If you have not seen these movies please do yourself a favor and check them out. The last is currently in theaters now. It is the kind of movie we all need right now.
Get out there this new year and enjoy yourself as much as you can.
Dec 29, 2008
No Kissing
Danny Boyle has done it again. He decided to do horror and nailed it with "28 Days Later". He looked to Science Fiction and hit the bull's eye with "Sunshine". Now he has attempted Bollywood style and once again made a great movie with "Slumdog Millionaire".
Dec 18, 2008
Post Script
There was a recent article where a writer tried to rip apart the Toyota Prius (and not to subtly Obama too). Oddly enough i only considered writing back a comment for a moment and quickly lost any knee-jerk reaction i had. Maybe it is that i am growing older (and hopefully wiser) and realize when a situation is an argument with a person who will not change their mind as oppose to what is a discussion where there is something to be learned by either side. Maybe it is just the pill i swallowed last night.
For quite a few years after becoming a vegetarian i got into arguments when people attacked my decision. i took the bait and thought i could explain my reasons for making the decision and might even help them see what it was that i saw. i thought i could teach them what i learned.
After several years i became more self-assured in my choice and realized that the people who where aggressively attacking my choice where just defensive about their own choice. Those who attacked me the most were the ones who felt the most threatened by my choice. Those who felt guilty because they could not adequately justify their own choice to themselves let alone to me. These are also the people who will never change because they care not for facts or logic. They do what they do because it is what they have always done.
Maybe after five years with my hybrid i have finally reached that same epiphany i had as a vegetarian. Maybe i am getting too old to want to join in on comment threads that last three pages or more.
Most likely, however, as i age i have started to realize that idiots are no longer worth my time. Every day that i wake up i am another day closer to my death. Every day that i wake up means i have one less day to do all the things i want to do. One less day to accomplish all the things i want to accomplish. Any time wasted on idiots is time i no longer have for myself to do what i need to do, to do what i want to do.
Newspapers are a dead institution. People will hold on to them for some time to come the way people hold on to old typewriters; out of a sense of romance. The institution is outdated and it knows it. Newspapers are now doing whatever they can to get people's attention so they can try to claim readership so they can try to get advertising dollars. They are nothing more than useless typeface crammed between ads. A waste of time and an unnecessary bait for me to take. Anyone who still thinks that they are relevant is not worth debating.
So i am not mad about the article, but i do feel myself getting saddened by such misinformation. i thought we were better than that. i thought we could evolve faster than that. i thought we could change. Maybe it is me who is the idiot.
PS ...if i had written a response it would have gone like this:
"...eventually the Earth changed and became less conducive to supporting the dinosaurs. A small, four legged, relatively new creature found, however, that it was well equipped for the changing conditions. i am sure the dinosaurs growled at, poked at, and even ate many of these earliest of mammals right up until the point were there were no longer any dinosaurs left to growl, poke, or eat.
We all know who survived in the end; the smaller, more efficient of the two. i only wish that the inadequate, overcompensators in our current society saw that proverbial asteroid that is screeching our way."
PPS maybe i should just skateboard everywhere...
Dec 14, 2008
I Have So Many Questions For You...
Ahhh, snow! It seems that snow makes most of you feel like a kid again.
This week's survey is a bit more sinister.
i went and saw "The Day The Earth Stood Still" recently. It got me thinking. i guess Hollywood is thinking 'third times a charm'. If they did not listen to Gore, and they did not listen to DiCaprio, well maybe they will listen to Keano and Jennifer Connelly. Well, i know i would listen to Ms Connelly say just about anything. We will have to see what the viewing public thinks.
This movie has me rethinking my stance on the auto industry looking for a bail-out. My heart and head have been wrestling back and forth on this while my soul seems to be sitting this one out so far. My compassionate heart looks at the effect of a collapse of any one of the US automotive companies. The actual company employees would be out of jobs: management, office workers, designers, engineers, factory workers, and more. Then there are all the associated dealerships. The auto companies and even more so the dealerships are HUGE advertisers. How will this effect television, newspapers, and magazines? Newspapers are already struggling, but how about the other two? Will this result in some of their employees being laid off as well?
My brain, however, says 'screw them!' A little tough love if you will. They have produced horrible products for far too long. They have retarded progress at every possible opportunity. Their lobbying has compromised our democracy. But then, the environmental part of my brain kicks in. Our economy may not be able to handle the US auto industry's collapse but our planet cannot handle their survival. We are currently AT the tipping point. We cannot wait ten years for better cars, we cannot wait 5 years for better cars. Something HAS to happen NOW. The US auto industry is counter-productive to any forward momentum. When we need new technology they bring back muscle cars. When we should have gas-free autos they try and introduce hybrid SUV's years after the technology has been perfected overseas.
So, while i wait for my soul to step up and break the tie i will look for your input. What is your call?
Dec 7, 2008
A Snowboard Is Not Just One Ski
Great balls of fury, ping pong is the low-fi activity of choice for PunkMonk readers.
i cannot get snow off my mind since the first accumulation of the season so that is the topic of this week's survey. If you need some help getting in the mood to go hit the slopes here's a classic little video to get you in the spirit. Oh, and i want my two dollars...
Nov 30, 2008
Wall-E and the Blobs
After watching Wall-E again and driving around so much during this Thanksgiving long weekend i am once again finding truth in cartoons, or animation at least. The latest Pixar film to Blue-Ray disc foretells of humans becoming fat blobs who are completely dependent upon technology to do everything for them. They float around in seats while electronics guide them along.
As i drove to and fro i passed, one after another, the ever increasing waistline of america all led along by their tiny navigation screens suction cupped to dashboards and windshields. People cannot drive ANYWHERE now without flipping on their little display screens. Have we all become so lazy? Using maps is simple. It is a skill set that everyone should posses. In today's age of the internet driving directions have become even easier with sites like MapQuest and Google Maps. All you need is your starting location and destination. Apparently even this is too much work for the ever increasing mediocrity of homo sapiens. They need something to tell them every left and right as they recline in their ever plush automobile captain's chair on the way to the next shopping adventure.
A recent OnStar ad tries to market their product by scaring people that they may not be able to get to their cellphone post accident. What did people ever do when they got into accidents before the days of cellphones? Maybe people actually stopped for one another when they saw each other off the road.
As i look at the huge growth in technology over my lifetime it seems to be occurring in markets that make us lazier or more complacent. There has been much slower growth in genres that make the world a better place or our quality of life improve. How we watch TV or movies has jumped so many steps but how doctors look at a potentially broken arm has hardly crawled along.
Call me simple, call me outdated. i think technology should help me do more, not less, and that is how i intend to use it. We find ourselves controlled by what we THINK we need. Once again people were sadly trampled to death this Black Friday as shoppers rushed to get what they THOUGHT they needed. Others got shot. WHY? For something that will be outdated by this time next year.
Finding where you are on a map or finding a new way home, these seem like simple things but they keep us thinking. Once you find yourself thinking you may find yourself thinking more and more. Eventually you may just find yourself thinking for yourself. Imagine what could be done if that were to happen?
Until then, i will keep waving to people on the street dressed up in lobster costumes. i think that is what Wall-E would do (WWWD).
Nov 19, 2008
Have A Nice Trip?
With just about one month left in fall i am deep in my "Fall" playlist. There is nothing like vegan grocery shopping while The Smiths are playing in your earphones..."I am human and I need to be loved". How about raking leaves as Geoff from Thursday sings about how the leaves "are giving up on us". Or even trying to hold back the tears while Tom Waits sing how "what I miss you wouldn't believe... shoveling snow and raking leaves" in Day After Tomorrow while hours later you still find yourself raking the never ending pile of leaves. Is it the beauty of the song that brings the tears or the fact that it is pitch black, approaching freezing, and i am still raking. They will be icicles soon.
As i have done before, i will share a playlist. This time under the topic of Fall.
1. in my tree - Pearl Jam
2. country feedback - REM
3. prince caspian - Phish
4. nonfiction - The Black Crowes
5. day after tomorrow - Tom Waits
6. adam's song - Blink 182
7. firefly - Saves The Day
8. stars - Hum
9. how soon is now? - The Smiths
10. how long is the night? - Thursday
11. fake plastic trees - Radiohead
12. lilac wine - Jeff Buckley
13. bubble gum years - Gomez
14. off he goes - Pearl Jam
15. time - Blind Melon
16. lightness - Death Cab For Cutie
17. how much for your wings? - The Black Crowes
18. namaste - Beastie Boys
19. butterfly - Weezer
20. on your own (acoustic) - The Verve
21. mouthful of cavities - Blind Melon
22. around the bend - Pearl Jam
23. autumn leaves revisited - Thursday
Why is this fall playlist so 90's and british heavy? Well, reader, both the Seattle-centric alternative era and the isle of the British Empire seem to be caught in a fall-like condition for most of the year.
There you have it. Do not fret, a month from this weekend the days will be getting longer.
Nov 16, 2008
Gobble Gobble Hey!
It appears that i am not alone in struggling with how the Christmas shopping season has started incredibly early this season. It is impossible to get anywhere in a timely manner with everyone out and about shopping. i am not sure i will make it until Christmas this year.
This week's survey too revolves around the holidays but this time the speed bump on the Christmas super highway: Thanksgiving. i am not quite sure what to do this year during that long weekend. i could use some advise, hence this week's survey.
i also have been posting much less frequently as you may have noticed. i am trying to rant less and be more productive for now. Trying to shake off the cobwebs.
Nov 10, 2008
I Wanna Be Sedated
What a wonderful world... it is unanimous, Joey is the favored Ramone. The height of Chewbacca, the face of Yoda: Joey Ramone. Only in America could The Ramones happen. After last tuesday i am starting to think we still have some potential as a country.
With every muscle in my body sore from raking this weekend i have centered this week's survey around late fall. Such a reflective time...
Nov 4, 2008
Nov 3, 2008
RAZR To Wrist
This represents the war on freedom. No, i am not a technophobe. Quite the opposite, i thoroughly enjoy technology. i have come up with a plethora of excuses to justify the purchase of a PS3. i am not sure how i ever watched movies before 47 inch LCD flat screens. If your vehicle cannot drive in stealth mode i may call you stuck in the 20th century.
But cellphones are a direct attack on freedom. i look at teenagers. They can never escape the reach of their parents' voice. As a teenager, once i left the house, i was out. My parents could not get in touch with me. Out past curfew? i knew i could not get yelled at until i made it home. Sure kids can turn off their phone or claim the battery died but how many times can you really use that excuse? We have given up our freedom of youthful rebellion to electronic umbilical cords.
Not only that, but our youth have become completely addicted to communicating. Strike that, not just the youth but all of us. We cannot have any possible down time. No self reflection. No creative search to fill a moment. Useless calls and texts become a way to fill gaps in our entertainment. No more thoughtful car rides home, there is always someone to call. No more doodles of dreams or spontaneous poems written in the margins during boring classes or meetings. Lap texts have left everyone looking like they are fondling themselves. We have lost our freedom of mind to distraction.
When friends and i used to hike we knew that we had to rely on ourselves. If we got into trouble: we got into trouble, and we were on our own. Because of that we made sure we were as prepared as we could be with the proper supplies and never pushing the weather or our abilities too much. Now that everyone has a cellphone the amount of "goofers" getting into situations they should never have been in in the first place has grown exponentially. We have given up the freedom of self-sufficiency for a dependence on a technology.
i have not even gotten into the fact that every conversation can be listened to and how cellphones are also easily used as tracking devices. What the government might do to personal freedoms is still not as troubling as what we do to undermind our own personal freedoms. Technology should bring liberation and freedom, untether us from some previous chain, elevate us over a former obstacle. Instead, our cellphones have become our mobile cells, entrapping us.
(It is probably giving me cancer as well, but at least i can mobiley update a facebook page)
Nov 2, 2008
Hey Ho...
While you were all enjoying drinking in costume i was thinking of this week's poll. Gabba Gabba Hey!
Oct 30, 2008
Turn It Up Bitches!
Ever since moving out of college dorms oh so long ago this time of the year seems to be dominated by some ridiculous adult game: who can turn their heat on last. The last time i tried to be last at something it was my goal to be the last person to ever get a cellphone. That did not work out so well, so i officially withdraw from all "last" type games. Actually i formally withdraw from all adult games in general.
It is fall in the northeast, i am cold, and i am going to turn my heat on whenever i want. From now on i am going to be the first one every year to turn my heat on and i will not have a higher heating bill than you because i am also going to be the first one to turn it off on the spring.
Here is how i figure it... 50 degrees in the fall is fucking cold. When the mercury (well no one uses mercury anymore so when the red dyed alcohol) lowers to 50 after the warmth of summer i am shivering. i end up sitting around the house in three layers, a hoodie, and a stocking cap. i hover around the stove as my dinner is cooking hoping to benefit from some of the heat it casts off while cooking my food and i leave the door open after the oven is turned off so that the left over warm air heats the room.
Now in February or March if the temperature hits 40 while i am out snowboarding i am ready to ride shirtless. After those brutal cold stretches if there are even hints at a temperature anywhere near 60 i am taking out the cargo shorts. As winter comes to a close i am always more hearty and more adapted to the cold. That is the time of the year where i can get away with lower thermostat settings and not sacrifice much in the way of comfort or health.
So i am officially going to be first. First to turn the heat up and first to turn it back down. Have fun shivering... bastards.
Oct 26, 2008
Change Without Change
Soon after his presidency ended i saw an interview with Bill Clinton where he commented on overestimating America's ability to change. There was more that he was hoping to do but could not because of the resistance to change.
Now we are in an election where everyone is touting "change". People do not necessarily want something different, they want something they are comfortable with. The Bush administration actually carried out a lot of changes, just ones that most of us are not happy with. People really just want a return to before.
You would think that people's fear of change would make them more driven to do something to minimize the effect of climate change. But then they would have to change to prevent change, a bit too complex a concept for "real Americans" i guess. This all, of course, has got me thinking.
A recent purchase made we realize that we can actually solve problems by changing without changing. My Christmas illumination does not need to go by the wayside. A change to l.e.d. lighting should prevent the electric bill from doubling this Yule season. A desire to significantly reduce my carbon footprint did not mean giving up road trips to see friends and family, it just meant getting a more efficient (hybrid) vehicle.
We do not have to give up our electronic devices, we just have to make electricity a different way. All clean electricity within the next decade? Completely do-able. We just need to make the decisions with our everyday purchases and with our politicians. Change your consumption without changing your lifestyle. The options are all there. Do the right thing.
Oct 13, 2008
Eat Me
Hippies. Although i share some ideals with hippies, crunchies, or whatever you choose to call the tie dyed wearing masses these days i have moved so far away from any association with such folks. The earthy aspect of my personality has been heavily overshadowed by the punk aspect of my personality in recent years and the shadow just seems to grow more and more every day.
