Getting older, going to bed earlier

As I type this, it is 9:45 post meridian on 31 December 2007. The last day of the year. most people are out getting drunk, or are already there, and not even paying attention to the time. They are just out because. In my four long years that I have been able to legally go out to local drinking establishments meant for mostly frat boys and old desperate single people (lets be honest) I have spent one new year's eve at a bar. As it turns out...not so much fun. It's just loud and packed and full of drunk people who are out to celebrate an occasion that happens every year. I don't think it is anything special. And to top that off, it was back in the Soo, so there were tons of people I went to high school with that were there and started talking to me. I got no problem saying hey to people or even a head nod. But if you wouldn't give me the time of day in high school, what the fuck? Why would I want to talk to you while one or both of us are drunk? Honestly. Piss off.

Side note: Rage Against the Machine just started playing on itunes. Lovin' the rage and anger. Side note over.

I would rather spend the evening hanging out with a few friends at a house watching a movie and drinking a little (well not this year, I'm sick. Nasty little stomach bug...great way to lose weight though) and just having a good time. You know, playing some board games, just talking, the old people stuff. Which this now begs the question:
Am I old?

Is it because I don't want to go hang out with the frat boys who try to look tough or the sorority girls who put on too much make up and not enough clothes? Or is it that I have grown out of that whole scene? Don't get me wrong, I love going to the bars every now and then. Every Thursday at the Chalet it is dollar can night. How can you argue with that? When I first started going there with work people, it was very low key and we could hang and talk and shit on each other...good times. Then some jackass told the entire WSU greek system and it is frat boy heaven. It's just disgusting.

So this year, A and I ordered a pizza, went to a movie and I am almost ready for bed. A bit of it is that I have to work at seven tomorrow morning, but part of it is that there is too much effort going out anymore. People don't want to head out until nine or ten at night and by that time I'm just wanting to go to bed. On that note, I am, sadly, off to bed.
And 2007, you can just fuck off. You weren't anything special.

Now.

Now is the time.

To question everything.

I've got White Stripes in my ears

The best thing about my ipod is the shuffle mode (I guess you would call it that). All six hundred plus songs and it just spits out things that don't go well together. Kind of keeps me on my music toes I guess.

I got two great stories from work today. Yes, the day before christmas, a very stressful and busy, but still I must share. Story one:
I walked into our equipment room to get a new battery for my walkie. Two of my fellow team leads are in there talking and changing equipment out. Says I 'Am I interupting anything interesting?'
Says Mr. D 'No Mike, we were waiting for you.' and he proceeds to close the door. Only after he gets the door closed Ms. R says 'Oh God.' rather loudly because she didn't quite get the joke until after Mr. D had the door closed. We all three bust out laughing and walk out to the odd looks of those in the hallway. We were right next door to the security office and couldn't help but think that they heard Ms. R say what she said at the volume she had said it.

Story two:
As I stand in the frozen aisle talking with Mr. C before I took off for the day I had this conversation with a team member (TM):
TM: 'Do we have rhubarb?'
M: 'It is a seasonal vegetable that produce carries'
TM: 'So it is back in seasonal?'
M: 'No...it would be in produce, but it's a seasonal vegetable.'
TM: 'So not seasonal?'
M: 'No.

Shit you not.

Blue Valiant

I bought the album 'Jeff Daniels Live and Unplugged to Benefit the Purple Rose Theatre' (bit of a long title) last week off of iTunes. And it is an extraordinary album. One of the tracks is titled 'Blue Valiant'. It is all about when he turned sixteen and his dad gave him the keys to the car. It is a reminiscing song. It was a bit of a beater car and there were tons of nice new cars but he loved that old car. Anyway, it got me thinking of the first car I drove.

