a long, long week so far
Mood:  happy
sick all weekend, in the hospital for a few hours monday, cleaned house and went to a dermatologist yesterday, not to mention dinner at my parents' house sunday, and it's only wednesday

at least it didn't come to suicide like with that guy at "ground zero"...

and speaking of "ground zero" i know in pearl harbor they've got that arizona monument and they left that particular ship underwater where it went down, but as far as i know, they salvaged everything else and cleaned up the place. see, pearl harbor has room for a ship to just sit there and be a big reminder of the attack. does manhattan have the space to spare for two big holes? seriously, isn't manhattan too crowded to bother?

anyway, i'd intended on doing a tv centric entry for monday, but couldn't get to it, obviously. what turned out to be "atypical chest pain" most likely resulting from a fucking hurt rib from our broken a sofa bed (good news, one part of busy yesterdat involved getting a new bed, to be delivered next week) kept me in the hospital for a four hours. got blood and urine sampled, got an ekg, a chest x-ray, the usual pulse and blood pressure measurements, nearly got a ct scan (cause the guy with the wheelchair asked for robert and the other patient in my room was named robert and happened to be out getting another test right then), and was pronounced healthy and sent off with a prescription for pain medication (good stuff that did its job already)

and then i had an appointment made weeks ago for yesterday, only to find out i'm old, apparently, and the thing on my hand was nothing bad

and, from being sick over the weekend, my weight got below 200 pounds for the first time in a few years, with over five pounds lost since last week

i'm healthy. who knew?

but, then there's television. and it isn't healthy. i used to watch almost every network drama and quite a few sitcoms, every week. in recent years, due to me getting a little more of a life and tv getting a little less, well, good, my viewing has diminished a hell of a lot. for this weeks, there's eleven shows on my list (yes, an actual list for the week, with episode titles and everything): the wire, huff, american dreams, the simpsons, arrested development, boston legal, veronica mars, lost, ghost hunters, south park, and good eats. not listed, but still watched: the daily show. also, last night i watched the rebel billionaire, which turned out to be pretty good for a fox reality show. i've got nothing on saturdy, monday, thursday or, now that real time is done with its season, friday

six scripted dramas, three scripted comedies, one hour long reality show, one half hour cooking (doesn't qualify as a reality show, in my book) show. eight and a half hours of tv. add in a couple hours of a the rebel billionaire plus two hours of the daily show and two and a half hours of jeopardy and i get to fifteen, which would be the equivilent of watching three hours of primetime tv each weeknight, nothing close to what i used to watch

i have actually been watching networks, for a change. the last couple years, i've barely touched the networks, and i'm still not touching cbs (i considered watching the new amazing race, but turns out it's going on tuesdays at 9, where i've already got veronica mars and next week get house, so i can't do it (not enough vcrs currently to deal with that)). the networks, like other forms of popular media are getting too mediocre, too shallow...

too episodic as well. except for some obvious exceptions--the simpsons being one--i go for ongoing shows with story arcs and ongoing plots, even if they put the focus on one main thing per episode (a al veronica mars). while csi is a seriously well made show, i just can't watch it for the same reason that most people can watch it anytime, whether they've watched it recently or not. i like having to know the characters, having to understand the background, getting involved rather than just sitting back and watching passively. i want to be pulled in, grabbed and yanked inside the show (on at least some level). i want something like the latest episode of american dreams, where less than twenty minutes in i was thinking i wanted the episode to go on and on (then i looked at the clock and was shocked to see it was only twenty minutes in and they'd just packed so much in i thought it must be nearly over). i want great writing, complex (read: realistic, not necessarily convoluted) characters, and good, sturdy plots

veronica mars has thrown in a few predictable bits (casting gave away the woman as sex changed mother and the stepdad rapist (though the latter hardly seemed that important by the time it finally got revealed in the episode, which was nice) but gives us a whole group of nicely rounded characters who, even when doing cliched things, make them work cause we can see why they're doing it

boston legal has thrown in a few too many quirks, and needs maybe a few more "straight men", but the central characters (notably alan and denny) are good enough to anchor the whole

lost has a great ensemble and even when heavyhanded (the moth bit, which could be read as the writers being heavyhanded, locke being heavyhanded, or the island itself being heavyhanded, which might change the verdict on that heavyhandedness) or less than revelatory (the ending of sun's recent episode, as compared to, say, the end of locke's), still holds up because the whole is sturdy, built on well rounded characters and an enthralling mystery

and, i'll end with a new show: huff (or, !huff). it's parts were good, but i got the feeling that there were whole scenes missing. i don't think whole scenes were actually missing, but the transition from being right there inside huff's head with him and stepping out was a little odd. i think the writers need to keep us in huff's head or keep us out, make us live through everything with him or make us just be witnesses from the outside, not both

