Sunday, May 28, 2006
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
How about a nice cup'o KEN!!!!
UPDATE (Wednesday):
I am obsessed by Ken. I cannot find anything about this guy...at all...on the internet. I wanted to buy a copy of the album and have it framed for a friend in the music business, but I soon discovered that Ken is a total mystery. All we know is that he produced this awesomely bad record cover. But what about the record within? What songs are "by request only"? WHO IS KEN?!?!?! Even All Music does not recognize him. Does anybody know?
Of course, I have been waiting for my house to close (it finally has!) and have been trying to distract myself as of late with thoughts other than house closings, but Ken is still there...everytime I call up my blog.
He's saying, "Help me, Merc! I'm just an infamous music cover. Nobody can ridicule my music, only my cover art. And is it so bad, really? I have a nice 'stash, don't I? And my shirt? Sweet! And, no, that's not a glory hole over my shoulder. I'm for the ladies...but by request only. You know what I mean? What has become of me?"
Somebody help me help Ken find his way out of obscurity, please!
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How about a nice cup'o KEN!!!!
UPDATE (Wednesday):
I am obsessed by Ken. I cannot find anything about this guy...at all...on the internet. I wanted to buy a copy of the album and have it framed for a friend in the music business, but I soon discovered that Ken is a total mystery. All we know is that he produced this awesomely bad record cover. But what about the record within? What songs are "by request only"? WHO IS KEN?!?!?! Even All Music does not recognize him. Does anybody know?
Of course, I have been waiting for my house to close (it finally has!) and have been trying to distract myself as of late with thoughts other than house closings, but Ken is still there...everytime I call up my blog.
He's saying, "Help me, Merc! I'm just an infamous music cover. Nobody can ridicule my music, only my cover art. And is it so bad, really? I have a nice 'stash, don't I? And my shirt? Sweet! And, no, that's not a glory hole over my shoulder. I'm for the ladies...but by request only. You know what I mean? What has become of me?"
Somebody help me help Ken find his way out of obscurity, please!
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
ARIZONA DISTRICT 2
Just my luck. I leave severely gerrymandered CA-25 and end up in insanely gerrymandered AZ-02. Take a look:
And guess who benefits from this geographical insanity? Why, it's Trent Franks (R-Republican Crony Caucus...certainly doesn't represent the interests of AZ-02). (Libertarian Powell Gammill has done a lovely job documenting this soulless repug). Why, Mr. Franks is a friend of my favorite Christianist, James "shower with your son and let your daughter die of cervical cancer" Dobson.
So guess what? I'm getting off of the sidelines and getting involved! I've volunteered to work for the Arizona Democrats. It was bad enough being repped by Buck McKeon, but I never felt like Buck was a soulless religio-maniac in the hands of corporate handlers. I just kind of felt like he was a typical republican in the hands of corporate handlers. But Franks? I just can't sit idly by while trash like this could possibly be taken out.
I'll keep you posted.
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Just my luck. I leave severely gerrymandered CA-25 and end up in insanely gerrymandered AZ-02. Take a look:
And guess who benefits from this geographical insanity? Why, it's Trent Franks (R-Republican Crony Caucus...certainly doesn't represent the interests of AZ-02). (Libertarian Powell Gammill has done a lovely job documenting this soulless repug). Why, Mr. Franks is a friend of my favorite Christianist, James "shower with your son and let your daughter die of cervical cancer" Dobson.
So guess what? I'm getting off of the sidelines and getting involved! I've volunteered to work for the Arizona Democrats. It was bad enough being repped by Buck McKeon, but I never felt like Buck was a soulless religio-maniac in the hands of corporate handlers. I just kind of felt like he was a typical republican in the hands of corporate handlers. But Franks? I just can't sit idly by while trash like this could possibly be taken out.
I'll keep you posted.
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Monday, May 22, 2006
FOR THE RECORD
I do not advocate the bludgeoning, bashing, flogging, smashing or bitch-slapping of anyone. Violence is never the answer. Actually, that is not true. Some questions are answered with the word violence. But using violence outside of the context of an answer to a question (as a word) is wrong. Okay, not always true again. I can deconstruct myself all day long for your amuse ment, but you all damn well know what I mean, so I will leave you with the instructions that the only acceptable use for a tire iron is the changing of a tire. All other uses are not phenominologically correct.
