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Music stories we didn't bother reading
Jun. 29th, 2005 01:02 am"Dylan Returns to Café Circuit with Starbucks CD"
Jun. 29th, 2005
Burger King Baghdad
Jun. 29th, 2005 01:38 am
Burger King Baghdad
Originally uploaded by _spinnaker.
More interesting stuff from the "iraq" tag on Flickr. Whopper punchline writes itself.
Your South County Stripper Moment of What
Jun. 29th, 2005 11:19 amhttp://www.myspace.com/calikristen messaged me today to inform me that I have an emo face and I should smile more. The picture she referenced is this icon.
Edit: While discussing Kristen and her email marketing campaign, my mother completely broke me by referring to the strip club experience as "the $100 misunderstanding". Best three word summary ever.
Edit: While discussing Kristen and her email marketing campaign, my mother completely broke me by referring to the strip club experience as "the $100 misunderstanding". Best three word summary ever.
Water scooter.. OF DOOM
Jun. 29th, 2005 12:04 pmhttp://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml05/05210.html
Hazard: Hydrogen gas can build up in the battery compartment and cause the battery cover and the battery package to forcefully expel from the product, posing a risk of injury to the user or bystanders.
Incidents/Injuries: CSK has received nine reports of the battery cover and/or the battery package being expelled from the water scooter, including three reports of facial injuries such as lacerations and bruising.
Description: The Aqua Water Scooter is a hand-held, battery-powered product used to propel swimmers through the water. The product has either a yellow or red plastic enclosure, a black plastic handle and propeller and a shark face on the front.
Hazard: Hydrogen gas can build up in the battery compartment and cause the battery cover and the battery package to forcefully expel from the product, posing a risk of injury to the user or bystanders.
Incidents/Injuries: CSK has received nine reports of the battery cover and/or the battery package being expelled from the water scooter, including three reports of facial injuries such as lacerations and bruising.
Description: The Aqua Water Scooter is a hand-held, battery-powered product used to propel swimmers through the water. The product has either a yellow or red plastic enclosure, a black plastic handle and propeller and a shark face on the front.
One of the Four Loves
Jun. 29th, 2005 01:35 pmThe Greeks have four words for love. There is agape, or spiritual love; storge, which is familial love; philia, which is the love between friends; and of course eros, sexual love.
I have problems with all four. Eros is a wasteland for me and always has been. My family is a source of constant trouble, much of which I cause myself. And I've been spiritually dead for quite a while; agape was a comfort for years but has been the worst of all in the last year.
My current problems are with philia. I value friendship highly — perhaps too highly — but I don't think enough about its meaning. Assumptions are dangerous; the expectations for spiritual, familial, and sexual attachments are defined much better.
Friendship, though? People use the word "friend" to describe every level of intimacy from acquaintance to sexual partner. The rights and responsibilities of friends are defined by each person individually. One person may believe that "friend" means someone who would die for you, and another thinks it's just someone with whom he's friendly. To complicate matters, many people distinguish among their close friends, a circle of friends, and acquaintances but don't make that explicit, and use the word "friend" to describe all of these. I've seen complete splits between friends over the definition of the friendship, where one believes that a friend is someone who lends money, or shows up at the wedding, or stands up for you no matter what, and the other has a more casual view of the arrangement.
All of this confusion can occur without anyone being malicious or even neurotic. The meaning of friendship is fluid, and assumptions go unchallenged for years. What's worse, people change their idea of friendship sometimes without realizing it. Think of children and their lists of friends and enemies written down in deadly seriousness. You're my best friend; she's my second best friend; he's my enemy. Thirty years later they may have only casual friends and be deep in family life.
I'm in a strange position. I'm forty and single, without much family. I have friends from college who live mostly in Los Angeles; I rarely hear from them, and I find it hard to connect with them now. Years ago they moved on to other stages of life and left me behind. Part of the bond of friendship is shared experience. When I left the entertainment industry, when they all got married and bought nice houses, when they found their own new social circle, I didn't belong so much. On some nonverbal level the friendships got awkward and were discontinued except for a few letters a year. I learned a lesson, but not well enough.
I have some friends from jobs, too. Once again, these mostly fade after the environment is gone, in just the same way as the college friends. Once again, the people I knew there changed their lives (as I did too, probably), and the bond got weaker as we had less in common.
My current circle of friends are mostly regulars at a coffeehouse near me. They're a lot like me in some ways: intelligent, verbal, interested in ideas and arts and entertainment, funny. Most of them are at least ten years younger than me. It's a loose group with subgroups, and not everyone likes everyone else, but it functions as a circle of friends pretty well.
Over the years this group has changed a lot. Most of them were very young then, and are near 30 now. The ones who went to graduate school or to drink themselves to death or some other final destination have departed. Others are maturing and moving on to other lives. Quite a few have moved out of state or are planning it; several are married or engaged. I remain at the table: the aging bachelor dilettante who hangs out. Not only are my friends people I can't experience eros with, but the philia is starting to look bad.
