Fuck rules.

This post is odd. I REALLY want to write it, but something is holding me back. When we first got home from the roller skating rink (you can read the positive account of it at The 2 Girls Blog), I was all ready to go. I was angry and righteous and had several of my thoughts well-formed. I opened Blogger, and I stalled.
I started PMing people and chatting with Jupe through AIM. Then I got hungry.

And then whenever I thought about blogging this entry, my stomach would growl. It was truly odd, although slightly interesting, from a psychological standpoint.

I let Stephanie go online, and I ate. When I was done eating, I thought about blogging, and again, my stomach growled. I ate some more, and watched some tv with Saren. Once Stephanie was done, I decided to go on and give writing this entry another chance. I'm typing it now, and while my stomach is still grumbling a bit, I'm doing it. (Of course, I did sit here with a blank screen for at least ten or twenty minutes before hand)

My point in all of this pre-point ramble, is that obviously this issue is big with me, and I'm worried about getting it "just right". (Stupid school induced fear. Well, school and parenting.)

The bottom line of this post will be this sentence. "People matter more than rules."
I will ramble about this for god knows how long, and I'll raise several points about it, but in the end, that's all I'm going to be saying. If you want to stop reading the rest of the entry, you can. Because those five words are the key.

But they're not simple words. Or, apparently, they're not simple words when put in that order.

If you look at any organization (school, religion, politics, pretty much any corporation, governments, along with the way a good many people parent their children) you'll see that the action they convey is the opposite of the mantra I quoted above. These things care more about the rules than the people following them. And it's wrong.

We went roller skating today. It was, in many, many ways a bad experience. (Although Saren was able to overlook the badness, and just (for the most part) have a good time.)
The reason I say it was bad is because while we were skating, the employees who were skating along with us (teens, dressed in referee shirts) kept coming along to anyone who had paused momentarily and said, "You've got to keep skating. You can't stop along the wall!" (In fact, they were very rude about it.) The rules were more important than the people. Who gives a god damn fuck if I stop skating with my three year old daughter for a minute or two to make sure she's okay?

But that's the thing. The rules must be followed, even if the rules don't make sense. Or if a person's happiness be crushed beneath them.

Skating isn't meant to be fun, by god, it's got to be ordered. It's got to have structure. It's got to be disciplined. Everyone must follow the all important rules.
If you allow people to just stop skating, well, hell, you'll have anarchy in a matter of minutes!!

In a lot of ways, our night at the Roller Rink was a microcosm of school. It was supposed to be Family Skating Night from 7pm to 10pm. We started skating at 7. At around 8 or so, they had to "do the Hokey Pokey". (If you were just beginning to enjoy skating, too bad. It was time to do the Hokey Pokey. Dance, or get off the rink.) Once that was completed, it was open skating again.
Shortly after that, though, the announcer came on and forced everyone off the rink so that they could play limbo.
And open skating was interrupted again for races and "pushcart" racing. (Mmmm. Competition. Young kids have to be competitive. Young kids must race against each other for material prizes. Children can't just go to the fucking roller rink and have fun.)
Around 8:45, they instructed everyone to get off except for couples who had to hold hands. Saren and I stayed out there holding hands.
As we were skating, she asked me, "Why do we have to hold hands?" (she had been enjoying the independence of skating alone previously, and wanted to try it some more)
I told her that it was just one of their stupid rules, and we didn't have to. But I kept holding her hand. [/angry at my self]

At 9pm (yes, NINE, despite the fact that the sign said from 7-10), they kicked everyone off who had "rental skates". Grumbling, I returned my skates, and let Saren skate around the rink (alone) one last time. The only other person on the rink was an elderly black man. I wonder how the roller rink manages to stay in business. Of course, if it went out of business, after tonight, I don't think I'd shed any tears.

School, of course, has the same attitude when it comes to rules. The rules are what matter, not the people. The exact opposite of the way that it should be.
It's probably about this time that someone who is in favor of school would say, "But the rules are in place to protect the people."
And I think that that's crap.

The rules are in place to control people. And as long as people continue to value the rules more than each other, they'll continue to do so.

I'm losing my steam, and that's probably okay, because I'm sure most of the P@riots are either shaking their heads sadly, or rolling their eyes, or they've kinda just skimmed this entry anyway, because it's so long and ranty.

That's fine, because this mantra has become the new words I live by. People matter more than rules. It's why we unschool. It's why I dislike religion. It's what I despise about politics, and organizations. It's why I hate wage slavery. And in short, it really is the crux of what's wrong with our society. So I'm sure I'll blog about it again.

If you look around, you'll see it everywhere. (The opposite taking place. Where the rules have become more important than the people.) And once you see it, it should piss you off. And if it pisses off enough people, hopefully (hopefully!!) enough people will realize, "Hey! This is just ...bad." and then we'll stop.

I don't really have a way to wrap this up, so I won't. Instead, I'll simply say it again in hope that it will actually make an impact.

People matter more than rules.

I miss Channy.

She's one of the coolest people in the Unknown Universe, ya know.

I just wish she were able to be online more. The internet is a poorer place in her absence.

My blog is like therapy.

So there's this person over at the WD (quite a few, truth be told) who I admire, and sorta look up to, and wouldn't mind getting to know better.

But I have the distinct impression that this person doesn't like me. We've PMed a few times, and I just have this feeling that PersonX ...I don't know, thinks I'm beneath them.

And in a lot of ways, they're correct in that belief. This person is brighter than I am, more articulate, probably more popular (whatever that means - and it's not really an issue, I was just on a roll). But does that mean that I don't deserve a chance? That this person can't be my friend?

I don't know. Maybe (most likely) it's all in my head, and PersonX likes me just fine. Or maybe that's just the way PersonX is (stand-offish).

The thing that bothers me the most, though is the fact that I care so much. I don't know this person from Adam (or Eve), but the fact that they're denying me attention and friendship (whether in reality, or just in my mind) bugs the tar out of me. And the fact that it bothers me bothers me even more!!

No real point to this post, just sharing my psychosis with the world at large. Enjoy!

Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah? Blah blah blah!!

Blah, blah blah blah-blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah(blah blah blah blah blah) blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blahblah blah blah blah. Blah. Blah & Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah.

BLAH! Blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah. Blah.

Accomplishments are for losers.

God, I'm hiliarous.

Wow. I've got nothing to blog about. Sheesh. I hope that next week, during the blog-a-thon (heh. I originally typed out "blog-a-thong"), I dont' suffer from this problem.

I want a Pepsi.

Holy sheep!! It's almost September!! Man.

I was watching a baseball game today (I was being paid to watch it) and the following semi-formed thought(s) occured to me. Figured I'd share:

The umpires are shaping the future. They control how future generations will remember this game. If an umpire makes a call that a player struck out, when maybe in reality that player did not (say the ball was not in the strike zone, but the ump said it was), then that is how the game's stats will go down in the books. And in baseball they keep track of everything a player does. (I mean everything) So that call effects the "vaulability" of the player in the future as well.

Kinda powerful.

And then I started thinking about how it's done in society. How what judges say in a court decision effect future generations (as long as they continue to care about the law, that is).

Er...I don't know what I'm blathering about. Ignore me.

The sad thing is, now I'll end up getting baseball ads. Google is so lame-o patame-o sometimes.

A gimmick. From the mind of my wife!

In less than 10 days, you'll see a lot of blogging going on. 12 hours of blogging. From mucho cool people like myself. And Stephanie. And...um...whoever else wants to sign up.

Don't know what the hell I'm talking about? But want to? Go here and edumacate yourself!

This is no good. This is no good at all.

well, shit.

It all started yesterday after the stupid sizzler dinner thing. I started to have a mild breathing attack (for those not in the know, I've had asthma (in varying degrees) since my young childhood. I have very vague memories of having to be hospitalized when I was around 5 or so. The asthma attacks stuck with me through about the age of 14 or so, and then stopped. They came back about ten years later. Now, it seems, that every few months I have a rather mild breathing fit. Fun.)

Anywhat, started having trouble breathing yesterday night, but it went away. Until we laid down to go to bed (at 2am, when I had to wake up at 6). I also started to suffer from a headache around that time. I still have it. I also still have the stupid breathing difficulty.

I did feel a little better after eating this morning, but it didn't last long. I was holding onto the fact (er...possiblity) that I'd be able to leave around 1 today, instead of 3. See, the Dora the Explorer thing that the library is putting on is at 2pm. So, if we were going to attend, I'd have to leave work early. Which, wouldn't be a problem, because on Thursdays I'm the "extra man". If I'm not here, it's not really a big deal. And I'm sure Troy (my coworker) would've had no problem with letting me go home a few hours sooner than normal. (Especially if I was having trouble breathing.)

But Troy isn't here today. He called in, so I have to stay until 3pm.

And I can't breathe.

And I have a fucking headache.

And I just want to go home so I can take my baby to see Dora.

I'm so tired of it all. This job is just not worth it. money just is not worth it. god, my head hurts.

I'm irritated, and in pain, and just ...some word. I don't know. Whatever. I'm kinda hoping that I'll see my supervisor today and I'll explain the whole breathing thing to him (trust me, it'll be obvious to him. Wheezing is fun!!) and he'll let me go home. Of course, I've not seen my supervisor in person since...well, last Saturday. And before then I hadn't seen him for an entire week. So it's a crapshoot.

Yee-haw.

I've got to go take care of work related issues. Steph, when you read this, you can call me and I'll let you know if things've gotten better.

...and the chaos that surrounds me like a flock of screaming pigs...

