posted 2003/06/30 at 21:36
Yahoo! News Article -- "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday remnants of toppled President Saddam Hussein's government have coalesced into a "terrorist network" in Iraq, but rejected the notion that U.S. and British forces are facing a guerrilla war or are stuck in a quagmire."
You know, I'd heard that forces had captured the Iraqi Information Minister, but I wasn't aware that they'd surgically transplanted him into Rumsfeld's body.
posted at 00:12
New in the .journal: "Alone". Basically I just got so depressed this past weekend that I couldn't help but write about what was going on, even if it probably wasn't right for me to do so. Those of you who complain about me liking to hold "pity parties" for myself, be warned that this is probably the biggest one of those I've ever held. And honestly I don't care anymore.
posted 2003/06/29 at 21:28
New at Backwash: "Toledo, Meet Wal*Mart". Yes, not only is Toledo getting its first Wal*Mart, but it's being built less than a mile from my house. Come read about all the reasons to boycott Wal*Mart, as well as my general bitching about living in Toledo.
posted at 00:01
One of the biggest problems about being called to be a leader of any group of people is that you're never able to satisfy all of their desires. This is something I've been through enough in my life (pre-.org readers should know exactly what I'm talking about here), but the lesson never really sinks in. Working on stuff today, I realized that a whole lot of people out there are about to hate me a lot more than they already do.
And the worst part is, I don't even care anymore; I'm so used to being hated that I barely notice it anymore. Some might say it's good that I've "developed a thick skin", but that's not it, really. I think it's just that I'm so used to the pain that it takes something like my grandmother damn near dying to affect me. But then I turn right back around and become the same old selfish bitch I've always been. What's wrong with me?
posted 2003/06/27 at 21:20
Thankfully we only got into the low 80s today after three straight days of 90-plus degree heat (no reports yet on geezers passing out from heat stroke at the golf tournament), so that enabled me to do some shopping. Most notably, I picked up the case for my new computer, and all that leaves to purchase is the processor and then I can start assembly.
There's a Replay weekend going on, but I was not able to participate that much because of the ongoing computer expenses. I did, however, pick up Volumen Plus, so at least now I have all the videos on DVD. Unfortunately there are a couple of other Björk DVDs that just got released, and I'll have to wait a while to pick those up. But I am anxious to finally get my new computer built and operational.
posted 2003/06/26 at 15:39
I wanted to give you all an update on the situation with my grandmother yesterday, but Blogger was down.
Anyway, the initial diagnosis of the paramedics was that my grandmother had had a stroke, but at the hospital they said it was an aneurysm. Yesterday they helicoptered her from Jackson to Detroit so a neurosurgeon could perform on her. The surgery was earlier today, and although there's still a risk of complications from some leftover blood between her brain and skull (it could trigger a stroke or worse, or it could just get reabsorbed into her body like a bruise), her prognosis is good. The aneurysm didn't strike anywhere near where it could affect her motor or cognitive functions, so if she gets past this initial recovery (she'll be spending two weeks in intensive care just to be sure), she should make a full recovery.
It's just a damn good thing that my mother and father were up there visiting her at the time, because she's lived alone since her husband died five years ago. If no one had been there with her at the time, she had practically no chance of surviving. My aunt from Charlotte flew in to be with her yesterday, so my mother was able to come back to Toledo last night and is doing about as well as can be expected.
And yeah, I heard the news about the Supremes undoing the anti-sodomy laws. If I feel like writing a column for Backwash this weekend, I may talk about it there, but for now I'm really not thinking about that sort of stuff.
posted 2003/06/24 at 20:59
Nothing like spending a day wallowing in self-pity and then getting a phone call to find out that your grandmother just had a stroke to put your so-called problems in perspective. More later.
posted 2003/06/22 at 19:18
Crap, is it hot today. We were up around 88 earlier, and we're still at 83 now.
Okay, maybe that isn't so hot, but for some reason the whole family's been loathe to use the air conditioning so far this year. It certainly works, but no one ever bothers to turn it on. And I mean, it is cooler inside the house right now (about 78), and with my window open and my fan on it's hardly like I'm sweating or anything, but it still feels so oppressive. I haven't gotten anything at all done so far today (although I went to bed super-late last night, so I am fighting through a bit of sleep dep here), and honestly I feel like just sinking back into my bed for a long, long time.
