Rolling Thoughts

Politics

I don't usually weigh in here with political items. Buy it's that time of the decade again. First, the disclaimer. I'm an independant. I vote for whoever I think will do the better job. I'm socially liberal. I believe in the Great Democracy. I'm fiscal conservative. I hate deficit spending. And I'm a strict constructionist when it comes to the constitution. I'm also for states rights.

Ok. Primaries. The US primary system needs an overhaul. 50 years ago it worked ok. Candidates would go state to state and collect votes. When the convention rolled around all the candidates would show up and haggle until two emerged that the party could support. Nowadays, the winner is chosed by a handfull of states. Usually before SuperTuesday. Look at what has happened this year. Started with 11 candidates. We now only have 2 'real' candidates left. Kuchinich and Sharpton and minor annoyances in reality. And after Tuesday Kerry will probably be the nominy for Pres. That leaves roughly 50% of the states out of the process.

Here is what I propose. Over the space of 3 months (60 working days) start the process with the small states and then proceed to the big winners. The ones with only a few electoral votes. Every day do 2 states. When the first 20 states are done (50 days left) start doing 2 state every other day. When the next 20 are done (20 days left) do the last 10. 1 State every other day.

With this scheme no candidate can sweep the boards in the first couple of weeks. Every candidate has the potential to even the score with a couple of wins down the road.
Never happen. Oh well.

On Bush and his war record. This guy has really stepped on his dick. And he only has himself to blame. If he hadn't made a big deal about his service (ie landing on a carrier), he would have been protected. But now that it's out there and people are wondering if he was AWOL he's got to fix it. Fast. The longer this goes on, the better Kerry will be on Election Day. And here's the beautiful thing for the Democrats. They don't have to say a single word. Let me repeat that. Not one. Not a single word! For once the media is actually investigating something. And what are they finding? A LACK of evidence! There isn't a single shred of evidence that Bush really showed up to the Guard in Alabama. He cannot credibly deny the AWOL charge! Not only that, but no one will step forward to say he was there! Doonesbury has even gone so far as to offer $10,000 to anyone who can prove that he was!

He's stuck and because he can't disprove the story, people are starting to wonder if it's true. And all this without a single 'negative' ad by Kerry or the DNC. Nice eh?

Promises.

Fuck.

Movie night

Last night was the resumtion of my weekly movie night festivities. We had chili, cornbread, and Foggy Bottom Ale. This is some of the tastiest beer I've ever had! :-)
We watched Dr. Strangelove and Tasalla promptly crashed out. That's ok. Jo and I watched it with Michael. Caught a lot of jokes this time that I missed previously. "MEIN FUHRER! I CAN WALK!" Teehee.

&*^@# PARENTS!

Yesterday's timeline:
14:04 :: Received e-mail from parents with Subj: "the web"
19:31 :: Received e-mail from parents with Subj: "shipping"

Now when I actually found the time to read these messages at 2200 or so I found a small paragraph in the first mail asking if I'd be home Friday or Monday.
The second mail said "We're shipping something perishable to your home. If you aren't home, maybe you can ask a friend to stop by and pick it up." Oh, and no tracking number of course.

How nice. So either I take off of work to be home or I ask a friend to take off of work to be home. So I write back expressing my frustration about this and asking them (again) to ship everything to my work address. And to send me the tracking number so I at least know when to be home.

Friggin-A!

Shakespear & #13

I went to see a play tonight. With Jo. And Michael. It was a modern adaptation of Shakespears "A Winters Tale." It was really good. I'm not much on plays at all. And the ones I do like are dark and brooding. Dante is excellent :-)

But this was good. And afterwards, I got to sit completely entranced as Michael and Jo talked about plays, linguistics, words. Things I don't know. It was very stimulating. Intense in other ways too.

Oh and the 13? As near as I can tell I smoked the 13th cigarette of my life tonight. Think I almost blew Michaels cortex out when I bummed one off of him :-)

:-)

New Movie Night!

