tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-215187282024-03-23T11:08:51.690-07:00the Barstool Chroniclesor, DISPATCHES FROM THE EXISTENTIAL SINKHOLEe.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-52538759349701944322019-02-20T11:31:00.002-08:002019-04-16T15:06:33.191-07:00BLOGGING APPETIZER<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Impending return to an activity (blogging) almost as frustrating and futile as wallowing in the Faceberg paddling pool. A brief taste of where I'm coming from, in case anyone has forgotten:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQAc1HXG-kpzq7jHgIEtCCLORq1OKrG0y8rFzY5-_foH949GYnxjDV8T0QcI8QhYiEZavY2tUKiMYC_KLn1spvbrUNPWarehKAEnZVYzIbVpqQU2vEr5_9XoaO_Z2OcIQW7CXu/s1600/dyu8nipvyaaraut.jpg-large.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQAc1HXG-kpzq7jHgIEtCCLORq1OKrG0y8rFzY5-_foH949GYnxjDV8T0QcI8QhYiEZavY2tUKiMYC_KLn1spvbrUNPWarehKAEnZVYzIbVpqQU2vEr5_9XoaO_Z2OcIQW7CXu/s400/dyu8nipvyaaraut.jpg-large.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I know you're all trembling with anticipation. It's going to be so much fun. I think.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(Image lifted from <a href="https://mockpaperscissors.com/" target="_blank"><i>MockPaperScissors</i></a>.)</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-88581070084310912892018-09-06T06:49:00.000-07:002019-04-16T15:06:54.859-07:00LET'S BLOG AGAIN<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">. . . On second thought, maybe hibernation is better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well, then again . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Oh, hell -- I don't know. Does it matter?</span></div>
e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-52381170226370626912012-11-22T08:44:00.000-08:002020-06-20T05:20:25.565-07:00THE WARM AFTERGLOW OF THE NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE'S RE-ELECTION<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAOvVSBBT0nbaqkchQLW-YPEd2U0gGhMeXqDkBvB8BNnCPHR_lWbVTHgmpFfyEqP97wT0EcX8-0lP2rsIchYFzMyRwhTTbo6Rx1agOI3J2c3SJ07aTUDheCOaSM3zNXObgSc3O/s1600/ifcbb6c713561687cc2a7e76583377320_000_nic6153248_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAOvVSBBT0nbaqkchQLW-YPEd2U0gGhMeXqDkBvB8BNnCPHR_lWbVTHgmpFfyEqP97wT0EcX8-0lP2rsIchYFzMyRwhTTbo6Rx1agOI3J2c3SJ07aTUDheCOaSM3zNXObgSc3O/s1600/ifcbb6c713561687cc2a7e76583377320_000_nic6153248_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gaza, November 2012 (AFP photo by Jack Guez)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I don't know about anyone else, but I'm <i>so </i>full of thankfulness today, I could just burst a blood vessel or two.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Life in such a moral vacuum is so very entertaining, isn't it?</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-82032523151416598502012-11-18T07:41:00.002-08:002020-06-20T05:29:38.032-07:00ENDING SILENCE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_UEC78SiZhS55GQAaLbTNgn3rfFZR6NcUhvFhvbl06CBh2jgi_5zonpMZ1DbDbU8ZyzFB_QXrNnW8BFb-BcLVYuk4PREPxB_FHRNcgggrk-JnEZLPfpg8nYfdUK2eJZ8Dienb/s1600/1703_Baldwin-James-Arthur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_UEC78SiZhS55GQAaLbTNgn3rfFZR6NcUhvFhvbl06CBh2jgi_5zonpMZ1DbDbU8ZyzFB_QXrNnW8BFb-BcLVYuk4PREPxB_FHRNcgggrk-JnEZLPfpg8nYfdUK2eJZ8Dienb/s1600/1703_Baldwin-James-Arthur.jpg" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.</span></i></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">-- James Baldwin</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A return to the long despair of the blogging vomit-stream, just in time for the ugly "holiday" consumption-death and yet more Israeli terror-aggression.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I can hardly wait.</span><br />
<br />e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-2855186988313058572012-03-25T08:52:00.000-07:002020-06-20T05:23:20.132-07:00SUNDAY LETHARGY ANTIDOTE<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Albert Collins, "Cold Cuts," part one: </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MkM4cYyq0xs" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">part two:</span> <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ty9gX3jsmtE" width="420"></iframe><br />
e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-43463037537670792832012-03-20T10:29:00.001-07:002020-06-20T05:24:20.078-07:00IRAQ : HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaodIJfeQUdyvquACvlc17O9NxO0dsIQC5VhIfrUcC_iAEFe_Vt6XbYbG2YJojt3UNL-WzwzIZqqi-zG5Mz9mKix9aMYsU_LJfYf2Pc0r6AbsXpgcntfKm91Ttxb_UNiAwrH0y/s1600/WarVictims15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaodIJfeQUdyvquACvlc17O9NxO0dsIQC5VhIfrUcC_iAEFe_Vt6XbYbG2YJojt3UNL-WzwzIZqqi-zG5Mz9mKix9aMYsU_LJfYf2Pc0r6AbsXpgcntfKm91Ttxb_UNiAwrH0y/s640/WarVictims15.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/murder_is_not_an_anomoly_in_war_20120319/" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Chris Hedges</b></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">:</span></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">War perverts and destroys you. It pushes you closer and closer to your
own annihilation—spiritual, emotional and finally physical. It destroys
