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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
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Hey kids. Don't miss the Bushie, spinnin' Iraqi wax, tonight at 7pm CST on NBC. Tune in. It's why we have television. j.s. |
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Monday, June 27, 2005
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This had already been pushed into the archives, so I've reposted it as a reminder to those who are planning to go this weekend.
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Thursday, June 23, 2005
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Didn't fill out that Selective Service card when you turned 18 boys? No worry, we've already got you. Unbelievable. And speaking of unbelievable, I absolutely LOVE this quote by Ron Bonjean, the spokesman for Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert. “The Democratic leadership priority is to actively engage in the politics of division and distraction that can undermine our national security in favor of a left-wing agenda,” Heh, what? Who is engaging in the politics of distraction again? And, er, who undermined our national security by invading Iraq, despite the assurances of several intelligence agencies that it would actually increase terrorism both at home and abroad? And what exactly is this "left-wing agenda" that they're trying to terrify you with? Can you give me an example? And I bet he said it all with a not just a straight face, but a rehearsed "I mean bidness bud" sneer. And in closing, nice job with your 9/11 comments last night Karl...you inhuman political fuckwit. j.s [[via Slashdot.]] |
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So, Best Hangover Movie(s)? j.s. |
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I'm home sick, and therefore have absolutely no excuse for not updating today. I am suffering a head cold however, and am pretty out of it... So, while I have the time, I don't have much in the way of mental acumen. I'll apologize in advance for the banality. So hi. Let's weekend recap shall we? Thursday was O.C. night, with the usual suspects in attendance. We also appear to have a new repeat offender, whose nom de guerre will be simply "T" for the time being. She's easily proven cool enough to garner a perma-spot in the weekly O.C. rotation, and quite the beautiful young lady she is as well. =] Anyway, many drinks. Good times. Friday we had a work luncheon at Aquarium downtown. Which was as over-the-top as the photos on the website would suggest. I've come to find that I'm simply not a fan of any "dining adventure," beit Aquarium, Rainforest Cafe, or any of the other numerous theme-restaurants. Nor am I a fan of Tillman Fertita, and his keeping 4 white tigers in an enclosure that's not much bigger than my apartment...ahem...but that is an entirely different rant. Oh, and I was given a 10% raise on Friday. **Does a Snoopy dance** As a result, Luis and I went celebratory shopping at the Galleria Friday afternoon. I picked up a pair of RL jeans and an Armani shirt, he picked up a pair of Ken Coles. Later we went to Khyber for some naan, tomato masala, and to catch up with friends. Our post-dinner events began at Belvedere, with several free Tanq and Tonics, and discussions of European travel with Jen the Ludicrously Hot Bartender, who just returned from Italy last week. After Belv, we headed over to "Bond Lounge." Which wasn't bad, but was pretty empty for a Friday night. (Apparently everyone was over at nearby "Escobar.") After about an hour or so, we tired of hanging with porn starlets and the directors that pay them, so we headed over to "Red Door," which was packed, and much improved. We shut Red Door down, and headed home afterward. Saturday I did...very little. Spending most of the day hungover and sleeping. Did my Fountain View breakfast. Then dropped by a barbecue for a short while, had a couple Bass Ales and a hot dog, talked to some artists/writers for a while... Then went over to D's place, had dinner with Mom, watched "Swingers," and crashed on the couch. A nice, low-key Saturday. Sunday was The Day Paternal, and D and I drove out to Katy to hang with Dad and watch the new Batman. Which everyone seemed to think was great, but I didn't care much for. The ninja thing was very cool, and Dr. Kramer/Scarecrow was awesome as well, although he only showed up 3 or 4 times in the entire span of the picture. The editing was abysmal as well, sporting some awful jumps in continuity... But Christian Bale was a relatively believable Wayne, and not a bad Batman, so I'll thank them for their wisdom in 86-ing Clooney and his bat-nipples and move on. Just before we headed to the theater, the aforementioned "T." called. She'd gotten my number from another friend, and had just walked into La Strada and wanted to know what I was doing and if I was coming by. I couldn't for obvious reasons, but I eventually caught up with her and a couple of her friends at Berryhill that evening. Had a good time, a couple of shots/beers, a late dinner at Jaliscience, and it all got kinda fuzzy from there. I do recall her and her friends saying I look like Oscar DeLaHoya...which is a first. Anyway, I worked yesterday, with softball afterward. We won another game, making us 2-6 so far this season...already improved over our 1-10 record last time around. D and I had a late dinner afterward, hanging out at a local Denny's until around 1 in the morning. And today, I'm unwell, and laying on my couch trying to rest. I've honestly no idea if any of this made sense, as it was basically surface memories of the weekend, but I'll swing back through it for an edit or two once I pull out of this funk I'm in. Talk to you later. j.s. |
