Found Art and the Fine Art of Eavesdropping

So, we went to Santa Barbara for the weekend. Good stuff. I wasn't feeling that well, though, and the girlfriend's shoulder was sore from the uncomfortable bed, so it was a bit of a slow-going weekend for us, but nice no less.

We went to the zoo, we ate at Sambo's, we walked around State Street, and went to dinner at a steak place called Chuck's. Eating, walking, and just enjoying time out of town. The bed and breakfast place was only so-so. I wouldn't recommend it, so I won't mention the name.

We went out to dinner on Friday night at this little pretentious Mexican restaurant, and, while the food was adequate, I was a little put-off by the service. We got seated and waited about 20 mintues for the waitress to take a drink order. Since I wasn't feeling well, it definitely bothered me more than it should have.

We were lucky enough to be seated behind a group of 3, an older couple and their only slightly younger friend. It became clear pretty quickly that the single man was in some stage of a divorce or at least a breakup. I learned more about these strangers than I wanted. We were sort of amused at how judgmental we got listening to his story, and had an insight that we seem to be most of the time when it is a situation like this... overhearing a conversation and plugging in our values and judging the speaker. I don't know if this is easier because we don't know the person, so we have this relatively objective viewpoint in the sense that we have no subjective connection to the content of the speaker's message. I mean we're subjectively placing our own values onto the speaker, but, we're evaluating it from a more objective point of view than were we connected in some way.

Anyway, we heard the whole saga from, "and then the accusations started. 'You wasted 2 and a half years of my life,' she said". Oh my. I can only imagine how unpleasant this poor bugger's breakup has been going. Botton line is though, we were treated to a show of colorful imagery of the demise of this relationship. I feel a little badly for him, but I also feel grateful to him in a way for giving us this unintended window into his current life. We could also have been sitting nearby hearing him speak of the wonderfully overwhelmed state he was in having just fallen in love. But, there's an artistic quality to it which ever way the conversation is going.
Listen. Project your own stuff. Enjoy.

Keeping up with the down low

Hey, you know what's funny? Pretty much everything. I wish I was cool enough to coin phrases like 'the down low' - wait, maybe not... I think I know what that means. Although whoever came up with donkey puncher, dirty Sanchez, or the Cleveland Steamer... well, pure genius.
But I tell ya, one of these days... I'll have people saying 'turn that brown frown upside down'. Yes sir. Hey, I'm pretty sure I was responsible for the great goatee wave of '92. Good god, that makes me feel very old to think that my Junior to Senior year of college was 13 years ago almost. Bleh.
So, let's talk about this weekend. The girlfriend has got something in the works. It is my birthday weekend, since we didn't really do much during the week, and she wants to do something special. I have to say, it is pretty nice. I've always had kind of downer birthdays... which is to say it has been during circumstances in my life where I'm alone or was taking the bar exam... whatever. Just kind of blah. And I think it is mostly because I don't like to get older, so I think I'm grumpy.
But come to think of it, I did have a really nice one when I was with this one ex girlfriend. She was a real piece of work, but, she came over in these CFM shoes and stockings and really...well, it was a good birthday. Let's just say that.
Maybe the Birthday F. That's my term. I'm sure others have said it, but it's on my mind now.

Cheetos

What is wrong with me? I keep eating Cheetos.
A couple weeks ago, Joe brought in some Cheetos. I had some of them. I haven't had Cheetos in a long time. They tasted really good. Now I want more. I swear it must be the MSG. That stuff is probably really addicting and addictive.
Which leads me to ask, which of the above words is right. Joe took me to lunch yesterday for my birthday. That was pretty cool. I seem to avoid going to lunch with people at work lately. I think it is because I need a break from work, and when you go to lunch with coworkers, you end up talking about work most of the time.
Anyway, we went to this Thai/Chinese/Japanese fusion place that was tasty. That had these chocolate-dipped fortune cookies (I bet the ladies love those things). He said he thought they were addictive, and then he said, 'or is it addicting?'. I don't know which is right, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Just as long as you keep perspicacity and perspicuity straight.
That's actually probably the most subtle and funny joke from a Simpson's episode, where the teachers go on strike. Lisa complains that she was only able to come up with two synonyms, and says that she is losing her perspicacity. Perspicacity would show her ability to discern the synonyms, but perspicuity would be more her lucidity while choosing the synonyms. Most cerebral joke... ever.
Ok, I guess I wasn't going anywhere in particular, but here we are.

Ring Tone

You know, we really are pretty damn stupid aren't we?
I point you in the direction of the ring tone for your cell phone. Mind you, I could point you in the direction of a clothing label, brand of car, or pretty much any other consumer product.
In cubicle hell I'm listening to someone's cell phone ring repeatedly, it is such a joy. And it has the sound like a slot machine makes. Now, ok, it's a pretty convincing approximation of a slot machine. Fancy. But, what makes you decide to download a tone, or choose a tone for your phone? Which ring tone defines me as a person? I don't mean to go off on the slot machine sound, but I can't help but have all these images of this person being the sort that chases the dream of the easy life that could maybe be found on that one lucky hit on the slot machine. Hey, I'd like an easy life, too. I'm not being critical of that. Just the hopelessness of the whole thing. And the sound of the cell phone to serve as your nice little reminder of it. Maybe it does define him.
Maybe I can find a product that identifies me as a man. Maybe. I just have never felt that all that compelled to wear a shirt that has the logo of a company on it. I guess there are exceptions, like wearing a Butthole Surfers shirt or something like that. But, does having sporting goods labels displayed prominently on my body make me a better person? A more accepted person? A more hip person? I don't know. Maybe it would. But, I still can't figure out which ring tone defines me as a person?

