Text Messages

I am a pain in the ass in every medium.

Keywords

And my favorite keywords that brought you to AFM this week are...

*drumroll*

• "coast on charm"
• "post secret" tattoo/"post secret" shocking (Really?)
• "gene jarmen" (which takes you to a post about a Deadspin post about Siena playing in the NCAA's and how the fans from Loudonville offended the sensibilities of this Ohio police officer enough that he had to write a scolding letter)
• squirrels with weapons
• who goes to the berkshires (I do.  I love the Berkshires.)

Yes, Hermon Raju made the list too, but...isn't everyone getting sick of her at this point?

This may be necessary...

Emergency Team Of 8th-Grade Civics Teachers Dispatched To Washington | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

"With lawmakers still at an impasse over increasing the debt ceiling, a special team of 40 eighth-grade civics teachers was air-dropped into Washington earlier today in a last-ditch effort to teach congressional leaders how the government’s legislative process works."

Important Stuff

Things are important to me, or at least they were, and I have found a need to get by with fewer and fewer actual objects. For instance, I left the house yesterday without my phone. It was both terrifying and liberating. As I am writing this, it is in the other room, with the ringer off. I am okay with that.

There are some things, though, that I believe a person needs to be a functioning member of society...

I could list them out, but that would be unnecessary because we all have these lists, the rules that we have that govern our friendships and relationships, and the things that we try to impart if we are lucky* enough to have children.

I have been thinking about some of my "important things" and wondering if there were callow, and I suppose that some of them are**, but everyone has some callow things on their list.

It is better to have callow things on your list than not to have a list at all, or even worse, not having an agenda to put your list into action.

Do you have things? Do you have a plan for implementing said things?

*Yes, I used lucky. I know some of my readers do not want children for several reasons. I respect that and understand that.

**On my list, if you do not have a grand appreciation for Annie Hall, you are just...wrong in some fundamental way.

Playing Chicken With People Who Don't Care About Their Car*

James Surowiecki: Why We Don’t Need a Debt Ceiling : The New Yorker:

"The truth is that the United States doesn’t need, and shouldn’t have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. There’s no debt limit in the Constitution. And, if Congress really wants to hold down government debt, it already has a way to do so that doesn’t risk economic chaos—namely, the annual budgeting process. The only reason we need to lift the debt ceiling, after all, is to pay for spending that Congress has already authorized. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, we’ll face an absurd scenario in which Congress will have ordered the President to execute two laws that are flatly at odds with each other. If he obeys the debt ceiling, he cannot spend the money that Congress has told him to spend, which is why most government functions will be shut down. Yet if he spends the money as Congress has authorized him to he’ll end up violating the debt ceiling."

*Edited the Title. I do not understand why autocorrect would make the choice of care over car.

My Summer Playlist

Yes, the summer is half over, and I have finally put together my ultimate summer playlist...this works for me when I am sitting on a beach, sitting by the pool, or just walking.

Your millage may very...

1) Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys (YouTube)
2) Monkey Gone To Heaven - The Pixies
3) Train in Vain - The Clash (YouTube)
4) Today - Smashing Pumpkins
5) Who Can It Be Now? - Colin Hay
6) Cruel Summer - Bananarama
7) This is the day - Ivy
8) Peg - Steely Dan
9) Modern Love - David Bowie
10) Judas - Lady GaGa

11) Best of You - Foo Fighters
12) Bop 'til You Drop - Rick Springfield
13) Kiss On My List - Hall & Oates
14) Modern Man - Arcade Fire (YouTube)
15) The Tide is High - Blondie
16) Killing Me Softly - Fugees
17) Some Like It Hot - Power Station
18) Freedom - Wham!

19) Girls Like You - The Naked and Famous (YouTube)
20) Bring on the Night/When the World is Running Down - Sting


Do you have a list? What do you think of mine? Too crappy?

Something to think about...