Current movie picks for next week (Feb 25th) include:

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Stanley Kubrick's brave, hilarious black comedy has nasty fun with the spooky topic of nuclear Armageddon. When a deranged American general launches a nuclear attack against the Russians to "preserve our precious bodily fluids," a doomsday H-bomb arsenal threatens the world. Peter Sellers brilliantly plays three roles: the impotent American president, a harried British captain and the title character, a wheelchair-bound former Nazi scientist.

Real Genius (1985)

In this '80s film starring a young Val Kilmer, some highly intelligent students are recruited for an advanced science project. What they don't know is that their work will be used by the military to develop a lethal weapon. Two of the students team up to finish the project, but when they learn the military's secret, the geniuses plot revenge. Hope you like popcorn.

Army of Darkness (1993)

One of director Sam Raimi's most memorable early works, Army of Darkness is a hilarious sword-and-sorcery-and-shotgun epic as only this sci-fi maven can deliver. Bound in human flesh and inked in blood, the ancient "Necronomicon," or "Book of the Dead," transports a department store clerk and his '73 Oldsmobile into England's Dark Ages. There he faces legions of undead beasts in a battle for his life, his wits and, perhaps, for humanity. “Groovy”

Random Thoughts

I was going to write some stupid entry tonight, but I'm not in the mood.

Let me just say that I hate it when people miss-communicate. I once worked for a guy who had some bullshit justification for making sure such mis-coms were always the other guys responsibility.
I got caught in a miss-com with a friend today. I thought she was saying one thing and she wasn't. Then got miffed at me. Shit happens I know this, but if its minor, don't let it get to you. Go to the next screen.

Only Ryan would Register Legos

My friends Elisha and Ryan are getting married next month. Elisha registered at Crate and Barrel (cool) .... Ryan asked for Legos. My friends ... go figure. :-)

*blech*

I really don't like these Monday holidays. I never think of things to do so I typically sit at home and do nothing. Which is fine. I read. Cook. Write e-mails. etc. But nothing really exciting.

*sigh* oh well.

Range

I'm in the Black Clothes club. You know those folks. The ones who despise Valentines day with a passion only rivaled by the fanaticism of the religious right. The only 'date' I ever had on VD that I enjoyed was about 10 years ago with Pat. We got dressed up ... and went to a firing range and blew off about 400 rounds of ammo into paper targets. Woot!

My friend Jo is also a member of this club (but she looks a LOT better in black than I do) and when I was relating this story to her she said "Lets do it!" So this year we went on a 'date' to a range. Had a BLAST! Quite literaly. She was a biathelete in high school and used to shoot .22 rifles. So we picked out a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, and a 9mm semi-auto. Oh, and we were dressed up. Now the funny thing was that we weren't the only people there on a date! Must be a east coast thing. Anyway, we had a great time.

Then we went back to my place and watched "Monte Python's The Meaning of Life" followed by "A Clockwork Orange"

Great timing :-)

Damn you Stevan ... and Thank you too.

Thank you for reminding me what honor is.

"Honor is doing the right thing ... for the right reason." Lance Larka to Dr. K. Roddy 1994.

That doesn't mean it was easy. Damn.

Like strangers in the night

Last night I flew into Dulles to end my vacation/business trip. When we're on the ground taxiing the pilot comes on the intercom and says we can turn our cell phones on. So I check my messages and hear one from Michael (my housemate). It isn't very clear ("Hi Lance ... trip ... lab ... tomorrow .... sssshhhtttttt .... beep") so when I get into the terminal I give him a call and it turns out he's IN the terminal about to get on a plane to fly to Switzerland! That was the "trip" part. We caught up quickly as he was in the final boarding line and then wished each other a good weekend.

Cool beans

Tonight was special. I met with Robyn for coffee and chatted. She's having difficulty with her work, but likes the challenge. I saw my old boss Olin. That was great.

After I went to the Albatross pub and saw old friends. Rene. Jules. Stevan, Nikki, and friend showed up and we talked for hours. I MISS those conversations. Stevan and I don't share many political views, but our debates are always honorable and thought provocing. Tonights was the differance between my 30 year mortgage and the deficit. I'm not quite sure I buy his argument but it is food for thought.

Memorable quote from the evening was by Nikki: "I've never seen anyone bring a financial calculator into a bar before."

