| Titles are for the weak | (Friday August 31st, 2001 | 11:29) |
So much stuff, so few ... uh, I'm not sure where I was going with that. But
definitely too much stuff.
Went to see The Graduate at Joe's on Tuesday. What
I saw of it was really good. Anne Bancroft(I can't imagine I spelled that right) is
awesome. She just gives these 'looks' at the camera sometimes and they're perfect.
I'll have to actually watch all of it sometime.
Most of the distraction came from the other people
around who were making drunken (and generally quite funny) comments during the
movie. And later on from my own inability to focus on the screen. Eventually it
was done and we all got to hear the quiet cries of "Elaine" from the movie underneath
the din of people shouting "Mrs. Bouvier". Really, it was hilarious at the time.
Mr.Mistoffoles, Joe, and I sat around for awhile afterwards
and finished off the rest of the bread, cheese, and Bombay Sapphire. It was nice
to see Mr.Misty again, and thank him profusely for putting on his Edward Gorey
play during the Fringe Festival. He insisted on thanking me for attending.
And more stuff. I get to run off and see Miss. Laureen
again tonight. Jenwa is coming into town tomorrow, but Laura is stealing her away.
Ep is supposed to show up tomorrow as well. I want to play MahJong before Laureen
leaves, and still manage to see and do something entertaining with all of these
people who seem to be showing up ... blech.
Oh yes, and my latest addiction. Nanny.
<shakes head in shame>
It's so refreshing to play on a nice well run MUD
after spending so long on the umm ... rather flaky ... MOO of Chuck's. Not that
the MOO didn't have it's lovable points but the stability of the whole thing left
something to be desired.
So yeah, well see how long it takes to suck my life away ... I'm betting two weeks, tops.
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| Hylas and the Nymphs | (Monday August 27th, 2001 | 13:07) |
I found it! If you were wondering
which painting I was blathering about in the last post. I found a little history about it too:
When the ship of the Argonauts reached the island of Cios,
Hylas, the young and handsome companion of Hercules, was
sent ashore in search of water. He discovered a fountain, but
the nymphs of the place were so enchanted by his beauty that
they pulled him to the depths of their watery abode, and in spite
of the cries of Hercules which made the shores reverberate with
the name Hylas, the young man was never seen again.
I don't know, it seemed unusualy cute for a story with Hercules in it ... but then again
maybe I have a strange definition of cute.
I've been having terrible luck with busses lately.
On my way to see Laureen this past Friday I managed to end up in Vadanis Heights
and not Shoreview where she actually lives. I had to call Laura to come rescue
me. Which she did. And I got to read my new big copy of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy' by the side of the road, and watch a very nice sunset ... so It
wasn't all that bad really.
We eventually showed up at Miss Laureen's and got
to listen to her tales of mice blenders, and making hemoglobin, and many other
awesome things. Laura had this insatiable desire for fried cheese so we ran off
to Perkins to get some. Somehow we called Kurley on Laura's phone and when it
eventually got passed around to me I had a really nice talk with his despite the
super-crappy earpiece on the phone that makes it sound like you're shouting at
someone on the other end of a busy freeway tunnel. Ah, well. It was a very good
evening and I'm determined to do something similar (perhaps with the addition
of a MahJong or Cribbage board) before Laureeen leaves.
|
| Philosopher Illuminated by the Setting Sun and the Light of the Moon |
(Wednesday August 22nd, 2001 | 11:53) |
Ever have one of those truly surreal days where you swear to God you're watching
your life from a third person perspective ... yeah, maybe not.
It kind of started when I got on the 18 after
work, and though it is a very nice bus in it's own right, it's not the one that
takes me anywhere near my house. I realized this a little to late to do anything
about it. I bitched about it and tried to think of anyone I knew nearby and came
up with: The Borcherts, Al's parents, and Dan's parents ... I bitched some more.
I then remembered that Joe had just moved to a place in Plymouth and promptly
decided to visit him if I could find a bus that went the rest of the way there.
I found said bus and showed up at Joe's, watched
the Wizard of Oz, yelled at Joe for being a brat (nicely though), talked to an
Ex-D.R./Ex-Navy Guy that showed up and saw the most beautiful print of Waterhouse's
that I've ever seen (it's the painting with the Nymphs, sorry I don't remember the
name, sue me).