Based on my incident last week, and this discussion at AOA, I really think that the best solution for the meantime is to...well, do what the sticker says. The Pioneer Co-Op is great, and I do like it, but the surrounding neighborhood is terrifying, and this is from someone who likes living in somewhat sketchy neighborhood because of the cultural variations that they provide.

Gentrification is not a bad thing, because it means people that are investing in the city that they want to live in. To be perfectly honest, would you want to eat at a nice restaurant that is in Downtown Troy?

Manic Monday?

Yesterday was odd, but not in a bad way.

I awoke early, and went for a run again, you know...because I do not want to look like a fool for that half marathon thing.

Then I had some writing things I needed to do, and they less we speak about those, the better...

And then, I had lunch with my father. Yes, my dad is back in town for the rest of the summer.

He had some errands to run, and I went along with him. One of the things that I realized is that my father and I have the same level of patience for inattentive retail sales associates. (Please read that as very little.) Buying something as simple as a watch band should take more than five minutes.

Then we decided where to grab some grub. My father suggested McGeary's. I was tickled. I really like McGeary's. I know some people do not like it because of the parking or the people but I like it because it is often a no BS pub. Everyone is...not exactly nice...but sincere in their feelings for the other patrons.

Anyway, I do not generally eat there. It is not because I do not want to, but because I have already had something to eat, or because it is a stopping point before I eat somewhere else. This is not to say that I do not like to food there. It is generally good and always serviceable.

I decided to get a burger. Mostly because it has been a while since I have had a burger and partially because my father was having one and I wanted their to be some symmetry. (When I drag him out later this week, and in the future, for the grand unified theory of BBQ meals, there will be no such symmetry.)


The Madison Burger


Oh, Jeebus! This was so good. Maybe it was because I haven't had a burger in a while. Maybe it was because my body was craving protein. Maybe it was because it was just that good but...it was exactly what I needed.

After lunch, we then headed out to have a beer with my "Uncle Robert" at Lynn's Uptown Sports Bar. That is where I took this picture.


Doesn't he look like he should be interviewed by Chris Hanson?

The issue here was that the nice woman working behind the bar convinced my father that the longer hair and the Van Dyke was a good look.

After lunch and a beer with Uncle Robert, it was home, to do more writing...some of which left me with nightmares and then watching the Barry and Orangey show at 9. How awful was that, people? I am sure that you have your own opinion about what is happening with the debt ceiling but...last night was surreal political theater regardless of your perspective.

Today, I am still writing, and I am afraid. Very afraid.

A Movie I Want To See

I like odd films. This looks like one of them...

The Guard (Wikipedia)





"I thought black people couldn't ski...or is that swimming?"

Official Site

The Weekend Past

• I went swimming for the first time in a year yesterday.  I thought that I had a good base tan.  Apparently I was wrong.*
• In order to beat the heat, TEA and I went to the movies.  Twice.
• We saw Harry Potter, which was surprisingly good, and Captain America which was a delight.
• Friday, the music was the Spin compliation Newermind, Saturday was The Essential Bruce Springsteen, and yesterday was the combination of Steely Dan and Holy Roman Empire.
• I started training in earnest for the Amica Providence Half Marathon.
• My actions as an enabler were used for good, i.e. "Come on, get your ass out of bed and go for that run."
• My toenail finally gave up the ghost.

And for those of you celebrating birthdays, enjoy...

*Edit: No, the polar plunge did not count.

I do not care

You know what? I don't care about the weddings today. I was very happy when SSM passed but...that was because it was a right's issue, not because I believe in marriage. One little story about the first marriage would have been fine but the constant stream of stories is making me rethink my support of any marriage. I do not want to see the Old Grey Lady expending more effort of something that is important to the people involved but irrelevant to the world at large than they did when investigating our reason's for invading Iraq.

I do hope they spend us much time covering the rash of SSD (Same Sex Divorces) that are going to be happening very soon. Oh, wait. Am I being cynical? You bet your ass (and seeing that most of my readers (roughly 75%) are American, I could easily use the modifier/descriptive fat before ass.) that I am.