August 2004 Archives

I am so happy. I found a copy of 'Box' the album from Babe the Blue Ox on Amazon being sold by a used CD vendor. I haven't listened to the album in ages, but I really loved it dearly. It vanished when I and a girlfriend broke up, along with many other CDs and a pile of books that I've been looking for as well (funny how those things happen).

I know that I'm probably the only person around that still remembers Babe the Blue Ox, but that's fine with me. I'm content again.

Now if only I could replace my Ned's Atomic Dustbin collection.

So, I don't know why, but I keep going back to read Ann Coulter's "columns". I guess it's akin to driving by car wrecks. It's amazing to see a mind with so much potential in the middle of a full-blown crash of overwrought logical fallacies.

In case you don't know, a logical fallacy is defined as an error in reasoning, sometimes intentional to make it easier to refute an opponents argument, and sometimes unintentional. Everytime I read an Ann Coulter essay I feel like I need a pad and paper to keep track of all of the crap that she's spewing. The other day I decided to just put it here instead.

By the way, I'm referencing the column for 8.25.2004.

Alright, we hit the 4th paragraph and we've already got 5 fallacies, all of them ad hominem attacks.

The next paragraph sees her employ exaggeration when she says that Chris Matthews was excoriating people "for breathing oxygen", which we know is not true. Then she uses an appeal to authority to try and undercut any point that Matthews may have tried to make by saying that Hardball only has 6 viewers left, and then finishes with another ad hominem attack. It's interesting in all of this to note that she calls Chris Matthews on one of his own logical fallacies (I'll believe that he committed this one, many people are), called 'begging the question'.

Total count so far: 8

Let's press on...The next couple of paragraphs she says that Matthews interviewed himself (ad hominem), which cuts against what's normal (popularity fallacy). She then attacks another person (another ad hominem) and then attacks him again. Ann Coulter proceeds to show us a bunch of places from the transcript where someone wasn't allowed to speak, or was interrupted, without showing us the context of the interuption. That's fallacy of exclusion.

That's another 5 for a total of 13.

She then rounds out with a few more ad hominen attacks, giving us about 16 total logical fallacies in an article about a page and a half long.

16 fallacies. That's a lot of bullshit for her to peddle as the truth. And it's not even feel-good happy-go-lucky bullshit. This is down in the trenches bare knuckle boxing bullshit, the kind that's written just to make the partisans feel good and to rankle the opponents. I was going to ask why do so many people listen to her, but I think I know why.

September 2nd, Arthur Farnsworth, head of the Bucks County Libertarian Committee will be meeting with a group of Libertarians to discuss his run for the 8th District House of Representatives seat.

The meeting will be held at the Dublin Star Diner in Dublin. Holler at me if you want more information.

I am a little disgusted that the RNC picked a woman, Sheri Dew, mormon, business woman, owner of her own book publishing company, but she's a hysterical shrew that feels very strongly about gay marriage.

How strongly? Strong enough that she recently equated gay marriage with the Holocaust. Yes, that Holocaust. Let that sink for a minute. She's disrespecting the memory of all of those murdered by the Nazis to say that if Bob and Joe get married, a whole race is extinguished. So if Mary and Tina do the whole ceremony deal, it means that a whole race of people die.

Now, Sheri wasn't kind of to tell us WHO dies when a gay couple gets married, so I guess we'll just have to wait around and find out. I don't understand how in one week, Dick Cheney can display some common sense and then the party turns around and picks a shrill nitwit to lead them in prayer.

I don't know if this hasn't occurred to you people that are completely against gay marriage, but it breaks down like this: Someone doesn't decide to stay straight because they can't get married. Tim's not sitting in his living room saying "Man I really like cock, but I've always dreamed about getting married, so I guess, since I can't get married if I'm gay, I'll just stay straight and marry Betty." You're just setting an artifical limit without real cause? Don't believe me? Ever think about this: Denying marriage rights to gay people is the same as when white bigots used to deny the right of marriage to blacks.

