I keep getting a (t)error message.

Ugh. That was a horrible title.

Anywhat, so yesterday was all Action Packed! (HA!! Dude, I'm amusing myself (to death!) with my wit. And probably nobody else. Oh well. At least I'm getting some use out of it.)

Explanation time!

Stuff not related to the Big News of yesterday, but still fun to report: We went to the park with the Life Learners group, and several other families showed up! I played tag with a bunch of children, ranging in ages from 5 to ...14ish? Aside from the side effect of a mild breathing attack ([rolleyes] Note to lungs - get with it. Asthma is so last century), the running and chasing was very fun.

After leaving the park, we (just the Spsh! Clan) ate at Pizza Hut. Mmmm. Pizza.

Then, I had to go to work. I gathered up Jupe's letter, my notebook, and my latest book from the library, all in hopes that I would be able to write back to Amy and perhaps read some of Nothing Human. That was the plan anyway. And we all know what happens when something is planned...

Now, our station has always had a parking problem. (Heh. "Parking problem" sounds like "drinking problem". Which is leading to smile-worthy images in my brain.) Anyway, more often than not when I arrive at work in the afternoon, I end up having to park in the parking lot of the offices next door, because there simply is no more room in our lot. (I've mentioned this to Amy, but I'll say it here too, just because it's kinda interesting: People will park in the Fire Lanes, and in the 20 minute parking spots, and even right in front of the door - but the Handicapped Parking spots are always left vacant.)

So. Long story made a bit shorter - I pull into the other parking lot...and can't find a spot in there either. I ended up finding a place to park at the very end of the parking lot next door. Which resulted in me having to walk ...not too much, maybe 1/5th of a mile. Still, I would have been on time if I could've parked closer. But I'm not bitching about that. It just seemed...unusual, was all.

So I get into the building, and there are an inordinate amount of people there. If I had been thinking clearly, I would've made the connection between extra people and less parking, but that synapse didn't meet until later.

I enter the master control room (which had the door propped open and a LOT of additional bodies inside) and am finally informed of the Really Big News of the day.

Channel 13 (the ABC affiliate) was sent a package earlier in the day. The package, apparently, contained a powdery substance. (No word on if there was a message included or not) Getting this in the mail was scary enough for Channel 13 to evacuate their building. Their programing was still on the air - being done remotely from inside their news truck, apparently - but they needed to broadcast the news from somewhere. That somewhere wound up being our building. It was rather interesting to have our building housing THREE television stations. Although I'm glad that I'm not extremely claustrophobic.

All in all, it didn't affect me very much. I helped them out by building break reels (translated means - pushing lots of buttons and moving a mouse), and by staying out of the way, mostly. The most frustrating thing was not having any information given to us. By the time I left at 11, I still didn't know if the HazMat team had discovered anything, or if Ch. 13 would be there tomorrow, or still be there next week, even. Stuff that I did pick up along the way:
The CBS affiliate (maybe others as well?) has said they will not be opening their mail until this situation is cleared up.
Another ABC affiliate (in Phoenix) also received a package with powder in it, on Monday. Theirs turned out to be "nothing".
ABC people didn't buy us dinner. =(

So, yeah, I didn't get to write Amy's letter or read any of my book. Talk about a wasted day.

On the bright side, though, the traffic department has Halloween candy sitting out now. And that includes candy corn!!

Oh, there was also an earthquake in California. And Mt. St. Helens may be erupting again soon.

What's the big idea?

My friends, I am, if nothing else, a man of ideas.

Okay, I'm a lot more than that, but my ideas are one of the things I like most about myself.

Recently, I decided that keeping my ideas to myself is no good. I should set them free, let them into the wild and see how they pollenate. Or amuse. Or something.

So, here are some of my thoughts on ...stuff. Feel free to rate them, or criticize them, or add your own. None of them are meant to be (entirely) serious (or are they?) so it won't hurt my feelings if you tell me why it would never work, or that I'm insane, or whathaveyou. On we go.

Food

• Peanut butter and jelly burritos.
  
