial instict kicked in, but my compass got jammed.
14. dumb drug addled party girl. november 4, 2001. when i saw her on stage i thought she was the hottest thing ever. when she tried to talk to me at a mutual friend's party, i freaked out. when i traded clothes with her in anne marie's bathroom i found out the feeling was mutual and we snogged until her glasses fogged up and she asked me out.
15. lesbian haircut. december 2001. drunken party game makes good on expired crush, and then i made out with:
16. lesbian haircut's little sister. december 2001. sometimes you do things you aren't proud of.
17. creeping inevitability. may 2002. when a girl systematically makes out with everyone of your drunken friends you know it's only a matter of time until your number comes up. my number came up when i said "let's go back to the hotel room, and grab the rest of the beer."
18. asian girl at a bar. fall 2002. davis, ca. what's your major and hey watch that tongue.
19. hey girl. 09/??/2003. the strip club by LAX. the friends we came with had money for lapdances. our entertainment was free of charge. the recourse that came with this one was a tad rough, though.
20. against better judgement. october 31, 2003. sometimes a challege can get taken too far.
21. barely legal. 11/??/2003. and then sometimes better judgement is over-ridden by something far more primal. this one, i couldn't keep my hands off of, though i probably should have.
22. the future of american fiction meets the future of american radio. 12/2?/2003. a movie theater in the south bay. during a matinee screening of school of rock. what i'd like to say is that i never looked back. what actually happened is first i thought i was in over my head, and the panic set in. when that passed, i dove right in, and fuck if i'm not happy about it.
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Comments: Read 9 or Add Your Own.
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Monday, November 8th, 2004
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Q: what's the american dream?
A: T-shirt rights to a tragedy.
coming soon to www.dickcheneyeatsbabies.com
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, November 4th, 2004
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kingmedicine's journal