Tunnel Vision

You walk down the tunnel and what's at the end, you figure it out when you get there but at least you'll know, right? But why would you not want to know?

2moro

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Nostalgia

Remember on 80's sitcoms, there was a popular theme for having one of the main characters fall in love for someone, only to find out that their love interest was actually IN A WHEELCHAIR? During that time, technology enabled people to connect, without having to see the person (phone dating?). So there was always someone, like Zack Morris, who thought he'd be finding a bodacious babe on the other end of the line, only to find her unable to move her legs. This caused an emotional dilemma for our protagonist, but he/she always let the inner beauty of the object of his/her affection shine through. Then they were never seen nor heard from again.

Nowadays we don't have that because of the internet. I guess you could Skype and not know the other person can't stand up, but I think that somehow you'd just know. I think in the 70s it used to be interracial dating, and in the 90s maybe that person was really a dude or a lady. I don't know. But I do know for 10 glorious years we learned through our favorite sitcom character that people in wheelchairs are people too.

Jesus Blanco y Negro

I was offended when I walked past a black church and I saw a depiction of the Last Supper with a black Jesus and black apostles of varying hues. I guess I was more taken aback than offended, but either way I thought it was bothersome without being able to articulate it. In the Malcolm X movie with Denzel Washington there is a scene where he talks about Jesus Christ being described in the Bible as a person with dark features and kinky hair, ergo he's black according to a certain Black Liberationist (Supremacist?). I really didn't think that meant that he was black. People think Egyptians were black too because they come from Africa, but they are definitely not black. There were black Egyptians and even black Pharaohs (from Nubia), but the majority wouldn't what I consider to be "black." (I especially bristle when people claim that Cleopatra was black just because she lived in Africa. She came from the Ptolemic line of Macedonians. It would be equivalent to insisting that Charlize Theron is black just because she happens to be African American.) So a black Jesus by that logic is a similar thought process or so I think. But then I thought of how I had to grow up with super Anglo Jesus who had milky white skin to match his pure soul. And I thought that was even more bullshit, so I let the black Jesus slide for now.

I still think this is funny

A conversation cut short

March 16, 1985

A man who has recently read Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" has joined his longtime friend at a cafe. After a exhausting the conversation, the second man remembers the television show he has just seen.

"So what do you think of Mr. Belvedere?"
"I don't think of Mr. Belvedere."

Flapping in the Cooler

As anyone who is obsessed with reading my status updates on Facebook would know, yesterday I went finishing in the Pacific Ocean yesterday. I went with some of the guys living on island. We rented a boat and used their gear. When we launched, I was really excited. I didn't really care about catching fish, but being in the ocean on a boat is freeing. Sometimes I'll sing "Born Free" to myself while standing near the bow.

After we went through the pass from that lagoon side to the oean side, we headed towards a bird pile. This signals that birds are feeding on the abundant number of fish in the area. Clever. Well we didn't catch anything, which is unusual. We drove around for a while, passing the various islands. I wanted to get out and explore them.

On our way back we caught a 30lbs Yellowfin Tuna. On the floor of the boat, its mouth was wide, as if it were gasping for air. If only it breathed through its mouth. They dumped it in the cooler where my bottled water was. It looks like I'm not going to drink water for the rest of the trip. After a while, I hear a Boom Boom Boom from the cooler. It was that fish. For the next ten minutes, that's what I heard and felt coming from the cooler. Then it became more intense. BOOM BOOM BOOM. I thought of Egdar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart. The fish was pretty strong. Then it stopped. Suddenly I felt a boom boom boom boomity boom boom bo boom. The fish was in it's death throes. It went silent.

I know it's just a fish, but it was weird. We caught another fish and it bled all over the floor. I didn't know that fish can bleed like that. I thought to myself that tonight's dinner will be vegetarian, but I ate meat because it tasted good. We are planning to eat the fish tonight, so it went to a good cause.