novemb - IAM DECEMBER!!! RARGGH!

No posts for the entire month of november, thats fine, november is always forced into the shadow of mighty December, when we collectively spend half of many countries gdps.

I have like three half posts, where apparently I rant on things, but they turn out lameeeee. So for now a filler post until the mood strikes.

I just got a seasonal job at Target to make some quick money, its the wackiest hours though, so I'm not sure when I'll sleep.

If you know anyone within the film/tv industries, and they owe you a favor, send em my way, so I can wow them with my intelligence and witty banter. :)
And..... not work at seasonal jobs for money. help a man out people!

C is for cook the damn cookie.... and that's good enough for me!

Well if you're reading this post, go back and read other ones.

Today I shift from politics to cookies. A short rant, yes rant, on cookie ads and what they represent.

I keep seeing these Nestle ads where a mom and her child are "cooking" these ready to bake cookies. The mom unwraps the package, and the kid takes out the prepared pre-cut cookie piece and places it on the baking pan. Then its put in the oven and they're ready to eat!

I have no problem with the quick cookies myself, if you need that fresh cookie fix, you can do no better. But I do think the way they are presented in the ads is stupid.

The mom and child are doing something together, like the old days, baking cookies, the simple joys of life! Too bad it requires about 1 minute of work and then you just wait to get the delicious yet unhealthy cookies to eat. If you want to use cookie baking as a time to bond with your child and teach them something, make them from as close to scratch as possible. Sure we won't be churning butter and grinding flour anytime soon, but at least lets get messy and mix it all in a bowl. Then put lopsided dough balls onto the pan, and then use the rest to make one giant cookie.

Making them is half the fun, make that kid work for the cookie! Let them come up with new ingredients to add, and just remember to doublecheck you're not eating some sort of ketchup-chocolate chip- walnut cookie. old man rant ehh...

He's a Solid Bet!

Thats right, I've found the candidate for you. If at the end of the last post you thought, these candidates really do suck, then vote for him:

First of all, Desk Lamp is always positive, bringing light everywhere he's set down. And if his light goes out, just replace his bulb and he is back in the game. Second, Desk Lamp is a lamp, he can't move, so you always know where he stands on the issues.

Desk Lamp is made of composite materials mined in the US, sent to Indonesia for processing, and assembled in China before coming back to his home country for the good of us all. He has a nuanced understanding of international as well domestic politics.

Desk Lamp is also constantly using energy, but efficiently and in small amounts, making him a natural fit to tackle our national energy problems. A credential other candidates cannot claim.

Finally, Desk Lamp cares about our children. He provides the proper reading environment to satisfy curious minds, and makes visible the wonders of the natural world.

If you're looking for a candidate who is known world wide, who has the qualities we require, and who can fit comfortably in an airplane storage bin, then you know what to do...


Illuminate 2008!

Vote or Die... or you know, don't vote.

The election season is well past being in full-swing and is now in "annoy the hell out of everyone" mode. The question is, is voting worth it? does your vote count? can i put in another vote cliche? questions that need answers.

In Arizona, either it's on the ballot, or the proverbial "they" is fighting for it to be on the ballot. The it being a provision that every general election, some random person who voted will be picked to win a million dollars. Here's a news story from May talking about it. Win a million, vote for those tax cuts for the wealthy! oh snap. The idea being, not even half the people who are eligble to vote do so, lets motivate them to. Noble idea, but I believe not so great a plan to get it done.

Do we want people just going in, punching a few holes and walking out for the chance to get a million dollars? I buy a one dollar scratcher not caring that it gives new mexico students scholarships, but because I want that freaking cash. Some people drawn in won't be doing so for the noble act of voting in america, but... because they want that freaking cash. Now, some who are lazy but pay attention to issues will be pushed to vote, but most won't.

Hell, even those of us that do vote are not so qualified to do so. I say qualified in the sense that we pay attention to the issues, and the records of the candidates and make our decisions. Now the work required for this "qualification" is hampered not only be lazyiocity and busytude, but also the useless ways campaigns present information. (thats another can of worms for a blog post I'll never write... laziocity).