Back in the early 1900's lawmakers claimed that giving black people the right to marry would undermine the institution of marriage and would destroy families, and tried to pass a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting 'people of color' to marry, or interracial couples from marrying. Sound familiar? Well, it didn't pass, thank God, but most importantly (though it would seem obvious to us now), letting more people get married didn't end civilization as we know it. It didn't cheapen marriage. It didn't destory the institution of marriage. None of the dire predictions that were made them came true, and if you were to say them now, people would wonder where you were hiding your white hood.

Come to think of it, that's all Sister Sheri Dew is doing when she espouses the crap she does. She's exposing her true colors as a bigot. And bigots don't think about who they're going to hurt or disrespect when they spout hysterics. They're just worried about preserving their own deeply held insecurities. They're afraid of something they don't understand and so they're bigots trying to stop what they don't comprehend from confronting them.

So back to letting this woman lead prayer at the RNC. Did that RNC intend to send the message of such hatred and bigotry? I can't imagine that they did. And they're not the only party that contains bigots (though they seem to exist in a higher percentage there)...but I'm still disturbed that her bigotry did not disqualify her from leading prayer. George Bush said that he wanted to make his administration one that united, not divided. He's talked about compassionate conservatism, and leading a Republican party for all people. Those were fantastic ideals, bold goals for a nation, and one reason why I decided to remain optimistic when Bush took power in 2000. Maybe he could meet those ideals.

Letting this hate-filled woman lead prayer on the opening day betrays those ideals. And that's a shame.

I know, I'm behind the times, but I wanted to take a moment to review "Hot Fuss" from The Killers.

Alright, I know that this doesn't sound like a compliment, but it really is: If this album had come out in 1983, it would be listed in every critic's Top 10 Albums of the 1980's. In case you haven't noticed, there's something of an 80's revival going on, with bands like Interpol, All-American Rejects, even Modest Mouse, borrowing notes and styles from the best of the 80's. That's cool for me, having grown up in the 80's. It's neat to see as well because, despite popular opinion, some great music was made in the early and mid-80's.

But whereas most of the bands mentioned above are reliving the 80's alternative music scene with a knowing wink and a nod, Hot Fuss has all the sound of a band that deeply means the music they're playing. And that lack of irony is refreshing.

The other thing that's wonderful about this album is that it sounds like the annals of crime for a week in Las Vegas, which, coincidentally is where The Killers are from. You have songs of love, passion, and murder. This is dark music, dark in the same sense as Joy Division, or the movie Scarface. But the darkness doesn't detract from the album, it actually makes it more listenable. In fact, this has my vote as one of the best albums of this year.

I'll tag it with 4.5 out of 5 stars. Go, run to the store, and grab it now. You won't be disappointed.

"Nicole has played the role of a widow in the unusual film and two scenes have sparked outrage among executives. The Oscar-winning actress and the boy strip off together to submerge in bubbles and also lock their lips in the film."

huh? WTF is that? I'm all for artistic expression, and fine if they could do this legally and it makes some moving point about love and life, but I'm sorry, that's just twisted.

Maybe it's just me being up at 5.08 AM that's got me in a bad mood.

I know that many people are uncomfortable with gay people in general, or don't grok why some people are gay while some are straight. People still debate if it's a matter of choice or a matter of genetics. I figure, whatever, choice or genetics, if it makes them happy, and they're not hurting me or my family, I could care less.

I don't buy into the theory that two men kissing will hasten the apocalypse, or is somehow corrupting the future for my children.

Anyway, I was sent this link: Outright Libertarians. It's a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, et al (hereby designated by GLBT) that advocate Libertarian politics. That makes sense to me. Libertarians support the removal of government from personal decisions like owning a gun, doing drugs, running a business, having an abortion, why not sexual matters too?

I know the stereotype is that all gay people support the Democratic party, and maybe that's true of the majority of GLBT voters, but it's nice to see that there's a vocal minorty that's standing up for what they believe. If you are GLBT, or even if you're not, it would benfit you to learn more about the Libertarian Party and about our candidate Michael Badnarik as well.

Alright, I'm tired.

Good night y'all.

So, the Men's Olympic Basketball team blew it. The Dream Team played like a nightmare. The powerhouse that shut them down? Argentina.

