Peruvian Nights and Jamaican Days

QUOTE O' THE DAY - 2004010

"..day by day the questionable virtue of poverty has approached me. However, I have enough grub for a month and enough equipment to last indefinitely, so while I am alive, I intend to live. I hope you are doing the same thing, as nearly as possible."

-Everett Ruess, in a letter to his friend, March 9, 1931

YIKES..

This is why I say 'to hell with you, humanity..'

Then again, there might be hope. Key quote: "You don't need a couple of Whoppers. You are too fat. Pull ahead."

-m

MISSION TO MARS..

Oh man, this is stupid. So we're going to establish a permanent space base on the moon?!?

"I think that NASA has already proven that the moon sucks."
-G. Haddock, 12/19/2003

And now we're going to fork out tens of billions for an 'enclave' on a big, sucky rock?!? 10 years ago I might have said 'Woohoo! Let's go!' But I've since realized that we get almost no scientific knowledge from manned space missions compared with those where we send orbiters with multi-spectral scanners and things. Plus it's about a thousand times more expensive. I mean, what did we really get out of those missions to the moon, other than movies of astronauts hitting golf balls and jumping around and driving dune buggies in what could have been the Mojave Desert. Sending down those little lander units to Mars like we've been doing lately is OK, but we still get more information, much more cheaply, from orbiters. The only purpose of manned missions is to make people excited about space travel. Also, Mars is freaking far away...6 months. Think about that..that's going to mean that for 6 months we'll be watching videos of astronauts goofing off - playing with yo-yos, squirting their food across the spaceship cabin, riding exercise bikes, etc. I guess that part is cool, but still.

(By the way, I must say, though, that "Moon Fever" would make a good name for an ultra-lounge band.)

Besides, is it really in the President's job description to propose space missions? All this from a president that ran on a platform of smaller government. I could actually go along with some of the aspects of the old-fashioned Republican party (a la Lincoln), but the current G.O.P. is nothing like what they used to be. I think we need a new political party to describe Bushists who say they're for small government but by that mean they don't want any sort of government that actually helps individual people in any way, but do like big government that benefits people that already have too much money. Maybe we could call them 'Corporatists' or 'The Dollar Party (T.D.P.).' (OK, I got off-topic)

This kind of thing would be much cheaper, and much more important to us as a species.

Yeah, get back to me when we're thinking of going someplace cool. Like someplace with aliens, and stuff.

Moon enclave my ass. I can only assume he's courting the sci-fi vote.

-m

QUOTE O' THE DAY - 20040109

"What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death."
-Dave Barry

NEW HIP FRESH LOOK..

So, I've had this blog awhile now..something over a year, I think. So I figured it was time for a change. Especially since none of the borders or text or images lined up right anymore. Let me know what you think.

-m

QUOTE O' THE DAY - 20040108

""Wine is but a single broth, ale is meat, drink, and cloth."
-English Proverb

WE'RE SO SCREWED...

This is actually from last week's Onion, but I missed it, since I was out of town. Man. This is classic.

-m

QUOTE O' THE DAY - 20040107

"I intend to do everything possible to broaden my experiences and
allow myself to reach the fullest development. Then, and before physical
deterioration obtrudes, I shall go on some last wilderness trip, to a place I
have known and loved. I shall not return."

-Everett Ruess

YET ANOTHER CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY MISSED..

So MoveOn.org recently held a contest that asked people to create a 30-second commercial talking about the evils of fake president Bush. The judges included people like Michael Moore, Moby, Janeane Garofalo, and, most importantly, Jack Black. Of course, I didn't find out about this until the final selections had already been made, but it's not like I really have the equipment or know-how to put together anything other than a Powerpoint show, so it's not like I would have actually entered, anyway. Enough...the final 15 videos are here. I highly recommend all of them. If you have like, crappy internet and stuff, then you should at least check out Hood Robbin', Desktop, and Leave No Billionaire Behind (funny), or Child's Pay, In My Country, Bring 'Em On (disturbing), or my overall favorite, What Are We Teaching Our Children.

Apparently, there were some cries from the Republicans when one of the submitted ads compared Bush's imperialistic foreign policies with those of Hitler. They are trying to discredit MoveOn, simply because some person, not affiliated in any way whatsoever with the website, submitted a subjective ad that made the comparisons. The issue is that they're afraid that MoveOn might actually be able to mobilize enough people through the internet to break their hold on our government. They're nervous...Why???

Well, I'm not even going to point out that Bush's grandfather was instrumental in bankrolling the rise of Hitler and the Nazis from the 1920s-40s. Oops...too late..(Google the following: NAZI,BUSH,WALKER,PRESCOTT,UNION NATIONAL BANK and you'll see what I mean).

-m

HELP WANTED..

I'm looking for a good recipe for refried beans. Anyone have one? Most of the standard ones (e.g. Joy of Cooking) are just bland and no good. I want some of those good restaurant-style beans.

-m

SUPERPOWERS..

So the other night I had a dream that I had super powers. I'm not sure what the full extent of my powers was, but it included the following:

-The ability to levitate big objects (kind of Jedi-like)
-The ability to spontaneously generate snakes (kind of Harry Potter-like)
-The ability to control (Pyro-like) and generate fire

So upon discovery of my newfound powers, did I go out and fight crime..? Did I clamp down on the baddies of the world...? Did I fight for global peace and harmony..?

NO!

I used my powers to....MAKE COFFEE!!!!

That's right. I used my Charles Xavier-like levitation powers to levitate the coffee press into the kitchen, and put a teapot on the stove, and then brew the coffee, and then levitate a cup of it back to myself, where I sat, on the couch. Pathetic. Man. Don't ever give me super powers. It won't put them to good use. I remember some part about spontaneously generating snakes, and then burning them up with fire. But I don't remember why I did this. Maybe just because I could.

-m