Wow.

The Boston Red Sox won.

They went to The Show, and won it all. With a sweep, no less, of the Cardinals.

Wow.

I have mixed feelings about it. I mean, great, it's cool, the Curse is lifted, over with. I got some email buddies in Boston that I don't expect to hear from for at least a couple of days (you guys have voted already, right? Right? You've got to vote, you know, I don't care how hung over you are). Peace out, dogs, and all that.

...on the other hand... Don't get me wrong. I'm a traditionalist. If for no other reason than that, that's why I love baseball in the first place (note to Caleb: yes, I can be a traditionalist and still respect baseball for changing the type of baseball; they make changes every 20-30 years or so, just to mix it up a little. Baseball's more than a century old, you know). But, butbutbut... the Curse is part of that tradition. It just doesn't feel right to have it end.

I mean, what's next? The Cubs?

On the other other hand, lunar eclipses (like the one last night) are supposed to herald great change. And this was a pretty great one.

I guess I was just hoping for the eclipse to mean a change for someone else. It can still mean that, right? Right? • 6:52 AM 0 comments

Tonight was "hill repeats" -- the plan was to run about a mile to warm up. The mile ended at Sellwood Park, where there's a trail leading through the park and it's uphill. It's a medium slope. I have no idea what the grade is, but it's "Baby Bear" -- not too hot, not too cold. Just right. From where I start to the top of the hill is around 300-400 meters, as near as I can tell. So I was going to run up to the top of the hill, then jog back down... four times total.

I only timed my runs to the top. My times were: 3:16, 3:21, 3:15, 2:57. Yay! From worst to best I improved by 24 seconds!

If I take my best time, and assume it was about 300 meters, that puts my pace at... let's see... carry the one... Yikes! 15:49!! I have to have been moving faster than that. 400 meters makes it 11:52, 500 meters makes it 9:29. It felt more like a 9:29 pace, to be honest.

But pace isn't important. Strengthening my legs and improving my speed is what's important. So I'll just focus on best time. Yay, me!

I haven't added this to my running log yet because I'm going to change how I record Speed Week! and right now there's

• a total eclipse to look at,
• World Series Game 4 to watch,
• friends to chat with,
• and food to eat ('cause I'm starving!)

• 7:09 PM 0 comments

Smacky was a huge PITA last night. I was trying to drink a beer and eat some chips and salsa and watch the game and he kept trying to knock over my beer or get in the bag of chips or step in my salsa or walk on my laptop (it's never far away from me)... Finally I broke out the water bottle, and he finally got the message and laid down on my lap.

...soaking wet from the bottle. But it was better than the alternative. • 6:49 AM 0 comments

I was supposed to run yesterday. Was going to get up early. But I slept in instead. It was cold. I was tired. Mostly, I was tired. Bleh. So I told myself I would run after work.

But after work it was pouring down rain. Double-bleh. No good. I toyed with the idea of going to the gym, but I hate the gym, so I puttered around home, cleaning stuff, and went to bed early.

Got up this morning, 4:30 in the frickin' AM, and it was still cold, and still kind of raining, just that stupid misty kind of rain that's heavier than fog, but not heavy enough to be, y'know, actual rain. I was going to go back to bed, but then I realized that a) it would really put me off my schedule I had planned for this week, and b) it could very well be full-on raining tonight when I get home from work, just like yesterday. So I threw on my running clothes, fed the cat, and headed outside.

This is going to be Speed Week! What a poor kick-off, huh? A day late. Oh, well. The plan was this: run down to the local high school, about 1.4 miles according to Mapquest, as a warm-up. Then alternate a lap on the track (400 meters) at at least an 8:50 pace, which is about 30 seconds faster than my normal race pace, with 2-3 minutes of fast walking (jogging if I can handle it). Then I'll head home again.

