Great is ok, but amazing would be great!

Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Blog Challenge #1: To comment is to reply.

I've decided that in the month of November, in celebration of NaMeBlogWriMoSoLaTiDo, that each Sunday I will issue a sort of Blog Challenge. You are by no means forced to take part in any of them, but if one of them grabs your fancy, go for it. [up]

This being the first week, I thought I'd start with something relatively easy to complete. Commenting!

Here's the challenge.

1) Comment on an old entry in my blog. It doesn't matter if you've commented in it before or not, just find an entry that is dated before November 7th, 2004 and leave some words.

2) Comment on an old entry in someone's blog that you frequent regularly. Go through a friend's archives and find an entry that you like, then send them a note. Looking back at past entries is often illuminating.

3) Find a blog you've never read before, a complete and total stranger, and leave them a comment. If you're feeling skittish about doing this one (The Internet is populated with freaks, after all) you can leave your comment anonymously. However, if you let them know where your blog is, you might just widen your circle of friends.

That's it. I've already completed step #3, so go team me!

Oh, and of course, feel free to repeat steps 1-3 as many times as you'd like. No need to stop after just one round of commenting. Comment like the wind!

jIH DichDaq taH pa' vaD SoH

The alien civilizations in Star Wars, Star Trek, and ...well, about 98% of all sci-fi, actually, go off the assumption that they were just like ours, and they advanced to the point where they can have space travel and whatnot.

Ignoring the silliness of that assumption, I'd like to focus on an idea that is not really touched upon by this theory. Before the Klingons (for example) built interstellar spaceships, they must have built other technology. Like, say, television.

Which would mean that they would have had television shows....

Which means that there must exist Klingon versions of Friends. Dude.

DUDE.

military monkey men might make movies

Yeah, I don't know either.

I saw the trailer for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith today. At work! On our "news"!! Which is pretty darn neat, considering. The movie will most likely be as horrible as the other two, but the trailer did leave me feeling slightly optimistic that it'll be worth the 20 bucks to go see it with Steph. Only 7 more months of waiting to find out. [doh2]

Also, in case anyone was living in a cave (or, um, outside of the US...or inside the US, but wasn't watching the WB for the past two weeks or so) this Sunday is the NETWORK TELEVISION PREMIERE OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. [/dramatic voice] I swear if I see another trailer for that I'll ...I don't know what. BUt seriously, I know it's impressive and all, and they've most likely got a lot riding on the amount of viewers they expect to pull in, but do they have to mention it in EVERY COMMERCIAL BREAK?

This Sunday, of course, is also the season premiere of The Simpsons. Year 16. Sixteen! Woohoo! So, if we watch any of LOTR:TFOTR, we'll be missing at least a half hour of it. Sorry, Frodo.

Question about the Star Wars ...sextilogy (? I know that's not the word (or even really a word at all) but I can't locate what I'm looking for). Are we meant to watch them in the order 1,2,3,4,5,6? Or are people meant to watch them in the order 4,5,6,1,2,3? Because if you watch them 1-6, the "surprise" of Yoda in Empire Strikes Back...isn't a surprise. We meet Yoda early on, and we know he goes into hiding. But in Empire, Luke doesn't know that the little green creature stealing his food is the Jedi Master he's looking for. I think because of this (and probably other reasons as well) we're meant to watch them in the 4-6 then 1-3 order. Or maybe just ignore the 1-3 films altogether.

Cheaters never win.

Except, of course, when they do.

I'm cheating on the date. I didn't blog yesterday, but as Annika said, " I will allow myself to pre- or post-date entries" so I'm justified in tinkering with time. Ha! Tinkering with time!!

Um. Funny thing is, I don't have anything to say. I could talk about how Bush stole this election, too (Legitimate my ass) but I really don't want to get into political crap. The feeling of overwhelming despair that comes whenever I think about it is too horrible. I've been trying to look on the bright side of the outcome of Nov. 2nd, and while it may be a stretch, I think I've found some.

Maybe, just maybe, Bush will be what finally pushes us to Rock Bottom. Maybe, just maybe, having a so called leader make life so goddamn unbearable will wake people the fuck up. Maybe, just maybe, a cultural awakening will result from whatever travesties come from Bush & Co. Maybe.

I mean, it's got to happen eventually, right? Maybe Bush will be the catalyst. Maybe it'll be Peak Oil. Maybe it'll be global warming's effects. Maybe it'll be the extinction of some species that we vitally depend upon. Most likely, it'll be a combination of those (or some other factor I've not even considered). I also suspect that it won't happen yet. I'm really leaning toward 2012. 8 more years! 8 more years!!
[sigh]

I don't know. What's something more positive to talk about? Anyone? Anyone?

Monkeys like fruit snacks.

We went to the zoo today, and I fed a Barbary Ape (which, as we know, is not an ape at all) an orange flavored fruit snack. Screw the rules, man. That monkey wanted that sugar-filled gummi concoction.

