Random Thoughts

1. I read in the news online that brain death may not happen when the heart stops. So that's awesome. The mind will continue to scream WHAT THE FUCK!?!  after the heart stops pumping blood. I saw a Twilight Zone type show that had the same premise. A guy created a drug that kept the conciousness alive after the body died. The tag to the show was the lights passing overhead as his body with the screaming living mind was taken to autopsy. Or something like that.

Maybe when the body dies a bullet should be put into the brain to kill the mind.

But who does the research to figure this shit out? That's so fucked up and not the least bit comforting.

2. I was reading Methuselah's Children by Robert Heinlein this week and one sentence struck me.

"Whenever the citizens fix their attention on one issue to the exclusion of other, the situation is ripe for scalawags, demagogues, ambitious men on horseback."
 
That pretty much covers so many politicians this past year. They fed upon the tea party's hatred of all things democratic. And who were the scalawags on horseback? Ted Cruz. Rand Paul. Darrell Issa. etc. They demagogued Benghazi, the ACA. Created scandals where there were none.

I long for the day when they get voted out of congress. Or are found in congress with a boy sheep.

3. My dad could have died recently from a whole pile of stupidity. I'll list the things that could have led to this.
 A. When going to the desert leave directions on where you are going.
 B. Take water. More than a pint bottle. Duh.
 C. Have a fully charged cell phone. Or a charger in the car. Even if there is no signal then you can walk to find one. A cell phone with a dead battery is a fucking paperweight.
 D. Don't be concerned about the cost of a tow  truck to pull your mechanically disabled truck out of the mud. Death or being cheap... Hmmmm....
E. When you are found by  guys on dirt bikes ask to be taken to civilization.

My dad went with a friend to look at some land she had in the desert around Lake Pleasant in AZ. Her cell phone is old and the battery lasts mere hours. They had the linkage in the truck break and the tire got stuck in mud. They were going to walk out some dirt road. When the guys on dirt bikes (motorcycles) found them they were out of water. They gave them some. They walked back to the truck. The dirt bikers came and checked on them. One had mechanical knowledge and was able to do something so the truck would start and go forward. But only forward. They also had small shovels and cleared the tire from the mud. Once free they got back to civilization, picked up my Dad's car, and then they went to drop the truck at my Dad's mechanic.

This trip which should have been 3 hours was 12. Yeah, it's not like it was Colorado in December, but had the guys on dirt  bikes not come along, this would be a different ending to the story.

The woman will now forever be known as the person who almost got my Dad killed.

Camelback 2013

While in Phoenix I did the yearly jaunt up Camelback Mountain with Terry. It's a yearly test, basically, just to see how fucked up my body is.

The time up the mountain this year was 48:31, and the down time was 37:10. Though Terry had a different down time on his watch even though we were walking down together. He had 27 minutes. I think he read it wrong and before he could look at it again he deleted the time from his watch.

I didn't stop as we climbed the trail like i did last year, but kept a steady pace. I beat my time up last year but I was faster paced last year because I had stopped more than once to catch my breath. Slower pace, quicker time. Don't really know how that works out. The difference this year, according to Terry: Less cussing.

I was just trudging along I guess.

I do wonder how fast he could do it on his own.

Ghosts of Friends Past

I was looking at my old address book tonight. I was trying to figure out who I would send Christmas cards to. As I was looking page by page I was wondering what happened to these people who were important enough to write their names in the address book.

People I met while pursuing an acting career. People I trained with in London and San Francisco, some I met while doing theatre in San Diego at the Globe and the Rep. The faces and voices which accompany the names were easy to remember for most everyone. There were a few names I couldn't place. A number of people had died. Some years ago, some more recent. There were a lot of old defunct addresses. And some people had moved a multitude of times.

2 people had their own pages in the address book. Both front and back because they moved so often. One was in the Army and subject to the whim of his employment, and the other was a vagabond until he married and moved to Culver City.

I went on the internet and took a list of  20 or so names to delve into. These were people I was closer to or we had trained together.Which for actors means long hours, parties, and drinking and shenanigans. Some were girls I liked but never connected with.

What did I find out? A lot of the actors trained in acting then did something else entirely. There were a few who continued to work in some capacity. The searches were intersting because as actors we tend to have a bigger footprint on the internet then your average person. We do plays and shows and there's IMDb. There are pictures, headshots, and reviews of our work. Some people I didn't need to look up. They are Tony award winners. One teacher in London has an Oscar for the music to Shakespeare in Love. Another teacher (director) was Oscar nominated for Billy Elliot. One director from San Diego has been directing on Broadway for the past decade and has won Tonys. The famous are easily found.

Some names didn't register a hit at all. Like the person disappeared or was a figment of a fever dream. Some people segued into jobs in the same area, but as teachers in colleges. Some people were in pictures, but not on websites. One person was gay. Which now makes more sense when I think back on it. Maybe he didn't know it then or didn't admit it.

It was an interesting exercise in the passage of time and the evolution of people, friends, acquaintances, fellow students, co-workers.

Random Meeting at a Bus Stop

I dropped my car of at a mechanic this morning and had to take the bus to get home. I'll get the car back tomorrow afternoon. At the bus stop was an old man. I saw him walk by the mechanics shop. He had on khaki pants, a button up shirt with a tie under a Christmasy sweater. Over that was a green suit jacket. It was threadbare in a few spots. He had a couple pins on the jacket. VFW was the one that caught my eye. He was a veteran. From his age I guessed he was in WWII. In 30 minutes I waited for the bus, he told me a lot of his life story. 

