Thanksgiving was a success I take it, for all of us? I know mine was pretty good despite the yearning to go all the way home. I got to meet some more extended family and eat some amazing food — my cookies went over quite well, a’thank you — including some delicious squid and peppers (Korean folks do some amazing things with squid), and sitting around a poker table for something like 5 hours. My family plays poker like other families play Monopoly or Apples to Apples. I think that says something very cool about us. Yes, I’m bragging on them. But I mean 5 hours of poker? You’d brag, too…
So, pursuant to getting the personal angst — so long a feature in this space — out of the way early, I’m having a minute about something…I have, in the past, bowed to intimidation. Not because I was intimidated per say; more because I didn’t understand the need to intimidate (generally that kind of thing is borne of serious insecurity) and it made me uncomfortable and I just wanted to be away from it. Stuff like that makes me really sad. Just thinking about what it takes mentally and emotionally to CARE ENOUGH to figure out people’s crazy buttons means precious, precious time taken from working on your own damn self. And there’s not a person alive who doesn’t need to do that. Women are particularly adept at this little game of projection. I remember I used to work with a guy who told me that he had been seeing a girl he really liked — a nice girl, he called her — while also seeing a girl who was (and I can attest to this from personal experience) not so much nice as clever, manipulative, and willing to pull out the devil horns to get what she wanted. And, this old friend of mine said, she had done just that to run the “nice” girl off. My friend — who, as far as I can tell, is still with Girl #2, spoke with a sadness about that. But, presumably, was incapable of stopping it. What I think he was omitting because he found himself unable to admit it is that he LIKED the cruelty. I’m not sure what that says about him, but I think I know what it says about his future. Or at the very least his present. But people are into all kinds of things that aren’t particularly “good” for them (or, who are we kidding, the world, because propping up bitches [or dudes] who be crazy is really not cool for any of us). Anyway, back to the original point: I’ve generally wanted to be away from this kind of thing. I’ve never found a compelling reason to stay. It just gets incredibly predictable and boring after a while and it’s annoying to be asked to play a game so markedly inferior to the one you are built to play. But sometimes I think it might be worth it to just stick around and see what happens the next time (this time). Just to switch things up. You know, for fun. I honestly have never done that before. So maybe it’s time to try something new…
Okay, most important information: I found my gown in red, but only in a size smaller than I would have thought I needed. It came yesterday. And, not only did it fit, it was slightly TOO BIG. Thank you Maurice…
And, speaking of dance, this is one of the sickest hip-hop routines I have ever seen. It just turns me on. Not gonna lie.
Okay, politics. All my links from last week are really no longer relevant — well, they are, but I’m bored with the stories but a few of them. So I’ll give those to you below. But first, a conversation I had recently where someone (an Obama supporter) suggested that not all Obama voters are “brain-dead.” He was very offended that I couldn’t make heads or tails of the cognitive dissonance. It reminded me very much of another boy I used to know who, as a Bush supporter, was concerned that he was voting the same way as a “lot of really stupid people.” Man, it must be incredibly hard to be so shallow that you care about this kind of thing (“Does that make me like the Bush ignorant redneck/Obama person who isn’t insured through work? Oh noes…” instead of what you think about policy. It was just a weird moment of deja vu. Anyway, stuff from the political realm…
The big boss posted this recently. It freaked me out because he was absolutely correct pre-election that the state polls were going to bear out accurately. So his judgment is sound. And if he thinks this is worth posting, it may be okay to consider it very likely the way things will shake out over the next few years. *Gulp* Because look, this is happening. As is this.
But what’s great is the fact that — because the First Amendment is still the law of the land — we have things like this to counter. And this. And most definitely this:
On the free speech issue, I also come back to this. Especially when — as happened recently — I’m told that I can’t share ideas that, for the most part, aren’t the already approved and acceptable ones. Sigh. Siiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhh….
[and on a related note, The Coach sent this to me last week and it fits here...]
Alright, true diversions:
This is a smart dude. And maybe mostly for the reasons you never knew about.
I want to see this so badly but it is already sold out (which is really great given Mamet’s general tendency to not deal in bullshit). Stubhub is about to be stalked.
We get pretty cocky in the SEC — oh, by the way THE DAWGS play Alabama Saturday for the SEC Championship and, if we win, we go to the BCS National Championship game against a team I love, Notre Dame. But, if we play you Irish, I hope you bleed all over the field. — so it’s good to keep it real and not get ahead of yourself…
Speaking of my beloved South, these are my people and this makes a lot of sense.
For the boys you love. Old Spice is so great. I still love the way it smells, cheap or not.
Next on the list. Good for the winter months while you’re hibernating…
Finally, your music. Paste always gives me much to explore. And that’s wonderful. I’d like to dance to this. And I’m currently loving this song. Pops, this one’s for you. I cried the first time I heard it…
