Thursday, June 29, 2006
new hampshire WHAT
On my way to the White Mountains and then whirlwind tour of New England/New York, unless the consulate calls me sometime next week and says, "Your interview is Thursday" or something insanely unfortunate like that. MAN that would suck. So...back sometime next week, probably Friday, but who really knows? I just hope I don't end up having to take a 3:30 a.m. bus from Stamford or something like that. Anyhow, time to shut this puppy down (speaking of puppies, they're both in the hospital now...oy) and go help Dad finish packing the car. Have a fun weekend, whoever reads this! Peace!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
my first post outside work
I think the title of this post is true. Not sure, though. Whatever. Anyhow, I had a lot of fun in Chicago hanging out with Julia and Nora and their friends. Julia and I went to Millenium Park and saw its many wonderful structures (god i'm a dork, I can't believe I just wrote that) and this really cool band Mucca Pazza (their website is here). Her friends were cool, but who knew that IHOP was so freaking expensive? Not me. P.S. the bean in Millenium Park is amazing). Said bye to her, and, "See you in December!" cause she's coming to Santiago after her program is over. YAY!
Nora's family was funny (especially her very old great-aunt...) and I liked her friends, too, I guess. Not as much as her, but they (and her family) explain a lot. We went to the pride parade on Sunday and met up with Brett and his boyfriend and a few other Ann Arbor people who I didn't know, which was fun. Lots of scantily clad people and a guy who could hold a beer can between his pecs. Then on Sunday night it stormed like crazy and I did the Chicago Tribune Sunday crossword and Nora studied for her quiz. I went down to UIC with her on Monday, waited for her to finish her first class and then we said bye. Not sure how it was for her, but it was really hard for me. First person that I really care about that I've had to say, "See you in a year," to this close to when I actually leave. At school, it wasn't so hard because my actual departure was in the distant future. Now, it's in less than three weeks. Anyhow I had trouble not crying. Which made me realize that I'm going to cry a lot when I actually leave. Oh well, I'll just have to invest in some tissues.
Home has been okay, if not very relaxing because of dog issues. Sherlock just finally got his stitches out today and is currently curled up at my feet with his tennis ball in his mouth. Izzy, however, is really sick and in the hospital, where she'll probably have to stay while we're in the White Mountains, which we leave for tomorrow. Sheesh. Time is flying by. To be honest I kind of wish we weren't going to the White Mountains, or that the trip was shorter, because it feels like being gone for a week at this point is a waste of precious time. But I know I'll have fun, and it'll be good to spend time just with MomDadLincJack and then visiting the New England/New York set. Okay Jack is yelling at me about the computer, so I'm going to stop writing now. There's lots more to say, of course, there always is, but I've gotta cut myself off somewhere. Don't I? Yes, shut up. Okay. Bye.
Nora's family was funny (especially her very old great-aunt...) and I liked her friends, too, I guess. Not as much as her, but they (and her family) explain a lot. We went to the pride parade on Sunday and met up with Brett and his boyfriend and a few other Ann Arbor people who I didn't know, which was fun. Lots of scantily clad people and a guy who could hold a beer can between his pecs. Then on Sunday night it stormed like crazy and I did the Chicago Tribune Sunday crossword and Nora studied for her quiz. I went down to UIC with her on Monday, waited for her to finish her first class and then we said bye. Not sure how it was for her, but it was really hard for me. First person that I really care about that I've had to say, "See you in a year," to this close to when I actually leave. At school, it wasn't so hard because my actual departure was in the distant future. Now, it's in less than three weeks. Anyhow I had trouble not crying. Which made me realize that I'm going to cry a lot when I actually leave. Oh well, I'll just have to invest in some tissues.
Home has been okay, if not very relaxing because of dog issues. Sherlock just finally got his stitches out today and is currently curled up at my feet with his tennis ball in his mouth. Izzy, however, is really sick and in the hospital, where she'll probably have to stay while we're in the White Mountains, which we leave for tomorrow. Sheesh. Time is flying by. To be honest I kind of wish we weren't going to the White Mountains, or that the trip was shorter, because it feels like being gone for a week at this point is a waste of precious time. But I know I'll have fun, and it'll be good to spend time just with MomDadLincJack and then visiting the New England/New York set. Okay Jack is yelling at me about the computer, so I'm going to stop writing now. There's lots more to say, of course, there always is, but I've gotta cut myself off somewhere. Don't I? Yes, shut up. Okay. Bye.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
chi-city chi-city
Too bad about our soccer team. They tried, they really did (after that awful, awful first game), but it just wasn't enough. The US soccer program has a long way to go before we get any good, but what we really need right now is a difference-maker on the field. We don't have a star. Landon Donovan should be one, but instead of growing into one in Europe he decided to play in MLS, which is to him as the NBDL is to LeBron James. Everyone else is just a notch or two below, which means he's not challenged, which means we suck. Once every American national team player is playing for a top European club, we'll be in okay shape. Until then, it's either miracles or disappointments. Disappointment this time around, can't wait to see who comes up in the next four years. Freddy Adu, maybe? HE could be awesome. So now it's on to rooting for Argentina, because the Brazilians hate them and they have pretty jerseys and score a lot. Them and England, because they speak the same language as me.
