A Validation: Forbidding Parking

If you don't read the whole thing, it won't make sense.

2006-04-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

Take a drive out into the country on a clear night, away from lights and electricity and look up into the sky. This works really well in the summertime when the northern lights are out, because the northern lights are beautiful and help the imagination take flight.

Settle in, relax on some lounge chairs, crack a beer or smoke a joint if the mood strikes you, and consider a few things, while you gaze into the abyss of space. Consider that Earth is sphere, in the neighborhood of 8,000 miles in diameter. In contrast to most of the things that we deal with on a day to day basis, Earth is really big. Huge. Gigantic. There is more Earth than a single human being could possibly experience in a lifetime and actually enjoy it. Then consider the fact that there are nearly six billion intelligent beings on this planet that area also struggling with the exact (or very nearly the exact) same problems that you are. This last part is the hardest because six billion is not an easy number to conceptualize. And let’s not forget all the dogs, cats, chimpanzees, amoebas, trees, whales, etc, etc…etc

But lets continue outward. It is almost inconceivable to get a real sense of scale with the solar system. So let’s look at it in a very specific way. We’ll start with the Sun. It’s really, really huge. It has a diameter of about 8 hundred thousand miles, and consists of 99.8 percent of the mass of the entire solar system. If the Sun was the size of a bowlilng ball, the Earth would be little more than a peppercorn. And remember, Earth is huge.

But then think about the 93 million miles between the Earth and the Sun. If we maintain that the Sun is the size of a bowling ball, then Earth is about a quarter of a football field away. A peppercorn twenty-six yards from a bowling ball. The last planet in the solar system, Pluto, is half a mile away, and it is smaller than a pinhead.

It gets wilder. Consider that light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second. It takes over eight minutes for the Sun’s light to reach Earth at that speed. It takes five and a half hours to get to Pluto.

Light travels about 10 trillion kilometers in a year; thus that distance is called a lightyear. These are numbers that we can’t even fathom. The next nearest solar system to ours has been called by us, Alpha Centauri. It is 4 light years away—or 40 trillion kilometers of empty black nothingness. No mere bowling ball is going to give us a mental image of how big a distance this is. The next closest neighbor is 10 light-years away. In ten light-years, there are three stars.
It takes light 150,000 years to get from one end of our solar system to the other. That’s 1.5 billion billion kilometers! Repeat that in your head a few times. Say it out loud. Really let it sink in. The first time I tried, I couldn’t sleep for two days. That’s a true story.

To understand that the light we are seeing from the farthest reaches of our own galaxy left there right around the time that modern humans were just taking their first tentative steps in this world, made me lose sleep. Our huge sun is suddenly very tiny. Smaller than a peppercorn, and a lot farther from anything.

The next cloesest galaxy to ours is called Andromeda and it is 2.3 million light-years from the Milky Way galaxy. Again, that’s 23 billion billion kilometers. That light left Andromeda near the end of the Pliocene, right around the time that Australopithecus starting shambling around on two feet.

And everything between the Milky Way and Andromeda is the empty vacuum of space. Think about that. The diameter of our entire galaxy, in which our Sun is a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, is about 6 percent of the distance to its nearest galactic neighbor. This is a distance the human mind will never be able to truly fathom.

So there’s the Earth, orbiting its sun, one of another 100 billion stars in the same galaxy, in a universe with (by most estimates) approximately 200 billion galaxies all scattered across the vastness of the cosmos, of which maybe 6 percent consists of galaxies, which are mostly empty space anyway (our huge sun is very, very tiny)… I use ‘vastness’ in place of a word that has not yet been invented. Maybe there can be no word, for to truly attempt to conceive of these monumental distances could drive one to insanity.

And these distances are nothing compared to the vastness of time.

The question is this: How can we presume to think that anything we do is important in the general scheme of things? How can we possibly think that we are special? We crawled up and awakened to reason, not a minute ago, after an eternity with none. And in that minute (150,000 years to the current estimated age of the universe: 13 billion years, or a little over .000 001% of the history of the universe), we ask every question that we can think of to ask—hopefully—and soon enough, we will be gone. And nothing will have happened.