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Thursday, June 16, 2005
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And after lambasting you with all of that, here's something a bit more uplifting. Steve Jobs's address at the Stanford Commencement. j.s. |
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Liberally liberated DailyKOS nuggets seem to be the order of the day today. Enjoy. Says Senator Dick Durbin: "When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here [at Guantanamo Bay]--I almost hesitate to put them in the [Congressional] Record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report: On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor. If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners. Says Rush Limbaugh: "This is just absurd. We don't deserve to win this war as long as we have people like Dick Durbin in the US Senate. We don't deserve to win it. We don't deserve to win it when we got Durbin and his colleagues like Pat Leahy doing everything they can to undermine it. We don't deserve to win it. We're not a great enough country. We are spawning people like this that idiots in Illinois elect to send to the Senate. We don't deserve to win it. We deserve to lose this war. If we're going to be led by such idiocy and such ignorance as this, we deserve to lose it, folks. There's a price to pay for having this kind of thinking at the highest levels of government." Says the Bushie: "Iraq is a free of a brutal dictator. Iraq is free of the man who caused there to be mass graves. Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers. [empahasis mine] Iraq is free of a brutal thug. America did the right thing." And finally, on (hopefully) a more sensationalist front, Congressman Sensenbrenner has introduced legislation that would repeal the 22nd amendment of the Constitution. (You know, that's the one that imposes a 2-term-limit on our Presidents.) After all, why bother with the inconvenience of having to elect future generations of monarchical Bushies when you can just keep the one you have in there indefinitely? The Constitution is a tired old rag anyway, and isn't good for much outside of a weak plot device for Nicholas Cage movies... j.s. |
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Wednesday, June 15, 2005
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So I'm making a return to the rock gym tomorrow. I think I'm caught up in a kind of cyclotron of internalized emotions, and that by concentrating fiercely on something other than myself and my immediate microcosm I'll be able to slow the spin a little...both by improving my focus on what it is that I'm doing, and by just getting my mind off of things for a while. Besides, I'd really missed it while my feet repaired themselves...not that they're entirely better, but I think I can at least climb for an hour or so with minimal discomfort. Now if I can just figure out a way to couple the softball and rock climbing with a yoga class and a gym night once a week I'll be much happier with my overall activity level. The whole going to work and sitting all day, then going home to sleep just isn't cutting it. And I'm quite sure that's part of my problem. And, speaking of problems, apparently my house was in danger of exploding this morning. The Doozers responsible for making the street to my house look like a demilitarized zone for the past 4 months punctured a gas line. (It actually looked like this" before they hit the line.) They had to evacuate the day care and some homes nearby, although it seems the Diamond Shamrock station nearby did quite the booming bus-- no, no I just can't do it. My house is still here however, so I can't rant too much. Here's to putting it all in perspective... Instead, I think I'm going to read a bit more of "The Last Night of The Earth Poems" (which is doing absolutely nothing to improve my outlook on life), and then I'm going to sleep as long as I possibly can before going to work tomorrow. Question and Answer "He sat naked and drunk in a room of summer night, running the blade of the knife under his fingernails, smiling, thinking of all the letters he had received telling him that the way he lived and wrote about that-- it had kept them going when all seemed truly hopeless. Putting the blade on the table, he flicked it with a finger and it whirled in a flashing circle under the light. Who the hell is going to save me? he thought. As the knife stopped spinning the answer came: you're going to have to save yourself. Still smiling, a: he lit a cigarette b: he poured another drink c: gave the blade another spin." -Chuck B.- j.s. |
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