Thus, does motivating a group of people not paying attention to the issues to vote really help anything? How will they vote, off a few tv ads, maybe just by party lines. Then what, we end up with a candidate voted in by indifference. sweet. I'm trying not to be on a high horse, because I really am only moderately informed, and thats not good enough either.

Then we have the Vote or Die campaign from 2 years ago, and might be there again? (i dont watch da mtvs anymore, except to make fun of kids on NEXt). don't vote just to vote, vote because you've chosen the candidates and the referendums that work for you. and please for god sakes don't vote because of your parents positions.

Ok, so you're informed. You've read lots of articles, you've watched ads, you've stalked the candidates, now you're ready to make a choice. Only you realize, they all suck ass. not just tiny ass, but major ass. What do you do?

How the hell do i know? I can only give you two examples. A family member of mine is tired of the whole process, and doesn't believe any candidate will represent him well. The whole system is in need of repair. So he's making his statement by not voting at all. I on the other hand, agree that its not perfect, and the candidates aren't either. But i'd rather have some say in whose going in, then none at all.

Neither is right, and neither is wrong. They just are, but before you go to vote, think, just a little bit, and then do what you feel is your own course of action.

[insert great political quote here, for a nice bookend to the blog post.]

Set the sails and push off

This blog seems to be a sail-less ship in the windless doldrums, lets blow some wind out here people.

Everything is Illuminated

Time for a short movie review. I knew of the movie Everything Is Illuminated when it came out, but never got around to seeing it. The awesomity (you heard me) of Netflix allows me to catch up on all the movies I miss, since the window between movie theatre and dvd release is like 4 minutes now-a-days. I highly recommmend netflix.

Onward. Everything Is Illuminated is a good movie, and not some self-indulgent indie flick, if that was your impression of semi-off-mainstream films. I suppose you might want a plot synopsis. A young jewish man (Elijah Wood) goes to the Ukraine to learn more about his family's past. Pretty simple at heart, as often the best stories are. The story takes its time to develop and if you can wait it out, you'll be rewarded. Patience is the key. The film has some beautfiul shots as well, and a generally satisfying ending. You'll laugh, you'll contemplate, and you might well up in the eyes a little bit, but in the end you'll know it was worth it.

"Everything is illuminated in the light of the past, which is inside us looking out."

I geeeerrrrr'on'teeeee or your money back. *

I hope someone reads this besides myself, please, leave a comment, any comment, bueller, bueller...



*Offer not valid anywhere within the known universe.

Doomsday Machine and the Fightenist Monkey Army You Ever Saw

Well some one else actually read this, anonymously. I should say that the blog really lacks direction, so I have posts where I might discuss things, and then I follow up with a mismash of quotes, ideas, and IM conversations. Mainly because I don't always feel like discussing things, and am unsure how qualified I am to debate, but it is only an online blog, one among millions.

However, tonight I watched half of a 20/20 special, and figured I'd say a few words.

I came in halfway through the program, but it basically boiled down to the multiple ways in which human beings will cease to exist on earth. Many were problems out of our control like volcanoes, meteors, and gigantic monkey armies. It kind of smacks of the typical media (not liberal, not convservative, just MEDIA) doomsday threats. All exploring when and how we'll die, and how we're basically all f**ked.

The three more interesting issues were the final three. First was nuclear war, most likely caused by accident. The Cold War may have "ended" in some sense, but there's still tension everywhere, and how does one know who to trust, including America, with such a deadly force? The accident being we misinterpret a threat, and decide to launch a few nukes, and then it all goes up. Fantastic. Over fifty years everyone watches eachother, then signs treaties but will never let go of nukes, so I don't see it changing much.

