Procrastination is the Fruit of Creativity.

Normally I don't geek out two entries in a row, but I can't help myself today. My little entertainment center project came to a head yesterday and now I can say I am officially done with it. Don't misunderstand, I can still think of about twenty things to do, but I have hit the "I'm done with this shit" stage. The latest machine I added to the mix was way too much of a pain in the ass. I like the outcome, but I'm going be breathing the smell of melted acrylic and paint/steel dust for a long time. I figured, "If I'm going to be putting all this work into it, I might as well make it sexy as well". Out came the dremel and the drills and ten other power tools that I probably wouldn't have needed but I like to look at them. I can pretend that they were worth the money I spent on them for a one time use. It's a throwback to when I used to have time to be artistic I suppose. In true bachelor fashion, I set everything up in the middle of the basement (finished of course) and without the thought of even a towel for a drop cloth and the grinding began. Paint and steel flying everywhere. I must have looked like some mad welder on crank. There I am, sitting cross legged on my basement carpet, still dressed in the happy office attire (because, why would I change clothes?), face and hands covered in black paint dust, and then I wonder if this is such a good idea. I had reached the point of no return though. There was already a huge black spot on the carpet form the paint dust, so since it's already dirty, it can't get dirtier right. We all know the answer to that one. To shorten this up so I don't end up writing a novel, I now have "PimpRig II" in my entertainment center. I also have a large black spot on my carpet downstairs...and a shirt I can never wear to the office again...and a hole in my lung from inhaling steel bits...and last, but by no means least, a huge mess to clean up before poker tomorrow night. It was all worth it though. Amazing how quickly I reverted to being a nineteen year old male again.

Due to the afore mentioned scenario I am dragging my ass something fierce today. It one of those wonderful feelings of, there is stuff I need to be doing, but I just don't have the energy, or the wherewithal to undertake them today. Since I have been an insomniac for many, many years I don't really get tired, but my brain does like to take vacations without me. That would be the perfect conclusion for the day. My brain is sitting on a dock in Wilmington having a beer enjoying the sights, but my body is back here running in the big hamster wheel. It would be much more fun if it was a big hamster ball. Imagine if you will, everyone in your workplace in giant hamster balls trying to get their work done. Chairs would be outlawed. Everything would be wireless. The IT guys could cover the entire distance of the building in 4 seconds flat, and still not spill there coffee. Hopes and Dreams, hopes and dreams.

And I haven't even been drinking yet.

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."
Oscar Wilde

Have you Creamed your Skinny Pig Today?

What do you do when you write a Blog that is mostly concentrated on bitching about the woes of society and life, but nothing is coming to you? Most normal people would lay down the pen/keyboard/laptop and walk away to think about what to write, and then some of us just forge on with no apparent regard for inspiration and just write something anyways. I've found that forced writing sometimes spawns the best writing. It's about having your back up against the wall and having to keep pushing anyways. It could be that will power thing I'm always talking about, or maybe just stubbornness.

The most self damaging thing to an early thirties male (and female for that matter) may be boredom. I usually don't get bored, but I do get "creative", for lack of a better word. After I've watched all the TV I can stand, filled my limit of reading, and played all the video games I can take, my mind usually starts wandering and contemplating some new project to undertake. Thus, I have a half rebuilt Motorcycle in my garage, three or four plans for another Arcade cabinet, and a mostly complete entertainment area. The entertainment area was the latest addition to the creative streak. The worst part about these experiments is the money which is never thought of when the project is started. I think I'm going to blame the 360 for this latest mess. Without dragging out the details of the whole project, I now have 3 game consoles, a DVD player and 2 computers hooked into to my entertainment center in my living room. Doh. Snowflake kind of became blizzard with that one, but damn, it sure looks sexy. The coolest thing about the whole setup is my new remote control. And here the geek in me comes out.

