Hmmn, a topic on which I know a little something.
My parents divorced when I was 3. My sister and I were given to my mother, because hey, she's the mother, and my father had a tendency to beat little kids when he was drunk and/or angry.
My mother, unfortunately, couldn't hold a job. When she could no longer afford heat or electricity in the trailer, we were taken away and given back to my father. I was about 5.
My father, meanwhile, was whoring around. He had no place of residence -- he lived with whatever girlfriend would have him. Two kids were not suitable to that lifestyle, so before long he put us in a military academy.
At 7, my mother came to the academy to take us on a 'weekend away visit'. She never took us back. We were introduced to a new father, new dogs, a new home.
That lasted for one week before my father kidnapped us back on the first day of our new school. He then dressed in drag and forced us to hide beneath blankets in the back seat, because the police would be looking for a man with two kids.
That's when the court battles really began. I was 9 years old when the judge asked me which parent I'd rather live with. I shrugged and said that my dad hit me, but I didn't really remember mom.
I was in the courtroom when the judge upbraided both parents for being complete morons and for screwing up their children for life. Then he awarded us to my father.
Things got more stable after that, and my stepmother deserves a lot of credit for pulling me back from the abyss. But yeah, that childhood did some damage. I go into unreasonable rages when I talk to my father. But I stay on good terms with him, by choice, and with some effort. Life's too short to hate your family, no matter the reason.
I loved it when the Venerable Florian evolved into Saint Florian and was all like, "Watch my flame strike now, be-yotch!"
Also, if Pikachu's a virgin, there are many internet sites out there lying to people. I suspect the Blessed Pikachu is angling to be the saint of electrical whores. Which, let's face it, will eventually be a position with a lot of worshippers.
I think the best articles on Michael Jackson's death are the ones 'proving' that he was killed with an orbital mind control laser by the CIA to keep him from warning the world about an engineered flu pandemic. Why should his death make any more sense than his life?
The 'science' in the new movie was even worse than the normal for Star Trek films. They had plot holes so large, they had Schwarzschild radii. If the viewer stopped to think about almost anything in the movie, they would immediately realize that it made no goddamned sense.
That said, it was still a fun action flick.
I don't know. This seems to me to be the triumph of dumb popcorn escapism over intellectual entertainment. Previous Treks may have been boring at times, but they were seldom brainless. This film was brainless...but shiny enough to make the viewer like it anyway. That troubles me. I hope it doesn't become a trend -- or more of a trend than it already is.
Expand on which, David?
It's a great experience and I'd love to do it again, but there are limited numbers of slots and I don't think I'd get as much out of it as someone new. I'd rather they go and learn something, while I stay home and write.
As for Shakespeare...well, plays *change* when you insert innuendo into them. If the guy playing Hastings goes 'Ow!' after every stage direction that reads, 'Enter Hastings', you begin to see things in a new, hysterical, way. :)
I'd go a second time, but I want to leave slots open for others to have the experience.
A side effect of this workshop, however, is that Shakespeare will be ruined for you. Forever. In a good way.
Good luck, Patrick. And don't worry, the people who have piled you with things to do will understand. (Myself being one of them.)
For a cyberpunk twist to this, there's always The Engineer's Song, which has been sung in Irish pubs for decades, at least.
"The warning of this story is, always fit a safety switch!"
Lucky me, I skipped over both the cold and the flu and have been wrestling with bacterial pneumonia for the past week. I now have antibiotics and codeine and an albuterol inhaler, so I'll be okay...but it's a lost week that I'll never get back. Maybe two, we'll see.
By the way, my illness was contracted at a child's birthday party. One of your recommendations for prevention of all disease should be 'Avoid Children'.
1. One of the last things my mother gave me before the divorce was a ceramic frog she glazed herself. She was horrified when I scratched my name into its back. I was five. This is the oldest thing I own.
2. Similarly, one of the few things I have from my maternal grandmother is a hand-made ragdoll. I have not seen anyone from that side of my family in over 30 years.
3. My dog Squire, who is the smartest animal I have ever met. He is the light of my life.
I'm hard pressed to find anything that approaches the value of those three. The rest is just stuff. (Even the other dog, though I love her. ;) )
This is the Karl Rove strategy. If you have a weakness, claim your opponent has it and attack him for it. If he has a strength, claim it as your own.
The entire goal is to even the polls. Make it look like you and your opponent are almost identical. Then they count on the fanatic religious right to push them to 51%. It's a very effective way of winning elections by close margins -- but winning them, which is what counts to these people.
It's not a bad strategy to take whatever they say, then assume the opposite is true.
I saw you at Fourth street, Mark. Neat shirt. But...the panel is thick and looks inflexible. How comfortable is it? Were you wearing an undershirt?
I think it's another restatement of the banality of evil. Evil, unless opposed, becomes banal. It becomes common and everpresent. That's why we have to fight it where ever and whenever it is seen.
To expand on Emma at #8, the Feds are now accepting stocks as collateral for loans. Yes, any stock. Yes, your company can print out its own stock. Yes, this means that the Fed is effectively allowing finance companies to print their own american money. Why this is a short fuse to a powderkeg labelled 'catastrophe' is left as an exercise to the reader.
But aside from that, I'm also curious to hear more updates about Teresa.
Yikes. Get well, Teresa.
I have a friend trying to ride Ike out. He's in South Houston, near Galveston Bay. His site is here. He has a webcam, but it went out last night sometime.
Haven't gotten a report from him since 3 AM. I hope he's just sleeping.
As the wise man Tom Lehrer said, "I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them."
I try to remain an independant, but it's hard to do that while watching the republican party's shocking hatred and reliance on lies. They're too disgusting to merely defeat. They have to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
1. Remember you always have the option of blowing your own brains out.
(Delivered by my uncle, on the occasion of my announcing that I was engaged to be married.)
2. No one messes with a man in a black cowboy hat.
(My father, who wears his hat everywhere.)
That's all I can think of. Not a very quotable bunch, my family, and they had very little generally-applicable advice.
What I’d really like to know is why the civilized world hasn’t stopped us.
Does 'As much expenditure on defense as the rest of the world combined' ring a bell?
They'd have to all gang up to stand up to the US...and they'd probably still lose. They can't stop us with sanctions because their economies are driven by the ravenous american consumer. We're a crazed tasmanian devil, and nobody has a leash durable enough to put around our neck, even if they had the guts to try it.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 8 |
| 2008 | 16 |
| 2007 | 15 |
| 2006 | 4 |
| 2004 | 1 |
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