wild west

Lifespan and income over time

2009-07-13T03:17:58Z

my socialist position

2009-07-09T04:24:43Z

An argument against a public plan>.

Lightly regulated, like a breaded cutlet. I think something's just wrong with excluding people from care. Actually I don't care if there's a public plan, so long as insurance became required, and some pooling of high risk was shared among the insurers and bought by the government in exchange for limiting or elimating exclusions. It's very hard to sit down and buy medical insurance, and it's very fraught with risk when you own it. That shouldn't be the case. I don't think a public plan would necessarily wreck the industry and harm us, but I don't believe we actually need a public plan. We need "light regulation" or rather "shake on regulation until everyone is covered, and fund it with tax money when necessary".

Some LJ Art

2009-06-26T21:09:32Z

Hundreds of cartoon portraits of Bill Cosby.

Can I hear u now

2009-06-25T00:40:48Z

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

"I understand selling phone interception capability to democratic countries, where there are checks and balances. But in a country like Iran, China or Burma, the law does not protect citizen's private life."

So boycott.

While the streets were filled with armed police officers and militiamen, frightening protesters away, the government was unable to stop a symbolically powerful — if tactically limited — form of protest. As they have been doing every night at 10, people continued Tuesday to climb to their rooftops in Tehran and other major cities, and chant “God is great” and “Death to the dictator,” mimicking a practice that was popular during the 1979 revolution. The protest has grown louder night after night.

Iran

2009-06-16T14:56:52Z

I've fashioned this naive narrative about Iran.

You guys can't run the street! You don't have motorcycles and clubs! We have motorcycles and clubs!

"Achmed, as a member of the political police, you are issued a motorcycle. Where is your motorcycle???"

You stupid people, waiting for a bus. We will show you what thugs on motorcycles can do!

Hey, only pro-government thugs on motorcycles! You get off your motorcycle! And we'll beat you to death cuz nobody's looking!

Or you could just watch the videos in sasha_bogdanov.

Room Challenge

2009-06-14T23:15:13Z

A gentleman stranger who resides in my city has e-friended me on YouTube, where he asks viewers to consider whether his room is, in fact, the best:

Signs point to yes!

Some keyboard cat for you.

2009-06-14T20:43:13Z

a lonely alienation spree with rare insight and ceaseless dimwitted failures of nuance, scope, and tenor.

My slow-as-usual internet connection is now eclipsed by my blinding fast computer.

I'm going to move large files now, from RedHat to Windows over a sLow network. It's 45 gigs of data. I decided to throw a little money at my data problems, if it meant getting my bits moving. I never took a break this long before. But the bits should be moving quite fast in a few days. Perhaps even with high uptime. I have been offline for a long while. But give me two days or so... a week and if this plan works (the last plan half-worked) then I will be quad-core throughputtin and eliminate the network bottleneck and instability both. Don't hurry these quests. Bits take time to gather and organize. Then I'll rig this computer with the hell yeah video support and finally powerz.

irl friends

2009-06-13T03:23:58Z

She always tried to climb into my bicycle seats so I finally took her for a ride and she found it crazy delicious.

Noes

2009-06-05T03:43:39Z

I have a sore throat. I can just do what I wanna. The world is pretty hazy and confused for me lately. The heat. That outrageous heat. Sweat the virus out of me. Sore throats are harder because the virus is localized, and has a field day until the immune system can get in there. With a cold, I can do Bikram and be very ill suddenly as my whole body erupts in immunity violence. I'm gonna take a hot bath now. And an aspirin or something.

Today at work I took an office in a really quiet area, where there's just one guy, and I know the guy, and he's a cool guy from Wyoming, actually, who has worked with me on hard projects before. But he got all up on me for playing music, and I said, "You don't like polka music, Robert?" as it was a sort of polka with an italian man, little twittling flutes, an oboe.

It was kind of funny how he laid down the law. Pointing at the door and whatnot. He's an aggressive guy. I got a lot done in that office. He's been ill and maybe he made me sick, but my boss was ill too and my friend Michael, geeze, lots of colds or something. Robert had all this sore throat spray on his desk! I didn't ask what for, but why 3 bottles of the sore throat spritzer? One, perhaps two. Half empty. Robert, what's going on?

holla

2009-06-02T03:51:34Z

June 1st. I don't feel so clear on how I'm doing in general. Too much has changed too fast. But it's June 1st and I just got through the worst of allergy season with merely one major loss to illness, in March. And I have a job that is bound to pay my first check any day now, but I still make the rent with $200 to spare. I've had two $500+ gain days recently, registered before I leave for work. I make like half that much each day at work.

I have many goals, in big lists... but all that got mixed up this winter and spring, and is still quite mixed up. Currently my whole world is in modular little boxes. If Dave departs on July 1st, I'm going to "move" into his room and shed my life of clutter in a day or two again. So much clutter accumulates, again and again.

