Intellectual Poison

The Sad Saga of the Cat Who Pooped Too Much

Yep, that's about it really. But of course, I can't leave well enough there and there's plenty that should be explained and expounded upon.
And so I shall.

A little background information about the cat, the house and the arrangement. And then the fallout resulting in the cat's near imminent exile from our universe.

The cat is a housemate's little sister's cat that we took on because she'd gotten into a prestigious dance school in New York. And it was utter silliness to try and take the cat with her. Which turned out to be a good thing because she didn't ever really gel with Big Apple living and completed the summer course and came home. Which I think is a sign of maturity really. She didn't try to force a situation that wasn't for her. Maybe there's something to be said for stubborn stick-to-it-tiveness but I don't think it really applies in this instance.

Anyway, she returned to the west coast but not to Santa Cruz. Now she lives up near Lake Tahoe with her beau. Only thing is that she's been back out west for six weeks or more. With no inclination to collecting her cat.

The cat is a cool looking calico but that's about the end of her good traits. She's the loudest, most talkative cat I've ever seen. She's needy in the sense that you can pet her for ten minutes and the second you stop she's looking at you like you never started. It gets tiresome. She'll play revolving doors to go in and out of the house ten times in five minutes if you let her. Yes, all of these things are dealable and none of them are the reason she's got to go.

About a month ago she pissed in my closet, in fact, I think I wrote a post about it at some point. Ruined my backpack and was thusly permanently banished from my room.

Her newest trick is stunt pooping. Or maybe more properly, pooping to mark her territory.
Among her favorite places to leave stinky cat nuggets are two places in the garage, behind the second floor toilet, once on the dining room table, several times behind the bar, several times on one of the blankets we keep on the bench next to the bar, once on the door mat just inside the deck door on the second floor so that my housemate stepped in it and spread it all the way down the stairs. And the piece de resistance? Somehow this irritating ball of fur and claws figured a way to poop INTO a beer stein.

Think about that slowly. A big old German beer stein, at least 12 inches high and this cat target crapped into it. How? I've got no idea as the top of the stein was a good four inches higher than the cat's ass. Why? Who knows what makes a cat's brain work. But yep, that's just plain bizarre.

So the cat's GOT to go. Its no longer a livable situation and I feel bad because I don't feel bad at all about having to do this. Does that make any sense whatsoever? I think it does but then I know what I'm trying to say. Its a bad kitty.

New Section Added

Just finished my 100 Things list. Had a pretty good time writing it up even though I'm sure there's plenty more to add, some stupid ones to drop, some more things to add to the page maybe. Who knows? Its a start. And I've already come up with a half dozen other things to add. Its a never ending list.

I'm considering a broken down bunch of lists, a ten things list but a whole bunch of them. Like Ten Things Music, Ten Things Art, Ten Things Motorcycles, Ten Things Books. Whatever.

But for now this'll work.
And I'm sure I'll have plenty to post tomorrow as I ended up picking up Hardy's cold or flu or whatever. I'm definitely not feeling up to normal snuff. Oh well. I'll survive, or not.

One other note of news

The homeless drunk guy came back again this afternoon when we were not around. He ended up getting into something of a scuffle with another guy there. And the cops never did get out there to take the complaint. So there might be another chapter to this lovely tale coming up before too long.

Politically Incorrect but Its Gotta Be Done

I just came back from the coffee shop where I was backing up one of my housemates who works there but has today off. It seems that a homeless guy, who was obviously drunk, decided to take a piss out in front of the laundromat up the street. Whipped his wanger out in public and pissed all over the sidewalk. And then proceeded to head into the coffeeshop to harass and pester the employees and the patrons. All that while sitting and drinking his 40 ouncer in a bag on the coffee deck, the issue there is that if the cops happened by then the coffee shop would be held liable and fined (and not a penny ante fine, it would be five digits most likely).
So my housemate basically rousted him, called the cops and berated him into finding another locale to squat in. There are places in town where people can hang out.

And no, this isn't some harangue against homeless people at all. Its against fuckos who mistreat my town, my neighborhood and my friends. This is where I live, this is where I plan on putting some roots down and that means its part of my civic duty to protect my neighborhood. And that means rousting disreputable types who don't have the basic manners to not piss in public, in an area where people with their kids might be walking by.

Its just nasty and completely avoidable.

And I know that in today's touchy feely happy society we're supposed to be nicer to everyone but that's crap when it comes to people disrespecting our 'hood. It may not be nice but if you've had to deal with the human detritus that litters our town then you'd eventually come to the same conclusion.

If we all live and let live then things are cool but when homeless drunks invade and disrupt honest businesses and make life less than easily bearable then something has to be done. And it will be. I'm sure my housemate is filing his complaint with the cops as we speak. Of course, nothing will really be done but that's alright. Its on file now and the guy's pretty well marked off another spot he can go back to.

I could tangent off and try to empathize with him but why? Nobody's forcing him to be absolutely shitfaced by 10 am. Nobody MADE him urinate in public. Nobody MADE him harass patrons at the coffeeshop.

Literary Sidenote

Not very many people have heard of one of Orwell's books about tramping, which is just a britishism for homeless. Its called Down and Out in Paris and London and I suppose if you're going to go hobo style then Europe wouldn't be the worst place to do it. But a few things to bear in mind. He did this more than 50 years ago, woops sorry 1933, almost 70 years ago. And the main gist is that it pretty well sucked to be without a home, though he did this voluntarily (sort of). But it is a worthwhile read. Actually almost everything by Orwell's a worthwhile read in my mind.

Salon.com Comics | This Modern World

Anybody who doesn't think Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World kicks ass is just not paying any attention. This is among the finest satire I've ever come across (and yes, that does include my four year subscription the National Lampoon).

Pertinent, pert and piquant! Bring it on, Tom!

Heavy Eyes, Hairy Thighs, Who's Got My Heady Skies?

Oh well, a poet I am not and that's just fine. I'm just sort of forcing myself through the afternoon, struggling to keep my eyes open (and no, I don't have heavy thighs, jeezo, not everything I write is based in reality for chrissake!).

Been a funky week and I'm ready to start next week with more or less clean slate.
Loads of fun, so long as I get my nap in, I'll be just fine!

More Funny Searches

Check this one out. Google Search: Pics of Joan Rivers Looking Plastic.

Hahahahah! I love being able to check those things!

Follow Up Irritation

Well now, this is a bit strange. When I try to check in on the blog, the page loads up but the web page itself stays completely blank. I checked the source and the page code is all there, its intact without breaks or dangling participles or whatever. And yet, I have nothing showing on the screen.

And people wonder why I so thoroughly despise Microsoft.

What Does it Mean When I Already Know the Word of the Day?

I've got several word of the day things going right now and lately I've known the words already. Exacerbate? Come on now, indigent? Puhlease.

Ach, anyway, I'm feeling a little smarter than I was yesterday. Maybe a little less bothered by my pal getting fired. Maybe a little less concerned for his welfare and more concerned for my own. Which means I'll have to make an effort to work more and post less here. Of course, actuality is a very different creature than intention so we'll just have to see how much of a difference there is.

I got a bunch of new music last night which is always good. Thanks to Layne I've found Prozzak and am starting to build up a small collection of their songs. Will try to find their CD later on when I've got some free time. Also got a few new The Coup songs which are, quite frankly, the bomb. And some Wilco which is alright but far overshadowed by The Apples in Stereo, which is excellent so far.

Only down side to the morning, aside from having to get up was that one of the housemates tracked in some crap and its all over the stairs, nasty and a bit unsettling first thing in the morning. And its not like I hate my job right now but its about the last place I wanted to come to today. Why would you fire someone on a Thursday anyway? Why not just wait until Friday and not have to deal with the emotional baggage until Monday when the vast majority of it would have dissipated by then anyway? Short sighted or just don't give a damn. Who knows? Who cares? I just want to fly low, get my time in and then get gone.

Happy Friday! Sorry, no inspirational quotes today. Just a fervent wish to slide through to Saturday sooner rather than later. Though who knows? Perhaps tonight will prove to be a reasonably good time. I did get a new toothbrush in the mail today, its at home charging up as we speak. A full review to come later.

Until the next news story shakes my world, we have, by the way, decided that Scientists Grow Pig Teeth in Rat Intestines may be the best headline of all time. But who knows what today will bring?

Mini Rant on Munging Up the Language

I just came from a little side work surf to check out some random blogs (I do really love that link down there). And it re-highlighted to me a pet peeve of mine. People who take to reinventing the language they use. No, not making up new words here and there. Its the process of writing Neways instead of Anyways or people who alternate every other letter with a capital as in SaNtA cRuZ.
I know why the latter bothers me (because its damned hard to read anything written that way) but I'm not so sure why the former bothers me so much. Maybe because its a sign of laziness? You can't take the time to tap out Any so instead you go with Ne? No, that's lame, sorry not buying it.

But then there are also emoticons which I also think are a bit stupid and refuse to ever use them. A sideways smiley or a winking smiley? And that means what precisely? Whatever. I guess I'm just a bit peeved off right now.
Hey, at least I'm not lapsing into a litany of sailor styled curses. Though I certainly can. Maybe I'll save that for later when the A's toss another game in the crapper in the late innings after excellent starting pitching performances.

Side note:
Checking how people got to Intellectual Poison is among the funniest parts of my day. Someone found me by doing a Google search on Cape Town sluts. And because I've written about CapeTown numerous times (and still owe an explanation from my long passed Four Truths and a Lie about the CapeTown police action I witnessed) and hasn't just about everybody written about sluts at one point or another? Nah, probably not but it makes me wonder just what else came up when they do the search. Thanks SiteMeter!,

Scientists Grow Pig Teeth in Rat Intestines

Now if that ain't news then I just don't know what is. Of course, I didn't really read the article, just the headline and the first couple of paragraphs. The background concept is valid, creating new teeth to replace those that fall out of people's heads.
But damn, it sounds like last place at some southern cook off.

And Then There Were Eight

We lost a co-worker today, he got fired for a variety of reasons and maybe I shouldn't be writing this from work but the day's pretty well tossed as it is already.
I'll write more about this later on but he's a good friend of mine and worked in the sales department. Had put up reasonable numbers, better than any of his predecessors but didn't get along with the boss well and that's like a knife in the back. You just can't function like that.

Sucks to be here today now.

An Inspirational Quote and then An Attempt to Recapture What Blogger Hath Voided

"That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end."
- --Lise Hand, describing Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, who was killed as a result of her investigations of Irish organized crime.

