Storytime

Once there was a pen. And he was one self-righteous Bic. Most Bics look forward to a very short career lying at the bottom of people's purses or being lost under the couch or being chewed on by a bored telemarketer. But this Bic had gotten lucky. A CEO had borrowed him from a taxi driver one day and the CEO had discovered that the Bic was areodynamically perfect fot the pen acrobatics that the CEO mindlessly did when he had other things on his mind. SO, this Bic began life with the Big Boys. Signing important contacts. Filling out checks for thousand and thousands of dollars. Traveling with the CEO in a small pocket normally occupied by a Farheny's or a Swisher. So the Bic got rather full of himself. He taunted other Bics when he happened to see them for a moment. Laughing at their inferiority, he believed that he, among all Bics, was the most important.

Until one day, the Bics ink ran dry. "No Problem", thought the Bic. The Bic was sure the CEO would replace his ink, that the CEO would never abandon his favorite pen. Then, the Bic's world collapsed. The CEO bought a package of 10 Bics for a dollar at a convinience store, got a new pen from the package and threw the Bic into the back seat. The Bic was heartfallen. He fell under the carseats, where the pens that he had used to tease resided. The pens had no sympathy for the pen. They were overjoyed to see this pen who once had thought himself so much better than they, was now lying amonst the dust and the coffee cups, like all the other pens that had passed through thr CEOs hands.

The Bic tried to make up for his teasings, but he had hurt the other pens too often, and forgiveness was never found. Then, a suddenly as he had been thrown away, the Bic was grabbed again. For a brief second, the Bic believed his CEO had come looking for him. ut the CEO sat quietly driving in the front. The person who had picked up the Bic was the CEO's 12 year old son. The son quickly stripped the Bic of it's cap and it's ink holder, leaving the Bic cold and naked. Then, the boy stuck a wad of wet paper into the Bic and launched a spitwas directly at the CEO's neck. Upset, the CEO grabbed the Bic and threw him out the car window.

Alone, a shell of what he had once been, and knowing he would never again be used to write, the BIc rolled into a ditch and disappeared.

I love this guy. He is working to design a Hobbit Hole using readily available concrete pipes (very big concrete pipes). He has drawings of how it will work and everything. Very cool.

21st Century Bag End

I have a genius musical idea. A song that could take the world by storm just long enough to let me live comfortably for the rest of my days. I had this idea as I was drinving down the road listening to some radio stations Flashback Lunch. Someone requested Video killed the Radio Star, and cutsy little tune and the first video played on MTV.

Now it is time to an update, using the same music.

Internet killed the Video Star.

It is time, it will work. I probably need help with the lyrics but something like

Internet killed the Video Star
Internet killed the Video Star
On my drive and monitor
You can't delete
We've come to far
Internet killed the Video Star
No, oh, oh, oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Tell me this would not be a novelty song of enourmous proportions that radios would shove down our throuts for a 3 month time period.

I have started a Political Blog with my friend Dave called

Democracy Dave and Will of the People


I am putting all of my political rants here, which means I have to come up with nonpolitical rants here, which might be tough.

I saw the Matrix Reloaded the other night, and I came up with an analogy I am quite proud of for it.

It was the fastest turtle I have ever seen.

I can visualize the Hollywood meeting that took place 2 years ago for this. The writer's have written the sequal. It is a good script, tight. They show it to the producer. The producer says "But this is just one movie, we need two more to make a trilogy." And so the writer's decided to take the first act (the first 20 minutes of a movie) and turn that into the first sequel. Leaving the second and third act for the third film. As filler they decided to show pointlessly long action sequences, lots of pained reaction shots and about 20 minutes of really interesting vital information.

Now, I was impressed by the conclusion to the film, as it features a conversation that I had to work very hard at to follow. And I like that, I like a film that makes me work for comprehension.

Oh please, oh please I hope this is true..

Daily Movie News at The Z Review the best uk movie news and review site

As readers of the book know Voldemort does not come back to life until this book, and until then he is nothing more than a ghost. Well Warner Brothers have obvioulsy been thinking about this and realised it might be about time to get an actor signed up to the role. And can you guess who that name is that they are in talks with to play, probably the most crucial role in the movie after Harry Potter himself, is going to be? None other than Rowan Atkinson.

Well, it has been a few days since my last update, as my wife and I have been killing ourselves to prepare our house for Saturday's shindig and Merideth's Grad School. We have been demolishing, rebuilding, adding, painting and rearranging all over the house. And we are quite tired of it. But, we are almost done and the house looks great and we should not have any large projects to do anound the house for quite some time.

Also on a plus, I have not been weeping in a fetal position on the floor. Which is suprising, as that is usually where I can be found around my Birthdays, especially "Big" birthdays like turning 30. I have been preparing to deal with my feelings of inadequacy that I am not a film director or even in the entertainment business. And I was preparing for that feeling of dread that comes with knowing you are 30, and your life expectancy is like 60 or 70. But really, I feel ok. Maybe because I have taken more action towards dealing with these problems than I have in the past. I bought a enough film equipment to make movies without having to rent equipment or borrow stuff. I am on Weight Watchers, to help with the whole health, longer life stuff. Seems generally positive for me. I also do have quite the wonderful family (which if you had told me at 20 I would have by 30 I would have called you nuts) and quite a lot of good friends.

So, 30 has come and gone. I have dealt.

Just don't ever mention 40.

There are some things even Gangsta Rappers are afraid of...

