Thursday, June 30, 2005
Crying and laughing should go hand and hand at a funeral. Celebrate life, celebrate death. They're in a better place.
We're all going to miss you Rahul.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
I'm not sure that I'll write anything else today. Death is always hard, its even harder when the person helped you when you fallen so many times.
Monday, June 27, 2005
News: Nature Edition
Some people call it weeding.
The crazy people were right! They are talking to us!
Hovering like woah!
Further explanation as to why I'll never go to California. Ever again. Ever.
Soon they'll grow up to be unstopable killing machines.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Still Need More Sleep
This wasn’t the easiest post to write for some reason
Inner and outer dialogue regarding when I am to get married aside, the
wedding went well. My little sister and I walked down the isle, with the wedding party behind us, a bit late, and it took Amir waving for us to go to get us to even start; hey, we didn’t know. The ceremony took place in the tropical encapsulate of the hotel, directly in the middle of it all. Before anything had even begun, my sister was telling me how worried she was that the ‘bing’ from the exposed elevators would be a distraction while the readers read prayers of celebration and marriage. I kept telling her that she should be far more concerned with some drunk, jackass walking out of his room, yelling about jumping in the pool directly behind us, or large, scantily clad Europeans as spectators like while we took photos with the bridal and groom’s parties. It was funny to see Tajalli’s beaming smile, walk down the aisle with her soon-to-be husband. They both looked at each other from their individual chairs, and my mother started crying. Shirin, went up and said her prayer beautifully and the marriage of Tajalli and Amir progressed on without incident.
Directly after the ceremony, each party ran to take care of last minute crap;
layout of food, photographer and a mic for speeches during dinner. Our friends and family moved first into the reception hall, directly behind another reception hall where another wedding had taken place chirping about how beautiful Tajalli and how handsome Amir looked. We all converged on the 5th floor, where the brides maids and my sister had gotten ready, to congratulate and hug and be happy.
By the time we convened to the hall, Taj and Amir had been announced and
they took their seats at the elevated table in the front of the room with his and my parents. My mom whipped away and fought back even more tears as they sat down, and my dad just stood and applauded. She and he deserved it. I’m proud of them both.
On Friday night they drove down to Chicago to spend the night with my
family before leaving for Porto Rico. That’s all I’ve got. Sorry that I wasn’t able to capture the whole event better, it just all seems like a blur of white dress and black and red bowties.
Again, congratulations Amir and Tajalli!
Over the past two days my computer has become increasingly slow, and I’ve begun to realize that the IT department has begun monitoring my and others’ internet usage. The idea truly amazes me as I’m required to spend a lot of time online researching and editing pages. With the internet moving at a snails pace, it’s becoming immensely annoying to do any work at all. Actually, just now my browser crashed with only two tabs only and a page loading. None of this makes much sense. The measure of an employee, while some monitoring is necessary, should be based on productivity and not on if they visit their fantasy baseball page twice a day. Some website activity should, obviously, be monitored and squashed as quickly as possible (pornography especially), but the simple action of accessing a personal blog and dumping text shouldn’t be something to monitor every day. As I said, this isn’t something that has been happening for a long time, just for the past two days. Anyway, I’m going to see if this damn thing is going to start working again.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Recently, I have become more and more obsessed with the various types of widgets that Apple Users and the company itself have been creating. They now house, primarily on the apple.com website, a wide variety of widgets to do all kinds of tasks. If you would like to check the baseball scores, they have a widget that scrolls all the scores in real time. Need some advice? Ask Dave, and he shall deliver unto you the answer of correctitude. Where is the sun shining most predominantly? Check out Sunlight Earth for a full view on the globe, and where the sun shines the most. From the mundane to the absolutely necessary, they have created widgets for just about everything. Now, if only they could create one to travel back in time. ...Yes, that is the punch line. I'm out back awaiting your jeers and boos. Thrown bottles are welcomed!
For all non-Apple users, I offer laughter from me to you. That's because I mock you so.
President Bush hates nerds. He mocks and sneers at their obvious greatness, but who's laughing now? That's right. Bush is. He is, after all, the President of the United States of America after being a C student, a cocaine addict, and a alcoholic. HE'S BETTER THAN NERDS! He will dunk their heads in the toilet and flush for using such big words and having PhDs!