Gotta go with the good quote to start the day and yes, this one may just get into my quotes page, haven't updated that one recently. And it deserves to be updated just like all the other pages I've been working on when I should have been cleaning my room or working my lists.

What I'd been writing about when Blogger decided to erase the post was the latest book I've been reading. Its called Advance, Retreat by Richard Rive, a now deceased South African author.
The book deals with issues and people during the apartheid rule of the country, how a simple act of sitting on a Whites Only bench led to the beating and imprisonment of one character. How another drunken character harasses people on the train. How a white woman so irritates a coloured college student (which was a more unusual sight back then and yes, it is good to say back then when it comes to a policy like apartheid).

The book's stories run together though they are meant to be read and allowed to stand alone on their own. But the scenes meld from one to another smoothly and without problems. He writes from the trenches, inside the bodies and minds of his protagonists so that you can feel their worry, fear, fright and elation (that last only on rare occasions). This is a somber book punctuated by moments of brilliant clarity. Quite good reading too.

In other news, I'm somewhat torn this morning about whether I want to go to the Buffett show tonight. Torn from several angles. The biggest is that it'll be my first time going with Melissa and while I don't miss her anymore, I do feel her absence when I do go to those things we once did together. And I know part of this comes from the fact that she's getting married next week. But yeah, its on my mind and I'm not sure if I have any real desire to make the journey over the hill. The other side of that is that I just don't FEEL like doing much of anything right now. I want to sleep, ride my bike, workout, go to the beach, read and write. Well, I guess those are somethings but I don't have a whole lot of desire outside of that for now.

Why is this? I don't know, general unhappiness as the season starts to change over and summer slips into the past. Yeah, yeah, I know summer's been over for a few weeks but not here in Santa Cruz, here its been gorgeous with sunny days, fog enshrouded nights and a delightful lack of tourists.

But I've got to go and get some breakfast in me before a call with one of my analysts later on this morning. One other note before I roll though. I'm increasingly disturbed by the other Melissa's lack of response from emails to her since I saw her in New York. And I'm wondering just what I could have possibly done that would have so disrupted our friendship so that she would write me off completely. That seems a little excessive but who knows, maybe she took my jokes about Derek Jeter a little too seriously? In which case, get over it. He's got zero interest in you so why have much of an interest in him? Eh? Oh you like idolatry? Yeah, that figures.

I'm tempted to write her a slightly less than wholly polite email and more or less demand some sort of explanation. But what would truly be the point? I'm not interested in her aside from her friendship and even that small token seems be denied. Oh well, I'll live and I'll get by just fine out here.

F***ing Blogger

Damnit but this service pisses me off sometimes. Every so often I forget that I've got to highlight and copy my entire posts before publishing them because it will, on occasion, just erase the whole thing. Blogger takes the Post & Publish button and thinks its an erase and delete button.
Which means that alot of nice good writing disappears forever.

Thanks! Makes my day start off just right.

A Parable from intellectual properties

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

***************************
Thanks Amy, always nice to get a little perspective going. Dang but I munged that code up first time through.

Came across petulant scream earlier today. It'll bear a deeper examination but might be an addition to the blogs down the side.
Oh yeah, and I joined the Suzuki Blog Ring and Great Brain Ring. More to come as I ferret those buggers out.

And apparently there will be no comments until the Klink Family site is back up and running. Anyone know of a comment system that DOESN'T depend on an outside server? I'd like to be able to host and run my own comments right here. Speed things up a bunch too, I'd bet.

MidWeek Malaise

I don't know, there's something about Wednesday's. In some ways its the toughest day of the week because you're just halfway done with the week, there's still more to go. Not like Monday because you've just come off the weekend and should have some war stories to relive. Not like Thursday which is almost a weekend night already.
I don't know.
Still sleeping like shit which is impacting the rest of my life. And I made an effort to get to bed last night before midnight. I tried but it just barely missed.
I do get to cross off a few things from my list I wrote up last night. Tossed up another couple of auctions on Ebay. Got some organizational stuff taken care of. Secured my house for another year (which is totally bitchin'!) and made myself a pretty wicked dinner (skirt steak, a crazy mushroom medley thing and some mini shells with a sharp cheddar sauce and baby peas).
But I'm still feeling kind of empty, like I need to stop into some cosmic gas station and get my soul reinflated.

Erika asked me a question that's repeated itself to me at least a dozen times. Am I going to Melissa's wedding out of a sense of obligation, closure or for some other reason (revenge?)? And I truly don't know. When I think about her getting married I don't feel any sadness or regret. I don't want to be marrying her. Part of my desire to go might be rooted in the fact that I'd like to run into Rob, the guy who I blame for a good portion of our issues. Run into him just so I can break his nose and keep walking. You might think that's a bit extreme but its only a miniscule fraction of the depth of my dislike for this predatory loser.

I should explain more about him but I don't really want to give over any of my time to him anymore. I think, instead, I'm going to run some lovely multiple response cross tabs and get them all cleaned up for our next survey. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? At least I've got my iPod to crank music at me all day.
Maybe I should set it to Buffett and let it roll?

One other thing that's driving me nuts and I know I shouldn't complain about it. I burned the roof of my mouth like three days ago and its still painful today. Sucks to have a face that actually does hurt. Hey, maybe I should pop some painkillers and have a groovy day?
And where'd my stupid comment system disappear to? I didn't give it the day off, or at least I don't remember giving it the day off.

Minor Rant

I know lots of people out there really care about the Emmy Award's and the Oscars and all that crap the rich and pretty give to themselves. But I'm most definitely not one of them. All of those award shows actually bother me. These are people who are getting paid to pretend and yes, some of them are quite talented at pretending to be someone or something else. But they aren't heroes or role models or athletes or firemen or cops or anything of any real value. They are icons, symbols and beyond the thin layer of gold on the outside they are hollow and meaningless on the inside. Do you think they care about you, the fan, at all? If so then let's talk terms on a bridge I own. But then, I've always had a harsher stance than most. I just hate watching them congratulate themselves on how great they all are. And then having Joan Rivers, the queen of idiot plastic surgery (remember Botox, the woman's insane), rip people apart for what they wear? What the hell is that all about?
Maybe if she were still marginally attractive to look at. But she's turned the corner and is now a side show freak. Its like "Hey kids, lets go see the 100 year old woman with skin so tight if she gets a cut, it'll run up half her side like a run in some pantyhose." Give it up, you're old. Age gracefully because this chemical and surgical battle merely highlights your shallow vanity. But then, if that's all you've got..........

He Spins, He Shoots, He SCORES!

Sometimes its good being a PR guy. Sometimes its nice to be able to schmooze a little bit and grease the path of what I want. Sometimes you just catch people in the right mood and it all cascades down slope from there.
Whatever the cause, the conclusion is that we'll have a place to live for another year, another year in the house in First Ave. Another year of BBQ's, beach parties, football parties, of after parties from the bars, of having a garage to keep all of our bikes locked up safely in.

An Interesting Quote from Nerve.com

Came across this during the day's travels, kind of resonated with me some.
"It is essential that we realize once and for all that man is much more of a sex creature than a moral creature. The former is inherent, the other is grafted on." --Emma Goldman

I'd be curious as what the female equivalent of this quote would work out to be. Anyone want to take a stab at it?

Slow Migration from Slumberland to Land of Regretful Wakedness

Well this morning was a tough one to roll out of bed for. It feels like someone stuffed my head with wool or something. We'll see if that clears but I've been feeling a bit run down lately and maybe this is the tip of first flu of the season. I hope not because this is a busy week for me.
My old buddy, Jay, and I are going to this show on Thursday. And then I'm meant to head up to Northstar over the weekend for some serious riding. But as that gets closer and closer and I've still not gotten my SV's rear brake changed over, I'm not quite sure that its a happening thing yet.
That and the concept of a four hour plus motorcycle ride over super slab highway on a bike like Therapy isn't all that appealing. But we'll see. What I want to do more than anything is take a six or seven hour nap which is a little strange since I just barely got up a couple of hours ago.

And I'm split between lots of work tasks to take care of and the pull of housing duties. I need to make sure that we're staying for another year or we'll need to start the process of finding other digs to settle down in. And that would suck because we've got a really good house pulled together now. Just need to get through this hurdle of the new lease.

I'm also looking for my first review at work as I've been here well more than the 6 month trial period. And I'd like to have some sense of how well I'm doing and what I need to work on to improve my value to the company. Sounds like fun? The upside is that, assuming I'm doing my job, I should get a raise and that makes everything more fun. Oh yeah. I'll keep the universe posted.

But I'm tired, my body's tired, my brain's tired, my emotional center is tired. A sick day would have been just the ticket.

Smart AND Sexy?

There's a great new commercial on TV where Mr. Happy's chatting with three cute girls at a party type bar. They're all harmlessly flirting with Mr. Happy (and Available), asking him why he doesn't have a girlfriend when none of them want him at all. And then Mr. Tall Dark and Brooding comes up to be halfway introduced before cutting Mr. Happy off with a brusque "Whatever, I'm going home." And the girls ALL want him. Because he's more mysterious (and substantially better looking) than Mr. Happy.
I identify with both male characters, Mr. Brooding by nature but Mr. Happy by outlook.
What's the point, you ask? Maybe there isn't one this time.
Just pointing to something and saying "Lookie!".

pop culture slut just might be worth a gander or two

Pimp for Hire

Here's more help to the HotorNot guys.

Or maybe not. After trying to add the HotorNot search engine to the site I'm struck by two things. Either Jim and James are bad programmers who publish very, very wonky code or Blogger likes to cheese up even code posted in messages and not just in the template itself. Two, why in the hell do I want a search engine to their site on my blog?

Ex that crap code and things should return to what passes for normal.

Ever See "Enemy of the State"?

There are some scenes in Enemy of the State that left me a little freaked out. I knew it was a movie and they had license to stretch technological bounds to propel the plot and all that. But check this out, this is MapQuest's satellite picture of my neighborhood. No, you can't dynamically follow me as I ride my bike through the streets but I'm sure the government can.

A little strange but also a little cool. My brother showed me this when we all in Delaware a few weeks ago. Finally got around to checking it out. Punch in your own address and see your house from space.

Do A Myriad of Smaller Aggravations Equal One Giant Explosion?

