Comments, please...

I'm thinking of adding the AdSense thingie to my political blog.

I fear adds for mAnn Coulter. However, perhaps that would be an indicator of my open-mindedness. Or at least public open-mindedness. Privately, I can still be a close-minded bastard...

Has anyone done this, or known someone who's done it? Is it worth it?

Racism is a thing of the future

At least the kids are trying, fer cornssake!

Un believably in this day and age, a high school just managed their first "integrated" prom. Some of the white kids didn't go because their parents disapproved. And they still had the "White kids prom" on the side, for those folks who wanted to attend the private prom. Black kids were welcome, but none came.

Gee, I'm all surprised...

School bullys. Racism. Talk of "sissification".

No wonder people go on shooting rampages. Not that I condone that sort of thing, but if we still hold fast to that which is rotten, how can we ever get a handle on some of these really deep-seated psychoses? Is it just easier? Are we truly that unevolved?

Sorry - undesigned...

If God is so wonderful, why did he give us the capacity for such hatred? Such ignorance? Perhaps he prefers us ignorant. His hard-core followers certainly seem to. Talking vegetables indeed! It's shame that the talking vegetables are more articulate than some people. Try this little magazine, which is apparently very popular amongst the Christ-tween set.

Yes, people have beliefs and one should respect those beliefs. It's not even about beliefs any more, it's about dogma, ritual, specifics. How tall is God? How hard does Satan really work to tempt his minions? Does he have to work that hard with Pat Robertson and his law college? Or Oral Roberts and "call me home"?

How many angels would even want to dance on the head of a pinhead?

A wholly owned subsidiary of me...

"Mark Levinson is a Registered Trademark of Harman International Industries."

Really, he is.

The Lexus website offers the Mark Levinson audio package (as part of a larger package which includes Collision Avoidance, Radar enhanced Cruise Control, etc.). As part of the description of the Mark Levinson audio portion of the extra $x,000 pile of cash you'll have to fork over to get one of these very pretty cars, this little line (above) of throwaway legal verbiage is included.

Which gets me thinking. or not

So Harman owns him? Do they own his name? His abilities? Everything he touches?

How does his wife (assuming he has one) feel about this ownership thing? Does she only have access to a percentage?

Looking at Luxury Cars (which I rarely do - it's more of a "damn I'm jealous of other people with money" thing than a more enlightened "who needs that pile of status" attitude), I begin to wonder about the whole concept of skilled labor, or in this case, super-skilled labor. To be so skilled in one aspect of existence that someone can actually Trademark your name, your skill, your style. I seem to remember Tom Waits suing Pepsico for stealing his vocal/musical style for an ad without his authorization. I also remember wondering, "so no one else can sound like Tom Waits without paying royalties?" Creeeeeepy.

It's not like the Les Paul series of Signature guitars are actually made by Les Paul. He's getting a little old to be cranking out that many guitars in his garage anymore. He just signs 'em. Sorta...

I need to develop such a skill, but I have to wonder what it would be. Something desirable, high-paying, peculiar to the tastes of the wealthy (or at least those with a very active credit history).

Not sex, obviously. My wife won't even pay me for that. (and yes, I've asked)

I used to fashion high-end bondage gear, but it was very time-consuming, and one can only nail in rivets in so many different configurations before you run out of the mathematical permutations, and then how unique can you be? And human bodies only bend so far in any individual direction so...

Then I think - couch surfing! Perhaps I can be an IKEA couch-certifier. Only I watch TV in the way that I do, while eating and drinking, in my slippers and underwear, and I can be certain to be the worst thing that will ever happen to a sofa. stEn's Butt certified, a registered Trademark of the IKEA corporation! All my food and beer would be a write-off, as necessary tools of my profession!

No. I need something more creative. I need something that says "stEn" without requiring "stEn" to be there for every minute of its creation. Specifically something that will make me lots of residuals, but that won't make me cringe if I ever see it in the street. I don't want to be ashamed for foisting some piece of crap off on an unsuspecting public with my name glued to it in shiny, faux-metal plastic letters.

Personally, I'm mostly sorry I didn't think of the whole Flying Spaghetti Monster thing first.

Going, going, going...

CRAZY!

Remodeling. I have friends who have done this sort of thing. Now I'm looking at the problem and there's too many notes.

We're getting the house jacked up (slightly).

The front porch needs to be overhauled.

Then the windows need replacing.

Then the plumbing. (PEX?)

Possibly a new water heater.

A new oil furnace.

Old drywall (of some sort) and wood paneling removed and re-drywalled. The ceiling, too.

A parking pad in the backyard.

Three trees removed.

A hedge installed (100' of it!).

A fence in the backyard. With a gate.

A new walkway to the front door.

A new walkway from the back door.

Some of which I can do myself, except that I never seem to have time.

Plane rides with eeek!

Another trip, another trippy experience. This time, from Seattle to New Jersey to Salt Lake to Sacramento to Seattle.

In three days.

50 people unwrapping a snack.

Folks next to me yelling things like "peeing in public" or "do I need to loan you some Trojans?"

