Sugar is poison

So it's Halloween. Hooray!!

The girls are all happy, eating Smarties ("Why are Smarties so popular, but you can't buy them anywhere? I only see them when I go trick-or-treating.") and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and lollipops and whatnot.

Steph is lying on the delapidated couch, listening to the baby. Or some demon inside her belly. I'm not sure which.

Lord only knows where Oreo is.

I'm tired, and was very close to not blogging, but the desire to express myself won out over exhaustion. Lucky yous.

So, our day.

I spent several hours last night online catching up on the stupid 'boqtober' goal I had given myself. Thus, tiredness today.
Anywhat, woke up, and the girls watched tape-delayed Kids WB episodes and we had breakfast.

After we all dressed, showered, blahblahblahed, we went to Rufio's and Subway for our lunch. Stephanie went to Children's Orchard to buy some clothes for Deceptor. Next we hit Target and Learning is Expensive to buy stuff that I guess we need. And also some new Pokemon cards, which pleased the girls immensely.

Once we got home, we carved the pumpkin, and it turned out pretty well. Steph did the deglooping of the insides, but we didn't keep the seeds this year. Oh well. She also drew the face with a pen, which made the carving (done by me and the girls) much easier.

Around 6, we got the girls in their costumes (Saren - a witch, Harper - a pumpkin) and then hopped in the car to drive to a nicer neighborhood to beg for candy. While driving, we saw that our neighborhood had a lot more trick-or-treaters than previous years, which was surprising.

We did the trick-or-treat thing for about an hour and a half, and were, once again, saddened by how few houses/children there were. Everyone seems to go to those Safe House Trick or Treating things, which I dislike. Even so, the girls did wind up with plenty of candy, and they had a good time, so that's all that truly matters.

After that we had dinner out (not Wendy's! Bucking tradition this year!), then came home and watched last year's "Treehouse of Horror". We still have "Nightmare Before Christmas" to watch, but the girls went to play their Pokemon decks instead, and I came online, and Steph tried to listen to the baby, and well, that brings us up to date.

Hooray for Halloween!

Thank you?

Last night, Steph told me, "You look like Lex Luthor's dad."

I think that's a compliment. That's how I took it, at any rate. I suppose I should have reacted with a "Mwahahaha!"

Millennial chicken! And Harry Potter.

Two nights back, the Steph made a chicken for dinner. It was super freaking yummy.
No, it was SUPER FREAKING YUMMY! I reported to Amy that it was "the best chicken I had had this millennium", and I stand by that report. Good good stuff.

In other news, a few days back we were at the bookstore, and I found a book that was all about the "Secrets of Harry Potter". Intrigued, I picked it up, and began to flip through the pages. Some of the stuff I read was incredibly interesting. And now I share! Fair warning, knowing this stuff may influence the readings of future books in the series. Of course, this is also stuff that some of you may already know - if you think about things long enough, you'd figure it out. So, it's not anything ultra-spoilery, but I'll be putting it in tags, just in case.

[Begin spoiler for -Harry Potter series highlight to view]In chapter 13 of each book (so far, anyway), the "villain" of the story has either first appeared, or made a cameo appearance. Um. Supposedly. I haven't checked the veracity of this claim.

Also of note - Hermione is usually right - except when she gets emotional.
Ron is usually wrong - except when he makes a joke about things. (Hee! I've noticed that one!)
And, if she (J.K. Rowling, that is) interrupts a conversation, she's hiding something important.[end spoiler]

Staring at a screen

While washing dishes, listening to U2, I came to the (re?)realization that words are magic.

Or maaagic, even.

It used to befuddle my mind the idea of magic, as presented in, say, "Buffy" or "Charmed" or most sort of fiction - where people chant words - often Latin, because we all know that the Romans were witches- and voila, instant change.

Pfft, I would think, how can simply uttering random sounds cause anything to happen? And when thought in that way, it doesn't make a bit of sense. Spoken words are simply a combination of the 144 different sounds that the human voicebox is capable of making. (Note: I'm sure I'm making all sorts of scientific errors here. No doubt Jupe will correct me. [wink]) There is nothing inherently special about these sounds - they're simply noise, which the Universe is full of. (If a phrase is uttered and nobody is around to hear it...)