We are not a factor. In a sense, we are all an endangered species, teetering on the brink of annihilation. So I say, here we are, a weak, frail animal, in the midst of everything (which consists of mostly nothing), with nothing to fend for ourselves except our intellect. We are nothing in the middle of nothing. Nothing any of us ever does is going to have the slightest impact on anything in the most general scheme of things.

Is this depressing?

It sure as shit can be. But from another perspective, it’s the most wonderful thing that the universe has ever given humanity. I find it to be truly beautiful. It fills me with an incredible amount of awe and wonder that so much love, hate, beauty, ugliness, betrayal, honor, actually does occur. To imagine that so much activity can go on at the smallest of scales, when literally nothing at all is going on at the largest of scales. It also means that no matter who you are, being “somebody” is pointless.

There are a number of possible ways that this all can be interpreted. From an existential point of view, it is precisely that insignificance which takes a figurative “weight” away, and frees us up to do what we want with our lives. In fact, it can be argued that it seems to even force on us an obligation to experience as much as possible, to live as truly free individuals. And this is certainly one of the reasons that I write.

However, while that is the intellectual justification for it, there is something much deeper, something much more intuitive about it. It is precisely the knowledge of the perspective that is inspirational. It is sitting out in that field staring at the sky, imagining how small I am, and wondering about the wondrous and mystifying things that must exist out there in the depths of the cosmos, it is looking at all the wonderful things that science has discovered, all of the pure knowledge, the intricacies of the Standard Model of physics, the explorations of general relativity, quantum mechanics, string theory, evolution, geology, chemistry, anthropology, all of these wonderful and intricate things about the world that drives me. It is pondering them and marveling at just how beautiful the world is in all its complexity, all its mystery, all its splendor that is the real source of inspiration for me. It is this precisely that is the real reason I do what I do. This is really why I write.

Hometown Wiki

2006-04-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

There's a new wiki in town. Or at least in one particular town. To share your vast knowledge about the city of Bemidji, MN just point your browser to the (someday) ultimate compendium of all knowledge and wisdom concerning the city. Right here.

It's not exactly like a regular blog

2006-04-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

I have decided, after very careful consideration, that I would like to share some of my work with the rest of civilization, for good or ill. I have set up a new blog over at the brand new headquarters of the Anarchist Wiki, which can be found over on the sidebar of this blog.

I have set it up as a blog, so the posts, which are individual chapters, will be in reverse order, with the later chapters coming before the previous ones. Though I think that most people will be able to figure it out.

The actual story can be found here.

I hope you enjoy it. Leave comments if you did. Leave suggestions if you didn't.

The Time to Wait has Arrived!!!

2006-03-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right. I have done it again. I have concocted for your drinking pleasure, yet another batch of fine ale. It now resides in my basement, in the bottles, aging. It will be another few weeks before it is even close to being ready to drink. If I was a truly patient person, I would let it age for a month before cracking the first bottle, but we'll see how that goes.

The details:

I used a reddish crushed crystal malt for a nice grainy flavor, along with an amber malt extract for that glorious rich flavor of the red ale. As for dried malt, I used a pale ale barley malt, and it should lend itself to a crisp, clean finish.

As for hops, well, I cut back back on the bittering hops a little. I restrained myself. I didn't use quite as much. Instead, in its place, I added to the brew just at the start of the bittering process, a few cups of chopped rhubarb. Oh, now you're interested, aren't you? Yes, rhubarb. I used all the requisite finishing hops, near the end of the boil, but the star of the show, is the rhubarb that I used to bitter it.

I don't know how it's going to turn out, but it's out of my hands at this point. I took some readings with my hydrometer, and the finishing alchohol content will be around 5-6 percent, which is acceptible for a darker reddish ale.

Yes, my friends, the time to get seriously down to the waiting, has arrived.

