Making me ashamed to be from NC.

David Gibbs against robot love - Boing Boing:

"At an anti-gay marriage rally Tuesday in Raleigh, North Carolina, David Gibbs III, the Christian fundamentalist lawyer who fought to keep brain-damaged Terry Schiavo on life support in 2005, publicly expressed his deep-seated fear of machine love. From the News & Observer:

(Gibbs) told rally participants gay marriage would 'open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

'Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?' Gibbs asked. 'Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots.'

"Proof of the New World Order in under 11 minutes."

Heh.



Via Dedroidify: NWO being taught in schools

Why this works, via Bill Hicks:

“I have this feeling man, 'cos you know there’s a handful of people who actually run everything. That's true, it's provable, it's not... I'm not a fuckin' conspiracy nut, it's provable. A handful. A very small elite run and own these corporations, which include the mainstream media. I have this feeling that whoever's elected president, like Clinton was; no matter what your promises you promise on the campaign trail blah,blah,blah… when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-fucks who got you in there...and you’re in this smoky room and this little film screen comes down. And a big guy with a cigar goes... ‘Roll the film.’ And, it's a shot, of the Kennedy assassination, from an angle you've never seen before.....that looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll. And then the film screen goes up and the lights come up and they go, to the new president… ‘Any questions?’ ‘Err, just what my agenda is?’

Upcoming kick-ass movies - Wolverine, Star Trek, Inglourious Basterds.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Final Trailer


Star Trek (2009) Fourth Trailer


Inglourious Basterds

Hat tip to Mike for the last one.

I don't care, totally funny.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The 2012 Republican Frontrunners:

"“But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy.” – Sarah Palin

“One thing we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat [the Democrats] is with better policy ideas.” – Rush Limbaugh"

If Calvin and Hobbes were written today.

Counterpoint.


Via Unexpectedly Misty-Eyed « Whatever

Like looking into a mirror. On the internet.

It's not a perfect metaphor.

Fumbling in the Dark ∞ Get Rich Slowly:

"During the 1990s, I had a spending problem. I was a compulsive spender. It’s not that I just bought books and comics and compact discs. I spent money on everything. I wanted everything. I had a house full of Stuff, most of which sat unused. I was filling some emotional void by buying."

"Don’t Worry."

Via Demotivator Blog

"How to speak fluent Japanese without (hardly) saying a word PART 3."

Pretty funny.



Via Japan Probe

Watched - Friday 3/6.

Between this new tag/category, the "what I've read" tag, and everything else I post up, Sandy - in her absence - should be able to pinpoint exactly where I lose my mind.

Lie to Me - a half step above most other procedural/crime shows. I typically only figure out whodunnit and why about half to 3/4 of the time. But Tim Roth has some serious gravitas and acting chops. Carrying the show to a slightly higher plane.

The facial recognition/microexpressions stuff is kind of fascinating, but I'm of mixed minds about it. Much like I am the CSI genre. On the one hand, it's just cool. And appeals to the 13 year Sherlock Holmes/criminology fanboy inside me. On the other hand, it paints the cops and the side of law enforcement - like most TV does - as nigh infallible forces of righteousness, doing "whatever it takes" and almost always justified. And on the other other hand, one thing CSI has done is brainwash the gen pop, the folks who serve on juries, to expect CSI levels of forensic evidence, which just doesn't happen. I consider that fair play in helping to level a playing field overwhelmingly biased for the prosecution.

[The show that really pisses me off is The Closer, a show Sandy digs. And it's well done, produced, written, acted, etc... but every damn week the cops - "the good guys" - lie, deceive, manipulate and basically do whatever they can to circumvent and disregard people's civil liberties and Miranda rights. And it's "okay" on TV because you know who the "bad guy" is. But what these shows do, subconsciously, is train the general populace to be cowed by authority and give up their constitutional rights. Pisses me off. There's a line from the very cool film the Untouchables, where Costner as Ness says

"I have foresworn myself. I have broken every law I have sworn to uphold, I have become what I beheld and I am content that I have done right!"

In my youthful naivete, I used to think that was kinda cool. Now I think he was kind of a hypocritical douche who was rationalizing the hell outta what he'd done. Not that I'd do better, mind. But still. Nothing in the world more dangerous than a true believer.]

A couple episodes of The Daily Show - almost always amusing, but Stewart's takedown of the talking heads at CNBC this week bordered on sheer brilliance.

The Office and 30 Rock. Two of the best comedies on TV. Best network comedies, easy. [Cartoon Network's The Venture Brothers and Boondocks, FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are both way, way up there too.]

The Office -

"Really Jim, on Cupid's birthday?"

- because I would say something dickish like he did.

30 Rock -

HARRY. AND. THE. HENDERSONS. - "I just need somewhere I can socialize where women aren't an issue... hey now..." - "I buy myself all the presents I need and because of my drinking they're often a surprise." - "We both have recurring dreams about being overpowered by a female bodybuilder." - "Fine Lithgow, I'll do the right thing."

Skins is not as good as the first two seasons - the cast is all new, and not quite as good as the old crew, but they're building - but still an interesting show about a group of damaged kids.

I was thinking just today, watching my kids in Jr High, but there is no way I had my shit together nearly as well as they do. At that age, no way. Didn't help I was a late bloomer and didn't start to figure things out till something like JR year of high school. But Jr High/High school kids in 2009 seem a lot more together and mature than I ever was. I blame the internet. The internet when I was a kid? I'd a been dangerous. But I'm probably just projecting... Anyways, Skins is a good show.

