that's great, it starts with an earthquake

as you all know the world is ending in six weeks or so.

And what makes an apocalypse deal-able? Music.

So. I now turn to the internet - what songs would you include on your End of the World mix tape? (ha ha. "mix tape")

Here's what I'd go with:
The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M. [have to start it off with the classic, of course]
Hey Hey Hey (We're All Gonna Die) - Jack's Mannequin
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
The Very Last Day - The Hollies
Arma-goddam-motherfucking-geddon - Marilyn Manson
Present For the End of the World - Good Old War
Doomsday Jesus - Black Label Society
Eve of Destruction -  Barry McGuire
Tiny Apocalypse - David Byrne
40 Years - Paul Hardcastle
The Last Day on Earth - Marilyn Manson
I'm Destroying the World - Guttermouth
The Doom Song - GIR
She's Not the End of the World - Reel Big Fish
Big Brown Eyes - Old 97s
Astonishing Panorama of the End Times - Marilyn Manson
1999 - Prince
World Destruction - Time Zone
Zero Sum - Nine Inch Nails
End of the World - Great Big Sea

I realize that there's a good deal of Manson in there, but what can I say - he does doom pretty well.
Also, I'm not sure about the order, exactly, of the songs. Except the 1st and last.
And I know there are a good dozen or so tunes I'm forgetting right now (or just simply don't know about) so, give me your input!

don't know much about government

Was talking with some coworkers today, and (re)realized that I'm woefully ignorant when it comes to, well, a LOT of things, but, in this case, about civics and the innerworkings of our government. I'm certain that I *used* to know it all, but now...

the good (?) part is that my fellow employees were just as in the dark. None of us really quite had a grasp on the difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives, or why the electoral college is in place, or what the people we just elected to those positions stand for.

America! Fuck yeah!

who ya gonna vote for?

Kinda bummed that after today, that song will effectively become an anachronism.

Anyway. Yeah, cast my vote this morning.

The polls opened at 7am, I got in line (with about 10 people in front of me) around 6:30. Was in and out in 8 minutes. (And left seeing that the line had grown to a good fifty or sixty deep at that point)

While in line, I was reminded, as I often am when I have to venture into the 'real world', that there are a LOT of truly truly ignorant and annoying people out there. (And sometimes they're both! How pleasant!)

While inside the polling center, I was struck by how unorganized the entire thing was. Although it was organized, but there were just little things that *should* have been set up better. For example, after signing in, everyone would then have to proceed to get their electronic voter card...which required crossing thru the lines of other people going to sign in.

And having an exit other than the main entrance would have been helpful too.

But, whatever. It was really a pretty painless ordeal, and the political ad season is DONE, which is a huge relief. It would be great, though, if I could get Mitt Romney's home phone number so I could robo-call him daily for the next three months.

Hey, Grimey, how's it going?

If it were up to me, ultimately, it would be revealed that Rick Grimes has some sort of connection to the zombie uprising, and that when he dies, so, too would all the undead. That way, he'd have to sacrifice himself in order for the world to return to a sense of normalcy.

I HIGHLY doubt that either the comics or the television show will go that direction, but, if they ever do, remember that you heard it here first.

What's This?

Despite that it's only 78 minutes long, and I've "watched" it probably a dozen or more times, I've actually never stayed awake thru the entirety of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

time restrictions and writing

so, day 3 of November, and I've done absolutley no more writing on my nanovel, BUT! after speaking with Saren yesterday, my brain came up with a pretty elegant solution to the ending that was plaguing me. So, the story is more fully developed ...in my mind. It's just getting it OUT of there that is the problem.

And my latest excuse is that I don't feel like I have enough time in the day to do it.

Ironically, we went to the library today, and I picked up at least three more books (and I'm currently about 100 pages into another), and I also feel like I won't have enough time to read those. To be honest, I probably don't have enough time to read all the books AND work on my own, so there is some merit to that complaint.  Of course, we are turning the clocks back an hour tonight, so that puts a relatively small chink in the "not enough time"armor. But really it all boils down to time management and laziness, doesn't it? Need to be better at one and ...less better at the other.

I mean, I'm finding time (sort of) to blog (again, sort of) every day, so ...it IS possible. And, again, now that the plot is mapped out (once more, sort of), I really do think that once I get past the laziness factor, I'll start making some real progress.

philosopher ants

About a week ago I watched a documentary on Fire Ants on netflix. Pretty interesting stuff.
But it got me thinking about the meaning of life.

These ants all have jobs - build tunnels, get food, serve the queen - and they just DO them. Do any of the ants ever stop and question what the point of it is? WHY do they build these massive tunnels? Why do they seek out food for the colony? Why is it vital that the queen and the eggs survive?

Probably not. They just, you know, work.

But...perhaps they're onto something. They just live the life that they live, not questioning the whys and wherefores, just doing ant-things because, well, they're ants.

I'm not entirely sure what point I'm trying to make - if any - and I'm certainly not coming up with any new insights into the mysteries of life. I'm just over tired and kinda rambling. So, I'll just wrap it up with good ol' Vonnegut:

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, "Why, why, why?"
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

Breaking the law

A few days ago, I decided that I would attempt to complete the nanowrimo challenge this year. As the end of October advanced, the ideas and excitement about writing grew.

So, November 1st rolls around, and naturally, all I'm feeling is dread.

I *did* write today, though. I managed to open up a Word Document at work, and composed a remarkable thirteen words.

Work may not be the most ideal place to write...

Tonight, when we were having dinner, I began to feel antsy, and mentioned to Steph that I hadn't written anything yet, and it was getting late... she told me to calm down, because "there is no law that I have to do nano."

Later on, she said she was going to blog every day this month. That idea sounded pretty good to me, and so I've decided that every day in November I will either blog OR work on my nanovel. And, hey, technically, today I did both.