August Post

'Cause I can't bear to leave the blog blank for a month. Let's see, I should say something.

I'm sad there's no Dr Who this week. I likes me the Time Lordy goodness.

I'm watcing Stargate SG1.

I'm hungry. I'm thinking: pizza.

Vacation

Well, I'm back from my vacation to Philadelpha/New York/DC and I had a fabulous time! We flew out Monday and setteled in. Tuesday rolled around and we were up pright and early to the historic distrect to see Independance Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Mint. All were crouded, but emensly enjoyable. The humidity was oppressive, but indoor areas were all thankfully air conditioned. My bag was searched more times than I care to count, but it was great nonetheless. I'll post pictures here when I have time to convert the file type.

Tuesday evening we drove up to brooklyn via the mindlessly boring Jersey Turnpike. For your informaton, when someone says "underground music scene" they really mean it. Underneath Union Hall was a little bar and not much more than a nook with benches along the walls. Nevertheless, the performances by the Petersons and Jonathan Coulton were wonderfully fun and humerous. Coulton even hopped in on one of the Peterson's songs, a cover of Take On Me.

Fabulous.

Happy Independance Day. :)

Ah, yes, hooray for exploding goodies. As Apu said, "celebrate the birth of your country by blowing up a small part of it."

And hooray for waxing patriotic. I could go on and on, but never so eloquently as so many others before me. And that's usually not enough to stop me, but I'm enjoying my freedom to be lazy, so there.

Instead, watch this. This is my kind of patriotism:

Point and Click

So last month we went to Bodega Bay for no reason in particular. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. Windy, but warm. We had lunch at the Sandpiper, a nice little restaraunt looking out accross the harbor that we eat at whenever we're in the area. After that, we drove around the bay and up to Bodega Head. The wind at the top of the head was a force to be reckoned with, but as we made our way down the arguably perilous dirt path to the beach, it subsided somewhat, giving way to a more comfortable breeze. To my delight, the beach was strewn with tiny blue jellyfish. These by-the-wind sailors, Velella velella, are usually found on the open sea, but were aparently blown to shore by high winds. Littered in a line of glimmering blue, they were quite lovely, if somewhat morbid in thier dead-ness.

In other news, we finally got the tickets for our East Coast vacation and for the Blue Man Group's Off Broadway show, "Tubes." Hooray!

Stupid Frickin' Politics....

So, since I don't have my head burried entirely in sand, I've heard a growing buzz as of late concerning one mister Ron Paul.

He's a different sort of candidate, at least somewhat. He's got strong statements... very Libertarian-y. He definately stands out of the horde of rich white Republicans. He's also a rich white guy, but he knows how to use this series of tubes to his advantage.

So I finally decided to look him up online and see where he's going with all of this. His website lists these as his key issues.

Debt and Taxes (lower taxes=good)
This is pretty standard Republican fare, as far as I know. Sounds fine to me. I like money.

Border Security and Immigration Reform (giant fence=good)
I don't know... Obviously imigration laws need some working on. It depends on exactly how it's done. I don't know about the fence thing. Hm.

American Independance and Sovreginty (UN=bad)
I don't know what I ought to, probably, about the politics surrounding the United Nations. I'll reserve any opinions on this until I've learned more.

Privace and Personal Liberty (Spying on citizens without a warrent=bad)
No argument there. Sounds fine. And if you're gonna do it, don't get caught. ;)

War and Forign Policy (War in Iraq=bad)
Hm.

Property Rights and Eminent Domain (Kicking people out of thier house=bad)
I like not being kicked out of my house too.

Life and Liberty (Abortions=bad/State's call)
His answer on this seems pretty sound. He's taken a strongly anti-abortion personal stance, but at the same time distinctly says it is the pervue of the State, not Federal goverment.

Here's what he doesn't tell you on his website. It frightens me, a little. I'll be the first to say that it's a private company's private call what if any religion they acknowledge with thier greetings/merchandise/whatever on thier private property. So long at they'll hire anyone without reguard to religion/race/whatever, what do I care? I can shop there, or not. And this is America, so I can bitch about it all I want. But the moment the government allows the Ten Commandments to be paid for and displayed by my tax dollars... well, it's just not acceptable. I'm truely frightened when I think on the fact that the President's Daddy doesn't consider me (despite the fact that I was born here and some of my ancestors date back to the Mayflower or the Ice Age's land bridge) to be a real American.

Shudder.

So, Ron Paul: so close, and yet so far.

When, oh, when will I have a candidate that supports Freedom From Imaginary Friends?

Yo Ho Ho...

...and a bottle of rum, or something.

So I saw Pirates last night. Three hours of rolicking adventure on the high sea, sword fighting and licking of strange objects. Three hours.

It starts with a hanging. A half dosen pirates and associates at a time, while the fellow presiding over the affair reads rights that have been repealed. Thanks, Disney, for that lame sort political commentary, but it didn't jive with the rest of the film. And I realize that they are trying to set up the pirates as the protagonists. I do. But really, I don't care how many singing children they hang, I can't bring myself to feel sorry for pirates as a whole. All geeky refrences aside, a pirate is a person who steals money and goods from honest hardworking people. The government it working to stop them? Good! Stoping criminals is their friggin' job.

That being said I continued to sympathise with Swan and Turner as that main protagonists. The movie continued along the themes of betrayel, vengance and becoming that which you revile. Everyone has double-crossed everyone else by this point, and interaction is laced with mistrust. If only pirates were better at communication.

The film continues the tradition of gritty, filthy and vibrant tapestry of setting that we have come to expect of the franchise. It also follows in the earlier movie's footsteps of taking the previous film's antagonist and making him a sort of sympathetic character. That's right, Captain Cthulhu not only has a love intrest, but he has moved from big bad monster to a sort of oceanic Charon. Or maybe Naglfar. His beau is the spot-faced Tia Dalma also known as the (arguably powerful) goddess Calypso. She gets released from her human form and responds by growing to epic heights before creating a giant swirly to punish everyone involved.

Here's how I figure they got in a fight in the first place: D.J. is pissed because he knows Calypso cheated on him with Jack. He knows this because she gave him crabs which she in turn got from Sparrow. Think about it, really. Crabs were the main motif of the movie. That's why everyone's in such a bad mood: they're itchy.

All in all, I ejoyed the movie. All three hours of it.

Three friggin' hours.

Plague Ridden Vermin

There's a rat on my balcony.

He's small and brown and keeps running back and forth. He used to come for the birdseed that fell from the feeders, but they're not stocked, there's no seed. He's just hanging out.

I might be more amused if it were a squirrel. Something about a bushy tail makes the whole thing more adorable. Nekkid tail, not so much.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea about my apartment complex, let me assuage your fears: my apartments are clean and lovely, near the foot of Fountaingrove hill area. It's a lovely, small complex with trees and a community vegitable garden and a creek that runs at the edge of the large yard. Most of the folks here have bird feeders and that's what the rats come for, scampering up the lush, green trees. Stupid rats.

I've got a sore throat.
Maybe it's the Plague.
Urk.