Hunter S. Thompson

I'm not going link to the news story. It just sucks. I'm in denial. I felt a connection to this man. I think in some sort of naive way, he was a hero to me. I think we shouldn't forget that he was a brave voice in many troubled times. But, somehow I feel like the bad guys won. Mr. Duke, I really wish you hadn't taken your life. I will miss your special kind of vision. And you will remain an inspiration to me.

Gaming

I'm such a gaming junkie.
Let's face it, coming of age during the rise of the Atari 2600 makes the probability of becomming a game addict a whole lot more certain to happen, doesn't it?
I remember playing Missle Command on my Atari 2600 one time on a Sunday, when I was in like 5th grade I think. I was determined to roll the score over to zero. I think I played that damn game for like seven hours straight. As I recall, you couldn't pause it, either, but, I may be mistaken about that. Either way, my eyes were pretty buggy by the end of that session. What's funny is now I can sit glued to World of Warcraft for like 20 hours no problem if the girlfriend isn't around to tell me to turn it off.
I also remember playing Ultima IV on the Commodore 64. Yeah, we were lame, we didn't have an Apple II. But, the C64 was pretty slick for the Ultima games. I had been working on getting that stupid game completed, and had taken a lot of crappy notes, and had this great printout that I got from a friend, that had all manner of information, especially for the end of the game, where you had to answer all these questions about humility and honor and valor and such. Anyway. I sat there for like 7 or 8 hours straight to finish the damn thing, and made it. It was pretty cool. Really really boring graphics by today's standards to be sure, but, fantastic gameplay.
Now, yeah, I was playing D&D back in the day (nerd factor: Very High), and playing computer games. It is funny to think back to a time when gaming was a little bit underground in a very nerdy sort of way. Like if you admitted that you played computer games, you were pretty much automatically a nerd. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. Sit tight.
Something very strange happened somewhere around 1996 or so, I think it was very subtle and nobody much noticed for the most part: Gaming became cool, or at least cooler. Graphics for games also got a lot better. I've since been pretty sure of a couple of basic notions about gaming.
First of all, I think that better graphics presents greater accessibility through a more visually compelling game play experience. I also think that this means that games which require some imagination and, yes, intelligence aren't the norm then. Let's for the sake of argument equate nerdiness with intelligence for a moment. What we get then is more people (think about larger population sample) playing games. Which leads to my next point.
Secondly, games got dumbed down. Broader audience means broader appeal. The IQ 135+ market is really a niche market, let's face it. Where there used to be lots of games like Bards Tale, Ultima, Wizardry... well, let's face it... RPGs, there came a big influx of fighting and action games. More people playing games means gaming being more broadly accepted, but I think it actually creates an effect of games slightly driving away the people who were into them early.
I don't mean this in an elitist, "I was here first" sort of way. I'm saying, look at the explosion of both production and consumption of games. The vast majority of stuff out there is crap.
I need to back up for a second now. I want to make sure I keep the distinction between arcade games and computer games clear. But, in a way, the explosion brought the arcade home. It made gaming less uncool, because more people were doing it.
Look, I have a theory about the evolution of a 'cool' trend. I'm trying to figure out a mathematical representation for the idea. I guess I'm saying is there is a glut of games, there are a lot gamers now. And it is big business.
Now I'm just mad. I didn't mind being a nerd. Let's bring back more game play to complimentary to those great graphics. And let's enlighten the newer crop of gamers with better games. Maybe I need to go something productive now.

Dog Day

I admit that I like the Dog Show. Specifically last night and tonight, the WKC Dog Show.
I mean, let's face it, dogs are pretty cool. They totally love us, and they want to hang around under foot whenever they can. I love to watch when you talk a dog for a walk, how often it will keep looking up at you to make sure you're still cool and happy with him, like, 'hey, just checkin' in, Big Guy'. Yep, dogs are cool. I like cats, too, but they sure don't do that, do they?
Ok, I'm done.

Killer Shrimp

So, I saw this TV commercial. It was for Sizzler or a restaurant like that. It's probably better that I don't remember, because I'd probably have nightmares with their company logo in them.
This guy was fantasizing about this giant shrimp running across the beach toward him - with his tail between his legs foward. Basically, a shrimp with a raging boner. It was a little unnerving.

Now, I thought, ok, anatomically, if a shrimp were bipedal while retaining the rest of its features and were able to breathe on land, I suppose it would have its tail pointed forward underneath it like that. No fault to the advertising agency for 'accuracy'. But, still, it was a shrimp that was pretty excited to be running to this guy.

The second time I saw this ad, the shrimp's tail was pointed away from its back. Apparently, aroused shrimp weren't going over well with, um, someone who noticed besides me. Frankly, I found it disturbing, not obscene. It also doesn't mean that I wouldn't have stared at it again if the train-wreck of a commercial aired another time. Now I was a little disappointed. I didn't think it would be the case, but I missed the excited shrimp. I guess I felt a little sad for the guy in the commerical now, who was being run to by the shrimp, but now, Mr. Shrimp didn't look so, um, happy to see him.