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DECEMBER 2006 |
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Saturday, December
30, 2006 |
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The holidays are almost over
already. I'm looking forward to getting back to the office, but
this downtime is great!
As has now become a tradition, I
bought the latest season of 24 and am marathoning my way through it. Great soap opera for us boys, and it still makes me
believe that episodic games will become a big part of game
distribution.
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I finally broke down and bought a
big screen television as a Christmas present to myself. I'm not
one for luxury, and the set that I had been watching was almost
20-years old. It was good enough for me, but now that I have
this huge fucker, I know I should have done this much sooner!
...it's awesome! It was
strange, ...that old set never gave me trouble, and it was on most every
day for many hours each. I made the decision to buy a big screen
about two weeks before Christmas, and two days after that, the old set
started to flicker and fade. The timing was perfect. |
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I'm pretty sure I owe my lack of
love for luxury (and I do consider this a positive attribute) to the Navy.
Specifically, the coffee. The military will teach you
appreciation for many things that are usually taken for granted, ...like having
more than a small box to hold all your worldly possessions, and not
having to move every year or two and resettle into completely new
surroundings and friends, and using the bathroom without always being
accompanied by 30 other guys...
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...but getting used to the coffee
is what I remember most. At first, the coffee in the Navy
was horrible! Most often it was many, many hours old, burnt almost,
and came from a 20-gallon aluminum urn. After a while (read:
years), though, I got used to it and actually came to enjoy it.
Now, the more bitter and acrid the coffee is, the better! I
never did get used to that bug juice, though ;) |
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Friday, December 29, 2006 |
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I thought I had eaten everything,
but I was wrong!
I had Christmas dinner with a few
good friends on Christmas Eve. We went to Culpepper's and on the
menu I found Chicken Fried Lobster!
Chicken Fried Lobster! I'm
not sure why, but at first this seemed like a very strange
combination, ...like airing Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy
back-to-back. |
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My good friend Theo from Croatia
visited me last Summer for a week. While sitting on the couch,
he dropped something between the cushions. He reached into the
couch and pulled out this!
A VHF receiver kit! ...from
Russia! It's not mine, ...hmmm, who do you suppose left this in
my couch? I suspect a sloppy bug plant has been uncovered ;)
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Thursday, December 28, 2006 |
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The human capacity for language is
incredible! I watch Russian movies, many without subtitles, and
find that even though I'm not memorizing specific words or grammar,
somehow the language is infusing itself into my brain.
I'm also amazed how keenly I can
recognize the words that I do know from long strings of otherwise
indecipherable and garble sentences.
I just watched "The Return" last
night...
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...great movie, especially if
you like Russian cinema. Watching foreign movies, you realize
how different cultures are, even though we are all human and
fundamentally the same. The way they think and how they
experience things seem so different, ...like
two people witnessing the same elephant but from opposite ends of the
beast.
I've also come to realize that
it is the Russian language that makes me love the entire culture so
much. I really love Russia, ...the food, the people, the women,
most everything! That is true for almost every culture I know, though.
What makes Russia the best, for me, is that language!
I was just reading reviews and
such about the movie, and found this - |
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"In an ugly twist,
15-year-old Vladimir Garin (played the older brother) drowned after the shoot in St Petersburg in June
2003. Dared by friends, he jumped into the lake from the top of the
tower used in the opening sequence of the film. Zvyagintsev (movie
director) dedicated
the Golden Lion award to the actor."
...how creepy and sad, this is right out of the movie, the tower and taunting
from friends to jump ;(
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Wednesday,
December 27, 2006 |
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So, the Iraqis are going to hang
Hussein in the next 30 days. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Part of me thinks this is like putting down a mad dog, but part of me
also thinks he should stick around as long as possible so he can
suffer the most. If I
think about death penalties in general, I'd have to say that I'm
against them, ...if only because of the chance of mistakes being made. |
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Often, though, when I hear about
specific cases, I catch myself thinking "Kill the motherfucker, if
only to rid society of a viscous animal!". Like a mad dog, some
things are just not fit for common access to society and should be
removed, ...quickly, humanely, and permanently.
I have never seen the death
penalty as a punishment. On the contrary, punishment to me, is a
long life of torment. Once a person is dead, it's over for them.
Maybe that's just an atheist's view, with a there's-nothing-after-life
opinion, but once you're dead, ...you're dead.
For Saddam, punishment would be
sitting in a small room, with none of the conveniences and amenities
he had when he was free to prowl. He should have a television
with one channel on which is played faked (nepotism is so wrong) news
reports of the successes in Iraq.
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Updated:
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 04:55 |
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