Also, it's time we started taking promising athletes in non-major sports (that is, everything other than basketball, football and baseball, because we're already better than everyone else at those...well, and no one else in the world really cares about our football) out of school and letting them do their thing full-time starting around age 13. If we did that, we would absolutely crush everyone in every sport. Period. I got this brilliant, 100% original idea from something my dad told me today, which is that our soccer team has way more college degrees among them than any other team. What's the point of that? I say, put the gymnasts in gymnast school, the soccer players in soccer school, the swimmers in swim school, the skiers in ski school, the fencers in fencing school, and so on and so forth. Give them tutors, keep teaching them important things like arithmetic and history and sports interview cliches on the side. But get them coaches and get them facilities and let's freaking roll. Fund it with the money we'll get by finally cutting SDI one of these days. I'm not at all sure I believe any of what I just said. But it sounds interesting, doesn't it? At least to me it does.
Also, it's time we started taking promising athletes in non-major sports (that is, everything other than basketball, football and baseball, because we're already better than everyone else at those...well, and no one else in the world really cares about our football) out of school and letting them do their thing full-time starting around age 13. If we did that, we would absolutely crush everyone in every sport. Period. I got this brilliant, 100% original idea from something my dad told me today, which is that our soccer team has way more college degrees among them than any other team. What's the point of that? I say, put the gymnasts in gymnast school, the soccer players in soccer school, the swimmers in swim school, the skiers in ski school, the fencers in fencing school, and so on and so forth. Give them tutors, keep teaching them important things like arithmetic and history and sports interview cliches on the side. But get them coaches and get them facilities and let's freaking roll. Fund it with the money we'll get by finally cutting SDI one of these days. I'm not at all sure I believe any of what I just said. But it sounds interesting, doesn't it? At least to me it does.
my new best friend
I've made friends with a super-righty! Isn't that exciting? Someone IS reading my blog. Hokey smokes. His name is K and I don't know anything about him other than that we disagree on just about everything and each thinks the other is criminally stupid. I've added a link to his blog, just so any of my sane friends who'd like to get a picture of just how the other half thinks can give it a look. It's over there, down BELOW Hullabaloo and Informed Comment. Here's an excerpt from a comment he wrote today on my post of two days ago (first sentence removed because context is complicated):
"You are against NSA spying on terrorists because you see it as a way to weaken Bush. What about the logical arguments for spying on terrorists who call the US?
"See, many liberals are so angry at Bush and KKKarl Rove that they don't let facts get in the way of their feelings.
"That's where you are now.
"You have every right to hate him, but when you let that hatred get in the way of all logical thought & reasoning, I'll call you on it every time."
Silly K, Trix are for kids! Here's my response, bud.
I think we must be working with different "facts." And pardon me, Mr. Evangelical man, but since WHEN is it people like me (who still cling dearly to the legacy of the Enlightenment) who have abandoned logic and reasoning? I mean, isn't that the whole POINT of diehard fundamentalism? To let reason--because no amount of reasoning could ever come to the various and conflicting conclusions that the Bible (John in particular) does about Jesus or God--be overcome by blind faith?
That's the damn problem with this country. Not that nutjob liberals have let their hate of the Idiot Prince get in the way of clear thinking (and they have, there's no doubt about that and I freely admit it). It's that nutjob evangelicals are trying to tear us away from our roots and send us sailing back to a simpler time, where science didn't exist and might made right.
The thing is, I don't have a problem with faith, just like you don't have a problem with anger. I have faith in some things. Not in Jesus' ability to save my soul or judge me, but in the power of, well, logical thought and reasoning.
For the record, I think spying on terrorists who call the US is fine, I just don't want Bush to have a copy of my phone records. Or anyone else in this country's, without a warrant from a judge. It's called rule of law, and I would rather enjoy returning to a state of mind in which I didn't have to worry that the most powerful law enforcement officer in this country thought he was above our founding and most important laws.
"You are against NSA spying on terrorists because you see it as a way to weaken Bush. What about the logical arguments for spying on terrorists who call the US?
"See, many liberals are so angry at Bush and KKKarl Rove that they don't let facts get in the way of their feelings.
"That's where you are now.
"You have every right to hate him, but when you let that hatred get in the way of all logical thought & reasoning, I'll call you on it every time."
Silly K, Trix are for kids! Here's my response, bud.
I think we must be working with different "facts." And pardon me, Mr. Evangelical man, but since WHEN is it people like me (who still cling dearly to the legacy of the Enlightenment) who have abandoned logic and reasoning? I mean, isn't that the whole POINT of diehard fundamentalism? To let reason--because no amount of reasoning could ever come to the various and conflicting conclusions that the Bible (John in particular) does about Jesus or God--be overcome by blind faith?
