Do you work in a big office where not everybody knows each other? Do you hate the obligatory quiet politeness that everyone shows all the time? Like you aren't allowed to have a personality if you work in an office.
The thing I hate the most is the closed-mouth half smiles I always find myself giving people (who I don't know, yet work with) as I walk by them. The worst is when you start the trek down a lengthy corridor and see someone way down at the other end coming your way. You know eventually you are going to have to make eye contact with that person, flash a fake half smile and maybe utter a "hi" under your breath. So, the entire walk up until that point is spent diverting your attention either at the posters on the wall (which you have looked at so many times by now that there can't possibly be anything new to see) or awkwardly straight ahead, waiting for the exact right time to look at the oncoming traffic. If you stare too long at a person, you're weird. I mean, this is an office, not a park...no people watching allowed. It's even worse when you walk by two people having a conversation. There is a strict "no looking allowed" rule there. Don't want to seem like you're interrupting anything just to say a soft "hey."
There have been many times I have told myself that I would be outgoing and give people nice, hearty "HI!s" but, I've never actually been able to do it. Maybe one day.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Monday, September 27, 2004
Can't we all just get along?
Reading about all the barbaric madness happening in Sudan makes me really sad. I cannot understand how people like the Janjaweed can have such total disrespect non-caring attitudes towards human life. As I read the articles on this subject, and read the details of some of the violence, I get the same feeling of sickening shivers and nausea that I felt as I walked around the Terezin concentration camp in the Czech Republic when I was 16.
But, I guess having had a very privileged life so far, there is no reason why I would ever have to try and understand this kind of violence. I can’t put myself in these peoples’ shoes.
It's weird to think that, to us (as in the constantly educated middle class members of the Western World), pogroms and murderous rampages are things that just should not happen anymore. We think, "Haven't these people learned from the past...and seen how incredibly terrible genocide is?" But, if you really think about it, I doubt these people know anything about world history really, except maybe stories about their own cultures passed down from previous generations and taught through religion. It’s also weird to think that there is not enough worldwide governmental support to go in there and stop all of this, and even to impose sanctions against Sudan. America is busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Arab countries won’t get involved because the Janjaweed are pretty much Arab nomads, and other top countries, like Pakistan and China, are too interested in Sudan’s oil industry to put a strain their governments’ relationships (source: Time Magazine through aol.com: The Tragedy of Sudan: Simon Robinson Visit Darfur and Witnesses What is Happening While the World Dithers).
Sometimes I wish I lived under a rock somewhere and never found out about any of this.
But, I guess having had a very privileged life so far, there is no reason why I would ever have to try and understand this kind of violence. I can’t put myself in these peoples’ shoes.
It's weird to think that, to us (as in the constantly educated middle class members of the Western World), pogroms and murderous rampages are things that just should not happen anymore. We think, "Haven't these people learned from the past...and seen how incredibly terrible genocide is?" But, if you really think about it, I doubt these people know anything about world history really, except maybe stories about their own cultures passed down from previous generations and taught through religion. It’s also weird to think that there is not enough worldwide governmental support to go in there and stop all of this, and even to impose sanctions against Sudan. America is busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Arab countries won’t get involved because the Janjaweed are pretty much Arab nomads, and other top countries, like Pakistan and China, are too interested in Sudan’s oil industry to put a strain their governments’ relationships (source: Time Magazine through aol.com: The Tragedy of Sudan: Simon Robinson Visit Darfur and Witnesses What is Happening While the World Dithers).
Sometimes I wish I lived under a rock somewhere and never found out about any of this.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The Bible Goes Ultra-Hollywood
Before we get to the meat of this post....two things I observed on my way home from work today:
1) I hate it when, in bumper to bumper traffic on a road with lights, people stop far away from the car in front of them. Don't they realize the adverse effects this may have for someone behind them (for example, somebody stuck in the middle of an intersection as the light turns red only needs a couple feet until he's out of traffic's way...if only the person in front of me would move up those couple of feet.......)