Kudos to anyone who can cite the reference.
Actually, anyone who knows me super well won't find it that hard. I've only referred to the song like a gabillion times in my internet lifetime. [doh2]

So, yeah, some highlights from the past 24-ish hours:

Spent 30 bucks at Sizzler. (The Sizzle-ator!) Holy goddamn hell, Batman! Thirty dollars!?!?! For "salad" and two cheeseburgers? Lesson learned: Never eat at Sizzler again.

Went to the library - got some books and the soundtrack to Smallville. (Shut up!!) Lesson learned: Um...books are good?

Getting ready to watch the Daily Show. Lesson learned: news is something to mock, not take seriously.

Have to wake up hella fucking early tomorrow morning. Lesson learned: I need a different schedule at work. Or better yet, to not have to work.

Title loading. Time remaining: 34 minutes.

FUCK!!!!!

God, computers suck sometimes.

Or at least this one does.

Freakin' slowness. GAWD!!!

And to add injury to insult (or something), Stephanie is all sneezy. [sigh]

Tomorrow will be better. Because Stephanie will be feeling better. And because the page will have finally loaded.

Animal music

Shamelessly stolen from Bethy, I present to you a list of the songs from my mp3 collection that have animals in either the title of the song, or the name of the band that performs them.

• Built to Spill & Modest Mouse - Rentals
  
  
• Sheryl Crow - Blue Christmas
  
  
• The Eagles - Please Come Home For Christmas
  
  
• Mickey Mouse and Friends - Deck the Halls
  
  
• Alvin & the Chipmunks - Christmas Song
  
  
• David Byrne - Like Humans Do
  
  
• Eels - Novacaine for the Soul
  
  
• Eels - Fresh Feeling
  
  
• Black Sabbath - War Pigs
  
  
• Mercury Rev - Spiders and Flies
  
  
• Barney - The Ants go Marching
  
  
• Peter, Paul, and Mary - Puff the Magic Dragon
  
  
• Dr. Suess - Fox in Socks
  
  
• Bear in the Big Blue House - Cha, Cha, Cha
  
  
• The Wiggles - The Monkey Dance
  
  
• The Wiggles - Dorothy the Dinosaur
  
  
• of montreal - Peacock Parasol
  
  
• of montreal - Panda Bear
  
  
• Pavement - The Porpoise and the Hand Grenade
  
  
• The Monkees - Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees
  
  
• Dave Matthews Band - Proudest Monkey
  
  
• Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
  
  
• Cracker - Guarded by Monkeys
  
  
• They Might Be Giants - Mink Car
  
  
• They Might Be Giants - Wicked Little Critta
  
  
• Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
  
  
• aquabats - Superrad
  
  
• Beck - Jack-ass
  
  
• Bloodhound Gang - The Roof is on Fire
  
  
• Dave Matthews Band - Monkey Man
  
  
• Devo - Go Monkey Go
  
  
• Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
  
  
• Harry Chapin - Cats in the Cradle
  
  
• 3 humpback whale recordings
  
  
• John Dowland - The Frog Galliard
  
  
• Disney Silly Songs - Three Little Fishies
  
  
• Modest Mouse - Night on the Sun
  
  
• Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven
  

I didn't include the Beatles, and there were a few songs that had "fly" in the title, but not in the sense of the insect, so I omitted those too.

I bring you love

God, that line kills me everytime.

First and foremost, thank you everyone who replied to my last post. I should probably respond to some of the responses, but I'm feeling rather...what's the word...self-absorbed right now (as opposed to when I'm not? [rolleyes]). Actually, I just want to get this post out first, and then I will (hopefully) go back and reply to other folks. My point was that even if you don't get feedback from me, know that I am reading all of the comments, and I do appreciate people taking the time. =)

The title of this post is from one of the greatest episodes of the Simpsons ever, and it's gonna be all about that freaky emotion known as love.

To tie back into the previous post, I wanted to bring up a point I forgot to last time. One of the draws of Christianity is the aspect that Jesus (or God) loves you no matter what. They have an unconditional love for you.

This is really pretty darn cool sounding, and I can see how a lot of people would want to believe it. It bothers me tremendously that we live in a culture that has had to create such a foma (Vonnegut reference), though.

I want my girls to never ever doubt that they are loved. I went through a good portion of my teenage years absolutely convinced that not only was I not loved, but that love itself was not real. Heh. I remember in 11th grade I wrote a 7 or 8 page essay on the illusion of love in an English class. The teacher ended up giving me a D, because what I had written about was not what the assignment was. Funny (in a extremely sad way) how often calls for help go ignored.

I'm jumping all over the place. Damn. Someday I will make an orderly ...something. Not today, though.

Love is a funny thing. You ask 500 people the deceptively simple question, "What is love?" and you're likely to get 500 different answers. I can think of at least 5 different ways to answer that question just off the top of my head.

In my life I've experienced a few different types of love, but I whole heartedly believe that the love I feel for my kids is the strongest I'll ever feel.

Something that is odd (and I don't know if it's just me) but I value my friends love more than that of my family (meaning my parents). And even more alarming (maybe. maybe not.) is the fact that my friends are all online people. My "real life" friends have all vanished, the way that friends sometimes do. Sure, Jared still calls once every month or so, and we talk about getting together, but it never seems to happen. And it's not that I don't want to. For better or worse, Jared is my best "real" friend (outside of my wife, of course. Stephanie is my best friend.).

I can easily say that there are people online that I love, and I'm fairly certain that they know it.

Of course, the question of whether one can truly love someone they've never even met is raised, but I feel that the answer is yes. In fact, I think the question would be why couldn't someone do that? Granted, it may just turn out to be that you are in love with the person's persona, but is that that much different from real life?

Bah. I'm psychobabbling again.

Here's something that's not very fun to do: explain why you love someone. Pick anyone in your life, and then analyze why you love that person. I've toyed with doing this before, and I don't enjoy doing it. Mostly because it's difficult (for me, anyway, maybe others have an easier time). The reason I think that it's such a hard task is because love is an emotion. Perhaps pure emotion. And logic just doesn't enter into it. Trying to explain why you feel a certain way about certain people is impossible because emotion and logic don't mix.

I know I'm forgetting some points I wanted to make, but I guess I'll save those for another time. As it is I've now posted two "thinky" posts back to back. Maybe I should have instead taken a page from bettie, who was taking a page from the Hulk, and just said:

Love wacky. Me like.

The smile on a dog.

Time for that long put-off post about religion.

Or so he said, self-confidently before actually starting to type it up. Now that I'm actually trying to do it, I've got bubkis. Or is it butkis? Whatever it is, I've got it. Or don't got it, as the case seems to be.

A while back there was a poll about religion on the WD. I didn't vote, because I couldn't quite decide what to choose. I suppose if a gun were put to my head, and I were forced to declare a title for my belief system, I would pick "atheist". (I was torn between that, "agnostic", and "other" in the poll, thus the nonvotingness.)
A choice that was not on there, but that has been attracting my attention of late (I still need to do some more research into this to determine whether I'd be willing to accept this label or not) is that of "animist". From the limited amount I know about this "religion", it seems to be mostly just spiritualness and ecology mixed together. In other words, treating the world as a source of awe rather than some fairy-tale Creator thing.

Something I was thinking about saying in response to that poll was that it doesn't matter what you believe, it matters what you worship. Even those of us who are devout atheists worship. And those who claim to be religious also worship, although, ironically, it's not necessarily the gods of their religion. I would venture a guess that most of the people reading this are similiar to me in the worship of technology (television, computers, telephones, etc), and the worship of money (to varying degrees). Other "gods" that are worshipped today by the masses:
School
The Military
The Government
The Media (I've done my fair share)

I don't think that most Christians actually "worship" Christ, or God, or anything like that. I'm not saying that they don't believe in their religion, just that it is not the important thing in their lives. Or perhaps I'm completely wrong.

My point in this matter was that all too often we get wrapped up in what someone believes, when really, what does that matter? You can't change what someone believes, and even if you were trying to convert someone to your religion, and you were successful in changing the belief of someone, if you don't alter (heh. pun.) what the individual worships, you ain't changed nothin'. (Does that make sense?)

Then, there's the whole aspect of "saving". Everyone needs to be "saved", Jesus is going to do all the "saving". In The Story of B, Daniel Quinn talks a great deal about religion. He mentions early on that you can go anywhere in the world and mention the phrase "Have you been saved?" and people will know what you are talking about. A key element of any religion, it seems, is being saved.

From what? is what I used to ask. And I still haven't gotten an answer to that that I find satisfactory. From eternal damnation?
Let's break that down a bit, shall we?

First and foremost is the problem that to believe in any sort of afterlife, one has to believe in a soul. I do not. That discounts me being "saved" right off the bat, but just for fun, we'll continue the examination and ignore the not believing in souls.
If one has to accept Jesus as a saviour (or whatever one has to do in the religion of one's choosing - they all seem to be hell-bent (heh. another pun.) on the issue of saving souls) in order to prevent burning in hell forever, is that really something you would want? You're spared eternal torment because God allowed you into heaven because (even though you supposedly have Free Will) you choose His side? It's not much of a choice, is it?

The other problem with "being saved" is that it reinforces the belief that there is something inherently wrong with human beings. Until you are 'saved', you're unworthy. You are flawed.

Lastly, being saved means nothing. You are not any more secure from the threats in the world because you have uttered some words. In other words, it has no "real world" effect. Just because you are saved, does not mean that your life will get instantly better. You have to wait for the afterlife to reap the rewards.

Fleh. I feel, mostly, like I'm preaching to the choir (hee!) or that I'm not making my points (did I even have any points??) clearly.

So. I will wrap it up with two short quotes. One is mine, the other is the lyric to a song I heard just the other day. They kinda coincide with each other.

Hell is other people. So is heaven.