I've been happy, overall, things in life are progressing at reasonably good rates. Heck I'm such a good person that I increased my loan repayments on my motorcycle!
But I'm severely unmotivated about certain things and I'm not quite sure why.
Like really going through and cleaning my room from top to bottom. Putting away, throwing away, donating unworn clothes, culling the useless, shelving the useful. All that crap. And maybe reorganize one of the closets, or move my bed around in the room again.
Now, I know why I'm not doing that right now. I'm still unsure about whether we'll get a renewed lease.
Or the realization that, damn it, missed a patch of whiskers while I was shaving this morning and then settling into basically not caring about it.
Or spending a minute or so every ten, killing ants as they scurry across my desk on some important mission or another. Nothing they're feasting on in or on the desk, they're just using it as a short cut from the wall the other wall.

I know where a portion of the melancholy comes from. Its the realization that as each weekend passes, I draw nearer to another chapter of my life closing forever. Melissa's wedding is the weekend after next. It ought to be interesting (and by interesting I mean emotionally trying) but on the same token, I know she's not the right woman for me. But she's been the closest in a long time.
I drive myself nuts sometimes, having a virtual checklist of qualities against which any and all potential mates must cross. I don't know how it all works or what but its there and I know that there are checks that must be checked off before any possibility of any future come about. Is this making any sense, does it matter one way or the other? Its my mind, let me be as cluttered and lame as I need to be.

I do know that I need to make some changes of some kind and shake the malaise that's settled over me again. Too easy to let the day drift through me instead of attacking it and beating into submission.

Hope I've got a place to live in three weeks but if not I need to check in with the Santa Cruz Housing Authority and find out what my rights are if the lease isn't renewed. Is it bad that there's a part of me that wants to shake up the housing situation again? I love my room and love my house but it hurts to be paying so much for rent, its just plain wrong. Its like setting fire to a third of my paycheck every month. Poof, gone without any equity build up.

Oh well, looks like I've rambled on long enough for now. I'm sure something'll set me off before too long and I'll have to rant out at length.
To Kim, welcome to the blog, thanks for taking the time to say hello. Hope you like what you read. If not then let me know or tag it.

My Laptop, the Comedian

You know how some people don't know when to shut up and go away?
My Powerbook's decided, lately, that it knows better than I do when it needs to go to sleep (i.e. so I can sleep or go to work or go outside and not burn my eyeballs to my eyelids by staring at the screen for hours upon hours on end).
Its marginally funny the first time.
I'll go to the file menu, scroll down to sleep and immediately the whole system begins to power down, the screens dim, the hard drive begins to wind down.
And just before its out cold, it'll spin all the way back up, screens un-dim and it acts like its ready to play some more.

As I said, its funny (or something like funny) the first time. Imagine being told the same joke every ten or fifteen seconds for ten minutes. How funny is it on the last hearing? Not very.
I'll try to put the system down five or six times and each time it'll spin down almost to being down but then, bam, it'll spin right back up.
The only thing I can equate it with is how dogs and cats will be basically out cold but then a sudden noise will jar them back to sitting up and looking around again, fearful that they'll miss out on any fun.
But this kind of fun, I don't need. I wanted to throw the damned laptop into the street (which is a failing of frustrating devices that are small enough to hurl into a wall or oncoming traffic). But it eventually settled down and behaved for the time being.

So a part of the day will have to be given over to trying to figure out just what the fudge is going wrong. Wish me luck or maybe stand outside my window waiting to catch the laptop on its way to extinction. I'll yell first if I feel the further need to pump a few rounds through the carcass.

Another New Blog to Poke Through

In my continuing efforts to cull the lame blogs in my regular clicks, here's one that doesn't suck. I'll try to get rid of the ones that do.
mecawilson holds good fun stuff

Fabuloso Friday Night Updates

Well, instead of going out and getting stinkity again tonight. I opted to stay in and write, alot. I updated two pages from the blog.
Another new recipe on the recipe page, this time for my take on bruschetta.

And this, on the About page

I'm not exactly sure what to write about myself. Part of me likes the idea of being my own PR pimp. Well, let's start there. I'm a PR manager for a small research company located in Santa Cruz, California.
My name is Erik and I'm 33 years old, look 27, act anywhere between 12 and 50 at any given time though I tend to being more playful than anything else.
I come from Northern European stock, German on my dad's side and a combo meal of Welsh, Scottish and some Polish on my mom's. I've been able to trace both sides of my family history back several hundred years. My middle name is Carl, a name that's been passed down through my father's family history for a few hundred years.

Read the rest? But I will warn you now, I'm not capable of a short post or background. And I'm still only maybe hitting a tenth of my life. but then, aren't we all?

Think You Have Crappy Neighbors?

Check out this guy's long story about his Redneck Neighbor.

I'm glad I live nowhere near this moron.

Thanks to The Fabulous Mint 400 for the link. The Mint 400 is, by the way, the race that Hunter Thompson was going off to cover outside of Las Vegas when he wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, possibly one of the most entertaining books of all time.

Happiness is......

Knowing that there's a pair of fresh McQueen DVD's waiting for me at the house when I get off of work. Steve McQueen has slowly grown into one my personal heroes because of how he carried himself through his life. He was a no bullshit kind of guy, tough as nails when he had to be and cool under pressure. Lots of traits that I do make an attempt to emulate (sometimes notably less successfully than others, see the post for proof. I've got Papillon and Hell is for Heroes waiting at home to go with The Great Escape as my little McQueen DVD collection grows. Ebay rules!

And in response to Amy's question about who said the unexamined life is not worth living, I humbly submit my Google search but also agree that Thoreau used much the same philosophy in his life. Though the original quote comes some time before Thoreau's time. Go So-Crates! Oh wait, that's Socrates, hehehehe.
the unexamined life: googlized.

The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal
Another spot to examine and learn. Very interesting site and I plan on going back when I've got more time to explore it fully.

An Era of Animosity and Hatred

I don't how many of you out there witnessed the utter stupidity of the father and son at the Chicago White Sox/Kansas City Royals game last night. They jumped out of the stands and assaulted the first base coach, an older man who they'd decided needed an ass kicking. But in the end, after they'd blind sided him like cowards, the entire Royals team dog piled on them and proceeded to beat the holy pooh right out of them.
They were then escorted down into the bowels of the stadium and (hopefully) beaten up some more for their incredible stupidity. I say hopefully because this sort of behavior is among the most easily preventable and is also a sign of how poorly people are raising their children.
This man is obviously a person filled with hatred and anger, maybe a drinking problem tossed in for liver hardening fun. And he is raising his son with his same moral character. That its okay to attack someone you don't agree with, that beating up older people is permissible, that hating IS a family value, that its okay to go through your life being angry and taking it out on whoever pisses you off next.
I want to see what happens to this idiot, I want to see him go to jail, I want to see him suffer for his idiocy. I want to see him be made an example of, a harbinger of things to come for those that raise their families to hate. I would very much like to see some sort of mandate passed that people cannot raise their kids to be haters, to use aggression as a means to resolving issues. We're a civilized society, why do people think its okay to debate with their fists and feet instead of their wit and intellect?

EVOLVE PEOPLE! Evolve or get out of the way.

Urgent Appeal - Amina Lawal Must Not Face Death by Stoning

Yeah, this is completely and totally messed up. Thanks to intellectual properties for the heads up and the link.
Horrible concept and story. Made all the worse because this is happening right now, not a hundred years ago or five hundred years ago. And even worse again because the supposed father of the child has already walked free because there's not enough evidence to prove the child is his.
Its incredibly frightening to think that this can happen now, in this day and age. And all she did was have a child out of wedlock, for that they want to bury her in the ground and then smash stones into her skull until it fractures and she dies. Why? To scare other women away from sex forever? Is this the same place that performs female circumcisions with rusty razor blades and mutilates a woman's genitalia, effectively chopping off the parts that make intercourse feel good? Good lord, and we're trying to protect our oil interests instead of protecting these sorts of outright human rights violations.
Procreation isn't just a right, its our true and sole purpose of existence and as such is genetically hard wired into us. Because she didn't have a husband before creating a child, she should die? That's ludicrous.

In Other News

Bush-Hitler Comparison Colors German Vote Run-In
This is just plain sick. However true or untrue it may be, to have a US president likened to Hitler is wrong, no matter how bad Bush may be.

Off to see the Wizard

Today ought to be an interesting day of meetings to discuss and codify our PR strategy. I've got my English PR/marketing rep in and our Florida-based PR guy. But the downstream effect is that I'll be unable to post much today.

Does Being Agnostic REALLY Mean Anything?

I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now, ever since I went back east and visited a friend. A friend who's since pretty well ex-communicated me from her life. No idea why really but the only one I can think of that makes any real sense is that I told her I don't believe in God. I even had the chance to tell her why (a long and involved story). But ever since, she ignores my emails. Yep, its lame and silly. I thought friends were able to accept and move past minor issues (of which I truly think religion is one). And I don't think its because I was harping on Derek Jeter, that would be incredibly stupid of her. Which she is not.

But can it be that the main problem is the fact that I refuse the leap of faith argument? That I cannot force my mind to accept that there are beliefs that should JUST be held without examination? I'm sorry, no wait, no I'm not, but if you require me to be illogical then you'll be sadly and sorely mistaken. I cannot make myself believe something in absence of real proof, its just not in me. My parents raised me properly and well, I have a scientist (cum businessman but a chemist during my formative years) for a father and a social scientist for a mother. My grandfather was a physicist and my other grandpappy was an electrical engineer.

I'm a trained philosopher, an empiricist actually. That means I need to see the proof before it becomes real and possible to me. Belief outside of evidence is opinion and is, as such, untenable. Oh well, her loss, not mine. I can't deal with narrowmindedness. Though perhaps I'm as guilty of it? But at least I write the emails and that's gotta count for something. The attempt rather than the stoic silence which is, truthfully, infuriating. But whatever, I live in California, she lives in New York, what's the point anyway aside from the fact that I had her as a friend and now she's just another existant creature.

War Humour

This is for Amy at intellectual properties. It came by way of my favorite desert rose, thanks EB. I'll change it to a link in a day or two but its well worth the few moments it'll take to load up inline.

Another Cool Toy for the Blog

I was checking out FoodTV.com and saw that they have a random recipe link that I thought would be a cool addition to Intellectual Poison. I'll post it on the side with the other links. Maybe I should start a random links section for these as I find them? Yeah, yeah, that'd be cool!

