ronald reagan and the bomb

when i was younger, i suffered from insomnia. i remember being twelve and afraid to close my eyes at night because ronald reagan might pick up the red phone and call in world war three because he was angry and unsettled because someone tried to assassinate him. i was afraid of nuclear annihilation while i slept. i had seen a documentary or something about people seeing the bright flash of nuclear detonation whether thier eyes were closed or not and the next millisecond, oblivion, dying too quickly to feel any pain. i had rationalized that i would need pain to determine the difference between death and a dream. at this point in my life i was awakened most days by that feel of falling which was accompanied by a bright light.

i suffered from a fair amount of angst for a 12 year old. it wasn't just ronald reagan and the bomb, there was this sense that i needed to accomplish something before it was too late. i was and still am pretty hazy on what that something was. it was all tied up with creativity and dying, though. it was all tied up with leaving a record of my existence. something unique, something that said i was here.

of course, if president reagan started armageddon, it was kind of a moot point. unless my 'artwork' could survive nuclear war of course. i guess this leaves me with the options of a) creating a new smart plastic that will retain the form i put it in no matter what's done to it, b) work in some remote location so that i only have to worry about my work surviving nuclear winter, or c) reconsider my audience and start aiming my work towards cockroaches.

the notion of creating something indestructible is a little bit daunting. i mean, what if i were to succeed? the first thing that would happen is that general so-n-so would come take it away to make implements of war. i guess the trick would be to make an indestructible substance that could only be used to make art. now that would be a worthy achievement.


all of this, and today, nearly 20 years later, the white house announces that it would consider using nuclear weapons to retaliate against terrorist acts of chemical or biological nature. isn't threatening someone with nuclear annihilation a terrorist act in it's own right?

christmas time for capitalism

this year i've decided to be in the holiday spirit like never before. not only am i rushing around buying things, being careful to "forget" just enough items to go on a mad dash-and-buy last minute shopping trip, but i'm selling things. to be more specific i'm selling toys and some gaming books on e-bay. they're just some things i've had laying around, but it turns out that folks have an interest in, a-hem, collecting them. and to make it even sweeter, i've kept them all in pretty darn good shape. do you want to buy some quality toys at a low, low price? do you want to optimize your holiday experience? then, go to e-bay, search for transformers, look to see if the seller is manikus5, and if it is, bid on this incredibly hot deal. toys not your thing, or you don't know any cool kids? how about star wars role playing books? everybody loves star wars. everybody!


stores in the twin cities :cough: target :cough: started putting up a limited number of christmas items the day after halloween. and another store :cough: k-mart :cough: had there full line of trees out by the second weekend in november. but the best is that still other stores :cough: everyone :cough: had thier full line of christmas decorations and wrapping paper out by the weekend before thanksgiving.

i live less than an hour away from five major shopping malls, including "the" mall, the mall of america, and two bustling metropolitan downtown shopping districts. cars and buses will get you easily to all of these locations. it is hard to wake up and leave your house without spending money at a 'one-day only sale of the year'.

to make matters worse, not only is there the pressure of buying the perfect holiday gifts, but daily, television, newspapers and the radio remind us that the only way to fight terrorism is to have a brisk economy, so it is our patriotic duty to shop this holiday season! (the only way to fight terrorism except for the way in which we launch our armies against a middle eastern country until they are no longer a threat against the u.s. having full control over the worlds oil fields.) the g.o.p. would have us believe that there is nothing more important than love of god (preferrably the christian god) and love of country. just how many big business owners are republican?

we've got to stop the madness! don't buy your gifts, make them! don't drive to the mall, walk to your friend's house carolling along the way! i'm probably going to do this myself, but you know, next year...

now excuse me, i've just seen an ad for a sale on the perfect gift for that certain someone, and all i've got to do is be one of the next 25 people through the door to shout "deck the halls with x-mas booty!"

bloggle me this

it has turned freakin' cold here in the midwest. we can expect more of the same with single digit lows (if we're lucky) and highs in the teens. the worst part is that we don't even have any snow yet. it's just cold and ugly, with people all marshmallowed up. fortunately, weather forecasts are a dime a dozen, and i've been checking out what the weather channel via the internet has to say about it. they've got things looking five to ten degrees warmer all week. i'll take what i can get.