This quote struck me as truly...retarded:
"I appreciate the Secretary of Energy joining me today. He's a good man, he knows a lot about the subject, you'll be pleased to hear. I was teasing him -- he taught at MIT, and -- do you have a PhD?"
SECRETARY BODMAN: "Yes."
THE PRESIDENT: "Yes, a PhD. (Laughter.) Now I want you to pay careful attention to this -- he's the PhD, and I'm the C student, but notice who is the advisor and who is the President. (Laughter and applause.)"
I would like point out that the crowd had been held hostage by the secret service, and had a flashing 'applause' sign above them.
And the Unifier of the Year Award goes to Carl Rove for saying that politics decides if someone cared/cares about what happened on 9/11 or not.
Congratulations, sir. You’re an arrogant ponce.
I loved the headline, love the writer. Enjoy!
"This Just In: George Bush Still Tickled By His Own Stupidity"
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
The Recent News
First, we have international pains. The government in Zimbabwe has decided to start destroying "urban vegetable gardens" in an effort to save the environment. Yes, they believe that gardens are destroying the environment. This from a government who is starving its people and whose leaders will undoubtedly be tried in the World Court for crimes against humanity, but plants are bad for Mother Earth. She hates them! I hope the people receive UN Aid instead of it being taken by the military…again.
On the home front, the Patriot Act has been called into question yet again as libraries are claiming that US officials are checking people's library records. This is, of course, not too long after we were all told by the administration that library records would probably not be looked into, and that there were other, more important places that the intelligence community is searching. Yes, like libraries! Books create descent through learning and thought. Two things our president hates.
My favorite part of the article:
”In some cases, agents used subpoenas or other formal demands to obtain information like lists of users checking out a book on Osama bin Laden. Other requests were informal - and were sometimes turned down by librarians who chafed at the notion of turning over such material, said the American Library Association, which commissioned the study.”
I thought Bush wasn’t losing sleep on matters as inane as Osama bin Laden.
Lastly, we're again enjoying the Bush administrations ability to twist there own words to appear as though they've done nothing wrong. Press Secretary Scott McClellan has recently been sizzling over the fire by the press, as they've decided to start doing their job and asking tough questions. This time the media is questioning Scott McClellan's military chops. Check out the transcript, you can almost watch his words wriggle on the screen like a 5-year old lying about who ate the cookies.
“MR. McCLELLAN: I'd have to go check; that's a pretty large clan, as you – “
“Q Would you do that? “
“MR. McCLELLAN: -- as you referred to. In terms of -- and certainly there are members of the family that have served and served very admirably in the Armed Forces.”
”Q I'm not talking about the past, I'm talking about now.“
McClellan can dance well, can’t he.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Need more sleep
After an annoying delay that was never explained I got back from Minnesota
around eleven yesterday. When I got back to the apartment I crashed only to wake over three hours later. It was glorious. Regardless, the weekend went as such… My flight into Minnesota went by quickly as I leaned against the window on the right side of the plane. Near what should have been the end of the flight the pilot chimes in through the speaker to explain that our flight will be delayed because Air Force One arrived at the airport early. A grown lingered in the cabin for a while before a few passengers gave those who objected nasty looks. Those Texans love their president, after all. We circled around Northern Wisconsin for a while with the pilot popping on from time to time to tell us that he had planned to leave slightly early to try to beat the president’s plane, as many other planes had done, only to be foiled because of his impatience to land for another of his patented “Town Hall Meetings” for his followers. The more I hear about these meetings, by the way, the more I realize that he is beginning to put on a sermon everywhere he goes. As if he has created the church of George W. Bush to allow for those who have the same religious beliefs and love America to bask in his “leadership” and glow. It’s becoming a nearly sacrilegious experience. Droves of people sitting in fold-up chairs, watching him pander to those who already agree with him and will go along with anything he says instead of attempting to change the minds of those who disagree. It’s a truly confusing way to doing things.
Anyway, we circle around for about a half hour as if combing the farm land of
Northern Wisconsin for terror cells or extremists who disagree with the Bush doctrine. The cabin became increasingly annoyed. Soon there after the pilot’s voice appeared more chipper over the speakers, telling us that we had been cleared for landing. He finished his announcement amongst cheers for the passengers by saying that we were allowed to land by our “wonderful and all knowing president.” It was truly amusing that so many of those Bush supporters were cheering while the pilot covertly slipped in that last comment.
