Gearing Up for the Eclipse

In less than a week, I am headed off out west to see the Great American Eclipse. I've got my fancy solar eclipse glasses. My car and camping reservations are done. My friend Kraig is lending me a five gallon gas tank-just in case.  The tent that I ordered will be delivered on Wednesday. Yup, I'm pretty much set. I just have to hope for good weather and a little bit of luck.

We Survived!

Count me as one of those people riding on the Fuck 2016 Bandwagon. With the election of Donald Trump and the latest spate of celebrity deaths it is the popular thing to do—hating on this past year. Personally, the year wasn’t that great for me either. Not to say that there weren’t some highlights but overall, I’m glad to put it behind me. So I have survived and now am looking forward to this upcoming year. I’m not going to make any resolutions but I am going to make new attempts at making my life better.

Stone Cold Bitch

That's what Zac calls me.

Ever since parting ways with Kurt, I've kept to myself for the most part. The lone exception to this was last week when I went on a casual ride with a guy named Rob. I wanted us to get to know each other. I think he wanted to be a little too casual if you get what I mean. I haven't heard from him since.

I'm in this weird... funk... where I want to keep things light (to prevent another Kurt) but I don't want to meet guys that will lead to nowhere. The vibe I give off seems to be that of indifference to people who are interested in me. It's not intentional but when I say that I'm not interested in a hookup, it doesn't mean that I'm not interested in more chatting or a date.

Far from being stone cold, I think I may be too much of a romantic.

My Bridget Moment

See also: Top 20 Movies for me.

I was supposed to go see a movie with my friend Kevin but it looks like I was blown off. Well I had been eager to go do something all day and I wasn't going to let the fact that I was alone stop me from having a good time.

As I have mentioned before, I am a fan of the movie, Bridget Jones's Diary. I identify with her in many ways. Largely the fact that I am over thirty and still single. So I thought that it was appropriate that I change the movie choice to the latest installment of the series, Bridget Jones's Baby.  Little did I realize that I was be identifying with her just a little too much this evening.

So I go to the theater thinking that if I get there late, I can slip into the crowd unnoticed. Nothing like a bunch of couples looking at a singleton with pity. I get up to the ticket counter and the guy there asks me which seat I would like. All the greens were available to choose. --They were all green.

Fuck.

Well, I am here already.

I go into the empty theater and pick my seat. It seemed like ages but finally I hear the door to the room open and I hear a couple of voices. I breathed a little sigh of relief. I wasn't going to be alone.

Then nothing. A few more minutes to go before the movie starts and no more people have come in. As slyly as I could, I looked back and made out one couple in the back row. In the entire theater, it was me and a couple.

I sink lower into my seat.

So the movie starts and gets on. --Great by the way. Go see it.--- Finally, the credits come up. I hope that the couple gets up to go and so I wait a few moments. I don't hear the doors open. They were going to sit through the credits. I knew that I was going to have to walk past them in order to get out. Well I've already suffered enough what's a little more right? I walk past them, give them a little nod, and zoom, I'm outta there.

I start walking for the exit and put my hand in my pocket to bring out my keys. They're not there. I freeze. Crap! They must've fallen out of my pocket while I was watching the movie. I had two choices, I could either go back and pass the couple again or pretend to go to the bathroom and go back when they left. Yes! Let's do option B. I head for the bathroom when a worker comes out with a bag of trash. Another starts sweeping the hallway.

That's it. Plan B is shit. I had to go back.

I go back in, pass the couple, get to my seat and feel around. No keys. I grimace at the thought, but I put my hands deeper into the crevices. Nothing. Could they have fallen through to the ground? More horror as I reach down there and feel around, bumping into popcorn and who knows what else. Still no keys. I bring out my phone and use it as a flash light. Still no keys.

By now I am in a near panic. If I don't have keys, I am going to have to call someone to pick me up, bring me to my parents where they have a spare, and then bring me back. And I'm sure that the couple--who still have not left--are watching this with amusement.

On my left, I catch a glint of metal and with some relief, I found my keys. I pop my head up and the couple is looking right at me. I walk past them again, give them a little nod again, and zoom, I'm outta there. Not before that same worker from the bathroom says, "have a good night."

I awkwardly smile and nod to the guy and continued to walk on forward--because that's what Bridget would do.

Water!