  
• Jack-o-melon! Instead of carving pumpkins for Halloween, carve watermelons.
  
  
• Edible shampoo. Eat breakfast while showering! Plus, the shampoos already are made in strawberry, apple, orange, etc scents, so why not flavored as well?
  

TV

• Pendragon - a show about King Arthur. Maybe as a teen. WB, are you paying attention?
  
  
• Spin Cycle - a comedy (or drama, whatever) set in a laundromat. Think of all the guest star possiblities!
  
  
• The Bible. That book has not been mined for the television possiblities, much to my dismay. A show about Jesus? Or Moses? Or Whoses? Totally there, man. Totally there.
  
  
• Who Wants To Kill A Milionaire? - My only idea for "reality" TV. A televised paintball game wherein the "survivor" wins the pot. Even better if it's set in a shopping mall.
  
  
• Ape10 - A series about a shapeshifting ape, a robot, and a zombie time travelling while fighting The Man? It would either be the highest rated show ever, or cancelled halfway through it's first episode..

Blanket of my existence

So I watched Angel episode 1.09 (Hero) today, and I got goosebumps. I didn't the first time I watched it, but this time, even though I knew Doyle was gonna sacrifice himself, the music, and the hackneyed speeches got to me. Perhaps it was partly due to the knowledge that Glenn Quinn's real life ended shortly (relatively) thereafter, but I think mostly it's because I'm such a sap.

The girls are taking turns showing movies. Currently "Zombies: The First Movie" is airing. Sample dialog:

"Now for my super power, which I just made up!"
and
"You wanna piece of me?" "You wanna battle? Battle like never before?"

It's quite moving, actually.

I need a better computer, so that's I can download stuff. I miss our songs, damnit. All of our beautiful, illegally downloaded songs!!

Didn't brush the fro today, so it is bushtastic right now. Go team nature!

They should totally make waterproof computers, because I really do my best blogging in the shower.

My face itches.

I'm quite relieved that I don't work today. Yesterday resulted in a massive headache, all due to football.

Brains, I have determined, are the weirdest things ever.

grumble

Not in a good mood. At all.

Stupid internet. Stupid blogger. Stupid stupid stupid civilization. Stupid work. Stupid words. Stupid this and stupid that.

Stupid looks wrong now.

I'm still template-tinkering, but I'll be doing it "off stage" until I get the completed design done. Until then, I think I'll go minimalistic.

In other news, it would be beneficial if people would stop needing money from us. Since we don't have any.

Under construction

I'm messing with the template, so if things look odd for a while, you know why. Hopefully soon I'll find something that appeals to my blogging sense of aesthetics.

In the meantime, pardon my dust, and if you have any suggestions, send them my way.

Know your audience

I seem to have picked up a few new readers. (Or have I??) Either way, I'm doing a stalker roll call. But just having people say "Yeah, I read your blog" is kinda dull (although the validation is a nice bonus for me) so I'm including a boq as well.
You of course, are not obligated to leave a comment, nor are you required to answer the following boq, but both would be nice. And I am making a nice template for you.



<b>What is your name?</b>

<b>How did you enter The P@rix?</b>

<b>What is your blog address?</b>

<b>Find a movie that came out the year you were born. Now provide a quote from it.</b>

<b>What is the last thing you ate?</b>

and finally...

<b>Make a sweeping generalization. (They're fun!)</b>

I feel like I have a gabillion other things I want to talk about, but all in good time, I suppose. Thanks for your participation.

It's kickin' in! Yeah! It's kickin' in! Yeah! It's kickin' in! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!

So, because I'm dumb I went and had a Pepsi at 9:30 at night. It's now 1 in the morning, and guess who is WIDE AWAKE! As an added bonus, guess who has to wake up in about 6 hours.

My knee is sore. I think it has to do with the caffeine. Or at least, that's what I'm blaming right now.

Man, my blood is pumping so fast, my thoughts are too numerous to blog. It's....something. Rapid fire synapses time! If this doesn't flow, forgive me.