the continuity of life, tearing apart all systems—economic, social,
environmental and political—that sustain us as human beings. In war, we
deform ourselves, our essence. We give up individual conscience—maybe
even consciousness—for contagion of the crowd, the rush of patriotism,
the belief that we must stand together as a nation in moments of
extremity. To make a moral choice, to defy war’s enticement, can in the
culture of war be self-destructive. The essence of war is death. Taste
enough of war and you come to believe that <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/">the Stoics</a> were right: <i>We will, in the end, all consume ourselves in a vast conflagration.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">[ . . . ]</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">War is necrophilia. This necrophilia is central to soldiering just as it
is central to the makeup of suicide bombers and terrorists. The
necrophilia is hidden under platitudes about duty or comradeship. It is
unleashed especially in moments when we seem to have little to live for
and no hope, or in moments when the intoxication of war is at its
highest pitch. When we spend long enough in war, it comes to us as a
kind of release, a fatal and seductive embrace that can consummate the
long flirtation with our own destruction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></blockquote>
e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-30685051399766684532012-03-18T08:46:00.000-07:002020-06-20T05:25:33.401-07:00BACK TO THE BLOG SEWER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8OrfcNfRniekipPL7DlHhsVSaB20_9nTR7u8RssgV_0mbKpxcfxlywYIP2POMSjgjfJGM9fweoImzFW8Z4CHxh2CFxYpAF07aRoCe_K2OMkbc_ca5U5BL0Jbg6WSEaFGO_2v-/s1600/typewriter1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8OrfcNfRniekipPL7DlHhsVSaB20_9nTR7u8RssgV_0mbKpxcfxlywYIP2POMSjgjfJGM9fweoImzFW8Z4CHxh2CFxYpAF07aRoCe_K2OMkbc_ca5U5BL0Jbg6WSEaFGO_2v-/s320/typewriter1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I figured there was nothing left to lose -- might as well hold my nose and reintroduce myself into the vomit-stream of the blog world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I know nobody really cares (you self-righteous bastards), but that's perfectly alright. I don't care much either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Res ipsa loquitur</i>, my friends. </span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-51992566205768874292011-08-14T08:10:00.000-07:002020-06-20T05:26:12.604-07:00FOR THOSE STILL LOOKING FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT, OR ANY EMPLOYMENT FOR THAT MATTER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYbzbtgqEli5Id_MnYTzF9Y5tl0HZzkkE6Wmw0NZ-wNploi5yY-EVUaPDuUkuo_CCNKeniWBQ7jA_30tP7FPqqCwNaDTynNAC3154EwKHhvZlaA2GnCoGnmUduFVVtaNTllhw4/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYbzbtgqEli5Id_MnYTzF9Y5tl0HZzkkE6Wmw0NZ-wNploi5yY-EVUaPDuUkuo_CCNKeniWBQ7jA_30tP7FPqqCwNaDTynNAC3154EwKHhvZlaA2GnCoGnmUduFVVtaNTllhw4/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Just a brief message from the submarine without a periscope:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For those unemployed unfortunates who occasionally hit this blog looking for a copy of California Standard Form 678, Examination/Employment Application, I've decided to offer up a little help in finding the damn thing. Just go to the following site and you'll eventually stumble across it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.spb.ca.gov/"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">California State Personnel Board</span></b></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I need not point out the fact that one has about as much chance of landing a paying position within the California bureaucracy as, oh, I don't know, pensioned state retirees in the suburbs shutting the fuck up about how government employees are bankrupting everything in sight. But, hope springs eternal -- except, of course, when it doesn't.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, good luck! You're going to need lots of it -- which I know all too well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(Back to our regularly scheduled drooling torpor.)</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-43401433132483913092011-07-10T09:32:00.000-07:002020-06-20T05:28:58.292-07:00CHUMMING<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OrV0T1eljyAt5XTLVqEz1Gw_oPNzD-TNJaHqlaDl_k5nGK-gCf-mrT1DTb9H2TiEYVBtsBNAA851sptnOUTfXGpiQwg9Ars8SFkOxO5Ke1LWdl-jXiXv1DiH_6og2p_luufi/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OrV0T1eljyAt5XTLVqEz1Gw_oPNzD-TNJaHqlaDl_k5nGK-gCf-mrT1DTb9H2TiEYVBtsBNAA851sptnOUTfXGpiQwg9Ars8SFkOxO5Ke1LWdl-jXiXv1DiH_6og2p_luufi/s200/images.