exploding heads and martian warfare

In between listening to these Boing Boing induced christian mp3s of children singing, and looking at a mildly disturbing diaper fetish site that a co-worker left up on another co-worker’s screen, my productivity is dwindling and my head feels about like it’s going to explode ala scanners.

I’m writing this entry to try and and detoxify my system. I’m also listening to an addictive music mix.

Last night I went to an awesome party/gaming night hosted by this guy who randomly posted on BoardGameGeek.com about wanting to meet more local gamers. The eight people that showed up were genuinely interested in board games, and that made for a really great night of gaming. I played El Grande for the first time and loved it, also played one called Shadows over Camelot that was pretty fun (and looked really cool). Interesting premise too, in that you all play against the game rather than each other, although I sort of think this takes some of the fun out of it.

Tonight after family dinner I’m going to try and come up with some kind of Pirate costume for this weekend. I’ll also probably spend some time reading War of the Worlds. I started it last weekend and was furiously trying to finish reading it before the midnight showing on Tuesday night. I only got about halfway, (although we did also watch the 1953 movie on Monday night in preparation). But then on Tuesday night we went to two theaters before midnight before we found out at the second one that Paramount had canceled all midnight showings. Apparently all the newspapers had the correct listings, but most (some?) online ticket vendors hadn’t updated their databases. Of course Nate saw it last night without me… and what with Convergence this weekend, I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to either a) finish the novel, or b) watch the new movie.

One of the guys last night was the person behind the blog yearofglad.com, and I went to his site this morning on a whim. Good poetry there. Prolific too–made me feel like a slacker. Now I just wish I knew which guy it’d been. We never really connected faces/names with emails, and that’s all I have to work from. It’s an interesting head scratcher.

hidden dystopia

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of hidden dystopia. By that, I basically just mean any version of the future where the people either don’t know, or don’t realize that they’re living in horrific (dystopic) times.

It feels like there are several types of hidden dystopia. Some elements or categories are repression (control of social norms or mores through heavy dogma or peer pressure), mental and/or physical control, censorship and/or selective/nonexistent media, and finally a heavy class divide. In the latter case, there are most certainly some elements of the populous who know it is dystopia, but another part of the population is either unable or unwilling to see the larger picture.

Some examples of hidden dystopia include: Rollerball (the 1975 version, I just watched this last night), Logan’s Run, The Time Machine, Brave New World, perhaps Brazil. I feel like I should have more book examples, but I can’t seem to think of any off the top of my head right now.

Of course, the question begs to be asked… Are we living in a hidden dystopia?

weekend unplugged

I spent the last weekend unplugged from the rest of the world. There were strange and subtle ways that I missed my internet connection, namely very minor fact checking and phone # lookups, and things of that nature. Of course, I jonsed for my email, (and okcupid :P), and I wanted to blog, but didn’t really have time for that anyway.

I came home from work today at 1pm to meet the cable internet person, and he was already here, working on the pole in the alley. My internet was back within 15 or 20 minutes. Apparently the line to my house was “mislabled”. Now I have to call them and get a credit on my account for the down time…

Viewers Wanted

Well, for a while there I was all excited about having someone to watch cheezy Kung Fu action movies with me. But of course that fell flat as fuck, and now I have a bunch of accumulated movies to watch. High on my list are Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, The Bride with White Hair, A Chinese Ghost Story (including the two sequels), and Swordsman (Also including various sequels.)

Tonight we are (hopefully) going to watch the season finale of the new Dr. Who. It’s the last episode with the 9th Doctor in it, and of course there are going to be more Daleks.

I also just got and hope to watch Immortel. I had thought it was going to see a US theatrical release (I read sometime last year), but a few days ago I was just surfing around and found it on Netflix. It arrived in the mail today.

The weekend after this one is convergence. Laura is helping plan a Space Pirates versus Space Cowboys room party. I was appalled they hadn’t chosen to show any movies, so I took it upon myself to plan some bad sci-fi flicks. Friday night (Saturday morning, really) at 2am we’re going to show Westworld, (full of robot cowboys, yay!) and Saturday night (Sunday morning) at 2am we’ll show Ice Pirates. These will both be good movies to fall asleep watching, but anyone who hasn’t seen them may also stay interested enough to stumble bleary-eyed back to their rooms at 4am. (Also, don’t miss the party’s scavenger hunt, the prizes are going to be awesome!) See you there!

perspective

Yesterday was the longest day of the year. Tonight is a full moon.

It made me feel good that within hours of posting my last entry I had someone offering their condolences via IM. Just now a good friend called me to make sure I was ok. Thank you both.

As for the rest of you slackers, get on the fucking horn! No, I’m kidding. I’m fine. Seriously, I knew this was happening for like two weeks now, and at least part of me is quite glad it’s over. I really don’t like when things are just up in the air.

I had all kinds of other stuff planned to write here, but my roommates just got home and distracted me with talk of zombie butt sex. (I saw a sneak preview of Land of the Dead tonight.) Now laura is snoring softly, but still hasn’t taken her clothes off. I’m going to go tuck her in now.

Things I inadvertently learned from her about myself and this poem.

Never give someone space before they’ve asked for it.

Never trust someone when I don’t know their intentions.

Never have sex with someone before I know their intentions.

It is impossible to know someone’s true intentions.

Never trust my own impression of someone’s intentions.

I should not trust someone who doesn’t make time to communicate.

(Even if they are busy, if something is important to me, it should be important to them.)

It is harder to write funny poems than serious ones after a breakup.

It is hard to make a serious poem funny.

Poems without imagery are dumb.

science in fiction manifesto

The lamentably titled Mundane Manifesto outlines what science fiction should and should not be, based on currently accepted science fact. This is a great idea, and one that I wholy endorse. They have an article about how Blade Runner qualifies, and I’d like to take that idea further, creating some kind of comprehensive list of books and movies that qualify. (Maybe this would be a great excuse for a wiki.)

I just wish I could rename the movement before I become part of it.

Link via Slashdot.

Scratching the Surface

I read a personal narrative today about two couples who fell in love with each other and decided to buy a house together as a foursome. This semi-communial type relationship is something that I have often thought about, and it was fascinating to read this first-hand account. It was definitely an interesting story, and really made me feel like I’m only just scratching the surface of what’s possible in terms of human relationships.

I like to examine the edges of my emotions until I feel I have the shape of them firmly in my grasp.

Emotions can be like brightly colored holograms or like dark amorphous piles of oozing goo.

on friendships and more than friendships

This is mostly pasted out of an email, but written in very general terms, so I don’t feel bad posting it here. I put a lot of thought into it this morning, but then I’d also had far too little sleep at the time… (And no more than now, for that matter.)

All of this is just semantics, but here’s how I look at defining friendship: I define my friends as people I don’t sleep with, and really have no desire to sleep with. People I am “just friends” with, but for whom I also happen to harbor secret (or not so secret) desires to sleep with are categorized (for me) quite differently from standard friends. I like to think of them as potential flings or potential relationships. People who I actually do stuff with have (obviously) graduated into the fling and/or relationship category already. (Not relationship as in the weighty years-long context, but just relationship in that any two people have a relationship together.) Emotions in flings and relationships can get really complicated really fast, and friends are (generally) not complicated relationships–that’s the main reason I don’t like using the word in that context.

I think it’s important to have been friends first (before sex) to really achieve a “friends with benefits” status, and that friendship has to be more powerful (stronger) than whatever sex may end up taking place. In other words, sex has to be fairly meaningless with friends, or they become more than friends, and things get complicated. I just think it’s a fairly rare relationship type, or anyway it is for me.

Another reason “friends with benefits” doesn’t work unless you’ve known each other for a long time is that you take away the benefits, and you’re in danger of losing the friendship. In a real friendship, that potential for loss wouldn’t be there.

Yes, this is all context-less drivel, but that’s all you’re getting for today. I decided last night I should be better about keeping a daily journal, so maybe you’ll get more questionable and/or ambiguous content tomorrow.

new blogs, opening movies and closing stores

My friends Daniel and Ilona have started blogs after moving to Portland. I miss them already.

Also, I saw Howl’s Moving Castle last Saturday at the Uptown, but I still have at least three movies in the theater that I desperately want to see. I may skip out on work today (like really soon now) and go see Batman Begins with Jason downtown. He and I also have a date to see Kontroll sometime at the Lagoon. And finally, I have also heard enough good things about Mr. and Mrs. Smith that it is relatively high on my priority list as well. In other movie news I picked up a pass to see next Tuesday’s showing of Land of the Dead, but just found out that it’s the same director who did Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (the original), and Day of the Dead. I am almost certain I have seen none of the above, and may have to make an effort in that direction this weekend.

The problem is that I already skipped some work today to take a long lunch and check out the going out of business sale that Let it Be records is having downtown. I think today might be their last day, or anyway, that’s what I read over at the citypages. Other local stores that are closing soon: Sister Fun, an uptown toy store, and the Toys-R-Us in Roseville. Too bad I’m essentially penniless as of late.