When I Was Young

2006-03-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

by Doctor Kuha

I looked at the mountains,
Asked myself “How did that happen?”
I Looked at a turtle,
The same question sits,
tumbling around
a ball bearing in a bowl.

Some say that God did it,
And Leave it at that. No elaboration.
I would persist, ask again, “How?”
I am rebuked, for asking stupid questions.
rebuked for asking questions
does God have hands?

Someone told me turtles evolved.
Evolved? I asked not knowing what it meant.
I ask my parents, they say, “We don’t believe in that.
We believe in God.” And that was that.
how could I argue?
no need to ask anymore.

But the question still remains.
It rolls around, bounces up and smacks you
There’s too many inconsistencies to ignore
The fact that some people are wrong.
So I ask again,
I ask different people…

Evolution can be reduced to a tautology:
“That which survives, survives.”
Tautologies are meaningless
But not in the same way as…
God did it.
Stop asking questions.

Evolution says, “Keep asking questions.
It’s the only way we will evolve.”
And I like that. It sits nice with me.
So now I don’t believe in God.
We don’t understand everything.
But they understand less.

I am kind of hungry

2006-03-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

You know, the pressure is just too much. I want to post on my blog, but I want it to be interesting as well. I would prefer if it be funny, poignant, educational if possible. But it's just too much. I can't spew forth golden streams of pure truth every fucking day. It's just too hard. So what am I going to do about it?

I'm going to find anything, anyone, and any reason whatsoever to blame it on, except myself. The reason that I've settled on is, of course, you, the reader. You're the one that puts this pressure on me.

I hope you're proud of yourself.

Ego-licious survey Crap

2006-02-25T18:22:00.000-08:00

Four Jobs I've Had:
Construction Worker
Ski-lift operator
Banker Proof operator
Science Museum Docent

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
HurlyBurly
Naked Lunch
FLCL
Brazil

Four Places I've Lived:
Bemidji, MN
Colorado Springs, CO
Kailua, HI
Jacksonville, FL

Four TV Shows I love: (love? hmm...)
Simpsons
Family Guy
The Office
Daily Show

Four Places I've Vacationed:
England
Mexico
Canada (Winnipeg Folk Festival)
Red Lodge, Montana

Four of My Favourite Dishes:
Steak
Pasta (Fettucini Alfredo)
Meat Loaf (My mom makes the best)
Anything that features potatoes

Four Sites I Visit Daily:
The Anarchist Wiki
Froydburger
Wikipedia
Milk and Cookies

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
England
Japan
Mexico
Oblivion

Proof....For all you who doubted it.

2006-02-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

Given: a=b
1: a*a=ab
2: a*a-b*b=ab-b*b
3: (a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b)
4: a+b = b
5: a+a=a
6: 2a=a
Therefore: 1=2

QED

There is, of course, a flaw in the proof. And if someone can find it, and post it in the comments, they will get a cookie. But probably not from me. And more than likely, there will be no causal relationship between that person getting a cookie and figuring out the flaw in the proof. But it only stands to reason that the person who figures out the flaw in the proof will also get a cookie at some time in the future.

Best wishes.

Cursing

2006-02-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

I am one profane motherfucker. I curse and I swear. A lot. It seems to flow naturally when I speak. Do I do it on purpose? Or to prove a point? To be honest with you, and I mean totally honest, I have no idea. It just happens.

I think I learned the F-word (fuck, for those of you who don't know), when I was in first grade or so. My friend told me about it. He said that we weren't supposed to use it. He said it was a "bad word." I gotta tell ya, I didn't believe him. I thought the whole idea was absolutely ludicrous. A bad word? You've gotta be kidding me! That's the stupidest thing I ever heard!!

So I tried it out. On his mom. I was just sitting there, that very afternoon, in their living room (I lived in the apartment across the hall). Since I had no concept of its actual meaning or grammatical usage, I just let it fly. I said, quite simply, "Fuck." Just to see what would happen. Call it an experiment.