The run to the track was about 14:10. The pace calculator told me that 400 meters at an 8:50 pace would mean one lap is about 2:11. So I set the timer on my trusty Timex Expedition to 2:11 and aimed to finish each lap before the beeper went off. And I did! My worst time was about 2:00 even, which means I did about an 8:00 pace or better. Yay, me!

Then I tried to run home. Triple-bleh. The run home took 17:07. Still, it was a good workout!

Tomorrow evening I'm doing hill intervals. Friday I'll do my long run, and practice speeding up for the middle 3 miles. Then it's back to the track on Hallowe'en... spoooooky. • 6:39 AM 0 comments

Is this weird?

My cat smells really good. Kinda smoky and spicy.

Since I bathe him in lemon-flavored dishwashing soap, I'd expect a lemon-y scent. But, no. Of course, he's overdue for a bath and scratching constantly from the fleas, poor thing. • 1:49 PM 0 comments

Score! Stopped by Powell's City of Books tonight, and someone must have sold back their Phil K. Dick collection, because they had a metric tonne of old used paperbacks. I picked up a bunch.
Here are the ones I got:

(I swiped the images from PKD's website; they have an archive of scanned covers of his work, donated by fans from all over. If I'm stealing and they tell me, I'll take them down).
• 7:09 PM 0 comments

I decided to take last week off from running. Tired, felt like I was coming down with a cold, blah and meh. Just didn't have the energy for it.

So today was my first day running since last Friday. Last Friday I felt really fast, on a long (5+ mile) run. But after taking a week off, I was slow on a shorter route (3.5 miles).

I'm going to throw some days in next week that focus on speed. At least once next week I'm thinking of running from my house to Milwaukie High School (about 1.4 miles one-way) and doing some intervals on the track there. And another day I think I'm going to do hill intervals. Yeah. That'll be good.

The weather's been icky; cold and showers off-and-on. Hopefully I can keep my motivation to run now that it's not warm and sunny. I ran in January, February and March this year... but I can't remember what the weather was like then. Had to be cold and rainy, right? Right? So why's it affecting me so negatively now? Might be the stoopid election draining away my motivation. I'm obsessed with watching the news, trying to catch the Republicans trying to steal the election. There's signs of it everywhere (head over to Geeks Against Bush and dig through the posts there for some details, I'll keep that stuff out of my personal blog for now) and it's consuming all of my attention.

Whoops! Started out talking about running and ended on politics. See? It's all I can think about! • 4:23 PM 0 comments

An inside joke few will get. Over at the Long Winters' website, John Roderick has made a post!

A nice long post explaining where the hell he's been all summer, and where the hell their third album is. And, buried deep in the post, he shows that, for better or worse, he thinks just like I do:

Well-meaning friends have encouraged me to strike while the iron is hot, to not be gone too long so that people forget about the Long Winters in their rush to buy the hot new releases, but I feel no panic. First off: to hell with everyone. Secondly: go ahead and buy the hot new releases, we'll all be dead in seventy years no matter what you do. And C: whither thou goest, go thither, or whatever.

Note: there is no three! • 3:37 PM 0 comments

Smacky's got a new nickname:

Thanks to Christilee! • 6:43 AM 0 comments

As long as I've been working in the public sector, I've noticed that management doesn't seem to communicate very well. In fact, what they do is almost anti-communication. They suppress rumors, they complain when employees communicate about anything except the specifics of their job assignments, they turn even the most basic knowledge of what plans or guidelines are in place into state secrets.

And they're very reactionary. When they jump up and down and deny, when they state in the strongest possible terms that something ain't gonna happen, and then two weeks later, it happens, they end up looking like damned fools

I don't understand their extreme aversion to "rumors". If they withhold information on anything and everything, then, naturally, employees are going to talk to each other and share whatever information they can get. It's like management is trying to prevent employees from being human. Sharing is normal.

But what's even more interesting is when they turn actual, verifiable facts into "rumor". It's almost Orwellian (Bushian? No, wait: Rovian) the way they can spin an actual, honest-to-Goldstein data point into something vague and seedy.