The coolest thing about them were their eyes. And how human they looked. Oh, and the fur-cleaning they did to each other. And how they leaped around. And their fingers! So humanlike! And their big-ass teeth. (Scary!) And how when the monkey I fed ate the fruit snack, he stuck his arm out through the gate in a "Gimme more" fashion. All around, monkeys rule.

Speaking of ruling, I guess there was an election or something last night. My only response to this is as follows:

HA HA HAH HAAAHHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAH HAHA HA HA HA HAAAA!! HEEEE HA HA HHOOOO HA HA HA HA HAA HA HA HAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAAAA HAA HAAA AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAH AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

HA!!

Seriously.

I wish I could've stayed with the monkeys. They were so much better than having to go to work.

Once more, with feeling.

Interview with the Magic 8-ball, part III.

Magic 8-ball, do you know the outcome of the presidential election?
YES
DEFINITELY

Ooh! Now we're getting somewhere! Magic 8-ball, will you tell us the outcome?
YES
DEFINITELY

Awesome! Well worth the wait. (I hope) Okay, Magic 8-ball, is the president going to be John Kerry?
IT IS CERTAIN

Really. So George W. Bush is going to lose?
YES

Will there be rioting or lawsuits or a mass exodus to Canada as a result?
BETTER NOT TELL YOU NOW

That bodes well. Magic 8-ball, are you just making these results up to make people feel better?
MOST LIKELY

Well, now we just have to see how accurate the 8-ball is. But, really, how wrong can a piece of liquid filled plastic be?

Political update!

Interview with the 8-ball, cont.

Magic 8-ball, do you know the outcome of the presidential election?
CONCENTRATE AND ASK AGAIN


It's just like the media!! Only more accurate!

You heard it here first!

Interview with the 8-ball!!!

Magic 8-ball, do you know the outcome of the presidental election?
ASK AGAIN LATER

Well, there ya have it!

Sugar is poison

So it's Halloween. Hooray!!

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

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

Lord only knows where Oreo is.

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

So, our day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hooray for Halloween!

Thank you?

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

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

Millennial chicken! And Harry Potter.

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

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

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

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

Staring at a screen

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

Or maaagic, even.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lost speculation!

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

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

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

I just don't get it.

Disturbing.

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

Stop and smell the smoke

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

thinking.

The unicorns love me tonight.

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

Maybe I'll go remedy that right now.

equalibrium

Occasionally, there is balance in the universe.

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

Blessings to them both.

Our news turns one today, oh boy.

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

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

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

The case for not voting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

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

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

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

Voters say "Yeah, that's right."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy birthday, Mr. Lennon.

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

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

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

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

But the ending confused me.

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

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

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

Get out of the town!

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

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

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

I keep getting a (t)error message.

Ugh. That was a horrible title.

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

Explanation time!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's the big idea?

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

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

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

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

Food

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

TV

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

Blanket of my existence

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

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

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

It's quite moving, actually.

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

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

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

My face itches.

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

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

grumble

Not in a good mood. At all.

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

Stupid looks wrong now.

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

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

Under construction

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

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

Know your audience

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



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

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

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

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

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

and finally...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

37 USA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(re)discovery

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

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

indefatigable

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

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

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

I'm nothing if not ecclectic, I guess.

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

Sign seen a few days ago:

Free Car Wash
Sept. 11
GOD BLESS AMERICA

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

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

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

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

F.

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

Heh.

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

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

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

You promised me the ending would be clear

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

why?

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

Of course. I fixed it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm

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

Remind me to remember more.

Or maybe not. Perhaps my brain knows what's best, and the whole forgetting is what I should embrace. All too often, we don't listen.

What the hell....

Oh, guess what! A few days ago, when I made the suggestion that blogger's emailed comments would be better if they told you what post they came from - WELL NOW THEY DO!

Awesome!

We finally went to the library, and I checked out:

• Stephen King's It, which is a re-read for me (Steph recently re-read The Stand, and it got me all reKingivized)
• The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg. Aliens invade the earth, and without communicating to us at all, knock us down a few pegs. Could be really great, or could be crap. I'll keep you informed.
• Let It Be...Naked by the Beatles. Can't go wrong with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. =)
• David Bowie's Reality. I've not heard the new stuff from Mr. Bowie, but I'm hoping it's good.
• Whale Rider, because it's a movie I wanted to see.

Then we went to Dairy Queen. Mmmm. Ice cream.

The other day, I 'fixed' the television, so even without the rabbit ears, we can actually see most of the channels again. "Man's ability to use tools!!!"

Work again tomorrow. [sigh] But at least it's payday. [sigh]....I mean Yay! (and sigh)

Bettie- the 23rd and 24th votes were from Vegas. [wink]

I guess that's it. I feel like there's something vitally important to be blogging about, but I can't quite put my fingers on it. Hmm.

Indecision 2004

I won't have this be the entire political tirade post, but just a sample of it.

The thing I'm wondering - are there Undecided Voters? Sure, I am one in regard to the WD election, but when it comes to the actual Presidential Race - is there anyone out there who hasn't already made up their mind? I suppose they must exist, but they really must be a minority.

