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lost in cyberspace

The original sin.
Ever since I being a teenager, I can remember being interested in religion. No one religion in particular, just religion and theology in a historical sense. I find myself fascinated with the various ways mankind dealt with the unknown throughout history. How beliefs developed, how they theological issues affected culture at the time, and just the sheer amount of beliefs and ideas that are out there. I routinely try and trace the branches in the family tree of religious and philosophical thought, going back to the “beginning” and working forward through names like Hermes, Zoroaster, Plato, etc. There are so many interesting insights that can be made into how certain lines of thinking either came to prominence or got squashed. It’s not just age-old religion and philosophy that I enjoy, I also enjoy reading up on the more modern developments. Everything from Mormonism to Scientology, and as far-reaching as modern Freemasonry and Extreme-Right Militia nuts. There are nuggets of wisdom to be found in all of them I guess, even if they are the Berenstain Bears “what not to do” kind. Example? While reading about post- and pre-Christian Gnostic thought, I found a very interesting redux of the Gnostic creed: “Gnostics do not seek salvation from sin, but instead seek to escape ignorance, believing that sin is merely a consequence of ignorance.” Sounds relatively right to me.

Thanks to the great free online encyclopedia Wikipedia for all the reference links in the above paragraph.

The creepiest thing happened the other day at work. I got a phone call from what I think was my dad’s cell phone. However, instead of my dad on the other end, it was a kind of radio-static sound, like someone switching stations. There were several voices talking over each other at first, and I couldn’t make out much. After a couple minutes the signal cleared up and I could hear a child’s voice reciting a list of dates. It sounded like a little girl, and she was just reading dates: “January 15th, January 26th, August 12th, etc.” She read dates for about 5 minutes (I copied most of them down in case it was a message about my future or something). As the call went on, it became clear that the child was talking to her mother, and I could eventually hear a woman replying. I heard some brief talk about money and insurance. Finally I decided that my dad must’ve inadvertently called me from what I figure was most likely the pharmacy. So Pop, either you’re gonna get a huge cell phone bill for accidentally calling me and not knowing it – or I got some freaky Twilight Zone call from the future, with some child letting me know important dates-to-come. Weird.

So, to kinda follow up on the whole Super Bowl thing, some news outlets are carrying a story about how TiVo says the halftime show “wardrobe malfunction” was the most replayed TV event in the company’s history. Now, call me dumb – but I didn’t know TiVo was tracking my viewing habits. I don’t remember signing any kind of agreement about that, although I’m sure it’s in some EULA somewhere that I “accepted” by getting their service. Seems strange that they can just watch and monitor what I watch and when, even to a level of detail to see what I rewind and pause the most? Big brother truly is watching. Although I try to watch as little TV as possible, I have found that TiVo has totally changed my habits. I no longer “have” to see anything, I just record it and watch it when I want. If something sounds even remotely interesting, why not record it and check it out at my leisure? I can always fast-forward through it or erase it. Plus, jumping through commercials makes the whole thing that much more rad.

Reading another of the online journals I keep up with, I found this “President Match” test. By answering the questions (it’s pretty short), you can see which candidate is most compatible with your thinking based on where they stand on the issues. When I took the test, Bush scored dead last with 55% commonality with my answers. Edwards was 100% aligned with my answers, and Kerry was 98% aligned. Kind of an interesting survey in that it really boiled down some major issued to nice, pointed questions. There was a lot of stuff on there that I really have no opinion on, like some of the Medicare and prescription drug coverage stuff, as well as things that I’m just ignorant about like NAFTA and certain aspects of foreign trade.

Looking at the questions and issues the survey covered, you can really see a dichotomy in the thinking that must be prevalent here in the US. While it’s never as simple as black or white, there are just some issues that will never be decided: abortion, capital punishment, religion, etc. They will always be fiercely opposed to each other and almost certainly never be able to find a happy medium. It seems the US is still a pretty conservative country on average, with things like a national furor over the Super Bowl halftime show showing just how not ready we are, as a country, for that type of display. Whereas in Europe, soap operas show more than that on a daily basis.

I’m not saying that all conservative viewpoints are wrong, nor am I allying myself with all liberal ideals. Hell, for the most part I don’t really care that much – but I know a nut when I see one, and I can spot a crazy idea, liberal or conservative, fairly easily. Politics aren’t really my cup of tea, but I do respect the fact that I can play a role in how things go by voting. While my prevailing attitude towards politics is one of apathy and “who cares,” I do try and keep abreast of things so I can at least know what’s going on. I guess that’s better than most of the Reality TV generation coming up now. Sorry Reality TV generationers, but it’s my duty as your senior to look down upon you as the eventual downfall of this world. Because as we all know, each generation’s junior generation is always taking this world to hell in a handbasket? it’s just your lot. Prove me wrong.

