UGH

I know it has no impact on his ability to give an invocation, but seriously, Rick Warren, REALLY?



Note that towards the beginning he stopped himself from saying "Christian" marriage in reference to all valid marriages. Let's face it, he is a bigot, and apparently, has absolutely no idea what Supreme Courts are for. Good to know that minority groups should all be subjected to oppression by the majority and that the Courts should have no ability to overturn unconstitutional laws. I think that it's a travesty that a secular right should be legislated by religious views.

Also 2% of the population is gay? Really? Maybe that's the portion brave enough to speak out on a survey, but I'm pretty sure that any reliable study shows that the proportion is quite a bit larger than that.

I'm so sick of the religious right's fear-mongering. I'm also getting sick of Christianity's overreaching impact on politics, but that's a whole other rant.

I basically want to be Elle Woods

I think that my application essay should be a video, like this one

Music videos!

I'm completely in love with this song:
The Fear video


Also, since I'm on the topic of music videos, I just thought I'd share my favorite ever:


Björk was SO GOOD in her heyday.

Jon Stewart is my hero

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

That's the type of argument we need.  Huckabee ended up sounding quite ridiculous and defensive by the end.

Testing, testing, 1 2 3...

So, I took the GRE yesterday.  I was FREAKED OUT, since according to the test preparation book I used, I was doomed to miss 1/3 of the questions.  Also, I was working like a madman last week since I started at my new lab (I'll get to that later) so I had practically NO TIME to prepare.

Luckily, the test wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.  I kind of bombed the math section (well, I didn't finish it and I had to guess on a few questions) but I felt pretty good about the verbal.  I think that my main problem is that I just don't do mental math very quickly, probably because my ADD doesn't permit me to have a very structured thought pattern.  Also, I've used a calculator for pretty much everything besides simple addition since high school, so I was kind of doomed from the start.

Anyway, I got my verbal and quantitative scores right away.  I got a 670 on verbal and a 720 on quantitative (1390 cumulative).  Oddly enough, when I looked up percentile rankings, my verbal is actually MUCH higher than my math.  It corresponds to a 95th percentile ranking, while my quantitative was only equivalent to about 75.  To get above 90th percentile, apparently you have to get pretty much a perfect score on the quantitative.

Normally, these scores would be great.  One thing that I do worry about slightly is that I'm really trying to compensate for my GPA.  While these do go a short way to do that, I'm going to have to have stellar recommendations and very good applications.  I'm not going to be able to go to any top-tier schools most likely, but I think I was doomed to that when I decided not to show up to biochem.

This brings me to a bit of introspection.  I think that I have ridiculously high expectations of myself.  In my mind, if I studied for another month, I could easily get a perfect score on quantitative and possibly improve my verbal.  Because I don't fail very often unless I totally deserve it, it's really hard for me to handle scores that are merely "acceptable."  However, I think that I'm just going to have to get over myself and deal with it, since I need to be focusing on applications and I don't even know if my new scores would get to schools before application deadlines anyway.

And now the really important question.  Where do I apply?  Obviously, my best bet is a state school.  My sister Jennifer suggests Big 10 schools, and I think that I could handle that.  One of my obvious concerns is that the school needs to be in a pretty liberal, metropolitan area, since a)I'm used to Chicago and may go crazy in a small college town, and b) I need to go somewhere I feel comfortable as a gay man.  As several people have pointed out to me (not just Jennifer, who I think has slightly suspect motivations) Columbus has a sizable gay population and would be a good place, as far as the Midwest goes.  I'm actually giving Ohio State pretty serious thought, and it would be pretty cool to have a family member in the area.  (Especially one who is a professor.)  Another possibility would be picking a school based on where I want to live.  Obviously, it would be pretty cool to go to California.  My sister Elizabeth seems to think that I actually have a fighting chance of getting into CalTech.  I seriously doubt that, but it would be pretty cool if I could.  I mean, there's no harm in trying, right?

So now, my current course is to round up some recommendation letters (luckily, I now have two professors that have had me both in the classroom and in the lab) and take a serious look at programs and prospective labs to see what I'm really interested.  I most likely want to stick to some sort of genetics or cell biology, although there are some aspects of ecology and microbiology that really interest me.

Wish me luck, I guess.  Hopefully by this time next year, I'll be in a PhD program, working my ass off.

And Then You Kissed Me, Part II

Haha, this post title is a funny one.

Anyway, this lil' quiz was on Stin's blog, and I decided to post it, since I am tipsy and incredibly bored, and lord knows I don't do anything actually original in my life.

However, in true U of C spirit, I have to tear apart the concept of the test before I submit myself to it.  Obviously, the answers to each question turn out to be sufficiently vague that the subject of the test can interpret it any way he/she wants.  They can look at the title, lyrics, or the tone of the song and choose whatever meaning they want.  It's just like a psychic reading in that manner.

Also, how high school are half of these questions?  I'm just sayin' 

1.  If someone says "Is this okay?" you say:

Poe - Wild [So no, I am not okay.  I am angry, and I’m bitter, and I’m going to get my revenge.  THEN I’ll be okay.]

2.  How would you describe yourself:

Sufjan Stevens - A winner needs a wand [Oh dear, phallic references ALREADY?]

3.  What do you like in a girl/guy?

The Faint - Symptom Finger [It’s about unhealthy body images promoted by the media, so...yeah, that’s about right]

4.  How do you feel today?

Apparat - Cerro Largo [It’s an instrumental track with a serene melody but an insistent, anxious undercurrent, so that actually kind of works.]

What is your life's purpose?

Final Fantasy I - Battle Scene [What can I say, I’m a fighter, lol.  Either that, or my life’s purpose is to play video games.]

6.  What is your motto?

Of Montreal - Your Magic is Working [I guess I give up too much for my lovers.  Yeah, once again, it kind of works.]

7.  What do your friends think of you?

The Pipettes - It Hurts to See You Dance so Well [Unfortunately, i think I’m the person writing the song, desperate and alone. Sigh.]

8.  What do you think of your parents?

Bear Vs. Shark - Antwan [Um, the song is incomprehensible and the lyrics make no sense, so I think this one doesn’t quite work]

9.  What do you think about very often?

Avril Lavigne - I Can Do Better [Shallow, but yeah, I can see that.]

10.  What is 2+2?

  The Appleseed Cast - Strings [whatever]

11.  What do you think of your best friend?

  The Weepies - World Spins Madly On [Lol, this is how I feel about life and friendship in general]

12.  What do you think of the person you like?

  Jem - Missing You [Oh dear, apparently the person I like is dead, or at least gone from my life in some form or another.  Seeing as I don’t have a current crush or anything, I guess it’s applicable]

13.  What is your life story?

  Abba - Dancing Queen [YESSSSS!!!!!!!  That’s all I have to say.]

14.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  Broken Social Scene - Guilty Cubicles  [I have such lofty aspirations.]

15.  What do you think of when you see the person you like?  Enon - Starcastic [I don’t actually know the song, but knowing Enon, it probably works.]

16.  What will you dance to at your wedding?  Beck - Soul Suckin’ Jerk [HAHAHAHAHA]

17.  What will they play at your funeral?  Mogwai - Summer [Um, okay, whatever.]

18.  What is your hobby/interest?

  Cloud Cult - Please Remain Calm [Apparently, being a spazz.  Yep.]

19.  What is your biggest fear?

  Be Your Own Pet - Adventurer [Yeah, this test totally knows me.]

20.  What is your biggest secret?

  The Shins - Fighting in a Sack [Whatev]

21.  What do you think of your friends?

  Sia - Judge Me [Unfortunately, I think it’s true.  I’m kind of obsessive about how I present myself sometimes]

22.  What song would you play during your first time having sex?  Portishead - Undenied [Guess I’m not denied NOW, huh?  Also, portishead = awesome sex music, so I approve]

23.  What will you post this as?

  The Cardigans - And then you kissed me, part II

My favorite answer is most definitely #13.

Intolerance sucks

Several people I know have linked to or commented about this video, so I thought that I'd jump on the bandwagon and share it here:

Keith Olbermann may be crazy, but he's my kind of crazy.

Anyway, I'm clearly upset about the passage of Proposition 8, as well as the existence of many other state laws and constitutional amendments banning gay marriage.  Not to mention the idiotic restrictions on adoption, when we have countless children needlessly floating around the foster care system.  As far as I'm concerned, the people that argue that a child needs a mother and a father are saying that single parents should have their children taken away from them.