It's going to take until the end of the week for temperatures to start going down; we're supposed to get as high as 93 on Tuesday. When I get this place to myself, I'll more than likely start the air conditioning and keep it going all the time. I just worry because we've got the Senior PGA guys in town this week, and it'd really suck if any of them got heat stroke while they were out playing.
posted at 01:44
New on Backwash: "Late Night Television is a Cesspool". A quick look at the players on the late night scene today, and why they piss me off so much. Of course I made extra certain to really take it to Kilborn, like you had to ask. At the very least, this entry is a lot more focused than my last entry, which I really wrote in a sleep-deprived haze and wound up too disjointed. This time I'm fairly cognizent, but I'm having a hard time sticking my endings; I keep trying to go for some overly ambitious closing paragraphs, and I just can't nail them. Well, I can, but only when it means it helps keep my straight-A streak up.
Quick aside to the Backwash column that I couldn't fit in there: because my local ABC affiliate has Regis and Wayne Brady to run in the mornings, they actually put The Caroline Rhea Show on after Jimmy Kimmel Live. I have enough of a problem with overly-cheerful people as it is, but there's nothing quite like having to watch the opening to Caroline's show to make me want to rip my eyes out of their sockets.
posted 2003/06/20 at 23:49
Every local late night newscast had live feeds from outside bookstores to cover the release of the new Harry Potter book. I'll admit to never having read the books, or seen the movie(s?), but I'm willing to accept that they're good. But that good?
Sometimes those parties have their advantages, though; when "Candle in the Wind '97" came out, most people at the Media Play that evening were there to get that, and a few were there to get the new Boyz II Men CD that came out that day. I was the only person there to grab a copy of Björk's Homogenic. Most people got the best-selling single of all time. I got the greatest album of all time. I think I got the better end of that deal.
posted 2003/06/18 at 23:55
Well, the first summer course is in the books. Now I get the rest of this week and all of next week off, and the timing couldn't be better. Next week the Senior PGA tour comes to town, and whenever there's golf in town traffic is hell, especially around the University. I'll be happy to stay at home that whole week, although I'll have to contend with Jamie Farr Kroger Classic traffic in the last week of my second summer class, groan.
By the way, as much as I was disappointed that Laila Ali didn't knock that smug grin that's constantly plastered over Craig Kilborn's face last night, I have to say, after finally getting a chance to watch her interview, that I am pleased as punch that she inherited some of her father's personality. Now if people would only take womens' sports seriously (see entry on WNBA below), I don't have any doubt that Laila could become the same kind of transcendent athlete that her father became (and still is).
Speaking of late night television, that'll be the subject of this week's Backwash column. Just wanted to give loyal .org readers a heads-up.
posted 2003/06/16 at 20:45
Yahoo! News - Bush Blasts 'Revisionist Historians' on Iraq -- Let me just quote the relevant bit here:
Bush said, "This is for certain, Saddam Hussein is no longer a threat to the United States and our friends and allies."
Bullshit, Dubya. Now, I've admitted that I thought Saddam had WMDs before the incursion, although it's nice to see all of that "ready to strike and kill us all at any moment" hyperbole is being slowly but surely deflated. The thing is, Saddam's still out there. (And how long do you think it's going to take troops to find him, given that Osama bin Laden is still on the loose a year and a half after we went over there, in spite of his need for dialysis every few days?) And given the huge lead-up to the incursion, he probably had plenty of time to get his weapons mobile. We still have plenty to worry about with Saddam, but now he's more mobile, and more capable of surprise tactics. He may not strike the US, but he will strike some country eventually. Might be a good idea to save that little quote from Dubya above, because I have a feeling it's going to come back to bite him in the ass sooner rather than later.
posted 2003/06/15 at 20:59
New at Backwash -- "The Cult of Plath". A quick overview of my favourite poet and why she's so popular.
Many of you know that I used DietWatch, back when it was a free service, before the fire. DietWatch is a pay service now, and I can't really afford it, so I've mostly been calculating stuff on my own. This afternoon, though, I created a quickie little programme on my computer to spit out meal plans that fit within my fat/calorie limits. It's not much (and it's on Active Server Pages so I can't even post it here and have it work), but is this anything you'd be interested in? I've been looking at getting back into "real" programming recently, and this seems as good an idea as any for a programme for me to write.
posted 2003/06/14 at 20:14
I was watching the WNBA game on ABC earlier today, and it seems like even after all this time, there's still a big marketing problem here. Of the commercials I watched, most of them seemed to be the traditional "women's market" items or traditional sports items (which are always tailored to male tastes); very few of the commercials seemed to be trying to bridge the gap, to tap the new market the WNBA is drawing. The WNBA's been around long enough at this point that I'd think there would have been time to do ample research to figure out this new market.
