Fortuna for You

I saw 300 and it was silly. I'm studying for the Mass Media and Popular Culture in the '60s midterm and the material is silly (technoscience/posthuman condition- ha!). Listening to Alexisonfire's 'This Could Be Anywhere In the World' and it's driving.

Now for some meat: I participated in a town hall conference call with Republican Representative Jeff Fortenbury and 400 some other Nebraskans. The call came when I was sitting at work. A recording of Jeff asked if I wanted to sit in and press # if I wanted to ask a question. 'Fuck yeah,' I whispered to myself. I pressed # and waited my turn to ask one of my fearless leaders a biting question on current politics. Just to make sure I didn't waste my turn, I perused the politics section of Yahoo news, gathering all the up-to-date happenings on The Hill.

I was expecting the call to be some sort of preemptive "Imma run me a exploratory committy for dem der prezidential chair," thing. But the commentary from both sides was informative and, above all, smart. There were a few times when Jeff would get an Earl from Yukmouth, NE and Earl wanted to know where his goddamn oil was from this goddamn war, but Jeff handled it with an appreciative chuckle and a thanks for calling (side-stepper). And there were a couple of state or county questions that were below Jeff's uber-political radar like Betsy from Urganda, NE wanting to know when they were going to get new firetrucks, dammit.

There were quite a few veterans asking Jeff about what these kids fighting in Iraq had to look forward to coming back. What type of care would they get and why they were over there. Hell, some of the guys broke down on the phone. For the 40 minutes I overheard, there was only one ignorant man commenting that "we in da mideast because yall wouldn't got no job if ya ain't got no oil an whadda about those 12 million immagents?" (hey, I heard it as immagents) "We needa close off our boarders!"

No, I didn't get to ask a question which is good because I probably would have botched it anyways. It was going to have to do with Bush stifling FOIA and Amendment 1 through his defiance with the Gonzales inquires. But, it probably would have came out as: "I'm an independent and I don't like you." Something really whiny and...well- silly.

There's really no joy in smoking a cigarette by yourself. Especially when it's two in the morning, below freezing and nobody else is around to talk with. Smoking at that hour is well and fine when you have interaction; drinking a drink, television or just some conversation between you and someone else. Sans addiction there is absolutely no point. it gets boring and the weather premits you from actually enjoying the inhaling and puffing of a sweet buzz. You implode and begin to think about what it is you're exactly doing. Questions arise. Why am I out here? Why did I want a cigarette so bad? Who the fuck first decided to roll this brown shit up and apply fire? Basically, it's a lonely, sombering experience. Maybe they should offer a companion smoker with each pack bought to keep semi-drunks from asking too deep of introspective questions in order to allow the buying smoker to enjoy what they originally intended to do- smoke a cigarette and catch a taste of what it felt like to be innocent once.

I Did It.

I created a blog. I'm sure this has the potential to be a typical first post for a virginal blogger. Talking about how I've finally succumbed to the fad that is the blog and how I really don't see the point in posting my mindless jarbble for everyone to read. Well, all sources say blogs are the wave of the future and if that's true then I'm going to ride this wave all the way to the beach and I'm not going to stop until I have a mojito in my hand and a parrot on my shoulder. I'm glad the makers of Blogger have included spellcheck for mine and yours convenience. In the words of Ed Harris as Jackson Pollack- "I spell like a Gorilla." Next time I post I'll actually offer content.