WTF Just Happened?

Do you ever have times where you find yourself saying "WTF just happened here?" (Or, if you're cognizant of it at the time, "WTF is happening here?") I have had the strangest weekend I can remember. So, Friday night I go over to a party/event some friends of mine are having at a local club (The Blue Monkey is very nice place, btw.) One of my friends was DJing there that night and he dragged me onto the dance floor after his set, even though I do not ordinarily dance. It appears wine and mixed drinks lower that inhibition. :-) Anyway, on the dance floor I meet Crazy Drunk Girl, who is doing some, ah, dirty dancing. After a short period of time I get the impression CDG is into me, which is reinforced by her taking my hand and directing me to follow her. Cool, thinks I, I've never picked up/been picked up by someone in a bar in my life. Turns out she wants to get a butt outside, but doesn't have any on her. After running into a couple of people who are not 100% polite in their refusal to give her a cigarette, she morphs into Belligerent Crazy Drunk Girl. I become somewhat concerned that she's going to get in a fight with some of these guys and with her safety in general since it becomes clear to me now that she is three sheets to the wind and I *sigh* take it upon myself to make sure she gets home safely. We go to another bar, because she has soured on the previous bar and needs a cig and a drink. Closing time comes around quickly, fortunately and I endeavor to get CDG back to her place. Turns out she can't really go back to her place that evening and could she please stay with me? *sigh* And so it begins.

So we take a cab back to my work (where my car is) because she's not up to walking that far. In the parking garage she morphs again into Crazy Drunk Girl With Problems. I won't elaborate, except to say there was a lot of crying and none of it was my fault (or hers, as far as I can tell). So, anyway, I get her back to my place, get some food, water, and advil into her, get her some tissues, and get her into bed, after reassuring her some more that no harm will come to her from me.

So, the next day, strangely enough, CDG has become merely Hungover Girl. We hang out for a while and I'm thinking I can take her back to her place now that it's daytime and all. So at this point I find out that the family friend she's been staying with for the past few months is kicking her out November 1 (Yes, in two days) and she has no one around here to stay with and no way to get to anyone who would let her stay with them and no money to speak of. She does have a friend in SD who will let her stay there, but he can't afford to get her there either. So, I offer to buy her a bus ticket to SD, since I have this thing about wanting people I know (however briefly, it seems) to stay off the street. So, long story short(er), I take her to the mall to get some new clothes and sundries, take her to The Grudge (which was still entertaining on the 2nd (3rd if you count Ju-On) viewing), feed her some more, and get a Greyhound ticket for Sunday morning.

So, I got up super early (earlier than I had to, because I am a dumbass and set the clock forward an hour, not back an hour, because I really didn't want her to miss her bus), took her by her Aunt's place where she got her stuff and some really bad news about a loved one, took her to the station, gave her some seed money, and sent her on her way to beautiful Southern California and hopefully a better life. All her worldly possessions fit into one medium sized suitcase.

After I saw her off I had this powerful WTF sense overtake me. And I was tired. It felt like 3-4 days had been compressed into 36 hours. I think I did a good thing, but I'm kinda paranoid, so I had this fear I was getting played. I guess if I make the assumption that everything is what it seems it is, then I did what needed to be done. Well, what I needed to do, anyway. Anyway, very weird weekend, didn't really do anything I planned on doing, but an interesting experience, nonetheless.

Weird synchronicity...

I'm practicing guitar and this video (quicktime) comes on. And it's totally mesmerizing to me. The way his hands move over the strings. I guess if you're playing guitar it's not that interesting. But I got the feeling that the universe was trying to tell me something. Right now the universe is telling me to get some sleep.

[WMV version]

Civic Duty

Well, I went through the ballot and did my civic duty last night. Now I just have to throw this puppy in the mail. Vote by mail is awesome!

Red Sox Win World Series

In a related story, Four Horsemen have been sighted on the horizon.

I am one F chord away

...from being able to play the rhythm part House of the RIsing Sun. Filthy F chord! It hurtses us!

One Down, One To Go...