A deadly silence settled on the room. My friend was there, his mom was there. And she let out every bit of her New Orleans rage at me. (They were Cajun, but we all lived in Florida at the time). She was pissed! She told me that they didn't use that kind of language in that house, blah blah blah. I'm sure you can imagine. She did not curse once, near as I can remember.

I learned an important lesson that day. I wasn't convinced that the F-word (fuck) was a bad word, but I did learn that it was a word you could only use in specific situations, like when grown-ups weren't around.

I've gone through various stages in my life where I cursed at different intervals, really depending on who my friends were at the time. If they were profane, I was profane. If they were clean, I was relatively (though not totally) clean-mouthed. In third grade, every time me and my best friend would curse, we'd make a big show of it, "Don't tell anyone I said this," we'd say, "But that guy is one Goddamned, motherfucking asshole!" And it would be this big, kind of secret thing between us, like a code. Third grade!! We would use these words and it would be just between us. We didn't know what it meant; all we knew was it was the strongest, most blatant way to say how we felt. But we didn't use that language where anyone else could hear us.

In fifth grade, I briefly flirted with the softer version "frick." Now this is a strange thing. I mean, you say "frick," but you mean "fuck." Like when we'd play tag on the jungle-gym, and whoever was "It" was getting close and we'd say "frick." That lasted for a while. The cursing taboo lifted after fifth grade.

Oh, it came and went over the years, but by about 9th grade, I was pretty much set in my ways. I don't curse around my parents, but I swear so much pretty all the rest of the time, it's a wonder God hasn't smited me for the number of times I've used his name in vain. It must number in the millions. Let's see... let's say, for argument, 10 times a day, for the last 11 years or so (since 9th grade, this does not count pre-high school cursing)...carry the one...okay, I exaggerated a little. I've taken the lord's name in vain probably about 40,000 times. Give or take. This doesn't include all the instances of: fuck, shit, piss, ass, asshole, cock, cocksucker, bitch, tits, motherfucker, etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, there is one other strange observation that I've made. Notice how I said I didn't curse in front of my parents. Despite the fact that cursing comes as naturally to me as breathing around my friends, it doesn't seem to be particularly difficult to not swear in front of my parents. When the need arises, I can shift speech patterns as easily as I can tie my shoes.

There are plenty of cognitive/relational/psychological theories that explain this phenomenon, and I've looked into them from time to time, but I think this fact in itself is interesting enough for this blog post.

Good motherfucking day!

Prospects for greatness

2006-02-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

So I need money. Doesn't everyone? So I went to my dad, said, "Hey, Pops, I notice that your company doesn't have a website. And not only that, but I need money and happen to have all of the software that one would presumably need to make one for you. So, hey, since nepotism seems to be a pretty common thing for us, why would you hire some firm to do it, when I could give it the personal touch that Kuha Construction deserves?"

He said yes. And this is what I've created:

The Super Cool Kuha Construction Website!

Obviously, it's still under construction. (get it?) But pay extra careful attention to the Flash slideshows that I created under the projects heading. I think I put the appropriate spin on the products that we offer.

It's About Time!!

2006-02-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it's about time I related the sordid tale.

Okay, here's the deal. It was a few weeks ago, maybe one, maybe two, but it was definitely more than six days, that I was alone, in my basement, bored, and slightly drunk. I also had a credit card and a very fast, high speed internet connection. This is a bad combination of conditions to be afflicted with. Or rather, it's a bad combination of conditions for me to be afflicted with.

In short, I was surfing around, researching the plausibility of hosting my own domain. Instead of doing what I ought to do, which was research it for no less that a week, I impulsively found something that looked like a good deal (and as it turns out, it's actually a pretty decent one) and entered some digits, gave out a lot of personal information, not the least of which included my address, home phone number, credit card number, my real name, and the IP address to my heart, and now, here I am, with my own domain, complete with email addresses, and plenty of server space (of which, currently .22% is used). So then I kicked myself for three days because I had no idea what to do with it.