And written words are worse! They're simply symbols for the sounds! If anything, it's a step removed from the 'magicness' of the original noises.

However. It occured to me that words do have power. Both written and spoken words can (and do) alter the brain chemistry (kemistry!) of the individual seeing/hearing them. It's incredible. It's weird beyond comprehension, but it's true.

I don't even think I'm making sense here, because these thoughts aren't even making sense in my head and I know I'm not getting them out there in theright order or in a manner that will send the magic correctly. Alas.

I don't know. I was thinking about words and why they have the power they do. Maybe we aren't meant to understand it, anyway. Who the hell knows? Who the hell knows anything?

In much less thinky news, it's 1:35 in the morning, there are six days left until Halloween, and 13 days left until the new season of The Bimpsons begins. Excellent.

Lost speculation!

I know that there are fans of the show Lost who read my blog, so I offer some incredibly vague speculation for their benefit! For those of you who do not watch Lost...um. Pretend I posted about ...I don't know, whiskey covered candy bars or something.

So - my speculation is based on episode 4, Walkabout. What if there are two? One good, one bad. That would explain why he didn't die, and it would tie in nicely with his backgammon speech from episode 3.

There. I think that was clear enough for those who have seen the show to know what I'm talking about and sufficently vague enough for those who have not to not be spoiled.

I just don't get it.

Disturbing.

Anything else I might have to add I'd only regret saying.

Stop and smell the smoke

The Price is Right, yloponom, dishes, downloading songs, playing Kingdom of Loathing, writing emails, looking at maps, pokemon and pepsi, singing xmas songs, my dad's unemployed, doubts and worries, regrets and stories, built to spill and ben folds five, the gop and the dnc, elements, chemicals, atoms, metanoia, metroid, gamecube, xbox, dreams of resident evil 2, post offices, zombie feet, ape10s not yet written. halloween, costumes, sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar. pizza, trash, animals, sky, clouds, library fines, the neverending story (ahahaahaaahaaah), fruit roll ups, credit card debt, posts, money, dmv, 10 years later, the list of miragia, yoyo, string, cat food, senor cat food, freezing feet, fan turned off, fall arrived, pigeons on the porch. cockroaches, taco bell, ten dollar bills and twenty questions. cereal, life, normalcy, school, red hatsand purple outfits, aging. crying. thinking.

thinking.

The unicorns love me tonight.

I honestly don't know what I wanted to say. There are things to talk about, but I'm not feeling bothered. I've got one of those oh so fun, "Screw everything" attitudes right now. I blame (Canada) the lack of Pepsi in my veins.

Maybe I'll go remedy that right now.

equalibrium

Occasionally, there is balance in the universe.

Annika and Will, two of the best people I know, are getting married this weekend.

Blessings to them both.

Our news turns one today, oh boy.

Yup. One year ago today, our station(s) began airing news on a nightly basis.And while it got off to a bad start, things have become routine. In an already overcrowded market, we're adding to the saturation of "information". And have been for 266 days. Yahoo!

To celebrate, right now they are having a free lunch (who says there's no such thing?). Of course, I'm at home. So a lotta good that does me.

Also, our station(s) being Sinclair Broadcast Group stations, will be running some stupid Anti-Kerry documentary thing in a few weeks. As a result, we've been receiving death threats. Guess I picked the right time to go on vacation.

The case for not voting

Finally. I've been wanting to post this for months. There's a lot of points I want to hit, hopefully I am able to do it in a way that doesn't jump around too much and flows coherently.

If you want to comment, feel free to take as much space as you need. Lord knows I am going to.

I have never voted in a political election. I can safely say that I never will. This information is generally met with shock, disdain, and criticism (if I'm lucky). I will atttempt to explain why I choose not to participate in the voting process.

When I was younger I felt that I should stay out of the election because I did not know enough about the candidates to make an informed choice. That is no longer my main reason for refusing to cast a ballot. It is, however, still a valid reason for anyone out there thinking about not voting to not vote. Why make a decision such as who to vote for if you feel you don't posess enough information?

I'm doing this wrong. I know I am. But onward I push. Let's see, I've consult my notes and see if I can start somewhere else...

