dunno

Since I have yet to add a hit counter for this site, I honestly don't know if anybody even reads it. But iF you are, then people do, and to you, my unknown audience, I must state that I am moving today, and as such I will not be updating for approximately one week. At least, potentially two weeks. Hopefully in that time I will come across something interesting to share.

Couple random thoughts.

The first is that moving sucks. The fact that I am going to be out of Upstate NY is of course exciting. But the process of packing and getting ready to get the fuck out of dodge is tedious as hell. I'M not sure how much room I'll actually have to use as I have to leave one seat in the van for my brother to sit in on the ride back, Right now I'm just hoping and considering what I can leave behind.

The second random thought is To actually tell the people reading this That I hope you have had, and continue to have a pleasant if not downright giddy Holiday season.

Reminder

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Run now

There is now a growing concerted effort in the United States to cut back on our basic liberties and rights. This is the land of the Free? The home of the brave? Every day we consider curtailing our liberties we come closer to being the "Land where we bravely stay prisoner in our own homes as talking heads tell us we're free."

An old quote that I don't know the origin of comes to mind.
"The extent to which you resist is the extent to which you are free."

Video Games

I went to a movie tonight with a friend of mine. Killing time beforehand we happenned to run into each other in the mall arcade. While in said arcade we happenned upon a game which looked as though they just put new software and a sign on Area 51... It was essentially the same game, but you fought terrorists instead of Aliens.. White Terrorists with machine guns and RPG's.. Apparently the game manufacturers were going for all audiences. They rode the Anti-terrorism hysteria bandwagon AND the Politically correct anti-stereotype taken too far bandwagon.
We had fun and I consistantly scored better than him at a shooting game so I feel a bit better about myself.

Ahhhh, birthdays,

My youngest little brother just turned 16 yesterday. I'm so glad I'm going to be out of the state so I don't have to worry about meeting him on the road when he gets his permit.

x-mas

My grandmother is having trouble figuring out what to buy my brothers for Christmas, I offered to pick up some stuff for them for her, but she wouldn't hear of it.
G-ma"I don't know what to get them."
Me: "I'll run and pick some stuff up for them if you want"
G-Ma: "No, that's ok." (In a sort of untrusting tone)
Me: "Come on, it's not like I'd buy them porn"
G-pa: "Well, they've got to learn sometime."
G-ma: "What?"

About my spelling

When I type these I generally don't run spell check, or even look them over all that closely. Why? Do I just not care about offending the aesthetic and grammatical sensibilities of my readers? Binog. I figure if I can't piss you off with content, I'll do it with style.

A few thoughts

Inadequate, delapidated housing
High incidents of on the job fatalities and injuries
Low wages
Inadequate safety equipment
Drug abuse
Systematic discrimination

A picture is probably in your head from the preceeding images.
Is it a ghetto neighborhood with corner filled with pushers and hookers straight from a movie?
A third world country where the only people with a decent living standard steal international aid to line thier own wallets?
A Trailer park in an economically depressed rural communitee where the local family farms have all either gone bankrupt or were sold to multi-national companies in a last ditch attempt to keep the family fed and housed?

All three are too common, but I was thinking of another group of people. I was thinking of the United States military. Of course they have a couple advantages over the other groups. They have medical coverage as long as they are actively serving their country, and they are highly trained in one of the two professions that always seem to survive regardless of changes in governments and social mores.

More and more often the government is turning to the private sector to provide housing for our troops and their families. Long term contracts are signed and houses are being built and renovated around the country. I'm just wondering what will happen to these houses when the bases close.

It might be because I am by nature a collaborative person, but I would hope that we could provide the people who are risking their lives on a daily basis adequate housing on base, where their families are in a community that understands the fears and joys of a military life, reassignments, extented tours, the daily uncertainty, the triumph of loved ones returning from a successful deployment or taining exercise. The elements that only other military families are familiar with.

