I just haven’t felt much like posting lately.  There are one or two things I kind of wanted to write more than a paragraph or two about but then… meh.

I’m still here, I’ll get back to posting eventually (especially April… which will be my 3rd year of celebrating my own made up “Month of Blogging” with entirely too regular posting.  I HOPE).  Maybe I’ll even post something of substance this week.  Maybe even today!  Or not.

So yeah.  The new system is a HUGE FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS.  And yet, it was (I think) the only option we had.  The only reasonable one anyway, and the one most likely to work without extra pieces.

And it does work.  “Work”.  There are so many idiotic little caveats and idiosyncrasies to the system… and this is coming from someone who has worked in this industry for most of his adult life.  And most of them are undocumented and it’s not a Microsoft program so finding the standard “free” internet customer support (public forums, etc.) is very difficult and the company provides it to us without any support (aside from paying a consultant) – at least as I understand it.  Maybe I don’t understand it.  I’m going through and finding as many little “quirks” as I can, then going back and fixing/modifying a couple dozen people or so each time, hoping the new fix keeps them working.  IT IS FUN.  WE HAVE FUN.

Huh. I guess I found something to vent about.  Blog. Vent/blog.  Same thing.

So yeah.  I’m too mentally burnt out to blog lately.   But hey, the new Wheel of Time book (too lazy/tired too link it, #googleityourdamnself) today – my copy should arrive in the mail soon (I ordered a signed and numbered copy. OF COURSE I DID.)  Which is cool, because I still need to finish The Girl Who Played with Fire (#googleityourdamnself), which I’m really enjoying.  So maybe I’ll blog about one of those.  Or maybe I won’t.

Oh, and politics.  And religion.  Having sex in the closet.

JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
JESUS CHRIST IS NOT A SWEAR WORD.

Alright.  Let’s just take that at face value.  OK, so Jesus is (a) deity/god, right (I’m going to assume I’m living in bumper sticker man’s world)?   And “swear word” is a (kind of childish, uber dated?) way of saying “profanity”… well, what is “profanity”:

The original meaning of the term was restricted to blasphemy, sacrilege or saying God’s name (or an identifier such as “Lord” or “God”) in vain.

OH. So you are saying that, BY DEFINITION, “Jesus Christ” is a swear word, because he is considered a deity?  Interesting.

Your bumper sticker is not powerful (or clever) enough to change the basic definitions of words.

I think I get what they are trying to say, I think, basically it’s a “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain” type of deal but…

1. This is dumb.  It’s like driving around with a bumper sticker that says: “Do not kill”, or some other commandment, or any other thing that people should be doing anyway.  It’s one thing to say “Please drive safe!” and another to try and say it in a witty way (and inevitably fail, but at least you tried… I guess) like most bumper stickers do.  Try harder!
2. I don’t have a #2, #1 was long enough.

[EDIT:  A friend pointed out in an email that a more direct comparison would have been something like:

“If you are saying "Jesus Christ" is not a (profanity), then are you saying He is NOT a deity?”

Which, I think, is a good one.  Also, if that was what the person with the bumper sticker was trying to say, then fucking kudos to them for a brilliant bit of diagonal thinking.  Buutttttt I'm pretty sure they weren't going there, and can only think in straight lines.]

Justwritecat

Now, the weird thing I that I can’t find the origin of this thing.  Naturally, google is polluted from all the people passing this thing back and forth, making it really difficult.  I tried tracking the linking back, but got bored at the 7th or 8th link.  My suspicion is just that it’s a benign chain-letter type thing – and it does have a positive effect I think – making you aware of blogs you might not otherwise be aware of, spreading blog-love and all that.

The award part is that someone chooses you to receive it.  The meme part is that it doesn’t appear to be an actual award, and you are supposed to say 7 things about yourself.  The chain letter part is that you are supposed to pass it on by tagging fifteen (!) other blogs.  That’s the part that makes me wary.  15 is silly overboard.  I probably barely read 15 blogs, in total.  And they are supposed to just be ones that you have recently discovered, or something.  I guess people have waaaay more time than me.

Alright, so… things about myself.  Since I’m not going to link to 15 people, I’ll just do some extra facts.