If that's the case, why the wait? Why not simply hold the election today and have it over with? Why drag it out for the next month? Meh. Chalk it into the ever growing pile of ways in which politics suck.

I find your lack of faith...disturbing.

Ralph Nader was in town today, speaking at the Las Vegas Library.

I didn't go see him speak, but part of me wanted to.

Not because I would vote for him, but mostly because everytime I hear his name, the Imperial Death March starts running through my head.

10:10

Weird.

Anywhat, all I wanted to say was Thank You.

To all the people out there who know me, know the things I think and the things I say (and especially to the ones who put up with the things I do - (AND on a daily basis)), but like me anyway, thank you. It means everything to me.

11:11

Bah. I have nothing to speak of.

'Tis another Monday. Which means 5 more days of FUN FUN FUN!!!

Anyone know what the going rate for murder is these days? Five years? Ten? Ehh.

What was I going to say?

We wound up not going to the library yesterday, so I have nothing to read. I wish I were more imaginative, then I would write my own stories. I used to. Back in the day. Ah, youth.

I suppose if we're going to watch the new television season, we should get some rabbit ears. But, honestly, it just doesn't feel that important. I might feel differently when people start talking about Alias and Lost (which I was kinda looking forward to) and whatever else is on that isn't reality TV.
And now, for some weird reason, I can't get my blog to go any further. I guess this line will be cut off.

Wetuwn, Bo-bah-ho!!

I couldn't (can't) sleep.

I'm sure that the fact that I had a 44oz. pepsi today (after refraining from the nectar for the past 5 days) had nothing to do with that. [rolleyes] I really ought to cut soda out of my diet completely. [sigh] Someday.

Went to the park today, and while watching the ants, i was able to come up with a question for the monthly boq. Hooray! I would go into detail right now, but feel that that would take away from when i post the question. you'll know it when you see it, i suspect.

Man, the internet at night is dull! I mean, nobody's blogging, nobody's online to tlak to me, even the DerJen folks are silent (and they can talk!).

I've been thinking about trying to recontact my mother. We've not spoken in...well, it's been a while. She has never (as far as i know) even seen pictures of Saren or Harper. Heck, she might not even know they exist. Some part of me thinks that should be remedied. "Remedied" looks wrong. Meh. Too lazy to spell chekc it.

Library tomorrow (technically today)! Hopefully i will find something that grabs my interest. I still have the recommendation that Jess gave me several months back to check out (they never have it in!!), so there's that option. Otherwise, i got nuthin'. I'm sure i'll find some cd or dvd to pick up, but i'll be amazed if i am able to locate a book that I can get through. W'll see.

I like the commenting feature that blogger has, but it would be even nicer if when you get the email notification, it told you what entry it was in. Like Blurty does. Oh well. Maybe some uppity-up at bloggerco will see this and make some changes. Or not.

i suppose i should get some sleep. i'm not exactly tired, not exactly wired, but somewhere inbetween.

I am stupid, and all I do is want and need things.

THis entry may be long. And rambling. Or not. I haven't determined that yet.

It doesn't have a point, or maybe it does - all stories do, so I'm told ...of course, all writing is also propoganda, so there ya go - what (hwat) was I talking about?

The title of this entry comes from Fight Club, which I finished yesterday. I can't seem to read anything other than Chuck Palahniuk lately. I've tried, though. I read most of Red Sky at Morning before devouring FC, but after a point, RS @M simply became ...I don't know. Monotonous. And the dude, while his heart is in the right place, is so obviously a Taker. Currently I'm punishing myself by trying to get through Human Nature by some jackass. I wanted to get a different perspective (what if everything I believe is WRONG? - a question that more people need to ask themselves) but sadly, I can't do it. There's simply too many things that make me go ARRRGH!

In nonbook news, I think I'm addicted to the internet. I keep coming back online, even though there's nothing here. At least this time I'm blogging, for whatever that's worth, but still. I think that it's because I can't go online while at work that I feel the pressure to get as much onilne (or online, if you prefer) time in as possible at home. Not good.

Checked out Radiohead's Hail to the Thief from the library the other day. I've listened to most of it while doing dishes, which means that I have yet to actually sit down and listen to it. The paft that has sunk in though has been enjoyable, so there ya go.

It's old news by now, but a few days back Jupe was in Vegas. We went down and met her (and The Boy - but not The Boy) and had about as much fun as one can have sitting in an airport. There is photographic evidence of our meeting, but Steph's the one with control of the camera, so pester her for them to be uploaded.

I need (want) to add a list of blogs back. Must rememember to check out BlogRolling sometime soone.

Also need to send a PM to the following people: Bally. Jamie Marie.

Have you seen that they changed the nickle? The back of the 2004 year nickles now have two hands shaking, and two tiny axes crossed over them. It (I guess) represents the Louisiana Purchase. Which, according to the nickle took place in 1803. So...this is the 201st year anniversary. Wheird.