My ideals have not changed as much with time. With the exception of far less chemicals being consumed since graduating college my environmental inclinations and passions have not wained. In fact they have only strengthened. So why has the ever present punk aspect of my personality all but dominated my adult life as it did in my childhood?
A pit stop to the restroom of a hippie run eatery this past weekend helped me realize why. More specifically, the graffiti on the walls of said lavoratory brought me to my enlightenment. The neo-crunchie graffiti of 2008 is exactly the same as the Phish-head graffiti (who are getting back together, as an aside) of the 1990's, which is exactly the same as the Dead-head graffiti of the 1980's and the hippie graffiti of the 1960's and 1970's.
Mushrooms, Alice in Wonderland "eat me, drink me" references, pot leaves, and 420. Even the dress code has not changed. If you wanted to waste use of a time machine on a meaningless experiment you could take 'hippies' from any time period and drop them off at a concert in any other time period and not only, according to my hypothesis, would they fit in without damaging the space time continuum they (or anyone else around) would not even realize that they were of a different time.
There is absolutely no progress within that counter-culture. There is just a romantic cling to the roots of the movement, and that is all.
The punk movement, on the other hand, is constantly moving and redefining not only it's look but it's very core to stay ahead and to stay true. By the time something is beginning to catch on within the scene enough for the larger populace to notice, a new wave is coming up just under the surface. It stays timely and applicable.
Of course you will see some throwback aspects to certain looks and even some keeping an 'old school' look alive, but generally speaking, if you were to repeat my same 'hippie' time machine experiment with the punk scene a discrepancy would be noticed within a nanosecond. Footwear, pant type and sizes, shirts, jackets, headwear, and haircuts are always constantly evolving. There are tribal stylistic threads which carry on and pass from one era to the next but there is enough variation and self style included into the mix to keep it fluid and pertinent.
Drop a current skater from the local park into a 1980's backyard halfpipe and you would have thought an alien had descended. Even more than the surficial fashion - the art, the music, and the ideals of the punk have always kept up with the times. In fact, in many cases, they have been far ahead of their time.
That sense of progress, that sense of growth, that sense of timeliness is what keeps the punk counter-culture so near to my heart. Much like the pin-up pornography of the 1950's the only way you can truly define punk is by saying you know it when you see it.
My ideals have not changed as much with time. With the exception of far less chemicals being consumed since graduating college my environmental inclinations and passions have not wained. In fact they have only strengthened. So why has the ever present punk aspect of my personality all but dominated my adult life as it did in my childhood?
A pit stop to the restroom of a hippie run eatery this past weekend helped me realize why. More specifically, the graffiti on the walls of said lavoratory brought me to my enlightenment. The neo-crunchie graffiti of 2008 is exactly the same as the Phish-head graffiti (who are getting back together, as an aside) of the 1990's, which is exactly the same as the Dead-head graffiti of the 1980's and the hippie graffiti of the 1960's and 1970's.
Mushrooms, Alice in Wonderland "eat me, drink me" references, pot leaves, and 420. Even the dress code has not changed. If you wanted to waste use of a time machine on a meaningless experiment you could take 'hippies' from any time period and drop them off at a concert in any other time period and not only, according to my hypothesis, would they fit in without damaging the space time continuum they (or anyone else around) would not even realize that they were of a different time.
There is absolutely no progress within that counter-culture. There is just a romantic cling to the roots of the movement, and that is all.
The punk movement, on the other hand, is constantly moving and redefining not only it's look but it's very core to stay ahead and to stay true. By the time something is beginning to catch on within the scene enough for the larger populace to notice, a new wave is coming up just under the surface. It stays timely and applicable.
Of course you will see some throwback aspects to certain looks and even some keeping an 'old school' look alive, but generally speaking, if you were to repeat my same 'hippie' time machine experiment with the punk scene a discrepancy would be noticed within a nanosecond. Footwear, pant type and sizes, shirts, jackets, headwear, and haircuts are always constantly evolving. There are tribal stylistic threads which carry on and pass from one era to the next but there is enough variation and self style included into the mix to keep it fluid and pertinent.
Drop a current skater from the local park into a 1980's backyard halfpipe and you would have thought an alien had descended. Even more than the surficial fashion - the art, the music, and the ideals of the punk have always kept up with the times. In fact, in many cases, they have been far ahead of their time.
That sense of progress, that sense of growth, that sense of timeliness is what keeps the punk counter-culture so near to my heart. Much like the pin-up pornography of the 1950's the only way you can truly define punk is by saying you know it when you see it.
Oct 12, 2008
True Americans ARE Terrorists
i've been thinking about American history a lot lately. Have things always sucked like this? Will Bush go down as the worst president ever, or will there be no one left to record the history? Who will win out in this upcoming election? Have Americans always been this easily duped?
A look back in history shows that in the past, Americans have given black males opportunities before they have given women those same opportunities. At times, women were not allowed in rallies for civil rights because organizers were afraid that they too would ask for rights. These promoters thought that women wanting rights as well would hurt their own race's chances of achieving equal rights. Although this is a sad commentary on our progress is does bode well for Obama. It seems that it is still better to be a male, of any race, in this country than to be a female. Just look at the GOP's VP selection (big letters are fun). If she does not set women's rights back at least a decade i do not know what would.
Although that lipsticked up hick from Alaska tells us we need to stop looking backwards, looking backwards is exactly what i have been doing. Maybe it is my 'anti-authority' mindset that has me doing the complete opposite of what that idiotic heli-hunter says but i find that i am not alone. Not alone now and not alone throughout America's history.
We are a country who has rebelled against authority over and over again throughout our short history. The heroes in our text books were all terrorists. Throwing tea into the sea. Throwing snowballs at British soldiers (my we like throwing things... maybe that is why baseball is America's pastime). i never understood why the south were called 'rebels' when the northern souls were the ones who rebelled against slavery. Ending slavery was more important that keeping our country together.
Civil disobedience is our obligation as Americans. Whether you look up to Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King Jr start including you middle name and disobey. As those before you have rebelled against unfair taxation: rebel against what our government is doing with our money. As those before you have rebelled for civil rights and the rights of women: rebel that homosexuals deserve the same rights as heterosexuals. Whites had to help blacks get treated fairly, men had to help women get treated fairly, now us heterosexuals have to help homosexuals by demanding that they too get treated fairly.
For years our government has said that imposing necessary environmental standards would mean them wrongfully meddling in the free market. What are they doing now? If they are not meddling with the free market now i am not sure what would be considered such. Maybe if a hurricane floods out DC then they will finally take notice of the havoc we have caused and the legacy we leave our children. Or more likely, the flooding would just result in our politicians taking even more time off.
Imagine if Clinton had said that the internet was too dangerous and made it illegal. What state would our economy have been in during the 1990's had we not seen the internet boom. Bush Jr did just that by making stem cell research, in essence, illegal. That could have been our next economic wave but instead he decided to paddle out past it and we have been left in flat waters. Even the most modest of environmental regulations could have helped in creating a new green economy but that too was crushed under the Regan era fossil fuel economy type thinking of this current administration.
After years of chastising the United States as if from afar during the Bush Jr administration i look at the politicians running at every level in this upcoming election and am nothing but disappointed. Is this the best we can do? Is this what we deserve?
NO!
The US is not some country i watch on TV, it is my country and i want it back. i am tired of feeling like an outsider here because i do not shop at the mall to get over 9/11, or because i do not take out loans for more than i can handle, or because i want someone smart in office rather than electing who i would rather sit beside at a sporting event. This is MY country. In fact this is more so my country than those sheep that i feel excluded by because the true Americans throughout history have done what they know and feel is right, not just what the government tells them to do. That is what has caused us to progress and what has caused us to be role models for so many in the past. It is time to step back up into that role in the world.
i for one will no longer hold my tongue in public settings no matter who i may offend in hopes that it will give strength to others to do the same.
Clean coal is an even more idiotic concept than jumbo shrimp. If you think that gays are any less human beings than you are, then you are just wrong. If you do not want to stop the dying of Americans in Iraq by bringing them home than you do not support the troops. If you are driving around an eight passenger SUV with a 'support the troops' magnet on the back you are a fucking lier. USE LESS OIL if you support the troops.
Either start taking actions to protect the environment or stop this baby-bump fad. You cannot have it both ways. The Earth cannot handle how we are currently living so unless we change, our children will not have the opportunity to take care of themselves. How selfish is that?
This is my country, and the sooner we all start taking ownership of that the quicker things will improve. As echoed many times before (including in 'V for Vendetta') i will borrow the saying once again: people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
A look back in history shows that in the past, Americans have given black males opportunities before they have given women those same opportunities. At times, women were not allowed in rallies for civil rights because organizers were afraid that they too would ask for rights. These promoters thought that women wanting rights as well would hurt their own race's chances of achieving equal rights. Although this is a sad commentary on our progress is does bode well for Obama. It seems that it is still better to be a male, of any race, in this country than to be a female. Just look at the GOP's VP selection (big letters are fun). If she does not set women's rights back at least a decade i do not know what would.
Although that lipsticked up hick from Alaska tells us we need to stop looking backwards, looking backwards is exactly what i have been doing. Maybe it is my 'anti-authority' mindset that has me doing the complete opposite of what that idiotic heli-hunter says but i find that i am not alone. Not alone now and not alone throughout America's history.
We are a country who has rebelled against authority over and over again throughout our short history. The heroes in our text books were all terrorists. Throwing tea into the sea. Throwing snowballs at British soldiers (my we like throwing things... maybe that is why baseball is America's pastime). i never understood why the south were called 'rebels' when the northern souls were the ones who rebelled against slavery. Ending slavery was more important that keeping our country together.
Civil disobedience is our obligation as Americans. Whether you look up to Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King Jr start including you middle name and disobey. As those before you have rebelled against unfair taxation: rebel against what our government is doing with our money. As those before you have rebelled for civil rights and the rights of women: rebel that homosexuals deserve the same rights as heterosexuals. Whites had to help blacks get treated fairly, men had to help women get treated fairly, now us heterosexuals have to help homosexuals by demanding that they too get treated fairly.
For years our government has said that imposing necessary environmental standards would mean them wrongfully meddling in the free market. What are they doing now? If they are not meddling with the free market now i am not sure what would be considered such. Maybe if a hurricane floods out DC then they will finally take notice of the havoc we have caused and the legacy we leave our children. Or more likely, the flooding would just result in our politicians taking even more time off.
Imagine if Clinton had said that the internet was too dangerous and made it illegal. What state would our economy have been in during the 1990's had we not seen the internet boom. Bush Jr did just that by making stem cell research, in essence, illegal. That could have been our next economic wave but instead he decided to paddle out past it and we have been left in flat waters. Even the most modest of environmental regulations could have helped in creating a new green economy but that too was crushed under the Regan era fossil fuel economy type thinking of this current administration.
After years of chastising the United States as if from afar during the Bush Jr administration i look at the politicians running at every level in this upcoming election and am nothing but disappointed. Is this the best we can do? Is this what we deserve?
NO!
The US is not some country i watch on TV, it is my country and i want it back. i am tired of feeling like an outsider here because i do not shop at the mall to get over 9/11, or because i do not take out loans for more than i can handle, or because i want someone smart in office rather than electing who i would rather sit beside at a sporting event. This is MY country. In fact this is more so my country than those sheep that i feel excluded by because the true Americans throughout history have done what they know and feel is right, not just what the government tells them to do. That is what has caused us to progress and what has caused us to be role models for so many in the past. It is time to step back up into that role in the world.
i for one will no longer hold my tongue in public settings no matter who i may offend in hopes that it will give strength to others to do the same.
Clean coal is an even more idiotic concept than jumbo shrimp. If you think that gays are any less human beings than you are, then you are just wrong. If you do not want to stop the dying of Americans in Iraq by bringing them home than you do not support the troops. If you are driving around an eight passenger SUV with a 'support the troops' magnet on the back you are a fucking lier. USE LESS OIL if you support the troops.
Either start taking actions to protect the environment or stop this baby-bump fad. You cannot have it both ways. The Earth cannot handle how we are currently living so unless we change, our children will not have the opportunity to take care of themselves. How selfish is that?
This is my country, and the sooner we all start taking ownership of that the quicker things will improve. As echoed many times before (including in 'V for Vendetta') i will borrow the saying once again: people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
Oct 8, 2008
THE's, OF's, and A's
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Bush ignored the environmental concerns that are threatening our planet. He failed to capture the terrorists responsible for attacking us. He entered us into a never-ending war. He has been stripping us of freedom and privacy. Then you think: just one more year and we'll start to turn things around.
Oh, but wait... he still has time so anything is possible. Then it happens. The economic trouble that anyone with eyes was aware of (but were hoping would stay away for long enough to be preempted by new leadership) catches up with us. More than catches up with us, bull charges us like we were wearing red.
After the initial anger i found a strange zen like peace come over me. Thoughts of one of my favorite movies and then religion filled my head. Interpretation. THE's, OF's, and A's. Home repair. The dream of a blank slate?
The climactic ending of 'Fight Club' has all the credit card buildings, with their records of debt, blowing up. A new beginning for those toiling away and kept slaves by the rich. What if an explosion was not necessary? What if the ship known as the S.S. Capitalism were to run ashore all on it's own accord due to an oblivious captain asleep at the wheel.
Religion. Religions are all stories with intents and interpretations. i, before, believe i has discover the proper interpretation of the symbolism of the APPLE. Now i think i may have stumbled upon the key to a common story genre found in every religion: the story of the 'end of time'. In poetry and in good story telling sometimes what you leave out is more important that what you include. What was left out was a few small words, words that easily get lost in translation of translations, of translations. What if our preoccupation with beginnings and ends made our translators partial. What if these stories where not meant as 'END OF TIME' but rather 'the END of a TIME' meaning the end of one era and the beginning of a new.
As i have been repairing my 'fixer-upper' of a house over the years i quickly learned that completely tearing a room apart and building it up from scratch made it easier to get just the way you want. Simply trying to make repairs ended up taking longer, being frustrating, and causing many compromises along the way. Should this economic disaster continue to get worse might we find ourselves eventually hitting such a low point, such a collapse that we find ourselves with a clean slate upon which we can design an economy exactly as we need to?
The further down you are on the totem pole the less of a fall to the bottom. Hopefully this also means less injury (less lost) when you finally do hit the ground. The working class does not have all that far to fall. Those of us living close to or within our means have a bit more sure of a footing. With some tough decisions we may create a situation were we could remain upright as those higher up start falling around us. Could those left standing find themselves in a position to build up and shape things as they should be? As they could be?
