A Dream in my Favor

I've never been one to worry too much about exams. In fact I barely studied for them in the past, but my law class doesn't meet much, so I need to study more for this. My last exam is on Sunday and I have to finish the reading, then write up my notes, and finally work on the answer problems on Saturday. This all means that I'll have no social life (uh, big change) this weekend, save for a movie if I need a break.

Anyway, I had a dream last night that I arrive a day early for my exam and had more time to study. I hope that is a fortuitous sign.

Shit, I was hoping to catch the women's roller derby this weekend, but it was last weekend. All is not lost because the playoffs are NEXT weekend. Wow, I like this early stuff.

Albums You Should Have, But Don't

Ok, after being sick the whole weekend and yesterday, I'm back with a bit of music snobbery. First, I would like to point out that I'm half a gig shy from 40 gigabytes of music, which is roughly 30 days with no repeats. Ok, so I have some songs twice. Anyway, here are seven albums you should have, but probably don't.


Electric Warrior - T. Rex 

I've trumpeted this album in the past, so I will again. This one was somewhat ignored on this side of the Atlantic and anybody my age only heard of this by proxy growing up as Powerstation covered "Get It On (Bang a Gong), which MTV aired a lot. Forget that, buy this one. Or rip it from a friend. Or ask me.


The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society 

For some reason only know to J. Edgar Hoover and Ray Davies, Ray wasn't allowed entrance into the US in the late '60s. The Kinks missed out on the bulk of the counter culture and that is a good thing. Instead of pumping out a copy of White Rabbit or some Beatles crap, they came up with this.


Spring - Cyann & Ben 

Both melodic and chilling, this is a great album to listen to if you find yourself staring at your bathroom tile or something else for no reason.


Live at Leeds - The Who 

Ok, so some of you may have this. "NO!" you say, you have the 1995 expanded version. Well, drop that and get the two-disc set with Tommy on it.


Loveless - My Bloody Valentine 

This is the best album of 1991. It's not Ten, Nevermind, or C.M.B. This one.


Mwng - Super Furry Animals 

I wore my Super Furry Animals shirt to a restaurant. It simply says "Furries" on it. The hostess asked me if I was a Furry
. Can't say that I am. Anyway, this album is the top selling Welsh language album of all time. Ok, that's not hard, but get it anyway.


Kick Out the Jams - MC5 

One sentence: "It's time to kick out the jams, motherfucker!"

So there it is. Pick on me if you must.

Black Bird of Annoyance

With the fair winds of spring, the red-winged black bird has returned. That damn thing shows up EVERY Spring and bleats out his one-note repertoire over and over and over and over at my windows and the entry windows. Then it shits everywhere. Maybe his little song pisses him off, too, so he shits at the same time. I don't know. At first he flew away when we taped pictures of owls and falcons to the window. He wised up to that. Then I bought a Hootie Owl and hung him up. That didn't do it, either, and now Hootie is gathering dust on top of my shelves.

I'm conflicted as to whether this bird is really smart or extraordinarily stupid. On one hand, paper or plastic animals do not dupe him nor has another beast gobbled him up. Then again, he repeatedly chirps at his own reflection, day in/day out/ year in/year out. I'm a kind and gentle person by nature, but I think I'll ask my brother-in-law to point a shotgun at the thing and scatter his body to the winds.

You know, I need to name this thing. Any suggestions of names that signify annoyance? I will not accept Pat or Henry.

Ich bin ein Klutz

Here are some pictures proving my status as a Klutz. Ok. So Shaun makes it down the hill just fine.

As does Kyle....

Here's a dramatization of me going at the end of the same little hill. Unfortunately, there's no picture, since the camera was in my backpack. Hill: 1, Camera: 0. Here's more proof if you don't believe me. This happened while helping my friend build his house. He keeps this picture in his sun visor and shows it to people the first time they're in his truck. So there you have it.

Post-Ride Pat

After the post below and after finding Dave's post, I created my South Park persona after a bike ride. I think it's fitting.

89.3 The Current

Why, oh why, does 89.3 have to play decent stuff and then go into a whole block of crap? I'm shutting this stream off.

Steve, Broken Chains, and Nucular Reesrch

So Friday night I went to visit Steve. I made it to some veteran bookstore, upgraded to trendy bookstore with adjacent Starbucks, just in time to catch Steve's portion of his poetry reading. He's a good public speaker and had the crowd giggling. He was by far the most interesting one. The next read so focused and monotonous that I kind of missed it and the next was pretentious in the happy-psuedo-granola-I'm-a-liberated-womyn-really-I-am sort of way. Steve had the copy of the M Magazine that he was on the cover of a year and a half ago, so I was able to read that.