Making an Old Mac Hand Happy

One Man's Retro Mac Revival is a great story about another Mac-head (sorry Layne, I'm all about Macs) who trucks old macs to raves and other spots and sets up game lounges.

Rock on, Devan! The world needs more guys like you.

Another Silly What-Are-You Test

I taste like Peanut Butter. I am one of the most blendable flavours; I go with sweet, I go with sour, I go with bland, I go with anything. I am practical and good company, but have something of a tendency to hang around when I'm not wanted, unaware that my presence is not welcome. What Flavour Are You?

Kind of interesting really because as a kid I ate more peanut butter than anything else. Paul, what do you think do I hang out longer than I should? Maybe its true, that you ARE what you eat. I wonder what that means for the kids who eat dirt and gravel?

Today's Bushism

"I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well."�Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2001 taken from George Bush Jr. - the Dark Side Now if only I can find a Cheneyisms site.

Nope, nothing yet but here's a scary site about Cheney's dealings. Dirt on Dick Cheney?

More Incredibly Stupid Research

From Kuro5hin (yeah, no clue on that one either) comes tech and culture from the trenches, Wave Theory in Sports Arenas which explores, yep, the science behind sports fans doing the "Wave".
It was in Budapest so hopefully I didn't have to help pay for this incredibly important scientific research.
Here, let me summarize the summary. Waves move clockwise at a mean speed of 40 feet/second and the width of the wave is 15 rows. The full report is here.

Props to Hardy J. (yep, that's his real name) for the hook up. Note, the link to his site is NOT a blog, its his personal spot for other stuff. I know, who ISN'T blogging these days?

Eminem Rips, Even if he DOES have an Anger Management Problem

I don't really give a damn that half the people out there can't stand him, I really like Eminem alot. He just came up on the iPod twice in a row on shuffle play so I had to comment.
I once heard him described as a rapper diva and its pretty appropriate. He's got the mentality of it, the ability for it and the balls to say in front of ya' all.
Just thought I'd share.

iPod Supplemental Post

For some reason my iPod just went on a long and somewhat irritating Christmas music kick. Its got 1600 songs in it and somehow decided to focus on oh about twenty Christmas songs. What the fudge? I need to get that stuff worked out and create ever better song lists. Maybe put together a huge dirty-song-free work playlist? That's not a bad idea at all. But I also need to get some new music, maybe I'll go the Wherehouse during lunch. Anyone out there got some cool new music that's making you grin? Share!

Poor Dennis

I was all broken up this morning when I heard that Dennis Kozlowski, the criminal CEO of Tyco, announced that he doesn't have enough money for bail since the government put a big old padlock on his embezzled $600 million. Poor, poor Dennis.
Let's send the message to all the other corrupt CEO's who are damaging not only their companies but our country's business reputation by being such blatant, out and out thieves. Partying while they drain money from hard working people's pockets. Laughing as they bleed America.

I didn't watch the whole show last night but I did catch a very good scene in Ben Affleck's new show Push, Nevada's premiere. The IRS guy is explaining why he hates corruption and hates criminals because they load their burden on hard working honest people. They are the reason we have such heavty taxation and it makes sense to me. And it relates to these fat cat CEO's bleeding their companies dry and stealing pensions. They make us all pay more because they greed themselves out on an easy money teat. That money they steal has to come from somewhere, ya know. I'd love to get the transcript for the scene because it was very, very well done. Shame they were going up against the Giants and Dodgers in a tight game, sorry primetime, post season pennant races take precedent for me. Until Sunday when the NFL's back in action.

Anyway, they're talking about Kozlowski doing time on Riker's Island, a seriously no fun big boy prison. Not some Club Fed garbage for rich thieves. That'll help turn the tide, don't give these criminal bastards paid vacations at resort prisons. Toss them to the freaking three strike wolves in the real prisons and see how they like that!

Another New Addition

Trying out another new dealie for the blog, it may bog it down in which case I'll remove it but it can also give an easy spot to tag a note up about a post or whatever.
Its down below the blogs and other links on the left. Check it out.

And a second quick update

Just added my second recipe to the favorite recipe page. This one for the delectable meat lovers dream, marinated skirt steak with grilled pineapple! Beyond good to eat. Its magnificent.

Quick Update

Added my first favorite recipe to the new page. More to come when I'm not buried at work.

One of the BEST Ways to Start the Day

......is to run into an old friend you haven't seen in a couple of months. Especially when she happens to be not only sweet, smart and funny but also simply gorgeous and genuine.
I was heading off to work, taking my usual run down by the cliff edge to make sure the ocean and beach were still there and I ran into my friend, Shane, sitting out on her front step. I looped back and we chatted for a little while, caught up with each other. And I couldn't help but be in a much better mood because of it, she's that kind of person that just lights me up.
And one of the few people I've met that can actually get my tongue tied.
What a way to start the day! Thanks Shaner, hope your head feels better soon.

The Onion | America's Finest News Source�

has some of the best satire going on the net. I wish they updated more often but I'm sure they work their butts off.
Favorite feature? Gotta be STATshot, this time around its Least Successful U.S. Charities.
If you've never read it then you should give it a run. If you've read it before then you should read it again. If you've just finished reading it then maybe you should get back to work.

And I will do my best to refrain from marathon posting as I did last night. A little Bushmills goes a long way, eh?

Ummm, How'd That Work?

I spoke with a buddy about the other night at the bar when I got tossed out. He added quite a lot of clarification and humour. I guess I should get into some of the background before I get into the foreground, eh?

Forewarning, this is a long post, sorry about that. I tried to cut it down but how?

Went out for a few pre-birthday celebratory drinks last Tuesday night. Yes, my birthday is 9/11, I'm over it, it's still my birthday. Anyway, we met up down at 529, one of our local pubs for a few drinks to ring in yet another year of my life passing by. I turned a whopping and ever growing 33 this last week. Do I feel different? Do I look different? Nope, I still look 20-something. Oh well.

So I had a few rounds with Hardy, April (his girl) and Alisha from work. Car bombs, kamikaze's, margarita's and whatever else I felt like having. I'm not an especially indulgent person but a birthday does come but once a year and why the hell not open the gates and enjoy it all? Rounds with Larry, the bartender/owner, rounds with Jamil, the bartender/friend of a friend and now my friend (funny how the firewater can do that, isn't it?). Lots of bitching about work and the stupidity we endure there (a whole nother post but not one I can tackle right now).

It began to get good and crowded there so we changed channels and went down to Brady's to check in there. I should have turned and burned when I saw Nate bartending but I was already a couple of sheets in by then. So in I went with my crew. And into the crowd that held numerous pals and friends and whatnot. A good group of people out for a Tueday, especially a Knucklehead Night Tuesday (actually its called Neighborhood Night but since no one from the hood is generally out we renamed it Knucklehead Night, apropos in my case but we'll get there).

Sitting and drinking, chatting and drinking, flirting with various chicas. All fun and good and no worries. My buddy Brian was playing pool and winning, nothing unusual but the guy who came up after his latest win wanted to play doubles. Somehow I ended playing opposite Brian with this guy, Ken, I think.

We lost the first game by a reasonable margin but, when no one else stepped up to take the table, we played a second game and I won it for us. Kind of cool and I was very much in the birthday mode. To make a long story even longer, at some point I'd begun chatting up a girl, kissed her a few times, nothing out of control. After the win on the pool table she and I talked/kissed some more when she said something (can't quite recall exactly what) that was rude and off base and then slapped me.

Yep, got a whacky across my chin. For really no reason aside from one of those intractable drunken moments. But no worries. I reached over and tapped her on the chin, not a slap, not a hit, not damaging in any way, and she freaked. Went off the scale to her pals who were staying mildly close to keep an eye on her. She squawked at length and at volume about how I'd hit her. Yadda, yadda, yadda. All that. And Nate, in his behemothian glory 86'ed me.

John, the bouncer escorted me to the back door as her pals were most upset though they had nothing to do with the situation save look like petulant monkeys. And John's a pal of mine so I let him take me out. We walked to the front, chatted some, he told me it wasn't him but even so, you can't hit girls and I did my best to explain what had happened. No worries, it wasn't to buy my way back in, I'm bright enough to know that that's not an option that can happen in a bar.

But we talked and it was all good. And the girl found out I'd been tossed so she came out and we talked, she tried to get me back in, I don't know six times? Before I made it clear to her that I knew I was done for the night there and it was alright, I was a big boy and things were groovy. Instead, she and I spent a little while in the doorway making out, in full view of the bar, the bouncers and Nate who was most disgusted by the subjugation of his authority over me.

Instead of being launched like a cannonball, I'd had my fun, gotten tossed, come back for more and confused the hell out of him, the bouncers and the bar in general.

Yahoo, what fun it is to make things come up aces even when tossed like salad into the wind. Sadly, she had to return to her pals inside. Not a worry as I headed back up the street to the 529 to check back in there and see if I could go for the double. Such was not to be the case but it all worked out dandily anyway and I rang in my 33rd in the proper style. Naked in bed (more or less) with a tasty cake to play with.

Good fun in all and most definitely the least expensive drinking night of my life. Over the course of numerous hours I spent a total of six bucks. Yep. Six whole stinking bucks to get wholly stinking drunk. Love my neighborhood and love my pals, they treated me right and took good care of me. And I got to confuse and piss off Nate some more which has sort of grown into a past time these days.

Though the grassroots campaign's in full swing and there will be no drinking with him behind the bar. There's another spot for when he's there. I don't give a damn when he's not working because his god complex is in check, its when he's pouring drinks that he becomes utterly insufferable.

So there ya have it. The first few hours of my 33rd. And the day was loads of fun from there even amidst the depression that is 9/11 now. Good times and no black eyes? Yep, we call that a win.

Tables broken by �Mile High Club�

And here's a little story about being so bored and/or horny that they bang away on a diaper changing table. I've got to say that this constitutes cheating to game entry into the mile high club.
My understanding is that coitus must take place in your seat and not on some hump station.

Recognizing One's Shortcomings

I could start this off with a joke that this'll be a short post. But come on, I can't write short posts just as I can't speak to people in abbreviated little sentences. I've got long strand thoughts, I can't help it. Where they go, my mouth or fingers lead.
People give me shit about it all the time. That I'm the most talkative person they know. And that's even after I meter myself, I try my damndest to ease back and not opine about everything. But I have some higher duty, something that compels me to interject truth when I hear lie or falsehood. I must interject the devil's advocate when someone is using a straw man fallacy argument.
Why? Because I'm always looking for someone willing and able to speak beyond the mundane, the trivial and the banal. I want to discuss underlying reasoning, factors leading to decisions and ways that people rationalize and explore who and what they are.
I want to live the examined life. I want to figure out why and how I came to hold the opinions and conclusions that I hold. I want to dig into how others come to the same reasoned or unreasoned stances on issues.

