10/6/10

Read “Accidental Billionaires” to compare. Mezrich is certainly no Sorkin, yet somehow the former’s non-brilliant prose doesn’t so weaken what seems to be the story’s strongest theme. For facebook seems not to be a story of a woman jilting a man; rather of adolescents given power to define themselves and their world. Facebook was born among an institution of chauvinistic houses who choose which males will be honored by having nameless females fawn over their elite influence; of venture capital angels who choose which endeavors shall be blessed; at a college that matters because it matters because it mattered. So the movie’s added conceit, of disputed legal accounts, misses the Homeric action, diluting a swift-footed race to establish one’s own identity with a tensionless struggle to define someone else’s. Certainly, there are echoes of the latter theme in, say, online privacy; but that is generally independent of the tragic flaws of Zuckerberg et al. His flaw in the book seems to be the need to control identity, and given the actual evolution of facebook that feels appropriate; so I don’t see why the movie, while mostly keeping the same narrative, instead choose his flaw to be an inability to deal with rejection.

10/5/10

Social Network is the story of a tragically flawed hero, the opposite of Good Will Hunting for the subsequent antithetical decade. Action matters more than thought; failings are insignificant next to successes. Education is a background for experience; a million users and a billion dollars are simply numbers. The film is more impressive as a biography than a history, for while there is certainly symbolism in the development of technology, there is just as much symbolism in doors. Facebook itself may as well be a MacGuffin, for the purpose of the narrative- it matters mostly to show how oblivious the characters are in realizing how the world they are building does and doesn’t match the world they live in.

10/4/10

“Hail to those who have come…”

Posters used to get hung when I realized I’m staying at a place. Now, it’s the realization that I can’t leave.

“…In the sunlight that surrounds you…”

When did the limit of fanciful thinking go from having a time machine to rewriting legislative code?

“…Pretend all the good things are for me, too…”

The day the world lost the environmental debate was the day it became an economic question.

“…And the weather changes not halfway between your house and mine…”

10/2/10

“I'm painfully logical / You're tragic and beautiful / And that's good enough for me…”

Cryptic subtext is my kryptonite.

“…I won't lie / I wish that I could be your Superman tonight…”

10/1/10

Found: compounded debt
Misplaced regret
Within pasts in which I forget
The people I forget.

9/30/10

In Chicago, it is easier to register to vote than to renew a driver’s license. The former requires two pieces of identification; the latter, five. One of which can be a court order legally changing your birthdate.

“What's my age again…”

9/29/10

“See your face every place that I walk in / Hear your voice every time I am talking…”

Sexting is a cross between underage drinking and suicide. It’s illegal if done by a minor, but not if an adult were to; and the perpetrator is the victim.

“…I would die for you…”

9/28/10

“Take me away from the norm / I got to tell you something…”

If this had been an actual non-emergency, I’d probably already be undead.

“…Don't give up your independence / Unless it feels so right…”

There should be a stop sign here.

“…Whoa, I got to tell you something…”

9/27/10

Do not want to understay my welcome.

I can see asking for the recipe to be polite, but putting seconds in your mouth? That means something.

9/26/10

“Where have all the flowers gone…”

Bach flowers: the gift that keeps on being something that should be given.

“…When will they ever learn…”

9/25/10

“Threw some chords together, the combination D-E-F / It’s who I am, it’s what I do…”

The difficulty with telling short stories is that stories are told to communicate, and context is required to understand.

“…These words are my own…”

9/24/10

Daredevils’ Hamlet transforms a play-within-a-play to a play-outside-a-play. The rest is thematically unchanged.

9/23/10

““You're so bitter,” your complaint…”

You know how you apologize because you're an awful human being? The reason why you're not is because you apologize.

“…I don’t know what I’m hungry for / I don’t know what I want anymore…”

9/21/10

If your life isn’t in balance, how can you expect it to be in balance with someone else?

There are good things and there are bad things in life.

Do you ever not qualify things, though? Like I'm wondering if you ever experience something and don't assign it a value judgment. I mean, I do this too. So I'm just sort of musing.
heh I assigned no value judgment to your asking that question.

