Max: Brain Dump 10100
So, did you hear the one about the dyslexic atheist who didn't have a pet because he didn't believe in dogs?
Did you hear the one about the suicidal comedian? His big punchline was, "Take my life, please."
Did you hear the one about the cannibal whose favorite dessert was shoe cobbler?
Did you hear the one about the podiatrist who had a case of athlete's feet? The athletes he amputated them from are suing.
Sorry to have thrust those upun you.
I was already in bed last night when I realized that I hadn't written anything yesterday. Halloween was busy. Sometime in the past month, some friends decided to dress their kid up as Kenny from South Park. They themselves dressed up as Kyle and Cartman. Our roommate Jim was Stan. Laura dressed up as Towlie and somehow I was convinced to be Chef. I almost didn't do it because of South Park's insensitivity towards Scientology. Between that, running errands and studying I forgot to write. I try to write first thing in the morning in order to make sure I get it in before I dive into other projects. Yesterday, I slacked off and ended up blowing it completely.
Lately, first thing in the morning actually means morning, between 6 and 7 am. For most of the past two decades I have been an inveterate night-owl. In my late teens and early 20's I was going to bed between 6 and 7 am, if not later. For most of my working life if the swing or graveyard shift was available it was mine. While most people scrambled for that 9-6 shift, I happily accepted getting paid an extra dollar an hour for sleeping in. It was thus until perhaps a month ago.
Sometime after I lost my job I realized that I could sleep and wake whenever I felt like it. I decided to give early mornings a try and am enjoying the novelty. By the time noon or 1pm, my old wake-up time, roles around I have been about the business of the day for several hours. While I am no more productive than I would be if I got up at noon and put in the same number of hours, it gives the illusion of increased productivity. It also gives the illusion that I am getting more time out of my day.
I assume that the novelty will eventually wear off. Perhaps by then I will be a committed morning person. Or I will make my wife happy and go back to being a night-owl. Or maybe I will try doing what da Vinci did, sleeping for 15 minutes every four hours. I read about a study in which a test subject did just that for a couple of weeks before he started to feel the effect of his sleep debt. He took care of that by sleeping for about 12 hours and then going back to the da Vinci schedule. We will see what I end up doing.
Maybe I am just getting old. I go to bed early. I wear dark socks with sandals. I drive slow. In fact, in what would seem an odd turn, earlier when Laura and I were coming home from doing errands I noticed that I was being tailgated by an irritated, impatient looking senior citizen. Hell, I had fun the last time I played shuffleboard. I'm not always sure anymore if I need to fart or poop. Fuck it. Sign me up for the AARP and Social Security.
John Kerry once again showed that he is in desperate need of a good speech writer. In a speech he made Monday, he said, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." In the context of the speech, it was clear that he was taking a swipe at Shrub. But out of context it looks like a swipe at the military. When I first heard the comment out of context, I was ready to rip Kerry a new one. Fortunately, I research before I slam. His error was not in slighting troops, but in making a comment that could be easily misconstrued by Republicans. If only Kerry had acted in 2004 like he acted in response to White House lies about his comment he might be President now. He showed a degree of backbone that is almost unheard of in the Democrat party. He almost reached the level Bill Clinton reached when he - Clinton - took Chris Wallace down a peg last month. At least some good came of it.
We don't need Dems that role over in hopes of getting their bellies rubbed. We need Dems who are prepared to fight. We need Dems who will bring Shrub to heel. We need Dems who will get us out of Iraq with our heads up, not with our tails between our legs. We need Dems who will stop this silliness about how terrorism is the greatest threat in the world. You're more likely to get killed in a car accident than in a terrorist attack. We need Dems who will stop screwing around and do something about the state of healthcare in this country, who will tell the rich that they have to pay their fair share, who will tell corporations that they are subject to the law, who will tell to Wall Street that shrinking jobs and shrinking pay during times of high profit margins will not be tolerated. We need Harry S. Truman, not Michael Dukakis. I just wonder to which we will be giving control of Congress next week.
Fuck it. I declare my intention to run for the US Senate in the 2010 election. I'll either be carried to Washington on a tide of honest straight-talk or I will go down in some spectacular fucking flames.