We headed, as usual, to Trocadero. On empty stomachs and mojitos, we caught up on the dramas in our lives (95% Steve, 5% me). That guy's life is never dull and he had more than usual this time. He seems to handle it all well enough. We need to trade skins for a week. That'll give me something to talk about and him a much-needed rest.

Saturday, I headed to Eric's to get a bike rack for my car and a CO2 pump for flats and then to Blue Mound State Park to finally use my mountain bike for which it was designed. I opted to try the intermediate path and learned that I'm a beginner mountain biker, i.e. a complete pussy. I actually have scars and stories to excuse myself from jumping straight into hard-core biking. I'll have to post pictures of my scars, among other things. Anyway, I was happily failing to conquer the trail when I snapped my chain. I was only a half-hour into it. I was kind of pissed in the Better Off Dead-sort of way, but still hiked around a bit and headed home. Of course, everyone I knew was working that night, so I caught up on some tv.

Anyway, thanks the Michael the Librariman for his quick response to my nucular reesrch request. One of the benefits of OCD is that I think of something and have to read about it. So if anyone needs a trivia team member, I'm your man!

Anyway, back to drawing lines.

Shock and Blah

So here I am, enjoying my amorphous lunch break, reading stuff on the internet. I get into a vein of why I'm going to maintain the average paternal generational spread off 44 and change years. It's these moments of clarity, well, not so much clarity and rationalization, when I remember the following:

1. I hate dating. Yeah, relationships are good and fine, but I stink at first dates. I always say stupid things (all the time, not just first dates) and when people get to know me, they don't think it's so strange. Unless they do and I'm entertainment value. But I'm the type that just kind of says what's pouring through my mind at any given time. That doesn't work so well when someone is talking about her ex-girlfriend or how Fluffy ate some Geritol. Not that I say anything offensive, it's that I don't say the right thing. Plus, the subtle rules of the dating game elude me. Someone will serve up a move of some sort and the ball will bounce past the line while I'm talking to the line judge. 15-Love, edge: not me.

2. Divorce, dysfunctional relationships, etc. I've seen so many of these damn things. All of my oldest sister's high school friends have been divorced, some more than once. My other sister's friends have had some dandy marriages and relationships, too. Then there's Kyle. He doesn't live with his girlfriend, but they go to a relationship counselor. Recently, the counselor who, mind you, is getting a paycheck of the deal said she had no idea why they date since they just fight. I have no clue where they are in their break-up, fight again (never a make-up) routine.

3. I often do Pat things that don't include anyone, because I'm an introvert. I hate clingy people and face it, most people are.

4. Madison is a shitty town to be over 25 and single. Maybe I can fit in with the divorced crowd once I'm 35. Uh, no. Refer to 2.

5. There are other rationalizations, but they're not coming to me right now. #1 is enough of a reminder.

One more note. My roommate was out drinking and had one stay over the other night. Not much happened, or so he said, but she liked him and vice versa. When he got up in the morning, he rushed to the toilet and puked. Loudly. She left abruptly and he didn't get her number. Now if I got hangovers, which I don't, I'd be one to do the same thing.

Anyway, time to work.

Post 79 Rev 4$1&&5 Aggitated Dreams

I've been sleeping funny for the last few nights and of course, my dreams are out of wack. I mean, out of wack from the normal out-of-wackness they usually are. For some reason, the little Portuguese fisherman that runs my dream center decided to piss me off through my whole dream. In one part, all of us at work had to temporarily move back to our old offices on the other end of the building. Now that was a cluster fuck. Shit was stacked to the ceiling in my office, except I had a path to my chair. In addition, I had a shit load of CAD work to do, so I couldn't get anything else done (which actually happens from time to time). My monitor wouldn't work and it turns out my brother-in-law decided to play a joke on me. Instead of unplugging the damn thing, he cut the cord. I couldn't get any damn work done, so I went home to do it.

Not that home was any better. I forget how, but my roommate was pissing me off. Then some girl was playing some Playstation game on my tv in my bedroom. All I wanted to do was go to bed. Of course, I said I'd move the Playstation to a nice, bigger tv elsewhere. I couldn't be rude because a girl was actually in my bedroom. That happens soooo often.

Damn Portuguese. They're bad news.

