June 30 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 29 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 28 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 27 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 26 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

Watched the United States' elimination from the World Cup today.  If you don't think much about it, it's perhaps like anything else, a blip on the nightly news.  But if you start thinking about it, this is a pretty big sendup to the little guy.  It's not like Ghana has football in its culture and blood any more than the US does.  It's not Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, or England.  The United States is 20 times more populous than Ghana and enjoys a standard of living that makes indulgence in sport accessible at every level of its society.  I guess I am outside of my area of presumptive expertise speculating about what life is like in Ghana, but I can't imagine a more David and Goliath story that this one.  Only one-off is that the two were matched in 2004, and the African nation sent the empire packing then as well.

The Khan Man loves Lady Gaga! 

Last night I bought SceneWriter Pro online and set out on a rewrite of Chupacabra.  I have become convinced that this little project of mine is one that must be carried through, irrespective of any failings that it may have in the elevation of humanity department.  I thought I was laying out $60 and was pleased to find that it was $29.99.  Then in the course of a couple hours, the program froze on my FOUR times.  I am going to give it another run till it freezes tonight and then chalk it up as one of those purchases that just does not work out and go for Movie Maker or perhaps just take on Final Cut.  The latter is what Aladdin uses, and I am sure that in the name of sophomoric aesthete he might insist that nothing less will do . . . but I am looking for a shallow learning curve.  Strangely, with Chupacabra, I don't have any doubts about where it's headed or what it's about or any part of it, just need the right tool (like Sophocles was for me) to spit it out.

On this 26th of July I have just enough paying work and just enough prospects and just enough on the line with the habitual and mundane in CafeNet and Juanita's and just enough hunger for whatever remains to have to begin scheduling my time and writing some of these things down and forcing myself to it.  A turn at discipline.

But then, maybe not, maybe just keep winging it.

June 25 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 24 2010:  El Nido del Halcón Hotel,  Bahía Ballena, Costa Rica

I used to really like Anderson Cooper.  Maybe it is just the progression of cable tv and not AC, but the whole populist anchor model sends great waves of consternation through my moral fiber.  I reviled Lou Dobbs and celebrate all the time is afforded to spend with his family.  But Anderson Cooper?  I like him from so long back that I will give him time to discover his errant path and stray back onto the pavement.  But you, dear reader, as I, know the real truth of it.  Ain't never gonna happen.

June has been a month for the record books.  I think mostly bad, but there is a strange nuclear force that is tampering with the alignment of the molecules comprising my world.  There is a vibration thing going on.  Can't describe it, one of those tao things.  For the first time in a long time there seems to be an out from my present fracture into eight or sixteen or more quadrants, irony and all.

June 23 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

The Ruby Racer is back in the stable and shining under the hood.  I thought it was powerful before; now it is like young stallion hoofing the ground.  The firing of Stan McChrystal reveals the world to be correctly rotating about its axis.  His replacement, taking one for the team, is a patriot the likes of which are rare, practically non-existent.  I would hate to be in his shoes, bound for the famous graveyard of empires to run the risk of tarnishing his brilliant crown in an unwinnable war, a mission that not even he can complete.  As Anderson Cooper goes ballistic over BP's refusal to give out information in a timely manner and to appear on his show or have a spokesperson explaining what is happening on that live feed in real time twenty-four seven, I tried out two variants of the new Buffalo wings recipe and then had the wings themselves.  Superlative.  As good as I have had anywhere, and the refinement on the basil ranch the perfect combo.  Could use celery, but let's not move too forward too fast.

I finished a rewrite of the Chupacabra script yesterday and sent it off to Jon, then to family.  Rereading it again I made a lot of dialog edits and see that it needs considerable more tidying.  I have convinced myself that the script is actually a story.  It has internal cohesion and it all has its own kind of logic.  With little imagination it is clear that my effort at a screenplay was format-wise purely proforma.  Though in my defense, what can I expect with only a cursory effort at boning up on what a screenplay is and is not.  But the story is there.  It's an okay story.

