Untitled Attempt at an Understanding or Understatement

My life has begun to play out like the Volcano, I'm Still Excited album. Like a developing

composition with elements from all over. Happy, sad, mundane. It’s the new life we choose all wrapped up into an album; perhaps even just a day. Simplicity progressing and growing into a complicated ribbon, with a knot shaped like a demon’s face (I don’t know). And by the end all you can be is repetitive. Yelling your name from your belly through your lungs to the top. A release of excited and potential energy having been built up throughout. That’s how I’m seeing things right now, as a reforming piece. Art as a day, a week, a year; perhaps, more. This is the new life with a new love and I’m just getting started, like Volcano. Hopefully, I’ll still be moving when it’s time for the next album. Another day, with more maturity and even more stories and deep, gut rumblings.

Sometimes I'm sappy, deal with it.

Wait, I said what?

I'm finally able to take the time to look around at what has happened over the past few days, and

ahead to the weeks to come. The craziness of work. The decisions for health care and car insurance. Cable instillation. Car repairs. It turned me into a robot for a while, deprogrammed and reprogrammed, and now I’m starting to think and worry about the events coming up. Planning and an incredible amount of patience have only just begun to solidify, and I guess I'm just not used to it. The idea of having a plot for the next year or so is what I'm working on. What will happen by December? What will happen after December? Shocking twists?! It's not at all like college where you know that tomorrow is another round of classes, and this weekend will breed reckless abandonment and the regaining of sleep. That doesn't happen here (sort of), and there's really no amount of preparation you can take; it's going to smoke your ass. Chap it, even. You’re stuck. You have to plan for the week. I have to pay these bills this week and these others next week and I have to drop my car off for repairs in the morning; the mechanic at the Nissan dealer looks suspicious smiling all the time.

It has been a tough few days, but there seems to be a clear thicket in front of me. Perhaps I'll even be able to post something to this thing for a change.

We'll see.

My brain stroked off for most of the day. How did I get in these diapers.

I'll probably post something last tonight or tomorrow when I'm not sitting waste deep in a pool of...what's that smell?

Vote for Carl Weathers for the Illinois Senate

We need to create a dot com for this

That's right. Follow the trend made popular by Jessie Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Actors for governmental office!" Heck, let's shorten the search a bit more. "Actors from the movie 'Predator' for governmental office!" That has such a nice ring to it.

So, vote for Carl Weathers! Say it with me, "Remember that black guy from 'Predator'? He should be in the Senate." or "Maj. George Dillon for Senate." Woo!

Look at the success rates. Jessie Ventura was voted in as governor of Minnesota; to which he was surprisingly successful. Then, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor, "the Governator", of California; where he has made a mockery of the state and himself. Weathers can't lose. In fact, we need him in the Senate...for balance. Ventura did well, Schwarzenegger did pourly, Weathers will do all right. He'll be right in the middle. He's scrappy. I mean the man was in "Little Nicky" and "Happy Gilmore". That doesn't thrill and tickle you the right way? All right, does Sgt. Adam Beaudreaux from a little TV series called 'Street Justice' cause you to tremble!? Don't remember that one, huh. He was in it with Marcus Chong (Miguel Mendez) who played Tank in "The Matrix". Damn. Well then, does the name Apollo Creed ring any bells? Hell yeah that was him. He will totally kick you ass in the throat if you don't vote for him. Just like in Rocky's I through IV.

Hell yes. Own it.

If not Carl Weathers than Chuck Norris. I mean, come on, we need more ass kickery in the Senate.

Tits or no tits?

In an office with two males and two females would it be appropriate to yell out "Tits!" upon triumph or in excitement? I've used "Bad Ass" and "Killer," but have been apprehensive about the prospect of using such a sensitive term; I've also contemplated the use of "Jumanji," "Yanzee" and "YeYah".

Also, what other possible celebratory words or phrases should be used?

My friend Vafa informed me yesterday that he is being considered for a production staff position on four episodes of 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' when it comes to the DFW area next season.

Now, I should have prefaced this post by saying that people already think that Vafa, who is straight, is a bit gay or homophobic – figure that one out, they either think he’s one or the other, not both. This isn't going to help their opinions of you, my friend. Not one bit. In fact, one might propose that it would have the adverse affect. Who's to know?

Y.M.C.A. Vafa, Y.M.C.A.

It is now time for today's 'Story of the Day'

now with more inane rambling

Today's 'Story of the Day' comes from the office.

