Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Random Writings

At the request of a friend, I will be posting my random writings:

The road stretched on as far as one could see. The landscape had taken on a brown/orange hue, thanks to the setting sun, that made it all look dead. Dust kicked up, as the man walked the dirt road. At his side trotted a small dog, a terrier of some sort, but that was all one could tell. Its gait was one of determination not happiness, like that of its companion. The man walked with a slight slump, as if the weight of the guitar across his back were bringing him down. He stopped to grasp a long piece of grass, and placed it in his mouth. The movement caused dust to displace from his denim jeans and jacket.
On the horizon behind; a cloud of dust was approaching. The man paid no heed, the terrier turning its head and managing to trot sideways. The cloud slowed and one could make out a dusty Chevy pickup. It pulled up next to the man and stopped, as did the man. The driver was attractive, or had been in her youth, her face now creased with age and hardship. She offered the younger man a ride, which he accepted, lifting the dog into the bed before hopping into the cab.
She was heading to her sister's wedding in Georgia. He was heading to meet his father, and possibly cousin, in North Carolina. They made small talk. She didn't like her sister really, and he had never met his father. For the night they stopped at an old hotel, the man offering to pay, so long as she was willing to share. She most certainly was. Clouds, then thunder, then rain rolled in as the man shared his bed with the woman. He brought back feelings of her youth, before he brought on a blissful sleep.
The morning would find her clutching the room's toilet, as she hacked up phlegm and blood. Over the last few days of her life, as she coughed up the last of her lungs, and slowly bled both inside and out, it would never occur to her that these things were from her brief, blissful meeting with the man who wasn't there when she woke. That same morning found him trudging along the road. He wondered if his dad would care. Would his dad be proud of him?

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I want my Daria

Anyone who has known me for awhile has probably heard me mention Daria. I don’t bring it up a lot. But it is often at the back of my mind.

For those still wondering WTF I am talking about, it is a reference to the old MTV cartoon, Daria. It was a cartoon which focused on the life of a teenaged girl, bespectacled and cynical, and I loved it.

Now, cartoon aside, I kinda had a crush on Daria. I love the idea of a strong, intelligent, confident woman. One that knows what she likes and doesn’t care what other’s think. But at the same time, under all the witty banter, and high minded ideals, there still lies a girl.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that Daria has glasses. I love glasses. Not sure why. I guess I could go all oedipal and say that my mom had them. But, in order to save my sanity, I will discount that. Especially since she looked like a huge dork back then. I think it more likely that my brain buys in to the stereotype of glasses=smart. And I like smart women. I mean, I would always pick Velma over Daphne. Always.

Also, glasses let a woman give you that look, where they look over their glasses at you. Very sexy. It allows a woman to have a ‘stare’ without actually needing to have one naturally. And a woman who already has one? Man, if Nicole Kidman ever gave me one of those arched eyebrow stares over the brim of a pair of glasses…I think I would need a change of boxers. Add some double pigtails to the mix and you may as well burn whatever room I was in at the time. You’ll never be able to get it clean again.

Wow, that went somewhere I didn’t expect. Anywho, yes, Daria girls. I like women smart, funny, clever, and having chosen a style that works for them. I know that some people out there may be wondering why it took a cartoon character to figure that kind of thing out. Wish I could tell you.

Now, I don’t feel like that narrows me down too much, as far as what I want in a woman. I just know that I need someone I can banter with. Someone who is smart enough to appreciate many things in life, from cartoons about a talking milkshake and meatball to documentaries on the wild west. Someone who is confident in who they are and doesn’t need for me to save them, yet still wants me to be there to hug when the world gets her down and the little girl in her is scared.

She doesn’t need to look at the stupidity of the world and do all negative like I do. Probably better that she doesn’t. But she does need to be able to see it.

She doesn’t need to be totally hot. I just need to look at her, and think how lucky I am.

Also, she needs to be amazing in bed….yet having very low expectations.

Most of all, I want to find someone whom, when I say 'You are my Daira' will understand what all that means to me.

Death to College kids!

God I hate college kids. And before you say anything about my age or generational issues, I hated them when I actually went to school 10+ years ago. They really haven't changed.

I should also clarify, and say that I hate UNIVERSITY kids. My experience with community college students has been, by and large a positive experience.

This rant is brought to you courtesy of St. Patrick’s day. The day we celebrate the patron saint of drunken fuckwads everywhere.

