I don’t post as much personal stuff as I used to, but this is still “my blog” and every now and then I don’t see anything wrong with it.

I’ve found something out about myself, and it happened because of a dream I had.  I thought that was pretty cool.

In short:  I dreamt that I witnessed a series of murders, and my testimony could answer all of the unsolved questions and bring justice to a number of families.  But as I approached the police officer to tell him what I knew, I was dismissed as unimportant and they listened to someone else, who could only speculate at best about what happened.

What this means:  My biggest insecurity is being ignored and/or shoved aside.  I happened to be thinking about this in the abstract a lot this weekend, so had the dream which, when I woke up, turned all these abstract thoughts into something concrete.

It’s asinine that people log in to MySpace in order to send messages which people then get alerted to through email and have to log into MySpace in order to read.

I get the point, though.  It’s not a useless technology, just not one I want to use.  If you don’t know the person’s email address, for example, MySpace is a way around that.  MySpace could have even developed a slogan of some sort around that concept, “When email, addresses, and phone numbers change — you’ll always have MySpace.”

Though my attitude is, if we don’t know each other’s email addresses or phone numbers, why am I trying to stay in touch with you?

adam DOT czar AT gmail DOT com, for future reference.  It won’t change.

reblogged from amandoline:

I’m proud to say that Katy and I have done all but three of these.  We’ve never played frisbee, she’s never washed my car, and we’ve yet to take a carriage ride through the park.

UPDATE:  OH SHEESH yes we did, in Mackinaw.  So only two to go.  But, 76/78 ain’t bad!

I said a few posts back I don’t think we’ll be living in the same world we do now in another 40 years.  I constantly worry about this, mostly because I feel like I should be spending all my money now instead of hording it for retirement in a government account that probably won’t even exist.

When we get a house in November I’m going to be one of “those guys,” because one of the first things I’m going to do is start a stock of canned foods and fresh bottled water, and weapons, in the basement.

I’m also not ruling out the idea of burying land mines and remote-detonated explosives in my lawn to ward off any T-800s that may trickle in.  Or any of you crazy starved, thirsty bastards.

In all seriousness, though, it’s both humbling and terrifying to really think about how fragile we are.  Case in point.  (That’s two links).

UPDATE:  Another great blog about the differences between boys and girls.

I thought this was relevant because of the discussion in one of my earlier posts.  Sad and surprising, but eye-opening in a “what I will teach my kids” kind of way.  I tend to agree with the second paragraph.

From TheWeek:

Sure, singer Chris Brown punched, bit, and choked his girlfriend, the pop star Rihanna, so badly that she landed in the hospital, according to a police report. But for Brown to get that angry, it must have been Rihanna’s fault. At least that’s what a lot of teenagers believe, said Jan Hoffman in The New York Times. In a finding that has sparked consternation among parents and domestic-violence experts and led to a new crusade by Oprah Winfrey, nearly half of 200 teenagers polled by the Boston Public Health Commission held Rihanna responsible for her recent assault. “She probably made him mad for him to react like that,” a female ninth-grader said. Reports that the couple have reunited, and recorded a new duet together, have further muddied the lines of responsibility. “She probably feels bad that it was her fault, so she took him back,” one girl said.

For this ugly way of thinking, I blame feminism, said Kathryn Jean Lopez in National Review Online. Back before “natural gender roles” were deliberately muddled, it was normal “for us to expect men to protect women, and for women to expect some level of physical protection.” But feminism conditioned us to view men and women as equals. “By inventing oppression where there is none and remaking woman in man’s image, as the sexual and feminist revolutions have done, we’ve confused everyone.” Teens are making excuses for Chris Brown because they no longer expect men to treat women with special deference.

You’ve got it backward, said prosecutor Glenn F. Ivey in The Washington Post. At a middle school I visited recently, I heard the same blame-the-victim talk about Rihanna. But “the room froze” when I asked whether Barack Obama could ever be justified in hitting Michelle. “Putting hands on Michelle Obama was somehow unthinkable.” And therein lies the power of the First Lady, a strong and dignified feminist and mother. Mrs. Obama could make a difference in countless lives if she focused on domestic violence as “one of her primary issues.” Ultimately, though, said DeWayne Wickham in USA Today, it comes down to what we tell our own daughters. Here’s what I’m telling my 15-year-old: One in four women gets beaten up by a man. Many of them then make the same mistake as Rihanna, and believe the guy when he says it won’t ever happen again. “Don’t walk away from that man,” I’ll tell my daughter. “Run.”

…is when I am talking to someone and they start mouthing the words I am saying as I am saying them.

Usually it’s not word-for-word, but if I can see your lips and tongue moving as your eyes study how my lips are moving, it’s enough to set me off.  It’s 10x worse if I can actually hear you whispering what I’m saying.

This is (1) annoying, (2) insulting, as if you have to mimic my movements and make your own mouths move in order to decipher what it is I am saying, (3) embarrassing, because it draws attention to every single word I am saying instead of the overall message and (4) discouraging, because if you can’t keep up, I worry you’re just humoring me and really have no idea how to continue the conversation.  And it makes you look like an idiot.

Whenever this happens, I immediately stop talking, even if I am in mid-sentence, and just look at the person until their mouth closes.  Ordinarily doing that would embarrass me, but I am so filled with rage that any sense of violating some social norm is drowned out.

There is a “No Turn On Red” intersection right by my house that I pass through everyday.  I turned on red once, and was pulled over.  Never again, because that shit is expensive.

This morning, I stopped at the red light.  The car behind me honked, but I stayed put, because I’m not paying a $150 ticket for this guy.

So he angrily squeels his tires, backs up, and peels out around me.  He must not have been looking because another oncoming car had to slam on their brakes… if that car had not been alert, I would have witnessed death right in front of me, and the force of the impact probably would have sent his car back into mine.

Later on I passed the guy, who was not a guy at all but a middle aged blonde woman who turned into Starbucks.

Disobeying the law, acting like an asshat and putting three lives at risk so you can get your latte?

This is a way of life worth preserving?

I’ll be celebrating my 86th birthday this weekend a bit early (can’t wait sixty years LOLz).  I’d say something like “if you are reading this, come by!” but it’s by invite only.  And unfortunately I have no invitations.

So, ignore this post.

Edit:  okay if you are reading this you are invited.  all 3 of you who live nearby.

Wiping your ass with someone else’s homework.

Katy and I are trying out some products by a company named Seventh Generation.  This came recommended by Amanda after my post about toilet paper a few weeks back.  The company makes disposable household items from recycled materials.

We bought some toilet paper, paper towels, and garbage bags — three things used daily at our house.  The toilet paper and paper towels are made from 100% recycled paper, and the garbage bags are 70% recycled.

I’m pleased to say that the toilet paper is a lot better than I expected.  It’s not Charmin Ultra Soft Precious Ass With Lotion and Shea Butter, but it’s just like Meijer brand or whatever.  But honestly, it’s your butthole.  You don’t need luxury, right?

The paper towels are thinner and more coarse than what we’re used to, but so far have worked just like paper towels are supposed to.

The garbage bags are exactly the same as the ones we have now, drawstring and everything.

I didn’t buy in bulk, so the price was a lot more than what we’d pay in the store for regular brand stuff.  But if we decide to continue to use all of these products, sites like Amazon carry the stuff and a lot of the time have free shipping so I’ll post price comparisons.  A lot of times, I suspect these products are actually cheaper if you buy the right quantities, which surprised me and makes me wonder why there isn’t more of a push for them in stores.