After some long hard thought, at work... when i should have been working,
but i wasn't, I've concluded that neither Bush or Kerry should be president.
Frankly Kerry is a flip flopper, he flips more times than flapjack, and
flops more times than a Ben Affleck movie.
HEY OH!
But seriously folks. And Bush i mean he's the most confusing Republican this
side of the Elephant. I mean he gives us tax cuts, which I am very grateful
for and in favor of, but then he increases spending. Then he talks about
increasing jobs but encourages out sourcing, creates the do not call thingy,
and wants steriods banned from baseball. So we fire all the telemarketers,
we send all the computer crap jobs to India, and then we fire all the
steroid dealers and make baseball players have to workout. I mean is that
just insane or is that the THG talking.
Frankly I may just vote for Kerry Bush. I think he has what it takes. Kerry
Bush with his multiple personalities will discuss the issues amongst himself
and take long and hard to conclude something and then a week later do the
complete opposite. Kerry Bush is truly a man's man being both from the North
East and the heart of Texas. He has the street smarts of New Englander and the good old boy charm of a Texan. He's both a Redsox and a Rangers fan.
Likes rich celebrities and rich corporations and will do whatever it takes
to make both of them happy.
Does Kerry Bush make you confused? Me too, but at least he's not as
confusing as those other two guys running for president, what are their
names again?
Weekend went super good. We traveled to see the inlaws stopping in Atlanta both ways. ON the way down we stopped at the Hot House to see our buddy Jay. It was a ton of fun going out to dinner at Willy's. Good time of fellowship and food. Also saw my old buddy old pal Dave Graham who needs to stinkin graduate so he can concentrate on other things like... eating. But it was good to see him and Jay and all those crazy cats at the Hot House. Made me want to be a bachelor again, for a split second, but I realized I'd have to go to Tech which would require me to be smart and thats just not happening.
Macon was good, we went to some festival down town in search of a Starving Artist who was on the verge of death and would sell a painting for dirt cheap, no such luck. Art work's but expensive, I need to make my own, though I don't think Stickmen are in vogue right now. WE played many o games of settlers with the in laws and it was little fun seeing my wife dominate us in four games. The only time i ever win that game is if wifey is distracted by another good player and I can sneak by with a win.
Things are going good, we're geared up to move and wish we could do it sooner. My car is about to die, it dies a lot in idle. No se why though. Tonight's activities center around laundry, and laundry. If i don't wash some undies soon I'll be wearing long jons to work tomorrow and that is too hot for too many reasons.
I was pretty surprised no one responded to my comments on the Lost in Translation. Guess, I'm not as popular as I used to be.
Enough self loathing! I got some new specs last night that I'm picking up tonight. After some thought I decided to go back to the spectacles as in my work of staring at a computer screen all day the contacts can dry out. Plus they dry out during game playing which is very annoying. I got the best ones I could be sure to avoid a mistake i made last time, buying glasses because they had cool clip ons. Yeah my last pair i bought because they had these cool clip on sunglasses however i failed to realize the rims were an off purple color and as they got older the color faded to reveal a true purple. That and the glasses were actually too small for my face but they still fit very comfortablly. These new ones will hopefully take me to the next level of coolness... or just help me to see better.
Work is pretty hectic, i was only able to bust out one non work related email today. I'm trying to get things caught up and its taking longer than anticipated.
In other news... nothing.
So the crabbs came down for the weekend. But before their visit Roe dragged me out to see the Dawn of the Dead... and I can honestly say it was crap. I saw two movies this weekend this one, which the more and more i think about it, the more and more I think its dumb and was a waste of time and money. Though look in the Pulse for a review I sort of wrote, though as Mesh pointed out it wasn't really a review as I didn't say what I liked about the movie, though i thought my sarcastic comments said enough.
The other movie I saw this weekend was Lost in Translation. My initial opinion after the movie was over, "that sucked." I really didn't like it but after digesting the movie over and over again the more I realize there is at least some good substance to the movie. It was one of those movies you see and at first glance think, "Wow that was boring." But the more I disected it the more I saw what was there. To bottom line it: The movie was good, in the sense of themes, ideas, and characters and the cinematography was amazinig, that was something I realized right away. However the movie's story is really slow and boring. I think the movie really has a lot to offer as far as describing loneliness and the search for meaning in life, however the way these ideas are brought to the screen I felt like I was waiting for some amazing thing to happen and it never did. The one part in the movie where it felt like something was finally happening was when the two characters go out on the town to Karoke bars and what not but it was hard to follow and understand. That would be one major critque i thought at times there wasn't enough insight into what the characters were thinking, a lot of quiet reflection time. In a lot of ways it was like looking at beautiful painting but not having any sort of guidance of what to think about it. I think Sophia Copola tried to use the camera to convey the ideas in her characters heads however at times I don't think she did the best job. I dunno know, maybe I just needed some more dialogue to cue me in on what the heck was happening. I think a narrator wouldn't have been too bad, maybe that cowboy guy from the Big Lebowski, he was cool. "I know I feel a lot better knowing the dude is out there..."