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I do not advocate the bludgeoning, bashing, flogging, smashing or bitch-slapping of anyone. Violence is never the answer. Actually, that is not true. Some questions are answered with the word violence. But using violence outside of the context of an answer to a question (as a word) is wrong. Okay, not always true again. I can deconstruct myself all day long for your amuse ment, but you all damn well know what I mean, so I will leave you with the instructions that the only acceptable use for a tire iron is the changing of a tire. All other uses are not phenominologically correct.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006
BORDER CROSSINGS
The real problem with staying in my in-laws' house (aside from staying in my in-laws' house...I love them and even like them most of the time, but still...I've been here 3 weeks already...something's got to give) is that, for my animals, there is a real problem...I should say for my cats.
If you don't know, my menagerie includes two dogs, a rough collie and a basset, and four cats. Now, I know what you're saying, but my wife and I each came with two cats and, well, the dogs...we like animals, okay! I could say the same for my father-in-law but you'd need to remove cats from the equation. He does not like cats. Something to do with a grandmother who thought they were evil I believe. So what he has done is install an air conditioner in his garage/workshop (he is an excellent carpenter who has made the bulk of our very fine furniture) and allows the cats to live in there, separated from the house by a single door. Meanwhile, the dogs have the run of the place and have a dog door to give them access to a fairly large and grassy backyard. Lucky dogs...poor cats. Our cats are very loving and have always been allowed to sleep with us and have the run of the house as well, so you might understand that they are a little upset by this arrangement. You would be, wouldn't you?
In particular, we have our wonderful tuxedo cat, Magnus, who LOVES people and is desperate to gain access to the house. He cries outside the door when he know we are in ear shot and every time the door opens, he makes a mad break from the garage into the house where, unfortunately, the border patrol always picks him up and returns him to his garage of origin. Poor Magnus!
Magnus seen here with Moose in better days when he was a free citizen
My wife and I do go into the garage everyday to visit with the cats, but I never feel like it is enough. Hopefully, we will be able to close on our new home in the next ten to fifteen days at which time the cats will receive amnesty and be allowed to roam freely once again...
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The real problem with staying in my in-laws' house (aside from staying in my in-laws' house...I love them and even like them most of the time, but still...I've been here 3 weeks already...something's got to give) is that, for my animals, there is a real problem...I should say for my cats.
If you don't know, my menagerie includes two dogs, a rough collie and a basset, and four cats. Now, I know what you're saying, but my wife and I each came with two cats and, well, the dogs...we like animals, okay! I could say the same for my father-in-law but you'd need to remove cats from the equation. He does not like cats. Something to do with a grandmother who thought they were evil I believe. So what he has done is install an air conditioner in his garage/workshop (he is an excellent carpenter who has made the bulk of our very fine furniture) and allows the cats to live in there, separated from the house by a single door. Meanwhile, the dogs have the run of the place and have a dog door to give them access to a fairly large and grassy backyard. Lucky dogs...poor cats. Our cats are very loving and have always been allowed to sleep with us and have the run of the house as well, so you might understand that they are a little upset by this arrangement. You would be, wouldn't you?
In particular, we have our wonderful tuxedo cat, Magnus, who LOVES people and is desperate to gain access to the house. He cries outside the door when he know we are in ear shot and every time the door opens, he makes a mad break from the garage into the house where, unfortunately, the border patrol always picks him up and returns him to his garage of origin. Poor Magnus!
Magnus seen here with Moose in better days when he was a free citizen
My wife and I do go into the garage everyday to visit with the cats, but I never feel like it is enough. Hopefully, we will be able to close on our new home in the next ten to fifteen days at which time the cats will receive amnesty and be allowed to roam freely once again...
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Saturday, May 20, 2006
ANTIDEPRESSANTS
I mentioned this slightly in a previous post, but I have recently quit taking the antidepressant, Lexipro. I started taking it about a year and a half ago (around the time that my posting became sporadic at best) and with the move to Phoenix, I decided that perhaps I should take advanttage of my time off between jobs and get off the pills.
Why?
Well, for starters, I couldn't get excited about anything anymore...not even my son. I was just kind of existing. I had stopped writing and reading and basically paged through the internet more out of habit than out of any real sense of giving a damn. I wanted to work on my novel, but never really felt the pressing need to do so, not in the way that I had always felt the need to write. I wanted to be passionate, but could never really quite feel the necessity. I wanted to cry, but tears never came.
