New Weekend New Filler

Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything --anything -- be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in. -Sam Harris, author (1967- )

My latest coining is a co-opting of organized to mean a piece of music played on a Wurlitzer.

Jet Setting SD Style

So I was sleeping in Thursday morning, and I got a call from my mother. This was a pleasant surprise. In our conversation, my mother intimated that she wanted me to join the rest of the family as they camp starting this weekend at West Bend on the Missouri River.

So with a bit of filial piety, and a lot of hunger for fleishkuechle and playing bean bags, I depart for the week end.

Some names for you. There seems to be a bit of a spiritual slant to them this time.

Ted Christakes

Mylorde Cherenfant

Donnieval Walker

Sleed Dornelus

Lalfela Chhakchhuak

"Wherever you are, it is your own friends who make your world." -- William James

Aftermath

So the Mormons were a half hour late last night. We talked some more about 2 Nephi, starting around verse 22. and how Mormons require transgression and God who commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and also to not touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Nephi says that they had to lose their innocence to know joy and to have children. So God is commanding them to not lose their innocence and also commanding them to do something that requires their loss of innocence. I don't like this. I believe they were capable of procreation in their pre-Fall state. The Mormons also justify these conflicting commandments by saying He was giving them an opportunity to use their agency, and if they hadn't transgressed the plan of salvation, which was prepared before the foundations of the world, wouldn't be able to start rolling. I say that is victim fishing and that sin would have been finished with a "No!" by Eve's free agency with no need for the plan of salvation.

So that is where we were at then end of a half hour. As promised, I asked them what their goal was from meeting with me. They want what they always want, for me to read and pray over the veracity of the Book of Mormon. I told them I have already done that and I really don't want to, but I have it if I do have that hankering. They then asked me what my goal was in meeting with them. This surprised me, but I replied that I find it important to give people a chance to have their say, and paraphrased this quote from Keats:

The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing -- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. -John Keats, poet (1795-1821)

That seemed to satisfy them and after closing prayer they were off.

Cadmium Yellow . . .

The colour of disappointment, according to Stephen Colbert. (After a two week hiatus, TDS and the Report are back and good as ever.)

It has been a while since I web logged, and I thought I would indulge my faithful readers with something new.

I have a "quote-a-day" calendar that doesn't have the day of the week, just the date, which is great because I can use it year after year (which I have for the past two and a half.) My quote today was:

Remember,your tongue is in a wet place: It's likely to slip.

With football season starting, NFL and college coaches and players have regular press conferences, in addition to radio, in-game, and newspaper interviews. This is a lot of talking, and with the tongue being in such a wet place, there are many opportunities for slippage.

I have a plan if ever given (or earning) a measure of celebrity that includes people caring what I have to say. I would like to have a mission statement at the beginning that says: I'm going to say stupid things that might offend people, but I'm not really sorry. If you take offense at what I have to say, you really need to put my words in perspective and realize that my words and thoughts aren't that harmful.

I feel this way because I've never understood the damage done by racist or politically incorrect statements. How does the late ordained Minister of Defense, Reggie White, affect the Asian community by commending them for their ability to put a computer into a watch, or the Hispanic community for their great family structure? How does stereotyping through words hurt people? I can understand that a comment like Fuzzy Zoeller's about Tiger Woods choosing fried chicken for the opening Masters Tournament dinner (the previous year's winner chooses the menu) reveals a prejudice that may affect decisions and actions. But judge, if you must, based on actions, not thoughts. Personally, I am honest with myself and recognize my racial prejudices, but I don't run around committing "hate" crimes (This is a whole nother web log. Let's just say I agree with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.). I think that I treat my coworkers based on their performance and not their racial or cultural identities. I'm curious what you think. Thank you for reading to the end.

Kiss Me I'm Irish

One leaf for fame, one leaf for wealth, one leaf for a faithful lover, and one leaf to bring glorious health.

Victoria Wegrzyn

Condiment Kitschen

Today during lunch walking back from Dairy Queen with my chocolate Reese's peanut butter cup and Heath blizzard, I stopped at Urban Villa and Gourmet (amazingly enough that link was the only result on a "quoted" Google search of the store name). As the pop-up picture reveals, the store offers only condiments and sauces; sure there are canned tomatoes or olives or onions or asparagus, but only for hors d'ouvres. Even the kitchenware they sell is "condiments," accessories that are more form than function. This boutique brought to mind a scene from Fight Club [Editor's note: After a brief review of the film, the line "How embarassing, a house full of condiments and no food." is uttered when he is looking at his fridge that has been blown out of his apartment with the rest of his belongings.], when the Narrator gets home and looks in his fridge making a witty comment about condiments and their reflection on ones life.

I am malicious because I am miserable. ... If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundred fold (words of Frankenstein monster).

-Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author
(1797-1851)

Quiz Show Part Deux

The question is: What condiment is uniquely served at Long John Silver?

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: This is the ideal life." -- Mark Twain

"A lady, for the workers!"

For everyone who recommended The Running Company to get shoes from, thank you. They were very helpful, and I look forward to using my new purchase.

I watched "Running in the Red," the new play from Union College Productions. I was grumpy at the beginning of the play, daring them to make me even smile, and at the end of the play, I was still enjoying various parts. The drive home was helped by Whip It from Devo, The Rubberband Man from the Spinners, Sunshine Superman from Donovan, and finally, Come Sail Away from Styx. 105.3, even though they've changed formats and have no live djs, still brings it.

This weekend I go to the North Country to recognize my sister (Senior Recognition at DAA). Kinda like a morgue viewing without the death and nudity.

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.

