New Years' Resolutions

Do you believe in them or not? I don't. I think they set you up for disappointment. I do, however, plan to do a few things differently in my life, starting soon. I want to take a yoga class, which is more something I just quit doing 6 months ago than a resolution for the next year. I want to get more involved with membership recruiting efforts for my young professionals' group, too. No way am I resolving to be nicer or lose weight or any of those sterotypes. However, after last night's chips & salsa fest with Kizzle & CBopp, I do plan not to eat any more fried tortillas for a while.

Update: 72 degrees on New Year's Eve--?

This is actually pretty nice, as if I live in California. Maybe I should move. . . except for the cost of living. Am I spoiled, poor, or unadventurous? Or do all three of those things contribute to my reluctance to leave Memphis? It's getting to be that time when one evaluates one's life priorities -- graduation is a year away, but before I know it time will have flown. I mean, damn! I'm three months from 30! Gasp! Maybe it's just the end of the year talkin'.

Happy Birthday, Kizzle!

It's the big 3-0 for the M to the K! Hip hop hooray!

64 degrees on New Year's Eve--?

Weird. Listening to india.arie (does anyone know why her name must be spelled like that?) which somehow suits the day. . . not exactly a holiday feel to it. Somebody needs to do something about our crazy weather before we turn into The Day After Tomorrow.

Bong-Bong.

So, Jerry Orbach has died. Does this somehow seem more personal than the Tsunami deaths of 80,000 people we never saw, and probably never would see? Am I callous to point that out? I know I am not the only person who feels this way -- that is, that a massive tragedy unlike any seen in the last century is more surreal and distant than such a small thing as a single death. But somehow one person dying is a manageable sadness, and something you can get your mind around. I'm sure I sound harsh, and I know if I lived there or knew someone visiting there it would all feel very different. But 100 years ago, we would'nt have known about this instantaneously, and it would not have obsessed our media. Or at least our media would not have obsessed us (?). This story from Sri Lanka was interesting -- apparently, all the animals sensed it and headed for the hills. Too bad humans have lost this instinct. B'friend heard on one (and only one) news channel this week that the U.S. Seismology Incident Command Center had attempted repeatedly, and for hours, to contact these countries to warn them of the quake. Of course, now we can't find it. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL136356.htm

I'm back, folks!

Sorry to be off the radar for so long, but I have managed to follow the holiday vacation up with a post-vacation cold, on top of the mid-holiday move we're making at the office. I say we, but I sit here as others pack up the furniture. I did help yesterday, and I'm taking my files over myself this afternoon, so I feel absolved of any feelings of guilt. Plus -- I just started working there less than 3 months ago, so how much of that crap can I really be held responsible for?

Here's another poetical spam

"Oops... :) tirade Ogumeho At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. Wine hath drowned more men than the sea. The race of man, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity. Petty laws breed great crimes. Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims. His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine. In cross examination, as in fishing, nothing is more ungainly than a fisherman pulled into the water by his catch. Interdependency follows independence. A man can do anything he wants to do in this world, at least if he wants to do it badly enough. Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string. A man ought to live so that everybody knows he is a Christian... and most of all, his family ought to know. Traveling makes a man wiser, but less happy. The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly is having to accept it" I think my favorite line is: "The race of man, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity." Where do they get this stuff???

news flash!

Hitler was a tax dodger. Who knew it would be so easy to get those pesky debts forgiven once you established dominance in the government? Let's see what Bush's finances look like these days. . . .

Thank goodness I live in Memphis!

These are some reasons why: first, we don't have a magazine called Memphis Hottie. Richard Marx is in Nashville. Our 2nd graders carry knives, not guns. We may have killer daycares, but it's more sophisticated than the Phoenix form. Homes are relatively affordable in Memphis. If you are homeless, we don't put you in the trash -- in fact, you hang out in bars with us! We have sex here.

