reverie

http://home.att.net/~slugbutter/evil/good.htm

OMG!!! I'm about a third of the way through reading the insanely funny A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson for an upcoming class, and I just learned that Bunnies really are evil. It appears some idiot in the 1850's introduced twenty-four cute little bunny-wunnies into the Australian Outback for sport. Bunnies having no natural predators or parasites in the land-down-under multiplied like crazy. And with in a decade or so, millions upon millions of tiny little hip-pity-hops descended like a plague of locust on the fragile fields of Australian, moving at a rate of 75 miles a year. It took almost a hundreds years to figure out how to stop the little beasties using a virus lethal only to rabbits. But by then the damage was done, and Australian instead of being semi to occasionally desert turned pretty much mostly all-the-time desert. What a catastrophe. And the funny thing is that even though only 1 in a thousand of the bunnies survived the virus, the now immune population of has managed to rebound over 300 million. Will the scourge of hop-a-longs never be stopped?! Hmm, ya knows since the damage is already done and the Australian Wolf has long been extinct, I wonder if introducing American Wolves and birds of prey could help. On second thought maybe not. The wolves would have a field day with all the 'roos, and the infamous marsupial mice wouldn't stand a chance. How 'bout tasmanian devils? they're relativity close by. rev...

"Yo, Yo..."

The Night Listener I went to see Robin Williams' new suspence thriller with my Dad on the random recommendation from the nice lady standing in front of us in line. Hmm. Personal note: don't listen to people standing in line next to you that you know nothing about. The film was just plain creepy. *shudders* Wierd too. Especially so to take you're dad too. Now my dad's a very very jaded individual, but this movie even creeped him out. It's not exactly scary, just creepy. Hmm, okay I'm being vague, you'll just have to see it to get what I mean. What makes it even worse is it's based on true events. Funny thing though, every single movie in the pre-show previews were also based on true events. I sense a tread in the air. Pseudo-non-fiction must be in style again. rev...

Nonfiction: Audio Book The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry by Brad Miner Hmm, ya know when I picked this 7 CD audio book up to break up the 6 hour drive to Atlanta, I thought it would be more of a practical how-to-guild. Instead I found it to be a meditative work composed of equal parts history, philosophy, and social commentary on the nature of Chivalry and it's antecedents through out the ages. It's interesting, I'll give it that, but, not very practical. The author advocates restraint as one of the chief components of being a modern gentleman, but fails to follow his own advice when painting the picture of what the modern gentleman should be. He allows his political biases to color his perspective too much, I think. His occasional side bars about the current wars are far from objective and detached as the restraint that he himself is advocating. His thoughts are in fact charged with reactionary emotion. Still, I believe his insights on how the outcome of the first Gulf war should have been handled by President Bush the elder and Clinton are well thought out. Unfortunately his conclusions on the Current Gulf War are a bit premature. Still, I can't blame him too much that as he wrote that particular chapter in the wake of 911. Honestly, I think he should have excluded that chapter from the book as he was too close to the events he was writing about both personally and by factor of time to be truly objective. Other than that it's not a bad book, but I think he should retitled it: The Compleat "Christian" Gentleman. I don't mean this as an insult either. The book simply give more prominence to the virtues of christianity than any other view. And the view that he espouses is a good solid one in my opinion. Thorough out the book he rails against fundamentalism and self righteousness equally as much as he condemns pacifism and liberalism. Ultimately though, I think the book is really an Apology. For all his talk of chivalry and prowess, he himself failed to exhibit these traits when the draft board called him to war in Vietnam. In 1970, he was draft dodger on his way Canada, when in a fit of guilt at the last moment turned back and through the help of peace movement was able to secure status as a conscientious objective. He went from being a liberal protestant peacenik in the 60/70's to a conservative catholic hawk in the 80's. In his own words he states that he wishes he could "rip the year 1970 from the pages of history." And because of his shame over this event, I believe this book is his attempt to pay penance for his own perceived cowardice and hypocrisy of his youth. This doesn't make it a bad book, or even a hyprocritical work, but it does make you read it with a more discerning eye. rev...

shouldn't this be minstal hall topic btw? Or is this one of those example things.

