Maybe She read my Blog?

About an hour after my last post, Erin noticed that the cat had her kittens. It's funny, because we set up three possible nesting sights for her in our 10 x 12 spare room; one in the cleaned out closet, one in a specially constructed box, and one in a converted cat-carrier... and she decided that she must have her kittens in my best (and most expensive) suitcase, which I bought for my trip to Switzerland a few summers ago. Normally, I'd never spend so much money on something functional I could get at Target for around $30, but this is truly the best suitcase out there, especially for the kind of travel I was doing (and hope to do again).
Anyway, it was balanced haphazardly on top of some old computer gear in the corner near the bookcase, as we had cleared out the closet, expecting the kitty to have her babies in there, like a normal cat. I don't know what we were thinking.
Friggin' cats...

The town trollop's in a family way; and I'm a dragon-making genius!

So we rescued this little hoochie of a mom-cat from the SPCA.



Erin wanted to have a kitten and I figured this would be a good way to get her one. The mamma we adopted, they said, should have her babies within a few days.
Well, that was 17 days ago. Personally, I am beginning to think they just gave us a really fat cat. If she doesn't have babies soon, her ass will be tossed back out on the street.
In other news, we had a Chinese NY parade at our school to "honor" the three new Chinese exchange students we got after the holiday break. Coincidentally, this celebration just happened to be scheduled when the big-wigs of the corporation would be visiting our campus. The prep-time we were given to come up with a dragon for the parade? 9 days....
Keep in mind that this requirement was handed down well after lesson plans had been made for that week, so we either had to scrap our lessons, or somehow fit the dragon-making process into an already tightly scheduled work day.
So I'm not a big fan of these last minute projects, especially when we run the risk of minimizing an entire culture by expecting students to do projects like this without any context. So I scrapped my English instruction for 2 weeks, and we learned a little about Chinese myths, their NY celebrations, and why they have some of the traditions during this holiday that they do. The lessons went off better than I expected, and my students were really into it.
Meanwhile, I was fretting over the actual dragon. With no guidlines from anywhere (we were told to figure it out ourselves and 'be creative') I was naturally concerned, as I can hardly draw a straight line, and am one of the least artistic people I know.
On the other hand, I am also one of the most creative people I know, especially when it comes to problem solving, so it was with mixed feelings that I designed a model for my students to construct.
I started by watching several Chinese NY parades. Seeing how intricate the dragons were, I was more than a little concerned about making a hideous failure of a project, but I figured if I could just get the head right, the rest would fall into place.
Other teachers were using paper, sheets, boxes, etc., but none of their ideas seemed to me to be something I could do well, and besides, I`didn't want to copy anyone. They were ALL doing projects which the students would wear, which is really more traditional for the Lion dance, not the NY's parade. In NY's parades, the dragon is traditionally held up on sticks, chasing a ball that symbolizes the sun. So I decided to build ours using only traditional colors for luck and Spring (red, yellow, orange) and to make it with PVC and foam board. The head I built from foam coreboard and balloons, and the students did the rest. I was amazed (and very pleased) by the results. We had senior art students asking if we'd bought our dragon, and it was by far the best one. The president of the company took a picture of our class to put on the corporate website, and in general we got lots of kudos, which was great. Here are a few pictures of our dragon:










So besides the trollop and the dragon, not much else is happening here lately.
Well, except for the fact that Nick is going to be FIFTEEN on Tuesday, and I'll have TWENTY years sobriety on Sunday. It's crazytimes, indeed.

Damn the KGB!

Normally I am very good at finding things on the internet. However, tonight I looked around for about 3 hours (I even texted KGB, but they came up short) trying to find reference to one of the funniest commercials ever: a car commercial which featured a couple of LA hipsters getting in their car and heading to Vegas, with "Viva Las Vegas" blaring on the radio. They were all stoked, doing the head-bobbing finger snapping thing in tune to the music, as they came up on the Vegas welcome sign.