Perhaps I'm just romanticising the situation. To me, however, the community of military families sharing their experiences is more powerful than:

MILITARY SPOUSE. Bob has been overseas for 4 months, so far he's been lucky, but they go into an occupied city tomorrow.
CIVILIAN SPOUSE. I know how you feel, Rodger was in Vegas for 2 weeks at a conference, and the hotel didn't even have a casino attached to it.

where's the point?

My internal clock has been thrown completely off by not having to wake up to go to work the past souple months. I keep finding myself still awake at 6 or 7 in the morning, then sleeping into the afternoon. I add about an hour a day to those numbers. Hopefully I'll be able to get my timing switched around before I find another job.

Getting out of here.

I fdeel like Timmy Trapped in a well awaiting the end of my lease in this upstate hell. A couple of weeks, a holiday and then I'm out of the state and into the middle of nowhere, but it's not here, and that is the important thing.
I realized tonight as I decided to head out to a local inebriety establishment that all of the people I used to go out with have now either moved or are currently working late nights on weekends.
There were several mixed emotions fighting for control of my body. One was relief that I wasn't going to spend money I don't have on alcohol, the other was a sort of sadness as I really miss the nights of pool games, darts, and buying more drinks than I could really afford.

Revenge of the Suck

In an attempt to passify the countless Star Wars fans dissapointed with the last two Star Wars movies LUCARFILMS(tm) has released this Statement about the next installment.

"Fuck Continuity, it's all about merchandising."

Thought for the day

The same part of the constitution that Keeps Arnold S. from becoming President also keep Jim Carrey from running. That crazy canuck.

Proud mary keep on turnin'

Today, (well, technically last night, but I'm going by mmy own internal combustion biological clock) I took my Mom and youngest little brother to see a musical. I should point out that the number of musical which I have seen and wholeheartedly liked numbers exactly 3. (Sweeney Todd, Hedwig and the Angry Itch, and Woody Guthries American Tale.) The rest of the musicals I have liked I have either only seen on video, or haven't seen yet, so they don't count.
It was a big day, It was the first Show at Syracuse Stage which I have seen since I stopped working there, and it was my youngest brothers first professional show. We saw Huck Finn: the Musical, or as the ads would have you believe "Big River". We were runing a little late and my critique of it is as follows.
Overall, A good musical, not Soundheim, but good. The musical numbers were well performed, and the cast had an energy which is hard, if not impossible, to fake. Characters were fully developed and, for the most part, as believable as a character who suddenly burts into song in the middle of a street can be.
On the technical side, the set is one of the best I've seen at Syracuse Stage with a couple little choices I disagreed with. One of the spot operators is probably getting reamed out right now as they had a tendency to focus the light on the actors shoes instead of their faces as they sang, but it was preview, so they've got two more performances before the show actually opens.
Like most musicals it's a fun night out, with a couple really poweful moments and musical numbers surrounded by a lot of fluff.
Overall: ***
Musicians:****
Acting: ** (It's a musical)
Technical: ****
Script: * (Again, musical)

"tis the Season

It's finally after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Just the time of the year to avoid the malls. Not because of the blatant commercialization of the holiday season: Hey look kids!! Let's pay 50 dollars for a blurry polaroid of you with Hannakah Harry or Kwanzaa Kinte!!! I grew up in the 80's, conspicuous consumption is all around us in the form of extra large houses and SUV's so we have more room to put our double sized double stuffed chairs which fit our double wide asses so nicely. To the The 500 dollar PDA's with 245 gigawhosisbytes of memory so you can store the names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail address, favorite food, names of the pets and spouses, and shoe sizes of all the people who "you would love to get together with sometime, but you're going to be too busy entering the newest information into your NEW PDA and couldn't Possibly risk losing some information because you never know when you might want to get ahold of someone.
No, I'm used to this, I've dealt with it my entire life. I'm not even against the stores that start their Christmas sales in September or early October.
What truly bothers me about the holiday season is that the music sucks. Even worse than normal mall muzak. I'll take a lame piano and vioin duet of Wings "Live and let Die" over the umpteenth Neal Pert wannabe trying to put a disco beat to "Little drummer boy" anyday. Here comes santa claus here comes santa claus.. no here comes the fucking winter solstice, accept it, love it, but please don't write a damn song about it.
But the argument goes it's all happy music showing the joy of the season! Fuck happy, fuck joy and fuck you you overly happy hippy piece of shit. Show me Peace on earth and I'll join in the chorus, but until that day.. make mine Marvel!!
Sorry, wrong tagline.