But instead I get labelled with a mildly discriminatory version of verbal diarrhea. And I suppose that its something I can adjust but sometimes I'm completely incapable of not talking, I must engage whoever is closest. Is this part of the reason that I so value my time alone, because then the arguments take place within the enclosed dome of my cranium?

No matter. One of the things I've realized over the last few weeks of interacting with friends, strangers, family and others is that I'm not about to go changing who and what I am to suit anyone else. Why be false to yourself in order to be truer to someone else? Because you can't be true outwardly if you know that you're being false on the inside. Its just not possible. Sure, you can short term it and get away with it for a bit but the more savvy among us will see your deception, maybe as just an uneasy feeling but its never complete, never seamless. The cracks are there for the seeing if you only want to see it.

I know where I am lacking as do, apparently, those who know me. And my feeling is that as long as I am making efforts and strides towards addressing those shortcomings I do know about then I can't be all wrong, can I?
Its the shortcomings that I'm not aware of that I can't really work on except by dumb luck and that's almost never a good way to work on oneself.

Examine, be examined, lead the examined life. Be an unhappy human rather than a happy pig if that's what it takes. Figure out if you're holding your concepts and ideals out of a sentimental or emotional reasoning rather than by the cold hard truth of logic and deductive or inductive reasoning. Otherwise we're all just going through the motions of existence without truly existing.

And Paul, I just can't resist. You're supposed to close the door before you get naked.

De La Hoya Wins

And it was one hell of a FIGHT!
Lots of people don't like boxing and I can respect their opinions but damn, watching Vargas and de la Hoya go toe to toe for almost 11 rounds last night was awesome. Lots of ebb and flow, like any good title match. And then the final knockout was well worth the price of admission.
I didn't think de la Hoya would win it though I wanted him to. Vargas talked so much trash and really and truly doesn't like Oscar. And Vargas was bigger and stronger but Oscar was quick and in superb condition.
The final flurry of punches before it was stopped was incredible to watch. And then Vargas had to be taken to the hospital afterwards for observation.

The call in the house was that he thought he was Batman and that was some cause for some concern. All in all a good and fun way to spend a few hours. The earlier fight between John Brown (sort of a mini-me version really) and Cotto was also good, lots of action in the lighter weight divisions.

Maybe its not all that cultured a sport and all that but it certainly is damned entertaining and that's really all I was looking for.

Cartoons CAN'T Have Been This Bad When I Was a Kid, Could They?

I just had to turn off my idiot box this morning. I am stunned at how moronic and lame cartoons have become. Some cat looking thing with frying pans for weapons called Fried Rica (Rice with an A) beating up a dinosaur thing with a box for a mouth named Beefsteak? What the hell is going on?
And no, its not just that one. They all seem to be written and produced by idiots with no talent or story lines. Kids shows are bad, bad things. They are not only bad entertainment but they also help raise another crop of morons to take over after all of us old cranky bastards give up and go home.

What happened to Thundarr the Barbarian, Superman, Spiderman & Friends? Where is all of this anime style garbage coming from and why is it staying on tv when it is so obviously terrible.

Or am I absolutely and hopelessly out of touch and kids WANT to see this tripe? I hope not. Scary bad.

Quick Onebox Update

It would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic. I logged into Onebox this morning to check email. A pop up popped up (go figure) and told me that Call Sciences (the parent company) is dedicated to customer service of the highest quality and they listened to complaints about the preview box which can now be switched off. No mention of the fact that the upgrade is terrible and just about unusable at least ten percent of the time. Nevermind the mythical five nines of server uptime, they're not even to a single nine yet.

By the way, if people don't know the five nines yet, let me know and I'll explain it.
So, Onebox still sucks. Maybe a tiny bit less than yesterday but its still an awful "improvement" over what had been a good solution.
Another gripe about the service is that you can't re-sort by date so that the newest emails appear at the top of the screen. Or wait, you can but you have to do it every single time you log in which is stupid, short sighted and irritating.

And on that high note, I'm off to see if I can bash into some trees on my mountain bike. Wish me luck.

Onebox = Suckbox

This'll probably mean almost nothing to most people not directly affected by it but it shows a larger and more irritating trend. That of supposedly improving a web service when the only improvement I can think of is that they're cutting costs and pocketing the difference.
The prime example is Onebox.com, a web based mail company that used to work well from almost anywhere (heck they used to let me check my email via phone, for free). They went to a pay model and that was alright, I paid and used the service still. But this last week they've made some serious (and completely unannounced) "improvements" that basically took a useful service and turned it totally to shit.
Its pathetic that they try to pawn this off as an improvement when I can count at least eight times in the last four days when the service has been out of commission. Kaput, out of order, try back later, sucka!

My pal, Jay, checked in and found out they've gone from Unix/Apache servers to Windows/IIs servers for some unfathomable reason. The old system worked really well and was quick. Another aspect is that on Monday I had a mailbox that was 60 megs large. On Tuesday, that same mailbox (again, without notice) was dropped to 10 megs again and I began to get a warning email every fifteen minutes that the box was filling up. Um, what the hell is this all about. I had to delete alot of email I had wanted to keep just to stop the stupid warning emails (which were filling up the space very quickly themselves).

This is just another example of the scramble that companies had to get into to save their revenue streams or something like that. But its driving customers away. I've been with them since the beginning but I'm getting ready to jump ship and demand my money back. I didn't ask for or want this "upgrade" and I can't return to the old system either. So I want my money back as I'm no longer getting what they agreed to provide for my money.

Another Milestone Passes

Well, sometime between last night and today my little blog logged its 2,000 visitor. And quite a lot faster than it took to get to 1,000 a few weeks ago.
Nice to know that there are more and more people reading the blog. Just wish more folks were writing in with comments but I can't be too greedy, can I?
Besides, I thoroughly enjoy the interaction with my regular folks, who also know I read them just as regularly. Anything to avoid working, shudder, oh the horror.

Santa Cruz City Officials to Hand Out Marijuana

Yep, that's my city council and tax dollars at work.

Actually this is a pretty interesting situation where Federal law superceded State law. Ought to make for an interesting weekend. I like the part where the DEA spokesmonkey declines to comment on whether arrests will be made. Hmmmm, that might affect turnout if he says HELL YES WE'RE GOING TO BUST THOSE DAMNED HIPPY POTHEADS. They'd prefer we were all on some prozac derivative or something.
Something that can regulated and controlled and turn us all into good little tax paying, no trouble causing zombies. Like Dick Cheney already thinks we all are anyway.

Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism

Some might say that Ayn Rand's an uptight intellectual but I like her and since this is my space to be into whatever I want, I think I'll add a link permanently.

Her institute makes a tremendous amount of sense to me. It speaks to me. If it doesn't for you then no worries, keep reading the funny pages.

InternetParodies.Org/JerryFalwellParody

Ah, internet gold. Satire! And even better, its biblical satire. This is well worth a read, regardless of whether you're a religious nut or not. And it raises some reasonable questions about higher moral codes and running your life by a book that was written a very, very long time ago when smiting was still considered pretty cool. Now it'll get you a few months in the county stir.

Much thanks go to Plain Layne for bringing this ray of sunshine to my gloomy golden state today.
Makes me want to go out and smite something myself. Best to stay off the roads for a little while.

Friday the 13th

Today's supposed to be bad luck, right? So far its been bad news on the TV. The Pakistani's stopped in Alligator Alley down in Florida. The ammonia tanker explosion somewhere else, fatality numbers still to come.

No hot water in Casa Erik still. PG&E said they could get someone out to relight things on Monday. Umm, no. Sorry that won't do at all. So now we've got a 12 hour window for when they'll show up tomorrow. 12 hours for a five minute job. Seems eminently reasonable to me, but then I whacked my forehead on the wall for ten minutes instead of taking a shower this morning so I may not be the most reliable source of reasonable thought presently. But the ringing will stop soon, won't it? And then I'll be fresh as a daisy, a daisy with a lump on its forehead.

But hey, at least we'll have a driveway again tonight. That's something.

I must have had a brain fart or something last night when I left work. I left my burrito stub from Taqueria Vallarta and, much more importantly, my iPod and Elph s200 digi-cam. Luckily I work in a place where I'm one of the first in and last out so no worries. But still, I hate being forgetful. It makes me feel old and stupid.

Other irritations for a dreary and overcast Friday the 13th? People who ignore email and never write back. Somewhat off putting. Especially because you have no idea whether its intentional, accidental or what.
Ummmmm, oh yeah, I'm starting a low level grass roots boycott of one of our two local bars, Brady's Yacht Club. Only when Nate's bartending because he's an eight ball shaped hunk of stupidity, rudeness and just plain uncool to be around. Who wants to drink at a bar where the bartender's always in a bad mood, puts his crappy music on the jukebox and is generally the worst company ever? Oh yeah, and when he's bartending, the universe is all his to control. So Nate, if you're reading this, though I highly doubt you are, fuck you, you fat surly asshole. YOU'RE A FUCKING BARTENDER, YOU MORON! RECOGNIZE WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE. Nimrod.

And no, it has little to do with him tossing me out on Tuesday. Its a long accumulation of irritations and I'm over it, why drink with a mean bastard? Better ways to get rid of money, like setting it on fire or tearing it into fine strips to line a bird's nest with. Anything better than that jerk.

Clarification on Iraq and Bush

I guess I should note that the operative phrase in my last post is and was, It what he says is true.
After the whole election fraud thing and the fact that he's a future convicted felon (or at the very least, Cheney will be) because of the incestuous relationship they both had with Enron, I don't generally believe Bush. But he does make some valid points.

Saddam has a track record of being incredibly duplicitous. Staging media events to make himself look like the persecuted instead of the persecutor. His human rights violations against his own people are well documented. Let me make this very clear, he's not a good person in anyway. He's a dictator who uses his people like puppets and slaves.

That said, do I think the US should act against him without the sanction of the United Nations? Hell no. That's what the UN IS for, to decide how to deal with these situations. And yes, Bush is using the patriotism stirred up by the 9/11 anniversary. Nothing like stirring up anger to not only gain some tough guy points in the polls but it also masks one's real objective which very well may be to secure our future oil supplies.