Then the commercial cut to a shot of them driving away from the city in near silence, looking very depressed. The only sound was the hum of the engine, and there was a caption that said something like "4 hours, 37 minutes and 800 dollars later." The idea was that at least the car (whatever kind it was) was a good deal, in spite of the otherwise very disappointing events of the evening.
If anyone remembers what car company this commercial was for, or better yet, can find the commercial on youtube or some such, let me know... It's driving me nuts!

More concrete change in 24 hours than Bush made in 8 years

For all the BS Bush gave about being a Washington outsider, and his mission to "change things in Washington," things went along pretty much as usual after he was elected. Of course, Clinton, Bush Sr. and Reagan all made similar promises of reform. Yet no real changes were made.

So how completely refreshing (and I'm sure totally shocking to the Billyfishes of the world) when today, on his first day in office, Obama closed the revolving door on people employed by his administration.
THEN he put a salary freeze on his staff who make more than $100,000 a year.
Heavy, revolutionary lobbyist reform. Before noon on his first day.

Oh, and he also committed to closing Gauntanimo within a year.

And I did mention 'concrete' in my post title, so listen to this...
Today our local FOX station ran a piece on how Obama's grassroots election campaign has been transformed into a community action network, and here that meant that a local school in need of a paint job (due to the lack of funds in our state budget for such things, as our gov doesn't want to raise taxes, because, you know, businesses suffer) got one, from a variety of people in the community who believe in Obama's message of change and his call to civic responsibility. They used his outreach resources to coordinate. Read all about it here.

Change isn't just coming; it's already here.

This is sheer brilliance

The following is courtesy of Brannon. He finds WAY more cool stuff than he shares, unless you visit him at home.




Long live Chanto!

I finally cracked (Sort of...)

SO. To recap...
I had my first (really the second, the 1st was in August) spine injection a week ago Wednesday.
It didn't work.
In fact, it made so hurt so much that for three days I woke up, suicidal thoughts in my head.
I have NEVER had a suicidal thought in my life. Not ever. It freaked me out.
Of course, my pain doc said he'd never heard of such reactions, and blahblahblah.
I had a follow-up with my primary care doc on Monday, to let him know I wanted to take a different direction with my treatment, and to go over the list of symptoms I'd written up covering major things from the last ten years or so. Especially troublesome to me were the new symptoms of the last week, many of which were brand-new things to me, including a huge loss of appetite, obsessive thoughts of using speed again, and suicidal thoughts. ALL things that are COMPLETELY out of character for me.

