Went to "Paranormal Activity," that super low-budget film that could and could also scare the crap out of people, and as Harlan and I were in line outside the theater, we noticed a woman with one of those annoying Paris Hilton type dogs stuffed inside her sleeveless jacket walking towards the ticket line. It took us a few seconds to realize that what she was going to try and do was bring the dog into the movie. And not only that, she was going to do it by stuffing the dog into her jacket so that she could close the jacket around the dog and sneak into the theater with the dog so stuffed inside the jacket that nobody would notice about a big bulge coming out of her jacket.

The obvious question is "what the hell is she thinking?" followed quickly by "what the fuck?" Who the hell brings a dog into a movie theater? What is she going to do once she gets in there, let the dog roam free? Keep the dog in her jacket? It might make sense if she were seeing a quiet, thoughtful, indie type movie but my guess is she was there to see your typical blow 'em up movie which I'm sure a dog would love to be present for what with dogs noted love of loud noises. I'm really sure somebody in the audience would love to be unable to hear something due to a dog barking in a movie. Or because the dog was running around and trying to bite your leg.

When I saw her, we were close to handing in our ticket and I thought about saying something. I, of course, did nothing. I did talk about the woman really loud in line but I don't think anybody heard me or even cared. I also thought about telling security but I mainly thought about saying something while in the movie and not even close to a time when anybody could do anything about it. I'm also pretty sure that even those people in the theater who noticed a dog sitting near them didn't say anything. And so a woman who stuffed a dog into her jacket to sneak it into a theater pretty much got away in doing so another line in jackass movie theater behavior has been crossed and Western Civilization moves a little closer to it's end.

Fear of Flying

I am not a good flyer. I'm actually a really bad one these days-- completely anxious, terrified, and doped up on tranquilizers. I haven't had one in awhile, but I have occasionally had a full blown "JESUS CHRIST, I NEED TO GET OFF THIS THING!!!!!" panic attack several times in the past. The thing is, though, that I've flown probably over 100 times in the past, including many long flights overseas, and didn't have a problem. My fear of flying seems to only have occurred in the past five years or so.

Recently I flew back east and while fending off another panic attack, I began to think about my fear of flying and how it's one of the more common fears out there and how there's a good chance that I'm not the only one freaking out. Here's what I came up with:

Okay, say you're on a flight of about 100 people. I'd say that maybe 3/4's of them are perfectly fine and happy, or at least as fine and happy as one can be on a plane flight. That means that maybe a quarter of the people on the plane aren't as fine and happy as the others and are struggling a bit on the plane. A good many of those people are dealing with it through the simple usage of tranquilizers (something shared by many in the plane who are not freaking out) and a few on top of that are using some sort of mental practice/act they learned from somebody (deep breathing techniques, constant thought about puppies) to calm themselves down. Which leaves us with maybe five (?) at the most (least?) who are having full blown, heart pounding, "GET ME OFF THIS THING" panic attacks and are having them throughout most of the flight. So while you're walking up and down the aisle or avoiding the random stranger whose too fat for their seat, just think that there's a slight chance they could be praying to their God at that very moment.

This got me wondering about Flight Attendants and how many times they have to deal with a passenger who is freaking the shit out at various times during a flight. Like they try to get off the flight before it takes off or thinks they're having a heart attack or some other example of bad, bad mental shit going down. Once a flight? Every once in awhile? Once a year? Never? Are Flight Attendants trained in calming people down? Is there anything they can do? Anything they should do? After all, other passengers on a plane are probably not thrilled with sitting nearby a passenger who is screaming out loud about death and crashes. I always wondered if Flight Attendants had valium somewhere on the plane that they whip out for freaked out passengers but was told they didn't for the somewhat logical reason that it could easily lead to law suits if things go down.

Either way, I still hate flying.

I'm Leaving, On a Jetplane....

If you ever want to see an example of the American caste system at work, nothing illustrates it more than taking a trip on an airplane. When most of us have to stand in often long lines to check in, first class passengers get their own special, short line. While we have to muddle on through long security lines and take off our shoes, first class passengers just basically walk through their very own security line where they get waived on through in seconds. What? First class passengers can't be potential terrorists! They're First Class Passengers! Terrorists would never buy an expensive plane ticket to fly somewhere and blow it up! Once past security, we have to spend countless hours walking up and down a dull and dizzying array of bookstores and chain food restaurants to kill time First Class Passengers, however, get to have their very own special lounge where they get to sip mai tais, watch tv, and who knows-- get massages from Thai women in slinky dress. It's hard to know what exactly goes on in those lounges as very often, we can't see them, hidden as they are from the gaze of the unwashed masses.