Wish I had seen SNL last weekend. Evidently during musical guest Ashley Simpson's second set, the song from the first set started playing, clearly unnerving Ms Simpson, who did some odd dance steps for a few seconds, then left the stage. Oops. Pop star gets caught lip synching. Well, it can't hurt one's too badly, right? Just ask Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. Video can be found here. (Windows Media)

American Conservative Editors Mostly Against Bush

Wow, how screwed can you be when your conservative peeps come out against you in their magazine? About conservatism. In the November 8 issue of American Conservative Magazine, Bush could not even get a plurality of the right wing editorial board to endorse him. In fact, only Patty-patty-buke-buke (aka Pat Buchanan) endorsed him and then only because he found Bush mostly detestable, while he found no merit in Kerry. One editor endorsed Kerry so as to avoid a meltdown within the GOP. The rest of the editors either endorsed candidates from other parties (Nader? Nader?!?!) or no one at all. I was surprised at their hatred of Bush's subordination to the neocons in his administration. His own people think he's betrayed their principles. Now, I don't believe in their ideologies, but I guess it's true how politics makes strange bedfellows. Ewww, get Pat out of my bed, ewwwwww!!!!

Pumpkin Party 2004 - Pix

Pumpkin Party 2004 pix are available here. Trogdor went about as well as could be expected. Strongbad was great. GWB Monkey was excellent, but Charlie Manson was the surprise winner. Well, of the lit up pumpkins, anyway. The spiderweb pumpkin is pretty out of control, I imagine.

Yes! Yes! Yes! - Homestar Runner Pumpkin Stencils!!!!

I know what I'm bringing to the Pumpkin Party tomorrow! Dibs on the Trogdor stencil! [stencils here]

You Known You're From Maine When...

• You've made a meal out of a Jordan's red dye hot-dog, a bag of Humpty Dumpty potato chips and a can of soda.
• You know not to plant tender crops until the last full moon in May.
• "Salt damage" is a viable insurance claim.
• More than 1/2 the meat in your freezer is moose.
• You use "wicked" as a multipurpose part of speech
• You eat ice cream with flavors like 'Moose Tracks" and "Maine Black Bear".
• All year long you're tracking sand in the house-from the beach in the summer and the roads and sidewalks in the winter.

More here. Had to post this. Felt obligated.

We called it "swamp cow" at our house, btw. ;-) Oh, and you're not from Maine unless you were born there. Otherwise you're just another flatlander "from away."

Man Wears Cocaine Shirt To Drug Trial

A Hong Kong man got scolded by the judge at his trial for ecstasy possession for wearing a shirt that read: Cocaine. Demonstrating a pattern of poor decision making, evidently. No, he did not beat the rap. [article]

Norwegian Prisoner Hires Stripper

A Norwegian prisoner brought in a stripper to "improve morale" among the prisoners at their monthly culture night. The woman managed to get completely nude before guards took her offstage. I am guessing Norwegian prisons are a lot less violent than American prisons. [article]

Open Mic Night At Cafecito

Ok, my friends, Cafecito the coffee joint at Iguana's (my favorite taqeria in SJ) has open mic night on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:30-11:30pm. It's "open to all poets, musicians, & singers". That is all. Oh, and have a Mexican Mocha. You'll be glad you did.

Hot Lying Girls!

Need hot girls to lie to you about the war in Iraq, John Kerry's plans, or any number of political issues? Then check out Lie Girls. Or call 212-875-7000. I think Flag Waving is extra. And don't forget Poland!

Note To Self

Drink a lot of beer or eat chili based foods, not drink a lot of beer and eat chili based foods.

Note to GI Tract: I'm sorry. Please come home. All is forgiven.

Note to Sox: Good work! Now don't screw this up!

Thank God I Live In A Democracy

And not some God-forsaken third world country where they have shady electoral processes (more here), people selling registrations for drugs, or defective voting processes. Or registering people for the wrong party under false pretenses. No, even astronauts get to vote in my blessed 'merica.

Well, at least voter registration is up. Hopefully even for real people. Who know they are registered. For the party they think they registered for.

Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter

Weird that I got up so early (well, 8am is pretty early for me) this morning. The wind has been blowing all night, so I don't think I slept all that well. And it's raining out, which usually induces drowsiness. Got up, crawled out of bed. Couldn't find any cats. Which is weird, because I have more than one. Finally located them under the chair in the living room. It was so cute, just like they were kittens again. Wish I could have gotten a picture. I wonder if there was thunder that I slept through last night or if they were just cold. Probably the latter. Between the guitar and the stereo, I don't think loud noises faze them much any more. Although sudden noises <looks at scratches on arm>, those are a different story. Wish I could go back to bed, but I have places to go, people to meet, blahblahblah. Where's that coffee?

From the WTF Files...

A 25 year old man buried a 14 year old pregnant girl alive in Massachusetts in hopes that the boyfriend of the girl would kill someone for him. What. The. Fuck. <shakes head> [article]

Jon Stewart Tells Crossfire What He Thinks About Them

Wow
Don't think he'll be back on their show any time soon.

Welcome Zane Tyler Hearst

Congratulations to David and Nancy on your new son!

What The???

There's drops of moisture falling from the sky. How curious.

It was a year ago today

That I found out I was getting laid off. How time flies when you're having fun. But I'm not bitter, thankfully.

Yay! Goodies!

A box of DVDs showed up at my door last night. I'm going to have a busy weekend, hee hee! (Had to watch Star Wars episode IV last night. That sure wasn't made in the 70s, uh uh.)

New York AG Halts Sale of World Trade Center Silver Dollars

If you watch late night TV like I do, you have probably have seen the ads for the Silver dollars released to collectors, made of .999 pure silver found on the site of the Twin Towers after 9/11 and authorized by the federal government. Well, according to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. they aren't federally approved and they're silver plated. Of course, even if all their claims were true, this would still be in terrible, terrible taste in my opinion; making mementos out of the suffering of others. Anyway, he's got a court order to stop the sale of these things. Nice to see there's some decency left in this Rotten Ole World. [article]

No One Knows

Heaven smiles above me
What a gift here below
But no one knows.

The gift that you that give to me
No one knows.

Christopher Reeve Goes To Phantom Zone

The actor best known for playing Superman and advocating research for spinal cord injuries after he broke his neck while horse riding has passed away at 52. [article]

Anti-Kerry Film to Run In Prime Time

The Sinclair Group, a company that owns a number of TV affiliates throughout the country, plans to run a propaganda piece documentary about John Kerry and how he let POWs down through his antiwar activities after he left Vietnam. This is the same company that ordered its TV stations to not run a Nightline that listed the names of the Iraq war dead (ours of course, we aren't even counting enemy casualties AFAIK). I'm sorry, wasn't there something about equal time on TV during election years? Or did that law get thrown out too? [article]

Team America: World Police

Saw the sneak preview of this last night. I was a little concerned, because I saw the trailer and was not super amused by it. The first few minutes of the movie are pretty much like the trailer. Then the movie becomes funny. Very, very funny. I saw puppets doing things I have never seen puppets do before. It's debatable as to whether I should have seen them doing some of these things, but there you have it. And the songs are hilarious! Much funnier than the South Park songs. Definitely worth at least one viewing.

JibJab At It Again

The folks who brought us the This Land Is Your Land parody strike again with Good to Be In D.C.

Awwww

Kitties are so cute. More Zotty cuteness.

Archaeologists Think They've Found Khan

A team of archaeologists thinks it has found the long hidden tomb of Genghis Khan, the mongolian warlord who united his peoples and created a giant Eurasian empire in the 13th century. [article]

Man Pours Gas Down Toilet, Causing Blast

A Utah man came home from lunch to find gas leaking from his car. He decided to dispose of it in his toilet. Unfortunately, the pilot light of the water heater ignited the fumes of the gas, destroying the toilet. He was able to get out of the house before the fire spread. Hello? Dumbass? Gas floats on top of water, remember? [article]

Gelb Music Sale

Hmm, Gelb Music is having a private sale tonight from 6pm - 11pm. I may go check that out if I have a spare second. I can take three friends, if anyone wants to go. They have prizes. :-)

Stare Closely...

Another goodie stolen from Evan's blog. A lot of good stuff there, especially political articles.