This most certainly is heading towards the end of a time. Will we hit bottom? Will we get that clean slate? Will we have the opportunity to build things back up right, as they should be? My house is starting to look pretty nice, i wouldn't mind swing the old sledge around for a while so maybe we can can get our collective house back in good shape. Build it back up, increase the value, and make it more green.
Time to tie ourselves to the mast and hope that when the storm ends we're still afloat. Those still afloat will have the seas to themselves.
When did a curmudgeon suddenly start believing in hope? i must be getting soft in my old age. Maybe the thought of a shiny new era on the planet has made me drunk on dreams. The planet has seen far greater changes, will we get to see one? There have been several disasters in our Earth's history that have seen 70 to 90 percent of life go extinct. Will we be on the surviving end of another such situation?
Oh, but wait... he still has time so anything is possible. Then it happens. The economic trouble that anyone with eyes was aware of (but were hoping would stay away for long enough to be preempted by new leadership) catches up with us. More than catches up with us, bull charges us like we were wearing red.
After the initial anger i found a strange zen like peace come over me. Thoughts of one of my favorite movies and then religion filled my head. Interpretation. THE's, OF's, and A's. Home repair. The dream of a blank slate?
The climactic ending of 'Fight Club' has all the credit card buildings, with their records of debt, blowing up. A new beginning for those toiling away and kept slaves by the rich. What if an explosion was not necessary? What if the ship known as the S.S. Capitalism were to run ashore all on it's own accord due to an oblivious captain asleep at the wheel.
Religion. Religions are all stories with intents and interpretations. i, before, believe i has discover the proper interpretation of the symbolism of the APPLE. Now i think i may have stumbled upon the key to a common story genre found in every religion: the story of the 'end of time'. In poetry and in good story telling sometimes what you leave out is more important that what you include. What was left out was a few small words, words that easily get lost in translation of translations, of translations. What if our preoccupation with beginnings and ends made our translators partial. What if these stories where not meant as 'END OF TIME' but rather 'the END of a TIME' meaning the end of one era and the beginning of a new.
As i have been repairing my 'fixer-upper' of a house over the years i quickly learned that completely tearing a room apart and building it up from scratch made it easier to get just the way you want. Simply trying to make repairs ended up taking longer, being frustrating, and causing many compromises along the way. Should this economic disaster continue to get worse might we find ourselves eventually hitting such a low point, such a collapse that we find ourselves with a clean slate upon which we can design an economy exactly as we need to?
The further down you are on the totem pole the less of a fall to the bottom. Hopefully this also means less injury (less lost) when you finally do hit the ground. The working class does not have all that far to fall. Those of us living close to or within our means have a bit more sure of a footing. With some tough decisions we may create a situation were we could remain upright as those higher up start falling around us. Could those left standing find themselves in a position to build up and shape things as they should be? As they could be?
This most certainly is heading towards the end of a time. Will we hit bottom? Will we get that clean slate? Will we have the opportunity to build things back up right, as they should be? My house is starting to look pretty nice, i wouldn't mind swing the old sledge around for a while so maybe we can can get our collective house back in good shape. Build it back up, increase the value, and make it more green.
Time to tie ourselves to the mast and hope that when the storm ends we're still afloat. Those still afloat will have the seas to themselves.
When did a curmudgeon suddenly start believing in hope? i must be getting soft in my old age. Maybe the thought of a shiny new era on the planet has made me drunk on dreams. The planet has seen far greater changes, will we get to see one? There have been several disasters in our Earth's history that have seen 70 to 90 percent of life go extinct. Will we be on the surviving end of another such situation?
Sep 21, 2008
Nothing's Free
OK sports fans. For those of you keeping score the Bush Administration has overseen the destruction of democracy, destruction of human rights, destruction of privacy, and now the destruction of the free market. His administration has tarnished the good name of vaginas across this planet.
People get rich giving the working class of this country loans for more than they can handle. When workers are losing their jobs and getting paid less because money and resources are being focused on stockholders rather than actual business products, loans go unpaid. The economy slides because the middle class are forced to tighten their belts as they slide into poverty. And the government just watches.
This slide eventually starts to effect stocks. Rich people now are being effected. Businesses who made absolutely idiotic and risky business decisions are now going bankrupt (something that the Bush Administration has made illegal for the American people). Suddenly the government takes notice. No more denial, rich people are in jeopardy of losing money!
So our country goes further into debt and the free market is destroyed to bail out the rich for making horrible choices while the working class (who where the other half of those combined bad decisions) are still left punished for their role in the disaster. No buyout for families losing their homes.
Don't get me wrong. i agree all parties involved are to blame. My outrage comes from the inequity in which different classes of people are treated in this country. The rich can use the battle cry of "free market" to screw over workers for years but suddenly when they find themselves in trouble they defy every sense of "free market" to bail themselves out.
The Statue of Liberty should be replaced as a symbol of this country with "Miss Information". Her torch will be fueled by burning oil and her book will be replaced with a television screen. On that screen will be a constant loop of ads like the following:
Maybe people should have taken out those high risk home equity loans to buy stock in the companies who where giving them the ludicrous loans. The insurance on those stocks are more secure than the health insurance that all of us are paying more and more for (if we are lucky enough to still have health insurance). Good luck all as we come in for a ruff, crash landing.
People get rich giving the working class of this country loans for more than they can handle. When workers are losing their jobs and getting paid less because money and resources are being focused on stockholders rather than actual business products, loans go unpaid. The economy slides because the middle class are forced to tighten their belts as they slide into poverty. And the government just watches.
This slide eventually starts to effect stocks. Rich people now are being effected. Businesses who made absolutely idiotic and risky business decisions are now going bankrupt (something that the Bush Administration has made illegal for the American people). Suddenly the government takes notice. No more denial, rich people are in jeopardy of losing money!
So our country goes further into debt and the free market is destroyed to bail out the rich for making horrible choices while the working class (who where the other half of those combined bad decisions) are still left punished for their role in the disaster. No buyout for families losing their homes.
Don't get me wrong. i agree all parties involved are to blame. My outrage comes from the inequity in which different classes of people are treated in this country. The rich can use the battle cry of "free market" to screw over workers for years but suddenly when they find themselves in trouble they defy every sense of "free market" to bail themselves out.
The Statue of Liberty should be replaced as a symbol of this country with "Miss Information". Her torch will be fueled by burning oil and her book will be replaced with a television screen. On that screen will be a constant loop of ads like the following:
Maybe people should have taken out those high risk home equity loans to buy stock in the companies who where giving them the ludicrous loans. The insurance on those stocks are more secure than the health insurance that all of us are paying more and more for (if we are lucky enough to still have health insurance). Good luck all as we come in for a ruff, crash landing.
Netscape Escape
This week's survey centers around my recent technological frustration with web browsers. They are much like political parties, they all are disappointing and leave us forced to pick the least awful option.
In grade school i was told that when i was an adult we would all be using the metric system. Well, i'm an adult and the US has failed to adopt the metric system. Imagine if the whole world used one measuring system (preferably the logical system international), spoke one language, and used one browser so that we could communicate without problem and web pages would look the same to everyone, not looking one way in one browser and completely different in another. What a wonderful world it would be.
A man can dream can't he?
Vote away.
In grade school i was told that when i was an adult we would all be using the metric system. Well, i'm an adult and the US has failed to adopt the metric system. Imagine if the whole world used one measuring system (preferably the logical system international), spoke one language, and used one browser so that we could communicate without problem and web pages would look the same to everyone, not looking one way in one browser and completely different in another. What a wonderful world it would be.
A man can dream can't he?
Vote away.
Sep 14, 2008
Shoot A Moose
The recent political turn of events have actually helped me understand quite a few things. Some puzzle pieces of recent history have fallen into place.
i had quite a problem rectifying how the boomers could go from hippies to yuppies to republican without even a stutter step. McCain's choice of Palin has completely straightened me out. Thank's John, and thank you SP.
i've realized that they were all just self-centered the whole time. In their youth they wanted to get fucked up and fuck so they created the drug culture and "free love". Once mommy and daddy weren't paying for everything and they had to graduate college they wanted to be paid more than anyone else... and yuppies were created.
Having a lack of morals and a plethora of greed was not enough. They wanted an ever increasing amount of money and it's resulting power. The only option was to get into politics so that they could change the rules to help them make more money.
Wow, have things worked out for those greedy fucks. And at all of our expense that is.
They pegged Hillary as an unqualified, emotional female not worthy of the White House. Now they want the female vote and pick the ludicrously unqualified twat Palin.
With a pregnant teen you'd think that there would be support for choice. But no. Others aren't allowed to make decisions that may differ from hers. With a new child who has unique health concerns you would think that there would be support for health care for all those who live with health concerns. But no.
White men control the party and then find a female who's fine with that to help them try to lure in a minority group's vote. They are not looking for a betterment of all in our society. They are not looking to close the gap between male and female pay discrepancies. They are using some idiotic toadie who's so self center she doesn't even realize the extent to which she is being used.
Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all. If i have to listen to another Beatles or Who song i'm going to light my earwax on fire. That generation has done so much to screw us all over and they just keep blaring their tired old pop music... in movies, on tv, EVERYWHERE! How long will we continue to be tortured by this "all about me" generation?
i had quite a problem rectifying how the boomers could go from hippies to yuppies to republican without even a stutter step. McCain's choice of Palin has completely straightened me out. Thank's John, and thank you SP.
i've realized that they were all just self-centered the whole time. In their youth they wanted to get fucked up and fuck so they created the drug culture and "free love". Once mommy and daddy weren't paying for everything and they had to graduate college they wanted to be paid more than anyone else... and yuppies were created.
Having a lack of morals and a plethora of greed was not enough. They wanted an ever increasing amount of money and it's resulting power. The only option was to get into politics so that they could change the rules to help them make more money.
Wow, have things worked out for those greedy fucks. And at all of our expense that is.
They pegged Hillary as an unqualified, emotional female not worthy of the White House. Now they want the female vote and pick the ludicrously unqualified twat Palin.
With a pregnant teen you'd think that there would be support for choice. But no. Others aren't allowed to make decisions that may differ from hers. With a new child who has unique health concerns you would think that there would be support for health care for all those who live with health concerns. But no.
White men control the party and then find a female who's fine with that to help them try to lure in a minority group's vote. They are not looking for a betterment of all in our society. They are not looking to close the gap between male and female pay discrepancies. They are using some idiotic toadie who's so self center she doesn't even realize the extent to which she is being used.
Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all. If i have to listen to another Beatles or Who song i'm going to light my earwax on fire. That generation has done so much to screw us all over and they just keep blaring their tired old pop music... in movies, on tv, EVERYWHERE! How long will we continue to be tortured by this "all about me" generation?
Sep 11, 2008
i don't eat pig... even with lipstick
It would appear that i don't even have to wait for the survey to close out. "Palin is a Bitch" is my new campaign. Holy fuckin' shite i think i may have understated the issue.
A message to all Americans: if you elect McCain/Palin our nation as a whole will legally qualify as mentally retarded. Actually that is a horrible put down to all the mentally retarded individuals out there. If the republicans are voted into office once again America's status as superpower will officially be over as we move into some kind of dark age.
Obama's not all that great a candidate but the McCain/Palin ticket makes him look brilliant. McCain is a completely out of touch, completely compromised, shell of a human being. Palin is a stupid bitch with two brain cells that are fighting. With someone as old as McCain on the ticket do Americans seriously want a white-trash, redneck who runs off at the mouth as a potential leader of our country?
Sure she may represent a large number of the idiots that live in this country but let's think about the job. Someone's got to pick up garbage, someone's got to pave the road, someone's got to drive cabs. If an idiot wants to take one of those on... OK. Worst case scenario there's no big problem. Someone's got to run our country, someone's got to communicate and sometimes negotiate with other countries, someone has to steer policy in this country. Do we want an idiot in that job? FUCK NO!
Our economy is at stake, our place in the world is at stake, and most importantly - our planet is at stake. i don't care what bullshit lies Americans want to tell themselves, drastic measures must be taken if we want to see our species survive passed 2 or 3 more generations. i cannot stress enough how absolutely useless Palin is. No, she is worse than useless. She is detrimental. That cocky arrogance (despite not actually having a cock) prevents all thought and logic from even entering the picture.
As a country America has become so completely addicted to watching reality tv and pro wrestling that when they watch politics they just want to see boisterous drama, chest pounding, and argumentative people. They don't care about storyline or substance. That is what politics in this country has become and Palin is the overcompensating and brashly shouting manager for her fighter.
This is the country that invented blues, jazz, rock, punk, and electronica. This is the country that invented the automobile, the skateboard, the airplane, and the light bulb. Why can't we fucking get our white house in order? Somebody please fucking explain how Palin can get on a presidential ticket. Please?
A message to all Americans: if you elect McCain/Palin our nation as a whole will legally qualify as mentally retarded. Actually that is a horrible put down to all the mentally retarded individuals out there. If the republicans are voted into office once again America's status as superpower will officially be over as we move into some kind of dark age.
Obama's not all that great a candidate but the McCain/Palin ticket makes him look brilliant. McCain is a completely out of touch, completely compromised, shell of a human being. Palin is a stupid bitch with two brain cells that are fighting. With someone as old as McCain on the ticket do Americans seriously want a white-trash, redneck who runs off at the mouth as a potential leader of our country?
Sure she may represent a large number of the idiots that live in this country but let's think about the job. Someone's got to pick up garbage, someone's got to pave the road, someone's got to drive cabs. If an idiot wants to take one of those on... OK. Worst case scenario there's no big problem. Someone's got to run our country, someone's got to communicate and sometimes negotiate with other countries, someone has to steer policy in this country. Do we want an idiot in that job? FUCK NO!
Our economy is at stake, our place in the world is at stake, and most importantly - our planet is at stake. i don't care what bullshit lies Americans want to tell themselves, drastic measures must be taken if we want to see our species survive passed 2 or 3 more generations. i cannot stress enough how absolutely useless Palin is. No, she is worse than useless. She is detrimental. That cocky arrogance (despite not actually having a cock) prevents all thought and logic from even entering the picture.
As a country America has become so completely addicted to watching reality tv and pro wrestling that when they watch politics they just want to see boisterous drama, chest pounding, and argumentative people. They don't care about storyline or substance. That is what politics in this country has become and Palin is the overcompensating and brashly shouting manager for her fighter.
This is the country that invented blues, jazz, rock, punk, and electronica. This is the country that invented the automobile, the skateboard, the airplane, and the light bulb. Why can't we fucking get our white house in order? Somebody please fucking explain how Palin can get on a presidential ticket. Please?
Sep 7, 2008
9 out of 10 hockey players don't want their mom at the game
It seems that Fall is the season most preferred by 1punkmonk readers. i'd have to agree. i'm ready to be slipping into out hooded sweatshirts, picking apples, and watching the leaves change color.
