so i went from having nothing to talk about today to a couple of calls that have not quite gone my way. for the last year i`ve been trekking around my old laptop under the delusion that it was just the power convertor board that had failed and it would be fairly cheap to replace.
since vic got the freelance gig we thought it would be a good idea for to get it fixed for her to use, so off it went to the nice folks at powerbookresq; well they called today, it was actually the logic board that died. so now here is the question, do we want to pay the $400 to have a 4 year old machine fixed or do we just want to get a new[ish] one with a warranty.
the second call i got was from the clinical trial i wanted to sign up for, telling me my SGPT levels are elevated, not dangerously so, but enough to keep me out of the study. normal levels are between 20 – 40, mine is 75. the reading puts me out of the running for hepititis or cirrhosis, but the guy suggested that i show a copy of my lab results to my physician. levels like that are related to drinking or consumption of tylenol. i don`t do tylenol and i didn`t even finish a whole beer on friday.
i`m trying not to panic, my medical at my office doesn`t kick in for another seven weeks and whatever this is will keep, i`m sure. i could check this up online but what good will it do me? i missed those years in medical school, so i`ll just be worrying myself probably unnecessarily.
i`ve been unduly fascinated by the new HTTP referrers system implemented by JS over the weekend; fascinated in the way we`re drawn to car wrecks.
here is a list of some of the searches that have brought people to my journal over the weekend
from google.ch:
breathhold water bdsm
from google.com:
“daily show”
borderline personality
steatopygia pi
advanced cunnilingus
“song lyrics”
orubus
promiscuous virgo
from search.earthlink.net:
god-complex
and from aol.co.uk:
rippling labia`s location
new searches added wednesday 21
google.de
circumised
google.com
steatopygia
histrionic personality
good morning america window
dreadlocked
white “tight pants” pool “g-string”
“caribbean zen”
“just a tease?” water warm
trip choclate cake [i feel lucky search]
callipygian photos africa
“key art”
“top ten” massage masseur tips
google.ca
“magical trevor” lyrics
google.at
“muckrakers – when i fall”
from some of the search results i can see how they got here, but some of the others were just a confluence of words on the page. this has also somehow propagated a new batch of googlebots hit, so the cycle is going to perpetuate itself now.
in my state on friday i needed something to cheer me up, the boychick found showed me some animations that i am now addicted to. there are short, hysterical funny, obviously the product of a deranged mind and just what i needed to get out of my funk.
so without much further ado, i present, Silly Sunday.
Badger, Badger, Badger
Footy Badgers
Magical Trevor
and our favourite
Kenya
all the animations are really small, entirely safe for work and have a tendency to loop until you close the window. just click on the image and have fun.
say what you want, support the troops, support the war, but there is a line that has to be drawn somewhere, while we`ve been distracted by Martha, the eating/drug problems of the Olsen twins and the capture of wanted dissenter; Bobby Fischer, things thought hidden and withheld are coming to light.
the debacle that is Abu Ghraib has take a turn for the worse. what`s worse that the torture, how about the rape of little boys; in front of their mothers. what kind of fucking sick shit is that. there is no justification for that. and the fact that the story broke internationally at least a week ago and there has been no coverage in major US news outlet, shows… i don`t even know what i want to say anymore.
i can`t even find the words… i`m sitting here reading the stories on the verge of tears. i`m not sure why i want to cry, whether it`s rage over the fact that a government would allow or much worse encourage something like this or my fear for my own children and family in the inevitable reaction to this.
i`m just going to post some of the links now because i am completely at a loss for words, a word of warning, these stories are not for the faint of heart.
Google Search Results
Guardian UK
Google translation of Der Speigel article
i work in advertising, i have for over 12 years now, that means i have been privy to some of the most stupid ideas in the history of creation.
if you think you`ve heard idiotic utterances you haven`t heard anything until you`ve sat in a creative briefing session. i think there is a special sort of vacuum created in these meetings by the combined efforts of the spreading of copious amounts of bullshit and the simultaneous effort of trying not to swallow any of anyone else bullshit.
at any give time in one of these meetings there at least three simultaneous levels of bullshit going on, there is the BS that is fed to the general public; which the crux of advertising and marketing; there is BS that ad agency, pr firm whatever feeds to the client; they know what they`re doing, they have a clue and they`re really thrilled to be doing this and finally there is the creative bullshit which is the copy writer, graphic designer or whatever creative representative who know we`re going to get screwed on the short deadline and our design and copy is going to get fucked with, but we still put on the shiny happy face because we want to pretend; at least for a moment; that we enjoy our job; when in fact what we do enjoy is the regular paycheque and not starving to death.