2) I saw this chick riding a chopper today. She looked like Stretch Armstrong on that thing. It was odd.
Ok, so here goes the real post.
Why I didn't blog about this 74939 years ago, I will never know, so excuse me for my tardiness.
Ever since I moved to LA, I've seen billboards for a new musical opening at the Kodak Theater. The annual Passover/Easter TV staple,The Ten Commandments, has been turned into a musical. Apparently it already had a run in Europe and the kind fashion folks at BCBGMaxAzria decided it would be a great idea to bring it over to the States. So...awesome. America loves biblical musicals. Especially when they star actors like Donny Osmond or Val Kilmer.
What? Val Kilmer!?
Yup. The hot, yet constantly stern-looking actor who has portrayed such classic characters as The Iceman, Batman, Jim Morrison and the murdered porn guy from Wonderland, can now add Moses, the singing leader of the wandering Hebrews, as part of his incredibly random resume. In the billboard picture, Kilmer has his typical mean look on his face. Like suddenly Moses is this tough guy ready to spray bullets into any evil Egyptians that get in his way. "Let my people go, you motherfuckers!!!!!!" And while he passes through the Red Sea, he turns around and says to the drowning Pharoah, in a deep macho tone, "We will never...be slaves again." And then he proceeds to run through a huge group of Hebrews, charging his staff in the air and yelling "Freedom!!!!" The Hebrews are totally pumped that they are going to spend the next 40 years wandering around in a fuckin' desert singing catchy Broadway tunes the whole time. "Go go go Moses you know what they say!"
Something in me just can't imagine Val Kilmer singing...in a musical. "Go down Moses, way down to Egypt land (or something). Tell old Pharoah, Let My People Go."
I don't know what's sillier about this...Val Kilmer as Moses or the fact that this show even exists at all. There needs to be some kind of limit put on what can be made into a musical. What's next? "Schindler's List: The Musical?"
Oy.
1) I hate it when, in bumper to bumper traffic on a road with lights, people stop far away from the car in front of them. Don't they realize the adverse effects this may have for someone behind them (for example, somebody stuck in the middle of an intersection as the light turns red only needs a couple feet until he's out of traffic's way...if only the person in front of me would move up those couple of feet.......)
2) I saw this chick riding a chopper today. She looked like Stretch Armstrong on that thing. It was odd.
Ok, so here goes the real post.
Why I didn't blog about this 74939 years ago, I will never know, so excuse me for my tardiness.
Ever since I moved to LA, I've seen billboards for a new musical opening at the Kodak Theater. The annual Passover/Easter TV staple,The Ten Commandments, has been turned into a musical. Apparently it already had a run in Europe and the kind fashion folks at BCBGMaxAzria decided it would be a great idea to bring it over to the States. So...awesome. America loves biblical musicals. Especially when they star actors like Donny Osmond or Val Kilmer.
What? Val Kilmer!?
Yup. The hot, yet constantly stern-looking actor who has portrayed such classic characters as The Iceman, Batman, Jim Morrison and the murdered porn guy from Wonderland, can now add Moses, the singing leader of the wandering Hebrews, as part of his incredibly random resume. In the billboard picture, Kilmer has his typical mean look on his face. Like suddenly Moses is this tough guy ready to spray bullets into any evil Egyptians that get in his way. "Let my people go, you motherfuckers!!!!!!" And while he passes through the Red Sea, he turns around and says to the drowning Pharoah, in a deep macho tone, "We will never...be slaves again." And then he proceeds to run through a huge group of Hebrews, charging his staff in the air and yelling "Freedom!!!!" The Hebrews are totally pumped that they are going to spend the next 40 years wandering around in a fuckin' desert singing catchy Broadway tunes the whole time. "Go go go Moses you know what they say!"
Something in me just can't imagine Val Kilmer singing...in a musical. "Go down Moses, way down to Egypt land (or something). Tell old Pharoah, Let My People Go."
