Happy Halloween!
In case you are confused, Halloween is actually on the 31st this year, which falls on a Sunday. But thanks to some small and closed minded groups who are offended that pagan holidays dare fall upon the day of the Sabbath, it was moved to Saturday this year causing me to almost miss hanging out with my kid before he goes out trick or treating.
Nathan was Batman (Beyond) this year. Most of his friends were super heroes or civil servants; Hardly the stuff Satin is made of. This kind of thinking, along with the burning of Harry Potter books, is why people are running in droves away from religion.
It's just halloween.
Anyway, I was walking to a party last night dressed up as Neo from the Matrix. Waiting in the subway station, I was struct by the simularity in the movie setting and my present reality. All that was needed was an agent smith to come along and we do battle kung-fu style.
A Murder of Scarecrows
Excellent Flash game in time for the holiday. (via Ray)
A letter To My Stuff
Dear Stuff, It's been 56 days since we last saw each other in Sydney as I watched you packed up and hauled away and I have longed for you since. Well, maybe not ever since, then, but in the last few weeks you have been on my mind constantly. Mrs. Hoga said today that you are being released from Indiana and are at this moment, on your way to New York. You have cleared customs inspection and you aren't a terrorist or carrying any terrorist items, or fruit, so we will be reunited soon, or as close to soon as an overworked government authority will allow.
I miss the warmth of your bedding, the metal-ness of your eating utensils, the covering of you clothing, the cushioning of your chairs, and the glow of your lighting. Most of all, I have longed for your wall hangings to put up so I don't hear the echoes every time words are spoken or dogs are howling.
I am hoping our reunion will be this Saturday, which means in reality it will be somewhere around mid December.
Soon my precious. Soon.
my preeciouuuuuus.
Intervention
Dear Sister,
I love you and I care for you and that is why I have to do this.
You have a problem that no one is willing to confront. You have a sickness that is holding you back and making you less of a human being. It has come between us time and time again and something needs to be done now.
You have a problem using AOL. It's shit. Furthermore you have fallen even further down the path of depravity by actually launching that crap browser built into AOL and using it to view the internet, or internets, I am not sure anymore, my president has me confused. He uses AOL too and look what it has done to him.
You have to stop now for the sake of your family and those who care about you. This selfish behavior has gone on too long.
Get help.
Love,
Me
More reasons why I am in a perpetual bad mood
1. I had the nerve to scoot the television (less than a month old) over six inches this morning. Doing so seemed to trigger the "Screw up the color permenantly" knobulator. Stupid Friggin JVC/Target television. Seems like if i just look at somethig right now it will lose it's will to live.
2. The Muther F&^#%*g dog down the hall was howling up to around 11:30pm last night and early this morning. Tomorrow I am going to go buy a can of tuna, fill it full of laxative and shove it under the door.
3. 55 Days without furniture and counting, tired of eating with plastic forks, knives, and spoons. Why the hell did I not pack some of this in the air shipment?
Resolved: Airport Card guy sent the card yesterday, I have a tracking number.
Top 10 Reasons why Today Sucked
10. The guy I bought airport card from on ebay isn't returning my emails.
9. 54 days now with no furniture and limited clothing.
8. Guy at customs tired of getting called about the furniture.
7. Family going nuts with emotions and drama.
6. Two giant lip ulcers.
5. It's cold outside in NYC, which means it's boiling hot in all the buildings.
4. Five doors down the left is a bird that is always making noise.
3. Two doors down the right is a dog that howls constantly.
2. No time to get change for washing machine, underwear is getting sacred.
1. Most severe asthma attacks lately since I was a small child
Ashley Simpson, Not Ready for Late Night
Have you seen this? Ashley Simpson goes on Saturday Night Live and screws up her lip sync then just dances around funny for a bit, eventually walking off stage and leaving her band there to keep pretending to be playing as an SNL intern franticly reaches for the button to put up the guest star photo and cut to comercial.
Smooth Ashley.
Edward's in Tribeca
I am finding that a little place called Edward's in Tribeca is becoming a fast favorite hangout to go eat and drink. It's within walking distance of the apartment and has a really pleasant atmosphere.
Jim Watson, My design college professor from Oklahoma is now living (part time) right next door in one building over here in Battery Park. After a long day of walking all over Manhattan, we managed to meet up for a dinner out last night at Edward's and talk about everything from Australia to reconstruction of the World Trade Center site. I kept the sketches from the table.
It was a nice evening. I have been having a lot of those "weird where life takes you" kind of moments lately.
Jon Stewart, Representative
Jon Stewart was on Crossfire recently to promote his new book America, A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. His airing has been getting a lot of buzz since he took the opportunity to get very direct on his belief that shows like Crossfire on CNN are hurting the discourse of American politics and contribute nothing but rhetoric, spin, and sensationalism. It made for some tense but still funny moments with Stewart and his hosts.
Tucker Carlson, the bow tie wearing interviewer on Crossfire had this to say after the show in an interview with Wonkette:
While admitting that "I can be a dick," Tucker also was shocked at the sheer unfunniness of it all: "It was like being lectured at by Kathleen Hall Jamison! Like being given a lecture on ethics by an assistant professor of journalism at Blue State Junior College!"
Personally, I think Jon Stewart voiced an opinion held by a large majority of people and although he chose not to make the usual slapstick appearance, he did make Tucker and the format of the show altogether seem a bit absurd.
