Once a legitimate blog. Now just a collection of memes 'n menz.
Most people associate Christmas day with the smell of freshly-baked cookies, or turkey and stuffing cooking in the oven. Not me. What takes me back is the smell of plastic model paint. Being a geeky child of the 60s, nothing recalls Christmas to me quite as much as building plastic models, whether they were commercial airplanes, movie monsters, anatomical displays, dinosaur skeletons, or spacecraft. And they all required painting.
Those of us who are of a certain age will undoubtedly remember many a smoky night spent on a flashing dance floor gyrating our once pert-and-perky asses to Cerrone’s 1978 classic Supernature.
The reason I bring this up is that this morning while scrolling through iTunes I ran across Cerrone’s 2010 Cerrone Symphony Variations of Supernature, essentially a symphonic 44-minute remix/augmentation/updating of the original 1978 source material that I orgasmed over when I first heard it years ago.
I’m pretty sure I’d written a review back then, but like all the rest of my posts prior to moving to Denver, it was consigned to the depths of internet hell.
Anyway, I had forgotten how good it really was.
It’s also kind of funny in that CBS’s Zoo (yeah, I watch it as ridiculous as it is because James Wolk is pretty) seems to be loosely based on the premise Cerrone explored in his music nearly 40 years ago (I can not be that old!)—that the animals will one day rise up and rebel against mankind.
While it’s not available on iTunes (WTF?), you can can still pick it up on physical media from Amazon.
From Dave at Blogography, copied in full because it was just too good not to and perfectly sums up what I’ve been feeling myself lately:
Jared Fogle, the Subway Sandwich Whore… whom I loathe, but tried to treat fairly when he was dragged to the police station for questions regarding child pornography(because, hey, innocent until proven guilty, right?) is, in fact, apparently going to plead guilty to not only possession of child pornography… but also of having sex with at least fourteen underage kids… THE SICK FUCK! What a piece of garbage. He used his millions in sandwich money to prey on innocent children… and continued to do so even after his best friend got caught producing kiddie porn for him? As much as I loathed him before, he has managed to sink even lower. Holy crap what a repugnant asshole. Fuck Jared for making me watch his idiotic commercials and listen to his pathetic lies all these years. Hope you like the sandwiches in prison, you disgusting pig.
Josh Duggar, the “Family Values” Douchebag… whom I loathe, but tried to treat fairly when he was crucified for having sexually molested five girls (including four of his sisters) as a teenager (because, hey, growing up in that dysfunctional shit-hole of a family was bound to screw him up, right?) is, in fact, not only a teen pedophile… but also an allegedly unfaithful husband who has been outed as a “Life is Short, Have an Affair” Ashley Madison member. That’s right, all the while he was dictating morals to people on how they should live their lives… he was apparently living his life contrary to his own standards. Like the fucking pathetic hypocritical piece of shit he is. As much as I loathed him before, he has managed to sink even lower. Holy crap what a repugnant asshole. Fuck Josh Duggar for making me even be aware of his parents’ idiotic clown car vagina reality show all these years. From the depths of your very own belief system, hope you enjoy rotting in hell, you disgusting pig.
George Zimmerman, the psychotic asshole that stalked and killed a kid for being Black “in the wrong neighborhood”… whom I loathe, but tried to treat fairly… as in “they-should-have-hanged-the-fucking-murdering-asshole-fairly” because HE WAS CLEARLY LYING AND GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY is, in fact…
Donald Trump, the misogynistic pile of shit (and hairspray)… whom I loathe, but tried to…
Pat Robertson, the bigoted…
Scott…
Jan…
I give up. I just give up. If I were to write up all the assholes, idiots, and clowns that are pissing me off today, I’d be here all week. Holy crap are there a lot of repugnant pieces of shit in my newsfeed lately. Some days I think I’d be much better off with my head stuck in the sand.
Knowing what’s going on in the world isn’t good for your sanity. Not anymore.
There are days that after reading one or two posts, I simply “mark all as read” in my newsfeed now because I just can’t.
OH MY GOD. I know it’s been only one day, but the place I’m going to be working at for the next month or so is about as far removed from my previous work environment as possible. I’d forgotten what it was like to work in an I.T. Department that isn’t dripping with drama and dysfunction; a department filled with people who are genuinely friendly and actually seem to like being there and enjoy what they’re doing.
And really, who can blame them? A relaxed dress code (I can wear jeans every day), an onsite cafeteria, more than adequate restroom facilities, and completely covered employee parking (something that if you don’t live in Arizona you can’t fully appreciate).
The folks I work with are helpful and encouraging; such a change from the majority of coworkers at my last place of employment. I didn’t hear a single disparaging or inappropriate comment from anyone in the department and so to my former boss I say, See bitch? It’s not like your feculent vat of toxic hellstew everywhere.”
I was initially concerned about the commute. It’s about seven miles further each way than the one I had in Denver, but it turns out that even with it being a greater distance, it takes the same amount of time thanks to the valley’s properly sized transportation infrastructure.
My only regret is that this is slated to be only a short-term gig. But then, so was my last job in Phoenix that ended up turning permanent and lasting nearly 8 years.
We shall see. In the meantime, I’m just going to relish actually looking forward to going to work again.
One of the strangest—and most unexpected—effects of being back in Phoenix is feeling the profound absence of my father. While my mom had passed before we moved to Denver and I still feel her loss, my dad died while we were there, and my involvement with his passing was minimal and long-distance (something that has caused a continued rift between myself and my sister). Being back here now it’s smacking me up the side of the head and I have to keep reminding myself that he’s no longer just a few minute’s drive away as he’d been before we left.
Ironically however, when I look into the mirror I’m seeing more and more of him staring back at me, and perhaps more disturbingly I’m finding more and more of his well-known stubbornness and general temperament rearing itself in my personality; something I’d just as soon do without if truth be told.