I was going through some of my junk last night and pulled out my old high school ring.  If I remember right, I haven't worn this thing since a formal dinner back in my freshman year of college.  It's still a loose fit and annoying as hell to wear.  When our class was invited to place orders, I knew that this was something that I would only wear in high school and then stored away in a box.  For the most part that's exactly what has happened.  However, since the cartoon Captain Planet has come up in conversation a couple times lately, I thought I'd break it out.  I think it makes for a passable Planeteer ring!  Yeah, my coworkers laughed at me too.

I Could Use Some Wisdom

I was skimming various wikipedia entries on Greek mythology and I noted Athena's involvement with Odysseus.  I got to thinking that if I were to have a patron god (or goddess), it would be Athena.  Mostly, it is due to her connections with wisdom, strategic warfare, and justice.  I asked my sister which god she would want and I had a hunch that she, too, would choose Athena.  Turns out I was right.

Apparently Athena was not with me today.  As I was pulling my clothes out from the dryer, I heard a clang from the floor.  I looked down and saw my iPod's plastic protective case.  My heart sank because that must have meant... you guessed it... I washed and dried my iPod.  It didn't take me long in digging to find this hot chunk of glass and metal.  I was sort of calm about it.  I wasn't angry, just sad, because I had bought the thing this past spring.  Also, it was my fault for not checking my pants pockets as thoroughly as I had.  $300 just went up in a puff of hot air I thought.

After a few hours, I tried turning it on and nothing happened.  A few hours after that I had the idea that maybe I should hook it up to the computer and see if anything happens.  I wasn't expecting much and when nothing happened, I wasn't surprised but then.... the apple logo appears and the amazing little POS booted up!  Aside from a dent along the bottom and some scratches on the metal panel, it seems completely fine.

Who's the god of luck?  I may have to switch.

As I Like It

A long time ago in a school district far, far away—like 15 miles--, I was in play called As You Like It by William Shakespeare. Every year volunteers from the fourth grade put on a Shakespeare play for the community. The play changes from year to year.

There weren’t many of us guys that volunteered to be in the play. If I remember right, there were only three of us guys. To audition, all of us had to read a famous monologue. I’m not sure if it really mattered as far as the guys were concerned. One named Cory got the lead named Orlando. I played his antagonist and brother, Oliver. The third guy, whose name I’ve forgotten, played a wrestler. Late in the production, we landed a fourth guy but all the roles had been cast so he played a lion that attacked tickled me to near death. My inability to control myself when someone touched my side has convinced me that I will never make it as an actor. Still, it was one of the best things I ever did in school and I still think back on it with fond memories.
Yesterday afternoon, I was reading the local news online when I saw that a group from Notre Dame was putting on a free play at a park in South Bend. When I read that it was As You Like It, I had to go. With only a few hours before it was due to start, I texted friends that I thought would dig it and managed to get my friends Stacey and Kevin to come along.

It did seem a little odd that the play was placed in the Civil War period so it seemed odd that they still retained “dukes.” Actually, one person looked to be wearing a Union uniform but with a Confederate cover. But you know, it is what it is. I suppose it could have been set in Japan. Oh wait, no, that’s been done.

I did enjoy it very much and I was surprised at how many of my lines that I could remember. Some of the supporting characters really shined with their hilarious takes like Phebe and Audrey. The guy who played Touchstone the clown was perfect for the part in my opinion. I’m gonna have to remember to keep an eye out for public plays next summer.

Let this chapter end already!

With all this debt ceiling talk, entitlement reform, high unemployment, fragile foreign and domestic economies, upcoming recall elections, yadda yadda yadda-I'm beginning to feel a little depressed about the state of my country. I need another dose of feel-good history that gives me hope that our best days (and my social security checks) are still ahead.

Thanks Michigan *grumble, grumble*

Last night I had a blast playing a trivia tournament. I was originally invited to join a team with Ed and Amanda but they suddenly had to change plans and go out of town. I got a call from her sister asking me if I was still interested. There was a ten dollar entry fee and I had to bring a dish to pass.

We started pretty well with 2nd place but then we slipped to the middle of the pack, and then to second place, and then to dead last. We kept on saying that we were going to make a comeback. Some of the questions were insanely hard yet were low-value questions. For example, can you name the last President that became a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? Yeah, didn’t think so. It was Taft by the way.

It was actually a question about Notre Dame and the University of Michigan that got us back in the game. And wow, did I feel dirty about it, especially the UofM question. The question was what was Michigan’s first state university and where was it founded. I believe everyone was going for Michigan State. Our team was the only one that got it correct with UofM and Detroit. That managed to get us into a tie for first place.