1. I have IBS.  Awesome, I know.
2. My favorite music act/group/whatnot was Starflyer 59 for most of my musical life, but these days I don’t have one.  Not as much time to get into music, and not really liking the stuff SF59 is putting out these days.
3. I’m fucking clumsy.  Especially when it comes to my poor little toes… it’s a miracle there’s any nail left on them.  Sometimes there isn’t.
4. Driving puts me to sleep.  It’s incredibly annoying.  Usually I chew gum to stay awake, but for a long drive I don’t have much choice but to dip into the energy drinks.
5. I’m more than a little OCD, mostly the D.  Wait, no, I mean the C.  I frequently have to go back and make sure the door is locked, even when I just locked it seconds ago.  Which causes my poor wife no end of annoyance, I’m sure.  To get around it, I try and “lock” the sound of the door clicking locked in the front of my memory until I get out of range.
6. I have a BA & MA in Linguistics, but I do IT work in the construction industry.  Go figure.
7. I’ve seen Top Gun more than 30 times.  Ish.  When I was in junior high-ish – my aunt used to live with us, and she was in love with Tom Cruise.  That and we didn’t own very many movies.  I lost count in the 30s.  Amazingly, I do not know all the dialogue by heart.  I can probably sing the “baby baby I’d get down on my knees for you….” part.  Poorly.
8. As implied above, I’m a horrible singer and dancer.  You would be hard pressed to fake appreciation convincingly.
9. I opened every single can of coke (and by “coke” I mean “soda” or “pop”.  Bonus factoid!) that I drank between 7th grade and my 30th birthday with my teeth.
10. I’m for the death penalty, which tends to upset/confuse people that I would otherwise line up with politically.
11. I spent the middle 10 years or so of my life as a pretty serious Christian.
12. I have had a doctor (and the young doctor-in-training with him) laugh at me when I described a issue to them.   If you want to know what the issue was, you’re gonna have to ask me in person/email.
    O.O
    Yes, I immediately switched to another doctor.
13. I don’t think I’ve read any of the Lord of the Rings books.
14. DS9 was my favorite Star Trek, although I loved the finale to TNG.
15. Uncanny X-Men 234 was the first comic I ever bought.

And now for the passing of the torch portion of the post.  Since it looks like the practice is not to award it to folks who’ve already gotten it, I can’t like to Jen or Bethany.   Most of the bloggers that I read are “names” in that they are published writers or agents or something, and I’m assuming the point of this thing is not to get people reading blogs they are already reading, so I’ll shoot for the “common man” type stuff.

1. Fearless Gamer : A great League of Legends oriented blog.
2. A Girl and Her Books: “M” is aspiring writer (like myself), although she posts about non-writing things as well.
3. I’m From Driftwood: Coming out stories from around the world.
4. Clients From Hell: “A collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers.”  Funny stuff.
5. I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS: I think this may be a bigger name type blog, but I just recently found it.  Music focused, and lots of new music info.
6. The Portland Housing Blog: Updates on the local housing market.  What can I say – the older I get the more I follow the economy.
7. Color Me Katie: She does some cool things with color/artsy stuff.

Note that if you’re actually curious as to what I read regularly… check the links on the right.  Those are like awards of awesomeness that I give out every day.

So, we’re talking and they’re asking us how the economic downturn has affected us and we tell them that the biggest thing is that we have to (based on a few separate factors, all affected by the current economy blah) put off having more kids for longer than we would like, and that they should do something for people that want to have kids in this economy but cannot afford to…. tax breaks or something (in addition to what’s already there O.O).

Yeah.  I have the president in my dream, and it’s only to bitch about how our lives are not as awesome as they could be :P.  Because it’s not like we are totally doing ok, what with still being employed and all…

So I wake up again, and they sedate me IN THE ANUS (not just in the buttock, but inside the anal passage itself oh man it REALLY hurt (in the dream)) again.  Seriously dream, WTF?

Then I hear them talking and there’s something wrong with my body chemistry or something – wrong for them at least – and they don’t think the sedation will take.  Anyway at some point I wake all the way up and push some guys out the airlock.  And uh, I escape but now I’m in… Libya? Ugh.

For instance, consider what you knew at 10, 16, 20 about life, purpose, love – anything nonfactual (although comparing factual knowledge can be fun too!).  Compare that to what you know now.

Cheesy, I know – but I’ve been doing this a lot lately, and it’s amusing at minimum.

And it got weirder.  When I finally fell asleep (after meticulously analyzing completely bizarre angles on The Hangover for 1.5 hours or so), I dreamed that Community was not only a brilliant comedy, but also a seriously fucked up dystopian allusion.  Like, after the ha-ha, at the end of each episode the watchers would get one more clue as to “what was really going on” a la Lost (which I have never seen, but I’m guessing it’s something like that, clue wise).  What I remember is that the ha-ha portion of the show was some kind of a dream, projected by one of two people – we aren’t sure which – who are both from a tiny (<10 people) town in the middle of nowhere which was famous for something I can’t remember.  The clue from the recent episode involved the brunette girl being a stand in for two geeky, glasses wearing twins from the school attended by one of our mysterious dreamers.  The video portions of the clues were presented in grainy, retro style film (like those flashback scenes in The Game).