That's the damn problem with this country. Not that nutjob liberals have let their hate of the Idiot Prince get in the way of clear thinking (and they have, there's no doubt about that and I freely admit it). It's that nutjob evangelicals are trying to tear us away from our roots and send us sailing back to a simpler time, where science didn't exist and might made right.
The thing is, I don't have a problem with faith, just like you don't have a problem with anger. I have faith in some things. Not in Jesus' ability to save my soul or judge me, but in the power of, well, logical thought and reasoning.
For the record, I think spying on terrorists who call the US is fine, I just don't want Bush to have a copy of my phone records. Or anyone else in this country's, without a warrant from a judge. It's called rule of law, and I would rather enjoy returning to a state of mind in which I didn't have to worry that the most powerful law enforcement officer in this country thought he was above our founding and most important laws.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
no protection of privacy? no separation of church and state? what?
The first amendment to our Constitution begins as follows:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
That means, children, that our government can't pass any law about religion one way or another, even if lots of very loud, very ignorant people want it to. And that's what sane people mean when they talk about a separation of church and state.
In the Fourth Amendment, the founders wrote:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
And even if Mr. Justice Scalia says otherwise, what that plainly says is that our government can't just go snooping around in our business without a really good reason, which must be cleared by the judicial branch of government. That means the courts, kids. Judges with big black cloaks and wooden gavels. They, not the President or anyone who works for him, can decide when anyone may legally watch us without our knowledge. And watching us without our knowledge, that violates our privacy, right? I mean, what's private but the things we do when we don't think anyone is watching or listening? Anything other than following what the Constitution specifically says subverts the Constitution and should be grounds for firing anyone who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, like Mr. President Bush. This President, kids, is a disgrace the United States of America because he operates only in his own narrow self-interest, with no concern at all for what might be helpful or good or right.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
That means, children, that our government can't pass any law about religion one way or another, even if lots of very loud, very ignorant people want it to. And that's what sane people mean when they talk about a separation of church and state.
In the Fourth Amendment, the founders wrote:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
And even if Mr. Justice Scalia says otherwise, what that plainly says is that our government can't just go snooping around in our business without a really good reason, which must be cleared by the judicial branch of government. That means the courts, kids. Judges with big black cloaks and wooden gavels. They, not the President or anyone who works for him, can decide when anyone may legally watch us without our knowledge. And watching us without our knowledge, that violates our privacy, right? I mean, what's private but the things we do when we don't think anyone is watching or listening? Anything other than following what the Constitution specifically says subverts the Constitution and should be grounds for firing anyone who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, like Mr. President Bush. This President, kids, is a disgrace the United States of America because he operates only in his own narrow self-interest, with no concern at all for what might be helpful or good or right.
promise
i solemnly swear that this blog will get more interesting as soon as i leave the country and actually have interesting things to write about. for the time being, i'll settle for the occasional rant and the usually mundane events of my daily life. once i get to santiago, though, it'll be a different story. i promise.
Monday, June 19, 2006
please don't wake me, no, don't shake me
i wish i was asleep. but i am not. i am at work. i have been here for an hour. i will be here for 8 more hours. i did not get enough sleep this weekend. i will stop writing in short sentences.
so my documentary binge wrapped up on saturday night with "jonestown," which has been made by a supposed genius (he won a macarthur) for pbs, about the jonestown massacre. it was very disappointing, it felt like the filmaker just hadn't tried very hard to bring the story back in a new or interesting way. "look, here's all this footage they took of themselves, and here are some photographs, and here are some survivors that we talked to." the survivors' interviews were riveting and moving, but they didn't come together to create the kind of deeply meaningful story that i know could be made based on the massacre. that being said, it happened 8 years before i was born, and my mom said after that while she agreed with my criticisms of the movie, it was enough for her to just see a little bit more of the background behind jim jones' movement. she was satisfied. so maybe you had to be alive at the time to really get it without a much more satisfying examination. that brought me to four movies in four nights--jesus camp, the last waltz, air guitar nation, and jonestown. the best of which was, FAR and away, air guitar nation. i had more fun watching that movie than i have had in a movie theater in a VERY long time. perhaps ever. see the imdb link here. the comment on the page is mine. especially split between jesus camp and jonestown (two often unbearably depressing and upsetting films) air guitar nation was just plain inspiring.