I told him I really didn't want any more shots, surgeries or medications, and that I wanted to start looking into alternative treatments, like acupuncture or cognitive behavioral therapy; ANYTHING to help end this increasingly hopeless state of mind I've been slipping into over the last ten months or so. And I told him I wanted to begin getting off so many medications.
Since this summer, I have been taking 4 aspirin, 8 ibuprofen, and 1-2 tramadol every day for pain. The tramadol has narcotic-like properties, and so I don't like to take it anymore than I have to, which is why I've been alternating it with the OTC's.
In addition to the pain meds, I also take a muscle relaxer called Soma, Zyrtec for allergies, and Xanax for anxiety (to help me sleep).
All in all, it's a shit-load of meds for a 37 year old man who by all outside accounts should be healthy. I don't drink, smoke or do any recreational drugs, I eat fairly healthy, I've been sober just short of 20 years, and I ought to feel better. Even my CT scans, nerve conduction tests and MRI's have shown that, while I have some damage in my shoulders and some arthritis in my neck, nothing is outside the range of normal for someone my age.
So anyway, my doc is actually a pretty good good guy, and I like him, so I didn't argue when he threw three new prescriptions my way. First, he said the appetite and nausea problems were most likely due to stomach damage caused by all the NSAIDS (aspirin, advil) I was taking, and that I had to stop taking those immediately. He prescribed prilosec to fix the stomach ulcer, and absolutely NO NSAIDS, at all. He reiterated that the tramadol was not addictive, and that I should take it as prescribed, 1-2 every six hours. It wouldn't hurt my stomach, and it was not (as I had heard from another doctor) dangerous to my liver.
Then he prescribed a new arthritis cream called Voltaren. It is supposed to help with the neck pain without the negative effects on my stomach. Finally, he prescribed me Cymbalta. It is marketed as a panacea, a cure-ALL for multiple needs. Especially considering the depressive thoughts, he believed it would do wonders for me. In addition to being an antidepressant, it is a pain reliever, and it would allow me to drop my medication intake down to three (the cymbalta, Xanax, and the tramadol). He gave the the scrips and a sample of the cymbalta, and sent me on my way.
So, being desperate, I took a cymbalta when I got home, then I went to the pharmacy to fill the scrips.
Much to my surprise, however, the pharmacy wouldn't fill the cymbalta scrip. It turns out that cymbalta is not safe to take with tramadol.
WTF?
I went home and started doing some research. Not only is there potential for seizures when the two are taken together, there is moderate danger when taken with Xanax (though I found out cymbalta is also an anti-anxiety).
Hello fucked-up night of little sleep and paranoia.
Shortly after going to bed, I heard loud ringing in my ears. Weird flashes of pain, twitchiness... not to mention countless other irregularities in thought and sensation.
I don't know if the drugs were causing me to react strangely, or if it was just my worrying about it, but either way it was a rough night.
So anyway, I woke up Tuesday and went to school. However, I didn't take anything, because I was afraid of what might happen if I did.
And, it turns out, I made it through the day ok. Yes I hurt, but I realized that I'd been hurting for quite awhile while taking the meds anyway.
So I called my doc, who apologized for not knowing (it's not uncommon, and it is why we have pharmacists) and who told me to stop the tramadol and to wait at least 72 hours before resuming the cymbalta.
So here it is, five days since I've taken any pain killers (aside from the topical I rub into my neck) and I am feeling ok. My neck and shoulders still hurt, and I am still having trouble sleeping, but I haven't begun the cymbalta (I don't know if I will or not) and I've only been taking the xanax, which really does make a noteable (though small) difference in the amount of time I sleep.
I also went to an acupuncturist on Thursday, and it was pleasant. Whether or not it will really help, well... we'll have to wait and see.
My current plan is to stick with the acupuncture, play it a day at a time in regards to starting the cymbalta, and to begin exercising and working on stress relief techniques. I keep telling myself "baby steps, baby steps," and I am trying to get back to that old AA adage of one day at a time. I believe that the root of my pain and health issues is repetitive strain injury in my neck, due to my poor sleep hygiene and heavy computer use, and my inability to deal with stress. So starting out small, I've been walking for 15 minutes every day during my morning prep at the park near my school, and I am planning on seeing a therapist to get some help with relaxation practices and stress management. I'm also looking around for a physical therapist that can help me learn how to sit and walk in a way that will help me regain healthy posture and will help relieve the muscle strain in my neck. Erin's sister sees a guy in NY who practices The Feldenkrais Method. It is similar in philosophy to PT and chiropractic, but focuses on healthy movement instead of body parts like bones and muscles. Unfortunately, Las Vegas doesn't have any active practicioners, so I'll have to find something else, but approaches like that seem more like what I need than being filled with medicines that just interfere with the natural way my body is supposed to work.
The point is I am about finished with the traditional pills and surgery route, at least for now. I am not discounting the benefit of ALL medications, just the general idea that more is better where they are concerned. Simply put, I really think my problem is a holistic one, and I am trying some holistic approaches. At least for now.

And to end on a completely unrelated note, my friend Elaine found a little program which would count up the number of cuss words on your blog, with an assigned percentage. While I had no doubt I'd beat her out, I was surprised at how close our scores were, and that mine wasn't higher. My guess is that many of my profane utterances were obtuse enough to slip past the program's filter.