I don't know. Maybe it's not that surreal in the
retelling, but it was at the time ... and it was such a nice pretty illusory day.
And moving on to relevant things, Laureen comes
back into town tomorrow and that will be so super nice. Her and Laura and I need
to get together and play cribbage, and Laureen needs to have her Gin&Tonic, and
we need to pretend be dirty old men for an afternoon. Laureen's much better at it
but I'm sure we'll be fine.
|
| Damnit | (Monday August 13th, 2001 | 10:53) |
I hate forgetting things, especially the things I don't want to forget.
Like the damned 'August 8th' thing yesterday that
managed to completely leave my head and not return until this morning when it
was more or less useless information. <grumble> ... I'll have to go apologize
to Mr.Gutman later and tell him that I'm just a forgetful bum and not an inconsiderate
bastard.
=/
|
| "I must say to myself that I ruined myself, and that nobody great or small can
be ruined except by his own hand ... Terrible as was what the world did to me,
what I did to myself was far more terrible still." | (Tuesday August
7th, 2001 | 15:53) |
So I have a few things to complain about today.
First and foremost the heat. I want to know what sick
sadistic mother nature decided that weeks and weeks of 90° and 100% humidity was
just what all us Minnesotans needed.
Probably the same one that decided cutting power to
most of North Minneapolis last night would be a funny joke. It still hasn't come
back on and I'm not looking forward to taking another ice cold shower by candle
light if it's still off tomorrow.
There's also the recent legislation that's been bouncing
around the hive of buffoons we call a House. Here's my most super favorite
quote:
"After an impassioned debate that pitted the promise of
cures for disease against the horror of making babies that
are genetic replicas of adults, the House of Representatives
voted by a wide margin today to ban cloning, not only for
reproduction but also for medical research."
Does anybody else see anything truly 'horrific' about a baby genetically identical
to someone else? It's just like identical twins only they aren't born at the same
time. I see (even if I don't agree with) the religious objection to using cloning
for making embryos for research but genetically identical babies? Where the hell
did they come up with that?
The other super favorite quote is:
"Therapeutic cloning is legal in Britain. The far-reaching
bill the House adopted, which is backed by President Bush,
would not only prohibit it [cloning], but would also outlaw
the sale of treatments developed from it."
So ... painfully ... stupid!
I think I'm going to stop ranting now before I give myself
an ulcer.
|
| "Sorrow has paled my young mouth's vermilion, And Ruin draws the curtains of my bed."
| (Wednesday August 1st, 2001 | 12:47) |
Don't mock me Miss Laura ;:-|
I went to the DMCA/Free
Dmitry protest after work on Monday. It was surprisingly well done. They had
pre-made signs as well as poster board & markers for making your own. There was
an older (50-60) gentleman there who used to work for CRAY and Bell Labs. He drove
down from Duluth to be there. He was awesome.
Mostly it was just standing, and holding signs, and
talking to the other people there, but it was really very pleasant. They're holding
another one tentatively at the Uptown Library (though somewhere at the U of M
has been suggested too) and I'll have to arrange to show up for it. And so should
you. I'm not one to beg people to do anything political since I tend to hate it
all rather bitterly, but It's important and they're not your run-of-the-mill angry
obnoxious protesters. Go visit them
already!
Moving on, the weather this morning was awesome.
A very good thunder storm. It was very misty/steamy at one point presumably because
it's also so hot out ... it was a really neat effect though.
And since I don't think I am capable of making a post
without also making a literature/author recommendation, here we go ... Oscar Wilde
rules. I've only been able to find his
poetry online. I might have to break down and go to a bookstore for the prose,
but that could get ugly since I have this habit of leaving bookstores with no
less than 20 things.
I kind of like the way I stumbled upon his stuff.
I'd first heard his name from Damian when we were discussing good last words.
Oscar Wilde's being "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One
or the other of us has to go...". What made me actually go find his stuff though
was a brief reference to him in the movie Velvet Goldmine. I'd been looking for
a cheap copy of it and remembered the reference and also realized that I didn't
know a damn thing about the guy aside from his supposed last words. So I went
hunting and, as usual, www.everypoet.com
had what I wanted. I love that site dearly, by the way, it's found me more random
old (and good) poetry than any other place online.
I think I'm done now since I need to go find lunch
and since I have nothing left to say.
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