Now, don't get me wrong. I accept that it may have been a good thing I was on the damn pills last summer when my son was born. ou see, he w2as born with congential cataracts and needed three sets of eye surgeries to clear out the lenses so he could see properly. My wife was also born with congential cataracts and she was a wreck, blaming herself for his condition. I shudder to think how I might have reacted had my emotions not been somewhat surpressed. Then again, I might have bonded just a little more with my son and wife over the crisis (not that I do not feel a very strong bond to the both of them, I just somehow feel now that it would have been so much deeper...).
So now I am coming out of the fog of withdrawal and let me tell you, they do not share this pain with you when they put you on the drugs. I guess they just assume that you will be a lifelong consumer at that point, so why worry you. Well, let me worry you some if you are on the things. Just do a search of lexipro + withdrawal and, ignoring the obvious Scientology scare sights, look for some of the real testimonials. I haven't had half of what some of these people have gone through as the dosage I was on was relatively low, but what I have had that they did not has been unmitigated rage.
I get furious over the smallest of things such as not being able to find a document on my computer or having someone offer me assistance with something. Real firebreathing, red-eyed fury. I feel very guilty about it afterwards and then, of course, get very angry at myself for getting angry over something so stupid. I don't like feeling that way but you know what?
I like feeling! I remember why I started this here blog and it was to vent my frustration and talk about politics and life and whatever and I haven't felt real frustrations for a while. But my brain is working overtime again and I am reading like a fiend and writing because I have to and loving my son and my wife more than I can say and even wondering what possessed me to move to Phoenix or get on the pills in the first place.
But here I am. Reality may bite sometimes, but at least when it does, I'll feel it and have to react rather than look for ways to feel what I had been blocking myself from feeling all along.
And I will blog because I'm really starting to get pissed off about the world again and, well, you know...I'd like to punch Ann Coulter in the face (and drop a virtual MOAB on all the Little Green Footballs and Malkins and White Supremists and Christianists and, well, all them bastards) ;]
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I mentioned this slightly in a previous post, but I have recently quit taking the antidepressant, Lexipro. I started taking it about a year and a half ago (around the time that my posting became sporadic at best) and with the move to Phoenix, I decided that perhaps I should take advanttage of my time off between jobs and get off the pills.
Why?
Well, for starters, I couldn't get excited about anything anymore...not even my son. I was just kind of existing. I had stopped writing and reading and basically paged through the internet more out of habit than out of any real sense of giving a damn. I wanted to work on my novel, but never really felt the pressing need to do so, not in the way that I had always felt the need to write. I wanted to be passionate, but could never really quite feel the necessity. I wanted to cry, but tears never came.
Now, don't get me wrong. I accept that it may have been a good thing I was on the damn pills last summer when my son was born. ou see, he w2as born with congential cataracts and needed three sets of eye surgeries to clear out the lenses so he could see properly. My wife was also born with congential cataracts and she was a wreck, blaming herself for his condition. I shudder to think how I might have reacted had my emotions not been somewhat surpressed. Then again, I might have bonded just a little more with my son and wife over the crisis (not that I do not feel a very strong bond to the both of them, I just somehow feel now that it would have been so much deeper...).
So now I am coming out of the fog of withdrawal and let me tell you, they do not share this pain with you when they put you on the drugs. I guess they just assume that you will be a lifelong consumer at that point, so why worry you. Well, let me worry you some if you are on the things. Just do a search of lexipro + withdrawal and, ignoring the obvious Scientology scare sights, look for some of the real testimonials. I haven't had half of what some of these people have gone through as the dosage I was on was relatively low, but what I have had that they did not has been unmitigated rage.
I get furious over the smallest of things such as not being able to find a document on my computer or having someone offer me assistance with something. Real firebreathing, red-eyed fury. I feel very guilty about it afterwards and then, of course, get very angry at myself for getting angry over something so stupid. I don't like feeling that way but you know what?
I like feeling! I remember why I started this here blog and it was to vent my frustration and talk about politics and life and whatever and I haven't felt real frustrations for a while. But my brain is working overtime again and I am reading like a fiend and writing because I have to and loving my son and my wife more than I can say and even wondering what possessed me to move to Phoenix or get on the pills in the first place.
But here I am. Reality may bite sometimes, but at least when it does, I'll feel it and have to react rather than look for ways to feel what I had been blocking myself from feeling all along.