Fed Up

I pretty much am tired of doctors. But I'm also tired of feeling like crap, so I've been a bit depressed lately, because the endless amount of several hundred dollar co-pays for procedures which haven't brought me any relief are beginning to feel the equivalent of throwing money into a woodburning stove. Add to that the cost of Nick's therapy of $250 month, and we've been spending thousands of dollars in the last six months that we didn't have budgeted. And, of course, I took a 30% pay cut to switch campuses this year (which certainly asn't helped!), with the expectation that career opportunity would make up for it, but not surprisingly our new head of school is no different than the others have been; he's never present, and has done nothing to actually improve the quality of the work environment for either the teachers or the students.
So I'm pretty much done. I think that my health issues are mostly due to stress, bad posture from too much computer, and general depression. Erin and I are looking around to move this summer, depending on Nick's feelings about school, which of course are among the top factors in any decision we'll make. He hasn't really connected strongly with anyone here yet, and he seems enthusiastic about the prospects of moving somewhere smaller, cooler and less Vegas-like. That may change (he is a teenager) but it probably won't. And if we're going to go, we really want to do it before he hits 10th grade, so he can have the complete HS experience wherever we go next. Erin's posted some of our considerations on her blog, so I won't repeat them here, and it's not a done deal, it's just the direction we're leaning. We ALL could use a change, and I know for me personally, a change in job is the very least of things on the horizon. If I didn't love my students so much this year, I'd seriously consider quitting my job right now, it's got me that down. But I DO love the kids I have, and I DO love my work, it's just the dead-endedness of my job career-wise that has me down, along with having to work under people who just don't give a shit or even have a clue about how to improve things. Combine that with the 19 shots I received this week, 5 in my mouth for a crown, eight in my shoulders into trigger points, and one in my neck which I got a neat picture of:



add my also having picked up a nasty bug on Monday from a student who came to school sick, which has had me feeling fatigued and nauseous all week, and you can probably understand why I feel it's time for a new approach to improving my well being.
I've never been a big believer in "alternative" medicine, but I am starting to reconsider. I have the feeling that, considering my general lack of results from the surgeries and shots in relieving my malaise, my problems are less medical and more behavioral/systemic. I've just not done a good job of taking care of myself in the last few years, as can be seen in my dropping out of AA nearly completely, to never meditating or praying, to not even being able to relax, ever. I still haven't even begun to deal with my dad's dying, and I don't know how to start. I think that it is literally stress that is fucking me up, but I'm not sure how to de-stress. Cognitive behavioral therapy? It sounds good, but I don't even know what it is! Relaxation techniques? Like what? Acceptance? I used to understand it, but from here and now it seems like that person I was is someone else, completely inaccessable to me.
In a little more than a month, I'll have 20 years sober. No alcohol, no drugs, a generally healthy diet and a nearly clean conscience... for 20 years. I feel like I ought to feel better than I do, and I'm not sure where to turn next, though I'm starting with my primary care doc and am hoping he can give some suggestions which will be in a direction away from other "specialists" and away from medical procedures of any kind. If not, I'm going to switch docs and try to find a DO instead of an MD...
So anyway, there it is.

Oh my gosh, you guys...there's SNOW in Las Vegas!

To quote the cheesy holiday anthem, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.


According to the weather channel, we here in Vegas are under a severe winter weather warning until 6:00 tomorrow morning. It started dumping snow pretty heavily around 1:00 today, and it hasn't let up yet. Those of you from places that actually get snow, this may not sound like much, and it's not. But for lots of people here, especially my students, this is the first time they've even seen snow.
As a result, people are of course driving like morons, going at most 15 mph on the freeway, for example, when the roads aren't even frozen. It's a case of the overly-cautious causing dangerous conditions.
Add to that parents with overly dramatic attitudes to the tiniest of changes in the daily routine, and you've got what looks like our school's very first snow day. In Las Vegas.
Weird, I know. But also very pretty.



For a person who grew up in the mountains like I did, there's nothing like tons of heavy white snow coating everything to trigger memories of Christmas fun as a child. It really brings back vivid memories of building forts, hiding behind stop signs and then grabbing the bumpers of unsuspecting cars and letting them drag you over the icy streets, and playing the latest Atari 2600 games, like Pitfall or Adventure.