Yeah, it's good thing to try when you're bored. It's also great way to say @$!$#! you to your poetry professor when he demands you write in a tradition form, but you don't want too. That's actually similar to reason why John Skelton invented it in the first place. He was rebelling against high poetic form, and in it he found it was a great way to satirically attack his enemies too. And yeah the last lines sloppy, that's why I ended it. thanks, rev...

Talladega Nights It's no Anchor Man, but it definitely has it's moment. Neat little satire on Nascar and well American in General. Plus the movie is also one really big and long commercial. However, since Nascar pretty much is one never-ending commercial itself, this actually gives the film some credibility, if you can believe that. The fake commercial spoof during the credits are probably the best part of the film. A mean a public service announcement concerning an alarming and increasing tread of cat's contracting snow-blindness is pure genius. If you like irreverent comedy, you'll might enjoy this film. rev...

Well at least someone caught it. I guess it's a good thing we don't have a statute of limitations since it was posted like what 4 years ago??? I mean heck that's the year I joined. Man that's brings back memories. I was still in the pressure cooker of Korea in wake of 911. That was like the longest year of my life and up until this last year in college, it was also my most producted writing period. Wow, poor deggie. has it really been so long? rev...

Wait a minute, I'm confused. So you're saying the poem that he posted was a direct copy and paste job of Isabelle Di Caprio's poem or that he took her poem and composed a variation off of it? Homages are common enough and credit is usually given if only implied, but copy and paste jobs are just sad sorry things. If that is the case then I am very disappointed. rev...

An exercise in Skeltonic verse. I like cheese but not fleas Or those that sneeze In my food for that's rude Like walking nude In front of kids Best better hid The slide that slid Out out of control That terrible troll Who pays his toll Hey I'm on a roll Please don't be droll *** Well that was fun. A little short for skeltonic verse, but i'm tired and it was getting nonsensical. I haven't quite got a handle on the scarcasim element yet. Hmm, might be better if a I had a clear target to focus on oh well. These poems are meant to be written fast and improvised anyway, so I figure you have to write a ton of them before lightening really strikes.

I pulled the misc classic rock album from the stack in my garage. It wasn't a bad album none of them were really. Well so long as you like the 70's and 80's. Those two inches dedicated to Psychedelic Furs seemed put the rest of the collection's taste in question for me. I had invertantly seen the Psychedelic Furs live in the mid 90's. It was one the saddest things I'd ever seen. An aging New-Wave what-to-be Bono/David Bowie still singing he same worn out songs, to a small crowd of equally aging fans still sporting 80's leather fashions and flock-of-sea-galls hair styles. I made it four songs (all long dead pop hits) before walking out. But the rest of the collection wasn't bad. They belong to my long absent land-lord along with the several pontoons and kayaks suspending between the steal girders that lined the ceiling, or at least that's what all of us assumed. Erin thought so at least, and she seemed to know the most about the local house lore. No one had ever met the land lord. All I know is that he lived very very far away in some place like Switzerland and the college kid he had hired to manage our non-existence lease lived in another state. So pretty much we were on our own, which suited me well enough. The lease or verbal agreement really (as I had no one in the house had ever signed anything) went on a month to month basis. If you wanted to move out, you simply put an add in the paper and found a new tenant to replace you. If you wanted your deposit back you told the new tenant that they should pay the deposit to you, and when they eventually move out they can do the same. So no long entangling leases to worry about and the land lord doesn't really have do anything save check his balance from his money-market account where I deposited the various rent checks at the local credit union, that and he'd have his college kid occasionally cut us a check for expenses incurred trying to maintain the house. So every-one's happy. Well except for Erin, but she's OCD and an struggling Artist with a fine arts degree to boot. The promise of those first fruitful years after college had not been exactly kind to her, but then again no of us had had it exactly easy ourselves in that house. So, while I could relate to her bitterness at being stuck in a dead in barista job, I had little sympathy. She was younger than me after all, had more education, and had lived in more exciting places than I ever did. If you can't appreciate the advantages/blessing in your life as well as the set backs, then well, as far I was concerned, you'll never be happy. So why dwell on the bad, when you still have the have the time and capacity to do something about it???

