2008-11-30 02:02 am

You can't kill my spirit.

The Mosaic Meme, via [livejournal.com profile] missmp.

01. Answer each of the questions below the cut using the [Flickr] search engine.
02. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
03. Copy the URL of your favorite photos [here].
04. Then share with the world.

Read more... )
wolfpangs: (bammer)
2008-11-29 08:51 pm

O...Bama.

So today is the Iron Bowl, aka the most wonderful time of the year, aka the day of the Alabama-Auburn game. Now this year has been particularly delightful, because Alabama has gone unbeaten while Auburn...has not. (Their 17-34 loss to West Virginia was particularly schadenfreudelicious.) I continued my this season tradition of making it to Alabama game time and then comatosing through the game, so I had no idea of the outcome when I awoke this evening. My telephone blinked blue. There was a text message.

Now when you receive a text on the Sidekick, it displays the first few words of the message on the text jump screen. This read, "Ber [my sister, who sent the message]: Auburn may have w--." Emotionally, this is just under the equivalent of receiving a text on November 4th that read, "John McCain may have w--." I clicked through to the message, which read in full, "Auburn may have won the past 6 years, but like Barack Obama said, 'It's time for a change!'" YES, WE CA--wait, what? My sister is a Republican and not a politics geek, so she doesn't know all the catchphrases and you know, I don't remember his saying that at all. In fact, that was Tom Dewey's catchphrase, and if you recognize that name, there is probably one reason why. So I went online to puzzle this out.

On election night, I was watching the news coverage but switched to the Daily Show when the news got me too keyed up. Soon, even the Daily Show was too much and I started listening to music, while I had the Daily Show on mute and an electoral map open in a tab. I would occasionally refresh it, but it hadn't really changed in a long time. [This "long time" was probably ten minutes.] All of a sudden, around ten pm, I refreshed it and there was a check mark next to Senator Obama's name. I stared at the screen in confusion. The map hadn't been updated yet with the most recent totals and again, it was ten. I could no longer remember an election night with a bedtime. I turned the TV volume back on, just in time to hear this:



[I still feel like the little boy in glasses and the Home Alone pose at the top of this pic when I see that.]

That required checking a few more thousand sources just to make sure. I didn't require nearly as many for the outcome of the Iron Bowl. It is again, not the same as finding out the outcome of the election, but when I saw it, I couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh!" Among my prayers this year, two have been that my grandmother would live to see her beloved Alabama win again and that she would live to see the election of a President with more than one vowel in his last name (to steal a phrase from Jeffrey Eugenides). President...done. Alabama...oh. It's been an interesting year. I'm an aunt! That still blows my mind. Sadie is just now starting to engage with the world--she's social smiling and she'll watch people/animals around her (she's very bemused by the dogs). She's fascinated when people sing to her. So for her, here's her favorite song right now:



(I do not know what's going on with the Chief in this video--apparently he is reaching a higher plane of existence.)
2008-11-13 03:43 am

Missed Connections: You were holding my hair back.

1) There are many great pieces out there about the election and its aftermath, but my favorite may be Kobe Bryant Scores 25 In Holy Shit We Elected A Black President.

My second favorite being Wil Wheaton's "...or else we didn't win anything at all": “I guess we’re supposed to be gracious in victory,” I said, “but I’m profoundly offended to hear ‘we need to look forward and not backward’ and ‘we need to stop being so partisan’ from the very same fucking motherfuckers who have been telling us that we hate our country and love terrorists for the last eight years? These are the same people who worked really hard to make sure that I and everyone who didn’t agree with their blind support of Bush and Bush policies didn’t feel welcome in our own fucking country for eight years!”

I looked down at my hands, which had involuntarily clenched into fists. I felt a frightening and unexpected, uncharacteristic fury rise in my chest.

“I want to grab these people by the throat and scream at them ‘HOW DO YOU LIKE IT FUCKER?! YOU LOST! YOU FAIL! YOU GO HOME NOW!’”