Here's an example (you knew I was going somewhere with this, right?) Some employee sees the Facilities guys wandering around, doing a survey of a work area, taking notes on a clipboard, measuring things. Said employee asks them what they're doing, and they get an answer: "We're just seeing if we can fit more cubicles into this area."

Another employee, at another floor, hears from a group of people, "We're moving." When they're asked where, the answer is the same place that the above-mentioned Facilities guys were doing their survey and measuring.

Now, for most people with IQs greater than room temperature, that would be enough to constitute a "fact." I mean, philosophers might argue about what, exactly, is "proof" or "evidence" but, holy fucking shit, to the vast majority of the population, those two paragraphs are pretty close to being the same as 1 + 1 = 2. You know, where "2" is: hey, that work unit is moving over to this building here."

So, the employees share that information with each other. And someone brings it up to the manager in charge. And what happens then?

Said manager puts out an email:

I would like to address the rumour that is circulating regarding the combination of [Team One] and [Team Two]. This is in fact just a rumour. I was told it was started by [Team Three], but maybe that is just a rumour too. I suggest in the future that when you hear this kind information that you come and ask your manager/supervisor or me directly and that you not spread the rumour even more. Also, you could suggest to the person you are hearing it from that they should in fact confirm their information before they spread it. Rumours serve no purpose except to disrupt work and upset people. My door is always open and I will be as honest as I can with you. Please come and see if you have any questions.

[Name of other manager of another group withheld]: Please share this information with your staff--my door is open to them also. I am happy to answer any questions they may have about my organization.

OK, got it? Let's list the errors. I'm sure you can find lots more but here's a few for thought:

• Sending this in an email? How chicken-shit is that? Hey, I'm sure that this person's been a manager long enough to be able to fuckin' lie with a straight face. Oh, maybe not... maybe the only way said manager can disseminate this misinformation is from the faceless anonymity of email. That way they don't have to be around for the inevitable question-asking afterward, like "What do you take us for, idiots?" and "Is that rain, or are you pissing in my face again?"
  
• Remember what started this? Direct information from two different sources? Yeah, well, welcome to the wonderful world of "The Big Lie". No, nonono, this isn't a nasty fact; it's a rumor.
  
• Worse than that last point is this: who the fucking fuck cares?! Is it really important? I mean, are the terrorists going to fucking win if someone finds out about this move early? Are the employees involved really that fucking indispensable?
  
• Talking about staff being moved around is going to "disrupt work and upset people"? Funny, the only one whose panties are in a twist is the above-mentioned manager. So, I guess, in a self-fulfiling way, yeah, Manager-person, it's upsetting. But, really, taking a fuckin' Prozac and everything's gonna be all right.
  
• My absolutely favorite line is "My door is always open and I will be as honest as I can with you." Does this person not understand how this reads? Hey, I always thought that honesty was a binary value. Somethin's either honest, or it isn't. But, hell, I haven't been to Manager-Type-Person School, where I would find out that there are values of honest, shades of honesty... So if I go in to this person's office, and ask a question, should I then follow up with, "On a scale of one to ten, with ten being 'honest' and everything else being a dirty lie of one kind or another, what would you say your answer to me is going to be?"

So, I have to ask: does this person know that it's all bullshit but is somehow compelled to say it anyway? or are they oblivious to how dense and controlling they're being? • 7:07 PM 0 comments

I added some new(er) pictures of my cat, Smacky to my Picture Gallery, as promised, and not very late.

In other news, I gave him a bath yesterday, on the advice of a friend (thanks, Christi!), and then used some flea powder on him. He's better, but still scratching and I can still see fleas on him. I'm going to try the drops on him next, since several folks have suggested that. • 4:55 PM 0 comments

You can tell a lot about someone from how they react when caught in a lie.

Is that too obvious? Dunno, but that thought was going 'round and 'round in my head last night when I was trying to sleep. Kept bouncing back and forth between my personal life and the national news. OK, mostly my personal life. Mostly, but not completely.