Hee. Cat hair. Also - "With this cat, I thee wed."

Must write abook. And when I do, must make sure that I am referred to as "the P@". It's what everyone calls me. Except for the people who add a "t" to the end. Once again - the "@" symbol means "at". Thus, P@ is equivalant to Pat. P@t would mean Patt. Not the same. But, yeah, it's what they call me places. Online. And such.

Also neat- I've rediscovered the joy of having a penpal. Amy and I have been exchanging letters for about a month (more??) now, and it's really quite pleasant to get a letter in the mail, in addition to communicating online. Maybe more people should write to me. Or maybe I should write to more people. Hmmm. *rubs beard in thoughtful manner*

The. What?

AOL had a story (such as it were) on anarchists interferring with the Republican National Convention. Huh. Nothing really of interest in the article, but there was a shoot-off article that talked about how they're offering discounts to dinners and whatnot to people...if they protest non-violently. "Here, have a dinner at Applebee's, just don't break anything." [rolleyes]
(Although, honestly, a dinner at Applebee's sounds pretty good right now.)

It's Friday?? When did that happen?

Hmm. Need to work on the conclusion aspect. Of course, nothing tops "And the earth grew weary of all this nonsense, and hurled itself into the sun."

Think exponentially

The car's mileage yesterday hit 124816.

Just thought you'd all like to know.

This entry may not change anything.

Whilst discussing the upcoming revamping of Stephanie's blog (once the baby is born, she'll need a new title, as there will be 3 of 2...) I came up with this little tidbit:

"Why not 'Clouds in My Coffee'? You can have the description say: "I'm so vain, I bet you think this blog is about me.""

Heh.

So, this website will change your life, supposedly. It's based upon the book, "This Book Will Change Your Life", which I've skimmed through while at the bookstore. (And if anyone wants to buy me, I won't object. But I'd rather have this one, if you're in the buying mood...) The book is a spoof on self-help books. It has 365 things for you to accomplish. If you do each one, the book says, you will become famous. An example of one of the things (and I'm going from memory here):

• Count the number of buses you see on your way to work.
• Multiply that number by 3.
• Divide that number by 2.
• Buy that many candy bars.
• Give the candy bars to complete strangers.
• Write down exactly what the people say to you on index cards.
• Find random address from the phone book.
• Mail the cards.
• Wait.

Last night while trying to sleep, my brain had this little dialouge:
"You're not a decent person, P@."
"Working on it."

My brain is a strange and mysterious place.

And, one last thing on the subject of change - Saren is now 7 years old. Crazy.

"Surreal" isn't the right word, but it's the first one that comes to mind.

I'm reading Choke by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club) right now.

Yesterday, while at work, I recieved news that an old semi-acquiantence/coworker had died.

There was a brilliantly awesome lightning storm on the drive home last night.

Cox Cable has been sending our bills to a P.O. Box in Minnesota for the past 7 months.

I "came out" as an anarchist on the WD, nobody seemed to have noticed. Huh.

This is a Friday the 13th. Wonder what treasures it's gonna hold.

Why did I open up Blogger?

I guess it's so that I can re-habitiualize myself into blogging, even on those all too numerous times when I've got nothing to say. Like now!

*sits here for four minutes staring at a blank screen*


Yup. Nothing to say.

but at least I'm blogging again, right? Right.

Oh! I know - I asked two coworkers this yesterday, and got an "I don't care." and an "I don't know, Aliens, I guess." as a response, so I'll posit it to the P@riots.

Aliens or Predators?

So...

...I guess this internet thing is still around, huh?

It's been so long since I've done this. But, I'm finding, it's almost like riding a bike. (Ya hear that, Jupe?)

So, yeah. After my last blog entry, I took a three week hiatus from the world wide web completely. Didn't check my mail, didn't log on, didn't even say the word "internet". (Well, that last one may not be completely true)

And you know what's weird? I didn't miss it!!

Well, no, I did, at first. The first two or three days were horrible. But sometime shortly after that, it simply became habit to NOT log on. To NOT depend on reading emails, or seeing the AOL Welcome screen tell me about the Administration That Cried Wolf raising the "Terror Alert Levels" once again.

But, like the luring siren's song, eventually the Internet called me back to sink amongst the drudge of electronic information. Also, I needed to write the newest Ape10. Also also, I did miss my Internet Weirdo friends.
I think if I could somehow stay in contact with my IW buddies without the net, I most certainly would. We'll have to work on that.

So, yeah, I'm back online. I've even, as mentioned, written a new Ape10 episode (entitled Plug In. It's long, but I think that it's worth the wait of the "summer hiatus" that I took). In addition, I've moved Ape10's home! No, he still resides in the park in Azwood, but from here on out, all new episodes (and the old ones) will be found at Ape10. Comments (on all episodes, even ones you've "seen" before) are quite welcome.

I'd update you all on the events of the past month, but remarkably, it's been rather unremarkable. (Except for the $300 power bill.) Once I get back into the swing of blogging, I'm sure I'll have more to share. Until then, as always, thanks for reading.