It was an 88 Dodge Dakota. Rear wheel drive truck with a cap. I loved that truck. Andrea hated it. And near the end of high school, it got to the point where I hoped it would start, but I still enjoyed driving it. I don't know why, maybe it was because it was the truck I learned to drive in. I remember driving it in the winter before I got my license. I was in the truck with Dad, and we were on the road by the Big Bear back home and he told me to go slow around this corner and I didn't slow down enough and went right into a snow bank. And the only thing Dad said to me was 'theres a shovel in the back'. Classic Dad. Nothing fancy about it either. AM/FM radio, a beat up bed that had dried blood from years of deer carcases in the back, eventually we put ply wood down in the bed just so it didn't look that bad. It had a Lake Superior State College Alumni sticker on the back cap. It was from when my dad first graduated college and Lake State hadn't adopted the title of university yet when he got is bachelor's. There was a pull out cup holder on the dashboard. It got to the point where if you hit the dashboard hard enough above the cup holder, it would slide out. God I loved that truck.

I came home the summer in between my freshman and sophomore year of college and it was gone. In the driveway was a huge Chevy Silverado. I walked in and asked Dad where the Dakota was. 'I sold it.' Son of a bitch. It was like losing a family pet when you are gone. It is there and when you come home, it is gone. It was heartbreaking.

Kids these days (that phrase makes me feel old) don't get cars like that. Their parents spend money on them, for some reason. It is a rite of passage. When you are sixteen and get your license you get a beater car. At least that is the way it was back home. Down here in Wichita, it seems to be a bit different. I see some of the kids that work at Target driving some nice cars. All I do is just shake my head and wonder why parents spoil their kids like that. I know if and when I have kids, they aren't getting a nice car when they get a drivers license. If I still have my jeep, they are getting that and they would be the jealousy of all kids.

If I were ever to have a plethora of disposable money, I would buy an 88 Dodge Dakota just to have.

comfort music and the devil's books (allegedly)

If you pay any attention to the media today, especially the entertainment media, you know a few things. 1.) our media services pay too much attention to blonde bimbos who have eating disorders and do too much coke (oh, you know who they are...I don't speak their names) *A quick aside note* The media also spends too much time on who has gained weight and who is looking too skinny. They may know they have huge pull on people and their self image. And too point out how people are too skinny or too heavy is WRONG! It can ruin people, I'm talking celebrities and everyday people. Who gives two shits about how people look. That just shows the superficialness (I may have just made a word up) of our society. Be who you are and embrace that. *Aside note over*

Where was I.... right, 2.) There is a movie coming out here pretty soon. The Golden Compass. I had never heard of the books, but apparently they are huge in England and surrounding areas. Basically, take the religious undertones of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and set them on fire. This three book series is the anti-Narnia as it was proclaimed in an article. One character wants to do away with god and people's souls, etc. etc. etc. Pretty harmless right? Don't tell the religious right that. They are ready to tear down the walls. This movie has got people up in arms and makes me want to go see it, even though it isn't suppose to be that good. Worse comes to worse if I go see it, I'll just stare at Nicole Kidman or get lost in Daniel Craig's accent (hey, I don't discriminate here).

So I got to thinking after reading an article about it at work last night. The huge christian organization doesn't want anyone to see this movie because it revolves around killing god (in a nut shell). What did atheists and agnostics think about The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe? Or even better, what did they think about The Passion of the Christ? Did they pound the pavement saying that this movie was horrible because it was demeaning to their thoughts and beliefs (or lack there of)? Maybe they did, but who took them seriously? No one really. Some people may have even laughed at them. If no one payed attention, if they did make a big deal about it, no one should pay attention to the far right religious freaks who are making a big deal about the Golden Compass. If someone goes and see this movie and it changes their views on life...well, let it because a movie shouldn't have that kind of power. Unfortunatly, the state of this country is the way it is right now and the organized church can't stay within it's own walls and has to dabble in the media. I've got no problem with religon, just stop dabbling in the media...if you can.

