The Only Epstein I Know is Brian

This is not a regular blog, this just a random of the cuff interim sort of thing full of out of the blue bits like:

Fashion is something you chase, style is something you possess.

Or a bit of advice for younger people: Buy a rice cooker, you'll thank me later. A rice cooker, a good knife, a decent ceramic fry pan. Those bits and a saucepan and you're good. Never buy those $30 sets with the black non stick crap: Seriously, that shit will kill you. Never buy a cheap knife, they dull quickly and nothing is more dangerous in the kitchen that a dull knife. I have to scars to prove it.

I wish I was on traveling right now. I'd be living one of my proposed books (Nine Days in Nine Towns): Find a simple motel room in a random town, spend a bit over a week finding a good bar, best cheeseburger, someplace to do karaoke. I'd take along my ten favorite books and the pictures of my grandparents to make each room like home. You know, I have never driven cross country; the furthest I've gotten is Missouri. I really need to do that---drive across the U.S. then possibly come across Canada.

The past five months I've been writing about my life from age 10 to 32. Yeah, it's the life of an unknown shmuck from Sacramento, but I've had an interesting life. Not just that, but a story is a story, it's how you tell it. There are writers who could make the invention of paper towel perforations fascinating---

Then again, there are people who can make compelling subjects dull---

My point is, everything is a story, it's how you tell it.

Other travel ideas I've had involve the U.S. Highway system. Here on the west coast, I've been driving what was U.S. 99. It has been a great experience, seeing all these old towns and buildings, imaging their stories. The Interstate Highway System ended far too many of those stories. I get the bit about safety, interstates are lot more safer, but that's about it. Convienent? Sure, but at what price? One cost were all those small businesses, the economies of countless small towns--

But I digress.

I'd like to write more on the U.S. Highway system, follow one from end to end, check out ghost towns. Take some pictures. Learn a town and then move on to the next one.

Never run because you have to, only run because you want to.

That comes from all my time here in Downtown Portland. The crosswalk will have a few seconds left and my instinct is run for it; make the light, get where I am going quickly. I am working towards not running to beat the light---

Never run because you have to, only run because you want to.

I am by nature impatient but I am trying to get past that. One reason I take old highways is to slow down, to be inconvienenced by stop signs in small towns. You should try it, allow yourself to say "Fuck it, if I'm late a few minutes it's not the end of anyone's world."

This is not a regular blog. I had a bit of time before leaving for work and---

If I went back to editing the current book it would be frustrating to stop like I've had to stop so many times to head off to work---

So, I thought I'd put together the random sort of blog. If you like my writing in general I'm always open to whatever you might want me to write about, just leave a comment or send an email.

Until Tuesday, Izk...