Archives for category: democracy inaction

friday was eric’s birthday party – there was much bowling and merrymaking. the birthday boy passed out early but i think everyone had a good time that night (at eric’s anyway). saturday eric and i saw ‘the grudge’ which wasn’t as scary as ‘the ring’ but still totally creeped me out. the result? it took me twice as long to get ready this morning (and i skipped stuff) because i was terrified of the shower and of mirrors. and my own hair. that is the worst thing about all of these japanese horror remakes. they turn my own hair into a symbol of psychological terror the way the hockey mask is now a symbol of goofy terror.

the rest of saturday was spent in sort of a depressed stupor as i was feeling too blah to do much of anything else. eric decided he didn’t feel up to going to see the brian jonestown massacre either so we sort of sat around like globs of goo until going to sleep at like 10pm. sunday eric drove me to union station so i could catch the metra to aurora. i met my parents there and we ate and shopped a little at the ‘chicago premium outlets’ outlet mall. afterwards they drove me back to my apartment and set up my new bed frame. it has a middle support so my mattress doesn’t cave in at the middle. it is wonderful. after all of that excitement we went to noon o kebab for dinner with eric who had spent the day with his dad. for dessert i had what appeared to be a corrugated mini-loaf of fried dough that had been soaking in butter and honey for at least a week. it was delicious but afterwards i felt like i had been sucking on a honeycomb for hours. i will stick to baklava from now on.

after dinner my parents loaded up the old bedframe and my air conditioner into the car. my dad went to pick up my air conditioner but it slipped and he cut his thumb on the fins and dripped blood in a nice trail all the way to my front door. this comes on the heels of my mom telling me at lunch that my uncle cut part of his finger off in a bandsaw accident, jon slicing part of his thumb off with an exacto and eric stabbing his finger awhile back while separating frozen meat patties. all of this digital mutilation must’ve been preying on my subconscious mind because while i was cross stitching a few hours alter i stabbed my thumb pretty good with the needle. i managed not to bleed on my cross stitching. crisis averted!

now i’m sitting here operating on far too little sleep. i yawn about every 30 seconds. i feel sort of achy all over and i feel like i can’t walk right – it seems like i’m sort of flopping my legs around and somehow they manage to move me through space. maybe i’m getting the flu? i don’t know. a week and 2 days until eric and i leave for europe. a week and 1 day till eric’s last day of work and my first time voting. i didn’t vote 4 years ago because i was still registered at home and i didn’t quite understand that whole absentee thing. luckily illinois was already commited to the blue (the electoral college makes no sense). i feel like i’m starting to really ramble so i’ll stop while i’m ahead.

last night i caught most of ‘frontline’ on pbs. the episode was devoted to an impartial examination of the lives of both presidential candidates. sort of like those compare-and-contrast exercises i used to do back in the day. The Choice 2004 presented both candidates pretty fairly and a few things stood out.

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well…it would explain a whole lot, wouldn’t it? jump over to isbushwired.com for the full-on ‘conspiracy’ theory.

i cannot even articulate how frustrated and depressed and hopeless i feel about the coming election, nay the united states as a whole. i am always forgetting that the group of people that i hang out with – the technorati, or digerati, or digital intelligentsia or what-have-you – are not the type of people that make up the majority of the united states. so while i’m in the middle of scratching my head (read: sobbing unconsolably) and reading that bush is 7 points up or something like that, i suddenly remember that most united statesians are more like the people back home that i avoided. Or, on the other more mind-blowing hand, they are good hard-working people like my dad who are seemingly intelligent folks, looking out for family values and whatnot, but somehow think it’s okay, or sets an acceptable example, to basically condone the type of lying – LYING – hypocritical bullshit that this “man” stands for.