Then, of course, comes the actual flight. First Class Passengers get to board first and then sit comfortably in their wide and comfortable seats while the rest of us have to sit in the cramped, narrow, tight main cabin where kids run up and down the aisles, food consists of two packs of pretzels, and you have to contort yourself in often unusual positions to keep from getting elbowed by the person next to you. Naturally, this is never seen by the people in First Class as there's usually some sort of drape that gets pulled between the two sections so the First Class doesn't have to worry about having their comfortable, relaxing trip sullied by views of the untouchables. They even have their own bathroom so as to prevent them to have to shit in the same toilets as the rest of us.

And as the plane ride ends and the pilot says his farewells, thanks is given to everyone who flew, but most especially the First Class and Business Class fliers for their blessing the airline with their presence. It is often at this moment that I wonder whether we too should thank the people in the First Class too for blessing us with their presence.

Elevation

I was watching Mad Men and started tripping out on all the people who are depicted in the show as having jobs as elevator attendants-- you know, they open and close the door and push the floor buttons so other, mainly upper-middle class white people, don't have to struggle with reaching forward and pressing something.

What's tripping me out is that at some point in this country, there was enough money in this economy to hire people to do even that crappy of a job. I know it's a pretty silly job and it's not like it's necessarily needed, but somewhere along the line, all the companies that had one decided that it's a cost that needed to be cut. So where and to what did all of that saved money go to? Did it go to create more, better paying jobs? Did it go to give employees better salaries because way back in the 50's and 60's people weren't making enough? Or did it go into profits and bonuses and what not?

Hmmm........I wonder....

Want to Take You To...Shantytown

We were at the Ferry Building last weekend on a nice, somewhat lovely day and after drinking wine and eating bread and cheese, we decided to grab some incredible coffee and head on out into the sunshine, grab a bench, and look out over the Bay. There was a slight problem, however, in that once we stepped outside, we were greeted by a street musician loudly playing in front of everybody so that no matter where you sat, you'd still be able to hear her. Now, this can be all fine and dandy if the street musician was good but in no way, shape or form could this street musician be described as good. Among other things, she played an accordion. And sang along to that accordion badly-- very, very badly-- and sung songs that were completely unknown as they were completely illegible.

Now it is pretty much impossible to make nice, relaxing, beautiful music with an accordion. The only people who like music made from accordions are Pirates and Italian maitre d's in cartoons. Yet this woman took it upon herself to serenade tens of people in a nice, pretty place with a pretty view in front of a nice, somewhat fancy-shmancy shopping thingamabob. A nice, pretty place with a pretty view that, I might add, features outdoor seating for the fish restaurant there. To say this was a buzzkill would be a vast understatement. I should also add that the woman in question was young-ish and flashing the very latest in punk/homeless fashion complete with an assymetrical haircut giving one the impression that this was some sort of punkish maneuver too-- punk being predicated on the belief that anybody could make music, even if they had not a dollop of talent as it's more about attitude and heart than skills and ability. Or it could be some sort of arty/indie musician thing much like the guy in college who thought he was cooler than everyone because he listened to Edith Piaf. And nothing says twee more like an accordion and the kids do love their cutesy, indie, thoroughly annoying twee bands.

So basically, what we have here is an arty, punker, possibly homeless woman with an accordion seeing a bunch of indecipherable songs in front of shoppers, eaters, and resters. And nobody seemed to mind. Or notice. Or say anything. I think.

We walked out and upon seeing her and hearing her, decided to grab a bench far, far away from where she was. I did notice that the benches were a little clearer nearer her than further away from her but not that noticeably and there were still people enjoying a perfectly nice if albeit sonically raped oyster lunch. Did they care? Did the store owners care? Did the taste police care? As we sat there, she went on and on and on so nobody did much of anything for awhile. Was it because we were the only one's to find her music dreadful or were people just too polite to actually bring the fuzz in to stop her? Or was it just that everyone was being totally San Franciscan and thinking that we could say something but that would be a drag, man.