BLACK FRIDAY!!!

Ah, the biggest shopping day of the year. And me with no desire to elbow my way through people to spend money I don't have on junk that's overpriced even when it's on sale.

What kind of an American am I?

Unemployed.

Thanksgiving

Just what this country needs. A day for people to sit around and eat, without feeling guilty because it's a special occassion. Liek we aren't fat enough already. Like the other day I'm in Wendy's. Not because the food is good, but because it was late, I was hungry, and they were open.
So I'm standing there in Wendy's realizeing that I'm aready fat enough, I don't need to eat the items on this menu. I Can stop by the store jsut behind me, buy something healthy and make it myself at home.

As I turned to leave I thought again.. this time with my stomach and ordered 10 dollars worth of hamburgers and chicken tenders.

No point to this except to say that perhaps part of the problem with.. wait, no, there is no point.

Update on Four more years post.

Once Powell officially leaves we will only be a clip away from our first Female president as well.

Found the problem.

Actual Telephone Call (abridged) between myself and the NYS Dept. Of Labor.

Ring Ring
"HELLO AND THANK YOU FOR CALLING THE NEW YORK STATE..." (Loud voice reading out option menu. It should be noted that this voice is clipping my phone, so not only is it a mechanical voice, but it's damaging the speaker as well)

Beep (For English)
Beep (1st menu option)
Beep (2nd Menu Option)
Beep (3rd Menu option)
Beep beep beep, beep beep, beep beep beep beep (SSN)
beep beep beep beep (Password)
Beep (4th Menu to get to a human being.
Silence.. blissful silence
THANKYOU FOR CALLING THE NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. ALL OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES ARE BUSY AT THIS TIME. ESTIMATED WAIT 5 MINUTES OR LESS!!
Silence again.
Ring Ring
"Hello Thank you for calling NYDOL, What Can I do for you today?"
"Hi, I was wondering, who do I talk to about working with the Department of labor to improve its response time, and user interface?"
"Hold on"
Ring Ring.
"Hello, thank you for calling NYDOL, What Can I do for you today?"
(Same question almost verbatum from me)
"Hold on, let me redirect you to a supervisor."
Ring Ring.
"Hello, How may I help you?"
(Again Same question)
Well, I'm sure if you submitted your concerns in writing somebody would..."

So if I ever wondered WHY the N.Y. budget was late, or why it takes any body in government ten years to answer a simple "Who do I talk to for this information?" style question. I now know.

They hire idiots.

I Called Back about something else. The person I talked to had a very pronounced Southern Drawl. Apparently we didn't have enough idiots in the state to foul things up.. we're now outsourcing our idiocy to other parts of the country.

Bill Hicks was right, there IS a definate anti-intelectualism in this country.

Finally good news

I'm moving out of New York at the beginning of the year. I have found An apartment In the Town My girlfriend is attending Grad School. Which is also where I will hopefully be attending soon as well. I just feel like I've been out of Theater for too long to bother submitting my resume anyplace, even though it's only been 8 months. Not so much on the technical side, but I haven't been in front of an audience since August of 2003, and I um.. how can I put this politely .. I fucking bombed like I was 2000 feet over Nagasaki.
So yeah, Beginning of the year I'm out of here. Why? you ask, this is a nice community, it has beautiful Scenery, the people are friendly, your family is here.. etc.
Basically its because My Family is here, I'm allergic to the scenery, and the people, aren't as friendly as my girlfriend.

Why the liberals will never win.

In the aftermath of the 2004 election, I have heard many so called intelligent liberals talk about how they are beginning to think of armed rebellion if there really was voter fraud.
There's just one problem with this.
Statistically, the conservatives have the guns.

