Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
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somebody out there loves me
�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
I had fun at the Formosa Caf� last night�until I found myself $2 short for the Valet! Luckily, this guy Chad who I met and who was trying to get in to my good graces paid the Valet for me.
How�s that for a first impression? I�m such a retard. No wonder I�m single. First, throughout our conversation I kept forgetting where the guy lives, then he ends up paying my valet for me. Actually, I don�t think he ever really figured out that I only had $4.00 on me. He was just there while Cathy and I were figuring out that the sign had fine print and he just whipped out his wallet and paid for it.
In my defense, it�s not like I didn�t have any money�I just didn�t have a lot of cash on me and didn�t have time to stop by an ATM on my way to the bar. And I didn�t find one, there. And then there�s the issue with the very misleading sign for Valet Parking which said in big bold letters: Valet Parking $4.00�but apparently, it also said, in much smaller letters: for first two hours. $1.00/hour thereafter�or something to that effect because my valet bill ended up being $6.00.
So Chad the valet-paying guy seemed nice. He was drinking Diet Coke all night and wasn�t even smugly laughing at the rest of us drunks. I must have liked him a little, since I actually gave him my home phone number. Apparently, one of us is supposed to call the other.
It�s gonna be a lonely weekend at the old Rad Pad. John is not coming down and right now I have no plans (although Cathy and I discussed going out on Saturday night). I would really like to go up to see John, especially since our weather has been so warm (his has been the same, only not quite so hot), but I don�t want to spend the extra money until after the middle of the month. Anyway � I really need to clean the Rad Pad. Seriously, dudes. It�s getting ugly in there.
Speaking of the Rad Pad�I may be moving sooner than I thought. Darla - my building owners� daughter/sister (it�s not a �Chinatown� thing. A man and his son own my building) who lives in a one-bedroom over my garage and who has been acting as Apartment Manager since the crazy lady in her eighties is just getting too old to do much at all � is moving in to the two-bedroom below me. The gals who lived there moved out last weekend and she has been moving in. So I�m gonna try to get her one-bedroom. I left her a note on Tuesday, but I haven�t actually seen her since this all started happening, so right now I�m just waiting �til she gets settled in and then I�ll ask her about it. I really don�t see why they wouldn�t let me make the move (they had offered to hold the other one-bedroom while I tried to decide whether or not I wanted to move in to it the last time it was available. I declined because I didn�t want to hold them hostage while I tried to make up my mind. I�m a Libra. These things take time) and if all goes well, I hope to move by June 1. Dudes, I would save $650 per month by moving! Plus, the move would be way easy � I can keep my same garage and I don�t even have to rent a truck because I�m just moving a few feet away. Plus, I wouldn�t have to pay a new security deposit. So this apartment may be small, it may have scary stairs leading up to it and I�m sure I could find one I like better, but the pros really outweigh the cons, here.
The cool thing is, this apartment has hardwood floors (which I love). The other one-bedroom has carpet. So if I�d taken the other one a few months ago, I�d have carpet and would now be pissed because the hardwood floor one-bedroom is now to be vacant. That very thing happened when I moved in to the Rad Pad. About six months later, the people downstairs moved. While we have the same floor plan, that apartment has hardwood floors and looked to be in much better shape, just over all. Plus, it has a cute little patio out the back door. I would have MUCH preferred that apartment. The timing was just off. Anyway, so this time at least the timing was on my side.
Another good point: Now that I�ll be living over my garage, I won�t have to worry about making noise while I have sex. Well, I don�t actually worry about it, truth be told. However, I live in a very old building. I can hear every move made in the apartment above me (luckily, their bedroom is not over mine). I�m sure the neighbors below me can hear my �moves� as well.
When we realized last weekend that the gals were moving out, I said to John: �They must have been laying there last night, thinking �Thank God this will be the last night we have to listen to them having sex!��
There�s another benefit to this move: I won�t have to listen to my extremely loud upstairs neighbors anymore! Yay! I understand that I live in an old building, so I�m sure I would probably be able to hear anyone walking around up there. However�there is one gal living there (who I have
In the new apartment, I will not only not have to worry about making sex noises, I won�t have to worry about anyone on top of me making them (har. Notice that pun right there?). There�s just the one apartment, over the garage. I will have next door neighbors, but nobody above me.
I am totally going to miss my huge bathtub, though. I assume the one in the one-bedroom isn�t as big. Plus, I already know I have to buy a shower curtain. Ugh. I detest shower curtains.
The good side: I am very sick of fighting with the drawers in the built-in bureau in my present bathroom.
I�m also nervous about the possibility that my huge California King bed won�t fit in the one-bedroom; or if it does fit, it will be the only thing I can fit in there. I mean, obviously I can buy a new, smaller bed�but A) I love my bed and B) I am already going to have a garage full of my crap. I�d like to be able to fit my car in there as well, so the less I have to store in there, the better. I�m also concerned about my dining room table, for the same reason. I also have the feeling I will have to use the refrigerator supplied by the property owner. I think mine will be too big for the space allowed.