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Taking a well-deserved breather from blog-trolling and applying for jobs such as </span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://agency.governmentjobs.com/oregon/default.cfm?action=viewJob&jobID=340743&hit_count=yes&headerFooter=1&promo=0&transfer=0&WDDXJobSearchParams=%3CwddxPacket%20version%3D%271.0%27%3E%3Cheader%2F%3E%3Cdata%3E%3Cstruct%3E%3Cvar%20name%3D%27FIND_KEYWORD%27%3E%3Cstring%3E%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3Cvar%20name%3D%27CATEGORYID%27%3E%3Cstring%3E13%2C1%2C2%2C45%2C55%2C117%2C156%2C140%2C92%2C128%2C141%2C4%2C130%2C49%2C5%2C6%2C131%2C142%2C73%2C7%2C79%2C143%2C8%2C127%2C9%2C129%2C81%2C87%2C68%2C75%2C46%2C144%2C114%2C10%2C11%2C52%2C12%2C59%2C14%2C15%2C103%2C106%2C124%2C118%2C145%2C99%2C146%2C113%2C126%2C16%2C74%2C123%2C115%2C17%2C70%2C133%2C101%2C44%2C19%2C66%2C60%2C41%2C20%2C69%2C42%2C83%2C134%2C119%2C98%2C135%2C22%2C54%2C64%2C43%2C112%2C148%2C85%2C48%2C53%2C108%2C24%2C47%2C136%2C153%2C84%2C25%2C27%2C78%2C88%2C29%2C161%2C121%2C32%2C137%2C109%2C33%2C125%2C94%2C139%2C35%2C86%2C36%2C77%2C110%2C39%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3Cvar%20name%3D%27TRANSFER%27%3E%3Cstring%3E0%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3Cvar%20name%3D%27PROMOTIONALJOBS%27%3E%3Cstring%3E0%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3C%2Fstruct%3E%3C%2Fdata%3E%3C%2FwddxPacket%3E" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Chum Reintroduction Coordinator</b></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (who says that there aren’t any government jobs to be had these days?); while I’ve been put in mind of the atrocious employment situation, which I can hardly avoid, </span><a href="http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/the_myth_of_the_new_york_times_in_documentary_form_20110706/" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Chris Hedges</b></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> administers the coup de grace, at least for today. He’s talking about his former bosses at </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The New York Times</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, but it’s far too easy to see the universality of his words:</span></span><br />
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<blockquote style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">When you allow an institution to provide you with your identity and sense of self-worth you become an obsequious pawn, no matter how much talent you possess. You live in perpetual fear of what those in authority think of you and might do to you. This mechanism of internalized control -- for you always need them more than they need you -- is effective. The rules of advancement at the paper are never clearly defined or written down. Careerists pay lip service to the stated ideals of the institution, which are couched in lofty rhetoric about balance, impartiality and neutrality, but astutely grasp the actual guiding principle of the paper, which is: Do not significantly alienate the corporate and political power elite on whom the institution depends for access and money. Those who master this duplicitous game do well. Those who cling tenaciously to a desire to tell the truth, even at a cost to themselves and the institution, become a management problem. This creates tremendous friction within the paper. I knew reporters with a conscience who would arrive at the paper and vomit in the restroom from nervous tension before starting work. If Rossi had examined the effects of this institutional hubris and the pathology of the paper’s self-infatuation, if he had looked at the paper’s large and small failures as well as its successes, he would have pushed past the myth of the Great Oz, peddled to him by the paper’s editors and minions like Carr, and uncovered its troubled core.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now, that’s what I call <i>motivational</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Back to the darkness.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-81522275494143762062011-07-02T08:38:00.000-07:002011-07-02T08:38:47.815-07:00THE AUDACITY OF HOPELESSNESS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCq0mg5CYPAKrOvkVAF2WlfbeSUbCPK7MaGxB7V7GP9QOf-P7xwwHpocc-S4NISddNjC_fre-uiWmxgt6SVwC2rLAx4rjCRHOrDg-qOKzP-bLFmMNCmfs75tyTbcaTj44LrIvf/s1600/hobo-laywer-surreal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCq0mg5CYPAKrOvkVAF2WlfbeSUbCPK7MaGxB7V7GP9QOf-P7xwwHpocc-S4NISddNjC_fre-uiWmxgt6SVwC2rLAx4rjCRHOrDg-qOKzP-bLFmMNCmfs75tyTbcaTj44LrIvf/s200/hobo-laywer-surreal.jpg" width="177" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What I can’t figure out is that, for some reason, it all looks so “normal.”</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That’s</i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> usually the first thought that intrudes, unbidden and unwanted, whenever I make one of these infrequent forays out of the existential mole-hole. I briefly poke my head out of the involuntary sanctuary in which it’s lodged -- an ambiguous limbo-land tethered to one or another of the socio-economic reality cracks designed and constructed by our obvious betters, the Masters of Everything -- and I marvel at the overwhelming “prosaicness” of things. The commuters, the atomized automatons, the properly enthused suburban media-consumers, the comfortable anti-union pensioners, the pseudo-Randian declaimers, the energetic youngsters doomed by their ignorance . . . They blithely go about their dubious business as if they didn’t get the memo concerning, you know, the imminent collapse of civilization and the end of the world . . .