Although to be fair.. considering the job the administration is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.. liberals might have a chance after all.

So I'm thinking...

Not writing, just thinking.

I miss 1996

Actually, I just miss the internet, being employed and having an articulate president.

You see, the internet of yore was not the cash cow it is today. Search engines were slower, computers were slower, Web Sites weren't as flashy, and there were less sites.
However, there were also less pop up ads, less spyware/adware, and a sense of community on the sites.
When looking for a band, author, or artist through a search engine, you didn't have to wade through 5 pages of links to amazon.com. You got maybe one or two stores, but the rest were fan sites, and sites the artist themselves had posted, or approved of. usually with information, news clippings, and more rarely samples of their work. BUt it was information, not just an ad. Unless you were looking up the sex pistols.. then it was 20 pages of porn links.

Four more years (To reload)

Kerry Conceeded, Schmuck. But I knew this was going to happen. Somewhere in the back of my mind was this nigling suspicion.. wait, is nigling actually a word? Ah well, The point is I knew this would happen. Why? Because W was elected in a year that ended with 0. Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan etc. all died in office. (Ok, Reagan didn't die, but he forgot to tell us he had Alzheimers until the mid 90's.. I think dying just slipped his mind.) AS the election greew closer and he had still not gotten a really bad flu, a grazing bullet wound, or even a stubbed toe. I began to get worried.
I'm not sure how I want to see him go however.
You know he's not going to get shot in a theater: "Weeel, Gawlee Laura I do believe that thur is the biggest durn tv I ever seen. Where's the remote? Footbawl is on!!"
Motorcade, Highly unlikely, I think the guy drives a double bulletproofed fire resistant, all wheel drive dual airbag SUV made out of black boxes from airplanes.
Shot on a street corner? No, that would have been Bill Clinton. Picking up an evenings entertainment.
Pneumonia? We can only hope.

Now, this is not to say that I want Cheney in office. I think a nice double dose of Pneumonia/ heart attack would help this country to no end.
So all you snipers out there remember.. we're just a reload away from our first black president.

(Yeah, this entry will probably get me flagged by the CIA. Fuck 'em.)

Election results

Well, we're still counting. But looking through the ballot measures of different states I have found alist of states I won't move to. As the majority of people in those states appear to be bigots. Each of these states passed ballot initiatives to make sure that certain groups of people are not afforded the same rights and priveledges accorded the rest of the people in the state.
Here's the list.
Arkansas
Georgia
Kentucky
Michigan
Mississippi
Montana
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Utah

shudder

Well, for the second time in my life I voted for a presidential candidate I did not fully support. I held my nose and pulled the lever marked Kerry/edwards just because it wasn't Bush. It's too bad there isn't a way to vote against someone without just voting for their primary opponent.

Halloween

So it's halloween. Doesn't seem to be as much fun now that I'm too old to go trick or treating. Partially because there are so many people spending WAY too much money on their costumes.
Historically this was a day of practical jokes, and community. Now it's just a matter of people seeing how much they can get for nothing.
Ah well, Tomorrow is Allsaints day, and then a day of holding my breath to see if the pseudo democratic process we have in this country works this time. Hopefully the Far right goon squad won't turn away too many eligible voters this time.

Something I wrote a while ago.