I don't need no one
To tell me 'bout heaven
I look at my daughter and I believe

85

Didjya ever have one of those days?
Sure. I've also had "one of those nights", lovely days", "the worst day since yesterday", and a lot of other day and night songs. [up]

"Give me something to sing about!!"
Pancakes. There really aren't enough songs about pancakes. Also, I'm craving pancakes right now.
("Life's a show" from Once More, With Feeling)

I think that the word "August" would be a good name for an illegal drug. (Yeah, I'm weird) If you were going to create a name for a new drug (please, refrain from any Huey Lewis and the News references), what would you call it?
September. Heh.

What's the deal with gay marriage, yo?
I'm sure the conservatives are glad that the blackout moved that issue from the main page...

"If I could frame my mind where would it hang?"
Sadly, I've lost my mind, and therefore can neither frame nor hang it.
("Open Road Song" by Eve 6)

On August 22nd, I will have been here for 1234 days. My car's mileage recently hit 111111 miles. What milestones are you approaching?
Erm... Well, I guess the car's next biggie will be 123456.7. Should hit sometime in December?
And Saren just had her 6th birthday.
Otherwise, [shrug]

I know it's been asked a billion times before but...what new icon would you like to see on the board?
This is a reminder to myself to make (or have Stephanie make) that one icon ...

Do you keep a blog? If so, wanna give me the address and allow me to link to it from mine?
God, I am so lame.

If you had to change your username, what would you change it to?
I'd probably use username, which is what I am over at IshCon. [up]

and finally....

Go ahead, ask me a question.
That's not a question.

This was not what I originally wanted to post, but hey, whatchya gonna do?

They say it's your birthday!

Chuck E. Cheese has the most amazing ability to drain the power out of me. Not in a bad way, mind you, because we had fun, but now that I'm home, I'm beat.

Highlights of Saren's 6th birthday:

• Waking up at 11am. (Not that unusual. Although normally we wait until noon)
  
  
• Had breakfast at IHOP. (Funny face pancakes. And on the menu, Saren drew an invention of a robot/cat/monster with fire hair. Way cool.)
  
  
• Two holes punched into her earlobes. (Yep. We got Saren's ears pierced. She had been wanting to get it done for a few weeks, and we told her that it would hurt just a little, but if she really wanted to go through with it, we'd do it. She did, so she now has fairly cute flower earrings in her ears. She was totally thrilled with herself about them, and this may have been the apex of the day for her.)
  
  
• Talked to Annika. (With what seemed to be from my point of view a rather abrupt goodbye. Hey, bettie - was her decision to just suddenly go strange to you too?)
  
  
• Dinner at Chuck E. Cheese. (Way WAYY!! overpriced pizza & drinks & tokens + family + friends + giant anthromorphic rat giving hugs + games that give tickets + cake + presents = happy Saren.)

I'd make a list of the presents she recieved, but I'd be here until next year. Suffice to say, materialistically, she's doing fine now. (not that she was suffering beforehand)

Now we're home, and I'm blogging about it, and Stephanie still needs to do her writing and I'm going to play Battleship with Saren. [up]

Happy Birthday, Saren. I love ya.

They're STILL talking about it?!?!?!

That quote comes from my soon to be six year old daughter, regarding the fact that CNN is still reporting on the power outage. When a six year old can see the utter pointlessness of news, why can't the rest of us?

Sometimes the Internet is just really boring.

Yesterday night I stayed up until 3am reading a book I hated. The lesson from this is that I am, in fact, very stupid.

Sometimes mere oblivion seems.

Funny thought I had the other day - the fundamentals have stayed the same in our family. Steph stays home and roosts with the girls, and sends me out to "hunt" for the food. The hunting takes place in fast food drive-thrus, and I'm always guaranteed a victorious hunt, but the analogy is there.

About the tree thing - yeah, there may be (and probably is) scientific basis for deforestation to avoid extra trees being burned, but in the end it boils down to humans trying to control the environment. The forests got along just fine for millions of years without human intervention, and I guarantee that if we didn't cut anything down, there'd be no big problems.

I stink.

When I heard about the powerlessness of the East Coast, I thought of mayhem. And Jupe. And some of the New York WDers. Sadly, CNN didn't provide information about them specifically. Which just further proves the ineptitude of cable news.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky, followed by meteor showers and tidal waves...

We got our check from the government today. That was nifty. We've still not cashed it, and I dont' know what's the best course of action for it (put it in savings - (I've become worried about the plan to move next year. I worry that we won't be able to afford it ...at least not at the original time we decided on...) or use it for Disneyland (and the party in California) or pay off some enormous debts/bills). Stupid lack of ...whatever.

I think I need to eat. My brain is all distractionary.

[rollsigh]

Take that, Google!

Bad thing about not blogging for days on end - it becomes difficult to break the pattern. Despite the fact that enough "interesting" things have happened to me since the 4th, I have little desire to type them out for others to absorb.

I finished reading Michael Crichton's Prey. Say what you will about him, he certainly knows how to write "blockbusters". I could totally see Prey being a summer movie. I'll be surprised if they don't adapt it eventually. I won't give anything away, but I will say that the ...villians were quite creepy. Yay creepiness!

Speaking of "creepy" and "villians", George Bush thinks we should cut down more trees in order to save them from being burned down.

Actually, that's not what I was going to say. I was going to talk about how Freddy vs. Jason is coming out in 2 days, and despite all my brains protests, I still want to see it. Sorta. I am a strange bird.

Speaking of trees, we went up to Mt. Charleston today. Upon entering the picnic section (where you have to pay - [rollsigh]), the guard woman there told us that they were having a "wasp problem." They're not stinging, she told us, but they're simply a nuisance. She instructed us that if you were to take a piece of meat and set it away from your table, the wasps will go to the meat and leave you alone. She then said, "Do you want to do it?" Which made me think she was going to give us meat.

She didn't, though.

Once we got set up, we did take a piece of bologna from our sandwiches and set them aside from our table. Sure enough, the bees (they really didn't look like wasps to me) swarmed (heh. 'swarm') around the lunchmeat, and more or less ignored us. The ants and flies still found us worthy of investigation, though.

Long story short (too late!) the girls had a good time, Stephanie built a fairy house, and I didn't hate it. (I really didn't. Don't believe whatever Steph says.)

Nope, not dead.

Just...not dead.

Remind me to get a title bar thing

Those are pretty darn nifty, and I should install one soon. I keep meaning to.

My blog got half-eaten yesterday after I made the ultra-long entry. I had it saved (I learn!!), but not an updated version, so now I'm sans quote of the day (was anyone besides me reading it anyway?) and sans Babelfish. (aww.) But at least I've got entries again (which when it got half eaten, were not showing up) so that's good.

Blah. I'm hungry. I didn't want to rant about the hoo-haw going on at Stephanie's blog, and I'm not in the mood to discuss anything cerebral at all, but I can't think of anything light and fluffy either. I suppose I should get back into my book. It's another Robert J. Sawyer work (Illegal Alien) and while I'm only 5 chapters in, it's very good.

SHUT UP, P@!!

Long time no blog. And I've got loads on my mind. And time to blog it. So unless the hunger in my belly ends up driving me away from the computer (a very real possibility), I'm gonna type for a bit.

You've been warned.

So, it's August already. Saren will soon be 6 years old. SIX!!

Ahhh. Better. I just had a bowl of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. (*sings* "New Apple Cinnamon -- Cheer-e-ohs!")
Yes. I still remember the freakin' jingle from when Apple Cinnamon Cheerios debuted. Back in what, 1989?

Which leads me to the first thing I wanted to discuss. A hundred days ago, Jess said in a comment:
You know what's weird? For the longest time I had this impression of you as being a bastion of pop culture (in a cute way): TV, commercials (can you hear me now?), pepsi, etc. I don't really know how to finish this statement, because it's not like you've renounced those things, but the whole Daniel Quinn thing is a weird contradiction to that. But, hey, it's very human (very monkey?).
After looking up the word bastion ([grin]), I figured I would respond to her. (WOO! Go Jess! A whole new blog entry devoted (partially, at least) to a comment you left!!)
Yes, it was probably at one time accurate to describe me as a "bastion of pop culture". And the fact that I still remember a jingle from nearly 15 years back is evidence of that.
And while I'm not renouncing it, I think that my priorities have shifted. Or at the very least, are shifting. It bothers me (sometimes much more than I let on) that I can tell you who He-Man's alter-ego was (Prince Adam) or the names of Drew Carey's friends from The Drew Carey Show (Oswald Lee Harvey and Lewis Kinensky). But I don't know my neighbors names. Hell, I don't think I'd be able to pick them out of a crowd. Of 3.
I'm not saying that my dependance on pop culture is a bad thing (I still love Alias and Angel and the Bimpsons will be something I watch until the day I die) it's just that there were plenty of other things that I could have taken an interest in while growing up (and still can) but didn't.

Anywhat, I guess, Jess, that my point is that I'm kinda in a state of flux (a good thing, imo). I'm still attempting to find a balance between being someone like Harry Knowles (only, hopefully, less obnoxious) and someone like Derrik Jensen.

You know how humans are really short-sighted? I mean, try to envision 1000 years from now. I'd be willing to bet that most of you, when attempting this exercise will envision a barren nothingness wasteland in 1000 years. This raises two points. One - that most of us believe humanity won't be around that long. And two - that looking that far into the future is difficult, if not impossible.

Let's shorten it to 100 years from now. Same thing, no? Maybe not entirely. I mean, perhaps not everyone sees a lack of humans in 2103. But I'll bet that having a clear picture of what it's gonna look like then is hard to conjure.

