2014

2014.

I didn't write much. When I would think of something to write, I never was able to get to a computer. And then time passed and it was gone. So I didn't write that much at all.

It was a crap year for a lot of reasons. So that is why I wrote so few posts.

Hopefully next year I will have more to say.

Politics Rant

Democrats lost in the mid term elections. By a pretty big margin. I don't understand why people vote against their best interests. Do they really think the GOP will do anything to make the government work? Of course not. They are the ones who broke it. They decided from day on of the Obama presidency to do nothing to help the president. They did everything short of treason to hurt the president. And by having the government do nothing they hurt the nation.

If the president said he liked Puppies and thought they were cute, the GOP would declare puppies to be evil and must be banned. It's nuts and pathological. How can a party be so filled with hate that they can't even see straight? Anything the president has done that a GOP president had also done is now wrong. Um? Excuse me? Can you explain the logic to that? Because it was you it was ok, now someone else does it it's evil and wrong. What are you 2? That is the logic of a selfish child.

Immigration!!! Something must be done!!! Ok. A bill got sent from the Senate to the House where it has languished for over 500 days. I thought you wanted to  do something about immigration. You are a bunch of assholes who can't tell the truth about anything. Everything is spun in the bubble of Obama is evil, wrong, Kenyan, socialist, marxist, (black).

After mid terms there were flowery speeches by Mr Turtle and the Orange Man about how they would try to work together. 2 days later the war resumed. The president is "Poisoning the well." "Waving a red flag in front of a bull."

First off, the well was poisoned day one when the GOP decided to destroy the president even if they must take the country with him. "Our first goal is to make him a one term president." Great goal Mr. Turtle. You failed. But they still didn't do anything to help the country.

Waving a red flag in front of a bull. Think about that. The president is a matador, and the GOP by their own admission, is a large stupid enraged animal that, at the end of the bull fight, gets killed. Where are the fucking picadors to bleed the bull out before the president stabs it in the heart?

Voters also make me wonder. They think the president is wrong. 55 months of job growth after the financial collapse of  2008. The stock market is over 17,000. It's 3 times what it was in 2008. Gas is under $3 in most of the nation. And Obama gets blamed for... What?

Voters are unsatisfied with their lives? So they vote in a bunch of assholes who plan to destroy the country for 2 years until the 2016 election when the senate will flip back to democrats.

Are we that fucking stupid?

Apparently.

President Obama compliments John Boehner on his nose. John Boehner cuts his own nose off.
And kills a puppy.

Mid Term Elections

Today is the day to vote. Finally. The silence of the television without vitriolic political ads will be blissful.

I understand that roughly 50% of the nation is Democrats, and 50% is roughly GOP. What I have never understood is why 49% of the GOP actually vote for the GOP. They are concerned with the 1% of the nation who are millionaires and billionaires. The policies the GOP advocate are for them. The GOP do things for the advantage of the super rich and to the detriment of the 99%, not to mention the planet.

Voting for the GOP is like having a wooden house and hiring a person to work in your house who is a pyromaniac wearing a lit flame thrower. You know he wants to burn the house down. And you ave him access  to your place. The GOP/TP don't care about the country. They want to burn it down. Why would you vote for them? It makes no sense.

The political ads on TV for the last 3 months are name calling and saying that the other guy is a shitbag lying son of a bitch. But that doesn't tell me anything other than you have no respect for your adversary. My main question is, what do you want to do? Do you have any aspirational ideas? Or is it political name calling? Do you have a plan, any plan, or is it just "I'm better than that fucker."

The democrats need to grow a spine. If you look where the country was in 2008 and where it is now, it's a huge improvement. It might not be a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage perfection of the 1950's, but it beats Europe by a long shot. They did austerity. We did growth. And it wasn't even a huge stimulus program. It was modest because it couldn't get past the GOP otherwise.

The stock market is 2 times what it was in 2008. The jobs lost in the recession came back for the most part. Why are the Dems not trumpeting that? If  the GOP has a successful shit they take a picture of it in the bowl and put it on Fox. Democrats, be proud of not destroying the country. You saved it. You got healthcare passed in the country. The GOP want to tear it out despite that it was modeled on a GOP program. Anything the black muslim communist socialist kenyan usurping president must be destroyed.