Bravo Mr. Stewart.
Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You
Team America had puppets having sex, disgusting vomit scenes, horrible dialogue and social commentary that seemed too simplistic.
I liked it. Mostly for the songs, but also the puppet sex.
The No Sexual Harassment Zone
Bill O'Reilly is being sued for Sex Harassment by a female Fox News producer.
"Hours after Bill O'Reilly accused her of a multimillion dollar shakedown attempt, a female Fox News producer fired back at the TV star today, filing a lawsuit claiming that he subjected her to repeated instances of sexual harassment..."
Apparently the Producer filing the suit has some lengthy evidence in recordings based on some long verbiage in her testimonial.
The Theory of Everything
Einstein died while trying to solve a theory of everything, that is, where the rules that apply to quantum physics don’t apply to others such as atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics, plasma physics, electromagnetism, etc. The rules for one don’t always work well with the other. This is confusing since all matter should have a common relationship to one another.
A few years ago some very smart and somewhat hopeful people came up with a simple idea called the String Theory that appeared to have a unifying answer that made it all work together. This described the universe as occupying several dimensions of space at the same time as all our atoms were vibrating like a string. For all of this to work out in the math, it was suggested that 11 different dimensions had to exist.
Overlooked at the time were another group of people who suggested a different idea called the Super Gravity theory. This was similar in the fact that it unified all the laws of physics but suggested 10 dimensions were required for this to happen.
Both of these theories had a few small holes in them that needed to be filled. When String theory started to fall apart, Super Gravity took the center stage as a focus on the answer. Since Physics, like all other science, requires (or at least longs for) some proof of theory, this left both efforts in the grey, both filled in the holes but neither could be proven.
Eventually they looked at Super Gravity again and added an 11th dimension to the math. This not only worked, but also worked very well in theory. We have some good idea’s on how everything works nicely together but still, hard to ever prove. This sounds a little convienent but remember black holes were only a theory at one time as well. Steven Hawking himself suggested there wasn’t such a thing but today we can prove they exist. When Einstein postulated their existance, he was looking only at a mathmatical explanation.
Here’s where it gets even weirder. You know, as if the other dimensions weren’t enough to wrap your brain around. Something had to be figured out about gravity in this theory. It seemed it was a much weaker force than once thought. It holds us to the planet, true, but even fighting against the gravity of an entire planet, you can stand up. So it was suggested that our gravity was leaking into one of the other dimensions. This didn’t add up in the math. When someone got the idea that maybe gravity from another dimension was leaking into ours, it worked very well.
So given time (yet another dimension), does this mean that too much gravity will be leaked into our own reality causing us great effort to walk around, stand up, or climb stairs?
Yet another thing that keeps me up at night.
Happy Leif Erickson Day!
No, Really, it is...
Oklahoma vs.Texas
This weekend is the big game. I can't believe it's been a year since I had the opportunity to piss off all my friends who are Oklahoma Sooner football fans by rooting for that team in Orange, the Texas Longhorns.
Why do I root for Texas you ask?
a. I am an antagonist. I like to root for the underdog or the team no one else around me is rooting for. Too many band-wagoner’s on this planet and someone needs to be a speed bump to conformity.
b. I (heart) Austin, Texas. The city is very cool, full of culture, and a great place to spend a summer off while working through college.
c. Dark Orange is a more interesting color than Maroon.
d. Most people who I know that are die-hard OU Sooner fans never went to OU.
e. I'm not really a big football fan either way, this is my way of mocking my inability to get excited over the event.
f. Some OU lovin' tool got to Nathan (my 7 year old son) last year and convinced him that OU rocks and OSU sucks. We made a gentleman’s bet today after squaring off over the matter. If Texas wins this weekend, Nate has to become a Texas fan from now on. If OU wins, I have to pretend I really like the Sooners from now on and not the Longhorns. This could be rough.
Go Texas.
There's no place like...
My kid started hugging me the second I got off the plane and has been hugging me ever since. We played some catch with the ball and I got to see him ride his bike with no training wheels while he told every kid in the neighborhood to come see his dad.
Nathan adapts well. Kids usually do but he has done remarkably well. I'm proud of him for it.
I have this thing in me that hurts all the time not to see him everyday. So much so that it's sometimes overwhelming above anything else. He knows I miss him being away and he knows he is deeply loved. It's important. We keep in almost daily touch but still, it's hard not to be able to get a hug when you need one or just want to hang out with the little guy. Some things need to be worked out to make this easier.
I need to take care of some things with my dad while I am here. I am getting tired of this drama but I am going to make one last effort. When that doesn't pan out, I am going to say some things that need to be said, then just simply walk away one last time. That's not a threat, it's just a realization that too much energy has been wasted trying to make a rock move.
Naked Cowboy
I was close people. I was so very close into talking Ray into getting his picture taken with the naked cowboy. He might have had some reservations when the cowboy took the old lady's hand and put it on his arse for a photo opp. Or maybe he just figured I would never let that photo get old. heh.
Shaun of the Dead
It may wear off on me at some point later, but Shaun of the Dead friggin rocked. It was a comedy more than a horror flick but it was such a great mocking of all the zombie movies of the past. Very much a British humor type of film. A few cast members pop up from Spaced and The Office here and there and it had the same kind of humor, just with more zombies.