It's nice to see that someone has finally got the remote control thing right. There is no greater eyesore than looking down on your coffee table and seeing 632 remotes sitting there. I've tried the universal thing in the past, and all of the ones I have bought have almost worked. There is always some function that you need the original for. Some elusive button, which you never used when you had all the remotes out, but as soon as they end up in some dark cupboard, you need to access the function associated to that button, and by this time all the batteries are dead. At least that was always the case with my adventures. This new one I picked up has got it right. For the first time in my life I'm able to put all of the remotes in storage and use this single one. The final straw with this one was on the last poker night. CG wanted to watch something on my TV. I was busy explaining that she had to use the black one to turn on the TV and switch channels, but first she had to find the gray panasonic one with the blue button on it, and press the TV/Video button 6 times in order to get it to the right input, then she could watch TV when I realized how preposterous it was. 200 bones later, I had the solution in my hands. I know, that's a lot of cash for a friggin remote, but it works well, and if you press the right button it glows green. What else could a growing boy want?

I'm off to get some Vietnamese food now. Point of info, don't try to get Japanese food on Sundays in Kitchener/Waterloo. I tried 3 restaurants and they were all closed. You think with the population in this are we could at least have one good Japanese restaurant open on a Sunday in this town. Enough. That's a different entry entirely. Dinner time.

Two Quotes Today...I couldn't decide which I liked more. They're short, so it's almost like one.

"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."
Indira Gandhi

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

Revenge of the Nutbucket, or Oops, I Did it Again! Your Choice.

Only I would have the audacity to quote Brittany Spears in a blog title. Not that I like her, or can even stand her (put her, Michael Bolton, the entire cast of "Cats", better yet Andrew Lloyd Weber himself in a plane, and I have a package for under the seat...too soon?), but I think I'm just about ballsy enough to try to pull it off. It's the whole "No Modesty" part of my personality. Some people would call it a lack of filter, I call it honesty. Enough of the ego stroke, onto the main event.

The Spears reference has to do with a earlier entry. I have always been adamant about maintaining anonymity on my blog, to protect the innocent as well as the guilty, and it may have saved my skin today. I have mentioned previously that my blog has been picking up viewers as time goes on, but had no idea how far it had gone until I received an email from a friend/co-worker. To make a short story shorter, he emailed me for the web link to my blog, because he had lost it, and the CEO of the company I work for was sharing the nutbucket story with him(see Nutbuckets, Snow, Christmas Trees, and a Bunch of Other $hit in the December 2005 archive if you are interested). I think I turned to Newtieman (who also happens to work for the same company as I do) and the only thing that could come out of my mouth was "Dude...Dude...DUDE!!!". I had a very brief apoplectic fit, then started to calm down. It's interesting what goes through your mind at a time like that. I was automatically thinking, "What did I write in there that could get me in shit?", but if he already read the nutbucket entry, I thought I was in the clear. Briefly after this process I then learned that it had started making the rounds on the Blackberries (We LOVE the blackberries where I work. If you look close you can see the umbilical cord attaching them to everyone's temple). Everyone hopes for fame and notoriety, I don't give a shit if you say you don't, admit it, we all do, but not like this. After learning of the latest news I'm instantly doing Kevin Bacon math in my head. If said CEO sends it out to person A, then person A will send it on to person C, who will back send it to B, who will try to see the humor in it, but, without working for the company they have no idea what a nutbucket is, etc, etc, etc. I'm following the trail to where it's going to end, an how much digging I'm going to have to do to find my way out of the hole, when for a brief moment my brain kicks back into gear and a little tiny voice from the back of my head says "shuddup, remember, you don't give a shit." Ahhh. That's better. For a brief moment I remembered what it was like to have a filter. Little scampering feet running around on my brain. Can't say I like it.