I guess the Dave departure contributes to my sense of topsy-turvy. But I can tolerate dynamic situations, and come out fine. Financially the risk is $400 with two months of vacancy and it'll be a little quieter for some summer days, maybe a nice guest room.

Tomorrow I have a meeting and I've figured in advance that I don't quite like it, for its "ok, meta-concept serious cat meeting up your butt!" character. Meanwhile my time budget is like 20% GONE. This job is an opportunity for some real titty twisting. If I don't see some sparks I'll have to make some. I have what I have, job-wise, and other-wises. This Employment Situation is timely. I was gonna have to juggle some stuff otherwise.

but not all bad

2009-05-30T08:43:25Z

What a fuckin day.

sitting on a gain around $500, unrealized.

fuck it.

people are wierd.

i am glad it's the weekend. haven't quite gotten my treads into it. oh, what shall i do with my free time?

Bill Gates remarked that “more money has been spent on treating baldness than on malaria.”

Any real chance we have together is based a lot more on a compatibility blessed by providence then any yank-and-spank legalist tug-of-war.

and finally

Soba_somen will be married in a month. Many of you told me to marry her, but we did not have a clear relationship, I rejected her many times, we rarely had emotional clarity, she drove me kind of bonkers, and I had to go away all the time. So later I said I want her back, and it was true, because things had changed, but it didn't happen that way. she is scared to lose my friendship but that's not possible. she didn't even want to tell me. she cared way too much how i feel. i can feel like despite everything she ought to have taken my offer. but i'm not sure how wise an idea it was. i had just decided i would cope, she was great, i would never leave or give up. rather opposite to what i did, as i did give up, as i just believed differently, somewhat mistakenly, that it was broken for good. that's how i let her go before. i didn't believe she could escape some inner dread. but he shattered her fear that she was broken and unloveable. it's pretty substantial how much i did love her, despite an aversion to trusting her murky footing. JUST LOVE ME SO I BELIEVE. UNTIL THEN I AM GONE. And down she drowned, without belief. It took a shock, epiphany, 43, insurance adjustor, to prove to her she is not broken. I was a rough draft. I couldn't take over her life because she had to do that. I wish I could take her sadness all away. It's another guy's job now.

If you moved in July 1st it would be really convenient. But that's just an idea I had. I don't remember your school schedule. I'm not going to pull you into something bad. I just imagined taking your time until your mom's house is ready. My house is nice in the summer. But it's all irrational, and your little sister appreciates your help. I miss you but I also have shit to do. And this job really will make me crazy, due to the nature of the work. I can't take any extra stress. Anyway, I won't draw out the chatter. You're walking all over with sarcasm. It just gives me stress. We had the foundation we had and we debated it. I guess it's personal politics and it's probably rarely nice. Now drop some bitter science on me just for writing.

Tell Edward you enjoyed his essay.

2009-05-29T03:48:57Z

In other words, crazy, if viewed the right way, looks an awfully lot like love.

This can be a dangerous place for people who are looking for love-that-is-passionate, because they'll see something that LOOKS like it, and then get hooked into that juice, and then before they know it, they've been hung out to dry on meathooks in a distant cabin in the woods where no one can hear them scream and scream and scream until their throat bleeds.

Pay attention. Watch for signs. Sometimes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's still not a duck -- it's a hunter's decoy.

___________________

Comment on this YouTube video: Man I am getting me a camera soon. Cameras are important people always carry one with you. You never know when you might need it for times like these. OKLAHOMA PATROLMAN impedes ambulance transporting patient. Still on duty.

___________________

In conclusion, Christian threesomes.

tasty watermelon

2009-05-27T03:38:48Z

i am concerned we have been drawn into a trap. there's this big botnet of LJ's, and there's this research about reciprocation of e-friend relations. the botnet might attack, if it's profitable. someone should crush it but who has the time. i've got watermelon! and i've just ate twenty gummi bears.

Update: I just went on some kind of hunger binge. The travel, work, and intense yoga unleashed a hunger demon in me, and I couldn't grab food fast enough. I ended up at Taco Del Mar with the Two Taco Tuesday. Seriously I inhaled gummi bears and sampled 3 kinds of chips, olives, whatever I could grab. It was all pretty crazy. Freakin apetite attack.

LJ Renessance

2009-05-27T02:56:44Z

I need to work hard, but that doesn't mean I have to work all the time. Still, my nerves are jangling from all the hassle, grind. I've been working the systems, getting things done, and only slightly dreading each moment to moment of it. This is the sort of work, frankly, I savor, despite grueling hours, and crazy moments, it's all me. I put on some tunes and smack it. I can smack it in those towers best alone, a quick one off, exemplary. I even get human companionship this time.

There's all this shit I'm "supposed" to do right now, this evening. None of it will occur, and I will be angry tomorrow at work that I drug my feet. But I get sick of it. I'm off the clock, I can be loco. Welcome back to systemic chutes of labor sale, office romp, a question and answer session. I wish I had a live in lover, but I got whack. I saw three super sexy girls today and shyly rode by. I'm so shy. Not like Michael Cleaver, who asks without relent as to their availability. I'm too shy to say hi!