What about 10 years? That becomes slightly easier, since we've got a basis for what 10 years feels like. We can postulate on how things are now, and how things are going, and how we'd like them to go (and how they might go) and we can sorta get a hazyish picture of what life will be like a decade from now. In fact, certain aspects of this are easier than others, depending on how much knowledge we've got about different topics. I mean, it's easier to guess what our personal lives will be like in 10 years than it is to picture the world at large.

My point (and I guess I should've just come out and said this 300 words ago) is that human beings are notoriously short-sighted. We build highways without taking into account that people will move here by the thousands in another 2 decades, and so we don't plan for it. We dump toxins into the ocean with no regard whatsoever for the lives of future generations that it will effect. We chop down tree after tree after tree and when we hear the environmentalists say, "If you keep doing this, we will all pay in 100 years" we shrug and say, "I will be dead in 80."

And while becoming ...less short-sighted would be a tremendous boon, my point is that we're short-sighted because for the first hundred thousand years of our lives as a species we didn't need to look that far into the future. There was no need to plan what we were going to do "next Thursday", because life was not that complex. (also, because there was no such thing as "Thursday", but I digress.)

I guess my point of the above ramble was merely that while being more aware of how our actions will effect the future is something we should all attempt to do, we've got a heck of a struggle ahead of us, since we're just not built that way.

What else? AH! Wal-mart.

Gaffer in that Wal-mart thread basically held the position that "even though people complain about Wal-mart crushing the mom & pop stores (the tribal businesses, Lisa), they must not really dislike it, because they keep going there." Or, put another way, the millions of people who shop at Wal-mart have a choice - go there, or don't. And they go. So stop bitchin'.

What gaffer is failing to see is that people will always choose the better. If given the choice between a black & white tv, and a color tv (same price), people will pick the color.
Wal-mart is better than the mom & pop stores. Not better for the employees. Not better for the environment. And (probably) not better for the economy, either. But it's stronger. Wal-mart has much more buying power than the typical small business will ever dream of having. Plus, they're everywhere, so it's just easier for most consumers to abandon the small business and instead go (in droves) to Wal-mart. And so the small businesses fall victim to Wal-mart's march of progress. Not because people necessarily want to shop there (although they'll think they do, due to the shiny ads, and/or the fact that Mom shopped at Wal-mart) but because they're ultimately not given much of a choice.

I complained about it the other day, the fact that I'm just as guilty. But I think (I hope) that Stephanie and I are going to put forth more of an effort to seek out the smaller (tribal, if we can find them) businesses and offer them our patronage rather than always simply going to Wal-mart or Target right away. It probably won't be easy - but that might then be an incentive to make sure that what we're going to purchase is something we actually need rather than something we're just picking up because we're in that aisle.
And if nothing else, it'll broaden our horizons and introduce new experiences to us. I mean, a Target is a Target is a Target. If you've been in one, you've been in them all. And that's just scary if you think about it. There is really no difference between the Targets in Las Vegas and the Targets in Des Moines, Iowa. But shopping at locally owned places will result in a huge variety. Of merchandise, and of the employees. I'm not the most people-friendly-person I know (in fact, I've noticed that a lot of the folks I talk to online...and in Real Life too...) seem to be very anti-social...
I'm beginning to suspect that our culture has something to do with that.

I lost my train of thought there. Or it wasn't fully developed. I'll come back to it sometime...

I was going to post about religion (and I will, someday soon, I promise!) but I think I've probably talked about enough things for now.

Sometimes, I hate living.

And sometimes (far too often, if I were to be honest), I'm a complete and total fucking dick. I don't know why anyone puts up with me. Especially Stephanie.

I'm beyond tired.

Counting down to 7-3-0

Started off the day with a horrific dream involving zombies. And these particular undead weren't the typical movie kind. You know, the not too bright, move rather sluggishly kind? Nope. These folks ran. And on top of that, they were smart (one of them had invented some sort of handheld contraption that shot nails out of it...much like a nail-gun, but different). Which made them fucking creepy as goddamn hell. After much running for my life, the survivors of the neighborhood I was in gathered together. Turns out, I was the oldest still living person for miles.
Which put me in charge of a group of terrified children. Not what I wanted.

The parents of these youngsters began to track us down, and luckily around that time, the alarm went off. [shudder] Freakin' zombies.

After waking up and assuring myself that that particular world was limited to being inside my head, I fell back into a half slumber and had a Buffy dream. (Although since I wasn't sleeping-sleeping, I was not exactly dreaming-dreaming, either) Suffice to say that this Buffy dream is going to be a fanfic someday. Probably the first one I'll really write. It's not particularly good, but it is funny. And I think I'll title it "Counting down to 7-3-0" because it ties in nicely. [grin]

I woke back up in time to shower and eat breakfast, then headed down to work for the training session. It was scheduled for 3 hours, but wound up taking only 2. Everyone who was there agreed that we'd indicate on our time sheets that we'd been there for the 3rd hour, though. Woo-hoo for group fraud!!

On the way home, I was all worried that the odometer would hit the all 1 mark before I had Steph's camera with me. Luckily, it didn't. I got home with 5 miles (exactly!) to go. We decided to go out.


Woohoo!! All 1s!!

Out - we went to Pier One (heh. "one"), and some craft store, and Barnes&Noble wherein I looked at a history of the world book that cost like 90 dollars, but was immensely interesting. I got to wonder why the Australian people seem to be the only ones who never attempted farming. Maybe Lisa's got some insight on that with her books she's been reading. Or perhaps Jupe knows. Or maybe someone else will make something up.

After B&N, we drove to..where'd we go? Oh! The mall. Wherein we ate at Red Robin (meh. It was overpriced. Shoulda gone to Chevy's instead. But at least it was better than Denny's. Note to Denny's: your BLTs are not worth six dollars.) then we walked around for a while, and went into the Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store. And bought more junk. Yippie! We could (and probably need to) use a snow shovel to clear a path through the amount of stuff we've already got, and then we go to a corporation run store and bring more into the house.

For all the talk of Ishmael-ian things we've been doing, we certainly haven't changed our behaviour. Yet.

Now we're home, and I've got work in the morning, and Stephanie needs to load the pic of the mileage so I can edit it in.

And I've still got a billion other things I want to talk about. (Wal-mart, a note that Jess left me a few days ago, religion, my CAST ending [thing is still open, people get your entries in now!!], etc.)

Huh.

So, apparently, there are some 70 sextillion stars in the known universe. That's 70 with 22 zeroes after it.
or
700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different stars.

Holy fucking hell.

What else?

I don't know. I was in the mood to blog earlier (we had a very full day) but now that I'm here, I'm really not. I guess that's because it's after midnight and I have to go into work tomorrow (on what would've been one of my days off). Training and all that. Extra money, which is great. If by great I mean totally not really worth it in the long run. You can't take it with you. Or, I guess you can - you know, if you have yourself buried with all your assests.

I was going to respond to gaffer in the "Wal-Mart" thread, and I still might, but since I've not been online all day and not to the WD in nearly 24 hours, I'm sure it's exploded into some ugly mess, as gaffer threads are wont to do.

We got another call from Oregon today. This apartment might be better than the one that requires three times the entire six month lease, but it was hard to tell from the short message she left. I guess we can always call her back. [shrug]

I can't believe that it's already the end of July. That means Saren's birthday is just half a month away. And after that, the holiday-end-of-the-year-blur starts up. Sheesh. Time is funky.

Canker (??) sores are irritating as hell. I should put on the medication and stop bitching about it.

"toady"

Speaking of Wal-mart (I was!! I swear!!), we went there today, and while there I had lotsa stuff to blog about in mind. Religion (at Wal-Mart!?! Surely ye jest, P@!!), the evolution of the word "family" in modern times, and of course, gaffer's thread and my reply. (Guess I'll have to either post it like I said I would, or get around to blogging it here, since I've mentioned it so many times now. [wink])
Um...where was I? Oh! Yes, I had all those blog ideas, and of course, now, I'm blogging about none of them. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe threemorrow.

We had a very busy day (as I said before) but I think Stephanie did a much better wrap-up then I could (or will). The homeless men made me consider publishing my homeless blog entry but I guess that, too, will have to wait for another day.

Sheesh. Looking back over this entry it's mostly - "I shouldn't be typing this now, since I'll do it later."

But you still read it. And that's another minute and a half of your life you'll never get back. Ha!

You ever have days where you've got a million bajillion things to say, and absolutely no drive to say them?

Yeah.

Well, ask (and do the work myself) and I shall receive.

I went searching for stuff to add to my "Clutter" section, and found two new additions. The first is the link to blogtv, which is really nothing more than another blogring, but it's got the cute graphic of "snow", so I couldn't resist. Plus, there's only 85 people on it right now, so I feel like I'm getting in on the ground floor.

The second one is one that I doubt many people will use, and it is kinda big so I might remove it eventually...anywhat, it's the Babelfish translator. Simply click on the image of the flag of a particular country and the text of my blog will be translated to that language! Huzzah!!
(I think I might try to learn myself a new language that way. [smile])

I also found a lot of stuff that was Lame-o Patame-o, so of course, I didn't add that. There were also some really nifty looking guestmaps (seems Bravenet doesn't have the monopoly on them) but I like Bravenet's the best. There was one called IndyJunior that costs money, but it was sweet. Oh well.


In other news, mayhem should be banned. He's too fucking hilarious and I'm incredibly jealous of his wit. Luckily, he can't read, so I'm safe in saying this.

I want more junk to put in my blog. Odd, I don't mind accumulating digital garbage, but the stuff in Real Life is bothering me.
Also, it looks like the move is going to be ...well, a move. And as I think everyone knows, MOVING SUCKS!
But, once we get there - YAY!!

