Wookiemonster's Log

Well, I was a bit ill this morning. I woke up with a particularly nasty headache, the result of the drastic change in weather around here. I managed to take some ibuprofen, then ate something so as to not anger the esophagus monster, then went back to bed. Anyway, I haven't gotten too much done today, but I did try out my new hair clippers and gave myself a hair cut! It came out not too bad. The only thing I'm not entirely happy with was how I did around my ears, but that was with my regular razor. Yes, the kit I got has ear tapering blade-combs, but, I needed a little more. I also had to use a regular razor for my neck. But for the bulk of my head? Yup, it turned out okay! Took a little longer than I thought it would, but that's because I was a bit timid at first. I mean, I knew already that I was going to use the 2 blade for the sides and the three for the top, but still... Once I got over my fear of, "Oh gods I'm gonna screw this up and look like an idiot and have to go to a barber to have my head shorn correctly and people are going to laugh..." I was good.

The Onion has America pegged with respect to the fallout from yesterday's tragedy in Colorado.

Real quick, with regards to the whole thing about how many people are killed by guns and safety and such... You know, I have one and am licensed and so on. I try to be safe with it. Yet so many people are killed by them every day. Sometimes, they're nuts, under the influence, or just plain angry, and they then use it to kill someone, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. People obtain them legally and illegally. They use them with and without a license. I personally think it should be much harder to get one, or get a license for one, considering all the accidents and lost lives that could have been prevented if we had tougher laws. Yes, people, I'm talking about my car.

People break laws all the time. Hell, we elect people who break laws all the time. We revere sports heroes who break laws all the time.

More importantly, the guy, Holmes, was nuts. Sadly, people think that means he must have been stupid. This reminds me of a tale Papa Cardillo once told me. A guy driving along hits a nail and gets a flat just outside the insane asylum. In the process of changing the tire, he manages to trip and drop all the lug nuts from the wheel down the storm sewer. Stymied, he just stares, wondering how he's going to attach the spare tire without any lug nuts, when he hears a voice calling him from the asylum. He looks up and sees one of the inmates looking down, watching him.
"Little bit of trouble there, huh?" the inmate asks.
Scared, the guy says, "Uh, yeah."
"Take a lug nut off the other three tires, and you'll have three lug nuts for the spare tire. That should work to get you to a service station."
Amazed, the motorist says, "That's a really good idea! Thanks."
"Of course it's a good idea," the inmate says. "I'm crazy, not stupid."

This, I think, is one of several major flaws made by so-called profilers and, indeed, the public in general. They underestimate the intelligence of the perpetrator.

But I've been seeing more and more cases of police profilers saying, in press conferences, that Holmes was a special case in that he had no online presence, didn't live in his mom's basement, and didn't engage in other behaviors of antisocial geeky outcasts. You know, it's a bit upsetting to me that what these profilers describe as being the type to just up and snap...describe me. I live with my mother, don't have a girlfriend, don't really have many friends, and kind of keep to myself. Oh, and I'm weird and actively non-conformist. The only thing not quite fitting their profiles is that I have a stable job. I've worked at the UD library for almost 13 years, with more than five and a half of those as a full-time employee. And I'm president of the Library Staff Association. I ballroom dance, but have been on hiatus for about two years now. Oh, and I'm not much of a gamer, and suck at gaming when I do game.

The only other thing I have that separates me from the psychos is...pets. A soft spot for cats down on their luck. Still missing and mourning TomTom. Playing with Rocky and Minerva, watching DVDs and cartoons with Yoda. Alas, it still falls into "weird and non-conforming, especially with what society says for guys not liking cats" and other crap.

However, despite how weird I am, how deranged my sense of humor is, I know I'm not going to go ballistic. Because I have this whole compassion thing. As much as I loathe elements of society and have lost faith in humanity, I haven't gotten to the point where I feel like decreeing that society is too sick to survive (Ghostbusters reference). I still smile at little kids, make sure old people don't trip and fall, and share my Boston Market chicken with the cats. The only caveat is that if you hurt me an mine, I swear by my pretty little bonnet, I will end you. I almost typed that that would be the case of most people, but, sadly, looking at the state of the world, I feel that such protectiveness is becoming more of an exception than the rule. Of course, "me an mine" includes the furkids since, well, they're my kids. Thankfully, I know several of you on here are of like mind on this issue.

Of the fans they interviewed on the way to see The Dark Knight Rises yesterday, there was one I happened to catch, and it happened to be a guy with some sense. The reporter incredulously asked him why he wasn't scared or uneasy to be going to a late night show. The guy replied that if he worried about dying all the time, he'd never leave the house and live. I think the only reason that aired is because the news agency in question was hoping to show how "out of touch with reality" us nerds are. Oh well.

I also have to say that over the last few days, starting even before the tragedy happened, and perhaps slightly influenced by reading William Gibson's "Blue Ant" books, I've been more aware of certain undercurrents of shows for what is supposed to be "normal." I've seen more of how advertising tries to target people. I've seen how the news has become more and more biased and become a tool in encouraging conformity. Although, this is more for mainstream media (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC). When we get to Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and Cartoon Network/adult_swim, it's not nearly so bad. Unfortunately, those are all "nerd" channels, so...yeah.

Wow...this entry has turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be...

Anyway, because I'd prefer to end on a positive note...