In the news in the UK

Newman from Seinfeld comes to life! And didn't some women try to prove they would make great astronauts decades ago, but were denied by (whom but. . . ) men leading NASA at the time? Failed criminals. This is like something I'd do if I tried to rob a store. My hero is looking pretty decrepit! Maybe he needs Botox! Maybe not. . . . Business as usual for the lads of the big island. No more business as usual for this lady! Car wreck saved her life!

Yes, I will have to comment on Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen.

Hilarious! No one is above taking advantage of those who are take-advantage-of-able.

quittin' tiiime!

So, after this weekend, during which I will be very busy and possibly will neglect you, I am headed to my sister's for the holiday. In case you don't hear from me for a while, do not be alarmed! I shall return after Christmas weekend. B'friend is very concerned about working in the nether regions of our community, namely DeSoto county. He says no one lives there. He says it is just 'on the way to casinos.' He says nothing happens there. How is he expected to write news stories there?

Visit http://nappydiatribe.blogspot.com/

Cause he complimented my blog, so he must be cool. It is nice to have a place I can go where other people hate the Prez, like good music, understand a sense of humor & don't hate people cause we are different. Speaking of which, Fresh Air had this fascinating homophobe (sorry, anti-homosexual) on today, and it actually made me think, something conservatives seldom do anymore. Remember the days when you were still figuring out who you were -- finding yourself, whatever -- and you actually thought & reacted to prejudiced people & statements? Anymore I just let them roll off like water off the quack back. But this guy was interesting in that he let me see, for a moment anyway, what life on the other side is like. Think about it. For those who believe we are trying to corrupt them with our gay-embracing ways, that acceptance equals joining the fags, life is really intrinsically different than it is for the rest of us.

Spooky Spam!

So I never normally read spam, gramatically incorrecct though that is, with the double negative and all, but today I peeked. Why? Cause the sender was "Squashiest K. Cognizance" -- would you not have looked??? So here it is: To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them ratified. Consider your breed you were not made to live like beasts, but to follow virtue and knowledge. You cannot explain failure any more than you can argue with success. And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised. Incredulity is the wisdom of the fool. I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old. A goal properly set is halfway reached. Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense. Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.In time we hate that which we often fear. I don't have a warm personal enemy left. They've all died off. I miss them terribly because they helped define me. It's easier traveling the road of life when I don't have so much to carry on my back. If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life. An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it. There is no such thing as accidental failure. All failure is at least half imposed. Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking. Keep a fair-sized cemetery in your back yard, in which to bury the faults of your friends. Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid. Dang.

My to-do list

write Xmas cards, including making list of recipients. shop for all Xmas presents besides the 2 have bought online. make fabulous gifts for people I don't want to spend money one but must get something for anyway. actually mail Xmas cards, before Xmas! enjoy holidays.

I can hear 'em talkin'. . .

. . .but that's about it. There was a story in the Memphis daily paper that says they're proposing adding 12" bike lanes to North Pky. (I'd link to it, but you have to subscribe & it's just not worth all the trouble). So maybe I'll get a bike if that day ever comes. . . yah, riiiiiight. In a related story, The Onion gets to the heart of the mass transit matter. Is this too real to be humorous? I know you never follow links, Jam Master J, but you'd appreciate this one. Trust me.

Look here.

No, here. Why the hell can't I link anything in the title anymore? Crap. Once again, The Onion is right on: Masonic iconography not as powerful as it once was. . . ha-ha! European Union more unified than U.S. . . . hee-hee! If this wasn't in Top 10 form, it could have been a real news story.

Up til (hopefully not) dawn?