There are things in life that just are.

Don’t compare your insides to somebody else’s outsides.

There are worse things in life than eating cake.

I’m over cupcakes. It’s the cream cheese frosting.
Who besides Mom does that?

9/20/10

The Two Ambiguous Fashionistas;
She’s Usually So Quiet On Flights; and her parents;
My Bag Is Staying Right Above Me;
This Is My First Time On A Plane But I’m Making Up For All Those Times I Never Got To Press The Page Attendant Button; and her husband, El Capitain Hook;
Officer I Swear I’m Not An Undercover Air Marshall;
Mr. & Mrs. Dermatologist Newlywed;
Guy In An Orange Shirt.

I sometimes get terrified that my plane will crash when I look around at what characters my fellow survivors would be.

9/19/10

Oh gmail spam filter, I am so disappointed in you. You didn’t flag “Shocking.Investigation.Report” from “News.10.Report@s27.l1u.n1kixq.kplavojr-8ft64b.ccqgsa6.nswl37.tapahoster.com”? Really?

9/18/10

I’m hoping to see A[]’s show tomorrow- any interest?
“Yes, but I have to say tentatively since I’ll be up at my parents’ house for Rosh Hashanah.”
np I’m being quite the bad Jew this year.
“I’m mostly interested in the free food as opposed to the theological and spiritual implications.”
As I said, bad Jew: I’m going home for Yom Kippur.

Famine has its feast.

Poor ducks, having to eat all our sins.
I think they’re okay with it. They’re probably just happy to have a holiday in which they get fed instead of eaten.

9/17/10

“They made up their minds, and they started packing…”

The tragedy of our time is that our satirist has become our voice of reason. Where is the Jefferson, the Adams, the Washington to our Franklin? Four and seven scores ago he died, and now we have his answer: no, we cannot keep a republic. We know the problems with our society, yet we choose to be part of them. We hear the problems with our society, yet the best we can do is merely hear them; and most of the time we don’t even do that much. Restore sanity? Our insanity is all that we have left; our ability to laugh at our absurdity is our only salvation.

“…Where were they going, without ever knowing the way…”

9/16/10

Whatever surprise I might have had at an airport not selling GAMES magazine to its bastion of magazines and puzzle book buyers was overwhelmed my difficulty in simply finding a vendor selling pencils.

9/15/10

With the distinction between to and cc is so subtle and technically unnecessary, I love an excuse to add a cc to an e-mail.

“Copycat, copycat, copycat / Copy copy copy copy yourself…”

9/14/10

“I am expert at throwing up. Comes from the acid reflux.”
It's a skill.
“It *is*.”
I drink too too much orange juice to have developed acid reflux and throwing up skills.
“Also, comes from the bad periods.”
Again, not inconsistent with my explanation.
“hehe Also, when you throw up on a weekly basis, it's hard not to get good at it.”
So fraudspam is a service to induce vomiting and thereby provide a transferable skill.
“Maybe you should learn to knit?”
Maybe I should learn to sue fraudspammers?


Whatever comes up.

Has a rooftop. References available upon request.

9/13/10

“Sometimes I just feel like…”

The secret ingredient is barbeque sauce; and an enthusiastic co-planner, great friends, great weather, amazing evaporation, an art festival on the way to grocery shop, a phone call at the right time, a simple way up, and ice cubes.

“…I got every ingredient, all I need is the courage…”

(Kraft barbeque sauce.)

“…Back to this 8 Mile Road…”

9/12/10

Rooftop picnic, 1-5 today! (Plan B is taking the LSAT.)

Present is easy, usually. Future is what's hard.
“That it won't work out, that it'll never come, that it'll come too soon.”

9/11/10

        
           

9/10/10

“When? Where? Who? What? Why?”
I think I can answer 4 of those.

The nearest restaurant defines the residence. As much as I’d like to be across the street from Wilde, I think will have to remain behind Chipotle. From which it is saddening to look back, with the last food eaten leaving STL being a gyro from the Gyro House used as a landmark for so many years, at what is no longer gone to.