Well i expect now I'll be slammed by the indies, the hipsters dufusses, and all the artsy fartsy people for not being smart enough to get Lost in the Translation.
Here's my impersonation of a person who thinks Lost in Translation was the best movie ever but doesn't know why and thinks I'm stupid for not thinking so....
"Man you just don't get it man. Man its like man you need to get Lost... and then you will find the translation. Like these people in the movie are lost, and they don't have their translators so they're like lost in the translation man. So they search Tokyo for the translation and get lost in themselves because they don't have the translation."
As the people who took french in 2nd grade and don't remember anything they learned say, "Say la vee."
I played some horrendous golf this weekend as well with the crabbanator, we stopped keeping score if thats any indication of how bad we played. Crabb did ok on the first nine, I didn't... I think my swing was lost in translation. I also got pretty sunburn. We had a good time with the Crabbs, though we think if we lived in the same town with them that our wives would insesintly shop and Crabb and I would have to get jobs at Taco bell to support their shopping sprees.
Its been a bad day, please don't take my picture. Ugh, a real crap for crap day at the old bean counter factory today. I'm working on these cases that suck to the max. My only solace was email, though I couldn't even cut out much time for that. Plus one of the co-workers is out the next two days and I get all his work too, which isn't good since I have no clue where he's at. So needless to say I'm tired and grumpy.
Going to the covenant alum dinner tonight, better be good food... or else. Its some alum thing for the losers from Covenant that were too lazy to move away and find lives outside of the Chattanooga community, should be fun. Brock the Rock will speak as well as the mayor or something Corkey? Is that his name? Oba dee oba da life goes on. I think Corker should run under the platform of as "Corker, because he's not Corky..." For those of you who don't get my pop cultural references from ten years ago, Corky was a mental handicapped person on a tv show Life Goes On. Wilfurd Brimly (Oatmeal guy) was the grandpa, other than that it had Corky who was this down-send-drum guy who just "Corked" it up as they say in the biz. He was a truly good "Corker." Unlike some other "Corky's" I know...
Anyway, the wizife (thats how snoop dawg would say it) are going to Greyfriars to chill until this shindig. Crabb and I are lookin forward to a weekend golf extravaganza, I'm going to show him that The Holtonian doesn't just dominate on the Blogsphere but also teh Golfsphere.
I read the Pulse this week, good articles, I liked Biill Colrus's personal take on alcohol, really related to it. Roe's and Mesh's piece on alcohol was good too. It makes me sad when an issue comes out and i haven't gotten in an article. Alas time slips away from this dude faster than the oil in my car leaks onto the pavement.
Well after hooking my TV up to my Sentra's Flux Capacetor and generating the 1.1 jiggawats worth of electricity our TV is back on the mend. Actually I took the wife's genius advice and unplugged and then replugged the Tv, who knew, it worked. I guess we've been just using it too much. But i took the time off to get reaquainted with my friend Civ. Also the wifey busted out a really killer bed skirt on her new sewing machine. Why a bed needs a skirt is beyond me, but hey it looks cool and it was homemade.
I must admit the guy in me, granted thats all there is in me, was a little disapointed as the posiblity of a new flat screen super pooper tv is now out of the picture in picture. Oh well.
This weekend the Crazy Crabbs are coming up to hang with the Heroic Holtons. It should be wacky weekend. I'm a dork. Not sure what we'll do, maybe the crabb and i will golf it and the wifes will shop it. Well the stomach tells me to go eat at home. I must obey
Well, so first the internet goes out at home, now the worst thing has happened... The TV Has Broken! We've had problems with our panaphonic tv in the past, basically panasonic made a real crap of a tv that my dad bought to watch the Rams Lose the Patriots in the Super bowl. Basically the tv, after a while the power button breaks. Not just the button but really the ability to turn the TV on becomes impossible, thus it won't work. You click the remote and nothing happens. Luckily we were able to watch Alias last night, but this morning it turned on for possibly the last time.