Well, I had some other stuff written which I e-mailed to myself, but it has apparently gotten lost in cyberspace. Guess I can post it tomorrow instead. Dave out.

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money and sex are all that matters

What could possibly be more offensive?!
Super Bowl was good, Janet Jackson’s teat was a surprise (link might be NSFW, and I don’t typically like Drudge, but he’s got a good article this time), but leave it up to MTV to come up with the halftime show and you’re bound to get a heaping helping of degenerate bullshit. Sometimes I wonder what the hell my kids will listen to on the radio. I’m sure that this generation’s parents thought the same thing when they heard controversial songs back in their day. But man, songs are so blunt now, just getting right down to the point that money and sex are all that matters – how much more can we debase ourselves? Following the current trend, I would guess that my kids will be listening to tunes with words much like a Penthouse Forum letter. Because really, that’s the only “next level” there is to take it to, right? Instead of clever code words or bleeps, they’ll just sing outright about clits and dicks and all manner of genitalia. I mean, how much does bleeping the word “throat” in a lyric about someone’s deep throat skills really obscure what’s being said? “…how I make a Sprite can disappear in my mouth?.” Yeah, that’s a real song.

Got plenty of sleep last night, which is a welcome change from staying up till all hours for no apparent reason. We were in bed by 10pm and it was awesome. It was one of those nights where I woke up a couple times and expected to look over at the clock to discover I only had a few more minutes of sleep, only to be shocked to see it’s only midnight. I love nights like that, where it seems like you’re sleeping for so much longer. I felt rested this morning when I woke up, but that didn’t make me want to come into work any more. I like work enough when I’m here, but it’s hard to leave in the morning, being warm and comfortable at home, imagining a day spent reading or working around the house or just being lazy. I’m tempted each day to use the “telecommuting” cover story to take a day back from the man. I don’t really ever do it, and when I have done it in the past I never make the day as productive as I’d hoped I would when I made the decision to not go in.

I watched a cool show on the Discovery, or one if the other indistinguishable “learning” channels, the other day about the NYC subway system. They went into details about how they service the cars and stuff, it was really interesting. I find the idea of a network of tunnels and trains moving the populous around really interesting. One thing they showed is what happens when a subway car is beyond maintenance and needs to be retired. The things are loaded onto a freight barge and hauled out to somewhere off the eastern coast, then dumped overboard into the ocean to become “artificial reefs.” The whole “artificial reef” concept is kinda fishy to me (ugh, excuse the pun). What I mean is, sounds like some flowery speech to take the place of “dumping trash in the ocean.” Hey, what a great idea. We don’t have to look at it if it’s in the ocean! Pile it in! I dunno, I’m admittedly ignorant on the details… but I bet we dump tons and tons of refuse in the ocean every day. I’m not trying to get all Greenpeace on your ass or anything, it was just interesting to me.

Taiwan in four days. For now, Dave out.

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falling asleep on the couch together

Marianne was waaay hotter than Ginger.
Since I’ll be walking these streets in about a week, I found this article both hilarious and relevant. I hope they get that cleaned up by the time I’m over there. I was just thinking about the amount of human engineering that it must take to get a freakin’ dead whale off the beach and strapped to a flatbed truck. If you’re like me and gave up reading that article before you reached the end, you missed the best part. Seems the Taiwanese, males in particular, are flocking to the dead whale to witness the size of it’s penis. I dunno, that sounds really odd to me. I can’t imagine calling up a buddy and being like, “Hey I’m going downtown to check out this dead whale’s huge dick, you wanna go?” Strange.

Listening the The Dears (disable your popup blocker if you get an empty page), an excellent album that perfectly suits my mood right now. I’ve been bummed this week, don’t really know what for. I feel like I’m stretched a little bit, overcommitted to things. Funny things is, the things I’m overcommitted to aren’t “work,” they’re play. The point is, I haven’t left myself anytime to sit at home and do nothing. Nothing is something which is extremely desirable to me. Usually when I get to feeling weighed down like this, I’ll “escape” to a weekend of camping or a trip to my folks’ place. But for some reason, lately I’ve felt strained.