This week's survey is to decide the next campaign i will start. The O.U.P. (one unemotional punch) campaign has not taken off quite as well as i had hoped so i'm taking up a new cause. The choices are: "The Masses Are Asses" and "Palin is a Bitch".
Every time i leave the country i come to realize just how fuct the general population of America is. Not all, but a majority of the people of my/our country are exactly what our global stereotype
The other stems from trying to keep up with the presidential race. Every time i think about McCain's VP pick i just think "what the fuck?" Really? Her? Hillary may not have been the warmest person but she is quite intelligent, i feel that Palin just sets the whole movement of trying to get a female into the white house back at least a decade. It's as if the republican party is trying to sabotage both out country and women in general at the same time.
You decide... which campaign will i take up?
This week's survey is to decide the next campaign i will start. The O.U.P. (one unemotional punch) campaign has not taken off quite as well as i had hoped so i'm taking up a new cause. The choices are: "The Masses Are Asses" and "Palin is a Bitch".
Every time i leave the country i come to realize just how fuct the general population of America is. Not all, but a majority of the people of my/our country are exactly what our global stereotype
The other stems from trying to keep up with the presidential race. Every time i think about McCain's VP pick i just think "what the fuck?" Really? Her? Hillary may not have been the warmest person but she is quite intelligent, i feel that Palin just sets the whole movement of trying to get a female into the white house back at least a decade. It's as if the republican party is trying to sabotage both out country and women in general at the same time.
You decide... which campaign will i take up?
Sep 3, 2008
I Couldn't Help Myself
Today as i was mowing the lawn with my gigantic old-school headphones on (i can do that because my electric lawn mower is so quiet) i found myself laughing out loud.
As i was listening to Perry Ferrel sing about taking off his clothes and cumming four times while watching the LA riots on tv a lady and i exchanged friendly waves as she passed by walking her tiny little dog along the sidewalk.
We both clearly were in our own worlds. She was thinking she was stylin' with her tiny pup and i was thinking how non-controversial modern hip-hop is compared to much of the music on my iPod. i suppose we all would get along much better if every interaction was like this jovial passing.
As i was listening to Perry Ferrel sing about taking off his clothes and cumming four times while watching the LA riots on tv a lady and i exchanged friendly waves as she passed by walking her tiny little dog along the sidewalk.
We both clearly were in our own worlds. She was thinking she was stylin' with her tiny pup and i was thinking how non-controversial modern hip-hop is compared to much of the music on my iPod. i suppose we all would get along much better if every interaction was like this jovial passing.
Aug 31, 2008
The Squirrels Are Going Mad...
Sneakers seem to be the footwear that most people has developed a lasting bond with. Thanks for keeping us away from a tie last week.
The cool mornings and evenings lately with warm days has got me dreaming of fall. i have to agree with Kerouac that fall is the best time to be in the northeast.
This week's survey is hoping to once and for all determine the king of the hill, in terms of seasons that is. With my return to a somewhat normal schedule there should be more frequent updates here. Carry on.
The cool mornings and evenings lately with warm days has got me dreaming of fall. i have to agree with Kerouac that fall is the best time to be in the northeast.
This week's survey is hoping to once and for all determine the king of the hill, in terms of seasons that is. With my return to a somewhat normal schedule there should be more frequent updates here. Carry on.
Aug 24, 2008
Give 'em A Foot...
As i've been thinking about footwear, this week's survey lines right up. Think of your favorite foot coverings of all time and survey away...
Street Soul
A book i am reading referred to where i grew up as the white trash capital of the region. Oddly enough this got me thinking about shoes. How my mind gets from white trash to shoes is not as odd as one might think (the process that is, not my mind).
Growing up in that particular area as a young skateboarder in the 80's and early 90's was not boring. You frequently would find yourself the subject of jock "performance art". A very interactive form of theater, it usually began verbally but physical "improve" could easily be thrown into the mix.
The older you got the more 'advanced' the performances got. Unity and creativity, the hallmarks of the skate scene of the time, led to solutions in avoiding such performances. A lesson which has proven useful to this day is that if you look like you are more trouble than it's worth to interact with, most people will leave you alone. Through a series of progressive looks our skate community found ways to earn ourselves at least a little breathing room.
Phase one, freshman year, was a re-invention of the tough look of some of the LA skaters seen in skate magazines. There was a gang inspired west coast look of flannels worn with just the top button buttoned. We gave this our own spin, wearing long sleeve paisley shirts flapping open with just the top button done up. It showed unity and people you may not have hung out with but still skated could more easily recognize one another and would stick up for one another. With the guidance of the upperclassman we began to stand together and it helped for a little while.
As the mere show of unity it had a limit to its effect and when the upperclassmen graduated we ended up stepping up the offensive. Taking a cue from some of the hip-hop looks of the day we incorporated Starter jackets into our own skate looks. The size of the jackets allowed us to level the playing field as bullies usually came in larger numbers when they'd see us alone. With the loose fit and plethora of pockets it was easy to tuck away duct tapped up rolls of quarters, metal cylinders cut to fist size and liberated from shop classes, and the length helped hide the multi-use chain wallet.
Chain wallets were great. While skating they kept our wallets tethered to you so we wouldn't lose them. In a fight you can clip off the chain and get creative. This part of the look made it into our next evolution.
In time our skate-punk look lost many of the aspects of the skate and started to go all out punk. The mystery of what may lie under the over-sized coat gave way to telegraphing exactly what you are going to get, a look heavily influenced by the English working class and east-coast hardcore. Many heads got shaved. Flight jackets from Army/Navy stores, suspenders (braces) worn but not typically on the shoulder rather instead dropped down, and the coupe de gras: boots. Old army boots or black work boots were sometimes worn but the footwear of choice was Doc Martens.
These boots were not available anywhere remotely near where i lived. They were still made in England at the time (since production has gone to China and the quality got lost on the way there). Every once in a while if you hit it just right a shipment might have made it to one of the shoe stores in Harvard Square. Very rarely, but occasionally, this bit of luck would find someone in the Boston area at the opportune time. If you found a pair anywhere near your size you scoped them up. This often meant that if you saw someone with a pair on there was a strong likelihood that either their toes were cramped up inside them or that they were wearing a few pairs of socks to get them to fit.
This does not even account for the high price tag of these said boots. If you found a pair, however, you also found a way to get them. This may be lost on this new generation of iPods and cellphones but after buying your first skate set-up (having to buy everything all at once) paying over $100 for boots was the biggest investment we ever made in our young lives. Piggy banks were broken, jobs were gotten, loans were taken, siblings were sold. Again, random happenstance near Boston was the lucky way. The second way was more difficult.
The other primary option was mail order from England. There were lots of problems with this. First, many people got lost in the sizing translation. Some just ordered their US size which is quite different than it's English counterpart. This again was before the age of the internet where you can easily look up ANYTHING, including size conversions. After a few kids fell victim to this mistake the Rosetta Stone of size conversion was passed around. This led to the second problem.
A size 10 in Converse All Stars was not the same as size 10 Vans. Just because yo fit into size 10 Air Jordan's didn't mean size 10 Airwalks would work for you. Doc's seemed to have developed a liberal interpretation of the British size standards. The orders were made to England and as expected: more cramped toes or layered socks. This however, meant that a wider variety of colors and styles made it into the local scene.
These sizing problems do not address the largest obstacle: how does a kid with no checking account or credit card get something ordered from England? A parent or other sympathetic adult was needed. Trying to explain why you needed boots that cost over $100 was tough enough but then explaining why the ones at the local shoe store were not good enough was another thing all together. Very few boots were gotten this way.
Option number three: right place, right time, right foot. Every so often the discomfort of the wrong size would overcome the proud wearer and they would finally have enough. This was the cheapest way to get into a pair of Doc's: used goods. A friend of mine couldn't squeeze into the - only in the scene - green doc's he had ordered. Much like Cinderella those glass slippers fit me JUST RIGHT. i don't think i took them off until 3 years later when i completely melted through the sole at a campfire. Oh how proudly i bounced on those bouncing souls.
i miss wearing those old friends and i've never been able to throw them away. They sit next to my new(er) vegetarian boots constructed at one of the old doc plants that made the boots before production went to China. Maybe, just maybe, both pair were made at the same factory.
In peaceful environments i am extremely peaceful and in aggressive environments i get very aggressive. Am i a product of my environment? My genes? My upbringing? When does standing up for yourself become part of your personality?
Maybe it's all just about shoes... which you choose, who judges you, and how, based on that footwear. Comfort or white trash protection?
Growing up in that particular area as a young skateboarder in the 80's and early 90's was not boring. You frequently would find yourself the subject of jock "performance art". A very interactive form of theater, it usually began verbally but physical "improve" could easily be thrown into the mix.
The older you got the more 'advanced' the performances got. Unity and creativity, the hallmarks of the skate scene of the time, led to solutions in avoiding such performances. A lesson which has proven useful to this day is that if you look like you are more trouble than it's worth to interact with, most people will leave you alone. Through a series of progressive looks our skate community found ways to earn ourselves at least a little breathing room.
Phase one, freshman year, was a re-invention of the tough look of some of the LA skaters seen in skate magazines. There was a gang inspired west coast look of flannels worn with just the top button buttoned. We gave this our own spin, wearing long sleeve paisley shirts flapping open with just the top button done up. It showed unity and people you may not have hung out with but still skated could more easily recognize one another and would stick up for one another. With the guidance of the upperclassman we began to stand together and it helped for a little while.
As the mere show of unity it had a limit to its effect and when the upperclassmen graduated we ended up stepping up the offensive. Taking a cue from some of the hip-hop looks of the day we incorporated Starter jackets into our own skate looks. The size of the jackets allowed us to level the playing field as bullies usually came in larger numbers when they'd see us alone. With the loose fit and plethora of pockets it was easy to tuck away duct tapped up rolls of quarters, metal cylinders cut to fist size and liberated from shop classes, and the length helped hide the multi-use chain wallet.
Chain wallets were great. While skating they kept our wallets tethered to you so we wouldn't lose them. In a fight you can clip off the chain and get creative. This part of the look made it into our next evolution.
In time our skate-punk look lost many of the aspects of the skate and started to go all out punk. The mystery of what may lie under the over-sized coat gave way to telegraphing exactly what you are going to get, a look heavily influenced by the English working class and east-coast hardcore. Many heads got shaved. Flight jackets from Army/Navy stores, suspenders (braces) worn but not typically on the shoulder rather instead dropped down, and the coupe de gras: boots. Old army boots or black work boots were sometimes worn but the footwear of choice was Doc Martens.
These boots were not available anywhere remotely near where i lived. They were still made in England at the time (since production has gone to China and the quality got lost on the way there). Every once in a while if you hit it just right a shipment might have made it to one of the shoe stores in Harvard Square. Very rarely, but occasionally, this bit of luck would find someone in the Boston area at the opportune time. If you found a pair anywhere near your size you scoped them up. This often meant that if you saw someone with a pair on there was a strong likelihood that either their toes were cramped up inside them or that they were wearing a few pairs of socks to get them to fit.
This does not even account for the high price tag of these said boots. If you found a pair, however, you also found a way to get them. This may be lost on this new generation of iPods and cellphones but after buying your first skate set-up (having to buy everything all at once) paying over $100 for boots was the biggest investment we ever made in our young lives. Piggy banks were broken, jobs were gotten, loans were taken, siblings were sold. Again, random happenstance near Boston was the lucky way. The second way was more difficult.
The other primary option was mail order from England. There were lots of problems with this. First, many people got lost in the sizing translation. Some just ordered their US size which is quite different than it's English counterpart. This again was before the age of the internet where you can easily look up ANYTHING, including size conversions. After a few kids fell victim to this mistake the Rosetta Stone of size conversion was passed around. This led to the second problem.
A size 10 in Converse All Stars was not the same as size 10 Vans. Just because yo fit into size 10 Air Jordan's didn't mean size 10 Airwalks would work for you. Doc's seemed to have developed a liberal interpretation of the British size standards. The orders were made to England and as expected: more cramped toes or layered socks. This however, meant that a wider variety of colors and styles made it into the local scene.
These sizing problems do not address the largest obstacle: how does a kid with no checking account or credit card get something ordered from England? A parent or other sympathetic adult was needed. Trying to explain why you needed boots that cost over $100 was tough enough but then explaining why the ones at the local shoe store were not good enough was another thing all together. Very few boots were gotten this way.
Option number three: right place, right time, right foot. Every so often the discomfort of the wrong size would overcome the proud wearer and they would finally have enough. This was the cheapest way to get into a pair of Doc's: used goods. A friend of mine couldn't squeeze into the - only in the scene - green doc's he had ordered. Much like Cinderella those glass slippers fit me JUST RIGHT. i don't think i took them off until 3 years later when i completely melted through the sole at a campfire. Oh how proudly i bounced on those bouncing souls.
i miss wearing those old friends and i've never been able to throw them away. They sit next to my new(er) vegetarian boots constructed at one of the old doc plants that made the boots before production went to China. Maybe, just maybe, both pair were made at the same factory.
In peaceful environments i am extremely peaceful and in aggressive environments i get very aggressive. Am i a product of my environment? My genes? My upbringing? When does standing up for yourself become part of your personality?
Maybe it's all just about shoes... which you choose, who judges you, and how, based on that footwear. Comfort or white trash protection?
Aug 19, 2008
Where You Going?
Weeks now back from Japan and i'm still frustrated by the gigantic size of American cars. Out of shape older males who couldn't load a cord of firewood without having a heart attack are still driving around enormo-pickup trucks. Why... because that's what they've always driven. Excellent reasoning jack-off.
SUV stands for sport utility vehicle yet the number of owners who use them for neither sport nor utility means those of us who actually DO sports and activities in the beloved outdoors are making moral decisions to go without. While bottoming out the car many times camping and hiking this weekend (having guys in huge shiny SUV's tell me the road i had already come down was too rough to traverse) i was missing that ever so needed ground clearance.
Since my return to civilization i was reminded of the newest in automobile fads: posh neo-yuppie girls in their thirties selecting SUV's as there new accessory. Dye jobs, fake tans, big lensed sunglasses, surgically attached cell phones, and big shiny SUV's. Never camped, never seen a dirt road, never deposited bodily fluids in the great outdoors.
i guess they want more metal between them and whatever they hit while not paying attention due to distracting phone conversations. How about a lifetime supply of birth control pills as a mandatory accessory for these SUV's. Unfortunately babies are also one of our country's newest fads with baby-bumps being this summer's hot new look on the beach.