Hmm. I still haven't finished the CAST. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna leave it there, and let people continue to add on to it. And then, in a few weeks' time, I'll gather all of the entries and put it up as a single post along with the ending. Yeah. That'll work.

My belly is bleugahi.

Tonight's Futuremama was brilliant. I totally think someone on the staff has read Ishmael. [grin]
It's a true pity that there's only 2 more new episodes left.

It's coming up on the new Fall Season, so all the TV stations are starting to promote their upcoming shows and the season premieres of the returning favorites. I'm finding myself not really moved. Seems like each year I find less and less on that appeals to me. Eventually, I'll give up on network television altogether. I mean, when I was in my teens, I watched A LOT of television. Now, I still do (but I'm paid to do it). But really, I don't watch that much tv at work. Yeah, I'm supposed to, but Pfft!

Let's see - what else?

Yikes! Saren's birthday is fast approaching. Never enough money, never enough time.

Oh! Also - mileage is currently at 110975.

Miles to go before we sleep. 36, in fact.

We gave away a lot of stuff today. And the house is still cluttered.
How did we accumulate so much junk?

I invite everyone down to rummage through our house. Take whatever you want.

In other news, my legs are incredibly sore, just from jumping for about 3 minutes straight. I'm old.

Hmm. I was going to finish the CAST, but my brain is on limited creativeness right now. Thank you to everyone who's played. I think I'll do more of them in the future. Or, you know, other people could do them too. That way I'd be able to be on the other side. And I could throw in my bits of stories. Yay!

Hmm.

Haw. (heeeeee!!) I'm hmming and hawing. God, I kill me.

Bother. Stupid work.

My newest gimmick.

It's a Continue A STory. (CAST) I'll start a tale, and then you fine P@riots can add on to it. (assuming, of course, that Haloscan is working.) There are some rules, but they're rather easy to abide by.
1) You may add on a section up to 3 times - but you need to have at least two other people put entries between yours.
2) Don't end the story. That's for me to do.


That's it. The story will, no doubt, end up going in some very odd directions, but that's the appeal. Have fun.

And with that, I'll get the story going....


Melody Sacks was dead. At least, her persona was. Seattle, as she was calling herself now, had left Melody behind in the town of Amarillo Texas.
The task of creating a whole new life - on paper only, thus far - had been ardous, but now that she was putting her long-standing plan into action, it was, she had to admit, worth the wait. She had 36,042 dollars (cash), and three different credit cards (all in the name of Seattle White). The driver's license she had informed the world that she resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She glanced at her watch: 2:17am. Well, in a matter of a few more hours, she would be living in a small studio apartment there. Several hours from then would be when her parents would notice she was gone, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.
An REM song came on the radio, and Melody - Seattle, she corrected herself - reached down to turn it up.
It was then that she hit something on the freeway, causing her car to do a 360 degree turn, before stopping. The engine smoking, Seattle did a quick body check (she was okay) and then thought to check on what she'd smacked into...

I remembered the two things I wanted to mention yesterday.

The first was the BIG IMPORTANT NEWS STORY OF THE DAY!! - which was, of course, the fact that the US killed the sons of Saddam Hussein. Erm..yay, I guess.
Everyone else seems to be all excited about it, and I realize that they were very bad people, but the gleeful exubarance of the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth somehow.

The other thing was my idea that eventually, they'll have the internet on contact lenses. That'll be keen.

My brain is in a weird moode (moode?!?!) right now, so forgive me if I jump around a lot. Consider it a peek into the way in which my mind works. You've been warned.

Some things I said earlier:

"The supermarket's floors, instead of being linoleum, should be sand. That way, you could just poop in the aisle, and bury it like a cat, and keep on going." (Steph did not agree.)

"They should have Police Goats." (and really, they should. Police Dogs are all great and all, but imagine how much fear a few Billys would put into the hearts of criminals.)





Some things I did earlier:

[-] Mowed the front lawn. I've not done that in at least a month - and holy fucking shit was that thing foresty. I was (still am) wearing shorts today, so my legs wound up getting all greeny due to the grass I was trudging through. After I finished mowing, I hauled out the weed whacker, and that resulted in further greenness of my legs.
(Well, at least they're not white anymore.)

[-] I did not mow the back yard, because that is going to require chainsaws. Or perhaps Chainsaw. Soupy, do you feel like travelling down to Las Vegas in order to do yardwork for us?

[-] Ate at Rufio's Ha-Ha Grill, which was deliciously delicious. I think I will buy some gift certificates for Jamie for when she gets back to the states.

[-] Went grocery shopping. While there, I did something incredibly stupid (and rather funny - in hindsight). As we were walking down the aisle with the Pepsi 24 packs, Stephanie asked me, "Want or don't want?" Not answering her, I simply grabbed the case by the handle and removed it from the shelf.
At which point, the case tore, and 24 cans of Pepsi fell onto the ground. One of them exploded, spraying Pepsi all over my legs (remember, I'm wearing shorts today?) and the floor.
I know there's some sort of joke in here about the new WB show, Pepsi Smash, but I'm too lazy to make it. (and see, another reason to make the floors sand)

[-] Read some more of My Ishmael. I'm nearly halfway, so I think once I'm done with that I'll move onto something non-Quinn. Maybe I'll work on the WD Book Club at that point.





Some stuff I thought today:

[-] Heee! Squibbons!

[-] Lame-o patame-o! They should've had it get eaten by the MegaSquid.

[-] Dude, *all* life is intelligent.

[-] I'm hungry like the wolf.

[-] I should go back. No...I shouldn't. Well...maybe I should.

[-] Oops! I need to answer that email.

[-] I dunno. Maybe she just doesn't like me anymore.

[-] Pfft! We're totally not moving to *this* apartment.





Etc. (stuff that just didnt' fit into the other categories - in other words, the real blog entry)

I've got a gimmick in mind for my blog...I'll most likely have it started in the next couple of days. There's an unrelated gimmick that my wife came up with, but the details on that one are still foggy. But once they become more clear, I'll be talking about it here (and possibly on the WD in Testing) in order to get more people involved.

I do believe I'm done. But not. I felt that I had a lot more to say, but I can't remember it. I hate that feeling. Oh well.

I'm out like a trout.

heeeheeeheee!!

I'm just giddy. Heee!

Random thoughts:

Happiness is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.

If you came into a room and discovered that everyone who had been in that room had been slaughtered, you'd most likely freak out - probably vomit, maybe faint, definitely increased heartbeat. How would a nonhuman react? Like a dog, or a cat or a monkey? (If the room was full of slaughtered dogs or cats or monkeys, that is)

When I was younger (I'd guess this memory comes from when I was maybe in 5th grade?) our teacher had the class come up with "ways to save the planet". Which is, actually, a pretty good idea. Asking children, that is. Children, for the most part, are going to think differently than adults. And different ways of thought are what we need.
My idea was to make cars that run on garbage, and to have a garbage bag placed onto the exhaust pipes of all vehicles. That way, the bags would fill back up with the "waste" and then be reused. [grin] Sadly, I don't remember what my classmates came up with. Figures. Something from my formative years in school that I should remember, and I can't. [doh2]

The other day (Thursday, the 17th) we had the "training" of the new switcher. Basically, it was simply an introduction to what it's going to be like. Apparently, it will (eventually) be fully automated. A "higher up" from another Sinclair (the company that owns the stations here, plus like 60 others nationwide) came by and (re)assured us that the "rumors" that we'd be replaced by the machines were completely unfounded.
At which point, if I had been gutsy enough to do it, I would have asked, "Then why do it?"
Why are they automating the stations at all? Because they can? To save money? To make our jobs easier? What is the purpose of taking this task that is perfectly able to be done by humans, and instead have it done by computers?

Of course, I kept quiet.

My oldest friend, Jared, called me today. Apparently, he has my cap & gown from when I graduated! I didn't even remember that I had been allowed to keep it, let alone that I still had it. (And, I guess technically, I didn't) He found it stowed away with a lot of his junk from High School. Weird. He'll be giving it back to me in the next couple of days. Yay, I guess.

Hmm. I guess that's all. Man, I need to really work on my conclusions, don't I?

Ugh. My dream last night was weird. All I really recall was watching a movie at a Blockbuster Video on the tv screens. The movie was set on E.T.'s home planet - so every character was one of the E.T. aliens (anyone know what they're called?).
But it was set in a concentration camp. Kind of a combination between E.T. the Extra Terrestrial and Schindler's List.

It's difficult to believe that creatures like E.T. would be cruel to each other like that.

I told all this to Stephanie, and she scoffed and said that E.T. was probably just a child. And that maybe his planet was going through a "children's holocaust" (a deplorable phrase if ever I've heard) so his parents left him on Earth so that he would be spared.

I dislike this version of the movie.

Hmm. I thought I had more to say, but apparently not. Maybe later.

Every once in a while, you find a really great Quizilla quiz. This is one of them.


Threat rating: extremely low. You may think you can
subvert the government, but if you should try
you will be smited mightily because God likes
us best.


What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

My day so far:

Was woken up around 10 am by a phone call from Oregon. I talked to Apartment Girl (I forget her name) for a while, and in the end it seems their policy is that if we move there without a job, we'll need 3 times the amount of the lease in order to secure the apartment.
She said that she'd mail some information to us, which sounded good to me but I could not remember our home address for the life of me. It was highly embarrasing. I ended up going over to the bookshelf and glancing at the envelope from a card Chandler had sent us in order to spark my memory. Doh.
Oh well. Hopefully we'll get some Oregon based apartment info in a few days.

Oh yeah - funny (sorta) sidenote: Originally Apartment Girl asked for Stephanie. I told her that she was sleeping. At the end of the conversation, when I gave our address, after I said "Las Vegas", Apartment Girl kinda giggled and said, "Well, that explains the 'up all night'" Yup. We're really wild.