as for me, lately i've got some new ideas for my fictional world of gardia, i've been getting back into clubhouse blues so i can finish writing that, and i've still got my mortuary centered screenplay to get to at some point... maybe i'll do an entire entry here about my writing stuff. that could be fun. until then, i'm off

and, i made almost no mention of politics. i'm so proud

p.s. in cooking related news, we got a waffle iron and a crock pot yesterday and i'm looking forward to putting them to use. and today i'll be making some torilla chips (tortillas cut up and fried in canola oil, salted with kosher salt) for dinner at my sister's house p.p.s. tv watchlist for tonight:

• jeopardy
• lost
• ghost hunters
• south park
• good eats
• the daily show

no words today
Mood:  down

i just threw up four times in a row. no politics today

let the denial overflow
Mood:  down
Now Playing: dora the explorer in the background

it is now that we pretend that all the uncounted votes, by some fluke that denies the usefulness of sampling, will be for kerry, and despite his concession, he will win the office of the presidency

and, while we're at it, we must also pretend that upon actually taking office, he will reveal his greatest flip flop yet, pull all troops out of iraq, grant gays the right to marry, teens the right to abort, stem cells the right to be researched and whatever else might actually make him more than just a small degree different than his one and only opponent. they would have us believe that kerry and edwards were two of the most liberal senators around, like their liberalness was so horribly left that this country would have burned to the ground from the nightmare of their having been elected into executive positions. but, they weren't liberal enough. they weren't human enough (not that liberal and human are synonyms, of course). even cnn yesterday commented on how kerry seemed more like a real person in his concession speech than at any time in his campaign. i know, the democrats wanted a relatively middle-of-the-road candidate to have a chance, but if we still get a 50-50 (approximately) split, what's the point in conceding party principles? why not embrace the liberal ideals, get kerry out of the way and grab someone more liberal, like howard dean or... well, i'm sure there are plenty even more liberal than dean, far more liberal than kerry. if this nation is split, let's take advantage of it, and not try to win over the other side but actually enthuse our own side

and, rather than ignore the "third" parties, why not embrace them, use them to further our causes, even if they still can't feasibly win. maher and moore had the right idea in begging nader to get out of the race and support kerry. and, though i like the libertarian stance on a lot of things, they weren't even mentioned on news coverage, so, as far as american society goes (tv centric and all) they might as well not even exist, so why not morph into lobby organizations and back a major candidate?

insert a big sigh here

let's recount all the votes, let's reconsider all the voting systems, let's blame diebold and hanging chads and voter "challengers" and disenfranchising of minority (and criminal) voters, and let's pretend we didn't lose fairly. hell, we have no evidence that we didn't lose fairly. so, absent any evidence to the contrary, our assumptions must be correct. right? that's how the religious folk accept god, isn't it? we can't prove he doesn't exist so he must exist, cause how else can we have any purpose to our lives without god's plan to guide us? and, now, how else can this country move forward if we don't have emperor bush shoving us from behind?

watchlist for tonight:

• jeopardy. ken will, if the rumor is true, be losing sometime in the next couple weeks, maybe right before the upcoming college competition. but, still, though i've passed the test twice, they won't call me, the bastards
• somebody help me. having dropped survivor this season, i've actually considered giving the oc another try
• life as we know it... cause i'm a glutton for punishment. the narration bits are mostly redundant and unnecessary, the girls are still annoyingly given scenes on their own yet don't get narration bits, but there's still something oddly watchable here
• touching the void
  
  Posted by ca4/muaddib at 9:41 AM PST
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Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: air america radio - al franken show (dora the explorer in the background)

looks like walden o'dell will get his wish, with his diebold machines delivering the ohio votes to the president. won't matter much how close things might actually end up. apparently, kerry is already conceding (set to speak in less than an hour, as i write this)

of course, it's a little disturbing how split the country is as far as the popular vote goes. i'd prefer someone to win by a greater margin (maybe, at least, with some of that automatic run off voting stuff, ranking the candidates and whatnot)

and, eleven states banned gay marriage, florida screwed with abortion rights...

and, i really don't feel like getting into it, going over the results of the election. i could get into the lack of any significant update to the electoral college since 1911. i could get into... screw it. what i need to get into is costs for moving to canada or france or--i don't know--anywhere-but-here

anyone-but-bush didn't win, so anywhere-but-here might get a big boost now. or, maybe we can all get involved with those folks who throw out that proposal to get california to secede from the united states and support them a whole lot. at least we get some stem cell research, which might help some of us live longer, which means larger population and, maybe, just maybe, we can get the electoral college to reflect that population change...

