PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> A Blindfolded Chimp With a Pencil in His Teeth: February 2004

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

How are you? Are you good? Good. Let me bring in your mail.

Well today is Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent. I decided to start Lent by breaking character in an enormous way and got up extra early today to go to the seven o'clock Mass at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
Now, I'm Baptist to the Bone, yo, and sometimes Catholic services kind of weird me out 'cause things are so different from protestant services, but I can handle a dose or two of Catholicism every once in a while and I like to go with Laura because I think it's important for the two of us to worship together. So every once in a while we go to STM and every once in a while we go to University Baptist. Sooner or later she'll come around ;-)(and I'm kidding to everyone who might have been offended by that including Laura, her family, her friends, and all Catholics everywhere. Yeesh.).

Anyhizzle, I went to the Ash Wednesday service and it was very nice and very solemn and very ashy. No, I really enjoyed it, and was convicted about my shortcomings and sins in so many ways. Thing is, this always happens. I hope (again) that this time I can act with the strength of that conviction, and not follow my own stupid lead all the time. I'm really surprised that God hasn't pimp-slapped me by now.

Well I went up front and a man put an ashen cross on my forehead and I left feeling good. It was the earliest I'd been up in a while before work and I had time to kill so I went to ol' teeterboker and bought some blueberry muffins. I also got some gas, went back to the crib (yo) and changed shoes before work. Time having been killed I nontheless got to work pretty early. Nearly on time. But, I had forgotten about the little black cross on my forehead. We'll get back to that.

Last night Evan and I were playing Jeopardy after the watching the Heels lose to Virginia(?). What the freak. I decided to shave my head. Just like that, we went into the bathroom and buzzed my head. It looks fine and its a style i've worn before, plus now I don't have to mess with it in the morning. You should also note that I have a hoop earring in my left ear, and its not all that noticable really, unless I shave my head.

Back to the ashen cross on my forehead. I think it's a good thing. It's a symbol or your commitment at the beginning of the season of Lent. It's an outward sign that you are a believer and that you are not ashamed. There are certain issues I have with it sometimes because people (particularly kids on campus) wear them all day long and I feel like it can be kind of prideful, like "hey look at me, i'm devout." But thats beside the point. The thing is, when the guy at church marks you, he's doing it by dipping his finger in wet ash and then making a cross on your forehead. Due to human error, the inconsistency of his writing materials, and the understandable level of expediance needed to mark all of the congregation, the cross on your forehead isn't always exactly symmetrical or even in coloration. Sometimes it's even slightly tilted. Now, if you'll picture in your head, an asymmetrical, unevenly colored, slightly tilted cross, you may be able to see its resemblance to a simple X.

Now the Story comes together... My attempt to be a good, pious Christian had resulted in me arriving at work (the executive office of a Software Company in the Triangle where professional dress is required) with a shaved head, an earring, and what appeared to be a big black "X" in the middle of my forehead. Couple this with my sleepy demeanor that some might mistake for a scowl and I can see now why I was met with some scornful and/or confused looks. I looked like a newly converted neo-nazi satanist (in a big black overcoat, I might add).

This is not a warning story against Ash Wednesday services. Like I said, I found the service to be refreshing and uplifting. I just thought I'd share my experience, because it was funny. If you find this offensive, I'm sorry. You may never read my blog again.

Monday, February 23, 2004

I. Love. Heroin. I just love it.

Disclaimer:
What you are about to read is an angry rant.

So I was driving to work this morning on I-40 and a couple of cars ahead of me is this big gravel truck. It's loaded down with rocks and its barrelling down the highway at sixty-five miles an hour filled to the brim. Meanwhile, in order to keep the rocks from flying out there is a big piece of cloth draped over the back that is flapping in the wind and only serving to slap the gravel around.
I know I saw at least one piece fly off the truck and bounce down the side of the highway. Now, I'm no physics major, but I'm pretty sure a hitting a rock at sixty miles and hour is "not good" for your car, regardless of the point of impact. This is my opinion, and you're free to disagree, just when you do, hit yourself on the finger with a little tack hammer really hard.

Moving on. Is there no better way to transport rocks? I mean granted, the whole system of putting them in the back of a truck does seem to get (most of) them from point A to point B, but while we're at it, could we perhaps cover the beds? Maybe some kind of hard plastic shell. If the rednecks i went to high school can cover their truck beds can't the whatever-you-call-a-company-that-hauls-rocks-around company do that too? It's common sense. I'll tell you what: Why don't I put a few pieces of gravel covered with a bedsheet on the top of my car and fly down the highway?