The GOP Congress should be ashamed of the obstruction they willfully did which hurt the nation so they could help their party. What a bunch of selfish douchebags. They are the 3 year olds of politics throwing tantrums in Target. And they might get rewarded by taking over the Senate today. The thing is, they will get nothing accomplished. All the obstruction they did will now be returned. They will need 60 votes to get any bill to the floor for even a fucking discussion. Just like what they did for the past 6 years. They will try to get all their pro business anti-environment, anti-people, anti-Earth ideas passed. And the Dems will stop them.

It's stupid to have this kind of gridlock. They hurt the country out of spite. What is bad is they keep getting re-elected. Congress, the House and Senate, have a lower approval rating than Herpes. A STD has a higher approval rating than our elected officials. So we should vote them out and vote in Herpes. But in a way, they are Herpes. They never go away and they flare up from time to time with horrific results.

I think the nation would be well served if the GOP congress and senate were to take a bus trip... off a cliff to their fiery demise.

But with the GOP voters growing older and older, they will die out and become irrelevant.

Breaking Bad Toy vs. Uptight Woman

A woman somewhere saw a Breaking Bad toy in Toys R Us. The toys accessory was meth. The toy is made for people over the age of 15 and up. This woman is so offended, she has started a petition to get the store to remove the toy from the shelves.

This is just fucking stupid.

It’s ridiculous that this woman is so offended by a toy she wants it removed. Why? In the same aisle are figures of Freddy Kruger of Nightmare on Elm Street. It comes with a razor glove just like in the movie. There’s also Jason Voorhies from Friday the 13^th. It comes with a hockey mask and machete. Why is she not offended by serial killers who kill teenagers who are fucking? Is it just the drugs the woman is offended by? I mean, seriously. Why is this woman offended by a toy?

There are people who are offended by Barbie dolls. They think that it makes little girls anorexic, gives them an unrealistic body expectation.

Some people are offended by army men or toy guns because VIOLENCE! Do they start petitions? Nope.

Was she offended by Grand Theft Auto 4? The game has you selling drugs, running over people, and killing hookers. Where was her outrage? Would a petition be able to force Toys R Us to remove the game that made more money than many hollywood blockbusters? Or would the store say "fuck off" because people were lining up to get the game? The toy probably didn't sell a huge number of units. The store probably figured it's easier to remove the offending figure than to fight the stupid, uptight lady. 

Does this woman sit in a movie she hates and watch the whole thing and complain about it? That’s fucking stupid. If something offends you, leave. But don’t try to have the movie theater stop playing the movie. There are people who enjoy that form of entertainment. Just like there are people who want to collect the toy.

Basically, don’t like the toy, FUCKING, DON’T BUY IT.

The petition had 8000 signatures. Yeah, out of a country with 330,000,000 people, 8000 isn’t even .000008% of the populace. So a teeny tiny percentage of the uptight populace removes a toy instead of going to a different aisle to shop.  Toys R Us capitulated and is removing the toy from the shelves. So your morality wins, you intolerant person.  I bet she’s a conservative who home schools her kids.  

The thing I find weird, when the show was finishing it's run, the media went nuts with its acclaim of the show and the actors. But now, it's a pariah because of a toy. 

 If stores removed things which piss people off, there would hardly be anything on the shelves. Someone is bound to be pissed f by something that a sane person would not think of being pissed off by.

Politics 2014

Politics are getting really mean. Or maybe has always been mean.

 All the ads on TV before the November election are very mean. They don’t say much. They basically say their opponent sucks, or is liberal. In Arizona the worst thing you can say, apparently, is that your opponent is LIBERAL. And that a Democrat voted with Obama and his agenda.

The thing that makes no sense, it’s a Democrat voting with a Democratic president. All the GOP voted lockstep with George Bush. Isn’t that what you would expect? The person in the same party, who believes the same as the president, would vote for the things that president wants to do?  It’s common sense. And the candidates are running away from it. They are not embracing the ACA. It has gotten 10 million people health coverage. If the GOP crossed the street successfully, you heard about it on the news, “Yup, didn’t get run over while crossing the street!”

There’s  someone, who is not a candidate for anything,  putting  up  signs all over Scottsdale, AZ. “Want more bars and drunks? Re-elect So & so.”  Or, “Want Light Rail in Scottsdale? Vote So & so”

Um, what elected office is in charge of bars and drunks? I don’t know. Do you? And what is wrong with light rail? It might be a bit expensive to do, but there’s a lot of cities with light rail. San  Diego. Tucson. San Francisco. Why is transportation bad? I don’t get their reasoning and they didn’t explain why it’s bad.