We have a back up tv at the roes that we'll go snag back from them now that they got their shnazzy new one. But it won't work well and is smaller than our defunct tv. We'll buy a new one once we move into the new house, it steaks though, i really liked that old girl. Though this time around I'll be buying one myself, not inheriting one from me pappy. I'll definately go flat screen and brand, i'm not sure on. TV"s these days are made to break, they're not making them with durability in mind so I figure anything I buy will eventually break anyway so its probably just a matter of which one looks cool. Plus with the new Digital tv's getting cheaper we'll probably buy a new one in ten years anyway. I figure i just need something to play the Cube on and do the DVD thing. Watching tv is a nice bonus though. THough I'm looking forward to a time without TV. Maybe i'll read or something... or talk to that hotty that lives in my apartment... whats her name... oh yeah, WIFE!
That being said, I love my wife more than i love anything on this planet, even more than Civ 3, even more than dare I say, French Onion soup.
WEekend was good. Parents came in. Took them out to eat on their bill, always nice of them to do that. Big River Friday---great beer and they brought back Penne Al Fresco a cheese pasta that is my favorite--its on the specials try it you'll like it! Saturday lunch--- Pantera--they got this kickin new pannini thats turky and cheese grilled its great! Then Dinner at the Boat House---it sucked. the boat house had bad service and was disapointing in its food. I was expecting seafood but besides teh raw bar there ain't much seafood there. I ordered a pork dish, which i expected to be like Canyon River Grill's amazing pork dish... NOPE! It was a freakin pulled pork. It was basically Porkers or STicky Fingers only 10 bucks! It was the biggest joke. Plus the service was bad, horrible in fact. I had to ask for a water four times. Very sad.
Folks liked the house. They laughed at the fact that the least handy of their sons is the first to buy a home. I told them, "I'd become handy just to spite them!" AND I WILL> Time to leave.
Well so the reason not too many blogs have been written by yours truly is my internet at home is on the fritz. Some how a virus got on my wife's computer and in the process of trying to take care of it I screwed up the internet some how. I may be able to get it going but not anytime soon. Maybe some day we'll join the future and get a cable modem, but probably no time soon with my salary. It really stinks I mean i have so much to blog about... Civ 3... uh that guy in my apartment complex... frank i think is his name.... my socks got a hole in them... how my feet sweat while at work. You know cool stuff.
For those who like gaming or Chris Holton, my article is in this week's pulse. I went looking for new material at EB games but alas couldn't find anything cheap, they were pretty overpriced to be honest.
Well till we meet again....
Oooh, a lot of comments, excellente! Well I'm going to try to address all the comments and continue the discussion.
Mesh: I guess I understand your point, but as a younger brother I have often benefited from my older brothers slapping me upside the head-verbally and physically--and taken their advice to heart. And call me a dorky sentimentalist but I sort of consider the Droners to be my brothers/sisters(if there are any women) because of the Covenant College Connection. Its amazing how Covenant connects people, guys and gals I didn't even know at Covenant that I meet in the real world, its amazing the connection that Covenant creates with its alum and its students. I know people that were four to 10 years older than me that I didn't even know while at covenant, but because of our affiliation with that school we have a connection. Also I'd say some of the guys I learned from the most were the upper classmen at covenant, and in a way alum are merely successful upper classmen, i mean they made it out alive and all.
Kathryn: I did feel bad for the comments certain people made about your sister, they were out of place and unnecessary. I understand your fuming, agree with what you said on your post, and think you have a right to be mad and think your sister is due an apology.
James: Though I agree with the theory behind free speech I often question the wisdom behind it. Say pornography, not so sure about the freedom of speech on that. The way I view it is we have the freedom to speak and the freedom to do things, but we should not always exercise that freedom. Legally speaking freedom of speech is pretty much an anything goes sort of thing in this country, unless you tick off the FCC. On your second point, sure in america we can step on peoples toes, thats what Americans seem to do best. However as Christians, which the Droners I assume claim to be and hope and pray are, as Christians we should tred lightly and not seek to "hurt others feelings" unless that hurting is used in some way to bring about growth. For example, "Hey dumb nut! Stop having premartial sex! Stop smoking crack you crack head! Don't kill people you murderer!" (I realize the humor in these but the serve my point) These things though hurtful to the Sexer, Crackhead, and Killer will hopefully serve the purpose to wake them up and have them seek repentence. Humor on the other hand does not have to be hurtful, there are many obvious examples where humor is funny without causing detriment to others. I'm not sure why we as humans find pleasure in others pain. It truly is an odd situation. James, on your third comment I'm not sure what you were getting at.