But he is a dangerous character and I firmly believe that Iraq is a safe haven for terrorists.

I just read intellectual properties' Newsweek post of an Interview with Nelson Mandela and wrote a response on Amy's blog. The gist of it is that I don't really buy the race card issue, I don't think we're going after Saddam because he's black. I don't think that's the issue. He's a freaking megalomaniac who would stab his own brother given the proper motivation. I can't speak to Mandela's take on how the US buggered up the Middle East. But I do agree with him about the US needing to NOT take matters into our own hands. And I agree that Dick Cheney is possibly the most dangerous man in the entire world.

That said, I think I will call it a day. Politics be damned for now. I just can't deal with it all sometimes. And yes, I'm aware that that is part of the problem. Everyone's got too much on their plate and its hard to care about the really big picture when everyone's personal sized canvasses are in such a state. I think I'm going to read my latest issue of Food & Wine and maybe look at the new Nashbar catalog.

And look forward to Friday. Without hot water. Oh did I mention that? Yeah, no hot water in the house for the second day now. I truly hope they get that sewage deal fixed soon because I need to get a shower in and the cold water thing AIN'T happening.

Blair Applauds Bush on Iraq, Sets Debate at Home

And the cheese stands alone (or nearly so, thanks Great Britain). I watched a good portion of Bush's speech to the UN General Assembly this morning. If what he says is true then Iraq poses a serious threat to global peace attempts. I hadn't realized that its been 4 years (four long years) since a UN weapons inspector has been allowed into the country. And there's strong, very strong evidence that Iraq has taken the time to rebuild a deadly arsenal of biological and chemical weapons. Why else would he refuse to allow inspectors in, unless he had something to hide? The times they are a scaring me.

And Iraq has been vigourously pursuing the purchase of weapon components to create a nuclear weapon. Imagine if one of those planes that hit the World Trade Center had had a nuke on it. The devastation would have been unthinkable even though what did happen was thoroughly unthinkable.

But we're talking about an order of magnitude ten times worse, maybe a hundred times worse. Maybe a thousand. Terrorists with nukes sounds like science fiction but we're getting close and closer to it every day.

Iraq and Saddam Hussein represent a very clear and very present danger to America and the rest of the free world. Heck, even Iraqi's want to get rid of him because he basically uses his people as traction for his tanks. A scary and horrible man with his own agenda.

Who also celebrated the destruction of the World Trade Centers, probably had a big old party yesterday for the anniversay and invited all of his Al Queda cronies. One properly targetted missile would have turned them all into a lovely reddish mist.

The Best Call of the Year

Well that was pretty awesome. Just got off the phone with my Dad.
Spoke with him, heard his voice, heard him telling me about the recent ordeal, heard his conviction to continue to fight and work and get himself as well as he possibly can. His mind is very strong and he has the willpower to do this.
It was possibly the best call I've had all year.

And one of the funniest things he said? He's actually considering buying a Mac after seeing the switch ads that have been on tv. Not more than a couple of days after hearing my ardently Anti-Apple brother say he'd buy an iPod once they sync up to a PC. Sure, its not a full Mac but its a step in the right direction, no? Pretty awesome, I'd say.

But not anywhere near as wonderful as speaking with my Dad again. Something I wasn't sure if it was ever going to happen again. Modern medicine is amazing when combined with strong will and support. Judi deserves a huge amount of the credit for being my Dad's support. She's awesome and I, along with my brother, sister and friends who love my father, all owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude. Thank you, Judi!

Chunked Blog Titles? Again?

Apparently its too much to have the title code working properly as its been chunked for the last day or so now. I think I'll be reverting to the old school style and do a wee bit of hand coding for them.

So much to talk about today that I don't think I could get it all in even if I weren't at work. But at least they're not jack hammering right outside my window here. Yesterday we had a concrete saw out front tearing up the drive way and a jack hammer in the back where people are tearing my neighbor's house to the foundation and beyond. It was a like a noise symphony. And no, not much fun but at least we'll be able to flush our toilets again without fear of a sewage overflow. And that's a great gift!

Gotta go for now though. I'm going to give my father a call and see how he's doing.
And I'll come back and fix the last couple of blog titles. Stupid things.

Which Pulp Fiction Character Are You?

Whodda thunk it? I took the quiz and came up with this.

. Your name alone strikes fear into others; but maybe, just maybe, there's a little vulnerability and weakness beneath that stoic, fierce exterior of yours. Take the What Pulp Fiction Character Are You? quiz.

Seems like I should be making a heckuva lot more money!

Thanks to Not Me for the link.

Today in History

What a day today's been. Its been uplifting and saddening. Fun and guilt laden. But I'm happy its here. I had a good birthday today. Want to know some of the other stuff that's happened on this day in history?

This Day in History
On September 11
1789 Alexander Hamilton was appointed by U.S. President George Washington to be the first secretary of the treasury.
1875 "Professor Tidwissel's Burglar Alarm" was featured in the New York Daily Graphic, and became the first comic strip to appear in a newspaper.
1883 The mail chute was patented by James Cutler. The new device was first used in the Elwood Building in Rochester, NY.
1936 Boulder Dam in Nevada was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt by turning on the dam's first hydroelectric generator. The dam is now called Hoover Dam.
1954 The Miss America beauty pageant made its network TV debut on ABC. Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was the winner.
1967 The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS.
1974 "Little House On The Prairie" made its television debut.
1985 A U.S. satellite passed through the tail of the Giacobini-Zinner comet. It was the first on-the-spot sampling of a comet.
1990 U.S. President Bush vowed that "Saddam Hussein will fail" while addressing Congress on the Persian Gulf crisis.
1991 Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, announced that thousands of troops would be drawn out of Cuba.
1994 Actress, Jessica Tandy, died at the age of 85 in Easton, CT.
1997 Scotland voted to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.
2001 In the United States, four airliners were hijacked and intentionally crashed by terrorists later linked to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization. Two airliners hit New York City's World Trade Center towers; both towers collapsed shortly thereafter. A third airliner hit the Pentagon building in Washington, DC, and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania when passengers bravely attempted to overtake the terrorists onboard. That plane's target destination was not known, but it was widely believed to be en route to Washington, DC. In all, over 3,000 victims died.

Birthdays today? Harry Connick Jr., Kristy McNichol, Mickey Hart (drummer for the Grateful Dead), Amy Madigan and O. Henry among others.

I could go into why there seem to be so many Virgos in the world but I need to get some food in me so maybe later when I'm back home. Today's been an indulgent day so far and I see no reason to stop now.

A Good Poppa Post

Well what's the best gift a guy can get on his birthday when his daddy's not doing well?
How about my dad being released from the hospital on my birthday? Yeah that'll do quite nicely indeed.

My dad's going to be sent home tomorrow without an oxygen aid. In fact, he'll have a walker with him but will likely be shunning usage of that shortly after getting out of sight of the hospital.

Go DAD! How awesome is that? Better than awesome.

And intellectual properties had the best tip of the week for driving traffic to a blog. Mention Britney Spears and/or Jenna Jameson and zowie, traffic will spike like mad. How about if we also go for Eminem, Big Brother, Survivor Thailand and Terrell Owens too. Just for kicks. Hehehehe. Thanks Amy!

House Panel Seeks Probe of Martha Stewart

This has got to be one of the funniest headlines in recent months. I've known a few people over the years with a "thing" for Martha Stewart and wouldn't have minded probing her too. I guess it took a congressional committee to break the barrier and get a probe in there.

Bah hahahahahaha! Silly Rabbit tricks are for Johns with cash cards.

But now that my Dad's out of the deep stuff and merely treading water, I think some of this stuff needs to get out into the wilds again.

Sweet Release for Men's Health and Sensual Pleasure for when you want your man AND your lifesavers to come in five flavors. No shit, this company is selling supplements to make a man's baby-making juice taste like other stuff.
Masterful kudos go to The Fabulous Mint 400 for the link. Well done guys!

Size Him Up - Penis Size Calculator. Uhm, sure whatever. It estimated me off by at least a half inch (not saying which way but I'm smiling so let that guide you). Besides, this is utter bullshit anyway. And just another (semi-cute) way to sell condoms. Another link from The Fabulous Mint 400

Final Meal Requests of Texas Jail Inmates before they become the human equivalent of fried chicken. Strange stuff indeed. Courtesy of Kevin's Nadablog.

Happy Birthday to me. Oh shit, nevermind. We've got to hang our heads in sorrow and mourn the felling of America, the destruction of our combined superiority complex. The day the World Trade Center twin towers fell to the earth, bringing our collective into sharp contrast with a people that live to hate, hate us, hate what we have and they do not. Hate that, hate this. Hate it all into a fireball of righteous fury.

Happy birthday to me? How about all of our American compatriots who died that day. The day America fell back top earth from our aerie as the world's policeman, supposedly untouchable and immutable. But no longer. Now we are down in the muck, the sewage of the world that we helped to foster.

Lots of things have already been said and written about tomorrow. Some of it is stupid and short sighted but everyone is welcome to their opinion, however they choose to think about it. But the fact of the matter is that more than 2000 Americans died a year ago tomorrow. How many have to die before these "Americans" DO give a damn about it? What constitutes a tragedy in their book? Does someone they know have to die before it means something to them?

America, Love it or LEAVE it. If you're not on board then get the fuck off. And quit denegrating the memory of those people who did die that day or attempting to make light of the fact that people did lose friends, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters that day.

Are we perfect? Hell no. We're a work in progress and that work should continue but pretending like 9/11 didn't happen or doesn't affect you is just plain stupid. It happened, I've seen the aftermath in New York. I know people who died. Its part of our history whether some people want to be lipstick patriots or not, at least they want to be patriots.

More of an adjunct to the post about multiple forms of transport that I've just worked on and should be up before this.

I got into the city by taking the train in from Morristown where the family dropped me off on their way up to the farm. I do wish I'd been able to spend more time with them but it makes sense to get home and try to get my Cali legs back under me before starting a fresh week at work. It'll be a grinder even with Wednesday off, my first birthday since Osama ruined it forever, guess the day.
It was no real trouble to get from Penn Station to the apartment though some wankers appeared to be semi-stalking me with some lessthan hospitable intent. But no worries, I'm smarter than your average nimrod and caught a cab before any sort of problems could ensue. And mind you, I'm not saying they were planning anything, just that it seemed that way for a variety of reasons.