</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Man, I just knew that resuming this blogging thingy would be a mistake. Jeeze.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">OK -- </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">take two</i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">: Six months of wasted motion trying to justify a return to this nonsense. It’s a tough proposition, and it’s not particularly surprising to see that so many bottom-tier blogger colleagues have abandoned the field. Ah, those were the veritable glory days in blog-land, weren’t they? The second coming of the post-modern version of the Bush Crime Family, circa 2006 -- no shortage of outrages from which to draw energy </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">then</i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">, you know. The torrential output of snark and bile was truly impressive, even </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">here</i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">; a maelstrom of muck, a deliciously vile shitstorm of vituperation, anger, and undifferentiated frustration; a wonderfully chaotic creative mess of pretty good writing, most of the time. Unfortunately, something happened to that scene, something unexpected, perhaps terminal. What a shame.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, we could argue endlessly about what that </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">something </i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">might have been (I have a few ideas), if anyone seriously wants to explore that rhetorical cul-de-sac. I don’t especially. I mean, I know why </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I </i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">have been in cold storage the last couple of years -- as to my largely disappeared compatriots, could be just about anything. Presumption being merely one vital component of blogging (it simply wouldn’t function without it), I might venture that my friends’ recent experiences probably mirror my own, to a certain extent: unemployment, near-homelessness, destitution, hopeless despair, those sorts of things. A motivated sense of purpose in this weird virtual realm can’t hope to compete with such pressures. A certain amount of tension and conflict is indispensable to the process of creativity, I think most thoughtful people can agree; the sheer, stifling glut of such tension and pressure, salient features of present circumstances, is just fucking ridiculous. </span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So, the question begs -- why now? What’s the point in resuscitating this imposing monument to obscurity? I don’t know. Extreme boredom, maybe. Desperation, perhaps. It certainly isn’t the conviction that it’s going to solve anything; as a mild distraction from disturbing, indistinct impulses toward self-immolation, it might prove useful. Or not. Whatever. In any case, I’ve suppressed my “better” judgment and resolved to re-launch this audacious pea-shooter, this hopeless yapping chihuahua of a blog, and ride it as well as I can, as long as I can. Straight into the crapper, in all likelihood. At least I’ll have plenty of company on that particular trip, and I might even get some of the bad taste of despair out of my mouth in the process.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Like I said: I knew this would be a mistake. Oh well.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-45135152933623151282010-12-31T10:21:00.000-08:002010-12-31T10:21:58.918-08:00WRAPPIN' IT UP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiofAl7bmy-JMWKiaEZOV3hbha6zFOMpflTNhoeOjrkt6rLqsUf4-jCCdeJFhRhJvwSC51p7hY_sSiMOrlRuYPDIzCjgrpF101-dpmFDorNjcevK13lmlLwmK6jP1UUHxSQr1RZ/s1600/crash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiofAl7bmy-JMWKiaEZOV3hbha6zFOMpflTNhoeOjrkt6rLqsUf4-jCCdeJFhRhJvwSC51p7hY_sSiMOrlRuYPDIzCjgrpF101-dpmFDorNjcevK13lmlLwmK6jP1UUHxSQr1RZ/s200/crash.jpg" width="144" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Since this entry will most likely be the very last one for the calendar year 2010, I thought it would be</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> appropriate enough to summarize my attitude towards the twelve-month period just now limping to a finish. So,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> without further ado, here goes:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <i>fuck, shit, piss, garbage, vomit, stench, noise, pain, dust, tooth decay, collapse,</i></span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> depression, assholes, smog, greed, arrogance, indifference, stupidity, anger, tension, blood pressure, flat tires, emptiness,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> failure, disaster, broken computers, disintegration, debt, bill collectors, 13% “official” unemployment (Sacramento County),</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> snapped shoelaces, pot holes, gray hair, deterioration, dents, scratches, bruises, idiots, suburbia, unclipped fingernails,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> asphalt, perspiration, bad coffee, junk, ignorance, bald spots, rug