| The Daily Twit |
[05 Sep 2008|06:02am] |
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[05 Sep 2008|03:10am] |
For some reason I always come up with random one line ideas to things that I think would make an awesome sci-fi story.
Usually set way far in the future.
The most recent one being centered around a world in which there are so many people, a politician or a celebrity well known enough to be as extremely well known as a Michael Jordan or a Tom Cruise or an Oprah is now would only be known by say--10 or 15% of the human population. Distance might be shrunk with digital technology, but the information overload is so great that a city 50 miles away would be like another planet--you probably wouldn't understand their native language (still a universal language though, maybe), and their cultural references are entirely alien. What would this world look like? It'd have to have a lot of Neil Stephenson's tiny little pod living spaces, if it were really that many people. I'd have to figure out believable logistics.
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| Manly man |
[05 Sep 2008|01:42am] |
So. I wrote some slam poetry. It was…fun. I’d like to memorize it at some point.
But—you don’t get to hear it just yet. I think I’ll read it at open mic, first. Maybe if you paid me a couple dollars, I’d give you a sneak peak. But am I really worth a couple bucks? Would you come to my street corner and listen to my novice slams?
Nah, you’re probably afraid I would start preaching.
Jesus is the Lord of all, and I am the greatest sinner I know. There’s my sermon in a nutshell. How about that?
You know, I could have been a preacher. But I am a horrible role model and the last thing I want is to perpetuate my madness.
Anyway, Kat led me to this Christian slam poet. Enjoy the slam.
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[05 Sep 2008|02:11am] |
I've been thinking a lot about opposite viewpoints lately. It's the sticking point of liberality, the fact that you want people to be able to be however they want to be, even if they are proudly uneducated morons who denigrate BEING SMART ITSELF. And their absolute incompetence about rubbing two neurons together can influence other lazy fuckwads.
"Hey! I'm kinda dumb! I don't like thinking! And this dude says that's awesome! I must be awesome! Only nerdy geek geekertons would disagree! Nerdy elitist geek geekertons! Hell, anyone who isn't like me isn't even American! Let's go kick their asses!"
Fuck that. There are 20 million people in the NYC metro area. Why are they never figured into this? Why don't they count? Other cities are similar. I'm just as much of an average American as a redneck who loves violence and hates the idea of being cosmopolitan.
I want to get books from intelligent dissenters. I want a rational person from the right to explain to me their viewpoints. Trouble is, the neocons have none of these people. They have reactionaries, toers of the party line (Clinton was "playing the gender card," Palin has it tough cause she's a woman: http://www.hulu.com/watch/33335/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-sarah-palin-gender-card#s-p1-sr-i0), people who couldn't critically think their way out of a paper bag.
The worst kind of evil: people who choose to be proud of ignorance. Bureaucratic nutjobs who ignore pain in the face of the fact that it "isn't their job." Valuers of tradition above all else, regardless of how successful the tradition actually is, or if the values it upholds are even relevant to the modern world. This is what I hate when people call me an elitist. When they call me "P.C."
What's wrong with wanting the best?
And what tiny little fraction of deviation from the status quo we have achieved (toward equality, egalitarianism, in the few decades it's been fashionable to support, interspersed throughout our multi-centennial history) is considered too much for these people, and having any concern for those different than themselves is considered pansy-ish, even gasp feminine! Soft, ready to be steamrolled by the big bad things we should be afraid of.
GWB even said it in his speech. BE VERY AFRAID THINGS ARE TERRIBLE AND WE NEED MORE WAR. BE SCARED!
Think about the "war on terror." Isn't it the perfect tool of terror, itself? It can be extended forever, always lurking around the corner, always ready to take away your "way of life."
I kind of want ridiculous radicals to try and convince me too, both right and left. I need to desensitize myself to the crazy, or I think I'm going to pop a blood vessel. I asked my dad if he thought things were generally much dumber in the public discourse than they were when he was my age. He told me people were always stupid, there just wasn't as much media covering it. I can't take it anymore. I keep thinking I can't get any madder.
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[04 Sep 2008|09:53pm] |
This whole week I've been working in the bulk dept. I've been losing weight, and getting stronger. My first day working bulk I couldn't lift the bulk gravity bins over my head. I'd have to get a stool to get to level with them. Now I can lift them all. I've been waking up at 7am, and riding my bike to work. So I get a work out doing that, and then pretty much spend all day lifting heavy stuff, like 50lb bags of flour. Rex said that he wanted to just let Steen and Tanya do the bulk orders, but they kind of "supervised" me doing the first one and then just let me do the rest, which was pretty cool. I hate being micromanaged. Once I figure out how to do something I just want to be left alone to do it, which is what it has been like all week for me.
The days go by so fast, it's awesome. The same shifts in the front end drag on and on and on, but in bulk they go by in a heartbeat. I get to choose when to take my breaks and lunch. (And I get to take my breaks a little longer, because no one's paying attention. shhh.) I did laundry on one of my days off, and spent the other lazing about, cooking and reading books. I'm very content right now, and it's pretty awesome. I'm really not looking forward to going back to the front end next week, not to mention rhonda only gave me 20 hours. (I'll probably pick up an extra shift in bulk, though.) This week I'm working 40 hours, but it doesn't feel like it. When I work 40 hours in the front end I feel like I'm going to die by the end of the week. It sucks up all of my time and it's always like 1:30-close, or 11:30-8 which is pretty much my whole day right there. When I get done with bulk at 4:30, I still have tons of day left, and I've worked a full shift. .