Ach,gotta run, starting the landing approach and gotta put this away or the plane might crash. Don't want that as I do not want to die in Texas.

Well Dallas was a blast, didn't do much of anything but pass the time by watching a little bit of the NFL stuff that was on the CNN airport network. Kind of nice that they had an actual game and not just highlights. Watched the Browns and the Chiefs in between people watching. A topic that I have got to hit at some point is the incredibly high number of truly obese people there are in this country. It was almost sickening to see fatty after fatty come waddling along with their fat children too. Lovely.
And now my stinking Palm keyboard is acting up. Why me, why me? Oh well, I will have to deal with this one when I get back home but who would havethought that the lack of an apostrophe would be such a frigging hindrance?
A few more hours and then I should be just about home and I cannot (see, no apostrophe) wait to be back in my domain again. That and I should have several packages waiting for me from recent Ebay auctions.

Quick tangent, people who bid on Ebay are more often than not complete and utter morons. Do you really think that you are going to get a full stereo system with a portable minidisc recorder for a hundred bucks? Three steps to deal with this behaviour, one, spread legs, two pull real hard, three remove head from ass and get a flipping clue.

Bah, I tire of being the best in the universe. Especially when I am feeling out of shape from a week of non working out and eating vacation food (i.e. any damn thing I want).

Made several updates to the adjunct pages, uploaded trip pics (ogle my nephews, see some of me, see some of other stuff too) and added a couple of new words. One more new word to add tomorrow once Onebox is functioning normally again.

Many thanks to my dear dessert darling. Don't let your situation get the better of you. And if you feel like its starting to, then you call me. Home or work, doesn't matter. Got it, hon?

It occured to me this morning as I was repacking things up to get rolling that I was going to be going John Candy and Steve Martin one better than their three modes of transport in the movie of the same name. If all goes well at least.
I began with a good and fast ride through the morning streets of New York back to Penn Station (sans punks looking for an easy score), a train ride out to Newark and another short ride on the AirTrain monorail system to get to the terminal, then two flights (I'm nearing the end of the first flight now) to land back in San Jose, either a cab or shuttle to Los Gatos to pick up Therapy and buzz over the hill to get home. Might go for a bike ride this afternoon if I've got any energy left over. But as this is the true start of the NFL season I may just kick bak and take it easy.
So what's that, four main forms of transport in a day, add in a shuttle and I'm at five. Shame there wasn't a ferry in there somewhere too or some other water borne transit.
Kind of cool if you think about it. I'll have travelled well over 3500 miles by the end of the day, something that my great grandfather couldn't even begin to fathom or imagine, much less having done it without breaking a sweat.

Other notes from the trip, people shouldn't wear workout gear if they aren't in reasonably good shape. Just like belly shirts shouldn't be sold to people with nasty bods, what's the point in grossing the world out?
I remember seeing a woman and her guy yesterday outside of Gray's Papaya, she was in good shape but had the most prominent happy trail (the belly hair that most men have that leads down into their pubes) and a mishappen belly button with a piercing through it. Why would anyone want to draw attention to an unattractive part of their body? Actually I can think of several reasons why people would but I'm not convinced in any way that it was her intent.

Protection from West Nile?

Since its been on my mind all week, here's some info about how to hopefully prevent getting it. People over 50 are at a higher risk than the younger generation. Damn punks getting all the breaks. Seriously, its all in the DEET. Keeps those little blood suckers away.

Anyway, protect yourself. West Nile Virus, its the new Anthrax scare!

Gene-Altered Follicles Grow Glowing Green Hair

Um, look ma, no hair dye? This was just simply too strange to pass up on sending to the blogged masses.

Testing out a new comment system. We'll see how well it works. I like how simple it is to install. Let me know via Email
about any issues.

Issues and tissues so far. Can't get the new comments to work properly yet. But its on my fixit list. AFTER lunch though.

Comments are gone or were gone and are now erased, need to replace Haloscan. Anyone got any ideas? Email Me

Among the more interesting things to do while waiting for trains, planes or buses or whatever is to look at the people around you, immerse yourself in travel culture.
Airports have a different sort of person in them then train stations. Heck, Newark, Dallas/Ft.Worth and San Jose have different types of people in them. But its fascinating, entertaining, appalling, irritating or any of a bunch of other adjectives to bear witness to the pageantry that is America or where ever you so happen to travel.

We are a many and varied lot of people. Many are fat, too many based on what I've seen recently. Many are with family or travelling in the company of others, but many also travel alone. Black, white, brown, yellow, pasty-ish Europeans, seemingly black women in sarongs, children everywhere, we are most definitely a reproductive nation. In many ways, its a life that is beyond foreign to me, the constant flow of new people, again and again and again in the aiports and transit terminals. Or toll booths, or rest stop eatery (how many Roy Roger's are there on the New Jersey Turnpike, which is far, far nicer than it sounds). And why can't I pump my own gas?

Anyway, sitting in three separate airports today, I am stunned by the near utter lack of a "typical American", some Joe or Jane who embodies everything that is America. That is who we are, have become. With the anniversary approaching I thought it was poignant to realize the fact that we are a melting pot. Maybe it doesn't work as well as it could and that's why we fight to make it better.

I just wish people would lay off the fast food all the time and maybe get out and get some exercise in. Especially people who wear workout gear on airplanes. They should definitely exercise their bodies as much as their mouths. You reading me today, yappy? Black track suit with white stripes and, shall we be charitable and say, a voluptuous body? Yep, leave it at that.

Now, why would I choose to mention her out of all the people I crossed paths with in the last week? How about the really cute toll booth attendant on the Delaware Memorial Bridge? Or the Russian (speak no English, you order now?) waitress in Bethany Beach? Or Sean, the swaver surf guy? Whatever, all I know is that damned if there's not far too much of the world that I don't know yet. More travel sounds like a more better plan.

I typed this up on my Palm that night and hadn't been able to get it all into the laptop yet. Did that earlier today. Its unedited and probably badly written but here it is.

Lots and lots of things from tonight's game at the Meadowlands. From the tailgating with Melissa's family which was fantastic and unique. To the opening ceremonies that actually gave me chills, the flyover of the big military helicopters (helos because jets were too much of a reminder of 9/11). There was the Non Bon Jovi concert at halftime that lasted all of a single song performed virtually under us in one end of the stadium, a blatant and terribly lame marketing ploy that was executed so poorly that it was pathetic.

And then there was the game itself, an interesting spectacle up close and personal as it was. Not the cleanest or the best played game I've seen but the first I've seen in person. I was with Melissa's family and seated in a predominantly Giants section wearing my Famouz sweatshirt in easy to pick out Raiders colors but didn't have any issues with yabos. As numerous others in Niners gear and cheering for the Niners found out, lots of shouting and mostly good natured stuff but somefights had to break out, Giants fans are nothing if not fanATIC.

Yes, some of it was uncomfortable as alcohol and idiots are generally a bad mix. Meat headed morons drunk on cheap beer and pissed off because the Giants will likely suffer another crappy season of inconsistency and lots of losses. Anyone who's gone to a public event where alcohol's served has seen some nimrod try to pick a fight, well imagine lots and lots and lots of them. Now throw in racial slurs.

But I enjoyed the whole thing tremendously, enjoyed the time with Melissa and her parents. They are entertaining and engaging folks and quite generous. I also learned that I really like pecorino (sp?) cheese, its a bit like romano but with an extra tang to it.

But now, as its well after 1 in the morning, I am going to crawl into bed and try to not dream about little boys with rifles.

Okay, I had to check some flight info stuff and typed in www.sanjoseairport.com expecting to be possibly taken to, of all things, the website for the San Jose Airport. But instead, and please do not do this if you like having control over your computer, I was hijacked and taken to the never ending pop up land where some asshole decided that I needed to know incredibly stupid stuff like Verisign Is Bad (five pop ups to tell me that) and then Network Solutions Is Bad (four more for that). This is on a dial up mind you and I'm trying to close these goddamned windows but they keep popping up again and again.

Damn but I want to find these assholes and beat them with a fucking tire iron. What the hell are they doing? They even put up a You Are Visitor # counter to let you know just how many other people have been hijacked and taken off into this outrageously irritating world.

I had to eventually force quit the browser to stop the pop ups. What utter and complete nimrod assholes these peckers are for forcing people to deal with their inane holy wars against companies that fired them or did something wrong to them. Geeks with chips on their shoulders. Its almost laughable if it weren't so freaking irritating.

Some people deserve to get hit in the balls with a sledge hammer, the idiots who create these sites based on completely legitimate URL's should get fifty whacks in the balls for this crap. Its one thing (though still incredibly irritating) for the porn sites to send people into pop up hell but I needed to get some info about my flight and entered a perfectly normal URL. The correct URL for San Jose Airport is actually www.sjc.com for the airport code.

What possibe end could the fools be getting at aside from just rubbing everyone that they FORCE to look at their garbage pissed off? Utterly complete wastes of space. Why don't they just imolate themselves and call it a lifetime? Its not like anyone would miss them or their bitterness.

The Register has an article on the Greek government banning ALL electronic games because they're too stupid to distinquish between a gambling game and something like Ms. PacMan. Thanks to Senor Dillon for the hit! Keep 'em coming! But save those pics until I'm home and back on my blissfully fast DSL!

Note to self, um Greece used to be the most civilized culture on earth. Now its just occupied by morons.

Side note, a write up of last night's fun and games at the Meadowlands is in the offiing. I took copious notes before crashing out last night and will try to get them uploaded later on today or tonight.

As I was out cooling off in the Atlantic surf this afternoon I was struck by how much of boogie boarding can be applied to how to live.

Waiting for the perfect wave (opportunity) can mean that lots of perfectly good waves (opportunities) will pass you by. Moral: take the good opps when they come by and don't sit out there waiting for perfection to come knocking you'll only get wrinkled fingers and toes.

Waves, like most new endeavours, start out with alot of excitement, white caps, the curl and crash of water as it slams down onto the beach. But once the wave has crashed down it still runs its energy out until gravity pulls the water back out into the seething mass of the ocean. Projects are often begun with a tremendous amount of energy behind them but once the crest is reached, most of that energy's been wasted and is gone and to complete the project you'll need to rely on that energy to carry you through to the finish.

Being out on the front of the wave is the most exciting and best ride, the same goes for a new trend or fad, its also the most lucrative.

Catching a wave carries a risk of being pummelled into the sandy bottom under the surf. Jumping on a trend as its starting is also dangerous because being out in front means you're an easy target to pick out.