Yes, I�ll be taking a tape measure with me when I go to look at this place. And I will be praying that I don�t end up parking on the street because I have to store so much stuff in my garage.
Ooh�now I gotta start packing. Ick. Plus, I was supposed to have a Candle Party this month. I guess I can still have it. I can always hide the boxes in my spare room.
Another drawback: Because of its� location and position, I think the one bedroom might be hotter than my present pad.
Good side: Darla installed a little window air-conditioner during the sweltering days of last Summer. Hey, at least that something. And since the windows in the one-bedroom actually have screens (!) I won�t have to fight off a bunch of flies and other airborne insects, just so that I can leave my windows open at night and catch a little air. This is one thing that will be huge. That no-screens thing was a real drag, especially last Summer when it was so friggin� hot. Let me clarify: I do, actually have a total of four screens in my apartment. They are very old and old-fashioned screens, though. They are made of metal and they pull down from a little, metal roll at the top of the window. The object is to then secure them in to little hooks at the bottom. Well, even if I wanted to clean these puppies (I don�t think anyone has in like fifty years or so) enough to pull them down, the two in the kitchen and the one in the bathroom have been stripped of their little hooks and thus can not be secured. There is no way to even get new hooks because the hook-holes have been stripped. I�d have to drill brand new holes in to the ceramic window sills.
Mmm�No.
So I�ve been sans-screens for 2 and a half years now. And I draw mosquitoes like honey draws flies.
~~~
Politics:
Bush and Cheney �testifying� before the 9/11 Commission yesterday? A complete joke. Why did they even bother? Not only was it a private testimony, they took no official transcript AND (here�s the kicker) Bush and Cheney weren�t even under oath.
And yet numb-nuts Dubya still needed to have Cheney at his side and, by their own admission, they�ve spent the last couple of weeks �going over� their testimony.
Again, I ask: Why did they bother?
And all of this hullabaloo over whether or not John Kerry threw away his service medals during a Viet Nam War protest? Who the fuck cares? I understand Bush and Cheney focusing on this triviality � they�ll do anything to keep our minds off of real issues such as a war in Iraq that is rapidly spiraling out of control and an economy has been taking it�s own kind of spiral for years and gas prices that will top out at $3.00/gallon by Summer and an environment that is being destroyed. What I can�t understand is why John Kerry has to lower himself to getting in to a mud wrestle over this. In the first place, he either lied back then when he said he tossed �em (they have tape of him on some talk show saying he did) or he�s lying now. Either way, he ends up looking like a complete idiot stammering around in an effort to come up with a good story or worse, trying to throw accusations back at Bush rather than just answering the question like a grown up. You know, with the truth. More importantly, though, get off the issue entirely. Refuse to let Bush waste your energy arguing over such nonsense and get back to what matters in this race.
I think I may just send an email to the Kerry campaign headquarters�
~~~
Childhood Asthma Epidemic Worsened by Air Pollution, Global Climate Change
Childhood asthma, already at record highs, is expected to grow even worse in the coming years due to a potent mix of air pollution, higher levels of pollen and changes in the types of molds spurred by global warming. Because the Bush administration has backed away from solutions to the growing problem of global climate change, the situation is not expected to improve any time soon.
A report released yesterday states that millions of poor and minority children in America's cities are likely to suffer the consequences of pollution generated by emissions from cars, trucks and buses, plus a spate of new molds being spawned by global warming.[1]
The report, "Inside the Greenhouse: The Impacts of CO2 and Climate Change on Public Health in the Inner City," was released by the Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, at a Washington, D.C. press conference co-sponsored by the American Public Health Association and Results for America, a project of the Civil Society Institute.
"This is a real wake-up call for people who mistakenly think global warming is only going to be a problem way off in the future or that it has no impact on their lives," said Christine Rogers, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The problem is here today for these children and it is only going to get worse."
The problem is multi-dimensional, Rogers said. Asthma among pre-school children is at an all-time high: It grew 160 percent between 1980-1994, with the highest incidence found among poor and minority children in urban centers. These children are at greatest risk for suffering increased health problems as a result of the CO2-generated increase in allergenic pollen.
Cities also have higher concentrations of air pollution, such as soot and ozone, caused by fossil fuel emissions. On top of that, global warming has led to an increasingly earlier pollen season in the spring. The result? "These children get hit with a powerful one-two punch," said Rogers.
Under the Clinton administration, the U.S. had committed to an international treaty to reduce the emissions causing global climate change. But President Bush withdrew the U.S. from the Kyoto protocol and backed out of his own campaign promise to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change.
"In the absence of action from Washington, it is incumbent on local communities and states to take the best of the available solutions to reduce fossil fuel consumption, and promote cleaner energy and more efficient technologies," said Pam Solo, president of the Civil Society Institute. "This kind of change will not take place unless citizens inform themselves about the problem, the best solutions and start working for change where they live."
SOURCES:
[1] Results for America press release, Apr. 29, 2004.
~~~
Word of the Day for Friday April 30, 2004 verisimilitude ver-uh-suh-MIL-uh-tood; -tyood, noun:
1. The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.
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