And you know what? As much as she sucked, I still kinda have to give her my props. Girl has balls. Big, bouncy, rock solid balls.

You go, girl. Just not anywhere near me.

Around the Dial

The Giants, who are in a pennant race, are playing their games right now on the east coast so the games take place around the time I go to the gym. I would love to be able to listen to the game at the gym, which would give me more motivation to actually go to the gym, but it's not possible for me to actually do so. Neither the iPod or the iPhone will allow you to listen to the radio, or at least sports on the radio.

The funny thing is that way back in the pre-iEverything days, you could actually listen to the games. Those discmans that you could buy often came with radio presets so you could do things like go to the gym and listen to baseball. Our recent technological doohickies don't have that capability. So, we've somehow gotten to the point where I could be dropped somewhere in Albania and find the closest dim sum place, read reviews about it and get directions to it but I can't do something as basic as listen to a baseball game.

I can, however, get pinged with the final score whenever the game ends which is pretty cool.

Crazy Like a Fox

I'm sure you've heard the story out today that Obama is planning on giving some sort of "stay in school/study real hard/don't spend all day on Facebook" broadcast to all the kiddies on September 8th and all the Conservatives are up in arms in fear that Obama will really say "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains...Workingmen of all countries, unite!" or "The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself." This, of course, is preposterous, insane, stupid, and ignorant to say all of this especially in light of the fact that every President since like, ever (or at least as long as there was video hookup) has done the same thing.

The question, of course, is just what the hell is up with all this insanity we've been seeing over the summer? Have conservatives officially gone full-retard? Or is it all some sort of nefarious plot?

It's a plot

Here's what I think is going on- Conservatives have decided to intentionally throw so much stupidity, craziness, and bat shit insanity that at some point all of us sane, rational, intelligent people on the left will just grow so dispirited by the whole thing that after banging our heads against the table too many times, we all decide to throw in the towel, give up, and just accept the fact that we're friggin' doomed and either drink ourselves silly until the Chinese take over or declare ourselves political exiles in some Scandinavian country (when people tell me it can't be done I say that all I would have to do is show them some videos of a Town Hall meeting or any episode of Glen Beck and and tell them "see, you live in a country like that?" and that should probably work).

If you need an example of just what they're doing, think of Terrell Owens. Owens plays on a team and then decides that for whatever reason, he doesn't like where he is anymore and decides to act like a jackass to get himself out from where he is. So he calls the QB gay, answers cell phone calls on the sidelines, holds out for more money and holds a press conference from his drive way while doing push ups. The team that he plays for eventually has to decide whether to give TO what he wants (trade him) or try and work with him in hopes he doesn't eventually take the team down with him. The conservatives are TO and and we, the sane part of the American Democratic Experiment, are the 49ers/Eagles/Cowboys.

This is plan is especially potent in light of the fact that one of the reasons we all took joy in Obama was that it showed, or at least we hope it showed, that adults had finally taken over the country and that we, as a country, will finally have an intelligent, enlightened debate about the myriad of problems facing the country, all led by a calm, intelligent, deeply rational President who for some misbegotten notion, thought he could talk to us like adults.

And there goes that.

Oh, and TO usually winds up getting what he wants.

When you think of the Great Depression, you always think about those images of those poor Okies getting thrown off their land and into John Steinback novels or all those men in suits in line at a food kitchen waiting for food. So what images will we think of when we consider the current economic calamity? How about this-- middle aged male pacing in the patio of a coffee shop in the middle of the afternoon, talking business on an ear piece attached to his iPhone. Or the guy at the unemployment office on hold with the unemployment people, typing away on his blackberry.

Or me, surfing the web on a bus on the way to an interview.

...don't hate...

It is one of those fun things about today's economy is that when dealing with recruiters/potential employers, they have to go through the rigamorale of letting each applicant know that there might be issues/items about the job that might be of concern to the applicant despite the fact that at this point, those of us who have been unemployed for awhile are pretty much willing to do anything if the pay is decent and does not involve having to wear any sort of apron. What I mean is that my recruiters will often preface a possible job with a "well, this job is in Bakersfield, they can only pay you in magic beans and you have to fight all the other applicants in gladiator style combat to get this job so is that okay by you?" And I, of course, have to say "sure, if I get up at 3 in the morning, I could make it to Bakersfield by 8, magic beans can turn into bean stalks, and I love gladiator flicks so let's go for it!"

