we know there's an answer but we have to find it by ourselves...

Actually, the answer, I would think, would be simple: neither. This land of freedom and happiness is for whoever takes it. We slammed the door on Britain with a big sign that says "we're better than you 'cause we're a free country", but from before that moment happened all throughout sometime not that long ago (1970s?), the English setllers have repeatedly rejected that claim in the face of Italians, Jews, blacks, women.......
The police refused to protect the Italians. Thusly, THE GODFATHER TRILOGY.
The government wouldn't declare war on Hitler b/c the President was afraid the people would ridicule a war to save "the Jews"
The People stole black people, tortured/killed them, gave them freedom, then continually deprived them of any social advancement, all the while continually killing them
And doctors - the great people who "heal" society - wouldn't for the life of them believe a woman who said she was having a heart attack b/c "she's just imaginging it"...not to mention the fundamental right to vote was rejected until over 100 years after this country formed. The Law still treats women worse if they forget their child is in the car...I read in an article that RECENT (????) science suggests the memory is more "cue" based, while people have been ASSSSSUMMING all this freakin' time that the memory is based on priority...and b/c of this HYPOTHESIS, people have been ignoring the living proof that walks among them, which I woulda sworn included me as far back as 1995 if I could have thought of how to articulate my thoughts/feelings well enough in the right circumstance, but even if I could have, people would have looked it up in some science journal and it wouldn't be there, so they'd be like "See? You're wrong. Ha".

I think aside from the laws prohibiting gay people from proclaiming their true love - which will probably be repealed soon - we've come a long long way. I find it hard to believe the Holocaust will happen in the United States. But we really ought to start practicing the ideals without exception. When this becomes a priority that has been accomplished 100%, we need to re-word the laws, and re-name this country. The Wall Of Shame is too big to make this country anything to take seriously...

popular vote

Fact: 12 million people were deprived of happiness AND their life, and many many others were simply deprived of their happiness, in Nazi-era Germany.
Fact: The POPULAR GUY made this happen, with the HELP OF THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY.
Fact: This is called "dictatorship"

Fact: Gay people are being deprived the right to testify their one true human love.
Fact: The (increasingly smaller) POPULAR OPINION keeps this going.
Question: Is this a democracy or a dictatorship?????

LastFM (there'll never be another one like you...)

Man, LastFm is a really really cheap alternative to buying loads of music that I won't hardly ever listen to...I've spent probably at least 8 hours total the last couple days listening to it; I, personally, just type in 'emo' in the tag area and skip whatever sub-par music they might (or might not) throw my way...

I can't think of a single CD I want to listen to at the moment. It's been this way since the night before last. Should i really invest in a receiver?? Hard to say...I mean, why do i even bother listening to Genesis' INVISIBLE TOUCH or Oingo Boingo's SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET these days? I used to get so overwhelmed with emotion when I heard "Throwing It All Away", 'cause I'd remember my early childhood carefree days, now I can't even imagine that feeling...it's like I'm not even the same person anymore...

Most of the other CDs I **Might** want to own are distributed my indie labels, which may not be reason to jump ship on sound quality, but, really, I'm just fine with the setup I already have...I use my computer most of the time anyway...

I guess I'll go ahead and trade my music collection on CD for MP3 music. I can back it up to CD-R and use that when my computer breaks down completely and/or I get I newer, better(?) computer...it'd be nice to have one of those super-power computers that can play video and perform multiple tasks w/o a hitch...****drools*****

my annaul "nowhere fast" test...

"The poor and the greedy are selfish and needy" - The Smiths

Ok, so I'm being served by a program that the local council for looneys center offers that helps people deal with things they need help with. It's called the CRPC program. The semi-head-hauncho evaulated me for what was supposedly required once a year, to determine where I've been and where I'm headed (i.e.: "nowhere fast". lol...?).

So I killed 3 hours with my CRPC case worker, one hour (apprx) with the evaluation, another waiting for her to get done with a seperate appt, and another half hour or so going to and from Starbucks to get a deluxe hot chocolate thingy (yum!).

No mail today - NONE! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! Well, whatever. NetFlix should have my mother's movie FIVE MINUTES IN HEAVEN in our mailbox, but...na/nope. And Complete Savings ought to have $10 in our mailbox...but no. Yes, it's true. THIS F**** SUX!!

If I save up $14 each month from Sept through December, I should have enough to get the 4-pk of GHOSTBUSTERS II action figures that will be exclusive to Toys 'R' Us in December. I sure as hell hope my local TRU will carry them and that they don't run out of stock permanently before I find out about it...I'll probably start calling them late November to get a feel for what kind of customer service (or lack thereof) the local TRU staff is inclined to dole out, and then if the customer service seems sub-par, I'll probably have to stop by at least once a week (if not every day...).

And then the real goodie is in January, in the form of a GB2 6" Winston Zeddmore w/ SLIME BLOWER!!!!!!!!!!! Kenner never made their GB (RGB) toys w/ a Slime Blower, although they did release a role playing toy that was designed to look like a Slime Blower, although they didn't call it that (darned if I know why...) - they called it the Ecto Charger, I think...