2) Speaking of Wil, this might be my favorite Tweet ever-- True story: Keith Coogan and I went to a Dead Milkmen show when we shot Toy Soldiers in Charlottesville, Virginia. King Missile opened.

3) MST3K is TWENTY YEARS OLD how did this happen.

And where is Keith Coogan? Breaking: Don't Tell Mom... is not on instant Netflix, but Toy Soldiers is. This movie is so deliciously 80s.

4) After my last Secret Senator Crush went rogue and then totally fucking insane, I had to pick a replacement. I pulled out a longtime favorite who, bonus--is already totally fucking insane. Senator and soon-to-be Chief of Staff Emanuel, I love you Rahm time. See also: Rahm Facts for a let-me-count-the-ways of his majesty. Yes, they include my favorite Rahm fact: the steak knife story.

Now that we're reminiscing about the Clinton White House, I have to say that Erskine Bowles is a great name.

5) Simultaneous thoughts my sister and I had at Wal-Mart Tuesday:

My sister: That looks like Salome's head.
Me: Why is that angry girl with the baby staring at me?

...

I will write about my NY adventures later. I have to prepare a powerpoint on compost heaps and be glad that this semester is almost over. I really hope I pass this math class and then never take algebra again ever.
2008-11-05 07:07 am
Entry tags:

Word of the [yester]day.

Vicanadious: adj. experienced or realized by Canadians through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of residents of another country.

EX: I had a lot of vicanadious voting help yesterday.
2008-10-28 06:50 am

Deju vu all over again.

A snippet of an oddly familiar political debate, featuring noted politicians the Penguin and the Batman.


2008-10-27 10:16 pm

Wayne the Rapper and other objects of my affection.

1) Oakley Frogskins: I am hesitant about rewearing any trends I wore the first time, but thanks to a special friend who gifted me with a pair in Wildberry n' Milk, I am now the coolest kid in elementary school. It's a simple style, similar to Wayfarers but Frogskins come in way more varieties--about a million colorways by my estimation. (I am not good at estimating.) You can get them in basic/classic colors like black, brown, or tortoiseshell or you can go for the pattern-of-the-moment. I love the Colette x Oakley:



2) When I am not wearing those, I'm sporting my grandfather's vintage Persols, thus completing my transition into being an old man.

3) I love Lil Wayne's voice so much that my notebooks read "Mr. and Mrs. Lil Wayne's voice." It doesn't matter what he may be talking about--imploring the world to fellate him in the manner one would consume hard candy on a stick, genocide, hating puppies--I just love it. I believe Rolling Stone described it best: "a needling, grizzled croak that's one of the most distinctive sounds in pop music." His bit on T-Pain's "Can't Believe It" is like pure, crystallized joy to me.

4) Speaking of my love for music to drop one's underpants to, the work done by the mad geniuses who reprogram the Rockafire Explosion band to do modern music fills me with glee. Yeah, I know two children's pizza establishments entered and Chuck E. Cheese was the one left standing, but Showbiz was always my favorite. I may be remembering with the mythic gloss that only childhood memories have, but the one in Montgomery (Alabama) was AWESOME. See most of the videos here.

5) True Blood makes me so happy. A show about a young southern woman living in her grandmother's house in a small southern town? I can't imagine why that would speak to me. Oh and she's sweet on a brooding older man with an eventful past? Yeah, doesn't ring a bell.
2008-10-24 05:37 pm

Joe the Mugger and other outrages.

1) Note: I wrote this first item Monday morning and whadya know, it's like I'm prescient. Just ask cautionary whale Rush Limbaugh! Or don't.

It's going to be interesting to see the lengths people will go to in the next two weeks to try to discredit Colin Powell. Oh and you know they will. I would like to think that there will be adult, nuanced disagreements but as it happens, I've been to this rodeo before. I believe it'll likely be more like Chris Rock's description of the media treatment of voters' races:



"Well, they black, he black--I guess that's why."

