1/11 A.K.A. TMI

I am back to work on my novel. I got a new computer five days ago. After uploading all of my music, and photos I had no more excuses and dived head first into something with the working title of 'Phoenix'. It will definitely not be called that, but I am struggling with a title, I'm thinking it will be taken from a line of dialogue yet to be born of my imagination. For now I will work on.

This time last year I was packing my bags for, what would inevitably become, my last tour.

I am now a resident of Brooklyn, 11206 and I am very pleased with the way things have been going since my stabilization. The only real problem I have had since I quit touring has been the recent onslaught of acne on my face. It has gotten out of control.

I have narrowed it down to small amount of new variables that have entered / exited my life in the last 8 months.

1. The copious amount of tea I have been drinking. This is specific, but not exclusive to, the amount of caffeine that has now entered my diet. I have never been a coffee drinker, nor have I ever been that into carbonated beverages (soda, pop, cola et. all) so my skin could just be reacting poorly to this horrible new dependance.

2. My regular diet of pasta, rice and beans, and salty salty meat, occasionally fried in olive oil. Hmmm.

3. The lack of sexual activity in my life. I have no scientific basis for this statement, but it is either a preventative measure on the part of my skin, keeping away the distracting, short term, nonsense-riddled, expensive nature of keeping myself on my social A-Game. I am trying to write a novel after all. The other side of that coin is, maybe my bad skin, is the cause of my lack of sexual activity. Just a hypothesis.

4. Working in a warehouse filled with cardboard. The driest climate in the north east can be found in fred flare warehouse, where I spend 8-9 hours a day packing boxes with tissue paper. I'm trying to keep hydrated the best I can, but tea is so much warmer, and palatable than water in the winter.

Maybe I should just see a dermatologist. I do have health insurance now. The perk of working a salaried position, something I never had on tour.

And speaking of health insurance, I just watched SiCKO by Michael Moore. I am surrounded by a wide variety of opinions on the school of Mr. Moore, so I will sit on my own view points at the risk of making anyone angry, but it was surprisingly the most optimistic of his films, and it made me realize how little about living in America I am truly dependent on, except for maybe the language barrier. Watch it, please and form your own opinion.

Mo