Stop the World!

. . .I want to get on.

Listening: Sarah Harmer.
Feeling: Sick as a dog.
Wishing: you weren't there.

Rent Dodging.

So tonight I saw two movies, Stealth (out of occupational obligation) and Guess Who.

A preview of Rent was the first thing on both of them. Now, I've got nothing against broadway musical-to-movie conversions. I happen to like them, and I'm looking forward to seeing Rent. But could you get more off-genré? What do I have to watch in order to not see a preview of Rent, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree? Debbie Does Dallas? What?

Google needs to start selling their adsense program to the people that make preview placement decisions.

Quote of the moment [paraphrased, from Stealth]: "You're supposed to be the future. And the future is not allowed to act this way!"

You Know What They Say. . .

"Cold Hands, Warm Heart"

No wonder my hands are always warm.

Sick and Well

Woke up sick yesterday. Started consuming Vitamin C tablets and Calcium like they were mana from heaven. My parents decided the easiest thing to do for food as we left town at 11am (since none of us had eaten) would be pizza, which was oh-so-healthy and certainly did loads of good for my already faltering immune system.

When I got back I took more Vitamin C (rough estimate of amount consumed yesterday: 14,100% of the daily recommended value) cleaned up a bit, tried to catch up on my internet reading (if you can call trolling the various Flickr . Babe . Blogs for future photography inspiration "reading") and crashed after watching Bloody Mallory, which is now on my bottom ten "worst movies ever made" list, probably between Armageddon and Godzilla.

I spent the rest of the night in an odd sort of haze. I woke every hour or two, and had one long continuing dream that kept re-working itself each time I would fall back asleep. Thankfully by late morning I had abandoned the sleeping habits of the infantile and slept three hours in the last stretch, which also erased any memory of the details of my absurdly compelling dream. Handy.

Today I cleaned up a bit around the house (the kitchen, mainly), watched Steamboy this morning (It is good solid Anime. If I had to come up with a motto for it, I would say "Steamboy - It's better than Akira!") and then went for a walk through my neighborhood, something I haven't done in a long time. Now I'm off to clean the rest of the house, and prep for dinner and a movie with an old friend--Goth Girl, the webmistress of Whimsicorical.com.

Merry Christmas

And so on.

I could write a long and pungently eloquent Christmas salutation for you all, but I won't. If you're especially Scroogesque, you may consider that my christmas gift to the world.

Happy Holidays.

What did you expect?

Surely not an outpouring of public debate and discussion? After all, I have 4 daily readers, and one of them is visiting me right now so I know she isn't checking it.

My life has become quite lethargic as Christmas approaches. The holiday is now too close to do anything meaningful, too far away to instill panic. I've already done all of my shopping save one, and the vast majority of my giving as well. Just a small Christmas eve celebration, then a nice relaxed Christmas day, and it's all finished up nicely.

I've started getting back into the writing mood, so you might see some fiction here shortly. If so, it might be a continuation of something written earlie, like something from Ashley's story or Danny's Tale. It might be fun to instill a bit of continuity in those pieces.

In the meantime, I'm off to play host for a bit and maybe watch a few movies (yes, at 10AM). Cheerio.

Question of the Day

I felt like making today a question day.

If the world was flat, would you change your daily routine?

For some time belief in the earth's flatness did profoundly influence certain people, namely the sailors who avoided the "edges" of it. But when flatness was disproved, and later the heliocentric nature of the solar system was made plain to us, did it really change our lives? Surely the existences of sailors, airline pilots, and physicists, mathematicians and astronomers are all profoundly influenced by this fundemental shift in our thinking.

But what about your average high school student, bellhop, or waiter? What about doctors, lawyers, and machinists? What about programmers and businessmen?

Is there a breakpoint at which, changes in the nature of our universe become so grandiose that they no longer influence our lives unless we specialize in an area of study and practice that is profoundly influenced by that particular part of the universe?

If the sun were full of Platinum turning into Iron (chemically silly, I know) instead of Hydrogen into Helium, would my garbageman care? Would my ISP technician change when he got up in the morning if the earth spun in the opposite direction?

The factors are massive, important. If any of them were different, on a grand scale EVERYTHING should change. And yet. . . so much of our lives would stay the same.