The last question which was TV catch-phrases had ten parts to it and we had to first bet on how many points we wanted to wager. To win the points, we would have to answer all 10 correctly. Our team decided to go all in thinking that the other team we were tied with would do the same thing. Well it turns out that we got all the answers correct so we either won or would go into a playoff if the other team bet the same. To our delight the bet ZERO. We won!

Well we won but we didn’t really win money. After taking my cut of the winnings and subtracting the entrance fee, the cost of the food I brought along, and the drinks I had from the bar… well I was in the hole $5. BUT, it was a blast and I will do it again.

I Hate it But… Like it?

I’ve just finished up the movie Hamlet. It’s the fourth time I’ve seen it and what I like about it is that every time I do, I gain some new insight. I catch an inflection or a phrase that has a deeper meaning. I can make a connection from one scene to another. It’s great… except that I hate Shakespeare.

Reading Shakespeare and even watching it live or on screen is torture! If I was watching it done in Spanish, I’d probably enjoy it more. I think the reason why I hate it is because I can understand half of it and other half leaves me all confused. It’s the most frustrating foreign language (it might as well be classed as that) I can try to work through.

It’s still awesome, though, when you make those mini-revelations.

Will I ever get unpacked?

I didn't realize I was such a slow poke when it comes to moving. When I was moving around up in Lansing, I had to do everything in one go. Since I'm only moving a few miles from where I used to live, I'm taking my sweet time. Three weeks after the official move in, the living room is still holding boxes of trash and stuff that I haven't unpacked yet. This weekend, I hope to finally get everything placed, that way I can actually take some pictures of the place and post them here.

Overthinking Yoda

Raise your hand if you thought Yoda was a “human.”

I don’t know about the rest of you but I raised my hand.

When I was young I was too smart for Star Wars. So smart I was dumb. I won’t get into why humans were in a galaxy far far away, existing in the past but seemingly living in the future. Nor will I discuss how measuring time using units of distance was wrong. Let me just talk about Yoda.

First I knew that some species that looked “human” were infesting the Star Wars galaxy. I mean they were everywhere. They couldn’t be real humans because real humans are here, in our galaxy, in our time. So if they weren’t humans than their condition must be different. I seriously thought that these humans had long life spans like 1,000 years. It’s just that at the end of their lives they ended up all short and pruney like Yoda. What sold me on that idea was when Yoda says to look “When nine hundred years you reach, look as good you will not.” Surely that means that in 900 years, Luke was going to end up looking like Yoda only uglier. Sounded reasonable to me at the time.

*Shrugs shoulders*

After almost a decade, I now know what that damn song's name is!

I think I was a sophomore in high school when my parents signed for internet access. Since we lived in the sticks, dial-up was the only offering. Still, the connection was good enough to allow us to listen to streaming radio from around the world. The audio quality wasn't the best but the variety in music was great. There isn't much variety on American radio, I can tell you that. One of my favorite stations was Radio Pilatus coming out of Switzerland. There was a particular song that I would hear from time to time. Obviously it must have been a hit and the more I heard it, the more I liked it. Eventually, I was able to record about 2/3 of the song. I was never able to find the information for the song so I could obtain a copy. It was in German (or at least Germanic). I kept that file thinking that one day I would come across someone who also knew the song or could listen to it and give me information. I tried a student studying German and even a student from Germany. Nothing. That is until today.

It occurred to me a couple days ago that I have had this German guy sitting in my contacts list and I never asked him about the song. Well here was a chance, and I was going to take it so I sent him the song file and by this morning, I had my answer. The song that I have liked for over ten years, clipped and with degraded audio, was So Bist Du by Oli. P. Check it out:

Hearing a higher-quality and complete version is kinda weird. I don't know how to properly describe it but it just wasn't the same song that was going through my head all this time. I still liked it, although I think the beginning could have been better. I'm finally glad to have my answer.

h/t to keira0tash for posting the vid.

It’s One of Those Days

My little cousin is sick. I don’t know if it is swine flu which is going around, but I didn’t ask. Luckily I don’t have to clean up after little kids.

I’m still having mini-freakouts after an incident that occurred this morning. At my work, I’m authorized to make outside calls. I have to use an access code to do so. I don’t use it that often as the outside line is really only needed for one person who carries a cell phone. I haven’t had to use it in a while so I forgot if I was supposed to dial my access number and then the telephone number or if it was the other way around. To dial out, I have to punch 9. My access number starts with 1-1. See where this is going? Yes. I ended up calling 911.

