It's Thanksgiving. I'm grateful we have Thanksgiving, because it means we conquered America and beat down all the Indians that were here. Good job, New Americans. Bye bye Native Americans. You've enriched our lives by getting wiped out and giving us cause for a holiday that brings families and friends together. What a noble way to go out! I'm going to make a chocolate pudding pie today... I pray Martha Stewart look over me and guide my hands in a way that is pleasing to the partakers of my pudding.

posted by 00k at 10:25 AM

 
My keyboard has two J's... one where the J should be and one where the F should be. It's a CompUSA keyboard... the cheapest to be found. I feel cheated. It's not like the keyboard works any less or anything... I just feel like a sucker. CompUSA made a fool of me. Well I don't suppose it's hard.
posted by 00k at 10:38 PM

 
Today my hair is about 23 inches long, that's almost 2 whole feet. It's neat to think I used to only be two feet tall. Now my hair is as long as I used to be. Yep that's neat. It's a good thing rulers can't measure intelligence. Well... good for us dumb folk anyways.

Some day... some day people will have to have their adult IQ's tattooed on their foreheads. And everyone will always always whine about how they were having an "off day" if they get a low score. Or how the room they were tested in was too noisy and they couldn't concentrate. Or they'll say it's biased or something. People will whine about anything.
posted by 00k at 11:59 PM

 
This is Erik. He will either like this picture alright or hate it and hate me for sucking at drawing so bad and being so horrible and stupid. That's right... offer a just-okay option or an option that's really really not okay and bad, and you can get someone to settle for the just-okay option. What up niggaaa? I don't know if the real Erik says that... but the Erik in my picture does. The real Erik doesn't have weak little girly arms either I guess. Maybe I shouldn't draw any more.

posted by 00k at 1:18 AM

 

Why must interpretting dreams be like pulling teeth?

So I had a dream about my wisdom teeth. They need to be pulled. I dreamt that I could just pop them out all of a sudden, effortlessly and painlessly, no blood. I was really excited about this... I remember being really relieved that a problem that had seemed like such a big deal and that had me worried had such a simple solution to it. When I woke up I thought about this. I thought, "Now what is it my dream might be trying to tell me?". There are a few options I can come up with. Maybe it's hinting at some problem in my life for which there is an easy solution to, but which seems really complicated. But I couldn't really just pull my own wisdom teeth out, so that isn't really a solution. So I don't think that's it. Another way to see it is that I desire a really simple solution to a difficult problem, but obviously the simple solution isn't really a solution because it isn't real or possible. I think that's more likely. Now I just have to think about what big problems I'm trying to shortcut on solving. Which brings up my next point.

Mulder once said,"Dreams are answers to the questions we haven't yet learned how to ask". Well that's a fine thing right there, but I still have quarrels with the whole process. If in fact our dreams are our mind's subconscious way of figuring out the answers to the questions that plague us, what's with all the riddles? Why does it have to be so open to different interpretations? I mean who does that help? I imagine there are real medical explanations for it.

But who knows. Let's pretend there aren't and speculate.

Maybe if we understood everything about ourselves, life would be too boring and we'd never have anything to work towards, no personal goals. Maybe having obvious answers would make perfection too easy to achieve. Or maybe dreams are all about the people that have them. Maybe if I'm unchallenged in my life, my dreams present riddles for me to figure out in order to challenge me. And maybe if I was busy and active my dreams would just be relaxing and pleasant. Maybe your dreams are just a result of supply and demand, sent to balance your mind. Kind of like maintenance. What about people that have nightmares a lot? Maybe their consciences aren't clear. Or maybe their mind is muddled and plagued with memories they can't let go and fears they can't shake. Hard to say I guess... but fun to think about.
posted by 00k at 10:26 PM

 
But... I'm a networking student!

I've realized it's especially embarassing when you "specialize" in something and can't fix something having to do with that specialty. People are assholes! For example... my home network is on crack. I'd been printing Access reports for this class no problems over the network to my mother's printer. Then it just stops working. Didn't change anything... XP just forgot what a network was or something. Anyhow I fuck around with it for a long time, in the meantime getting frantic because I put this ton of shit off all weekend long and it's all due the next day.

Anyhow... many updates and driver reinstalls and reboots later I'm still not able to print to that goddamn printer. So I unplug that bitch, bring it into my room, hook it up to my pc, and use it straight that way. Not a really big deal, unless you're my mother, then it's the end of the world. Moving, uninstalling, reinstalling, all these things are tantamount to abortion with my mother. No not really but she was a bit fussy about it. So I print all my shit then give her her printer back. Of course as I'm re-setting everything up, I'm explaining this wacky network problem I fail to understand to her. And of course, my own mother has to reply with,"And to think, you're a networking student!". Like a slap in the face... from me own mudder! Well I slapped her right back. Well no not really. But I was sad, and unhappy!

The point though, I realize now why people work so hard to get really good at anything. So then when something like my little situation happens, they can have a really advanced technical understanding of the situation and what it implies, if not an understanding of how to actual remedy anything. Then even if they can't fix it, at least they can stun and dazzle anyone that might ask about it with details and statistics and mechanics and scare them out of making any of the aforementioned vulnerability attacks. Education is a fine investment.

As a sidenote... some day soon I'll have my own little phatty network operation going with some kind of apache webserver thrown into the mix and I imagine I'll learn more from that than I've learned in any of my classes so far. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing... so I'm not going to think about it too much.
posted by 00k at 12:36 AM

 
Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...
Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me...