The message to vote is everywhere. 7-11, WB Commercials, MTV, McDonalds, even Nickelodeon. (That all important under 18 vote is vital. More on that in a minute) When something is as ubiquitous (and largely unquestioned) as this, it makes me worried. WHY is voting so important? The question should not be "Why don't you vote, P@?" but instead, "Why should people vote at all?" Frankly, I'm of the opinion that if something is really important, it doesn't need to be pounded into us constantly. When there are billboards telling everyone to Vote Early, when the news (television, newspaper, internet, radio) talks about voting EVERY DAY, when you can't go into any public building without being harrased to register to vote...that sends warning flags to me. If voting were so damn important, so necessary to one's well-being, people wouldn't need to be reminded daily, hourly. It would be second nature. Do you need a billboard saying to love your family? Do you need the news to remind you each night to be thankful for your friends? Where is the person outside the library hounding folks to remind them to eat?

So the message is out there - VOTE, it's important. But as with so many aspects of out culture, the "WHY?" is never given. Nobody questions. "Oh, the experts say, 'We must vote' and the experts are never wrong. So we must vote." Or, same sentence, but replace "experts" with "tradition".

I think that perhaps, if anyone were to question why voting is so important, they might answer that "voting makes one's voice heard". Mm-hmm. See also: Everyone that hates George W. Bush. See also: Everyone that hates Bill Clinton. See also: Everyone that hates George Bush the First. And so on. Any time there is an election, it means that someone's voice (as much as 49% - or more, due to the electoral college) is "not" being heard - EVEN IF THEY VOTED.

Semi-related is the often touted "guilt-inducer" that voters will use: "You can't complain if you don't vote."

ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong!!!!!!!

A) It is written nowhere that if you do not vote you have no voice. Not in the Constitution, not in any of the laws, nowhere. And if it were, that would make me sick. I can't complain - I can't voice my opinion, I can't say how much I dislike (or like - interesting that people never say, "You can't be happy with the situation, because you didn't vote.") something - because I didn't cast a ballot? Where is the logic in that? Your voice is something that you OWN. Voting has nothing to do with it. They're mutually exclusive. If I don't like the president (and I don't) I am going to say so, regardless of whether I punched a computer screen saying so or not. And anyone that tells me I can't ...

That phrase just boils my blood. You can't complain because you didn't vote. Bah! Does that mean that women (pre-1926) couldn't complain? Slaves? Does that mean that children can't complain about their conditions? Does that mean that ex-criminals can't? Or the homeless? What about animals? Birds can't complain about the air quality, because they can't vote. Lakes? Trees?
That's the other thing - voting doesn't count their voices.
Because someone was convicted of a crime, does that mean that they should not have a say in how their lives are run?
Because someone is under the age of 18, they don't have rights? Their input is somehow less valid?
Because someone is not human, this means that we should not take into consideration their importance?

Voters say "Yeah, that's right."

Voting reinforces the belief that there is One Right Way to live.

That alone is enough to make me never want to vote. Would you want someone choosing your religion for you? Would you want someone choosing what your meals were? Would you want someone to choose what you wore? Or who your friends are?
If not, then why are you voting? Why would you want to dictate to people you've never met, say, in Bismark, North Dakota, what way they should live their lives? And for presidential elections it's worse, because the president of the united states has WORLD impact. So by electing John Bush or George Kerry or ANYONE, you are having an impact (perhaps slight) on the way in which people in South Africa are living. That's mindboggling. And not in a good way.

Quick question - would you vote for a candidate who disagrees with your position on abortion? What about the death penalty? Or health care?
Two points with this - 1) You're never going to find a candidate who agrees with you on every "issue". 2) What do you do if you don't believe in the "issues" at all?
And this ties back in to the reinforcement of the belief that there is One Right Way to live. You casting a vote for Candidate X is, in essence, saying, "I believe that this person knows the best way for EVERYONE to live. His opinions are mine (or close enough) and our opinions should be those of everybody." Leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

Kurt Vonnegut said, "Only psychopaths want to be president." What does that say about the people who believe we need one?

There are (depending on where you look for the details) between 50 million and 100 million people who are eligible to vote, that do not. And that's in the US alone. And that's only counting the "eligible" voters. Shouldn't the fact that so many votes are not cast count for something? I'm of the firm belief that NOT voting IS a vote. Dictionary.com agrees with me.
Vote is defined as
"To express one's preference for a candidate or for a proposed resolution of an issue; cast a vote: voting against the measure.
To express a choice or an opinion."
My not voting is simply stating that I prefer to have NO candidate, thank you very much. Also - "a proposed resolution of an issue" made me chuckle. When has an "issue" ever been "resolved"?