2) In other news of my telepathy, when I heard that story about the McCain volunteer that was supposedly assaulted by a politically-minded mugger who carved a B into her cheek, my immediate response was, "Well, that's not true." I didn't have any reasoning behind it--I just knew it. Later, I actually thought about it and had these thoughts:

First of all, a mugger usually wants to rip and run. They don't want to hang around for afternoon tea. Second of all, the picture of her face. I don't know much about black eyes, so the comments about the swelling or lack thereof didn't mean much to me. The B is backwards. In addition, it's superficial and very neat. Now some people suggested that the mugger could have had the woman on the ground with her head upside down between his knees but again, that seemed like an awful lot of trouble to go through--time, public location, etc. I was also wondering, what did he do it with? None of the reports I read seemed to mention that. Now combine that with her refusal to seek medical treatment, which even Michelle Malkin found fishy. Get tetanus or die trying is MY game, missy (see also: below). Then, there were her Twitter updates. 12AM: Oh my gosh, you guys, I sure am in a black dangerous neighborhood*. 3AM: Wow, bummer night, dudes. [I'm being facetious, obviously, but this is not that far off from her real posts.]

Taking all these thoughts into account, the weapon became obvious. She was assaulted with Occam's razor. Of course, I wasn't the only one who came to the same conclusion so I'm sure I'm not the only one who found the latest updates unsurprising: Campaign Volunteer Faces Charges In Attack Hoax. A couple years ago, I was watching a program on Susan Smith and one of the men that interviewed her said that he was knew she was lying because of the way she told her story. Truth-tellers get all the facts out at the beginning until the story tapers down, whereas liars start with the taper and then ramp up to all the details. I was mugged, I was mugged and he didn't like my bumper sticker so he beat me and he carved my face, I was mugged and he didn't like my bumper sticker so he beat me and he carved my face while sitting on my chest, I was mugged and he didn't like my bumper sticker so he beat me and he carved my face while sitting on my chest and he groped me.

Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartooning. This one was a reference to Susan Smith:



Thirteen years ago.

3) Today I received a bill from the physician who treated me last month. Now, we're confused as to why we're being billed a third time (I received a second bill about a week ago), when we gave a credit card at the hospital the morning I was there. However, this bill features an interesting line item. See if you can pick it out.

Apparently, I get the honor of paying $54 because the doctor said, "You shouldn't smoke--smoking is bad, mmkay?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

*And comments from locals say that this wasn't a dangerous neighborhood and the street level ATM gets many passersby.
2008-10-17 09:39 pm
Entry tags:

the ongoing work of my mind

From dinner Wednesday night:

2008-10-13 03:37 am

Youtube, will you marry me?

Behold a Krystal's commercial from 1975. See if you recognize anyone. Then, uh, bring me a sackful, would ya?




PS: In related news, the pumpkin pie Milkquake is A+++. I just need to try the Hershey's pumpkin kisses and I will have conquered all of the mass-marketed pumpkin food items I've heard of so far.
2008-10-05 12:22 pm

A lot of candidates never bring us up.



Nonpolitic:

In cleaning out my new bedroom, it hasn't all been bleeding arteries. I found this wee pillow when I was cleaning out the closet and it's pretty much awesome:



I got the staples taken out about a week ago and that was great. The wound had pretty much healed but the staples were pulling divots in my skin. Now the trashcan in my bathroom no longer looks like I share a place with Anton Chigurh.
wolfpangs: (Weir and Barlow)
2008-10-01 08:52 pm
Entry tags:
2008-09-26 02:05 am

Support and defend the Constitution of the U.S.

Reminder: voter registration deadlines are coming up soon in many states.