burns, bankruptcy, war, dislocation, homelessness,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> deforestation, mass murder, gridlock, toxic waste, hollow spectacle, ants, plastic, deception, endless babbling bullshit,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> hidebound opinions, clueless certitude, the internet, public libraries, old people, young people, animal fat, monotony,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> monkey-motion, boogers, racism, Krazy Glue, beer, diesel fuel, seatbelts, Honduran underpants, rust, teabaggers, busted</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> furniture, dogs, hot air, death, phony cordiality, hypocrisy, professional sports, bank charges, sheetrock particulates, bad</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> breath, jury duty, sinus headaches, unconstitutional searches and seizures, cell phones, weight gain, dirt, grime,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> constipation, corruption, the Clown Train, crap-heads, fender-benders, larceny, propaganda, nitwits, halfwits, fucktards,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> douchebags, turd-eaters, consumerism, tee-vee, Romanians, suicidal tendencies, wasted motion, revulsion, hackery, lies,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> squalling toddlers, squalling adults, know-it-alls, know-nothings, snobs, pinheads, shitheads, bastards, spammers, rain,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> poverty, fraud, ass-gas, dope, hot mustard, heater cores, torpor, sloth, decadence, laziness, gag reflexes, online contests,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> pitch-correction, tonsil wash, cut-and-paste, crimes against humanity, birdshit, voicemail, debit cards, atomization, wood</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> screws, hub caps, calluses, bitches, cutesy-hyper Valley Girl talk, parking lots, SUV’s, windshield ice, dead squirrels,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> dumbfucks, pretension, regression, compartmentalization, stereotypes, enormous gaping pie-holes, street signs, large</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> noses, fat lips, giant thighs, scrawny asses, tailgaters, corporate chain coffee dumps full of spastic chittering cross-eyed</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> chimps . . .</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If I've left anything out, I sincerely apologize. Whatever.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-17847543482943859022010-12-10T08:11:00.000-08:002010-12-10T08:29:11.647-08:00WARM AND FUZZIES FOR YOUR HOLIDAY DELECTATION<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gray, wet suburban murk; ugly gloom made worse (if that’s even possible) by the pinheads and dumbfucks who blight an already wrecked, blasted landscape with their dubious presence; non-stop christmas vomit-noise; thoughts of self-destruction clamoring for attention; myopic, infuriatingly insipid vocal-chord polish heaved around in great toxic waves, mostly about professional sports or various tee-vee shows (among other stupidities) . . . Just a normal December day at the bottom of the bottomless hellpit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What a bloody-assed cluster-fuck of hobnailed asshattery. And that’s on its better days, which, believe me, don’t happen all that often. Makes one wonder just what my goddamned point is then. But that’s a problem pretty much all the time, so who cares? Honestly, I could just shit myself blind right about now. Hardy har.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sitting in a public library on a weekday, and you’ve never seen so many desperately depressed people interspersed with the usual clutch of older folks who don’t appear to give a crap about much of anything, bless their little hearts. Overweight women with cell phones and squalling little monsters in strollers round out this weird tableau of profound hopelessness. Why am I here? It’s a mystery. Could be because habits are hard to break, and consuming free wireless internet bandwidth to no good purpose has certainly become an insatiable top-drawer habit that ain’t going anywhere, at least in the near term.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">LATER: The coffee-dump zombies won’t stop talking; how is it that some poor, retarded unfortunates were born with their speech apparati up their noses (or some other, less flattering openings in their corporeal envelopes)? Were their parents crack addicts? Did their progenitors accidentally swill, oh, I don’t know, a steaming mug of lacquer thinner, instead of the customary discount beer or industrial vodka sold in plastic bottles? <i>That </i>might begin to explain a few things, above and beyond the superficially trivial (but no less enraging) flatly nasal delivery of apparently endless supplies of malodorous ass-wind inexplicably re-routed through the truncated confines of their fucking heads. But then, why would it matter? I just wish they’d shut up and go away -- the last thing anyone needs is to actually figure out what makes these <i>untermenschen </i>tick, for crying out loud.