What I do wonder about in politics is why politicians don’t get called out by the talking heads on TV who are interviewing them. When a politician says something that is blatantly false, why doesn’t the interviewer say, “No, that’s wrong.” And then bring out the truth? I end up screaming at the TV like Chuck Todd should be able to fucking hear me. It would be fascinating if they pressed the politician for the truth. How would they justify their positions?

I just want to vote. And then mourn the GOP taking the senate. They would do nothing useful except send crazy fucking bills to the president to sign. He will spend 2 years vetoing all the crazy. But the GOP doesn’t realize that the voters will remember and take vengeance on them and they will lose big in 2016.

Random Thoughts

Haven't had much to say lately. Don't know why. Or what I had to say I didn't feel like blogging.

I've been looking at peoples tattoos. I think I figured out a very weird thing about them that if I got tattoos would make me crazy. I would want them to be symetrical. The people I see with tattoos on their bodies have sort of a haphazard placement of the artwork in whatever space the shape could fit. I think I'd need for the tattoos to be balanced and symetrical. If I got one thing on my right arm I'd have to get the exact thing on my left arm in the same place. Which is weird.

I also need my Yoga mat to be equally under my body when laying down doing yoga. Otherwise I have no Zen.

I bought a new car. When I was looking for a car I found the process kind of annoying. They are trained to not let you get away without making a sale. I got the information I needed and then left the dealership. To prove to them I could totally walk away from any deal. It took me a long time for them to come up with a deal for me. Fucking give me numbers. Is the process supposed to take so long you buy a fucking car just so you can leave and go home? Man, that was an ordeal.

To give them my old car, 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse, 195,021 miles, I had to clean it out of all my stuff. No joke, it took an hour and 15 minutes. I had so many bits of paper and things that it took a long time. I had a flashlight to see under the seats. I only found one petrified french fry. Who knows what year that was from. But there was paper from 2006 in the glove box. After I cleaned out the car I washed him and vacuumed him. Then put in a little gas. I loved the car but there were imminent things which would need to be repaired to make him function longer and it didn't make sense to pour a lot of money into the 13 year old car.

It's been hot as fuck this month. I don't recall it being this bad in prior years. Tell me climate change ain't real. And tell that to the walruses and polar bears who are treading water in the arctic.

I'll do more later. 

Robin Williams

I was an extra on the set of The Birdcage back in the summer of 1995. I didn't do extra work often but I wanted to see how Robin Williams worked. He was one of my acting heroes and had been for years. It seemed like there was nothing he couldn't do. From riffing Shakespeare to heavy drama. Who would have thought of the Shakespeare riff, "I fear not fellatio, yes, I am a cunningliguist." ?

On the set of Birdcage, before we went in the studio which held the bar set, we were told where we sat was where we were probably going to spend the rest of the week. I was in the front of the crowd at the door and sussed out immediately where I wanted to be. I walked briskly to the front of the stage and planted myself in the set right next to the stairs which descended the stage. It was the start of a memorable week.

Movie making is a tedious process. It's not all that glamorous. There is a lot of waiting around in between takes. Many stars will retire to their dressing rooms and hang out. Not Robin. He was walking among the crowd in the bar on many occasions talking and riffing and doing impressions. He learned that Al Pacino's dad, Sal was in the audience. That prompted Robin to bring his mom down  and put her in the crowd of the wedding at the end of the movie.

In the movie Nathan Lane is performing the nightclub act. This was shot many times. From the audience facing Nathan. Then there was the reverse angle from the stage so they could film audience reactions. Nathan did the words of the script. We laughed. They did it again. We laughed, but less. And a again. Less reaction. Then the director, Mike Nichols who directed things like the Graduate, gave the mic to Robin. Without any preparation he did 15-30 minutes of brilliant stand up. The audience reactions were real. It was fabulous.

During filming with Robin, Mike Nichols had Robin do the script one or two times. Then Robin would get to experiment bit by bit. Then when Mike had everything he needed, he would ask Robin if he had one he wanted to do. Almost always he did. It was great to watch his creativity and freedom. Something all actors should aspire to have. "Robin's takes" were always funny but sometimes too big for the movie.

