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FILE0010.MOV Watch on Posterous

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So three years ago, I was on the other side. I went trick or treating. Well, I went with friends, who were parents of kids who were trick or treating. I wasn't out for booty... okay that's debatable. I wasn't there for candy... good lord, okay I'm not going to make the marcy playground joke.

So for the next two years, I just went to parties. 

This year, I was more respectable. I was behind the porch light, giving away candy. It started out cute and fine, a couple of little witches, then a zombie, then the kids got older, like high schoolers and they started coming in packs.

Here's a quote, "Give me the mother fucking candy!"

There were about 20 kids in line, I was running out of candy. I already had given all
my almond joys away. These kids were just getting smarties and kisses.

And I was fearful...

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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and I forgot what it was all about.

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I got one of those disposable underwater cameras with idea that I'd take some cool underwater pictures. That didn't happen, the camera got left behind on the boat.

Me

My sister, Heather

They caught a lobster! I think it ended up being dinner.

Randomness

¿Podría usted hacernos una foto, por favor?

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I´ve had fun. I went scuba diving yesterday. I saw giant sea turtles, a shark, an eel, a lobster and schools of fish. It was really cool and I didn't drown.

I'll write more when I get back and have more time.

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This is going to be a fun week. I didn't need a cap on my gas tank anyways.

Or a mirror.

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Nothing inspires me like it used to. I almost miss the days of obessions leading to tagent obsessions. Even though I know it was bad for me it lead to some sort of creativity, and I miss that.

I wonder what fills the void opened up by the lack of obsession. As far as I can tell, not a lot. I spend a lot of time thinking about "the war" not that it even feels like one, and I think that's half the problem.

So geopolitics disgust me. Heck, even local politics bug me but at least they don't have the ability to fuck up that bad.

As far as my personal life goes, I worry a lot about my Mom. That's a whole post in and of itself, and I'm not ready to go there yet.

I wonder what I'll be doing in a year or two or five... and have only the bare minimum of a plan. I can think of more things that I don't want to do than I can think of things that I'd like to do. The things I'd like to do seem foolhearty.

I'm half-assed working on a new screenplay. It's one of those few things that I actually enjoy doing, but right now I've got other things I should be doing, and to do the things I just want to do somehow make me feel guilty.

I went through half a bottle of vodka in the past couple of hours. I wonder if you, the reader, could tell.

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It seems like every week I come across another automated way for me to buy things. The post office has them for me to send things. I get a printed sticker that covers my entire envelope and I get change in Sacagawea dollar coins. They work well to give out as tips. Anyways...

At the grocery they have the self-checkouts, which are always never empty. It's usually someone really slow, who isn't down with scanning their own merchandise, and they always have their cart overflowing with stuff. I wonder how this is supposed to save me time. All it seems to do is save them from paying for another cashier.

The trend was at its worst in Amsterdam. I've never seen more automated stuff.

Schiphol may be an airport, but inside it looks more like a high-end shopping mall. I don't like malls, but I do like gadgets, so I was torn. Yet everything there was really expensive. I can't afford for an iPod even if comes from a vending machine.

Ah here's a pleasant memory, I blame a vending machine for getting me to smoke. I remember being sixteen and making up a lame excuse to get out of the house, "We're out of milk."

I would make a side trip to the Day's Inn and their hidden away vending machine. It was too me almost like a special ops mission. Of course when I was doing this in Madisonville, KY in 1992. It was legal at 16 for me to buy tobacco. The next year they changed the law to restrict it to 18, but even when I could legally buy in a store, I didn't. I think I was just insanely paranoid that somehow the store clerk would tell my mom.

I lost it.

Lost in Translation.

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I had a date in Tangier, Moracco last week. No, it wasn't with a woman in a burka. I'm talking about the fruit.

It was sweeter than I expected, but I liked it nonetheless. As for the rest,it was as expected, full of cliches. I was particularly taken aback by how pervasive the religous Islamic influence felt. I suppose it's easy for people in a poorer country to succomb to the influence of religion. Sigh.

