Coffee, Prius, and Oscar parties.

Hey guys. I've been busy.

Rather than read my blog, read this blog: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

God it's funny.

"Stuff white people like." It's a list that describes a great many, well, white people.

I'm ashamed to say that a great many of these things indeed apply to me.

Existential Question

I bought a package of bacon the other day. Regular bacon.

It was made in Canada.

I wonder if that bacon has ever had an identity crisis.

No picture, only word.

Remember when I had pictures in every post? Lovely little snapshots of life? Well, I'll get back to that (I have some good ones) as soon as I.... find my camera.

It's somewhere.


Somewhere not in my apartment, methinks.

Here are a few things on my mind right now:

1) The writers strike looks like it's history. Good thing, and not just because I want my "Lost" fix to keep on coming. There's been a sort of freeze on projects people I know have been involved in, and now they're free to resume.

2) My beloved ASU Mountaineers will be running up against LSU in their season opener. It'll be intense.

3) My car doors have been frozen shut for 3 days. My toes and knuckles have been hurting for a week from sheer force of cold. My Dad told me it's been in the 70's in SC.
Sigh.

4) Stephen Colbert deals with condescension in a way that makes me love the guy. Last night, the author of The Lucifer Effect, Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo, was on the show. He was arguing the contentious point that God was responsible for the creation of Hell. Stephen responded with a discussion of free will that seemed to transcend "Stephen Colbert"the character and get down to the real Stephen Colbert. When Zimbardo responded, condescendingly, something to the effect of "Well, you've certainly learned your Sunday School lessons well", Colbert replied,

"I TEACH Sunday School, mother****er!"

It was hilarious. And true. I'd attend Colbert's Sunday School class. Weekly.

Compadre.

http://www.wltx.com/sports/story.aspx?storyid=58145

The fellow above, Anthony Graham, was an assistant principal at my high school. He passed away yesterday due to some sort of illness. The article above was sketchy as to what kind of illness, but that doesn't really matter.

He was the sort of guy who'd see you in the hallway after school and buy you a can of coke and talk to you about your college plans. He was tough, but a lot of fun. Called everyone 'compadre'. I remember him standing in the middle of the gym floor along with me and about a dozen other teachers and seniors doing the "Men in Black" dance at a pep rally.

Yeah, pretty cool, huh? I was super awesome in high school. Senior Class Presidents don't get any cooler... while dancing to a marketing tool. Mr. Graham made it seem pretty cool, though. He was the sort of fellow who could break up a fight OR bounce with it, just bounce with it (and let his neck work. And freeze).

He left my high school some years ago, and was the principal of a middle school in Columbia, SC. I'm sure his students will miss him. He was pretty great.

Portly Tuesday. (Because no one likes to be called fat)

I voted today.

It's raining.

The ground is covered with dirt-flavored sno-cone.

I'm about to go see some bluegrass.


Happy Mardi Gras, everybody.

Beads and paczki for everyone.

And I feel fiiiiiiine.

So.


Let's talk about the end of the world.


Hello? Where'd you go?

Hmmm. Conversation killer?

Well, that bit of conversational kryptonite is a mainstay of modern American art and entertainment.

I've been thinking about it since I read The Road. That book is a real stunner, and if it doesn't make you tear up, you need to get your heart checked out. If you aren't familiar, it's about a father and son making their way across the charred ruins of America.

Cheery, huh? Well, it's not the only example.

It's everywhere: The Mad Max movies. The Terminator movies. The Matrix. Pretty much any piece of anime. Any movie starring Charlton Heston movie from the late 60's or early 70s. Or any Kevin Costner movie that no one went to see. There are tons and tons more. We're OBSESSED with this stuff.

Why we, as a society, think about this stuff is a discussion for another day. Blame the cold war if you will. Blame the millennarians. Blame Stanley Kubrick.

I'm not as interested in apocalypse as a cultural obsession as I am in finding out if that cultural obsession filters down to the everyday person.

When I was a kid, I'd lay in bed and strain my ears, listening for the trumpets signaling the end of the world. That's probably because the church my family went to at the time was OBSESSED with it. It'd be a part of most sermons and a subject of discussion in Sunday School well down to the elementary school level.

To this day, I sometimes wonder what I'd do if society completely crumbled. Make my way down south? Head for the Canadian border? Would I drive? What would Armageddon do to gas prices? Would I still be able to pay at the pump, or would I have to barter 2 chickens and a bag of feed for a gallon of premium? Hopefully pay at the pump. Chickens would ruin my leather interior.

When I start wondering about this stuff, my inclination is to ask: "Is this normal?" "Do other people worry about this junk?"

The truth is, I don't really WORRY about it, either. I'd be a liar if I said I didn't think about it, though.

Am I alone on that one? Am I the only one who lets the doom-n-gloomers creep into my subconscious?

Just wondering.