During a lull in filming one day, we were all sitting in our places waiting for things to get going again. We were waiting on lighting or camera or some such. Robin was on the stage right side of the wings. I don't really know how it started. Maybe I waved to him or something, but we started doing fake sign language to each other. I don't know if it was 5 seconds or 3 minutes.  But I was RIFFING WITH ROBIN WILLIAMS! The crowd started to notice and laugh. I was focused on him and what he did, then I would respond with something I hoped would be funny and appropriate. I didn't want to disappoint him. Then the Voice of God mic released a booming voice. "Okay Robin. That's enough." It was Mike Nichols. He wasn't angry, they were just ready to go again. So like admonished school boys, we stopped. When leaving the set that day, I made my way over to Robin and said, "Thank you for riffing with me today."  He smiled, nodded, and made a small noise. I think I saw a little of the shy man that was inside.

He was a very gracious and incredibly nice man. I encountered him on a few other occasions while working. I nearly hit him with the door as I came quickly into a room. He was very nice about it.

I mourn the loss of such talent and genius.His death hit me harder than anyone in a very long time. 

I hope he found some peace.

SCOTUS and Birth Control.

The Supreme court came down in a 5-4 decision for Hobby Lobby not having to cover birth control they (erroneously) think causes abortions. Hobby Lobby needs to get educated on vaginas and birth control.

The thing that has been interesting to watch is the reaction on social media. On Facebook someone I know is an Ayn Randian type of conservative. You pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of guy. Even if you don't have boots you lazy fuck. He was saying a corporation shouldn't have to fund birth control if they are against it.

Firstly, it's a corporation. An entity for business. It ain't a person. I don't see Walmart or Hobby Lobby trying to fit in the pews at the local Catholic church. Because it can't it's a business. Corporations make filing taxes easier by considering them a person. And Citizens United says this corporate entity has the right to free speech like a real person. And floodgates of money opened and woe to the voting public...

Now I wonder if you were hired by a Christian Scientist, would you get any insurance coverage at all? They don't believe in MEDICINE. None of it. You get better by praying to god. Don't pray strong enough and you die. Example of a Christian Scientist? Jim Henson of the Muppets fame. Died of pneumonia because he didn't believe in penicillin. But penicillin believed in him and could have saved his creative ass. Are Christian Scientist owners going to bring a suit to the supreme court? Could happen.

How about Muslims? A Muslim owner of a business could be following Sharia law ans force women to wear burkas. Or deny insurance for women. If a Muslim had gone to the Supreme Court with this same lawsuit, would they have decided in the same way? The 5 justices are Catholic. Would they rule the same way for Islam? Or would they vote against it because they aren't Christian? I really would like to know.

A female friend of mine thinks they would have voted the same way in either case because it is anti-vagina. They are keeping women as second class citizens.

When are the old fuckers on the Supreme Court going to die? It needs to get packed with people who don't think corporations are people and women should be protected equally under the law.

The really hypocritical thing about the decision... Viagra and condoms and vasectomies are cover by Hobby Lobby's insurance. What a double standard.

Last of...

I was in a grocery store today. Usually I breeze in and out quickly. I know what I want and where to find it. I rarely just wander the aisles. As I was walking I saw and old man talking to a woman with a shopping cart. They were strangers, I could tell from the conversation. I don't know how it started but I eavesdropped as I walked by.

Old man: I'm the last one standing. No one in my family is left. I'm last of the Mohicans. I'm 96. I don't have much time left.

He didn't say it with any bitterness. Maybe just resignation. He was waiting. He seemed in a good mood. Very talkative.

The woman tried to say something comforting to him. I had walked out of earshot by the time she tried to answer. I got my groceries and headed back to where he had been. I don't know why. I wanted to say something. Meet him. I don't know. Something in my heart hurt for him. His aloneness or something like that resonated with me.

When I got to where he had been, he was gone.I looked around the rest of the store, but I guess he had left. At the check stand I engaged the cashier in world cup talk. But my mind was elsewhere hoping that man was not really as alone as he said.

Monogamy

I find monogamy to be a little odd. How in the world are two people supposed to find one another captivating for the rest of their lives? Love is one thing, Lust is another. Both can work simultaneously in the form of a person. But they can also work separately.

Love grows over time. Lust can walk thru the lobby of  a hotel, and you would like to sleep with that woman.

I don't know. My folks have been married for over 45 years. How many years I really don't know the exact number. I have some friends who have been married for less than 20. A few years back they opened up the marriage to other sex partners. Why? It was not going well, they were not happy as it was, and divorce wasn't really an option they would consider. So rather than throwing the whole relationship in the dustbin, or staying in a bad marriage, they expanded. It appears to have worked well. I don't judge. It's not the first swingers I've known. Or Poly arrangements I have known.