I know that every generation has been progressively more tolerant, but I think that it's ridiculous that we should have to wait to enjoy such a basic human right.  Especially when it doesn't affect straight people IN ANY SINGLE WAY.  Grr.  This Saturday, I'm going to be joining the nationwide coordinated protest, and while I realize that this won't directly accomplish anything at all, hopefully it'll send a message about the widespread outrage that so many people feel about this issue.

Update...?

Well, I clearly haven't been writing much in here lately.  For the past couple of weeks I've been way too busy, and now that I have time to breathe I realize that I have nothing to write about, as my mind has been far too preoccupied with Halloween costumes, orchestra concerts, and GRE preparations.

So, I guess it's time to start stressing out about the next round of challenges.  First off, I need to take the general GRE as soon as possible.   Like, I need to register pretty much tonight.  Then, I need to figure out what school I want to go to, what program, and get my rec letters together and apply before the deadlines, which will mostly probably be in December and January.  That's surprisingly little time.  But if I don't get all this done by then, I'm gonna be stuck here for another year.  And I won't have an apartment to live in.

...And I just registered for the GRE general test.  It's next Saturday, so I've got to get going on any sort of preparation that I'm gonna do.  I got the little Kaplan study guide, so maybe I'll try to do all the crap that they suggest.  I'll probably just end up using it for sample questions, though.

Okay, gotta go clean.  My room is a giant pile of dirty clothes and trash right now.

We live for the fame

Okay, so I've got to talk about Lady GaGa for a while. Now, I don't use the 'F' word easily, but this girl is fierce. All of the gays have been buzzing about her for months, and her album just came out today.

On first pass, I was totally blown away. Now, I've been listening to her singles, so I knew pretty much to expect. What I didn't expect was the total consistency of her album. Most pop albums have at least 40-50% filler which you generally skip to listen to the singles. However, every single track is amazing, which is incredibly rare. I also expected it to be much gayer than it is. However, it turned out to be more straight-up pop than the pure dance music that I expected.

Of course, it is most definitely a pop album. It was clearly carefully crafted to appeal to large numbers of people. You've got the catchy choruses and requisite guest spots by other artists designed to draw in listeners by association. There's a somewhat suspect variety of musical styles, so that they can tailor future singles to audience reactions (or maybe she's just showing her range and I'm being cynical). I mean, it's pretty obvious that Lady GaGa is carefully constructing her own image to sell albums. You've got the contrived name (obviously), plus the ridiculous unitards and shoulder pads and glam makeup that she wears. But somehow the quality of the music shines through all that. And by quality, I mean catchiness and sheer dancibility of it all.

To be honest, I think that this is the best pop album, all around, that I've ever heard. This is the solo album that Gwen Stefani should have come out with. She's amazing. And she's younger than me, which is just frightening.

In costume news, I have now completed my genie costume and now need to do accessories and do my barbarian costume. I've got a Starbucks liqueur bottle that's got a good shape, so I'm thinking of decorating/painting that, and maybe I'll try to make slippers.

I can totally get the people that go into costume design

Seriously, I've become obsessed with this.  First of all, I made my costume debut last night with what was supposed to be Robin Hood.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the hat to work so I decided that I was a New England colonist.  Doubly unfortunately, everybody that saw me thought that it was lederhosen.  Oh well.

Sometime during the concert, I had an epiphany.  Why don't I do ANOTHER  costume for next weekend?  Double epiphany: why don't I do a costume for EACH NIGHT?

I became enamored with this idea quite quickly.  Of course, making a costume takes time, so I'm going to have to keep them pretty simple.  For one night, I think that I'm going to stick to one of my original ideas of going as a barbarian warrior.  (think Conan)  The other night, my new idea is to go as a genie.  I think that both of these are easy enough to pull off in the next week, without sacrificing too much studying time.  Plus, I'm going to have some extra time on my hands anyway because my job hours are getting cut :(

So, today I'm off to Vogue fabrics, and let's see if I can pull something together.  (this is SO MUCH FUN!)

Is McCain bipolar?

Well, in true style, McCain has apparently flipped his positions AGAIN.  After his horribly failed attempts at a smear campaign, all of a sudden he's playing Mr. Nice Guy.  Seriously, who is running his campaign?  He's floundering like a fish on the deck of a boat, and it's getting to be a bit sad to watch.

The funny thing is, I think that it was his base that totally ruined it for him.  There might have been some merit to his smear-campaign strategy, but if you'll notice, it turned his audiences into raging mobs.  He aimed at seeding doubts in the minds of moderates, but ended up just inflaming the negative sentiments of the right.  I think that he underestimated the nastiness that people are capable of, and I think that if he'd continued along the path he started, he'd end up appearing angry, hateful, and possibly even racist.

I am SO ready for this election to be over.

SO MUCH STUFF

Somehow I'm feeling completely overwhelmed on every front. I'm way behind on my studying for the biology GRE exam, I've got orchestra to practice for (at least now it's one orchestra, not two. Last week drove me totally crazy), and I'm trying to pull together a homemade Halloween costume when I barely just learned how to sew a straight line. Plus, I'm trying to juggle three ongoing experiments at work when i'm only supposed to work 30 hours a day. Oh, and I might only have a job for a few more weeks. Add on top of that the fact that I seem to be suffering from some MAJOR seasonal affective disorder already, and I'm about ready to go crazy.

So I'm going to take a step back, and talk about completely irrelevant things. Like music and TV.

First of all, and most importantly, Rachael Yamagata just released her new album. Now, I'm actually surprised about how excited I was about this. I mean, I never really listened to her first album obsessively, although I do think it's gorgeous. But there's just something about her music that I absolutely love. First and foremost, she's just got the most awesome husky voice, and she manages to write really emotional songs without coming out sounding whiny or cliché. That being said, I REALLY HATE the pacing on the album. Yeah, it's all gorgeous, and as far as songwriting goes, I think that she can do no wrong. However, she stacked all of the slow, soft songs at the beginning of the album and then jammed all of the faster-paced and edgier songs at the end. I'll be the first to admit that I have a really short attention span, and after 3 or 4 ballads, I get a little snoozy. But I'll tell you, the first time I heard Elephants, I literally almost cried. This woman is totally amazing.

Another exciting media thing: I finally watched the S2 premier of the Terminator TV show. LOVES it. First of all, it starts out with a bloodbath set to Shirley Mansion (the singer from Garbage) singing an awesome song about Samson and Delilah (probably a cover of a famous song). Then, lo and behold, she's ACTING in the show AS A T-1000! Running an evil corporation! Yeah, I'm a huge nerd. Let's face it, I watch TV for pure escapism, so as far as I'm concerned, the campier the better.

Then of course there's Project Runway. I'm annoyed with this season, I think that all the designers kind of suck, but I was actually glad that the last episode went the way it did. I've been hoping for Jerrell to get kicked off the show for the entire season, mainly because I just despise his style. I'm personally rooting for Korto, because what I've seen of her collection seems much more diverse than the other two, and Leane's is pretty, but so obsessive and her color pallet is too limited.

And last but not least, there is the issue of my Halloween costume. I have decided that it has to include some sort of lacing, and I'm trying to decide between a tunic and leggings, or a vest and pants. Tunics seem to be pretty ubiquitous as Robin Hood's uniform, but a vest would be much easier to make really tight, and I could lace it up all the way. I'm also a little concerned about the hat and boots, since those are things that would probably have to be bought, so I'll have to settle for what I can find/afford.

Oh, lovely

Good job, humanity. You've managed to really fuck things up. For one thing, whatever happened to the Christian value that we should be stewards of our fellow creatures?

Unfortunately, I think that much of the change wrought by humanity is pretty much inevitable. There's no escaping the fact that we're going to considerably change the face of the world, and that's going to drastically reduce biodiversity, at least for the next few millennia. What I think is going to happen is that all of the specialists are going to get wiped out because, face it, their habitats are changing, whether we try to prevent it or not. There's going to be a surge of adaptable generalists (hell, we've already seen it. Squirrels, crows, raccoons, and pigeons are all breeding like crazy).

Even if we take drastic measures to stop global warming, we're still faced with the fact that agriculture itself has a toxic effect on biodiversity, and the more we try to control the environment, the less stable it's going to become. At this point, I think that the only thing that we can do is to try to minimize our effects and let the ecosystem balance itself, which it tends to be remarkably good at doing. In the short term, however, I think that mass extinctions are pretty much inevitable.

Oh, and my Halloween costume? GAY ROBIN HOOD. Tight green lace-up vest, leggings/knickers, a jaunty cap, and bow and arrow. It's gonna be hot.

Halloween update!!!

NOTE:  I'm certainly never going to do anything as skimpy as these sketches suggest.