in other news, i saw alex this weekend for the first time since last summer! it had been almost a year and it was wonderful to give her a hug and catch up after so long. seems like she's doing really well, and she's gearing up to start college after taking a year off to go to bangalore, jakarta and madrid (lucky girl). perhaps more telling than anything else, she joined facebook yesterday ;) and friended me. her profile needs some work (it's a little spare) but that'll change soon enough. EVERYONE MUST SUCCUMB TO FACEBOOK OR IT WILL FIND YOU IN THE NIGHT AND KILLLLL YOU. seriously, i can see facebook becoming a scary monster-monopoly corporation like google, with whatshisface the exeter-harvard guy who made it joining sergey brin and larry page in the forbes top 20. but still, like google, somehow remaining awesome throughout. zuckerberg, that's his name, already turned down an offer to sell for 100 million dollars. holy living fuck. i wish IIIII could have an idea like that. anyhow, alex and i watched munich with various members of her family cycling in and out. it was good but not entirely what i'd expected. a little contrived at times, but still, spielberg is a total master of his craft. even i with my small knowledge of filmmaking, can tell that he is one of the all-time great hollywood storytellers. after the movie was over i drove home from annapolis, which might not have been the best idea considering how tired i was, but i made it okay...
...and with enough left in the tank to wake up on father's day and go for a hike with momdadlincjack in little bennett regional park way out in bumblefuck, montgomery county. it was a really nice walk, if incredibly hot and humid. nice scenery, pretty forest, these incredible, gigantic anthills all over the place (really, they were amazing). then we went for dunch to olney ale house, which was tasty and provided my lunch for today, to boot, and then, upon barely making it home without crashing, we stumbled inside and instantly fell asleep en masse. turns out walking six miles in 97-degree d.c. heat without enough water will really take a lot out of you. go figure. woke up, had a nice little chat with mom and dad about study abroad and all that, then went over to judy's and watched crouching tiger, which i hadn't seen since it played at afi two or three years ago and which was TOTALLY worth seeing again, especially since she hadn't. speaking of all-time great storytellers, ang lee's gotta be on that list. that he could make movies as different in theme and setting and style as crouching tiger, brokeback mountain and eat drink man woman and have them all be really good...damn.
finally, my frisbee game on saturday was fun...we won, picked the best name possible (huck norris, especially after i was afraid we'd get stuck with shudder finding dremo's) and i played well. i'm a bit of a liability on defense because i'm fairly fast for wafc pro but i'm not in very good shape so when i get stuck on one of the other teams' faster guys (or, god forbid, in the cup), i get run into the ground quickly. but i make good throws and cuts and don't turn it over very much, so hopefully i make up for my mediocre defense with offensive usefulness. then went to oh captain my captain's house for a little birthday party, where a bunch of people from the team plus her parents and a few other cool peeps sat around, drank some beer, ate some mussels and burgers and watched the us get robbed of a victory by a fucking referee. but hurray for julie serfass and HUCK NORRIS! but seriously, i wanted to nuke the entire nation of uruguay after that game. i'm over it now and see how that might not have been the most pragmatic response to such thievery by a uruguayan national who was, after all, in germany at the time. and happy birthday, robin (nice grab!). after that party, i hauled ass on over to arthur's 60th birthday party, which was okay--good to see the beach people i'll be missing this year because instead of being in north carolina in august, i'll be in chile. well, now i've been writing this off and on for an hour or so and it's time to shut up and read some other blogs or something. the office is half-empty today, so i won't have, well, anything else to do. joy of joys. peace.
so my documentary binge wrapped up on saturday night with "jonestown," which has been made by a supposed genius (he won a macarthur) for pbs, about the jonestown massacre. it was very disappointing, it felt like the filmaker just hadn't tried very hard to bring the story back in a new or interesting way. "look, here's all this footage they took of themselves, and here are some photographs, and here are some survivors that we talked to." the survivors' interviews were riveting and moving, but they didn't come together to create the kind of deeply meaningful story that i know could be made based on the massacre. that being said, it happened 8 years before i was born, and my mom said after that while she agreed with my criticisms of the movie, it was enough for her to just see a little bit more of the background behind jim jones' movement. she was satisfied. so maybe you had to be alive at the time to really get it without a much more satisfying examination. that brought me to four movies in four nights--jesus camp, the last waltz, air guitar nation, and jonestown. the best of which was, FAR and away, air guitar nation. i had more fun watching that movie than i have had in a movie theater in a VERY long time. perhaps ever. see the imdb link here. the comment on the page is mine. especially split between jesus camp and jonestown (two often unbearably depressing and upsetting films) air guitar nation was just plain inspiring.
in other news, i saw alex this weekend for the first time since last summer! it had been almost a year and it was wonderful to give her a hug and catch up after so long. seems like she's doing really well, and she's gearing up to start college after taking a year off to go to bangalore, jakarta and madrid (lucky girl). perhaps more telling than anything else, she joined facebook yesterday ;) and friended me. her profile needs some work (it's a little spare) but that'll change soon enough. EVERYONE MUST SUCCUMB TO FACEBOOK OR IT WILL FIND YOU IN THE NIGHT AND KILLLLL YOU. seriously, i can see facebook becoming a scary monster-monopoly corporation like google, with whatshisface the exeter-harvard guy who made it joining sergey brin and larry page in the forbes top 20. but still, like google, somehow remaining awesome throughout. zuckerberg, that's his name, already turned down an offer to sell for 100 million dollars. holy living fuck. i wish IIIII could have an idea like that. anyhow, alex and i watched munich with various members of her family cycling in and out. it was good but not entirely what i'd expected. a little contrived at times, but still, spielberg is a total master of his craft. even i with my small knowledge of filmmaking, can tell that he is one of the all-time great hollywood storytellers. after the movie was over i drove home from annapolis, which might not have been the best idea considering how tired i was, but i made it okay...