Can you trust someone who reacts in anger when caught in a lie? Can you trust someone who lies without remorse? Someone who dismisses lies by claiming that the subject in question isn't any of your business, anyway, so why should it matter?

I can still see her expression, one of extreme annoyance, unable to make eye contact with me, brow furrowed, spitting out her words, angrily stabbing at the food on her plate. Then a blank expression, a mask covering it all up, as she regained control of herself and tried to deflect the conversation away from the subject at hand. When I brought the topic back up, her defenses came up and she turned it into an attack on me, trying to make me think that I should feel guilty for calling her on her untruthful behavior. Her charm, her manner and way of speaking... almost convince me, in the moment, that it's not something I should have brought up.

Then I remember that the topic at hand is, in fact, trust. Can I trust this creature on any topic, if I know she is quite willing to hide the facts from me?

Why would she lie, in any case, on subjects where it's easy for me to find out the truth?

Shouldn't she realize that it's just as bad to lie to someone else, if I know about it? That doesn't make her more trustworthy, to know that she's untruthful to someone with whom she claims to have a "committed" relationship. That only undermines her trustworthiness even more.

Lying isn't a good sign. Lying is not the way one builds any kind of relationship, whether a professional one, a friendship, or a deeper relationship.

I can't ever forget this. • 6:25 AM 0 comments

Quick music news before I go to bed:

• Cake - "Pressure Chief" -- 4 1/2 stars
  
• William Shatner - "Has Been" -- 3 1/2 stars, except for Track 1, "Common People", which still makes me smile -- 4 3/4 stars!
  
• Bought Richard Cheese's "Lounge Against The Machine" this weekend but haven't had a chance to listen yet.
  
• Old 97s played the Aladdin Theater Monday night -- 4 1/4 stars! They rocked hard and took names!

Rating system: 0 to 5 stars

I'll post full reviews this week. Hopefully. Not making promises.

Also, I'm too tired to do the "linking" thing tonight. • 1:20 AM 0 comments

Poor Smacky. My kitten, little black fuzzball, is the cutest kitten ever, but his claws are waaaaay too sharp. Not only has he been scratching me when we play, he's started scratching himself to the point of bleeding. It's a two-pronged (sorry, couldn't help myself) problem: first, the claws, of course, and second, he's gotten fleas. Ewwww. Poor guy. I was finding tiny little clumps of hair from him scratching himself, along with spots of blood, in his recent favorite grooming spot: my bathroom sink. Well, he could have chosen worse places, I guess. I just started noticing in the past couple of days.

So, today, I finally trimmed his nails.

I didn't want to, because, if you watch him, his claws are his bestest friend. He climbs all over; when he runs he makes this tearing sound as his claws dig into and let go of the carpet; he leaps on to my back when I'm standing near something he can climb up on, causing me to scream in agony... he's so cute.

So, like I said, I trimmed them up. I had to do it; he was hurting himself. I'm going to bathe him and hit him with some flea powder, but I didn't want to do it while he still had open wounds. I wanted to give him time to heal a bit first. Wasn't sure of the effects of poison (the flea powder) in his system. Not to mention soapy water on an open cut; shit, I know what that feels like.

He knew. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. He could feel it. Cats have very subtle facial expressions, at least to a human, but he looked, well, mad. He didn't try to climb for at least an hour. He would reach out, cautiously, from the coffee table to the couch, and stretch across one leg at a time, where before he would just jump and trust his razor-sharp claws to catch hold. I couldn't get him to jump up on his cat condo. I felt guilty and kept assuring him that I did it for his own good. I gave him a treat. I petted him and combed through his fur for fleas. I went out and bought him a new catnip mouse and a little electronic thing that's motion- and sound-activated. But, no. He seems kind of... well... depressed.

But at least he doesn't make those whimpering noises when he scratches himself anymore.

Poor Smacky.