Where is always the hardest.

9/8/10

There has to be a better place for the insert key than between the backspace and the delete keys.

9/7/10

If you’re going to wet the soap and rumple the towels, you may as well get your hands dirty.

9/5/10

“I won’t have to say a word / I’ll stop thinking…”

May have accidently finished the thing I was writing to keep sane. Not to imply that I’m sane.

“…I’m finished with lies, lies…”

9/4/10

“Life generally was quite good…”

Rome didn’t fall in a day.

“…Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing…”

9/3/10

If someone says that their favorite of the 7 dwarves was someone besides Grumpy or Sleepy, they’re lying.

9/2/10

Day 470
Human finds dead laptop
Human finds dead hamster
Human gets punched in the face by a freezer.


Stiff upper lip.

Current standings
1) Cat
2) Human

9/1/10

Realizations, like scissors, come in pairs.

You're a good thing, is what I'm trying to say. No, not trying. I'm saying it. See? Or do I need to draw a speech bubble around it? I think I might.

     (------------)
  (   You're a    )
(   good thing.  )
 (------------ |  /
                   |/

8/31/10

“As I walked into the charity store…”

Proper P[] birthday-party attire is P[]-birthday party attire.

“…It was the shirt you were wearing…”

8/30/10

It’s one of those only-once-a-year occurrences that there’s really no reason I couldn’t do more often, like playing frisbee, or realizing I really need to back up everything on my computer very very soon quickly before it explodes ack hold together argh this might work blech

Thrown for a loop.

8/29/10

Possible explanations for a dog-walker going up and down the same short stretch of street over and over during a relatively brief span of time:
1) Repeatedly forgetting items necessary for dog walking.
2) Heroically attempting to have a found lost puppy sniff out its apartment.
3) Methodically testing the point at which bystanders will methodically test a pedestrian’s balance.

8/28/10

“I've been for a walk on a winter's day…”

School is supposed to be a place of learning; instead, the primary focus becomes about structured work. Ideas are quantified as credits and page lengths, to occur on a rigid schedule of hours, days, and semesters. Knowledge is secondary to demonstrable accomplishment.

“…Stopped into a church I passed along the way…”

A teacher is who is there for you; for it is your experience.

“…The preacher likes the cold / He knows I'm going to stay…”

Puff on, bubble-blowing missionaries: your attending flock awaits.

“…All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey…”

8/27/10

To have a lifelong aspiration of writing the next Great American Novel’s title.

8/26/10

If a rejection letter feels too formal, a company always has the alternative of instead hiring a friend’s sister, for a more personalized notification that they’re not interested in hiring you for the position at this time.

8/25/10

HMS Plankton

“…And we'll all float on okay…”

8/24/10

I just flew into town and boy did I not steal this joke from someone who stole this joke from an ostrich.

8/19/10

“I count to three and grin / You smile and let me in…”

benchmark

“…We're talented and bright / We're lonely and uptight / We've found some lovely ways to disappoint…”

+ watershed

“…But the airport's always almost empty this time of the year / So let's go play on a baggage carousel…”

= watermark

“…Set our watches forward like we're just arriving here / From a past we left in a place we knew too well…”

8/18/10

Strunk & White: BFsF.

8/17/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World glimpses the clung past, be it the already-decade-removed setting, the repeatedly-not-over-exes plot, or the quest-for-maturity theme. The jokes are frequent, but nevertheless not the less funny for it, stopping just short of overdone, with humor that is both common and yet almost unerringly clever. There is no way to not feel old while watching it, in both senses: the dread of realization and the bliss of nostalgia.

8/16/10

Sine labore.
(Nihil.)

8/15/10

It’s not summer without a lasagna.

8/14/10

Anticlimactic battle between good and evil.

“Stop that.”

”Okay. Sorry.”

8/13/10

Like the elegance of a wordless proof, there is a beauty in simple truth, a reminder of what is trying to being said, lost amid verifiability, significance, context, motivation; lost amid so much listening that isn’t being done. Information has become tethered to communication, with perception abandoned.