When I start averaging 40 hours a week I will be offered insurance at 60 dollars a month, instead of 120. That wont be until june of next year, but it will be worth it to wait and not only be able to afford it, but to be making more money as well. In spring of next year I'll be getting a raise, and with that and working 40 hours a week, I will be making good money. I will be making decent money working 40 hours a week with my recent raise, though.
Other than that, I've finally decided to get a cell phone. So Michael and I are going to get a plan together. It'll be about 100 bucks a month, divided by two. So that's not so bad. I might even start driving this winter if I get tired of taking the bus. Who knows. Oh, and I've been keeping my kitchen and living room clean on a constant basis, which has really boosted my mood.
I really am happy. It's suprising how much a change of sleep pattern and change of atmosphere at work can make a difference, but it really has. I feel a lot better than I have in a long time.
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| links for 2008-09-04 |
[05 Sep 2008|01:02am] |
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Originally published at platea.us. You can comment here or there.
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| A Womb With a View |
[04 Sep 2008|11:32pm] |
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VOTE MCCAIN / PALIN
. . . IF YOU WANT WAR IN IRAQ
FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS
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| Yesterday's Tweets |
[05 Sep 2008|12:05am] |
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Automatically posted by LoudTwitter
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| I should be dreaming. |
[04 Sep 2008|11:25pm] |
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But I'm daydreaming instead.
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| Song of the Day |
[04 Sep 2008|10:30pm] |
Six Blade Knife
Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Working on a heavily virus infected machine gave me time to get back into the dusty parts of my iTunes library. God, is Dire Straits good. This one is dark but so sweetly perfectly so. I try to avoid picking heavy radio played songs so that immediately ruled out half of this album.
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| little bleating memesheep. |
[05 Sep 2008|02:18am] |
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"Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by suggesting something and I'll write a post about it."
poke me out of my comfort zone! you can specify this blog or Pennyred if you like...
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[04 Sep 2008|08:51pm] |
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It's fixed!!!
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| Palin speech pulls in $8 million — for Obama |
[04 Sep 2008|08:20pm] |
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"(CNN) – Barack Obama's campaign says it has raised more than $8 million from over 130,000 donors following Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday night. The campaign also says it is on track to raise $10 million before John McCain takes the podium at the Republican National Convention tonight."
SOURCE
LMAO. Way to go, Palin. Way to freakin' go!
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| MORE MEME BEFORE CON TALK, WOE |
[04 Sep 2008|08:01pm] |
1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters whose name starts with that letter and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) corellianrogue gave me E! fucking keel you <3
( MEME!!!!! )
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| =*) |
[04 Sep 2008|06:56pm] |
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| I suppose this is my endorsement for VitaminEnergy... |
[04 Sep 2008|02:55pm] |
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"There There" - Radiohead |
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...because boy, am I feeling fantastic right now! Some dude was handing out free samples of it (by the makers of VitaminWater) and I thought well, what the snap, I'm feeling a little toasted anyway.
HELLO! The mental gymnastics of work are all of a sudden quite effortless. I am WIDE AWAKE.
And I feel like talking about: reading. I love reading. I've missed it so much. Well, you know, the kind where I get to choose what to stick my nose in. The most costly freedom academics stole from me...
I'm currently finishing up The Shack, which I couldn't stand for the first four chapters (the writing was atrocious) and then all of a sudden became fascinating and insightful. I guess I can give this William P. Young guy a pass on the aesthetics because reportedly, he never wrote it for publication - just as a Christmas present for his children. I've heard a lot of people call this book heretical or theologically unsound, but I've yet to find something in it I completely disagree with. Some of the visualizations are a bit uncomfortable, sure, but the point of that is clear enough - our religious stereotypes, those "watchful dragons", so often hinder a clear understanding and vision of these things. Certainly there are far better books on theology out there, but none that present it in such an accessible, down-to-earth manner: ripe for discussion with the person next to you. And if this will further undermine the general assumption that Christianity has no idea what it's talking about, then I'm all for it. ;)
Randomly enough, The Shack makes me want to return to Lewis's The Pilgrim's Regress (which I never did finish) - what with all the comparisons critics have made between Young's work and The Pilgrim's Progress.
The best thing about finally being back in the reading groove? It seems to be slowly chipping away at my writer's block. Guess the age-old adage is true...
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| Cloudy |
[04 Sep 2008|06:16pm] |
A wonderful, beautiful day.
Aaron and I fed kettlecorn to the geese at the park, only I'm kind of scared of geese so I had to hide behind him for part of the time. PS sometimes geese aren't as shy as you anticipate, and sometimes they don't just want one piece of kettlecorn but the whole bag which is in your hand and they want to rip it away from you.
Then we explored the reservoir, and found the perfect little place where the sand meets the forest and the sandbar goes alllll the way out to the middle of the water, and you can walk through it.
It was wonderful.
I love him.
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| It's the End of the world as we know it, and I feel fine... |
[04 Sep 2008|10:18am] |
As we all know, the Large Hadron Collider is coming online on October 21st of this year. Since there's a pretty good chance there's going to be some micro-black holes or strangelets created that gobble the earth up into nothingness, I'm thinking we should throw a party.
An end of the world party.
Who's with me?
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| Wasilla |
[04 Sep 2008|01:03pm] |
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Slate has an interesting narrated slide show of Wasilla, Alaska.
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