I honestly just want to run away with my wife and leave everything behind, if only for a few days. I need some time with her. This Taiwan trip looming in the near future doesn’t make me more optimistic about that happening either. We’re both just so busy it’s hard to get any quality time together. I miss just falling asleep on the couch together, with nothing to do. Sometimes a Gilligan’s Island scenario seems awesome to me. I mean, if I had to be stranded on an island I’d sure want it to be one where I can make peddle-power do everything from laundry to mix drinks. Plus, the Globetrotters and cosmonauts would almost balance out the Most Dangerous Game hunters and crazy natives. Face it, Gilligan’s Island was awesome. Yeah, Sharaun and I, Gilligan’s Island style… bring it on.

From my journal, Nov. 13th, 1995: “I wish I had more time to do nothing. If I won the lottery I could retire and spend all my time writing every tiny detail of my incredibly mundane life down in a book or on a computer like this.” Guess I’ve been writing about that for a while now!

Dave out.

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the silent alarm

Stop! In the name of the lawd.
So I didn’t write again yesterday. I’m having to change my writing model since things are getting busy. I’ve seen this happen several times before where my life got busy and my journal suffered. Heck, I wrote so infrequently in college that I considered scrapping the whole journal idea altogether. I don’t wanna do that, I enjoy writing and posting. So I plan to change when I write, to give me a better chance of coming up with good stuff. Part of the missed two days this week is that there’s really not that much going on.

I’ve been watching clueless people get their hearts and spirits completely and utterly shattered by learning they really can’t sing… that’s always widely entertaining. These poor people look to be on the verge of suicide when they are, apparently for the first time in their lives, told that they can’t hold a tune. A fundamental truth that they believed about themselves has just been torn down in front of a national audience, and you can almost see the instant that their hopes and dreams are dashed. It’s awesome. I am, of course, talking about American Idol. While I’m not a big fan of the show once it gets into the serious competition phase – I love the slit-wrist-inducing audition episodes. Other than that, I’ve been watching the glorious spectacle that is the OC. There are so many miniskirts on that show it’s, as Pat put it, like a wonderful cancer.

While it may sound like I watch a lot of TV from the preceding paragraph, I don’t really. I watch the news, and the occasional show – but more often than not I’m only half watching while I work on the computer or otherwise fiddling around. I did watch Kill Bill again the other night, and the second time was better than the first – can’t wait for the second one now. But in reality, I try and watch as little TV as I can? I have some irrational dislike of being locked down in from of that thing for all my free time. Even though reading a book is just as sedentary, I feel better for doing it over TV. I try to model my life after the Unabomber. Except for the crazy part where he mailed bombs to people, of course.

When I was 16 I worked at Subway. Yeah, the sandwich place. I proudly earned my “Sandwich Artist” badge by, among other things, correctly knowing how many ounces of lettuce should go on a foot-long sub. I advanced through the ranks quickly, mostly because the “ranks” were just a bunch of drug-doing do-nothings who were all having sex with each other and sniffing coke off the prep tables. Nevertheless, I was soon single-handedly closing the store at 2am, balancing the daily books, making bank drops, etc. I even had my own set of keys to the joint.

Rewind to my first month or so working there. I was restocking the cups we kept under the register, and while down there noticed a small pushbutton hidden along the inside of the cabinet. For some reason, I decided to press it and see what it did. Nothing happened. What a boring button. About a minute later I asked my senior coworker what “that little button under the counter by the cups” did. The first words out of her mouth were, “You didn’t press it, did you?” “No,” I said, “just curious.” “Oh good,” she replied, “that’s the silent alarm. Press that and the cops will be here in minutes.’ I think at this point she saw my expression and followed with, “You pressed it, didn’t you?” “Yup,” I said, head hung down. There wasn’t much we could do, the police station was only a few blocks away. Only a minute or so later, two cops edged in the door, guns drawn and creeping along in spread-leg I’m-about-to-shoot-someone fashion. They weren’t happy, and neither was the store owner. It was pretty funny though, although embarrassing at the time. We had a lot of fun at that place: locking people in freezers, stealing sandwiches, burning the drive-thru down… twice. Ahhh… first jobs.

OK, OK, I wrote! I took time and wrote. Dave out.

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i’m eating what now?

Ersatz butter: oleo.
Last night I did it. I went out and bought all the crazy junk you need to make homemade cookies. I got stuff like flour and salt and baking soda. I forgot the cream of tartar, but that’s ok because my recipe didn’t call for it. I still kinda want to have it just to say I do though. Anyway, I went about baking my first cookies ever. I whipped up some dough with the ingredients, mixed it all together, and formed some cookies. They were all right, but for some reason the chocolate chips didn’t want to mix with the dough – and they turned out kinda salty. I don’t know why, I used all the right amounts? but they still turned out salty. I’ll eat ’em tho, the recipe made like sixty freakin’ cookies.