“…I feel as if I'm looking at the world from the bottom of a well…”

8/11/10

“41) How would you describe your ideal job?
(A) Ability to decide for myself what to do and how to do it
(B) Being told what to do, but not how to do it
(C) Being told what to do and getting suggestions on how to do it
(D) Being clearly told what to do and how to do it
(E) I am not sure”


You’re better than this, 41. You’re an actual question, with actual answers. Look around you; look at the company you keep. You don’t belong here.

8/10/10

look whatever you know this rant you've heard it before just call me tomorrow I don't want to type it out again nothing's changed

8/9/10

“I was tired…”

Deep breaths.
If networking really meant going to yoga class with J[], I would be okay with it.

“…If you’re not into yoga / If you have half a brain…”

8/8/10

Irreplaceable.

Forget either/or; this shouldn't have to be none-of-the-above.

8/7/10

This is what you get for having a sister.
That’s okay; it’s not like I’ve not always done this with you all the time, and I’m not even your sister, even though we always say it.

8/6/10

Gift receipt, please? What kind of birthday present is disillusionment. Try instead the best gelato so far found on this continent with secret imported Nutella in a fresh waffle topped with flavored whipped cream, with a side of designed-for-Belgian-royalty dark chocolate.

I feel everyone could use a little more goofdom and a little less fear of recycling bins.

8/5/10

One could find uncanny
How I, Danny,
Having proved double lives can be
Had, do not have any.

8/3/10

“As a child, I knew / That the stars could only get brighter…”

Age used to be a binary: one was either a kid or an adult.

“…And we would get closer…”

And then age became a diversity of demographic strata and substrata: boomers, babies, children of the 80s, octogenarians, teens, tweens, 20-somethings, 30-somethings, young adults, old timers, retirees, newlyweds, freshmen, sophomores, senior citizens, GenX, GenY, GenMe…

“…Now that I'm older, the stars shed light upon my face / but when I found myself…”

Age used to mean something, before self-definition.

“…But it will not present my presence / And it makes my past and future painfully clear…”

You don’t always need to have a next. Sometimes you can have a now.

“…Because I feel blind…”

8/2/10

At Newberry Book Fair, picked up a compilation of linguistics articles, an anthology of short stories, and a parody of Scandinavian travel hints; but not Lolita.

8/1/10

Cat : Soccer :: Dog : [TBD]

7/31/10

“Sell out with me tonight…”

When there’s only two choices, there’s only one way to compromise.
Take the money.
Run.

(It wouldn’t be an overplayed song that I hate if I weren’t forced to listen to it all the time.)

“…They tell me it’s cool / I just don’t believe it…”

7/30/10

Inception mythologically explores the dream/reality dichotomy. A Theseus figure attempts to emerge from the maze and return home, dealing with father-figures, abandonment, and the monster in the middle. I was expecting there to be a more explicit revelation regarding Ariadne, literally and symbolically: while she certainly sets the thread to be followed, for her abandonment to fully parallel would require a bit more of an analogue than is necessarily present within the movie- although the final scene could certainly hint to that. Nevertheless, it is even thematically appropriate that the answer is as indefinite and as derivative as any mythological idea is, different entrances to the same labyrinth.

7/29/10

“I want to be rich and I want lots of money / I don't care about clever, I don't care about funny…”

Society is an economy: a complex system of buyers who don’t have, sellers who don’t need. None of who can see the beauty for the trees; for they have gone too far into the forest. Morality is as abstract as time; the only difference between one year and the next is what arbitrary location some arbitrary person was born. Post-apocalypse began the day parents opened their eyes.

“…And it's not my fault, it's how I'm programmed to function / I'll look at the sun and I'll look in the mirror…”

Identity is the difference between what one is doing and what one is thinking of doing.

“…I don't know what's right and what's real anymore / And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore…”

7/28/10

North buy, southeast.
(It doesn’t make sense.)