So when it came time to leave the hookas behind, I found out that my boat was broken and I had to travel on the much slower, bigger ship. Three hours later, I arrived back in Spain.

Now here's one thing Moraccans aren't very good at. Lining up.

Instead of a nice orderly line for customs, everyone just crowded together with their ill-formed baggage of taped-up boxes and bags.

While standing jam-packed in this mess of people. A third custom official started taking passports. A Moraccan woman, who was trying to be helpful, insisted that I get in that line. "That's for the European's."

Now, I said "Not European, American."

She kept nodding her head and said, "American's too."

So I worked my way through the people and finally made my way to the official, who looked at my passport. "American, you need to be stamped."

So back into the crowd I went. Having just lost my place, I took it pretty well. So I stood there a while and resigned myself to a long wait... patience is a virture.

I kept paying attention to the custom's officials. They were being very intense. They were staring long and hard at the Moraccan's passports.

After a while, I started hearing this strange noise. It sounded like someone was getting beaten, Rodney King style.

The crowd of Moraccans was getting restless. I head people yelling in Spanish, "What's going on?" Then I saw a man and a woman arguing with the officials while the screams of the recipient of the beating grew louder.

I heard another person yell in Spanish, "Is this democracy?" I feared the crowd was about to become an uncontrolled mob.

Needless to say, the officials had stopped taking passports. Two men were taken away in handcuffs. They waited five minutes for the crowd to calm down before they stated proccessing more people.

As I went to hand the official my passport, he didn't take it. He just waved me through. Membership has its priviliges.

But I swear, I think I saw a look of embarrasment on his face as I passed.

PS: Spain holds 20 'Iraq recruiters'

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This morning I woke up to the sound of thunder.

I'm terrified of lightning. I think it goes back to when I was a little kid. I was maybe eight years old and I saw it strike about twenty feet from me. The bolt hit metal and sparks flew everywhere. It made an impact.

The thing about lightning is that you never know exactly where it's going to strike. But I know it kills people. They don't expect it, never see it coming. They also say that it never hits the same place twice.

I've seen lightning strike the same place twice, during the same storm.

It was after a little league baseball game. My team went to the local Pizza Hut to celebrate our latest win, or more likely loss.

A storm came up and lightning hit the pole, between the Pizza Hut and the Minit Mart. The power went out as I was playing the Shinobi arcade game. Left in the dark, for only a couple of minutes, as lightning hit the exact same pole. What are the odds of that?

It was one of those electric poles with the transformer on it. Strangely, the electricity from the bolt, powered back up the Pizza Hut. The lights came back on, but only for a second, then faded out. Then the Minit Mart's lights came on, but likewise, only for a couple of seconds. The power alternated back and forth between the two businesses for a minute or so, each time fading a little bit each time, until it was gone.

Is this like love? Or baseball? What were the different bases again?

It reminds me of the only home run I ever got. It was a comedy of errors. It had nothing to do with me, I should have been thrown out at first base.

I can't predict the future exactly, but sometimes I can make a good guess. It scares me, how often my worst fears turn out to be true. I know it's an irrational fear, but lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, now does it?

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Anyways... onto my reviews.

The new Supergrass album is not bad, but its not great. That's okay because I have never expected greatness from this band. To me, Supergrass is just simple, basic Brit rock. I mean this album sounds just like their last three, but I liked their last three, and Im okay with that. I love me some basic Brit rock. They have found their niche and it works for them. Give the track "Low C" a listen it's my favorite.

The Flaming Lips have a new song out and sadly Im unimpressed. The new song off the Wedding Crashers soundtrack "Mr. Ambulance Driver" is not bad; its just not great. This one is supposed to be off their upcoming new album, Im just going to have to reserve judgment until I hear some more tracks. I have such high expectations for The Flaming Lips and it wouldnt be fair for me to make a rash judgment. Besides all is well, overall in the lips dept. the new DVD documentary, The Fearless Freaks kicks ass. Wayne really does come off as some sort of Willy Wonka in charge of the music factory.

The new Our Lady Peace single "Where are you?" sucks worse than worst song off their last really sucky album, I didnt think that was even possible. Its so bad that I really dont feel like defending their earlier stuff after this. I should have seen this coming after Mike Turner left the band. Yet even though they suck as much as they do now, I still hold some sort of morbid fascination. Its more of a character study, or a religious study, than a musical study. The lead singer, Raine went through some sort of religious crisis, and Mike played the part of cool scientist. This combination of the questioning Christian and the at odds scientific, atheist type made for some really insightful lyrics, and besides Mike was a much more original guitarist than this new guy. But Mike and Raine came to a head, and the lead singer got born again and Mike got kicked out. So, I understand what happened, but how can I now defend a band that now really, really wants to be like Creed? I cant. Damn, this band is doing more than than selling out.

On a happier note, one new album that I love comes from The New Pornographers. I absolutely love, love, love the track,"The Bones of an Idol", and the title track "Twin Cinema" is also pretty good, but I can really tell that there has been a bit of a shake up in their lineup on that one.

My favorite new music discovered lately is The Kaiser Chiefs. I've got to give props to James for this one, because his lollapolloza review made me pick this one up.

As for TV, I'm on episode #16 of Lost. I love this show. I'm totally hooked.

and that is that...

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2:11 AM - sex and improbability

I looked it up and it's called Statistically Improbable Phrases. What they do is run the book through a computer and pick out which phrases are the most unique then find other books that also contain that same unusual combination of words. For example, the term "monogont rotifers" appears eight times in one book, five in another, and so on.

The whole point is that they just want to sell you another book. Having nothing better to do, I just kept clicking away from one SIP to another. Now it is possible that I just have sex on my mind, but somehow I think that's improbable. That sort of web surfing is done in private and not on amazon.com. Yet, the links kept becoming more and more graphic.

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
Sex and Death in Protozoa: The History of Obsession

and so on until I came to a very adult book.

Look closely at the Statistically Improbable Phrases of that last title. Those are the type of unique phrases that are more closely associated with STD's instead of merely being SIP's.

I guess I should be thankful that it didn't end up on my recommendations list.

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Yet, there were a few gems, I found several old mix cds that were just as forgotten. Some were unlabeled, others merely had a date inscribed, but they spanned from the very late nineties to 'ought two.

Stop, Grammar Time!

Now, I ought to just say 2002 instead of 'ought two, but understand that I'm a little bit drunk and just trying to be funny. I know I'm not. Wait, is that spelled aught-two? Shit.

Anyways, I gave the mix cds a listen last night. It was strange. So much reminiscing about those whom I made these cds for. Several were intended to be given to certain girls, ones that I had a crush on at the time. Of course, none of the mix cds ever did anything to help my love life. They never do, but I kept making them anyhow. I'll never learn.

Seriously, how can a mix cd containing the long sought William Shatner cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", not bring in the chicks? Yeah, I know... I'll never learn.

Stop! Grammar Time.

Do I put song titles in (parenthesis), "quotation marks", or italics? Maybe, it's bold or perhaps underlined? Fuck me... I don't know... and I refuse to look it up right now.

Damn, I'm getting drunker. I used the 'grammer time' joke twice already... lame-oh.

So, I gave these old cds a listen and I was overwhelmed with sadness. A quick check of my computer told me that I still had all these songs on my hard drive. Hmm, now I'm not one to advocate the destruction of information, but this was personal... and I still had all the songs already saved.

I gathered up about four of the worst offenders, picked up my glass of Suntory, (thank you, Jason) and headed for the kitchen.

In the microwave they went, memories of playlists and lost loves, lost in favor of a cleansing fireworks display, lasting about only five seconds.

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