( Comics )
Posted at LiveJournal and Dreamwidth

So, it's been a busy weekend, with a few more busy weekends coming up. This weekend was a slight water change on the fish tank and using my fish tank brush to tackle some of the algae. Specifically, the algae on the glass. Depending on how finances go over the next few weeks, I may go to the fish store and get some better algae eaters and maybe a few other fishies for variety.

Next weekend is vacuuming and washing the car, and the following weekend is opening the pool. Maybe. Depending on finances and subsequent procurement of necessary chemicals. Oh, and procurement of necessary 2 X 4 material to replace the steps leading to the upper pool deck.

I stopped at Pep Boys yesterday and got yet another window control switch for Cammie, as well as a funnel I hope is the right size for adding oil. While I was there, I checked prices on some other things, such as sand paper and body paint and rust inhibitor and such for my project of repairing or, more accurately, patching the hole on the passenger side and arresting the progress of rust over the rest of Cammie's body. Fortunately, that stuff isn't too expensive. I just need to root around the garage a bit and see what kind of drill tools I have with regards to the sand paper and whatnot. I also saw that they carry speaker wire, and another car project this summer is to replace the speaker wires. The stereo is good, the speakers are good, but the wires are falling apart. I figure it shouldn't be too hard to replace the wires... Just disconnect from the back of the stereo, tape new wire to the old wire, then go to the speaker and disconnect the wire and use the old wire to fish the new wire through the car.

But, hey, my fish tank looks more like a fish tank instead of a weird project by an unsocialized eccentric who has a fetish for algae...

Moving along, I've spent about 3 hours this weekend just reading articles from Cracked.com. I loved this one about hacking, though, the first page is screwy. Like the layout template isn't linked.

Though the one I found hysterical and at the same time tragic is the one on how Hollywood doesn't get technology. Hysterical, because I'm enough of a geek to at least know what GUI means. Tragic, because embedded within the article and especially pointed out in the last section is a big explanation why I can't get a decent date and why most people aren't worth my time. I tend to cringe whenever a pop show on ABC, NBC, or CBS attempts (and it's usually a piss-poor attempt at that) to explore some sort of sub-culture, be it nerds, trekkies, gamers, kinksters, steampunk, cat aficionados, hypochondriacs, and so on, as they usually show some sort of extreme case with someone who is maladjusted to begin with, and then thus profiles the maladjusted person as belonging to a group of maladjusted people. The lesson being given is that if you don't conform, you're not an individual, but rather a social reject capable of snapping at any moment.

Case in point: after Columbine, Goth kids were harassed, monitored, and given unwarranted counseling to make them normal, because the media portrayed Harris and Kleiborn as Goth kids who were bullied once too often. Other Goth kids (and as a caveat: I'm using Goth primarily because of the dark coloring, black trench coats and such that were "warning signs" of the time; many nerds and geeks suffered the same post-Columbine treatment as the Goths) were interviewed by reporters and psychologists looking for signs that these kids were traumatized ticking time bombs, and when the kids answered with, "Yeah, the jocks and cheerleaders harass us, but, we just plain don't care," well, that was unacceptable. The more these kids seemed normal, involved with community service, had plans for the future, and seemed better able to deal with stress, the more shit was made up to make these kids conform to what conformists expected to see. In short, the kids were fine, but the media, be it journalists or Hollywood, decided they couldn't handle that and both went the route of fiction.

Hence, why I don't watch much TV, and even less mainstream TV.

But that last bit, where Hollywood is obviously clueless about modern gaming (levels?)... And asking one guy (because everyone else is obviously well-adjusted and thus doesn't play video games) if he can play the game, and having him respond, "I live with my mother and have a Captain Kirk uniform in my closet" is just...insulting.

Hell, I live with my mother and I have a Captain Picard uniform in my... Oh dear...

In all seriousness, though, those of you who have been here for any length of time know that though I live with my mother, I'm not in the basement, and I also do a shit-ton around here because my mother is partially handicapped thanks to fibromyalgia and degenerative arthritis. In short, I'm here not because I'm maladjusted but because I have a sense of familial responsibility and responsibility in general. Granted, Mom's not an invalid, but it would be very difficult for her to be here by herself, and since I can use the extra space (compared to an apartment or townhouse), not to mention the pool, the driveway, and not having to worry about whether I can take the cats and birds with me, or which cats, and so on.

I hold down a decent job. I write in my spare time. And yes, it's science fiction stuff. And when I look at all the writers I am e-friends with, be they science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, or anything else, they are all well-adjusted people. Sometimes a little harder on themselves than they need to be. But most have families and kids. A good many have a day job as well to pay the bills. They're aware of what's going on outside of their house and around the world, and aren't afraid to comment on it. They're involved in their communities. In fact, they tend to do more to make the world a better place than most other people. (Maybe it's because we have better role models, and that in turn has made the aforementioned people role models as well...)

Thank you, Cracked.com, for pointing this shit out to help me better understand myself, the world around me, why I should value my geeky and nerdy sides, and why my cats are better than most people. Thanks to all of you writerly and creative types for being beacons of hope and making this world just a little more tolerable, if not out and out better, for the simple fact that you have the courage to be yourselves and speak out.

Conformity can kiss my hairy Italian ass!

Meanwhile, as I have been composing this entry, I've had the laptop running so it can download updates from the past week. TomTom at first seemed interested in what I was doing on the main computer, and I told him I was busy. He then decided if he couldn't use the main computer, he'd settle for the laptop, and then started petting the laptop's keyboard...

Anyway, to round out what has already turned out to be a too long, too ranty, and mayhaps too other-worldly entry, here are ( comics! )
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