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We’ve all heard and read plenty of criticism of your average American and his or her unwillingness to engage in meaningful conversation (among an endless litany of outrages and perversions). This criticism is well-warranted, of course. However, I would posit that the only thing worse than suburban androids who <i>don’t</i> talk about anything are suburban androids who <i>do </i>talk about anything. The drivel is absolutely astounding; you’ve never experienced a more amazing melding of minds, a more confident public display of iron-clad self-righteous certitude than that provided, for example, by a garbage truck driver and a washed-out wad of fuck who picks up trash in strip-mall parking lots. What an impressive exhibition of brain power and sheer intellectual prowess -- what <i>is </i>it about suburban rubbish handlers? Who the hell knew they had so many opinions on so many topics of <i>critical importance</i>? <i>I</i> definitely didn’t. Seriously, they leave no stone unturned: corporate business practices, basic economics, the Oakland Raiders, governmental inefficiency and over-regulation, historical expositions on the surprisingly diverse evolutionary path of dumpster lids, opaque references to homeless people who sleep in cardboard boxes and how they’re all criminals . . . and all that is just for starters! In fact, they’re now standing out in the rain, right at this very moment, still flapping their gums! Unbelievable! To <i>be </i>so committed to the “removal of all doubt” about one’s abysmal ignorance. I’d be most impressed if I wasn’t already thoroughly disgusted by the whole fucking thing. AHHHG!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Still rainy-ish outside, still no good news to report on anything in particular; no jobs, no hope, no escape, no point, no reason. No nothing, except expanding gut-flab and backaches.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">***</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Happy holidays! <i>Sigh</i>.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-26776448027229516722010-07-04T09:43:00.001-07:002011-06-30T12:45:36.725-07:00AN "INDEPENDENCE DAY" MESSAGE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqBKVXBMHw4LVv9DLodtjg7BDSPedAjvEiD7PLZwcqSNIVgV560_B4gW8y2Zy4mep9Xwzn1CpKh5DlhpcvOFWcrVueh-vTurDMAYb7YHUW9euiB4JPa8hzE8Mc7itrm0T9GuR/s1600/megaphone.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490092793818164194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqBKVXBMHw4LVv9DLodtjg7BDSPedAjvEiD7PLZwcqSNIVgV560_B4gW8y2Zy4mep9Xwzn1CpKh5DlhpcvOFWcrVueh-vTurDMAYb7YHUW9euiB4JPa8hzE8Mc7itrm0T9GuR/s200/megaphone.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 142px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a><span style="font-family: georgia;">I just wanted to raise my bruised head out of the glurp, the cloying, syrupy goo of unemployment and desperate destitution and stationary panic -- if only for a moment, to suck down a few pointless breaths before resuming the long, steady sinking into . . . whatever it is I (we) am (are) actually sinking into. Could be anything. Anyway, trying to reconcile the indistinct implications of “Independence Day” with the crumbling existential sewer in which we find ourselves is difficult enough; understanding how the noisy, stench-riddled expenditure of platitudinous bullshit and cheap Chinese-made fireworks fits into the picture is, well, quite beyond my rather limited imagination. It all must mean <span style="font-style: italic;">something</span>, right? It must.<br />
<br />
Then again, maybe not. Whatever. In any case, days like today always seem to put me in a mood. Particularly when said day is just another in an endless procession that has gone on way too long. I wish I had an answer to this nonsense. Anyhow, for reasons unknown I was put in mind of the following quote from Dalton Trumbo. I’m not sure if it has anything specific to do with the Fourth of July (probably not much), but it resonates with the times nonetheless, somehow, someway. From the introduction to <span style="font-style: italic;">Johnny Got His Gun</span>, he writes:<br />
<br />
<br />
</span><br />
<blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-style: italic;">“Why should I look, it wasn’t my fault, was it?” It was, of course, but no matter. Time presses. Death waits even for us. We have a dream to pursue, the whitest white hope of them all, and we must follow and find it before the light fails.<br />
<br />
So long, losers. God bless. Take care. We’ll be seeing you.</blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Have a happy July 4th, everybody. I’m going back to sleep.</span><br />