After all is said and done, I'm not going to apologize or worry about what I write. It's just me being me, and how glorious it is to be me. I just can't seem to get out of the ego boosting mode today. Anywho, the point of this blog, and many others I'm sure, is for therapy. Almost like a diary or a journal, but for the exhibitionist. I have been known to have a slight exhibitionism streak in me, so why not expose my thoughts to the outside world. All I can hope for is people see the humor in what I'm writing and don't take it too seriously. Most of the time if I have a moral or idea that is supposed to be taken seriously I point it out profusely. I guess the point of this one would be, don't be ashamed, embarrassed, or worried about whom you are. Not everyone is as forward as me (except maybe CG), and that's fine, but don't hide yourself away from the world because you are to nervous about what people may think. You know what, Fuckem. They don't mean shit in the long run. If you live your life to the fullest and have fun getting there, that's all that matters. BTW, don't act like Corky at work...It may be misinterpreted.

I found a quote a couple of days ago, and have been itching to use it, so here you go.

"A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise."
George Steiner

Who Wants to Kiss my Blarney Stones?

Innuendo man strikes again. Contrary to what many of you may be thinking, this entry will not be about sex. I think I killed that topic in the last entry, so instead I'm going to sit here, smoke a cigar and write an entry which will be nothing more than a venting session. Most of my entries involve me bitching about something, but I usually stick to a common thread. I think I may jump around a bit this time. A collection of small bitches all rolled up into one like some bitter maki. And that statement tells everyone I have been eating way too much Japanese food lately. I can't help it. I've been busy getting all my friends addicted to it so I have an excuse to eat sushi, sashimi and maki three times a week. Here's to hoping that brain food thing is true.

It may be just me, but television seems to be getting worse and worse with every week that goes by. Sure, 70's TV wasn't great, what I can remember of the late 80's and early 90's doesn't strike me as being that memorable either, but I think the television stations have sunk to a new low. There are a couple of shows running right now that my friends have brought up, and I can honestly say I haven't seen, or have any interest in seeing them. For the most part I don't watch anything on the major network channels (except Simpsons re-runs). Almost everything I do watch is on specialty channels, with Discovery dominating my watching time. That being said, I was watching some Simpsons re-runs today and caught a commercial for a show called "Skating with Celebrities". Who the hell is thinking this shit up, and secondly, who the hell is watching this shit? I can appreciate the whole voyeuristic angle that these shows are going for, but any voyeurism I'm hoping to see involves some nudity at least. I can't remember the last series I was so into that I didn't want to miss an episode. I'll stick to programs that involve some kind of learning, or a chance of nudity thanks...

CG and I were out for sushi earlier this week when an interesting topic came up over dinner. We usually have very good conversations, or very strange ones, all of which are exceedingly enjoyable, but the topic which came up was the idea that some people need to be with someone. It's an interesting idea, and it is plausible. We all know people who are miserable unless they are in some kind of relationship. What I started thinking about is am I one of these? I have rarely spent a lot of time without some significant other. There are only two times in my life that I can remember being alone for an extended period of time. When I was much younger, I took a voluntary two year celibacy vow. I was at a really strange time in my life, and needed to get myself straightened out. Call it a journey of self discovery if it needs a name, but I still feel that it was necessary. I'd recommend it to anyone. It's all about will power. I'm a big believer in having a very strong will. If you have the will power to stop doing anything at a moments notice, life becomes much better and easier when you do need to curb any nasty habits. The other time when I have been single for an extended period is now. Other than my celibacy kick, this is the longest time I have been single since I was about 15 or so. I don't know if this is a voluntary jaunt into singledom or not. I do know I haven't been looking too hard, but at the same time, I don't think I'd stop anything from happening if it was to occur. I think I'm at the point where I'm not sure. I've thrown away all my baggage and I'm not a miserable person in the slightest. I'm pretty content most of the time. Maybe my sub-conscious is telling me something. Let's just leave it at that. Maybe people who feel that they need a Significant Other feel that way because they aren't really happy with themselves? Maybe I used to be one of those kind of people, but not any more. Then again, some of my friends were worried I may become a hermit after all the unpleasantness. I think now I may be looking for a relationship that will add to my general sense of well being, rather than being the source of my well being. Keanu Reeves moment coming up...Whoa. Deep.

