Hat Trick

Sat 10 May 200301:44 AM

My girlfriend is due back from her ~3-month backpacking tour of Asia tomorrow evening. She was away for her birthday on 25 Apr, and in spite of the extra few weeks of present-shopping time, I still hadn’t bought anything for her until this afternoon. At Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street, I passed this kid with a card-table full of cheap baseball caps. He was customizing them in a graffiti style with paint pens, charging customers on a kind of sliding scale of decorative typography: simple tags for five dollars, block letters for ten, and shading and filling for fifteen.

Long and Drawn Out

Thu 8 May 200301:35 AM

As hard as it is to believe, I used to draw. A lot. This thought struck me today while I was doodling in a notepad during a meeting; I wondered why those doodles weren’t being penned into my sketchbook, rather than on some random piece of paper that would get lost in a day or two.

A Sorta Homecoming

Tue 6 May 200308:15 PM

I swear this is not turning into a blog about my dog, but I want to offer a little closure to the past few posts and let people know that Mister President is back from the dog hospital this afternoon. He’s pretty alert, his appetite is as healthy as ever, and I fully expect him to be causing trouble again by the end of the week.

Toy Fare

Tue 6 May 200312:32 AM

I went to see Mister President today during visitors hours at the Animal Medical Center. They brought him in to an examination room walking on his own accord, groggy, a bit sedated and wearing an ignoble Elizabethan collar. The sutures holding together his stomach definitely look like serious business, and I felt so bad for his discomfort. He looked pitiful and unhappy, but the doctor said his condition is good and with luck I’ll be able to bring him home tomorrow afternoon. She gave me a little present, too.

Belly of the Beast

Sun 4 May 200308:10 PM

Those who are unsympathetic to the plight of animals, squeamish at even descriptions of bodily discomforts, or generally indifferent about the details of my personal life should skip over this post. The subject is my dog, Mister President, and his continuing medical misadventures.

Number Crunch Time

Mon 14 Apr 200310:35 PM

Just one day left to go until taxes are due. This evening I walked past the H & R Block on 23rd Street and it was standing room only. My own tax return has turned into something of a headache. As a partner in a limited liability corporation, the line between company revenue and personal income is very blurry, and trying to understand how much of each dollar goes to the tax man is a bit like trying to read uncommented code. The punch line of it all is my final tax bill — suffice it to say I won’t be treating myself to any post April 15th vacations or spending sprees.

Postcard from the Past

Mon 31 Mar 200305:53 PM

An old interview with Alan Moore sent me running back to my old issues of his 12-part “Watchmen” series, probably the best comic books ever produced. To do this, I had to dig through three cardboard boxes of comics from the early 80s, a dusty, aging booty from my adolescence. In my mid-twenties I nearly threw them all out, not wanting to deal with the hassle of lugging them around as I moved from one apartment to another. Luckily they were stored at my father’s house and he didn’t have the heart to pitch them.

How to Raise a Dog

Wed 19 Mar 200312:44 AM

Doggie daddyhood is way more involved than I realized. Not only is it terribly time-consuming and expensive, it’s also full of unexpected perils. Over the course of just three and a half months of daddyhood, I’ve had to help see Mister President through a worm infestation, a puncture wound from a dog fight, diarrhea, swallowed squeaky toys that aren’t meant to be swallowed, motion sickness during the course of just about every car ride he’s ever taken, and spraining my own ankle. The latest happened tonight at the park when another dog, unprovoked, snapped and tore Mister President’s ear — actually tore it — and now the poor guy needs stitches. At least I’m putting the veterinarian’s kids through school.

Spring Day

Sat 15 Mar 200306:31 PM

The current temperature in New York is 49º F, and tomorrow it may reach as high as 59º F — I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this. This winter was cruelly, unnecessarily long, and made tougher by the fact that I had to raise, train and walk my new puppy in the worst of it. The last week or two I was nearing my breaking point with the incessant cold weather, and I was feeling tremendously down and beleaguered. But today I took a long walk for no better reason than it was absolutely pleasant out, and I finally feel like myself again.

Wounded Walking

Mon 24 Feb 200312:25 PM

While at the dog park this weekend, I took a bad spill on the unkind accumulation of ice and slush lingering from last week’s blizzard, and did something nasty to my ankle. Now, my walk has taken on a charming, hobbling quality and I can barely get from one end of the apartment to the other, much less across town to the office. Luckily the local kennel has a pick-up and drop off service, and Mister President goes wild for the place. In the meantime, I’ve spent most of the past two days re-watching DVDs (with a limp, I can’t even get to the video store to rent new flicks) ordering in food and browsing the Web.

About

Subtraction.com

Khoi Vinh’s Web site

Category Archives: Personal

Hat Trick

Long and Drawn Out

A Sorta Homecoming

Toy Fare

Belly of the Beast

Number Crunch Time

Postcard from the Past

How to Raise a Dog

Spring Day

Wounded Walking

Khoi Vinh’s Web site