7/27/10

“So there’s this scene in the Fugitive when he’s running from the Marshall…”

Tell me something I don’t already know.

“We were at this place in Annapolis that serves good seafood…”

7/26/10

I don’t like responsibility.
I don’t have power.

From basement to rooftop.

7/25/10

Mattress stores open are open for 24 hours, even when they are not.

How could anyone be so closedminded about being openminded.

7/24/10

“What I hate most about the Socratic method is how well it works.”

Showing up 15 minutes late to class trying to pass off an incompletely done assignment is not a successful solution to forgetting to do homework, not when the class only consists of 2 people, 1 of who is the professor.

It’s like it lied in the application process, but it’s so much harder to fire an employer than an employee.

7/22/10

Someone crossing the street got mostly across and then turned back, and seemed very flustered about it. I wanted to tell her, it’s okay, we all do it; but she had already started to cross in the other direction.

Still time to change the road you’re on.

She commits not with her heart but with her schedule.

7/21/10

Muppets have eyes, eyes are organs; therefore Muppets are organic.

7/20/10

Fireworks is an oxymoron.

7/19/10

Okay, pretending we're on Amazing Race or something, here's my advice:
Excellent leadin.
Turn off your computer (if you need to save current tabs as favorite, do that, but off off). Go outside, and (not using the internet) find a place that sells Italian newspapers. Buy one, and go to the library or a coffee shop, and translate an article, even if you have to look up every word.
Wow, that is much more Amazing Race than I was expecting.


Non-elimination.

But I mean, ask people. Go all Cash Cab street-shoutout on it.
sh You’re mixing game show metaphors. I should go before you make it worse.

7/18/10

SPF 2-3 years, then skin cancer.

7/17/10

Catch-20-something
One needs relevant experience to get hired; one needs a job to get relevant experience.

7/16/10

In some cities, with a late start, after prior events running long, when the train being taken is single-tracked delayed, the street being closed for Transformer shoot location planning only makes all the more final a hopeless evening’s concession that inception is futile.

In any other city, such events would be of misery; but I am in Chicago.

I still don’t want to buy resume paper, he said, riding the el at 2am. I still want to buy a giant stuffed tiger.

7/14/10

The darker side of x, where x is some country, probably 2-syllables, maybe Belgium.

Unfortunately, the only x that came to mind was pizza, followed by slugs. I am of no help.
Pizza is good. Slugs- we’ll let that one slide.

7/13/10

“We got older and I should've known…”

Songs that misuse the subjunctive could can be liked.

“…But frankly I still feel alone / Oh, but you'll survive / So I may as well ditch my dismay…”

7/12/10

“You’re hot, then you’re cold…”

In summer, there are full freezing blasts of the air conditioning; in winter, gathering around furnaces and fireplaces. Only in spring and autumn can be found a natural climate to find oneself in. The world is bipolar.

Which extreme do you hate least?

7/11/10

Box of hats wu.

Russian spies: We’re not that interesting. We are obese and mass produce tatertots. The awful thing is if we mass produced marvatots, we wouldn’t have either problem.

7/10/10

“You can see in your eyes / That you stop believing…”

Ah, to be in the decline of the late Cold War again, when the horizons were watched with fear and hope; when why mattered less than what; when the Russian sleeper agents in our neighborhoods could simply be assumed; and life would just go on.

“…And you go on day-to-day / While your heart just fades away…”

Governments treated captured spies like children at playground games; instead of youths having to navigate geopolitical and socioeconomic paradigms just to get through the day.

“…It’s much too revealing / You can talk your way out / But you can’t fight the feeling…”

This decade is neither a time of hope nor of ignorance. Once complacency was all that was foreign; now inevitability is.

“…That you’re fooling yourself to be here and not belong…”

Listen up, comrades: you might learn something.