And then it hit me. I like wikis. I like anarchy. I like relationship advice columns. Why don't I combine the three? I enlisted the initial help of a few of my good friends, I got it off the ground. Now, to unveil, for all the world to ridicule: Doctor Kuha's Office, The Healthy Heart's Anarchist Wiki!

Justice is Not Just Blind Anymore!

2006-02-02T14:33:00.000-08:00

I was at the courthouse today to pay a fine. Nevermind what the fine was for; as far as you're concerned, it was for being way too sexy, which is a crime in Minnesota.

Anyway, I noticed something that really struck a chord with me. It appears that Blind Justice here is missing half of her scales. That would mean, that her scale has a grand total of one platform on which to weigh morality.

I really feel that whoever commissioned this statue, and the artist who built it, was making a very bold, perhaps even controversial, artistic statement. To say, outright to the whole world, that justice is never fully balanced, to say that it's always going to be skewed one way or the other, to admit it fully on the roof of the courthouse is ballsy to say the least.

They don't draw much attention to it, of course, but it's there, silently telling the world, "We at the Beltrami County Courhouse admit, freely and willingly, that you will not recieve a fair trial. We will be biased. We will convict racial minorities and give them the harshest penalties, while we let rich people off the hook with a fine."

I think it's wonderful.

My Blogs Suck

2006-02-01T16:57:00.000-08:00

It's important to note, that since I keep two blogs (one for this class, and one for personal wanton disregard for the sanctity of human life), so in a sense, there's double the suckiness going on here. Well, for what it's worth: My Blog Sucks. And so does yours.

Online quzzes are for narcissistic jerks

2006-01-30T19:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, obviously, I'm not the type of person to do online quizzes, but this one caught my eye, and I did it, and realized it was very, very accurate. So here were the results:

Your Social Dysfunction:
Narcissistic

You are very self-important, preoccupied with success fantasies, expect special treatment and lack interpersonal empathy.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

A Fallcious Response

2006-01-30T18:50:00.000-08:00

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me, "How's it going?" or a question of equally deep existential import, I would probably be an incredibly wealthy person. People ask you this question every day, sometimes several times. Sometimes several times by the same person.

If I had half a million dollars for every time someone asked me what I thought of the metaphysical theories of George Berkeley outside of a classroom setting, I might actually have a million dollars. And that's only because I hang out with the same pretentious people who already know how you're going to answer the questions.

The question, is not the meaning of all the phenomenlogical rubbish that Berkeley spouted, but about conversations and human interaction. When someone asks how you are doing, they don't really care. It's an obligatory question that you ask everyone. In fact, as it turns out, the more you get to know someone, and the more you begin to care about 'how they are doing,' the less frequently you ask this obligatory question and have to hear the obligatory, response, usually something along the lines of 'not bad,' or 'pretty good,' or some such thing.

When I ask you, "How are you?" I don't necessarily care what the answer is. It's just a conversational convention. We all do it, and we do it without even thinking. A good definition of 'chit chat,' would be conversation with the purpose of filling meaningless empty time with something even more empty and meaningless. The same goes for such things as 'small talk,' 'pleasantries,' and 'gossip.' It's all the same thing, designed to cheapen our most effective means of conveying information, verbal speech.

Now, of course I'm being melodramatic about the whole thing. I am as guilty as anyone of engaging in pointless conversation, and even enjoying it from time to time. Exchanging jokes is perhaps one of the most pleasant ways to pass time. But it seems to me, that sometimes it's all we do. We talk about the movies we watched, what was on television last night, sports, or heaven forbid, the weather! It's not very often, that we talk about things in a meaningful way, or a way that is emotionally, intellectually fullfilling.

When people do get caught up some sort of debate, a deep philosophical conversation, one of two things will happen: 9 times out of 10, it will get uncomfortable and someone will change the subject; and all the other times it will become a heated argument and more than one ego will get bruised. Very rarely do we engage someone in conversation with the intent of learning from them. We all are so very sure that we're right about everything that we refuse to take into account the consideration that we are wrong.

I am guilty of this as well, however, I have a different problem: I am always right, and no one seems to believe me.