every once in a while the creative team exacts it`s revenge and this generally falls into the `what were they thinking` category. for a brief, shining moment, the facetiousness or flippancy of a comment is lost and everyone higher up on the food chain buys it, wholesale. this is not a reflection on my current job, this is just an observation made over the years and the relevance of which will present itself now.
this morning i was assailed for an ad for the Ben-Gay patch. the first thought that popped into my mind was, people have Ben-Gay addictions? i got the sense that the creative team had been stumped at every turn, or at least i`d really like to hope so, but that holds no candle to the following gem
i have been privy to what i hope was an advertising in joke that somehow managed to slip past everyone and escape unfettered into the wilds of the consuming public; i was at vic`s nephew`s graduation when the valedictorian mentioned the name of the high school anti-drug programme; drug enforcement and teen health.
i deliberately typed without the initial caps to let it sink in for a moment, now with the caps; Drug Enforcement And Teen Health. that`s right the anti-drug programme is called DEATH. i know you want to discourage them from drugs but that might be a little excessive. plus how do you send your children off to DEATH camp for a weekend without a second thought?
we all look alike.
you know the drill; all black men look alike, well take that a step further, all black men with dreads look even more alike. in Nashville there are five of us, an English teacher at some exclusive private school, a lawyer, a musician, a fellow graphic artist; who i had the pleasure of meeting; and myself.
since i`ve been here, i`ve been mistaken for the school teacher and the musician, one of both of them must party a lot because people keep coming up to me and asking me if we`d met at a party earlier in the year. i don`t drink that much and i don`t do drugs, i don`t even party much so if i`d met you at a party, i`d know.
the other graphic artist was telling me about having dinner in a restaurant and this woman accosted him, mistaking him for her ex; the lawyer. i thought that was pretty odd, but having had people come up to me and start conversations, i don`t know why i did.
the other person i look like; only because of the dreads and only to small children; is the guy who host a show on disney. i`ve had small children just sit and look at me thinking i was that guy.
when i was in Chattanooga over the July 4th weekend, a member of an old school quartet of queens tried to pick me up, said i looked like someone he knew.
i am everywhere, i am Darth Insidious, i cannot be stopped.
sometime in the near future i have to have a version of the `TALK` with the boychick. i don`t know if it`s the implied caps or just nerves but the though fills me with dread. i have all the information at my disposal, what i`m worried about is how much is enough or how much is too much and am i going to warp him in some way. well not warp him so much open him up to all manner of ridicule and abuse by his peers or even worse; an ignorant teacher.
i think it would be safe to say, vic and i are liberally bent when it comes to sexuality but in these times that may not be a positive and how do i go about passing this information on to a brilliant eight going on twenty eight year old with the minimal amount of discomfort for us both. i tend to treat children like small adults and they tend to react well to that; which is why i`m always surprised when one of them behaves their age, i never know how to deal well with whining and pouting and crying and tantrums; the flip side to that coin is making information accessible to them.
i`ve been lucky with my children, they`re bright, well read and have ever expanding vocabularies but talking about sexuality still fills me with dread. my daughters have decided they don`t want to have these discussions with me and the boychick has decided he doesn`t want to have it with vic.
it was just my mother and i and she decided to educate me just i was about to enter high school; in the British school system, that`s 11. she sat me down told me about procreation, refreshed my memory of what`s different on men`s and women`s bodies and provided access to Man`s body and Woman`s body and number of other books on sexuality that were in the household library and that was it. i didn`t turn out too badly, i think. there are still things i learned as i grew older and there still things i learn everyday.
how do i condense and edit 20 odd years of knowledge into something comprehensible and useful for a young man? i want to explain the value of sexuality, but how do i do that without being moralistic and in light of fact that sexuality has become a commodity? does he need to know about safety now? i have all these questions. sigh. parenting is never easy.
in September 2001, two weeks to the day after the World Trade Centre attacks, NY continued the democratic process to elect a new mayor.
He [Pataki] also wanted to send a message that democracy could not be derailed by acts of terrorism, his aides said yesterday. Announcing that the primaries would go ahead, the governor described Mr Giuliani as “a great mayor”. But he added: “The election is going to go forward. I tell you, if I were a resident of New York City, I would write him in.”
sourced from here
it would do well for everyone involved to remember that.
American counterterrorism officials, citing what they call “alarming” intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack, NEWSWEEK has learned.
read the rest
the line is bold is my highlight, if that doesn`t worry you, then you`re obviously not living in the real world.
joining the long line of groups that are determined to see the current administration out of office are the librarians against bush; who according to their website are; a group of politically active librarians who are concerned about the Bush administration`s policies and their effects on civil liberties, privacy, and intellectual freedom.
taking an approach that`s a little different but with the same objective is axis of eve. axis believes that effective political action can be irreverent and exciting, and have launched a campaign of flashing at specific events including the RNC involving their line of protest panties; which include:
and men`s boxers that feature:
