House of the rising Moonglum

My hedgehog is very cute. It likes to sleep in my shirts. We have given it some shirts of mine to sleep in. But she feel they are just not as much fun if I am not wearing them. Mmmm. Hedgehog spines in me.

Ted Koppel was on the daily show tonight. He is amazing. “We have a feud now Jon. We are going to have to settle it like they did in my generation. A duel. Automatic weapons at 150 yards.” Or, how about “You are not going to get me to say that which is anatomically impossible.”

And the quotes from the convention were awesome as well. Man I love this show.

Quote of the day:

Kaylee: “Walsh, tell me I’m pretty.”
Walsh: “Were I unwed I would take you in a manly fashion.”
Kaylee: “Because I’m pretty?”
Walsh: “Because you are pretty.”

So I am getting on to the end of the game, and the important question comes up. Do I go and get the rest of the insanely cool things, or just finish up the game so I can hurry off and play Suikoden III before I forget what happened in II? This is the problem with these 80 hour games. They are cool and all, but they always need to give you that break at the end where you can go anywhere and finish up all the side quests that you missed before.

And another thing… I’ve just been following the main path of advancement through the sphere grid, but Tidus is becoming a total wuss. I think I’m going to have to send him back to where Auron is and have him go back the other way. FWIW I love the sphere grid, though found it odd that I didn’t have any level 3 spheres though lots of 4s, until very near the end of the game.

So this is one of very few web comics that I read regularly anymore. It is science fiction fun, has a high quantity of humor per strip, and comes out every day with a large episode on Sundays. No breaks. Ever. The man who writes it is a machine. Sluggy fell off my radar and a bunch of the other comics I read stopped existing, ala Avalon. So I was very excited to see in Schlock when my most favorite character of all time, Pety, came back. From the dead. But he is an artificial intelligence, so there were probably backups. And the internal plotline has been hinting at this for about three months now. Very cool. I just can’t believe that I got all excited about someone showing up in a freaking web comic. Heh.

So, I generally use my cell phone for long distance, so my regular phone bill is always quite small. This month however I had to make a couple long international phone calls for work. So I’m looking at my phone bills trying to figure out how much to charge work for those phone calls, and a 40 minute call to England only cost me $2. That is confusing to me because that same call to NY (which is on that phone regularly unfortunately) is $4. So 10¢ a minute long distance in the US and 5¢ a minute to the UK?? I’m not complaining, but that just seems downright strange to me. (Note: I know the 10¢ a minute in the US is a little high, but I have unlimited Long Distance on my cell, so I don’t really worry about it too much.)

So this is probably nothing new to anyone, but I am just trying to formalize a thought I’ve been having lately. So, Sistani leaves Iraq, and al Sadr takes over the Imam Ali mosque, and most of al Najaf and al Kufa. This causes the Iraqi armed forces and police to start kicking ass and taking names. Unfortunately they ran out of both names and ass, so had to call on the local Americans, excuse me, multinational forces. Interestingly this caused shockingly little stir, given that the Imam Ali Mosque is “the holiest shrine in all of Shiadom”. So the MNF helps the IP and the ING get into place and they are about to finish off the Sadr’s “army” which is holed up in the mosque (having stolen all of the valuables which have been given to the mosque as gifts from across the Muslim world for the past 1000 years thus funding their operations for the next few months). And then Sistani shows up again and broker’s a peace deal in order to “save the sanctity of the site” but really just gets the place stripped bare and leaves Sadr’s force in place to fight another day.

So what does this mean? I think that it is a very clever move on the part of Sistani. Sadr wants you to believe that this is a war between Islam and Christianity. Now Sistani on the other hand is not stupid enough to believe that. He does however see a different religious war. One in which the better religion does the more power he gets in the end. I see a religious war as well, of which this could be the first battle. But rather than a war between religions, I believe that it is a war of ideas, between religious extremism and modern secularism. And it is not just happening in the middle east, it is happening right here in the us, even in the halls of power. Why is stem cell research banned in the US? Why does our money say “In God We Trust”? Now in our country modern secularism is clearly winning out, but because we are having that struggle and secularism is winning I think that makes us a natural enemy for external forces of religious extremism.

Which brings us to the crux of this whole thing. We are in a war of ideas, modern secularism versus religious extremism. So how do we fight this war. Clearly not how we did in Fallujah. Probably more like we are doing in Pakistan. But when there is someone who is so clearly on the other side who has caused hundreds, if not thousands of deaths, that person should not be allowed to continue to operate. And Sistani just pulled his butt out of the fire. Time is not on our side. This shows just how dangerous Sistani is. Everyone is calling him a “moderate” but if we do that we forget that he has his own ideas about who should be in charge of things (himself, but from behind the scenes so he is insulated when things go wrong) and among the four members of the Hawza al ilmiyyah is the least moderate, and the only one to have lived thus far. I actually can’t even figure out who the new members are. But he is certainly a master at pushing for his side of the war, which still looking to the rest of the world like a secularist. Of course the Saudis are the masters at this, exporting Wahabism everywhere, but hanging out at the ranch in blue jeans.

The one thing we have going for us is that people generally like the protections and freedoms that modern secularism afford them. The best thing about it is that you can still be religious even if you are a modern secularist! We need to take some lessons from Sistani and the Saudis if we are going to “win” this war. Invading Iran won’t cut it. Though perhaps going about carefully gathering evidence that they are invading Iraq and showing it to the world would. But that would involve a much larger investment in Iraq than we are currently doing, and that is not in the cards. If we are going to fight a war, we should first know what the goals are (getting saddam out is a bad goal, and if that really was the goal then what are we still doing there? He is gone.) and then we should put everything we have into achieving those goals. This is such a mismanaged war.

Saw Starsky and Hutch on DVD last night. I was shocked to discover that it was actually watchable! There was only one scene that was really too painful to watch and it was, dare I say it, important to the plot. I also liked that they broke out of the insanity sometimes. For example, the gay scene in the prison getting them fired. And I think the reason that scene wasn’t painful to watch was that they both knew it was horrible and wrong, it wasn’t that ignorance was telling them that this is a good idea. (e.g. Meet the parents or School of rock.)

I know I am excited about the senate race in Illinois right now. Obama may not be perfect, but on all the issues I have watched carefully* he votes right into my line of thinking. Nonetheless I have no dillusions that anyone else really cares about this race. So, imagine my surprise when a particularly consice and informative report showed up in the Guardian. Pretty wild, local Illinois politics making it across the pond.

* that probably doesn’t mean much in that I am more interested in what is going on in esoteric little countries half way around the world, than what is happening in my back yard. Meaning that I probably missed some things that I disagree with him on, but that doesn’t change the fact that an article in the Guardian on one senate race is a little odd.

I don’t know if you remember, but there was some raw sewage dumped into the Chicago river with a quick stop in the architectural boat tour. There was a rumor at the time that it was the Dave Matthews Band, and now it looks like they caught them on video tape! Busted!

Also my claim at the time was that there must have been something horribly wrong with the bus because they have to pump the waste out of the bus and into a waste tank normally, so there must have been structural damage to the bus, but it looks like I was wrong. From the article, “Luxury coaches like the ones leased by the band are equipped with 80- to 100-gallon waste tanks that are emptied underneath the vehicle by pushing a toggle switch behind the driver’s seat, according to the attorney general’s complaint.” Wow, that is just so disgusting.

You know, when they announced that our guest tonight will be John Kerry, I really didn’t believe them, but it didn’t stop me from recording the show. This was the first time I watched the Daily Show in weeks and they have John Kerry! The last two times I watched they had Bill Clinton and Tom Cruise. This is really becoming a major event this show. So how was the show? Well aside from the usual getting over “what are you doing on my show?” it was pretty good. Jon Stewart didn’t get to ask too many pointed questions because the big issue right now is the whole Vets For The Truth thing, and that hold a lot more room for jokes anyway. There were some great moments though. “You are only 1/4 Jew and I am 100%” “I read this morning that you never were in Vietnam” among others. Kerry did some grandstanding but was a really personable guest. That venue really worked for him.

Oh yeah, and Jon Steward must have announced like 10 times “we are not a news show”. I guess he is worried about all the polls that show that young people only get their news from him (and therefore miss huge chunks of the news).

So, there have been three people who have come to me this weekend with pretty serious emotional/relationship issues. I ended up spending a lot of time talking to them, and at the end of they day they all seemed a bit happier. But now I have noticed, that when I comment on blogs, I seem unable to post “helpful ideas”. You get into one mode and it is hard to shake it.

So as I was walking around my neighborhood getting lunch yesterday, I was feeling particularly sexy. This is funny because a number of people reacted strangely to me. First, a particularly good looking mother with baby in stroller saw me coming and was looking at me funny. As I got closer, her funny look turned more south and she swerved the stroller off the sidewalk into the grass as if the mere colocation of me an her baby would cause some shift in space and time that would damage her child forever.

OK, so she wasn’t. This is the point at which I realize that I am wearing my BÖC puppet show t-shirt which features a group of screaming people being burned up by Godzilla. This is also the point at which I notice a beached whale crawling up the street. It had fins and everything. And a HUGE hirsute man hanging out the window of the Cadillac ogling me. I have great fear that he was.

I have never gotten such strong reactions from my t-shirt before. So this would certainly be enough for a post, but wait! There’s more!

Later that day I was driving though McD’s (I know I know) and I come up to the place where you pay and this little waif of a mexican girl (maybe 20 if I am being generous) asks me what language my shirt is in. I have to explain that it is in this odd foreign tongue called “Metal English” were umlauts are used to display higher levels of testosterone and machismo. Alternately, they are to make up for a complete lack of both. In any case “it’s from an 80s metal band”. To which she replies, “oh but you can’t be from the 80s.” So I asked her why not, and she told me that I looked way to good to be that old. I explained that it was just dark outside and if she saw me in the light …. the horror …. the horror. I let her know that in truth I am a Methuselah at the ripe old age of 30. Yup one foot in the grave already. But this did not dissuade her in the least, no no I had no wrinkles there is no way I could be old enough to enjoy metal. *sigh* Finally I told her that I have tons of grey hair and I just cut it short so you can’t see it, and begin to drive to the next window to get my food while she is still arguing “but you have no wrinkles!”. As I am driving away I see her manager having words with her while she is mouthing to him “but he looks so young!”

At this point I am calling my wife up because I just HAVE to tell someone! And as I am getting my food, she shows up again at the front window! “But you look so young!” Is she trying to get a tip? What is going on here???

Suffice it to say, no BÖC shirt today.

So, I have a bunch of notes of things to blog about from this week, which I was going to put on and backdate, but that seems lame to me today for some reason, so I’m thinking about stopping backdating. Thoughts? My new theory is that if it is interesting enough to put up on my blog then it should be interesting enough to read if I say “yesterday I did” rather than sticking it in a specific date so that it matches when it happens. Feel free to discuss.

Immediate effect, no blog entries from the NY trip. (They were all pretty dull anyway.)

There is something fundamentally wrong with the Chicago Air and Water show. And yet, something totally enjoyable about it as well. I was out hiking with a friend visiting from CA along the lake front, wandering though the magic hedge, when we came out along the east edge of the Montrose harbor and had a great view of the air-show. We made it just in time for the Blue Angels, and it was just strange to watch them whiz back and forth between the buildings. My friend mentioned something about there being precedence for bad things happening with planes and buildings, and I had to agree. But still when an F18 whips over your heads about 100 feet up it still affecting something pretty primary and animalistic in our souls.

One of the best things though was the counter part, scanning the skies for a plane, thinking that you spotted one and realizing that it is just a bird making for the magic hedge. And speaking of the magic hedge, it is a really neat place. When you walk into it there is complete silence except for the chirp of the crickets. It is really beautiful with lots of interconnected paths and secret hiding places for watching birds. Or other things. There is a sign at the entrance with a big list of nos: no bike riding, no dogs, no loud music. Generally anything that will upset the birds. And then at the end, added in black marker: no hetros [sic]. Me thinks other activities take place in the magic hedge at night.

I’ll be out of town this week, visiting NY, so expect the usual delays. Actually I might just skip out on posting at all this week, last time it felt more like a chore to write down notes, so you might just get me when I get back.

Sometimes I am reminded of why I like being Lutheran. I was listening to our fill in paster speak (an African American woman) and while discussing the Magnificat [Luke 1:46-55], she commented on how powerful that particular passage is, “even if we consider all of the editing that these words may have gone through before they made it into our bible.” Thinking preachers. I can appreciate that.

Just some fun facts. The last time an american won a medal in fencing in the olympics was 1984 when Peter Westbrook won a bronze in Saber. He went on to start a foundation in 1991 to teach inner city youth fencing. 4 of the current 14 fencers started at his program. I just thought that was pretty cool. (The sabre boys already lost.)

Interestingly the 1-4th seeds in mens Sabre all made it to the semifinals and then all lost. That was a pretty impressive showing for the underdogs.

The FFX thought for the day: “I see dead people”.

Yes I got to that part.

So I needed to get a haircut on the way home from the gym today and decided that it would be unkind to the barber to not shower before heading over there, so today was my very first time showering at my gym. I have always held the gym shower in low regard. It is, shall we say, a little scary, but today I was going to tackle my fear and enter the shower! Well since I was tackling my fears, I decided that if I really wanted to be brave I should go into the sauna first. Well the sauna realized all my unknown fears. it was so disgusting that I was afraid to sit down for fear of placing my body too near any object. I had already willingly sacrificed my feet. So my sauna experience involved standing in the middle of the sauna. But that did not even last too long, because a sauna is supposed to be a relaxing experience and the smell made it far from relaxing. So before too long it was off to the showers. Which actually made me clean. And aside from a few small flying things were clean themselves.

Mmm. Facing your fears. Just saw an excellent 5th season B5 episode which relates to that. And I have to say, the 5th season is not nearly as bad as I remember it being. We are only 5 episodes in, but thus far they are all really pretty good episodes. In context with the whole rest of the show it is pretty darn good.