Author: Aaron Weber

Happiness where are you?

This NYT article on happiness made me understand, at least a little, why it is that I find it so hard to get out of bed in the morning, as much as I intend to do so when I go to sleep the night before. And how, if not why, I screwed up my last relationship. And why it seems, each time, like you’re never going to recover, even though you know in the back of your mind that you will. At least, after the first time, you know you will. So, I figure, jump in with both feet: you know the risks, you know you might, and in fact probably will get hurt. But it’s OK, you’ll get over it sooner than you think. Whoo.

Things

Moss, notably the glowblow lamp, designed by SnowCrash. Yes, a design house named after a novel. An expensive design house.

As to things in my range, my worldly posessions are migrating from one house to another, very slowly. One day, one bag, at a time. No furniture yet. Eventually I will post on Craigslist and try to get someone else to take my lease. I fear it will not be easy– I like my apartment, and got a good deal on it, because it’s an unpopular sort of place: tiny, overheated, lead-based, with clunky fixtures and too many damn stairs.

I went to a wedding this weekend. There were fireworks, but I don’t know if the fireworks were part of the wedding, or if they were just there by happy coincidence. Conspicuous consumption, indeed. Everything was beautiful, the day was lovely, the evening fell and there was much rejoicing, and the elders danced beautifully while the younger set shook and jiggled halfheartedly, wishing they’d invested the time, and more importantly, the un-self-consciousness and risk of sincerity, in learning how to dance and then dancing.

Clarification

Ogged, from unfogged.com, has asked what I meant by terrifying and hilarious. I meant that it covers issues which are profoundly serious, and yet also laughably strange or absurd. For example, this post on baseball commissioner Bud Selig which points out how stupid leaders could actually be useful when seeking transparency in government.

Ogged is also exploring the gay marriage thing, trying to figure out if there is some sort of legitimate argument against it. I’m curious to find out where that leads us– perhaps to some sort of intelligent debate on the subject?

Milestones

My RCE2 manual is now longer than 100 pages. That means I’ve done a lot of work recently.

I have driven over 100 miles on my Honda Ruckus (mine’s in black, not red). That’s pretty far, at least for a dedicated urban snob like me. It did that on a little over a gallon of gas.

If you search for evolution on Google, you’ll find two funny things: Ximian Evolution is the second-most-popular kind of Evolution. This means that my employer is successful and popular. And there’s an ad for BibleHelp.org promoting absolutist literal biblical interpretations, which means… well, I’m not sure what it means. I’m not as surprised about the literalism as I am about the incredibly narrow definitions of Christianity– they refer to everyone who has a slightly different interpretation of the bible as “Christian” in quotation marks.

Terrifying, Hilarious, Etc.

Newsskim and Ironic Times are both funny news sites. Have I linked Ironic Times before? It’s more sarcastic than ironic, to be honest, although a lot of news these days does seem to be ironic, even without any commentary. UnfOgged for example, is alternately… well, terrifying and hilarious. Like these SCARY RABBITS.

I admit it. I agree with Dubya on something. He’s done something right: signed a bill proclaiming that prison rape is bad and should be stopped. Just goes to show you, he feels your pain, as he brutally sodomizes our economy and our futures.

Disney Freaks. Cory Doctorow defends them, and he has a good point that they’re not any worse than any other sorts of fans, obsessives or generalized otaku– ski bums, say, or baseball-card collectors. They enjoy it, they’re independent adults, and why the hell not? On the other hand, it’s just a little bit icky for reasons I’m not very good at articulating.