</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-52636768716775858402010-05-06T08:24:00.000-07:002010-05-06T08:40:10.405-07:00POSTING TO RECOMMENCE MOMENTARILY . . . REALLY<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXVwU2OSWb8hpSMt7NT7RLlXAkdR1afpF3-HGBG1Y6kiC5t6dfUeMztV06b2b3CaLHS72jqxlK-xi4A6djyQKwa42F4gdi8okehhofZFegLkHEtaNFId5P87eNhXThapNG3tC/s1600/BA-19-C~Greetings-from-Sacramento-California-Posters.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 139px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXVwU2OSWb8hpSMt7NT7RLlXAkdR1afpF3-HGBG1Y6kiC5t6dfUeMztV06b2b3CaLHS72jqxlK-xi4A6djyQKwa42F4gdi8okehhofZFegLkHEtaNFId5P87eNhXThapNG3tC/s200/BA-19-C~Greetings-from-Sacramento-California-Posters.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468178694041673074" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Not that anybody actually cares, but, well . . .</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">New B.S. coming soon.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-70083337712072943702009-12-12T10:30:00.000-08:002009-12-12T10:32:43.920-08:00POSTING TO RE-COMMENCE MOMENTARILY<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlW8y5xE8bfPsjMwtQ1RhfKgWwcZ992qOHDvi7A_GfxBZ7EbgdUjuilcKojAFwWUNI_p2SV_U205SkUqhIXB5DOoNbMCn_HH2_rip2PtrTjr_9Hoc8H1KZCjLyVmM5iYVvyL0n/s1600-h/calvin-writing.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlW8y5xE8bfPsjMwtQ1RhfKgWwcZ992qOHDvi7A_GfxBZ7EbgdUjuilcKojAFwWUNI_p2SV_U205SkUqhIXB5DOoNbMCn_HH2_rip2PtrTjr_9Hoc8H1KZCjLyVmM5iYVvyL0n/s400/calvin-writing.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414419228917873170" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Can't you just <span style="font-style: italic;">smell </span>the anticipation?</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-30963687242427046722009-07-20T12:52:00.000-07:002009-07-20T12:56:27.983-07:00FRANK McCOURT, 1930-2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ezT4IEoupmKpUXQ5OTZhdSWrz7DGHJ-hzZegDYKM8l1bz34hCNJifTT-fY71Rg1tiwKg4eHPgOZanAHfAuqWrWtOX4rUlFDDJ77wKie1NCRxJiH-iyA0MXZQK6DLP_rS5rCt/s1600-h/fmccourt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ezT4IEoupmKpUXQ5OTZhdSWrz7DGHJ-hzZegDYKM8l1bz34hCNJifTT-fY71Rg1tiwKg4eHPgOZanAHfAuqWrWtOX4rUlFDDJ77wKie1NCRxJiH-iyA0MXZQK6DLP_rS5rCt/s320/fmccourt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360633539642977714" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEite58m6z8VcnbsPXaISGS0ftldh_zR11T8W5okJw0xG1R0Xczuv1lUb9OQ9gKS81KiZz3itdb-UtKhAkYQY0rWJlI0GBXHbQ-n4wI2qGuaDl7-tc2VekY4uCAgL_3AYHWGZZvJ/s1600-h/fmccourt.jpg"><br /></a>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-7598555563661147312009-02-04T12:47:00.000-08:002009-02-13T12:49:04.855-08:00I'M BEGINNING TO SUSPECT WE SHOULD'VE JUST HANDED THIS CRAPSTORM TO McCAIN<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbknANof_O_gX7iNhWZMo7FVfGl2_IeubhIU88GWXSANXxtwE8bhK8hmD3fxabsvh2Noxz0GMSsrWiJCnX8Pj-SOkzJ-x7npVPq7uV6k0ysLgBQv3GwOd6hFL8nBwlgRpORgk9/s1600-h/dead-end-sign.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 172px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbknANof_O_gX7iNhWZMo7FVfGl2_IeubhIU88GWXSANXxtwE8bhK8hmD3fxabsvh2Noxz0GMSsrWiJCnX8Pj-SOkzJ-x7npVPq7uV6k0ysLgBQv3GwOd6hFL8nBwlgRpORgk9/s200/dead-end-sign.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299047060233388674" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> I don't know, man. Obama's evisceratingly incomprehensible cabinet appointments, his copping to so-called "screw-ups," more than half-a-million more jobs poofed out of existence last month, my own disastrous unemployment crisis and financial disintegration ... maybe Lumpy McCain and his far-north Ho should've been elected instead. Obama <i>owns</i> the looming catastrophe, whether he wants to or not -- more and more people I happen to talk to can't even remember that there <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> such a thing called the "Bush Administration ..."<br /><br />Sorry, people. Optimism is pretty much an unhealthy luxury I can't afford these days.<br /></span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-2682440129656520642009-01-31T10:54:00.000-08:002009-01-31T10:57:20.644-08:00WE WILL GET BY<span style="font-family: georgia;">This one's for Lee over at <a href="http://www.captainquahog.com"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Captain Quahog</span></a> -- tickets to see the Dead? You lucky bastard.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1COjgIqF7go&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1COjgIqF7go&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-37084334436566117662009-01-23T13:38:00.000-08:002009-01-23T13:44:34.090-08:00SURE WOULD LIKE TO GET BACK INTO THIS BLOGGING BUSINESS<span style="font-family: georgia;">If anybody has any suggestions for jump-starting one's better blogging instincts, for re-vitalizing one's moribund snark glands, I'm all ears. Seriously. In the meanwhile, here's a nasty sample of the real reality <span style="font-style: italic;">I've</span> been dealing with lately:<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1568501.html">California unemployment rate reaches 9.3%</a><br /><br />Happy days, happy days ...<br /><br /><br /></span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-59525036977098599042008-11-18T19:11:00.000-08:002008-11-18T19:19:04.905-08:00WON'T GET FOOLED<span style="font-family: georgia;">In honor of all the unreasonable expectations the incoming administration is already being saddled with, and the halfwits who are starting to gag uncontrollably on their misplaced, utterly empty illusions -- <span style="font-style: italic;">already</span>.<br /><br />I laugh ironically, painfully ...