During the whole cooking process, I got curious about another bit of food trivia. Namely, what is margarine? What is it made from, and why and when did it become more prevalent than real butter? To Google I turned, and found out that margarine actually has a kinda interesting history. I know food-facts are boring, but I’ve become increasingly curious about just where the stuff I eat comes from of late. I suppose, in the back of my mind somewhere, I’m preparing for my eventual shipwreck and being stranded on an island where I have to fend for myself. Then at least I’ll know how to make some margarine and stuff. Anyway, it’s good to know stuff. People think you’re smart when you know stuff.

Been listening to two new albums of note lately: Lesser Matters by Radio Dept., and the new one from Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days. At first the Iron & Wine album put me off, but after a few more listens I’ve come to like it a lot. It’s an early leak, some two months prior to street. Both of them are a little more “subdued” and quiet, but it suits the rainy winter weather and mood well. Good to have new tunes.

That’s it. Dave out.

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codes ‘n’ chemicals

There's gold in them thar base metals!
A good weekend. The brake light in the Ford is now off, since Pat helped me do a complete brake overhaul. I was pretty amazed at how easy it was to change brakes and rotors on the front and back of the truck. I mean, seven bolts per brake/rotor and you’re done. From now on I’ll do my own brakes I think, it’s stupid-easy. After working with the brakes, I got a little curious about how the whole braking system actually works. Since I never took a hydraulics course in school, I haven’t really had any formal introduction to how pistons and force works in a hydraulic machine. Anyway, it’s boring engineering stuff – but I can always count on howstuffworks.com to teach me these things. After a half hour of reading, I think I could build my very own hydraulic system.

Over Christmas, someone gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card (can’t remember who, Tyler maybe?). While cleaning out my wallet the other day, I noticed it had a “scratch-off” area for an “online use” PIN code. I thought that was neat, so I started browsing the B&N website for something cool to order. I love books, and I like to collect them. I like to just “have” them almost as much as I like reading them. Anyway, because of some recent interest on my part, along with the fact that I’ve always had my eye on it, I ordered a book which contains a collection of 17th century alchemical engravings. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been fascinate by alchemical ideas and history for a few years now, and the drawings, illustrations, and engravings related to the practice of alchemy have always looked so cool to me. Very mystical and interesting.

As I mentioned above, I have become somewhat re-interested in the whole alchemy thing lately. Mostly just the history associated with it. It all started when I stumbled upon a webpage that collects and lists unsolved “codes and ciphers.” Ever gradeschool, and then being fueled further by Astro, I’ve been really keen on cryptography. Secret codes and stuff have always intrigued me. So when I happened upon a link from the above page about the Voynich Manuscript, I was immediately engrossed. Some theories about the manuscript say that it’s an alchemical or astrological text, which got my brain on the whole alchemy thing again. Anyway, why am I writing this down? Sorry.

Also sorry for Friday’s lack of blog. I was kinda put out, mostly because I read this (warning, may be NSFW) and it made me feel dumb. Hey, I’m a sensitive dude. Before I go, here’s a cool site that lets you “mix” two webpages together. Taking the content from one and the layout of the other, it make a composite of the two pages. I thought it was kinda neat to see the blog formatted like CNN.

Until tomorrow, Dave out.

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getting orders

We go to shows down there.
Noise Pop is coming up again, and there are some great shows going down. So many good ones, in fact, that we decided to make a weekend out of one particular run of ’em. Friday the 27th of February, Vanderslice plays with Pedro the Lion. I’ve seen both before and really enjoyed them, so that should be a good show. Then Saturday day the Wrens play, and that night the Decemberists are back with Earlimart. We’ll find a place to stay in the city Friday night, and do a three-shows-in-two-days bender. I’ve never seen the Wrens or Earlimart, but really dig their stuff. Should be fun.

My brother got his orders yesterday, and turns out he was in that 5% of soldiers who aren’t going to Iraq right away. He’ll instead be stationed at Fort Hood, TX. My mom was so happy that he wasn’t sent directly to Iraq, she was totally worried that he’d be over there fresh off the Army assembly line. At least he and Angela will have some time together now before he has to go somewhere, it’d be hard on her if he got turned right out into Iraq too. Anyway, that’s good news. Although I’d expect that if the war goes on much longer he won’t be stateside forever.

A busy day, a short entry. Dave out.