But that's not even what makes me mad about these trucks. It's the sheer audacity they have to put little signs on the back that say "Stay back 200 feet. NOT responsible for broken windsheilds." The hell you say. You can't even read those signs from 200 feet in the first place. What are gonna drive up behind one and strain to read "Stay...back...200.." SMACK!! Broken windshield. Well, now you've got a big crack in your windsheild, but looks like you're out of luck because it seems that the little sign says they aren't responsible for any damage that might be caused by rocks that might be flying from their vehicle. Wow. These little signs are powerful. Aparently if one puts a sign on the back of a vehicle warning other motorists that you'll be doing something stupid there's not much they can do about it.

Again: The hell you say.

Not only that, but these signs apparently grant you the sole privelage to certain areas on the highway. Stay back 200 feet? What if I want to pass you, butthole? "Nobody pass the gravel truck, we can't afford to enter its swath! He's tossing rocks, and there's nothing we can do about it! Don't you see the sign?"

Or can you?

Yes, you can. These signs are lies. They are responsible. Follow the truck. What till it stops at McDonalds. Raise hell.

If the driver points to the sign, acknowledge it and ask for his/his company's pertinant information anyway. If he refuses, kindly admit defeat and let him go inside.

Then slash all the tires on his truck and leave the knife in the last one. Attach a little note to the handle that says "Do not park within 200 feet of my knife. NOT responsible for slashed tires."

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

I'm gonna make Gretzky's head bleed for superfan number 99 over here.

Welcome back! I hope yesterday's rhetoric didn't keep you up too late last night. Sorry if you had to cut and paste the link at the bottom of the yesterday's post (I know I'm the only one reading my blog...it's cool.) but I still haven't figured out how to make a hyperlink. meh.

Here's a question for you: Say you go to a pool hall with an inexperienced female pool player to "help her practice" and "give her a few pointers, heh heh." and then get thoroughly shalacked by her for three hours. In what way is that different than actually being neutered?
My thanks to my grasshoppah Kathy Shuping for the experience. It seems the student has become the teacher.

"When you're on, I swear you're on. You rip my heart right out."

In my defense, my boys Josh Bone and Ben Thomas got a little taste of defeat as well.

On other fronts, I am planning to run in the Suzuki Rock n' Roll Marathon in San Diego, CA on June Sixth. My training has already begun. I have found that I can run about five miles without too much difficulty as it is. However, if weather keeps me inside and I have to run on the treadmill, I am ready to open fire after about a mile and a half.

I have no idea how these little anorexic running obsessed girls in the gym can stay on that God-forsaken treadmill for an hour at a time. I'll glance over at their timers and I can see that they've been there for forty seven mintutes when I start mine up and they're still going when I quit. Half the time they're walking. It's not a matter of endurance...its a matter of how can you possibly stand to look at the exact same thing for over an hour? You have a little LCD screen in front of you that ticks away a hundredth of a mile at a time, at a painfully slow pace, and you have this to stare at for the next hour?

In my opinion, most of these girls need to put a little gravy on their biscuits anyway.

So ladies, stop wasting countless hours walking in place, making yourself rail-thin. Go outside, breathe some fresh air, and spend the time you save by doing a actual, life enriching exercise with a pen and pad thinking up other ways to stop being so lame.

Monday, February 09, 2004

The guitar was out of tune. "Fred's Slacks" is a winner.

I think my "superiors" here at work recognize my exceptional intellect despite my marginalized position of intern, and are reluctant to trouble me with tasks they see as below me. As such, I have a bit of free time to share my wisdom with you as it comes to me...

Soo...

Do, um, do you guys like video games? I think they are really neat. I think Super Mario World is my all-around favorite game.

Ha Ha HAAAAAH! Just try to sleep tonight now that I have planted that tasty little seed into the back of your brain!! Wrestle with your pillow and tangle in your sheets as you wonder aloud to your unforgiving ceiling: What IS the best video game ever? How can one make such a choice? Must we weigh them on gameplay, graphics, or ingenuity? How can you pick the best? I might as well ask you to pick your favorite Star Trek episode! I KNOW!! Can't be done! Not by YOU anyway. I've got mine right here in my head. Shall I drop that bomb on you too? Shall I force you to pick your own and justify it above mine, possibly causing a localized explosion within your skull that forces gray matter through your ear drums, out your ear canal and onto your favorite sweater causing simultaneous brain damage, deafness, and stubborn brain stains?

No. No, I'll let you sweat this one out one decision at a time. You must choose. But choose wisely.

(if you think this post is sad, but not funny in any way, you should stop reading my blog now. MEanwhile, feel free to visit this site: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=irony )

So now I have a blog. Cool.
I would like to thank you for joining me here, but I must warn you: Often even my most innocent, innocuous musing are of such profundity as to render one stunned and sleepless for days while the implications of my next-level notions swirl in your head and your brain attempts to find a space to place them in the scope of your understanding.
You have been warned.

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