I wish I could remember more, because the imagery was so strong and subtle that I had to confirm with Jen in the morning (when I was wide awake), that Community did indeed NOT have weird dystopian clues at the end.  Even now it still “feels” somewhat true.  I love vivid dreams.

I think I’m gonna have to get some more of that beverage.

Ahem.  Anyway.  So!  I’ve always been somewhat of an evangelist – but not in the religious sense (although I did go through a phase that could be said to approximate that O.o).  I’ve always been maybe a little too motivated (at least internally) about sharing the music & books that I enjoy with others.   Not so much TV & movies – I just don’t care enough.  But music and books… those are two things I’m way into.

I’m sure some of it is born of the standard loner desire to have others to actually enjoy your interests with – people you can shoot the shit with about your favorite bands or books and know they won’t be out in the cold.  But, there’s at least a touch of genuine altruism in there.  If I really enjoy something, I want to share that in the hopes that it will make someone’s day the way it made mine.

NOW.  I couldn’t tell you what the exact breakdown is between the two, but I’d wager it’s pretty close to 50/50. If you’ve known me long I’ve probably tried to turn you on to some band or another, or maybe even a book.  The funny thing is, for all the time invested, I don’t think I’ve succeeded much.  I’ve had the most headway with music I guess, but I can only think of one or two instances where someone has read a book on my recommendation.  I’m not sure that says anything about me so much as I tend to hang out with people with very different reading tastes than myself.  Which does get lonely I admit, moreso than differing tastes in music.

So maybe that’s why I still blog about books and music (and anything I can’t find someone to yak about with really)?  Talking to the air beats talking to nothing, or so I’ve heard.

In light of all this, I decided to make a nice, compressed list of things that I enjoy recommending to folks, just in case anyone ever happens to be open to that kind of thing.  Not complete of course, but a nice cross-section.

Some of these are my “favorite” things to one degree or another, others are just things that I enjoy talking about, or think deserve more exposure.

Books:

The Illuminatus Trilogy – The only book(s) I still re-read every 18 months or so.   Probably too weird for most people.  If you like weirdness, drugs, sex and a little violence and more weirdness…

The Dune series, particularly if you can make it through to my favorites  – books 4-6: God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse Dune.  Most sci-fi fans read Dune, but for some reason they stop there.  This baffles me as Dune, really, is not even the strongest book of the series (for me).  It’s the most simple, direct and “sci-fi-ish” though, so maybe that’s what does it.  After that, shit just goes off the rails in a way that a lot of casual sci-fi fans might miss, or be pushed back by.

Atlas Shrugged & The Fountainhead – The closest thing to classics I will touch.  No, I don’t agree completely with Rand’s Objectivism, but I still find the books enjoyable reading and great conversational fodder (when I’ve recently read them, I forget things FAST).

Night’s Dawn trilogy – Absolutely brilliant “hard” sci-fi.  The best written in the last 20 years (ie about the bounds of my sci-fi reading lifetime) IMHO.  Just, just brilliant really.  Lot’s of pages, lots of text, so you’ve got to have a love of the long works to enjoy this but man is it worth it.  I’ve re-read these a few times as well.  I’ve bought the entire series maybe 3 times as I’ve moved and lost (then re-found) older copies and even given the entire series to a friend once.  He has not yet read it.  Some “science” hero he is  ;p.

Mistborn trilogy – One of the best new fantasy series that I’ve had the pleasure of stumbling across.  A far cry from the simplistic lands of Tolkien this series asks a couple of interesting questions: What if the bad guy (Sauron analogue) won?  What if the bad guy winning wasn’t the worst that could have happened?

Serious fantasy fans already have their minds made up about the Wheel of Time series and the Song of Fire and Ice.  I say both are must reads, but the latter may appeal more to non fantasy fans.

Bands:

Starflyer 59 – The old stuff at least, I can’t really get behind the last 3 or 4 albums.  If you’re reading this post you probably know me (?sadly? in 6 years of blogging I haven’t picked up any non friend/family readers), so you’ve probably heard of and heard these guys.   I’m just putting them here (and at the top) for the sake of completion and history – them being the first band that made me want to share music with others and all.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=csPEitRRfuM

Gaslight Anthem – Awesome (but with room to grow) modern rock and roll.  I’ve extolled their virtues on a number of blog posts, so if you haven’t checked them out by now (at least to decide that you don’t like them),  you probably don’t think very highly of my opinion, at minimum.