All this has driven me (pun intended) to my new, rock solid argument for these people who are wrongfully purchasing SUV's:
Once a year, on Thanksgiving Day, i eat too much. My stomach swells from all the food ingested and my pants feel a bit too snug. So, when purchasing pants, do i buy trousers that would fit me on Thanksgiving Day or do i buy pants that would fit me the other 364 days of the year? Of course you buy pants that fit the rest of the year, fuck-o! So when purchasing a vehicle why do people justify their decisions with that one day every other year they go skiing or that one day a year they tow the boat up to the cabin?
Stupidmutha... idiots make decisions that force other decisions onto those of us who actually DO think and take responsibility for our fellow hairless apes. If we don't take care of each other who the fuck will? Let's be a bit more thoughtful out there, alright? Thanks in advanced (for those of you who can read and know how to use the internet... so are probably not a complete idiot).
Also, feel from to administer an OUP to above mentioned idiots.
SUV stands for sport utility vehicle yet the number of owners who use them for neither sport nor utility means those of us who actually DO sports and activities in the beloved outdoors are making moral decisions to go without. While bottoming out the car many times camping and hiking this weekend (having guys in huge shiny SUV's tell me the road i had already come down was too rough to traverse) i was missing that ever so needed ground clearance.
Since my return to civilization i was reminded of the newest in automobile fads: posh neo-yuppie girls in their thirties selecting SUV's as there new accessory. Dye jobs, fake tans, big lensed sunglasses, surgically attached cell phones, and big shiny SUV's. Never camped, never seen a dirt road, never deposited bodily fluids in the great outdoors.
i guess they want more metal between them and whatever they hit while not paying attention due to distracting phone conversations. How about a lifetime supply of birth control pills as a mandatory accessory for these SUV's. Unfortunately babies are also one of our country's newest fads with baby-bumps being this summer's hot new look on the beach.
All this has driven me (pun intended) to my new, rock solid argument for these people who are wrongfully purchasing SUV's:
Once a year, on Thanksgiving Day, i eat too much. My stomach swells from all the food ingested and my pants feel a bit too snug. So, when purchasing pants, do i buy trousers that would fit me on Thanksgiving Day or do i buy pants that would fit me the other 364 days of the year? Of course you buy pants that fit the rest of the year, fuck-o! So when purchasing a vehicle why do people justify their decisions with that one day every other year they go skiing or that one day a year they tow the boat up to the cabin?
Stupidmutha... idiots make decisions that force other decisions onto those of us who actually DO think and take responsibility for our fellow hairless apes. If we don't take care of each other who the fuck will? Let's be a bit more thoughtful out there, alright? Thanks in advanced (for those of you who can read and know how to use the internet... so are probably not a complete idiot).
Also, feel from to administer an OUP to above mentioned idiots.
Aug 17, 2008
Pucker Up!
Ties are like kissing your sister, they leave you even more confused than you were before. Let's not have a tie for this week's survey please.
i couldn't think of anything good except that i need to see Clone Wars this week and still haven't seen Dark Knight a second time yet.
Well, i've got things to do in real life... later bitches!
i couldn't think of anything good except that i need to see Clone Wars this week and still haven't seen Dark Knight a second time yet.
Well, i've got things to do in real life... later bitches!
Aug 14, 2008
Countdown To The Next Break-up
Oh yeah bitches... The Verve have a new video and album coming shortly thereafter. How long do you give them before they break up once again? We'll just have to enjoy it as much as we can while it lasts.
Aug 12, 2008
Asian Fetish
i enjoy many aspects of Asian culture. The animation. The art. The philosophies. The food. But one thing that i had previously never understood is the apparent infatuation that many men have with Asian females.
Now, i like girls as much as the next guy. In fact some might say i like them more than most do. i have no disliking of Asian girls, i like them just fine as i don't make any decisions based on race. But what causes them to be SOOO obsessed over as a group by SOOO many males?
This being such a broad (pun intended) fetish i had assumed over the years that it must have something to do with looks. My taste in women definitely is curve focused. Looking through pornographic magazines and videos, simply for the scientific reasons of this study, i get the idea that most men do in fact like their women curvaceous. It seems to be much of what gets the mags and videos sold. Based on the growing number of breast implants in Hollywood i would have to say that curves are indeed a large part of what men (and some women) are attracted to.
The typical physique of an Asian female, however, does seem to run counter to this trend. i know i am overgeneralizing, but typically mature females and immature females of the Asian persuasion seem almost the same. i cannot imagine that there are that many pedophiles in the world so i figure the young-ish look of many Asian females could not be the driving force here.
But, to review this observation in a less perverted way, i began to think that maybe the attraction is how Asian females age well. Maybe this plays a roll but when it comes to attraction to the opposite sex i don't find that men think all that much about the long term investment of an individual girl. As a gender we tend to think more of the immediate than the long term. Otherwise why would we be so attracted to 2 wheeled vehicles and speed.
Having now been to Japan i think i may finally have come to a conclusive reason for this popular fetish. The girls in Japan where extremely friendly, extremely polite, and quick to please (get your minds out of the gutters, i'm talking about simply interacting socially in public). Never once did i get the old "what do you want" or the sensation that i was inconveniencing any of them when interacting with stewardesses, waitresses, cashiers, or in any other setting.
Think of your daily interactions with the females of the species. Lets just look at one example to keep it a simple control for the purposes of our study: cashiers. Think of your last 5 interactions with a female cashier. i bet at least half of the time you felt like you were either a bother to them or were treated rudely (not unlike the males in the same job). In 10 days visiting Japan not once did i interact or even observe a rude female.
Could you possibly go 10 days in America without encountering a rude female? i'd put some pretty good money down on NO. This attitude is quite appealing. i believe, once and for all, that i may have come to a satisfactory conclusion (for myself at least) of why so many men are oh so attracted to Asian females.
So all you ladies out there, a gentle, kind, and welcoming attitude can do a lot in determining how attractive you are to members of the opposite (or same) sex. i'm not sure about it the other way around as lots of girls do seem to be attracted to assholes. i leave that study to someone else as i'd rather keep studying girls.
Now, i like girls as much as the next guy. In fact some might say i like them more than most do. i have no disliking of Asian girls, i like them just fine as i don't make any decisions based on race. But what causes them to be SOOO obsessed over as a group by SOOO many males?
This being such a broad (pun intended) fetish i had assumed over the years that it must have something to do with looks. My taste in women definitely is curve focused. Looking through pornographic magazines and videos, simply for the scientific reasons of this study, i get the idea that most men do in fact like their women curvaceous. It seems to be much of what gets the mags and videos sold. Based on the growing number of breast implants in Hollywood i would have to say that curves are indeed a large part of what men (and some women) are attracted to.
The typical physique of an Asian female, however, does seem to run counter to this trend. i know i am overgeneralizing, but typically mature females and immature females of the Asian persuasion seem almost the same. i cannot imagine that there are that many pedophiles in the world so i figure the young-ish look of many Asian females could not be the driving force here.
But, to review this observation in a less perverted way, i began to think that maybe the attraction is how Asian females age well. Maybe this plays a roll but when it comes to attraction to the opposite sex i don't find that men think all that much about the long term investment of an individual girl. As a gender we tend to think more of the immediate than the long term. Otherwise why would we be so attracted to 2 wheeled vehicles and speed.
Having now been to Japan i think i may finally have come to a conclusive reason for this popular fetish. The girls in Japan where extremely friendly, extremely polite, and quick to please (get your minds out of the gutters, i'm talking about simply interacting socially in public). Never once did i get the old "what do you want" or the sensation that i was inconveniencing any of them when interacting with stewardesses, waitresses, cashiers, or in any other setting.
Think of your daily interactions with the females of the species. Lets just look at one example to keep it a simple control for the purposes of our study: cashiers. Think of your last 5 interactions with a female cashier. i bet at least half of the time you felt like you were either a bother to them or were treated rudely (not unlike the males in the same job). In 10 days visiting Japan not once did i interact or even observe a rude female.
Could you possibly go 10 days in America without encountering a rude female? i'd put some pretty good money down on NO. This attitude is quite appealing. i believe, once and for all, that i may have come to a satisfactory conclusion (for myself at least) of why so many men are oh so attracted to Asian females.
So all you ladies out there, a gentle, kind, and welcoming attitude can do a lot in determining how attractive you are to members of the opposite (or same) sex. i'm not sure about it the other way around as lots of girls do seem to be attracted to assholes. i leave that study to someone else as i'd rather keep studying girls.
Aug 10, 2008
Facebook Used To Mean Falling Asleep While Studying
Well, this week's survey centers around by significant other's new obsession: Facebook. At first i thought it completely ridiculous but after she's been tooling around on it for a while now i realize that it would be a good way to keep in contact with some friends who i don't get to see or talk to very frequently. There are also groups like Hell Yeah It's A Vespa and Thank God For My PX.
So now i'm on the fence about it. Which way to go, which way to go...
So now i'm on the fence about it. Which way to go, which way to go...
Aug 8, 2008
War All Of The Time
As i have been to both Germany and now Japan i suppose my Passport stamps would give some history teacher a hard-on. My love of all things Vespa may someday lead me to Italy to complete the WWII axis tour but war has never been my focus, it has just seemed to play such a huge role everywhere i visit. Even my favorite of destinations, Ireland, has a history weaved in battle.This photo is of a monument at Peace Park in Okinawa Japan. It was quite windy near the ocean on this otherwise oppressively hot day so it may not be clear from the image but the top of the cone is actually an eternal flame. i found the combination of water and fire used in this sculpture for peace to be quite inspiring. The whole park, in fact, is one of the most inspiring and well done memorials i have ever been to.
Visiting the site of a concentration camp in Germany was the heaviest place i have ever been. Not heavy in the dirty hippy sense of "you're talkin' some heavy shit man" but in the true gravity of the local. You just felt this heaviness come over you, this incredible weight. You can't help but be changed for having been there and stood face to face with what happened. It is a historic load we must carry around.
Although there were still strong aspects reminding us of the atrocities and sacrifices of war at the peace park, it was created in such a way that you leave with an incredible sense of hope. Hope the we can learn from this, hope that we can be better, hope that we will never have to experience something like this again.
Nowhere was this more pronounced than in the museum section of the park. As fitting for the subject matter, the display rooms were quite dark and kept in low light. There were plexiglassed walls displaying the "tsunami of steel" dropped by the US on the island, a re-creation of a cave where many citizens hid during battle complete with shaking tank sounds, and video - something quite unique for this war displaying just how recent in history it really was.
i am very glad that just before leaving for Japan i read my Grandfather's accounting of his time spent as a Marine fighting in the Pacific during WWII. Not only because it gave me a very personal account as experienced by those who lived it (as oppose to the somewhat sterile museum and history lesson accounts) but because, as one can imagine, the story was a bit one sided at the museum. One could have easily overlooked the tiny, brief mention of Pearl Harbor in the Japanese timeline of the war. That tiny event that changed everything, but such has always been my complaint about history: it is always scewed by the author.
After walking through all these dark rooms following the history of the war all of a sudden you turn this corner and are almost blinded by light and beauty as you enter a completely glassed in room overlooking the vast pacific ocean. One after another you heard audible reactions to this moving arrangement as people rounded the corner. Everyone tried to capture that beauty with cameras and then every one of us, no matter what culture or country we were from, eventually just sat back and soaked in the power of this room.
The museum piece made me realize something alluded to later in the week by a friend on the Marine base we were staying at. Looking through the history and timetable i realized that Japan up to that point had seemed to always have been at war. Widening out my perspective i came to acknowledge that in actuality, every country had actually always been at war with someone to some extent. There NEVER has been a time in which our society has been at peace.
The comment made by my friend, obviously trying to justify the fact that she lived on a US military base, was that peaceful societies don't survive, they are always conquered by warrior societies. At first i was quite upset by this statement but eventually realized that this has been true of our human history. Look even now at possibly our last peaceful corner of the planet, Tibet, and how it has been taken over and repeatedly abused by China.
The logical scientist in me, the punk curmudgeon in me, and the adult with over three decades of human observations in me all seem to have a hard time believing we have much of a future as a species when socially speaking we have seemed to show almost no evolution, yet i am still left with this sense of hope from the experience.
Maybe it is because i see all the potential in our species and what we are capable of. Mostly, i imagine, it is the effect that nature always seems to have on me... pulling that monk in me out. Looking out at the beauty of where the land meets the ocean, meets the sky how can you not be filled with the inspiration of what is possible.
Aug 7, 2008
Will This Workout Video Make Me Look Like I Did When I Was In The Military?
Hey, it's 5:45 am and i've been awake for about 3 hours now. Oh how i love jet lag. There will be posts regarding Japan soon but right now i am trying to get on some kind of normal schedule and my body is just saying "Fuck You! You have cooped me up in planes for 24 hours and now you want your old schedule back? Again, fuck you."
Also, i haven't loaded any of my pictures yet and i have lots of interesting things to discuss that could benefit from pictures. i very scientifically recorded all aspects of my trip with pictures, to an extent that would irritate most if forced to view them all, but individual pictures with accompanying stories will work out great.
As i digress from my original intent of this early morn jet lagged entry i will now write of frustration. Not so much of my screwed up schedule frustration (although i kind of have), not of my returning American frustration (the Japanese where SO incredibly polite, respectful, and kind), but of my political frustration.
i'm not going to go on about how completely irrelevant McCain is. If you can't run an email program i do not want you running my country. Nor about how the world is betting all our hope on Obama. We've gone so long without positive actions that all we have left is hope and we seem to be putting all our chip down for this spin of the wheel. i'm too much of a curmudgeon to believe all that much in him, especially after things we've seen of him so far, but the toughest of times can turn regular men into heroes. That's were we are right now and i know Mc doesn't have it in him so i'm hoping the other guy can come through for all of us.
No, instead i am writing of my overwhelming frustration with how absolutely useless cable news channels have become. Between staying on a military base which only carried FOX and now being stuck awake (did i mention jet lag?) flipping through paid programming, infomercials, and all news channels at a time in the morning i didn't previously even know existed i have figured a bit out about these channels.
Do you remember when the M in MTV stood for music? Yes, there are many children today that have no knowledge of the meaning behind those call letters but those of us who are old enough remember when MTV played nothing but music. Sure we may have had to sit through "Pour Some Sugar On Me" twice in one hour but they were true to their name and played music.
When we wanted to SEE music, we knew where to flip. Somewhere along the way, however, the people down at MTV realized that they could get a significant increase in viewers if they played shows instead. It was probably around the time the first season of "The Real World" wrapped up. More views means more advertising dollars. Turn to MTV now and you know how that evolution has progressed. Lots of people have made lots of money and they have become quite a force branching out in many directions including the film world.
MTV losing the music, premium movie channels making television series (Sex in the City, Weeds, etc) this has all been done in the name of upping viewers. i know i'm taking the long way around here but the trip is justified in the name of my conclusion.