I was out at the local grocery store a couple of days ago picking up dinner on one of my non Japanese food nights and noticed a new store that moved in next door. It's a discount furniture shop. There are tonnes of these all over the city, but this one struck me as odd. Not for the inventory inside, or even the sales people, but for the name the owner chose. And there, lit up for as far as the eye can see, in white arial text on a blue background was the name that I will remember as long as I live. Get ready for this folks, it's a doozy, or at least to me it is. The name of the store is "Walia-Mart". Even as I write it down I'm giggling like a school girl. Not only is it blatantly ripping off an existing chain, but they have picked the worst chain in the world to rip off. Why would anyone choose to name their store after hell itself? Just my opinion...and Trey Parker and Matt Stones as well I suppose.

I'm going to lift the quote for today right off of the quote of the day on my google home page. I like it. It doesn't have anything to do with the entry, but has a good point behind it.

"Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice."
George Jackson

This must be Sunday. I never could get the hang of Sundays.

Sundays have always been the day for getting out of bed in the afternoon some time, sitting in your most comfortable clothes, and spending as much time on your couch as humanly possible. Besides the religious implications of the day of rest, I think the relevance of taking Sundays as easy as possible is in preparation for the next week of work being absolutely draining. The side effect of sitting around and doing nothing all day on Sunday is it gives most people a chance to reflect. I have a habit of reflecting on aspects of my new life on Sundays. After I've watched all of the movies, TV, and played all the video games I can before my brain objects to being neglected, I usually turn to what has happened through the week. One of the interesting things that has come out of this Sunday is the affirmation that time scales are absolutely useless in how life rolls along. It is impossible to have any kind of time scale dictating what is supposed to happen at certain stages in your life.

A couple of my male friends are going in to get the snip done. Both of them are content with the amount of children that they have, and are secure that they will never want anymore. Both of these fellows are approximately my age, give or take a couple of years. How crazy is it that I can have a conversation with these guys about them going in to get their vasectomies done, and I'm bitching about being single? Huh? All of our lives are fairly similar. All of us are in the business world, middle management, and at the point where we are living fairly comfortably (meaning we aren't living entirely payday to payday, but not to say it doesn't happen occasionally). We all come from standard working class families, and yet my life is completely different from theirs. I think that in itself debunks the idea that at thirty something you have to have 2 and a half kids, yellow dog, and bar-b-que's with your neighbors on the weekend. I don't, or at least I hope, that people still don't think that way anymore. I think the proof is in the pudding. Here in Canada we have a 38% divorce rate and climbing every year, and our southern neighbors have an almost 50% divorce rate. How can there be a time line for people's lives anymore with these kind of statistics. Trust me, I never thought that I would be getting a divorce, but there it is. I'm a statistic, damnit.

Another topic came up this week with some people was the topic of sex and age. Then again, when doesn't sex come up in conversation? If it doesn't, you aren't having the right conversations. But I digress, the thought process behind this one is, most people who get married for the first time are in their early to mid twenties. Most people (not all, but most), have no idea what sex is actually about, or even comfortable with it at that age. I'm not saying that people should go out and have sex with lots of different partners before they decide to settle down and get married, but people need to remain open minded enough to accept that things will change as you get older. I think the idea of a monogamous couple growing together sexually is a wonderful idea, but is rarely practiced properly. There are way too many sociological dictated problems with this. There is an expected thought process behind the topic of sex. You don't talk about it, and it should be a private thing between couples. Even then, a lot of couples can't even talk about it openly. What a crock of shit. I have always thought that sex should be talked about openly and casually. I'm not talking about some strange thing that only a few people do. Everyone has sex, or at least it's something that everyone wants to be having. There is a horrible standard that is set down at an early age stating that sex is dirty and not something that should be talked about. How does that not damage people for their sexual lives later on? There is way too much embarrassment surrounding this subject, and I think one of my life's goals is to stop this. At least with the people I know. It's absolutely ridiculous that we are still acting like puritans in this day and age and that it is still considered embarrassing and uncomfortable to talk about these things, even with your significant other. I'm done. I'm starting to rant. Time to move on.