Smooth landing later we were alerted that we would be given the good
graces of seeing Air Force One to our right as we waited for a place to taxi in a line of about six other planes. The double-decker plane was saluted by the passengers of our plane with single fingers and we accelerated into our station and all tapped our figures, begrudging comments under our breaths, waiting to remove ourselves from the plane. It was an…entertaining waste of time. Thanks Mr. President!
More later…
Thursday, June 16, 2005
I'm not sure what this is, but its truly bizarre.
Written under the drawing: "-The dead fireman finds pleasure in buring people down to the ground."
Wow.
Saw Batman Begins last night. It was excellent. I guess that's it. How depressing.
The lack of sleep has caught up with me today. Everyone is out in Boston, so I'm here holding down the fort...at least for a little while. I've decided to leave a little early today to ensure that I'm able to get some sleep before I leave at whatever in the morning tomorrow. As well, I still need to get a haircut, so that my mother doesn’t knock my ass out when she sees me, along with my sister’s, grandmother and several other women. I’m going to get back on Monday and my vision will have worsened from some many blows to the back of the head. Maybe I should wear a helmet.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The Fantastic-ism Continues Anew
Everyone’s off to an All Staff Meeting, so I get to sit here and check out the score of the Cubs game without anyone bothering me. They’re losing 10-0…son-of-a!
It's only bigoted if he's from a state where minorities reside.
Months later...she was in a vegetative state.
P.S. - And her parents don't believe the doctor's reports? What? Emotions can get the best of people. This is just sad.
He said what? Man, that's amazing. That sounds nothing like pandering. Nothing at all.
Monday, June 13, 2005
We've tried it your way for years to no avail. Let's try a new way.
I would also like to point out that South African President Thabo Mbeki is definitely displaying the 'wazzup face' in this picture.
It begins...
The old Iran is starting to crumble, and without us invading them.
Sean Penn got to see it in person.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Wedding problems abound!
Will someone explain to me how it’s possible for a tux rental joint to refuse to
give me my measurements. This is what has happened. Last week I was measured for the tux I would wear for my sister’s wedding next week up in Minnesota. They told me there would be no problem transferring the information up to the store up in Minnesota, and that I should call them with the information. I did so, but they decided that the store up in Minnesota, which owns the chain that this store belongs to, wasn’t part of the company. So, they refused to send them my information. I called them again the next day to figure out if there was any way of getting my measurements so I could get them to the store up in Minnesota to no avail. They explained that they can’t divulge my measurements to another store even with my permission. It makes no sense.
So, now I’m required to go back to this place, be remeasured and run out
with my measurements to give to Amir, my sister’s fiancé. The whole process makes no sense.
Secondly, I haven’t even begun thinking about a wedding gift for them yet.
I wanted to get them monogrammed towels, but that fell through. Now, I’m frantically trying to find something that can show to them how happy I am for them. It’s not easy. Also, I haven’t figured out what to do for my dad for Father’s Day. A gift? Punch to the ribs? What? Lastly, it was my grandfather’s birthday earlier this week, and I forgot to call. The truth is my mind has been on work and the fear that I won’t get the position here. Thoughts of joblessness do not make things easy.
Mind wandering aside, I think I need to resolve everything in a hurry…and
then get some sleep.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Robot suit, check.
Anaysis
There’s a bullet on people’s bedsides aching to get in their gun, and I’m not sure I know why. I shuffle through and I see the bullet’s eyes follow, determinately. Figuring where to hit me, what spot would kill me quickest, weak point. To bleed to death or the instantcy of a head shot. I try not to make eye contact, but it’s no use. It’s on me, and I can’t do anything about it. The round target is there and it’s getting larger every time I move by.
So, I’m stuck, and I begin to move like a ghost. Pass through people, make no eye contact, feel nothing. I think it may make things better, make things easier, make me invisible to the bullets, but they escalate. New reasons and feelings surface and bubble out.