Somewhere along the way the cable news channels realized that giving ego driven chatter-boxes their own shows was not only easier than hunting down actual news, but also brought in more viewers. They all jumped on board and now news is as hard to find as music videos on MTV. We are all left using the internet to locate both.
i kid you not, i actually saw a stock photo of a tire gauge full screen on one of the news channels. Are you fucking kidding me? Why the fuck are they talking about this? First, you have to be a complete idiot if in 2008 you did not know that keeping your tire pressure correct helps with gas mileage... although most people watching these channels ARE, in fact, idiots. Second and everything else-ly, we are at war (much of the reason i actually went to Japan), we are facing a changing environment which could leave us as a species behind, our economy is in a depression (no matter what the president wants to call it) and cable election coverage includes a stock photo of a tire gauge?
It was even one of those old chrome ones where a white stick with increment markings on it gets blown out by the air pressure. It's fucking 2008, you didn't have a picture of a digital one? Did you blow all your budget on talking heads and now your graphics department is left with 1980's stock photos? Does anyone in the studio know about Google images? i bet if you went down to the dollar store (or 100 yen store as they call it in Japan) you could find a digital tire gauge.
Aw fuck it. After all that ranting i'm still not tired, there's still no music on MTV, and there's still no news on cable. Maybe it's time to get productive and transfer my photos from the camera to the computer. What meal should i be eating right now? i guess cereal works no matter what time of the day it is.
Sayonara...
Also, i haven't loaded any of my pictures yet and i have lots of interesting things to discuss that could benefit from pictures. i very scientifically recorded all aspects of my trip with pictures, to an extent that would irritate most if forced to view them all, but individual pictures with accompanying stories will work out great.
As i digress from my original intent of this early morn jet lagged entry i will now write of frustration. Not so much of my screwed up schedule frustration (although i kind of have), not of my returning American frustration (the Japanese where SO incredibly polite, respectful, and kind), but of my political frustration.
i'm not going to go on about how completely irrelevant McCain is. If you can't run an email program i do not want you running my country. Nor about how the world is betting all our hope on Obama. We've gone so long without positive actions that all we have left is hope and we seem to be putting all our chip down for this spin of the wheel. i'm too much of a curmudgeon to believe all that much in him, especially after things we've seen of him so far, but the toughest of times can turn regular men into heroes. That's were we are right now and i know Mc doesn't have it in him so i'm hoping the other guy can come through for all of us.
No, instead i am writing of my overwhelming frustration with how absolutely useless cable news channels have become. Between staying on a military base which only carried FOX and now being stuck awake (did i mention jet lag?) flipping through paid programming, infomercials, and all news channels at a time in the morning i didn't previously even know existed i have figured a bit out about these channels.
Do you remember when the M in MTV stood for music? Yes, there are many children today that have no knowledge of the meaning behind those call letters but those of us who are old enough remember when MTV played nothing but music. Sure we may have had to sit through "Pour Some Sugar On Me" twice in one hour but they were true to their name and played music.
When we wanted to SEE music, we knew where to flip. Somewhere along the way, however, the people down at MTV realized that they could get a significant increase in viewers if they played shows instead. It was probably around the time the first season of "The Real World" wrapped up. More views means more advertising dollars. Turn to MTV now and you know how that evolution has progressed. Lots of people have made lots of money and they have become quite a force branching out in many directions including the film world.
MTV losing the music, premium movie channels making television series (Sex in the City, Weeds, etc) this has all been done in the name of upping viewers. i know i'm taking the long way around here but the trip is justified in the name of my conclusion.
Somewhere along the way the cable news channels realized that giving ego driven chatter-boxes their own shows was not only easier than hunting down actual news, but also brought in more viewers. They all jumped on board and now news is as hard to find as music videos on MTV. We are all left using the internet to locate both.
i kid you not, i actually saw a stock photo of a tire gauge full screen on one of the news channels. Are you fucking kidding me? Why the fuck are they talking about this? First, you have to be a complete idiot if in 2008 you did not know that keeping your tire pressure correct helps with gas mileage... although most people watching these channels ARE, in fact, idiots. Second and everything else-ly, we are at war (much of the reason i actually went to Japan), we are facing a changing environment which could leave us as a species behind, our economy is in a depression (no matter what the president wants to call it) and cable election coverage includes a stock photo of a tire gauge?
It was even one of those old chrome ones where a white stick with increment markings on it gets blown out by the air pressure. It's fucking 2008, you didn't have a picture of a digital one? Did you blow all your budget on talking heads and now your graphics department is left with 1980's stock photos? Does anyone in the studio know about Google images? i bet if you went down to the dollar store (or 100 yen store as they call it in Japan) you could find a digital tire gauge.
Aw fuck it. After all that ranting i'm still not tired, there's still no music on MTV, and there's still no news on cable. Maybe it's time to get productive and transfer my photos from the camera to the computer. What meal should i be eating right now? i guess cereal works no matter what time of the day it is.
Sayonara...
Jul 23, 2008
Moment' um...
i can't help but realize recently that after talking for any amount of time it seems that almost everyone i know has been having a bit of a rough year. Is it a result of our economic problems? The fact that we've been at war for years now? The state of the environment? Some extreme alignment of coincidence?
This can be quite wearing on our collective constitutions. Personal difficulties wear us out and without anyone left standing to pick us up it's easy to find ourselves a stuck in a down position. Hidden in this fuct mess however, there have been some amazing moments.
Maybe it's the upcoming trip to Japan and the Buddhist ideals are having an effect on me. Or, maybe it's that i feel like i've finally stopped falling and am ready to start clawing my way back up. Suddenly this week i've found myself just trying to live in the moment. i've started enjoying the good moments that much more and the bad hasn't seemed that bad because i am not projecting them into my view of the future, they are just here for that current moment.
Those Buddhists have been doing what they do for quite some time, maybe they're got a few things figured out. Maybe tomorrow i'll end up right back where i was before, but right now this is working and at the moment, living in the moment is a good thing.
Those tough moments seem to make the good moments all that much more enjoyable. i hope everyone i know (and don't know) can happen upon a few more of those good moments, i think we could all use them.
This can be quite wearing on our collective constitutions. Personal difficulties wear us out and without anyone left standing to pick us up it's easy to find ourselves a stuck in a down position. Hidden in this fuct mess however, there have been some amazing moments.
Maybe it's the upcoming trip to Japan and the Buddhist ideals are having an effect on me. Or, maybe it's that i feel like i've finally stopped falling and am ready to start clawing my way back up. Suddenly this week i've found myself just trying to live in the moment. i've started enjoying the good moments that much more and the bad hasn't seemed that bad because i am not projecting them into my view of the future, they are just here for that current moment.
Those Buddhists have been doing what they do for quite some time, maybe they're got a few things figured out. Maybe tomorrow i'll end up right back where i was before, but right now this is working and at the moment, living in the moment is a good thing.
Those tough moments seem to make the good moments all that much more enjoyable. i hope everyone i know (and don't know) can happen upon a few more of those good moments, i think we could all use them.
Jul 22, 2008
No, would YOU like some penuts?
Well, it looks like flirting with the stewardess while on sedatives is the best way to make it through a long flight according to 1punkmonk readers. i hope it's a girl or things could get awkward for 13 hours in the air.
This week's survey... what kind of car should my significant other choose when her vehicle needs to finally be sent to that parking lot in the sky. Choose whichever you want because we can't afford any of them anyway.
This week's survey... what kind of car should my significant other choose when her vehicle needs to finally be sent to that parking lot in the sky. Choose whichever you want because we can't afford any of them anyway.
Jul 19, 2008
Burn The Letter
i saw the new Batman movie last night and it was as great as everyone's been saying it would be. Ironman, The Hulk, Batman, Hellboy... there are trailers for The Spirit and The Watchman as well. All these comic book movies bombarding the silver screen this year. There is no mystery to this phenomena though.
To look back at when most of the big comic book superheros were created it was during troubling times: wars, social unrest, political change. Now that we as a country, and a planet, are going through such tough times it makes perfect sense that people are looking for heroes in entertainment, in their escape from everyday reality.
It's art doing what is always has done: saving us from our everyday lives. Hopefully our everyday lives will eventually catch up with our art.
To look back at when most of the big comic book superheros were created it was during troubling times: wars, social unrest, political change. Now that we as a country, and a planet, are going through such tough times it makes perfect sense that people are looking for heroes in entertainment, in their escape from everyday reality.
It's art doing what is always has done: saving us from our everyday lives. Hopefully our everyday lives will eventually catch up with our art.
Jul 13, 2008
Jet Lag
Kon'nichi wa!
This week's survey comes as i am preparing for the approaching trip to Japan. It is going to be one long ass flight and i am trying to come up with how i am going to spend it while not sleeping. What's your vote?
This week's survey comes as i am preparing for the approaching trip to Japan. It is going to be one long ass flight and i am trying to come up with how i am going to spend it while not sleeping. What's your vote?
Jul 11, 2008
You Want Bill Sperm With That?
Oh folks are you in for a treat. To continue on the movie-music-youtube tip i have come up with something to help you stop crying from the Tom Waits video.
Christian Slater did not just come out of nowhere, make "Gleaming The Cube", and leave promptly afterwards knowing he had made an instant classic that could never be matched despite Hollywood's best efforts. In fact, he made some other good movies. When not killing girls named Heather he starred in the inspiring teen rebel flick "Pump Up The Volume".
Although that movie contained songs from the likes of Black Flag, the Beastie Boys, and the Descendants (twice) it was Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" that has really stuck out for me as a shining moment of DJ selection in that fine, fine film.
As luck would have it YouTube has a video of olde L.C. performing my favorite song from that movie. And for those of you out there trying to learn spanish, there are subtitles to guide your lesson. Enjoy!
Christian Slater did not just come out of nowhere, make "Gleaming The Cube", and leave promptly afterwards knowing he had made an instant classic that could never be matched despite Hollywood's best efforts. In fact, he made some other good movies. When not killing girls named Heather he starred in the inspiring teen rebel flick "Pump Up The Volume".
Although that movie contained songs from the likes of Black Flag, the Beastie Boys, and the Descendants (twice) it was Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" that has really stuck out for me as a shining moment of DJ selection in that fine, fine film.
As luck would have it YouTube has a video of olde L.C. performing my favorite song from that movie. And for those of you out there trying to learn spanish, there are subtitles to guide your lesson. Enjoy!
Shoveling Snow And Raking Leaves
You may not have known this but that guy in "Mystery Men" who lives at the old amusement park and makes all the cool non-lethal weapons for Janeane Garofalo et al happens to be quite the tune writer.
i know i've mentioned this song on my "Beautiful Songs" list but i came across this video, and i hadn't posted a video in some time. Whatever you are into i think you can appreciate this song.
i swear those aren't tears... my allergies have just been acting up lately...
i know i've mentioned this song on my "Beautiful Songs" list but i came across this video, and i hadn't posted a video in some time. Whatever you are into i think you can appreciate this song.
i swear those aren't tears... my allergies have just been acting up lately...
Jul 9, 2008
Mile-high Skate, Part 1
Although skateboarding has become more popular than ever it is good to see that it has not become too homogenized. Skateboarding, the look, the style, the dress; it is so very different from region to region. It's neat to observe.
While in Colorado i skated (if that's what you want to call it) at two parks and stopped in at several skateshops. The first thing that stood out to me was the differences in how the skaters dressed. There are completely different things available at the skateshops and closely related, the skaters look much different. Different companies are carried, different styles are carried, and different set-ups are carried. i, of course, took advantage of this and picked up a few things that i've never seen in my own region.
First, east coast (and more specifically New England) skateboarders are just harder in every way and i definitely looked different than the others at the parks. One of these things is not like the others... Not to say that midwestern skaters, or New England skaters, all look the same. If fact there are great differences in how each individual in either region looks, as skateboarding is such an individual based activity, but the skaters in each region definitely have a "look".
New England skaters, as i said, are just harder when it comes to the look and style. This may be said of New Englanders in general. We are more aggressive, less friendly, faster paced, and more wound up as a region and it leaks into our look and our actions. Eastern skaters dress in darker colors, with more of a militant or aggressive "give me my space" look and our skate-style is similar.
Our trucks are tighter and our wheels are harder. It comes from the terrain. We don't have lots of big concrete parks to skate. We skate where we can. This means rough asphalt, bricks, sand left over from winter road care, and lots of cracks. We are frequently at risk of harassment by cops, jock, and random citizens as we often are skating where they also happen to be. If we are fortunate enough to have a park it is usually an obstacle based park on a slab of asphalt, concrete, or an old tennis court. This always amazed me seeing how we have some of the worse weather swings (reaking havoc on ramp material and 'slab' material) and we have so many economically strong cities yet New England skaters never get the concrete parks. Come on now... we have such outspoken naysayers yet they won't give us a decent space to skate? Where is the love?
Midwesterners, on the other hand, seem so friendly to me. Not just the skateboarders but the people in general. i keep thinking of the quick-friends-for-an-evening my brother and i made while out one night in Wyoming. The people at the skateshops were very happy and welcoming. The colors of the clothing were brighter and the deck companies and graphics were lighter-hearted. Less skulls and more cartoons. There were huge hat varieties as well. In addition to the plethora of baseball hats there where scally caps, fedoras, and more. Maybe it's a reaction to the unblocked sun of the big sky out west.
Their set-ups are also oh-so different. Their trucks are loose and their wheels are soft. This is a necessity when is comes to their skate terrain: the incredibly smooth, flowing, concrete skateparks. i was a fish out of water with my New England set-up (more on that in another post). Their parks are absolutely beautiful, and huge. Gigantic maroon golieths, not some old tennis court that parks and rec stopped replacing the nets on years ago. Impressive!
Although my skating on the trip was some of the worst i have done, i fell even more in love with skateboarding out there. With all the popularity of skateboarding in recent years it was inspiring to see that we are all still just tribes of people who independently fell in love with the same useless wooden toy. Each tribe has it's own culture and style. Skateboarding has not, and will never, become some homogeneous cookie-cutter activity.
Thank you Animal Chin!
While in Colorado i skated (if that's what you want to call it) at two parks and stopped in at several skateshops. The first thing that stood out to me was the differences in how the skaters dressed. There are completely different things available at the skateshops and closely related, the skaters look much different. Different companies are carried, different styles are carried, and different set-ups are carried. i, of course, took advantage of this and picked up a few things that i've never seen in my own region.
First, east coast (and more specifically New England) skateboarders are just harder in every way and i definitely looked different than the others at the parks. One of these things is not like the others... Not to say that midwestern skaters, or New England skaters, all look the same. If fact there are great differences in how each individual in either region looks, as skateboarding is such an individual based activity, but the skaters in each region definitely have a "look".