And speaking of not working, I have not only gone past the sweatpants phase of unemployment but gone into the pajamas phase. For most of the week, I go through life in either a t-shirt, sweatshirt, shorts ensemble or a tshirt/sweatshirt/pajama bottom ensemble. Lately, on those few occasions when I do go out, I have a strange desire to actually dress slightly up because in some ways, I miss having to dress up somewhat nicely. Or shall I say I miss the fact that I have a reason to dress up somewhat nicely. So lately, when I have been going out, I've been wearing non-jeans pants and stylish sneakers. All of which means that I actually dressed somewhat nicely when I saw the doctor today.

There's another odd thing that happens when I go out, especially during the day, in that I see people who actually have jobs and I'm kind of amazed by it. It seems rather odd to me because between my adventures, adventures of other people I know, and all the news stories, I'm often surprised that some people still have jobs and live rather normal, mundane lives where they leave the house during the day and make money. I wrote earlier how this economic cluster fuck feels like the plague and walking downtown in the morning or afternoon has that feeling of walking amongst survivors of some awful catastrophe. Oh, to be an office drone and spend eight hours in a cubicle, bitching about your boss and your bosses boss.

Lately I notice that if turned down for a job, the company will tell me how great it was to have met me and while they won't actually hire me, they will keep my resume on file in case something happens. This is supposed to make me feel better, as I now know that if the person they hire refuses the job or quits early on and the other people they thought about hiring turn them down and if they post the job again and they don't get any good responses, then they'll look over my resume again.

So, in other words, come on people quitting!

Inglorious Basterds

I saw Inglorious Basterds yesterday and it was pretty much what you would expect from a Tarantino flick-- it was a little messy, a little long, a little self-indulgent, a little violent, a little talky, and a little brilliant. It could be the world's only American WWII action/revenge flick that's really about the power of cinema and consists largely of foreign actors speaking foreign languages. The guy is definitely a huge, motherfucker of a genius but it's still hard to know what exactly the point of it all is. Everyone always talks about the violence and the gore and the love of B Movie action/kung fu flicks but what everyone forgets to mention is that he loves dialogue more. Probably, it could be argued, too too much (both "Kill Bill II" and "Deathproof" suffered from too much talking, not enough rocking).

The thing about the movie is that there's two parts of it, the Inglorious Basterd, Nazi-scalping brigade part and then the Jewish French theater owner part. Both of them are almost two separate films, one of them violent and cartoonish, the other one tense and dialogue driven (it's almost like it's the two schizoid parts of Tarantino's brain being split into two movies) and while the violent cartoonish part is the one that's played up in the marketing and the one Tarantino talks about, the heart of the movie, the most interesting part of the movie, is the part involving the Jewish French theater owner. If Tarantino just would have made the movie about the theater owner, he probably would win every possible damn award there is because it really is spot own awesome (it says a lot about the movie that the two scariest parts are a request for another glass of milk and the ordering of cream) but he couldn't let the Basterd part go so what you have then is two movies that don't quite mesh together. That all sounds bad, of course, except it's a Tarantino flick so it somehow all works or at least is done so well and crazily that you just go with it.

Someday there's a great movie in him, not "Pulp Fiction" great but "classic American movie" great but he's not quite there. This movie shows that maybe he's getting closer and closer. Maybe he should do what the Coen Brothers do and throw in a really good, straight drama into the mix every once in awhile (like "Fargo" or "No Country for Old Men") just to get the props. Or maybe he just doesn't want to, something that I think drives a lot of people (especially those film critics who don't really like his movies but still realize he's brilliant) crazy. And if he really doesn't, does it matter? Nobody does movies like him and nobody probably ever will. Either way, I'd still go see it.

I'm pretty sure this is a fake email

Hello,

I need a helping hand in my house..My wife and kids are moving in soon..Please contact if you are interested..

Smith.

Oh, according to Hotmail, the email comes from a Mr. Smith Smith.

Maybe I should start hiring myself out as a spam mail consultant so I can tell spam mailers (fishers?) that, among other things, sending out an email from a Smith Smith could come off as a bit fishy.