Yahoo! News - Eminem Won't Allow Weird Al Video

It's Official. I am an Adult...

Yahoo! News - Are We Grown Up Yet? U.S. Study Says Not 'Till 26

The article list 7 steps to adulthood.

So:
Education - Check
Full-time employment - Check
Supporting a Family - Check
Financial Independence - Check
Living Independently from Parents - Check
Marriage - Check
Parenthood - Check

There is no way out of this. I am an adult. Bastards

I'm going to go home and play with my Star Wars Action Figures...

Political Rant

I was listening to NPR (God bless it) and the conversation I heard helped confirm what I have been thinking for a long time. That one of the largest mistakes made by the US Government in it's history was to rule that corporations were protected under the Constitution as people. Giving Corporations rights of free speech, rights against search and seizure, and civil rights protections. The founding fathers would be turning over in their grave over this ruling (not really one ruling, it has come about in bits and pieces over the last 100 years in the Supreme Court) and someone has to stop it. Of course, I don't know exactly how, barring a constitutional amendment saying corporations do not have constitutional rights, and this will never happen.

This is the leading factor in the government moving from a democracy to a plutocracy. Corporations have to money and contacts to buy the influence that most Americans can not obtain. Then, they use the rulings that corporations have the same rights as people when someone tries to pass laws stopping it. The majority of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act were shot down by a court saying the law violated the corporations civil rights.

Ironically, an individual gives up constitutional rights to work for a corporation. A corporate employee is barred from speaking the the press about a corporation without consent, they are allowed to administer random drug tests, and Wal-Mart went to court when a town charged it higher licensing fees than locally owned stores saying the town viloated Wal-Mart's civil rights. They can pay sweatshops in India employing 10 year old children in hazerdous working conditions and no one can do anything, but try to charge them an extra $100 a year in a vain attempt to keep locally owned businesses open, and Wal-Mart can shut them down. It is sick. And it must be stopped.

I have been saying for quite some time that the easiest way to ensure passenger saftey on airlines is to make everyone fly nude. Now, I have validation.
NBC5.com - Travel Getaways - First Nude Flight Leaves Miami Bound For Cancun

The last lines of the piece

Naked travel is the fastest-growing segment of Castaways' business, Daniels said.

"After 9/11, I didn't have any cancellations," she said. "Even after war broke out, we didn't have any cancellations on this trip. People feel safe on a flight like this."

Oddly enough, my friend Melissa is also discussing weight issues on her Blog today...

Use Your Words

I would like to start a campaign to force doctors to rename the medical term "morbidly obese." This is a real medical term. The term is used for those 100 pounds or more over their ideal weight. "Morbidly obese" Why not just use the term fatso? Fatso would be no less degrading than morbidly obese.

From Dictionary.com


mor·bid (môrbd). adj.

1. a. Of, relating to, or caused by disease; pathological or diseased.
b. Psychologically unhealthy or unwholesome: “He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses” (Edgar Allan Poe).
2. Characterized by preoccupation with unwholesome thoughts or feelings: read the account of the murder with a morbid interest.
3. Gruesome; grisly.

o·bese (-bs) adj.

Extremely fat; grossly overweight.

So, the best interpretation: extrememly, pathologically overweight. The worst interpretation: Gruesomly, grisly, grossly fat. I feel they can define the condition is less demeaning terms and still convey the medical dangers of the problem.

Salon.com News | Australian brothel trades on stock market


You know, most financial advisors tell you to invest in your interests...

If I could write poems, I would write about working out at the gym on a Saturday night. It is both sad and hopeful, wonderful poetic material. A handful of people feverously working the the hopes that one day they will gain the confidence and self respect needed to have something better to do on a Saturday night. They run with pot bellies and lift weights with spingly arms in a quest to make themselves more appealing. Add in the night janitors who speaks no English and the night clerk who dropped out of high school and you have art. Because the only reason these people are there is because they can visualize a better world for themselves if they just keep going. The overweight see themselves skinny, the weak see themselves strong. The janitor sees a better life for his children. So they all just keep going. The night clerk, who continually ducks out for a smoke, is there to remind us of the cost of losing our dreams.

Now, like I said, if I could write this poem I would, but I can't do poems. I used to write poems and they were dreck. Image the worst of high school angst combined with poor scansion and a deep conviction that these poems were a good way to make girls like you, and you get the idea.

Saw the film Secretary last night and it was wonderful. I loved it. I love any love story where the 2 people falling in love are not acting like morons to create unneeded conflict. And I love movies that treat sex as a good thing, as a factor of someone's salvation, instead of something to be ashamed of, or something that ruins your life or whatever moral lesson the Republicans and Joe Leiberman want the public to swallow this week.

I don't like Republicans. More on that later.

OK, I have put up a link to my website www.graelent.com. which is in need of some updating, and I have grand plans to get around to that sometime before my children leave for college.

Well, this is rather fun, I must say. Added a site counter. I'll probably stick some links in sometime in the near future.

Yes. I have created a Blog, although I am unsure exactly why. Partly because I enjoy my friends Blogs Use Your Words and A Violently Executed Plan. Partly, because a writer writes. Which means if I have a reason to write every day (well, almost every) thta my brain will become more attune to writing, and that brilliant script I know is lurking in my brain somewhere will issue forth unto my computer. Now, I have no illusions that my life, my insight, or witty writing style are worth random stragers valuable time. But I will press on anyway. I will probably not tell anyone of the Blog for a while, so I can make sure I will actually update the thing on a semi-constant basis. So, we begin...