...and with enough left in the tank to wake up on father's day and go for a hike with momdadlincjack in little bennett regional park way out in bumblefuck, montgomery county. it was a really nice walk, if incredibly hot and humid. nice scenery, pretty forest, these incredible, gigantic anthills all over the place (really, they were amazing). then we went for dunch to olney ale house, which was tasty and provided my lunch for today, to boot, and then, upon barely making it home without crashing, we stumbled inside and instantly fell asleep en masse. turns out walking six miles in 97-degree d.c. heat without enough water will really take a lot out of you. go figure. woke up, had a nice little chat with mom and dad about study abroad and all that, then went over to judy's and watched crouching tiger, which i hadn't seen since it played at afi two or three years ago and which was TOTALLY worth seeing again, especially since she hadn't. speaking of all-time great storytellers, ang lee's gotta be on that list. that he could make movies as different in theme and setting and style as crouching tiger, brokeback mountain and eat drink man woman and have them all be really good...damn.
finally, my frisbee game on saturday was fun...we won, picked the best name possible (huck norris, especially after i was afraid we'd get stuck with shudder finding dremo's) and i played well. i'm a bit of a liability on defense because i'm fairly fast for wafc pro but i'm not in very good shape so when i get stuck on one of the other teams' faster guys (or, god forbid, in the cup), i get run into the ground quickly. but i make good throws and cuts and don't turn it over very much, so hopefully i make up for my mediocre defense with offensive usefulness. then went to oh captain my captain's house for a little birthday party, where a bunch of people from the team plus her parents and a few other cool peeps sat around, drank some beer, ate some mussels and burgers and watched the us get robbed of a victory by a fucking referee. but hurray for julie serfass and HUCK NORRIS! but seriously, i wanted to nuke the entire nation of uruguay after that game. i'm over it now and see how that might not have been the most pragmatic response to such thievery by a uruguayan national who was, after all, in germany at the time. and happy birthday, robin (nice grab!). after that party, i hauled ass on over to arthur's 60th birthday party, which was okay--good to see the beach people i'll be missing this year because instead of being in north carolina in august, i'll be in chile. well, now i've been writing this off and on for an hour or so and it's time to shut up and read some other blogs or something. the office is half-empty today, so i won't have, well, anything else to do. joy of joys. peace.
Friday, June 16, 2006
unintentional comedy of the day
real quote from the back of a xerox toner shipping label: "will the real xerox representative please stand up?" that's right. eminem has now made his presence felt on xerox shipping labels. thank god HE retired. jesus i was sick of him.
bloggidy blog blogs
well, i just posted a comment on digbysblog that was somewhat critical of something tristero (the other one who posts there) wrote this morning. i included a link to this blog, because they asked for one on the comment form and i am a sheep and will do whatever i am told under any circumstances. it was a good comment, too. i wonder if tristero or digby give two shits about what people say about their comments? i kind of doubt it. i like both of them most of the time, but they're pretty arrogant. doesn't mean they're not often funny and/or right. true about most of the big-time political blogs i read, i guess. daily kos, too. they all think they're the shit, they're the Next Big Thing in politics. but the problem is, a lot of americans still don't have internet access and a lot of the ones that do either don't know how to use it or don't give two shits what some pompous blogger in chicago thinks about world affairs. now, i don't know that for a FACT; like most of what comes out of my mouth or fingers, i made it up on the spot because it makes sense and sounds right. i could very well be wrong, and the netroots really will matter soon or NOW. but i don't think so. to conclude: this post has been, in a word, coherent.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
happier
on a much, much happier note, i'm getting pumped to leave for santiago next month and especially to do some traveling in january and february with april and katy (and mara?). been looking at this place called ilha grande, and i pretty much want to live there forever. hurray for beautiful beaches!