Okay, so I've been doing some thinking and sketching.

First of all, understand that these are my ideas for getting as naked as possible.  Chances are that I'll panic halfway through and add like 3 times as many clothes.

First idea:  barbarian warrior.  If I can find fake fur, I want to make a kilt-like skirt and doctor some boots so that they're also furry.  If the boots don't work, I'll probably convert a pair of flip-flops into greek-style sandals like I did last year.  For accessories, I'm planning on getting a vicious-looking axe and possibly drawing some generic tribal tattoos all over myself.

Now here's my robot idea:  start with silver shiny pants.  For boystown, this may end up being a pair of short shorts or something equally scandalous.  Since I also have to come up with a PG costume for the orchestra concert, I may do pants, or take a pair of jeans and cover them with saran wrap to make them shiny.  Then I'll add silver body paint or lots of glitter and use a bandaid to cover my belly button and draw a power button symbol on it.  Add some cheesy antennae and I'm a robot

If I want to go the confusing pun route, my idea is do do 'A clockwork Orange.'  I'd wear all orange or do orange body paint (or vast amounts of self-tanner) and tape a big wind-up key to my back.

Another idea that I had is to dress up as Link, from Zelda.  However, I feel like that's maybe too cliche and overdone?  It would be pretty easy, though, and it would give me an excuse to wear a tunic.  I could even make it sleeveless and short, in keeping with my plan to show as much skin as possible

Of course, the problem with many of these costumes is:  where do I put my wallet? 

I'm actually serious about this

I've been thinking, and I'll admit that this is somewhat fueled by watching Project Runway and thinking about Halloween costumes. But, in all seriousness, I have decided that I want to learn how to sew.

My main reasoning behind this is that I really want to MAKE things. However, I'm not creative enough to write or compose, I'm not patient enough to pick up knitting again, and I don't have the hand-eye coordination necessary for drawing or painting. And I really want to do something practical, where I have a clear reminder of my accomplishments. Combine that with the innate fabulousness of clothing, and I think we have a clear winner for a choice of hobby.

The cost doesn't seem to be TOO prohibitive; most beginner sewing machines seem to be in the $100-200 range. Of course, I'll have to keep buying things like fabric and thread and whatnot. In the end, though, it'll probably be way cheaper than video games, so I'll consider it money well spent. And if I ever get good enough that I don't have to buy as many clothes (not that I really need any more anyway), that'll be a bonus.

McCain vs. the media

I am finally feeling at least a little bit comfortable in saying that I think that Barack Obama is going to win the presidential election. It's not because the polls have been leaning towards Obama lately, polls are generally inaccurate and can change quickly. It's not even because McCain is getting blasted over his economic policies, although that helps quite a bit.

It's because John McCain doesn't get one simple fact: the Media (yes, it has now become a proper noun) holds a hell of a lot of power. First of all, his campaign cried 'sexist' when people tried to take a close look at Palin's life. That doesn't quite work when your entire base (who probably are sexist) ridiculed Hillary for saying the same things, with a great deal more cause for it.
Secondly, he has everybody seething about the fact that nobody can speak to Sarah Palin. And to be honest, that may be the smartest move for him. Her big interview before was a DISASTER. And besides, he doesn't want anybody to actually know her. She's a crazy book-banning creationist who thinks that the Iraq war is a mission from God. But you can't hide away your VP candidate, especially when they're a complete unknown like Palin.
Then came the big one: when pressed on the matter, he struck back, bitching about the liberal media and calling the NY Times an Obama advocacy group. He's actually created antagonism where there really wasn't much. I do realize that a lot of the media really is pretty liberal, but they at least usually try to stay unbiased.

Well guess what, they're done trying. And I'm convinced that this is what's going to eventually sink McCain, if his economic policies don't do so first.

I give up

Okay, it's official. I need to get a new iPod. I don't know how the hell I'm going to afford it, but if I have to start packing my lunches and stop going out for a couple months, then so be it. Living with a Shuffle as my only functional iPod is driving me crazy.

I am quite torn as to what to get, however. I'm leaning towards a nano, though. I think that 16 GB is plenty of space to keep me entertained, since I generally go through phases where I only listen to a few artists for a period of days or weeks. I do miss having my entire music library with me, but I also really like the fact that the nano is much smaller and tougher than the regular. However, I haven't actually seen any of the new models in real life, so maybe the regular iPod is skinny enough it won't stick out enough in my lil' gay pockets to drive me crazy. It's also gotten much more affordable ($250 for 12o GB) so cost isn't as prohibitive as I thought it would be. Also, though, the nano is now motion-sensitive like the iPhone so you can turn it sideways and shake it and stuff to make it do things. That's just fun. And they're way more colorful.

So maybe now I'm leaning towards the classic. However, I'll probably end up deciding in the store when I actually hold them and see how each compares in real life.

Next crisis: what I'm going to do for Halloween. So far, I'm leaning towards a satyr or a fairy. Get ready for a long rambling blog complete with sketches when I get around to fleshing out my thoughts.

I can't take this anymore

Holy crap, how is McCain doing decently in the polls? People actually LIKE Sarah Palin?!?!

The woman doesn't know what the Bush doctrine is. When asked about Bush's foreign policy, she floundered for a bit then spouted gibberish about Islamic extremism. And this is after her supposed crash-course on foreign policy. I'm not even going to get into her religion-inspired policies, which border on violating the separation between Church and State. I'm really hoping that she gets destroyed in the VP debates, or at least shows the public how crazy and ignorant she is.

The fact that she could end up in the White House scares the shit out of me. Besides the fact that I suspect that she would paint it pink

The more attention I pay to this election, the more terrified I get at the potential results, and the less respect I have for the American public, who have a tendency to take way too much at face value. Now I'm gonna get off my high horse and retreat to my studying and video games so I don't have to worry about this crap anymore.

SPORE UPDATE!!!

Okay, I'm getting way too excited about this game.

Anyway, I finally picked up Spore this morning. So far I've played the first stage of the game and the very beginning of the second stage.

So far, I wasn't too impressed with the first stage (the Cell stage). It's really simple, but for some reason I couldn't control my creature very well. Also, it was done in like 20 minutes, so it felt like a bit of a throw-away. It really doesn't suit my playing style well, because I like games where you get to wander around aimlessly and do things in my own time, while it threw me forward as soon as I ate enough creatures to get to the next stage of the game.

Then I got to the creature stage and absolutely fell in love. You get to control pretty much every aspect of how your creature looks, so it picks up a great personality. I have a feeling, though, that I'm gonna get rushed through too quickly again unfortunately. However, it's at least going to be better than the unicellular stage. There's also a social aspect of this stage, which will be fun.

One thing that kind of disappoints me is that it's not as similar to the Sim games as I thought it would be. The great thing about the Sim games is that you can just aimlessly do whatever you want, without any real defined goals (or at least that's how I usually played.) I think that the later stages will be more like that, but now I feel like I'm going on way too much of a defined path.

Bye-bye summer

Is it just me, or did it suddenly turn into fall immediately after Labor Day?  It seems to have immediately turned darker and cooler overnight.

Speaking of fall, I have made an Important Decision.  Seeing as I'm taking the subject GREs in November and I have to take the general test as well at some point, I don't have all that much extra time to waste.  So I've decided to cut way back on my drinking.  Not that I consider the amount that I drink to be all that excessive, but the idea of trying to study when I have a hangover is a complete joke.  So between now and then (with the probable exception of Halloween) I am going to start imposing strict drink limits when I go out so that I know that I can accomplish things the next day.

Aaanyway, gotta go start getting ready for work.  We're partially moving into a newly renovated space tomorrow and losing a certain amount of our current space, so things are bound to be crazy as we're trying to find room for everything and organize it all.

OH. MY. GOD.

So, I just discovered that iTunes is now selling vast numbers of classic Doctor Who episodes. It's only by virtue of being completely broke that I haven't gone crazy and started downloading like mad.

Somehow I'm going to have to come up with a way to see all of these. Seriously, this is like my childhood returning in full force. Maybe if I strictly ration myself to one episode arc a week...

My head is NAKED!

Look how short my hair is!

I'm still kind of in shock.  I think it's a good kind of shock, though.

We control all that you see and hear

I've recently rediscovered the Outer Limits.  This little gem from my late childhood is coming to me thanks to the ever-wonderful Sci-fi channel.  They've been doing mini-marathons about once a week, which has been keeping me well-stocked thanks to the wonders of DVR.  

