Don't piss someone off

This makes me sick.

OCS

I love when an idea for a blog entry lands right in my fucking lap. Today I was walking to lunch and I pickeded up a copy of the recent Rhino Times, the right wing weekly rag out of Greensboro. I only read it for the column by Orson Scott Card, fiction writer. In this week's column he discusses classic books that have fallen out of favor. He mentions Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn. In his discussion of Huck Finn and it's anti-racist message he mentions how he thinks the liberal use of the word 'nigger' is what is keeping it from being appreciated fully. He does put forward an idea that I found disturbing. He mentions that he thought purists who were against altering the text were over reacting. He states that "purists would scream 'censorship' and 'artistic integrity.'" He may have a point, classics have been updated to comic book forms in the past and changing a few words to get past current sensibilities may be alright. Why doesn't he do that himself? The book has long been in the public domain.

I thought about for a second and I decided that taking the offending word out of the text would be a horrible mistake. The use of the word is not gratuitous and the question is not whether or not the word is correct, as Card pointed out. It is accurate and the removal of the word lessens Jim's indignities. If you were to substitute the word 'slave' or 'black' for 'nigger' you would be elevating this country's former institution, giving it a dignity it does not deserve. What is literature but truth? Removal of one word chips away at the truthful slice of American life that Mark Twain presents to us.

My brush with death

Yesterdary a plane crashed in Turkey. 72 poor souls lost their lives. I could have been on that plane, but I wasn't. I missed that flight. If I had been on that plane I would be just as dead as those that were passengers. I would just like to say how thankful I am to my god that I was fortunate enough to not be on that flight. I could have been in Istanbul and climbed aboard that doomed airliner but I wasn't. Thankfully, I was here at work, half asleep. Why have I not been interviewed!? It's a bleeding miracle I wasn't on the fucking plane!! Only by the grace of the lord above did I survive yesterday's tragedy. I will issue an official statement here and the news agencies may run it if they wish

Survivor Statement

First of all I would like to send my condolences out to the families of those that died instead of me. They are in my prayers and in the prayers of my family. Let us not ever forget those that died in this horrible horrible tragedy. Secondly, I would like to say I do not know why I was chosen to miss this flight and survive this disaster but I do now realize that life is short and precious and I will now dedicate my life to the betterment of others. Thank you, god bless you.

And she began to shout

Man, I wish this blog was more anonymous. There is some work stuff I would like to talk about that would be real funny. I won't, I can't, I mustn't. Sure do want to, though.

I have been reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the last few days. I've been real bad this last week about not reading at home. I don't know what my deal is. I made sure last night that I spent at least an hour reading. I did and I feel much better about myself now. A little better at least. I just arrived at the point in the book where Huck, a boy that has grown up around slavery as the natural and right order of things, has decided that if not turning in a runaway slave is stealing and the penalty for stealing is eternal damnation then he will choose the unrighteous path and damn himself by saving his friend. As Huck himself put it "All right, then, I'll go to hell." Any arguments agin the book because of Twain's use of the word 'nigger' are completely nullified by this passage. The soul searching and conclusion that Huck comes to is one of the most touching passages I have ever read.

Quote of the Day

"What does it mean when smoke signals are replaced by cell phones but you still have to climb the wall to use them?"
From the January 2003 National Geographic article "Chasing the Wall" by Peter Hessler.

Lord of the remotes

The following bullshit is Wendell's idea. If it's boring thump him in the head the next time you see him. Get to him before the band starts or he won't feel it when you hit him.

I announced a short while ago that I bought a DVD and felt like I had entered the 21st century. Much like the feeling I got when I bought my first CD player. In order to tie together all my components in my impressive home entertainment system I now have five remote controls that must be used in order to play DVD's.

1) Cable remote to fire up the 13 inch big screen tv.
2) DVD remote to bring to life this digital doodad. (I took back the POS I bought at Wal-Mart and got a real one at Best Buy)
3) VCR remote that the DVD video is patched into.
4) Second VCR remote to start the VCR the first VCR is hooked up to. (This is so I can dub videotapes)
5) Finally I have to start the receiver which the DVD audio is hooked into.

Wendell thinks I should buy one of them universal remotes so that I can have one remote to start them, one remote to control them, one remote to scroll them and in my apartment bind them.

Sorry.

Emptiness

Me and the boys went to the Comet Grill tonight to see Lenny Federal play and the bar had the TV in the corner on and a show called Celebrity Justice was on. The TV is right next to the band. I hate its position because you eye is just drawn to the goddamn thing. I saw small portions of this show off and on for an hour. Fuck celebrity justice. I want to see celebrity executions.

Propaganda Parodies

Ever look back at some of those propaganda posters from the second world war? Some of them were pretty atrocious in their depiction of our country's enemies. You can view a collection of them here. I found a site through Tom Tomorrow with a collection of posters that depict a slightly leftist view of the Bush administration and it's bullshit policies. I have to say it's not fair to be so hard on Bush since stupid shit like the war on drugs and the first gulf war have been going on long before he showed up. I think he may be experience an unexpected backlash once the shooting stops and the economy is merely not bad.

What time is it?

Ah, new year's. It's different from other days of the year. Instead of getting drunk with friends, you get very drunk with friends. We celebrated at my place. Wendell was there and an old friend, Chris B., came by and, after he got off work and swung by Granville's for a while, Chris M came by. We drank some beer, played some guitar, chatted, watched a few scenes from some movies, watched the two Chrisses argue and hooted and hollered.

A few kids at the apartment complex that is divided from mine by a chain link fence were setting off some single shot large firecrackers. I went out my front door to watch and I initially scared them off. I guess they thought I was going to yell at them. I did yell for them to come back. They started tossing them across the fence and I told them to throw them farther and then the little bastards tried to hit me with the firecrackers.

Around midnight a few of the surrounding apartment complexes started shooting off small fireworks. We went out to watch. I almost broke out my personal stash of firecrackers but decided that in our condition we would probably hurt ourselves. I do remeber Chris M standing out by the pool yelling "Firecracker!! Pow!!" as loud as he could. If you know Chris then you know people heard him for miles around.

Later Chris M talked us into going to the apartment complex on the other side of our building to attend a party being thrown by a guy that works at the Dominos Pizza next to deli Chris works at. It was redneck hell over there. Young rednecks, around 20-25, years old keeping the traditions of their ancestors alive. As we entered the apartment one of the first things we were told was not to be too loud since there were three babies sleeping in the other room. We got the fuck out of there after about ten minutes. I don't party with infants.