Web work; birthday dinner; mall smells; mall food court - "a big, huge, ugly space with all the ambiance of a Greenland airplane hanger"

As you may have noticed, I've been busily working on the web site. Have added the beginnings of a bio section, a personality profile, and a favorite tv, books, cinema page. This has been a curious process because it is difficult to recall what should be included. As indicated, each is a work in progress. (As of 02/07 update, these pages are no longer available.)

Have spent the last few hours at a birthday dinner for a friend. Five guys in a booth discussing everything from crooked politicians to New Year's Eve plans. The kind of free-flowing semi-trivial chitchat that occurs at birthday dinners.

Yesterday, I went to one of the local malls for the first time in several years. The first thing I noticed inside were the smells - candles, coffee, fabric, perfumes, cooking, incense, fragrant oils, wax, chocolate, cosmetics, leather, denim. Possibly the worst was the chemical smells from the manicure shop: the Asian staff were all wearing masks. (Respirators wold have been more appropriate.) Overwhelming! No doubt this was caused by the fact that I'd not been there in a while. But I had never noticed this before. And I'd never thought about all the different odors such a closed system would contain. In a way, it was a slightly scary experience. Fortunately, I have little reason to visit again.

At one point the mall had an upper-level food court that was not very profitable in terms of sales per square foot. So the food court morphed into Banana Republic, Gap Kids and a couple of other trendy, upscale shops. But then there was a renewed interest in a food court, so one was built off the northwest lower-level entrance. I'd not seen it until yesterday. A big, huge, ugly space with all the ambiance of a Greenland airplane hanger. Dozens of small table jammed together with a curved row of tacky, fast food places. No plants. No fountains. No decorations save for a half-dozen, over-sized suspended Christmas ornaments. A score of trumpeting elephants would produce less noise.

PAX!