There are several things that I like about the Outer Limits.  First of all, it's deliciously campy.  You get aliens, fairy tale monsters, and divine intervention, all in one show.  That brings me to the second thing that I love about it.  Every episode is a completely fresh story (with some loosely connecting every once in a while).  I think that more shows should follow this example.  While overarching story lines can be compelling, there's really something to be said for starting with a clean slate each time.  It also means they can vary the setting, although the vast majority feature the present or the near future.

They also had some pretty awesome guest actors.  I just finished watching an episode where Neil Patrick Harris played a mentally disabled (although shockingly good at problem solving when the story required it) young man in a town infested by brain-eating slugs.  (Did I mention it was campy?)  Also, as it turns out, I'm kind of in love with Neil Patrick Harris.  Another episode had Malcolm from Firefly (aka Captain Tight-Pants.)

Now, I have a few issues with it, mainly, to be honest, regarding how they portray scientific research.  Somehow, the nation is plagued by mad scientists who make giant strides in knowledge without any supporting research at all.  I can handle pseudoscience, but this is a bit ridiculous.  Plus, it always seems to go wrong in a completely predictable way.  (Unless it goes right, which does happen occasionally.)

On a side-note, 90s fashion and standards of beauty were HILARIOUS.

Belated Lollapalooza Blog: Day 1

So my original plan was to write about my Lollapalooza experiences every night after the festival. Well, we can see how well that went, considering how it ended three days ago.

So anyway, Lollapalooza. This year turned out to be a testament to how some music lends itself to live performances much better than other music.

12:00 - I show up at the gates. Big mistake, considering how this is exactly when the music begins and everybody and their mother is lining up to get into the park. While I'm in line, I put on my first coat of sunscreen and discover that Banana Boat makes my eyes burn like a bitch.
1:00 - I finally get into the festival and make my way over to Rogue Wave. Lesson #1: pleasant indie pop does not lend itself to particularly exciting live shows. Especially when the next stage over is three times as loud as you and makes life really distracting.
1:45 - I give up on Rogue Wave and head over to The Go! Team. By this point I've lost my shirt and put on my second coat of sunscreen. My eyes burn even more and my lips start to kick in too.
2:15 - The Go! Team starts and I decide that I totally need to own a pair of rainbow knee socks, and maybe then I'll learn to rap and sound like a spastic cheerleader at the same time.
3ish - Laura and Mike have showed up and we head over to see the Kills. Then I learn that minimalist blues-punk really doesn't lend itself to live shows. Laura and Mike give up after 15 minutes, and I stay just long enough to hear No Wow, which was the only redeeming part of their performance. Whatever, I still love them.
4ish - I wander around for a while and manage to catch Duffy singing "Mercy." I think I was too quick to judge her, I think she has some genuine talent. That voice still gets on my nerves, though.
5:15 - CAT POWER!!! I would consider going straight for Chan Marshall. However, I feel a little sorry for her because her voice sounds like it's a hairsbreadth away from giving out. You don't wanna end up like Janis Joplin, girl. I don't know if it's smoking or overuse or what, but be careful. Oh well, it sounds awesome regardless.
6:15-7:00 - I think this is when I ate? Who knows, it's all kind of a blur.
7:00 - CSS. Now, I enjoy them quite a bit. However, let's face it. The lead singer is batshit crazy, and can't sing anything near in tune. If she took some lessons, and learned to stay away from spandex bodysuits, they might be awesome.
8:00 - Radiohead. *Snore*. Sure, I can appreciate them, but...I'm not in love. I can handle Thom Yorke's voice for about 10 minutes before it starts putting me to sleep. I seem to remember I spent most of this time sitting on Laura's blanket and talking.
9:30ish - We caught the six home and I stated about 4 times that I was showering first thing when I got home. Well, two rum-and-cokes later, I gave up on that idea and passed the hell out. All in all, it was a good first day. And I didn't get sunburned!!!

Nananananananana Nananananananana BATMAN!

God I loved that TV show as a child. Anyhoo, I saw the Dark Knight last night. And...I think maybe I should reserve judgment until I can see it under less extenuating circumstances. First of all, we got there late and had to sit in the front row. Not the best way to watch an extremely long and action-packed film. Also, I had the hangover from hell (and at least partially undeserved. I won't deny that I drank more than I should have, but I didn't drink THAT much.)

Anyway...it was long. It was REALLY long. And I have no problem with long movies (Return of the King, for example...awesome.) However, I think that the killing stroke was the fact that it had too many climaxes and resolutions. One crisis was averted, then the Joker got away and started a new plot, then killed somebody else, and there was a new crisis, and on and on. I honestly expected the movie to end an hour before it did. I think this is why I tend to prefer dramatic TV shows to movies, because the serial nature makes it much easier to create a drawn-out complex plot without boring people. Unfortunately, they also tend to be much lower budget because they necessarily bring in much less profit. (unless they can pick up a cult following and make a killing on DVD sales, like Firefly or Buffy)

Now, the characterizations...priceless. Heath Ledger was f'in AMAZING. Now, I'll always have a special place in my heart for Jack Nicholson as the Joker, but Heath brought it to a whole new level. He's the sort of villain that has no reason, no motivation, he just loves to create chaos. He actually wasn't as frightening as I expected him to be (although somebody in the theater did yelp when he popped out of the passenger seat of a dump truck to shoot somebody) but instead brought a sort of manic creepiness to the role. I think that the difference between the two characterizations can be summed up by their origins: In the original, the Joker was a hired thug who lost everything when his boss turned on him and left him for dead. He had a grudge, and while he was pretty crazy, he at least acted human. In the Dark Knight, the Joker just sprang out of nowhere, with no history, no known motivation, and no discernible emotion except for manic glee. The idea that somebody could be so inhuman for no known reason is what makes him so damn terrifying.

Quick comment

Also, this season of Project Runway's designers all suck balls. I didn't like a single outfit that they put out this week. And you'd think that for a cocktail dress challenge, a lot of them would at least be cute...but no. Not so much.

Lions and tigers and........oh my

So my iTunes store addiction has moved on to TV shows. They make it so easy....to go broke. My latest indiscretions involve Tin Man (the SciFi channel's "adaptation" of the Wizard of Oz) and the pilot of the Terminator TV show.

First things first: Tin Man - awesome idea, excellent character concepts...terrible execution. Now don't get me wrong, it's definitely one of the best things the SciFi channel's ever done...but that's not saying much. This is the channel that brought us Atomic Twister, the movie about a tornado that sucked up a nuclear power plant to become a super radioactive tornado, and this weekend is premiering Anaconda 3, because so many people watched the first two.

Let's start on a positive note and talk about the things that I loved about Tin Man. First of all, they took just about the right amount of guidance from the original story. And by that, I mean not very much. If they had done a faithful retelling, they'd have to deal with a whole bunch of people bitching that they ruined a classic. However, they picked up elements of character design and concepts and made them completely their own, and updated them to be more realistic. The character design for the "Scarecrow" and "Tin Man" especially appealed to me. Also, the wicked witch was FABULOUS. She channeled just the right amount of crazy fierceness, and a certain amount of tranny corsets and makeup.

Now, on to things I didn't like so much. First of all, Zooey Deschanel bugs the crap out of me.
I think it's a combination of her permanently wide-eyed look and her low semi-deadpan voice, but there just seems to be something wrong about her acting. I must say, though, she was a good pick for the role of DG (their version of Dorothy) because her brand of weirdness kind of worked for the role. There's enough wide-eyed innocence and confusion inherent in the way that she acts that fit the characterization. Another thing I couldn't stand was the crappy storyline. I mean, a misfit post-teenage girl gets thrown into another world, where she discovers that she's a magical princess and has to fulfill a prophecy? Come on, every nerdy junior high girl EVER has written the exact same storyline, and I think that it would have been better if they'd stayed a little closer to the original, where she was picked up by complete chance and thrown into a strange world. And the fact that the evil witch was her sister who's actually good but was possessed for years by an ancient spirit? boooring. It would have been much better if she were just crazy, I think. Or at the very least, that she ended up twisted instead of everything turning out beautifully once the evil witch was dispelled (by the magical power of love, no less. barf.)

Also, the world design started really well...but whoa, they tried to do way too much. Somehow it's futuristic, Western, 1920s, and magical all at the same time? Seriously guys, pick a theme or two and work with them. Don't try to cram all your ideas into one thing.

Next, I'll probably talk about the Sarah Connor chronicles, and how poor Summer Glau is going to be typecast forever. Moving from crazy teenage assassin to crazy teenage assassin robot...not exactly the biggest display of acting range. I'm just sayin'.

