Steppenwolf

I’ve been trying to read Steppenwolf, since I’ve had a bit of free time.  It’s hard to read though, and much less interesting and enjoyable than Siddhartha.  Also, I don’t nessesarily agree with some of the assumptions made about personality in the book.  Where the book focuses on sort of a dual personality, while also stating that an infinite number of personalities live inside each person, I would prefer to think that each person or personality is just one whole that is multifaceted.  Something like a great big 3 dimensional shape with millions of sides on it, each side bigger or smaller depending upon how much of your personality it represents.  Or even in Steppenwolf, where the personality could be represented as a tree with a big fork in the middle, one side human, one side wolf, but all parts of the same tree, and with infinite number of leaves and branches representing the facets of those sides.

But, I haven’t finished it yet.  I’ve found most of my time is spent trying to care for my sick son, or watching HGTV.  I miss WoW a bit, and since I got banned from the forums I can’t really spend my time trolling there.  I hope I can get a job here sometime soon.  It’d be nice to have some kind of purpose to getting up every day.

Conspiracy Theory Movies

I’ve been watching a few movies by Alex Jones on Google.  I watched Terror Storm and his 9/11 one, and really wasn’t impressed by his filmmaking abilities.  He should certainly stick to radio, or fire his editor.  He tended to rely too much on looping stock footage and other people’s newcasts.  Also, looping George Bush’s quotes with a slowed-down finale with his face zooming in and turning red was like something I’d see in an 8th grader’s AV presentation.

As far as his content, any believable arguments he makes are instantly voided by his outrageous claims that things like fluoride and aspartame are the government’s way of trying to kill off 80% of the world’s population.  You just can’t take a guy too seriously when he says stuff like that.  I think he just gears too many of his arguments towards his traditional radio listeners, which seem to be conservative anti-government militia types, though I have to admit I never heard of the guy before yesterday.

Ironically enough, I met Alex Jones last summer outside the Ralph’s in Hermosa Beach.  I was walking in the store with Niko in the stroller, and he said something along the lines of “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way but…” something about how we don’t look like the other people around there or something.  I really couldn’t hear most of what he said because my left ear was towards him and we were about 10 feet away from him, but he started throwing out Charlie Sheen’s name and I thought “Yeah yeah, another name-dropper who’s trying to impress me with Charlie Sheen.”  So having not really heard what he said, I didn’t know how to respond.  I decided that if anyone is going to be weird in a Ralph’s parking lot, it should be me.  So I said “My baby has an abnormally large head.”  And I walked into the store.

The only other “famous” people I’ve ever met were Michael Moore (another conspiracy theorist documentary maker) and Bruce Campbell, though since it was at a book signing I really didn’t “meet” him.  I had to head back to work before he could actually sign my book, but Eric got a chance to talk to him.  Bruce Campbell was signing some books with a Sharpie and Eric said something like, “Those markers smell pretty good eh?”.  Really classy.

Home

We are buying a house.  It’s huge, over 3000 square feet.  It will be so hard to keep track of Niko.  We also don’t have the furniture to fill a house that size.  We’re going to have to buy a king size bed, kitchen table and chairs, dining room table and chair, entertainment center, living room furniture, and probably a wardrobe to put our coats in since the builder forgot to add a coat closet.

I think when we move in I’ll be able to keep myself busy enough.  I have the guest bedroom project of taking off the boarders, sanding and repainting and possibly adding crown mouldings, ripping out all the old blinds and installing double drapery sets, coordinating all 4 bathrooms and working on the landscaping.  I’ve got huge ideas in my head about terracing the backyard with some stone retaining walls and adding a patio down by the woods, but I think I need to look at the backyard again to see if it’s feasible.  I might end up just filling in the back drop-off with compost til it’s high enough to make a gradual slope down to the woods, but I can’t imagine the homeowner’s association letting me throw my garbage in my backyard.  We’ll also need a fence built to keep in our boy and hopefully dog, but that I wouldn’t be able to do myself.

In other news, the FDA is going to change the chocolate laws to make American chocolate even crappier than before.  Good thing I can still order Côte d’Or off Amazon.  Plus I got a few bars coming in the move.  Hope it didn’t melt all over the moving truck or anything.

It’s Easter!

Easter always used to be my favorite holiday.  But that was back in Wisconsin where seasons meant something.  This Easter it’s 60 degrees and cloudy, which is the worst weather we’ve had all year.  I was hoping to take Niko to the beach one last time before we moved, but with it being so cold lately he’s just going to have to settle with running with his toes in the sand.  Maybe the ocean in North Carolina is nice, but seeing as though we’ll be a good long drive from it I don’t really want to drive the 1-2 hours back all sandy and wet.

So, we’re moving to Durham on Saturday.  I’m scared and nervous, and I think I’ll end up taking the rest of my valium this week.  I stopped buying alcohol a couple weeks back so I wouldn’t have any leftover for the move, but it’s been hard to sleep.  I really hate moving.  It used to be all exciting and new when I was younger, but now I feel old and I hate change.  Maybe I’ll completely break down.  Eric says he has less patience now than before, so he’ll probably just check me in to the nearest mental health facility and get a daycare for Niko.  Or, maybe I’ll be super strong and come through this a better person!!!!  haha….

It’s been a long time since I saw a memorable movie.  I got sick of writing how these movies could be improved.  I’ve still got a hundred in my Netflix queue though.