Coolest. Invite. Ever.

Voter Guide: 165 Pages(!)

I got my Voter Information Guide today and it's 165 pages long! Man, this is like being back in school again. I'm going to have build a study plan before I vote this year!

Adios Rodney

Rodney "No Respect" Dangerfield passed away Tuesday at the age of 82. He had been in a coma following heart surgery. He emerged from his coma, kissed his wife, smiled for the doctors and expired. I think that's a pretty classy way to go. Hope he's getting some respect wherever he is now. [article]

Mmmm, PF Chang's

I had a great time tonight at PF Chang's in Sunnyvale, where I got treated to a great time by a bunch of my friends. Life is good and so are Dan Dan Noodles. <slurp> I even got dessert with a candle in it. Now I need to drag my ass to bed to hibernate for six months, or whenever it is I need to get to work by.

Position Playing

So I spent some time practicing the guitar this afternoon, working mostly on position playing. Position playing is when each fretting finger is responsible for a specific fret (this is for playing individual notes, not chords). E.g. in first position, your index finger goes over the first fret, your middle finger goes over the second fret, your ring finger goes over the third fret, and your pinkie goes over the fourth fret. You move your hand in position across the neck to play particular strings on for a given fret. This style of play has the advantage of not having to change the shape of your fingers.

Hopefully I will not end up hating Ode to Joy by the time I'm done with this. (In first position that starts out as: 1,0-1,0-1,1-1,3-1,3-1,1-1,0-2,3,-2,1-2,1-2,3-1,0-1,0-2,3-2,3 where 1,0 is high e, open string. It's supposed to sound like this.)

Jack Daniels Lowers Proof of Old #7, Angers Drunkards

Evidently Jack Daniels has lowered the proof of their Old #7 Whiskey from 86 proof to 80 proof. This has angered Modern Drunkard Magazine who has organized an online petition against JD. I am not making this up. As JD is one of my favorite liquors, I view this change as somewhat sacrilegious. [article]

Orgasmic Trivia

Another interesting article grabbed off of Evan's Blog. Some bits of trivia:

• Longest recorded orgasm: 43 seconds
• Most orgasms recorded for a woman in an hour: 134
• Most orgasms recorded for a man in an hour: 16
• 40% of women report having sex dreams that result in orgasm

I guess women are better than men at some things. :-)

Semen Allergy?

So I saw this article over on Evan's Blog and my first reaction, was No Way! But after googling around, I found that a small percentage of women are allergic to semen. Yow! See for instance, this article. And I thought my sex life was messed up.

Ok, Summer's Over

The Angels just won the AL West, eliminating the A's, 4-2. :-(

The Forgotten

Went to see this tonight. I found it kind of a mixed bag. It's a thriller about a woman mourning the loss of her son, who suddenly finds her sanity in question. Memories prove slippery, weird people appear to be chasing her, etc. There were some genuinely scary moments in here. The director/cinematographer threw in several shocks that took me by surprise. But something didn't quite grab me, maybe it was the environment*. I guess if you like the X-Files you'd probably like this movie.

* - Note to the stoners who decided to go to the movies tonight. Stay home. The food is cheaper there and your laughter and commentary will be better appreciated there. I couldn't believe the people who were in the audience. I kept thinking: Why are they laughing? Should I be finding this funny?

Gentlemen, I Give You: The Pod!

So last Tuesday I had lunch with Jon, which sadly reminded me of what it's like to not have to go to work every day and to have lunch with a friend on a nice autumn day. Sigh. Oh well. It was pretty fine all around. Anyway, after some eggs, coffee, and delicious Hobee's coffee cake, we made a little trip over to Guitar Showcase to check out stuff, maybe look at the Emily Strange guitar I happen to know that they have there. Anyway, while playing with that (took a pass, this one had a bad pickup switch and I didn't like the pick guard's level of usage) we found a modeling amp to plug it into. Pretty cool. Another goody I found was the Pod. Specifically, a Pod 2.0. The Pod is a combo modeling amp/effects box. It was too cool to pass up, so I got it. It's a lot of fun. Woot.