gosh, what an exciting guy i am. i can write about anything in the world, nay, in the universe, and i choose to write about how cold it is.

can you just imagine some of the other great pieces i may write: my thoughts on clouds, why i like breathing, or the ever exciting, guess what i found in my belly button!

but, taking tongue out of cheek, that's the beauty of the internet and computers. for the first time ever, it allows for a mass market place of ideas. what makes that a good thing, you ask? well, a true open marketplace of ideas is the exact opposite of institutional censorship. sure, you have to ignore the fact that only certain people have access to certain types of media. anyone can say anyting, and if it's a good idea, it will be appreciated by the community. basically, good idea = happy happy joy joy, bad idea = reality t.v.



as far as the whole blogging thing goes, reading them helps with writing them. maybe you like what somebody else is saying and you want to agree and provide a link to thier witty diatribe. or, maybe you hate people who only write about how cold it is and you want to publically humiliate them and warn the rest of the world not to read thier drivvle. whatever your goal, it helps to see what's been done recently. i mean, after all, we all want to be topical. with that in mind, head over to blo.gs to see what's happening with over 50,000 different blogs.

crazy mike

just this past monday (i guess that's yesterday), my job moved. no big deal. it's still the same job. the big change is the bus ride. crazy mike pretty well sums it all up. mike is in his 50's and rides the 6:30 am to downtown. yesterday, before i learned his name, mike sat in the seat in front of me, next to an attractive young lady in her early 20's. mike kept bending to fool with something on the floor, and every time he would sit back up, he would scoot a little bit closer to the young lady. after about ten minutes of this, the gal was tight up against the window. at this point, i began to smell urine, it grew progressively stronger until we all reached our location a few minutes later. when mike stood up, there was a very large wet stain on the seat of his pants.

today, i learned mike's name. it turns out that he has a couple of friends who ride the bus. they all work at different places, so i'm guessing that they all know each other from the same half way house. i didn't see the young lady back on the bus this morning. i did, however, discover why he keeps bending over. mike constantly readjusts his shoe laces. i must have watched him retie each shoe at least a dozen times.

now, lest you think that i don't know crazy, i spent ten years living in salem, oregon, the crazy capital of the world. word has it that salem has more mentally ill people per capita than any other city in the country. (due to policies of releasing patients directly onto the streets, and that two institutions have closed in the last 15 years, without sending thier patients on to other institutions.)

woody's

it was a long, hard week this last week. the election aside, work was hectic and difficult. it's great to be the lead until somebody goes on vacation, then i get to do thier job, as i am literally everyone's back-up. but all things pass, and i eventually made it to the start of this three day weekend. when courtney finally got home around seven, i learned that her week made mine look like fun!

we decided that the best thing to do was to not cook for ourselves, but instead to go out to eat! i guess, not really such a big deal, but we went looking for someplace a little more upscale than we usually go to, with the one condition being that the restaurant could not be part of a chain.

we got picked up by our friend, maya, and were off to eden prairie, mn. we ate a place called "woody's grille" in the shady oak center. the food was very good. entrees were in the $12 to $16 range, with wine at $4 to $6 a glass. woody's fare is american/ethnic, with the ethnic translating into mediterranean. i enjoyed thier chicken marsala, which was superb. the chicken was tender and moist and the mushroom sauce was rich, but not reeking of alcohol like some other places i've been. my girlfriend had a shrimp pesto pasta dish with loads of fresh veggies, especially asparagus. maya had the beef medallions, which was something that i had been considering myself. woody's real specialty is the different flavors of mashed potatoes that come with thier entrees. with the chicken marsala, i had roasted garlic mashed potatoes and maya had roasted pepper mashed potatoes with her beef medallions. i was the only one that could finish my entree, but we opted for dessert anyways. courtney and i split a carmel apple crumble, while maya had the fruit tart. both were made with fresh fruit and quite delicious, being priced around the $5 mark.

the meal aside, woody's grille had a great atmoshphere. we were seated in a booth overlooking the open kitchen. there was lots of talking, but nothing so loud that we couldn't hold a conversation. our waitress, maggie, was excellent. she gave us great service without imposing.