I begin to think back on my childhood. A childhood without targets or firearms. I moved without knowing, with the mindset that those things didn’t exist. A bat on my shoulder, looking over the fence into the next yard where a dog is barking. Diversions were created, and the ball retrieved. This was the extent of our problems as the air stuck to our clothes and band-aids covered scabs, losing the ball to a dog. Now, things are much different. Targets on my front and back, and bullets being loaded. Confrontation seems to be my only recourse, and that’s terrifying. Where I am, where I was don’t really matter. What mattes now is how I deal with what’s next, and the ghost won’t help the outside world but it sure protects me.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
My dad sent me this link to pictures of Iran, and all I can think is that one day religious persecution in Iran will end and I'll be able to see where my mother grew up.
What the world, needs now, is more unnecessary arrests, sweet arrests.
This story makes me...scared. Yeah, that's it. God killed off the dinosaurs because they didn't believe in him...because they have that freedom and a advanced enough brain to understand the concept of God. However! God didn't kill kittens because they're smarter than dinosaurs, and all except God. I think I just hit the tootsie roll center of the stupid...thingy...yeah.
This is simply the funniest thing I've read in a while.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
I've been saying this for how long now? I'm glad a journalist decided to finally point out that the president values an embryo far more than Africans in the Darfur region. He also values an embryo more than physically handicapped people, but lets not get into that again.
Monday, June 06, 2005
An email I got today from Linda Venable:
"I checked today on the status of the box I sent by UPS to India for you UPS indicates that it is in Mumbai, India as of May 24 but they noted that the address is in a remote area and deliveries are not made daily. Ugh..."
I didn't know that the package was being sent to the Island of Dr. Moreau.
The clouds are broken by slight rays of retardium or
Dead, Dead David Woke Up
Weekend seemed like a bust. Didn’t do anything save watch DVDs, play MVP
Baseball and read all of Saturday. Then the night rolled in and I received a call from Layla. After receiving bad directions I drove around Dallas for over an hour while she and her friends hung out at a biker bar called Duke’s in Addison. The bar was packed. Loads of drunken folks overcrowded the wooden balcony. Each touching and talking to one another like a chain reaction. It didn’t seem as though anyone minded the body to body confines as I approached from the parking lot, now spilling over into the Sam’s Club lot. I found a spot out near the loading dock for that very Sam’s Club.
The bar’s Dj was louder than the music. A whiter, less ‘with-it’ Grand Master
Flash on the mic dropping a mix of bump and grind hits from the past few years with the occasional country tune for those in cowboy hats.
We then migrated to another part of Addison that I don’t remember the name
of. The area was very upscale with a lot of twenty-something’s prancing around or held up by their boyfriend/girlfriend for the night. We limbered into a faux British pub with two rooms; one room for the drinkers who enjoyed the face to drunken face conversations of others at the bar or in the booth, and another for those who loved to be swooned by bad renditions of Cheap Trick songs. Our conversations lingered on the profound awfulness of the band and the drunken leers from the audience members who gyrated and clapped their hands off tempo. As soon as they transitioned from “Sweet Home Alabama” to an early 90’s rap medley including the drummer singing “Rappers Delight” we knew we had a problem. Only a band named ‘Strippers Lie’ could move from a racist song about the old south and slavery to old school hip hop without anyone, including them, realizing the hypocrisy. The only thing more interesting would be if they had gone from Screwdriver to N.W.A.
All this transpired with four poser white-boys playing with equipment worth
almost as much as their attire attempting to harmonize while a crowd unaware of their surroundings moved beneath them.
When I got home and pealed off my two-hour smoke and sweat lingered
clothing realizing that I had enjoyed myself. For one of the first times since I moved down here I did something impulsive and was out later than midnight. And I wasn’t tired at all. Adrenaline and nervousness kept me going. Well, that a gallons of water drank throughout the night.
I'm hurt that Tex and Miggy weren't mentioned, but still a great article.
Hey! Things in Africa aren't too great either.
Newsflash: America Great! Print that on the first page.
So, we are now told that soldiers at Guantanamo Bay never flushed the Quran down a toilet. They did however "a U.S. soldier had deliberately kicked a prisoner's holy book. The report also said prison guards had thrown water balloons in a cell block, causing an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; a guard's urine had splashed on a detainee and his Quran; an interrogator had stepped on a Quran during an interrogation; and a two-word obscenity had been written in English on the inside cover of a Quran." And really, that's so much nicer than flushing it down a toilet. Respectful, really. Actually, those soldiers should be praised because they didn't flush the Quran down the toilet.