The problem with talking about sex, is your brain gets stuck in that mode. I had many more points to make about the idea that age and life have definite correlation points, but those have been lost to the ether. So be it, I'm sure they will come out in some later entry. Off to play more 360. My brain is contented for the time being...

Addiction, addiction, and more Addiction.

I ended off last entry with a small quip about getting a 360. I know that isn't what most people were expecting, so I think I better fill it out further. This is all going somewhere, but we're going to take the long meandering path. I don't think I can even tell a story without taking the long way around anyways.

I quit smoking a little while ago. I can't remember exactly when, but lets call it a month and a half. Because I have been a smoker for a very long time, I guess you could say I have what you would call an addictive personality. I don't like to think that I do, but I have to face the facts here. I've been known to do some obsessing over silly things in my day, so why stop now? Once I get an idea planted into my head, it can be hard for me to let go sometimes, and this is where the 360 comes in. To plagiarize a little here, it’s the shiznit. It's a very unhealthy addiction. I have caught myself sitting at work pre-lunch posing the question to myself "What should I get to eat that will fill me up enough so I can skip dinner and keep playing NFS: Most Wanted". Damn thing, but it is all that and a bucket of chicken.

I am what you could call a video game connoisseur. Like most of my generation, I remember the Atari 2600 coming out and costing a few hundred dollars and the ensuing battle between them and the Intellivision. People never got into the intellivision because it had to many buttons to deal with. Shit. The 2600 had one button. How do you compete with that? Who would have thought that Street Fighter could have caught on with its six buttons. I remember playing the first Galaxian machine, seeing the birth of Ms. Pacman, and Centepede with it's funky ass rollerball. I can still remember and hum all of the super mario theme songs. I fed way too much of my money into Mortal Kombat just to see the violent deaths, etc, etc, etc. I could go on with this forever. It's a circular conversation. Any one who is a video game junkie is now thinking "I know all that shit", and the non-video game people are busy looking over and pointing exclaiming "Geek". This whole paragraph is just to show that the predisposition was there for the 360 to come marching in and dominate all of my spare time, and it has done that.

Being in the tech field for a decade now, outside all of the gaming I was doing growing up, I've become a bit jaded to the whole "new and improved" credo behind the launch of a new video game console. When they come out, I usually pick them up and do the "It's good, but could be improved here, and if they just did this..." critique as soon as I've got it fired up and running. The 360 was different. I am not a Microsoft supporter in anyway here folks, but hot damn, they've got it right this time. Most times the graphics/gameplay is just not quite good enough to suck me in and leave me completely immersed in the game. There have been very few times where I've had the whole feeling that I was in the game, but with the 360, I got sucked in quick. I fired up NFS: Most Wanted and was drawn right in. I actually got the vertigo when jumping over shit, and caught myself leaning to the side on my couch as I was turning around corners. It has been a very long time since I've been sucked in that deep. The holy grail of video games has always been to create a game so realistic that the player forgets they're playing a game. If they do it right the 360 is completely capable of that. I'm not saying it doesn't have it's flaws, but there are definite possibilities with this thing.

Wow, what a pointless entry. Just me geeking out to the world I suppose. Here, have a quote.

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."
Buddha

Do you even have a soul? Goodbye Hooker Lady.

Before I get into this one, the title has absolutely nothing to do with this entry. It's just sort of there. Like male nipples.

At some point in your life you will encounter a major crossroad. Perhaps many times. Most of the time there is one path in front of you where you know the outcome, which is usually the stable and predictable one, and one which leads to either the complete unknown, or the desired but unsure path. If you stick to the stable path, your life will be for the most part predictable and in relative control. For some people this is fine. For most, it is not. Knowing when to walk the other path is the difficult part. I don't know the answer to this one. I don't think it's possible to know when the right time is to walk into the unknown. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and go for it. Be warned, you will not always get what you want. I would love to say that every time you stick your neck out it will be worth it, but inevitably sometimes you will get cut, but with every new cut, you learn. Take it for what it is, get back on the path, and wait for the next scenic route.

