Category: Uncategorized

Darn, there’s nothing new in my “trainwrecks” category in rss

Was awakened by pager again today to fix something insignificant. I was about to get all grumpy and then remembered that I work from home, my schedule is infinitely flexible, and I make good money. So I just fixed it.

The latest immigration “debate” is making me tired. All the local white folk keep saying things like “It’s about the laws! If you’re here illegally, that’s unlawful, and you’re breaking the law! That’s not legal!” Right. And the law is ridiculous, because it doesn’t reflect economic reality. And if the law was well-enforced everything would fall over with a large clonk. The latest guy to dispute that with me kept saying “That’s a fallacy!” every time I pointed this own. I guess “fallacy” means “obvious fact I intend to ignore”.

I have a Modest Proposal. If we are going to actually enforce this law, let’s get serious. First let’s bust every single business we can find who hires illegals, with hugely punitive fines. It’ll pay for itself; just get loads of cops out there and hit every restaurant, every gardening operation, every cleaning crew, every building contractor or handyman company. But that won’t be enough. Let’s also hit their customers. If you’re patronizing a business that uses illegals, you’re part of the problem. Walk into a restaurant, find three illegal busboys and two illegal dishwashers? Everyone eating dinner gets a $500 fine. Find a condo complex with an illegal mowing the lawn? Every condo owner there gets a $500 fine. Or 90 days in jail. Three offenses and it’s a felony with a $25,000 fine and five years in jail. Zero tolerance, baby.

Don’t like it? Neither would I. Maybe we should work on laws that reflect necessity for us and for our neighbors to the south, instead of prolonging a ridiculously unworkable racist quota system. Oh, and get those fucking Irishmen in the bars back on a boat home. And the Swedes. GOD-DAMNED SWEDES.

It’s such a beautiful day. I’m gonna go out and be delinquent instead of whatever chore I was supposed to do. Next stop, Cost Plus.

a darkling plain where dudes are being totally uncool to each other

I think it’s time to get my dietary stuff back in line right now. I had no breakfast, no lunch, and two dinners today. Mind you they were good dinners and a right amount of food but this isn’t going to work.

Saw Stuart play and some friends tonight. Everyone was cool but for some reason I felt totally socially awkward, like I wasn’t wearing pants. Weird. I think it was just me, though.

Then salome_st_john put up the bat signal that she was about to murder her room mate for reals so I galumphed over there and we went to Kappo Honda (dinner #2). I have to say that lotus root tempura and pumpkin croquette are two of Japanese civilization’s great contributions to the world.

I love this rain.

Stuart Saves Rock ‘n’ Roll

changeng has been a hero to me for some time, because he does music exactly how he wants and is a superstar. Also because he can do the weirdest versions of songs with the funniest and most unlikely instrumentation and do them really well, not just the tacked-together way a novelty artist would.

Monkey, toy piano, xylophone, slinky, whatever it takes, Stuart will use it.

So anyway he’s saving rock ‘n’ roll, and I urge you to read this account of his gig at the Lords of Chaos tour. This is a NuMetal/pop punk tour for The Kids These Days: Atreyu, Deftones, Thrice, Story of the Year. Not what you’d recommend for a guy who plays “When Doves Cry” on a hurdy-gurdy. But this is Stuart and he’s magic.

Looks like he wins! Damn. Maybe there’s hope after all.

Chabon on MFA programs and being a little shit

This is interesting. Michael Chabon was a student of my father’s in the UCI MFA program more than 20 years ago. He’s been a family friend since, and I also admire his writing.

In his website column this week he writes about the value of the program. He’s given props to my dad before by name, many times, which was gratifying. This is more interesting. He talks about the phenomenon of being “a little shit” as he says he was, or more particularly a talented by self-absorbed young privileged man, and then being dumped into a group of peers who were talented and also different: older, more experienced, more mature, and more than half of them female.

Food for thought, especially on the topic of male literary misogyny. Oh, and I see it was published in Details, the magazine of little shits everywhere.