I'll have some pictures of him either later tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned. • 7:08 PM 0 comments

Plato wrote about his utopian society and called it "Plato's Republic".

On a road trip years ago, my friend Caleb attempted to describe his dream society and we called it "Caleb's Republic".

With all the political activity lately, tensions heating up, I've turned some thought to my dream society and will be working on describing "Brian's Republic".

Just some quick notes, to bookmark the idea for myself later. These are woefully incomplete and probably naive, but, hey, ya gotta dream, right?

• Based in Libertarian principles of a government that restricts the absolute minimum of individual rights.
  
• Government is only necessary for defense of the nation, maintaining common infrastructure (transportation and communications), and adjudicating matters of law.
  
• Taxes are only paid by corporations and businesses -- individual income is not taxed at all
  
• Corporations are not accorded equal rights with individuals! They are granted a charter by the government for a limited time and for a specific purpose and their charter expires and must be reviewed and renewed periodically.
  
• Citizenship is only granted upon reaching the age of majority and completing a term of civic service -- military, administrative, or some other government function. Non-citizens have similar rights, but have no say in how the nation is governed.

There's more I want to write about... but another time. One problem I'm having is trying to find a line between protection of common resources and preventing government from restricting the rights of property owners. • 1:31 PM 0 comments

Quick note: on my run in to work today, I kept track of my split times, and was running pretty fast during the first 2-3 miles of it; first mile and a half was between 8:00 and 8:30 per mile! Whoo-HOO!

'Course, I couldn't maintain that pace for the whole 5.14 miles, but I did end up with a total time this morning of 48:23.41! If that's not my best time for that distance it's damned close. Go see for yourself. • 6:46 AM 0 comments

I couldn't believe my ears. I have to find a transcript of the actual interview to make certain that I didn't mis-hear it.

Last night I was in the locker room of my gym, after a run, after a shower, and on the teevee they were playing the Dennis Miller show on CNBC. It was apparently a re-run, since the banner across the bottom of the screen showed "Republican National Convention 2004". And Miller was interviewing the senior Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush.

The conversation turned to World War II, and Bush was talking about getting shot down over the Pacific, and I kinda tuned out for a minute while I was getting dressed. Miller made some remark about WWII being "a different kind of war" and must have said something about Hitler being evil, or a bad guy, or something negative...

And Bush... Bush laughed, and chided Miller for not being "politically correct." Bush defended Hitler! He said, "Hey, c'mon now, Adolf was a good guy! He liked dogs!"

...whaaaaaaaaat? Did I just hear a former President of the United States of America claim, even as a joke, that Adolf Hitler was a good guy because he liked dogs?

This is like one of those "jokes" that Rush Limbaugh makes to tweak the Democrats, right? Where he shoots off his mouth about killing all the liberals, then if someone calls him on it he claims it's all meant in humor... right? The kind of "joke" that reveals a hidden intention?

I guess that's why they call it "pseudo-fascism" -- they can claim they're just funnin' ya (see Part 4 of David Neiwert's series on "The Rise of Pseudo Fascism") • 6:36 AM 0 comments

Those wacky Republicans! Damn, they're clever little guys! They're like little cute kittens, all tangled up in an unstrung ball of yarn, or playfully shredding the curtains while running around at 2 AM, or whimsically pissing all over the rights and enfranchisement of thousands of Democratic voters who are attempting to register for what might just be the last free presidential election in America.

Look at the silly Republicans!

No. Really. Look at them.

We need to rub their nose in it and make sure it doesn't keep happening.

(Cross-posted from Geeks Against Bush) • 6:55 AM 0 comments

One of my guilty pleasures is reading advice columns. I'm sure I must have mentioned this before... at any rate, one of my favorites is Cary Tennis, over at Salon. He's very good at sorting out what's important and what's not, and dealing with the human story and how it goes. Some of that might be due to his being a novelist. Dunno. I can't wait for his first actual novel.