He's never gonna top Good Omens

So I've recently discovered Neil Gaiman. Well, not so much discovered, as actually gotten around to reading him. Long ago, I read Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett. At the time, I was a much larger fan of Terry Pratchett, because he's much funnier and concentrates on fantasy writing, while Neil Gaiman is much grittier.

Anyway, I picked up American Gods a few days ago. It's a lot of fun, kind of a semi-literal depiction of religious and cultural myths clashing with the modern world and American attitudes. Unfortunately...it's been done before. Terry Pratchett's Small Gods capitalized on the same idea, except it was much funnier.

Today, I picked up his first big novel, Neverwhere. Now, this was an ADDICTIVE book. I read the majority of it in one sitting. It's kind of a Pan's Labyrinth story, or an Alice in Wonderland, where a completely normal person is thrown into a mythic world where he's completely unequipped to deal with his new reality. Unfortunately, I had the nagging thought stuck in my head that it would make a totally bitchin' movie. And it would. So much that, looking back at it, the entire thing seems kind of like a glorified screenplay. I think that the problem with it is that the visuals are so striking in the book and the plot convolutions are so simple that it does seem much like a Hollywood movie.

In the end, I kind of see Neil Gaiman as the Stephen King of modern-world fantasy. All of his stuff is good and it really draws you in, but at the end of the day, you look back and see how completely formulaic it all is. And I'm sure I'll eventually read more of his stuff, even if he's not quite as clever or original as he seems to think he is.

EDIT: As it turns out, Neverwhere started out as a TV show on BBC. It all makes sense, now...

Fierce hot tranny messes

So, the promo material for the new season of Project Runway is FINALLY up on Bravo's website. And they're gonna do a drag queen challenge this year! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. I limited myself to reading Project Rungay's synopsis of the season so I don't know all the details, but that alone is enough to make me excited

I can barely wait to see the new season, hopefully it doesn't suck

Ratner pool - 2, Eric - 0

So, as part of phase two of my plan to trim down a bit, I've started swimming laps again in the morning. For those of you who don't remember, I tried this before about 10 months ago and ended up giving up because it kept kicking my ass.

I'm not exactly the world's greatest swimmer. Part of this whole experiment is my stubborn side declaring that I can do anything I put my mind to, and it's just a matter of keeping on it until it gets easier. It's the exact same side of me that declared that I was going to become a runner no matter what, and you know what? It worked out. I can run three miles now, even on a bad day, and I'm working on improving my speed.

My biggest problems kind of compound each other. First of all, I never really learned proper technique. As I was growing up, my parents sent me to swim lessons, but I never really had any decent teachers. Secondly, I have an innate fear of suffocation. The fact that I can't breathe freely FREAKS ME OUT. It used to be that I couldn't swim with my head below the surface of the water because I'd start panicking. Now I've gotten over it, but my technique really sucks still. I can't seem to get to the point where I'm taking oxygen in at the same rate as I'm consuming it, so I end up gasping for air at the end of every trip across the pool.

Also, swimming is EXHAUSTING. It sort of leaves me tired the entire rest of the day, which is a problem because the only time that I can fit swimming in is in the morning.

On the upside, I got on the scale today and I was under 170 lbs, for the first time since I quit swimming the last time.

I may make this a weekly installment

New Music Tuesday on iTunes has become one of my favorite events of the week.  There's almost always a surprise album release that I didn't see coming.  This week it was Ratatat's third album, LP3 (Seriously people, can't you bee more creative with your titles?)

Now I have mixed feelings about Ratatat in the first place.  They've got a really awesome sound, but it's kind of monotonous.  If you listen to the first track of their first album, you've pretty much heard the sum of their first two.

Because I've had Project Runway stuck on my mind (I'm watching the season 1 finale right now), I'm gonna do a fashion analogy.  It's like they have one dress that they redesign over and over again.  The first album was a fantastic showcase that showed that they were new and fresh.  Then, the second one came out, and it was basically a watered-down version of the same thing with a few extra bits tacked on.  Now comes the third album.  This is like the crazy deconstructed dress with all sorts of crap tacked on.  You know it's all over the place, but you can still see the original design and you guiltily think that it's actually kind of fabulous.

To describe the album, I'd have to go into Ratatat's sound.  They are semi-electronic, with a lot of layered and looped guitar.  They also like to take inspiration from baroque music.  You can totally hear a Bach fugue in some of their songs.  Unfortunately, they didn't really do anything different in their first two albums.  I think that probably the second didn't do too well, and so tried to shake things up with the new album.  It feels basically like they did their usual thing, and then cut it up and pasted it together differently, with lots of effects and added beats.  However, I think that they did it really well, even if some of it seems a little derivative (for example, the heavily vocodered vocals in the second track).  And although you can hear a lot of the same stuff, it's more like they're adding their personal touch than that they're doing the same thing again.

Besides, they use an autoharp and mix harpsichord with a hip-hop beat.  They totally get 10 awesome points for that.

Anorexia? More like Anor-SEXY-a!

So, as all of you SHOULD know, gay pride is this weekend. On top of being a hot over-the-top tranny mess, it also presents the opportunity to parade around shirtless and count the number of looks you get (well, that's what I'm planning on doing, anyway.) To that end, I have declared this week Lose-Three-Pounds-And-Define-My-Abs week. I've increased my warm-up cardio before every workout to ten minutes and ditched the 750-calorie mass building shake in favor of a 220-calorie Go Lean shake, and have been trying really hard to downsize my dinner and snacking tendencies.

The result? I am SO not cut out to be anorexic. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'm tired and cranky all the time, although I think that'll happen if I try to keep this going for another couple of weeks. Also, I REALLY don't like being hungry. I lose my focus and just think about food ALL the time. This struggle is symbolized by the Snickers bar that I got for doing a survey last week and has been sitting on my desk, LOOKING at me. Every 5 minutes I look at it and imagine how amazing it would taste, then force myself to wait until my appointed snack time, where I will forgo the delicious Snickers bar for dry cereal. When this weekend is over, I am SO going to eat that Snickers bar, and I'm going to love it god damnit.

The other problem that I never foresaw is that I put a lot of strain on my body when I work out, and I actually need the full carbs and protein intake of my previous diet to keep going. My arms are still sore from a workout three days ago, and I think that I'm on the verge of accumulating joint strain, which usually only happens to me when I lift weights more than 3 days in a row.

However, I am going to look fabulous. And I'm just thanking my metabolism, because if I had to do this all the time I think I'd go crazy.

Damn you iTunes!

I'm annoyed, iTunes.  You make it entirely too easy to buy music.  No longer do I spend half an hour in Borders, listening to sound samples and deciding which CDs I want to buy.  On the other hand, I can't download everything in sight anymore and delete whatever I don't want.  Stupid firewalled internet.

My current frustration is based on the fact that every CD I've bought from iTunes in the past month has been disappointing.  I listen to the sound samples and they sound good, and then when I listen to the whole album I'm usually either underwhelmed or I get bored within a few days.  At the moment, I'm annoyed with the Katy Perry album.  She's supposed to be the new alternative pop voice or whatever, and that "I Kissed a Girl" song is really catchy.  However, the entire rest of the album is completely filler, as far as I'm concerned.  It's completely generic.

Also, one of her song titles is in AIMspeak.  I HATE song titles in AIMspeak

I think the moral of the story is that I need to stop and think carefully before I waste my money on music, especially since it's so easy on iTunes and it doesn't feel like I'm spending real money because all I do is click the 'buy' button.

ABORT! DANGER! MAYDAY!

Yeah, maybe this post wasn't the best idea, so it's gone now.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

GAME OVER

For reals.  My life as I knew it is over.  I made the mistake a week ago of buying World of Warcraft.  It is the single most addictive game I've ever played, with Final Fantasy XII coming close behind.

First of all, it's HUGE.  It's actually a simulated world, where you can play from any of quite a few points of view, so there's a whole immersive realism thing that's really effective.  Also, it's really cool to be in the game with a whole bunch of other people who are playing it completely differently.  There's so much room for variety in your gameplay that it's actually a little overwhelming.  I don't even want to think about how long it would take somebody to play through all the different potential plot lines.

So basically, my life is over.  I haven't cleaned or done laundry in far too long, so that I have to jump over a pile of clothes to get to my desk, then shove a whole bunch of stuff over to clear space for my laptop.  My version of cooking lately has also been running to a safe location in the game and then dashing off to throw a frozen pizza in the oven so that I can keep playing.

I'm such a geek.

Books!

Okay, I really need a break from reading papers. It turns out that my lab's grant application needs to be submitted with a clearer hypothetical model and future plan, so I've been going crazy trying to read up on the literature and come up with a cohesive idea of what might be going on. It's really frustrating because I'm trying to connect three very complex pathways, which may or may not interact, and of course we don't have any preliminary data yet to confirm any of this, so it's all speculation and AAAARRRGH!!!