jesus camp
so i didn't get a chance to write about this last night, which i guess is good because last night would have been a tirade of curses and insults and melodramatic pronouncements. having had some time to calm down, i'll try to keep this...oh, fuck it. last night i saw the scariest movie i have ever seen. it is called jesus camp, and it's about a camp in north dakota for evangelical kids and their families. these people are so blind, so deluded that i spent most of the movie with my head buried in my hands. in turns, i wanted to cry, scream, hit someone and run out of the theater. this is the future of our fucking country? THESE DELUDED MANIACS?!?!?! i would feel sorry for them, for the blindness and intolerance that they have brought into their lives, but they are too strong for my sympathy. 80 million americans describe themselves as evangelicals. merciful god. no, they don't need someone to try and open their eyes, they need to be fought. they're normal fucking people, except they've convinced themselves that the end time is near, that creationism is the only way, that george w. bush represents their interests (which, by the way, he really doesnt...cynical fuck), that everyone but them is wrong, and that they are the true spirit of america. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT? what happened to kant's "dare to know"? these people are doing the opposite of daring, they are cowering under the veil of a gory, oppressive, judgmental god and convincing themselves that they are the only our nation was not founded to be a christian nation. it was founded on the ideals of secular intellectual and social advancement by a bunch of deists who despised the orthodox church as totalitarian. scarier still, i could see the appeal of their ideas. it's so easy, to just say that jesus is coming back soon, so fuck everyone else. no need to help people in real ways, just convince them that jesus is lord and abortion is wrong. no need to protect the earth, god gave us dominion and we're not going to need it for much longer, so who gives a shit? i'm telling you, and myself, i guess, that the number two priority for all liberals in this country (after MAKE A FUCKING PLAN FOR THE FUTURE, YOU DUMBASSES) is to fight these people tooth and nail, to raise the same kind of passion for democracy and truth as these people feel for their angry, demented god and his "plan". how they know what that is is beyond me altogether. i could, obviously, keep going. but it's probably best that i stop before this turns into a 300-page scream. i don't really know what i'm talking about, but i know that these people are wrong and they are powerful and they are growing in numbers, and i KNOW that they must be stopped if this country isn't going completely to hell. it's almost enough to make ME believe in god, just so that these people can be worshipping satan in disguise. because their god looks a lot more like a great deceiver to me than like jesus the teacher, the reformer, the social worker.
i'm still in a bit of a daze from the movie last night. in other news, i'm starving, have to pee into a god damn container again because the first god damn sample wasn't right or something and have to wait for the fucking insurance company to say they'll pay for my mri before we can even schedule it. ugh. i just hope i don't have renal failure, too. that would be cute.
i'm still in a bit of a daze from the movie last night. in other news, i'm starving, have to pee into a god damn container again because the first god damn sample wasn't right or something and have to wait for the fucking insurance company to say they'll pay for my mri before we can even schedule it. ugh. i just hope i don't have renal failure, too. that would be cute.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
nothing is happening
so i had my first summer-league frisbee game last night at anacostia. the fields were nicer than i remember them being (although it had been a while since they were mowed) and there was almost no wind, miraculously. the game itself was fun. i like pro a lot better than rec, which i played last summer, because people actually know what's going on. we had a halfway-decent vert going for most of the game (a lot better than the ones we tried to pull in rec) and people laid out and everyone had okay-to-good throws. my team seems cool. we've got the requisite whiner, of course, which is hilarious. he's good, too, if short and slow. we picked a stupid, stupid name, though. Finding Dremo's, after the bar in arlington where all the big WAFC meetings are held. hahahahawoeifj anfijw;oi. only funny if you're a huge WAFC dork, and even then it's not that funny. i personally liked Reservoir Discs (the theme is movies, if you couldn't tell), or, barring that, Chuck Norris. just the name. the man is funny enough by himself. oh well. or even, if corny plays-on-words are required for frisbee names, and they probably are, then Huck Norris. perfect. i'm a genius. also just heard a.wo's voice for the first time in many months. yay! seeing her on saturday! yay! eating lunch very soon! yay!
Monday, June 12, 2006
world cup
it's official. no further debate necessary. soccer is the greatest sport in the world. no shit, you say? thank you, captain obvious? well, forgive me for living in a soccer-blind country (we don't even call it by its proper name, for crying out loud), but i just finished reading an analysis of ghana, and when they said that the black stars' offense might struggle against experienced defenses like czech republic, italy and USA, i got goosebumps. an international writer (the guy was british, i think) lauding my country's team. see, i've got goosebumps again. with duke, i expect people all over who know about the sport to laud the players and the team and the coach and so on. but learning that people all over the world who know and care a lot about soccer think our coach and our defense and our striker are worthy of note is just awesome, in the old-fashioned sense. i just got another wave of goosebumps. it absolutely crushes me that i'll have to settle for espn gamecast today. thank god the italy game is on saturday, i think i'd go crazy if i couldn't see them play. and beyond just my own team, seeing how much people care, watching an entire stadium full of english people in germany singing "god save the queen" after squeaking by paraguay, is awesome. big-time college sports (basketball and football) are the closest we get to inciting the kind of passion that the world cup does, but at heart they're so provincial. the scale of the world cup is on a different order of magnitude than SEC or Big 10 football. whole COUNTRIES full of people come to a grinding halt when their young men hit the pitch. i only hope that we might see something approaching that passion for the donovans, beasleys, kellers and o'briens of the future. freddy adu, where are you?