Apart from the personal anguish this causes me (it's not a role I enjoy), I can see the bonds of friendship stretching in a familiar way. I have much less in common with a thirty-year-old married couple with a child and a condo than I do with a twenty-year-old sophomore with a rock band and a Marlboro habit. Whatever these people actually think of me as a person (which is another problem entirely), the common ground of friendship is shrinking. This is intensely painful for me, even though it's at least the third time it's happened.
So what does this mean for philia, and me? It means that friendship is far less than I want it to be, and that my own unspoken definition of the word is too strong. It's not that anyone I know is a "bad friend", or that I have a "bad" circle of friends. Because of my own flaws, I remain the same while they move on. Because of their own life patterns, they adapt, grow, and find new ways to relate to others that aren't compatible with the world of the coffeehouse slacker.
In my own way I'm still on the playground in grammar school, where friendship is all you've got. Without agape or eros and with troublesome and painful storge , I've hung on to an outdated philia that doesn't make sense to people with grown-up lives.
Not for the first time, I find myself a child in an aging man's body, looking in wonder as the adults go about their business. How do they do it? Why can't I? Who will be my new friends?
I have problems with all four. Eros is a wasteland for me and always has been. My family is a source of constant trouble, much of which I cause myself. And I've been spiritually dead for quite a while; agape was a comfort for years but has been the worst of all in the last year.
My current problems are with philia. I value friendship highly — perhaps too highly — but I don't think enough about its meaning. Assumptions are dangerous; the expectations for spiritual, familial, and sexual attachments are defined much better.
Friendship, though? People use the word "friend" to describe every level of intimacy from acquaintance to sexual partner. The rights and responsibilities of friends are defined by each person individually. One person may believe that "friend" means someone who would die for you, and another thinks it's just someone with whom he's friendly. To complicate matters, many people distinguish among their close friends, a circle of friends, and acquaintances but don't make that explicit, and use the word "friend" to describe all of these. I've seen complete splits between friends over the definition of the friendship, where one believes that a friend is someone who lends money, or shows up at the wedding, or stands up for you no matter what, and the other has a more casual view of the arrangement.
All of this confusion can occur without anyone being malicious or even neurotic. The meaning of friendship is fluid, and assumptions go unchallenged for years. What's worse, people change their idea of friendship sometimes without realizing it. Think of children and their lists of friends and enemies written down in deadly seriousness. You're my best friend; she's my second best friend; he's my enemy. Thirty years later they may have only casual friends and be deep in family life.
I'm in a strange position. I'm forty and single, without much family. I have friends from college who live mostly in Los Angeles; I rarely hear from them, and I find it hard to connect with them now. Years ago they moved on to other stages of life and left me behind. Part of the bond of friendship is shared experience. When I left the entertainment industry, when they all got married and bought nice houses, when they found their own new social circle, I didn't belong so much. On some nonverbal level the friendships got awkward and were discontinued except for a few letters a year. I learned a lesson, but not well enough.
I have some friends from jobs, too. Once again, these mostly fade after the environment is gone, in just the same way as the college friends. Once again, the people I knew there changed their lives (as I did too, probably), and the bond got weaker as we had less in common.
My current circle of friends are mostly regulars at a coffeehouse near me. They're a lot like me in some ways: intelligent, verbal, interested in ideas and arts and entertainment, funny. Most of them are at least ten years younger than me. It's a loose group with subgroups, and not everyone likes everyone else, but it functions as a circle of friends pretty well.
Over the years this group has changed a lot. Most of them were very young then, and are near 30 now. The ones who went to graduate school or to drink themselves to death or some other final destination have departed. Others are maturing and moving on to other lives. Quite a few have moved out of state or are planning it; several are married or engaged. I remain at the table: the aging bachelor dilettante who hangs out. Not only are my friends people I can't experience eros with, but the philia is starting to look bad.
Apart from the personal anguish this causes me (it's not a role I enjoy), I can see the bonds of friendship stretching in a familiar way. I have much less in common with a thirty-year-old married couple with a child and a condo than I do with a twenty-year-old sophomore with a rock band and a Marlboro habit. Whatever these people actually think of me as a person (which is another problem entirely), the common ground of friendship is shrinking. This is intensely painful for me, even though it's at least the third time it's happened.
So what does this mean for philia, and me? It means that friendship is far less than I want it to be, and that my own unspoken definition of the word is too strong. It's not that anyone I know is a "bad friend", or that I have a "bad" circle of friends. Because of my own flaws, I remain the same while they move on. Because of their own life patterns, they adapt, grow, and find new ways to relate to others that aren't compatible with the world of the coffeehouse slacker.
In my own way I'm still on the playground in grammar school, where friendship is all you've got. Without agape or eros and with troublesome and painful storge , I've hung on to an outdated philia that doesn't make sense to people with grown-up lives.
Not for the first time, I find myself a child in an aging man's body, looking in wonder as the adults go about their business. How do they do it? Why can't I? Who will be my new friends?
I got invited to a party.