Closure

It feels a little wierd. For the last 4 years ... 2.5 really ... I've had this little demon living in the back of my brain whispering "What if things with Kristen worked out ..." and I've been approaching every aspect with that massive overlay on my life.

Now that that is gone I find that my life is a lot brighter. Things with Jo are looking good. Even if it is just a friendship. Hell, I even enjoyed the driving today! And I usually hate driving.

Bah!

Ok, one more time people. I write my blog for my benefit. Not yours. If you don't like what I write, STOP READING IT! At this point in time you (you know who you are) are just being masochistic. And that would be definition 3 by the way.

Zk3

Well, it went really good. As good as could be expected .... but that's like saying to the patient "Given the fact that a bullet has passed through your brain, you're doing as good as could be expected."

I was mildly surpised that she agreed to see me as I made a last minute decision to drive to SLO directly instead of Carmel. We had lunch and talked. Due to some convoluted logic on her part it became readily apparent that our friendship was not to be. I asked that she release me from a promise I made last year and she did.

We parted well and I left for Carmel. It is sad that things couldn't be different, but there it is.

Today I encrypted her phone number for 6 months and deleted it from my phone. Maybe in six months I won't want to call her as much as I do now. Maybe I should re-encrypt it for 12.

So 9 hours of driving, 600 miles, and a $25 lunch later I am shorter one friend than Sunday.

Why am I one of the only people around that truly thinks former lovers can be friends? (sigh)

Explanation of the new .Sig

"In life, you take what is offered. And sometimes that must be enough." - Takeshi Kovacs
This is stolen from "Altered Carbon" by Richard Morgan(?). Kovacs is a retired 'envoy' ... a sort of ultra-marine in a universe of solar systems linked by faster than light tachyon comms. People are 'sleeved' into a waiting body and their 'self' is a small canister implant in the neck. The line is a reference to that people don't always get what they want and must make do with what is offered.

"Don't be so nihilistic Kovacs. Get to the next screen."
My own response to that.

"Next Now Shooter-Femme." - BossRider Ubu-Roy
From the book "Angel Station" by Walter Jon Williams. As in "See you Next Now." when life is a series of fluries of happenings and peoples lives become intertwined.

New .Sig

"In life, you take what is offered. And sometimes that must be enough." - Takeshi Kovacs

"Don't be so nihilistic Kovacs. Get to the next screen."

"Next Now Shooter-Femme." - BossRider Ubu-Roy

Been there, done that. Got the receipt.

She's done it to me again. This isn't a surprize. Kristen is the most infuriating friend I have. What is a surprize is that it still hurts when she does this to me.

I think what hurts the most is that now that I'm living away from Califronia, my visits here are, by neccessity, short. A week, maybe two at most. And usually part of that is work related. So the time that I have is precious and I want to spend it with my friends. I always have more friends than time, so logistics is hard.

This time around, I asked her to have dinner with me one night and she said yes. I had a nice restaurant in Berkeley picked out that I was looking forward to eating at. It had been a few years and it would have been nice to share it with her. But she called the day before and begged off. I tried to call some other friends to go, but it was too late. They all had plans, or couldn't go out that night because of work the next day. So I lost an evening. And I lost a chance to talk to a friend one night.

But I'm going to give her another chance this trip. I'm spending a couple of days on the beach and will go out of my way to talk to her. Not sure what I'm going to say. Probably just what I've written. I don't like ultimatums, but this is feeling more and more like the closing chapter of a particularly badly written drama.

On other news, my friend Jo just moved to DC. This is going to potentially be a more difficult situation than Ezekial. I met Jo the week before moving to Germany. We hit it off perfectly. Stayed up all night talking. I was entranced by her. Her experiences, goals, insights. I could have ... hell, we DID talk for hours that night. Absolutely abissmal timing. And she's the sister of another good friend. [sigh] never easy is it?
So now she's living in DC. We had dinner last week and again, talked for hours while cooking; me my chicken and roasted tomato dish and she making this wonderful rassberry torte. I could really look into her eyes forever. We're planning on going out on the 14th. Not a real date, but a 'fake' one. Oh boy, do I spell dissater brewing. The chemistry is definite and I don't think it's one-sided at all. Stef ... NO comments from YOU! Go walk the dog!