“…There’s just no way out…”

7/9/10

A) A > B
B) A < B
C) A = B
D) there is not enough information

The problem with the SATs is that D is not an answer. Sure, there is a logical necessity to account for it. But D is not an answer to a question: it is an indeterminant between question and answer. D is a lack of an answer made into an answer; it begs the question it purportedly answers. For in real life, one cannot answer D. Nor does not have the luxury of being able to analyze everything into complete conclusion. D is an artificial construction of an imperfect society that accepts acknowledged ignorance as the end, rather than a step.

Time’s up, pencils down.

7/7/10

“Can you hear my heart beat in this world / Do you know that behind all these words / Lies the deep desire…”

My mattress isn’t working. It just lies in bed all day.

“…All my dreams to be all I can do…”

7/6/10

While I am not in any way familiar with the original source on which the Last Airbender is purportedly based, that does not stop me from cruelly laughing at the casting, the acting, the dialogue, the characterizations, the showing, the telling- really, every part of this movie. Indeed, admiring the hilarious horrendousness is the only reason and way to see it. Although, such scorn only gets so far through; the rest of my coping consisted of either envisioning a Fifth Element crossover or a video game based on the film. For the material on screen almost works as is as a video game, and better than a movie: an quadruply balanced play dynamic, minimal plot to relay flat protagonists from one encounter to the next, and heavy pauses after every line of dialogue as if to prompt the pressing of a button to bring up the subsequent line.

7/5/10

As I was heading back from getting some chicken from a place caddycorner to my apartment, I'm stopped at the corner, in broad daylight with lots of people around, by "Mike", who seemed to be loosely with 2 others, who shaking my hand introduced himself as a "politician from Detroit", who was I'd guess a late 20s-mid 30s pear-shaped man with greasy dark hair, wearing sloppy clothes and what looked like plastic necklace and rings, and who offered me a "one time offer" (as he was "in town for only 2 days" to "get with 19 year old and Loyola girls" such as one who he "had sex with on the beach at 6am this morning"), to, if I wanted, "hang with them tonight". I apologized, and as I walked away, said that I couldn't; for I had to "tutor some third-graders in Italian".

Hey buddies, it’s Mike.

7/4/10

Fireworks are our Kalashnikov rifles: gunpowder fired skywards in a gratuitous expression of victory. Yet it is gratifying how otherwise egalitarianally absent such display is of symbolism. Even the hues, which would be expected to be starkly repeated reds, whites, and blues, are instead these and greens, golds, and purples mingled without any pattern or purpose. The only overt symbolism is an occasional smiley-face. There is no analysis, just the simple contented expressions of ooh and aah. Such is victory.

7/3/10

A night anon, a meager coupon I’ll
Redeem, obtained for plucking forth a pearl
Of wisdom known by me solely from Style,
Which satisfied the bar trivia girl.
I did explain to stunned Chicago bar
The esoteric contest. One man said,
On hearing a description of this Czar,
“Wasn’t he who wrote some Bell piece which I read?”
A chit in fading ink is all I’m owed,
So fortunate to receive anything
In inkless years since my cup overflowed
Never with more renown than second string.
This tiny violin I play lacks fame.
I beg you, please, reward it all the same.

7/2/10

What does it all mean.

“I may have edited the wikipage of my high school’s famous alumni to remove her, since she didn’t graduate. Meanest I’ve ever been.”

What do you do when you run into the parents of a girl you totally made cry in 6th grade?

They may not remember it. And for all you know, they may have made their daughter cry in 6th grade too. You could have so much in common.

“Next time you’re about to say something mean about yeourself, instead say something about someone else, and not as mean.”

They’re so self-involved, and I don’t even mean that as an insult.

I realize that she was a very good friend when I needed a best friend. But I also realize that she was a very awful friend when I needed a best friend.

7/1/10

Comings and goings: One abode is sought, another is shuttered. Rent due, deposit refunded. Too big to fail, too late to catch. Names from the past, words of thanks. No luck in finding anything except happiness. Surprise, there’s a moose in your cupboard.

6/30/10

Nuclear option.

6/29/10

I’m a short-term boy in a long-term world, except that sounds like a sleazy cheesy dating site blurb.