Way to go guys. I see that Iverson made a big help of himself on the team. When will you all realize that he never was the player that he could be. He's not playing with heart, and he doesn't want it bad enough. The Pistons won, not because they're fantastically good, but because they have heart and played as a team. They wanted to win.

The men's Olympic team went in expecting to dominate and got creamed. Good. Maybe the next time, the win will mean something.

I ran across this older review of Mike Thrush's art work from his stint in New Orleans. I love his work, and I'm happy that the art world is sitting up to take notice. He's very good at what he does and I'm glad he's getting the recognition he deserves.

Go Mike!

• I completely love the song "Somebody Told Me" from The Killers. It's on their debut album "Hot Fuss". It's got the whole homage to the 80's, while still remaking it into something more modern. That's so cool. Buy it here, or, if you have iTunes, find it here.
• I talked about the crazed safety advocates that asked GM pull their Corvette ad. You can see the ad here. I think it's a good ad, and I think that it's clear that it's A. only a dream, and B. only an advertisement, but of course, I'm logical. A lot of safety advocates are not. They are irrational and cling to their advocacy as some sort of religion. Maybe we do need more religion in this world, so the people who cling to their backwards secular religions like safety advocacy, recycling, socialism, etc can just pump their fervor into God and leave me the hell alone.

So, I was really excited today when I got a fresh bunch of GMail invites today because I was able to invite my kids. That's right, I invited McKenna and Owen to join GMail, despite the fact that to McKenna and Owen the computer is nothing more than a big fancy stereo that plays mommy's dance music when they're upstairs.

But I can only imagine that as the years go by, they'll want to be able to have their own email, and by that time their names will be taken as email addresses, so I reserved them early.

Yes, I know I'm a geek. I'm okay with that.

So the MPAA has created a website RespectCopyrights.org asking people to stop pirating movies. I understand we shouldn't pirate movies and music, and I'm understand how all of the people involved in making movies are worried, but I have a thought, and I'm not sure how I can say this delicately...

How about you stop dumping SHIT all over the consumer? Why does every dickhead with a Brother Word Processor and half a movie idea seem to get a feature film made? I mean, what, we have "The Princess Diaries 8" coming out? And fucking Baby Geniuses 2 or whatever? People really got paid to make this tripe? Maybe if you concentrated on making more "Godfathers" and "Lord of the Rings" and movies like that, the really good epic films, we'd want to go to the movie theatre.

No, we get the "White Chicks" and "Legally Blonde 2" and heaping after heaping after heaping of pure garbage.

I'm not so naive to think that if we had good movies all the time there'd be less pirating, but I do think that if we the public were more respected by the movie studios, and the public had more respect for the craft of movie making, maybe things wouldn't be so ugly.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got an idea for "Cody Banks 11" where Frankie Muniz discovers he has chest hair. It's not a good premise, or hell, even a whole premise, but in Hollywood these days, it's apparently all I'll need.

For further rants on RespectCopyrights.org, go here.

So the Bush Administration has released numbers early showing that the number of people living below the poverty line has increased by 1.3 million this year, and the number of people living without health insurance jumped 1.4 million. I have to say that during the last few years, Heather and I have felt like we've been running on a tighter and tighter budget despite the fact we've been making more money, cutting down our insurance bill among others, and buying more bulk foods.

I also heard a statistic the other day that said that the last two years have the been first time in America that incomes have not increased since the Great Depression. (I can't find the link, so don't put much stock in the figure. If I can't dig through the statistics, I can't trust it on face value, I'm not going to ask you to trust me second-hand.)

So what's going on here? Are we sinking economically or is this just the economy shaking off the last bit of cruft before returning to strength leaner and meaner?

I can't say personally, but I admit that I'm a little worried.

I just picked up MovablePoster, which is a tool that lets me blog from my desktop without having to open the webbrowser.

I don't know why you'd be excited, but hot-diggity, I am!

As if you needed further proof that people have too much time on their hands, and we're getting soft in this country, GM has been asked to pull an ad from TV that depicts the dream of an 11-year-old boy who wants to drive a Corvette. They're complaint? That in the dream in the commercial, a computer-generated Corvette takes flight for a minute. The problem with that? Apparently it encourages "unsafe behavior".