Whatever happened to "indoor voice"?

I'm lost in Clinton, New Jersey, and thankful I got a lousy car from the rental agency, because I'd be expecting to get carjacked. OH MY GOD! I'm a f**king racist after all. Just because they're black and possibly not living quite as well as you do, does NOT make these people criminals. Not all of them, anyway.

Jeebus...

Anyway, perhaps it was the fact that it was taking me over an hour to get to my hotel (situated less than a quarter mile from the airport), thanks to a single wrong turn on my part. Yes, it was my fault, but dammit, I'm a victim of improper sign-posting (no, not really), and poor directions from Hertz (well, sort of). So I got to the hotel just in time to go to the bathroom for an HOUR.

Then, bad food followed.

Next day, walk through a warehouse, staring intently at girders and wires, then run to the airport for the next flight. To Salt Lake, then to Sacramento. And they gave me a Mustang convertable (wooo hoo!). Nice ride if you have a lot of driving to do, which I did that day.

Stuck in the airport again, this time with only a Gordon Biersch(itt) and a magazine stand for food. I had the sausage. (and a LOT of beer - how else do you kill four hours in an airport?).

WHERE ARE THE SALTED PEANUTS?!

Say what again...

Bad blogger, no biscuit!

We just had our employee agreement meeting today, in which I learned that I could not say anything bad about the company I work for, nor any of its employees, directors, officers, etc., in this blog space.

We also found out that if we're on Medical Marijuana, and we test positive for it. out on yer ass! Even if a doctor has said we should have it. (because it's against "federal law")

Hmmm.......

I guess I won't mention where I work. Of course, everyone I know knows where I work. And some of my coworkers read this blog (you know who you are). And some of them are dorks (you know who you are).

Actually, the main reason I stay where I am is the people. The work itself has never been terribly inspiring, and there are definitely days when I feel as if all I am is a giant rubber-stamp (giant because of the weight problem, really). But my coworkers are generally very decent people with a mostly twisted sense of humor.

Higher up the food chain, there is what I would call a lack of transparency. Decisions are made and no one knows quite why. They show you how decisions get made, but usually only well after the fact. Some times they claim they asked for suggestions (and if you're in town and get your e-mail in time, you'll find out); some times the suggestions are based on "informal interviews with particular managers". Ahhhh, the silent minority.

Outside of it all, I am pretty happy. The house is still too small, the cats still too... insane. The yard large, imposing, and there's always the sense of where the hell do you start? I mow the lawn. Occasionally, I water the lawn. I take out the trash. Soon I will have to dig out and level a large area in the back for a parking pad. We're looking at jacking up the house to accomodate potentially a new foundation. I also need to replace the old stairs and the little walkway behind the house leading to the basement door. I'm working on a film shot in French, which is mostly getting decent reviews by everyone who's seen it. The feature version is soon to be into shooting.

And meanwhile I am studying Kant, Mill, Aristotle and dwarf-tossing.

Is, too...

Kant, mustn't, won't.

I (have already mentioned this) am in college again, or near it, or something. How do you describe an experience that feels just like work, without the attendant lectures, seminars, hot angry discussions, etc? No cheerleaders either. So last week it was Aristotle and Nichomachean ethics. This week it's Immanuel Kant and a Grounding for a Metaphysics of Morals.

oy..............

Normally, once our professor begins the week with a reading assignment (usually some contemporary or near-contemporary news story), even if they haven't done the reading yet, everyone weighs in with both feet in the discussion forums, yakking about The Golden Mean, or whether gambling can be considered an ethical act by Aristotle's standards, etc.

This week - zilch. No one is saying nothin'. I can understand why. We've been given a simple text by Immanuel Kant (who uses one very long word where eight short ones would do - apologies to Len Deighton) and an article about a European Union MP who wants to ban dwarf-tossing. But mostly it's about a particular dwarf and the pub owner who gets him tossed every night of the week. But the reading... Jeebus... from what I can tell, Kant was a rather dull fellow (you could set your clock by his daily walks) and a major effing egotist to boot. From what I'm reading, it's like he's thought this stuff up and has to write it down, and then proclaims himself an authority on this particular thing because he has arrived at these conclusions by using Pure Reason. And as I'm reading it, I keep thinking:

Spock Spock Spock

Not that Kant is wrong in his conclusions (who the hell am I to say that anyway, I've barely read the one little volume?), but damn. Lighten the f**k up a little! I can't tell if he thinks that art in and of itself is a good thing (as it is not derived from pure reason). He does mention that now that many types of labor (including the arts) have been divided between various skilled craftsmen that excellence is a more likely result than when one person tries to do everything, and bungles the job. I guess he's never worked on a government project...

The one thing that struck me that I thought interesting was the idea of Universal Law. Basically, don't do anything unless you think it would be a good idea if everyone did it. Do not make it a law for yourself, unless you think everyone should obey that law. It's not the Golden Rule deal "do unto others..." etc. It's more like, if everyone did it, would that be a good thing for everyone (including you)?