Rob: Appreciate your comments. Though leave the Stache alone, I beg of you. Your dad's got a great stache and wears it in a way that brings hope to all those who would like to bring back the mustache and re-establish it as a symbol of fatherly love and devotion.
Roe: I think you're dodging the issue: maybe its time to let the kids be kids and the men be men. Focus on what's important in life: Wife, Mario Kart, and Percy (In that order) and leave the immaturity to the "Droners."
Hunt: Although Mortal Kombat is a good game, I believe Donkey Kong is the best video game ever.
Pete: Hurry up and get back here.
So i just got done reading the Drone, a new sort of year round winbag on Covblogs. I can honestly say I was sort of saddened. I mean I understand what the kids are trying to do, and its something that I have tried in the past to do, a sort of edgy, in your face, overly cynical, and offensive humor. I tried it and realized it was too devisive and too hurtful. My dad taught me the value of good humor, and I'm not talking about those ice cream bars. He taught me about how humor should not be cynical and hurtful (Unless it was the 3 stooges). That was also re-emphasized by a chapel i went to at Covenant where Dr. Green gave a talk on the value of Wonder and Awe. I took a step back from that and realized that cynicism really destroys our sense of wonder. Green talked about how his daughter would get so amazed at the sight of a lamp turning on or a car driving by. The things that we take for granted truly deserve some wonder and awe. God's saving grace being one of those things that we should just fall on our knees in awe and wonder "why me?" It sort of opened my eyes to just how my cynicism hurt my view of this world and also my savior.
But back to the drone...
I also found it kind of sad how the kids (writing the articles) were so against any sort of negative criticism or attacks. They criticized the people who were offended as not being able to take a joke. Thats our societies way of saying "Screw you" to being sensitive and caring of other people's feelings and opinions.
"But Chris its all just a joke. Its just sarcasm and satire..." So what. I found at Covenant, and in today's society that if its a joke no matter how crass, how mean spirited, or how wrong that it doesn't matter, because in the end its just a joke. Well, to that I would say how bout the bullies in school that beat up kids and laugh as they humilate a student in front of his peers? It was all in the name of fun/humor. "Well Chris sticks and stones...." Yeah thats a load of BS. Just ask any kid who grew up fat and was teased verbally by the other kids... I was one of those kids, I hated my life because of other kids laughing at my weight. Humor can be painful.
The writers of the drone, who remain annoynmous, seem to explode at the criticism they receive on their pieces. They rail back their theology of "its just a joke" like it was the Westminster Confession of Faith. I know from experience that when you snap back at someone's criticism it usually means they hit it right on the head and you just don't want to admit it. They've called your bluff and the only thing you can do is blow up at them, which seems like what is happening on the Drone. I'm sure of the fact that in the hearts of some of those writers that they are doubting what they are doing on that blog. I think that some of them will look back upon what they wrote and feel ashamed once wisdom and understanding catches up to them.
I don't think they (Roe) should shut down their site or anything. Maybe two years ago I would have said yes but I've come to think forcing people to change is not a good way to change a heart. But I do hope that the writers do put some honest prayer into asking God, "Is humor really worth causing others pain and anger?" Or even, "is my humor hurting my view of Covenant? The people around me? My faith?"
I dunno know. I just read a few articles and some of the posts on the Drone and was like, "Where is Christ's love in this? How is this in any way beneficial to anyone?"
Kids today... whatever happened to just using free time to pick up chicks and play Halo??
So the other day i was at the auto parts store picking up some oil for my
crap car when I saw in the impulse buy section of the store a Koosh ball.
Remember Kooshes? They were so cool these little spikey balls of rubber. I
had the koosh ball with basketball hoop that brought hours of distraction to
studying during highschool. Well 3 bucks seemed a bit steep for a koosh but
for the sake of childhood nostalgia I had to go for it. So i grabbed the
multi colored orange, yellow and purple koosh and threw it on top of my
three quarts of Advance Auto Parts generic oil. The guy behind the counter,
a gruff North Georgian man, looked at me with slight disgust most likely
thinking, "You're either the retarded, a fancy lad, a nancy lad, or are the
bravest man alive to have the guts to buy a koosh infront of all these large
southerners." Well frankly I think it was alittle of all of that, bravery,
moronacy, nanciness, fanciness, and just little bit of Choltoniness. The
Koosh Lives on my friends... the Koosh Lives on...
