Incite Full

I had this idea, a long time ago, to take a picture of myself everyday over the course of a year. Well someone beat me to the punch, and did it by about 6 years. The guy, Noah Kalina, made a video over the course of 6 years with his picture. Interesting to see his change over that time.

Finding this video was rather backwards to me. I was trying to find out what the name of the piano songs played in the NBA commercials. The “Where _ Happens” commercials. The music is so simple, building, and elegant in my opinion. Not overy complicated, and maybe even a little repetitive, but i really liked it. I thought it was Phillip Glass, but it turned out to be a woman named Carly Comando who I found on myspace.

Check out the song (and video if you’d like). As i really enjoy the song.

A side not, this is my 98th post, I think, and I’m looking forward to my Hundredth.

I woke up today at 10 am and immediately sent a message to Dan saying i’d be there in a bit.

I was referring to moving Becca’s stuff to her new apartment. Whenever my friends and I move someone, we always have a good time. As long as there are some friends around, I’m going to have a ball. This was no different. Moving supplies with me with a vast array of “that’s what she said” moments. Things like “just ram it in there” and “it’s not going to fit” are simply the perfect setups.

Even better was the fact that none of the furniture was going to fit into the new apartment. This was kind of funny to me and Jordan, but Becca looked like she was going to fall apart. So we went with plan b- remove the window and lift up the large items through the second story, bedroom window. This was great when it came to things like the bed posts, but ridiculously challenging, frightening, and gravity defying when it comes to things like, oh you know, sofas and mattresses. Matt and I had to grab these items any which way we could and then yank them up. The couch was hands down the hardest; added complication through laughter didn’t help at all. The video will be on facebook later.

I cannot wait.

We were not alone in the move. The ugliest cat and dog ever were there as well. They were still fun as animals, and well behaved for the most part… just ugly. And as Matt’s dad used to say: Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone. The cat was just odd to me. It was hairless and you could see through it when the sun hit it just right. Very odd indeed.

There was also a “wedge” which I’ll let you figure out the purpose for which it is made. Just think… angles.

Funnier still is when Becca’s house mate got back, Victoria, and joined us all for some post moving lunch. She is an interesting woman, evidenced by the various knick knacks around the place. She offered us some tea which she declared “would put hair on your chest.” I kindly suggested we give the cat some.

We also told her, because Becca was not there when she arrived, of all the funny things we could have said upon meeting her. As it stood, we simply introduced ourselves as the movers before she saw us, as to night frighten her. My plan was to let her see us and be confused, and I’d say “Awww dammit, now we’ve got to kill her.” I think that’d be pretty funny.

We chatter with her a while and then said farewell, and we all decided that we want to hang out with her again. She really is a fun lady.

I always feel that the title of a post should come at the end of the page when it comes to blogging. Unlike some bloggers, I have next to no idea what i’m going to write about when I begin. Hence the “and more” part of the title. I’m watching the premiere rerun of Top Chef, a show which I love more than certainly any reality show, and possibly any other show out there.

Unfortunately I had no idea it was starting, and feel a little jaded and disappointed that I missed the first episode. It’s the kind of thing that I make popcorn for. And now that the Cute southern girl is gone, I’m a little bit more sad. Still not sure who my picks are for the season, i’ll probably write that later.

Today Danielle and I planned our joint birthday party, and I’ve got to say I’m really excited. We’re going to have an all day festival with football, grilling, hot tubs, drinks, and everything else we feel like. I’m going to try and whip something tasty up- but i’m not sure what yet. I guess i’ve got about 2 weeks to figure that out. I’ve been cooking a lot recently, and maybe that’s because i bought my tupperware, or maybe it’s the relaxing nature of the art. I think i spoke of it being Zen like before, and I still feel this way.

The next thing i’m making is a creamy hot chocolate for Stef and myself (tonight) but i am going to try some Waldorf chicken legs tomorrow, and maybe some creamy citrus chicken this weekend. I saw the recipe on the le Creuset site, and i’ve been licking my chops ever since.

Finally, I don’t think i’ve written much about Obama being elected, and I still will not, but there are a few things I want to throw out there. With the coming of this new age, we are setting history. Let’s adopt the following rules as part of this history breaking process:

1. Sentences will never, ever be ended again by saying the word “Not”
2. Sublime will be played 50% less. Seriously guys, what’s up with Sublime? I’ll throw 311 into this boat as well. If I never hear Amber again it will be too soon.
3. Counting before songs in music. We get it- it’s raw and not over produced to do it. Or something like that. Just start the damn song, ok?
4. The BCS System. Let’s try something new, like a tournament.
5. Saw Sequels. One was good, they’ve got exponentially worse since.
6. Bush bumper stickers. I’m assuming this one is self explanatory, yet won’t come true. Ever.
7. References to Brown University.

Upon asking a teacher friend of mine why she voted for McCain after voting for Obama in the primary, and even volunteering on behalf of his campaign, she said the following: I didn’t know he was a socialist. 

I simultaneously vomited, became enraged, and laughed. 