And a side note that has less than nothing to do with the metaphor above.

Bill Mueller is a San Francisco Giant again. So hordes of fans can look forward to his flowing hair as he runs the bases again. Ohh the rapture!

Dreams of Gun Toting Children and Other Issues

Back to the old style of titles for posts.

Another single long post for the day, maybe more later but almost certainly nothing tomorrow as I'll be at the Niners/Giants NFL season opener. And I will be writing that up on Friday evening.

Yet another night of bizarre dreams that bear a short recap here.

I dreamt that we were going camping, I can't recall anyone else from the group but Paul, my housemate. It had been billed as an excuse to get out into the wilderness and have a good time, party some, play some games in the woods, whatever.
It turned out to be an NRA type function with those silver pill shaped RV's, I think they're called Slipstreams, and loads of kids with weapons and very nearly no idea on how dangerous they were. They knew that they could knock things down and took every opportunity to show me. After one kid nearly shot a group of people while just firing his pistol I decided that I needed to get going and find my way home. The people I'd gone with were nowhere to be found and as I gathered my stuff, a small kid of about 8 years old came up to me with a rifle in his hands. He'd shown me he could shoot it before but this time he had a menacing look in his eyes.

He threatened to shoot me if I tried to leave. Instead of backing down I grabbed the rifle from him with one hand, grabbed him with the other and said, "If you don't get out of my face I'm going to shove this rifle up your ass." He blanched, became a little kid again and ran away bawling.

And I woke up to a slightly wooden head from a few too many drinks last night.

But I went skinny dipping last night for the first time since I've been here. Totally empty beach, all alone with the surf and a pretty reasonable buzz going. I knew that that was how disappearance movies begin. "Oh I don't know where he went, last I saw he was headed out for a swim, what do you mean he never came back?" So I wasn't THAT buzzed, I knew enough to stay close to the shore. And I'm a strong swimmer with a good knowledge of what the ocean can do if you're unaware or stupid around it. I'm writing this so everything must have come out alright in the end, or maybe I'm imagining this as I float further and further out to sea clutching a boogie board and hoping for a ship to pick me up, naked, sun burnt, water logged and dehydrated.

Nope, I'm fine aside from a bashed toe on one of the rocks at the base of the stairs leading back up to the house. Hot and sweaty today but that's alright, I'll take the heat over the cold almost any day. The house had some issues and tension yesterday. Some presumptions about my moral character were made, and presumptions about my nephew's babysitter were also made. It was dealt with very, very poorly and could have fractured the week. But instead, I dealt with it as best I can (and I am a reasonably good mediator with the emphasis on reason as rationality is the cornerstone of my person). Basically, because she's the only other person who's of the same mentality that I am, we're both fairly young, active and single, we gravitated to each other. Nothing happened, nothing at all, haven't even kissed her, though I've thought about it, I'm not dead ya know?

But there were serious presumptions made because we're friendly to each other, we play around and that was misconstrued and stretched waaaaaay out of proportion to the conclusion that because we got along so well it must mean that we're having sex. Which is a bit of a leap, I'd think. But there it was and the way it was dealt with was incredibly stupid. My mother's husband came upstairs and basically lectured us on proper behavior in the house, attempting to be the father figure or something. But he's not my father and really has no right to ever insinuate himself into that position, especially because he seems to forget that I'm almost 33 years old. I'm not a child, not someone to be spoken down to and certainly not to be lectured about morality. I'm a fucking philosopher, I've been to college and taken courses in ethics and morality, I've got the degree to prove it. And it was incredibly insulting to be spoken to as if I were a child.

The other aspect that really bothered me was that the babysitter doesn't know any of us all that well and to accuse her of being, basically, a slut is unbelievably short sighted. Especially for someone who likes to talk about how he went to Yale and its the best school in the free world or some crap like that. Yale's just another college and education is what you make of it. I went to the U Cal system and got a decent education but I don't crow about it all the time.

There are other mitigating factors like the pall of death and cancer over not just my mom's side of the family but his sister is very, very sick and will likely not survive so he can't be completely rational at all times either. And that's why I kind of let things slide. No reason to create a rift. But if he tries to pull that shit again, he'll get a pretty good earful from me about exactly where his place is in regards to me and being able to speak at me instead of to me. Condescension is a really stupid way to communicate, the person being spoken to will just tune it all out.

Last night I had some of the strangest dreams I've yet had. Of course, by last night I mean this morning as they were the last set of images and sensations that I can recollect from the evening's sleep. Perhaps its a combination of the pounding surf outside my window and some of the talk that Beth and I had the other night which touched on religion.

But last night's episode was sort of a Three Musketeers meets My Bodyguard meets The Beastmaster. There were some seriously messed up creatures in the dream, from over the top priests in huge oversized, trailing trains outfits to metallic destructicons who moved slowly but never stopped their pursuit. There was an Escher-esque castle complete with hallways to nowhere, staircases that led back to where they started and an overriding sense of urgency to protect a child from those freakish killers in junk yard armor.

But the dream was really only a sidelight to the best news of the week, maybe the year, certainly of the newly begun month. My dad's getting better, read that again slowly and make sure the gravity of it sinks in completely. My father is breathing on his own again, talking (no more scrawled messages about his oxygen settings) and in fact, they are talking about SENDING him home! Now that's a pretty awesome start to the month, I'd say. His doctors are hailing him as yet another medical miracle and Judi's ecstatic, truly, we all are. His regular treatments will continue as the fight to retake the rest of his health must go on but for now, he's out of immediate danger and can concentrate his energies on beating the rogue tumors in his body.

Perhaps that's where part of the dream symbolism comes from, the need to protect a child, the way way overdone priestly attire and the hallway's to nowhere? I'm sure there are at least a dozen ways to interpret the dream and I'm also sure that some of the most pertinent images have already faded from my wakeful mind. But the sense remains, one of protection, of being more concerned with another's well being than my own. And of course, I can see how the junk yard armored freak killers are just a stylized version of the cancer combined with all of the machines that my father was hooked up to. But then, maybe it was just because I'd had a philly cheese steak for dinner and it caused me to have a religious epiphany reflected in my dream state. I'm not ruling it out but I think I prefer the interpretation that is all about my dad. Go Dad!

It seems that I'm in the minority regarding the idiots Parker and Stone's stupid and short sighted pay per view five year anniversary of South Park. Don't get me wrong, I do like the show and have enjoyed it for years, even sans being a smokehead all the time.
They do tackle serious issues and make them funny but this sickeningly blatant money play is disgusting. What? They don't earn enough for making the cartoon in the first place? What about the merchandising? What about dvd sales and all the other garbage?

Its lame, lame and stupid. And irritating because they seem to think that reaming their fans is a funny thing to do, remember the whole Who Shot Mephisto thing where they aired Terrence and Philip in Not Without My Anus thing? Yeah, that was irritating but this is a whole new level of annoyance and rates at about a 7 on the ANUs scale.

Well today was an interesting start to the day. Woke up at 9 a.m. east coast time but my body's still very much on the west coast schedule so it was really 6 a.m. Woke up to heavy rain, heavy surf and shouts of glee from two little boys and a little girl downstairs, outside and in the smallest parts of the surf.

Some major differences here from last year. Same house, same beach, very different and muc more aggresive surf. Waves, riptides, undertows and a current that will carry a large body down three houses in a single wave. Not little boy water conditions at all, the undertow was strong enough to cause me pause when I was no deeper than my knees. But the water is warm (but tastes like salt water everywhere else, nasty and makes me want to puke) and fun to splash around in.

I won't be doing my web surfing as I'm far too spoiled with my DSL at home and the dial up here is slow at best, snail like at worst. And I know I've got to download a 2.5 meg file on Tuesday which should be loads of fun. But I need the survey so I'll just have to get it done when people are out and about. No fear.

The house is alot more full than I thought it would be. Aside from my mom and Steve, there's Dave, my brother in law, Andrew, his son, Beth, their friend and baby sitter while Su's still down in Florida with Judi and my dad. But the baton's been handed off and she'll be heading back home before long. A quick note on my dad's health. He continues to improve, there's serious talk of removal the ventilator but not to let him pass on, instead its to let him breathe on his own and speak. His chances of surviving this latest bout of cancer are nil and we all know it so every day, every moment is a gift. I will be heading south soon to see him.

But back to the house. We've also got Mari-Lu, Jeannie and Randy and their two monkeys, Jacob and Mikala. All the kids are close enough to the same age so they have fun together, as little kids can do easily and seamlessly. So the house is full of loudness and of kids and all the happiness that they bring. I love kids, love their energy and imagination. Luckily I'm the favorite uncle or cousin or just plain favorite adult. Perhaps because I'm quite child like myself and no, not in a bad way at all, its all good. A little Peter Pan mixed in with some wide eyed fascination and you get me.

The house itself shimmies a little bit when the big waves hit outside, feels like the whole place is going through multiple earthquakes. Again and again and again which did take a few minutes of getting used to for a Californian, the idea of trying to sleep while the world's shaking is slightly barmy.

I am the big winner for rooms in the house which is quite cool. There are two bedrooms that have pure ocean views and private bathrooms. One downstairs which Mom and Steve stake out and is totally cool. And the upstairs bedroom where I sit right now. I'll snap some pics and get them online before too long, though not before I'm back on the broadband connection. The pics I have taken are pretty good really, some of the situation (my favorite is from under the house out towards the waves through the wooden pilings that the house sits on with a lone figure passing by, nice) and of the people's around, mostly the kids because they love to have thier picture taken and Andrew is an incredibly photogenic little bugger.

But I'm burnt now and nearly fell asleep during that last sentence. I think I'll nap for a little bit. There is, of course, plenty more to talk about. Ideas from the trip, etc.

One last thing, the water in my toilet surges with the waves and that's pretty damned cool!

Can't write much, can't write for long. House full of people and kids, world full of rain and stormy seas. Kind of an interesting universe over here in Delaware. Lots of things to discuss, write about and disseminate into the great big world.

But for now, I'm here, arrived after midnight last night after driving down from Newark in a rental, gotta love rentals. Its like borrowing your pal's car but they don't give a damn about how badly you smoke it. And the rain made it extra fun. An evening when I'm particularly glad I'm not on my motorcycle. And it ought to make for an interesting bike week at the end of this week.

Either way, I'm glad to be done travelling for the time being. Got some encouraging news about my dad and slept to rain, surf and dripping window seals.