When I first started working here the water cooler sat against the far wall. Directly next to said

water cooler was a table with water jugs underneath. From this vantage point the water cooler seemed very happy. Near it's refillable brethren and the table/bivouac. At around my forth day the jug was empty and needed refilling. Now, I thought to myself, "I can do this. These are the easy to refill jugs." Right? NO! In fact, they had no mechanism to stop the water from flowing out upon reversal of jug. Water would just pour out of the damn thing as a jug should. It was my worst nightmare. What would happen if I turned the jug over and it splashed all over me? Why couldn't they have gotten the jugs with the caps to limit flow? Why?!

I got up the courage to grab the old jug. Pulled it up slow to insure that all the water flowed into

the cooler basin. I looked down to see if the basin had the nozzle necessary to house and operate the attachment equipped jug; it did not. Well, that just made things worse. Here I am wanting to make it easy for whomever has to flip the jug over but I can't because the cooler doesn't have the nozzle. Damn you, Hinckley Springs!

Anyway, ha ha ha. To make a long story short the water jug is incredibly happy in it's new home

across the room next to the refrigerator/microwave combo, and it makes us happier that we don't have to drag our mug and tea bags across the room to get water. I mean, what a hassle that was.

Thank you.

New music starts with 'The'

The Killers - Hot Fuss

The Roots - The Tipping Point

The Beta Band - Heroes to Zeros

Rock Against Bush Volume 2

More to post tomorrow.

I'm thinking about growing a thin mustache to accent the "soul patch". I think I'd look particularly silly if I did so.

Hey, if Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp can do it, I can.

Neo-Political David

CNN is reporting today that a little girl's communion was denied by the Catholic Church due to

substitution of wafer. The eight year-old girl is allergic to wheat, so they substituted the "regulation" wheat wafer for one made of rice. Flag on the play! Woh now. That's not allowed. Just as the wine must be fermented from grapes and contain some fraction of alcohol the wafer must be made of "unleavened wheat" as occurred in the Last Supper.

All right, so, basically the church is saying that Christ wouldn't accept a communion substitute if

the person accepting said communion is allergic or a recovering alcoholic. Wow. Christ is a jerk. He'd much rather have a 8 year-old with a rare, digestive disorder increase her already high chances of getting cancer or dying or a recovering alcoholic relapse than adjust a rule slightly. I'm thinking not.

That's amazingly strict for a practice that takes the figurative, spiritual and metaphorical word of

God and turns it into literal practice. As a matter of fact, most historians speculate that the wine at the Last Supper, which communion is to signify, contained incredibly low amounts of alcohol. If this is the case, shouldn’t the church try to represent that with wine that contains equally low levels of alcohol?

The little girl’s mother wrote a letter to the Cardinal for her area saying, "This is a church rule, not

God's will, and it can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of the people, while staying true to the traditions of our faith." If a person needs to have a rule slightly adjust for the sake of health should we do it? Yes! No one should look down on someone because of an illness that they have no control over. We don't go around slapping those with tourette’s every time they have an outburst, or forcing those with a cotton allergy to wear cotton garments during church rituals.

The unable should be punished! Whatever.

Will Frank the Tank Die?

(minus all the alcohol)

I’m looking around this office and I’m confused. For the past five years I’ve been in college.

A closed off school with very little to do but “party” and...party. My sole motivation for getting my work done was to get out of college, graduate and take that next step into the blinding “real world”. Well, I’m there. I’m out of college, I’ve graduated, and I’ve begun that next step, a job. I have a really nice job now with infinite “opportunities for growth” and an increasing paycheck. With an office, a desk and my own stapler and telephone line. But I think I’ve tripped. At the very least I’m just not sure what I’ve done or what I will do. I’m just not used to it. While I may not own them, these are my walls and I could, if I saw fit, put a poster of a giant dragon on it. Can I? Should I?

It all just doesn’t feel natural yet. I feel that tug every once in a while to sleep in and “skip class

just this once”. That’s what I used to do. The alarm would go off and I could get up, take my shower, eat light and move across the lawn to a third floor classroom, or I could turn it off. The world’s beeping would stop and my sleeping would continue, but is that right? Is that responsible? Back then, it might have been. There were nights were I would stay up studying or...hanging out and it may effect me negatively if I were to go to that nine a.m. class – not at all responsible. Now, I can’t miss class. There is no choice. The choice I have right now is what to eat for lunch or if I want water or hot tea. Later today it’ll be, which way should I go home and which is better satellite or cable.