"Look at these!" - "All those things you want, you don't ask for them. Why don't you just ask?"

Burn Notice - cotton candy for the mind, but way fun. Besides, anything with Bruce Campbell = WIN.

The Universe, my iPod and Fort Minor conspire to mock my pain.

So today's my first full day of me and the Mrs doing the long-distance thing, her having left yesterday and now safely esconced once again in the US of A. I wake up to the still surreally quiet apt and do my morning ablutions, hop on the bike and jack in the iPod for the daily commute. Then, lo and behold, the first song to meet my ears - "Where'd You Go" by Fort Minor.

Featuring such heart punching lyrics as -

"Where'd you go? I miss you so
Seems like it's been forever
That you've been gone

...I don't understand why you have to always be gone
I get along, but the trips always feel so long, and

I find myself tryin' to stay by the phone
'Cause your voice always helps me to not feel so alone
But I feel like an idiot, workin' my day around the call
But when I pick up I don't have much to say, so

I want you to know it's a little messed up
That I'm stuck here waitin...

Where'd you go? I miss you so
Seems like it's been forever that you've been gone
Where'd you go? I miss you so
Seems like it's been forever that you've been gone
Please come back home

You know the place where you used to live?

...Yeah, I find myself just fillin' my time
With anything to keep the thought of you from my mind
I'm doin' fine, and I'm plannin' to keep it that way
You can call me if you find that you have somethin' to say

...It seems one thing has been true all along
You don't really know what you got 'til it's gone

...Please come back home"

It took a second after the music kicked in for me to think "Oh come oooon. Are you fucking kidding me? I need this first thing in the morning?" So I keep pedaling my way schoolward, shaking my head.

But thinking. Always too much with the thinking, that's me. And you know, the normal, sane response is "Why, what an intriguing coincidence that is, what with your wife leaving just yesterday!" And then rational mind would then go on to work and put $$ in the bank.

But.

It's weird, right?

It's what, praise be to Robert Anton Wilson, hallowed be his name and Praise Eris!, I know to be a synchronicity. A meaningful coincidence. A coincidence that seems meaningful, at least. But people, and I generously include myself as 'people', are pattern recognition machines. It's what we do. And in absence of an actual pattern, we're happy to supply them.

So... synchronicity. A meaningful coincidence. Or, alternatively, my slightly schizophrenic mind making meaning where there is none, out of happenstance.

Synchronicity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which are causally unrelated occurring together in a supposedly meaningful manner. In order to count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance..."

But, whatever, whatever does it mean? It's things like this that make you think, as others have said, that yes, the "universe wants to play." [Hakim Bey.] Because hearing that song, after kicking me in my manly tear ducts for a half second, reminded me that the world can be weird, and it doesn't always work the way the rational, western mind tells us it does.

[Shoot, ask Sandy to tell you her Hawaii/broken windshield story sometime. I still, really, have no explanation for that one.]

But even knowing that, and even after reading piles and piles of junk about the weird and the wild that says exactly that, I forget.

So what could it be? Is it the electronics in my iPod in some way unknown to western science responding to the electrochemical emotional resonance of my brain? Am I magically and telepathically changing the world through the powers of my awesome mind? Is it the universe/god/the great tao/flying spaghetti monster just fucking with me and letting me know not to take things so seriously? Or is it me just being completely full of shit?

It's funny, I've read a bunch about magic[k] - both with and without the pretentious 'k', over the years - and despite my lack of any kind of discipline to invest myself in any system - oh, and if "magic" throws you, substitute "religion" or "psychology," all pretty much the same thing - but the crux of a lot of magical workings, or prayers, if you will, is emotional energy, for lack of a better word. Not anger, or sorrow, or cheerfulness, but "emotional content" to bum a phrase of Bruce Lee's from Enter the Dragon. And the last 24 hours have easily been the most emotionally charged I've had in quite some time.

So does all that make you more, or less, apt to think the power of my mind and spirit is playing tricks with the physical universe?

Or am I just sad and slowly going insane?

I'd say even odds.

Regardless, coming up on my first weekend all alone in the land of the Rising Sun in many years. More about that on the blog sometime this weekend, maybe. But I'm going to occupy my mind/dull the pain/use my powers of denial by cleaning/rearranging the apartment [so as to not constantly remind me my wife is gone], catching up on the 400 or so bookmarked internet pages I haven't had a chance to read these last two weeks, and then getting the blog up to date. And I've put the Venture Brothers into rotation on the DVD, because that shit is awesome, and I'm not to be alone with my thoughts. That would not end well. :)

Well, that kind of sucked.

Wife safely off at the airport. [Arriving at the gate in Tokyo/Narita in 4m, according to FlightStats, anyways.] I cried like a girl, a little bit. A big, strong, manly girl, of course.

Trained and taxied home, to my seemingly amazingly large and quiet apt. Yelled at the empty walls a little bit, and now going to drown my sorrows with convenience store junk food and mind-numbing internet surfing.

It's all good, all for the best, new adventure, following dreams, etc, etc. Gonna take some getting used to though. More later...

Busy, busy, busy...

For the handful of folks who might read the blog regularly... been busy with about a million and one things getting the Mrs ready for her return to the US. Blogging to resume this weekend-ish.