Revolution No. 9
(28 September - 7 October 2006)
7 October 2006
-Maybe all human interactions are broken. I
don't feel that way, but it's hard to really be sure sometimes.
-Though the Twins, who were my favorite playoff team, got
swept already, at least the Yankees are out. I will say that everyone should've known they didn't have nearly enough
pitching to make it this year. Sure, having one of the best lineups ever assembled will help you win tons of games
during the regular season, beating up on AAA pitching staffs in Kansas City & Tampa Bay uniforms. But the playoffs
are all about pitching. As I was telling Zimmy, if you're throwing Jaret Wright in an elimination game, you're not
going anywhere. Mussina is good, but never great in the playoffs, RJ's power went with his hair & wild look (you
don't spend a career building up an image & then give it up because a micro-managing owner has a policy against your
image), & there is no one else on the staff. How is that a World Series contender? Same thing happened to the
Twins... one Cy Young award winner does not a perfect staff make when he has virtually no back-up. This will make the
Mets-Cards series quite interesting, given that the Mets don't have Pedro & the Cards have their worst staff in years.
I'd like to see A's-Cards at this point, but I think you can bank on the AL team winning the Series... probably the
Tigers, given the supremacy of their staff. I kind of think they spent the last 2-3 weeks of the year sandbagging for
the playoffs, & they may just sail to a title. Finally, I really don't understand everyone getting on the Tigers
bandwagon just because they lost a bunch of games the last few years. Are you really going to root for Tampa & KC
in the future? Really?
-"The Departed" was definitely more prisoner's dilemma than action, as I demanded
it should be. Vaguely interesting, but nothing to compete with a real brain-twister like "The Usual
Suspects" or something.
6 October 2006
-I'm realizing that I might have to exhaust all
possible genres of writing before I can write another novel successfully. More & more I see the pattern in myself
of switching forms every time I complete a phase or piece in one form... short stories, poems, a play, songs, a novel,
quizzes, a comic strip... how many more forms are there? I swear I'm not going to write a computer manual, but I do
have a nifty idea brewing in my mind stemming from something that I seem to like talking about. Dare I say that it is
almost... inspiring?
-Of the many aspects of fasting or reducing food intake, one of my favorite that I have forgotten
about a lot is the ability to see through people more easily. Huxley touches on this phenomenon around the edges in
some of his work, but sometimes it's almost eviscerating how clear peoples' thoughts can be when one isn't tied down to more
earthly concerns & weights. This afternoon, on my way to get food after a long drought, everyone's insecurities
were popping out at me like neon billboards. In some circumstances, this level of negativity & inner fear could've
been highly disconcerting, but I found it strangely comforting, in that I could briefly share & examine one of the
unspoken universals of humanity... how damn afraid we all are of each other & ourselves.
5 October 2006
-The BP seems to be big in Estonia these days.
This is great, because not only is Estonia a nifty country that I don't think has ever gotten on the BP train much, but
Estonia is on the list for the fledgling Country Quiz II, which should be out before 2007.
Rock over Tallinn. Rock over Kunda. Rock over Muuga. Rock on.
-There is very little that is
scarier than walking down the street & suddenly hearing & seeing a jet fighter roaring over your head, seemingly
about 100 feet up. I was pretty much convinced today that the three jet fighters I ended up seeing were off to somehow
attempt to intercept the North Korean nuclear missile that was clearly inbound. But a little Googling &
consultation with locals yielded the fact that it was merely the Blue Angels, who I would be putting "on notice"
were I Stephen Colbert. Not only do these idiots zoom around the high rises of their target city (SF this week) with
an apparent desire to recreate September 11th should anything go the slightest bit wrong, but their purported mission is to
serve as a recruitment tool for the Marines. Later when the kids arrived, I could see how insidiously their plot was
working, as starry-eyed children made airplane noises & motions to simulate the bombardment of the airwaves we'd been put
through all day. It doesn't help that the population we serve is the precise breeding ground for entrapment into the
military. I'm contemplating sending away for the bodies of Iraqi civilians to cart through the streets as my own little
counterbalance to Marine recruitment.
4 October 2006
-It's fascinating (though of course sad) to be able
to read through a friend's journey through the emotional devastation that follows the loss of a love. It makes me wish
that I'd kept this page earlier in my life, though that desire is hardly exclusive to this instance. I would always
have been better off with this chronicle of my life & feelings. I think I articulated some of my feelings on
privacy best recently in an APDA Forum post... the fact that there will be no such
thing as privacy in a few years is an important realization, & that the only way to avoid people finding out bad things
about you is to not do bad things. So I of course applaud laying it all out on the line on a webpage.
-An
interesting sidenote to the above, however, is me being left behind yet again by a friend who once shared my beliefs on the
most personal of matters. At this point, it's embarrassing how few people I know share my perspective, & the only
person who I'm fairly sure still does is someone I've been only barely in contact with of late. Even DK may have
ditched me here, though I didn't ask him directly. I'm highly curious whether the next generation will be raised
(outside of the evangelical tradition at least) to see sex as comparable to kissing in casual status. & whether
their reaction will be to backlash against this & return to a higher standard, whether STD's & the distasteful nature
of abortion can salvage anything, or whether this will just be a lost cause. I am not here meaning to bash the people
who once shared my beliefs & now do not, though it must be noted that I definitely still disagree. My noting this
is more the feeling of being left windswept on a hill alone rather than having a small cadre of comrades to provide a little
warmth.