GIVE ME A BREAK!

After my first post today I sent the following letter to MediaPost:

Dear Mr. Fadner, Your article today about "behavioral marketing" which quotes Debra Williamson left out some important information about spyware.

There are a litany of complaints leveled against the companies like Gator, Bonzi Buddy, WhenU, et. al, because they are dishonest about what their software does. Many times you don't know what you've installed (or even that you've installed it) until you start getting pop-ups on your screen. Many pop-ups on your screen. When you try to find the culprit, and remove the software, it's hard to locate, hard to kill, and hard to keep off your computer once it's been installed. Left on a computer, it will make the victim's computer slower, more unstable, and more crash-prone.

Those kinds of actions are very similar in intent to how viruses and Trojan horse programs work. Only, these are somehow okay because they're paid for and supported by a commercial company.

To have an article about "behavioral marketing" (euphimisms at their best) and not address those issues.

I'd be interested to hear what spyware advocate Ms. Williamson would have to say about those charges.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Maurice Reeves

I found this article from MediaPost.com about "behavioral marketing" (that's the term that companies like Claria (Gator), Bonzi Buddy, WhenU, etc came up with to obfuscate their real actions.

Debra Aho Williamson, from Advertising Age, tries to poo-poo people's privacy concerns by saying that people's privacy is not invaded, but we've seen time and time again how the companies have admitted that they're watching you, where you surf, and what you're doing on the web.

She also chooses to ignore the fact that spyware and adware and malware tends to make your computer unstable, run slower, more crash-prone, is just flat-out annoying (oh look, I have 10 pop-ups to kill, why won't they go away?), and most importantly, deceptive. When you install some software Claria doesn't tell you "We're going to throw a bunch of pop-ups at you while you surf the internet, advertising stuff you don't want." Bonzi Buddy doesn't warn you before you install "We're like junkmail, but only much more intrusive".

As a representative of advertising firms and the industry as a whole, Debra Williamson would like you to ignore those facts. She just wants you to think that Claria and WhenU just want to be your friends.

What a load of crap.

Apparently the 'Milk and Cookies' link to the Rubberband Man commercials went bad, so hit this one instead.

It's right off of OfficeMax, so you can't download them, but it's got both of the Rubberband Man commercials, as well as the making of, and the behind-the-scenes footage.

Good stuff.

If I EVER see a dad dress up his 6 year old kid like this for Halloween, I'd he-bitch man-slap him.

I remain unconvinced that we need to dismantle the CIA in order for our intelligence community to operate more effectively, though I'm willing to listen to arguments.

But what would worry me most about the creation of a new intelligence agency would be that, either through malice or true good intent, this new agency would no longer be limited to only spying on foreign powers and peoples.

An agency that's created that has the same authority and abilities to spy globally, on US citizens as well, is not only unconstitutional, but also damn spooky.

As long as this new agency is similarly bound to not spying on US citizens, than I'm cool.

I love the Google Ads (I've made a whopping $6.00 from them so far), but I think they're funny in the sense that I mentioned 'barking dogs' once and I've had these dog collar ads for two weeks now. WTF? I've used words like libertarian several times and it never seems to impact them, so I'm going to attempt to force a change in the ads:
libertarian Harry Browne freedom liberty 2nd amendment choice Claire Wolfe Rich Piotrowski Vin Supyrnowicz Cato anarchy taxes guns gold Free State Project Constitution Bill of Rights liberty liberty liberty

Here's hoping that does something.

Heather and I have been watching a lot of "The L Word", and by conincidence, Flashdance was on today. Since they both star Jennifer Beals, I took a moment to compare her from 20+ years ago to now, and I have to say that she's much hotter now.

Some women indeed get hotter the older she gets.

No, not a dating service for tall militant womyn or gurlilas...

I think that Amazon.com should start a dating service. They have all of this information on people: what movies you like and don't like, what music you listen to, what books you're reading, what you're hoping to pick up, and a mess of other information if you buy clothes, and the other items from them.

How hard would it be for them to set up a service where you could search for people of the appropriate gender who have similar tastes? It could be an entirely opt-in deal, so you have to choose to be part of it.