Scenes from the “House of Wrong… Grapes of Afganistan
Scene opens with Muley, Osama bin Laden and one of his assistants looking at wreckage.
Muley: Osama?
OBL: Muley?
Muley: When’d you get out Osama.
OBL: Couple days ago, took me a couple a days to lose the marines. Where’re my Terrorists Muley?
Muley: Over at the Taliban, roundin up towel heads so’s they can kill the West. Whole broods there.
OBL: What happened here?
Muley: Well, they was gonna stick it out when the US came to bombin’ the place, blasted the hell out of the ground, Like a fat guy in a kiddie pool.
Assisstant: Why they blowin up the land?
Muley: US can’t find ‘sama, the sonsabitches, them dirty sons a bitches
OBL: They ain’t getting rid o me. I wonder Palistine went so easy.. I wonder Arafat didn’t put up a fight.
Muley: T’weren’t easy Osama…. Took something out of ‘em. Kinda got to ‘em.
Assistant: Fella gets used to a place it’s hard to go.
Muley: I’ll tel ya men, something went and happened to me when they told me I was getting bombed.. First, I was gonna go kill me a whole flock o’ people… But ‘sama beat me to it, took out the whole Shawnee land and cattle company. ‘Taint nobody left in that company. Then all my folks got killed by the west, so I’m left wandering around like an old graveyard ghost. So I keep going around to the old places where stuff happened, like our old training camp… Where my pa got run over by a Russian tank. His blood and the tanks oil are in that ground right now. Mus’t be nobody never washed it out. I put my hand on the oil spot that used to be my pa. …. You Fellas think I’m nuts?
Assisstant: No, you’re fanatical, but you ain’t nuts.
OBL: If your folks killed the west you should’ve gone too, killed a nice innocent family.
Muley: I couldn’t.. Something jes wouldn’t let me.
Assisstant: You should kill some people… Sometimes an angry man can just kill the anger out of him.
(noise)
OBL What the…
Muley: It’s prob’ly the marines.. Somebody maybe seen our fire.
Assisstant: get down
OBL We ain’t done no harm.
( all three roll around on the ground lughing like jackals until a gunshot is heard)
Muley: They’re trying to kill us.. Get down.
OBL They been trying to catch me for two months.
Marine: Osama osama (looking right at him) Ain’t here, lets go.
OBL: Never thought I’d be hidin out again so soon. (Lights)

Been a while

WEll, I did try to post a couple times during the week, but apparently the computer doesn't like me. Which upesets me, because I like the computer. Ah well, if the relationship between man and machine were perfect we would soon become extinct.

Randomness of life

So the rain finally got to me. On Thursday night I was sick of not working and not seeing my girlfriend. So I jumped in my car, drove for a while and have been looking for more gainful employment. Life is decent again.

We went out to a local bar, which is not unusual, however we had the same driver on both the way there, and back. What I remember of the conversation.

DRIVER: So what's with the hair? (it was a bit unmanageable at the time, and taking another shower would have taken too much time from drinking and visiting with my girlfriend.)
ME: What? Um I guess I just didn't feel like taking another shower after my nap. So what's with your hair?
DRIVER: What?
ME: I mean it looks like a Marine issue mullet.
DRIVER: Um.. My wife likes it and gets mad if I do anything else with it.

Personally, I thought the answer was bullshit, but let it slide for the rest of the trip. I'm still trying to figure out if I was the asshole for the description, or if we just breached some unwritten cab driver/ passenger rule of etiquette. Chances are, I was the asshole, but it was not an attractive haircut.

Not the most interesting thing to happen this weekend, but one of the ones that I'll put in the blog.

I hate rain

I'm broke. It's rained here for the past week, so I haven't been able to get out and paint any houses. Stupid weather.

Windmilling at the tilt a whirl

I've been watching the Yankees/red Sox games this week, not because It's the Yankees or the red sox. But because it's the playoffs and after the couple years I spent living with my grandfather, it's become habit.

However, when the umpires have to call in the RIOT SQUAD, there is something wrong. How have these teams become so important? They are merely entertainment. Please, do the world a favor, if you enjoy the sport, watch it to see the beauty of the human form, the amazing abillities of the body under stress. Don't watch it for an excuse to drink beer and have a riot. It doesn't matter if your team won if the city is on fire. Right Chicago?

Stupidity of the masses

Why do so many people join the atkins diet? It is possibly the least healty diet you could be on after the heroin and whiskey diet.

But yet the book still sells, and people still do it. So now I have to put up with "low carb" advertising all ove the place, why? Fat people are stupid. The people on these diets actually believe that if you take the bun off of your Big Mac, you will lose weight. Try taking the meat off of the Big Mac, or better yet, make a salad.
Now the people I know that have tried the diet have lost weight. Of course they have, they stopped drinking 20,000 gallons of Soda and 50,000 pounds of chips a day. it has nothing to do with giving up toast at breakfast.