It is odd to be a builder of screenplay stories and real life bridges and to craft menu items and cleave profitability from a shingle on main street and that other stuff and well enough into the golden years to have to sit back and wonder at where this is all going.

Comes a moment when you have to take stock.  Or, possibly not . . .

June 22 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 21 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 20 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

Tonight I discovered that 5 kilograms of pork leg cooks down to 3 kg and that at a cost of C3400 per kilogram raw, the final ingredient cost of the baked leg turns out to be 5.6 colones per gram, good information for costing the pork fajitas and barbecue pork sandwich.  Today I lowered beer prices across the board by 20% knowing I can get a 5% reduction by the supplier for a net 15% drop in prices and changed up the buffalo wings back to tabasco, butter, and vinegar, and got the whole portioning and costing locomotive out of the station and chugging.  By tomorrow this time the train will be at full speed and it five days we will be at the station again, cooling our jets and making changes as needed.  Big push for greater market share with the big price cuts on beer and the array of daily specials with real offers.

Also got out bids and budgets on a lot of pending procrastinated OWW and OPR things.  Got all lingering items off my plate and in the hands of clients and potential clients so that i can turn it tomorrow into a phone game to angle it toward closure where possible.

After a month of inertial lethargy, there is a shuddering momentum building up of money in motion, and it is across the company divides, gently touching here and there.  It is odd after eight years to consider getting suddenly serious about actually running the business downstairs like a business rather than some sort of unwelcome appendage.  Probably won't make much of a difference, but it very will might.  It at least has the potential to make a difference.

June 19 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 18 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 17 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 16 2010:  Hotel Tucan,  Uvita, Costa Rica

June 15 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 14 2010:  . . . Hotel, Jaco, Costa Rica

June 13 2010:  Dunn Inn, Josey, Costa Rica

June 12 2010:  Cabagra, Dunn Inn, Josey,  Costa Rica

June 11 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 10 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 09 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 08 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

As the insufficiently motivated Lakers face off with the Celtics in a green garden of venomous hostility, the Khanster forces himself to the mound to pitch a few blanks but to do so with the proper angle to the chin and a tolerable set-ness of the jaw.  Today we bemoan the infallibility of Heisenberg.  It seems true that it is not possible to observe an event without affecting it.  Put observation on steroids in the form of a publicly visible weblog, and then it becomes, rightly or wrongly, an elemental part of the event, an accidental player.  Well, reconsider.  Not accidental at all . . . and there are of course two sides.  That everything I do affects the future outcome of all things related to me should not necessarily obviate the pleasure and the exercise of maintaining this blog.  In a polar universe, every action should stand as much an option of being an action for the good as one for the bad as a neutral one. 

Variations of this train of thought keep the output of the Ikhanosphere a bit skimpy, lately, but so be it.  I still think that I will find the medium.  But there is much about which I would enjoy wagging an intemperate tongue.  But there are modica of decency and restraint as well, and being at the center of these things, I find it hard to be a selective censor.  It is like all or nothing and anything in between is a worse than a sellout because it's a freebie anyway.

These are not light snacks upon which to nibble absent-mindedly here in the Crow's Nest but mother's milk rising from the floor, threatening to short out the flat screen before the Lakers get a chance to even take the floor.  As ABBA used to say, Momma Mia, here we go again . . .

The Cradle of Western Civilization is like a worn out girdle that can no longer expect to contain my expanding waistline.  Sssh, don't tell anybody, but the Khan Man is looking for a new hat rack upon which to toss his fedora.  Problem is, ideas for the next best thing are not exactly spewing like Pacaya lava to the surface, far less lighting the southern sky with carmine streaks of inspiration nor swelling drum rolls rising on the tide of the southern ocean.

June 07 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 06 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 05 2010:  Dunn Inn, The Hose,  Costa Rica

June 04 2010:  Dunn Inn, The Hose, Costa Rica

June 03 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 02 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica

June 01 2010:  Crow's Nest, James Town, Costa Rica