Seems like the set up to Brian confessing his love for "wolfie" to me, but stories like these sometimes have unpredictable twists thrown in for fun. I guess the dream itself could be that twist. I wonder how much of the dream relates to the actual life of the speaker vs how much is just a night's fancy. Oh but, you wanted a comment on emotions. Honestly, though, I'm not sure what exactly you're asking for. Do you mean that you would like to know that emotions are being conveyed, or that the story is about conveying emotions vs some other literary device in the story or something else entirely? Hmm... Oh well, I'll take a stab at it. Well, at the opening you tell us that your character is "scared" from the get go, so no mystery there. I like the trapped by the tangled sheet thing. It reminds of the half-waken state when you come out of a dream before your body is releases your from the state of paralysis that keeps your from physically acting out your dreams in your sleep so you don't injure yourself, and waking up paralysed (however brief) is always a terrifying experience, so I related to it this way. But that's just me. Hmm, towards the introduction of the mobile-home scene, I think you're going for the speakers' empty feelings of loneliness or solitude. If this is what you're going for, I'd maybe expand the description of the mobile home life some. Fiction's not my speciality though, so I might be way off. However on my second read, I get a whole "calm after the storm" or shocked/burned out feeling. The mention of your best friend and company introduces tension to the previous emotional void. Hmm, I don't know... maybe some more descriptoin setting/scenery to anchor where the fight took place, and who lives where n'such. Hmm, I find it odd that as the peace keeper of the couple your charactor "patched up" the boyfriend's heart so much. Isn't it usually the girlfriend being patch up by her friend. If your speaker had been friends with the boy first then that would make more sense, but I get the feeling the speaker was friends with the girl first. So wouldn't her loyalty lie more with her? Hmm, but I guess these things are not always black and white. Hmm, well my partial take on it. rev...

pistachio

happy happy... have fun, rev...

the porcelain industry?

not a big fan of milk. I like soy milk though. Wonder if soy warm milk would work too.

I think you created your own repeating form here. Neat. On a personal note, I'm attempting to adjust my own sleep schedule because of my new job at UPS. I use NyQuil. It works, so long as you don't take too much. Otherwise, you'll oversleep and end up being late for work. rev...

boat

brookers.

*shudders* at the wisdom teeth vibes... God that just sounds terrible. It reminds me of the time I had half a tooth knocked out, and the nerve got exposed for a day or so until the dentist could cap it. Anyway, anytime even a slight breeze hit that nerve, it was like needle through your gum. OCH!

I think B5 predates the SciFI Channel. I think it aired on T.V. following the Star Trek: The Next Generation Strategy. Run the show in syndication on local affiliates on what later became either the UPN and or WB networks (I hear they're joining forces by the way). But, I'm not sure about this. As per request: Lady in the Water The critics panned it, but I went to see it anyway. I was going off on an insane Final Exam preparation head-trip, and I needed something to calm me down. So, I went to the Theater with the intent on seeing "something that looked good and was about to start" (from Jackie Brown) Anyway, I liked it. For an M. Night Shyamalan film, it was pretty straight forward. I thought it was going to be thriller, horror, or even a suspense type thing, but honestly it came across to me as kind of a modern day fairy tale. A decently enjoyable one too. Though, it is lightly framed by some social commentary of Modern Man's obsession with War. Do you need to see this in the theater to appreciate though? Nope, if you're on a budget, then wait for it to show up in the second/third-run theaters or video. Though, if you have some extra cash, and have nothing better to do, I don't think you'd be too disappointed. Oh, the Shyamalan "awe/wonder" filter is in full effect on this film as well. See Signs and The Sixth Sense and to get an idea of what I'm talking about. The Village has it too, but most ppl didn't like that one. I enjoyed it, but then again, I was just really into the Strong-Blind-Red-Headed Girl's way of talking. So proper and serious, yet still fun and slighty mischievous.

Colbert? Hmm, at the risk of committing cardnal pennite sin and letting the politicial in, ya'll should check this out:

Oh for the love of God.

My Eye! Random tip of the day: Never rub your eye after applying an arthritic cream to your arm/leg or misc body part, even if it's been several hours since the application. Especially if the principle ingredient happens to be Capsaicin. You know that chemical that happens to make peppers so dang hot. rev...