There are like 3.000 reasons I can't sleep -- none of them enough alone to keep me up, but together they pack quite a wallop. Boyfriend is too tall to sleep in bed traditional way, so he has chosen the diagonal position. Also he came in before I had reached REM & therefore it's like I haven't been to bed at all yet. In his defense, I did go to bed before 11pm (early exam = good excuse for old-person-like behavior). My neighbors have moved out and their screen door keeps banging in the wind. Also had to have salty chips & baloney sandwich. Man, it's good to be a grownup & be able to do whatever the hell you want, even eat crappy food at 1am! Of course, being childless, I can come home & take a nap tomorrow. It's pathetic how much I would resent having to give all this up for someone else. Why do people even have kids? Am I just selfish, or lazy, or both? (No need to comment on this. Or to talk amongst yourselves, either.) Kizzle, if your'e still reading at this point, I promised you the Urban Dictionary. I think you will like the definition for a child's rubber change keeper. Ta-ta for now!

Am I the only one who doesn't care???

I am sooooo over Scott Peterson in the news. Am I the only one who wishes someone would pull a John Hinckley, Jr. on him?

Sweetback = groovy!

And no, I did not buy their album based on the name of the Melvin van Peebles flick. Okay, so maybe that helped me to remember their name. Otherwise I'd just have known 'three guys who were with Sade back in the day' and that's not a section in Cat's Music. Which reminds me, I still haven't seen Baadassss! yet, cause it was either not here or I missed the one week it played in Memphis. Too bad, cause I'd realy like to have seen it in the theatre. When I see so many stupid movies in theatres, it's an even worse shame not to catch films I actually might like while they're running. I am doing this instead of studying. That's okay, cause I was looking at Rx List instead of studying, which seems worse now my psychopharmacology class is done.

Must be a son of a fallen soldier. . .

This struck me as a strange photo, although I myself have been caught in those off moments in photographs before. But I just couldn't get over the idea that this kid must have been really, really, really upset about something to snuggle up to a guy who looks like that.

How do you want your friends to plan your funeral?

Something like cremation & being thrown away at the local bowling alley, or perhaps a more civilized pyre? Seriously, we never talk about these things at our age, (and here I'm assuming again that I know you) but they are possible realities for us anyway. I tried to talk to my mom about cremation once, but she refused to even have the conversation. The truth is that she & my dad have the final say. So why should I not be able to discuss it with them?

Countries with Porn-Star Names

This Achewood strip is a little behind, but has a timeless humor I think you can appreciate. Otherwise, why would you be reading this fine blog?

And now this:

Too Gay for Greeks: Lawyers threaten 'Alexander' suit Yahoo! News - Too gay for Greeks: Lawyers threaten 'Alexander' suit: "Although Varnakos had not yet seen the film, he claimed there was enough evidence to point to the film's inaccurate references."

Colin Farrell as the gay Greek hero, Alexander:

too far-fetched or too tasty? Interesting that will gay marriage in the forefront of the news lately, a major film portrays an historical hero figure as gay. What is the political agenda of Hollywood? Notice that Achilles had a young male lover in The Illiad, but they left that out of Troy. On another note, I wonder: Is it enough that a film simply entertain you to be a good film? Or is there a higher purpose -- to educate you, make you think, give you different perspective? I understand all this is subjective, that what you want in a film is a personal choice, but I do wish people would think about these things before they tell you a movie is "good" or recommend you see it. They know what's up in France: French film not French enough

Sorry for the blackout

I actually just f*cked up something on my blog where I couldn't edit posts, so I laid low for a few days after returning from vacation. Much-needed vacation, I might add. I feel a million billion times better now! I thought it was strange that fall break did absolutely nothing in the way of giving me a break, until I realized that I spent the whole weekend studying for an exam (on which I made the worst grade I've made in that class, I might add). Never again -- next time I'm taking all the breaks they will give me. And then some, if ya knowhaddamean. So, sorry to have neglected you so terrribly. I see you have still been checkin' the blog pulse in the meantime, so fanks for dat. Exams are looming -- prepare for another period of silence -- but I should be back to normal in a week or two. It is sooooo true that time speeds up in exponential proportion to one's age. I'm gettin' old, guys. My consolation is: So are you!