in other news, the past week has been okay. work actually got kind of stressful on wednesday and thursday, with visitors whipping the whole office into a frenzy with a bajillion meetings. i got suckered into shepherding a chair candidate (for one of the departments in my school) around all day, which was very annoying because the people i shepherded him to had no consideration for me at all and either went over their alloted time with him or under and left before i got there to take him to the next place. so i spent the whole day looking for the guy, getting scolded by my overworked boss (who kept saying she needed a clone, which was true) for not knowing where he was, and getting yelled at on the phone by people who were supposed to meet with him but either didn't know where he was or didn't know where they were supposed to go. blech. glad that's over. friday was a lot more quiet, which was nice.
thursday night i went to jozi and elena's graduation thing, which was cute. saw some people i hadn't in a while, got made fun of for being too competitive (which i guess i am, but whatever), laid plans to chill with walker and bakri and john later. which we did. good times. i went to sleep at 8 on friday night and didn't wake up until 9:30 the next morning. THAT felt good, let me tell you. waking up at 7 to go to work every day just sucks, and 13 hours of sleep felt goooooood. went for a nice run during the day and helped dad clear up all the sticks and logs lying in our backyard. i can't believe we're only halfway done taking down the tree, we've been working on it for almost two months. mostly dad has, i guess. saturday night our neighbors ian and erin, who represent the next wave of residents in our neighborhood (they're the age my parents were when they moved here 20 years ago), had a little birthday party. it was okay, i guess, but a little awkward because everyone there was either my parents' age (other people from the block and ian and erin's parents) or 30 (everyone else) or me and jack. jack was even more out of place than me, so he left. erin's (quite cute) sister was there and she's 20 or 21, but she had brought friends and showed no interest in branching out to the other college-aged kids in attendance (namely, me). so i left and went to hang out with judy, which was very fun. we went to tastee's, where our waitress was drunk (god i love that place) and then got the ladykillers and what's up tiger lily to watch back at my house because hers was still without power after a tree fell across her car and the power lines along the street. life's a bitch. not really. okay this post is very long now, time to find a new activity. i should post more often, then i wouldn't have so much to say each time. good plan.
in other news, the past week has been okay. work actually got kind of stressful on wednesday and thursday, with visitors whipping the whole office into a frenzy with a bajillion meetings. i got suckered into shepherding a chair candidate (for one of the departments in my school) around all day, which was very annoying because the people i shepherded him to had no consideration for me at all and either went over their alloted time with him or under and left before i got there to take him to the next place. so i spent the whole day looking for the guy, getting scolded by my overworked boss (who kept saying she needed a clone, which was true) for not knowing where he was, and getting yelled at on the phone by people who were supposed to meet with him but either didn't know where he was or didn't know where they were supposed to go. blech. glad that's over. friday was a lot more quiet, which was nice.
thursday night i went to jozi and elena's graduation thing, which was cute. saw some people i hadn't in a while, got made fun of for being too competitive (which i guess i am, but whatever), laid plans to chill with walker and bakri and john later. which we did. good times. i went to sleep at 8 on friday night and didn't wake up until 9:30 the next morning. THAT felt good, let me tell you. waking up at 7 to go to work every day just sucks, and 13 hours of sleep felt goooooood. went for a nice run during the day and helped dad clear up all the sticks and logs lying in our backyard. i can't believe we're only halfway done taking down the tree, we've been working on it for almost two months. mostly dad has, i guess. saturday night our neighbors ian and erin, who represent the next wave of residents in our neighborhood (they're the age my parents were when they moved here 20 years ago), had a little birthday party. it was okay, i guess, but a little awkward because everyone there was either my parents' age (other people from the block and ian and erin's parents) or 30 (everyone else) or me and jack. jack was even more out of place than me, so he left. erin's (quite cute) sister was there and she's 20 or 21, but she had brought friends and showed no interest in branching out to the other college-aged kids in attendance (namely, me). so i left and went to hang out with judy, which was very fun. we went to tastee's, where our waitress was drunk (god i love that place) and then got the ladykillers and what's up tiger lily to watch back at my house because hers was still without power after a tree fell across her car and the power lines along the street. life's a bitch. not really. okay this post is very long now, time to find a new activity. i should post more often, then i wouldn't have so much to say each time. good plan.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
faj;iowe
i couldn't really think of a title for this post, so there you go. faj;iowe. anyhow, much has transpired since my last post. the city at peace shows were thursday, friday and saturday. i went and helped out on friday (kind of) after bringing lincoln his socks because, well, nevermind. it just occured to me that i can't be entirely candid on this thing because i don't know who's reading it. shit. oh well, i can still write most everything i can think of. in any event, i SAW the show on saturday. it was really good, a lot more theatrical than d.c. shows have been in a while, perhaps migrating a little more towards the new york model? but a couple of the scenes were AMAZING and they all had their moments. and afterwards, i took jack to audition. he was nervous but ended up having a great time! hurray, jack! then saturday night lincoln went to prom and me and dad and mom and jack went to 2 amy's for some ridiculous pizza. i had the norcia: salami, sweet peppers, mozzarella and grana. mmmmmmm...........and then i went to bed at 11:45. hey, i was exhausted. i should nap more.