Two semi-interesting things from the news today. Both reminded me of the Jupe. First was the interview with a vampire. No. Interview with Kirsten Dunst. Yes. Heh. I didn't get to hear much of it, but it was kinda boring anyway. Guy was talking to her about her costar of Wimbeldon and I was all, "Dude. Who cares about that guy? Talk to her about her." They did talk about sports for a bit, which was even more of a yawnfest, but at least Miss Dunst looked pretty. [up] I asked if Guy got her autograph, but he did not. His response, "Arent' you married?" To which I said, "I wanted an autograph, not a date!"

Anyway, he said that if there are any other stars that I would like autographs from, to let him know, and he'll see what he can do. Of course my brain blanked out at that point. Are there any celebrities I like? I think the answer is no.

Second news/Jupe-related topic. According to a new phone study, more people in New Jersey are looking forward to the fall leaves changing colors than to the presidential election. YAY! Maybe the news will start to cover that instead!

So, the reason we need to wake up so early tomorrow is that we are going to [something]Orchard with the unschooling group. We're going to pick apples and tomatoes and ...other various fruits and vegetables. It's way the hell over in BFE, though, so we've got a heckuva drive ahead of us. Should still be a lot of fun, though. Unless I wind up being UTP@. [/foreshadowing?]

I've got like 40 (read: three, maybe) political posts in my head. AND I still need to finish Ape10 (I don't like to think about that, as it causes me a huge amount of guilt at being so lazy with it. What is it with me and putting off work??) AND! I still have not written Simon's letter to him. Yeesh. Right now I feel like I could accomplish all of that and a hundred other things, but I've got a feeling that that's...not quite right somehow.

You know what I like? People.
You know what I hate? People.

I think I want to change my blog's template again. One of these days I'll find something I like well enough to permenantly stick with.

37 USA

I love letters.
Having Jupe as my pen-pal for the past however long it's been has been revigorating. I've been writing more - actual physical pen on paper writing, not this recycled electron crap [wink] - and getting letters in the mail is AWESOME. (Trust me, it's so much better getting a letter in the mail than getting another notice telling me (or Steph, most likely) that we are "pre-approved".)

The worst part, though, is the waiting. Email and IM and PM and blogging and phone calls have all made us rather impatient. But there's something ...reassuring? ..about holding a letter that someone has spent time and effort on, you know?

Anywhat, I've doubled my pen-pal membership today! I have decided that I am going to start writing to Simon as well as Amy. Jolly good! Although I guess that might be more expensive, stamp-wise, but still. Yay for international friendships!

Oh, and speaking of stamps, I wanted to talk about this site where you can make your own personalized stamps! How cool is that?!?

I think once civilization collapses, the post office will be one of the things I miss the most.

Lastly related to the whole letter-writing motif, I wanted to say that if anyone else out there wants to join my ever increasing circle of pen-pals, I'm all inclusive. If I don't have your address (or you don't have mine) just contact me and we'll get that situation remedied. [up]

And in other news, why the hell is my blogger time off by an hour? It's not after 1pm. Yet.

(re)discovery

Things I have (re)discovered, (re)learned, or (re)thought in the past few days:

• Americans are fat.
• Yu-gi-oh! is incomprehensible. Honestly. It makes NO sense.
• Other people's lives are boring! (This was discovered by me spending an hour hitting "Next Blog" on the blogger NavBar up top.)
• My life is boring! (This was discovered by me spending an hour hitting "Next Blog" on the blogger NavBar up top.)
• I have poofy hair.
• David Bowie is a genius. Or at the very least very very creative.
• I am so bloody lazy that it's sickening.
• Tab + Space does not send emails. (Thanks, Jupe!)
• Vegas is hot.
• Other people don't do my job as well as I do.
• Mail - both physical and electronic - is both wonderful and horrible.
• Lists are always a good thing to fall back upon when you can't think of what to blog about.

indefatigable

Finished It. Bah. Not King's best work, although there were certainly moments of magic in there. But, really, did that book even have an editor?