I fell asleep again, and had a mild Harry Potter dream. I all I really remember was that it was about the title for Book 6. I guess it's going to be called Harry Potter and the Fall of the Fire ...or something like that. It's definitely got "fall" in the title.

As an aside to this I must say to the Potterverse - "Get out of my dreams....and into my car."

Around 11, I got another phone call. This was from some guy trying to sell me something. Bah. I must remember to use that anti-telemarketer joke. "Why would I want to buy this when I'm going to kill myself as soon as I hang up with you?" [grin]

Sometime around 11:30 there was a knock on the door. It was FedEx, delevering the package that Annika had sent us. Excited, we opened it up...and found another package. I opened that, and discovered a video tape of The Wizard of Oz and a cassette tape. The tape was a mixed tape of "Driving" songs.
The cool thing - if you start the tape after the third roar of the lion at the start of Wizard of Oz, they match up perfectly. =)

The Wizard of Oz is a great movie. Saren had never seen it, so we all watched it today. I dig the fact that there are still parts that make me laugh. (Scarecrow, to the Wiz, after getting his "brains": "How can I ever thank you?"
The Wizard: "Well...you can't.")

After WoO was done, I washed some dishes, while Harper helped dry them. I had Ben Folds playing at the time, and I tried singing along with Still Fighting It, and my voice cracked. Stupid emotional me.

I read some of The Holy (by Daniel Quinn ...[insert blog readers shaking heads in dismay here]) and was, as per usual, floored by some of the things that are totally obvious, but mostly unexamined. Although I must admit that this book is much more ...subversive than his others. (At least so far) The "preaching" (heh. Pun.) is not nearly as loud here as it is in Ishmael or The Story Of B.

I then had to It was then that I decided to go to work. On the way, I popped in Annika's mixed tape. I'm only five songs in, but I like it. A lot. Annika picked some awesome tunes - and they're all (so far) things I've not heard before. Not only that, but they managed to a)make the drive to work seem short and b) distract me from my usual lines of thinking while I'm driving to work. Yay!!

Since I've been at work, nothing "exciting" has happened.

I went ahead and counted how many switches I make during a typical Friday. It's 49. That means that I have to push the "take" button 98 times in 8 hours. If we round that up to 100, and we be extremely generous and say that it takes 3 seconds to do that, that's 300 seconds worth of work. There are also 9 tapes that I need to cue up. If each of those takes a minute (and again, that's being generous), then that makes it 14 minutes of "work" in an eight hour shift. [eyebrow]

Of course, as Stephanie pointed out, the monitoring of the on-air product could be considered work, it's just not an "active" duty.

I guess the only other blog-worthy thing to mention right now is that I saw Metallica's newest video. It's set in San Quentin prison, and it's far too long. It's also far too crappy a song. But the video is interesting in that it seems to point out oh so many flaws in both our prison system, and our society (which, of course, is a prison in it's own way). Of course, I'm probably just projecting. [doh2]

WITHOUT A DOUBT

That was the 8 ball's response. What was the question?

My brain is oatmeal. I'm hot and I cna't think clearly at all. I was going to blog about stuff, I really was. But I just can't seem to get the thoughts coherent.

I found some pretty neat things. The current population of the world is 6.3 billion. I found a clock that updates it by the second. I was really thinking of adding it to my blog, but I couldn't fiugre out how to do it. [frown] But watching the numbers increase is highly hypnotic.

136 people have come into the world in the past minute.

Today being a Thursday, I worked the early shift, whihc means I got to see talk shows that I only watch once a week. I'm still of the opinion that the Jerry Springer show would be equally (if not more) entertaining if all of the "guests" were replaced with chimpanzees.

And John Walsh made me want to hit my head against a wall - repeatedly. His show was about school truancy. The whole hour people spent the time trying to "solve" the "problem" by insisting on more of the same. ("The schools don't have enough security guards making sure the students stay there." AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHH!!) I also noticed that the few times they actually talked to the students, they were rather dismissive of their opinions (not unusual. Our society generally treats children and teenagers as secondary citizens) and that they, of course, didn't offer them any solution of not going to school. ("We must make sure that our children are educated.")
The other thing that ticked me off was John Walsh's "fact" that increased truancy has a direct link to juvenile deliquency and/or crime. Where's the proof of this?
And actually, the proof is going to be flawed. If you've been truant, and you get into trouble with the law, of course they'll have a record of it. But if you're truant and stay out of trouble, that doesn't go into the database.

I was going to make an entry about religion (cuz it's been a while), but it'll have to wait. I'm too tired to do it justice.
I was als ogoing to ramble 'bout population growth (as you can see, I started to) but I'm not feeling up to that either.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

You can't handle the truth!!!

(That's the MP3 that's running right now. Jack's speech from A Few Good Men)

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. Earlier tonight, my boss called. Apparently tomorrow is when we're starting to train on the new switcher for the new building. At 3:30. So, after I get off work, I've got to go drive down to the new building and spend anywhere from 1 to 2 hours being trained. Not fun.

Well, the training itself might be fun (depending on your definition) but the fact taht I've got to spend extra time away from my family doesn't exactly fill me with a warm feeling.

And not to mention that tomorrow is a THursday - which means UTP@ will be making an apperance. In fact, it's nearing midnight now, I should be asleep - if I were asleep, I would be - but nope. I'm up and blogging nonsense. [doh2]

Saren won the 'war' game (heh. War Games. "Would you care to play some tic-tac-toe?") earlier. I was close, but not close enough. Isn't that how the losers' histories always go, though?

I have a book picked out for the WD BOok club. Now, as long as I don't criticize myself to death over it before I make the post, we'll be ready to roll in a little while.

I can't believe it's not even been 2 years since 9/11/01. Weird.

I don't know why I just hought of that.

"Without you everything just falls apart." ~ nin, Perfect Drug
Yay for songs that remind me of Stephanie.

I'm slipping itno UTP@ mode, I can already tell. I should be sleeping, but I feel taht if I log off, I'll be missing somethign vital. I should keep Strong Bad's words of wisdom in mind; "Just remember, the Internet is a place where nothing ever happens."

Oh, hey! Bally, if you're reading this - dont' forget to sign my Guest Map. I don't have any British representatives yet. Bloody hell! [grin]

Steph already made mention of it, but I feel it bears rrepeating on my site - the other day she contacteda bunch of apartments (boa??) in Oregon and asked them about their policies of moving there w/o a job. Several have gotten back to us (more or less good news, if you're wondering) but the fact that they're calling and emailing really makes it that much more real. Yay!!

Okay, I've got to wake up in 5 hours , so I'm done.

You know, people underestimate the value of a good ramble. (Buffy Summers)

Words to live by, Buffy. Words to live by. (And this quote is certainly funnier with S7 as hindsight)

So, yeah, I'm gonna ramble.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. Yay!
Although now I've got that horrible "I just finished reading a book, and now I don't know exactly what to do" feeling. Which is ridiculous seeing how we went to the library yesterday and picked up at least half a dozen books that I should get into. Not to mention the books we own that I've never opened.

I was going to discuss HP&tOotP (which would mean whipping out my BUST [Butt Ugly Spoiler Tags [grin]]) but I am not in the mood. Maybe in a few days. [shrug] I enjoyed it, it was a good read, I guess I just don't feel like blogging about it right now. Ya'know?

Motherf... pop up ads are annoying.

Blogspot should be pleased with themselves. Several times now I've actually clicked on the ads that have appeared at the top of my blog. (And once on Stephanie's) They were: The Cellar (a forum), Mindsay (where I created another blog - it's at pshift2.mindsay.com) and now I've clicked zeal.com. On Stephanie's I clicked the IshCon.org link, and I'm totally going to join that forum as soon as I get done blogging.

Now if only they'd stop putting backstreet boys fan fic up there...

My brain is scattered. I can't seem to concentrate on my entry.

OH!! I totally forgot that last night, after finishing HP, I went to sleep and around 9am I woke up with a start - my heart was pounding and I was sweating pretty badly. I had dreamt that Voldemort was going to kill me. That's the only thing I could remember from my dream.

So I've taught Saren this game that I played as a kid. But I don't know if it was something that I invented or not. I can't seem to find any information about it online. The game, which I have dubbed "war" (not the card game) goes like this. We start with a piece of paper. We fold it in half, and each of us then draws a "city" on our half. The drawings can have anything we want - people, cars, houses, hospitals, tanks, airports, helicopters, forests, lakes, rivers, bridges, whatever. But each side must have a "headquarters". The HQ is a sqaure with an X in it. You can place it wherever you want in your city.

Once both cities are complete, we take turns "attacking". The attacks are where the sheet of paper is folded in half, and we take our pen and draw a small dot on the paper, pressing hard enough for it to indent on the other side. We then open up the paper, and wherever the indentation is on the other person's city is where the attack hit. If it hits a person, that person is blown up. If it hits a building, that building is demolished (scribbled out). The goal is to hit the headquarters before the other person. (Hitting the HQ blows up the whole city)

Anyone ever heard of that? Or was I just incredibly demented (and a wee bit talented) as a child?

Okay - Saren's done with her city (or just about) so I'm gonna log off and go blow some stuff up real good.

Sweet Dreams are made of these

Yup, it's one of those dream entries. I've got two dreams to convey - one from about a week ago (surprisingly, it's stuck with me this long) and the other one is from last night.

Dream #1 (from last week) -

tkf mailed me a cooked chicken. It was actually only one piece (I think it was a breast) and it had barbeque sauce on it. Stephanie and I were commenting on how weird it was that we'd be getting food from people we've met through the internet. And right after that, I got another package from Callie. Hers was a piece of chicken, and a corn on the cob.

