Me, Esq.

I'm back (dun, dun, duuuuuun)...!

At the risk of disappointing everyone reading this blog (which, if I was really honest about who was actually reading this hogwash, I should emphasize the "one" part over the "every" part...)(you know who you are)(::snort::), I need to come clean and confess that, no, I am neither a guinea pig nor a hermit crab, nor is my name actually Beto. Beto (God rest his soul) was indeed once the name of a hermit crab, and is very likely still the name of some fortunate hermit crab somewhere in the world, but the aforementioned Beto is now less hermit crab and more fertilizer. Thus my dearly departed friend is completing the circle of life under the stairs of my old apartment, inside a rainbow colored box, which by now my former landlord has undoubtedly discovered tucked in the soils of her prized bougainvilleas.

You'll also no doubt already have been relieved to discover that, although I am neither pig nor crab nor Beto, I am still in love with run-on sentences and somewhat questionable syntax. Though this is contrary to one of my stated goals in starting this blog (i.e. to improve my writing skills...), it is nevertheless true. See -- run on sentences and passive voice. Yeah, I'm a rebel. Keep reading; I might soon start splitting infinitives (OHH!! Take that!).

So I was going somewhere with all this when I started...

Oh yes, it was to say that I am now once again receiving visitors to my little corner of the institution. Why? Because I can. Because I POWER BLOGGER. It's true. It says so right there on the left (as opposed to being left there on the right). Go ahead and look -- I'll wait until you're done. I'll even keep your seat warm for you. Anyways, no need to repeat that point (too late...) since we already established that part many moons ago when I first started this drivel (http://starkravingblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/day-2.html)(textual evidence, yo).

But back to my original point (wait, was there one to begin with...?): it's because sometimes all I desire to do (passive voice!!) is share some drivel with the world, and it's just not appropriate to do so on my other blog, which is supposed to be all serious and stuff.

With that, I give you Things That Make Me Say, "I Don't Get It" #6: Men who wear tank tops in public. There are appropriate exceptions to this fashion travesty of course, like say if you're at the beach, or say you're a professional athlete and it's part of your uniform, or say you're Ahnald and you're carrying a rocket launcher because you're fighting for your life against a vicious extraterrestrial game hunter. But for the most part, it looks like you forgot something because maybe you were talking on your cell phone when you walked out the door this morning or something. Maybe I'm just out of touch with what the cool kids think is stylish these days. I don't get it.

OK, peace out.

Dia Ultima

Well, it has been almost 5 months, several months since someone last left a comment here. If the point of starting this blog was to try to make contact with some the billions of people in cyberspace, I'd say the experiment proves that it's nearly impossible to do so. If the point was to have a place to express the thoughts that I can't say without offending someone, then I've certainly done that to a certain extent, but not really, seeing as I told someone that I was doing this, and thus added a self-censoring variable. If the point was to have a life kept secret from those who know me, then I've failed there, too, for the very same reason just mentioned.

With that in mind, I think it's time to shutter my online treehouse. Maybe I'll try this again some other time or some other place. Maybe I'll see you again then and there. God bless and thanks for reading :)

Day 140

Contemporary societal wisdom tells me that I must first love myself before I can love others. That is to say, I must have enough love for myself in order for any excess to overflow to others. I would submit that without first loving others, I will never have enough love to satisfy my own needs. Think about it -- Christ said that the two greatest commandments in Scripture are to (1) love God and (2) love others as I love myself -- I am never actually told that I must love myself. In fact, the latter commandment is predicated on the idea that I already love myself, and therefore I am commanded to love my neighbor the same way I love myself. The truth is, if I try to love myself enough, I will never have enough -- human nature always wants more and we are never satisfied with the amount we have of whatever it is that we have. Thus if I focus on loving myself enough first, I will never have any excess to share with others because I will always need to hoard more for myself. And of course I can't ever give myself enough because of the aforementioned human nature, so I will try to get others to love me to supplement my need. However, if I demand love without giving any first, I will not receive any. So I say that I must first love others as I want to be loved. Spread that around enough, and enough will eventually come back to me from the people I have loved first.

Things That Make Me Say, "I Don't Get It" #5: Why do we so often treat our greatest blessings as if they were our greatest burdens? I would like to think that the entities that bless us the most require effort to maintain, and that it’s the personal investment that we make in maintaining those entities that give them importance in our lives, which in turn gives them the potential to greatly bless us. But too often we focus only on the efforts required, losing sight of the blessings, realizing how much of a blessing they were only after we’ve already given up on them. I hope to never treat my blessings that way, yet I know I will. I don’t get it.