just so you have some idea about where i'm coming from with this, i worked as a soup chef for 4 and a half years at a cafe, so there! :P i guess that i've seen so much bad service that i really appreciate it when everything comes together as part of a night out on the town.

wynona and the republicans

what kind of world are we living in that wynona ryder can be convicted of obviously trumped-up charges. ABCNEWS.com : Winona Ryder Found Guilty of Theft and Vandalism a clearly fabricated story in an obvious attempt to tarnish the name of this country's greatest living actress! if she is guilty of anything, it's of being so darned cute. and just the very thought of her and michael keaton in beetlejuice makes me want to cry.

on a similar note, i want to personally congratulate george bush for doing such an excellent job with yesterday's election. and while president bush did not call me to remind me to get out and vote, vote republican, that is, i feel that his efforts, both at campaigning and at running our government, definitely decided for me, the only way to vote.

and in the tradition of the bushes, i can barely wait until jeb gets his turn at being president.


is there a bright side to any of this? no. but at least jesse ventura only has a couple more months before he's out of a job.

voting

what a day...i voted at seven thirty this morning and 15 hours later, i'm still focusing on it, and am no closer to knowing who will be elected. because of the death of senator wellstone, the last week has been a different campaign than anyone could have imagined, even effecting the ballot itself. the u.s. senate race got it's own ballot and now they are hand counting each and every one of them.

all kinds of predictions are being made with one and two percent of the vote being in. minnesota is getting national publicity on this, making it bit surreal.

also of interest is the ballot measure out in oregon, measure 23, which calls for free universal health care. no copayments, no deductible, necessary meds are free...oregon? the oca must be shitting themselves worried about the communists taking over. :) not a worry for lon mabon, as i hear he's been wearing depends for years. :> from what i've seen, it will be a surprise to all if measure 23 passes, but hopefully will serve as a wake call to the nation. i mean, how many people have to go without healthcare just because a few need a porsche to go with lexus and beemers?

lest you think that i'm anti-capitalist, let me remind you of just how much "protection" the wealthy receive: taxes on thier money, but capital is protected? come on!

this is my first mini-rant. if it wasn't so late, i'd let this be my first rant, but now you have something to look forward to.

mondale

when jimmy carter and walter mondale ran for president and vice president, repectively, in 1976 and 1980, i was too young to vote for them. (my years were still being measured in single digits.) i'd always hoped that i could've gotten that opportunity. same story when mondale, with geraldine ferraro as a running mate, made the run for president in '84.

now in a new century, under unexpected and tragic circumstances, i've got the opportunity to vote for walter frederic "fritz" mondale. you can be damn sure that i'm going to take this opportunity and make the most of it.

this particular vote seems even more important in light of governor jesse ventura's move to put campaign chairman into the senate to finish the late paul wellstone's term. today was not a cool day to have a professional wrestler for a governor.

bus rides

i ride the bus an hour in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon. i make one transfer each way. that's a total of four buses per day. maybe half the people on each bus are regulars, and the other half are an ever rotating group of mass transit users comprised of business people, students and other citizens, who let's be honest are as likely as not to be holding conversations with themselves.

my ride takes me through the very heart of a decent sized metropolitan area of a couple of million folks. now, not counting the regulars, i don't really expect to see a particular person get on the bus. anyway, an acquaintance of mine, that is my girlfriend's friend's boyfriend, got on the bus and took the seat directly in front of me. i had my nose in a magazine and my ears in headphones and didn't notice him until half way through my ride. when i tried to get his attention he blew me off. now, i am totally willing to grant that maybe he said something when he first sat down, but i didn't notice, in which case i blew him off.

i would feel bad for blowing him off, but...i don't because he's not my favorite person- there's nothing wrong with the guy, we just haven't ever hit it off very well. and as far as him blowing me off, i only noticed he was sitting in front of me when two girls who are regulars on the route were looking at him and smiling and talking covertly about him. (they're all in the same grad school program, and they think he's a big blowhard- word's i've heard them use.)

hello!

i guess everything has to begin somewhere. ('cept maybe infinity- but i'll leave that for another time.)

who? i'm just some guy temporarily living in the midwest.

what? probably just my ramblings, but every once in a while it will contain something witty and/or interesting, hopefully.

why? why not? seriously, everybody else is doing it.

when? right now.

where? manikus.blogspot.com