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Sorry for not writing. I just haven't had the heart for it lately. And some things simply aren't bloggable... Suffice to say, I've lost the reins somewhere these past few weeks and, as many of you know, without careful steering my life has a tendency to careen wildly into things I'd do better to avoid. There have been several near-fights, countless lies, entire days spent in the foggy mire of self-reflection, a crushing heartbreak that continues to this very moment, an anniversary of one of the most painful moments in my life looming darkly in 2 weeks, and I'm staring down the barrel of a rather significant birthday a month after that. And since I keep this up not just to occasionally entertain you digital passser-bys, but also for the historical narrative that it provides in my life, I felt I had to at least mention it. (Yes, I do occasionally go back and re-read all of this...and can feel myself in each of the days' posts.) I'm just not a very happy guy right now. And I can't see how things will look up anytime soon. And that, for lack of more fitting words, really sucks. I'm not going to stop writing (I don't think I could, even if I'd wanted to), but please bear with any sporadic/nebulous posts that might come up for the next couple of weeks. It's definitely going to have a Damien Rice kind of feel around here for a bit. I'd advise finding another nook o' the web for a bit if hearing that kind of thing from me will bother you. Cheers. j.s. |
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Anyone who wishes to attend, drop me an email and I'll send you a scanned copy of the map to their house. Or you can simply ride out with me I suppose... |
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Very busy. Will post later. Michael Jackson. j.s. |
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Thursday, June 09, 2005
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Super Mario goes to Canada! Somehow I don't think we, in America, would be able to get away with leaving boxes with little question marks on them all over town...more's the pity. I'm sure the Homeland Security gestapo would be less than amused. Especially with a set of nuclear centrifuge plans that have up and walked off on their own. Hooray for Urenco! Please let me wake up tomorrow in Vancouver...please... j.s. |
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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
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Oh, and I'm back by the way.
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Keep trying it China. Because first, you're doing nothing but slapping a glowing, neon "HACK ME!" target on your Pa Chong ["Nightcrawler"] software the world over. And second, how long do you think it will be before it becomes vogue to create "underground" blogs, and the peoples' blogs go "re-public?" Eventually, such outlaw bloggers will become romanticized and venerated in their work, and their words will draw even more attention than if you'd left them alone. Governments cannot remove such basic functionalities from the internet. Just ask the kids over at Napster what happens next, and then schedule appointments with the fine folk at Limewire, Soulseek, Morpheus, BearShare, etc. and ask how they got started. And, while I'm on that subject, is it possible to see an ad for Napster on local Best Buys/Convenience Stores/Big K 12-packs and not say, "Wow, you mean Napster is still around?" It's sad really. To see a company clutching to brandname notoriety, yet going down for the third time in a whirling cash sieve of false prophets. Ahem, I've derailed haven't I? China. Right. So China is actually second, behind the U.S, in total online populace. Roughly 80 million people. And yet, there are only 600,000 website IPs have been approved and deemed "safe" for their netizens. China also has over 61 people in prison currently for using the internet to publish/view "prohibited" sites. Jailing bloggers, and the people who read them. Lovely. Oh, and our milkhog friends over at Yahoo? They've assimilated one of China's biggest search engines, 3721.com. Just for fun, try typing in "Tibetan Independence" in the searchbar and babelfish the results. "You inquiry, Tibetan Independence, may purchase the following product." (At least there's some solidarity with the Yahoo peeps over here...) Corporatizing restrictions to free speech is not only nauseating, it's also a hindrance to the proliferation of individual expression that I'd never envisioned, due solely to naivety on my part I guess... Not that it will stop it mind you, it'll just take longer. For example, there are ways to circumvent the IP blockage (programs like "Stay Invisible," or something called "UltraReach" are two methods already being used.) So in short, let it go my little red friends. Drop your "Great Firewall." It'll be about as successful than your last one, and again, will fail not as a result of "invaders" but because of the people within it. j.s. |
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Monday, June 06, 2005
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I think I'm going to be absent for a bit with the posting here, as I've some personal things that need addressing. I'll be back when I can be. Take care. j.s. |
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Wednesday, June 01, 2005
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Okay, since no one has coughed up the million just yet, here's a few pictures of the boat that I'm actually bidding on. The auction for her ends today. You'll know when I do if I pull it off... j.s. |
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