Let's face it, sex is fun. And though the super religious say god frowns on anything but man and woman marriage, I think it was a way for the church to control people. Because if you look in the bible for marriage definitions, you end up with guys that have multiple wives and concubines. There's verses that say if a soldier rapes a woman from another country, they are now married. ?!?! Fucking really? That's gonna be a great loving marriage. Not! Of if a brother dies, he has to marry the wife of the brother. Again, really? That doesn't make sense.

But so much of the bible doesn't make sense. People would tell you that is the old testament and is not used in Christianity. You say Potato/ I say Studebaker. Picking and choosing what you use out of a religious tome to suit your argument has always struck me as dishonest.

Controlling sex was a way to control people. And the ones who wanted to control sex say god doesn't like ________________. Fill in the blank. Whether it's straight, gay , bisexual, there's going to be someone somewhere trying to control what people do in the privacy of their own homes.

For most of the natural world, mating happens only when females are in heat. Primates can fuck at the drop of a hat. For most of human sex doesn't produce offspring. Why do we do it? It's fun. Sex is fun. New partners are a rush. You have no idea how they are going to react, what they look like sound like, feel like, smell like. It's exciting to be with someone new. There's a flood of endorphines and oxytocin. The brain releases a soup of chemicals.

I understand idea of monogamy but I always seem to think there's swinging going on that we don't know about. So having an unrealistic expectation for monogamy seems foolish. If a married couple of 20 years has sex 3 times a year, say birthdays and anniversary, well, what good is the marriage? It probably exists in a state of quiet discordance. I have looked in cars as I've been driving and I can usually tell the couples that have been together a long time. They aren't talking or engaged with each other. That I find sad. I'd rather be alone than in a relationship that is quiet and tense. 

So what brought this around? Fuck, I don't know. Just thinking out loud. Kind of wish I was swinging thru the trees of swinging.

War

On the possible verge of another war in Iraq, it made me think.

America hasn't WON a war since World War II. That war had a definitive end. There were treaty signings and parades and We Fucking Won! posters all over the place. But since then America hasn't won a war even though we have been in a state of combat almost the whole time since then.

Korea. That war has technically not ended. There is no truce or signing of a treaty. If there were a treaty then why do we still have troops at the DMZ? I had a friend in the Army who was stationed there. He told me that almost every week the North Koreans try to get some kind of incursion across the DMZ. Just no one hears about it. It's not news.

Vietnam. We lost thousands of troops and spent lots of money, but in the end we packed up and left. Let Vietnam "fall to the communists." But the funny thing is, there is capitalism in Vietnam and tourists go there often. If the war had stopped earlier, maybe that transition would have happened sooner.

Then there are little skirmishes all over the globe. Grenada. We were fighting for... Sheep? Somolia. We were fighting... I don't know who, but we left without any resolution. The Middle East. Beirut. We had a bunch of peace keeping marines blown up there in the 80's. Reagan said "Fuck this", and withdrew everyone.

Gulf War #1. Iraq did a dick move and invades Kuwait. We go over there and blow the shit out of everything. The news said we were not in Iraq. That's wrong. I had a friend on an LAV who said they were 60 miles from Baghdad and were ordered to turn around. All the oil fields that were on fire when the war was over? Yeah, US troops blew those up, not retreating Iraqis. Yup. We are the dick who crashes a party and clogs up the toilet, then sneaks out without trying to fix the plumbing.

The 80's and 90's were skirmishes usually in the Middle East. Libya, Lebanon, the PLO, nothing that could be defined as a war, but also without a real ending. We just kinda threw up our hands and said "Meh." And we left.

When 9/11 happened the neocons in the GW Bush White House, came in their collective pants. We could go blow the shit out of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but then attack Iraq. Just because.  So that is what we did. Blew up the Taliban. Then pointed to Saddam and said, "He's got WMDs! We must blow up more shit!" The war in Iraq leads us to where we are now. We took a stable dictatorship and destabilized it.

Was Saddam Hussein a bad guy? Oh, hell yes. But he was the only thing keeping the thousand years of Sunni and Shia hatred from doing what it's doing now. Saddam had his secular country under control by being a brutal dictator. When he was out of power we couldn't set up a western style democracy because that's not the way they think. It's tribal. They are more likely to tell you they are Sunni or Shiite than Iraqi.

So the drumbeat of war is on again from the GOP. "This whole mess is Obama's fault for not keeping troops in Iraq for the next 100 years." That is the GOP mind set. Thing is, it's not our country. We only went in and destablized it for a reason that has proven false. Before the British decided the borders of Iraq around the turn of the century, there were 3 separate lands. One for the Sunni, one for the Shiite, and one for the Kurds in the north.

