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Ahahaha and then Cory Doctorow and Metafilter and Making Light linked me. Because my life wasn't strange enough!

While I realise most people won't visit the Prufrock post and then come to the main journal, I feel like I should leave that post as it stands and make a new one to say OH HAI ENTIRE INTERNET, long time no see! We haven't hooked up since that LOLcat story, we should go get a beer sometime or something.

I think I should also make it clear that I am very fond of TS Eliot, not just Prufrock but the major body of his work (okay, except Wasteland, that one can fuck right off, but the rest I quite love). People can object till the cows come home that my afternoon's amusement isn't worth the attention of The Entire Internet, and possibly they are correct, but I feel like it should be known that I'm not mocking or messing about; I love Prufrock, can recite the vast majority of it off from heart, and was just having a bit of fun.

Also, you guys know when someone writes a parody it doesn't replace the original, right? There is world enough and time for both our poems to exist and I promise you, the original Prufrock will win in that fight. You get to have both! Don't be sad.

Interestingly, when I posted it yesterday it felt oddly vulnerable. The voice in the piece is supposedly the voice of Prufrock and beyond that the voice of Eliot, but in changing around the poem I found myself presenting in it things I have actually experienced or felt -- the line about dialup and AOL is something I think on sometimes, because I was there when dialup was the only way to get online and I was that 13-year-old AOL user. And the line about the iPhone brings to mind every time I thought about changing, only to be told "Verizon's going to start carrying the iPhone in the next two weeks!" Do they, now? I don't know, I switched to Verizon and bought a Droid six months ago.

Anyway, I found myself wondering how many people think the new version is me speaking, and on what scale of accuracy that is correct. Because some of it is me saying things I didn't even know I wanted or needed to say, which is kind of interesting when you think about it.

Also, if you are new to this journal, hi! I'm Sam. I'm thirty-one years old, I live in Chicago, I work in an office, I write stuff. You can find some of that stuff for sale over at my publishing page, and some other stuff (my first drafts, mostly) for free over at theoriginalsam. I hope you enjoyed the poem, and that you enjoy your stay on my blog.

(no subject)

So today was the day of Grate Free Food at work -- the building was doing Tenant Appreciation and brought us pastries for breakfast, and then there was a big lunch spread for a meeting that I got first crack at. This is relevant because it meant I had a turkey and swiss on sesame bread with mustard for lunch.

And that is relevant because I got my food allergy test back today, and on the list of foods I am allergic to are:

Turkey
Swiss Cheese
Mustard seed
Sesame

I KNOW. (Swiss Cheese was very specific, I'm not sure why.)

Technically they're not allergies. The dietician calls them "sensitivities" in the least harmful sense of the word -- you can be sensitive, intolerant, or allergic. I'm not actually intolerant or allergic to anything; I'm just a SENSITIVE KIND OF GUY.

About half the list is no big deal. I hate basil and pickles and most of the fish on the list -- fortunately salmon and tuna are not on there, though every other fish in creation is. I don't eat cataloupe and frankly my newly discovered sensitivity to beets is just one more reason never to eat them, the first reason being "they are disgusting".

Mustard is going to be a wrench. So are tomatoes. Technically I am also "sensitive" to chicken, dairy, and gluten, which are likely contributing factors to the ulcer (which is coming along nicely, by the way) and will probably get worse as I get older, but it's not Celiac or Crohn's, at least. I will miss you, chicken wings with ranch sauce.

So in order to avoid another ulcer and make my body happier, some dietary changes are in order, but at least they're not the sweeping, life-altering bans I was expecting. I have a book from the dietician about how to manage it, and a little wallet card listing my allergies in case I forget. Oh! I am also allergic to beer.

So basically if I walk into a bar, my options are down to vodka tonics and french fries. Which is not so bad, really.