January 31, 2001: Nick meets the neighbors
One of the most interesting things about treasure island is the neighbors. The island has been equally divided among students, ex-homeless, ex-addicts and city workers. There is of course some overlap among those categories. Like one of our neighbors--who we're not going to name--an ex-addict, city working, art student. Or we have good ol' phil, an ex-education addict who is now a city worker. The leasing company didn't make it clear if you received increasing housing priority for category overlap, but it sure couldn't hurt. I never thought that telling someone I used to be an addict would help me advance in life, but after all, this is san francisco.

The first neighbor I met was pam. I was unloading stuff out of my car a few nights ago when she drove in next door. Being the over social person that I am, I went over to say hi. I'm not sure if I said hi but it was something like that. I was very tired, and when I'm tired I forget what I say. Pam is not your typical neighbor. She is yet another example of category crossing.

Pam spent the last year in some god awful middle eastern country which probably explains why she always looks so very confused. She's also working full time and going to school, studying biology. Everyone has dreams and pam wants to clone people for profit, or cure cancer--I don't remember exactly. It was pretty late, but either way you shouldn't judge people just because they are unethical. Ethics are subjective and easy to avoid. Just find someone who is less ethical than you, run your unethical idea by them. Voila! You are suddenly very ethical. The other way to get by ethics is to look confused and respond with "huh?" to every question. That's just my opinion, though. I don't know if it would work in court.

So last night pam and I were talking, both very tired of course, it was late. Lack of sleep though is an attractive thing in our capitalist world - being comatose shows your potential mates just how successful you really are. Perky people are probably unemployed or at least mostly lazy and should be avoided at all costs.

It turns out pam is very worldly. She told me, "I end up in holland, like two or three times a year" to which I responded "really" and she parried with "yeah, I love it." At this point I got serious and asked "do you speak dutch" after which she fumbled with her half smoked cigarette and replied "no, they speak mostly french in the town I go to" so, being most conscious I replied, "do you speak french?" and she responded "no." I thought that was strange. I guess she doesn't talk to anyone when she's there. It's like being on muni, where starting any conversation can be a painful mistake.

The bad news is that pam is leaving for the south city slums--if there really are any slums left in san francisco. I guess my comatose tiredness was not enough to keep her interested. Of course, I might have said something interesting. When I'm tired I forget things. If you forget things email us and let us know - because we care!

More information about cloning, the mid east, sleep and conversation: