Teh Blag!™

This just in!

2010-09-17T09:39:00.002-06:00

According to some website that analyzes your blag's writing and such other nonsense, I'm a 36-50 year old woman.

I don't know whether to laugh maniacally or cry, cry, and cry some more.

Book Review: Scott Pilgrim

2010-09-14T09:09:00.000-06:00

Maybe it's a bit of a copout to review the entire Scott Pilgrim saga in one, rather than by book and individually, but let's be honest - they're short enough and filled with enough spreads and great action that you can easily read all six books in one sitting in an afternoon. So is it really cheating when reading the whole series would take less time than a third of an average Stephen King doorstop?

I think not, good sirs and madams. Besides, the movie came out last month, and even though it did horrible in the theaters, I'm getting that bad boy on DVD as soon as it comes out.

Because, you see, I love the Scott Pilgrim books.

For those who don't know anything about the series, it follows the story of 23 year old unemployed slacker, Scott Pilgrim (rating: awesome) as he meets a girl who very literally skates through his dreams. This girl is one Ramona Flowers, a mysterious American with a hidden past and plenty of emotional baggage. (This baggage is most often illustrated by the appearance of one of her seven evil exes, determined to destroy Scott for trying to date their former love.) But then, Scott isn't free of his own multitudinous suitcases of emotional turmoil.

What I think I love most about this series is the stellar fusion that O'Malley creates. It combines everything pop culture, everything indie, and everything international into this blend of surrealism and real emotion. From Scott's crappy indie band to the ridiculous trappings of a video game made flesh, from O'Malley's clearly manga-influenced style to a thoughtful meditation on how we remember relationships versus what actually happened, Scott Pilgrim has a little bit of something for everyone.

Was it perfect? No. But was it one heck of a good ride for six beautifully illustrated and brazenly plotted books? Yes. Oh, yes.

Final verdict: Adore it

And check out the movie, too. It's not quite as good, but some of the changes from page to celluloid were effective (such as condensing the action into a few weeks rather than over a year) and Edgar Wright has arguably captured the sentiment and feel of a comic book made film better than anyone since Rodriguez's seminal Sin City. At any rate, time spent with Scott Pilgrim is not time wasted.

Book Review: Justin Cronin - The Passage

2010-06-25T15:55:00.001-06:00

There was a moment in The Passage when my reading of it went from quality enjoyment to "Oh my, I really cannot put this down."

I can't tell you exactly when that moment was (I'd wager a guess it was right around page 200), but I can tell you that not enough books do that to me. Even books that I would gladly say I adore are usually ones where, if something different were to come along, I could put it down for a few days and come back. This is true of nearly everything I read.

Not so with The Passage.

I've read plenty of dystopian, post-apocalyptic literature in my day, and thought I had read the true apex with two vastly different novels: the thin, taciturn and claustrophobic The Road by Cormac McCarthy and the expansive, verbose and vast The Stand by Stephen King. These, too, were books that had captivated me and demanded my attention; any other books in the genre, while many were good, seemed to pale in comparison to these two giants.

However, The Passage holds its own in a bout with those two, and has the benefit of not being done - it's the first book in a proposed trilogy, and after debuting at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list last week, it's almost sure to be followed by the sequels - and I couldn't be more excited for the prospect of delving back into this world.

Without giving too much away, the novel deals with a man-perfected virus designed to create super soldiers that gets loose - creating a sea of vampire-like creatures. However, there is one little girl who may have the answer to this horrible question, and it tells the tale of the FBI agent who vows to protect her.

And then the novel jumps a century ahead, and amidst the temporal and tonal shift, things really get going.

If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic literature, do not hesitate to pick up a copy of this book. And even if you're not, pick it up anyway. The thing I liked the most about it is the ways it's not like a Stephen King book - because, for all his talents in creating a story, Mr. King is not the best author. Mr. Cronin, however, is a very talented literary writer, and weaves an amazing story with a stellar prose style. This novel is utterly captivating.

Final verdict: Adore it
This is the best new fiction I've read in a long time. I was trapped in the world this book created for three days, and I've only now been able to surface for air. It's a fascinating novel, and one that demands attention and deserves every bit of it.

Book Review: Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

2010-06-19T17:49:00.003-06:00

I would say my sentiments at the international popularity of this book series would best be described as shock.

Not because they're not good books, because the trilogy is really quite fine (the first two books especially, the third less so - but we'll get to that in a bit), but because it's a series with such ardent feminist and anti-establishment viewpoints. Moreover, the violence and abuse portrayed in these books is very, very ugly. Those aren't usually the types of books that sell very well.

And yet, these posthumously published works keep racking up the sales.

I was a little late to the bandwagon, purchasing the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in early March of this year. And, to be honest, the first hundred pages were a hard read - too plodding and boring. (The film adaptation, which I recommend immensely, was far better in this regard - perhaps even better than the book altogether.) But eventually, I got the hook in the gut and devoured both it and its sequel, and waited with bated breath for the unintentional end of the story.

Thankfully, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest passes on the four chapters of starting plod that the first two had, beginning right where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off - our heroine, Lisbeth Salander, has just been found clinging to life by our erstwhile protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist. Regrettably, the antagonists also lived through the harried end of the second volume, and the action ramps up from the get-go.

I won't go further into the plot for fear that someone might read this and have it spoiled, but let me say this: despite the fact that it didn't have the slow buildup, this last book just seems to lose steam in the end. There's too much talking, and not enough action. Moreover, Hornet's Nest seems the most loosely edited of the three novels - it peters off in the end, and it's impatience that kept me turning pages, rather than genuine suspense.

Some of the subplots are good, like Berger's harassment at the daily paper she's left Millenium for - but then they ended too easily and too quickly. However, many of the new characters are faceless, personality-less interchangeable bit parts, with none of the depth of the characters we already know. And one more thing - does Mikael HAVE to bed every woman he meets? It's getting ridiculous.

Simply put, it feels like a middle novel, not a series ender - and it would have been, had Larsson stayed in the land of the living. But it was not to be, and regrettably, a great series ended on just a good note.

Final verdict: Explore it (just because you'll want some resolution after the crazy ending of The Girl Who Played with Fire)

Book Review: Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle

2010-06-16T21:36:00.000-06:00

I know it's very cliché to like Kurt Vonnegut these days. (Actually, scratch that - it's cliché and hipster to like Slaughterhouse-Five, and only because of that one line every smelly hipster photoshops onto their tacky, unattractive rubbish photos - "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt". It's a nice sentiment and all, but they're missing the point entirely. But these are hipsters - what else is new? But I digress.)

So maybe it's NOT that cliché to like Vonnegut. At any rate, I've recently started devouring his oeuvre, starting with Slaughterhouse-Five (hey - I was reading it as a seminal anti-war novel, not to please some inner dirty hipster), and moving to Breakfast of Champions, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and right now I'm in the middle of Mother Night. But the one I've most recently finished is Cat's Cradle - and what a ride it was.

Like so many of Vonnegut's works, it's hard to classify. Part science fiction, part post-apocalyptic morality tale, part comedic farce, and part message of spirituality, you're never quite sure what to make of it until you get to the last page, put the book down, and are trapped in thought for the next however-long-until-you-absolutely-have-to-function-as-a-human-being-again. You walk away from it part pessimist, part pragmatist, and part Bokononist. I found every page of it filled with nuggets of wisdom regarding human relationships, human foibles, and just plain old human stupidity.

It's a story of a writer, who stumbles upon the story of the father of the atomic bomb and his three children, each of which has a terrible secret legacy unwittingly handed down by the father, and each of which is rife with their own problems. But it's so much more than that - Vonnegut creates an entire religion in the mouth of the prophet Bokonon, as well as weaving the most bleakly beautiful vision of the destruction of the world I've yet read.

It is hard for me to pick a favorite Vonnegut book - from the time-spinning of Slaughterhouse-Five to the Unamuno-channeling visit between himself and Kilgore Trout in Breakfast of Champions, but I think Cat's Cradle may take the prize. It's a painfully funny book.

Final verdict: Adore it
I really do love Vonnegut, and not just because I'm going to be attending the school he taught at in a couple of months. Between him and Phillip Dick, a truly horrible and horribly plausible future is presented - one that overflows with dreariness and joy, simultaneously. They are, in my humble opinion, the two most important American writers of the second half of the Twentieth Century, and Cat's Cradle is as good an example of Vonnegut's power with the imagery and savagery of the English language as any other.

Re-formulating this blag.

2010-06-16T16:09:00.000-06:00

It's been months since I've posted anything on here, due to a general malaise with the whole idea of blogging. However, given the amount of increased writing Peter and I have been doing on that other blog of ours, it's sparked in me a desire to review other things.

Therefore, I suppose I'll turn this blog into another review site - one about the books that I've been reading lately. I'll be using a similar review scheme as in our other endeavors to keep things simple:

Ignore it: Books that are best left forgotten - ones not worth bothering with.

Explore it: Books I like okay, but aren't high up on the list of "Run Out and Buy".

Adore it: Books that are worth owning, praising, and remembering for a long time afterwards.

So anyway, that's what's to come from this thing. Hopefully I'll be good about updating it rather soon after finishing what I'm reading. And thankfully, I read enough that I should have pretty consistent opportunities to post here.

Why you should be reading Gunnerkrigg Court.

2009-09-12T06:38:00.004-06:00

I'm not really a webcomic kind of kid these days. There was a time that I followed quite a few of them, but most of the strips I followed just lost me after a while. There are a few that still merit weekly perusal - Dr. McNinja is the most bizarre ever (anything that involves Irish ninja doctors who now apparently ride unicorn-possessed rainbow bullet bikes, a sidekick who is a mustache-toting sharpshooter who rides a genetically-reconstructed velociraptor named Yoshi, and a gorilla for a receptionist - and that's not to mention a hair-eating resurrected Benjamin Franklin clone who becomes the Headless Horseman, robot Draculas to surf down from the moon, and CHAINSAW NUNCHUCKS - is good in my book), xkcd is as snarky as can be, and Dinosaur Comics is one of the most impressive uses of minimalistic, repeated art to tell a hilarious tale every day.

However, my favorite webcomic, without question, is Gunnerkrigg Court. It's an immersive tale with wonderfully crafted art, a compelling story with epileptic trees aplenty and mystery in buckets (this is the kind of comic that, every time it provides an answer to a question you have, simply results in seven more . . . so yeah). Antimony Carver is a distant, troubled girl who lives in and attends school at Gunnerkrigg Court, a wonder of technological advancement that is more than a little cryptic. Her best friend, Katarina, is vibrant, lively and wry. Her spirit-possessed toy wolf, Reynardine, is an erstwhile protector, but seems more menacing than he should be sometimes. Add to that a large cast of memorable characters, and it's simply got a lot going for it.

I recently purchased the first collected volume of Gunnerkrigg Court - basically, Annie's first year at school and all of her misadventures (which are legion). It was well worth my money, even though you can read the entire tale online - there's something gratifying about thumbing through a colorful, beautifully bound hardcover edition of the tale, rather than clicking 'next page' 300+ times. In the first volume, it's fascinating to watch writer/artist Tom Siddell's evolution as a storyteller - and, perhaps more impressively, his progress as an artist as both his characters and his tale develop deeper personalities.

For readers and non-readers of the comic alike, I recommend picking up the hardcover collection - it was splendid to peruse the first half of the story so far again - and I look with anticipation towards the upcoming second volume, to be able to reread the archives in one fell swoop. But if you don't want to drop twenty bucks on a worthy hardcover, you need to be reading this comic. It updates only thrice a week, and therefore doesn't require lots of attention; but I have a feeling that, if you start to read it, you will enjoy it.

It's simply the best webcomic out there these days.

Admission is the first step to recovery.

2009-07-16T09:02:00.003-06:00

I have a problem.

It's a serious problem, too - one of those ones you don't recover from easily. And one that, to be perfectly honest, I don't feel any compunction to recover from; even though it's a ridiculous drain on my monetary resources.

You see, I have an addiction - to purchasing books.

One need only look at the purchasing history on my Amazon or eBay accounts to see exactly what I'm talking about. Either that, or take a look at the pictures of my beautiful bookshelves:

O hai.

That doesn't take in to account all the money that I spent on books in the last week - all antique tomes, at least 100 years old, consisting of;

The 6-volume version of Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Whole Bible. While the condensed one-volume version is still in print, it's been eighty years or so since all six volumes have been available new. So I ponied up and bought an early 1900's copy.
Notes on the Parables of Our Lord by Archbishop Richard Trench. Both Edersheim and Talmage say that if you want to find wonderfully elucidating explications of the more obscure parables, Trench is where you go. How has it taken me so long to find this guy? He's great.
Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord by Trench as well. It's his other important volume, and it looks equally exciting. These are both 1898 editions from Britain.
Another essential book about the savior - The Teaching of the Twelve by A. B. Bruce. It's about how the Lord taught and prepared the twelve to be his emmisaries after he left.

(Luckily, the last three are all available on Google Books - I've read bits of them and they're splendid.)

So yes, I do have an addiction (besides all these noble, antiquated books, I've been buying some wonderfully pulpy postmodern stuff that you don't need to know about). But is it really prejudicial, when I'm expanding my mind and my understanding? I don't think so.

But maybe I'm just trying to justify my addiction so that it sounds better...

Sant Jordi - and all that jazz.

2009-04-21T06:19:00.005-06:00

For those of you who don't know - a little history on the day of Sant Jordi.

Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalunya. You know who Sant Jordi is - you probably just know him as St. George. (Yeah, the 'patron saint' of 'Utah's Dixie'. Can I just mention how much I hate the phrase 'Utah's Dixie' and everytime the weatherguys on channel 5 say it I cringe?)

Of course, everyone knows the story of Sant Jordi and the dragon - there was a mad dragon, eating princesses of (enter name here - it depends on the story) and terrorizing the place. Along came Sant Jordi, with an awesome sword made of gold or something like that. He killed the dragon, saved the princess, and the dragon's blood fell on the grassy knoll and caused red roses to sprout up everywhere. (That's the way the legend goes - click on the pic to the left there and, if you can read Catalá, you'll know exactly how it went down.)

So, April 23 is the day of Sant Jordi in Catalunya, and it's a beautiful day. (Albeit sorta sexist, in a way.) Traditionally gifts are given for the day, and it's prescribed what gifts should be given. The way it works is that women are given a red rose (to symbolize the princess) and men are given a book (because Jordi was a bookworm, apparently).

So there you go - I'm going to have a few roses (and books, I suppose) ready to give out, if ya bring me the gift of a book. ;) And I'll be celebrating el día de Sant Jordi the best way there is - reading like mad.

Dollhouse: not sold yet.

2009-02-28T20:08:00.003-07:00

So today I finished the third episode of genius Joss Whedon's new show, Dollhouse. (Now, I don't throw the word genius around without really meaning it - and Joss IS one. Who else could have successfully turned a show with such a ridiculous premise such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer into one of the great cult classic television shows of all time? And Firefly? 'Nuff said.)

Now, from the get-go I was excited for this show, and not only for the presence of Joss, but also for the star of the show, Eliza Dushku. I was always a fan of her slayer, Faith - who was by far the coolest of all of the secondary slayers in Buffy. Plus, when I found out Tamoh Penikett was in the cast (he plays Helo - yeah, probably my favorite character - in Galactica), I was really pumped.

However, after the first three episodes, I'm just not sold.

Sure, the premise is kind of cool - people who've had their memories completely wiped, available in made-to-order configurations for the wealthy elite, either as lovers, protectors, etc. However, it's that very premise that's making it hard for me to really dig into the show.

First, it's quite the daunting acting task for Dushku, who has had to be five very different characters during the transcourse of the first three shows - from the biker chick to the protective backup singer to the hostage negotiator, down to her personality-free tabula rasa form - and while she performs well, it's not awesome. This would be a huge leap for even the most skilled actors, and while she does a good job, it's not a great job.

Second, it's hard to relate to Echo (Dushku's character) because of the nature of the show - she's a different person every week; consequently, we never get to see who she really is, only who she's programmed to be.

Now, the parts of the cast who don't get their memories wiped at least twice an episode are top-notch - Penikett is as cool as ever, even if he's not flying spaceships this time, but is the outcast FBI agent trying to uncover the Dollhouse. And Harry Lennix (who plays Echo's handler, the person in charge of monitoring her performance and such in whatever situation she may be in, working as a backup for her) does a great job.

But I don't know - I'm just not loving the show yet.

Perhaps it's that Whedon had set my hopes too high due to his previous experience. Perhaps it is due to the nature of the show, and I'll get into it as I come to understand Echo and the other actives more.

In fact, I hope I come to love it, and I hope the show succeeds - Joss deserves a success story instead of getting jerked around my TV networks. And I'll keep watching for now, hoping that something will click and I'll love it.

But for now, I just don't.

A story about shoes.

2009-02-06T08:23:00.004-07:00

It was a Sunday morning, and the time had come to engage in an age-old Sabbath day ritual - watching something on the telly while shining my shoes. It's something I've done for years, and I was excited to catch up on some Battlestar Galactica and shine up all my old standards - from the mountains of Doc Martens to the incomparable Johnston & Murphys.

As I was collecting all of my disparate shoes for the happy-fun-shine-times, I ran across my Deer Stags that I had been wearing most of the time for the last four years. I remembered the last couple of times that I had worn them...

I was walking across the campus, from the far-away parking lot (there aren't really any public access lots even remotely close to any of the important (read: ones my classes are in) buildings, so I'm always left with a bit of a walk). It had been snowing and the ground was slushy, wet, and gross. As I walked, I sensed a bit of cold, a touch of water, on the sole of my right foot. I thought to myself, 'Huh. I wonder if there's something wrong with my shoe. I hope not - I wear these things all the time,' and resolved to look at the sole later - then promptly forgot.

I grabbed the right shoe, turned it over, and discovered to my horror that there was a huge crack running lengthwise through the middle of the sole. No wonder my foot was wet and cold, I mused. I guess it's time to retire these babies.

I picked up the other of the pair, ready to throw them in the garbage can, when a moment of reflection came upon me, and I realized where these shoes had taken me.

I hadn't bought them, myself - El Presidente had purchased them for me shortly after my return from the mission. I had been wearing a hideous (yet comfortable) pair of slip-on Sketchers, with ugly duck-billed ends that had been ruined by people stepping on them (I do have abnormally large feet, after all). We were at Big 5 together, and El Presidente told me he'd buy me the Stags if I promised to throw the Sketchers away the minute we walked in the door. While I had a lot of great memories with the slip-ons, I'll admit that they were ugly as sin and needed replacing. So I took him up on that offer, four Februaries ago.

I sat down in my dilapidated orange chair with the shoes on the ground in front of me, and began a conversation with them. (You know me, I can't help but anthropomorphize.) I looked down at them, scuffed and in need of a shine, and said, 'Sorry, guys. But I guess you're going to have to go. I can't walk around with a hole in my sole, no matter how poetic that might sound.'

'That's okay, we understand,' came the reply. 'We didn't expect you to keep us around very long once you found the crack, either. However, before you throw us out, just think of all the fun we had together.'

So we reminisced, the shoes and I.

I remember walking the halls of the Smithsonian in them, from the Aerospace museum to the Military History one. All over DC they trudged, as we stopped by for the day while helping Pedro Sanchez and his family move from North Carolina to New Hampshire. They led me up and down the mall, from the Washington monument on down the gamut.

They were the shoes that had taken me to multiple temples across the world.

Together, we had scurried through the streets of Tarragona, like fugitives, fleeting memories of the beautiful buildings, sunlight streaming through the tall edifices, the cobblestone streets, the limestone walls (cool even in the heat of the summer), the strange, unknown flora.

Together we pondered the great works of art in Madrid, in both El Prado and the Reina Sofia, slowly shuffling from one piece to the next, staying at some, passing others by, overwhelmed and overcome by everything we saw.

Together we walked the streets of Euskadi, taking in the wonders of the Guggenheim-Bilbao, fleeing through alleyways and small roads, seeing beautiful life and earth-shattering violence.

Together, we hiked to the precipice of Montblanc, envisioning Sant Jordi killing dragons and saving princesses. We clambered to the top of the aqueduct, venturing forth across its soaring heights, disoriented and dizzy, full of fear and excitement.

Together, we made somber pilgrimages through sacred sites, surrounded by reliquaries, statues, imposing architecture, hidden shadows playing in corners of large, empty cathedrals.

'What times we've had together, no?' came a timid voice from the dilapidated shoes. 'It's sad to see this come to an end, but as far as my part in this thing goes, I couldn't have asked for more.'

I smiled, if a bit melancholic. 'You know, I don't think I could have, either. You were a wonderful mode of transportation for a lot of years, and I'm sad to see you go. We'll have to have a fitting sendoff. How do you want to go?'

'In a world of flame and heat,' answered my beloved footwear. 'Burn, baby, burn.'

They wait, sitting in a place of reverence in a corner of my room, for the right moment - when we can dig a small crater, douse them in lighter fluid and gasoline, and engage in some ameteur pyrotechnics.

When it all goes down, I think they'll be pleased with their noble immolation.

Pragmatism vs. Intellectualism.

2009-01-29T10:40:00.005-07:00

There are many things I enjoy about attending Weber State University. I think it's a nice, big campus, with relatively easy access to all the essential classes. I like some of the new buildings they've built in the last few years to compensate for the old nasties that had been there since the fifties. I especially like the fact that every single one of my classes in my major has been taught by a professor with an accredited PhD, giving me opportunities to associate with people who have studied in graduate school the very things I want to study.

Notwithstanding, I've always felt like something was a little off between myself and the Weeb.

I've never really been able to put my finger on it, but there was always something about the ambience of the school that has been a little off-putting to me. There was an attitude of . . . something . . . that I had difficulties with. However, today as I was speaking with a professor who in many ways I hope to emulate and whom I hold in high regard, he mentioned exactly what has always seemed to be the difference between myself and the majority of the other students I fraternize with on a daily basis in the Uni.

We were discussing how budget cuts from the Utah State Thieve's Den (a.k.a. the Cesspit of Immorality and Dishonesty we call the Legislature) were going to affect the Spanish department. He explained that the first things to be cut were going to be literature courses - because they're always the poorest attended. A culture class will usually fill up with around 20 people, and a class like 'Business Spanish' will fill to capacity within a few days of opening to registration. Nevertheless, a good literature class will have 12 to 13 people, tops. Most of the lit classes I've taken have had single-digit amounts of students.

As a Spanish major with a literature emphasis, I decried this development, lamenting the loss of the literature classes as a huge detriment to the department. However, Dr. Bergeson explained exactly why it is this way at Weber State -

It's a school of pragmatists, not intellectuals.

It's a university that the majority of the students are attending not for studying's sake, but simply as a means to an end. (Thus the absolutely bloated joke that is the College of Business - what exactly do you do with a degree in 'business', anyway?) They come and take whatever bare minimum classes they need to take, go off to their jobs, and graduate as soon as possible to go on to their careers as middle management in X company for the rest of their lives.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If that's their goal, more power to them for looking for ways to complete it. When it comes to my studies in the Uni, however, I have different goals.

I don't only go to school as a means to an end. The Weeb is that means, to a certain extent, but why do I attend school? To learn, to expand my horizons, stretch my intellect, grow in ways I can't in nearly any other setting. To voraciously devour new knowledge, incorporating it into my worldview and the way I live my life.

That's not most students at Weber, nor most people in the community that surrounds me. (You should see people's faces when I tell them I'm graduating with a degree in Spanish Literature.) We here in Utah are a pragmatic people, and we come from pragmatic stock - myself included.

Both my parents graduated with Bachelor's degrees. My father earned his in accounting, and has spent his professional life working in banks (until becoming the El Presidente we all know and love). My mother earned hers as a registered nurse, and worked as a pediatric nurse for years when I was younger. These are both important and pragmatic degrees and careers.

My father's father was a carpenter. He worked with his hands his whole life - even losing a finger to carpentry. My mother's father delivered foodstuffs for Lynn Wilson, and her mother was a secretary at a high school. I know some of my grandparents may have attended some University, but I don't believe any of them received their Bachelor's degree.

This is the legacy I've been given - a legacy of hard work, pragmatism, and real, tangible careers. Why, then, am I so drawn to the intangible - the theoretical, the philisophical, the intellectual? I'll probably never actually do anything that seems substantive to the pragmatic with my life, as a professor of Spanish literature. My genius brother, while too smart for his own good, has used it for something tangible - he's a Urologist, working to help with actual, physical things, rather than analyzing and dissecting words that were written decades or centuries ago, searching for hidden meanings.

I'm not questioning what I want to do with my life. I know I'm on the path I should be on, doing what I need to do so someday I can do what I want to do. But I'm in a different place than so many of those around me - not a better place, in no way superior, just very, very different.

And sometimes I get tired of feeling so different.

Utah's liquor laws are extra stupid.

2009-01-22T07:28:00.004-07:00

Yes, they are. It's time to complain about the asinine, archaic and draconian nanny "laws" we seem to favor here in SL,UT.

Now, keep in mind that I'm not a drinker - never have been, and never will be. However, I find these laws to be nothing but embarrassing to the state and to the people who try to defend them.

In case you don't know, any establishment in Utah that serves mostly drinks and isn't considered a restaurant must be called a 'private club', charge a cover fee simply for entry, and (logically - the only logical part) check IDs on everyone going in to the club.

Now this is ridiculous. Why is there a need to give it an extra name and charge unnecessary fees simply to enter a building, where there are already sensible restrictions in place (you know, the YOU HAVE TO BE 21 PART). Yet rather than talking with the sensible governor Huntsman (who wants to remove this ludicrous stipulation), we've got retards like Sen. President Mike Waddoups, who wants to put the stupid martinis at Chili's behind the Zion Curtain.

Give me a break, people. This is simply pointless, and a hassle that should just go away. (It even annoys me, when I go to a show at a club and have to pay an additional fee on top of the ticket price, so I can go in and drink a blasted Coke.) Moreover, why is the opinion of the dominant church so important in this setting? Yes, most of the state (myself included) pertains to that religion, however - do we really need the Church's opinion to drop these laws?

I just don't get it. If you can explain to me why in the world we should keep these draconian, foolish laws, by all means, explain.

When you can't, let's get rid of this nonsense.

New Year's Resolution #3: Sporadic, Spontaneous Bouts of Vegetarianism!

2009-01-02T08:28:00.004-07:00

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this one. A few people know that, when I returned back in the States after living in Spain, I went on . . . let's call it a 'Vegetarian Bender'. For a little over a month, I didn't eat any meat.

I didn't do it to prove anything to anyone; I didn't do it to make a stand, or try to give meat-eaters guilt (since I'm usually one of them); I didn't do it to toot my own horn or anything. I just did it to see if I could. (So then, maybe I did do it to prove to myself that I could.)

You see, I don't care much for the texture and taste of meat. A big, bloody s

lice of beef is more likely to make me queasy rather than hungry. And I definitely prefer my meat off of the bone, because if it's still on there with all the gristle and nastiness I think about what it really is.

Because (maybe it's just me), when I think about it, meat's really gross. It's the processed, cooked flesh of another living being. When I keep my thoughts far away from that sad fact, I can eat it all right; but when I focus on that, holy cow I don't want to touch it.

So, starting today, it's time for a Sporadic, Spontaneous Bout of Vegetarianism™!

It's not like I'm going to become a full-time vegetarian. There are too many things that Momma Jones makes that have the meat in them that I still want to eat. However, I'm gonna go this month without eating meat. (I've done it before, after all. I'll just do it again.) Call it what you will; maybe it's a year-starting meat detox or something, but I just feel like doing it.

Of course, I tell Momma Jones this, and she sighs. "Does that mean I have to plan around you?"

Nah. Everyone else just keep doing what they're doing. Because I'm a most-times omnivore, I'm not going to be one of those ridiculous vegetarians that takes umbrage at the fact that you're eating meat around them, or tries to gross you out and such. I'm just going to eat other things.

There are so many delicious options, after all. Arroz a la cubana for the win!

New Year's Resolution #2: Cut the Crap!

2009-01-01T09:06:00.003-07:00

I'll admit it; I'm the kind of person who can talk my way around (and out of) anything. I'll gab your ear off until you'll just drop whatever issue you have or you've completely forgotten what you were asking or confronting me about.

And no, I'm not saying I'm going to stop doing that. I mean, that's just me - that's like asking Shakira to stop being sexy or telling Ricky Gervais he can't be awkward and funny anymore. It just isn't happening.

However, there is a lot of crap I can cut out of my conversations, my interactions with others, and my life in general - and that crap will and must needs be cut, man. Because 2009 is a no-crap kind of year.

1. (This is actually inherited from my coworker Cassidy's husband) I'm going to be honest with people. Blunt, perhaps. All I know is that a lot of the times, I don't tell people how I feel and I miss opportunities to make changes in my life, my relationship with that person, or their behavior. I'm going to endeavor to (thoughtfully, and as kindly and honestly as possible, but still bluntly) let them know it. And I sincerely hope that others will have the courtesy to do the same for me.

2. If I can tell you don't give two squirts of silly putty about what I'm discussing with you, I'll just drop it. Think, fine people; just suck on that for a moment - that means you'll (hopefully) never have to hear me complain about 'Dr. So-and-so's analysis of Random Book, because they totally missed the mark' or 'Random Band is awesome because they use the funkiest modes in this song, rather than building on usual progressions' as you stare on in a stupor, made nearly catatonic as I, in a haze of my own self-importance, blather on and on and on and on. If you catch me feigning erudition like that, do let me know and remind me of my New Year's Resolution. Unless you like that sort of thing. (But who am I kidding?)

3. Usually I like to think of myself as a lion of a person - loud, yes, but proud and majestic, and worth paying at least a little attention to. However, I'm afraid that most of the time I end up as a chihuahua of a person instead - yippy and annoying, without anyone really liking me. (Because, in the spirit of this resolution, let's be honest with ourselves - can anyone genuinely stand chihuahuas? Or do we all just want to play 'field goal kick' with them and only barely contain ourselves?) You see, chihuahuas pretend to be big and strong, and put on a show of being brave and noble, but it's all just a lie - you know it, they know it, Richard Nixon knows it, and the world moves on. However, a lion is big and strong - no need to pretend - and you know it, he knows it, and JFK rolls in his grave in terror of the lion's roar. And I want to be a lion, no longer a yippy little stupid chihuahua.

So there you go. Another resolution in the bag. (Fulfilling, tangentially, my resolution to write more often. Phantasmagorical!)

New Year's Resolution #1: Stop Gross Clothes!

2008-12-31T11:09:00.003-07:00

It was a bright and breezy morning, with just the right kind of chill that seeps into your bones and makes you long for warmer weather or at least a thicker coat. I was stepping out of the Smith's grocery store, pleased to have just purchased the obligatory vegetable tray that my branch wanted me to bring for our New Year's Eve festival at the bank this afternoon. (I'm tired of always being assigned the relish tray, simply because they like the dip that Momma Jones - and, due to her tutelage, I as well - make for them. I want to broaden my potluck horizons, people. Give me a break from the veggies, please.)

As I meandered back to my car, what should confront me but a horrible, terrible sight - a gross old lady in skin-tight sweats, the word 'bebe' emblazoned across her posterior, jiggling grotesquely with every step.

Absolutely stupefying.

I'll never understand where old/overweight people get the idea that they should wear skanky clothing. Personally, there's nothing I find less attractive than smuttily-clad bigger gals. Please - I'm chubby, I get it; I keep myself adequately covered by clothes that are designed to fit me, and don't let my grossness hang out all over the place. If only the rest of the big population would keep this in mind, we'd all be hunky-dory.

However, they don't. My eyes are assaulted like this on a regular basis - people with their skeevy thong unmentionables hanging out of their too-tight pants, tube and halter tops that show every bulge and wrinkle, bellies that hang out over hidden waistlines of jeans.

Please. It has to stop.

Now, I'm a hot-blooded male; I like to see attractive women in less-than-appropriate clothing as much as the next guy. But I would sacrifice EVERY bit of revealing, tight clothing if it meant I never have to see an old, flabby butt with 'bebe' wiggling on it ever again.

Every bit.

And frankly, this goes for men, too - NO MORE TANKTOPS. EVER. There is no excuse for it under any circumstances, men. I don't care if you're ripped like a 1984 Terminator-era Arnie, I don't want to see it. And basically, the fact is (even if you think you are) you're not built good enough to wear it.

Fat guys - cover your darn bellies. I don't want to see your flabs hanging out under your shirts - buy larger, if you need to. And NO SHORT SHORTS. For the love of my unborn childrens.

I will do MY bit to make sure that I never let this happen to me. (It helps that I'm male and don't own sweatpants that I would ever wear anywhere besides my home, but I digress.) This is my first (of many to come) New Year's Resolution: to not be gross when I go in public.

Burqas FTW!

And people wonder why I favor tightened gun control.

2008-12-05T07:46:00.007-07:00

I heard this story earlier today on the radio show I listen to, and was absolutely disgusted by it. I can't believe that people still think that we should loosen our gun laws.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.

The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District Attorney William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj, was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy.

Bizilj, of Connecticut, lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin Oct. 26 at a Firearms Expo in Massachusetts.[...]

Fleury and the club also were indicted on four counts each of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. A conviction on each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, up to $10,000 in fines and the loss of a firearms license for at least 10 years.

Bennett said prosecutors know of at least four children, including Bizilj, who fired automatic weapons at the fair. He added that Fleury had wrongly assured Guiffre and Spano that it was legal for children to use the Uzi under Massachusetts law.

"A Micro Uzi is made by and for the Israeli Armed Forces and is intended to meet the operational needs of Israeli Special Forces," Bennett said, noting the weapon has a rate of fire of 1,700 rounds per minute. "It is not a hunting weapon."[...]

The machine gun shoot drew hundreds of people to the sporting club's 375-acre compound. An advertisement said it would include machine gun demonstrations and rentals and free handgun lessons.

The ad also said children under 16 would be admitted free, and both adults and children were offered free .22-caliber pistol and rifle shooting.

Christopher's father was 10 feet behind him and reaching for his camera when the child fired the weapon.

I can't believe that people (that anyone) thought it was okay to put a machine gun in the hands of an eight-year-old child. I can't believe that anyone thought it was okay to put a fifteen-year-old child in charge of the machine guns. I can't believe that anyone thinks it's necessary for an average citizen needs a machine gun.

Can you imagine how that poor father feels? According to the story, he let his child use the Uzi because he had been 'assured it was safe' by the workers at the gun show, being told that it would be safer because of its diminutive size. And there he was, getting out his camera (no doubt to snap a picture of his young boy 'shootin' the gun') and instead witnessed the horror of watching his own child take a bullet in the head.

Our gun laws are an embarrassment. That we still hold these gun shows (or that we allow assault rifles and automatic weaponry to be sold at all) sickens me. We need, as a country, to seriously re-evaluate our gun laws and act accordingly. Hightened restrictions, longer waiting periods, age requirements - these are only a start to what needs to be done. Surely (just as the right to free speech or religion) our right to bear arms must contain some caveats and restrictions.

Me loves the whiny.

2008-12-05T07:16:00.004-07:00

I'm relatively new to the whole Facebook thing. I won't lie. I signed up for it back in June and didn't really use it much until about the time school started up again in late August or September.

In other words, I started using it just about the time that they changed from the old format to the new format.

And people have been gritchin' about it ever since.

Now, I don't really get it. I don't even remember much of what the old Facebook was like, so I don't have anything to miss. It's been like three or four months; I'm just not missing it.

However, people are still all up-ons about it. This December 15th, it seems as though they're having a big 'protest' against the new version, where everyone who doesn't like it is supposed to not log in. Like it's going to do something to change it.

Think about it - even if their goal of 1.000.000 people don't log in, there are tens of millions of others like myself who don't give a hoot nor a holler about the old or new format. Frankly, from what I do remember of the old Facebook style, I like the new better - the wall is bigger and more prominent and doesn't get buried under piles and piles of pointless stuff. The layout is easier to navigate. The annoying stuff is either on the sidebar or buried away on a secondary page.

Frankly, I hope the little protest fails. It's often the case that the (small) minority is extremely vocal and makes it appear that everyone hates something, when it couldn't be farther from the truth. When most of the daily Facebook users log in on the 15th without a second thought, it'll be the epitaph (hopefully) to the whining about the new format.

But if they change back, does that mean that the people who preferred the new version (not that I'd care enough to do this) get to protest and have 'blackout days' to get the new layout back?

Hest-Fest tonight!

2008-11-21T07:39:00.007-07:00

Yes, it's that time again. Hest-Fest 2008. The Charlton Heston Movie Marathon. Or, perhaps put with more gusto, the Chuck Heston Mourning Movie Marathon, in celebration of his passing.

It's true - Chuckles passed away this last spring, and I remember getting the news in Spain and just wanting to pout all day long. (In all honesty, I did - and Carolina made fun of me for it. Regrettably - and to simply adding to her derision towards me - I didn't hear about it until way after the fact - nearly a month later - so my pouting was even more ludicrous.)

So, to honor this silverback gorilla of the Silver Screen, we prepare our burnt offerings (food and a candle) and get ready for our vigil.

We will begin by viewing Ben-Hur, most critics' choice as his Best Film Ever!™ As one who's never seen it from beginning to end (altho

ugh, I'm rather sure I've seen it piecemeal over the years), I'm thoroughly excited to see this (albeit obliquely) 'Tale of the Christ'. I mean, it's worth seeing again if only for the iconic chariot race scene. Plus, just look at that smouldering look on his face - it's power, I tell you, power!

It was a difficult choice between Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, but ultimately we've decided on the latter because of its success amongst critics and the viewing public alike - as well as the fact that I've seen Ten Commandments every Easter since I was in utero (I'm pretty sure Mamma Jones must have watched it as I was gestating, a little Cletus the Fetus just burbling away in there).

But that's neither here nor there. We will be following the viewing of Ben-Hur up with the inimitable, unique (and ridiculously AWESOME) Planet of the Apes.

Yes, it's true - we're watching Apes. I love this film more than any other Chuckles film of all - it's got everything. Kitschy special effects, iconic phrases that you'll be repeating for weeks to come, people in monkey costumes, beautiful mute nubile women, and a denouement that can only be described as The Coolest Evarrr in Science Fiction!™ This'll be the best Hest-Fest ever.

So thus it is - our third (and probably final, seeing as how I should be going to grad school far away) Chuck Heston Movie Marathon, accentuated with our oblations to the man at his passing.

You know you're all jealous that you're not coming. And if you aren't coming, you should come - it'll be a night to remember.

I'm just sick. And tired.

2008-11-20T07:19:00.003-07:00

It's true. I've been feeling ill for the last week and a half. Originally, I thought it was a bug of some kind. I don't think it is anymore. In fact, I'm afraid I'm going to feel sick like this for the next, oh, seven or eight months.

'Why', you ask?

Because I'm really, really nervous.

Ever since I went and had a good talk with my professors and have been looking into graduate programs with some degree of depth and seriousness, I've been sick to my stomach. That's it - I don't have a cough, I don't have a runny nose - but I have had a case of The Mighty D on and off the whole time. (Too much information, I know. But it's early and I'm rambling as my boring teacher is blurghing on and on about Excel and blergh.) And I'm seriously afraid that I'm going to feel this way until the GRE is out of the way and I'm accepted into a grad program.

And I'm really afraid it's not going to stop then, either, and that it's going to rage until I'm in, moved, and have started school and have some sort of stability in my new life in (insert location of grad school here). And that's just The Suck!™ - and I want it to go away.

But it's not going to. I remember feeling sick to my stomach from the day I submitted my application to study abroad in Spain until I was in my room, unpacked, and ready for school the next day.

This is going to be a long, long few months. And there's nothing to do to stop it.

Sole and the SkyRider Band = Awesome.

2008-11-17T20:53:00.002-07:00

So this took longer than I thought it would to get around to writing up, but I've got to get something posted before too much time passes and I forget how awesome it was. Because this show was exactly that - AWESOME.

I arrived at the Urban Lounge early - the tickets said the show started at 9pm, so I rolled up about 8:30. Not a soul was there; the doors were locked up and the 'Open' sign was off. So I chilled in the car, listening to Polar Bear's eponymous album (because I just can't stop, I'm addicted) and waiting. Once the doors opened about nine-thirty, I rolled on in, getting my hand stamped and paying the cover charge (curse you, draconian and ridiculous liquor laws in Utah!) It was still mostly empty, and I sulked in a corner for a bit (bars aren't really my scene, after all, and this one was especially shabby and run down - and surprisingly small). But after a while, I started speaking to some of the other people who were slowly filtering in and getting to know some of them.

I could tell they weren't planning on having any concert for a while yet, as they were still setting up the equipment by 10pm. As I was talking to some especially attractive young women, I saw a certain potbellied, bearded man - Sole himself, milling about the crowd, kind of just chilling. I got to talk to him for awhile, and let him know that his sophomore effort Selling Live Water is probably the single greatest hip-hop album I've ever heard (although the Sole/SkyRider album that just dropped last year is a pretty darn close second). It was a pretty unique experience, and I got him to sign a CD for me and he was a pretty chill guy.

Finally about 10:30 the opening band went on, some whiteboy rappers named The Deadbeats. It was a lot more . . . traditional rap than Sole, and I was generally nonplussed - so I stayed talking to the pretty girls rather than paying attention to their performance at all.

A little after 11 the SkyRider band began an opening set without Sole, and frankly, I'm glad they did. It was a great post-rock set, really spacey, filled with heavy beats and soaring violin, almost like a happy marriage between the post-rock styles of a Mogwai and a bit heavier, beat-driven sound like 65daysofstatic, but without the industrial influences. It was a solid set, and I was engaged in their music.

Finally at about ten minutes to midnight, Sole came out for a side room, leapt onto the stage and the concert proper started, with a blistering, scathing rendition of 'Stupid Things Implode in on Themselves'. It started things off with a bang, and it continued to kick for the next hour. Song after song, Sole threw himself about the small stage, whirling like a mad dervish while still rapping, the SkyRider band laying some of the best rock-driven beats for him to rhyme over.

It transcended rap-rock - it's miles better than anything I can think of in the entire genre. From 'A Sad Day for Investors' to my personal favorite Sole tune, 'Salt on Everything', the beats were heavy and aggressive, uneven, progressive, and his rhymes were as spacey and stream-of-consciousness-esque as ever before.

In short, I'm completely glad that I attended the concert. It went a lot later than I planned, and I was tired as could be the next day, but it was totally worth it. I'd see Sole and the band again in a second, and enjoy the show immensely. If you ever have the chance to see them live, don't pass it up.

I'm totally going to see Sole.

2008-11-10T08:05:00.004-07:00

I was doing some homework for my online class (History of Rock Music) this weekend. Our chapters this weekend were a mixed bunch, with a chapter on funk and disco and another on the development of rap.

Now, rap and hip-hop are music styles that have long escaped me. I've always sorta liked house music like the Beastie Boys (and their instrumental stuff has always been my favorite, oddly enough), but never really got into the hip-hop scene.

Recently, I've found a few hip-hop artists who have really grabbed my attention. Saul Williams was the first guy to really catch my eye, and due to listening to a lot of Saul (who isn't really a rapper, but does rap when he wants to) I decided to check out some other noted experimental hip-hop guys.

One day on Kerrazy I saw a release of a rapper named Dälek, and I downloaded it on a lark. And I've been really impressed by it - it's dense and atmospheric, it's angry and socially conscious and noisy.

Then, thanks to last.fm, I was introduced to Sole, another experimental rapper who pushes boundaries and is totally awesome. I've heard most of his CDs at this point and I'm rather hooked when I want a good beat and some great stream-of-consciousness writing.

Because I was looking for their websites to share with the people in my class, who hate rap and did nothing but complain about it all week, I discovered that Sole and his new backing group, the SkyRider Band, are coming to town this Thursday.

And I'm totally going. I'd regret it forever if I didn't go see this amazing artist, especially when it is only 8 bucks.

So I'm sure you'll all hear about how awesome (or crappy) it was afterwards. :D

Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide.

2008-11-06T08:57:00.003-07:00

A quick post, because I'm ditching class and feel like making one: Been listening to a lot of Cloud Cult lately. After the rainy-day miasma that was the election season, I was in serious need of a pick-me-up, and few bands can do it with the aplomb of Cloud Cult. But this morning I've been enjoying their latest (and supposedly last - say it ain't so, guys) release, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes), and I've been moved by one of the songs on the record. (Expect a review of it soon on our music website.) It's called 'Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide', and it's how I feel today.

I've had enough of hiding underneath my covers
I'm done with all that poop that brings me down
down
down
Don't bring me down
down
down

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired
I'll laugh my whole way through the hurricanes and fire
That's why you don't wanna bring me down
That's why you don't wanna bring me down

That's how I feel this fine day. I'm done being worried about things, I'm done hiding underneath my covers, and I'm going to laugh my way through life. I'm reminded of the words of Joseph B. Wirthlin only a few weeks ago:

Have you ever seen an angry driver who, when someone else makes a mistake, reacts as though that person has insulted his honor, his family, his dog, and his ancestors all the way back to Adam? Or have you had an encounter with an overhanging cupboard door left open at the wrong place and the wrong time which has been cursed, condemned, and avenged by a sore-headed victim?
There is an antidote for times such as these: learn to laugh.

I remember loading up our children in a station wagon and driving to Los Angeles. There were at least nine of us in the car, and we would invariably get lost. Instead of getting angry, we laughed. Every time we made a wrong turn, we laughed harder.

Getting lost was not an unusual occurrence for us. Once while heading south to Cedar City, Utah, we took a wrong turn and didn’t realize it until two hours later when we saw the “Welcome to Nevada” signs. We didn’t get angry. We laughed, and as a result, anger and resentment rarely resulted. Our laughter created cherished memories for us.

I remember when one of our daughters went on a blind date. She was all dressed up and waiting for her date to arrive when the doorbell rang. In walked a man who seemed a little old, but she tried to be polite. She introduced him to me and my wife and the other children; then she put on her coat and went out the door. We watched as she got into the car, but the car didn’t move. Eventually our daughter got out of the car and, red faced, ran back into the house. The man that she thought was her blind date had actually come to pick up another of our daughters who had agreed to be a babysitter for him and his wife.

We all had a good laugh over that. In fact, we couldn’t stop laughing. Later, when our daughter’s real blind date showed up, I couldn’t come out to meet him because I was still in the kitchen laughing. Now I realize that our daughter could have felt humiliated and embarrassed. But she laughed with us, and as a result, we still laugh about it today.

The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable.

So don't forget to laugh at all the difficulties, twisted turns, and hardships that life throws at you. There's no better way to deal with them - so get sick and tired of being sick and tired, and laugh at the hurricanes and fires that life heaps on you.

Ding-dong, the witch is DEAD.

2008-11-05T07:07:00.003-07:00

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead.
Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead.
She's gone where the goblins go, Below - below - below.
Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know-

The Wicked Witch is dead!

Yes, Utah - it's that magical time. Sing it high, sing it low.

Greg Curtis has (finally) been defeated. Jay Seegmiller, who has valiantly run against the bastion of corruption in government that is Greg Curtis has finally beaten his opponent. And it's about time. Seegmiller has tried numerous times to dethrone Curtis (who I've referred to before on these pages as the proud cock in the henhouse of the Utah State Legislature), last time losing by only 18 votes - and the residents of his district have spoken.

They've spoken against the corruption that Curtis embodies. Spoken against the 'Old Boys Club' that the Utah State Legislature has become. Spoken and said that yes, they want change; yes, they want their views supported, not ignored; yes, they are finally waking up and smelling the bacon.

Two other races that were much closer than I feared they would be but were still (regrettably) won were that of State Senator 'Black Baby' Chris Buttars and House Representative 'I'll give you money if you support vouchers' Greg Hughes. Both were quite close contests, and it gives me a tiny, thin ray of hope that just perhaps politics in this state isn't dead.

It's flat-lined more than once, but we've brought it back and it's laid out on the table. Next time, let's get the cancerous corruption all the way out of it and resuscitate this dying patient.

Plus, with Corrupted Curtis gone, hopefully we can actually start to walk the walk concerning ethics reform in this state - a path we should have been on YEARS ago, but which has been derailed by people like Curtis, Buttars, and Hughes.

But in the meantime, congrats, Seegmiller. And Utah Republicans - don't pick such a slime bag to be your Speaker for the House next time.

Political Afterthoughts.

2008-11-03T14:28:00.005-07:00

A collection of my thoughts over the past few days, elucidated for mass consumption:

I'm so beyond ready for this election season to be over. I'm tired of the scraggly old fart and the smooth, slippery young dude. I'm sick of the hairplugs and caribou Barbie. I'm done with the constant noise, noise, noise, noise. Call me the Presidential Politics Grinch, but I'm ready for it all to grind to a screeching halt.

Once the election is over, I wonder how long before the ethers of the 'web calm the heck back down and all of the political furor that has erupted upon them can dissipate. Then I think to myself, There's no way that's going to happen. This election season has been far too divisive to ever return to normalcy.

Gotta love the divisiveness, man. It's just delicious.

They say that Sarah Palin, in the event of her and McCain's loss for the presidency tomorrow, is thinking of being a talk-show host. This is pretty ill - I'd bet that it would be a flop. But even if it's not, I don't expect her to be the next Oprah. (But that's because no-one can dethrone Oprah.) She'll be another Tyra at best.

And while the prospect of her having a daily talk show is pretty gross, I can't help but think to myself - what's worse? Her with a show on the tube or her as a serious candidate for president in 2012? (Because, let's be honest, a talk show will kill her chances when it devolves into paternity tests and seances with mediums.)

Frankly, I'd rather have the nutter on the telly (where I can turn it off or change the channel) than in control of the nuke codes.

I got a message from the Nader campaign earlier today talking about how on national polls, they're getting three percent. And the big message from the e-mail is 'let's go for five percent!' It's pretty sad when your campaign is shooting for five percent in a national election.

If anything, it's just solidified what Nader's campaign is all about - it's not with any hope of winning, it's just in order to get a message out there, and to convince a few - even if it's only a very few - of the veracity and lucidity of their message.

It's not unlike a lady I know in my local area - she's running against a long-standing incumbent for school board. She doesn't have any hopes of winning, really, but she she's running on an ideal - that things need to change; that the status quo is broken; that, even if no-one else will stand up and voice their opposition, she will.

I'll vote for her tomorrow morning with pride, and I've explained her platform to everyone in our voting district, trying to increase support for her. Who knows? Maybe it'll be a big upset.

But even if it's not, her idealism should be noted.

And to wrap this all, up, I'd just like to reiterate the importance of going to vote - make sure that you know who the candidates are, what their stances are, what the issues and amendments you're voting for are - and cast your ballot accordingly. Don't be an uninformed voter - don't go in that booth without having carefully considered all situations and ramifications for supporting who and what you're supporting.

Make sure that when you come out of that booth that you can say you've voted with your conscience - and that, whatever happens, you've been an informed, active part of the political process.

Ah, Bill-O.

2008-10-27T15:19:00.006-06:00

A PARENTHETICAL, DIGRESSION-FILLED TALE

I've worked really hard at maintaining a rather sizable list of nemeses over the years, and many of them are my enemies without even knowing it. (Funny story - my arch-nemesis and number one rival is actually Rachel Ray, and I don't even think I need to tell you why. However, if you want to know more, either e-mail me or ask in the comments. Maybe I'll divulge the story someday.)

However, one who knows for a fact he's on my pooplist is Bill O'Reilly. (Granted, the entire staff of Fox News Channel is on the list all the time - yes, even you, Alan Coombs, for being a fakey-fake-faker - but Bill's special. Even more special than Sean Hannity, that impish little gremlin whose shrill voice only seems to get worse as the years go along, as he loses more and more of what the general public considers 'sanity' and spirals deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit that is his broken, fractured psyche.)

It's not just because his face is red and splotchy, either. (However, there's a great story from Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right where Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly have a beautiful fight on C-SPAN during a booktour they were both participating in. Most of O'Reilly's rage seemed to come from the unflattering picture of him on the cover of the tome - which, to be fair, is really bad. But what did he expect from Franken? Of course, the court case concerning the image was 'laughed out of court', as Franken tells it. Priceless.)

It's because he's exactly what Franken calls him in the title of his book - a LYING LIARFACE LIAR. (And not just about small things, either. It's on an almost daily basis, about almost everything he says. There's even a brilliant website that's been put together called Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly, International that chronicles his inconsistencies and his blatant half-truths and outright lies. Brilliant reading, if you're bored some afternoon. Like today, since you're sitting around reading my tripe.)

I'm sick and tired of his 'War Against Christmas' nonsense and his fight to 'keep this a Christian nation' when it's never been. Secularism in government, as such, is not a bad thing. (But he sure tries to convince you as much. He whines and postulates and struts about, puffing out his voluminous chest and pretending like he cares about the 'Christianity' of this nation, when all that truly concerns him is his own paycheck - which is considerable. Did you hear that he's recently had his contract renewed for 10 million dollars a year? Gimme a break, people - no one, and I repeat no one is worth 10 million dollars a year for anything. I don't care if they can sing, dance, and prepare delicious salsa all at the same time - which Bill-O can't - they don't deserve such exorbitant amounts of money. But then, I'm just a pinko commie liberal - what do I know?)

Anyway, all I meant to say with this short article is that, while Bill O'Reilly is busy boycotting governments that are inclusive of other religions besides Christianity and bullying stores into selling his crappy ornaments, let's boycott his face - don't watch him, don't talk about him, and let's all pretend that he doesn't exist. He's long since passed any semblance of useful. (In fact, I don't think Bill-O was ever useful. He sucked when he was on the tabloid show, he sucks on Fox News Network, what whatever. And yes, if you take out all the asides in italics, this actually is quite a short article. Take a look! It's like six lines or something like that. Puny, puny, puny.)

But I digress. (A lot. I mean, look how many parenthetical statements I crammed in this little guy - I think it's a new record for digression length. If not, I'd like to find out what the record is - so next time I can smash it. Because, you know, Hulk Smash and all. Incidentally, I got that film for my birthday. I really thought they did a much better job than that Ang Lee nonsense . . .)

Addendum: The video mentioned in the comments section.

The need for ethics reform.

2008-10-27T10:50:00.003-06:00

I read a thought-provoking article this morning from the Deseret News' incomparable John Florez (by far one of their best editorial writers - he's on the money quite often) explaining about the need for ethics reform in the state of Utah.

He makes some compelling arguments for ethics reform, and why it seems so distant. To quote from the article itself:

Any effort to introduce reform legislation each year gets killed and never sees the light of day. And those in power grab more each year. Two years ago, for every $100 in donations legislators received, $96.70 came from special-interest groups or from their own pockets, according to the Deseret News. Now, some don't even bother to campaign in their own districts. They don't have to — they have lobbyists to bankroll their campaigns.

Like all institutions, those in them resist change, and, over the years, they create more devices to insulate themselves from criticism, deny any wrongdoing, or try to justify their actions. And while 97 percent of the public wants ethics and campaign finance reform, lawmakers ignore the public's voice and keep doing the same. We forget that institutions don't change unless it is done by outside forces, because those in power cannot be trusted to be self-critical. They become entrenched and seek to amass more power and become more focused on serving those who keep them there — those special interests that feed off the institution. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

His words spoke to me this morning as I sat eating my leftover cube steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions (thank goodness for leftovers - I can't bring myself to eat morning foods most days). I pondered long and hard about the state of ethics in the 'great' state of Utah, and how the hegemonic control that the Republican Party has over the government in this state is embarrassing to all involved.

One need only look at the calibre of individual we keep sending back to Salt Lake to realize how foolish we as a whole have been. We have people like Greg Hughes, who was let off of his ethics hearing for a technicality - even though it was obvious to anyone with eyes and two brain cells to rub together that he'd tried to bribe his fellow State Representative with money from the invasive pro-vouchers group. People like Chris Buttars, whose tenure in the State Capitol has been rife with racism (and the real kind - not just stuff made up by pundits to repudiate people with differing views), bigotry against homosexuals, misogyny, and hate. People like Greg Curtis, who has ruled over the State Capitol like some despotic Napoleon, strutting about like the cock of the henhouse, spouting venom-filled invectives at anyone who disagrees with him.

The first thing we need to do is stop electing these foolhardy people as our representatives. It's time to look for people who will genuinely endeavor to put their constituents needs and wants first, rather than run for some self-serving reason, trying to put forth their own twisted ideals, imposing upon an unwilling electorate foolish measures that are soundly repudiated once the people pull their heads out of the sand long enough to see what's happened to them. (The issue of school vouchers in Utah is a wonderful example of this - passed by a crooked legislature, attacked by and soundly refused by the people.)

However, simply electing new individuals is far from enough. There are substantive things that must be done to encourage a different tone in the politics of the state of Utah. Here are a few ideas, some from other individuals in the area (most notably Governor Huntsman, who has been pushing for ethics reform since his first campaign four years ago):

Term limits. I believe that term limits should be enforced across the board, and in all levels of government - local, state, federal. Two terms in any office should be more than enough time to get your issues across - if not, you're out of luck. This is as true of city council people as state senators and members of the national House of Representatives. One need look no further than the long-past-his-use Orrin Hatch to see exactly why we should create term limits - he ran on a platform that his opponent had been in Washington too long and had been 'corrupted' by it - and now is in his second term past what his predecessor had run.
Time before becoming a lobbyist. Governor Huntsman has pushed to make one be out of office for at least a year before becoming a lobbyist - which happens at an alarming rate in this state. I would conjecture that it should be increased to at least two years.
Public campaign funds. No longer should we donate to the candidate of our choice, giving them an alarmingly larger budget, effectively drowning the voice of better, third-party candidates. All campaign contributions should be put in a large pool, and each candidate for any office receives out of this kitty, an equal amount spread amongst all real contenders for the job. Also, no corporations or special-interest groups should be allowed to donate to campaigns in any way, shape, or form. And don't spread the lie that this is a stifling of free speech - corporations and lobbyists have all the right to speech that I do. Giving money is not an issue of free speech - it's an issue of elections ethics.

These are only three of the things that I believe would begin to put us on the right path as a state, ethically. Do I believe that any of these things will happen? Of course not, for the very reasons that Florez stated in his article. Absolute power corrupts absolutely - and their is no more absolute power in Utah politics than the Republican Party. They have become a cesspit of unethical behavior, a shell of the party they pretend to come from, a hollow shadow of anything 'Grand'. Therefore, I can only issue the same clarion call that Florez ended his editorial with:

Too many incumbent legislators have had plenty of time and chances to return the confidence and integrity voters should expect from their leaders, but they continue to ignore the people's interest for their own political career. Since they have shown an inability to change, it's up to the voters to do their duty to make change.

I encourage every single one of you to vote, and vote with your conscience, vote ethically, and come away from the voting booth with clean hands and a clean heart, knowing you have done what you could to effect ethics reform locally and nationally.

The mid-semester grind.

2008-10-21T07:15:00.003-06:00

Usually I love school. When I'm taking classes that are engaging, interesting, and keep my attention, I'm more than willing to put in the effort it takes to excel. In Spain, I worked my hindparts off - and consequently got some of the best grades in my classes and (I was informed by Profesora Giralt upon my return) I also did better than any other exchange student ever in the Weeb's history with URV. So, obviously, I enjoy school as a general rule.

However, that is not true at all of my performance this semester.

I'd like to think that it's not burnout; I assume that if I was attending classes I actually gave a care about I'd try to pay attention, try to succeed and focus on my work. However, I couldn't care less about any of the classes I'm taking this semester. To give you a taste of why I'm so bored, here's my class list this semester:

Telecommunications - a 'required' class I'm only taking for the credit hours, rather than just CLEPing out of it. It involves 'learning how to navigate Microsoft Office programs and use Windows'. Now, I can see how this class might be useful for some people - but DOOD I'm bored out of my gourd here. I know how to do all this stuff already. And it doesn't help that this class starts at 7 am - doesn't make it really easy to want to get up and trundle off to class.

Earthquakes and Volcanoes - now this class sounded interesting in the course catalog. And I needed one more science class to fulfill the requirements for my BA. So I thought, How can I lose with the chaos of volcanoes and earthquakes? Fail. The teacher (the hilariously named Adolf Yonkee) is the most humorless, boring cad on the planet. I didn't think you could make volcanoes boring, but he's succeeded flawlessly. I loathe attending this class.

Latin American Authors - normally this would be my cup of tea. I love to read good Spanish literature. Only two problems with this - 1)the class is in English; and 2)I've already read all of the books we're studying this semester in Spanish. It's difficult for me to want to attend a course where I've already read all these novels in the original language. Occasionally our class discussions will be of worth; however, usually I just sit there and doodle in my graph paper.

Rock Music Styles - yet another class that (on paper) seemed like it would be a winner. It's an online course and I have a hecks of a time having the initiative to do my assignments. I thought I would care more, and I think if the rest of my classes were fostering more of an ambiance of learning that I would try harder. The problem lies in the general apathy that the rest of my classes give me; it's almost impossible to care about this one class when I'm so nonplussed by the rest of them.

So that's this semester. Boring doesn't even begin to describe it.

I feel like such a failure. I used to love school; now I'm completely apathetic towards it. I can only hope that this general apathy will dissipate when I'm taking classes I like again, or I'm really up a creek without a paddle, because I'm going to be in a University setting for the rest of my life.

Oh noes.

The only thing to change my Nader vote.

2008-10-20T14:56:00.005-06:00

I thought that I had for sure locked my vote in. I was a true Nader fan. I was ready to go and cast my (useless) vote with pride.

Until I saw this campaign poster.

Ah, the only person who could possibly turn me away from a principled vote for Nader - the Man, the Myth, the Legend that is Bruce Campbell.

Surely this will be a landslide victory for the man from the cabin in the woods.

Hail to the King, baby.

Continental Drift

2008-10-16T20:03:00.002-06:00

This originally started out as a pantoum, but I took some rather hefty liberties with the form. (But hey, I kept the basic rhyme scheme while trying some diversification with the lines.) At any rate, it's nothing special, but I thought it would be worth posting. But then, I've been wrong before.

Anyway. If you read, let me know what you think.

Continental Drift

Now you pull away from me,
hesitant and cold; are you
shaken by something you see,
the things I've said, or what I do?

Hesitant and cold, are you
willing to ignore me here?
The things I've said or what I do
create this chill, foster this fear.

Now as you ignore me here,
is there nothing I can say
to make this chill and fostered fear
depart? No. You're miles away.

Is there nothing I can say
amidst these shaking things you see
to stop you? No. You're miles away.
You still drift away from me.

Obama's the Beast? Riiiiiiiiiight.

2008-10-13T14:32:00.002-06:00

My sister received an interesting e-mail earlier today which she forwarded to me, asking my opinion on what it said. While I was able to give her my response, I felt compelled to broaden it and re-post it in the name of honesty.

To begin with, it's important to analyze the original message. While it will be difficult (since it is an embarrassing attempt at cogent writing - frankly, my five-year-old niece could do better) to re-post it, I'll do so in the name of full disclosure.

This will make you re-think: A Trivia question in Sunday School: How long is the beast allowed to have authority in Revelation? Revelation Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months, and you know what that is. Almost a four-year term of a Presidency. All I can say is 'Lord, Have mercy on us!' According to The Book of Revelation, the anti-Christ is: a man in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything.. Do we recognize this description? I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to post this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet. . .do it! I refuse to take a chance on this unknown candidate who came out of nowhere. From: Dr. John Tisdale
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Friends, As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . .'we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, . . .' As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be. I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation! Please pray for our nation! Paul

Okay, now let's take a look at this poorly-written chain mail. After extensive studies of the book of Revelation in the past couple of months, I'd love to analyze it. First, let's copy the text of Revelation 13 and see what it says.

1: And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2: And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3: And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
4: And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5: And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6: And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
7: And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8: And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9: If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10: He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
11: And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12: And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13: And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14: And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15: And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16: And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18: Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

All right. Now let's see the two highly specific details mentioned in the beginning of the e-mail - that the Beast would be Muslim and that he would be in his forties. Does anyone else see a problem with both of those? 1)Islam wouldn't exist for another 400+ years, and 2)it never mentions a thing about age in the ACTUAL Book of Revelation. (Now, maybe the foolhardy person who wrote this e-mail has some different version of Revelation that the rest of us aren't privy to - who knows?) The only thing that is true about what it says in Revelation 13 is that he would be in power 42 months. Nothing else of what it mentions in that e-mail is true.

But I love the second half of it where it talks about this being a 'Christian' nation as opposed what Senator Obama said - that 'we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists'. I don't understand what the Religious Right has against all other religions but their own (most likely yours included, since it's not their brand of Christianity), but I find it embarrassing that they want to force Christianity down everyone's throats - thus cheapening all other religions and moral codes. The tripe about our founding fathers fighting for ours to be a Christian nation is a lie that has been propagated for far too long.

Frankly, this whole e-mail simply reminds me of the words of the Lord himself in the book of Matthew, chapter 15, verses 19 and the beginning of 20:

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
These are the things which defile a man.

These supposed 'Christians' are defiling themselves by spreading lies and false witness. They are fearmongers, out to propagate their twisted reasoning by smearing Senator Obama. Now, those of you who know me will know that I'm no Obama supporter by any stretch of the imagination - go Ralph go, after all - but to see such lies be bandied about by these purportedly pious people is shockingly bad.

If there's one group of citizens in this country that sickens me more often and more completely than any other, it's the hypocrisy to be found in Christian Evangelicals and Fundamentalists that have driven the Republican party into the ground.

SNL hits 'em out of the ballpark.

2008-10-09T21:31:00.003-06:00

SNL hasn't kept me entertained for years. It's been at best mildly amusing, at worst a maudlin attempt at weak humor that fell flat on its face. That is, until this current season.

It helps that they've been given so much fodder by the imbeciles running for national office in this country, but they've really been having serious success at the political satire this season.

Tina Fey's Sarah Palin is on-the-spot incredible. And it's only gotten better.

But they both hit it out of the ballpark with the Vice-Presidential debate. It was perfect.

Hopefully you all have been able to catch it. If you don't want to stay up late and watch it on Saturday, catch the 'Thursday Weekend Update' episodes for the next two Thursdays (until my newly-beloved 30 Rock comes back). Here's an example of what we got from that last night.

While the actors in this skit don't look as much like their real counterparts as Tina Fey looks like crazy Sarah, they ape the mannerisms brilliantly.

Perhaps I'm going to have to start watching SNL again. Maybe they've convinced me to come back.

What's wrong with the modern election process.

2008-10-07T13:47:00.005-06:00

I've been pondering the modern, twenty-first century version of politics for months now. (That's, of course, what happens when primaries and general elections are interminably long and arduous.) I've thought a lot about the ads, the debate tactics, the way that the system is set up, and various and sundry other concepts. Of course, it doesn't help that I've been on a hefty reading diet of politically charged books, papers, and blogs, but what can I say? I'm a politics junkie.

However, I'm becoming increasingly disaffected with the whole politics situation in this country. Perhaps it was the length of the primaries (which felt as though they would NEVER EVER END) or the vitriol that we hear daily from the general election, but I'm just getting tired of all the major candidates from both parties.

And it's not entirely their fault. (Well, it's mostly their fault, but I digress.) The blame lays on many different and disparate groups. It's the two-party system's fault for stifling dissent or third-party candidates. It's the media's fault for focusing on the mechanics of elections rather than the substance. But most of all it's our fault, for gobbling up the gunk they feed us and smiling like idiot children.

I think it's telling how both major presidential candidates have completely turned their back on everything they once stood for, spouting talking points and rhetoric that's ultimately empty and vapid, or as Shakespeare put it in Macbeth, 'Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'. Frankly, it's become even more of what Ralph Nader described in his book Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender - I think this assessment of the current political situation is especially adroit.

Throughout the campaign, the media obsessed over the tactics of the candidates and other horse-race aspects such as the polls, endorsements, stumbles, momentum, staff turnover, and the like. This has become a professional addiction and a contagious one at that, providing mind-numbing renditions.

The saddest thing is that these politicians didn't always used to be that way - or, at the very least, they used to pretend to be different. I mean, listen to this quote from John McCain back in the 2000 election:

We have squandered the public trust. We have placed our personal and partisan interest before the national interest, earning the public's contempt for our poll-driven policies, our phony posturing, the lies we call spin, and the damage control we substitute for progress. And we defend the campaign finance system that is nothing less than an elaborate influence-peddling scheme in which both parties conspire to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder.

It's a shame that a person who sounded so principled could, eight years later, be one of the worst offenders of the very things he decries in that statement. Regardless of party, everything in national politics has become a story of power brokers, who get what they want regardless of the way it steamrolls over the normal citizen.

Consequently, my distaste for the big players of national politics has made me think a lot about the Concord Principles - some essentials for national elections that have been soundly ignored since Ralph Nader proposed them from Dartmouth in New Hampshire. (These Principles can be read here.) The things that most surely stand out to me are these:

A growing and grave imbalance between the often converging power of Big Business, Big Government and the citizens of this country has seriously damaged our democracy and weakened our ability to correct this imbalance. We lack the mechanisms of civic power. We need a modern tool box for redeeming our democracy by strengthening our capacity for self- government and self-reliance both as individuals and as a community of citizens. Our 18th century democratic rights need retooling for the proper exercise of our responsibilities as citizens in the 21st century.

Big Business and Big Government are pretty much best buddies at this point; I'm ashamed that it's become that way. But what are we going to do to try and change our politics to improve the situation in the national setting? Mr. Nader gives us some concise and meaningful changes that I believe should be implemented, even though they never will:

a binding none-of-the-above option on the ballot;
term limitations, 12 years and out;
public financing of campaigns through well-promoted voluntary taxpayer checkoffs on tax returns;
easier voter registration and ballot access rules;
state-level binding initiative, referendum, and recall authority, a non-binding national referendum procedure; and
a repeal of the runaway White House/Congressional Pay Raises back to 1988 levels -- a necessary dose of humility to the politicians.

Genius. Will it happen? No. Can I wish it would?

Heavens yes.

Things are broken, and with the two big parties, things are going to stay broken - unless we stand up and make it change. We have to, in the words of a great man, stand where we are - and lift.

How did I miss this earlier?

2008-10-07T09:36:00.003-06:00

I've been a devoted fan of The Office for the fast two years. It's a show that, while I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to every Thursday, I wish I would have started watching four years ago and been there from the beginning. There are a couple of other shows that, luckily enough, I was able to catch from the get-go - Pushing Daisies, Reaper, and Chuck.

But there's another show that I'm sad I've missed until this, its third season, is 30 Rock. The first season was on sale at Target last week, and I decided to pick it up on a lark.

Oh. My. Gosh.

How did I miss this? Following the Emmys, I couldn't help but wonder how this program could pull off winning Best Actor (Alec Baldwin), Best Actress (Tina Fey), and Best Comedy. I didn't understand how it possibly could have beat out The Office. But after watching most of the first season, I'm sold. It's humorous, solidly acted, at times absurd, and totally worthwhile. The ensemble cast is quite talented, and Tina Fey is completely captivating as Liz Lemon (and it helps that I've had a crush on her since her early days on SNL).

From Brian Williams' messy office to Jack dating Condee Rice or Maureen Dowd to Tracey seeing blue men everywhere, it's really fun. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to. Catch it before it gets canceled, because it's almost inevitable that it will, because it's not getting enough viewers.

I can't wait to wrap up season one and see season two before season three starts at the end of the month - because it's really funny.

Why the comic discrimination?

2008-10-06T08:50:00.002-06:00

Two weeks ago (it was a Monday night), I finally got the book I had ordered from Amazon.com three weeks previous - Bone by Jeff Smith. I was ecstatic. I had wanted to read the large, 1400-plus page epic for months, but hadn't been able to purchase it as I was living in Spain, and upon returning I couldn't justify purchasing it until all my school expenses were in order. But having all of my ducks finally in a row, I quickly bought it and waiting with bated breath.

I rushed into the house, grabbed a pair of scissors and manhandled the package opened. Dad took one look at it and asked, 'What is that? It looks huge.' He picked up the tome, flipping through the pages, and answered his own question with a 'This is a comic book. What are you doing buying a super-fat comic book?'

I quickly defended my purchase, took it downstairs, and hid it in my room until after dinner and some family time. Following an evening with my grandparents, I took refuge in the basement and read until exhaustion set in and I knew I needed to go to bed.

The next day in school, I carried it under my arm all over the campus (it's far too large to fit in my slim messenger bag). In my first two class, I got funny looks from people and a couple of comments. In my last class, the Simpson sisters both gave me a bad time about reading 'kiddie books' despite my protestations to the grandeur and sprawling beauty of the book.

I then went to work, and was ribbed by my co-workers and a couple of customers for reading a comic book. I just wanted to go home and read, not work, not talk to these people, or anything of the like.

So that's what I did when work was over - I went home and devoured the last 900 pages of the large book, until I was completely done with it around 2am. Should I have spread my enjoyment of the hefty volume out more? Probably. But I couldn't bring myself to stop.

And why should I? It is, hands down, the greatest fantasy novel I've ever read. So what if it has pictures to go with the words, and so what if it's got three characters that seem better suited to early Disney cartoons than to a moving, impressive work of high fantasy? It was incredible - absolutely, positively in my 'Top Ten Best Books Evarrr', and possibly the best graphic novel I've yet enjoyed. (And that includes most of the ones considered the 'best of the best' - such as Alan Moore's inimitable Watchmen, Neil Gaiman's unforgettable Sandman series, and the heartbreakingly beautiful Blankets by Craig Thompson.) Bone is absolutely gorgeous - wonderfully drawn, full of heart and humor, a moving, compelling story, plenty of exciting action and believable characters who the reader can relate to.

But despite the absolute brilliance of the book, most of the people I talked to would never, under any circumstance, read it - simply because it had little comic book pictures instead of massive walls of dense text. And frankly, that's a disservice both to Mr. Smith, who's written (I repeat) the best fantasy novel I've ever read, and a disservice to the people who are passing on this amazing work for a stupid reason.

So, constant readers (what few there might be), go get Bone. (Get it in the omnibus version, it's a bit cheaper and you'll be able to read it all at once, because if you're anything like me, you won't be able to put it down.) Read it. Enjoy it. Flip through those pages like a madman. And then report back here and tell me how good it was - because I'm fairly certain you'll be moved at least a bit by this beautiful, epic story.

And don't discriminate against great literature just because it has pictures.

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Now playing: The Bad Plus - Anthem for the Earnest

Differences between ugly and bad.

2008-10-03T23:12:00.000-06:00

I was sitting in my car, listening to the album Coward by Made Out of Babies. I think I must have been headbanging to Julie Christmas' haunting, devilish voice, and it was loud enough that you could obviously hear it from outside the vehicle, as I looked up to see El Presidente giving me by far the funniest look I'd ever seen on his face.

I stopped the car and got out, laughing a little as I asked, 'What the heck was that look for?'

'What the heck was the ugly noise coming out of your car?' was his reply.

I panicked. Perhaps my stereo was too loud and I couldn't hear the engine - what if something was wrong with my glorious, lovely Rocinante? 'What do you mean, Dad?'

He harrumphed and answered, 'That horrible music. I could only hear a bit of it but it sounded mighty, mighty ugly.'

After my heart stopped pounding so badly, I responded with the name of the band. After another strange look from El Presidente, he said, 'Wow. Why you listen to such bad music is beyond me.'

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, since that's what I do when I can't sleep - think about stupid pointless stuff. Granted, these sorts of things are all subjective, but it's interesting to analyze the differences between 'ugly' music and 'bad' music. Because they're not necessarily related.

Sure, most of the time they are. Most of the ugly music you hear is also bad. But it's not always the case, and bad certainly doesn't automatically mean ugly. Think about it - Christina Aguilera's music wouldn't usually be considered ugly, but I would as a general rule consider it bad. Sure, she's got a nice voice (much better than some of the other pop princesses) but it's still bad pop music. (Britney Spears, unlike Christina, personifies both in her tunes.)

And on the other hand, Made Out of Babies creates really ugly music. Extremely, violently ugly music. It's aggressive and acerbic and wicked cool. I wouldn't ever classify it as bad, though. It's inventive, fresh, and miles different from what you hear on the radio, as well as being musically engaging - it's just ugly, that's all.

In fact, most of the classical music from the last century is considered ugly by the normal listening public - composers such as Dvorak, Khachaturian, or Bartok embody the type of music that El Presidente seems to really hate to hear, but one who is trained in music theory - while not necessarily finding their songs pretty - can usually appreciate what the artist is trying to portray.

I guess that's the most important part when it comes to the paradigm of 'ugly' or 'bad' music. It seems to depend on whether you're willing to see past the first impression of a piece of music and find out what message (if any) the artist or composer is trying to portray. And that's why I'll continue to advocate good ugly music and eschew bad music even if it's not ugly.

Because there's so much more to music than just being 'ugly'.

The lesser of two evils?!?

2008-09-30T22:55:00.005-06:00

It seems that every election I'm confronted by the same situation. (And this is on almost every level - local, state, and national.) I'm given a slew of lackluster candidates - a whole cavalcade of sycophantic party-first types, who are more proud of the letter next to their name declaring their affiliation rather than the country/state/city they want to serve.

If you want evidence of that, one must look no further than the House of Representatives. To begin with, Speaker Pelosi should never have made such an inflammatory, partisan speech concerning the bailout deal - and that's her bad. (But it's the sort of thing we've come to expect from the woman.) But the reaction of a whole score of Republican senators, saying they voted it down because her speech was 'too partisan' is embarrassing. They're putting their party miles ahead of their country, and their stupidity is going to cost us. Dearly.

Frankly, either the Democrats or the Republicans had the opportunity on Monday of being heroes - of putting partisan issues behind them and working for the common good (you know, that whole government being for the people instead of for the party thing). Instead - and as per usual - it dissolved into petty squabbling and nothing was accomplished. I'd hate to say I'm shocked, but mostly I'm just disappointed.

So what do you do? I endeavor to be an informed voter, one who knows his candidates, knows where they stand on the issues of most importance to myself, and I try to vote accordingly. The problem, however, is so many of these candidates that are offered us by the two big parties (which, the more you think about it, are really just two heads of the same beast), they're (in a word) horrible. And you talk to the people around you, try to take a barometer reading of what they are thinking and what way they're planning to vote, and there's one phrase that seems to repeat consistently, and almost across the board, regardless of political party:

'I'm voting for so-and-so because s/he's the lesser of two evils.'

Yes, that's the justification so many of us give as to why we're voting for who we vote for. I know that more than once I've cast a ballot for X candidate more as a protest to Y candidate than anything else. (Example: I don't even remember who ran against Rob Bishop for the House of Representatives in Utah's first district in 2006, but I know I voted for him because I would not, under any circumstances, give that despicable career politician Bishop one more vote.) And frankly, I think that's a tragedy.

Ralph Nader explained why this is so bad better than I could in his book Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender when he explained what happened to the Democratic party in the eighties, and how horribly spineless, directionless, and 'samey' they became - and still are. He writes:

During the eighties, it became ever more clear that the Democrats were losing the will to fight. Business money pouring into party coffers melded into the retreat from progressive roots and then into an electoral tactic that argued for defeating the Republicans by taking away their issues and becoming more like them.

The energy to strike out on a path extending the great American progressive tradition was quickly leaking out of the Democrats like a tire losing air. The party would address its Democratic tactics by defining itself by the worst Republicans instead of becoming better. "Do you know how bad the Republicans are on this subject?" would be the standard reply. Buying into the lesser-of-two-evils argument simply meant that every four years both parties would get worse and be rewarded for it. (27-28, bold mine)

And it's only become worse and worse. That's why Ralph runs for president - he can't work from withing the system any more because the system's too broken. And I think I'm quickly drifting away from party politics altogether. I'm almost sure that while I live in Utah I'll stay registered a Democrat, but once I live in a less-Republican area (which prompts me to be a Demo if only to see people's rich reactions to the news when I tell them as much) I'm rather certain I'll shuck the party and be truly unaffiliated.

Because toeing the party line is ofttimes choosing the lesser of two evils. And I don't think that's the way things should be.

I'm Braeden Jones and I approved this message.

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PS Readers: I'll begin to focus less on politics and the economy, I promise. Okay, no I don't. But at the very least I'll try. I apologize. Okay, no, I don't do that either.

I'm so sick of the 'Wall Street/Main Street' line.

2008-09-30T14:27:00.001-06:00

I just finished (well, a few days ago) watching the first debate between Obama and McCain. (I know, I know, clichéd and all, but what did you expect of me? I had to watch it.) So I guess the biggest question is how I felt about it.

While the main thrust of the debate was supposed to be foreign policy, they sure didn't start talking about it. Understandably, they began with the sitch in the economy. (I've already railed against the economy recently, as I'm sure you remember.) Obama was really solid concerning the recent difficulties, whereas McCain really seemed off his game at the beginning. I will admit, I'm pretty sick of everyone and their mother using myriad lines about the relationship between 'Wall Street' and 'Main Street'. Yeah, we get how you think it's all affecting the average person - you don't need to use this stupid-sounding, trite phrase to explain it - and I'm talking to both of you, Barack and John. However, he got it together as they discussed foreign policy, being as much of a hoary old warmonger as we already all knew he was. Obama vacillated a bit in the foreign relations stuff, but gave some decent smackdowns to McCain as well.

However, when all was said and done, I was soundly unmotivated by the both of them. Sure, they both gave decent presentations of their views, but there was none of the rhetoric that we've come to expect from presidential debates; there were no delicious, memorable quotes (for better or for worse - none of the unforgettable Reagan-esque phrases, or the laughably retarded nonsense coming out of Bush's mouth), there were no truly heated moments. It was lackluster at best.

If anything, the most exciting part of the whole thing was the profoundly disrespectful behavior of McCain - the old codger refused to make eye contact with Obama, no matter what Lehrer tried to do to make them interact one with the other. Obama was better about addressing his opponent, but McCain wouldn't even act like he existed. (Add to that the two times that I swear that McCain said in a chuckle 'horseshit' on national television, and you get some mild amusement.)

Hopefully the coming debate will be more engaging. And surely, watching Sarah Palin become eviscerated by Joe Biden will be a lot of fun on Thursday evening (come on, Joe! Be the attack dog everyone said you would be - make people realize Palin is as vapid and unprepared as the sage have already realized). But I can only hope that Obama and McCain have better debates ahead of them than the one we witnessed on Friday night.

But whatever. It's not like I'm voting for either of them anyway.

It's all your fault, media!

