well, it's been a bit...

i don't really have any sort of literary plan for today's post. but it has been a little while, so i am really trying to be as good as my word and update this for all you beloved non-existent readers (all three of you, which i think have taken to switching off, which means only one of you for this post and the next, and someone different for the next two!)

well, as you have no doubt heard, the military is getting paid. they stole the money from schools and god knows what other important places. i can guaranfuckingtee that none of the senators or congressmen offered to take a paycut to make sure the military members and their families would continue to receive the pittance we do to keep this country safe for the acquisition of more oil.

i am scared for next year's election. one of the favorite runner ups for the republican party sounds like a borderline nazi. i seriously doubt obama will even be picked as the democratic candidate, so annoyed is the general populace with how little he has actually done in his presidency. (all these people have conveniently forgotten that the only thing dubya had done in the first couple years of his presidency was take more vacations than any other president in the history of the united states of america!) i am not saying obama is amazing. he's just... there. he gets the honor of being the first black president.

but in the meantime, the country is polarized. it feels like it's borderline civil war again, except this time it's democrats against republicans. and no, the tea party is not the answer. those guys are considerably more right wing than the majority of the republicans, and i can only foresee book burnings and youth rallies in our future, followed by marching those of ethnicity onto cattle cars to roll off into the night.

i said this last election, and i am saying it again: we need a strong president that will focus on the shit going on at home!! someone who will repair the rift between conservative and liberal, and really work on fixing our economy, lowering the deficit, and restoring us to the united states of america, not the divided states of america. iraq is fine, they can manage. bin laden is no longer in afghanistan. let's forget those guys, let's let them run their own countries in the way that they see fit because, hey! let's be honest: we're in no position right now to be pointing fingers and offering advice in how to run a country.

in news on the home front, no. 1 is going to be repeating the third grade. it's not cause he outright failed, it's because he only barely passed. and it is because a) he still struggles to pay attention enough to grasp all the concepts he has had thrown at him (concepts that weren't thrown at me until the 6th grade, when i was fucking 12! everyone seems to think that feeding all these kids algebra and science and shit so young is good for them, but i am not convinced!) and b) his rebellious and headstrong nature makes him think he is always right in how he does things. the kid is smart. he's got the brains. he lacks maturity. and my wife and i need to revamp our thinking so that failing isn't considered such a horrible thing so much as a stepping stone for learning from mistakes and attacking the problem with a renewed vigor. i am pretty sure there is an einstein or ghandi or tony robbins quote that would be appropriate here, something along the lines of failure being part of success or something.

i am nearly done with classes, and maintain my 4.0 average, and will graduate with honors and then be forced to quit being lazy and find a job and work for my daily bread.

and there isn't much else to tell around here lately. life goes on, we keep smiling, and i just don't have as much clever shit to say as i used to.

darth sardonic

60 and cloudy

the spaces between seats are narrow, and it is impossible to navigate them without bumping someone with my carry-on.

a lady next to me is sacked out in her seat. she has herself twisted to the side, her legs tangled under her, her face pressed against one armrest. i can't help but wonder if she will end up with a nasty red, hard-edged strip across one cheek when she awakes.

i do a double take as it appears an old grandmotherly lady a few rows over is openly reading a porn magazine. i am about to applaud her audacity, but upon closer inspection i realize it is just a full-page ad depicting two scantily-clad blondes sitting very close together.

ever since i hurt my thumb and subsequently launched upon this pictorial drafting debaucle, my writing is atrocious and i can only do it for a bit before my hand begins to ache.

the sky is a beautiful shade of robin-egg blue with the sun shining luxuriently. i'm going to trade them for the perpetual gray and drizzle i love so much.

the two ladies across from me are discussing a bad experience with another family member at a family reunion from which they are on their way home. one has a mannish, mr. spock haircut and glasses, and the other's sunglasses are tucked into a feathered 80's style 'do.

the one with gray spock hair grabs her water bottle, causing one of her bags to fall over, bumping the ankle of the sleeping woman, whom i wish, upon waking, would turn towards me so i can check her cheekbone.