So as you shop you build a searchable profile.

Plus, and here's the great thing, if you end up going out on a date with someone through the service, you already know what kind of gifts to buy them.

1 Package of Easy Mac (340 Calories) + 1 3oz. Package Tuna (90 Calories) = Cheapest Tuna Caserole Ever.

Add pepper and hot sauce as garnish.

I received a press release from Rich Piotrowski's organization today about their frustrations in getting Quinnipiac University, one of the nation's top polling institutions to include more third-party candidates in their polls.

Currently, the pollsters working for Quinnipiac only ask voters if they plan to vote for Bush, Kerry, or Nader, and do not include Libertarian Candidate Michael Badnarik, or any candidates from the Green Party, or Socialist Party. This type of biased polling is unfair to the candidates, and does not accurately reflect the voting trends of the electorate in the United States.

That's why I'm asking you, my readers, yes, both of you, to write in and ask them to start including third-party candidates in their polls so we get a more accurate picture of how people are voting.

You can reach them at pollinginstitute@quinnipiac.edu.

Thanks

I swung by Kuro5hin today while waiting for my machine to finish defragging (churn churn churn). I realized immediately why I stopped reading posts there.

The majority of the comments on articles are filled with trolls like this garbage:

Most simple reason to hate breeders is despite overpopulation on this planet already, they happily chose to ignore that fact.

Second best reason for hate is breeders' inability to even try to think of some better/new/original way of life. Instead they "choose" the standard life with standard loans, kids, and other basic stuff. I hate'em because I chose life without kids and they aren't helping me, they aren't interested, they only talk about kids and how wonderful they are. They won't even begin thinking about the possibility of what to do about their lives without kids.

The above is a reaction to an article about an uncle watching his nieces and nephews, and learning some things he never knew about kids. It quickly degenerated into the majority screaming about how unethical it is to have kids, and how parents are evil.

The announcement was made today that the Libertarian candidate for President, Michael Badnarik, was officially put on the PA Ballot.

Now I can actually feel good about voting.

See, I don't believe that it's moral to push your way of life, or personal choices on other people. That was part of the problem with the Prohibition in the 1920's. Teetotalers thought they could just force abstinence from alcohol on everyone. We saw how well that worked. People try to do that now with drugs. Or guns. Or religion. It seems like I can't swing a dead cat anymore without hitting someone who's trying to legislate their way of life into law.

Badnarik's not going to do that. One of his campaign slogans is "I trust you to run your own life". Wow. That's a powerful statement. Where the other candidates are telling us that we can trust them to do what's best for us, Badnarik's saying "No, I trust you to do what's best for you". I don't understand why people would want to elect a leadership that's immediately distrustful of them.

That's why I vote Libertarian. I'd rather have someone in office that's going to get out of my face and everyone elses and let me live my life. I don't understand why that's considered a radical idea, but apparently it is.

Whatever.

CNet has an article that discusses the orgins of the word spyware, and how companies like Claria continue to thrive and make money.

I don't know what else to say about it. I'm tired. I'm just glad that people are speaking out more and more about spyware, adware, malware, whatever you want to call it...

The New York Times is reporting that the FBI has been interviewing, subpoenaeing, and keeping tabs on political demonstrators since before the Democratic Political Convention.

I find this very disturbing because it not only smacks of a police state, but it also can have a chilling effect on free speech. It is not the job of the FBI, or any other government agency to track and follow those that don't agree with the policies of the current administration, or any administration. The FBI is supposed to be tracking criminals, real criminals, the kinds that kill, rape, steal, etc.

Why are they wasting their time following those that merely want to protest?

I'm feeling tired and washed out, a pair of faded blue jeans hanging over the white railing of a farm house drying in the late afternoon...I guess it's more an emotional tenderness, like all of my heart lies just under the surface of my skin, easily bruised.