but, let's talk about veronica mars. some great moments in last night's episode. the revelation about the shoes was a great ending, veronica finding the safe combination changed was great, and sure enough, we've got reason to actually feel for logan--i mean, verbal abuse is one thing, but lashing with a belt? this is my kind of television. a big part of the backstory hinges on drug induced rape, and now we've got serious parental abuse that probably won't be stopped anytime soon, plus kyle secor who would make my top ten guy list if i were to make one, not to mention kirsten bell, veronica herself, is a great visual, and a strong lead actress for this show

and after watching my tape of the last hour and a half of bravo's 100 scariest movie moments, i was actually a little jumpy, though that might have had to do with the earlier election results

now, let's cut today's entry short. thing is, when do the protests start? or did everyone get over that when it turned out bush was never going to change a thing because of them? when does the civil war begin?

watchlist for tonight:

• lost
• ghost hunters
• south park
• the daily show
  
  Posted by ca4/muaddib at 9:19 AM PST
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ammendment - my apologies to the swedes
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: arrested development - shock and awe
how amerocentric am i? i took one look at the word "sweden" and thought "swiss" instead of "swedish." i'm so busy praising allah and thanking jesus for making this country the greatest place in the universe, i can't even keep my european countries straight (not that, with the european union, it matters much anymoe anyway--am i right?)

so, my apologies to the swedes. bin laden was right. you haven't done anything untoward. you give us meatballs and blonde girls; how can that be bad?

we all know it's the swiss who are ruining the world

vote no on everything
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: kevin and bean show on kroq 106.7
there's some sort of election going on today

apparently, it just may be the most important election in the history of mankind (and that includes all of future history). seriously, they would have us believe this election could end in the destruction of the earth itself, or the glory of earthly paradise, with all nations standing together in democratic wonder, singing kumbaya

cause democracy and the right to have your voting status questioned by "challengers" is the way to go, THE way to live. every human deserves the right to have trouble figuring out where the hell his polling place even is, since his supposed absentee voter status didn't get him a absentee ballot for this latest election (really, i'm not talking about anyone in particular. did you think i was talking about anyone in particular, rambo? (two points to anyone who gets that reference)). see, it's supposed to be in the high school a couple blocks west of here. officially, it's in the high school, and i'm all for finding legal reasons to enter high schools and all, but you'd think there'd be some sort of sign out front saying--i don't know--VOTE HERE. seems sorta obvious

but, i guess that's too easy

in other news, bin laden thinks we're more intrusive on his part of the world than sweden is. everyone knows sweden shoves its culture down the throats of the world's populace. i mean, not a day goes by, not a day, that there aren't swatches being dropped on the unsuspecting citizens of at least one nation, not a day that heathens and infidels the world over are not introduced to the greatness that is lederhosen, not a day that the children of the world aren't forced to learn the words to Schweizerpsalm...

or is that just us that do that?

of course, it's not JUST us. but, being the "most powerful nation on the planet" comes with some privileges in addition to the responsibilities (those ones we shirk when we decided to get into arbitrary wars instead of actually trying to fix the world's problems). and, those privileges include the right to be sure that garfield the movie makes it to pakistan as well as bavaria, that new episodes of joey can be seen in south africa as well as taiwan, and that free elections can be contested by all the candidates and their attorneys in every nation from afghanistan to iraq

what's that government where the smart people rule? meritocracy? why don't we try that for a while to be different? why let the common man, who seem to get stupider every year in this country, pick which major party gets to designate who gets to bomb the third worlders this time? or how 'bout we drop the whole thing and elect bush emperor or right hand man to god? afterall, he thinks god is behind what he does and just may believe he's put us into the middle of armageddon with iraq, which at least would make the whole thing a little better, i suppose. at least we'd know it ends well, after the years of bloodshed and pain

seriously, though, isn't it time for a revolution? and, a peaceful one will do just fine. it's too late, i'm sure to get a third party involved in the office of the president for this election, but why don't we try, in four years, to not treat the "third party" candidates like useless trash, distractions to steal votes from the real deal? why don't we pretend for a while that there is a third party and a fourth party and a fifth and a sixth and... well, however many are actually involved. there are a hell of a lot more than just two, and some of those don't even want us to kill people and posthumously label them as terrorists or complicit bystanders. some of them don't want to spy on us and restrict our rights and tells us who we can and cannot marry, who we can and cannot abort

perhaps, with a little effort, we could slide out from under mother culture's boot and make a new go at living productive lives that don't destroy everything around us

or we could make sure the next law & order spinoff can compete with the next csi spinoff for key demographics in egypt and kuwait and "liberal" can remain another name for evil instead of a relatively value free adjective

watchlist for today:

• one episode of arrested development left on the dvd from blockbuster, then i'll rent the third volume to watch in time for the second season premiere
• random bits of news coverage
• the daily show indecision 2004 special
• veronica mars "the return of kane"
• life as we know it "partly cloudy, chance of sex" (and chance of dropping this show if it doesn't make itself a little more interesting

and i've got to work on writing some of clubhouse blues today (when i get offline in a few minutes) and vote and have lunch with sarah and take her to class after work and read a little of my ishmael or the three unread comics on my desk (powers, amelia rules! and strangers in paradise), plus look after the kids and make something good for dinner and... i'm probably forgetting a few things. it's a busy, busy tuesday

quote for today: the most dangerous man, to any governmetn, is the man who is able to think things over for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. and even if he is not romantic, personally, he is very apt to spread discontent amont those who are. - h l mencken

the day of the dead
Mood:  spacey
past week, i got bored of my message board. too much of me rambling and no one responding. so, there's this, where that's the accepted format

saw the machinist yesterday, and thought 90 percent of it was great, a fantastic, complicated-bordering-on-confusing little film, 10 percent was okay, that ten percent being the end. somehow, the explanation for everything just couldn't hold up to all the build-up. christian bale was great, and crazy to have done what he did for that role (losing more than sixty pounds,for those of you that don't know, by eating little more than an apple a day, drinking whiskey and smoking a lot, plus getting only two hours of sleep a night, for three weeks or so)

the wire is about to get even more fun, with avon back and wanting his corners and string standing back, looking oddly powerless. one of the best shows on television, this one gets better and better

american dreams takes itself in so many directions at once, but it does it well, stringing together disparate storylines into a cohesive whole. my only complaint of late was with last night, gunny and the other soldier were beaten so badly they've only got one usable eye between them, but jj still has both his eyes? i think we can reocgnize him swollen, so let's up the ante and hurt the guy

boston legal was good. the direction has calmed down, the cases are getting more interesting, though there could be a little less quirky going on, more the practice, less ally mcbeal. great centers to this show though, in alan shore and denny crane (james spader and william shatner, respectively), and they can keep this up for a while. still needs to lose that BL behind the title, change the theme song, get new background music and calm the editing/direction even more. this show would benefit from being less hyper, making the quirky bits rarer and thus even more noticeable and potentially jarring

haven't watched the season finale of dead like me just yet cause of halloween

yeah, i went out for the trick or treat (don't you dare call it trick or treating, lest the grammar gods be set down upon you) with the kids, hayley as a vampire (sans fangs, though, cause the plastic ones were a little big and we had some trouble with the denture glue on the nice ones), kieran as a wizard, saer as a cat (cute enough for double candy at more than one house), plus hayley's friend vanasis as a witch. sarah and i didn't do costumes. i meant to go as the sandman or death or something dark like that, but i couldn't seem to find my cape beforehand. lots of candy begging, lots of candy received, and after a few days of enjoying the stuff, it'll be time for me to get back to exercising daily again (aside from my usual walks, which do great in maintaining my weight where it is but don't do much to lower it). since a year ago, i've lost something like 40-45 pounds, but that was in a couple bursts, with long plateus between. it's time to drop off another plateau and get below 200 pounds (for the first time in over three years). damn candy will make it difficult but not impossible

also, i like food. and, since this is the first entry in this here blog, i should mention i like to cook and i like the food network's good eats. the science stuff and cooking details are great. in recent weeks, sarah's schedule's been a bit busy, and since she can't drive, that makes my schedule busy and dinner planning a little hard sometimes. haven't prepared anything too interesting of late. invented my own chili recipe a few weeks back--had a little too much beer in it but i'll fix that on the second go, whenever that may be. entered one of my chicken recipes in the eatchicken.com contest. won't know if i get to go to the competition until later this year

dora the explorer on the television now, for saer (just shy of two years) and kieran (4 1/2). arrested development season one, disc two and touching the void rented from blockbuster on the movie pass and waiting to be watched

dead like me, life as we know it and about an hour of bravo's 100 scariest movie moments waiting on video to be watched

nothing much on television tonight. might watch that unconstitutional documentary on sundance

and, tomorrow is election day. i'll be voting for the libertarian candidate, badnarik, for president. if i were in a swing state, or one not pretty much guaranteed to vote democrat, i'd vote kerry. i tend to go with the cynic vote, the anyone-but-bush side of things. neither kerry or bush will be great, so i'll take the new guy. better new shit (or at least a new angle on it) than the same old crap