So this is the problem, more or less, with verbal communication. It's either pointless, boring, or trivial. And if it's not one of those three, it's invariably not going to be productive anyway.

The solution? You'd like that wouldn't you. Well, let me tell you. There is an answer to this question, but you're not going to like it. Despite that fact, we humans evolved as problem solvers, despite the fact that every modern convenience we possess is the direct result of a simple algorithm (find a problem, figure out a solution to it, implement that solution), there is no solution to this problem. It is fundamentally built into us. People will never be able to fully understand each other, and no matter what, we will never, ever, have world peace.

Good night.

Blogging Blogs #3

2006-01-26T18:38:00.000-08:00

I'll be honest with you. I don't like sentimental blogs, or sentimental anything for that matter. This blog was no different. It's actual subject matter does not interest me at all. However, it is an excellent, and surprisingly well-written example of what I call a "blogging notebook," to combine two of Blood's categories.

Of course, there's a very distinct and noticeable leaning towards the whole 'notebook' concept. Posts are focused and reflective. They are will-written and tightly constructed. It's not inane rambling like so many blogs out there, and in that respect it scores points with me. It may be sentimental and sweet, but reflective, which also gets points from me. Debbi does not flinch or muck about the issue. She's honest about her situations with both herself and whoever may or may not read her blog (which, judging from lack of comments, of course, is not very many, not surprisingly; but that's not the point, now is it?).

Plain and simple, this is an online diary. It's purpose is a creative outlet, and a place to put thoughts. It doesn't matter who reads it, and she doesn't need to feel embarassed about any deep private thoughts, since I don't have any emotional attatchments to her issues, only an intellectual curiosity. Some of my readers may yet become attached in some way, but still won't be intimate in the same way as her family. So, it's sort of like counseling. You talk to a psychologist, who, no matter what crazy shit comes out of your mouth, is not allowed to react emotionally. He or she is a sounding board and sage advice-giver (not that I've ever been in counseling, seeing as how I am The Good Doctor). If she finds herself in some sort of online community of readers, they will still manage to be unbaised and trustworthy because they need not worry about hurting anyone's feelings.

This is an interesting concept and probably one that I may or may not explore further throughout the semester. What do you think, dear reader?

Blogging Blogs #2

2006-01-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

This is a very important and up and coming blog. It is by the godhead, Jessymandias. It's a very new blog, because, of course, gods are very busy people. You know, smiting people, rewarding others, mostly arbitrarily.

I thought it would be important to catch at least one blog in its infancy, and look at it. Because this is the point at which a blogger is at his or her most vulnerable. Said blogger has not completely defined a voice or purpose for using said blog, and the writing will be kind of willy-nilly. It won't be quite as finely crafted as the blog may potentially be a few weeks or so down the road, so it's interesting to take a look and maybe predict the possible future of the blog.

So let's look at it first in terms of Blood. Jessymandias has a filter/notebook. There is one post that links...well...back to the Oracle itself, and another that links to a newspaper article. However, there is a strong leaning to the notebook concept. Most of the blog (at this early, perhaps infantile stage), is set up around ruminations, observations, and reflections. In this sense, it is a notebook mostly, with the probably future tendency of occaisonal filtering.

Another important observatin of this blog is that it is very, very, very serious. Jessymandias does not mess around. He is not the type of person, clearly, who likes to muck around and reflect on trivial matters. He clearly, with no doubt, is only interested in exploring the deepest, most pressing questions of the human condition. And being a god himiself must play a little in to that and affect his concerns and wishes and desires in respect to the future of his blog.

On the whole, I think that this will be a very important influential site on the e-verse, and anyone who is at all interested in bettering themselves should devote a certain amount of time to reading and pondering his important and life-changing words...nay: scriptures.