People think that voting is important because they have been misled into thinking that it gives them some power. It does not. It allows them the illusion of power, the illusion of choice. And even then, the power that it is supposedly giving them is power over OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES. God.

I was going to tell an amusing story about a town that was trying to decide what the City Drink should be - Pepsi or Coke, and how one guy only wanted water...but it's too long to tell here, and I've rambled enough. Plus, I've told the points of the story already. Maybe some other day. But just remember that Coke and Pepsi are really good allegories for the political parties. Nader would probably be Diet Coke, or something like that.

See, I want Bush out of the White House as much as the next guy. The difference being, I DON'T WANT ANYONE ELSE TO MOVE IN. Replacing Coke with Pepsi means you'd still have a soda as the drink. And your body needs water.

All of this vote-bashing still hasn't even touched on the problems with the voting system itself. The news has done a pretty good covering of those basis - Chads, the electoral college, electronic voting machines. So even if you do choose to vote, the likelihood of your voice being heard is crippled.

Maybe, though, I'm wrong. Maybe I should just go ahead, and despite my preferences to have no president, go and vote. Go and reinforce that stupid belief that there is One Right Way to live. I mean, the more people vote, the better, right?

Imagine an election that had 100% turnout. (100% elegible turnout, remember, we don't want to hear the voices of anyone that may have committed a "crime" or doesn't own a house) 100% turnout is the ideal goal of democracy, right? So...if everyone who could vote did, what would that solve? How on earth would that make anything better?
Now imagine an election where nobody showed up. Where Bush and Kerry and Nader and Cobb and all the other psychopaths didn't have any support. Where nobody agreed with them. Where nobody said, "This guy knows the best way to live."

The person who knows how best to run your life is YOU. Not some rich white guy that you've never met. Hell, not some internet weirdo who only a handful of you have ever met, either. Voting (or not) is up to you. I've made my decision.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

I know that many of you are suffering the effects of having gone Cold Turkey with Ape10. I apologize. I've added links to the episodes on the sidebar in hopes that it will rekindle the old imagination and new eps will be forthcoming. Perhaps, if you'd like, you can reread the series. It would be just like starting over. Imagine that.

Happy birthday, Mr. Lennon.

This isn't the post you're looking for.

In my head, that was said in Ben Kenobi's Jedi Mind Trick Voice.

So, yeah, this won't be the big political post, because I keep putting that off. It should (SHOULD) be posted before Election Day. I just have to get off my arse and write it. I swear, though, telepathy would be much easier. If you could all just read my thoughts it would save everyone a lot of trouble.

Moving on, I ran a movie called Spanish Judges the other day at work, and while not a great movie, it wasn't horrible either. It was one of those B-ish crime movies that doesn't have a single moral character. Everyone is double crossing everyone else, and you wait for the end to see who gets what they deserve and who gets what they think they want. Good stuff.

But the ending confused me.

I won't give anything away, but if anyone out there has seen it and wants to discuss the film's final shot (I'm talking about Mars Girl here), let me know.

Utah was good, but felt too short. It was nice to get into the wilderness, or at least away from the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas for a few days. On the way back home, we drove through some sort of freak lightning storm that was incredible to behold. The sky was lit nearly contstatly, and the winds were quite strong. Good times.

In other news, I can't seem to send songs to people anymore. When I copy them off a CD, they are Windows Media File types, and apparently can be sent to other people, but they can't hear them. I don't like it.

Get out of the town!

We're going out of town for the weekend. Get away from the big city, and enjoy some of the natural world that is Southern Utah. yay!

Didn't have anything else to say, but I was getting tired of my old entry staring me in the face. Update about that situation, for those who are curious - 13 was still there the next day, but by that evening were allowed back into their building. They bought cake and sodas for the entire station on Friday. Free Pepsi. Excellent. Although I still would've prefered dinner. Just sayin'.

Once we get back from this mini-vacation, I'll finally get around to posting that political entry I've been brewing over for the past six months or so. Cha-ching!