We shouldn't be in this civil war because we are bad at winning wars.

John Boehner Is Not...

There has been a lot of GOP senators and congressmen who have been lately saying a very simple cop out phrase to deny science. Whether that science is climate change or fracking or some other thing they don't want  to address.

"I'm not a scientist..." They think that simple phrase gets them off the hook for the tough questions. But it's a bullshit answer. Ok, you aren't a scientist. But the people who wrote whatever report you don't want to acknowledge ARE scientists. They have been working in their fields for many years and they can state with authority that something is a scientific truth.

When a scientist comes up with something they think is  truth they publish a paper on the subject. This makes others in the field do experiments to see if they can disprove your findings. When more scientists get the same answer you did, it gets closer to being an accepted scientific truth.

So back to politicians. If they say they are not qualified to weigh in on a subject, they won't have to legislate or try to keep something bad, like rising sea levels, from happening. But that's bullshit. They were sent there to do tough things. Though it's difficult to do tough things when you only work 108 days a year...

So John Boehner is not a scientist. Fine. I have come up with a list of things he also is not.

John Boehner is not a  fairy princess.
... a short order cook at a greasy truck stop on highway 95.
... a dog walker in Central Park.
... a flamenco dancer called Juan Boner.
... a trashy romance novelist.
... a transexual scuba diving instructor in the Maldives.
... one third of a Vegas act called "The Orange Man Group."
... a superhero who fights crime using cigarette breath and whisky.
... a zombie extra on The Walking Dead.
... a thinking legislator...

Factory Reset

I wish there was a factory reset button for our bodies. With a computer if something catastrophic happens you can drop in a disk and return the machine back to the settings it had when it was fresh out of the box.

The human body needs that.

I'm saying this after having a medical issue that which really sucked and is leaving me with traces of pain. The proper term is post herpetic neuralgia. I had shingles. On my face. It felt like I was getting a facial tattoo 24/7.  But after the outbreak on my face had scabbed over and healed, the pain remained. It's the nerves which were damaged by the shingles not going back to normal. I'm on meds, but it is taking a while for it to work. I hope it works soon.

So my wanting a reset is to get rid of the pain and have my face feel normal again. But in the reset scenario all the other damage to my body would be gone. The injuries from work and sports and other things I still carry. I think everyone has these traces of a life lived with them but you get used to the  pain. And the amount of pain you can get used to is pretty amazing. It just settles in and becomes a new normal.

I don't want this nerve pain to be a long term new normal. I want to reset.

Ode to Neil

I was working a gig last week. Neil Degrasse Tyson was speaking at the event. It became my mission to be at the 2 meetings he spoke at.

The first meeting was a small one for some students. He did a Q&A instead of prepared remarks. I loved how intelligent he spoke off the cuff. He was articulate and engaging. There was one question a student asked I remember. "If there was a pill which would let you live forever would you take it?"

He thought for a moment and I'm going to paraphrase his answer. 'Because we have a finite period of time on the planet and we don't know how long that is, we have a drive to do things. If you knew you would live forever there is no urgency to get out of bed. There is always going to be tomorrow to do something. But I'd probably take the pill.'

Good answer. I don't know if I'd be aware that forever would make people stop striving to accomplish anything. I wouldn't take the pill because you'd have to work forever.

The second meeting he spoke at was in the lunch session. It was a speech I think he's given many times before. Probably since 2010. There was a slide he used that he hadn't updated since 2010. It was interesting. He pointed out how many Jews had won the Nobel Prize. It was over 20% of the prizes given out. He then commented how many Muslims had won a Nobel Prize in the sciences. 3. And that was because of an anti-curiousity which happened in Islam after the 12th century. Why does something happen? Allah's will. A number of the things he said were also integrated into the Cosmos series on FOX. A few things paralleled what was said in the series but stated more plainly. In a way that might offend people if they chose to take offense.

Then, later, as I was walking down one of the hallways in the hotel I saw a crowd of people. In the middle of the crowd was Tyson. He had been waylayed in the hallway by some people with questions. As I approached I heard him giving a master class.

There was a woman, white, 50's, who was trying to refute climate change. Her arguments were weak and conspiratorial. She was a watcher of right wing news and talk, and it came out later she was even further down the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories.