Ape10 will not be shown tonight...

(I know!)

In it's place, I present a ...music video. Pretty much in the style of Ape10. Don't worry, the goings-on of Ape10, Spark, and Zombielyn will return soon enough. I apologize for the delay.
In the meantime, enjoy the song!


I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Oh yeah

Dig into the past!

Go sniffing through my archives! I've added commentary features to every post I've made. (You have no idea how long this took to do - each one prior to May 24th, 2004, had to be manually added.)

So go! Find an old post of mine, and leave me a note. I will respond to your response! (But don't be discouraged if I take a day or two.) It's a win-win! I get feedback, you get feedback, and we all get to read my older stuff, from when I was occasionally witty!

I completely forgot to tell her when I was on the phone, but the coolest event took place on Annika's birthday (7/6/04).

The car's mileage hit 123456!!!

Sadly, I was without a camera to document it this time, but at 2:48pm, on the Flamingo exit of the I-95, that's when the magic number hit. Yay!

I have no handy title available.

Lots of stuff took place since I last blogged. Briefly:

Harper had a birthday. She's now 4. FOUR! That's difficult to believe, but there ya have it.

The 4th of July came and went. I did not burn any flags this year. We did watch fireworks - on TV. And out in the street.

I finished Derrick Jensen's shortest (and latest) book: Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution. Highly recommended. Since it's his shortest (only 200ish pages) it's a good place to start for those unfamiliar with his work.

Um. What else? OH! We went to Wal-Mart yesterday (remind me to NEVER do that again) and while there, I passed a doll for Spiderman 2. It was not the one I'm going to link to, but you'll get the idea. The one we saw was...actually, there are no words for it. This one is almost as bad, but not quite. (Warning to the Jupe: the image may scar you for life.)

My five day vacation is now over. Back to work for me. They went by too fast.

God bless Saddam Hussein.

He provides so much entertainment to the world.

So much for the everyday.

Oh well. Two days missed. I've got 104 emails to sift through. People talk a lot.

I am so freaking hungry.

Wow, I'm boring.

I don't have anything to talk about. Odd thought of the day, though - they (you know they) found traces of perchlorate in milk in California. Nobody seems to know how it got there (although I read a theory that since it's been found in the drinking water of 17 states (!!!) that the cows probably drank it first) but the thing that gets me is that there's an "acceptable" level! It seems that levels of perchlorate don't harm humans until they reach levels of 6 parts per billion (or, as high as 100 parts per billion, depending on the research you want to believe [doh2]), so as long as the level of a chemical used in rocket fuel that you are consuming is below the hazardous mark, it's perfectly fine. Shouldn't it be unacceptable to have any??

In other news, I HATE the fact that I can't go online at work.

Yes.

"The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being." ~ George W. Bush

The question is, is he delusional or just ignorant?

Namely, freedom.

I'm amazed that this story hasn't been discussed on the WD yet. Every other political thing is. I guess it'll pop up eventually. I'm just kinda surprised that it hasn't already.

And, yeah, it pisses me off. But meh. I'm not in the mood to debate it. I did dream (I think) last night that I gave a police officer a false name when I was asked, so it obviously got into my subconcious.

I think I'm too frustrated and irritated right now to blog.

The longest day

Get it? Cuz today is the solstice, so we get more hours of sunlight today than any other day.

Also, it's been a really long day because last night I worked an overnight shift. (!!!) I haven't worked that shift in four years, and wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it, but I pulled it off. The 8 hours flew by, mostly due to the fact that I was able to stay busy the entire time. Well, that and the 64 ounces of Pepsi.

I got home shortly after 7am, and went to sleep until 10:30. That's all the sleep I've had. But! The amazing thing is, I'm not UTP@!!

Oh, wait, I slept again after the pool. See, at 11, the Las Vegas Life Learners (the local Unschooling group we belong to) had a Summer Solstice party at a pool. We spent five hours there. Five HOT hours. And despite the fact that all of us are more tan (or burnt) than when we first arrived, we all had a very good time. Sandra and Holly Dodd were there, and we actually got to talk to her for a while. She's an incredibly nice lady. And Saren bonded very well with Holly.

I'm glad that this group was started. The Homeschool Melting Pot group that we were members of ....I don't know. I guess it's simply too big. Everytime we attended something with that group, it felt (to me) like we were outsiders looking in on a clique. This group is different. Partly due to it's smaller size. Partly due to it's newness. Partly due to the fact that the members are unschoolers, rather than just homeschoolers. In short, they're good people.

So after the pool, we came home, and I took a short nap. I had weird half-awake-half-dreaming type of thoughts that I can't recall now. Something about boundaries, and how they're flexible and amorphous and arbitrary and ...you know. I'm not talking just land-based boundaries. But learning boundaries as well. Maybe all boundaries. I can't explain it, mostly because it was all jumbled in my head as I was sleeping anyway. Hmmm. I know I said I wasn't UTP@, and I'm not, but perhaps I'm bordering on becoming him. I'm in that nebulous grey area between P@ and UTP@. And that makes a lot of sense to me. Which probably proves nothing, but there ya go.

