Bare Naked Ladies

It's been one week since class started, and I can tell you a few things.

1) Science classes don't = hard everytime, particularly organic chemistry.
2) People haven't changed. Most of the girls still wear erector sets, and boys where t-shirts and jeans.
3) Instructors cancel classes at the drop of a hat. I don't understand that.
4) Being a non-traditional student is cool.

I'll expound a bit on that last part. The first time I was in college I had no idea what social group to cling to... I didn't feel like I belonged and I think that damaged my chances a bit. These people were just completely different from me, and it felt awkward. I wound up hanging out with religious nuts because they were funny, and I found one other person to laugh with me.

This time there's a whole gaggle of us. Sure we're different in some ways, but we've got it were it counts... we're old...er. Dang it. We've got the physically disabled/handicapped/challenged, the ancient, the veterans... and we've even got a few that cross all those lines. Single Moms and Dads. All of us look back and spit contempt at the younger generation, cause it's funny. Hey, they do it to us.

And not one of us geezers is in school because, well, that's what you do. We're there to learn stuff. To blaze across the heavens in pure magnesium glory. And our time is shorter.

Pete Townshend

I used to play a game, when I was about 13, with the neighbor kids. I'd tell the 10 year-old whether his older sister was wearing a bra, and whether it clasped in front or behind. I didn't know anyone else that played this game. He'd invariably ask me to prove it.

(Mom, if you're reading this... remember "13 year-old boy")

So I'd approach her, grab the clasp, and [i]twist[/i]. This usually resulted in lots of slapping, and her landing on top of me. I looked at it as a win-win scenario: she got to beat a boy, and I had a cute blond on top of me.

I still pay attention to the status of bras. Call it habit or whatever. I don't bother with front clasps anymore... I figure if it doesn't hook in back, it hooks in front and let it go at that.

Today it rained, and it was my second day on campus. Next to me is a blond, shorter than me... and she's braless. Her shirt is white. We're already in the rain, but it's not buckets of pouring... just wet.

My umbrella arm springs to a position about 3 inches from her face and remains there for the rest of the walk (both of us are going to the Chemistry building). I'm pretty sure she didn't wear that shirt expecting it to rain, and definite that it wasn't for my benefit.

As we parted, she said, "that's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me!"
I responded, "you need to get out more."

But, having read "Medea" this evening, I have the itching feeling I was wrong. And that moment will be the best exposure to humanity that young girl ever gets.

A stranger gets rained on so that she doesn't wind up pert-near naked in Chemistry, and gained nothing by it.

I feel a little sad.

Stupid tragedy.

Bu

The bus.

In a different state, at a different time in my life, all the freaks used the bus. You'd find spiked out punks frenching dogs in the back, while old drunks preach the word at 11 decibels in the front. People with hangovers are in the middle.

This hasn't changed much.

But it does get to be more than that if you pay attention.

Today I met a doctor, a Spaniard, and a man from the Bronx. In small town USA.

Emotion Overload

the Prankster

(47% dark, 30% spontaneous, 15% vulgar)

Sim City

It's hard to review a movie that you haven't seen, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to try.

My brother calls me up this evening with the news: "Sim City is good. Rob old ladies to get the money for this one." As tempting as smacking around an old lady might be, I can't help but wonder if it's that good.

I websearch for "Sin City" and get a few reviews. All favorable.

I websearch for images of "Sin City". It's like looking at a 3D version of the comic book. Sometimes I luck out and the character image is next to that of the actor portraying him. I dunno who played Marv, but that one is nailed.

So critics like it, and it matches the original works graphically - and I like the original works a lot. It's hard not to want to watch this one, save 2 details.

1) It's rated R, probably for mucho violence.
2) There's nakedity in it. Probably not much actual sex, but definitely some nippage. (There's a few pics of Nancy online, and how do you do that without nippage?).
3) I have kids.

So I can't just pop it in the player during the day. And it's money we don't have.

But if you don't have kids, and don't find violence and nakedity objectionable... it's probably a damn good ride.