I keep thinking about the Slimed Hero Real Ghostbusters (Kenner) toys that were made around 1990 or 1991. I remember seeing the ads for those on TV and being like "WHAT THE HOLY FRELL!!! THEY'RE BACK!!!" The proton pack was my ALL TIME FAVORITE RGB action figure accessory. The ones they needlessly toiled with and created were OK, but the proton pack was like 1/3 of the GHOSTBUSTERS awesomeness (the other 1/3 being The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and the cast...of course, the cast wasn't in the cartoon, which is what the toys were based on at that time...neither was the Ecto 1A, and you just couldn't expect GHOSTBUSTERS I & II quality sound effects to be integrated with your everyday kid's toy/action figures...). But anyway...it was like 1986/1987 all over again(!). What's weird though is how everyone complains about the mold being the same for just about all the main heroes...if people really minded that, Kenner really should have did a little tweaking when they took the liberty of adding a GB-logo patch to the hereo figures while they deleted the GB-logo "patch" from their arm. I never really cared about the toy mold, the paint jobs were always the most important aspect to me...but that raised "patch" on their chest area always interested me. For the 1986-1988 figures, the patch was always on their arm and it was always just painted on there (in great detail, too!!). But with the Slimed Hereos, the patch wasn't as detailed but it stuck up from the uniform, like a coin or a novelty belt buckle or something...it was neat, IMO.
Speaking of bringing back a great thing, Mattel really screwed up the RGB reissues, making them MEGO style, looking nothing like the original RGB figures or any other RGB toy ever made...I mean, sure, people that witnessed STAR WARS/EMPIRE/JEDI toys might have had their hand at RGB playtimes, but RGB toy owners did not necessarily sit through STAR WARS (1977), or even RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983) in theaters. In fact, it's highly unlikely most of them did. I mean, when RGB toys were being made, where the hell was MEGO style toy making?? It's really rotten to assume that all GB toy owners were 8-12 years old at the time of ownership beginning. REALLY rotten. Hopefully they'll scrap this b.s. and do another line that's actually WORTH the money invested...MattyCollector is charging $20 + S&H for the Pete Venkman MEGO figure. WTF???? IT'S NOT WORTH IT!!

pk

finally got some food other than cream of wheat and soup...primarily pancake mix, also got some (fat free) Fig Newtons (Na-biiisskoh!!). I haven't eaten either though. I guess my mom made a bit more extra money off a recent sale on Amazon than I initially thought, 'cause she treated both me and herself to Arby's (over $15 total), so I ate that (my portion, I mean...), and she also bought some muffins, a few of which I ate, and I also had a king size Snickers bar and a hot dog thingy (still don't know what 'kind' it was...tasted good, but not like any hot dog I've ever had; the inside looked like chicken but it didn't taste quite that way...)...

so I guess you could say I've eaten everything BUT pancakes. And those muffins have a lot more fat in them than I realized - 60 grams total if you eat one blueberry and one chocolate. A healthy person - which I am so not - shouldn't eat more than seventy-some-odd calories a day, so I've clearly blown any chance of claiming righteouslness as of today...maybe tomorrow I'll do better.

was thinking tho; I owe my Mom like $70, but once I get her that paid, I might try to do the diet she is doing (she's having a hard time sticking to it lately, not sure why exactly, but anyway...) and maybe a few months or so later I can try the pancake diet...I mean, 1.5-5 grams of fat per meal isn't bad, but it's not helping me lose weight. Especially when I eat out like once a week or thereabouts...I may not be gaining any weight, but I certainly haven't noticed the pounds coming off.

here's lookin' at (pictures of) you, Onkyo

Well, here I am...nothing much has changed since my last visit...well, my mom's car is at the auto shop or something pending a $150 towing expense payment. Hopefully it'll be back next month, since the $80 (I think...) gas money that me and my mom put aside is effectively NOT going to gas for the time being...$80 x 2 is $160, making the car idle next month if the gas money is what gets it back in our posession...but, ya knnow, better late than never...by October we should be paintin' the town once again...I hope...

At the current prices on Amazon, I shouldn't need more than $295 to get a decent home audio set up - speakers, speaker wire, banana plugs & a receiver. If I get the same amount in 2011 (January or early February) that I got in 2010, I should be more than able to afford that. I'm worried the program fka "Circuit Breaker" will be terminated to make way for cashflow to those who need it a lot more than I do...here's hoping things start looking up for those who fight so hard every day just to get bread etc. on the table...

Haven't eaten anything today...just coffee and a cup of hot chocolate from the convenience store. Hoping to have some pancakes for dinner...my mom has some newly-acquired money, which she plans to loan me when she gets a ride to the grocery store...I won't be going with her, 'cause I don't need to and I haven't taken a shower since Monday evening...

John Anderson is gone. He switched jobs, someone new has replaced him. She's cool. A lot younger than John, guess she's semi-fresh out of college...a far cry from John, who was in his line of work for over 20 years...