New England skaters, as i said, are just harder when it comes to the look and style. This may be said of New Englanders in general. We are more aggressive, less friendly, faster paced, and more wound up as a region and it leaks into our look and our actions. Eastern skaters dress in darker colors, with more of a militant or aggressive "give me my space" look and our skate-style is similar.
Our trucks are tighter and our wheels are harder. It comes from the terrain. We don't have lots of big concrete parks to skate. We skate where we can. This means rough asphalt, bricks, sand left over from winter road care, and lots of cracks. We are frequently at risk of harassment by cops, jock, and random citizens as we often are skating where they also happen to be. If we are fortunate enough to have a park it is usually an obstacle based park on a slab of asphalt, concrete, or an old tennis court. This always amazed me seeing how we have some of the worse weather swings (reaking havoc on ramp material and 'slab' material) and we have so many economically strong cities yet New England skaters never get the concrete parks. Come on now... we have such outspoken naysayers yet they won't give us a decent space to skate? Where is the love?
Midwesterners, on the other hand, seem so friendly to me. Not just the skateboarders but the people in general. i keep thinking of the quick-friends-for-an-evening my brother and i made while out one night in Wyoming. The people at the skateshops were very happy and welcoming. The colors of the clothing were brighter and the deck companies and graphics were lighter-hearted. Less skulls and more cartoons. There were huge hat varieties as well. In addition to the plethora of baseball hats there where scally caps, fedoras, and more. Maybe it's a reaction to the unblocked sun of the big sky out west.
Their set-ups are also oh-so different. Their trucks are loose and their wheels are soft. This is a necessity when is comes to their skate terrain: the incredibly smooth, flowing, concrete skateparks. i was a fish out of water with my New England set-up (more on that in another post). Their parks are absolutely beautiful, and huge. Gigantic maroon golieths, not some old tennis court that parks and rec stopped replacing the nets on years ago. Impressive!
Although my skating on the trip was some of the worst i have done, i fell even more in love with skateboarding out there. With all the popularity of skateboarding in recent years it was inspiring to see that we are all still just tribes of people who independently fell in love with the same useless wooden toy. Each tribe has it's own culture and style. Skateboarding has not, and will never, become some homogeneous cookie-cutter activity.
Thank you Animal Chin!
Jul 6, 2008
Can Be Taken With Or Without Food
Flues and ear infections are my favorite souvenirs from vacations. That is why i haven't written lately and why i chose this week's survey. Time to try to sleep some more. Thank goodness for 4th of July weekend tv marathons for us sickly bastards.
Jun 20, 2008
Stop Using Lithium To Treat Your Depression And Use It To Build A Battery
i cannot escape my science training. When faced with overwhelming facts i re-assess my perception and update my concept of how things are. i find i must now alter my belief that the people of Americans are idiots and have no genuine concern for the environment. My new finding is that people are idiots and have no genuine concern for the environment.
i just see Americans on a daily basis so my anecdotal observations were limited to my sample base. Upon looking with a larger world view it is indeed our species that is the problem. Americans just tends to be in a better financial position (although possibly not for long) to flaunt consumerism, but given the opportunity it seems to grab all bald monkeys.
i will take my beloved Prius as an example. i bought mine in late '03. Since then i have just sat back and watched.
Gas prices have been rising sharply and, of course, more and more people are looking at hybrids as a serious option. The Prius happens to be the best designed and best selling of those hybrids. Too many have gone from crying about gas prices to crying about waiting lists for hybrids. To all you crybabies: buy a fucking box of tissues, buy a fucking bus pass, and while riding the bus call your parents on your overpriced cell phone and ask them why they raised you to be such a whiny pussy. They were probably hippies who sold out their beliefs to earn more money.
The shortage is not due to the auto companies trying to raise the prices like some Cabbage Patch Kid scare. The problem is that people are idiots. Toyota's original first generation Prius was smaller and did not sell all too well. They completely re-designed it and a cult was formed. It sold better than they had predicted and with those of us who got them acting like strange fanatical evangelists the lust was contagious. It took Toyota some time but eventually they not only were able to get production to catch up with demand but even started to introduce incentives and lower prices on select packages.
Sales leveled out and at times even dropped. Suddenly gas prices start rising at a quickened rate and the easily excitable bi-peds migrated away from their metal dinosaurs and started to hunt for the smaller, quicker hybrids. A lot goes into car production, especially hybrids which have batteries to take into account. Production cannot shift gears that quickly. Auto assembly lines can in time be shifted around to produce more of a given line of vehicles but battery manufacturers also have to juggle around production to attempt to match auto line assembly. Throw into the mix that Toyota has strict sense of quality control. When upping production you must be extra careful that quality is not compromised.
Even more variables come into play. Toyota has been exploring both switching hybrids to lithium ion batteries (which are smaller and lighter for the same power) and plug-in hybrids. With rumors of a dramatically redesigned Prius coming out soon, maybe even as a plug-in model, the current model may soon be outdated. Why up production on a model that will soon be discontinued in it's current form?
This is not even getting into the real problem causing the shortage: car companies make what's selling. When Americans have been snubbing anything smaller than a mini-suv/cross-over vehicle our counter-parts across the Atlantic have been mocking hybrids because they do not use their beloved diesel (which gets better gas mileage but produces more pollution per gallon). Car companies are not philanthropic agencies looking to improve the human condition. They are for-profit producers/sellers. They'll make whatever you buy.
Conclusions get jumped to. Fingers get pointed. Yelling. Tears. Excuses. If our fur covered, poo flinging relatives could talk they'd call us all idiots. Then they'd ask for a banana. In the movie American History X they say to end strong with a quote because someone else has probably said it before, and better than you could. So i will conclude with a quote from the wise old Gwen: Shit's bananas.
Long live chimp-chimp.
i just see Americans on a daily basis so my anecdotal observations were limited to my sample base. Upon looking with a larger world view it is indeed our species that is the problem. Americans just tends to be in a better financial position (although possibly not for long) to flaunt consumerism, but given the opportunity it seems to grab all bald monkeys.
i will take my beloved Prius as an example. i bought mine in late '03. Since then i have just sat back and watched.
Gas prices have been rising sharply and, of course, more and more people are looking at hybrids as a serious option. The Prius happens to be the best designed and best selling of those hybrids. Too many have gone from crying about gas prices to crying about waiting lists for hybrids. To all you crybabies: buy a fucking box of tissues, buy a fucking bus pass, and while riding the bus call your parents on your overpriced cell phone and ask them why they raised you to be such a whiny pussy. They were probably hippies who sold out their beliefs to earn more money.
The shortage is not due to the auto companies trying to raise the prices like some Cabbage Patch Kid scare. The problem is that people are idiots. Toyota's original first generation Prius was smaller and did not sell all too well. They completely re-designed it and a cult was formed. It sold better than they had predicted and with those of us who got them acting like strange fanatical evangelists the lust was contagious. It took Toyota some time but eventually they not only were able to get production to catch up with demand but even started to introduce incentives and lower prices on select packages.
Sales leveled out and at times even dropped. Suddenly gas prices start rising at a quickened rate and the easily excitable bi-peds migrated away from their metal dinosaurs and started to hunt for the smaller, quicker hybrids. A lot goes into car production, especially hybrids which have batteries to take into account. Production cannot shift gears that quickly. Auto assembly lines can in time be shifted around to produce more of a given line of vehicles but battery manufacturers also have to juggle around production to attempt to match auto line assembly. Throw into the mix that Toyota has strict sense of quality control. When upping production you must be extra careful that quality is not compromised.
Even more variables come into play. Toyota has been exploring both switching hybrids to lithium ion batteries (which are smaller and lighter for the same power) and plug-in hybrids. With rumors of a dramatically redesigned Prius coming out soon, maybe even as a plug-in model, the current model may soon be outdated. Why up production on a model that will soon be discontinued in it's current form?
This is not even getting into the real problem causing the shortage: car companies make what's selling. When Americans have been snubbing anything smaller than a mini-suv/cross-over vehicle our counter-parts across the Atlantic have been mocking hybrids because they do not use their beloved diesel (which gets better gas mileage but produces more pollution per gallon). Car companies are not philanthropic agencies looking to improve the human condition. They are for-profit producers/sellers. They'll make whatever you buy.
Conclusions get jumped to. Fingers get pointed. Yelling. Tears. Excuses. If our fur covered, poo flinging relatives could talk they'd call us all idiots. Then they'd ask for a banana. In the movie American History X they say to end strong with a quote because someone else has probably said it before, and better than you could. So i will conclude with a quote from the wise old Gwen: Shit's bananas.
Long live chimp-chimp.
Jun 17, 2008
Final Exam
No survey this week. After giving and correcting finals i do not want to have to review any more answers to any more questions i ask. So instead, after another year of teaching, i will vent my frustration of ignorance.
What the fuck people? What's it going to take? People in the US are petitioning to set up oil rigs anywhere and everywhere that there may be oil within our borders. One idiot even recommended building an off shore rig that would reach under the middle east to steal all their oil. This ass-fuck (yes school is out so i'm getting all my swearing out) has watched "There Will Be Blood" too many times and apparently gets a hard-on during the 'milkshake' scene.
Try to put up a wind turbine and people scream about ruining the aesthetics of our skyline (yes, i'm targeting all you bloated Kennedys). But recommend putting up an oil derrick anywhere and people cheer the possible savings at their local Mobil station.
People are choosing gas over food, medicine, and bill payments. Really? Driving your fat ass around in your fat ass car is that important? You'd rather sacrifice your health than contemplate carpooling or mass transit? Where the fuck are your priorities?
All over the world striking truck drivers are shutting down cities and leaving people without food and other necessities. Have none of these drivers (or at least transportation company owners) ever taken, let alone heard of, a business class? No, i'm not talking about a section on your airplane somewhere between first class and economy and i'm not talking about a group of people trying to destroy the working class. i'm talking about an actual education class with business as the subject of study.
Even little kids selling lemonade on the corner know business 101: charge more than your costs. If it costs 5... hey, what the fuck happened to the change symbol on keyboards? It used to be there. When did they take that away? When was the last time you it any of those F1-12 buttons but they keep that whole row on the keyboard. Why can't i have a cents symbol on the keyboard?
But i digress... if it costs $0.05 to make a glass of lemonade you better charge at least a dime. If the cost of fuel goes up then you should probably charge more to transport those materials. People should have to pay the actual cost of what it takes to get what we have become used to. For far too long we have been underpaying for many of the things we deem necessities in modern times. If stores want their merchandise they need to pay the shipping price, if people want to buy what's in the store they need to pay the new prices based on those new shipping costs. Take a cab, take a plane, you'll need to pay more.
So shut the fuck up and start paying $4 for gas. $5 for gas. $10 for gas. Oil is NOT a renewable resource. The more we use the less of it there is. Again, business 101, the less there is of something people want, the more you can charge for it. Just ask the kings of price control: De Beers.
So far i have also refrained from discussing the ramifications of all this delusional amped up oil drilling campaign. If we burn all the oil we currently have access to, human beings will not survive. And you want to slurp out more from our crust? Life on this planet will carry on in various forms but the human experiment WILL come to an end if we keep carrying on in this fashion. As i've said many times before, the great thing about the truth is that you do not have to believe it... it is true either way.
We are like the cancer patient smoking a cigarette through the surgical hole in their throat. Cheered on by the cancer patient in the bed next to them, NE-VER GIVE UP in that robotic pace of the electronic vocal cords they now must hold up to their throat to speak. We defiantly celebrate the use of that which is slowly killing us. We are addicts. Those who sell the objects of our desire (whether crack, cunts, or coffee) aways know that they can get however much they ask for it.
Every month new findings come out linking childhood development of allergies and asthma to air pollution. As parts of our country burn, other parts get washed away by floods, while ever more get blown apart by storms. You can pay the price at the pump or you can pay the price at home, but either way the collector will get what's owed him.
We can smarten up and take care of our debts, or we can keep panicking every time we hear the phone ring fearing that it may be the collection agency.
What the fuck people? What's it going to take? People in the US are petitioning to set up oil rigs anywhere and everywhere that there may be oil within our borders. One idiot even recommended building an off shore rig that would reach under the middle east to steal all their oil. This ass-fuck (yes school is out so i'm getting all my swearing out) has watched "There Will Be Blood" too many times and apparently gets a hard-on during the 'milkshake' scene.
Try to put up a wind turbine and people scream about ruining the aesthetics of our skyline (yes, i'm targeting all you bloated Kennedys). But recommend putting up an oil derrick anywhere and people cheer the possible savings at their local Mobil station.
People are choosing gas over food, medicine, and bill payments. Really? Driving your fat ass around in your fat ass car is that important? You'd rather sacrifice your health than contemplate carpooling or mass transit? Where the fuck are your priorities?
All over the world striking truck drivers are shutting down cities and leaving people without food and other necessities. Have none of these drivers (or at least transportation company owners) ever taken, let alone heard of, a business class? No, i'm not talking about a section on your airplane somewhere between first class and economy and i'm not talking about a group of people trying to destroy the working class. i'm talking about an actual education class with business as the subject of study.
Even little kids selling lemonade on the corner know business 101: charge more than your costs. If it costs 5... hey, what the fuck happened to the change symbol on keyboards? It used to be there. When did they take that away? When was the last time you it any of those F1-12 buttons but they keep that whole row on the keyboard. Why can't i have a cents symbol on the keyboard?
But i digress... if it costs $0.05 to make a glass of lemonade you better charge at least a dime. If the cost of fuel goes up then you should probably charge more to transport those materials. People should have to pay the actual cost of what it takes to get what we have become used to. For far too long we have been underpaying for many of the things we deem necessities in modern times. If stores want their merchandise they need to pay the shipping price, if people want to buy what's in the store they need to pay the new prices based on those new shipping costs. Take a cab, take a plane, you'll need to pay more.
So shut the fuck up and start paying $4 for gas. $5 for gas. $10 for gas. Oil is NOT a renewable resource. The more we use the less of it there is. Again, business 101, the less there is of something people want, the more you can charge for it. Just ask the kings of price control: De Beers.
So far i have also refrained from discussing the ramifications of all this delusional amped up oil drilling campaign. If we burn all the oil we currently have access to, human beings will not survive. And you want to slurp out more from our crust? Life on this planet will carry on in various forms but the human experiment WILL come to an end if we keep carrying on in this fashion. As i've said many times before, the great thing about the truth is that you do not have to believe it... it is true either way.