The Christians and the Pagans

OK ok ok.

Here's a helpful quiz I've developed to clear up any spiritual confusion out there. Are you, in general, a happy person or a dour one? Do you live in harmony, or discord?

Take my handy "Christian or Pagan" holiday song challenge to find out!

First, the Pagans:



Now, the Christians:





Now think about the lyrics and decide, which song does a better job of representing what I think?
And don't forget to focus on what you THINK, not what you think you're supposed to BELIEVE.

Now before any of you Christians blather on about how this guy is not representative of mainstream Christianity, I ask you to REALLY look beyond the awful music to the ideas he espouses. I think you'll see he pretty well sums up the Jesus-thing.

OK then. Hopefully that will have helped everyone who was in doubt to decide once and for all if they have chosen their belief system correctly. No need to thank me.

Mazel tov,

Tyson

a purple wand and hairy sack of magic

I heard a joke today. Here goes...

I booked into a hotel and said to the receptionist, "I hope the porn channel in my room is disabled."

"No," she says, "it's regular porn, you sick bastard."

In my opinion, the greatest comedian ever was Bill Hicks. This joke reminded me of a bit done by Bill Hicks on the hairy bobbin' man-ass one used to see on TV's in hotels in the 80's and 90's.
If you've never heard of Hicks, it's probably because he's dead.
He was a visionary; if you listen to his shows, you'd think they were made in the last 5 years, not 20 years ago. His political humor was transcendent, his religious humor merciless, and his sexual humor just plain hysterical.
Here's one of my favorite bits. It's sheer genius.

(WARNING: Please don't watch this mom)

Composition 9-6-77

If I could be any vegetable, I would probably be a stalk of corn. Corn is a tall, superior vegetable over the others in a garden. Corn reigns tall and high like the king of the vegetables. (Pardon the printing, I forgot!)
All the vegetables would look up to me. I would be like the army commander over the crop. "Okay tomatoes and lettuce, at ease!," I would say. Yes, corn would see the sunrise and sunset long before the carrots and onions. Yessiree! The plant I would like to be is corn, King of the crop!

{End of composition}

Yeah, that's right. VIP, Beyotch!

This was quite a fun weekend for us.
Through the generosity of a few student's parents, and some lucky good timing, we were able to have what amounted to an eight hundred dollar evening last night, and all it cost us was the tip at dinner time.
We started out by going to the Bellagio to pick up some VIP tickets to go and see "O." The show wasn't until 7:30, but we had to pick up the tickets by 6:00, so we arrived there at around 5:40. The will call line was about a block long, but after a brief trip to the Bellagio's VIP office, we returned to the ticket booth for the theater where we got to completely skip the line everyone else was in by standing in the VIP line. We literally had no one in front of us, though we had to wait for about five minutes. All in all, it was not a bad trade.
Now, normally I hate all things labeled VIP, and the VIP label is a total tourist scam here in Vegas, where it means nothing more than paying extra for no benefit whatsoever. This concept is so asenine that I won't even get into it here. Seriously, read this article about how one couple got scammed, and you'll at first feel sorry for them, but will then say screw 'em for trying to be elitist in the first place.
That said, there IS a real VIP world where people don't wait in lines and where you really do get treated well, and where you don't pay up front. And let me tell you, it's a nice place to visit!
To continue, for those of you who don't know, "O" is the flagship of Cirque du Soliel shows. It's the most expensive, the most intricate, and the longest of the Vegas Cirque shows, and it really is the best. We picked up our 6th row front-and-center seats, the best in the house, and then headed to dinner.
Dinner was at Joe's Stone Crab in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. Between Nick, Erin and me, we had quite a feast. We started with some Pellegrino, and for appetizers we had 6 stone crab claws, fried tomatoes covered in spinach and cheese, and the Best oysters Rockafeller EVER!
The stone crab claws came pre-cracked, so all we had to do was pick away at the shells. Erin was non-plussed though, as she thinks crab is too bland. I thought it was great, and I love the story behind the stone crabs. The short version is that they harvest the crabs in the Gulf of Mexico by cutting off their claws (which grow back) and then tossing them back in the sea, presumably to regrow their claws so they can be harvested again.