I don't know what's sillier about this...Val Kilmer as Moses or the fact that this show even exists at all. There needs to be some kind of limit put on what can be made into a musical. What's next? "Schindler's List: The Musical?"
Oy.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Thanks
I'm telling you...I have no idea where I would be without my friends. I've been pretty down for a little while, and without anyone to talk to about it all, I'd probably be a drug addict or something. I'm totally grateful for the people that I can fully open up to...that will listen to what's going on, support me and assure me I'll be ok. One of my most favorite feelings in the world is knowing that someone truly cares for me. There have been a lot of people in my past that I've held on to as friends because they are good people and I love them.
So, thanks to the lot of you for loving me back...it really means a lot.
So, thanks to the lot of you for loving me back...it really means a lot.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
My gripe with Ken Jennings
According to CNN.com (which accordings to the AP), that UberJeopardyGeek, Ken Jennings (the holiest Mormon of them all, for God has sent him on a mission to win craploads of money on Jeopardy for the Chuch O' Latter Day Saints), has finally lost! Now, this show has not been aired yet (according to the article, it was shot on Tuesday), but let me just rejoice in advance (under the assumption that this is even true). This guy had a 75-game winning streak, mounting up winnings of over 2.5 million bucks. Many would claim that to be "amazing" or "admirable." I hated him. Eventhough I am a superfan of the show, I can at least admit that Jeopardy isn't the most exciting game in the world in the first place, but without competition (because Jennings just went on there and kicked everyone's ass pretty much every time), it's even worse. Seriously, Jeopardy, you got rid of your 5-day max winning streak thing, and put a highschool quizbowl question writer on your show? I felt bad for all the people whose life-long dream has been to get on Jeopardy and at least compete, but then they are up against Ken Jennings and they don't have a chance to answer any of the questions! Ken Jennings forced Jeopardy into deeper depths of boringness. Even Alex Trebek hates him...you can tell. Good riddance K.J. Welcome back Jeopardy competition (I hope).
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
protesters vs. soldiers?
I can't say I was a huge fan of Democratic Georgian Zell Miller's speech at the RNC tonight. Like many democrats, I watched the speech with critical ears. One thing that stuck out and annoyed me was when he criticized protesters and compared them to soldiers.
Has he forgotten how this country was started in the first place? Has he forgotten about the Boston Tea Party? Has he forgotten about Thomas Paine? Has forgotten about the beginning of free press in America? Before anyone became a soldier in the Revolutionary War, they were PROTESTERS! They were groups of protesters that had had enough and decided to take physical action to obtain freedom.
Today's protesters are criticized for not having the balls to actually go into the military and fight. But, would you join the military to fight and possibly die for something you don't agree with? I wouldn't. America's original pre-Revolutionary war protesters became soldiers because they were fighting a war they believed in. For a cause they believed in. They chose to fight for the country they wanted.
Today, the protesters out there are against the war. Who of them would, in their right mind, join the military right now? They aren't out there protesting against the troops. They aren't out there protesting against America as a country. They are out there protesting the government.
Has he forgotten how this country was started in the first place? Has he forgotten about the Boston Tea Party? Has he forgotten about Thomas Paine? Has forgotten about the beginning of free press in America? Before anyone became a soldier in the Revolutionary War, they were PROTESTERS! They were groups of protesters that had had enough and decided to take physical action to obtain freedom.
Today's protesters are criticized for not having the balls to actually go into the military and fight. But, would you join the military to fight and possibly die for something you don't agree with? I wouldn't. America's original pre-Revolutionary war protesters became soldiers because they were fighting a war they believed in. For a cause they believed in. They chose to fight for the country they wanted.
Today, the protesters out there are against the war. Who of them would, in their right mind, join the military right now? They aren't out there protesting against the troops. They aren't out there protesting against America as a country. They are out there protesting the government.
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