I'm in love...

...with Wonder White Bread! Man, that stuff is the bomb! I haven't had it since I was a kid, and bought some at the grocery store the other day. Throw some totally processed preservative packed cold cuts and mayonnaise on two slices and you're living the good life!

Where has this stuff been all my life?

I remember when I was a kid white bread wasn't supposed to be good for you... So the parents always bought wheat (a tradition I carried into adulthood). But, man, this white bread is freakin' delicious! If my kids want to eat white bread I'm gonna let them! I'll let them do anything they want, in fact! (I'm gonna be a great parent, aren't I)

By the way... Did you know that if you do a Google image search for "wonder bread" that porn comes up? I'm not saying that's a good thing, or a bad thing... I'm just walking through life making comments here, people.

can't post... sleeping...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................

I still don't get it.

Back in 1999 I went to see American Beauty when it was still a new film out in theaters. I didn’t like it. I took a date to it, and neither one of us liked it. Even though the story turned me off, I felt like the movie had that certain “something” that the academy award people always seem to like. To this day I still can’t put my finger on what exactly that something is, but as we were walking out of the theater I said to my date, “That was really bad, and I bet it wins some academy awards!” Of course, it did. In fact it won Best Picture that year.

To me the story had no redeeming value at all. It was about a guy who was miserable with his life and sought redemption/salvation through statutory rape and drug use. When the movie won best picture that year I quit watching the Oscars, and have not watched them (or even taken a slight interest in them) for 9 years now.

Last year I was chatting with a buddy about the film and he mentioned some points that I had not previously considered. Then, a few weeks ago another friend watched it and gave me her perspective on it. I thought I would give it a fresh viewing. I rented the disc yesterday and then watched it last night. This time I was paying special attention to the lead character’s job (which he hated) and tried to pull the message out of his narration, and the other parts of the film.

One of the things that had really confused me the first time around was the film’s title. What exactly was meant by “American beauty?” How did it differ from, say, European beauty, or any other type of beauty for that matter. One of my friends suggested that it was a story about pursuing the American Dream, and that once the main character realized that his idea of the American dream was not beautiful, he attempted to turn around and find beauty elsewhere. If that is the case, and that is what the supposed message of the film is, then I still see the same thing… a guy who is miserable with his life and seeks redemption/salvation through statutory rape and drug use.

Perhaps that’s not the message, though. Another friend suggested that the message might be seeing beauty in everyday situations. There is talk of this, and it seems to be a theme suggested by two of the characters, but it is not a theme that makes sense (in the context of the movie). At one point a character states that the corpse of a dead bird is beautiful, and in a different instance another character finds beauty in all things immediately after he is shot (dead) in the head.

I still see no redeeming value in this film. I have no idea what the Academy saw in this movie. I am disappointed that a group of motion picture professionals decided to put this empty plot up on a pedestal with praise and admiration. I still don’t get it.

I would love to hear feedback from my friends on this.

Back to the top. Again.

Climbed back up Camelback Mountain again yesterday. This time I went with my buddy, Chris, and we made pretty good time. I shaved about 15 minutes off the Sep 23 climb up with Nancy... All my fault, by the way, on that one because Nancy stopped and waited for me several times on that climb. So, thanks again, Nancy, you are a great climbing partner.

Still had to stop for plenty of rest breaks this time too, but made it up there eventually.

Reality check? Sitting at the top exhausted and breathing heavy I glanced over to my right and saw this little 6 year old girl sitting there wearing a pair of pink Converse Chucks and eating a bag of saltines as if the whole thing had been effortless to her. I felt ashamed and "insulted."

So I threw her over the edge.

No, but seriously the climb felt great. On the way back down we passed the group of little girls and told them they rocked. To which they replied, "You guys rock!" which made our day.

I'm already planning to go again. Who wants to go?

Thank you

Bill, Bob, most of all God... Thank you.

"Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalise it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence." pg 133

What is the secret of Soylent Green?

...it tastes like chicken.

"I'm sorry, what was the question?"

Okay, honestly I am not smart enough to understand Wall Street. It’s been explained to me several times by several different people… But still it’s like teaching algebra to a dog. The overall comprehension just ain’t there… ya know?

Anyhow, having already stated how ignorant I am, I have to pose the following question (which has been on my mind for about a week now): Has capitalism failed?

What’s with all these banks collapsing? I never understood the whole Enron thing, and I’ve even watched documentaries on that. Still doesn’t make any sense to me. You either have money or you don’t? Right? Apparently not.

…and I know this is ridiculous childish thinking, but man, if I had a time machine I would go back to a few days ago when all those stocks crashed 700 points and buy as many as I could. Then I’d sell them the next day (when they rose again), wait for them to drop again the next day (by 500 points this time), buy them back (even more, using the money I’d made on the first transaction) and be rich by now!

Anyone wanna work on this time machine project with me?