Elephants- Why Not?

The setting: Spicy Thai BBQ. Early Tuesday evening. Sitting by myself, waiting for ma man. A Thai family came in and sat. They conversed in both English and Thai. I don't understand much Thai (but I do understand much English). At one point I overheard one of them say something about kids in Alaska riding polar bears to school. Then someone said something about kids in Thailand riding elephants to school. Then an older woman said something about how people there don't ride elephants much anymore, because "elephants have gotten too expensive."

Having a moral Christmas, and licking my fingers

I should have had a second helping. I can't believe I didn't have a second helping. It's Christmas, and my goose hath been cooked. It was delicious and there was lots of it and I could have eaten more but I didn't. What's the matter with me?? I did have two pieces of pie, though. Yay! Gold star for me.

Subtext: I am trying to turn inside-out the popular way of thinking that holds eating very little equivalent to being morally superior to people who eat more. According to this way of thinking, eating less, or eating more healthily is considered being "good," an eating unhealthily "bad." A comparable standard is applied to exercise. The implication is that people (especially women, and especially white women) who eat less are better than other people. Part of this is feeling "guilty" for eating things like ice cream, or calling delicious, fattening foods "sinful."

There is also a similar morality that many vegetarians and vegans apply to their eating habits, not so much as it pertains to themselves, but in how it makes them "better" than people who eat meat or other animal products. Many of these veg-peeps don't think about this very deeply. I'm sure some of them have their hearts in the right place (I used to be one of these people, so I know a little about how they think), but considering yourself superior to people based on your consumption habits is itself morally fucked-up. You're not God, no one is, you can't see into anyone else's soul, and fuck you if you judge people that way.

Funny, I knew someone who was an extremely moralistic vegan, someone who definitely saw herself as superior to people who weren't vegans, and she wasn't afraid to express this publicly, either. The funny thing is that her attitude toward eating was eerily similar to people I have known who had eating disorders. I think there is a huge overlap in the thinking of one of these over-moralizing veggies and that of, say, anorexics, who consider shunning x, y, or z foods (fill in the blanks), or all foods, as the case may be, with being "good." Today, I am here to say: Fuck that.

My review of Bob's Holiday Party (it's a play)

http://www.goldstar.com/events/hollywood-ca/bobs-holiday-office-party-2.html?p=F1127094SB"

Thoughts from Super-inventor Dr. Nakamats

The great Dr. Nakamats, inventor of the floppy disc, the karaoke machine, and a few thousand other things (literally), gave an informal talk at Show Cave last week. It was more of a question-and-answer session than a lecture, and there seemed to be a lot of gems in what he said, though I had trouble understanding a lot of it-- he spoke quietly, he held the mic far away, and he has a heavy (but adorable!) accent.
     I took a few notes on what I did understand, and I'll copy them here for you. I may provide more explanation later. Just ask.


Extraterrestrial life?
-yes, he saw some in USA but he's not supposed to talk about it. They were about 150 cm tall & blue-white. They looked "like octopus but also not like octopus." They had a wet surface.


The future- are you pessimistic/optimistic?
-it depends on you
-global catastrophe: probably not in the next 100 years


What do you think of 3D technology?
-avatar, etc use old 3D technology. The one he invented does not require glasses. So don't buy 3D TVs until his 3D tv comes out.


-Most people will always choose the easy way of doing things. Choose the more difficult way, but always w/ love.

The new screechiness

Funny thing: got my ears deep-cleaned today (it's a long story), and now I'm hearing A LOT more high-pitched sounds than before. It's like the Dolby Noise Reduction has been turned off on everything. Crackle, crackle, hiss, everywhere I turn. Very irritating-- like something form a horror movie, in a way, but at least now I know I haven't lost my hearing (or at least not as much of it as I'd thought).

Here's to the imminent return of my earwax, my little red-orange friend...

Discovering new techniques

--- of what? I'll let you know in a while. Must go to the laboratory now and try them out. Results to come later.

Mood: (you know!)

Cocktail time soon! Then genius time!! :)

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To think on: who do you think's looking at you??

Pet Set Rex
Http://www.facebook.com/petsetrex

Http://www.imdb.me/maren

Http://www.twitter.com/mronhubbard

Le progrès

Coffee strategy now being tried. By me!

Also, hotness (weather!) encourages nocturnalness, which encourages ME at NIGHT! To DO! It's self-therapy! I'll take it!

Preparing to outline + brainstorm, then come up with scenes with improv from my MIND. For the big story. The Bad Novel.

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P.S. When "journaling" like so, I come off like the label on a bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap. But I thought this wasn't too embarrassing to share today.

Save the Echo Curio + other small venues??

Mmmmaybe you saw the LA Weekly article about the closing of Echo Curio + Hyperion Tavern. They need savin.' The article suggests contacting City Councilman Eric Garcetti (councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org) about the issue, which I finally did today. I pasted the contents of my email below-- crib if you wish.


Dear Councilman Garcetti:


Recently, the city has been cracking down on small independent live music venues, such as Echo Curio and Hyperion Tavern, because of apparent permit issues. While no one is saying permit or license laws should not apply to these venues, it seems like a misuse of the city's powers to devote scarce police resources to shutting down such places when there is SO much violent crime going on that could use the police's attention. It is very hard to see what harm, if any, is being done by tiny venues hosting tiny performances.


Please do what you can to help these venues re-open. They are an asset to the community.


Thank you.


Sincerely,

[And den I put my full "real" name and city.]


P.S. The LA Weekly posted an article about this matter at http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/10/save_the_echo_curio_and_other.php

"The Progress"

I could do some more writing right now, but that might require more thinking, which might require more energy, which probably requires more coffee. Which is a way to say: coffee time.

Later, liquor time. And more coffee.