In other news, I need to come up with a lot of questions for the month of July. People should email me.

Target is all sold out

You know how you can get all kinds of stuff at Target? Towels, pots and pans, DVDs, milk, notebooks, and so on and so on?

Wouldn't it be great, he asked rhetorically, if Target (or some place) sold inspiration? Or ideas?

Yeah. It would be. I'd make sure I stocked up, so that I'd never be experiencing this lack of motivation again.

I have decided thusly:

• Kim Carnes needs to revitalize her career. I think she should release a song entitled "Forrest Whitaker Eyes".
  
  
• Panda Express is pretty damn tasty. I believe the secret ingredient is crack.
  
  
• There are simply not enough hours in the night.
  
  
• I have issues.
  
  
• Barenaked Ladies are a good band. They make good dish-washing music.
  
  
• When I get diabetes or cancer or an ulcer or whatever it is that I get as a result of "progress", I'll make sure I enjoy every minute of it.
  
  
• Mayor Oscar Goodman is a complete and utter dick.
  
  
• I need to leave comments on people's blogs more. I've been really lax in that department.
  
  
• I must hold off on the political post that has been brewing in my head for the past ...three months? for a little bit longer.
  
  
• Bullet points are cool. I should use them more often.

Dumb.

Me.

Ya big dummy!

Hee.

So, anyway. A lot of people are. Myself included. You are, too!

The title, though, has multiple meaning today. (I like when I can arrange that. Makes me feel clever.) I met Sandra Dodd today. And, for the most part, I was stupidly tongue-tied. It was enough to simply listen to her speak. I didn't attend her actual speech (the girls weren't allowed in the room [due to the fact that the speech was being recorded and they didn't want children disrupting the audio, which makes sense, but you've got to marvel at the irony of children not being allowed at a homeschooling conference] so I took them to the park while Steph stuck around), but did get to sit with her for about 10 minutes afterword, where I simply sat there, not adding to the conversation at all. I'm so socially retarded.

She's speaking again tomorrow, and the plan is for Steph to go somewhere with the girls while I attend. I'm looking forward to it. Heck, maybe I'll even find it in myself to say something. Although if I do, it'll probably be something dumb.

Wake up call.

Figured I'd give a little more detailed explanation of yesterday's events with my father, since I have some more time (and more info available).

So, yeah, yesterday morning, around 10:20, I got a call from Vicki, who works with my dad. She didn't have a lot of information available - she was simply the messenger, and (I'm assuming) was not actually present when the ambulance was called. Basically, she was simply going down the list of emergency contact numbers from my father's list, trying to contact people.

My mom was non-reachable at the time because she was (ironically enough) at a doctor's office, and they had a "no cell phone" policy, so she'd turned her phone off.

Anywhat - Vicki told me all she knew, which wasn't much: That my dad had had an ambulance called, that they had administered oxygen (but that that was standard procedure), and that he was in good spirits when they left. I gave her my mom's cell phone number, she gave me the number to the hospital my dad was going to (although, she said, he probably hadn't arrived yet), and her own number (!!) and we hung up.

I immeadiately called my sister, but got her answering machine. I left a brief message and ended it with, "I'll call you when I know more."

About 5 minutes later, the phone rang. It was my sister, saying that she was at work, but her husband had gotten the message and called her, telling her to call me for more info. I relayed what little information I knew, and while that was going on she got yelled at by her supervisor for being on the phone!! (Sheesh! A family emergency doesn't warrant a relaxation of some stupid phone rules? Whatever.) We commented on the fact that my dad (most likely) in the hospital due to his hiatal hernia. (I don't think I blogged about it, but when my folks first moved to Arizona, my dad had an episode with his hiatal hernia then as well)

Long story short, yes. That's what it was. My father has been working 7 days a week (until just recently, when he's finally decided to start taking Sundays off), and doing a lot of manual labor. It caught up with him yesterday.

My mom called me today at work and gave me more of an update. The hernia did cause the fainting/dizzy spell that put my dad in the hospital to begin with, but he's home now. The doctors have ordered him to start exercising, and my dad has said that he's going to quit drinking coffee altogether.

Scary stuff, but everything is okay.

Thanks, everyone, for your concern for my dad.

Ways that are not fun to wake up:

Around 10am, after a restless night of about 6 hours, get a phone call. The phone call is from a stranger. This stranger knows your name.

She then indentifies herself as "Vicki" from [some name], which is where "your father works."

Vicki then tells you that "Your father was taken to [some hospital name] at 10 o'clock this morning, and we are trying to reach your mother."

That type of phone call certainly gets your attention, no matter how little sleep you've had.

Not to worry, my dad is okay. It boils down to the fact that he's a workaholic (no, really) and he's getting older.

What the world needs now...

... is love, sweet love. That's the only thing, that there's just too little of.
True.