Day 129

It's high time I welcomed our new visitor(s)! Welcome to the visitor(s) from Florida! Hope you enjoyed your stay here, and hope you're able to stay out of the humidity there in Florida -- I've heard it's rough.



Things That Make Me Say, "I Don't Get It" #4: People who have yet to visit Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! Free viewing only lasts a couple more days, so act quickly, dear readers. And having mentioned the Sing-Along Blog in each of my last 3 posts, you'd think I was being paid by Joss Whedon to do so... Sadly, I'm not. He probably doesn't even know I exist, though it would be fun if he did notice my little corner of cyberspace and leave a comment or something. But there are bloggers out there who have posted much more than I have regarding said Blog, and they deserve the props much more than I do. Yet even with such glowing praise from the farthest reaches of the WWW, there are still people who are painfully unaware of the brilliance that is only a few clicks away. I don't get it.

Day 126

Soooo ... did you check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog yet ... ? Do it. Doooo iiit.




Ahem.



In other news, I bought a new car! Sadly I did not buy a Segway from Jackie Chan. Rather, I bought a Toyota Matrix from Raymond. Certainly there's an off chance that Raymond knows Jackie Chan, but I'm not holding out hope for that. At the very least I'm pretty sure that Raymond knows of Jackie Chan. That's probably as close as I'm getting to the aforementioned Mr. Chan during this whole vehicle purchasing process.

If nothing else, the whole car-buying experience has reminded me that I'm not very good at negotiating prices. The last time I had to negotiate any payment was when I was living in New Delhi, and I wasn't very good at it then either. Granted, I was only negotiating for rickshaw fares and the occasional souvenir, but still -- El Sucko. To my credit though, I did manage to get them to let me trade in my old truck, which seemed an insurmountable task, given that coolant was spraying out of a hose and the transmission warning light was coming on several times each day. In fact, I almost expected them to say, "Um, you're going to have to pay us extra if you want to leave this thing here..." So in light of that, not only am I happy that I have a new ride, I'm happy that someone other than me is dealing with selling my old ride...



I'm not through with you yet today...

Things That Make Me Say, "I Don't Get It" #3: The cell phone that rings several times during the course of a single meeting. Sure, you forgot to turn off the ringer when you first walked in and the phone rang in the middle of the meeting -- it's distracting, but it's understandable. But did you think that the phone would somehow turn itself to silent mode after that? Did you not hear it the first time? You obviously did, seeing as you picked it up to see who was calling, so what's so difficult about switching to silent mode at that point? Did you think that it would be any less of a distraction the second time it rings? That's not only rude, that's unprofessional. I don't get it.

Day 125

Wow, I've been here over 4 months...

But more importantly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog arrives TODAY! Click on the banner on the left of your screen ... Uh ... scroll down a little ... See Neil Patrick Harris there? Yeah, that's it. Seriously, it's right there -- you can't miss it. And whatever you do, don't miss it! Nathan Fillion is right there, too. As well as Felicia Day. Come on, what's not to love?!? It's only up until Sunday, so make sure you visit the site before then. Then make sure you download the videos and buy the DVD. Firefly Flans, show those studio big-wigs that you can recognize quality programming when you see it!

Yes, I'm being quite effusive, but it's for a worthy cause. Believe me. On second thought, don't take my word for it -- click on that banner and see for yourself.

Enjoy :)

Day 118

Hope you all had a great 4th of July! I had a pretty good one myself, but then again any event that involves BBQs and fireworks is a pretty good event in my view. I mean, what can be more American than eating too much and blowing things up, right?

Try not to read too much meaning into that last statement...


Things That Make Me Say, "I Don't Get It" #2: People who smoke when it's over 100 degrees out. The last couple weeks have been scorching here in Southern California. We've had brief moments of relief in the past few days, but on the whole, it has seriously been hot outside. Crank-the-air- conditioner-in-the-car-even-though-it's-still-the-morning-commute hot. Yet there are people in my office building who stand out in the sun for long periods of time, during the hottest parts of the day, getting pummeled by the intense UV rays and the baking heat, all while sucking down the smoke from leaves that they have set aflame. I don't get it.