Now, you’re free to vote for whomever you’d like. If she had valid reasons (not to me, but valid in at least some universe) I’d have been content to let her vote away. I could even let this go seeing as how her vote didn’t affect the outcome, but that wouldn’t be very inciteful, would it?

She latched onto a familiar phrase, the “redistribute the wealth” line that was made the anti-obama slogan nearing the end. After attempting to convince my mother otherwise of the academic sense in which Obama used those words, I just gave up and asked her what else. Color me surprised when I discovered Katie Couric ran Obama’s campaign.

What I found most disappointing is the effectiveness of negative ads on voters. I could wrap myself up in warm, billowy confidence that it only worked on uneducated voters. But it worked on her, and she is definitely educated. Can I convince myself that maybe she simply didn’t invest the time in finding out the facts? Even if that were true, wouldn’t common sense dictate that, if indeed he was a socialist, we would have heard about this long before he as debating for the presidency of the United States of America?

Other’s I know voted McCain because they earn over 250,000 a year. I guess I cannot argue with that. If enough people did that, and voted similarly, everything would work out.

Aside from that, I had some interesting conversations with friends about abortion recently. I won’t get into the specifics of the argument both for and against, but i’ll simply state an opinion I hold on our government and rights:

The constitution and legal framework that exists in America is exactly that, a framework for our society. I believe it to be the best available, and one that I believe in with all of my heart. With that being said, there are certainly instances and cases in which laws should be created- laws to safeguard things that could not possibly be known at the time our country united.

However, legislating decisions and choice for people is a band-aid for any problem for which the law is being made. In the case of abortion, teens will still become pregnant and abortions will happen. I will agree, fundamentally, that making it illegal will make it less likely to be done, but I will not agree that unprepared (meaning could result in unwanted pregnancy) sex will be reduced. 

I will not debate when the moment of life happens. It’s too difficult a topic for me to think about and understand fully. There is no concrete answer to it. 

What I do know, and feel most strongly about, is the fact we can educate people to know and understand the weight of the decisions they are making. The consequences, emotions, and turmoil that they might go through if two people choose to have sex when they are unprepared to raise a child. And after all of that, the pain, the emotions, the sleepless nights- if you still think that the choice of abortion is for you, then by what right does the government have to say no to that? Can you legislate against rational, informed, intelligent decisions?

Removing decisions from people is rarely the right thing to do. We are on the brink of marriage bans for same sex couples in California, and I have yet to hear a convincing argument for it. Hell, I have yet to hear an argument that makes any semblance of sense. And while i can respect and understand the differences between same sex marriage and abortion, they are both eliminating rights based on personal views and beliefs. We can teach views, we can teach understanding, and we can teach how to weigh consequences in our decisions- what we can’t do is unwrite laws, and what some other’s cannot do is get married. 

And that, to me, is one of the saddest things to see happen.

It’s been a while since I cooked something new. Of course, even when cooking the same old things, I rarely use the same recipe twice. Things are always thrown in or tossed out, based on what i have handy or what i feel like at the time. It’s a nice creative outlet for me.

Right now, i’ve got a chicken roasting in the oven, and I hope it’s absolutely delicious. It was originally supposed to be a sage roasted chicken, but the store didn’t have any of it, so i had to make due with some garlic and thyme. I’m pretty sure it will be fine, but it’s always a bit of a crap shoot to be honest. Although thyme+chicken+garlic is a pretty standard combination. I just hope that Italian Red Onion that I shoved up the bird will add a bit more earthiness to that bad boy.

Later tonight I might make some chocolate chip cookies, because i’ve wanted to cook a lot lately, and, well, they are damn tasty.

Apart from cooking, one thing that has been bugging me is the fact that people, upon being asked for scary movie recommendations, like to throw in “Aliens.” Alien is a horror movie, Aliens 3 is hardly a movie at all, but Aliens is an action movie. It’s a damn good action movie, but it’ still not horror. I suppose I can forgive people for this transgression because it’s not a big deal, and it does frighten people at times, but c’mon people- if aliens is what you think of when you want to see a scary movie…

Also, I’m very partial to undead/supernatural horror movies. Slasher movies, or movies with a human villain are generally too stupid or mind numbing to be good. Granted zombie movies aren’t the ground breaking or riveting experiences that they could be, but they are scarier.

I think the only slasher movie that I ever really enjoyed was Friday the 13th, with Jason vorhees mother being the killer- that was both a twist and a scary movie. Ever since, we’ve been given garbage like I know what you did last summer, etc etc. Scream was pretty much the only good slasher in the past decade, and that was mostly because it refused to take itself seriously.

The reason I’m discussing this is because I watched REC again, with friends, and everyone thought it was pretty scary. Dan actually jumped a few times, and jokes were kept to a minimum save for an awesome “that’s what she said” reference. Oh, and a paris hilton reference. But I implore anyone who might ever read this, see the movie. It scared the shit outta me when I watched it alone. Watch it, and realize that a movie doesn’t have to do anything new to scare you, it just has to do it well. And I don’t think any of it was off limits.

I’m rambling now, so i’ll let y’all go. But i need to see a few more scary movies- it really would make my day.