I'm now reading The Alien Years, and even though I'm only 12 pages in, I've got an uneasy feeling that I'm going to be disappointed. Maybe I just need to lower my standards. ;-)

I've had the same four songs or so running through my head for about two weeks now. "Across The Universe", "Thunderbird", "Memo to Human Resources", "Fall Dog Bombs The Moon"

I'm nothing if not ecclectic, I guess.

My dream last night was boring, but the best quote from it: "In a decision that is neither John Wayne nor John Wayne Gacy..."
Yeah, I don't know what it means, exactly, either, but I liked it. Or liked it enough to make sure I blogged about it.

Sign seen a few days ago:

Free Car Wash
Sept. 11
GOD BLESS AMERICA

"Nothing's gonna change my world.
Nothing's gonna change my world."

I should look up the meaning of Jai guru deva om. I mean, if it's gonna be inside my brain, I should know what it means, right?

Tuesday and Thursday of this week John Bush and George Kerry are coming back to Vegas. Yippe! That means traffic will be doubly horrific on those days! Thanks a ton, Democratic Process!

Reading the Weeklies I have seen the Fall Preview of movies this year, and I must say that I'm pretty underwhelmed. I don't think any one particular film stands out as being "Must See". Again, maybe I just need to lower my standards.

F.

Ever since we said it, he went and took the credit

Heh.

So, yeah. I know that Ape10 has like five fans, but I wanted to let them all know that if the new episode (entitled The Boy Who Cried Lion) isn't up by midnight tonight, not to worry. It will be up soon after. Also, I think once 2004 is done, I will not post new eps on the 10th. Not to worry, the adventures of Ape10, Zombielyn, Spark, and the others will continue - at least one new one a month - but having a deadline is stressful, and I'm attempting to live my life wherein I make decisions that result in less stress.

In somewhat related news, I'm testing this out...Bah. It didn't work. Either time. That's ...quite disappointing, actually. Oh well. Back to the drawing board. [/self-amusement]

Lastly, and completely unrelated to anything I've been talking about, anyone ever have a crisis (or crises) of faith? [sigh]

You promised me the ending would be clear

So I'm in a better mood than last time I blogged (how could I not be??) so this should be a much more positive entry (there's only so much raging against the machine one can take, right?)

(Now you do what they told ya. Now you're under control.)


I'm still reading It. I don't know how I feel about that book. It definitely could've been shorter.

Last night we dined at Souper Salad, which once upon a time was a decent place to eat. "What happened to you, Souper Salad? You used to be cool." In it's defense, it was pretty close to closing time for them. But still, for 22 bucks, it should've been better. Souper Salad, for those not in the know, is a salad and soup buffet place. You pay your five bucks (or whatever it costs) and you get all you can eat salad, soup, bread, etc. In times past, it was more tasty than last night.

The fun parts, though: The power went out. While we were eating, the lights had flickered several times, and I had thought to myself, "I wonder what they would do if the power did go out." (I find myself thinking about that type of thing a lot. "What will we do when the whole grid goes down?" "What will the reaction be once the...well, you get the idea.
Anywhat, the power went out, shortly before we were going to get dessert. Yay! It's really neat being in the dark in public places. There's a time when everyone pauses, takes a moment to realize, "dude. That constant light we take for granted? Not so constant."
And then there is waiting. Waiting until the power comes back on. Because it always does.

And, yeah, it did. And this entry is not turning out as positive (or as interesting!) as I had hoped.

THe other good (um...except that it wasn't) part of the dinner at Souper Salad was that I am an idiot.

One of the dishes they had was labelled "Mustard Potato Salad". That sounded pretty yummy to me, so I scooped it up onto my plate, and gave it no more thought.

Then, while eating it (and it was quite good), I saw something that at first my brain tried to explain away as being either a carrot or maybe a tomato slice. I didn't eat it, because some other part of my mind said, "No. That's a shrimp."