As soon as I entered 9-1-1, the phone started to ring instead of beeping showing that it was accepting the rest of my code. With a loud “CRAP,” I punched the button to hang up but the thing still connected.

“9-1-1…”

“Oh. I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to go through.”

“That’s…” blah blah blah- I was freaking out so bad I don’t even remember what was said before I was allowed to hang up.

Something that I discovered is that with South Bend, if you connect with an emergency operator, you can’t hang up. And it’s a good thing too because I certainly was trying and I only realized latter that if I did, they would have sent out a cop car to my work place. That would not have gone well with HR or the rest of my bosses.

And I’m still having mini-freakouts because, what if they are the types that fine people for placing non-emergency calls? Am I still going to get called in when they see that an emergency call was placed by me? Yeesh. At least my coworkers got a good laugh out of it.

I was going to write about someone else who was having a bad day but I forgot who it was. Hmm… oh well, must’ve not been important.

Run it?

Pizza Lies

When it comes to pizza, my dad and I do not see eye to eye very much. He likes weird things on it like, ham, pineapple, and barbecue sauce. I’m more of a traditionalist double the pepperoni and double the cheese and I’m all good. For restaurant pizza, a supreme style is the safe choice--usually a Supreme Pan from Pizza Hut. I remember when I was five or perhaps younger when I asked my dad if I could have a pizza without the monkey eyeballs (what he called black olives). He said that people couldn’t special order a pizza—that everything comes mixed like it is described on the menu. I believed him.

Field trips are awesome. In my opinion, schools don’t use them often enough. In first grade, when I was at Sigsbee Elementary, we went to the main island (Key West). I forget what the main point of the field trip was but I do remember that for lunch, it was planned that we would have pizza in the park. The really cool part was that we were going to go to a Dominos to make the pizza ourselves.

The idea of crowding thirty something 7 year olds into a kitchen with pizza ovens and all sorts of other dangerous objects probably wouldn’t occur to today’s school staff but, hey, these were the 80’s. We played on rusty jungle gyms sitting on top of concrete. The rules were that we had to pick a partner to share the pizza with, we had to agree on two toppings, and then we had to wash our hands before we made the pizza. My partner ended up being pretty-boy asshole from our class. I wanted pepperoni and extra cheese. He wanted green peppers and onions. (Seriously? Of all the available toppings, who goes for peppers?!) We started arguing like little kids do and one of the Dominos guys said that we could split the pizza in half. Assface’s half would get green peppers. My half would get pepperoni.

“You can do that?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“But my dad said that you couldn’t…” And that was when I first realized that what my dad told me wasn’t always the truth. Okay, maybe I figured that out earlier as by this time I knew monkey eyeballs weren’t really being put on pizzas.



Would you believe that I got that pic from Dominos website? That chain rocks!

Bending the FB Policy

For those of you who are friends with me on facebook, you might have noticed that I made a new friend. Buuut... I'm betting you didn't. Actually, that new person, Dave, is my uncle. Now I have a personal policy regarding facebook. I will not friend my parents or my aunts and uncles. I still treat them as authority figures and there are things on my facebook page that I'd rather them not see. There's nothing bad on my page but it makes me uncomfortable to let them mix in with my other social circles. I made an exception for Dave because 1.) I don't really think of him as my uncle. He's only six years older than me. 2.) He doesn't regularly interact with my parents so I don't have to worry about him saying, "Hey did you see your son..." Finally, 3.) There's really no other way to contact him other than snail mail and... well... it never seems to work out.

I’m sorry, should I pretend to be offended?

When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time on PinoyExchange which is an online forum. I liked it a lot and was a frequent commenter on the Local and Foreign Issues board. After getting into a number of heated exchanges which degenerated into cheap shots and insults, I pretty much quit. I had to because I would come home from school anticipating another insult for which I would have formulate a response—because I always had to have the last word.

Since then, I mostly stay away from the board and gravitate towards TV and Movies. The people there are more amiable but the place can be rather dull. I mean, what more can you say after posting, “I love the Gilmore Girls?” Okay, so there’s a lot more you can say but it’s not as stimulating. So I’ll find myself back to the Foreign Issues board where I just read and sometimes shake my head. Occasionally I post something with the promise that I won’t get drawn into a squabble. And usually, it takes a couple posts before you find yourself drawn into one. Not with this one guy, though. He really let me have it.