Al Jolson

I have the greatest respect for old people. To become old, one must live a long time, and that's something to be proud of. Not everyone makes the cut.

Old people serve a valuable function within a community, generally as teachers of wisdom, voices of experience.

So when they corner you in the local Wal-mart and regale you with stories of their cat, you are well within your rights to tell them to say something useful or shut up*.

I hope.

*For those that know I was raised right, what I really did was say "yes ma'am" a lot and wait for her to finish. 45 minutes later I was released from duty.

I killed him...

And the value of this blog continues its slide into the abyss...


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

TMI II, Electric Boogaloo!

Somewhere someone is thinking of you.

Sometimes they're naked.

I know I am.

Friend

Everyone I knew in high school drooled over her. She was new, but she smelled of experience.

It was stupid. None of us could get with her, be with her. Rabbits in love with a tigress. All wrong.

It was always raining when I saw her. Always dark.

Sometimes I miss her.

By the way...

> WARNING

Charlie is radioactive. Wear protective clothing at all times.

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Tradesmith

To assume that all comic books are written for the juvenile market is akin to assuming that all movies are made for the 18-24 male. While it might generally be so, it does not include some of the better works.

Jeff Smith's Bone comes to mind as a universally beautiful work that is deep and should appeal to anyone with a soul. My library has a complete run of his series. The only other body they even come close on is Elfquest. Regardless of some rather dated concepts, Elfquest is astonishing.

Also, if you haven't yet, I demand you get out and read Neil Gaiman's "Sandman". I'm partial to "A Game of You" and "The Doll House" of that series. The writing and art are coupled beautifully.

But writing is art. At least, some of it is. So you face two with each other and you tend to suffer from the weakest of the two. Bad artist? Bad comic. Bad poet? Well, the Statue of Liberty would still welcome immigrants, but who would remember the poem that just said.

"We got your shores,
and your mountains,
and all them countries that don't like you...
we ain't one of them."

Well, okay... it is easier to remember, but hardly worth the trip. And the world has plenty of statues. Giant Buddha, anyone?

Lots of comics have been art-driven... beautiful enough to get snatched off the rack. But without good writing, why come back? How many pictures of half-naked women blasting armored villains do you need?

Sorry, I'm rambling. I love comics. I love the concept of comics and the potential that comics have as an art form. It is wasted sometimes, and caveat emptor on that one. But I'll be damned if I'm happy about it. Or the abuse I hear.

See, this is something... I like to draw. And I like to write.

Instant comic.

Except that I feel embarrassed by the occassional scholastic finger wagging, like I'm wasting my time with such an effort, when I could be doing something "real."

So I sit here and vent, instead of drawing.

>sigh<

Blue and Frank Miller

I'm so disappointed in today's criminals. You'd think that with just a little planning and an SUV, these bums could've gotten away without a hitch. Maybe... just maybe, get caught at the border, which'd be a great reason to hop boats in Florida during hurricane season... only a lunatic or idiot would follow you. Despite what Hollywood suggests, there are few of those on most police forces... of that scale, at any rate.

I'm excited about NASA and the fine work they continue to do. On any frontier there have been losses. Unfortunate as they are, they should not deter us from settling the final frontier. A generation away from settling Mars, baby.

Light reading

Usually, with a title like that, I'd say something about lasers, or optics, or something involving light.

Haha!

I'm actually going to talk about the books I've been reading for a few lines. Mostly I've been reading "Mail Call" lately, something about weapons and the military. I enjoy the book, but it's not exactly deep. Nothing on blood grooves, or how to make a bomb out of those chemical stoves they give you with MREs... nothing practical. Although it does feature at least one exploding watermelon, so it gets an "E" for effort.

I've also been shuffling through a book on the pirates Laffite. Turns out that one of my ancestors was a crewmember, and I'm deeply interested in the criminals in my family that weren't politicians or corporate goons. For the record, I'm also related to the James boys that wandered the American West, but only by marriage (my grandmother's). I don't remember the title of the book, but it's frippin' big. I checked the index already, so I'm thinking there's no reference, but it can't hurt.