Anyway, I'm writing this to get away from all that, so that's all that I shall speak of the desperate search for funding. So let's talk about books. In particular, I've read three lately that I want to talk about

Jose Saramago - Blindness
Ever since Stin wrote a post about this book, I've had a strange fascination with it. There's a part of me that's intrigued by the macabre, the same part that loves horror movies for their aesthetic appeal. For one thing, I love anything post-apocalyptic. If society falls apart, I'm all over it.
Anyway, for those of you not familiar with this book, it's about an epidemic of blindness that infects everybody except for one woman. The story focuses on her and a few of the first victims of the epidemic, who are all quarantined in an abandoned mental hospital. Of course, since nobody can see anything, all public order falls apart and soon there are feces in the street and blind people raping each other. It's an incredibly pessimistic view of the fragility of public order.
It is upsetting on quite a few levels. First of all, it plays on the base fear of disease and blindness. Secondly, the writing induces a visceral response to the conditions that these people are forced to live in. The violence, lack of sanitation, and general hopelessness conveyed really make it hard to read, because it is almost constant and one finds oneself cringing every few pages because of some of the descriptions. Lastly, it's a really negative view on human nature itself. These people regress to a semi-animal state so easily. While some post-apocalyptic books focus on the rebuilding that goes on after, all that you get is the total hopelessness of the situation. Nobody tries to do anything positive except for the protagonist, who also happens to be the only person who can see everything that's going on. It's like NOBODY has the strength to continue through all of the trials
Other than that, some of the literary techniques seemed a little heavy-handed to me. The conspicuous lack of names for any of the characters was clearly intentional, so that the reader could imagine the story happening to anyone. Also, the last bit of the book seemed to include too much pseudo-philosophical rambling about death, blindness, and the nature of god
My final thoughts: It's a good book, though you should avoid it if you have a weak stomach or want to maintain a positive outlook on human nature.

Lois Lowry - The Giver
Yeah, I just finall read this book. It's one of those books that every pseudo-intellectual nerd loves in junior high, along with Ender's Game and A Wrinkle in Time. All in all, I enjoyed the couple of hours I spent reading it, but I'm definitely too old for it. First of all, anti-utopia books have been done before. It leaves one wondering exactly how many of the ideas came straight from A Brave New World (I never actually finished that one, so I can't answer it.) Secondly, it just rushes through everything too quickly. It's an incredibly simplistic view on the situation, relegating the power of human emotion (or lack thereof) to a 120-page book. I do wish that I'd read it when I could have appreciated it, but I didn't really gain anything significant by reading it now

I also wanted to talk about the Chronicles of Narnia, since I also just reread those, but I'll either skip that or save it for later, because I should probably get more work done now.

Dear democratics

PLEASE get some individuality.  I turned on CNN last night and every single democrat they had on there spouted the exact same lines about how Bush and McCain are the same, calling the Iraq war the Bush-McCain war and all of the previous economic policies the Bush-McCain policies.  You know what?  People are going to get really sick of this soon and, while people are not happy with Bush, they also realize that Bush and McCain are not the same person and you're kind of digging yourselves into a grave.  If the democrats are going to win this election, they need to focus on McCain as his own person instead of just bashing Bush, as much fun as that is.  To be honest, I think that McCain would be a much better president than Bush ever was, although I clearly would prefer not to have him in the White House.

It really annoys me about how people just tout the party line.  During the primaries, all of the Obama people said the exact same thing all the time, and all of the Hillary people said the exact same things as well.  Can't people give their own candid analysis without just following along with the current campaign strategy?

I'm home...for now

For any of you who didn't know already, I went camping in Massachusetts this past weekend. A quick synopsis: It was cold, mountains are pretty, and Boston is the worst city ever to navigate in a car.

And now that I'm settled back into my normal life, it turns out that I'm helping my sister Kate move this weekend, in Indianapolis. To a certain extent, I really want to just stay at home for a while and veg out, but apparently that's not gonna happen. Oh well, I'm really excited to see her new house and hang out, since I haven't really seen any of my family in a while now that I'm done with Symphony

In other words, I thinking about becoming a Unitarian. I haven't actually done any real research on this, but I kind of want to understand why people go to church (other than guilt) and I think that the Unitarian church is probably the only one that I could handle, seeing as they're all about open-mindedness and acceptance and all that. Or maybe (and by 'maybe' I mean 'most likely') I'll just end up thinking about it for a while, going to one service, and then forgetting about it completely

Oh, and I REALLY WANT TO SEE INDIANA JONES. I'm so pissed that I'm missing the first two weekends it's out (anybody wanna go tomorrow?)

New Music Tuesday aftermath

One of my favorite things ever to do is listening to new albums. Therefore, I always keep half an eye on the weekly iTunes email of new music. This week, there were two new releases that interested me enough to buy.

Ladytron - Velocifero

Now, I've never really been able to get into Ladytron. They're one of those bands that I've always kind of felt like I should like, but in the end they never really managed to wow me. For the most part, the vocals are what annoy me. They don't really try to make real songs, so much as throwing half-spoken, repetitive vocals over the synths. However much I love synths (and I LOVE them), I can't really put up with this for too long

This album had me really excited for the first few tracks. It really seemed like they were writing real songs, with actual lyrics and melodies, but still with their old attitude. However, as the album winded down after the few tracks, they seemed to devolve into their old habits of throwing some sort of half-assed vocals over the instrumentals. Over all, it was a bit disappointing, although there are some seriously awesome songs in the first half of the album. And if you like Ladytron already, then this album is pretty awesome.


Islands - The Arm

Islands was a pretty big deal when they came out (was it last year, or 2006? I can't remember now). The big thing is that the lead singer used to be the singer for the Unicorns, a low-fi indie-pop band that was pretty big in the early 2000s. And basically, yeah, they're Unicorns 2.0. I was really into them for about 2 weeks, before I got kind of sick of the whole sound. They were pretty awesome live, though.

To be honest, I haven't listened to the whole album yet. However, I think I already have a pretty well-formed opinion. It's fun, but it's not pushing any boundaries or winning any awards. It's mostly more of the same, and sort of meanders through. The songs have no real drive to them; they just sort of go on for a while, then they stop. You can only do so much with quirky vocals and catchy instrumentals if you don't try to push it anywhere.

Once again, as with Ladytron, they have a certain image and sound. If this is the sort of thing you like, then you'll probably like the album. It's pretty appealing, but I'm a little underwhelmed.

Now I'm just waiting for the next Wolf Parade album. I loves me some Wolf Parade.

Apparently I start too many statements with "seriously"

So I'm gonna try to stop.  Chances are, however, that I'll just find a new word or phrase to overuse.

Anyway, I went to see Prince Caspian last night.  I didn't see the first Narnia movie, so I didn't really know what to expect.  For the most part, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Luckily, it's been long enough since I read the books that I barely remember any of the details, so I get really excited whenever they reference something I remember (Reepicheep!!!) but I don't go nitpicking details that might differ from the book.

I do have one major complaint, though, and this may make me sound old and crotchety.  I really don't like the callous nature with which they treat violence.  I was really put off when Reepicheep made a cute little joke right before slicing somebody's throat.  I don't know what it was rated, but it was a really violent movie.  On top of that, I really do feel like they treat it as if it's okay that a lot of people die, as long as they're not important characters.  I'm not sure how I feel about a movie for young people with teenagers beheading people and stabbing soldiers in the back.

I think that this one of my major complaints about movies in general.  It's not that they're violent:  I love violent movies.  I can even revel in it (Kill Bill was AWESOME).  But often, they trivialize violence, and show a cleaned-up version that doesn't show any gore, and somehow that's ok.  Violent death becomes a thing to be thrown around, without any of the unpleasant consequences that drive home the fact that violence is BAD

FAME! I'm gonna live forever! I'm gonna take to the sky!

Seriously, why are people so obsessed with fame? If you turn the TV on at any time, chances are that there's some sort of "celebrity" reality show where has-been TV stars vie desperately for attention by competing with each other. Why do they drag themselves back into the spotlight when people generally just remark on what trainwrecks they've become?

The other thing that sparked this entry was this: ridiculous fashion choices. My theory is that these people wear absolutely ridiculous things just for the purpose of getting people's attention. For example, for those of you who pay attention to these things, remember just about every outfit Victoria Beckham has ever worn? And those ads she did for Marc Jacobs a couple of months back? Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that they don't actually think that these are good fashion choices.