I suppose it’s pointless for me to be writing about this, wasting the time I should be spending

looking for candidates for clients to make more money and progress further than were I am. I suppose it just hit me. It's an issue of permanence. I could imagine these jitters are something close to those one might get when getting ready to pop the question or say the “I do” bit. This decision will change my life, what do I chose?

Responsibility? I guess so. Sheep? Maybe. Frightened?

I do not have a giant head

Today saw a rise of office supplies. My boss' brought in four Target bags full of supplies for Mellisa

and I to "have fun with" as well as a splitter for the phones and a promiss of file cabinets tomorrow. Now each of us have our own telephone line and organizational stuff. Yet, the most important item was a red Swingline stapler which they gave to me with a smile.

Rebekah: "Here ya go, Milton."

David/Milton: "I'll burn the building down."

Lastly, this isn't a very impressive post by any stretch. Tonight I'll have to spend some more time

writing a post with a point instead of mindless jabbering. Don't get me wrong, I am all about mindless jabbering. I just don't see the point when there may be people who read this. They may even think to themselves, "Did I leave the oven on?"

Don't ask me why, I don't know

Essentially, I have a prejudice for those named Tommy. I don't know why. I think it has something

to do with the way that people say the name. Tommy. Obviously there are going to be a plentitude of different ways to say any name, but Tommy seems to be very unilateral. Tommy; said with a Italian air. The only other name that I can think of that carries that same Italian inflection is Vito and I like the name Vito. It's a funny name, but not Tommy. Tommy. Sounds like the name you yell out when someone drops a full glass of fruit punch onto a white, short carpet. TOMMY! See, then someone could say, "well, what about Bobby or Billy or Jimmy?" I say, "What about Matty?" It just doesn't carry the same instant connection that Tommy does. I see Tommy as a negative name. Bobby, Billy and Jimmy are all child-like names to me, but Tommy's just the worst.

Beginning to miss waking up at eleven a.m.

It’s cold in here on a Thursday. Probably in the upper fifties, right around what it is outside, and

it's the middle of August. Shouldn't it be around ninty by now? I need to get a sweater and leave it here or something. Dang.

Big Ass Coffee Mug

Thus begins my second day on the job. Things are beginning to feel natural, oddly enough. Quite

honestly, I thought that it would take a while longer to get my bearings, but as the environment is very welcoming and my employers have laid out their business plan very clearly for us, it has become difficult to make things appear difficult. I mean, the job isn't the easiest in the world, but by no means will I be losing sleep over the placement of a senior biopharmaceutical tech. Acquiring the generalized ability to screen out the wrong candidate for a job and focus in on the right is something that may be innate or learned. As it stands, I'm not sure where I stand. Things feel natural but that could just be because of the environment. My own personal deception field, as it were. I hope not though. Would like to be able to continue on with this company for as long as possible; as I've gotten on at the ground floor.

Thought this picture pertained to things as they are.

A sappy, boring, and self-interested post; how me

Parents are still on their cruise with no word thus far. I hope their having a good time, it would

appear so, and their not worrying too much about us. Right now, Taj and Shirin are playing Mario Kart on my bed, "preparing" to leave to pick up Rachael, Shirin's friend, as I sit on the computer lest a shower thinking about dropping off the signed job offer.

There is nothing in my head that tells me that I deserve the job that they've been offered. My

college career with overly dramatic, accented whole notes dragging me or falling like blank dominos hasn't felt over for quite a while, and now that I'm finally out I wish I weren't. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm going to miss Jenna, and all the crazy kids down at Millikin. With new bands of the week and long political, social, and economic talks; seriously. Who knows.

Anyway, it's time to take a shower, practice some drums and drop off my offer. The period of life

begins as I watch my sisters playing Mario Kart, cheering and booing each other. Life is good.

Today David Got a Job

The title says it all. You will address me as sir from now on! DO IT!

The station of being hierarchical

Questions for the President after his address on Monday, August 2:

1) You have said many times that the world is safer having Saddam out of power, but are you saying this to convince yourself that this is the case or is it true?

2) This is a document from the UN stating that Iraq may have had weapons but would not be capable of striking anyone save their neighbors. Is it true that your are protect your interests in Kuwait?

3) You talk about how Iran is now a threat because of their 'nuclear programs', but what about their human rights violations and plans to quash a whole religious group?

4) Also, do you plan on working with the United Nations to supply sanctions and keep the pressure on Iran instead of implementing your 'Bush Doctrine' of preemptive strike?

5) Why is it that Tom Ridge, after announcing that the terror alert level should raised and mapping out exactly where terrorist will attack, has quit?

Just some questions I had after his briefing.