You want to lose weight? eat a salad, take the stairs, and walk to the corner market next time you run out of milk. Or better yet, give up your cushy sit on your ass day job and start putting in a real days work. watch the pounds melt away.

forgot about the muppets.

Well, I was rummaging through my mp3 collection today when I came across some muppets songs I had ripped. I had completely forgotten they were even in my collection. the song I listened to was "I hope that something better comes along". While listening I realized how much of the work Jim Henson did would be totally unacceptable on television today. From the opening line of "It looks like you need a drink." to some of the reproductive innuendo lines in the song.
It seems as though the more knowledge of alcohol and sex expands in the minds of both young and old, the more forbidden it is. I'm not sure if I prefer the knowledge, or if I'd prefer ignorance with acceptance of indulgance.

The other random thought was it would be a great song to hear Tom Waits do in a duet. Preferably with someone like Mike Patton who can produce such beautiful pure tones when he chooses to. Just for the contrast between the styles. I've always thought that Rawlf the dog would be much better if they hired Tom to do the voice.

The random play on my MP3 player then chose to play "Heart attak and Vine." I felt fully justified in my beliefs.

Alternative to conservative religious organizations.

I would love to see a liberal death squad in this country. Well meaning people wandering around killing off dissidents and such. Because, since their liberals, they wouldn’t use guns. They’d just wander around handing out smokes and cocktails to people. "This shit will kill you."

Defending the definition of liberal.

Quite often we hear republican officials using the term "liberal" as an expletive. I wonder if they ever bothered to look up the definition. The bold face is mine.

lib·er·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.

1.
1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
3. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.
4. Liberal Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.
2.
1. Tending to give freely; generous: a liberal benefactor.
2. Generous in amount; ample: a liberal serving of potatoes.
3. Not strict or literal; loose or approximate: a liberal translation.
4. Of, relating to, or based on the traditional arts and sciences of a college or university curriculum: a liberal education.
5.
1. Archaic. Permissible or appropriate for a person of free birth; befitting a lady or gentleman.
2. Obsolete. Morally unrestrained; licentious.
n.
1. A person with liberal ideas or opinions.
2. Liberal A member of a Liberal political party.

In the interest of fair time:
con·ser·va·tive ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kn-s�rv-tv)
adj.

1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
2. Traditional or restrained in style: a conservative dark suit.
3. Moderate; cautious: a conservative estimate.
4.
1. Of or relating to the political philosophy of conservatism.
2. Belonging to a conservative party, group, or movement.
5. Conservative Of or belonging to the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom or the Progressive Conservative Party in Canada.
6. Conservative Of or adhering to Conservative Judaism.
7. Tending to conserve; preservative: the conservative use of natural resources.


n.

1. One favoring traditional views and values.
2. A supporter of political conservatism.
3. Conservative A member or supporter of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom or the Progressive Conservative Party in Canada.
4. Archaic. A preservative agent or principle.

www.dictionary.com also provides RedNeck as a homonym of conservative.

debate drinking.

So I've been watching the debate.. well listening to the debates as I played video games. Anyways, my point is this. I know it's too late for this year, but next election watch the debates with some friends. Have plenty of alcohol on hand. the following events warrant a drink.

Total avoidance of question- one drink. (Ex. What color is the sky? My opponant would have you believe the color of the sky is the fault of a liberal/conservative conspiracy centered around the magnanamous... )
Use of campaign catch phrase- One drink. (Ex. Flip flop, It's the economy Stupid, Hope is on the way.)
misquoting of the opponant.One drink.
Using liberal or conservative as an explitive. One drink
Mention of current big issue out of context. 2 drinks (Ex. "What did you have for breakfast this morning? Since 911 I have been considering the effects of breakfast on the health of the nations economy...")

Enjoy.

OUT!!!

Grandpa decided that he was going to ignore the doctors advice to head into a residential rehab facility and came home today instead. Ah, what do they know, they're just doctors. He's still not 100%, but not in bad enough shape to be kept in the hospital.

