A Toast (I promise its only bubbling grape juice - really, truthfully, I don't even know where to buy Dom Perignon) [Assembly Instructions included]

[WARNING: Reading of this post has been proven to lower your IQ to the level of a mud rat. It has also been proven that the author was not of sane mind during its composition due to the level of cheap chocolate-frosted doughnuts consumed before, during and after its writing. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK]

[Impressario]
Ladies and Gentleman
Today is THE DAY
Today is the day that we have been waiting for for decades
When your fathers
[Satirical Aside]
(and mothers -because we wouldn't want this blog to degenerate into chauvinistic demagoguery) were but children, they dreamed of this day.
They would spend hours talking, arguing,
[Astronomical reference]
probing the very cosmos itself, to find all possible avenues that would arrive at this day.
And now that it is here - [Daydreaming]

[Philisophic aside {Nihilism!}]

Well I guess its just here. And then tomorrow comes and then the next day.

[Nursery Rhyming]
This is the way the world goes round
the world goes round
the world goes round
This is the way the world goes round
All in the morning

[Storytelling]
I am, of course, speaking of the resignation of that revolutionary
[Hissing Sounding]
Fidel Cassssssssstro, as president (read: Dictator) of Cuba
[More Daydreaming]
that land of fine (so I've been told) cigars and music and mojitos,
[Sicko reference! {Michael Moore Shoutout!!}]
and also better health care than the US
[Resume Storytelling with a renewed sense of honesty and personal revelation]
I am of course exaggerating a slight bit, the only people who have been dreaming of this day for decades are the
[Name-Dropping to establish bona fides as an intelligent, well studied personage]
Kennedy family and the city of Miami,
[Revelation of Political Stance to encourage discussion/hatred/leaving of comments]
and as an right-leaning independent neither of those two demographic groups can make me evince the slightest degree of interest in their dreams, hopes, wishes or desires.

[Conclusioning]
So here's to the downfall of
[More Hissing]
Cassssssssstro
and here's to reading about
[Friend shoutout in an absurd, pathetically desperate attempt to promote readership]
[Also, use of linking to demonstrate that I'm technologically savvy enough to link to other people, and that I actually have a life too lead]
Lindsey on Heather's blog

[Another pathetic attempt to be profound, only this time, its in the form of a ritualistic blessing]
May your days be shiny
Your nights be soft
Your friends funny
and your enemies slobs

May you always enjoy your food
And may your work never get in the way of reading my posts

[Sportscenter reference {Stu Scott!}]
BOO-YEAH

It's All Happening, or: The World is an Onion

I watched a movie tonight. Normally this event would occur and be promptly forgotten, What makes this event meaningful is that I didn't want to watch a movie tonight. I wanted to go to sleep - I'm exhausted, sleep has been on my mind since the minute I woke up this morning. But I got sucked in and now here it is at 2:30 in the morning and I'm sitting and writing this post.

When I was growing up I had this habit of staying up till all hours of the morning because I was reading a book, I didn't want to/couldn't put it down, even when I knew I would pay for it the next day. I felt that I would lose the story if I stopped reading. I have read hundreds of books, some extraordinary, some outlandish but most of them eminently forgettable. Out of those hundreds I remember very little - a well drawn character perhaps, or a unique twist to a plot, maybe a character quality that I admired, most of it is forgotten. But I can tell you exactly how many books I've stopped reading in the middle (two), where the story was, what the cover looked like, where I got the book, where I put the book down (physical location) and a host of other details. Both of these books definitely fell under the eminently forgettable category.

As my movie watching has ramped up in my life it has (for various reasons) overtaken reading has my primary means of literary intake. Some movies are stunning, some ordinary, most are very bad. Tonights movie was reasonable but nothing extremely special. This coming of age story harped on the theme "It's All Happening". The phrase was used as if it was an absolution, a verbal panacea, giving the speaker the right to be released from every responsibility normally accorded to mankind. However the most powerful use of the phrase occurred when it was applied to time, as in: "It's all happening now". We have so many people whose only thought is for their career, or college, or their relationships, or their job. We look to the past to understand the future, and look to the future to pay for the past. We hope that the sacrifices we make today will be repaid ten-fold in the future. This isn't about living in the present. This is about the Now.

This isn't about "seizing the moment". This is about taking a moment to think of the uncountable untold stories that are going on around you right now. This is about the indescribable beauty of the split second that just whizzed past you that can never be replicated.

One of my favorite authors is Salman Rushdie. The first time I finished a novel of his I sat stock still for a solid half hour because I was amazed at what I had just read. Rushdie had achieved a literary representation of the texture of the world. To this day I struggle describing exactly how I feel about that particular book - I have never read anything that showed the story of the world so accurately - how everything related to everyone, how the urchin in the street caused the kingdom to rise, how the kingdom allowed a girl in, how the girl influenced a shopkeeper, who ran the urchin over, all without anybody having any knowledge of each other. Many of my favorite movies have similar layered qualities to them. My favorite poem is John Donne speaking of the interconnectivity of man. I am amazed at the story of the world, how the world connects, how it moves, how it teaches and how it runs.

"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

Indifference '08

America is a supposed democracy. As in, the people are supposed to be able to make their voice heard and then the leaders are there only to represent the people. As with every system of government it is imperfect. When I was younger I believed in the "white pedestal of power" where any leader was automatically to be trusted and followed, from parents to the president. I somehow got the idea that if you were in charge of something that you were different than me. As I've grown you begin to see flaws in your leaders - the pedestal shrinks little bit, until its on your level - and then it keeps on shrinking.
As we approach a momentous time - that of the presidential election - I find that I am more knowledgeable about the world, America, myself, politics, law, etc. than I have ever been. I've actually taken the time to figure out who stands where for the primaries, (I even started to suffer through political debates but I realized that my sanity was more important than the blathering that I heard) and yet, I couldn't care less who wins the election. Because any candidate is going to be as bad as any other. Nobody reading this blog needs a lesson in American politics (if you do you shouldn't be reading blogs - you should be studying), both of our parties are so alike that the candidate winning will be different in name only. Neither party is particularly interested in solving problems in any real sense, neither party is interested in helping normal people in any real way - both are interested in their own survival. Which returns me to my beginning, America is a supposed democracy - a place where the people have a say. But when the people are being manipulated in such a way that they are choosing to accept the status quo we don't have a democracy, we have an oligarchy.
Don't forget to make your voice heard. Vote for President!

Firsties

I've been feeling the need to write lately - so many little snippets of thought, phrases that teleport into being. And so I thought about writing in a book. But I'm to lazy to actually make that work, and so I thought about blogging.
me (m): I should blog
other me (om): You have a blog
m: I know, I can't decide whether I need to restart or try again.
om: if you restart you'll never hear the end of it from everyone
m: If I don't do something with these thoughts I'll die from exploded head
om: You can't write longhand?
m: I won't write longhand - its too Miltonianish
om: You're an idiot - you just compared yourself to one of the best English writers ever. You are an arrogant fool
m: (smiling) I know. I can't help it.
om: whatever, you should definitely blog, that way I can make fun of you for not being "Miltonianish"
m: ok

And so I'm here.
Peace and Love