Same Old

Well, I was late again this morning. I went home last night after work, finished "The Big Sleep", and fell into a, well, not big, so much as hard sleep. I woke up later, watched a bunch of "Farscape" and went to bed at 1 am. Then I drug myself out of bed at 7:45 and made it to work at 8:10. Once there, I sugared and caffeined myself up to make it through the day. The caffeine/sugar mix worked too well, because I was speaking a mile a minute. Those of you who know me know what I'm like with sugar and caffeine in me. Soon, oh so very soon, I will have my physical and get my referral to a specialist and get this damn thyroid thing taken care of. That, or arrive to work late cronically, but not drunk. At least my breath would smell like wet dog instead of whiskey.

Whiskey makes me puke.

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Uh, this lady at a table near me was doing the dorky sway thing to the Pixies. That's creepy. And she's smiling like a serial killer.

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Ever try to describe Milwaukee? I did today.

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Anyway, that's all I have to say. Wish I had more. I should catch Player's, Madison's Sleeziest Bar 1992, since my sister-in-law-in-law is working there for the next four months before she moves to Chicago. Oh, maybe I can catch Steve in Milwaukee and find one of these mythical "women" he talks about. I hear "women" are kind of cool.

Anyway, I'll put some crappy photography up on wikicommons.

Bored at Work

I'm bored as hell at work right now. Oh wait, the phone! Of course some goober is looking for someone who is on the phone AND he wants to hold. I hate Friday afternoons. It's dead and I have to help answer the phones.

Anyway, bored. I've been drawing lines for the whole... damn phone... oh good, someone else got it.. afternoon. Along with Primal Scream playing, I'm in somewhat of a drooling state. Gee, isn't wikipedia fun!?! Now Brian Eno is on. Well, only about an hour to go with this rumbling stomach and I can go eat some fish. Such a highlight.

Yawns and Fish

So I finally got the results of my thyroid test and it turns out that my medication is too high. That surprised the shit out of me since I've been dragging my ass this week. I know part of it is that damn Daylights Saving Time, but today is the first day I made it to work on time. Now I have to figure out how not to bloat out like a dead cadaver by cutting out food and exercising even more. Damn gland.

Last night Tim, Shaun and I went to see the bluegrass band again. I hadn't seen Tim since my 30th birthday. Not that I had a party or anything, we just happened to catch a bite to eat. The band was way off for some reason. I caught a big smell of sweet leaf; perhaps they needed to smoke more of it. Of course, I was half asleep by 10, so I bailed early. I'll figure this out somehow. Tonight a group of us are catching the New Glarus Hotel Fish Fry. It's the best around. Gee, I get to eat less of that too.

Anyway, I'll quit bitching and share a bit of nostalgia with everyone.

Religion

Those of you who know me know that I'm not a religious person. Yeah, I live with a minister's son, but I don't think he's been to church in quite a while. I do, however, have a respect for religion when those who practice are principled and actually catch the spirit of their religion's teachings. I found this at the April 1, 2005 Portland Press Herald via DailyKos. I don't think the page will remain up, so I copied over. Hope this isn't a violation of copywrite:

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Don`t post commandments; live them

Should our government endorse one particular religion's precepts?

Be careful what you ask for. If we took the Ten Commandments seriously, our way of life would be radically challenged - as it should be. Consider just five of them:

Keep the Sabbath holy? In Maine, car dealerships have to fight public opinion to keep the day off. L.L. Bean never sleeps. Sports scheduling in the public schools often precludes attending church schools.

Thou shalt not kill? Would you post that in the Pentagon? What about the embargo that killed 500,000 Iraqi children? Or countenancing genocide in the Sudan? Only the Quakers take nonviolence seriously.

Thou shalt not steal? Should the government have posted that at Enron? Or nailed it in the halls of every American corporation? Would it make any difference?

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor? What's that again about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction?

Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbor's? Tell that to Native Americans. That's how we've succeeded in life. Why do we attempt to overthrow, bribe or invade other nations when the issue is oil? A little coveting?

From my perspective, I would not want the Ten Commandments placed in the public domain, posturing as the symbol of an unapplied faith, honored in the breach.

I would rather they be proclaimed and nurtured by churches and synagogues who, exercising their religious freedom, take them seriously enough to call us to task.

Rev. Glenn H. Turner
New Gloucester
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Seperate, but Equal

For crying out loud. Now the zealots are forming their own baseball league. The Colorado Springs Family Focusers? The Dallas Theological Seminarians? How about the South Carolina Holier Than Thou? Or the Pinellas Park Hypocritical Lifers? My sister lives next to Wheaton, so maybe I'll catch a game. Who knows, Rapture may strike in the bottom of the fifth and I can go to Heaven. Then again, I don't want to be there. They can have their own heaven, too.