In other news, how bad do you feel when you're in court listening to people plea bargaining assault, DWI, speeding through school zones, and other charges. When you realize thatall you've got to show for why you're there: is a ticket for not wearing your seat belt?
Especilly when the court fee is double the fine on the ticket. Gotta love New York.

Michael J. Fox beware.

For those of you who watched the presidential debate last Friday, you may remember hearing John Kerry refer to his friend Christopher Reeves. It was in response to a question about stem cell research.

Superman died on Monday.

He also mentioned Mr. Fox. More news as the story develops.

eh, I just needed to write something

Things are beginning to stabalize with Grandpa, and the doctors are beginning to consider the next move, home or a short term in an assisted living community for about a month, then home.

World hunger

Important stuff first. Grandpa is out of ICU, and beginning to be strong enough to walk again.


So I'm sitting around with the TV on when an AD for a World hunger Organization came on. My only thought was "If I want to feed a small hungry African girl, I'll take my girlfriend out to dinner."

So it's not Sam Kinisons rant about world hunger, but I'm not about to snort some coke, marry some breasts and jump behind the wheel of my vette.

solid food

Grampa is back on solid food and has even been able to get out of bed for a little while earlier. He's still in ICU, and chances still look slim, but he's much better than last week at this time.

no real change

Grampa is still in ICU, still fighting the infection, and still stubborn about wanting to get up. We're just glad he's awake again.

Good day

So the day did not start off being conspicuously good. I woke up early and my lower digestive tract was rumbling. I Got to work and had to leave again because apparently my breakfast didn't want to take the time to view the sights as it passed through my intestines. So I run to the closest supermarket, search frantically for the bathroom. I found it on my second trip around the store, it was down a hallway, off of the hallway going behind the meat counter. No signs informed me of this. I clean off the seat, sit down, and lose ten pounds in 4 minutes.. (Beat that Atkins.) Only to discover that not only did the bathroom lack any sign, it lacked TP as well. Fortunately they did have those sanitary toilet seat covers. Those things HURT.

After this travesty of a morning (it's not even 8 yet) I decided that I should probably pick up some pepto bismol or similar. In this case the similar was a buck cheaper. SO I had just frantically run around the store looking for the bathroom, and am now in the checkout picking up a bottle of pink fluid, when the cashier asks me:
"How are you doing?"
"Did you see what I'm buying, and do you really want me to tell you?"
"Good point, hope it works."

So went back to work, finished an hour early and bought the new Tom Waits album, Saved!, and unbeknownst to me Terry pratchett has released another book. So I bought that too.

It was a good day.

wouldn't let me poost yesterday.

Either my computer or this site is run by some extrremely pessimistic code. I couldn't post the good news yesterday.

G-pa woke up a little on Sunday night, and then actually woke up this morning around 5ish. He's still in ICU, but talking and napping in little bursts.

Just to prove he's still as stubborn as ever he insisted I help him up to do some business instead of calling in the bedpan. HE then pulled out his catheter (Second time he's done this mind) because he wanted to go home and was uncomfortable.

That's the good news. The downside is he is still extremely sickand woozy.

Some good news

G-pa opened his eyes a little, and woke up enough to shake his head to some questions and ask for water. Not great news, but encouraging.

Finally some good news

G-pa woke up a little. Just enough to nod and shake his head to some questions and ask for some water. Not great news, but good news.

bad tidings

My Grandfathers infection has gotten worse again. the Doctors are not sure If it can be controlled.
If it can't be controlled there is no possibility of operating, or of him coming out of his sleep. We're just keeping our fingers crossed and trying to delay his tee time with my father.

Update on g-pa, and random stuff

Granpa has not woken up yet, although his fever is down and he is off of the morphine. He is beginning to respond a bit. Things are looking better, but not good.


Other topics: While flipping through radio stations I happenned upon a brief statement on the local christian station. the staement made was "Oh please lord pray for us to..." I was laughing so hard at this point I accidentaly hit the seek button on the steering whell and didn't hear the rest of the sentence.