I usually go to the gym somewhere between 4 and 5 and there's always this woman there who I've seen around for the past year or so. She's easy to spot because she's neither elderly nor Asian and that puts her way on the minority side of the people who workout there. She's also noticeable because she's one of those people who hit the cardio equipment for half an hour, another apparatus for another half an hour, then lifts weights, and then hits the treadmill. And, yes, she is kinda attractive in a way, especially if you like woman who look like they do triathalons during their lunch breaks and goes rock climbing before they even have brunch on the weekends.

Anyways, we've been pretty much working out together at the gym at the same time day after day after day after day and yesterday, she finally got on an actual piece of exercise equipment that was next to me. As I was working out next to her, I kept on having this strange feeling like I should say "hi" or something. Not because I necessarily want to (frankly, I don't like saying "hi" to anyone) but more like I was obligated to because I knew who she was, I'm sure she knew who I was and we were all part of the 4-5 Workout at the Y Shift and as members of that shift, were all somehow connected to each other, more so than say, somebody who normally works out at 3 but goes in at 4 or the people who do the 5-6 shift.

I, of course, did nothing. Partly because she was on her blackberry the whole time.

Job Stuff

Yesterday I got an email for a contract position doing something for which I have a tiny, tiny bit of experience in but not a whole lot. Normally, I'd get back to the person who sent me the email and lie through my teeth but I just don't feel like lying through my teeth about this job in particular. Maybe it's just because I'm tired or have been going on interviews for stuff I do have experience in. Or maybe it's because the job involves some level of technical expertise and I don't want to actually be in a position where I'm hired and on Day 1 somebody goes "okay, now I need you to upload this" and I'd have to go hide in the corner reading "Uploading for Dummies" in order to figure it out.

Speaking of job interviews, as many times as I've been going on interviews, I still hate when they say "we're going to talk to a few more people and..." just because when you interview with somebody at some place, it's just you and you alone and for an hour or so it's like "tell me about yourself" and if it's a good interview, you think "why wouldn't they hire me? I'm cooking!" but, then, the reality of the situation hits and you realize that it doesn't really matter, that it's not really all about you, and that there's still somebody out there who might just be better or do better in an interview.

In yesterday's interview, I was smoking. One of the best interviews I've ever been one with a not drop, hint, or whiff of nervousness (taking a lot of tranquilizers probably helped). After talking to two people, I was told I was going to meet with one of the Higher Ups but after a few minutes of nobody coming into the conference room to meet with me, the first person with whom I interviewed with came back into the conference room to tell me that she had been running around looking for the Higher Up only to realize that they were in a meeting all afternoon. So, thanks for coming by, we're going to talk to other people, and we'll let you know.

Now, not meeting with the Higher Up because they were in a meeting could, naturally, mean that they were in a meeting. Or, it could mean that despite it all, the two people with whom you met with said "nope" and decided not to bother with dragging the Higher Up into meeting with me. On the one hand, why would they schedule an interview with me if they knew the Higher Up was in an interview? On the other hand, stuff happens and the person who set it all up didn't really come off as being that dialed in. Because I've been through this a hundred million times, I'm going with "ehhh...fuck it...why was the Higher Up's time?"

The other thing about it was that, as I said, I was kicking ass (I think) during the interview but if so requested, have to go in and do it again. The fact that I was all wired up and ready to go and being told halfway through the process that they'd have to reschedule was a bit of a let-down. I kind of felt the way a starting pitcher would feel if they were throwing a really good game, one of their best, and told they wouldn't go back out there because they needed to use a pinch hitter. "But I could go three more innings...let me finish the game!"

Ugh

I am trying, so far unsuccessfully, to ween myself away from news blogs. I have been totally wrapped up in the health care debate to probably the detriment of my mental health and sanity. As I wrote earlier (I think), how this thing plays out is in some ways, a test case to see if we, as a country, are able to actually achieve some serious, progressive reform and as such, is a test to see whether our political system at this time is actually able to see that change happen. All of this, of course, was brought forth in the '08 election when somehow, We the People actually voted in a smart, earnest, thoughtful man who wanted to fix a lot of things that needed fixing. His election, or so I thought, was a sign that We the People were ready to have somebody smart, earnest, and thoughtful to fix the country.

So how's that going?