The "number 2" on the countdown 0' death was plagues. We get treated to the avian flu and soundbites on it. I never got scared of this, its hard to put a face on threats that you're not even sure are really threats to begin with. They mention the Flu pandemic during 1917-1918, right after WWI(difference from epidemic I believe is that a pandemic effects large portions of the world).Then the real fun begins as we're treated to the possibility of designer plagues by a mad scientist or a scientist who somehow is convinced creating a super plague is the way to go. 20/20 tells us how fast it could spread, "with a single sneeze" dun dun dun! Once again, the threat is hard to personalize, and the amount of control we have depends on each country, which is impossible to police.

The number one death to the world is climate changes, focused on the causes we bring ourselves. This one seems most controllable and yet carries the same problems of the other two, the fact that massive action by the people seems far off. I, like the average person, care about the earth, but will be hard pressed to go about changing my routine to accomodate this. It has to be easy and cheap on a personal level. And even if I do change my lifestyle (I do have a few things that I help contribute, but not tons), what about everyone else, and what about conveniences that are available to me that I don't think about, but contain environmental impact. Like eating fast food, or buying supermarket groceries.

Thus, I say this necessitates government action. A tall order indeed, to try and convince congress and the president that environmental and business changes are important steps. I have no idea how to go about that, but there has to be something.

I've always liked what I would call "elegant" solutions to problems. My example would be Wal-mart. The amount of impact the walmart system has on America (hey its where I live, its where my focus will first be), means that changes it makes could really go towards changes everywhere. The elegant solution would be some sort of technologies and plans that are earthfriendly/human friendly, and yet thats not the benefit to walmart. These solutions somehow have to save walmart money and time, and they'll also contribute to postive corporate image.

I don't remember exactly, but it's something like the third way. Defined as "Third way (centrism), or "radical centre", an economic and political idea that positions itself between democratic socialism and laissez-faire capitalism" I believe it's applied to many different aspects, and even to welfare during the Clinton administration (hey I was 10 and uninterested, and I'm not a student of politics). Basically one politcal idea that promotes an "elegant" solution. In contrast to the idea that "polar opposites" will never be able to compromise. (Man if anyone ever reads this paragraph and knows what they're talking about, I'm probably effed.)

What are these solutions? I don't know, I like to film things, but there are a hell of alot of smart people out there, so something has to come about.

People of my generation are a cynical bunch, myself included, but I don't think we'll just sit back and watch it all die. Some of us are already fighting to change the world, many of us will take time before action. But we're all curious, and I think we can move past the polarization (at least as presented by politicians and the media) that exists today.

Snakes on a Plane

No, I haven't seen it yet. I hear that it's campy fun, a movie thats enjoyable when you just let go and don't take things seriously. Which I can appreciate.

My problem is the buzz around it, I wasn't near the beginning, so I'm not some elitist going "oh i knew about it months ago, blah blah blah." I first read a few things about it and laughed, and then saw as the buzz built, with interviews and an article in TIME magazine, and then everyone I know telling me about it.

Everyone seemed to kind of jump on after a certain point, when the buzz reached its peak. I don't know if its a naive or at least not very nuanced way to look at things, but when a lot of people start slobbering (for lack of a larger vocabulary) over something to the point where the mob expresses that the movie can do no wrong, I get skeptical. I'm suspicious.

I think the type of mentality scares me. I'm not giving much credit to the people involved, because on a more important issue they might not be so easily swayed, or at least they seemed to be easily swayed and caught up in the moment with this movie.

The amount of people that actually saw the movie didn't really live up to the hype surrounding it, or at least thats what the headlines say. But I have to wonder how much hype there really was in the rest of America, not just the people who use the internet daily, like myself. The buzz was huge within the group of people who jump between blogs, movie sites, and online comics, enough so that 1.7 million people saw it that weekend (estimation). But my parents who don't browse the internet that often, and I take them as an average american baby boomer, they had no clue until I told them or they read something, and that wasn't enought to peak their interest.

So what lesson is there to be learned from Snakes on a Plane? Well number one the internet and its buzz'worthy items are probably still not mainstream enough to move people en' masse, at least not for a movie about snakes on a plane.

"Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations:

I think people were more excited about the marketing than the actual movie. New Line did not set out to create this Internet buzz. That's actually a marketer's dream, but when marketing translates into awareness but does not inspire people to get out from behind their computers and into the theater, that's a problem. " (quoted from Flickfilosopher.com's own take on snakes on a plane, she's a critic who I read alot, check her out)

A second and more interesting point to me is the power that the internet can have for feedback for films. It's been touched on, recently I saw a video clip with Zach Braff and Kevin Smith discussing this together. And thats what's interesting about Snakes on a Plane. The movie most likely improved with the audience feedback. Instead of kind of a lazy PG 13 to violence and sexuality, for a movie like snakes, it was wise to just push to the R-rating and give people what they want. (yah yah, "lazy violence and sexuality", but if you're going to do it anyway, might as well have people getting naked and bit in the junk, classy.)

So all in all, I'll have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, that on something important they might be a little more discerning about topics.

And yes, I will see the movie eventually, and no, this discussion is by no means a complete one.

Oi

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evil-doer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him.
- Dostoyevsky


Honestly though, number one rule history should teach us is to pay attention, observe and talk to others before we react. As hard as it may be to do so, its something to strive for, because nothing changes when you aren't paying attention or asking questions.

r-over.

The News

I need to get back into the news, during the last few semesters of college I actually consumed a fair amount from a variety of sources. I felt informed, and almost enough to debate current issues with someone. But it fell by the wayside during my 50-60 hour a week internship, and now during the summer I've been even more lazy. Which is especially bad right now with all the turmoil that is going on.

So If anyone reads this, feel free to IM, email or whatever, me with thoughts and ideas. I'll take links or variety of webnews sites, anything you got. I'm resolving to read more and perhaps learn the geography and a bit o'culture about places I barely know, but probably should as an American.

In the words of the movie Network (1976), which I've never seen, and this quote really makes no sense in this context:

"I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!"

or at least you know... read some more.

Fairly A-typical

General floating down the river feeling.
Need to find the next port before a storm hits.

The time of your life

Today was the last day of my internship, at least officially, when all the interns (sans one) would be together. Kind of sad, but I try to look at it as at least I got to spend a lot of time with some great people before I left college. I don't know what's next, but I'd kick myself if I kind of became complacent and didn't at least go for something big soon enough.

Two quotes I saw today, that I liked:

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
- Robert Heinlein

I know not, sir, whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life.
- James M. Barrie

Ninja Ghosts

HmmlStrike: if im slow to answer, its cause of lazery
KrazyKoreanKid01: lazery better be dodging lazer beams shot by future ninja ghosts

I fully expect that one day I will meet future eric as he tells me to avoid some life pitfall. But it makes you wonder, if future eric was able to do well enought to travel back in time, maybe that pitfall helped us. Think about it.

The Two Notions

Living a priestly life,
isolated even when surrounded,
the silence persists
his voice struggles to be loud
how was the night they ask,
answering good, so proud
underneath lies a different truth,
a glum realization, made since youth,
that no matter how nice a person can be,
until they let go, they'll never be free.
__________________________________________

The little troubles and squabbles,
don't bother me so much,
slow to anger and quick in the clutch,
parts of my personality,
but how often do I let people see,
see the person I know I can be,
the one with short and witty jokes,
with songs and a heart that's full of hope,
cheesy poetry and lines that could be,
more intelligence than my comments provoke,
full of wonder and curiosity,
my true self exposed to all,
avoid the worry, and avoid the fall.

YOU'RE A STAR KID!

Celebrity Thief

B and C-list celebrities are trained how to case and rob houses and are then forced to rob A-list celebrities. You the viewer, then get to decide the punishment, online, or through texting, oh yea.

...

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Drinks for All

Josh - Ok eric, I got a new drinking game. You have a shot glass, and you fill it, and drink it. Then, when the shot glass is empty, you fill it up again, and drink it. Repeat.

Eric - Thats not a drinking game, thats alcoholism.