On the other hand, if the US spoke French instead of English, or didn't observe daylight savings time, or collected taxes in August instead of April. . . all of our lives would change. These self-imposed and often arbitrary factors would change our daily routines. While universal constants that are severely vital to the continued stability of our world just wouldn't.

I've run out of things to say. So I'm going to do something I've never done before.

Discuss.

Out of Practice.

So I wrote a few personal things over my 11 days of traveling, but haven't had the time or energy to write more since. Hopefully I'll find some within the month. I'd like to polish up my writing a bit. There are certainly a lot of stories I could tell.

Random comment of the moment: HP4 is good. If you get the chance to see it in theaters, the visuals are quite worth it.

Returning to rest.

I'm back from my travels. My route was longer than expected, and a few extra items were added to my itinerary, like a funeral and some mathematics lessons for my 80 year old grandfather.

On the way back I listened to part of Crusader's Cross, a James Lee Burke novel about the tumultuous life of an ex-alcoholic, ex-homicide detective from Louisiana.

From it a random quote struck my mind's ear poetically, sounding like a refined version of a message that several of my friends (*cough*80*cough*) have been trying to get across.

"You're a good man, everyone seems to know that except you."

I thought it simultaneously apropos and moderately inaccurate.

"On the Road Again"

Well, not more than 9 days have passed since my employment ended and I'm already off traveling again. This time it's 4 days in Georgia, 1 day in Tennessee, 4 days in Missourri and 2 more days in Tennessee. Perhaps I should start updating The Road again?

In the process I'll be visiting an old flame, helping a brother move, tending a bar for a small office party, attending a dinner party (for which I have baked something scrumptious) enjoying some holiday celebrations in my sister's new home, and seeing grandparents that I haven't seen in a long time. It will be a very busy 11 days.

I will be taking several books with me, as well as a laptop and some notepaper. Perhaps I'll get some writing done. In any case, I'll be back 7 days before Christmas.

Then it's one week of festivities, and then a week of blessed quiet, while my parents tour Switzerland and I undertake the job hunt in earnest. Though most of the places that I'll be contacting will be shut down that week, it will give me time to collect prospects, polish my resume, and brush up on some other needed skills. I am not worried, I figure on having a job by the end of January, and this time, it won't be for chump-change.

Out on a Limb. . .

I haven't done that in a while. It's kindof a high one too. Could be the fall does some damage, could be it teaches me a lesson I haven't learned yet.

In other news, Christmas is progressing well. Thank heavens I got at least one paycheck out of work. Still, with all the costs coming up. . . wow.

Phil: "How much is wow?"
Bob: "Somewhere between Ouch and 'boinnnngngngng'."
Phil: "Wow. . ."

Pride and Prejudice

I saw the movie just this evening, and I have very little to say about the entire affair. Keira Knightley could hold my attention while sneezing, or enduring a cold and a hangover simultaneously, so attempting to wax philosophical about her acting ability (which is prodigious) or good looks (which are stunning) would be rather pointless as I am unapologetically biased.

I will say this though, about the scope and feel of the film:

The film portrays a deep and abiding love for the England of days past--for its nature, its people, its light, its architecture, and its customs, hopes, dreams, and even its inhibitions. If Jane Austen conveyed that same love in the written word with only one half the ferocity and one quarter the eloquence of the film, it is a book worth reading, and I need to procure it post-haste.

Daily?

So, between early this year and October I tried to update daily, (except Sundays) with the notable exception of my trip to europe, when I kept a different blog entirely.

So the question on everyone's fingertips must surely (note sarcasm) be "Will Patrick return to daily updates now that he's not gainfully employed?"

The answer is no. I am now in the mood to be productive. My state of lethargy passed near the end of this summer and though the cold weather is coming on, my hibernation is at an end. I will be making an effort to be busified (either by charity work, school, or a new job) post-haste.

I will, however, be returning to this place primarily to write occasional personal items and more often to hone my writing abilities. In fact, you can expect to see longer, more structured posts (editorials, humour columns, etc.) but probably only once a week at best, and fewer short "woe is me, how my life doth suck! Woe!" entries for the near future.

This will allow me to focus my attention in other things, including some traveling with family and some personal interests of mine (like that hot blonde that stopped calling when I moved to Georgia, rowr).

Cheers,
- Patrick