At any rate, sometimes, rarely, he addresses his audience directly, and the column dated 10/13/2004 is one of those times. He says, in part,

...I have been getting letters asking "How do you know when it's time to leave the country?" and I can only say yes, it does feel a little fascist in here, could someone please open a window, please? Should you leave the country? Well, yes, you probably should. And so should I. But you probably won't, and neither will I. Booking passage is such a hassle. And the queen has her spies everywhere.

The rest of his columns can be found here (you'll need either a paid subscription or a day pass to read them). • 8:15 PM 0 comments

I think I like "internets" better than "IntarWeb". • 1:53 PM 0 comments

Someone had put up a large (5' square, approximately) along McLoughlin Boulevard. I saw it from the city bus on my way in to work. It read:

Cat Stevens - In. George W. Bush - Out

The campaign is coming down to the wire... • 7:23 AM 0 comments

I think I've noticed something and I'm not sure if it's just me.

How is it that it seems our culture (Western culture in general, USAian in specific) keeps on getting more and more shallow... but there seems to be a steady stream of very deep philosophical movies coming out?

For instance, everything that Charlie Kaufman has had a hand in: "Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"... and others.

Or, the move I just got out of seeing: "I [Heart] Huckabees", directed by David O. Russell. Just the boldness of putting out a movie based on existentialism and philosophy, amidst the shallowness of a government awash in juvenilia and a complete lack of introspection, astounds me.

The concept owes a lot to Douglas Adams' character of Dirk Gently, the holistic detective. I would go so far as to guess that there may be a bit of homage in the idea. But the execution is just as chaotic as Mr. Adams' prose, but a bit more tender towards its cast.

A movie well worth seeing several times. • 4:41 PM 0 comments

Darby mentioned my kitten's namesake in today's Get Fuzzy.

Yes, I named my kitten after a fictional cat's stuffed bear. No, really. • 1:49 PM 0 comments

They finally posted the results for the Race for the Cure 5K...

...and I've posted my personal results on my Trophy Page.

The time includes the at least two full minutes it took me to reach the starting line after the starting gun went off... • 2:27 PM 0 comments

Really, why would I spare the effort to rant when these guys do it so much better than I can lately?

I might need more than just vitamins, I think. • 1:14 PM 0 comments

Haven't posted in the blog since Tuesday, but I did update my running log yesterday. Ran to work, did OK, going running up the side of a freakin' moutain tonight (up to the highest point in Portland, Council Crest). Running is one of the bright spots in my life (others including Smacky, my new kitten, and delicious Clif Bars).

I keep trying to work up the energy for a rant, but then I think, "meh" and nothing happens. I am in the process of brain-dumping everything I can remember about two recent trips (one to Coachella Music Festival in March, and one to Vegas), with the intent of writing them up as either mildly-fictionalized novels or as actual memoirs-slash-travelogues. That should be fun. Both trips were full of drama and comedy, much like a "dramedy" would have been.

Anyway, maybe if I start taking my vitamins again I'll have the energy for a rant. I was thinking about one on customer service crushes (you know, feeling an attraction for that cute girl down at the bank) but Salon.com beat me to it. (Target link opens in new window. Salon requires paid registration or a "Day Pass" to read the article.)

So... no promises. • 10:23 AM 0 comments

Breathtaking. Really. I have no response to this beyond pointing it out.

ABC News is reporting that the female contingent of Afghanistan's riot police wear silver fingernails, headscarves, fishnet stockings, and high heels.

Sorry, no pictures were available.

(Wasn't sure if I should post this here, or over at Geeks Against Bush. Here won out since we can't blame Bush directly for this one.) • 7:42 AM 0 comments

The next-to-last time I spoke to my sister was over a month ago. Probably close to two months. I spoke to her on the phone. I was trying to find out where she was, since she was over a half-hour late for lunch, a lunch which had been rescheduled twice before to accommodate her schedule. She finally figured that since she couldn't find a parking space, she would have to cancel. I ended the call, since I was not going to reschedule again. If she wanted to have lunch with me, she would have to contact me.