From this point on, I digress. Proceed at your own risk.

What I last posted featured an actor by the name of John Kassir. John also portrayed "Zagreb" on HBO's "1st and 10"... one of the few shows that my father and I could watch and laugh at together. Until Delta Burke left. Then my father laughed alone.

But the man has apparently had his day in the sun, so I'll keep my eye on Jeff Kober.

Uch...

This thing is part of my daily dialogue. Probably because video games pretty much defined my youth. The late 70's/early 80's are pretty much a blur of roller skates, Madonna, and feathered hair. But then the NES came out, followed by the breakup of Van Halen (the first break up), and David Lee Roth's solo career, and sometimes I watched "Night Court".

When I wasn't playing "Dungeons & Dragons".

Hmmmm...

A while back I read this article. As one can tell, it involves a rather interesting way of involving both a guy and his S.O. in a game for PS2.

Sadly, not everyone owns a PS2, such as yours truly. But fear not, gamer chicks, help is on the way! Behold the mod for the XBox! Now, with just a little sodery, one can play Halo the way it was meant to be played!

Intelligent Design

So, over at Clew's Blues, Clew rants about a young punk and Bush's right to be a creationist and we voted him in, so just buckle up for the ride, junior.

I sort of agree. If you disagree with an administration's policies, you should say so... maybe even make an appeal to others in hopes that it becomes big enough to concern the policymakers. But it's not like he took the oath and surprised us by becoming Christian all of a sudden. So odds are the majority is okay with that... and whiners are stuck.

But she made mention of a peeve of mine: THEORY. I used all caps for a reason. This came under the whole THEORY of Evolution vs. Creationism, and that, due to Evolution being only a THEORY, we should discount it, or give it very little credence.

F*** that.

Scientific Theory is like rock, baby. Sometimes that rock is talc, such as the lamarkian theory of evolution (notice that one in the text books lately?), but it's put forward and given a serious going over by professional thinkers. I cannot begin to express the value of people like Einstein, whose body of work is considered THEORY, to society. Anyone think those Nuclear Plants are running on Pixie Dust? How about Angel Dust? Hope not.

It is outside the scope of science to determine the presence or lack of presence of an omniscient being that doesn't want to be found out by direct observation... and it's really not the job that science sets out to do. Scientists don't go looking for proof of Oprah, or Trump... why bother?

Science sets forth to determine the natural laws that bind us, or set us free. And give man a framework that can be used to allow us to climb higher.

Feel free to put a "Tower of Babel" reference in the comments. I won't complain.

Thing is... nothing can be proven.

Let that sink in. Nothing. There's a line of philosophy that sets you up as a brain, in a jar, at a lab, with sensations being sent to you, making you believe this is your life. Your body is an illusion. And you can't really disprove it.

Proving that light goes at a certain rate [i]is[/i] provable... but only under ideal circumstances... matter slows it down or stops it. And the speed becomes a variable. It's still fast, but there's little way of knowing exactly how fast.

Prove that gravity exists. Go ahead. Prove that nothing else does it. Nothing else. It's not simply God's will, or a force that pulls things to planets (which is not all that gravity does, lest we forget), nor the work of infinite invisible gnomes.

Prove, mathematically, that your couch exists. Frustrating, isn't it? It takes some serious work. Your couch doesn't exist until you can measure density, by the way. Or can prove that it isn't simply solid light or some bizarre hitherto unknown natural phenomenon. Or the will of God that your butt hover 1.5 feet off the floor with the illusion of a couch.

I'm kind of a science geek, so that's where I'm coming from, and I can only imagine the frustration that Newton would've expressed at having his life's work scoffed as nothing but THEORY. Which it would be under today's guidelines for such things. Nothing is made scientific law anymore.

Christ.

A little something...

I've been directed, indirectly, from the fine people over at Penny Arcade to the warmth that is Something Awful. Although it is not always for the squeamish, I find it interesting. Even valuable. Although not as valuable as Penny Arcade.

Consider, for instance, this.