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.

Random Bits of Food Inbetween the Molars

Well, I got my car back from the body shop and I'm a happy camper. I was stuck with a Buick Century, which is the type of car that Ma and Pa Kettle take to the lutefisk dinner during lent. It sails more than drives. I hated that piece of shit. The amenities were only a radio and tape deck. I have exactly one cassette tape and like approximately one radio station. That radio station doesn't always have shows I want to listen to. Anyway, I was about home when "No Sleep Tonite" popped on my ipod and put me in a good mood for the rest of the night.

In other news, my mother found another Christmas present for me stuffed in some box in a back room. This made me happy, since it was Blackadder. If you haven't ever heard of it, shame on you.

That being said, I get to go to the Harmony for lunch for some hot chips and see some bluegrass music (how I can "see" music is beyond me) tonight.

My day is looking up.

Trains, Theft, and Professional Drinkers

Once again, I made the pilgrimage to Chicago, holy Mecca of, uh, something Madison isn’t. After a brief stop in the ‘burbs to visit my sister’s family, Kyle and I took the train into the city. The ride made me wish I could take a train to the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and down to Chicago. Then I wished I could take decent mass transit in Madison when we rode the el (is that how you abbreviate it?) over to Dave’s Neighborhood*. Dave was just finishing some Miracle on Ice documentary for what I suppose was the twelfth time. Then he, Kyle and I walked to some Irish Bar (voted best soccer bar in the US two years in a row, I guess) and had dinner. Jess, another college classmate, showed up in good spirits so the conversation was rather boisterous. Dave set the tone by ordering a second Guiness, so I had to keep up, which was definitely the theme of the night.

When Dave’s friend showed up, we went to the Wolves game. I bought the first round of . Of course I had to go back twice since they only allowed two to be bought at once. Thankfully, I had plenty of ones and quarters from the first trip, so the old foggie didn’t bitch a second time. I guess when Dave went back for the second round, the lady asked him where he got the beer he was finishing (no break for the liver, mind you) and he said his friend. Then she asked if he carded him. Can’t say that I did.

So the Wolves lost and we headed back into the city for karaoke. Kyle made it back after mauling his opponents in pool. He said he didn’t, but that’s his usual modesty. It wasn’t a busy night, so I managed to belt out about five songs. You know, my voice isn’t so bad when I’m drunk. I’m sure it’s a perception thing which explains why I sung the “Love Boat”, “Physical” (in a deutsches accent), "Ghost Busters" (courtesy of a blank screen), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (thanks to the help of other drunk patrons) and “King of the Road”. I did manage to pawn my last, and undrunken, pint off on Dave, proving that he is the Profession Drinker of Choice (tm) in the Chicagoland area. I did manage to feel ok the next morning. Kyle, well, he puked at a truck stop in South Beloit. Funny, “beloit” is the sound fluids make when hitting toilet water.

Anyway, the last bit “Theft” was that someone stole a bunch of cash and change at work. S/He even took thirty-five cents from one guy’s drawer. Our leading suspect seems to have fled, since the police couldn’t get a hold of him. The worst part is s/he stole our pop machine key, leaving all that syrupy goodness locked inside. Oh well.

Time to write a Kiosk history.


* I get this picture of a kid’s show where a surly thirty-something in a Wolves jersey walks into a bar and mixes, through twirls of bottles and shakers, a dry martini singing the Brady Bunch Theme.

Snooze

Last night after writing a new Kiosk history, eating some macroni and cheese, and watching two more episodes of Carnivale, I fell into the calmest sleep I've had in about two months. My dreams were of the colorful sort, meaning the actual visual parts, but I don't remember much about the content. I woke up this morning feeling rested, actually enjoyed my shower for the first time in a while, and walked out the door with a spring in my step. So that was good.

Tonight I have the Kiosk. Does anyone have suggestions on what CD's I should rip from the library? I was thinking of searching for some Pogues.

Ok, this post went nowhere.