“Coin-operated boy…”

6/27/10

“You don't want to stop trying / You want me, well…”

The chin can be lifted up only so high. The pain in the neck is a pain in the neck.

“…Arms up, just dance / Arms out, just dance…”

6/26/10

Only you and I could take mangos this seriously.

Chicago tastes like a hopping brass quartet, with a side of goat and plantains.

"It's not like we're saving people's lives or anything. We're making cakes."

6/25/10

5 hour energy drink comes in a caffeine-free flavor.

6/24/10

“What's in a name (name: A word or string of characters that represents a cell, range of cells, formula, or constant value. Use easy-to-understand names, such as Products, to refer to hard to understand ranges, such as Sales!C20:C30.)? That which we call a cell range, function, constant, or table would tally and toil just as sweetly, methinks. But nay, don't take me at my word. Read what follows that is writ, to master all manner of names that befit. / Pray tell, what dost thou desire to do?”

What change from 2003 to 2007 to 2010 seems to be only nominal.

6/23/10

Bait and switch and switch.

We have telephones to make calls, not to tell people to call us.
This is before we realize that our parents are foolish.

6/21/10

“With all the demons I possess…”

Atop one summer peak, I made a ruckus or 2: part from curiosity, part from frustration. A few people above me heard, and they offered ignorance and sympathy. Years later, with the heights of the past forgotten, all I have of value are the harsh truths of reality slid down to; but I give them nonetheless as a comfort. And in return, I am played a random melody, only to discover that I already know the song.

Oh Balthazar Getty, you will always be the guy who looks like the guy who plays Laertes in that one version of Hamlet to me.

Lying is contagious, yes; but it is also hereditary.

“…Longing for a life / Beyond the silver moon…”

6/20/10

Saw Toy Story 3. The plot surprisingly is not simply a dichotomy of whether or not the protagonists will succeed. There are constantly obstacles to be overcome, but amidst that the characters must discover what success that success actually is. Preservation, archivation, public and private donation, and destruction are all put forth as options in response to obsolescence. But not only is the right option not predefined, but there may not be a single correct answer. And that is like finding a Bachelorette where a Disney Princess is expected: it is not simply awaiting a Prince Charming, but actively determining what even is charming. And then having that unexpectedly sophisticated plot within an as expected otherwisely superlative Pixar production.

6/19/10

It’s no surprise that we ended up as screwed up as we did. But consider how well we ended up. There are 2 of us and 1 of K[]: it could just has easily have been 2 of K[] and 1 of us.

Thank you for being you.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for being us.
Thank us for being us.

6/18/10

“Words of poisoned darts of pleasure…”

One of my guiltiest pleasures is lurking: listening with objective and undisturbing anonymity through the sociologically enormity that is online. Real life rarely is as transcendentally enlightening as the forum postings, blog responses, article comment sections, and wiki talk pages that people take energy to compose and time to read and reply to. Who are these people? What are they trying to do? Who does that? Why?

“I'm sorry, 68.82.154.130, but "your mom" is not a reliable source, or, at least, not a verifiable one.”

And every once in a while, some words are just
a context away from pure hilarity. Some Onion editorials would write themselves.

“…This one is an easy one: feel the word and melt upon it…”

6/17/10

"The researchers, from four Italian universities, said they believed Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio died of sunstroke while weakened by syphilis."

Don't know what more proof is needed that
Caravaggio was a vampire.

6/16/10

When I realize I'm not at the beach, I actually live here now.

Just when I thought I was getting used to this place, I realize that I got on a southbound Purple line instead of a northbound 20 minutes ago.

6/14/10

I really hate when the instinctively done good deed goes unrewarded. What choice, between unearned bonus and book-vending karma.

Somewhere there’s a copy of Upton Sinclair with a Time Traveler’s Wife DVD inside.

6/13/10

“History repeats itself…”

Saw Karate Kid, in which China is the new California, and middle school the new high school. The remake’s homages are weaker reflections of the classic’s memorable punchiness, but it is not the 80s; and the fact that it is a reflection is implicitly and explicitly acknowledged.

“…You’re the best / Around…”