Oh, what is in store for me now
It's coming apart
I know that it's true
As I'm feeling my way through the dark

SURVEY

Good

Bad


The ugly, fill both out my bros.

Myself and Mr. Cash

The bus... the blessing and the curse.
You get to see a different point of view,
and a hobo sing in verse.
The time it strains the senses,
and the crowded quarters,
they suck the air and replace it
with a collage of smells,
that can assault and please the nose,
The bus... it comes, it comes and goes.



Beside a Singin' Mountain Stream
Where the Willow grew

Where the Silver Leaf of Maple
Sparkled in the Mornin' Dew
I braided Twigs of Willows
Made a String of Buckeye Beads;
But Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.

Irony Defined?

KrazyKoreanKid01: define irony meyer
KrazyKoreanKid01: no soy sauce in this house



Will you be my Mary Magdaline, would you be my American dream
Will you mix your perfume up, from diesel fumes and gasoline
Be my sweet insurgence, load the magazine
Let's shoot out the lights tonight, we've been waiting too long for them to turn green.

Now, take the wheel, the highway's clear
I got the throttle, now baby you steer
Lets squeeze every drop out of this machine
The coffee, the diesel, the methamphetamines
'Til this God damn rig can't run no faster
Baby ain't we ah, beautiful disaster

Save Tonight

Cue Nerd-Esoteric Humor:

HmmlStrike: i totally broke marble blast
KrazyKoreanKid01: with awesomity?
HmmlStrike: i used a rocket and shot off into the unknown upper reaches and now my marble is spinning in midair with nothing around it
HmmlStrike: not stopping
KrazyKoreanKid01: you've crossed dimensions
KrazyKoreanKid01: marble blast 4-d
HmmlStrike: THE MARBLE SINGULARITY


Save tonight
and fight the break of dawn
Come tomorrow
tomorrow I'll be gone

Mystery

I can't think in terms of career goals,
I can't interpret through that specific lens,
All I know is that motivation comes in fits and starts,
and it's hard to grab and maintain.

To whatever level, we're hated or loved,
I can't dwell on the fact,
even though it's always on my mind,
it just makes the choices harder.

But the line of events, is unavoidable
people's laughs and smiles make life approachable,
naive and innocent, arent we all,
at least in some aspect of this coincidental fall.



The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go

Suggestion!

Borrowed the "Lost and Found" CD, by Griffin House, from my boss. It's the right cd at the right time, some sort of indie-country-folk-post-core-modern sound (you heard me), and perhaps you would enjoy it.


Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

SCRUBS

It's fantastic, I know not everyone shares that feeling, but I do.

It's what I look forward to most on tuesday nights, and the fact that it's March, my favorite of months, makes it better.


We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

BUFFOONERY

Some form of sickness, was completely out of it at work all day, general buffoonery.

KrazyKoreanKid01: some weird fungus deal going around with dry weather
KrazyKoreanKid01: flu like symptoms, menigitis like symptoms
HmmlStrike: at NAU or on news
KrazyKoreanKid01: AZ area, it was in the republic
HmmlStrike: i just machine gun sneezed, it was crazy
KrazyKoreanKid01: thats the fungus taking over your brain, testing out the hardware, making itself comfortable
HmmlStrike: will the fungus make me a more charismatic person
KrazyKoreanKid01: A FUN GUY!!
KrazyKoreanKid01: AHAHAHAH
KrazyKoreanKid01: ...
HmmlStrike: i laugh, for dear god that was setup perfectly, and i didnt even realize it


I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)

LOOT!

Made my way to the NAU interns banquet, scored some loot. Thats about it.

HmmlStrike: we need a third amigo yes... you find one, you're in college, its easier
KrazyKoreanKid01: see, thats a problem finding one here
KrazyKoreanKid01: have to drive him down, he has to be free
KrazyKoreanKid01: also weird if its just me and him, probably want buds
KrazyKoreanKid01: so more than the third
HmmlStrike: if you make friends it wont matter, thats what friends are
KrazyKoreanKid01: i thought friends were people who supplied you with a fake alibi in your murder trial
HmmlStrike: they do that as well



Never judge a book by its movie.
J. W. Eagan

One of those...