Of course, I'm more than aware of the popularity problems the WNBA has been having, but I don't think it's right to pin the blame for that on the WNBA or its players. The allegation that WNBA players aren't as good as their male counterparts is contentous at best, because for so long in America women were taught to believe that if they wanted to be athletes, they could only be tennis players, figure skaters, or gymnasts. (And I think this is still true to a large extent, despite the best efforts of sports programmes everywhere.) Until young women athletes are given the same respect and attention that young male athletes get, expecting the women to be "as good" as the men is buffoonery.
Don't even get me started on the allegations that every WNBA player and fan is a lesbian; as if I needed more convincing of the lingering homophobia in this culture than all of the "that's so gay" bullshit I hear everywhere. The fact that some WNBA players are openly lesbian gets all the crazy homophobes against the WNBA right off the bat, and that kind of thinking is only hurting everyone.
Honestly I think that the vast majority of the traditional male sports crowd doesn't want a female "big four" sports league, and so, consciously or not, they conspire against the WNBA and try to make it fail. And that's just not right.
posted 2003/06/11 at 23:48
Quick question: some of the Backwash columnists hold weekly chats on the Backwash Website. Would any of you be interested in me holding my own weekly chat on the site? I have to admit I'm a bit iffy about doing it, just because I know that holding a public chat like that could attract the ne'er-do-wells from my Internet past, but if enough regular .org readers are interested, I'd think about giving it a shot.
posted at 20:11
The Deck of Hillary
Okay, fuck it, someone hook me up with some VCs stat because it's about damn time that we take it back to the right wth this "deck of cards" bullshit.
posted 2003/06/09 at 20:38
So here I am watching game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. Maybe it's because it's the last hockey game for a few months. Maybe I'm just bored. Or maybe it's my masochistic streak coming through again.
I have to give the NHL credit: only they could come up with finals matchups, two out of the past three years, where I actually find myself rooting for a team from New Jersey. I mean, the Ducks have certainly proven at this point that the Wings didn't screw up, because they have been a team possessed by something all through the playoffs. Combined with what happened to my sister's Yankees in the playoffs last year, you get the feeling that Michael Eisner wouldn't exactly be welcome in the Shannon household?
Honestly, at this point I'm expecting them to find something in the water in Anaheim at some point. The Angels' playoff run or the Ducks' playoff run, taken alone, would be suspicious enough, but for both teams to do it in less than a calendar year ... something's just not right. The only real hope I have at this point is that the game does monster ratings (for hockey, anyway), and interest in hockey picks up here in the the States.
Oh, and Wings win the cup in 04. You heard me.
posted 2003/06/08 at 21:12
You may remember that last summer Toledo had a pretty bad drought, that pretty well prevented me from taking photos anywhere. We've been a bit dry recently, but of course we're coming off that killer winter with near record-setting snowfall so I don't know what to think. The thing is, earlier today I was out grocery shopping with my sister, and the cottonwood pollen was so bad (because there hasn't been rain to take it out recently) that it looked like it was snowing, even though it was seventy degrees outside.
And yeah, I know I haven't taken photos of any kind for far too long here. I promise, once I can pick up some of those titanium batteries again, I'll try to get over to Wildwood or the Toledo Botanical Garden or someplace and get some photos taken.
posted at 15:28
A quick peek into the voices in my head ...
"You know, I'm fucking sick and tired of being nice to everybody."
"Sean, you're not nice to anybody."
posted 2003/06/06 at 20:13
Well, after two long years of running this thing without a fan, I finally got around to buying and installing a new fan. Yay. So now the DVD drive won't work. D'OH!
posted 2003/06/05 at 13:05
Publication Alert -- My poem "Freddie Mercury" will be published in the July/August 2003 edition of Northern Stars. This is obviously big for me, as this will be my first publication, and the more publication credits I can get before applying to MFA programmes, the better.
If you want to read the poem, though, you'll have to buy the journal; sorry, but I've decided not to put any of my published works on here, for the sake of supporting the small publishers who work so hard to keep their publications going.
posted 2003/06/04 at 23:49
Okay, Tom, I admit it: I'm an asshole.
posted 2003/06/03 at 13:58
Not this again ... I think I may have to stop visiting GameFAQs for the summer from now on.
posted 2003/06/02 at 19:46
"Hi, I'm the grains and legumes food group, and I want you to eat me six to eleven times a day!"
posted at 16:49
Today I decided to shift my undergraduate focus from poetry to fiction. Honestly I think my calling is more as a poet than as a fiction writer, but academically I just get too frustrated with poetry. It's pretty much the same reason I don't study music here at UT; for what I want to do with my music, academic courses just don't do much for me. This won't be a problem if I go to Antioch LA because I can always do a dual concentration there, but a lot of the other MFA programmes I've been looking at only allow a single concentration, and at this point it just seems like I'll have an easier time, and more fun, doing fiction than doing poetry.
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