I just don't get why people make fools of themselves in front of millions of people, all in the name of fame (and, in many cases, money. Well, actually, I get it if it's in the name of money)

Do they have rehab for caffeine addicts?

Seriously, I drink a LOT of coffee. I think that it was when I went to the grocery and spent the majority of a $30 bill on coffee beans (and not even fancy ones) when I realized that I really am kind of dependent.

Every morning I have two cups of coffee with breakfast and then get a latte on my way into work. On top of that, I've been known to make another pot in the evening, and generally every time I go shopping or out, I grab a latte on the way.

The primary reason I drink so much caffeine is as self-medication for ADD. (Let me tell you, it's not a pretty sight if I try to read scientific papers or sit through a talk without any caffeine in my system) However, I think that on top of that, I have a really addictive personality, and one that really gets stuck in routines. I get a latte on my way into work because that's what I ALWAYS do. Hell, 2/3 of the employees at the bookstore café know me by sight, even some of the new ones.

Oh well, at least it's healthier than soda, which used to be my chief vice.

And the fat lady is singing

Well, maybe not actually singing yet, but she's definitely going through her warm-up exercises.  According to CNN, Barack and Hillary are now tied in the superdelegate count.  Considering that she started out with a huge lead, I think that it's really telling that Barack has picked up enough momentum and acknowledgment among the party leadership to catch up.

Let's just hope that nothing disastrous happens between now and the convention

Are you kidding me?

Is the catholic church seriously still preaching this crap?  I mean, seriously?

I tend to kind of think of the Catholic church as it is portrayed in A Canticle for Leibowitz: clinging to their old ceremonies and feigning grandeur while the city around them crumbles to pieces.  Do they realize that they're continually losing worshippers because they completely refuse to face the reality around them?

This is so backwards it's ridiculous.  

The primaries NEED TO END

Seriously, why does politics turn everybody into a raging asshole? Everybody picks one candidate, and they can do absolutely no wrong, and everybody else can do no good. The extended primary contest is only serving to divide the democratic party against itself, and if we lose a third election in a row, I'm going to cry. Or move to Europe. Or secede. Am I allowed to do that? EricLand would be an awesome place.

I would have to say that the main object of my ire is Hillary. The effect of her continued candidacy on the party aside, I'm really pissed off about her gas policy. She clearly picked the best-sounding policy which would be the easiest to understand for 'middle America'. Regardless of whether it would work at all.

First of all: the actual effect on consumers would be almost nil. Even her estimations put the benefit at about $70 over the summer for the average consumer. The more realistic calculations put it at about $30.

Secondly, where's the money coming from: She wants to pass the tax onto the oil companies. While I'm all for that in theory, what's actually going to happen is that the oil companies are just going to raise prices to make up for their lost revenue. The result: no change for consumers, or even a possible price increase.

Third, she's going to take on OPEC? How? We have no economic leverage on them, and the countries involved are our precious "allies", without whom we'd have no bases in the Middle East. They've got us in a stranglehold, and in a knock-down brawl over oil prices, i don't doubt that they'd win, especially since our demand for energy is much higher than our capability to provide for ourselves.

It's really pissing me off that Hillary is resorting to sensationalism to try to pump up votes. Considering that she started out as the nuanced candidate who understood the details of policy-making, this is a sad example of a politician's empty promises.

I'm sorry, I really didn't want to get into politics on this blog, but I really need to vent. I'm so frustrated with all the bullshit being flung around in this election (to be fair, by all sides, but I feel that there is considerably more coming from Hillary's camp).

Seriously, can't I just have one ailment at a time?

Last Saturday, I noticed that my right eyelid was acting a little funny. Over the next week, it grew gradually more swollen and irritated, and now I have a giant ball of poo occupying my upper right eyelid (and clearly, 'poo' is a medical term). According to WebMD, it's due to a clogged oil gland. So yes, I have a giant zit in my eyelid.

On top of that, I've noticed that my left eye has been becoming increasingly gunky when I get up in the morning and throughout the day. And this morning? It's pink. Yes, I think I have pink eye.

Why, body? Don't I take care of you properly? Don't I give you healthy food, and make sure that you're properly exercised?

Ha! Take that, normality!

I am such a HARDCORE BADASS now.

To see the world in a grain of sand

You know, I can never remember where that quote came from, but I've always kind of liked it. Anyway, I had a crazy moment this morning when I was making breakfast. I looked at the nutrition information on my bagels and saw that they each have 240 calories. I just thought that it was totally amazing that one bagel has enough accessible energy stored within for a person to run almost 2 miles. That just seems crazy to me, not just because of the sheer amount of energy, but because of the efficiency of the human body.

The main reason that I went into biology is that life continues to amaze me. It's all of these little things that, when you really think about them, refuel the sense of wonder that keeps me on the life-track that I'm pursuing.

I mean, just think of any living thing, even a bacterium. It is such a finely tuned machine that it can adjust to myriad conditions and produce faithful copies of itself, all without any guiding consciousness. Humans are YEARS from creating a completely autonomous robot, and certainly not anything with even close to the same degree of sophistication as a single bacterial cell.

Please label me

I started reading Matt's blog yesterday, and while a whole lot of it is religious and therefore not particularly applicable to my world view (although very enlightening in the mindset of a gay Christian), I thought that the most recent post, about coming out of the closet, was very interesting. Why do people feel the need to come out? Why is being gay such an important part of one's identity that everybody needs to know it in order to understand us better? Here's the majority of the comment that I left on the blog:

I definitely think that it is a very important moment when one takes upon themselves the culture label of “gay,” even more so than when they discover their attraction to members of the same sex. More often than not, it is that which makes us different from mainstream society, that which is counter to what is considered normal (and some may argue good), which defines us. For example, if I were to describe myself in as few words as possible, I would use the term ‘gay.’ I would not think to mention the fact that I am a white, middle class male, even though these are actually essential contributors to my identity. Being gay, because it is counter to the mainstream, is a very powerful cultural label that tends to pervade the entirety of one’s life. The decision to take on such a label is not an easy one, and to a certain extent, I can understand a person who wishes to remain in the closet, or who may say “I’m not gay, I just like to have sex with men.” I think that this is part of the power of pride parades: they are an affirmation of one’s acceptance of the gay (or, to be more politically correct, queer) cultural label.

Of course, this is all from my own perspective, as a gay man. Coming out as a lesbian, bisexual, transgendered person, or any other variant of queer has its own connotations and cultural trappings. Often, I believe that the cultural labels that define us also actually shape us, pushing us into polarized positions of "gay" or "straight," when the actual identity may be much more fluid, which is an opinion that has been voiced by many people for years. Regardless, I do choose to take on the identity of a gay man, and I recognize that I embody many of the cultural stereotypes of the label, whether that is my natural disposition (haha, if such a thing exists) or a learned behavior.

Part of your world

I'm done being poor. Seriously.

It all started about a month ago when I wandered into Macy's. I immediately gravitated towards a hot pair of jeans that I was totally going to try on. Till I saw the $230 price tag. The same thing happened this weekend with a totally awesome suede jacket in Nordstrom's. $2000. For reals. Even going to Armani Exchange and getting a shirt and light jacket practically bankrupted me. Is it too much to ask that I be able to spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothes?

The same thing goes for food and drinks. Once you've eaten at Bin 36 a couple of times, other restaurants just don't quite seem so special. I've gotten a taste of the upper middle class lifestyle, and it's really hard to come back to reality.

I think I'll get a part-time job, or find someplace where I can actually work full-time, instead of this in-between thing that I'm doing now. Not only will that help give me a bit more disposable income, maybe if I'm too busy to spend money, I won't.

Or maybe I should get myself a sugar daddy. I like older men anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard, right? haha.

Leave Miley alone!!!

Why do I have the feeling that's totally gonna be a Youtube video soon, if it isn't already?

Anyway, I actually do feel really sorry for Miley Cyrus, and have for quite a while. I'm not one for the whole celebrity gossip thing, but this is kind of extreme (oh who am I kidding, I read Perez Hilton twice a day). She seriously can't do anything right at this point. Every time she turns around, somebody else is calling her slutty, or a bad role model, or a future trainwreck.

Guess what? 15-year-olds are way more mature than we pretend. Kids are giving blowjobs in junior high, and having sex not long after they enter high school. A mildly suggestive picture that doesn't expose much more flesh than most red-carpet dresses? Not that bad.