Like a lot of people who were really pumped by that election, I am pretty much all riled up and in several stages of despair now. The system in DC is terribly and horribly broken (why the constant use of the anti-majority filibuster is considered a normal things these days and the so called "political press" doesn't seem to think anything about it is beyond me) but even worse it appears that we, as a country, actually don't really deserve any sort of change. This shouldn't have come as any sort of surprise but we are not a very serious country. Somehow a lot of us got suckered by Obama's election to believe that we were about to become one but as one blogger put it, we are still a "pre-enlightment" country. As evidence I provide the Tea Baggers, the Birthers, and all those "Town Hellers" screaming about taking the country back or how government should get out of medicare or that they believe in the constitution. Death Panels should have been seen by any reasonably intelligent person to be a complete and total BS thing but that hasn't stopped anyone from screaming it. Nor has that stopped any number of people who would probably need health care reform from going to those rallies and screaming about government takeovers. Healthcare reform is a huge and important issue that even a huge majority of voters believe in, yet nobody seems to be terribly upset that the issue has become more farce than anything else.

Last night Harlan and I watched a documentary about the evils of WalMart. The documentary didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know but in light of the health care debate I pretty much watched it at full boil, occasionally yelling out "you're a fucking idiot" to the occasional John Q Public shown in the documentary who is or was in the process of getting screwed by WalMart. It was all out of the book "Deer Hunting with Jesus" in which a huge amount of Red State conservative types got bent over in all sorts of ways yet never quite made the leap of faith to realize that maybe those Red State conservative views made the being bent over possible. Like they showed the story of a family that ran a very successful small town hardware store somewhere in Nowheresville that went bankrupt thanks to WalMart. One of the guys kept on saying "well, I believe in freedom and the constitution and I don't want to be no Communist country" but then went on saying how he wished the Government would come in and do something about what WalMart does. One of the owners of the store mentioned several times that he was a conservative Republican (even flashing to a picture that he owned of Ronald Reagan) but, like the other guy, was completely unable to make the conclusion that a political belief that worshipped at the altar of "free markets" and that business should be supported and not regulated could cause one to fall victim to the free market and a political system that supports big business and fails to regulate them.

Then there was the guy trying to organize the union and all the stories about how hard WalMart tries to fight unionization (like very), even going to take the effort to show employees instructional videos on the horrors of unions. All of those people's lives they showed in the documentary who worked there could be in better situations if they were unionized, but.... And then, of course, was all the people complaining about not having health care or not being able to afford health care. I wanted to send them all a letter asking them what they think about health care reform just to see how many of them send something back about how they support the constitution and all that.

But finally, my take away was this-- at one point in the documentary they went to a WalMart that was just recently opened in Germany. The employees there made decent money and had a generous vacation plan. It goes without saying they all had decent health care. Oh, and they were able to be members of a union, something that goes a long way to explaining their generous benefits. At the end of an interview with one of the German WalMart workers, the lady they were talking to said something like "I don't know why they don't have all this stuff in America?"

Well, to whomever you are who said that, here is your answer "because we, as a nation, are a bunch of fucking idiots."

Chili

I love chili but the most recent can of the chili that I bought has been sitting in the cabinet for several weeks now. The reason why I haven't opened that sucker up and gone at it is because chili is one of those foods that can never be taken lately-- you need to pay attention to when and when not to eat it-- and I haven't had that moment yet.

What I mean is that I would never eat a can of chili on a weekday night because I'd have to deal with it at work the next morning not to mention an often long commute (those long rides on the 38 Geary can be HELL). Now, of course, it's easier for me to deal with since I don't have to work but I still have to pick and choose my spots. I had a doctor's appt today so I couldn't have had it yesterday and I have an interview on Tuesday so can't even think about going for it until then. As for all the days in between, well, I just wasn't quite willing to make that commitment. I'm having enough problems figuring out what I'm going to do all day without even throwing chili into that mix.

I'm not saying that I've been paying too much attention to the healthcare debate, but....

When I was walking around the neighborhood yesterday there were old people everywhere and I felt like beating up a bunch of them for being gullible enough to believe that Obama wants to kill them.