another lady joins spock and tina turner hair, obviously related. there is a brief exchange, and the first two leave to get something to eat. as soon as they are gone, the third gets on her cell phone and proceeds to bad-mouth the first two at length to someone on the other end.

i decide they are this flight's terrorists, with plans to hijack delta dl 2758 to minneanapolis, and crash it into one of our national monuments, mt. rushmore. joke's on them, as nobody will even miss it.

i overhear someone behind me say, "i'm dying on the inside." i fight the urge to offer to match up the rest of him.

off to get some water and a snack.

other notes of interest: while i always miss the pacific northwest, i do not miss her traffic.

my back feels like someone used a cheesegrater on it. pics soon.

to the old fucker in the truck who nearly hit me/ran me off the road when changing lanes without signalling/looking; and the metric fuckton of commuters who slammed on their breaks in unison to rubberneck world's smallest and least interesting fenderbender: if i find you motherfuckers, i am beating you soundly till my arms drop off.

that is all.

darth sardonic

facebook friends

i was chatting with a high-school buddy yesterday on facebook. again, how cool is this shit that i can reconnect with people i essentially blew off without a look back some twenty years ago and chat as if i wasn't a massive dickhead back then and just disappeared off the face of the earth.

very cool.

anyways, i added his blog to my "pals" list, and he posted a very eloquent bit about our conversation which i really dug.

i, for one, am not feeling particularly eloquent today, so i am foregoing the beautiful prose here.

what else has been going on in my life since last i posted something of worth on this little fly-speck on the world wide web?

well, let's see. this semester of school draws to a close, and i will be happy when it's done. it's not much fun to have four essays, two of which are term projects, and one of which is a final all due at the same time.

unless something major falls to hell between now and then, i will still be pulling a 4.0 at semester's close.

when this semester is done, i only have one more general education class and the rest are the technical/drawing classes, which i am quite stoked about.

about a month or so ago, as i was waiting for my turn to go in the parking lot of the college, i watched a lumbering low-brow mouth-breather of a kid get into his massive suv beside me, put his vehicle in reverse, and without so much as a backwards glance cave my passenger side door in in slow motion.

this is the second time in my life that some brainpan, someone who has lived their entire existence like an idiot mr magoo; surviving only by sheer dumb luck and the herculean efforts of others, has put their vehicle in reverse and backed into me without bothering to at least check a rearview mirror while i sat helplessly with my mouth agape in disbelief. i think i would be within my right to have clubbed both these morons (the lady who did it in alaska got out her car and actually said, "this is the second time this has happened to me!" (?!!!!?)) like baby seals, and the world might've been a better place for it.

but back to the story at hand: so my passenger side door is now more dent than door. and i am not exaggerating. the outside panel of the door actually met the inside panel of the door. the only thing that kept this kid from pushing my door even further in was at this point my car resisted the attack of his car, and he finally realized he was backing into something (yes, the synapses and reflexes of a well-trained ninja, this one.)

of course it is totalled. now, it still runs beautifully and everything, and with a replacement door on there, it would be fine again. but here's the rub, o my beloved non-existent readers, my droogs and only friends, my old interceptor has a seriously terminal case of cancerous rust, and ugly flaking paint to boot. so replacing the door would be like doing an elective nose job on a patient that has only a few months to live.

so i scrapped it and set about buying a new interceptor to replace the old one. so now i have a newer ('95, last one was a '93) silver (i know, i will paint it black with red trim someday) rust-free interceptor (you may know them as lincoln mark viii's, but i assure you, if mad max was driving the post-apocalyptic wasteland in the 90's here in the states, this is the car he would choose) with black interior that is nicer than the other's, and a moonroof as well. i am quite pleased.

the kids continue to do well and improve in school.

and not much else has really happened i guess. i am officially a published author, but i myself am completely unable to buy the book, as well as the majority of my friends and family as it is still impossible to buy the book from anywhere outside the uk. they insist they will have that remedied soon, so i will keep you posted.

darth sardonic