My dream then changed (or maybe I just went to work in it) to where I was at work, and in the parking lot a game show was being filmed. The game show was called Stupid (a brilliant name for a game show, if you ask me. And especially for this game show).

I don't remember all of it, but I know that there was the typical Jeopardy! style trivia question rounds, followed by some Double Dare-ish "physical challenges". To determine your prize (during this part of the show, at least) you spun a giant wheel. One of the slots on the wheel was "The cumulative prizes of the last 5 champions"
My boss, Greg, was there and he turned to me and said (about that prize), "So that would equal what, a dollar?"
We both snickered.

The final round was sort of Hollywood Squares-y, in that there was a giant 3X3 board with 9 squares in it. The squares were not occupied by celebrities, though. Instead, they had doors, and behind the doors were prizes. If you got three in a row, you would win your choice of one of the three.

On top of the square stood the host of the show. He had a bullhorn so that he would be able to be heard from that height. His voice was really loud, so I think it may have been a magic bullhorn.
But behind him was a HUGE screen. Like drive-in movie screen huge. Only bigger. On the screen was the image of a hand. The hand was someone's fist doing the thing where they move their thumb to be the "mouth". And they had drawn eyes and lips on the hand as well. The hand-mouth was synched with the host talking, so it gave the appearance that the host was not even there, and that the loud booming voice was coming from this giant hand. It was surreal.

I wish I could go on that show.

Dream #2 - I was walking home pushing a grocery cart, filled with groceries. I had to go through a forest in order to get home. I sensed someone behind me - I looked and saw a jogger. I moved over so that he could pass me (the path we were on was kinda narrow) but he stayed behind for a while, and then suddenly sped up. Sensing that something was wrong, I felt my back pocket and discovered that I no longer had my wallet.

Pissed, I began to chase the thief. At one point, I was going to jinx him with my wand (Why, yes, I had been reading Harry Potter before going to sleep - why do you ask?) but I remembered that using magic in Muggle areas was prohibited.

The pickpocket began to toss things from my wallet into the forest. My driver's license, my library card, and then my wallet itself. (He kept the cash.) Angry, I collected the items and then made the rest of the trip home.

The dream changed after that to where Stephanie and I were at some kind of play, but I really dont' remember that part.

My dreams make less sense then Restless.

Rage. And a good deal of sadness, too.

My family and I rarely communicate. (By "my family" I'm referring to my father, my stepmom, and stepsister) Despite living in the same city - only 20 minutes drive, and despite us having the internet, we really only get together for birthdays, and holidays. The reasons for this are numerous and complicated and I won't bore you all with the history of how it came to be this way. Suffice to say that despite the way things are, I sometimes feel bad that I've not gotten to know my father better.
Obviously, I don't feel bad enough to change, but that's a whole 'nother post.

Anywhat, the extent of online communication I get from my family is forwarded emails. Maybe one out of every 30 are even worth opening, yet I do, each and every one, just because. Also of note, is that 99.999% of these come from either my stepsister, or my stepmom. I think in the time that we've had the computer, I've gotten maybe 3 emails from my dad. And none of those were forwards.

Until today.

[sigh] It was one that I've gotten before - in fact, I remember when I got it originally (from my sister) I made a righteously angry post about it on the WD. The Fwd is the one that starts off about how "Immigrants, not Americans, must adapt."
It blah, blah, blahs about how immigrants are watering down the "American culture", and...well, I'll go ahead and post the whole thing again:
It was titled "This says it all!"
After hearing that the state of Florida changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her driver's license with her face covered this is an editorial written by an American citizen, published in a Tampa newspaper. He did quite a job; didn't he? Read on, please!

>IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.

I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!

"In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every! citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great American freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.

If you agree -- pass this along; if you don't agree -- delete it!

>AMEN
I figure if we all keep passing this to our friends (and enemies) it will also, sooner or later get back to the complainers, lets all try, please

[rolleyes]

Normally, I would have simply said, "DELETED!!" and moved on. But it was from my dad.
Which upset me enough that I had to blog about it. So I had to copy the whole thing...but then I noticed that my father had added a postscript at the end:

And, may I add, the inscription that accompanies Miss Liberty in NY harbor says "Give me your tired...." No where does she offer to pay immigrants to come. In short, if they come here looking to work and earn a better life then here's my hand in welcome, but if they come for a handout then keep on walking, riding, swimming, or flying!

Obviously, he's not been reading my blog of late.

I feel so... I don't know. He's my dad, but ...gah. Stupid forwards.

7th Heaven embodies all that is wrong with the world today.

Also - I'm not really pro-prison, but whoever came up with the Oven Mitt spokesperson commercials should be locked up for a very very long time.

Damn it. I left Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix at home, so I'm stuck at work without it. Blah.

And I had something to say, but now - zip.

But I'm blogging anyway. Is that a good thing? [shrug]. I just know that whenever I surf, oftentimes I'm upset by how few updates there are out there. [pointed look]

Let's see - last night I totally couldn't sleep (too much Pepsi late at night), and then I set the alarm for 9am. We were originally going to go to the library and mail some belated birthday cards, but instead, I went online, checked my email and the blogs, read some of Harry Potter, and then fell back asleep until noon. Doh.

I'm totally not in the mood to write anything insightful or witty or even stupid. Weird. Oh! I was thinking last night (while I was lying there trying to sleep) that the first book for the book club could be

And yet another "rapid-fire" post.

To those of you who have been nagging me about the book club - the answer is "soon."

(For those of you who don't speak P@ese, "soon" translates to "anywhere from tomorrow to about a month from now.")

Also- my wife is incredible.

Also, also - Prof. Umbridge is just AGGGH!!!

Also again - Remind me to do that thing before the thing gets done.

Also - I'm hungry (like the wolf)

[sigh]

You know that little nagging voice inside your head that criticizes? I hate that voice.

I wonder if it has a voice, that criticizes it's decisions?

Here we go. Yay for things to "talk" about when I've got nothing to talk about!!

Hot enough for ya?
*punches interviewer in the face*
Yes.

::or::

*melts*
Yes.

::or::

*spontaneously combustes*
Nah. Why don't you turn up the heat a little?

Why does McDonald's label their ketchup packets as "Fancy Ketchup"?
Because it is! I mean, how often do you see ketchup in tiny plastic packets?

Have you printed out any posts or PMs from the WD? If so, which ones?
Yes.
The Ezmerelda posts from Victor. (Which reminds me. We still need to post the S7/S4 post. Is Victor even still alive? [eyebrow])
Chandler's P@fic.
I started to print out Chandler's Lord of the Drinks, but it was far too long for our printer to handle.
There've probably been others, but I don't recall them.
It's been a long time since I've printed anything out, though. I need to print my latest birthday post before it gets all deletey.

"Why does this always happen? Why does this always happen to me?"
Some guys have all the luck. [wink]
("Why Does This Always Happen To Me?" by Weird Al Yankovic)

If you could only have one pie for each month, but you could choose the flavor for each month, what flavors would you pick?
This was for talula. I hope she appreciated it.
Monday (OOps!)
January - Cherry
February - Strawberry
March - Strawberry
April - Peach...maybe.
May - Pizza. (Heh. Pizza Pie.)
June - Rosey (heee! Stephanie and Saren will get that.)
July - Strawberry
August - Apple (ala mode)
September - Cherry
October - Banana Creme
November - ummm. I'm tempted to say "Pumpkin" but I wouldn't eat it.
December - Strawberry

Does the Magic 8-ball really know everything?
"It knows as much as the person holding it." ~ Boo

"Why are all American girls so rough?"
Crappy upbringing. [wink]
("American Girls" by Weezer)

What did you like about season 7? (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) What didn't you like?
I liked the beginning of it. Just like S6, the first 6 or 7 episodes were really great and showed amazing promise.
Then it turned into ...something else.
I liked Principal Holtz Wood.
I wanted to like the Pre-slayers, but couldn't. I wanted to like Faith being back, but couldn't. I wanted to like (or fear, maybe) the First Evil, but that's a joke. I wanted to like Spike again, but couldn't. I couldn't even like Giles. Which is saying something.
To put it sound-bitey: I liked that the show finally ended. And I didn't like that I felt that way.

If you weren't online, what would you be doing right now?
Watching Predator.

"Did I show you this picture of my sweetheart?"
Awww. It's a Kodak moment.
("Makin' Pies" (that's two in one boq, talula!!) by Patti Griffin)

and finally...

What have you done for your country today?
Consumed, consumed, consumed.

::or::

Not a damn thing! God Bless America!

::or::

Burned a few flags.

::or::

Well, I didn't blow anything up. Does that count?

Anyone else notice that the questions are getting...something? How many more months are there? I don't know if I'll be able to continue this throughout the year.

Today's quote: "The real death of America will come when everyone is alike." should be modified. The real death of the planet will come when everyone is alike.

And that's what we're doing. Everyone must be like us. Everyplace must have a Mickey D's (for a real horror show, on the main page go to the drop down menu for "Select Country". They're everywhere. Everyone needs to get a job and "contribute" to society. (Example of this today. Kris was watching the news (fucking news!), and there was a story of a homeless man who was arrested for arson. He admitted to starting the fire because he "had nowhere else to go, and wanted to go to prison." This angered Kris enough that she came and related the story to me, adding that she was pissed that "just because he can't get his shit together and have a job, he decides he wants to go to prison, where I have to pay for him with my taxes!?" [reminds me, Jupe, I still owe you a quarter] I didn't get into it with her about how wrong she was, because
a) I'm chickenshit
b) she likes to argue - about everything
c) the idea of arguing against her (or people like her) just makes me tired.)