Anyhoo, miss Miss May.

zare_k

Play both at once and you will trip like I trip.

Which drugs?

2009-05-21T05:18:08Z

Which drugs is this guy on? Or is he sober? Is he breaking down due to work-related stress? Does he, in fact, have a point somewhere? I'm gonna venture LSD is involved.

It's a sadness that's tinged with arousal

2009-05-17T17:13:33Z

The video I posted in October is the most-viewed on Al Jazeera's English YouTube.

A cartoon guy describes Facebook.

Elisabath Warren smacks down.

Creepy Banksy show in Manhattan.

Mexican narcoterrorists fight propaganda war. Yeah Mexico's president has declared civil war sorta:

During his brief visit to the Paso del Norte borderland, President Calderon announced the children of all soldiers will receive government grants for higher education studies, and soldiers as well as police officers will be protected by tougher laws. The military’s role in the drug war is not “permanent,” President Calderon said, but will continue until reliable civilian police forces are in the field.

“It is worth the trouble to reiterate that our struggle isn’t to just liberate children and youth from the claws of slavery that addictions represent,” President Calderon said in a speech. “It’s also because crime has directed itself against the citizenry.”

Obama the Coward

2009-05-13T22:49:01Z

The argument gets more stinging.

Also: Craigslist has great policies and great writers.

litio

job fair

Fatima

2009-05-13T00:42:08Z

.
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor

she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
she was a visitor
.

U Can't Say That to Mexicans!

2009-05-10T16:22:57Z

On a Sunday in San Jose, Calif., as the lights of a hockey arena dimmed, a wrestler called Jack Evans entered the ring with a microphone. He was young, white and muscular, an unmistakable member of the Foreign Legion.

“Hey, San Jose, how’s it going?” Mr. Evans said. “I’m just kidding; I don’t care what you think. This is my country.”

To a chorus of boos, he went on: “I get to teach the Mexican people how to be what they always wanted to be, Americans.”

Switching to Spanish, which he called “your dirty little language,” Mr. Evans told the spectators they were too stupid to learn English and become true Americans. Silver King, a turncoat member of the Foreign Legion from Torreon, Mexico, took his side.

Also: Employee tube in natural setting.

PHO FRIDAY 2009!!!!

2009-05-09T05:47:14Z

AT 7PM PHO FRIDAY RETURNS TO THAN VI ON THE AVE. CAN YOU HANDEL THIS??? EVERYONE WILL BE INVITED... BUT WHO WILL EAT THE SOUP??? Exciting prizes!

4 portraits

2009-05-03T06:27:36Z

Today I gave 4 portraits to Mario, of his granddaughter and grandson. And two him and his wife at their wedding. He loved the regal one, where he stood for a moment as a matador, bride with a ten foot train, two angelic girls in waiting, surrounded by a loving family. He was impressed. I was a little worried he thought I was a douche, so good.

Soledad said bonita like 5 times. WHICH PICTURE DO YOU THINK IS BETTER?

There's totally a wild party across the street or something. I think a dude keeps making freaky bird calls, keeping the party crazy. Drunks are ranting creeds. Now that shit's bonita.

Update: Now it's a loud chick sing-a-long. I almost bet they're swinging arm-in-arm. As well, the I swear cheese I'm eating labelled mozerella is totally monteray jack. Land of contradictions: Mexico.

Mexican Baptism

2009-05-03T03:19:19Z

I went to the reception for a baptism today. The whole family was there. These parties last 3 hours, and nobody leaves early.

One boy had a birthday, so he sang 3 songs. No lyrics prompter here! Everyone knows the traditional songs by heart, including the kids.

A woman in a traditional dress sang at least ten songs. One entailed snippy snip fingers, and I was laughing, so she pointed out that I must not know Spanish, as the song's about lopping off the nuts. Mexicans!

The boys found a deep ditch and took turns jumping it from further and further back. They quit before anyone fell in.

The father of the child throws pesos to the children. As it happens, an ice cream man's jazz-blastin' motorcycle ice box was in the street. Everyone wins!

The big surprise was a horse gone wild galloping up the street. Everyone ran to look.

Family Tradition

2009-05-02T07:28:50Z

When he was a boy,
Mario Rodriguez walked with his family and everything they owned
from Mascota to Las Palmas, a two-day journey across mountain roads.

Decades later, when his son was sick, he promised God that if his child survives, he would carry a torch from the grand church in Talpa to the church by his home in Puerto Vallarta, an 85-mile journey through mountain passes, farmland, and small towns.

His family has made the journey for 13 years.

Mario with his grandson, Juan Pablo.

Juan Pablo picked the lot to carry the torch into the church.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

2009-04-27T06:01:54Z

Families arrive in pickup trucks to grill food and swim in the river.

We have an iguana.

Emily

Fatima

Chloe with me

Beach

2009-04-25T03:16:06Z