and yes, i am TOTALLY putting that in quotes because i was always taught that a real man takes RESPONSIBLITY FOR HIS ACTIONS and IS HONEST and is a HARD WORKER and if that man is the president should probably be SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE for everyone else and representing the country in an honorable way (sweeping solders’ deaths under the carpet? come on, are you kidding me?)…but then i remember – ha! silly me! i guess if anything, bush is representing the united states pretty accurately, isn’t he? i mean, you know, with that whole no-responsiblity/deception thing and all. if a person is doing a BAD JOB what makes anyone think that giving that person unrestricted reign for another 4 years is somehow better than getting someone else in there to give it a whack? haven’t we learned anything from sports, all of you red-blooded men out there? if the pitcher is throwing grapefruits do you keep him in or bring in the cleanup?*

but then again, maybe i’m being too hard on the guy. i mean, he totally looks like the type of feeble-minded worst-stereotype-spoiled-rich-fratboy that i would LOVE to have a beer with! and after all, isn’t that what we should be really swinging our votes towards? the guy with whom we would most like to share a big ol’ fashioned down-home drinking binge? woo hoo! pass the maker’s mark! and the coke while you’re at it! i know you’re good for it george, you sly little minx! ooh, and afterwards – just remember – as long as there is no nudity, (giggle!) after we get all sloppy we can go shoot some darkies! …in the face! …in front of children! we’ll totally get away with it – no one will care! and why should they? after all, those people were going to go to hell anyway. i mean, they’re not christians, right? so they’re not like, you know, real people.

and to finish, a quote from mnftiu: ‘is this truly the only earth i can live on?’ stay clear everyone! man, i am in a really bad mood. does anyone have a copy of “Man Getting Hit By Football (in the groin)” that i can watch to cheer myself up? ahh…yet another sad commentary on the state of the US today. talk about kicking the country when it’s down. ok, i think i’ve worked out some of my frustration. i feel better. all the same, feel free to send me hate mail…er, comments. am i off my rocker? un-american? a communist? totally dead-on? i’d like to test the waters out there.

*i am generally unfamiliar with sports terms, but hopefully you get the gist of this, no?

update: related link – bush vs. jesus

wil says it best and with a lot more quotations than i would have included, plus he capitalizes letters.

i see no fundamental difference between discriminating based on sexuality and discriminating based on race except that it’s rather dubiously less offensive to openly attack sexuality rather than color. discrimination is discrimination. to say or support the idea that it is wrong or constitutionally unlawful to marry WHO YOU WANT TO is completely confounding and quite frankly disgusting. am i supposed to only marry a korean guy? or a methodist? a christian? everybody better wake the fuck up and realize that this country is spinning out of control.

an anti-bush ad is scheduled to be shown across the united states this weekend. go here to see all the winners and finalists.

these are great, you should really take a look.

but i don’t understand what’s going on in this one. i can’t just drive around and enjoy the scenery or something if i want to like, get out of the house or something? i don’t get it.

addendum: a permission slip?!?

christmas/kwanzaa/chanukah/holidays in general/whatever should NOT be allowed to start before thanksgiving. let’s give the turkey a chance! what about taking time for a nice national holiday, a nice nondenominational all-american let’s all come together holiday, to think about what we are grateful for and to be with our families and friends without the cultural imperative to CONSUME!!! CONSUME!!! CONSUUUUUUUME!!!!!!

sure, thanksgiving was originally a feast that led to screwing the native americans out of all of their land and war and disease and almost totally wiping out entire civilizations, but it doesn’t have to be about that. it can be about how we have progressed (or are trying to progress) from that time hundreds of years ago.

so come on. let’s give thanksgiving its due.

dude, ‘spider’ is a creepy movie. really creepy. any movie where the lead actor who is getting paid mad bank (i’m hip….i’m with it….) and only has 3 comprehensible lines has to be weird. but it was a good weird.

i think my head’s about to explode with this whole work project thing. yeargh. i can’t even think of what i have to do next with that or editing or whatever. i thought stress was supposed to be over when finals were done? but oh, that’s right….the fucking WAR.

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