I'll try again.

hopefully not stupid

I experiment.

coming soon: images!

I turned 35 last week, and a gift was a new scanner-printer-copier, thanks mom & bro. It's a HP Deskjet F-4280, and as soon as I start to get the hang of it, I'll post pictures. I'm not really that good with images and computers, so by all means, hold your breath. Still, this is a visual world most of us live in, so I'll make the effort.

I'm not psyched about being halfway to 70, but I won't make it there certainly, which is consolation. I think growing quite old must be overrated. You become weaker, forgetful, more prone to illness, and lots of other bad things. You inevitably lose loved ones, lose control of bodily functions, lose the ability to enjoy things you once quite needed, on so many levels. I know I'm focusing on the negatives, but lately I've spent some time with my grandmother, who I love wholeheartedly, but she can depress the happiest person walkin' on sunshine faster than you can say "nit". I try to cheer her up, but it's only temporary whenever I do. It's still worth it, like when I took her to Byrd Park, here in Richmond, Va to feed some ducks. We got a loaf of bread and the ducks worshipped at our feet. It's a good way to feel good about your situation, all that happy quacking, and the power, I recommend it. Anyway, so much more to come. Obama 2008!

Right-wing celebrity Bastards!

This morning, I had breakfast with my grandmother. She supported and worked phones for John Kerry in 2004. She's reticent about Barrack Obama, and expressed the opinion this morning that she thought John McCain impressed her. She's around 90, and previously referred to him as "John McClaine"- I doubt she's seen any "Die Hard" movies, but I worry about our country's future. I watched the debate, and Jim Lehrer was terrible as moderator- an ass I say! Obama was more composed, and a far better orator, no surprise, than McCain. The Senator from Arizona made many clumsy ham-handed cheapshots, gaffes, and references to Reagan than I could keep track of. He's no Reagan, just as Gov. Palin's no Hillary, not that I want her to be. Maybe he wouldn't be as terrible as George W. Bush, but that's giving him the benefit of a doubt, after eight years of wanting to gouge out my eyes, and move to a democracy.

Pray For Susan Hudgins

Some big dude came up to me in a sketchy local parking lot, this evening, to hit me up for change. I knew this from the start, it's one of those spots where this is a local nuisanse. The guy put out his hand to shake and squeeze mine! I hate this macho gesture, it doesn't intimidate me, so I squeezed back. He went into this patter about he wasn't going to lie to me, which is the con that never should work. I was rolling my eyes, and digging for the two quarters in my pocket to put him off my scent. I hand it to him, to cut off his sob story, as I usually do, not that I like to encourage begging. It might shut him up, and that would be worth four bits. I didn't want his sob story, which he gave me anyway, he was fresh from the pen, as he claimed, and hungry. Shit, I should have kept my money, rather than give it to a criminal with bad teeth. I could have given it to the crippled vet accross the street rather than an ex-con, of all people! Well I got shook-down for fifty cents, and what good does it do to beg for money in this world, if it dries up the empathy in charitable souls?

I have another blog, you ghosts might want to look at, it's byrownpet@livejournal.com check a later post if that link doesn't work. I tried to post on coming the other way, and it didn't work.

Electric Company Boogaloo

Today I saw a traditionally outfitted Jewish man (Hassidic? I don't know) with the hat, curly sideburn things ( feel free to post a tip on what they're called, I have read the Torah and a little about Kaballah, Kafka, etc., and am open-minded, imho- I mean no offense) and all black outfit, carrying an infant in diapers while talking on a cell phone. It was at a small shopping mall in Richmond, Va, so this was unusual, for me, but charming like a artful photo in "Life" magazine. I almost said, "By golly! What the heck is that?" and had the chaw drop from my puckered lips, not unlike the little bird I'd been whittling at my seat outside the Starbucks, from my sunburned, chapped hands. We southern folk just can't find the time to moisturize, proper-like.



On a completely different note, I have to say Target stores really have the right idea pimping "Spidey" related merchandise. I picked up a pen that not only lights up when you write, not only has a stamp of "Spidey", not only can be used to inject insulin to diabetics, it also has a bubble wand, with soap bubble stuff in the stem of the pen. And it only cost a dollar! If I were six, this would have wasted twice as much of my time as it did yours, for reading this, or maybe not. I have purchased a few other "Spidey" brand products over the years from Target, most notably the coin bank shaped like his iconic masked head of this costumed fictional character. I loved him as a kid, and dutifully read comic books about him and ate "Spidey" brand sugar confections at every opportunity, but that sugar rush wore off, sadly. I wouldn't pay to read of the wall-crawler's convoluted adventures these days, but I remain drawn to the brand, the icon, the kitsch and the big screen adaptations, minus the dance in #3. As ritual, I drop pennies into the bank shaped like his head at the end of the day, as I empty my pockets, and acidly taunt, "Penny for your thoughts, Spider-Guy?" Usually, I suppose his empty head is noting how some corporate douchebags are exploiting him, and how it sucks to have no recourse for litigated recompenesation, license rights, cereal box picture approvals (just imagine him taking a dump, with the lower half of his costume around his ankles, sadly slurpng from a bowl of Count Chockula).

nuff said

This ad attacking Obama for being friends with this Weather Underground Ayers guy is lame. It makes me like Obama more really. I'd rather have this country run by a man who isn't afraid of radical dissent, like most our founding fathers.

I've been reading lots about the people who created our United States, and more about American civics than most of us bother with after high school. Quite a few of our founding fathers would have likely associated with people like the Weathermen, had they existed as contemporaries. I'm referring to Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Sam Adams- all men much admired today, for being the eighteenth century's equivalent of today's radicals. Doubtless, had Ben Franklin lived in the nineteen-sixties, he would have rubbed shoulders with Weathermen, Black Panthers, communists, yippies,free speech advocates, civil rights activists. I couldn't imagine any man or woman of strong ideas and convictions he'd avoid, or worry about his reputation for the association. In Jack Fruchtman Jr.'s American Cousins, Franklin is portrayed as a forward-thinking and great man, who associated freely with these kinds of people- abolitionists, revolutionaries, free-thinkers and men of radical ideas. That I admire, and the current presidential candidate for the Democrats for the same reason. McCain used to seem like he could be one of those types of people, back when he was proud to be called the maverick. I might have voted for that guy, but not this dopey W.-clone who doesn't even know how many houses he owns. If I were him, I don't think I'd need to add the white house.

Lately I've been reading a book about the U.S. citizenship test, which has all the questions that you might be asked, if you weren't lucky enough to have been born here like me. I'd have passed, I didn't find a question I couldn't answer, even though I think they usually only ask a few of the easier ones to most folks. I've worked with a few legalized immigrants over the years, and I don't think any of them had the english skills to answer more than a fraction of them. These are Cambodians, a Vietnamese guy(who is really stupid and annoying, not because he's Vietnamese, I should say), and Bosnians. They all have friends and family that want to immigrate here, I'm passing on the book to them, when I finish the appendices tomorrow. The questions have a lot of follow-up material that explain and put things into context, but besides some presidential trivia that would be useful watching Jeopardy, it's stuff I knew already. Thanks, largely to Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. This book should be mandatory for anyone who registers to vote, but only in a better world. Even though people would still vote Republican in that one anyway.

My brother is helping me get a scanner/all-in-one, so hopefully soon I'll have pictures and other multimedia, for all none of you that will probably ever notice. I have a video camera, but you can easily find more interesting v-content elsewhere. For instance, "Hell-bent for Election" on YouTube. Prosit!