So the topic was “US to Begin Talks with Iran.” One of the members, arcie, was going on the line of allowing Israel to attack the nuclear sites in Iran. I understand that point of view and after a fashion, I can see where it might be necessary but I have a more nuanced stance and I’d like a more detailed analysis of all available courses of actions before going in with guns blazing. And although I won’t agree with arcie’s opinion, there really wasn’t too much of a reason to get on that person’s back. Leave it to Peeter Utol to say to arcie, “You know what you are? You are like a court stenographer who records every bit and pieces of what a lot of other people has said and presenting it like is your own opinion.”

When I read that, some of the milk that I was drinking got snorted back out through my nose…which as you may know, hurts like hell! Not only was it a weak shot, it did not make a lick of sense. Also, I thought it was a little unfair to arcie. So I wrote:

What?! How is that anything like a court stenographer?

As for arcie's willingness to let Israel do all the dirty work, it's incredibly simplistic and I don't think that takes into account the political situation that exists between the various actors. It's one big knotted mess. Let's say Israel decides to attack Iran. They're most likely going to have to cross Iraq. If the US allows them, then they offend the Arab states. If they don't, then they back-stab Israel. There are other questions that need to be asked such as: how would other Arab states react to a nuclear armed Iran? How would they shift their alliances in the face of an Israeli attack? How would American cooperation or resistance be seen? And the domestic population of Iran where we are seeing an undercurrent [of] resentment [towards] the regime, how would they react to sanctions or attacks?

Later Peeter wrote back:

You dont sound like a court stenographer. You sound like a manicurist in a Jewish barber shop in Santa Monica, California

I’m so hurt. He actually had the nerve to call me a… a… Californian. *rolls eyes* Seriously, how far up their assess do these trolls have to stick their hands in order to fling this kind of crap-crap? Whatever dude. And so I am here writing about this, not because I need to vent, but because I think it’s funny. I sincerely hope that when I was flinging poo back in the day, it was a lot better than that. Screw that. I know it was.

…Damn, I’m old. :-P

It's Nearly 1 A.M. and Here Am I Hitching a Ride

Not really, but I'd want to do anything else other than lying here trying to get to sleep. I really should consider buying some over-the-counter sleep aides but usually I'm a quick sleeper. If I am in my own bed, I'm out within fifteen minutes if not sooner. This is just one of those nights.

So what do you do to help you fall asleep?

I usually go with the warm milk. Borrowing a page from Dr. Crusher, I put a dash of nutmeg in it. That's the only thing that has helped but it's not a guarantee. If the milk doesn't work, I usually have to wait it out. I've tried the whole counting sheep, becomes ridiculous. My overactive imagination usually has something bad being done to the sheep as they leap over the fence to their individual fates.

UPDATE:

This what I've been sleeping to lately:

Love and Fear of Water

I read in the news of another ferry sinking in the Philippines. (Where else do they happen?) As of my writing, there have been 9 deaths reported. For me, that seems to be a remarkably low number considering how lax safety conditions in the Phils and how deadly past instances have been.

Even though I was close to water all the time when I was last living there, I rarely made it to ocean. The only two notable times was when I went “home” to San Fernando, La Union and to Corregidor. Other than Corregidor, I never left Luzon. One of the major reasons is because I did not want to take a ferry.

Normally, I am fine with all kinds of public transport but there are some situations in which I will avoid it. For example, I will probably never take the bus up to Baguio on anything more than cloudy day. In the case of passenger ferries, never on anything more than calm water, at night, or out of sight of land.

I think it’s really odd because I love big bodies of water and it is one of the things I look for when I consider locations to live in. I like to see to the edge of the world I suppose. The big plus about living in the Great Lakes region is that you get all that without sea salt and creepy critters which are my two big complaints about the ocean.
When I lived in San Fernando, I used to go to this beach to swim. Ugh. I don’t understand how my family ever thought that it was okay for me to do so. The place was littered with garbage. I remember my uncle and his friends taking out a wood bed frame out there and riding it until it sank. Then there was the crap that was cast aside by the shanty town residents. Most sickening of all was the stream where all sorts of human and inhuman filth flowed out. You can even see it here in this photo. It is no wonder I developed a severe skin rash that required a trip to the air base.

There was one opportunity to go to the beaches in Batangas. It would have been the only time that I would have enjoyed the beach while there as San Fernando, as I mentioned above, is nasty, and Manila Bay isn’t a great place to do it either. Unfortunately, a hurricane was nearby and I opted to stay put on campus.

So, yes, I’m a big baby when it comes to water especially when I’m in the Philippines. Given the history, personal and not, I think my fears are justified to a degree.