Month: June 2008

From How the World Works at Salon.com. I’m thinking maybe I need to try to work out a trip to Japan during the summer one of these years.

I wanted to give a proper shout out to my brother, who hasn’t been able to blog since he bailed on Myspace a while back (for like the second or third time, at least). I hope he’ll post often; I have been suffering an acute shortage of exposure to his sense of humor since I moved to SoCal.

Not much else to say, I suppose. Well, except that my neighbor lady is annoying. The window in my bedroom is directly above our little patio, which is right next to the neighbor lady’s little patio. She brings her dog Thor out every morning, and his name fits him. He barks at every little sound, and each bark starts out as a low growl that rises to a deep, loud bark that must be some sort of compensation for his bite. I’m actually fascinated by my own reaction to when he’s outside, especially when I’m getting ready to leave the house. I experience equally strong opposing impulses to make noises and to make no sound at all. On one hand, my annoyance at his barking makes me want to taunt him by making sounds that he can’t investigate/explore, which will just make him bark that much more. On the other hand, I feel an intense pressure to try to go through my routine without setting him off, like I’m playing that game Operation and trying not to set off the buzzer while extracting my shirt from the closet. If it was just the dog, though, I might be more forgiving. But then there’s the old woman, who sounds like she has emphysema, which wouldn’t be surprising considering that when she brings Thor out for fresh air she sits outside with him and smokes. Her cigarette smoke floats right on up into my window. When he starts barking, she usually waits a good 5-10 seconds before wheezing, “THOR! *cough* Shut Up! *coughcough*”

Oh well. All part of renting, I suppose. Anyway, I’ll leave you with this stunning example of how sadistic some “adults” can be. Your role models, children.

I really want to see this. Also, the Incredible Hulk. Both come out this weekend. Can’t wait. For now, though, I’m watching Batman Begins on FX. Good stuff. Aside, of course, from the fact that the volume level for commercials is always so much higher than the feature. Oh well.

Not a lot going on lately. If you haven’t noticed, I recently got started with Twitter. I’ve heard it called a sort of microblogging…and while I don’t update it frequently, somehow using it seems to be eating into my already questionable levels of motivation to update this blog. Don’t worry though; I won’t be shutting this blog down anytime soon.

I’m looking forward to Yuka’s visit in a couple of weeks. Another friend of ours from Chicago will be visiting around the time she arrives, so we’re hoping to get together, perhaps to visit the Griffith Observatory. Of course, Hancock will be coming out around that time, so maybe we’ll have to check that out too.

This past weekend, I actually opened up the document that will eventually become my first completed novel, Never Enough. It’s pretty amazing how a period of time away from a piece of writing can change my perspective on it. Of course, if I keep going back to the beginning and revising the existing text, I’ll never finish it. That’s why I’m going to just try my damndest to add new material each time I open it up. Starting next time 😉

I posted my Racism essay on my Myspace blog only to have someone repost the ignorant rant from the beginning as a Myspace bulletin. Apparently the re-poster didn’t agree with my explanations of the flawed arguments…or didn’t understand them. Either way, it’s sad evidence that some people cling to tightly to their ignorance. How sad.

Speaking of clinging to ignorance, Sam Harris seems to think that religious folks are doing just that by maintaining religious beliefs of any sort. His book The End of Faith can be read online. He’s definitely a convincing writer. Enjoy.