2008-09-29T10:27:00.005-06:00

All day long, every day, every time I turn on the telly or get on the internet, I'm confronted with more and more panic talk about the economy.

And on the one hand, I understand it. It's scary when things are the way they are right now, and the pronouncements from financial gurus - full of dire predictions and frightening talk - don't make it any better. To hear about Washington Mutual failing and Wachovia being bought out is enough to make you question the financial stability of everything in the country. Add to that the retards who think that MORE DEregulation is the answer (John McCain, I'm looking at you), and you're set for a financial crisis the likes of which we haven't seen in decades.

Now, I don't like this bailout plan - I don't like it one bit. But the important thing to remember is that Secretary Paulson is smarter than the next hundred senators and congressmen combined - and if there's anyone I'd entrust $700 billion to in order to try and right this happy crappy, it's him. I know that lots of people are saying that we should do nothing, and let these businesses fail - these are people I like to refer to as 'ignorami', because their ignorance as to all things financial is staggering. Mind-boggling. Oh, and depressing. Of course we have to do something - to do nothing would be to doom us to years (if not decades) of financial crises. I know it's a lot of money (but then, maybe if we hadn't started an unlawful war in Iraq, we'd have the funds to cover it instead of the sickening budget deficits that currently plague us - thanks, George. I hate you too), but we've got to do something.

My biggest beef, however, is not with the foolhardy senators trying to fight the bill (although, I'd like the license to personally kick each of them in the posteriors, athankyaverymuch), it's with the alarmist media. What happened to a media that measured itself, that didn't rush to report every bit of minutiae relating to every little bit of supposed 'information' they can get their hands on, all in the names of ratings and advertising. Now, they can say that this is all done in the name of 'keeping the public informed', but any idiot with two brain cells to rub together can tell that, under the veneer of information is a seething pit of even more corporate greed.

They don't care what your financial situation is - they care that you're scared enough to keep watching, keep reading, keep tuning in. (Of course, like a sucker, I keep watching, keep reading. What can I say? I'm weak.) But I honestly believe that things wouldn't be so dire and appear so horrifying if the media would shut its claptrap and only report the truth - not rumors, not background whisperings that exacerbate things rather than help.

Just shut the heck up, media. Due your REAL job as opposed to this sham - this effort to terrify each and every one of us. You're making things worse than they would be otherwise.

Oh, and I hate your faces.

Ridiculous requirements in 'higher learning'.

2008-09-23T07:05:00.002-06:00

I sat at my computer, looking dumbly at the screen, as questions flash across, totally oblivious to my apathy towards them.

I mean, these things are insipid. Really insipid.

When it's all said and done, I'm mildly offended that they feel that we need to take this class anyway. Perhaps I shouldn't have put off all the Gen Ed classes until my last semester. But I still don't see the justification for this class.

You see, I'm in TBE 1700.

This fine little class is basically what you learned back in your seventh-grade keyboarding class, way back in the day using blue-screened WordPerfect 5.1 or something like that. It's the basics of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. And sometimes I'm embarrassed that they feel they need to offer this test.

First off, everything they've demonstrated has been painfully simple, the kind of thing you could figure out yourself without any sort of difficulty. Secondly, when are you going to be allowed to put clip art or a picture in your research paper? Do you want to fail the paper? Thirdly, why do they focus so much on Office 2007, forcing us to save everything as a .docx, when it's not even close to the industry standard?

I suppose I shouldn't complain. It's going to be a super-easy A, one that requires (next to) no effort. But I've just taken the practice test and GIVE ME A BREAK. One of the questions was about the name of 'the button that increases font size'. Yeah, I can see that it's called the 'Grow Font' button, but on what planet do you need to know the Microsoft-given name for each button in the program? Any simian with half a brain could figure out that the button with a big letter and an arrow next to it will make the font bigger.

But I am complaining too much. I think it's because I feel as though this entire semester is like this TBE class - I'm just punching the clock, going to the class and going through the motions like a brain-dead vegetable man, without any sort of actual thought or effort. It's probably the exact last type of semester I want before going to Grad school - my last semester should be good and difficult so that it can prepare me for my Masters program.

But that's okay. I'll still go to class, still punch the clock, and answer these insipid questions, even if I find the premise of the course offensive that a college student should be forced to take.

I mean, there's nothing else I can do about it. See my vegetative, drooling smile?

The Cylons are a'coming!

2008-09-19T08:24:00.005-06:00

I've seen the most horrible (and simultaneously the most exciting) thing I've seen in months (that's not related to the depressing state of politics in this fine country of mine). You see, the future is coming - and coming in the name of rat-brained robobeasts.

I'm not kidding. This little robot right here is much more than an average mess of silicon and wires. There is actually a petri dish chock-full of over 300.000 rat neuron cells which interface with a series of electrodes embedded inside the robot. They interact with each other, sending signals and impulses which power the 'hybrot', as the scientists who built it have decided to dub the little monstrosity.

Now, these scientists say they're doing this to try and garner increased knowledge on how the brain works, and use these findings to create new treatments for neural diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or epilepsy. But we all know what they're really doing.

They're creating Cylons.

I mean, what else could it possibly be? The Cylons were created by interfacing living neural passages with robot bodies - and isn't that exactly what they're doing here?

Frankly, I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before they gain cognitive ability, build their Basestars and get all up in humanity's grill.

Because we've seen the future, and it's Battlestar Galactica.

PS: if you want to see this robotic monstrosity in action, go ahead. But don't say I haven't warned you.

When will the guns get attached?
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Now playing: The Bad Plus - Anthem for the Earnest

Capitalism - saved by socialism since 1932.

2008-09-18T07:13:00.006-06:00

People are all a-twitter about Wall Street these days, and it seems like every time I pick up a newspaper or turn on the telly it's dire predictions of economic downfall and virtual destruction. To say that it's a little disheartening is seriously underplaying what it seems I'm sensing in people these days.

I mean, hecks, Alan Greenspan is saying that this is 'a once-in-a-half-century, probably once-in-a-century type of event.' Of course, the craggy old 'Maestro' has been known to be a crock of you-know-what lately (he is the one who said that the whole sub-prime mortgages stuff was a 'bubble' in the market), so I can only hope that he's wrong - especially since, if he's to be believed, things are only going to get worse.

What I find ironic, however, is Big Business' response to this whole thing. I mean, these guys are the original 'Conservatives', the old believers in capitalism for capitalism's sake, the ones who pushed for the deregulation that's largely been the facilitator for this whole hullabaloo anyway. And what are they doing now? Coming to Uncle Sam and asking for, nay, begging for a handout. (And to think, they esteem those on the Government's dole to be such offal, and yet here they are, lining up with the 'welfare mammas' to have a taste of Big Lady Fed's teat.)

That's the delicious schadenfreude sitch here - Big Business, stalwart supporters of capitalism and no government involvement is now itchin' for a roll in the hay with the Big Government, its one-time arch-nemesis.

They say that war makes strange bedfellows. I guess that's true of economic crises as well.

The biggest problem, however, is that it sets a precedent. First came the government bailout of Fannie and Freddie, America's *Most Famous Couple!* Now, it could be argued (and I'd be inclined to agree) that since both Freddie Mac and Fannie May were started under Fed influence and such that it was necessary to bail them both out. (It could also be argued that to not do so would have made things even more craptacular than they are right now - sad, but true.) But then there's poor Lehman Brothers. Survives a Civil War, Two World Wars, a Great Depression, and when push comes to shove, the Fed said, 'Sorry, kids, but you're on your own.'

Who would want to buy a company like that, without any guarantee that it won't be a first-year Ford Taurus, a Lemon Supreme?

No one, that's who. Thus, the bankruptcy.

Then yesterday, AIG gets the fatty bailout by the Government. Okay. I mean, it's great that we're going to be saddling our children's children with enormous debt that won't even probably be dented in our lifetime (thanks, George!), but now everyone wants a bite.

Everyone just wants their welfare check. GM wants a bailout to 'save American automaking'. The airlines want a federal stipend for fuel, or they're threatening to charge even more per checked bag than they're already beginning to do (just ask Mamma Jones - she's so thrilled about it). Never mind the extent to which the Government has already tried to bail out Amtrak, to no apparent avail. So it's just what the title says: capitalism - saved by socialism since FDR's New Deal. Too bad the Fed doesn't have the resources or ability to give us a New Deal this time around (thanks again, George and Maestro! We love you guys, too).

As much as I understand that Social Security wasn't designed to last as long as it has, all those old people had better be pretty glad it's still around. I mean, these are the same guys that wanted to completely privatize Social Security so you could put it in the stock market. Which, if they had, would now be gone. At least this way they'll still be able to scrape by on SS, since their investments and 401k's are now in the toilet.

Isn't this fun?

The author apologizes for the boring political-ness of his last two articles. He promises to attempt to write something non-political next time. But no promises.

Why the Patriot Act makes me so furious.

2008-09-15T21:58:00.001-06:00

Earlier today I got a call from one of the officers of the bank I work for, telling me she needed me to tell her what a customer who got four thousand dollars out of her account needed it or wanted it for.

My initial thought went something along the lines of, 'Wha-whaaaaa?' And meandered in the lost regions of my brain for a few moments following. I couldn't fathom why, and on what planet, she needed to know what some customer needed or wanted their own money for.

Then, after the confusing began to clear, it was replaced by seething disgust.

Bordering on furious for what I perceived to be a shocking invasion of people's civil liberties, I picked up the phone and called El Presidente on his mobile. As I heard him pick up with his usual greeting of 'Whaddayawant', I quickly explained the situation to him, and wrapped up by saying, 'This is a blatant abuse of our customers' privacy. Why in the world do I need to pry and poke until they tell me what they're going to use their own money for?'

He sighed for a minute, and finally answered, 'I agree that it's a blatant abuse of privacy, but what do you want us to do? It's the regulators. The last time they were at the bank, they got all worked up over the fact that we weren't doing enough to "find out what people are using their money for". So it's not (insert Officer's name here)'s fault, it's the Federal Government - or at least the regulator they sent to us last time.'

Now I understand.

Previously, I had thought that this was just a 'bank' thing; that (insert Officer's name again) just wanted to know for her own benefit or for bank records or something. But it turns out that's simply not the case at all. And worst of all, The Department of Homeland Security wants us to be quasi-policeman, asking questions about and poking our noses into things that are frankly none of our business, all in the name of 'protection'.

What it is a case of, however, is exactly what George Carlin has been saying for years - all those 'rights' you're so proud to call yours in this supposed 'land of the free' are nothing but privleges that the government decides you can still have, and that they can (and will) take away with impunity if they feel the urge - for a good reason or for some darn fool reason that only they can (in their twisted government sensibility) even pretend to comprehend.

Our civil liberties are being eroded on a daily basis, and none of us does anything about it.

We see these hegemonic fools who voted for the Patriot Act, who voted for its broadening in 2006, who voted for FISA earlier this year, and we, like little retarded lemmings jumping off of cliffs sideways, continue to send them right back to Washington, to continue to abuse us until there's nothing of us left. Until our roles have been reversed.

You see, when this country was founded, they created a government that feared its constituents. That understood that its place was to ensure rights, not encroach upon them. But somewhere in the last 230 years we've gotten things mixed up, and now we fear our government rather than the way it's supposed to be - they can tap your phone, listen in to your mobile conversations, track where your money is going and for what, and generally watch your every move, and we've let them get away with it.

It makes the bile flood up into my throat a little.

What have we done? And (perhaps more importantly) can it be undone, or has it become to late?

I rather fear the former.

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Now playing: Kayo Dot - The Manifold Curiosity

Yes, I know. I really do.

2008-09-15T21:43:00.001-06:00

I know.

I know deep down that the last thing the interwebs need is another crappy blog. But I'm so incensed with some of the policies on my former website that I can't help but feel compelled to run away, and run away really fast.

So here I am, making another (pointless) blag in another (pointless) place so that someone (read: no-one) can read it.

Yay-a for me-a!

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Now playing: maudlin of the Well - The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth
via FoxyTunes