Jun. 29th, 2005 06:15 pmI just got invited on myspace (twice!) to join Party Karma ( http://groups.myspace.com/PartyKarma ), twice, by "Joe".
Meet Joe:
Hi there, Joe! Looks like you had a fine time in Cabo. Joe wants me to party with him and approximately 27,000 other people who have already joined his Party Karma group. Here's what Joe has to say about his group:
PartyKarma is the fastest growing Party in Southern California. Party with your typical Good Looking Southern California crowd. I mean let's face it, people in Southern California are good looking, well they are signing up at PartyKarma. Come on out and meet them!
I have to say I'm flattered. I'm aware that I'm a person in Southern California, but I had no idea I was good looking, or that my karma entitled me to a party. I clicked on the pictures of the attractive young partiers and was immediately taken to http://www.partykarma.com/?KarmaCode=MYPARTIES where I learned that I needed to keep a secret about the free parties! I may have failed you here, Joe. There's also a patent pending, but I'm not sure what is being patented. Joe's obviously a pretty smart guy, though, so I bet he invented a new type of party or something.
I didn't join Joe's group yet. I'm going to have to let it all sink in first. I noticed on the drop-down menu for "Profile" that it included "Mind", "Body", "Spirit", "Virtues N Vices", and "Riches" and that may require some preparation on my part. It sounds like a martial art or a seminar and I'm terrible at both of those. I didn't think that Buddhists partied a lot but I guess it's all a voyage of discovery for me, here.
In a moment of weakness I clicked on "join", but it was obviously too soon. The web browser said: Element INVITATION_CODE is undefined in ATTRIBUTES and a lot of other things that were pretty complicated. Maybe they were written in Buddhist. I thought that it might be okay to do this right away because he'd asked me twice but I'm really new at this.
Maybe you'll have better luck. Joe wants people to have fun, and have a party, and meet each other, and be attractive. Take a moment to look at a few of the pictures of the gang and see what you think. Do you think I could be one of them?
( here are the party karma people! )
Meet Joe:
Hi there, Joe! Looks like you had a fine time in Cabo. Joe wants me to party with him and approximately 27,000 other people who have already joined his Party Karma group. Here's what Joe has to say about his group:
PartyKarma is the fastest growing Party in Southern California. Party with your typical Good Looking Southern California crowd. I mean let's face it, people in Southern California are good looking, well they are signing up at PartyKarma. Come on out and meet them!
I have to say I'm flattered. I'm aware that I'm a person in Southern California, but I had no idea I was good looking, or that my karma entitled me to a party. I clicked on the pictures of the attractive young partiers and was immediately taken to http://www.partykarma.com/?KarmaCode=MYPARTIES where I learned that I needed to keep a secret about the free parties! I may have failed you here, Joe. There's also a patent pending, but I'm not sure what is being patented. Joe's obviously a pretty smart guy, though, so I bet he invented a new type of party or something.
I didn't join Joe's group yet. I'm going to have to let it all sink in first. I noticed on the drop-down menu for "Profile" that it included "Mind", "Body", "Spirit", "Virtues N Vices", and "Riches" and that may require some preparation on my part. It sounds like a martial art or a seminar and I'm terrible at both of those. I didn't think that Buddhists partied a lot but I guess it's all a voyage of discovery for me, here.
In a moment of weakness I clicked on "join", but it was obviously too soon. The web browser said: Element INVITATION_CODE is undefined in ATTRIBUTES and a lot of other things that were pretty complicated. Maybe they were written in Buddhist. I thought that it might be okay to do this right away because he'd asked me twice but I'm really new at this.
Maybe you'll have better luck. Joe wants people to have fun, and have a party, and meet each other, and be attractive. Take a moment to look at a few of the pictures of the gang and see what you think. Do you think I could be one of them?
( here are the party karma people! )
Odds and Ends
Jun. 29th, 2005 11:44 pm- Tonight at the table there was a pause in the conversation, and
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berg74 suddenly turned to the two twenty-something Newport party guys sitting there and said "So. You ever been in a car with a nun?" - I recommend
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guruphiliac if you like weird stories about cults and their leaders. It syndicates http://guruphiliac.blogspot.com/ . - A quicktime video of a classic Aston Martin DBR1 doing the hillclimb at Goodwood is here.
- Here's how to lose five pounds in a hurry. First, take an amphetamine ADD drug, so that you have to remember to eat because you're rarely hungry. Then, have an unexplained middle ear paroxysm that causes you to hang out of your car window barfing like crazy for hours before you're taken to the hospital by emergency ambulance for rehydration and antinausea drugs. Finally, have your doctor prescribe you a diuretic for the ear problem and your high blood pressure, so that you pee out gallons of retained water the first day. Presto! Five pounds gone. Next week I'll demonstrate how to build muscle tone by getting stranded in the desert and killing mountain lions for food to survive.
- Now you can get porno brand rims in up to 24" sizes for your big, stupid vehicle. No, I'm not kidding, sorry. (Links not necessarily safe for work, may trip nudie-alarm of web filters.)
- Here is a short film advertising beer, which happens to be in the style of early Buñuel films.