Anyways, I live on the middle apartment of a complex that's right over a somewhat major street. This makes things loud. The neighbors above won't let us listen to music or watch tv too loudly and the neighbors below us start talking really loudly late at night while coked up. But whatever, the main thing that gets to me is the street noise. Watching TV is really difficult as it seems like anytime I watch something, just at the moment something important is about to be said, a car always drive by. It'll be like this:

"Hi, how are you?"
"Great, how are you?"
"I'm fine, how's your mother?"
"My mother is doing fine, except for the fact that yesterday an alien came down and...VROOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I have to often watch things three times just to make sense of what's going on. It's especially tricky with shows like "Mad Men" or "BSG" that are all moody and try to go out of their way to not have people talk loudly.

Worst of all are the neighbors down the street from us, the neighbors we call our White Trash neighbors, a name given to them due to their hobby of taking old junker cars and fixing them up on their drive way. They will then rev the engine of said car to test it around 11 at night. They also have exceedingly noisy dirt bikes that they like riding around and around and around, usually whenever I'm trying to watch something on TV.

They are not my favorite people.

It says a lot about the current state of my job search...

...that the highlight so far of my job search was an interview for a crappy job in Livermore. I knew it was a crappy job at the time but since Livermore was over an hour away, involved the taking of lots of highways I have rarely if ever been on, and had only been to Livermore once in my entire life, thought it was a bit of an adventure-- a road trip if you will.

Today I have an interview with a company in Larkspur, a place much, much prettier than Livermore with a much prettier drive. Also a much better job. When I got the email saying they'd like to talk to me, I was excited because it would mean a fun little trip over the Golden Gate Bridge. But when I found it was only to be a phone interview, I was a little disappointed. While I don't think the job would be a good enough fit for me to be hired, I at least want to make it to the second round just so I'll have an excuse to go on another road trip, maybe a make a day of it-- like instead of driving there, I'll drive to the Embarcadero and take the ferry over. Or drive but grab some lunch by the water front.

So you're a member of the Washington Press and one side of a political party is saying that the Democrats' proposed health care reform will lead to a "Death Panel" that will euthanize old folks. Do you

1)Say that's complete and total bullshit and attack those spreading the disgraceful lies

or do you

2)Say "some people say Democrats want to single-handily kill your grandmother where she sleeps while others say that isn't true" and then tut-tut Obama for not doing a good job in getting his message out

And if a bunch of people are screaming that they don't want government to interfere with their medicare, do you, as a member of the press

1)Write that this is completely ridiculous as Medicare IS a government program and these people are fucking idiots

or do you

2)Say that it shows that the American people distrust Government interference in anything and that it's proof of how difficult it would be to pass health care reform-- not because the average American voter is an idiot but because, once again, Obama isn't doing a good enough job of getting his message out.

When a supposed leader of the Republican Party goes on a Sunday show and repeats the claim that the Democrats want to pull the plug on everyone person over the age of 70, as host of the show, do you

1)Say straight out that it's ridiculous, a big fat lie, the worst kind of demagoguery imaginable, and that you'll never have them on their show again because they're a big fat fucking lying weasel whose poisoning the political discourse in the country

Or do you

2)Say that's not correct, give them the fact, have them respond to it with another big fat lie and then move onto the next topic and then revel in the fact all the reporters replay it over and over again in recaps of the Sunday shows because it's a good sound bite and the person is a supposed and valued leader of the Republican Party. You will, of course, have them back as much as possible because they give you good ratings and are considered a valued and important voice in politics.

All of this kind of reminds me of the start to the Iraq War when like an overwhelming percentage of people still believed that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. Did the press think that it was just an issue that the opponents of the war (most of whom were never given much in the way of an audience) not getting their message through, that as there was no note or email from Sadaam saying "Dear Bin Laden, please don't blow up those towers" that you never know and if Dick Cheney says it's true then we shouldn't really say one way or the other, or that it was a HUGE failure on their part and they should look deep into their conscious and ask themselves whether or not they're a failure at their job?

Got an email last night entitled "This is Not Spam Mail: Reply" and as the email said that it wasn't spam, I decided to open it, even if it was sent by a Mr. Ginibunwa Esaaba.

Now, you'll never believe this, but it turns out it WAS spam mail. I know! He was trying to raise money for some sort of great financial scheme he was cooking up in Africa. Sadly, I realized this a few hours after I sent him 100 dollars via Paypal but you live, you learn. Hopefully nothing bad will come of it.