State by state voter laws

God, November is going to be such a busy month for me. The election, probable NYC trip, Norm MacDonald (oh yeah, I am), etc.
wolfpangs: (the hunt)
2008-09-24 08:34 am

Be sure 'n' tell 'em, Large Marge sent ya! Ahahahahahaha!

Oh, that's cool:
  • The new Google phone: I was looking around at new smartphones and my iphone dreams died when I got a look at AT&T's coverage map. Nothing at Verizon really did it for me, so I headed over to my current carrier, Tmo and saw the link for the G1. I'll let you guess at what moment I was sold. I will do some more wait and see with reviews until I actually give them money, though.


  • What's the only thing that would make sweet tea better? Oh, child.


  • Drunk history (that's vol. 1). Funny and still more coherent than my assbad world history class.


  • Excavation at the WTC site reveals Ice Age bedrock. They're a page right out of history...


  • I made cup pies finally (they were becoming my culinary Satchel Paige musical) and they were everything I dreamed they could be.


Ugh, that is not cool:

  • My assbad world history class.


  • The Emmys. (See also: watching the Emmys, having to write about the Emmys, the Emmys cutting off Kirk Ellis in mid-acceptance speech, the hosts for the Emmys, and my personal nadir, the fact that--light of my life, fire of my loins--Stephen Dillane was ROBBED!!!1!.)


  • “I have a commitment not to kiss any other woman,” Kirk Cameron told Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford Monday on TODAY in New York. "Even in acting, you're still doing it." To get around the conflict, the filmmakers employed a bit of movie magic, Cameron explained. They dressed his wife, actress Chelsea Noble, like the movie’s female lead and shot the scene in silhouette.


  • I still have staples in my leg. :(
2008-09-20 03:41 am

The National Guard stands around his door.

Man, the Armory was covered up with cars today. Oh and tents, too?



What this means: I'll just be settling in for my sleepy time in a few hours enjoying that blissful hour of sleep I'll get before next door's GOOD MORNING IN AMERICA!.

Eh, I suppose it'll be better than yesterday, when I left the Chiller channel on while I was sleeping* and woke up to Bob terrifying some woman.

*Okay, like I ever change it off the Chiller channel.
2008-09-17 11:10 pm

Standing in the way of control.

A. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

B. Explain, please.

C. I'd pretty much resolved that I was trying for UVa and commenced to fantasizing about the cabin in the woods I'll totally be living in with my cat and my nerdiness. All of a sudden, NYU has started hitting me up like a repentant ex who just realized he effed up by letting me go. We'll see how things go after I take my SAT and ACT again (the last time I took them, I scratched my answers onto a stone wall).

D. Thanks to everyone for their kind words regarding my not dying. I do appreciate it. As for my leg, it's still pretty gross but it stings only a little bit. It really hasn't hurt all that much except for the moment I got cut.

E. I just took the Canada skilled workers self-assessment test. I made a 78. Obviously, they've seen my cartographic work.

F. Now back to the screenplay mines.
2008-09-13 08:57 pm

Making A Fist.

For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,
I felt the life sliding out of me,
a drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear.
I was seven, I lay in the car
watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.

"How do you know if you are going to die?"
I begged my mother.
We had been traveling for days.
With strange confidence she answered,
"When you can no longer make a fist."

Years later I smile to think of that journey,
the borders we must cross separately,
stamped with our unanswerable woes.
I who did not die, who am still living,
still lying in the backseat behind all my questions,
clenching and opening one small hand.


--Naomi Shihab Nye

From an email I just wrote: There's a sadness in me, thinking that just before I was staggering through my house repeating "I will not die, I will not die," DFW was believing that he should.
*****

Rest in peace, Mr. Wallace. And for the rest of y'all, if you're thinking of suicide, read this first.
2008-09-11 09:02 am

Keep Calm And Carry On.



Some people say
It's what we deserve
For sins against g-d
For crimes in the world
I wouldn't know
I'm just holding the fort
Since that day
They wounded New York.


There's A Hole In The City