When I was younger I didn’t look like either of my parents, but as I’ve aged, his genes are starting to assert themselves. While I don’t resemble him completely at this age, there’s much more of him showing through than my mom, so hopefully his genes will maintain their supremacy and guard against the onset of Alzheimers that plagued Mom and so many others on her side of the family.
The surface area of the planet Mars is almost identical to the surface area of dry land on the Earth. What this means is that even if we begin human exploration in my lifetime, it will still take hundreds—if not thousands—of years to properly explore the entire planet; a commitment in time and resources I cannot see humanity making, short of being faced with its own extinction.
One of the tasks I was dreading upon returning to Arizona was going to the DMV. While compared to Colorado (where drivers’ licenses and vehicle registration are administered by two completely separate entities requiring separate visits to different offices) Arizona is heaven sent; it’s a one-stop-shopping experience.
It turns out that it wasn’t all that bad. I had feared that because I did not have my Title, it would turn into a major hassle to get the car registered. (I paid off the car a little over a year after we’d moved to Denver, and the finance company mailed the Title to my old Arizona address after the USPS forwarding order had expired, so I never received it.) Turns out the only issue I had was needing a smog certificate before getting a duplicate Title from Arizona. Once I had that in hand, it was a breeze. I got the Title, re-registered the car in Arizona, and even got my AZ Driver’s License in about 30 minutes.
I weep for our species. Imagine where we’d be if we weren’t wasting our resources fighting over ideology and bronze-age fairy tales.
The latest and greatest from New Horizons:
Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this global view of Pluto. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) away, show features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers), twice the resolution of the single-image view taken on July 13.
The best is yet to come!
He turns our heads every time he shows up on the television machine.
“Amazing delivery, and refreshing message! But, the core of his message is homosexuality is a sin and a shame, but we shouldn’t judge that sin because we’re all sinners. I reject the idea that homosexuality is a sin or a disorder at all. But he can’t come out and say that without admitting the Bible is wrong. And if it’s wrong about that, then the whole ball of yarn unravels.” ~ Crewman
That’s the phrase I have to use to describe our return to Phoenix. Things are familiar—yet different. I find myself straining old, unused neural pathways to remember where things are and what the best route is to reach them.
That being said, my first impression upon being back is seeing how incredibly easy it is to get around. Compared to Denver, even having to go completely across town is a breeze.
Have I mentioned that I can breathe again? It’s funny, but it seemed like the altitude had only started affecting me within the last year or so, and it wasn’t simply because of being out of shape and having to climb two flights of stairs to get to our apartment multiple times a day.
Most—if not all—of our old haunts are still in business, although as one can imagine, subtle and not-so-subtle changes have occurred over the past four years. It’s also fun seeing how memory has played tricks on me; things that I could’ve sworn were in one location are actually somewhere totally different.
When I was in Phoenix briefly two years ago to attend to my dad’s end-of-life affairs, Phoenix felt alien; it wasn’t home any more. Driving past my old apartment felt like I was viewing it through someone else’s eyes.
That’s different now. Not only does Phoenix now feel like home, in many ways it feels like we never left. But then I’m confronted with something that has wildly changed since our exodus, and I’m reminded that Denver was not, just a bad dream.
Okay, I’m not being fair. We had some very good experiences there, and the first winter was kind of fun. Because of its location, we got to see several things (Devil’s Tower, Mt. Rushmore) that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise. But on the whole, I’m glad to be gone from the place. It was time. Cosmically speaking, I tell myself the entire reason we went there was to get Sammy.
And speaking of the lovable little furball, he’s adjusting to life here more quickly than I could’ve imagined. He loves having a yard to run in and doesn’t seem to mind the toasty temperatures. He does seem to have developed a garden hose addiction, however.
If I have any regrets about leaving Denver, it was that we didn’t get a chance to take advantage of the relatively quick drive up to Yellowstone. It’s still a bit of a hike to get there from Denver, but nothing compared to driving from Phoenix. Then again, the west coast is so much easier to get to now.
Fingers crossed on the job front. I had what I consider to be an excellent interview with a state agency yesterday (as well as meeting with a placement agency that was a complete waste of my time). They liked me, I liked them, but I am up against one other candidate. I’m not going to stress; I know in my heart of hearts that we’re supposed to be here and work will be forthcoming.
…when you say #SandraBland deserved to be arrested for “being combative”.
While data and pictures will be downloading for the next sixteen months, NASA’s New Horizons probe already provided humanity with some astoundingly tantalizing photos of Pluto and it’s main moon, Charon.
What strikes me the most about the color photos of Pluto is the color. They look like antique tintype prints. Even when I see the planet with the dark grey Charon immediately next to it, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this is the planet’s actual color.
What’s even more amazing to me is the fact that with the level of sunlight falling on these worlds and the speed at which New Horizons sped past that NASA was able to get any images whatsoever.
Science is cool.
And the fact that they can get closeups of the surface of this quality is nothing short of astounding—with even higher resolution images coming that will download over the coming months.
If Pluto weren’t fascinating enough on it’s own, Charton is revealing just as many surprises.
For example, how do you get a peak rising out of a circular depression? No one seems to know. What it looks like to me is that a space rock came in very, very slowly, and almost had a soft landing on an extremely plastic surface. Not traveling fast enough to form a traditional crater/ray structure, but fast enough to impact the surface and only slightly deform the surrounding terrain.
All I know is that after seeing these few images, it’s obvious that humanity will have to return at some point for an even better look. I doubt it will happen in my lifetime, but it still fires the imagination—especially when you consider that we didn’t get any sharp photos of Pluto’s much more interesting face:
This pup is still full of surprises!
Who wants to come help us unpack?