Tyson was a gentleman and never said she was stupid. He gently tried to tell truth to a mind like a closed fist. She said climate change was just so wealth could be redistributed. She pointed out that a TCP report changed data to match the desired finding. I thought TCP reports were in the movie Office Space.

Tyson told her where she was wrong but she insisted. She had one fact and that was going to disprove EVERYTHING. The crowd around her was rolling it's eyes. She was monopolizing his attention and hadn't seen she'd already lost. He told her if she didn't believe climate change then don't sell your beach front house.

He talked about Katrina and New Orleans. The same woman said "We can steer hurricanes." That stopped him. He looked directly at her. "No, we can't." Her reply was, "We've been able to control the weather since the 60's." His reply was the only hint of sarcasm he empoyed, "Oh, The Illuminati!" This got a laugh out of the crowd.

The woman asked him about elongated skulls that had been found in South America. "I don't know anything about that." He replied. Which was an interesting thing. He stated that he had no information about a subject. Which is probably the best thing to do rather than bullshit a subject you don't know anything about. The woman continued, "They did NASA testing and found there was alien DNA in the bone." Again he replied. "I haven't heard anything about that." I do recall seeing a program on some Discovery channel about elongated skulls. But it was Ancient Aliens, I think. If anything on that show had been proven true, it would be called SCIENCE. The woman, undaunted, pulled out her smart phone and, I think, started doing a web search for elongated skulls to prove to him something she said was not crazy. She didn't succeed.

One man in the crowd looked at her tag, and asked what company she was with. I think to find out what company hired the conspiracy loving nutcase and never do business with them.

Others asked questions. One was about evolution and man. The asker was saying "in 10,000 years..." Tyson said it isn't a case of 10,000 years but millions of years. Which is true. Evolution is a slow process.

It was fun to hear him speak extemporaneously on so many subjects while just in a hallway. I think I was there for 30 minutes. Then he did some pictures with people, some selfies with others. After that he went to get ice cream. Which is where he was headed when he got stopped by questions.

Truly a kind man, a brilliant man. And at no time did he talk down to people but made his point in language others could  understand. I could tell there is a side to him that can be firm and immovable. I saw glimpses of it in my 3 encounters.

Organized Lazy

I was working an overnight strike a few weeks back. Taking down a large truss structure by myself. I had some assistance from the AV guys who work for the hotel. When the next shift came in at 5 am things should have gone faster. It didn't. I was busy doing my job and one of the guys who was fresh and not up for 20+ hours didn't really help. He sort of organized the things they needed to do. Things they would do after I've left.

The thing that irked me is I needed help right then. I didn't need to know that they had to go get a lectrun, the clear one or that after that... Having a plan is great but it's tough to move onto the next things when the task at hand is not complete. And when you see someone struggling lend a hand.

But his organizational skills... Wow, kept him from hard work...

Work Gloves

Sometimes when I work I wear gloves to protect my hands. I have had a lot of gloves over the years. They end up looking like my gloves pictured below. This was a pair of gloves I had for a long time. I don't know how long. Not really. I would use them; lose them in the car or at home, and then find them again. It was kind of a theme. When it comes to losing gloves I generally misplace the right glove. I have a number of left hand gloves. I never know where the right hand gloves go. To the same place as socks in the dryer I imagine.
I had these glove for well over a year maybe longer. But as I was using them the other day I would stare at them when I had a moment. They were soaked with oil from motor chains. The fingers on one glove had multiple repairs done with gaff tape. At one point my hand looked like the Infinity Gauntlet from comic books because I had repaired the holes using brightly colored gaff tape. A different color on each finger.

 On the back side you can see a bit of green gaff tape under the white tape on the right middle finger...

As I was looking at them the other day I thought, "I want to burn these gloves." This became an easily obtainable goal because I was going to a party in 2 days that would have a bonfire. So I went out and bought a package of 3 work gloves to replace the soon to be ash gloves and put the gloves to be burned back in the car.

At the party I lit the bonfire and piles some wood on the duraflame log which was used to start the fire. When it was merrily burning I tossed on the left glove. I didn't make it a big deal, no reason to call attention to my pyromanical urge. The glove caught fire quickly like you would expect oil infused leather leather to do. What I didn't consider is how much it would smoke. Black smoke, like you see when an oil well is burning.

The fire quickly consumed the glove. It was reduced to ash in minutes. I tossed the other glove on. It went up fast but didn't belch out as much black smoke as the first one. It too was turned to ash.

I think I'll do this again in a few years when retiring the next set of gloves. When they are too damaged and covered in oil to be useful, I'll repeat the immolation. A Viking funeral, as it were...