I decided not to get a new Napster card. They apparantly got rid of the $5 cards. You need to get a 3, 6, or 12 month susbscription or pay $7 vs. $5 in order to have access to the service. The 3+ card(s) are $5/mo, but that's $5 x 3...which, ultimately, seemed rather pointless. I like to have CDs, I still buy them...Napster can take a backseat over Imeem...if I like listening to something enough, I can ditch Imeem (read: commercials) and have a permanent hard copy...

So...um...that about covers it.

XX

bittersweet

    In the dark edges of the high tower, where the spaceships meet, praying for daylight.  Such dry spaces shan't be ever seen by human eyes, lest they sleep and feel strange sensathish that they feel embarrased to speak their memories of.  Yet ye fall helplessly, seeing again what cannot be seen with logical site. 
  In the dark crevaces of this high tower, thy wonders who dareth jump high enough to etch these things that were made from rock so high up from the ordinary ground.  Thy feels strange, yet thy dare not speaks.  If ye understood, I doubt ye would say so.


In the paint, the colors, vivid and rife with life.  These walls, filled with aforementioned colors, I shall walk and feel the weight of my body in a different light.  I have walked through said walls, ye shall refuse to believe, but I was once invincible.

Mattypalooza video online – check out what’s coming for 2011! [UPDATE]

Mattypalooza video online – check out what’s coming for 2011! [UPDATE]


THIS IS JUST SO F--------'N AWESOME!!!!!! Looks like Mattel is finally A) getting their arses in gear with getting the darn things into the hands of the public and B) branching out into other territories of GB-hood and C) not being as "exclusive" with their license, as in TOYS R' US HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - THIS XMAS!! GB2 4-pk @ $50 coming through...........
This is just REALLY REALLY good news. Now let's hope the 4 pak doesn't look too dull to spend fifty smakaroos on..........they've already shaat all over their RGB aspect of the line, making them "mego" style, as if mego was something a kid in 1986/1987 was typically playing with......not to mention the proton pak accessories they're supposed to come w/ look like a stick someone gathered while in the yard...(as opposed to the ultra-neato electronic superduty nuclear accelerator seen in the films, and more or less in the cartoon...). I swear, those IDIOTS! I'll probably buy 'em anyway if they don't charge $10++ for 'em tho. I might be OK w/ paying $8 for 'em, although I'd hope for them to be less....they're selling those at Toys 'R' Us as well so I can just pick 'em up "on impulse" (or whatever) instead of shelling out X cost + S&H for something so close yet even further away.....

dangerous beauty

Last year, circa late summer, I became aware of an ultra-passionate pop-punk/emo hybrid band named THE DANGEROUS SUMMER.  Via the previously mentioned (see most recent post excluding this 1) Napster on-demand streaming audio service, I just finished listening to a live EP (simply titled "Live In Baltimore"; I checked at 11:55 apprx central time and Amazon didn't have it for sale yet, but I guess Napster isn't as strict about who and when they can listen in...) and surprisingly, they actually know how to play their instruments & sing... - either that or they have a bag of tricks at their disposal - which would be weird b/c THE STARTING LINE (same genre, except less emo)'s semi-recently released live recording sounds like CRUD!  And TSL have been around longer & are sorta the poster boys for emo-y pop-punk (which admittedly isn't as popular as the snot-nose pop-punk, i.e.: FALL OUT BOY, GREEN DAY...)
  So now I'm revisiting their full-length debut, and I'm just not impressed.  Crazy, they sound better live.  If only it weren't a whopping 22 minutes long...parting is the pits...

penniless so soon? So?

My money's all gone...but I got a month of {up to} 7 MILLION songs to listen to...the whole world is at my fingertips...yep.  I spent about 15 minutes looking around in BestBuy, thinking I could get that AND a CD.  Turns out all i got was the Napster prepaid card...couldn't be happier!

I've noticed I get bored listening to albums...I always put one on, but lately I've been wondering "Why?  Why don't you just listen to LastFM or...something?"  Napster gives me the ability to listen to ANY song, ANY time, in ANY WAY I wish!!!

Then the thought comes that someday Napster won't be here.  When that day comes, I hope THE PEOPLE have enough guts to wage war...I mean, they could raise the price by thee or four times the monthly rate and that'd be worlds better than them going away...and they've been offering the $5/mo rate for over 2 years now, and the service itself has been around for almost a decade (I'm excluding the now-illegal/defunct service of the same name...) so if it ever does get shut down, either the economy will have changed in some way that makes it impossible for the service to operate, or the gov't will shut them down...things change. I'm fine w/ that (so far...).  But the gov't "cracking down" on too-good-to-be-true-ness is just unjustifiable.  The gov't already tried that with the internet radio companies and so far hasn't succeeded, and so it's a lot easier to bank on that sort of horror than the unforseeable (at least to a guy with my low-mid intellect) events that the tides of time may or may not bring...

I swear, this country could so easily turn into a war zone.  I, for one, don't have enough money to pay for every single song BEFORE I hear it.  There's too much crud I don't like, too much crud that shouldn't exist in the first place, and a MAMMOTH amount of mediocrity.  I'm not sure how much of a minority that makes me, but I guess it doesn't really matter.  Just about everyone was against the Vietname Conflict, but only a tiny handful of citizens stood up and tried to do something about it.