The last time I spoke to my sister, I was calling her back. Well, technically, I was calling my nephew, her son, back. My nephew had called me because he was selling magazine subscriptions as a fund-raiser for his school and he wanted to sell me some. I called back to arrange a time, and got my sister. We chatted and she told me that my niece's birthday was this coming weekend, and we made plans to show up at her in-laws' house for the party and for the magazine subscriptions. 4 PM, Sunday (today), at her in-laws' house. Got it. I'll be there.

Only today, around 2 PM, I got a call from a strange number (I don't answer when I don't recognize the number), and after I got the notification that I had a voice mail, I listened to it. Found out that my sister was moving the time up by two hours because my nephew had to be somewhere at 5 PM today, oops, sorry, hope you can make it.

Since I was in the middle of something else, and still had to go pick up a Flex Car to get to where I needed to be, I was unable to make it two hours early. I was so mad about my sister's habit of disrespecting my time in favor of her own, I didn't call her back. So sue me.

How is it that my time is less important than her own? Argh. • 5:55 PM 0 comments

I went for a run this morning. Needed at least 4.2 miles to reach my goal of 16 miles for the week. Not sure how many I actually did, but I added at least 1/2 mile to my "Four Parks Run", by running along the Springwater Corridor trail at least a quarter-mile past where the trail goes into Oaks Bottom and then back again.

I was slow today; ran the 4.4 miles in about the same time I ran over 5 miles on Friday, but the course I did today was a bit tougher; more hills, including a very steep trail that connects Oaks Bottom and Sellwood Park, so I'm happy with my time.

When I got back home, though, I collapsed on the couch, unable to move much at all. Smacky, my kitten, came over and started to attack me as he normally does (maybe I was just setting myself up when I named him "Smacky" 'cause that's all he seems to do), but as soon as he started to play-bite me, he stopped... sniffed me a lot... smelled my sweat, still drying on my skin... and then started licking the sweat off my arm. Cats are strange strange creatures.

He's grown so much since I got him. I need more pictures of him, if only he'd sit still long enough for me to take them. He enjoys getting up on the bathtub ledge, between the shower curtain and transparent liner, when I'm taking a shower. It's hilarious when he slips and falls in the tub. Well, hilarious as long as he doesn't attack my feet or legs. • 1:03 PM 0 comments

Went to see a movie tonight. Saw "We Don't Live Here Anymore", with Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Watts. It's a little faux-art-house flick about two couples dealing with infidelity.

One sentence review: It wasn't sad enough.

One side comment: It was released by "Warner Independent Pictures" (Warning! That link uses Flash!). That's "Warner", as in "AOL Time Warner", the gianormous media conglomerate that controls most of what we see, hear, and read. But they've created a little spin-off that's supposedly "independent"? How? Just because they put the actual word "independent" in their name?

I hate the fact that Newspeak is alive and well. Orwell created the idea as parody, for Pete's sake. • 9:39 PM 0 comments

Don't normally do this but thought I'd share this photo, since it combines two different subjects that I enjoy ridiculing:


Now that's comedy gold. • 1:09 PM 0 comments

My dreams are just the weirdest.

Last night I dreamed that I was a member of the US Olympic basketball team. The gold-medal-winning US Olympic basketball team.

And that I was dating Reese Witherspoon. Which would only make sense, if I was actually on the gold-medal-winning US Olympic basketball team.

Man, was she hot for me.

And then I woke up. Heh. • 11:50 AM 0 comments

One more thought regarding the presidential debate.

Following the exchange of messages and information from the candidates, I think every American should look deep, deep within themselves and ask themselves this question: did I forget Poland, too? • 8:49 AM 0 comments

If you're trying to build a relationship with someone, no matter whether it's a simple friendship, or a full-blown committed, intimate relationship, wouldn't you think it would be more helpful to share, to give of yourself, as opposed to withholding things or taking things away?

Just sayin'. • 7:44 AM 0 comments