On waiting for the sequel...

I'd like a show of hands, please.

Who out there is hopelessly, pathetically addicted to the 'Game of Thrones' series?  Not the television series, but the books?  Spoilers follow if you haven't read all five yet.  Or if you are only watching the television series which, honestly, pales in comparison and is only redeemed by the hot blond chick with the dragons.

And if you have read all the way through to book five, don't tell me how it ends. I am holding off on reading the last chapters, because Ive heard that it takes years for George R. R. Martin to finish these things.  Waiting is unbearable.  The little girl is blind. Who is the young man in the boat with the dwarf?  And what about the dragons?

I expect a satisfying tieing up of threads for all of the surviving characters.  I don't know how he's going to do it.  If you've read the books you were probably as dizzy from the constantly changing points of view as I was.  Dizzy and enthralled and addicted.  How can he possibly wrap all of these story lines up?

The answer is, obviously, he can't.  He's going to have to kill a bunch of them off.

I've been reading series and checking the stacks of book stores for the next issue of my current faves, since long before amazon or kindle, or any kind of internet.  How many of you were hooked on the PD James series?  Mary Stewart's 'Chrystal Cave'?  Ah, god, I thought I'd expire before the last book came out and then I cried all the way through it.  I hate you Mary Stewart! 

Series are cruel and, yet, the best thing evah.  For me, it goes back to comic books and waiting for the next Sandman issue. 

so, I know what it's like.  And I apologize.

heh.  :P

Where have I been?

I'm in escrow. Because my life was not chaotic enough, I decided to go house shopping. I found a suitable place for a suitable price, the seller accepted my offer, everything seemed normal and good to go.

Hah!

I won't bore you with the details. From what I've heard and read, the madness is to be expected. Real Estate agents should give discount coupons for Xanex to prospective home buyers.

I'm pretty well packed, since I expected to move in about ten days. But now, I hear, that is not going to happen. Everybody chuckling and nodding and smiling and telling me this is what happens. Hehehe. I'm not laughing. I'm drinking.

The boxes I've packed in are reused delivery boxes from a doggy boutique, so they smell like dogs and dog food. Which means my apartment and my belongings also smell like dogs and doggy chow. I've got a weeks worth of clothing in the closet and a weeks worth of linens not yet packed. When I do laundry I sit in my robe waiting for it to finish.

The china is packed and I'm eating off of paper plates.

I can't find any of my socks. Anywhere. I think I used them to pack the china.

My dog who worries about everything simply can't handle the stress of his world in boxes. He has thrown up on the carpet several times now, follows me everywhere, is always underfoot, and sleeps wedged under my bed at night. He cries in his sleep.

I think I cry in my sleep, too.

This does not compute

Possible SAT questions:

Are the following statements true or false?:

Less government = government passing laws about what you can do in your bedroom.

Less government = telling women what they can do with their bodies.

Write an essay explaining how giving women control over their own role in procreation (including the right to NOT exercise that control) violates a churches religious rights?

What politician's know about the voting public.

I watch the news while working out. I usually have music on my digital device feeding motivational sound into both ears, so I watch superimposed online text of the dialogue between the newscasters and their interviewees.

Like a certain politician who shall not be named but whose initials are RS.

I can clearly see the semi-sentences... words just dropped there without noun or verb. Emotionally charged words that have no logical connection to the rest of his sentences. Like 'government forcing us to do what we find morally reprehensible' 'first amendment' 'religious rights'. He is not actually talking about something that abridges these rights or forces anyone to do anything, but he is implying it in a mass of gibberish that is merely impressive sound around those key emotional phrases. When you see it all typed out it is very clear. It's how Miss America contestants are trained to answer those questions about 'world peace'.

But this guy is running for President of the United States! He obviously only wants one thing. To beat the man in office and get his own rich friends back in power. Clearly, that is his only platform. The gibberish he is speaking is not a platform. It has as much substance as jello. So, how the hell do people fall for that crap? You know?

So I looked up 'average intelligence in America' on the internet. Oh, yes I did go there. And I found the following interesting info:

The average IQ is, by definition, 100. To get an idea what this means, someone with an IQ of 80 or below is considered to be marginally able to cope with the adult world. People with IQ's of 80 or below typically work as unskilled laborers such as lawn maintenance and trash pickup. They generally need help from friends or family to manage life's complications. About 10% of the population has an IQ of 80 or below.
People with IQ's of 80-90 are a little on the slow side but may be found in fast-food restaurants, day-care centers, etc. They may also be found in unskilled jobs. About 16% of the population has IQ's in this range.
People with IQ's of 90-110 generally occupy semi-skilled positions, including typists, receptionists, assembly line workers, and checkout clerks. They are able to keep up with the world, and comprise about 46% of the public.
People with IQ's in the 110 to 120 range fill the skilled trades and include some tool and die makers, teachers, and Ph. D.'s among their ranks. They also make up 16% of the population.
People with IQ's of 120 and above tend to staff the professions as doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, and college professors. They fall in the upper 10% of the population.

Note that, if you do the math, there are more than fifty percent of our adult population with IQ's 'able to keep up with the world' at best. If you talk really fast and use a lot of big words you can fool those people.

This is what politicians know. This is what the 1% know. They know how to make the sheep go baaa and walk into the pens.

I'm worried.

If you want to read more about intelligence and all of the statistics about the statistics, go here: http://hiqnews.megafoundation.org/Definition_of_IQ%27.html

Time is on our side, but still it's nice

I'm sure you've heard, the courts overturned Prop 8 here in California today:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/court-overturns-prop-8-california-says-state-t-181451250.html

A cheer travelled down the hallways of the studio as the info came through on tweets, facebook and good ol' fashioned email. The thing is, most people with more than half a brain and/or half a heart already think you should be able to love who you love and take care of them under the law with your social security or health insurance. We all know future generations will look back and shake their heads in disbelief that ANYONE in our era thought gay and bisexual relationships should be stigmatized.

My theory is that it's all about DNA. Some people fear the coming tide because they feel in their gut that their genetic material will be selected out as inferior or just plain evil. Call me elitist. I don't care.

This will be challenged and challenged and then, one day, everyone will just wonder why anyone even questions the rights of individuals who only want to love each other.

my digital life

At 5:30 am I am on an elyptical machine at 'Golds'. My nano is blasting a selection of workout focused music into my head while the T.V. on the elyptical shows the weather and news of the day, with a typed transcript on the bottom of the screen. So I'm listening to Beyonce while watching Newt and Romney argue. It's pitch black out side. The person on the treadmill in front of me has the finest ass I've seen in ages and there's a video screen on the wall beyond that plays a selection of music vids interspersed with diet and exercise advice.

And still I daydream. I see the second to last chapter of the book I'm working on played out in technicolor. I imagine the alternate reality in which I can sing and see myself mixing on the stage behind Beyonce. I visualize fat disappearing from my body like steam rising. And the guy next to me, who is into Wicca, tells me about manifesting magic.

The brain is amazing, infinitely powerful and the best toy ever.

The day the LOLcats died. An anti SOPA video