A most unexpected find...

Me! on IMDB. I couldn't stop chuckling while I walked down the hallway to get the laundry. I'm pretty chuckly right now actually. Hahaha.

Slightly unexpected. Just a bit.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/27/2005 06:26:00 PM 0 comments

While I planned out a nice walk from 11o1 to Starbucks in Bronxville on this gorgeous day I watched my iPod update. iTunes was sucking up the CPUs, Batman Beyond Season 2 was 2 hours away from completion, and I'd moved a whole bunch of files to the share drive so I could pull some stuff over to my PB. Everything seemed hunky dori.

I thought "Hmm, what can I close to free up some CPUs... ZoneAlarm." Click Click. "Ah whatever. It's not sucking up that much from the CPU. I'll close the window after it loads."

A few minutes later I had a warning pop up

NT Authority has terminated lsass.exe; code -1073741818

A timer counting down from 60 began the moment the window appeared.

I closed the torrent and ejected the iPod even though it hadn't finished expecting, well, expecting the PC to reboot.

WRONG!

I've spent the past few hours Frankenstein-ing one PC, updating a 2000 Server installation and will soon wipe out a RedHat installation with XP so I can copy over any files in the boot partition of my master PC.

There is no simple emoticon to express the frutration I have at the moment. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

On a happy note... Orientation was the smoothest it's been in my 3 years at SLC. Suh-weet! Things are changing for the better and I'm a part of it! Damn it feels good.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/27/2005 05:59:00 PM 0 comments

You're sitting, waiting, thinking, feeling your heart beat. It takes just a moment to focus and suddenly your entire body feels like it's pulsing. The arms, the stomach, and the neck feel like they've joined the big band that is your heart's beat.

Boom

Boom

Boom

At this moment you don't know if it's best to stay in the moment and let the heart take control of your deepest thoughts... Or is the moment you've been waiting for to move. Is this the catalyst that will drive you from your torpor like state? Somewhere inside a coin is flipping and wobbling about just waiting... waiting... waiting.

It's easy isn't it. To just be. To be without being. Shakes couldn't have written the idea of life more brilliantly in his "To be or not to be" speech. At times it does feel like their is simply too much weight to
life.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

He really knew how to kick someone in the ass to wake them up. Of course Shakes goes on and questions whether it's easier to do die... But I'm not going there within this post.

No, instead I am choosing to breath deep. Tomorrow will be hectic, Orientation 2005 at SLC, and I'm probably going to kick into high gear. Actually, I've been in high gear all week. It feels as if my mind was turned on bright and early, then pushed to 11, or even 13, throughout the day. As day set into night my entire body was ready for a tomb. Multiple nights of 1030 and 1100 yawns and pillow meetings kept me away from other, personal, thoughts. Work became my life this week.

Ha.

Not bad.

One week out of a entire summer. Not. Bad. At. All.

The moment of anxiety is passed. I choose to embrace the pounding of my heart. It felt heavy and fast, but it felt good. Have you seen the moon at all this week? It's been filling the sky with light and beauty. Have you? It's the little things. The moments that we let slip away too easily. I find myself smiling as I think back to the anxious feeling I had while I was on the ground feeling my body pulse to and fro as my heart beat. Heh - pounded is a better choice of words.

Did you look at the moon? I did, and I know how amazing it was because I held a certain diamond skinned lady in my arms. It was a beautiful moment. The more I think about it, the less tension I feel in my shoulders.

I think it's time. It's that point in the day when I find I should stop writing and start resting. Tomorrow is a big day after all. Oyasumi sky, oyasumi wind, oyasumi mina-san.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/27/2005 01:00:00 AM 0 comments

I'm all sorts of curious to see what google does for IM-ing. And whoohoo. I'm an early adopter. talk.google.com is now live but it wasn't when I signed on. Keep on rockin in the free world indeed.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/23/2005 11:19:00 PM 0 comments

and scores with the word of the day! Avenue Q taught emma and I all about it. Now google is spreading the word! Brilliant.

schadenfreude: a malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/22/2005 09:28:00 AM 0 comments

Here are those that braved the heights and depths of life! Omedeto minasama!

Standing: Jacek, Matt, Randall, Quyen, Mudda, Emma, Lori, Johnny 5, Lindsay

Kneeling: Alice, me
- posted by garyploski @ 8/15/2005 05:52:00 PM 0 comments

That's 3 tomorrows for the third jump. This time it will be different. This time it will work. And with that thought, I will jump to one of my favorite scenes in my FAVorite book.

     Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.
     And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.    
     This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.
     Ah . . . ! What's happening? it thought.
     Er, excuse me, who am I
     Hello?
     Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?
     What do I mean by who am I?
     Calm down, get a grip now . . . oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of . . . yawning, tingling sensation in my . . . my . . . well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in
what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach.
     Good. Ooooh, it's getting quite strong. And hey, what's about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that . . . wind! Is that a good name? It'll do . . . perhaps I
can find a better name for it later when I've found out what it's for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What's this thing? This . . . let's call it a tail – yeah, tail. Hey!
I can can really thrash it about pretty good can't I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on. Now – have I built up any coherent picture of things yet
     No.
     Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation . . .
     Or is it the wind
     There really is a lot of that now isn't it?
And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and at and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like . . .
w . . . ound . . . round . . . ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground!
     I wonder if it will be friends with me?
And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.
     Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought
that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/12/2005 12:08:00 PM 0 comments

Let's talk terminology first.

You, a vegetarian, are a herbivore. A 'meat eater' as you describe those not of vegetarian or vegan choice are omnivores. Let's look at the definitions now...

Main Entry: her·bi·vore
Pronunciation: '(h)&r-b&-"vOr, -"vor
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin Herbivora, group of mammals, from neuter plural of herbivorus
: a plant-eating animal

Main Entry: om·ni·vore
Pronunciation: 'äm-ni-"vOr, -"vor
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin omnivora, neuter plural of omnivorus, from Latin
: one that is omnivorous

Which leads us to:

Main Entry: om·niv·o·rous
Pronunciation: äm-'niv-r&s, -'ni-v&-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin omnivorus, from omni- + -vorus -vorous
1 : feeding on both animal and vegetable substances
2 : avidly taking in everything as if devouring or consuming
- om·niv·o·rous·ly adverb

Okay, so, what's the point? Well, many of you probably see nothing wrong with the term 'meat eater' but I, along with many others, are quite frustrated with this moniker. The choice YOU, the herbivores, have made does not mean WE, the omnivores, are in need of a term that limits who we are or what we eat. You have chosen to limit your diet. We, omnivores, say it with me, äm-'niv-r&s, eat what we wish, when we wish.

Yes, there is a prejudice within your choice of words.

Main Entry: 1prej·u·dice
Pronunciation: 'pre-j&-d&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin praejudicium
2 a (1) : preconceived judgment or opinion

You may not see the term as anything but descriptive, but in fact, it is far from the bullseye.

So, with these definitions, aka cold hard facts, please know that you quite likely offending your non-vegetarian friends, family, or random strangers. And fellow non-vegetarians, please note that vegetarians are not strange, weird or anything out of the ordinary. They've made a choice for their reason. If you have a question ask it - without judgement. There is nothing wrong with them just as there is nothing wrong with us for eating meat and anything else you want to eat. Also, remember that you are a omnivore. You are not just a 'meat eater'.

End. of. line.
- posted by garyploski @ 8/10/2005 12:04:00 AM 0 comments