Blogging Blogs #1

2006-01-25T20:10:00.000-08:00

So, this is a blog that I used to read years ago. Of course, the biggest and most obvious problem with it is that Mr. Chomsky hasn't posted in quite a long while. In fact, there's only 5 months of archives. I would be very interested to know what he would say about the further developments of the world. I mean... a lot has happened since July 20004. Seriously, Noam Chomsky is one of the most brilliant and astute political analysts in our age...and he can't even keep his blog updated.

Regardless of the lack of updates for nearly 2 years, it's pretty clear that this is what Ms. Blood would refer to as a notebook. I'm not in the habit of categorizing or labelling things, especially since more often than not, those categories are invarably categorically wrong. Not wrong in the sense, that nothing can be learned from them, seeing as how, the distinctions that Blood draws are interesting and useful, but instead in the sense that most blogs (and most things in general), will almost always defy any attempt to categorize.

No one fits in one broad demographic, and the only way to be definite about identifying any one person is to get as specific as possible. Instead of the general "Doctor," or even the slightly more specifc, "Doctor of parapsychological philosophy, who is white and male and incredibly good looking," it is important that people will not know exactly who you are talking about until you say, "The Good Doctor Kuha." No one fits into only one demographic except in the very deliberate and specific, usually the demographic that contains only that person, "John Smith," or whatever.

That being said, categories can be useful. While my own blog experiements have consisted mainly of notebook-style posting, there is some filtering, and every now and again a little "blogging," though I find that kind of writing to be exceedingly boring, unless they filter it out a little bit and only discuss the interesting events with a little bit of "notebook-like" analysis, or if their "bloggging," their diary-like posting is in some other way interesting.

And so, by saying that Mr. Chomsky's blog is clearly a notebook, and a well-written, insigthful, and dreadfully out of date and mostly useless except in a historical sense, blog, is doing just that. Interestingly enough, there is very little (none that I can find) filtering and absolutely no 'blogging' on Turning the Tide. So it's a notebook; but it could be reasonably surmised, that if Mr. Chomsky had kept the blog going longer than five months, it may have evolved into something else, and thereby defying categorization in any sort of literal sense.

Hmm... This post was not so much aimed at analyzing TTT, as it was analyzing the categorization methods that Ms. Blood used. Of course, that's just as useful. Um... enjoy.

The most important holiday on the internet

2006-01-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

So hey, I just thought that my loyal readers who don't follow links (because they are so unflinchingly, unabashedly obsessed with me and my life), they really need to check out this little gem, from our good friend B-Dawgy-Dawg. I think everyone who is honest enough with themselves to admit that their blog sucks, should really take B-Dawg's advice. Lord knows I will.

February 1 is on the way!

Here's the Deal

2006-01-23T00:22:00.000-08:00

So, what happened was this: I came home from playing that new Cranium Turbo Edition (brilliant but sadistic game) at my girlfriend's mom's house and was going to post a review of either that game, or come up with something actually clever or itneresting. But instead, I started playing around with Netflix, which is the most brilliant thing in the world.

I got sucked in, reviewing movies left and right. Oh my god, it's addicting. And so now, it's 2:30 AM... And you guys have the pleasure of reading the most boring thing I've ever written anywhere at any point in time! Ha!

Reading Other People's Blogs Leads To Paranoia

2006-01-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

I was taking a look around at Hawkins's (Witchdreamer's) blog, while tapping my foot to the newest "Kidz Bop" commercial. And it struck me that this whimsical person's existential problems, these problems with her self, which force her to use such creative tensing in her proper nouns (Did you refer to yourself in the fifth person??), are not so unique. I think we should all be wary in the very near future of the potential of strikes. Yes, labor disputes between us and our selfs. You see, I think we push our selfs too far sometimes. We don't allow them to catch up and enjoy life the way they ought to be allowed.

You know what kind of calamity would be caused if our selfs went on a general strike? I think its safe to say, the unless this matter is resolved in timely manner, it could mean the fall of Western Civilization, brought on by mass psychosis, or depression. Prozac, Zoloft, or Welbutrin be damned! They won't help us reclaim our selfs! Take a lesson from Witchdreamer's problems, because we must act now or be destroyed! There is no room for error, because the coming weeks could signal a very real tragedy....and our Selfs might just not be there to help us out of it.