<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oUbGLVvfB7Y&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oUbGLVvfB7Y&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-91159188673055972162008-10-27T19:24:00.000-07:002008-10-27T19:28:20.221-07:00A BRIEF ALTERNATIVE TO WATCHING THE WORLD FALL TO PIECES<span style="font-family: georgia;">My niece Karmen and my brother Dan, "Still Early":</span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4IQY8Fcr36Q&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4IQY8Fcr36Q&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-82253969278987241422008-10-01T16:28:00.001-07:002008-10-01T16:30:04.251-07:00MORE WORDS OF WISDOM ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQWvYvVCIDhx9fjvjlOHvSBdx3Ziz-vNMEFg35Uc589x6Z_pOV0h2jXyiKpKuOe8mvTYZd8y7uTMAqJ2p1wlgxP6u-9Dr321wXrki_hWP3nSVEtFck3tFFxTiHR7YnHbevoOw/s1600-h/Zippy+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQWvYvVCIDhx9fjvjlOHvSBdx3Ziz-vNMEFg35Uc589x6Z_pOV0h2jXyiKpKuOe8mvTYZd8y7uTMAqJ2p1wlgxP6u-9Dr321wXrki_hWP3nSVEtFck3tFFxTiHR7YnHbevoOw/s400/Zippy+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252331717178448610" border="0" /></a>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-86003230928734914502008-09-30T23:01:00.001-07:002008-09-30T23:06:08.418-07:00A PICTURE WORTH SWIPING<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfa5HHc0Qp3OwfPUccUvucegTpWXmJTiozC9wfNJPrtNiZue9-PqHftmTHr0V_Ugbe9-ulHRgcElAa2tjF-zvXbyLsUSHPKjDSbEMSKrRU4WpyWgSBcTMroYCrYS5ZR3v9SpCT/s1600-h/JUMP.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfa5HHc0Qp3OwfPUccUvucegTpWXmJTiozC9wfNJPrtNiZue9-PqHftmTHr0V_Ugbe9-ulHRgcElAa2tjF-zvXbyLsUSHPKjDSbEMSKrRU4WpyWgSBcTMroYCrYS5ZR3v9SpCT/s400/JUMP.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252061754893029442" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">A thousand pardons to <a href="http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com"><span style="font-weight: bold;">profmarcus</span> and company</a> ... this is just too priceless to pass up.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-89919052939413670212008-09-02T14:08:00.001-07:002008-09-02T14:12:25.080-07:00SOON TO RETURN TO THIS BLOGGING NONSENSE ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs2jPbSTbLnCkcJa73p7PaerDvjO0o9Zy_2JOLiN8WW6_C3XTAR_aegS-SGJZCi-sLY3X7CBLDxDP7vdXnm4_huaUdKQVYBJW2_1OkjKjgcgOblF4Y7M9NvOWI6V3zg2O94jrX/s1600-h/13151356_400x400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs2jPbSTbLnCkcJa73p7PaerDvjO0o9Zy_2JOLiN8WW6_C3XTAR_aegS-SGJZCi-sLY3X7CBLDxDP7vdXnm4_huaUdKQVYBJW2_1OkjKjgcgOblF4Y7M9NvOWI6V3zg2O94jrX/s400/13151356_400x400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241534094739378418" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Can you stand the excitement? I can't ...<br /><br />Back to the inexplicably useless blogging phenomenon, sooner rather than later. The only question is ... why? Whatever.<br /></span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21518728.post-19595815388929847292008-08-19T14:07:00.000-07:002008-08-19T14:19:13.094-07:00LOOKIN' FER A JOB ... ON A TUESDAY<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw_WmZy7wh7Xe-FhvBhqOigNnPxTRzhCixVYy4OYrrQFiQqyVs-idcaSK1qcYdEI9X2BGW2638btJmGsUCno3T_rZA8tk0VH-Pq7qmJg7GLGFSkl-k_B4H0TdjlybqFVMmT0i/s1600-h/job-application.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw_WmZy7wh7Xe-FhvBhqOigNnPxTRzhCixVYy4OYrrQFiQqyVs-idcaSK1qcYdEI9X2BGW2638btJmGsUCno3T_rZA8tk0VH-Pq7qmJg7GLGFSkl-k_B4H0TdjlybqFVMmT0i/s200/job-application.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236338774561543346" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">It's been one hell of a long time since I felt even remotely motivated to yet again indulge this blogging nonsense. Too many real-world pressures pounding my attention span to a wimpy little pulp, you see, not the least of which is struggling with the unemployment thing in the dark age of Bush. Ick. Anyway, came across this from <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.mikemalloy.com/live/">Mike Malloy's</a> website today ...</span><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday Afternoon</span><br /><br /><strong></strong> <div id="blogbody">The song, not the time of day and day of the week. Justin Hayward wrote it, what? forty years ago? Oh, my.<br /><br /><br /><em>Tuesday . . . . afternoon,<br />I'm just beginning to see, now I'm on my way<br />It doesn't matter to me, chasing the clouds away.<br /><br />Something, calls to me,<br />The trees are drawing me near, I've got to find out why<br />Those gentle voices I hear, explain it all with a sigh.<br /><br />I'm looking at myself reflections of my mind,<br />It's just the kind of day to leave myself behind.<br />So gently swaying through the fairyland of love,<br />If you'll just come with me you'll see the beauty of<br /><br />Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon . . .<br /></em><br />I thought of those lyrics when I checked out this morning's headlines. Quick advice<strong>:</strong> Don't check out this morning's headlines. Anyway, join me tonight - Tuesday evening - because<em> it's just the kind of day to leave myself behind.</em></div><br /><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia;">Whatever.</span>e.b.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05980172158357804066noreply@blogger.com0