My office is near the FSU campus. On the way to work, kids were already mingling outside of a campus bar. By noon, you couldn’t drive anywhere near campus without having a constant stream of students who don’t know how to use crosswalks step in front of your car.

Now, this is a long standing issue I have with college kids, St Patties just makes it worse. It seems to me that these kids are so self absorbed that common decency and even the desire to not get run over, are gone. They don’t care about anyone around them. They don’t even look at traffic, so confident are they that no one would dare run them over. And they never pick up their slow pace. No matter how many cars they are holding up. Regardless of whether they are crossing when they should or not. They won’t walk faster, let alone jog out of the way.

I even witnessed, on a main road, a car stop so his buddy could walk over and talk to him. Not pull over. Not stopped at a light. Right in the middle of the road. Dozens of cars backing up behind them. And they don’t even look your way. You don’t exist. And they can’t be bothered to even give you a courtesy “Hey, sorry for holding you p” wave.

St Patties just makes it all worse. Now when they walk into traffic, they aren’t walking straight and are wearing bright green.

I really am looking forward to the day that I snap, so I can start killing these bastards.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Man, our political system sucks

I think voting has become a HUGE issue in America. By and large we seem to have only a few voter types:

1) People who vote party. Doesn't matter who, they vote for their party.
2) People who vote AGAINST party. They just hate the other guy that much.
3) People who actually like the candidate. This seems to always be based on a delightful lack of knowledge about a candidate. I say that, because thus far I have never seen someone albe to actually support their candidate beyond "I like him" or "They are better than so and so".
4) People whose vote goes to waste because they don't vote for one of the big two.
5) People who don't bother to vote.

This same system works for all voting...for laws too. I remember debating someone here about the proposed new electric plant. It was, as is normal, going to be a coal fire plant. A bunch of folks were all against the horribly dirty and polluting plant (which is not really true of a modern power plant of any kind). So, I asked if they would simply stop using electricity, since they were stopping someone from making more. Of course they said no.

So, where will this magical electricity come from? They said, how about solar. I asked them where they would like to clear a bunch of land to do so. And what they would do when it rains (a regular occurence in FL). So them mentioned Wind Power. I licked my finger and put it in the air...hmmm, no electricty being produced today. And I knew thery wouldn't even mention Nuclear (even though it is perfectly viable). I watched them shut down, and realized that this person had voted...voted without any real grasp on th eissue aside from some slanted article in the paper.

I think this country actually needs less people to vote, not more. I am fine with having 50%+ people not vote, if those people are sheep or misinformed. Sadly, it is my experience that many non-voters (or wasted voters) are actually the ones who know about the issues. And that's why they don't vote (or don't vote for the big two).

Friday, March 14, 2008

Hillary, you suck!

I know I probably shouldn’t care as much as I do, since I won’t be voting for either of them anyway, but I am pissed off at how the Democratic race just got retarded.

Hillary has decided that the votes she received in Michigan should be counted. You know the votes that she received in the state that she wasn’t supposed to have her name on the ballot in? The primary she “won” that Obama wasn’t even IN? The Primary that her party said, doesn’t count?!

Listen you manipulative skank, I realize that you see your dream dying as Obama kicks your can from state to state. I know you spent so much time and money worming your way into being a senator of a state you never lived in so they you could eventually use that to become the first woman (debatably a woman, granted) President. But that does not give you the right to try and smarm your way to the Whitehouse!

You joined a party. You joined because you want all the benefits that come with it, such as having a built in voter base (those morons that always vote party). As such, you need to play by the rules of your party. You wanna do it your way? Go independent!

Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT defending the party here. I think the party system needs die in a fire. A fire full of radioactive material and acid. And bees with rabies. But the members of said parties need to follow the rules of their party. The party says don’t be on the ballot in a state, because said state broke the rules, and you AGREE to that, then DON’T PUT YOUR NAME ON THE BALLOT!!! And if you do, don’t expect the party to consider them.

This pisses me off more that the recount bullshit years ago. At least that had merit. But it smacks of “But I wanna win!” The recount at least had the issue of pointing flaws in the system and making sure everyone’s voice was heard. But that isn’t what Hillary is doing. She just wants to win.

Any one of you people that still support her, suck. People like her are why we have screwed up stuff in our country as it is.