People Vex Me

I'll admit first up that I'm a dick.

I was working a gig with a bunch of technicians in my day job. We were setting up for an event. There was one guy I was working with who didn't impress me much. For a lot of reasons. And as I worked with him my dislike for him grew.

When working with people who swear every other word I start paying attention to the words I am using. FUCK is a very versatile word. Noun, verb, adverb, adjective, pronoun, dangling participle. This guy was using so many F bombs it made me wonder if he swears like that around his 4 kids. It made him sound uneducated. And I endeavored to curtail my cussing while there.

We were doing something and I said the word "evolution." This guy piped up and said, "that's a theory which hasn't been proven." I looked at him. He continued, "Like, fucking monkeys are still evolving?" I refrained from challenging him on this. I had already corrected him on something earlier and I think I made him feel stupid. It wasn't intentional on my part. He had said, "The Atlantic ocean is fuckin' 7000 miles across." Without thinking I said "3000."  "No, it's 7000." "No. It's 3000." Another guy I was working with agreed that it was 3000. We lamely threw him a bone and said the Pacific is about 7000.

So when he said that thing about monkeys still evolving I turned away and went to work on another part of the project. Monkeys may still be evolving. They probably are. But to expect a quantum leap in evolution by next Tuesday makes me think you don't have a grasp on how evolution works. It takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years. I bet he was raised religious. So I didn't want to fuck with his world view which is filtered thru his religion. If he believes the earth is 6-10,000 years old because the bible tells him so, then me coming at him with facts won't change his view.

I think I get offended by people's proud ignorance. To feel superior because they are reveling in their own stupidity galls me. And his views were not just ignorant, but paranoid. He turned down the school district's offer to identify his kids. Take pictures and finger prints and DNA samples in case they are abducted. He thought they were going to use it for some nefarious purpose. We asked what if his kids get abducted. His reply was, "they aren't going to get anything from me because we have no money." What about the guy who had 3 girls in his basement for 10 years in Ohio? Was he out for money? No. He was raping them constantly because he was a monster. People don't abduct children for money. They are going to rape and kill them. I plan to have my children chipped like a dog.

He also turned down free dental care offered by the school. "They are just going to try to sell me something." It was inconceivable to him that a government agency might do something for the good of a child like free dental so the kid's teeth aren't shitty.

I avoided working with him when I could.

Like I said, I'm a dick.

Odd Jobs

I was working 6 days for a birthday party. For young kids. It was a lot of time and money spent for kids who won't remember it but will have videos and photos.

The parents are very wealthy. I mentioned the party to some people and described it. There were some comments about rich people and the extravagant things they did with the money which most people can't conceive of. In my mind the parents did nothing wrong.

What did they do?
Put hundreds of people to work. Florists, craftsmen, performers, lighting people, set people.
Pumped millions into the economy because they want to throw a great party for their kids.
Made it so I didn't have to fret about how rent for February gets paid.

In my mind, awesome.

I work for some very rich people during the year. Do they know me by name? Probably not. But it doesn't matter to me. I'm trying to survive, and they are paying me as a skilled laborer.

Sometimes you have to work for the rich guy. I'm okay with that.

Snubs

Every award season the media talk about who got snubbed by some award nominating committee. Social media gets all upset that someone does their best work ever but didn't get the nod.

As an actor I don't feel bad for the 4 time nominated actor who has won twice, but didn't get the nomination this time. Does the world think that the only actors out here are in the movies or TV? There are a lot of actors who can do almost ever single role you see on any screen. Talent is not rare. Getting noticed, getting a team to represent you, getting the opportunity is rare.

I did an audition one time at ILM for a small film. The audition was in one of the studios with the camera and sound guys who worked at ILM. The director had called in favors to get some help. I did my audition, it was an emotional piece. The sound guy laying on the floor at my feet with a boom mic commented to me when there was a moment. He told me of an A list actor who did some scenes for a mega hit that were emotional. The star had to have the room cleared of everyone so he could concentrate and nail the scene. He thought I was as good as the movie star. This was surprising to me. I have done a great deal of live theatre. You can't clear the audience so you can nail a scene. They are the ones you are performing for.

There's a lot of talent out there. Actors putting in the time and the work for the love of it. The awards might be nice for the .005% of the actors who are nominated, but I'll still like a live audience for validation.

So don't feel sad for an actor in a mansion who didn't get a nomination. They will get the opportunity to act in a big movie again real soon.