We are like the cancer patient smoking a cigarette through the surgical hole in their throat. Cheered on by the cancer patient in the bed next to them, NE-VER GIVE UP in that robotic pace of the electronic vocal cords they now must hold up to their throat to speak. We defiantly celebrate the use of that which is slowly killing us. We are addicts. Those who sell the objects of our desire (whether crack, cunts, or coffee) aways know that they can get however much they ask for it.
Every month new findings come out linking childhood development of allergies and asthma to air pollution. As parts of our country burn, other parts get washed away by floods, while ever more get blown apart by storms. You can pay the price at the pump or you can pay the price at home, but either way the collector will get what's owed him.
We can smarten up and take care of our debts, or we can keep panicking every time we hear the phone ring fearing that it may be the collection agency.
Jun 10, 2008
Insult 2 Injury
One of my favorite parts of reading skateboarder magazine is the page where they feature a skater and rundown their injuries. i alas will never be featured in the pages of skateboarder magazine but figured it would be a good exercise anyway.
Thanks to computers my personal medical history is most likely, fairly easily perused by medical staff. If my files since birth were ever accumulated in paper form, at one place, i suppose it would take up it's own draw of a filing cabinet. i don't have that kind of time and this site doesn't have that kind of memory so i will just give some highlights in skate anatomy fashion. i suggest everyone give this a whirl, either in comments below, on your own site, or on the back of a napkin at some bar while trying to impress a girl.
RIGHT SIDE
4-arm: You know, my right side is one of the less beat sides of me. Possibly because of being right handed? Not sure. i broke my right forearm in grade school. Running towards the door to descend from the schoolyard into the catacombs of the building used as the cafeteria, another kid running behind pushed me and i fell mid-arm directly on the corner of the lone step leading to the door. A full speed running dive to concrete step will get the job done when it comes to breaking bones. i played if off as nothing until later that day when my mum grabbed my arm (because i apparently did something to piss her off) and i yelled in agony.
Nailed: One summer day while rail-sliding a wooden box my dad kept sand in to de-ice the driveway in the winter, the box collapsed under my skateboard and i landed with my little finger directly on one of the nails now sticking out of the broken box's side. It was the first time i realized that skinny people do still have fat, because white fatty tissue was now hanging out of a hole in my pinky finger.
Ballerina Toe: i just recently learned that this was the street name given to this condition. i have injured this toe so many times over the years that it has been cracking on demand (way before movies on demand) for some time now. A few months ago while playing defense in soccer (not playing goalie because of injury to be described later) i was slide tackled cleats-up. My big toe took most of the force and now it cracks every time i bend it.
CENTER
Brain Damage: Back to the destructive Catholic School years. i'm not sure who's brilliant idea it was but the entire property surrounding my elementary school was cover in asphalt. One big parking lot. This resulted in many young males getting frequent concussions. i'm going straight to heaven because if i get to purgatory they will announce "time served" for all those torturous hours spent sitting in the secretary's office waiting for my mum to find someone to give her a ride, to pick me up, to bring me to the doctor's because my skull bounced off the pavement... again. Maybe this is why i have a hard time going to sleep, all those time's i was told as a child not to fall asleep after hitting my head.
Deviated Septum: Not sure what happened while i was in the womb but i had a deviated septum until it was fixed at age 22. It's amazing to finally be able to smell and breath through your nose after 22 years. i will never forget the first time i could smell the ocean before i could even see it. This played a significant part in me now living within a 5 minute drive of the ocean. i try never to go more than a week without being able to smell that salty air. For the procedure i opted not to have the cosmetic part done to straighten my nose. Every few years someone asks if i ever broke my nose because it's crooked... i tell them only to get it fixed.
My Toof: New parents are told to never leave their children alone in bathtubs because of me. Not even old enough for kindergarten i was left to bath in privacy. Attempting to stand in the tub i slipped, fell, and slammed my mouth into the tub faucet. After an extensive search for the tooth that once filled the new gap in the front of my mouth i was brought to the emergency room assuming the tooth went down the drain. This was my first in a now long resume of x-ray experience. The machine looked just like the opening scene of the Hulk TV series, i though i was going to get some super powers. All i did end up with was the knowledge that the tooth was knocked up into my jaw. Mystery solved. A few weeks later the adult tooth pushed it back down but it was now a light shade of gray due to the fact that it was deemed "dead". Later in life it refused to fall out like normal baby teeth do so i had to have it pulled, fortunately WITH Novocaine, unlike two of my other adult teeth (but that's another story).
The Accordion: Although i was never a big guy, my speed on skates always kept me a competitive hockey player. While attacking their zone the puck was cleared passed my fellow defenseman. He unfortunately got a little of it, not enough to slow it down but enough for it to not be icing. The opposing team's center and i went barreling down ice to beat the other to the puck. Around my blue line i started to show i was faster and began to pull ahead. He then showed that he was bigger and tripped me, fell himself, and decided to ride me like a toboggan, head first, full speed, into the boards. This is the most pain i have ever experienced. After needing help to get my pads off i headed to an uncomfortable photo session of a double digit x-ray shoot. i was incredibly fortunate to have had no severe damage to my spinal cord. Much like my big toe, my neck cracks whenever i rotate it around and i recently learned that i am starting to show signs of arthritis in my lower back (most likely caused by a decrease in flexibility i have there).
LEFT SIDE
Riblets: There's nothing like a rib injury to let you know how everything you do: walking, lifting your arms, right down to breathing, pulls on your chest. i have now cracked ribs on at least two occasions and there is nothing you can do to treat it. The first time was skateboarding as a kid. There is a walking/bike path connecting my neighborhood to a friend of mine's. There is curb, about a foot tall, to get up to the path. i had gotten quite good at being able to ollie over it without breaking pace. A small pebble had it in for me on this fine day. Board stopped, i kept going. i landed rib to granite curb. A couple years ago i was playing indoor soccer and went up to head in a cross. The Neanderthal goalie ignored the ball and went straight for me. i'm not sure if it happened when he hit me or when i hit the ground but i cracked at least three ribs.
Solo-Saw: Before my sister was big enough to play with i had to entertain myself on those long days spent at our grandparents. Completely unsupervised much of the time i snuck into one of the neighbor's yards and tried my hand at see-sawing. The up part went pretty much as planned, i got quite high. The down part came a bit faster than anticipated with no one on the other end. i came down quick and put my hand out to break my fall when hitting the concrete. My father said i was fine and had me lifting heavy objects to prove to my mum that i was ok. After over a week of this i finally was taken to the hospital. Both bones in my wrist were broken. It took a long time to heal. Much like my back, my wrist has been getting more and more sensitive the older i get.
Lady Finger: i am starting to realize that i have probably hurt myself more times before kindergarten than i have ever since. Even when supervised i still found ways to injure myself. i got the tip of my index finger nearly cut off in the mechanism of a reclining chair. Not only do i have the stitches scar but the repair has made the tip of that finger disproportionately skinnier than my other fingers and it comes up to such a petite curve that it more closely resembles a female finger, especially if the nail has even the slightest of length.
Damn Pinkies: Those little fingers just always seem to be the ones that get themselves in trouble. Playing goal in indoor soccer an opposing player decided to take a shot, as hard as possible, from point black range, directly at me. Keep in mind that it is incredibly difficult to cover the entire span of the goal in indoor soccer as a goalie due to it's size in proportion to the field dimension. Forget about all that open area, he shot right at me. i saved it, injuring all of the fingers on my left hand (and that temperamental wrist) but i expected that from such a close shot. As i then went to cradled to ball i realized that something was wrong, my pinky wasn't bending. Fearfully pulling my glove off, i saw my pinky from the first knuckle up dislocated and behind the first section of the finger. Fortunately we had a trainer playing on our team. Unfortunately after two attempts he determined that this required a hospital visit to fix. Six months later i am still going through PT and still can't make a fist. Maybe this is karma helping to keep me from getting into fights.
Holy shit, this is just the tip of the iceberg... i could write a book about my injuries... a book no one would want to read... not even me (or my Dr).
Thanks to computers my personal medical history is most likely, fairly easily perused by medical staff. If my files since birth were ever accumulated in paper form, at one place, i suppose it would take up it's own draw of a filing cabinet. i don't have that kind of time and this site doesn't have that kind of memory so i will just give some highlights in skate anatomy fashion. i suggest everyone give this a whirl, either in comments below, on your own site, or on the back of a napkin at some bar while trying to impress a girl.
RIGHT SIDE
4-arm: You know, my right side is one of the less beat sides of me. Possibly because of being right handed? Not sure. i broke my right forearm in grade school. Running towards the door to descend from the schoolyard into the catacombs of the building used as the cafeteria, another kid running behind pushed me and i fell mid-arm directly on the corner of the lone step leading to the door. A full speed running dive to concrete step will get the job done when it comes to breaking bones. i played if off as nothing until later that day when my mum grabbed my arm (because i apparently did something to piss her off) and i yelled in agony.
Nailed: One summer day while rail-sliding a wooden box my dad kept sand in to de-ice the driveway in the winter, the box collapsed under my skateboard and i landed with my little finger directly on one of the nails now sticking out of the broken box's side. It was the first time i realized that skinny people do still have fat, because white fatty tissue was now hanging out of a hole in my pinky finger.
Ballerina Toe: i just recently learned that this was the street name given to this condition. i have injured this toe so many times over the years that it has been cracking on demand (way before movies on demand) for some time now. A few months ago while playing defense in soccer (not playing goalie because of injury to be described later) i was slide tackled cleats-up. My big toe took most of the force and now it cracks every time i bend it.
CENTER
Brain Damage: Back to the destructive Catholic School years. i'm not sure who's brilliant idea it was but the entire property surrounding my elementary school was cover in asphalt. One big parking lot. This resulted in many young males getting frequent concussions. i'm going straight to heaven because if i get to purgatory they will announce "time served" for all those torturous hours spent sitting in the secretary's office waiting for my mum to find someone to give her a ride, to pick me up, to bring me to the doctor's because my skull bounced off the pavement... again. Maybe this is why i have a hard time going to sleep, all those time's i was told as a child not to fall asleep after hitting my head.
Deviated Septum: Not sure what happened while i was in the womb but i had a deviated septum until it was fixed at age 22. It's amazing to finally be able to smell and breath through your nose after 22 years. i will never forget the first time i could smell the ocean before i could even see it. This played a significant part in me now living within a 5 minute drive of the ocean. i try never to go more than a week without being able to smell that salty air. For the procedure i opted not to have the cosmetic part done to straighten my nose. Every few years someone asks if i ever broke my nose because it's crooked... i tell them only to get it fixed.
My Toof: New parents are told to never leave their children alone in bathtubs because of me. Not even old enough for kindergarten i was left to bath in privacy. Attempting to stand in the tub i slipped, fell, and slammed my mouth into the tub faucet. After an extensive search for the tooth that once filled the new gap in the front of my mouth i was brought to the emergency room assuming the tooth went down the drain. This was my first in a now long resume of x-ray experience. The machine looked just like the opening scene of the Hulk TV series, i though i was going to get some super powers. All i did end up with was the knowledge that the tooth was knocked up into my jaw. Mystery solved. A few weeks later the adult tooth pushed it back down but it was now a light shade of gray due to the fact that it was deemed "dead". Later in life it refused to fall out like normal baby teeth do so i had to have it pulled, fortunately WITH Novocaine, unlike two of my other adult teeth (but that's another story).
The Accordion: Although i was never a big guy, my speed on skates always kept me a competitive hockey player. While attacking their zone the puck was cleared passed my fellow defenseman. He unfortunately got a little of it, not enough to slow it down but enough for it to not be icing. The opposing team's center and i went barreling down ice to beat the other to the puck. Around my blue line i started to show i was faster and began to pull ahead. He then showed that he was bigger and tripped me, fell himself, and decided to ride me like a toboggan, head first, full speed, into the boards. This is the most pain i have ever experienced. After needing help to get my pads off i headed to an uncomfortable photo session of a double digit x-ray shoot. i was incredibly fortunate to have had no severe damage to my spinal cord. Much like my big toe, my neck cracks whenever i rotate it around and i recently learned that i am starting to show signs of arthritis in my lower back (most likely caused by a decrease in flexibility i have there).
LEFT SIDE
Riblets: There's nothing like a rib injury to let you know how everything you do: walking, lifting your arms, right down to breathing, pulls on your chest. i have now cracked ribs on at least two occasions and there is nothing you can do to treat it. The first time was skateboarding as a kid. There is a walking/bike path connecting my neighborhood to a friend of mine's. There is curb, about a foot tall, to get up to the path. i had gotten quite good at being able to ollie over it without breaking pace. A small pebble had it in for me on this fine day. Board stopped, i kept going. i landed rib to granite curb. A couple years ago i was playing indoor soccer and went up to head in a cross. The Neanderthal goalie ignored the ball and went straight for me. i'm not sure if it happened when he hit me or when i hit the ground but i cracked at least three ribs.
Solo-Saw: Before my sister was big enough to play with i had to entertain myself on those long days spent at our grandparents. Completely unsupervised much of the time i snuck into one of the neighbor's yards and tried my hand at see-sawing. The up part went pretty much as planned, i got quite high. The down part came a bit faster than anticipated with no one on the other end. i came down quick and put my hand out to break my fall when hitting the concrete. My father said i was fine and had me lifting heavy objects to prove to my mum that i was ok. After over a week of this i finally was taken to the hospital. Both bones in my wrist were broken. It took a long time to heal. Much like my back, my wrist has been getting more and more sensitive the older i get.
Lady Finger: i am starting to realize that i have probably hurt myself more times before kindergarten than i have ever since. Even when supervised i still found ways to injure myself. i got the tip of my index finger nearly cut off in the mechanism of a reclining chair. Not only do i have the stitches scar but the repair has made the tip of that finger disproportionately skinnier than my other fingers and it comes up to such a petite curve that it more closely resembles a female finger, especially if the nail has even the slightest of length.
Damn Pinkies: Those little fingers just always seem to be the ones that get themselves in trouble. Playing goal in indoor soccer an opposing player decided to take a shot, as hard as possible, from point black range, directly at me. Keep in mind that it is incredibly difficult to cover the entire span of the goal in indoor soccer as a goalie due to it's size in proportion to the field dimension. Forget about all that open area, he shot right at me. i saved it, injuring all of the fingers on my left hand (and that temperamental wrist) but i expected that from such a close shot. As i then went to cradled to ball i realized that something was wrong, my pinky wasn't bending. Fearfully pulling my glove off, i saw my pinky from the first knuckle up dislocated and behind the first section of the finger. Fortunately we had a trainer playing on our team. Unfortunately after two attempts he determined that this required a hospital visit to fix. Six months later i am still going through PT and still can't make a fist. Maybe this is karma helping to keep me from getting into fights.
Holy shit, this is just the tip of the iceberg... i could write a book about my injuries... a book no one would want to read... not even me (or my Dr).
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