Also, the thing that you have to realize is that Miley can't appeal to a younger audience forever. Her fans are all hitting puberty, and the good-girl image isn't gonna fly for long. These pictures are bad publicity for Disney, who is going to market her to children for as long as they possibly can, but they're kind of necessary for Miley (if a bit early), who's gonna need to establish a serious music/acting career if she's going to avoid falling into obscurity as soon as people discover she's a one-trick pony.

As long as she doesn't get into drugs and go crazy, I say go for it, girl.

I'm gonna give up using lyrics for blog titles

I have come to a realization: I am an health/exercise snob. I used to think that I was just a health nut, but I've realized that not only do I obsess over my own diet and exercise, I look down on other people who aren't as stringent as me.

I realize that this isn't quite fair. I happen to have enough free time to work out every day, and enough disposable income to eat healthy food. Also, I have two essential health-nut qualities: I love to exercise and I think that healthy food tastes better than junk food.

That being said, people are WUSSES. They either go to the gym and pretend to work on the machines, actually doing very little at all, or they go and do real workouts, but give up when they're sore for a couple of days afterwards. Of course you're sore, you haven't gotten off your ass in two years. Or they work out for about a month, then quit when they stop dropping weight every week. Seriously, people. If it were easy, it wouldn't be called working out.

Haha, I'd be a terrible personal trainer. Yeah, I've gotten to the point where I'm pretty knowledgeable about workout routines and dieting strategies, but I'd totally be the bitch-ass boot-camp type of personal trainer. I think that a required quality in trainers is the patience to deal with people and a positive attitude that enforces the belief that getting in shape is achievable. However, I have no patience for wusses and I don't really have the empathy to take things slow with them or help them out that much.

I guess the reason that I don't get it is because I'm addicted to exercise. While some people's stress response is to eat, mine is to go running. I totally live for the endorphin rush. Also, I put much more stock in my personal appearance than most people. It probably stems from some sort of low self esteem, but I need tangible proof that I'm physically equal or superior to other people, or else I feel ugly. Or maybe it's a competitive thing: I totally strive to match or better the other gym rats. In any case, my attitude is probably not the healthiest to have, but the result is that I'm in damn good shape.

Your one-stop candy shop

Well, Madonna's new album leaked yesterday. I've been listening to it, and I must say, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's not what it was advertised as, which is a thumping hip-hop album, but you know, I'm glad. Sure, she dabbles a bit in heavy beats and other hip-hoppy things, but for the most part it's a dancy pop album. I'd put it in the same grouping as Nelly Furtado's Loose. It's definitely a lot better than I was expecting after having heard the first single.

Which brings me to my next point, which is somewhat related to Stin's complaint about Hollywood. Pop music has no subtlety, and people put WAY too much emphasis on star power. I'm 90% sure that 4 Minutes was the first single from Madonna's album purely because it features Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. People go immediately for the song with names that they recognize associated with it. And this is sad, because those aren't necessarily the best songs. In fact, they tend to be disjointed and mediocre, because they tend to cram together several incompatible vocal and musical styles. And usually, the most popular songs are the ones with the heaviest beats or the cheesiest lyrics. It's really annoying, but possibly the worst thing is that I fall for it. I realize how inane most pop music is, but still, as soon as the beat starts going I immediately start bobbing my head/strutting/dancing/whatever else is appropriate at the moment.

And now I have a huge confession to make: I actually like Ashlee Simpson. This is associated with all sorts of guilt, because she represents everything that I hate about pop music. She's only successful because her sister was famous first. She has absolutely no talent (have you ever heard her try to perform live? ewwww), and most of her music is pretty inane. Also, she's WAY too artificial (remember how her nose used to look completely different? And she's had a completely different hair color for each of her albums) However, I think that her voice translates very well on records and most of her music is very catchy (the majority of her second album not included). Also, she's spunky. Spunk goes a long way with me.

y'know, I tried really hard at first not to make this into a music blog. However, I spend about 8 hours a day with my iPod plugged into my ears, so it's kind of inevitable that I end up thinking about music a lot. Whatev.

I am a weapon of mass consumption

Can we talk about how much I LOVE Lily Allen?  Seriously, go to her myspace and listen to the first song on the list.  It's totally my new favorite song.  She's totally fabulous, even if Perez says that she's kind of a trainwreck these days.  (Of course, I think that if I went through a miscarriage, I'd go a little crazy for a while too.)

Anyway, enough about celebrity gossip.  In other news, I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!!  AND AN IPOD SHUFFLE!!!  They're both totally hot.  I got the upper level of Macbook, which is basically an updated version of my old computer, except it's black.  And twice as fast, with 3X as much memory.  Yay for being a consumer whore!

Can't get you out of my head

Wow, this is a gay month for music. Madonna and Kylie Minogue are both releasing new albums? Now all we need is Cher to come back.

I've been listening to Kylie's new album today (it's called 'X') and I'm about halfway through. It's a whole lot of fun. Obviously, she's not gonna change that much since she has to keep her gay fanbase. I've never been way into her except for a few of her singles, but it seems pretty solid to me.

Now let's just hope that Madonna redeems herself with the rest of her album.

Please don't stop the music

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to update very often. Truth be told, I'm lazy. I know, it's a shock, right?

First off: There are some cover versions of songs that should never be done. Today at the bookstore I heard a saxophone version of the theme from Schindler's List. How wrong is that? Another one that I heard in Nordstrom's was a male-vocal version of Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful.' It actually took me like 3 minutes to figure out what the song was. While I'm at it, why don't I rail on ironic versions of Britney Spears songs? Because, believe it or not, it's been DONE BEFORE. And while it's funny the first time, I've heard about three alternative versions of Toxic and one of Gimme More, and probably more that I'm just not specifically remembering right now.

In other news, I'm about to play my last symphony concert ever. Well, kind of. I'm still gonna be on the sub list for next year, so i'll probably end up playing at least one. It's kind of a sad time (although I won't miss schlepping to Iowa twice a month) because I've been in it for 6 years now, and it'll be the first time since I was in elementary school that I wasn't in at least some sort of orchestra. I feel kind of like an entire era of my life is ending. Unless I stick around and do the University Symphony next year, which I'm seriously considering. I'm pretty sure that they accept employees...

While I'm talking about music, I have a confession to make: I officially have no taste, or more specifically, I have the musical taste of a 12-year-old girl. For instance, I actually like Avril Lavigne's last album. And that single by Miley Cyrus? Totally addictive. I've even recanted my criticism of Madonna's new single and actually listen to it now. (Well, no, my criticism still stands. What's even worse is that the version I first listened to isn't the real version, which is even worse. I'm assuming that it was the radio-friendly version, which was sped up and didn't have the dumb intro and outro)

I've got instincts of my own

I decided to condense and express my thoughts on why I (as a gay man) exist

Most primates and early man socialize(d) in relatively small to mid-sized family groups, with hierarchies of male and female dominance. I've heard before that younger members of large families have a higher tendency to be gay. If you assume that developing children take stock of their situation (all unconsciously, of course) and somehow a sexuality is decided, it might actually be to the advantage of some of the children to not procreate. This is because in a limited-resource environment, too many members of a group trying to procreate will actually result in a reduced child survival rate because too many will starve, and any low-standing individuals trying to procreate will be injured by the dominant members of the group.

Since many of the members of the group share a certain portion of the same genes, it could still be evolutionarily advantageous for such individuals to concentrate their efforts on the other children of the group, rather than trying to have their own. The attraction to the same sex could just be a redirection of sexual energy.

This is all based on the idea that there is no such thing as a "gay gene," which I don't think could possibly exist anyway because it would be self-defeating, considering that any animal in which it expresses itself would not procreate.

And of course I could just be talking out of my ass and making this all up. But it makes sense to me. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to actually look for research backing any of this up.

4 minutes to save the world

Dear Madonna,

I understand that all the cool kids these days are collaborating with Timbaland.  Nelly Furtado did it, Justin Timberlake did it, hell, even Björk did it.  However, don't you think that you're a little bit behind the bandwagon?

Now, I understand that you're a chameleon that follows the current trends.  Hell, that's pretty much the driving force behind what's made you such a successful artist for the past 20-some years.  I have a lot of respect for you for keeping fresh and current when most of the popular recording artists of the day are less than half your age.

However, none of this excuses the steaming pile of shit that is "4 Minutes."  It's derivative, uninspired, and just plain boring.  There is not a single original melody, rhythm, or lyric in the entire song.  Piling on guest appearances by Justin Timberlake and Timbaland will not change the fact that your single is just plain bad.  Neither will the heavy-handed production that transforms the song into a monolithic wall of sound, drowning out the majority of your own vocals.

I'm really hoping that the rest of the new album redeems this misstep, or it grows on me, because right now I'm not too hopeful.