Got paid today and walked through the mall looking at all of the things I can't buy, don't want to buy, trying to get some ideas for Heather's and my anniversary. It's two weeks away, and what I wanted to give her, photography lessons at our local community college, she just never went for. I got the usual answer of "Let me think about it" and that was that. Even my friends trying to talk her into it had no effect. I didn't have a back-up plan and so I feel like I'm under the gun again. Owen's first birthday is a month from now, and it's hard to believe he'll be 1 already. Another month passes and McKenna turns 2. The sun just seems to rise and set so much faster any more.

Work is work. It's not as exciting as I would hope, but it's a lot better than places I've been before. I really want to be writing. I want to sit now by the window and listen to the rain falling, dogs barking in the distance, and cars push through the water collecting on the streets. I want to sit on the front porch with my laptop and a jug of coffee and fish images and metaphors out of my head. I don't see it being possible right now and that makes me tired and sad.

pst, pass it on: the Doody family loves Mr. Brain's faggots...

Quoth Mrs. Doody:
"The great British faggot is full of flavour and a great belly warmer at this time of year."

On my post about Nader and the Communist party, Groont, a "reader" had the following to say:

your and idiot please define to me what a democracy is and why you live here?

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for swinging by my party on Saturday. It was good to see everyone. It was good that everyone finally got a chance to stop by and visit me in my hood.

I also wanted to thank Rich Piotrowski, the local Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress for stopping by later in the evening. It's not often that you get a person on the campaign trail to take time out to come to a party, but he and his wife did, and it was a lot of fun.

Again, thanks to all of my friends and loved-ones who came by on Saturday. Next year is the big one! The BIG 3-0...we'll have to do something truly fun then.

And to all of you that couldn't make on Saturday, it's all good. We'll hook up later.

Bravo has announced one of their new stabs at TV legitimacy: Situation: Comedy where ordinary folks like you and me...(stop snickering, I'm at least semi-ordinary)...submit a sitcom script to Bravo by September and they will pick the best two and then run two 15 minute shorts which viewers will then pick.

The whole deal will then be documented "reality-TV style" as they turn the viewer's choice into a sitcom. Knowing how well democracy's gotten us thus far (Dan Quayle was almost president, Hillary Clinton just might make it there (yikes)), and seeing how well viewer voting has worked for some American Idol contestants, I can only have fear for what comes out of this process.

But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to submit an entry. The idea that I could be on TV, and have a shot at writing full-time is enticing. Plus, if I get turned down, I'll try and shop it around HBO and Showtime and see if I can't have one of them pick it up.

I don't want to say more about the script, but I have some ideas that I came up with my friend Krahulec, and let's just say that it's not going to tread safe or comfortable ground. Think somewhere between Family Guy, South Park, and Dogma.

I'll keep you posted as I go along.

So, like, I'm so excited...Fox has finally released ALF Season One on DVD. I knew that my DVD collection was looking a little thin, and I needed that one thing to fill the emptiness eating at me.

Sweet baby Jesus...ALF.

Pardon me while I go retch.

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday - happy birthday
Happppppppy Birthday to me!

Slashdot is reporting today (and yesterday) that Penguin Publishing Group, one of the bigger book publishers, published a book recently called "Katie.com" about a young woman who is sucked into a dangerous situation on the internet via chat rooms and is molested.

The problem? Katie.com already exists, and is owned a young woman named Katie, in England, who, unfortunately for her, runs an Internet Chat company. After the book came out with that title, the real Katie was bombarded with emails, nasty messages, pictures, and too much traffic to handle on her website. She complained to Penguin.

Penguin to their credit immediately published a retraction and changed the title...oh wait, no, they hired lawyers to harass the real owner of Katie.com and tried to force her to hand over her domain (which she's owned for years) and basically told her to go do the Dick Cheney. Especially, it seems, this woman. She's apparently been very forceful and mean and rude with Katie Jones.

I don't know why Penguin, and Parry Aftab think that just because they've published a book they can take Katie's personal property away. Lawyers are supposed to...hold on, I can say it...act ethically...alright, it's okay to laugh...but truly, how is theft through harassment anywhere near legal? Or, more to the point, how is using someone else's property (the domain name) without their permission?

Anyway...I plan to start working on my novels google.com, yahoo.com, and foxnews.com and then hire Parry Aftab to harass them until they give me the websites and addresses too.