3 October 2006
-Been getting a little too much sleep lately, but I
guess I'm just storing up for whatever's ahead. Had a rare non-migraine headache last night on top of it, which is the
natural result of dehydration. Apparently smoothies join coffee in being a dehydrating beverage. Also, any hour
where I don't drink a half gallon of water ends up feeling dehydrating.
-Remember when Southwest was cheap? I miss
those days. Boo opportunistic airline!
-The BP has finally gotten a Technorati ranking, & debuts in the top thousand. It's not really a blog, but
neither is half the stuff that Technorati labels as such.
2 October 2006
-Slow days might just be the hardest. When
there's no tasks I dislike, having few tasks becomes the most dislikable of all. Of course there was supposed to be a
ton of stuff to do, but such is the hazard of relying on other people; strangely necessary in this life.
-In an
unsurprising & uncontroversial statement, malls were not designed for me. Especially outside of
Christmastime.
-"Keeping Mum" was darker than I expected, but worth seeing. How can one argue with Rowan
Atkinson in a sleepy British village comedy? These are really the only redeeming comedic movies, with absurdly few
exceptions.
1 October 2006
-Hung out with Paul, Colleen, & the Tracy
young'uns yesterday. Today's mostly been bumming around & catching up. I can't believe I've gotten into DDR,
but when you gain 25 pounds in 2 months, you stand up & pay attention. Suddenly I'm just like everybody else.
& it is fun too (I couldn't do any exercise that wasn't), but I have to admit my motivations. As I was
telling Brandzy, I always thought I would have a free pass, or as he told me, maybe I just didn't think I'd make it long
enough to find out otherwise. But if I know anything, the mistake people make is not taking weight seriously on the way
up, & I don't intend to be 200 pounds by the time I'm 27.
-Watching "The US vs. John Lennon" just made me
angry at how little of a movement there is against the Iraq War. & it made me think about the few differences
between Iraq & Vietnam: the draft, 9/11, the media being embedded... It frankly made LBJ & Nixon look
like rank amateurs compared to Bush & his entourage. G. Gordon Liddy shows up prominently & frequently in the
film & I just don't see the Bush crew being such obvious blunt thugs. The nuance with which we are being duped is
really spectacular. I just wonder how many more countries we have to invade before the country gets upset.
30 September 2006
-Awareness is never enough. It must always
be wonder. (I've posted it before, & I'm sure I'll post it again.)
-Oh
disaster. Hargrove is fine (I guess), but Bavasi needs to go. With one more winter in his hands, I can't wait
to see what Adrian Beltre or Jarrod Washburn gets overpaid to return to normal form next year. Let's see, Jason
Jennings seems like a good fit for this pattern. I predict we sign him in December, hail him as the second coming of
Randy Johnson, & watch him post a 5.20 ERA (career 4.74, but 2006 3.78!) in Seattle.
29 September 2006
-Our country is broken & the Democrats are no
more the answer than the Republicans. Here's why. 100-0. One-hundred.
To zero. You think there's a governing principle here other than imperialist militarism, with just a splash of
plutocratic blind nationalism? On the eve of my first actual casting of a ballot in America, I've never been more
sickened by its government.
-Oh look, the world really is out to get me for everything. While
much of this article is affirming that I'm not all that alone, this line: "Although it is not known how many American
adults are picky eaters, a growing number are seeking treatment" kills me. When I start reading too many online
articles, my sinking feeling that humanity is not worth saving starts to become a howling wind. That's one wind I
wouldn't mind avoiding.
28 September 2006
Happy Birthday to Jake
Quicksall
-Migraine: 13 hours, right side, minor, cause unknown.
-I'll
fill in the hours of the above when it's over, but sometimes it's important to bookmark these things so I don't forget them
down the line. I fear I've already let one or two slide in this process, & a headache diary is really only valuable
in its completeness. I'm also rapidly becoming concerned that the late triggers here are my new sunglasses. Which
would be a beautiful irony, if one of my main solutions for the light that triggers migraines ends up also distorting my
vision just enough to be a trigger. More study is needed to confirm or deny.
-Ah, the strange results of being the top Google
entry for best books ever. I don't know if it's synchronicity with this woman's taste or the power of suggestion
that fed this line: "two different sites which seemed quite reliably complete." My contribution, of course,
is my 100 best books ever list from Summer 1998, which has fallen steadily in accuracy
since its posting 8 (eight?!) years ago. I'm not sure that list has ever been described as "reliably
complete." Sadly, the actually reliably complete list (the compiled 778 best books
of all time) is but 5th on Google for "best books of all time"... & that's only with the quotation
marks, unlike the previous list which has top slots both with & without quotes. In the final bit of coordination
that goes with this story, Google joined Emily in having a birthday yesterday... turning 8. So my list was created
(though certainly not posted to the web), a mere month & change prior to the birth of Google. This is why we spent
our super-duper-advanced "Technology Applications" class in high school learning how AltaVista was going to be our
conduit to the world for the rest of our lives. I think the moral of this whole story is that things do change, but
usually it's very hard for that change to come fast enough.
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