I have done many things in my life up to this point. I will do many more in the years to come. Sometimes I've done things just for the sake of doing them, other times to get to a point where I want to be, and at other times for my own selfish reasons. I admit that openly. I am not proud of all the things that I have done, but I do not regret a single choice I have made. There have been times where people don't believe some of the things I have done because I'm usually not afraid to take path less traveled. It usually takes a few times of hanging out with me before people start to actually believe some of the stuff I've done. I'm not writing this to sound egotistical, or to come off sounding like I have some megalomaniac personality, but to tell everyone that even though the unknown path can be scary and unpredictable, you can experience some amazing things. Worst case basis you will never be accused of having lived a boring life.

So, what's up with the retrospective entry about choice? If you read the entry before this one, it really doesn't matter, but I'm not going down that path tonight. I think the whole entry about choices is coming out because I feel that I'm on the verge of looking for a scenic route. Sometimes the path is just a small loop before the road stabilizes again, and at other times, it creates a while new path to follow. I don't really know which this is, but I can feel change coming. I don't believe in any kind of precognitive abilities in anyone, but I do think we can feel when change is necessary.

I think, for better or for worse, I will force a scenic route to appear, and here comes the word of the day. Brinkmanship. This is a term I learned fairly recently and have come to really like. It's defined as the art or practice of pushing a dangerous situation or confrontation to the limit of safety especially to force a desired outcome. Often times it's a very risky maneuver, but if you don't have a lot of patience, it can be a life saver. I have been accused of not having a lot of patience in certain situations, and I do agree with that assessment, thus I have been known to try to force an outcome before it's necessarily ready. If it exists, I would have a very, very hard time in limbo.

The next entry could be an interesting one. Since I feel a new path coming up, it could make for some interesting writing. Here's to hoping the outcome is what I want. Or rather than what I want, what I need. Often times they are very different.

On a completely different subject, I found a 360. Amazing little toy. Consumes way too much of my spare time though. I'm not bored of it yet, which is always a good sign.

"It's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it that makes the difference." - W. Mitchell

As I'm sure you can tell, this is an entry dealing with fate, destiny and karma. For the most part, I don't believe in any of it, but every once in a while I am forced to re-evaluate my thoughts. This stems from a conversation Obi and I had concerning the illusion of free-will. To paraphrase the thought process, all of our actions are determined by how we react to environmental factors based on past experience and learned knowledge, therefore all actions are pre-determined, thus free-will does not exist. Fate and destiny do exist, but rather than being pre-determined by some supreme being, it is laid out for us by our subconscious. There was a study done at a university that suggests our subconscious does all of our deciding for us. Since the subconscious is reactionary, it dictates that all actions are nothing more than reactions based on past learned knowledge. Blech. In English now. Every decision we make is nothing more than a yes/no decision based on what we've already done. That was easier. By this thought process fate and destiny do exist and free-will does not. Strange how even though I can sum it all up in a nice little package, I also feel almost entirely opposite to the last paragraph. Let's tackle some of these ideas one at a time shall we?

First off, let's go for free-will. I think the idea at the core of this one is hope. I'd like to think that we have free-will, but I don't know if that is just a comfort thought or not. I hate to think that we are nothing more than a walking yes/no evaluation machine, but all science is pointing this way. I think it's more illusion than anything that I do believe in free-will, but it's my illusion damnit. To think that we don't have any free-will really bugs the shit out of me. The thought of everything being predetermined seems way to pigeon-holing, and I guess this is already starting to lead down the path to fate and destiny. They are pretty much in the same suburb anyways. I just like to break them up. It's that free-will thing.

I don't believe in fate and/or destiny, but the thing that always shakes me up about this one is when something that happens seems way too convenient to have just happened by coincidence. Everyone knows what I am talking about here. Deny it all you want but we've all been there when something happens that makes you think it happened for a reason besides coincidence. Maybe you found something that you have been looking for for years, and it turns out it was in the shop around the corner, or you meet that person and it feels like you've known them forever, even though it's only been weeks, or anything else that falls into this vein. We've all had it happen, and, as cool as it is that it feels like all the good things that happen to us have been laid out for us to discover at our lowest points, the flipside is all those really, really shitty things that we've gone through were pre-determined as well. How shitty does that feel? Now it's nicer to realize that fate and destiny don't exist doesn't it?