Did you hear the one about the suicidal comedian? His big punchline was, "Take my life, please."
Did you hear the one about the cannibal whose favorite dessert was shoe cobbler?
Did you hear the one about the podiatrist who had a case of athlete's feet? The athletes he amputated them from are suing.
Sorry to have thrust those upun you.
I was already in bed last night when I realized that I hadn't written anything yesterday. Halloween was busy. Sometime in the past month, some friends decided to dress their kid up as Kenny from South Park. They themselves dressed up as Kyle and Cartman. Our roommate Jim was Stan. Laura dressed up as Towlie and somehow I was convinced to be Chef. I almost didn't do it because of South Park's insensitivity towards Scientology. Between that, running errands and studying I forgot to write. I try to write first thing in the morning in order to make sure I get it in before I dive into other projects. Yesterday, I slacked off and ended up blowing it completely.
Lately, first thing in the morning actually means morning, between 6 and 7 am. For most of the past two decades I have been an inveterate night-owl. In my late teens and early 20's I was going to bed between 6 and 7 am, if not later. For most of my working life if the swing or graveyard shift was available it was mine. While most people scrambled for that 9-6 shift, I happily accepted getting paid an extra dollar an hour for sleeping in. It was thus until perhaps a month ago.
Sometime after I lost my job I realized that I could sleep and wake whenever I felt like it. I decided to give early mornings a try and am enjoying the novelty. By the time noon or 1pm, my old wake-up time, roles around I have been about the business of the day for several hours. While I am no more productive than I would be if I got up at noon and put in the same number of hours, it gives the illusion of increased productivity. It also gives the illusion that I am getting more time out of my day.
I assume that the novelty will eventually wear off. Perhaps by then I will be a committed morning person. Or I will make my wife happy and go back to being a night-owl. Or maybe I will try doing what da Vinci did, sleeping for 15 minutes every four hours. I read about a study in which a test subject did just that for a couple of weeks before he started to feel the effect of his sleep debt. He took care of that by sleeping for about 12 hours and then going back to the da Vinci schedule. We will see what I end up doing.
Maybe I am just getting old. I go to bed early. I wear dark socks with sandals. I drive slow. In fact, in what would seem an odd turn, earlier when Laura and I were coming home from doing errands I noticed that I was being tailgated by an irritated, impatient looking senior citizen. Hell, I had fun the last time I played shuffleboard. I'm not always sure anymore if I need to fart or poop. Fuck it. Sign me up for the AARP and Social Security.
John Kerry once again showed that he is in desperate need of a good speech writer. In a speech he made Monday, he said, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." In the context of the speech, it was clear that he was taking a swipe at Shrub. But out of context it looks like a swipe at the military. When I first heard the comment out of context, I was ready to rip Kerry a new one. Fortunately, I research before I slam. His error was not in slighting troops, but in making a comment that could be easily misconstrued by Republicans. If only Kerry had acted in 2004 like he acted in response to White House lies about his comment he might be President now. He showed a degree of backbone that is almost unheard of in the Democrat party. He almost reached the level Bill Clinton reached when he - Clinton - took Chris Wallace down a peg last month. At least some good came of it.
We don't need Dems that role over in hopes of getting their bellies rubbed. We need Dems who are prepared to fight. We need Dems who will bring Shrub to heel. We need Dems who will get us out of Iraq with our heads up, not with our tails between our legs. We need Dems who will stop this silliness about how terrorism is the greatest threat in the world. You're more likely to get killed in a car accident than in a terrorist attack. We need Dems who will stop screwing around and do something about the state of healthcare in this country, who will tell the rich that they have to pay their fair share, who will tell corporations that they are subject to the law, who will tell to Wall Street that shrinking jobs and shrinking pay during times of high profit margins will not be tolerated. We need Harry S. Truman, not Michael Dukakis. I just wonder to which we will be giving control of Congress next week.
Fuck it. I declare my intention to run for the US Senate in the 2010 election. I'll either be carried to Washington on a tide of honest straight-talk or I will go down in some spectacular fucking flames.
posted by Max Dobberstein at 11/01/2006 06:15:00 PM
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