This appeals to both my sense of sustainability as well as my sense of pity; I can just imagine some crab being grateful to escape with his life, who, after the umpteenth time of being plucked from the water to have his claw YET AGAIN striped away by some pesky bipeds, is about fed up with the whole situation. It was amusing to ponder the moral dilemma between sustaining a natural resource and being generally opposed to animal cruelty.
After the appetizers, we had our entrees. Erin had Dover Sole prepared God-only-knows how; Nick had Seafood Marinara with lobster, crab, shrip and mussels; and I had a $55 dollar bone-in NY strip steak, which, I'm happy to say, is the first steak I have had in many, many years which was so good it required no doctoring.
For dessert we had coffee and shared a sweet potato pecan pie, which was better than the sum of it's parts, and which Erin is obsessed with finding a recipe to duplicate. According to Nick, "Dinner's so good I'd be happy even if we didn't get to see the show," which of course a moot point, as we were going to see it in approximately 10 minutes!
We left our waiter a hefty tip (since the food was free) and made our way from Caesars to the Bellagio with a few minutes to spare. We got to our seats, and enjoyed the most engaging show I've ever seen.

As far as "O" goes, it's something you just have to see.



I'm a huge Cirque fan, and Mystere has for years been my favorite show, but I really think "O" topped it. It was just plain outstanding. After the show, we came home and just sort of basked in the afterglow of an evening WAY beyond our pay grade. It was fun.
Last night, as we were enjoying a few of the finer things Vegas has to offer, my thoughts kept drifting to my dad. He was a truly talented cook, and he took great pleasure in great food. My dad was also a huge Cirque fan, and I had planned to take him and Nancy (my step-mother) to see "O" when they visited, but sadly my dad died a week before their trip was scheduled. I kept thinking last night while watching the show how much he would have enjoyed it, and it was comforting to know that in spite of our differences, he and I shared at least a few things, including a love of great food and an appreciation of the wonderful thing that is the human body when the creativity of the human spirit is expressed through it, as it so magnificently is in Cirque performances.
So though our night as rock-stars is over, the memory lingers, and in some strange way, last night has made it a little easier to think about my dad, which I haven't yet been able to do at any length.

Terrifica, Fantastico and The Wet Blanket!

I was poking around online, looking for pics of the super-villain The Wet Blanket. He's a character from the Graphic novel series Empowered. Empowered (Emp for short) is a "D" list super-chica with a fat ass and self esteem issues, whose super-powers come from a latex-like skin tight suit. The only problem? When her fragile suit gets torn, she loses her powers and often winds up in bondage, waiting for her fellow super-homeys to come rescue her.
Anyway, among the cast of characters we have on the hero side Ninjette, Thug-Boy (a former witless minion) and the alliterative Caged Demonwolf. On the villian side, among others,we have the Wet Blanket, whose power is to render others powerless when in his presence (kind of like the black guy on"Heroes.")
I couldn't find any pictures of him, so here's one I took w/ my camera:




So as I was looking for this guy I got distracted when I came across the true-life caped heroine "Terrifica!" and her arch Nemesis "Fantastico." Rather than tell you about them, you can click here to read their story, or just do a google search; the two are quite famous.

From there, I got caught up in the phenomenon of real life superheroes. Yes, they do exist. From the generic, to the boring, to the just-plain-sad, they run the gamut of stereotypes. However, one man stands among them, a TRUE hero, dedicated with single-minded purpose to his cause and living out his code. And that man is the enigmatically named Angle-grinder man!



This guy is a true hero, fighting the good fight, using the tools of Justice to rage against the machine of a cruel and unforgiving Big Brother. You go, Angle-grinder Man! Go go go !!!