These guys are saints. Abusive saints, but still saints.
Oh, did I forget to mention this? "On her goodwill trip to the Middle East last month, first lady Laura Bush said Newsweek should not be solely blamed for the deadly protests that followed its report." Yes, how dare a news organization report something that hasn't been cleared through the White House. That's not how things work in this country. Does it seem like we're like China every day or is it just me?
More photos from Abu Ghraib.
Just when you thought we weren't horrible enough!
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The panic sets in part II!
Sweat, check.
I guess I have a blind date tonight with one of Layla's friends, Katie. She's a
grad student studying speech pathology; for everyone who is bewildered at what speech pathology is check it out. That's pretty much all I know about her so our conversations will be starting pretty much from scratch. Should be pretty fun. Anyway, have a good night, I'm going to go prepare some things for tomorrow.
The panic sets in
Heather Goodell has been promoted to Director of Operations, Scientific
Publishing as of this morning. It’s good news for all, as I need to begin preparing for interviews for the new position to be opening up in the next month. The question will remain what level the position is, as Heather was a manager and I doubt I will be pushed up to that level so quickly. If I do become a manager, and I’m confident that I can do it, this would mean a lot of changes will be required. I will have to overhaul my entire schedule and I would be traveling far more than I have been; which has been not at all. Trips to Baltimore, L.A., Philly and the like will become regular occurrences for me as I could essentially be transferred into a representative for the AHA, and I’m excited for the change. Responsibility over the BenchPress system and the development of statements from thought to print would just be a small part of my duties if all goes as I hope they will. I’ll still have to make it through the interview process, but, like I said, I’m confident that I’m ready for this position and I will do well to make the jump up.
Actually, I’m downright terrified. I’ll need to remake my resume as soon as I
can to add in what all I’ve done since getting here. That should cover a lot of ground. Man, I’m scared.
Lost, but only for a minute or two
hopefully
Lately, I’ve felt more and more lost out here. As if parts of me are falling off
into the water to drift away quickly. There seems to always be something crazy going on, and I’m always participating. “Hey, let’s go to Dallas.” So, I go, and walk around numb to everything around me. And I sit there as part of myself in front of the television watching the basketball game that I don’t care about, stabbing fork into lettuce or drinking water with no lemon, the rest sitting in a chair or on my bed reading a book of unveiling key pieces of information in conversation. Someone was explaining the Chinese medical diction; the way they treat the body. The idea that there are 5 channels living within all of us, and if one of those channels is clogged the rest suffer. I’ve thought about what each channel might be: personality? mental health? happiness? I haven’t truly mapped out each channel, but I’ve deduced that most of mine are being blocked and the rest of me is suffering. If we’re unable to retain the whole of ourselves and only take on small parts of who we are we suffer. The rest begins to shrivel and die off. That’s where I am right now. I fear that the things that I held most prominent and important, things that I thought mapped my personality, are dying off. Some say that this is the natural way of things. We must detach ourselves from certain stigmas or personality traits that don’t mesh well with others in order to thrive, but I’m not so sure that this is entirely true. Sure the prospect of aging and becoming an adult includes the dejection of various attributes that should no longer remain as part of us, but if too much is lost we begin to question ourselves. Wonder if the way we had lived in the past had been a lie or just the wrong path, if what knew to be one’s self isn’t. I’ve questioned that, but I don’t think that is my problem. A while ago I sat on a carpeted floor and contemplated self. Contemplated the attributes of myself and what would make me happy and keep me humble. The main attribute that I found most appeal and best set for the way I wished to live my life was that of quite and relaxed movements. I realized that I don’t deal well with the stress that can build up and I tend to ignore it making things worse. If I wasn’t able to depart from this chaotic world and respond to my inner quite I would begin to crumble. This is where I find myself at this moment. Too much of the outside, to much adapting to what might appeal to others without remaining true to myself. I just need to resolve that and find ways of promoting the other parts to keep me balanced. Flying off the handle and yelling at Vafa for pestering me shouldn’t happen. I should have the will of calm and a cool head to relax and deal with the issue without letting it build and break.
Now presents the task of figuring out how to go about doing this.