And now for something completly different. Music that makes me smile. Songs I've grown up with, or some songs I have come to love. Comfort music, if you will. Some songs that your friends may look at you and say 'you like what song?' I just got to thinking about it today. With the emergance of iTunes, you can get any song you want really. Which is nice so you don't have to buy an entire album for just one song. Anyway, I complied a small list of these songs. Laugh if you want to, but these songs I can listen to over and over:
Country Roads, Take Me Home (John Denver)
Thank God I'm A Country Boy (John Denver)
House of the Rising Sun (The Animals, my dad's favorite song ever)
Centerfield (John Fogerty, mmmm...baseball)
Just Before the Battle Mother (the version I have is by John DuRant)
I Want to Conquer the World (Bad Religion)
Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles, possibly my favorite song [that or Blackbird])
Need I Say More (George Strait, A's and my wedding song)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot...come on, its Gordon Lightfoot)
The Rain Song (Led Zeppelin, my favorite Zeppelin song)
Dr. Feelgood (Motley Crue, thanks Michelle)
Freedom (Rage Against the Machine, undertones about AIM activist Leonard Peltier)
She Has A Girlfirend Now (Reel Big Fish, the song that made me like Ska/punk music in high school)
Paint It, Black (The Rolling Stones, another of my dad's favorite songs)
Tonight, Tonight (Smashing Pumpkins, I liked them more than Nirvana back in the day)
God Save Ireland (The Wolfe Tones, Unite Ireland and oust England)
Kathy (Jeff Daniels, yes Jeff Daniels! A great acoustic album [Live and Unplugged to Benefit the Purple Rose Theatre] and a great love song)

A nice Seattle type day

As of yesterday, the city of Wichita and surrounding areas were suppose to get this huge ice storm. And as it turns out, yeah....its just rain. It is raining outside and it got cold enough to freeze on trees, roads, etc. So the trees look all kinds of beautiful with the ice and whatnot, but at any moment limbs could snap and fall on power lines and cause blackouts all over the place. I'm no city counsel man or anything like that, but wouldn't a preventative step be removing limbs that are above power lines? Sure it would cost millions of dollars and that is what governments do...spend obscene amounts of money on stupid stuff like that? Or how about the power company remove the branches. It would save them the hassle of running around in shitty weather like this to try to get the power up and running again in the event it went out. But what do I know?

So the funny part of this whole situation is last night, schools were closing left and right. Of course, the thought was that we were going to get this huge ice storm and the city would shut down, etc. etc. etc. Well, they need to man the fuck up and brave the 'bad weather'. Or wait until a storm actually happens. Even if the roads were icy and dangerous first thing this morning, they are fine now. It is raining, it isn't freezing yet. I understand that these people down here in Kansas don't get that you can go out and drive around when the weather isn't the best...you can't drive 70 on the highway like they usually do, but you can still go out. Earlier this week, there were over one hundred accidents because of the weather. That should be changed to 'over one hundred accidents due to asinine driving'. People need to realize that. You can't go flying down the highway at seventy or eighty miles an hour when it is icy. It gets to the point where it is just laughable. Year in and year out, this shitty weather comes and nothing ever changes.

It would help if the city could figure out how the hell to plow and remove snow/ice from the roads. That could alleviate some of the problems. I go to work at seven o'clock in the morning. It is but a short little drive, but the roads are never plowed or salted by that time. The city needs to learn to not keep store hours. Get the drivers out there at four or five in the morning and start clearing the roads. Even when they do plow the roads, they forget about the turning lane...brilliant! They clear the two driving lanes, and leave one full of snow and salt and slush. NOT SAFE! They should fly in some people from Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas to show them how to clear the roads.

So part of the problem is the drivers themselves not driving for conditions, but the big problem is the government not being proactive in making sure that the roads stay a little bit safer for their drivers. Why do we pay taxes again? Oh right, the arena they are going to build downtown that'll bust out in a few years. I forgot about that.

Thank you James Lipton

I always like watching Inside the Actor's Studio on Bravo with James Lipton. The guy is amazing. He is eighty-one and still going. Wow. Anyway, for those who haven't seen the show, he always asks these ten questions that originally came from some French show. The best one is the last one. If heaven exists, what will god say to you when you arrive? (not word for word, but that's about it). That can make you think for quite some time.


So what do you think? What will god say when you get to heaven, if it exists?
There's some cold beer in the fridge and the Tigers game just started.



That is my answer. What about yours?