 He was a WWII vet, fought on D-Day, but I didn't learn what his job was. When he was in Normandy during D-Day, he was talking to a wounded soldier. The guy said he was 15 years old. He was a big guy so he didn't look his age. The man, Larry, turned him into the CO because he was 15. The guy was pissed at getting sent home, but he was too young to fight. He wanted to go back and fight. Admirable thinking, but he's only 15. Larry may have saved his life. It makes me think of an early M*A*S*H episode "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet," when Hawkeye turns in Ronny Howard for being to young to be in the war. Ron Howard says "I'm never gonna forgive you for this! Not for the rest of my life!" To which Hawkeye replies, "Let's hope it's a long and healthy hate."

He also had a friend who survived the Indianapolis sinking. Look it up. It's a very famous military tragedy at sea. Robert Shaw talks about it in Jaws. 

Larry also hung out with Jimmy Durante and Ella Fitzgerald and other Hollywood types. He knew Tom Hanks when he was doing Bosom Buddies. I don't know if he worked in the studios, but he seemed to be in the business somehow. Behind the scenes I think.

He has lived in the same apartment in Burbank for 60 years. First with his mom and family, then on his own. the rent back then was $125!!! Now his rent is $1145. He now has a nephew living with him, but he doesn't do anything or contribute to the household funds. But "he's family and you put up with that shit, right?"

He had strong political views and he cussed a lot. Considering the circles I work in, cussing is not shocking to me. Most of his political views I would disagree with. But I wasn't there to argue with him. I was waiting for a bus. He seemed like he wanted to talk. So I listened. It was his monologue so I let him talk. It was interesting.  Who am I to interrupt? 

Thanks for the morning chat, Larry.

The Thanksgiving Non Surprise

There's bad weather this Thanksgiving. Its' all over the news. It is not like it happens all the time.

Oh, wait, it does.

Every year at Thanksgiving there is bad weather which fucks up traffic and flights all over the country. There are stories all over the news with reporters standing out in the cold, the rain and snow all to prove that winter is indeed snowy and as luck would have it, it effects travel.

Shocking.

The news should all agree to not report the bad weather in such doomsday terms. The would be allowed to run a weather story on Thanksgiving only if the conditions are awesome and beautiful. Something along the lines of, "It's a bright sunny day on Thanksgiving. The air is crisp and travel is going to be smooth." To report that there is bad weather in winter is just lame.

If the holiday were moved to April or May these yearly problems would not happen. Isn't thanksgiving a holiday to celebrate the pilgrims surviving a bad winter? Wouldn't it make sense to have it after winter and not during the beginning or middle?

I should start a petition for the change of Thanksgiving to a time when it's easy to travel.

Smoke and Vapor

The E cigarette thing is odd. Every time I see someone with an e cigarette or vapor cigarette, they seem to have this attitude. There is something that comes off them that is defiant. If you said you couldn't smoke one someplace I think they would immediately say that they "aren't smoking. It's water vapor."

The way it is held is odd too. It's more like a small flute they are ashamed to be carrying around than a cigarette. It seems they are trying to hide it so there isn't a confrontation, but they are defensive.

I don't know if the health consequences are lessened by vapor as opposed to smoke, but nicotine is not a good thing to be sucking on. I don't think it actually helps people who smoke quit smoking. It seems just to be a transition of addictions. Don't you get more nicotine this way? Without the cancer causing smoke?

It will be interesting to see what happens with laws regarding this smoking technology. Is it really a civil liberties thing? We let people kill themselves in lots of ways. Why restrict a new one?

Humans are curious things...

A 40 Hour Work Week... For Congress.

Most people think Congress sucks. And it kind of does. They spend more time raising money for the next campaign and having dueling press conferences than they do in Washington DC doing things to make the country better. No wonder herpes has a higher rating in most polls.

An average Senator and Representative make $174,000 a year.

But they only work a limited number of days. The Senate had 132 working days this year. The House had 147 days. Your average working Joe has a potential of about 261 minus holidays, so maybe 256. That's without taking any vacation time.

So an 8 hour day of work in 256 days is 2048 hours.
The Senate had 1056 hours if you figure an 8 hour day.
The House had 1176 hours with an 8 hour day.
So basically Congress is getting paid a huge salary to work half the days most everyone else in the USA does. 

But then there's the salary. $174,000.
Again figuring an 8 hour day, the Senate is paying $164.77 an hour.
The House is paying $147.96 an hour.
If they kept the same salary but worked 256 days, the hourly rate is $84.96. Still a huge amount for an hours work.
If that $84.96 were the base line for their hourly rate, and Congress got paid by the hour, the days and hours they worked this year would earn them much less. $99912.96 in the Senate and $89,717.76 in the House.

Basically make the Congress work for an hourly wage with the promise of making $174,000 if they work a 40 hour week. I bet they would work on weekends for the time and a half, and they might even unionize to get better conditions.If they worked that many hours, some things might get done. Laws might get passed. Roads, education, immigration, healthcare, all the things stalled in the Congress might improve.

Not gonna happen, but some interesting, albeit depressing, math.