[sigh]

We know that we're doing the wrong things. We just accept it. Because accepting it (or, more aptly, ignoring it) is easier. MUCH easier. Stephanie and I are not happy. Because we've had our eyes truly opened recently. And it's scary as fucking hell. And depressing. Our culture is, as I've said before, sick. Actually, "sick" may not be a strong enough word. I don't know that there is a strong enough word.

What would you call a society that spends billions (BILLIONS!!!) of dollars on "defense" and military every year?
What would you call a society that continues to practice deforestation, despite knowing the world-altering side effects?
What would you call a society that dumps millions of tons of toxics into the oceans?
What would you call a society that forces people to choose between prison and homelessness (or getting a job)?
What would you call a society that favors money and production over life?
What would you call a society that has the capability of destroying all life on this planet ten times over?
What would you call a society that has committed (and continues to commit) the single worst mass extinction in the planet's history? (as many as 137 species a day disappear.[source])
What would you call a society that knows all of this, and turns a deaf ear to it all?

Yeah, "sick" isn't the right word. Sick barely even touches us.

117.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

Well. Apparently Bravenet is in the midst of some make-over. Which means that my hit counter reads that all the visitors have an IP address of 0.0.00.00, and that everyone visited my blog at 4pm on December 31st, 1969. It's sad that I've not had any visitors in the past 36 years. And weirder still that I haven't even been alive that long.

Speaking of time travel, we saw T3 tonight. (Stephanie's superrad brother came over and watched the girls. [up])
We had dinner at In-N-Out beforehand, and it was delicious, as per usual, but there's a part of me (ever increasing, actually) that is uneasy about eating
a) meat
b) fast food meat
c) anything not raised by myself
d) anything that supports and validates the wage slavery of our economy (and fast food (and other "entry level") positions are the base on which that pyramid is standing)
e) pretty much anything.

Yes, I'm going to ramble ecology for a while, because I've not yet succeeded in alienating all of my readers.

Actually, I had this big long thing typed out, and now I'm not going to post it. (Some other time, I promise. If the stuff I've talked about before upsets you, leave. Honestly. It's not going to go away. At least not here. And wow, I'm sounding bitter [still] and I hope I'm not offending anyone. Blame it on being overtired, I suppose. Or on still internalizing the messages I've been reading the past few weeks. Or ...gah. I'll just get onto the movie review, shall I?)

Here comes my butt-ugly spoiler tags. Terminator 3 talk is within. Oh, and Annika - about my speculation - it could be right. (about as right as any of my Buffy speculation ever was.)

Where to begin? There was certainly humor. Yay for that, I guess. The "talk to the hand" joke was pretty darn funny, in both occasions. I didn't really like how John Connor was always the one who "interrupted" Kate's grieving. Anytime she was in mourning (her fiance, her father) John was the one who had to "snap her out of it" (I'm probably being over-sensitive). The T-X was brutal, as a killing machine should be. Although I've got to wonder how it managed to reach the pedals of the car from the backseat. Maybe it simply "controlled" the car, like the police cars and whatnot. [/nitpick] The in-joke from T2 with Dr. Silberman was nice. Although (and I won't give away any major spoilers to the S.M. Stirling T2 books) he's mentioned in T2: Rising Storm in a very different capacity. The crane chase scene had the inner "boy" in me enthralled. Yay for mass destruction!! (although one's got to wonder where the news copters were? [/another nitpick]) The nod to the first movie was also pleasant. Where the T-X's legs had been removed, and the hero(es) were still being chased by the relentless killing machine. [sigh] But the end. The ending was just wrong. I mean, it was right, in that in Real Life, we are totally continuing down that path, and are doing NOTHING to stop it. But this is the movies! And it's the Terminator series. Remember the end of The Terminator? Sarah Connor is pregnant with John. She's driving to Mexico, and it's not hope"full", perhaps, but there is hope. Judgment Day is still just a "maybe". And Terminator 2: Judgement Day's ending was certainly more optimistic than T3's. "Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too." Ring any bells? And what about "There is NO FATE but that which we make ourselves"? [sigh] Judgment Day happens anyway. And it's horrible. THey don't show the aftermath, nor the suffering of those who happen to survive, but still, 3 billion lives are wiped away in an instant. And John Connor will still be murdered (terminated) in 2032. (On Independance Day, ironically enough) Steph said that it seemed to be a stepping stone for T4, and I agree that it certainly seemed to be a set-up for another sequel. And part of me wants a T4, so that the series ends on a more optimistic note. But really, what else could they tell? Any other movie would have to be set in a post-apolocapytic world. Is that what audiences want? Do I want to sit through two hours of a "war" movie? Well, maybe. But not when I'm watching a Terminator flick. Terminator movies involve time travel and murderous robots. Oh well. We'll have to see how well T3 performs at the box office as to whether a 4th installment will ever be done. [shrug] In the end, not a bad movie. Especially for what we paid. (zero dollars)

And now, it's 1am, and I have to be to work at 7. Which means, basically, I'll be running on zero sleep. What fun!

Oh, and Simon, I always pronounce it Patrick's. I suppose "Pay-tricks" works, too, so whatever you feel comfortable with.

Lastly, I absolutlely love today's quote.

Real short entry today. But I do have a few things to mention.

Didn't see T3 today - we're going tomorrow instead.

Actually, that was all. I'm not very blog-minded right now.

It's like two posts in one!

Post #1

About the quote-ness. Feel free to comment about any of them that show up. And don't worry, I've provided a mix of humor and seriousness. I don't want this to be all doom and gloom. Also - if you've got any great quotes that you'd like me to throw in the mix, just contact me. And lastly, I think I might try moving them. Either to the sidebar amongst the "clutter" section, or perhaps all the way to the bottom. Or, I might just leave them where they're at. Feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated.

Post #2

About spoilers.
I'm grateful that most people are considerate enough to either provide spoiler space, or to disguise their spoilers with tags of some sort. When the blog was "Jejune to the Extreme", all I had to do to make spoilers invisible is make the text white. As you can see, that doesn't work anymore.
So, I've discovered a different way to make things safe for all the spoiler-phobes out there. Yay! It's kinda ugly, but aesthetics be damned!
Begin spoiler fortesting spoiler tags Highlight to view

This is a spoiler. Well, not really.

Hopefully that works.
ANywhat, I wanted to talk about spoilers in general. There doesn't seem to be any sort of 'standard' when it comes to spoilers on the web. I mean, most people will spoiler tag movies immeadiately after they've come out, but when do people stop spoiler tagging? I mean, is Matrix:Reloaded still spoiler-tagged? I've not seen it, so I would certainly hope so, but at the same time, most people have seen it, so most likely not. And there comes a time when you just have to stop. I mean, I really doubt that anyone would get upset if you don't spoiler tag the ending of, say, The Wizard of Oz. Begin spoiler forWizard of Oz Highlight to view

Darth Vader is Dorothy's father.

But I remember a while back I posted somethign about The Usual Suspects and someone got on me for not spoiler tagging the twist of the ending. Which I understand, but when does the Collective Conciousness decide that some movies everyone has seen?

And then there's books. I mean, right now, Harry Potter #5 is still being spoiler tagged (Thankfully. I havent' even seen the book. UPS better get here soon.) But I really don't think anyone is tagging #4 anymore. I just hope that I can avoid spoilers for #5 until I've read it. But, honestly, shouldn't books always be spoiler tagged? I mean, they've got a longer shelf-life than movies (heh. Pun.) and I would think that having a book ruined would be a larger disappointment than finding out that she's really a guy. [/Crying Game]
Of course, like everything else, there comes a line that must be drawn. I mean, should the Bible still be spoiler tagged? (Well, perhaps.)
Begin spoiler forthe end of the Bible Highlight to view

THEY ALL DIE!!

(thanks to Beth for the use of that) [wink]

And, since I'll be seeing T3 tomorrow, I'll go ahead and post my speculation (which is probably way wrong, but oh well.)Begin spoiler forT3 Speculation Highlight to view

John Connor will have sex with Claire Danes' character, who will end up pregnant. Her child will grow up to be Kyle Reese. [grin]

And UPS just showed up! YAY!!

Happy Deathday!
Your name:	the P@
You will die on:	Tuesday, February 11, 2020
You will die of:	Appendicitis
Username:
Created by Quill

Um?

The 4th was a lot of fun. We rode a Ferris Wheel - I was pretty much terrified throughout - and we had overpriced hot dogs and overpriced water.

Also - the headlining entertainer for the night? (I kid you not) Was MC Hammer.

MC HAMMER!!!

We didn't watch him, but we listened to him from the side of the stage. And he still seems to be all that and a bag of chips. (mmm. chips.) I remember seeing him on The Surreal Life and thinking, "well, there goes his career. We'll never hear from him again."
But here he was, back on stage and jamming out the hits.

Apparently, he is too legit to quit.

Finally the fireworks began, and they had the letter-ized fireworks again! Yay!!(They'd had them 2 years back, then discontinued them last year, and it just sucked. Bringing them back was a vast improvement)
There were also these new-fangled ones that had three different "explosions" in them, where every few seconds the main burst would split into several smaller ones, and then those would split, and then once more. And the splitting ones either made noise, or they were shooting off noise makers at the same time. Regardless, it was pretty damn cool.

This was the first year that Harper actually enjoyed the fireworks. The year before she liked them for the first few seconds, then got bored. And Saren really enjoyed them. At one point the music playing was very orchestrachial. Saren commented, "This sounds like Harry Potter."

Once we got home, I watched Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and the local fireworks were the soundtrack through the night. It was a good day.

Now I'm back at work. Bleah.