An Evening with Aldous Huxley
I had the pleasure of listening to a recording of Aldous Huxley from 1962. Huxley, a visionary speaker and thinker predating the 60s hippy movement was a leader in predicting the social control that is all the rage in counter culture thought even today. It reminds me of some dialog in THE MIST, where the people trapped in the grocery store discuss the potential impending violence among the captives. They argue the good nature of people vs. the psychotic fickle nature of man when all the social safety precautions are removed. The MIST wasn’t a movie about Terrorism, but still commented on the fear imposed when you are exposed to the
unknown terror. Huxley, in this speech, describes the potential to pacify the populous in order to prevent such behavior. Perhaps, this is why we find movies like the Mist so interesting, because what would most of us do in the face of terror when all the safety measures of the military, medical system, etc are unavailable - caused by Terrorists or monsters from another dimension. Perhaps, the mist in the Mist, is a commentary on the veil hiding the inner workings of the controls in place. I think I need to read Brave New World.
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Workout Log Week of 6/29
Over the weekend, I did a ton of yard stuff including up and down the ladder to hang gutters. It was pretty damn good exercise. I am digging this whole yardwork thing.
Monday 6/30 : 22 miles, 66 minutes, 810 minutes
Tuesday 7/1: 14.37 miles, 526 minutes, 48 minutes
To Do List for June 30
Yay, more to do action for today. I have been so busy lately, I have not really had time to do anything other than get stupid shit done. yaaaarg. Someday, I will be able to relax. hahaha. or not.
- Take down artwork from 2nd Moon
- Print and Mail mendards gutter refund
- Call Gecko stone guy and place order for Gecko Paver Mold
- Install Flood Lightstest motion sensor after dark)
- Edit and Post the Krapp’s Last Cast #16
- Email mortgage guy about the property tax bill I received
- bike and watch “the Mist”
- Finish permissions thingerjabber at work
- Sort through pile of bills and mail and crap
- Figure out finances
- Laundry
- Buy Stamps
- Buy Groceries
House To Do
- Caulk Gutters and install downspouts (um… maybe tomorrow…)
- Put up compost pile thingerjobber (still need to buy some zip ties to attach the plastic fencing to post)
- Re-do slate edging in the front yard
- plant lilac
To Do list for today:
It is another “work on the house” day. My folks are coming down too. Sweet.
- Mark off area for driveway
- Put together table saw
- Buy Gutters
- Hang gutters?
- Haul pile of slate rock from back yard to front yard. Lay rock if time permitting.
- Email GeckoStone guy
- Buy compost pile materials
- Get podcast gear setup for easy recording tomorrow
Workout Log for week of 6/22
Well, I am doing better than last week, but it has been so damn hot that I have not been working as hard, but I am trying…
Monday : 63 minutes, 20 miles, 790 calories
Tuesday : 45 minutes, 15 miles, 539 calories
Wednesday : 34 minutes, 10:39 mile, 381 calories
Thursday: 64 minutes, 17 miles, 613 calories
Smodpast - Funny Smodcast Clip
If you like Kevin Smith’s Podcast “SModCast“, check out this flash animation… hell, even if you don’t check it out.
To Do List for Today…
My special lady friend is gone all week for a paintball tournament so I have been trying to get a lot of stuff done. So far, so good. Monday, I had my adventure in yard work. Tuesday, I ran a bunch of errands including getting a bunch of pots and pans and house stuff from my brother. Last night, I did laundry and I did a bunch of little stuff including installing a shelf in my closet, designing my tessellation concrete pavers, and putting all my pots and pans away. I got some biking in also. Weee..
Goals for today:
- ride the bike and do situps
- finish the laundry
- finish gessoing those 3 canvases
- Find current car Insurance Card (I think I know which box it is in) and put in car/money clip
- Tweak SMF forums for Story of Dim
- Order paver mold from GeckoStone
- Measure Garage for gutters - 22′3″ long by 8′7″ high (to top of gutter)
- Research the erosion control thing for the garage
- Re-pot bamboo
- Bring in that tree thing Darren gave me
- Clean up north bedroom - files, et
- Clean the master bathroom
- Organize Music Room - Phase 1
- Take out garbage and recycling
- Mail off netflix “Village of the Damned”
- Research composting regulations in the cities : Nice Clear Article here
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Swing till you hurl
I started writing a big long reflection on the day, but really there was only one really awesome part, so here is the overview version:
- 5pm : Come home from the office (aka the coffee shop) and start mowing the yard with my hip crazy cool hippy mower.
- 6pm : Come inside famished, cook tombstone pizza
- 6:20pm : Eat entire pizza in about 4 bites
- 6:30pm : Start biking and watching the remainder of Village of the Damned
- 7:40pm : Quit biking, feeling awesome! Drink a beer.
- 8pm : Start chopping down the two 4 footish stumps in the yard with my machete and my splitting maul
- 9pm : throw up my pizza and beer all over
So basically, here is the deal. Like a gluttonous bastard, I ate a whole pizza and drank a beer and then did a bunch of physical activity. No surprisingly, I biked for a long time after eating the pizza and was fine. But the damn lumberjack competition did me in. I used to be captain lumberjack and figured I would be fine. Now, in spite of not being in nearly good of shape as I used to be, I still figured I could chop those stumps down with no problem. However, in the process, I discovered quit possibly, the most awesome workout ever… cutting trees down with splitting mauls.
If you are not so into the lumberjack too lingo, a splitting maul is a sledge hammer with one end tapered like a wedge. It is used for splitting sawed lengths of a log into pie shaped pieces. By the virtue of the grain (tree rings) of the log running perpendicular to the ground, you can pretty easily split a log if you put a good amount of umph behind it - the wedge aspect does most of the work. However, if you try to split the log across the grain, you do very little damage. This is very unlike an ax, which is more of a weighted sharp knife that slices at the wood and is usually significantly lighter than a sledge hammer or splitting maul.
So, here I am, essentially trying to cut down a tree with a pointy rock. Best, fucking workout ever…. I got done and felt like I did a bunch of full body cardio and weight training. I had the feeling that on a regular basis, I would turn into a brick shit house. F yeah. However, I did have a gut full of pizza and barfed it up after quitting. Oh well…
Workout Log week of 6/15
I got really busy with work and moving/unpacking/housework over the last week and didn’t bike at all except for last tuesday. I’m trying harder this week, but off to a slow start….
Tuesday 6/18 : 22 miles 801 calories, 35 minutes Watched : Village of the damned
New Furnitures
After living in my place for a week and half now, it is only starting to feel like home. Putting up the shower curtains helped. Putting all the boxes, etc in their semi-permanent home helped (still not quite fully unpacked). Doing my first load of laundry helped. However, there are various things that still make it not feel like home… and a big step was getting some furniture in the living room.
Over the weekend, I trekked to Roseville to scope out furniture at HOM Furniture and Schnidermans. After gawking at the expensive ass leather couches at HOM and sitting on lots of lame
uncomfortable couches at Schnidermans, I decided on a set of fabric furniture at HOM. By far, the ones I picked were the most comfy and coolest patterned. The couch is pictured below. Furniture arrives Saturday. wooo.
As an aside note… there is a slick ass leather couch at Schniderman’s that looks like snake/alligator skin and is kick ass. However, it was also $5000. yarg.