Well we helped the roes move into their new digs today, and I must say it is pretty swank. I liked it a lot and it really got me psyched about moving into our new place. Our apartment now is a mess basically cause we're getting tired of finding new and creative ways to hide all our stuff. I mean you can only stack so many boxes in a corner before it looks odd.
Work is going well, I'm working a lot every day and staying on top of things, least I hope so. It was weird today since half the office was out, they had sort of a field trip free day and so it was just us lowly bottom feeders there today. Though the higher ups came back and one that I work for gave me a bit of encouragement and said he was thankful for how we stayed and held the fort down. It was a nice complement one not necessarily needed but I took it with my usual, "Um yeah thanks" sort of surprise. I mean I guess I have a weird take on work. I figure you gotta get payed to do something, so this is what I get payed for. If I do a good job, well thats just me doing my job, if i screw something up well it happens. I mean I guess I've always approached work as, "Do your best and the rest will follow." I mean today I finally learned to use almost all of the systems I need to know at work. They never really taught us how to use them I just sort of felt my way along and hoped I picked stuff up.
It was kind of cool when i figured out this system it was like the lightbulb went bing a ling. "By Jove I've got it Watson!" SO that was coolio. Well other than that, my folks are coming in town to A. See the house and B. pick up my brother's car that they've purchased from him. It should be good, that and Concerned should be making his ascent up to the chatt from down in the sticks of GA... basically he's going from the Southern Sticks of georgia to the northern sticks of Georgia. Similar rednecks, just different sticks.
Well the weekend trip to Atlanta went well. We celebrated the wifey's b'day with her parents and grand parents. Her mom gave her a sewing machine which is what she wanted, I would have given it but lacked the financial resources to aquire such a product. The grander parents gave us a microwave that was a little too swank for the likes of us. Its stainless steal and considering everything in our soon to be kitchen is white, it may get returned if possible for a more white one. It looks super cool but doesn't really go with the white motif. On saturday i hung with the father figures and we went to a garage sale or two but found nothing of interest. Saturday afternoon we went to see the Passion which was an intense two hours or so. The way I felt going into the movie was similar to the way i came out of it.
I was pretty skeptical from the begining, being a Roman Catholic that converted to Presbyterianism when I entered Covenant College. With my background and somewhat of an insight into the Catholic view of the death of Christ I was expecting this movie to focus primarily on the death and sacrifice of Christ or if you will the Crucifix, and leave the other side of the coin, the resurrection as a brief after thought. Plus I figured there'd be some crappy Mary stuff thrown into the story that would not be accurate. And I'd say both of my skeptical shields were right on target. The Mary stuff wasn't as bad as I expected, but nevertheless she was more present in the two hour movie than in the gospels themselves. And the resurrection was sort of an afterthought, "Oh look he made it! Good for him," sort of feel to it.
Then sunday we hung out with the crabbs and met up at their Church in East Cobb. I really like their church. Pastor Holmes, Ro-bear's pappa, is pretty amazing. I'm always impressed with his sermons and their wisdom and caring love and the way he paints a picture that is easy to visualize in a way yet extremely complex. He took this whole Passion thing and didn't embrace it like most of the more contemporary evangelical churchs have done. But rather he used the movie as a sort of, "Ok this is what people are talking about, lets not talk about the movie, but what the Word says..." and went into some heavy stuff. I like how he didn't skirt around this controversial movie but hit it straight on. I respecta thata a lota. Too often I think the reformed churches of today try to be SO not of the world that they seem to shove their fingers in their ears and yell, "LALALALA I"M NOT LISTENING!" And then sort of lose touch with reality in a sense and also lose the sense that, "You know what yes we're not supposed to be of the world, but we do have to be in the world, which requires knowing what the guy/girl next to you is saying, thinking, or doing." This ain't no Amish Disco!
Moving on
Then the girls went shopping and the guys went golfing, well to the driving range. We busted em out and it was good to get out there and get my swing down. I think its down now i just need the pressure of a fairway to hit. Though I can't even hit it in Tiger Woods golf let alone real life. I can't really afford to play but I need to to get my game to progress. The swing is the most important part and I've seem to have gotten mine, its at times sloppy, but effective. I find my key is shifting my weight back to front, when I don't do that I duff it or get little to no power on the ball.
I meant to blog last night however I was up late last night working on my article for the pulse. I think its a good one, well you be the judge, but I sent it to Mesh and he sent it on to the big cheese.