Other song lyrics that are true:

I used to be a little boy.

One and one and one is three.

"No!" means "No!" "No!" is always "No!" If they say "No!" it means a thousand times "NO!"

Heh. Songs are smart.

you're older than you've ever been

And now you're even older.

It's been a very mellow day.

Aside from needing a Pepsi, I can't think of anything I want. Just spent the day with the family, playing BanjoKazooie and posting here and there on the WD. Staying inside from the triple digit weather is a good thing.

Later, I'll probably take the girls to the library. The libe is having a reading campaign for the summer - if the kids read a certain number of books, they get prizes. (5 for a free bag, 10 for a coupon to Dairy Queen for a free ice cream, etc) Saren cashed in on hers yesterday, but Harper didn't have an entry form, so we grabbed one then. Today she spent the morning reading her books and is all set to get her free gifts.

Thankfully tomorrow is payday. We are BROKE.
Unthankfully, tomorrow I have to go to work. Another 8 hours of my life (9 if you count driving time) devoted to someone other than me and my loved ones. [sigh]
But! Thankfully, I have Friday and Saturday off. (Homeschooling conference! Sandra Dodd!)

I think I'll go get ready for the library. And maybe take the girls out to get ice cream.

...And now you're older still.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

As you can see, the template is now one of those handy-dandy premade specials that Blogger provides. And I've got Blogger comments! That's what I'm most excited about. Finally, the feedback I receive will actually remain there for longer than a month! (Haloscan deletes comments after you fill up 40 pages, or about a month)

In other news, I turn 29 in less than two hours. 29 is an odd age. 28 is too, numerical differences aside. Those ages don't have anything...remarkable about them. Maybe that's why I'm so blase about them. Or maybe I'm going through an early midlife crisis. Or perhaps I'm experiencing cognative dissonance. Or maybe I can't spell. Or, most likely, I'm just rambling to fill up space. Whatever.
I think the sad truth is I'm bummed because we don't have money right now.

What a shallow individual I am sometimes. Some things never change.

...

....

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

This shoulda been done a few days back, when I actually met the guy, but I saved it for a time when I had nothing else to blog about.

Honestly, I don't have much to say about him now either. My skepticism seems to have been dead on, though. I don't care for him much as a person. It remains to be seen how he'll be as a supervisor.

Hypothetical situation - I wonder if my blog were discovered by someone from work if I could be fired for writing that I believe the guy's a sleezeball. Probably. Tack that on to the list of reasons that work is utter crap.

Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy fun fun fun fun fun!

We went to SkyMania again today. Despite having to wake up at 8:00 ("They make an 8AM?"), it was a lot of fun. My hair went wild!

The number of kids there this time was probably doubled what it was from the first time, but it was still enjoyable. Oddly, I was the only adult (male) there - aside from the employee guy - so a lot of the younger boys asked me to play games with them. Hee! I'll be happy with whatever the child (Iffington!) ends up being, but I'm really hoping for a boy.

I was going to use Stephoid's Hello thing to put up a picture, but I've got to shower before going to work, and I don't have time to figure out how to work it right now. So maybe she'll put an image up.

Oh, and Jupe, I'm all for your idea. So...when I get to it, I'll most definitely do that. Unless I chicken out.

A week from today

Is my 29th birthday. Is that all? Only 29? God, I thought my twenties were over like 10 years ago.

Hmm. I can't seem to think of things to blog about on a daily basis anymore. Perhaps for inspiration, I'll simply answer my monthly boq questions each day. Maybe. Of course, I still have to get to work on July's. Doh.

I've got some post ideas, but they seem...bigger than they should. And I don't want to post them until I can figure out the stupid blogger commenting code. I want to get rid of Haloscam. I may just change the entire template.

Choset tre Mognoin turns 38 today.

In two years, the world will end. Corrcection - the world as we know it.

I really ought to get off my lazy ass and write the stupid story. Really.

But I won't. Gord, I suck.

I have several self-appointed deadlines for online things and I just don't want to do any of them. What I really want is to simply go to sleep until the triple digit heat has passed, and oh, who cares?

The story has been in my head since 1998. I was just perusing my '98 journal and looking at some of the notes I'd written about it. Many aspects of it have changed - many haven't - but the main thing is that I still haven't written it. Whatever.

My head hurts.

I wish our computer were not so slow.

Hmm. Rereading ths, I'm not seeming very happy. Time to accuntuate the postives, eh? Let's see - library tomorrow! That's possibly a good thing.
Tuesday we're going to the SkyMania trampoline place again. That'll be fun.

Um.

The girls are clean. They had baths tonight, and are now running around, happily screaming. I don't show it enough, but I do love them immensely.

Forcing myeself to write doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Somehow, I can't bring myself to care.

In case you hadn't heard, the country (by which I mean the United States) is "in mourning". Because of Ronald Reagan's timely demise.

My reaction upon hearing the news (I first heard at work. I then repeatedly heard at work...) was, "Well. That must be hard on his wife." And it probably is. Because, you know, she knew him.