And I will blog because I'm really starting to get pissed off about the world again and, well, you know...I'd like to punch Ann Coulter in the face (and drop a virtual MOAB on all the Little Green Footballs and Malkins and White Supremists and Christianists and, well, all them bastards) ;]
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Sunday, May 14, 2006
ONCE AGAIN WITH FEELING
It gets hot in Phoenix in the summer...
Dry heat my ass...how about oven heat?
I'm going to crack an egg on the sidewalk when it gets over 115 just to see...I'll take pictures and post them for your pleasure.
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It gets hot in Phoenix in the summer...
Dry heat my ass...how about oven heat?
I'm going to crack an egg on the sidewalk when it gets over 115 just to see...I'll take pictures and post them for your pleasure.
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Saturday, May 13, 2006
ANN COULTER SUPPORTS/ENCOURAGES NEO-NAZI VIOLENCE
The always excellent Oricinus has an important post about Frau Coulter and her desire for a personal army of skinheads to do her business.
If you do not stop by Orcinus on a regular basis, start.
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The always excellent Oricinus has an important post about Frau Coulter and her desire for a personal army of skinheads to do her business.
If you do not stop by Orcinus on a regular basis, start.
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
UPDATE
A quiet moment to reflect...
My wife and I recently sold our house in L.A. and have moved to the Phoenix area (eagerly awaiting close of escrow on our new, 50% larger, 50% less expensive home). Why? Well, house size for starters. We'd like to have a little extra money to put away for the baby's future (as well as our own). L.A. is getting very crowded, very expensive and very volatile. My wife's parents live in Phoenix so it just kind of made sense for us to move here (as opposed to New Zealand...I actually prefer NZ, but the wife wanted to be closer to her family who I actually like, so it's okay).
Politically, I now feel like my vote matters! I'm moving into a district with one of the most "conservative" reps in congress, so perhaps I can help in a real way. This area seems just purple enough these days to really change the status quo in some small way. In California, the lines are drawn a little too neatly.
The baby is doing great, as are the cats and dogs. Eliot is trying to walk at 9 1/2 months. He is a very serious and determined boy and really wants to try everything by himself. Hopefully, this means he will see potty training as a very short period in the very near future.
Oh, did you know Phoenix is hot in the summer? Everyone I know in L.A. made this heretofore unknown fact available to me before I left. I guess they figured I somehow didn't know...
So now here I am at my in-laws' house looking for a new teaching position and weaning myself from antidepressants which have ultimately depressed me. My wife and I share the opinion that it is now possible for us to reinvent ourselves in small ways...perhaps to be more active and try to get out of the house more...perhaps to just do something as simple as living a healthier life. We shall see. L.A. sometimes makes one feel the need to project a simulacrum that is not quite reflective of reality. Perhaps now that we have removed ourselves from that need, we can shed the facade and simply be and live.
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A quiet moment to reflect...
My wife and I recently sold our house in L.A. and have moved to the Phoenix area (eagerly awaiting close of escrow on our new, 50% larger, 50% less expensive home). Why? Well, house size for starters. We'd like to have a little extra money to put away for the baby's future (as well as our own). L.A. is getting very crowded, very expensive and very volatile. My wife's parents live in Phoenix so it just kind of made sense for us to move here (as opposed to New Zealand...I actually prefer NZ, but the wife wanted to be closer to her family who I actually like, so it's okay).
Politically, I now feel like my vote matters! I'm moving into a district with one of the most "conservative" reps in congress, so perhaps I can help in a real way. This area seems just purple enough these days to really change the status quo in some small way. In California, the lines are drawn a little too neatly.
The baby is doing great, as are the cats and dogs. Eliot is trying to walk at 9 1/2 months. He is a very serious and determined boy and really wants to try everything by himself. Hopefully, this means he will see potty training as a very short period in the very near future.
Oh, did you know Phoenix is hot in the summer? Everyone I know in L.A. made this heretofore unknown fact available to me before I left. I guess they figured I somehow didn't know...
So now here I am at my in-laws' house looking for a new teaching position and weaning myself from antidepressants which have ultimately depressed me. My wife and I share the opinion that it is now possible for us to reinvent ourselves in small ways...perhaps to be more active and try to get out of the house more...perhaps to just do something as simple as living a healthier life. We shall see. L.A. sometimes makes one feel the need to project a simulacrum that is not quite reflective of reality. Perhaps now that we have removed ourselves from that need, we can shed the facade and simply be and live.
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