Airborne Toxic Event -  Another band I’ve pushed a bit on this blog.  A little like the National in genre/sound, but a bit more energetic.

The Crush & Death on Wednesday – two long defunct bands, both of which I really loved and tried to share with others.  The Crush is alt/punk/rock in the grand Twin Cities tradition and DoW is rockabilly/rock/punk a la nothing quite like it at the time.  Both bands that I think had enough commercial appeal to blow up (but never did), and enough chops and genuine flavor to appeal to the rest.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzZwHbxWV28

Elvis Costello – the early stuff mostly. Hard to try and describe a guy who’s worn so damn many shirts.  His first 4 albums are where most of it is at, although there are many, many later tracks that I love as well – I just don’t find the complete albums as enjoyable to listen to.  Here’s a video of one of my favorite EC classics.  The video is from the year I was born…. which is crazy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j7JFP6ZOCI

Joe Christmas – another favorite dead band of mine that never really got any kind of recognition. Sadly, the singer’s later bands well, sucked.

Hum – Yep, another dead band.   Post shoegazer droney wall of distortiony awesomesauce.  Albums 3 & 4 should be on any alt music aficionado’s shelf (or iPod) IMHO.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTl8HcvYRqg

Morphine – What is it with dead bands?  Well, not many had a dude playing 2 saxs at once and another on two string slide bass.  Don’t let that scare you off though :).  The saxophonist (?) is only playing one in the vid below, sorry.  Ahh, found one, second vid has the double sax action.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=985JGeGq_tc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6naQ195c_k

The National – NOT a dead band!   A band a certain Science Hero turned me on to that is chock full of awesome nuggets.  Not even sure what to call the sound other than some flavor of indie.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhA9ARZ6pjk

Tiger Army – Pyschobilly!  Like, faster rockabilly basically.  Except they’ve got a groovy little goth theme going on with songs about beautiful death and violence and the like.  Here’s one of their mellower songs:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=–NyHw8rQ3I

TV on the Radio – Another not dead band.  One of the pinnacles of alt/indie “rock” at the moment I think, quality and creativeness wise.   Past Arcade Fire imho, by quite a bit.  Not that there’s any reason to compare the two BUT I keep hearing references (still) to AF as “it”.  TVotR is also “it”.  QUITE.

Here’s an older one of theirs:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHrTOQ18yzU

Let’s call that enough for this post.  Hopefully this was interesting to someone.  If you’ve got the time, and you haven’t already formed an opinion about a given band, at least check out the various song videos.  Good for background noise if nothing else.

The one good thing to come of it, for me, is the crazy ass dreams I have.

The first/worst night, when I slept on the couch in a shivering huddle, I “woke up” in the middle of the night to the sensation of my body exploding and reforming.  Suddenly everyone could do anything.  I could will myself not to be sick – and it lasted as long as I concentrated.   I could make anything, do anything, but mostly I didn’t because I was still huddled on the couch trying not to be sick.  I was vaguely aware of  everyone else in the world struggling with their newfound abilities as well.  It was very vivid.

Another night I dreamed of these mammoth shipwrecks piled across this lake, and how my dad had a giant ship.  At one point my grandpa & I were watching him swim from the top of a cliff.  Then a polar bear and 3 cubs attacked my dad, swimming below.  We watched him climb the cliff, trying to escape, but the bears climbed as well.  He scaled at least a hundred feet, just about to my grandpa & me – who couldn’t reach over the fence to help him for some reason (dreams) – then the bear smacked him and we watched him fall all the way back down.  Somehow he didn’t smack his head on a rock, and managed to swim down the river to a beach and escape.  I remember the feeling of terror that my dad was about to be eaten by a bear, then the sense of him falling, the sureness that the fall had split his head, then the relief that he was still alive and moving.  Note that my father was very fit in this dream!

Last night… I can’t remember most of it, but it was another waterfront dream.  At some point I was carrying a (heavy) orphan across town to check on some paperwork, then by the time I got back to the beach area (which was having some kind of emergency) I was DEAD tired from carrying this heavy kid around.  I remember a school bus careening off a cliff, I think because whatever the emergency was drove the driver to suicide.   Then these dudes cliff dove from WAY high into the river below to try and save people.  I remember wondering where the news crew (whose office was just down the road) was.

There were more, I’m sure.  And may be even more, as the end of whatever we have still seems a few days off.