...weekends. It was just one of those times when lots of feelings about life and the future and everything else hits you (lord knows if people who are older experience this anymore)

I saw four new movies, none of which were particularly happy, in terms of content or endings.

Topping the list was The Constant Gardner. Ralph Fiennes is awesome. And so is nearly every part of the movie.

The other three sort of come in at a tie, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The Weather Man, and Lord of War.

All of them were pretty good, but became weak in parts. The Three Burials has the award for most non-sexual sex scene I've ever seen in a movie. I rented the other three, but Burials Josh and I saw in the theatres in Scottsdale, full of old white people, who apparently laugh at parts I can only surmise because they couldn't come up with a better reaction. (Thats another rant for another time)

We'll see how this week shapes up, there's an NAU banquet, and hopefully I can get something together with intern(s) for the weekend.

Adios for now.

"Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life" - Michael Caine in The Weather Man

What now.

I came home today not really feeling like myself, and I don't know if it's because lately I haven't been being myself, or if lately I've been figuring out more parts of my personality.

Either way it was a very weird and detached feeling, and one I hope to resolve.

I miss hanging out with my four closest friends, you know who you are, and after my internship and graduation we all need to do something together, if at all possible.

Some choice quotes:

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.
H. L. Mencken

Live so that your friends can defend you but never have to.
Arnold H. Glasgow

We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them.
Evelyn Waugh

This one I'm not sure about... but meh

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.
Ricther

Poooostin'

Here, listen to some midi versions of revolutionary war favorites.
Rock the flute.
MUSIC

Work is work. Some days it brings interesting new things, other days it drags on. I find cool co-workers help pass the time.

Colorful Legislative phrase of the day :

"The devil's in the details."

Josh and Eric humor example #453:
(while josh studies grammar rules for journalism)

KrazyKoreanKid01: wow how vague, tells me the rule, then says there are exceptions
KrazyKoreanKid01: the exception being all the time, save for this one sentence
KrazyKoreanKid01: every sentence has a unique structure that must be memorized
KrazyKoreanKid01: determined by me, KLEEGOR, MASTER OF THE SUBJECT-PREDICATE
HmmlStrike: I WAS NOT LOVED AS A CHILD, AND AT SCHOOL I WAS REBUFFED FOR MY GRAND INTELLECT, SO AT AGE 18 I ENTERED BUREAUCRAT SCHOOL AND NOW THE SEEDS OF VENGEANCE BEAR FRUIT
KrazyKoreanKid01: we were fools...we should have killed him in the womb
HmmlStrike: so be it, FIND THE TIME MACHINE
KrazyKoreanKid01: he was bred to be the perfect grammar machine...all they created was an abomination
KrazyKoreanKid01: they say his mother was a compound-complex sentence
KrazyKoreanKid01: and his father was syntax itself
HmmlStrike: THE UNHOLY UNION was spoke in prophesy 1000 years ago

That's right...grammar humor, booyah.

Random

Another quickly made "poem"

Empty spaces and empty voices,
The quiet sets in, settles itself,

The only noises are from outside,
Startling and comforting,
They add whats necessary to get by.

But the missing contact,
and the missing heart,
combine to form a stumbling start.


If you'd like a copy of this, and other wonderfully crafted poems, please send a check to me for 29.95, and you'll be included in the leather bound edition of Who's Who among Eric's Random "Poetry" Readers, an honor not to be missed.


If you're new here, go back and read all the posts, as there are very few.

Time flies by

No posts for a month. No readers for longer. And yet im back.

Heres a poem I'm making up as i type this:

The seats fill up,
The eyes stare but do not look,

The signs bring interest more than they ever should,
The noises are rings, and beeps, and rumbles... and whispers,

The people are there in body but not in mind,
The stop has arrived and I'm just on time.

Le Fin.