Sammy The Rat

2006-01-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

A lot of people seem to think I make long posts. Well, just to prove that I don't always make long posts. Here's a short one.

This is my pet rat. His name is Sammy the Rat. He's named after Sammy the Bull Gravano, who ratted out John Gotti and his crime family.

Sammy meet the e-verse. E-verse, meet Sammy. Sammy loves Ritz crackers.

The Antichrist? We Should Be So Lucky!

2006-01-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

Have you seen this guy? He's simply amazing.

Just in case you didn't click the link, I want it perfectly clear how bizarre this all is. He's a vampire. He's running for governor. Okay, that's great. He follows a different religion. That's not too bad. He's Satanic. I mean, he claims to be all in favor of freedom of religion, but...he's Satanic. I mean, he stands for everything that the Christian right is against. He claims not to hate them, but that does not mean he doesn't personally look down upon them in utter contempt. Any self-identifying Christian would have to be a little bit foolish to vote for him.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in neither Lucifer nor "God the Father," as Sharkey calls him. But I can see very little chance for this guy to win the election. That being said, I do not think it's totally impossible for him to win. Very, very wierd things have happened in politics. Jesse Ventura, for instance. Oh, did you see the part where Sharkey talks about being a pro-wrestler?

I think it's entirely possible that this guy could create such a media frenzy, simply because he's so damned wierd, that he could make a fairly strong showing in the election, maybe even win, though it's way to early yet in this whole fiasco we call an election year to make any solid predictions.

My problem with him, though, is basically...well...bad grammar. His website is really, really badly made. The pictures are aweful, and poorly presented, the actual text is articulate enough to make you think he's got at least average intelligence, however, it's not articulate enough to make him brilliant. And he's really not very thorough. He did not do any revising. It's all first drafts. I mean, Bush couldn't make a better page, but at least he has editors.

You see, I want to vote for him, because some of his platform is good (though poorly developed), but he's just not smart enough to pull it off. If you look at everything on the site, you'll see a pattern emerge. Sharkey is nothing if not completely straightforward an honest (except to himself). His whole policy is built up, largely as a sounding board for all of his specific and somewhat uncommon pathology. Every single point in his platform is based on something that happened to him in the past. His drug policy for instance (punishment: impalement for possession or selling), is based on his experiences with an old girlfriend who was a junky. He's emotionally attatched to his issues in a way that I am uncomfortable with. His whole platform isn't based on carefully considering his stance on any particular issue, but some sort of emotional trauma.

On one of the sections of his site, he claims to be friends with the Bushes. If you find that material, I think you'll agree with me on the assessment that he's just a little bit deluded about it. Bottom line in all of this: he takes himself too seriously, and that's what causes problems in office.

Another detractor from his appeal for me is...well...this impalement thing. I am pretty much, one hundred percent, against the death penalty. And impalement, believe it or not, is a form of the death penalty. And Sharkey is really obsessed with it. If I thought for a moment that he could somehow legally bring back the death penalty in Minnesota, I would definitely not vote for him.

Well...I have no conclusions for the moment.

The Kicker

2006-01-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

This is the blog I never intended to create. But since my other blog is written by a very evil person, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to get one rolling that's about my real feelings on issues (as if they didn't shine through in some way or another at Dr Kuha's Office).

This blog stands to be significantly more boring, or aggravating, because when people get serious, and I say this in all seriousness, people do one of two things: they get really angry, or they lose interest right away. No one wants to actually talk things through about anything.

I had a conversation with an old friend last night, an old friend that I hadn't seen in a while. And while it was "good" to see him again, when the conversation got "deep," and I found myself disagreeing with him, I felt myself close off. I resisted it as best I could, and managed to keep the conversation civil without swinging off into sleepy boredom time (life is all about extremes), it was difficult.

The point is, this blog could be aggravating or boring. While the former is preferable, neither are completely desireable. We'll see how it goes.