I'm happy this week is over now. I realize it was only the last three days that made it annoying (Tuesday was great), but still, it is frustrating to be the cause and victim of your problems. Why do I stay up til 3am? Oh well.

I went to Scrumpy Jack's last night after work and had a scotch on the rocks, DeWar's, with my grilled Atlantic salmon on a cucumber salad with a red wine reduction. I just don't enjoy spirits like I do beer. It did take the edge off, though, which helped me to enjoy the basketball games much more.

The Campion-College View game was a real nail-biter. Brian Panovec, from CVA, stole the ball and made a lay-up with 8 seconds to go to put CVA ahead, by one, for the first time since the middle of the second quarter. On the subsequent possession, Campion player McTaggert made a three-pointer to put them ahead by two. Then as the clock ran out, Brian Bailey for CVA was fouled shooting a three. He made the first one, the second one rolled around dramatically and fell out. Campion called time out, presumably to "ice" him. Then, he made the final free throw to send the game to a four minute overtime.

At the end of overtime CVA was down by two points in the closing seconds and Brian Bailey threw up this horrible three point shot that banked in to give them the lead. Campion some how managed to call timeout with .8 seconds remaining. Their final attempt to inbound the ball failed, and we'll see the rematch on Saturday night.

Tonight I watched Chopper with Eric Bana. There seems to be a trend for Australian actors, Bana, Crowe, Gibson, Pearce, to first play a violent criminal in an Aussie film before hitting the US screens. This does make a smidgen of sense when you remember that they are just a bunch of criminals to start with.

This same logic applies to our Red State. Those Puritans make the mullahs seem like timid prevaricators.

Conflict of Interest

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind. -William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939)

This quote and the previous one from the German fellow seem to be fairly antagonistic toward learning and other polymathic exploits. The rub for me is that they come at the end of one of my word a day emails by Anu Garg. Why would a person who makes their living by pandering to the intellectually curious sap the foundations with insidious aphorisms? And Billy Butler, what is the best part of the mind, and nice touch on using "lean" with "starving"?

I saw Munich tonight. I liked it I give it 3 outta 4 stars. All the actors did wonderfully, John Williams had a fine score, writing above par, and achievement of purpose not too shabby. Eric Bana was the only redeeming character in Troy, and he doesn't disappoint in this role. Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), and Matthieu Kassovitz (Nino from Amelie) round out a very satisfying ensemble performance. Their two French contacts played by Michael Lonsdale (he was the villian, Hugo Drax, in an old Bond movie, Moonraker) and Mathieu Amalric also turn fine performances.

The previews were fun "Thank You for Smoking" is about a tobacco lobbyist who becomes a consultant/strategist for them, and Inside Man with Clive Owen as a bank robber and Denzel Washington as a negotiator.

Mephistopheles

Fine minds are seldom fine souls. -Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825)

I'm not sure egg-zactly what this means. It very well could mean that brilliant people are brilliant because they sold their soul to Lucifer for that privilege.

The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His.
-Roger Ebert, film-critic (1942- )

Every evening at work I check with Janet in accounting to make sure the credit cards match the invoices. I told her I was going to the Racquet Club for the first time in a long time. She said she thought I went there religiously. I said that's the problem; I go there about as often as I go to church. Hee He Hee

Rick James

Maurice Maeterlinck

"The great mischief, the one which destroys our moral existence and threatens the integrity of our mind and our character, is not that we should deceive ourselves and love an uncertain truth, but that we should remain constant to one in which we no longer wholly believe." The Buried Temple

Only the Lonely

Christmas is a peak suicide time.

I think it gets cold during the holiday season because all the Christmas warmth is in our hearts instead of the environment.

Be good and you will be lonesome. -Mark Twain, author and humorist
(1835-1910)

Wait Just One Millenia.

I know why Adventists are late. They don't want to commit to anything, just in case Christ comes. Why bother starting a program, or anything for that matter, on time when it could be so rudely interrupted by the Apocalypse? So they wait a bit to make sure Christ won't be coming in the next half hour and then go ahead as planned.

It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow-necked bottles: the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out.

There is a Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania.

Wet as October

Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.

I hope to get away from the press of my life a bit and visit some friends during the calends of November.

Something Witty and Clever

Children should be seen and not heard.

One more recipe: Sunset Tuna Salad. 2 cups diced red pepper, 2 cups diced carrots, 1 cup mayonnaise, 9 oz. of albacore white chunk tuna (40% dolphin preferred).

I came up with this one on my own, very tasty.

Political freedom cannot exist in any land where religion controls the state, and religious freedom cannot exist in any land where the state controls religion.
-Samuel James Ervin Jr., lawyer, judge, and senator (1896-1985)

Children should be beaten, not heard.

Halation, Dove, and . . .

RED!

Those are the colors that Portland municipal workers have to choose from when creating "The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal" a short film by Matt McCormick narrated by Miranda July, writer, director and star of Me and You and Everyone We Know. I really liked her movie; his movies not as much, but Miranda does a fine job narrating and makes it worthwhile.

Mr. McCormick's collection of short films came to me via Netflix. I like Netflix for its expansive dvd database and ease of use, at an affordablity much better than Blockbuster.

Oddly enough, of the 4 or 5 word-a-day emails that I get, two of them had autotomy

Autotomy is nature's gift to some animals to help them escape when under attack or injured. A lizard being chased will drop its tail and slip away. The detached tail continues to wriggle, distracting the predator, while its former owner flees to safety.


One of my wordadays that I really like is from Anu Garg, she is found at wordsmith.org. She always has fun quotes at the end of the email. Here are a couple:
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
-Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)