I stopped eating the Mustard Potato Salad, and asked Stephanie - "That's a shrimp, right?" She said, "yeah", and to make a long story shorter, it turned out that what I thought was Mustard Potato Salad was in fact "Fisherman's" ...something. It contained shrimp, crab, noodles, blah blah blah.
Long story short (too late) it became increasingly difficult for me to swallow, and I felt (briefly) that we might have to run to the hospital. We didn't, and I survived (obviously!) But I was thinking, if I ever want to go out in style, I will just need to pile on the shellfish. Because, dude, crab meat is really good.
Of course, it wouldn't take much. I had three bites of the Fisherman's stuff, and that was nearly enough.

In other news, we watched Spirited Away the other night. Quite impressive, although I wondered why Giro (sp??) would want to go back to her parents. But, yeah, the animation was pretty darn cool, and the story was, overall, a really good one.
We also got around to watching Whale Rider, which I enjoyed, but I think I should've waited to watch it. We saw it last night, and I couldn't concentrate very well. (Due in part to the allergic reaction I was having) Still got goosebumps, though.

It feels weird to have to go back to work again. My two days off each week seem to go by faster than anything.

ooh! And as a tie-in to the title, we bought Labyrinth on DVD yesterday. Have yet to watch it. Maybe we'll do that tonight.

why?

why do i bother why do i write why do i try why isn't even the right question, because even if i know the answer, the real concern is what to do about it. What to do what to do? I don't have a freaking clue. Heh. I'm rhyming, and I'm saying "Heh", so i must be in a slighlty better mood than i was when i first started this entry, no? it's all running together because the return key doesn't work wait, let me try...

Of course. I fixed it.

Why can you get arrested for simply being somewhere? Just being on the sidewalk is cause to put you in jail? Whatever. Whatthefuckever. I'm so sick of it. How can anyone see the events of our culture and think it's okay? Think it's sane or normal or logical or good? How???

"One thing I learned about America is that if you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything." ~Arnold Schwazenegger

That was the only bitof the RNC I've watched.

God, i was going to go bashing it, but why? Why bother? It doesn't freaking matter waht I type or what you type or what anyone says or types. I'm so tired of swimming against the mother fucking current of this culture. It's SO FUCKING PREVELANT. It's everywhere. "Did you're oldest start school yesterday?" I was asked at work. No. We're homeschooling. "Oh, that's great." she replied with an obvious fucking forced smile on her face.
Fuck you. SJesus christ, why must everyone be the goddamn same? Why must i be bombarded with "This is the best computer for sending your kid back to school" "This is the best person to "lead" the country" "This is the best weapon to kill people so that you can drive your car"
Fuck it all.

Can someone explain to me what the fuck the word 'progress' means? What is progress? Is progress more cancer? Here's a bumper sticker for you: Some day, we will all have cancer. It's funny, cuz it's true. Har har har.

Is progress feeding more people? Making sure that we have enough food to feed the billions of people on this planet? What about water? Nobody thinks about water - well, they do, but it's not gotten much press. I remember seeing a special years ago (it was an Earth day special, back in the 80s...Bette Midler was portraying Mother Earth ...it was a huge ta-doo, I'm sure someone else out there saw it) anyway, the only thing i remmeber was someoen holding up a gallon jug filled with water and saying, "If this gallon of water represents all the water on the planet, and we pour out all the salt water, and all the water that is polluted to the point where it can not be consumed," and while saying that, they were emptying the bottle, "what we would be left with is one drop."
I have no idea how accurate that was (it seems to me that it couldn't have been very. I mean, really, one drop from a gallon?? And even though the earth is big, and has a LOT of water on it...that just cant' be) but the point remains that without clean water, you die. So, you know, putting chemicals into the water seems a rather dumb idea. "Don't shit where you eat" seems pretty common sense to me. But what the fuck do I know? Honestly - what do I know?

I'm

I don't know how to wrap this up, i don't even know if i WANT to wrap it up, ubt I'm feeling rather drained, this was sorta cathargic, and i've lost my train of thought, so I guess maybe i'll just hit publish post.