That's right. Hamsters.

Hammies

It might seem that I would be the kind of guy that might have a street mutt as a companion, a mangy dog with lots of personality that was always at my side even when the world was against me. Man's best friend, right? You know, we'd play fetch, he'd bark at strangers, and he'd be this ever-present pal that would do anything for me. We'd go to the park and after a time we'd probably start to look like each other. We'd be a pair.

Or maybe I'm a cat guy. I've got my dark vibe going on, so perhaps a sleek little panther to prowl my apartment, warily watch me from across the room, and set an example for me of what it means to live on instinct alone. The feline would probably give me shit a lot of the time, but then again, when it got cold enough and I didn't seem to notice, the predator would sneak up onto my bed and dream cat dreams against my body heat.

But I don't have either. I grew up with many cats and dogs and I love 'em all. But I also found that I was happiest when they were happiest, and that meant when they had lots of room to roam, the great outdoors to play in 24/7, and every opportunity to, well, be animals. Not pets, but animals in the truest sense. Sure, they were domesticated, but they were beasts to be sure. Our dogs ran wild and cats wilder. We loved them all, but we never thought of them as our children or babies, but rather as companions and very cool reminders of the less civilized part of life, a part that we all too often forget about in our sick hurry to make money, buy more and more, and show others our success.

Continued...

Lunch in the city

Street Vendor

It's summer in DC and that means lunch in the sun, the brutally hot sun, and that means street carts selling the infamous half-smokes and other quick food.

This photo is actually a few years old, but what the hell. I still like it and it still reminds me of working downtown.

Oh, yeah. Like the Metro station?

    for your eyes only

    Wine Glass

    the lowdown

    Yeah, I occasionally pen some pretty dark stuff for publishers of, well, pretty dark stuff; I give my 2-cents worth on the subject of technology to those willing to pony-up—and yeah, it costs more than 2 cents—I toil away on various so-called "art" projects to satisfy some hungry inner-demon; and I quietly dabble in the affairs of others via a bit of ghost-writing and off-the-record consulting at times. But mostly, I just prowl the streets of the nation's capital and its parasitic surrounding communities, knocking back a few drinks with the locals, exploring the dark corners, examining the overlooked, and trying to keep a sense of humor about all I see, all while paying little heed to convention or caution and while slingin' my trusty bullwhip and packin' my technomagickal iPhone.

    And I do all this surrounded by bloodthirsty vampires, conniving yet seductive spies, and the heavy, scented smoke of the city's shadowy hookah bars.

    Here I recount some of these regular descents into the "belly of the beast," yammer about the tools of the trade that I employ or deplore, and show you some of that so-called art I create when it's all I can do to keep from going insane. And for those that actually care, I've made available all the unofficial—and, of course, unpublished—stuff I've written for White Wolf's World of Darkness.

    belly of the beast

    Hey, we're drowning here

    It rained today. More importantly, it rained last night, all night, with the requisite thunder and lightning and occasional cloudbursts, drenching the Washington area with...

    Shortcut

    Last night I took a shortcut. The door of the Middle East Institute had closed behind me, its warmth held close, the cold quickly stealing...

    Vampires in Washington

    Yeah, that's right. Vampires. Here. In DC. Yup. No shit. And no, I don't mean metaphorical vampires, like the politicians and lobbyists and neocons and...

    Homeward

    Pentagon City station was muggy, fetid, and dim as I disembarked from the southbound Blue Line train, the red glow of "12:07 AM" dully illuminating...

    tools of the trade

    What's on my iPhone?

    I've been constantly changing the home screens and applications on my new iPhone since I picked it up on launch day (yup, I stood in...

    My first Web application: Hypnocity

    Hypnocity is my first iPhone Web application. I was goofing around with my iPhone at the office and was checking out the public website for...