Getting to know you, putting it my way but nicely...
You are precisely, my cup of tea...

Getting to know you, getting to feel free and easy...
When I am with you, getting to know what to say...
Haven't you noticed, suddenly I 'm bright and breezy...
Because of all the beautiful and new...
Things I'm learning about you day by day.

So lovely, no?
posted by 00k at 10:14 PM

 
If I ever have a house of mine that this idea will work for... I'm going to do it. I'm going to paint and furnish all my rooms according to the layout of the castle in Edgar Allen Poe's "Masque of the Red Death". It would be really neat. Blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, then black. I may do without the stained glass windows... but only if I have to. I'll probably leave out the plague aspect of it, but I may have the big scary grandfather clock. Let's just hope I have a big house some day and tolerant roommates/family.
posted by 00k at 9:02 PM

 
Realized this place is just devoid of color. Think I'll spruce it up a bit.

posted by 00k at 9:58 PM

 

Yknow what I want? I want a tv show that will really kill it's main character. All the fucking commercials say,"Will so-and-so make it out alive? Tune in to find out!". So many shows do this, one episode after another. X-Files was notoriously know for doing this when they'd run short on good storylines. Well I'm tired of it. You KNOW they're not gonna kill the bastards. You just know. Stop teasing me and KILL SOMEONE GOOD ALREADY. Do something totally unexpected for a change. Why does good always win on tv shows? Are producers worried about the message they're going to send? In a show filled with sex and violence anyways? Come on. Just let the good people die for a change. Maybe not die... at least let them get fucked. Let them really really lose. It happens. Crime does pay sometimes. I could see how it might be contractually complicated... but come on. Arlington Road can do it. I want John Doe to do it. I want to see him fucking die, and the mystery of wherever the fuck he came from to go unsolved forever. Yknow what'd make a good show idea? Guy Richie has a way of flipping focus on people... tying different groups of people into situations and then tying in all the people near the end to make a really elaborate picture that comes together really well to make an intricate story. Well I think they should do stories about people that know people. Like start with Anne, the homely librarian, follow her around for some time, then have her bump into some guy, then dump Anne and follow the guy around for a while. It's been done before, sure. But I'd be happy if it was done more. Yep. No main characters... well maybe common people... like gas station clerks or something. Yeah I think a lot of people have done that. Maybe even a Simpsons episode. Well more should.
posted by 00k at 9:10 PM

 
Election Day, 2002

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."
- George Jean Nathan

I voted today. Probably no one I voted for will win, but noone I voted for will do a lousy job either. Every election year around election time you hear the casual phrases about "voting for the lesser of two evils". To vote for a lesser of two evils is to vote for evil, no matter how you put it. There's nothing casual about that. Less evil is still evil, it's just less evil. I choose not to choose between two evils. It is far better to not choose at all where there is the luxury of an option, than to choose "less evil". Sometimes you have no choice. But sometimes you do. In politics there are choices. There are third parties. The third option, when the first two are not an option for your conscience. At this time, voting for a third party candidate is a lot like voting "no" to the top 2 parties. It's saying,"No, no I'm not going to choose between two evils like you want me to do. I'm not going to help either of you for putting me in that position either. I'm not going to go along with your little racket. I'm not going to be a victim of a system set up against me, where such a choice you would like to pretend is necessary. No, I'm just going to say no.". There may come a time when voting for a third party candidate doesn't mean "no", but rather means you're voting for that candidate because that candidate has a chance to win. I look forward to this day for Libertarians, because I know Libertarian candidates are better on all counts.

I can't believe how so many people can rationalize their voting. So many people everywhere vote only Republican or Democrat because, while they may not like the guy they're voting for, at least he's not that OTHER guy. So all they're really voting for is against. I'm not FOR you, but I AM against THAT guy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That is immoral, it is indefensible, and it is despicable. I'm always amazed anyone can try to defend such a thing. And it's obviously very stupid, for this reason. The only reason third party candidates are third party candidates is because they are in the biggest minority. The only reason they are in that minority is because the majority of people are too afraid to not be a part of the majority that they're not willing to sacrafice and take the slightest chance by voting otherwise. They're not willing to do something different, even if it is for the better. They're not willing to join and be a part of an effort to do better, because they're so afraid worse could actually come of it. They're cowards. They're sheep. They're everything that makes democracy bad. And they're in charge. I believe the only way for Libertarianism to ever have a chance in this country, with these people, and this collective mindset, is for Democrats or Republicans to screw everything up so bad, so far beyond bad, that the people will just KNOW. They'll just know that there is no winning with loss. There is no good to come from evil. Because that doesn't make sense. They'll know that in the end, Republicans and Democrats are the same, because they've both got us exactly where we are, and nothing ever changes. We need two really different parties to balance eachother out, not two really like parties that only bicker and waste money.

Anyhow this puts me in a weird position. Being that I enjoy my life and my freedoms, I don't want to see America go to shit (the Democratic and/or Republican way). And yet do I have to hope for it, for America to ever get better than it is today, rather than only worse? Do I have to hope for the destruction in order to make way for a stronger structure in the future? Or can I instead hope for the rise of speakers and public figures to change popular opinion and attitude? That seems like the only viable alternative to total breakdown and re-structurization. And that is by far the preferred method of attainment. So that is what I hope for.

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves."
-Winston Churchill
posted by 00k at 4:26 PM

Double-O