I didn't.

Neither, I'm venturing, did half (or more??) of the country's citizens that are supposedly "in mourning".

I'm not sad. I simply don't care, because the guy didn't affect my life. (Just as I did not affect his) This type of thing is one of the myriad of reasons of why I HATE the Fucking News. It tells people how they should feel. It attempts to build a tribal sense of life among 260 million people. And it doesn't work. Or, rather, it shouldn't work.
But oddly enough, for a lot of people, it does.

I haven't been to the WD tonight yet, but I'm sure that there is a post about Reagan's passing. And in it, I can safely say that there will be condolonces given from people who never met the guy. (I can also safely say that there will be people who will badmouth his presidency and/or the guy himself. Even though those people (most likely) never met him either.)
If there is such a post, I will not participate in it. Because his death doesn't have an impact on my life. I would like to ask anyone who does respond to such a post if Reagan's dying truly impacted their life.
I mean, seriously, if I hadn't gone to work today, I probably would never have known about his death at all. If someone dies and you don't hear about it - that's pretty much a litmus test for how much influence they have on you. There's no rational reason to get upset at the ending of their life.

Getting back to what I was saying about the news and the creation of the false sense of community through television - I experienced the same thing with Saddam Hussein's capture. My step-mother said to me that it was a great Xmas gift (it happened around December, if memory serves). I shrugged, because I disagreed. But that type of thinking is kinda scary, to me, at least. The capture of someone in Iraq ...actually anything that happens in Iraq has no direct impact on my life. None. I don't know anyone over there, nobody over there knows me.
I don't care if the Iraqi people have democracy, tyranny, or anarchy. I don't think it's anyone else's concern, but the Iraqis themselves, no?
I'm oversimplifying a bit, I know, but I hope that some of my message is getting across. If you unplugged the television and ignored the internet headlines, would 99% of the "news" that goes on in the world matter?

I realize that this post most likely makes me seem like a heartless bastard. And while that statement has a kernel of truth to it, that's missing the point. The point is that it would be nice if people cared more about the things that truly impact their lives and less about those that impact their television viewing schedules.

Oops, I forgot to blog on June 4th.

Heh. I amuse myself.

As for the crypticness of the last entry, it was for national security. [/more crypticness....and self-amusement]

This blogging everyday thing would be a lot easier to do if I could blog at work. Or better yet, if I didn't have to go to work at all! I'm for that plan.

On the way home tonight, I was listening to AM radio (against my better judgment) and on some conservative talk show the host referred to the Iraqi prison torture as "hazing". Well. Huh. Makes me glad I didn't join any fraternities in college. It amazes me what blinders people will put on to defend their beliefs. I'm sure I've been guilty of it too.

Well, I have 23 emails to sift through, and it's seven minutes to midnight, so unless I want my blog title to be true... Publish Post time!

Sadly, I don't have the capability.

But if I did....yes. I would. Without a doubt.

I would drive 500 miles. And I would drive 500 more.

Okay, the song is walk. And the amount needed to hit the mark is now less than 1000, but it was too close to pass up using the line.

So, yesterday was June 1st. I predicted long ago that on that day our car's odometer would hit 123456. It didn't. But it did hit the 122456 mark! I was off by a thousand! We're now at 122464 (I haven't gone to work today yet) so if you want to make your guesses, now's a good time. I'm thinking that it might hit on my birthday. That would be a nice present.

In other news, I cancelled the extended cable service today. The girls cried.

In other other news, there is a meeting at work today. We're to meet Greg's replacement (Greg, as you may recall, was our supervisor's supervisor. He left earlier this year when the company decided that he wasn't ...how did they put it? "Playing the game correctly"? That's not how they said it, but that's what it boiled down to.). I'm skeptical. If I blog about it, I'm sure you know what the title will be.

Other other other news? I'm sunburnt on my shoulders and back. We went to Lake Mead (aka Lake Pointy Ground) yesterday, and had a pretty good time, but like a doofus, I didn't put sunblock on after taking off my shirt. (I did put it on my arms and face before removing my shirt, so at least my farmers tan didn't get any darker.)

Friday we're going out to Sunset Park, armed with waterguns and a cooler filled with water balloons. Summertime can be fun!

Lastly, Saren's playing Paper Mario right now, which reminded me - the GameCube is coming out with Paper Mario 2 in October. Now I really want one!

It's a nice day to start again.

It's a nice day for a white wedding.

Apparently more weddings take place in June than in any other month. The reasoning? Weddings in May are "bad luck". Or somesuch. I don't know. The preceding info was hidden away in the deepest recesses of my brain, stored there after stumbling across it on some site months back. So I don't know how accurate it is.

But, yeah, I'm back online. And the plan (PLAN!) is to blog each day this month. I just made that plan up. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you informed!

I'd share the big news about how the Steph is baking a bun in her oven. But you all knew that already.

Note to self: Learn how to end blog entries in an entertaining fashion.