Is Patience is a Virtue When you're Waiting on Vice?

The author of my all-time favorite piece of fiction is George RR Martin. Aside from the fact that he is in a class by himself when it comes to the craft of storytelling, one of the reasons I like him so much is that on his blog, THIS video was posted,



with a comment on how very, very different advertising tactics have become in the last 38 years.
Also on his blog is a story of how his house was recently burgled (oK, burglarized) and that the only thing of consequence that was taken was a cool sword a fan had given him. I like a guy whose real treasure is, well... treasure. AND he had the presence of mind enough to mention to we, his faithful readers, that the manuscript for his next book is safe and sound. However, it's a bit late, and in my next post, I'll tell you about the tragedy of catching on to a great series at the wrong time in its publishing cycle.

I'm just going to sexually anthropomorphize the holidays

I know that Erin and I are HUGE cheerleaders when it comes to Ryan North and his totally bitchen Dinosaur Comics, But I can't help it. Again today it made me laugh outloud and so I give kudos to him. It's a good thing for me he lives in Canada because his way with words has given Erin a little more than just an internet crush on the guy. The best part of today's comic is of course the mouse-over, so visit this link right here and see for yourself.
Friggin' Zeitgeists indeed.

Hotter than Georgia asphalt

I just re-watched Wild At Heart tonight on IFC. I haven't seen the move since somewhere 'round 1991, and I had forgotten how much I like it then. Laura Dern was just too super-sexy in that movie, and Nicholas Cage was actually an actor I liked back then. It's sad to see him reduced to things like Ghost Rider and Bankok Dangerous. Anyway, as good as they were, the best scene in the movie involves one of the creepiest bad-guys in all cinema history as far as I'm concerned. Warning for those of you who haven't seen it: spoiler ahead.
Willem Defoe's portrayal as Bobby Perdue is just plain amazing. I can't even think of an adjective to describe him adequately in the scene when he sexually assaults Lulu. Think slimey and then tag an exponent to it; it was sheer brilliance.
Anyway, E's away for the week visiting her sister, and Nick and I are being bachelors for the week. Not much else interesting happening.
Oh, and I thought I'd mention that you sorry lot out there have left exactly 1 comment on my last 5 posts. Am I boring you all to death, or what?
I intend to find some way of getting people to acknowledge my existence again, even if it means resorting to something extreme, like posting soft-core pictures of myself in the mirror with my cellphone cam all Myspace style, or maybe reviving Audience Participation Mondays.

Thanks to Popo

My friend Michael rips off a lot of good posts. In his latest acquisition, there is a link to the ironically titled American Thinker.
Aside from the broad definition of thinking as simply brain activity, this site and especially its commentators, are severely lacking in what could be considered reasoned thought.
As I was browsing the comments and shaking my head, I decided I had to have some merchandise from this site, like a shirt or a hat. What I found instead is perhaps the greatest example of dramatic irony ever demonstrated on accident.
Sure, dramatic irony's a common literary device, but to find it unintentionally is a treat for those of us who like such things. Therefore, if you're interested, first read the post and comments, then check out the bumperstickers this guy peddles...just scroll down about half-way; it's nothing less than pure gold!

Hallah-FRIGGIN'-Lujah!

And AMEN!!

Um, maybe he needs professional help?

Wow.
In doing my civic duty (which involves the tedious looking-up of the candidates running for judge in several districts (22 to be exact!)who are all listed as non-partisan, I came across this video of a judge, who by all accounts is conservative leaning. I was impressed, though, by her dedication to the defendant, and have decided to give her my vote, because it is all too rare a thing to see someone stick to what is difficult and right in the face of doing what is easy or politically expedient.

Giddy

I am looking forward with great anticipation to casting my 5th presidential vote tomorrow. As much as politics can be exacerbating, depressing and/or annoying, our political process is really a wonderful and beautiful thing. And no matter who wins, it will be a step forward toward repairing the damage George Bush has done to our country and the cause of democracy in the last 8 years.
Here's to a brighter future for ALL of us!