Karma is an awesome idea in itself, and the point is there, the problem I have with it is that the ideal of being rewarded for being nice or good annoys me. I'm the type of person who will be nice, because I feel like it, not because I am expecting something nice in return. That's not to say all of my actions have been selfless, many have not been, but many actions have been just because. I don't always have a reason for doing some of the things that I do other than I feel like it. Lucky for most of the people that know me, my evil streak isn't very prevalent these days.

In the end I suppose it doesn't really matter. I think the important thing is to have fun while your here. Doesn't matter if it's pre-determined or not. Just try to look surprised. That's the really important bit. Rather than absurdism's I think I may do the quote thing for a while. There is another great one by Douglas Adams that I'm going to use here. I know, repeating myself, but it really does fit this time. I'll pick a different author next time. Promise.

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

>>>>>>>

If this kind of stuff interests you, do a google for "Mark Twain" and "What is Man?". Very interesting take on free-will. It's easily found all over the web and a fairly light read.

>>>>>>>

Let Me Fix You Some Samiches...I Made You a Wooden Pickle.

I was hoping to have some creative and witty entry for the first one of 2006, but this just isn't going to be it. I was holding off waiting for that monumental thing to happen, but shit, it may take until June until that happens. Who knows. I guess that's the wonder of life. To steal a quote from a movie, loosely, you could wake up a dirt farmer in Bangladesh. Not really relevant other than it represents anything and everything can change in the blink of an eye. Damn...Getting deep already. I usually save that for the end. Rather than try to come up with the great inspirational first entry, I figure we'll do a sum up of 2006 so far. Here goes nothing.

Every once and a while some movie slips past me that I should have watched when it came out. One of the ones that is very memorable to me was Contact. I actually consider it one of my favorites now, but this isn't about any great serious movie. There was a flick that came out in 2003 that I vaguely remember being released that I continually missed. I had the opportunity to catch about half of it on New Year's Day, and I can't believe I missed this one. I have since "acquired" this film and watched it a few times. I rarely get into comedies, and they usually have to be obscure or very dark for me to enjoy them...The movie I'm talking about is Bad Santa. I have a hard time recollecting any other film with such vulgarity in the language and characters. Admittedly, I can see people hating this film for that very reason, but I thought it was brilliant. I love seeing directors (and it's no surprise the Coen brothers are involved) push the envelope, and this movie does that. I've always been accused of having the mouth of a sailor, but I can't hold a candle to this. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. It wasn't until watching it the second time that I had the apoplectic, side hurting, laughter reaction.

Other interesting things about 2006. I have officially got the first food poisoning of the year. I didn't have lunch anywhere disgusting, as a matter of fact, the restaurant in question was one of the staple lunch places near work. It took about 45 minutes or so for it to truly kick in...but came in like a bitch. The whole stomach pain, shaky legs, headache, the whole shebang. I'm still not feeling anywhere near 100% yet. Food and I have taken a short sabbatical, at least until tomorrow morning. Here's to hoping I'm back up to snuff tomorrow.

I finally put some new rubber on my car. I know, I know, I was talking about that a month or so ago, but a little bit of procrastination never hurt no one. At least no one I know. I kind of had to. I'm driving down to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up a friend from her trip to Mexico. I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous. If I keep saying it I'll believe it eventually. I figure with snow coming in, it wouldn't be cool to kill CG when she gets back from her vacation. Go out by yourself and you're a hero, take someone with you and you're an asshole.

And that's about the end of that. The food poisoning must still be in me. I never have a hard time coming up with some bizarre absurdism to end the entry with, but it's just not coming tonight. So in conclusion, still no Xbox360, but here's to hoping. Maybe that will be the first monumental entry, if I can pull myself away from it when/if I get one. Glad I saved some sick days from last year.