to go a little out of order, friday night i hung out with robin and audrey and katie and katie's friend (kurt? kirk? he didn't talk much), and we watched trashy tv and i realized that i know altogether too much about celebrities. damn you, trent. back to the timeline, sunday was pretty uneventful, i think. i don't remember what i did most of the day, so it can't have been that important or interesting. oh, yes, i slept until 1:30. ahhhhh... uncle john came down in the evening and we went to the park and played frisbee golf, which was really fun, and then we ate dinner from costco, which never ceases to amaze me. costco is the shit. then after that i went and hung out with judy, which was also really fun, but don't see gosford park. it sucked. robert altman can't be awesome ALL the time, apparently.
yesterday was graduation, which was, in order: miserable uncomfortable (the ride over), interminable (the actual ceremony), and extremely stressful (everything after my conversation with my boss at 12:30, when i told her that i'd be later than i thought and she said, "okay" in that tone of voice that really says, "i can't believe you're doing this to me, but there's nothing i can do about it so just hurry the fuck up"). turns out she wasn't mad, but i thought she was so i flipped my shit. but it was okay in the end and after work i went straight to daleview to help out with lincoln's pool party. it was nice: beautiful day, water a nice temperature, good hamburgers. i really like all his friends. they're cool. then last night i just watched some boston legal and went to sleep. that show is awesome. okay, this post has gone on too long already. no social or political commentary this morning, i'm too tired to have opinions. HAH! just kidding. i'm too tired to write them down. peace.
to go a little out of order, friday night i hung out with robin and audrey and katie and katie's friend (kurt? kirk? he didn't talk much), and we watched trashy tv and i realized that i know altogether too much about celebrities. damn you, trent. back to the timeline, sunday was pretty uneventful, i think. i don't remember what i did most of the day, so it can't have been that important or interesting. oh, yes, i slept until 1:30. ahhhhh... uncle john came down in the evening and we went to the park and played frisbee golf, which was really fun, and then we ate dinner from costco, which never ceases to amaze me. costco is the shit. then after that i went and hung out with judy, which was also really fun, but don't see gosford park. it sucked. robert altman can't be awesome ALL the time, apparently.
yesterday was graduation, which was, in order: miserable uncomfortable (the ride over), interminable (the actual ceremony), and extremely stressful (everything after my conversation with my boss at 12:30, when i told her that i'd be later than i thought and she said, "okay" in that tone of voice that really says, "i can't believe you're doing this to me, but there's nothing i can do about it so just hurry the fuck up"). turns out she wasn't mad, but i thought she was so i flipped my shit. but it was okay in the end and after work i went straight to daleview to help out with lincoln's pool party. it was nice: beautiful day, water a nice temperature, good hamburgers. i really like all his friends. they're cool. then last night i just watched some boston legal and went to sleep. that show is awesome. okay, this post has gone on too long already. no social or political commentary this morning, i'm too tired to have opinions. HAH! just kidding. i'm too tired to write them down. peace.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
BBC
how the FUCK did hayden's confirmation and swearing-in go totally, completely unremarked by the american press? i never heard that he had even been confirmed, and it just took an article on BBC.co.uk to let me know that we've got a new partisan hack in charge of america's fastest-dying intelligence service. confirmed 78-15, apparently. gargantuan student protests in chile, too. and 100,000 kalashnikovs on their way to venezuela from russia because we imposed an arms embargo on chavez et al because hugo thinks we're going to invade. what the hell is going on?
by the way, i've decided to abstain from reading the political blogs for a while, because they're all the same damn thing: BLAH BLAH BLAH BUSH SUCKS BLAH BLAH BLAH LOOK AT THIS ARTICLE LAMBASTING BUSH BLAH BLAH BLAH AREN'T WE SO FUCKING CLEVER YOU COULD PUKE? and fuck google news, and the new york times and the washington post. i'm sticking to Pink is the New Blog for my entertainment, Juan Cole's "Informed Comment" (link on the right) for middle east updates, and BBC News for my news. i just need to find a decent blog about latin america...
by the way, i've decided to abstain from reading the political blogs for a while, because they're all the same damn thing: BLAH BLAH BLAH BUSH SUCKS BLAH BLAH BLAH LOOK AT THIS ARTICLE LAMBASTING BUSH BLAH BLAH BLAH AREN'T WE SO FUCKING CLEVER YOU COULD PUKE? and fuck google news, and the new york times and the washington post. i'm sticking to Pink is the New Blog for my entertainment, Juan Cole's "Informed Comment" (link on the right) for middle east updates, and BBC News for my news. i just need to find a decent blog about latin america...
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