a few thoughts:

first off, I am beginning to realize that there are people out there who actually earnestly believe that, if kerry is elected, our nation will be at greater risk of terrorist attacks. is there any rational basis for this suspicion? I’m dying to know.

second, I watched “van helsing” the other night, and watching it reawakened some of my fascination with the world of vampires and their mystical backgrounds. wouldn’t it be fun to write a vampire story? I think it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to write a story more credible than the one in “van helsing,” anyway. perhaps the most compelling explanation I’ve heard for dracula’s affliction was that he was actually judas iscariot. he bled to death when he hung himself after selling jesus out for thirty pieces of silver (hence is aversion to silver, crucifixes, and holy water), and God wouldn’t let him die, so he was cursed to roam the earth, feeding on the blood of others to make up for all the blood he lost when he hung from the tree. neat stuff. I don’t recall which movie that was. anyone know?

finally, I promised more squirrel anecdotes:

when I lived in my mother’s house, I stayed in the basement for a while as it was a convenient party-pad. my friends and I would come and go through the cellar door as we pleased. I grew up in a house that always had at least two cats wandering about, and the one of the tom-cats that lived there when I was staying in the basement would often bring me small woodland creatures. it’s a common misconception that cats present their owners with gifts of dead animals; in fact, they are bringing nearly dead animals so that the recipient of the gift will have an opportunity to learn how to kill. it’s the same thing they do for their offspring. anyway, my tom-cat (whose sister, little girl, still lives with me today) would bring animals to me when I was sleeping, often dropping them on my chest and guarding them as he waited for me to wake up, as it would’ve been a shame to go to all the work to bring such a gift only to have it run off as I dozed. I never knew that rabbits could scream, but I’ve heard their screams, and I assure you it was horrifying, especially to wake up to. squirrels make an interesting high-pitched scream when they have a cat’s jaws clamped around their neck, as well. and I woke up to that, one night. I sat up, prompting the squirrel to roll off my chest and onto the floor, where the cat immediately secured him so that I could commence my squirrel-killing lesson. I was hardly in the mood for lessons, though, and spent the next twenty minutes attempting to herd the squirrel back out of the basement through the open cellar door without becoming the victim of the notoriously savage rabies-ridden jaws of the tree-dwelling rodent. I emerged from the episode physically unscathed, though, and only somewhat psychologically troubled. and that’s the end of that squirrel anecdote, but I’ll promise at least one more will come, so be sure to check back soon.

[Fwd: Re: FW: Still Undecided???]

I received this email today:

xxxxxxx@mfr.usmc.mil wrote:

For undecided voters (and anyone who thinks John Kerry is fit for command): Perhaps the most instructive question that can be asked regarding the upcoming presidential election is this: Given the chance, would Saddam Hussein, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il, Mohammad Khatami, Moammar al-Ghadafi and Hu Jingtao vote for A) George Bush, or B) John Kerry? How would Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder and Kofi Annan vote? If you answered “B,” put a big shiny star by your name. Now—for whom (and with whom) are YOU voting? (The above comment is from The Federalist Patriot No. 04-40. [snip]

and here is how I responded:

when I step into the polling booth, I will not be asking myself who should be running our military. if I was, I would most certainly choose a candidate who actually served. I would be reluctant to vote for a candidate whose administration has already failed to show any substantial progress in fighting the forces that caused the 9/11 attacks. I would be reluctant to vote for the candidate whose administration is mis-using our resources in iraq to fight a personal vendetta completely unrelated to any threat on america(ns) to such a great extent that we would be slow to respond to further attacks at home or elsewhere abroad.

but I’ll be asking myself more questions when I step into the polling booth. which candidate has an iq over 100? which candidate will lead the nation so that it is one worth defending: one whose most popular ideal—freedom—is actually preserved; one whose priority is its citizens; one whose citizens are well-educated? all of the enemies of american ideals would certainly rather have someone in office who has such tunnel-vision that he overcommits our resources to a botched effort to carry out a personal vendetta and leaves us without adequate resources to a/respond properly to actual threats against our nation and b/educate our youth to ensure that our nation will not collapse in on itself without the help of these “enemies of freedom”. I’m sure osama bin laden is thrilled that he’s not been captured. and I’m sure he’s laughing his ass off that our moron of a head-of-state gave up on the war on terror to wage war on a third-rate joke of a has-been tyrant, saddam hussein. and I’m sure bin laden would be happy to vote to keep the administration that shipped his family back to the middle east without any questioning/interrogation immediately following 9/11. anyway…if you want to show support for the candidate you will choose, please provide an actual argument, not imaginary ideas about what other people in other countries think. and keep in mind that france and germany stand to gain much more from an america that is a strong and powerful ally than they stand to gain from a nation that is falling apart on the inside and staging ridiculous pissing matches with international nobodies like iraq. whatever. I’m through.

Solar Storm

it’s a grave lack of gravity
and the chemistry is all chemical–
alchemy provides a breath of fresh air
in empty space–the black Hole
putrid and pungent, pervading the senses
insensible nonsense
or
sensual sensation

I’ve lost my bearings the way Earth is losing her magnetic fields
and soon nothing to repel the solar wind
light–bursting through to become

Get Out and Vote!

…and let me be specific here: let’s remove the fucking imbecile from office! do I think that Kerry will be the salvation of our nation? absolutely not. regardless who is in office, corporations/money will still be running things, but at least with kerry we wouldn’t have to continue to be exposed to the likes of such an obvious puppet. tool. anyway. here‘s an interesting piece that a friend forwarded to me about the election choice.

anyway…watching “supersize me” right now. it’s a pretty interesting documentary, really. my friend and I started off the movie by chowing our large combos from mcD’s. I am starting to not feel so good in my stomach, watching all of this. oh, well…I’m sure I’ll forget it all by tomorrow.

anyway, you might notice now that I have enabled comments on this blog, so be sure to respond to my posts, if you’re interested.

Wearing Thin

She doesn’t make time for words the way I do;
I would be like her fancy clothes and jewelry:
fun to dress up in when new, and perhaps revisited infrequently,
with mild amusement.

Maybe I’d treat her like an outfit, too;
but I tend to keep my clothes longer than other people I know,
and wear them more often.
I rarely buy new clothes; maybe it’s a sort of loyalty
or maybe I’m just cheap.

Maybe I’d really know how to be in love
if I learned how to sew.