But why would I be laughing? It's simple. The basis of Christianity is that there is one omnipotent god (Yewah, jehovah, Mel Brooks, Whatever) Who was a fearsome god for the Jews, but flip flopped on the issue and became a kinder gentler God by manifesting as Jesus Christ. One God, omnipotent, omnipresent.

Let us review the statement overhead from the radio. "Oh please lord pray for us to..."

So who does this omnipotent omnipresent deity pray to I wonder? Zeus? Himself? Herself? George Burns?

bad things

When I went in to see my grandfather he was worse than I thought. He's stable, and his fever has gone down, but he hasn't opened his eyes in a couple days and is in a state of fitful morphine draped sleep. He doesn't respond to anything except physical stimuli, such as touching his stomach. Right now we're just hoping the infection clears and we can get the risk of an operation down to about the same as the risk of not having the operation.

Why I hate "christians"

This is unfortunately too true.

Last night my Grandfather went into the hospital with Gall stones. Due to his Diabetes, high blood pressure, and other ailments, the doctors are unable to operate. The stones are also infected and he is running a fever of about 104. After getting off of the phone with my Grandmother who gave me the news I called my girlfriend, and then the owner and foreman of the company I'm working with to tell them that I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was only planning on working a half day depending on what progress was made during the night. I got the owners answering machine.

This morning he calls me to find out whats going on. Going on the basis of no news is good news I told him I was only planning on working a half day today depending on what news I heard from G-ma. After describing his condition and my plans his only response was to ask me if I could work an 8 hour day (instead of the usual 9-11 hour days I have put in for the last 19 days straight.) I reather testily replied "my grandfather is in the hospital" and hung up on the greedy fuck.

So I came very close to being unemployed this morning because of this. While working on the site he insisted on talking to me about it and insisted that I was wrong for being testy. He then went on to explain how he was a christian and didn't deserve to be spoken to like that.

Did I over react?

Things are unfortunately not looking good for my grandfather either. He is on morphine and is still in pain, my aunt is flying up from Fla. because right now there are no good signs coming from the hospital. I found this out after leaving work today at noon.

My life, boring boring.. tragedy, boring.

I've been sitting around doing nothing but playing video games, going to work and occasionally swearing at other drivers during my 45-60 mile commute every day. Here is an average daily itinerary:

5:45 am Alarm goes off, Snooze button is hit.
5:55 Repeat.
6:05 One more time for good measure
6:15 Wake up hit the bathroom, brush my teeth, get dressed, drive to work listening to NPR.
7:30- 6:30 Paint houses and berate the foreman. Not because he needs it, but because it gives me something to do.
7:30 get home, play video games
9:00 eat, or realize I haven't eaten, don't feel like doing the dishes, so I say fuck it; and go to bed.

I used to do stuff, I mean, I have more concert stubs than Nirvana has songs about heroin. (Name where I stole that line from and I'll give you a hearty thumbs up)

Boring, completely boring. Unfortunately by the time I get home I just don't have the energy to be interesting, even to myself. So I do nothing. But now I am writing in here a little bit. It's not much, but it's something.

Maybe I just need a day or two off. I haven't had one since Labor day weekend. I don't think it counts as a day off if you plan working, but get rained out. But that's just me.

A funny thing happenned to people I don't know.

And I can't tell you about it because I can't check the facts. Sigh, it's days like this I wish I was Fox or CBS. Just so I could tell the story without any ethical considerations regarding its truth.

Apathy: The horse you rode in on.

I've always liked that phrase. "....And the horse you rode in on. " Simply because it can be added to the end of so many different phrases. Spanning many different social situations.
Argument at a bar: (Obvious ex. first)
"Yeah, well fuck you and the horse you rode in on!!"
Being robbed :
"Give me all of your money ... and the horse you rode in on."
Pick up lines:
"I'm going to spend all night making love to you... and the horse you rode in on."

Ok, so the last example isn't a sterling example of the quality of the phrase. But I don't care. Which brings us back to the apathy portion of the Title.