I came across this article which discusses the fact that "a program requiring all pregnant women and children through age 18 years to be tested for mental health" is being discussed in Illinois.

Do I really look like a cynical nut when I say "WHY?" Why are letting the bureaucrats decide who's sane and who isn't? And if they're testing a pregnant woman for mental issues, and they flunk her, do they take the baby away? Because we all know that government's never wrong, and they do such a fine job with the public schools...oh wait...and if they decide that your child has ADD (like so many schools seem intent on diagnosing), do they have the final say and get to medicate your child or he doesn't go to school?

My mind boggles at the idea that ANYONE in Illinois thought this was a good idea.

Yes, yes, I know that I'm hopelessly behind the times, but I finally got to see "Donnie Darko". (this is what happens when your industry collapses and you have two kids)

Obviously, as most people have told me, it was astoundingly good. Jake Gyllenhaal was amazing. It was worth staying up past my bedtime to watch. The creepy thing for me in the movies was how the experiences and emotions Donnie felt when Frank showed up, and the music and the mood, all match what I feel when I have my panic attacks. Sitting, watching the movie, whenever Frank would appear, I could feel small pinpricks of familiar anxiety start to open up in my stomach. I could feel the void of horror spinning in my heart. This isn't the first time that a movie or a song has produced that reaction, but it is the first in a while.

It's as if the dark emotions live in the basement of my body and started to peek out through the floorboards and from behind the door.

I don't know what the trigger is, but I'd like to find it.

I found an interesting treat today: Pomegranate Juice. I'm always up for trying new things, so I snapped it up.

I had the Cherry + Pomegranate, but it tasted more like plum, which is cool with me, since I like plums. Sweet initially, it's got a slightly sour finish. It would be excellent with vodka.

Other cool feature to note? The bottle looks like a genie's bottle. It has Barbara Hershey curves.

Hey everyone! My dad figured out how to use the internet up in Heaven, because he sent me the following message (and this is straight from him, I didn't doctor it in anyway):

hey maurice, its your dad

i just wanted to tell you that it's about time you move out of the basement and get ur own house or apartment or cardboard box. I mean, ur 40 years old and you need a real job. I'm tired of you making these stupid post sites about stuff that doesn't matter and start making money to support yourself. Your mother cries herself to sleep everynight worrying "will our son ever accomplish anything" and i have to give an honest answer and say "no our son is a complete loser, he will never have a real job and will never move out of the basement". With that said... I love you son

PS. Your subscription to Playgirl expired so if you want to continue recieving that magazine then give me the money and i will buy you a new subscription

It's really sweet of my dad to write me after he died, but I have to say that his spelling and grammar really suck now. I mean, he used he can't spell "your", but has to use "ur", hasn't figured out how to capitalize the letter "I" when used in the singular tense, he missed the space in "every night", and he's got me confused with some guy living his parent's basement. Damn dad, what happened to you?

You know what I really think happened? I think that a 12-year-old boy thought he'd be clever and put a post on my website to mock me and thought that using my father would be a good vehicle to do so. He, of course, had to include references to me being gay, which is *yawn* I'm sorry, is that offensive still?

Sometimes, I think that the internet needs a licensing system, like the roads, so only kids above 16 could surf the web. But then, where would we get our misogyny, homophobia, and neanderthal behavior fixes?

Jimmy, or whatever your name really is, go read a book. Think for a minute, and grow a brain. Right now, your parents really are crying, and so am I, because I just looked for the future of America, and all I found was you.

I have discovered a reason to love TV again: "The L Word" from Showtime. We got Showtime on Demand when we moved, and I've been watching the first season. It's fantastic. It's beyond fantastic.

I feel, watching the movie, like I'm caught in some illicit love affair with someone I should not, that's the immediate and complete attraction I've had to the show and the characters. I can't, as a man, speak to how real the portrayals of the characters are to lesbian life, but it's just a good show. It's better than a good show, it's a fantastic show.

I am so glad that this is on Showtime and not something watered down, butchered, and left for dead on a regular network.

I implore you to watch "The L Word" when you get a chance, rent it on Netflix, or buy the DVDs. It's completely worth it.