Idea
I am thinking of starting a podcast about psychology related things -- self-help, fun psych stories, fun psych disorders, etc. I haven't even started writing anything yet or coming up with ideas, but would anyone out there listen to something like this? I think I could be engaging enough, but who knows. I tend to think I'm way more interesting than other people might. Heh.
So, let's hear from the millions of readers of my blog. And by millions I mean Chuck, Xon, Jmac, and maybe a few other people.
I'll soon have a reader participation event up. You get to vote on something and I'll take pictures of it. Get your minds out of the gutter!
And now for something completely different...
This is
really cool. Check out the heat track on the shot with backspin.
This guy is my new hero. I can't help but wonder how the South lost the war.
The originator followed by the
student who has become the master. Pacabel's Canon in D.
An old one, but I never get tired of it.Round two of "Elsewhere."David "Elsewhere" Bernal one more time.And finally,
for Charles.
NPH Wouldn't Do That!
Just call me Kumar. I went to the Loyola gym last night for my Thursday night pump-fest (that sounds gay) and worked out. I was also in the mood for junk food and because all I have at home is Weight Watchers microwavable meals such as Chicken Alfredo, I decided to venture to White Castle. Fortunately, there is a White Castle a few blocks from the gym so I didn't have to brave Extreme Punks, rabid racoons, med school interviews, NPH stealing my truck while tripping balls, getting arrested for Jay-walking, two English girls with explosive taco diarrhea, bad Asian student organization meetings, pus dripping tow truck drivers, economically minded hippies, riding a cheetah, hang-gliding, or random guys peeing in the woods right next to me. Man, that is one good movie!
It was the first time since I've been here that I've had White Castle and boy were those sliders good. It's not much different from Krystal, but there is a slight nuanced taste difference. The fries are better than Krystal's, too. So, that pretty much covers me as far as Chicago food goes -- food that you can't really get in Athens.
Combo Beef: Italian sausage and beef sangwich -- CHECK.
Chicago style hot dog -- CHECK.
Deep Dish Pizza from Gino's East -- CHECK.
Italian Beef sangwich, the whole thing, bread and all, dipped in juice -- CHECK.
White Castle -- CHECK.
All were delicious and nutritious (yeah). I'm sure I'll hit 'em up from time to time. And if anyone decides to visit me, you now know what we'll be eating.
Guinea Pig
I'm involved in some sort of government experiment. I just know it. I didn't sign up for it, didn't volunteer for it, but I must be involved -- there's no other explanation.
Every day in my office, from the moment I walk in at 8am, I see a single gnat or fruit fly flitting about. Periodically throughout the day I see it zoom past my eyes or dart in front of my keyboard. It's always just a single gnat in here. I manage to squish one, and a few minutes later another one takes its place. I have never seen more than two at one time and even that is rare. It's usually just the one flying aimlessly about. I'm told that "there is a problem with fruit flies" but I know that's just a cover for what's really going on. The government is conducting an experiment in continuous mild stressors and the excuse is just a cover story. They are watching us to see when we'll break down and start smashing things to kill the bugs. I just know it. It's some sort of new weapons tech testing.
Think about it -- we're in the Middle East now, where I'm sure there are tons of gnats and fruit flies flitting about markets and buildings. I doubt the people are bothered by them anymore. But, I bet our troops are constantly swatting and swishing them from their eyes. The idea had to come from somewhere.
Now, if we ever need to unleash a swarm of bugs on a nation that isn't already plagued by them, we'll be ready because I'm the unwilling subject in this experiment to test the effectiveness of this new weapon.
God Bless America and the VA.
Nostalgia
After writing the music post (two down) and reading my boys' comments, I realize how much we've been through together. And how much of the stuff we've been through was truly bizarre. I mean, dang. That's all there is to say.
I think I might try to compile some sort of collection of short stories chronicling the misadventures of our band of brothers with different mothers (I actually hate that phrase, but it's delightfully icky enough to use here). First though, I will need some sort of database containing an ordered array of items enumerating each separate incident so that I may allow myself easy access to the events in order to include each one as the time comes. Some sort of sequence of records. Some sort of "outline" or "list." Hmmm....
I suppose I'll take this to email. To arms, brothers, to arms...
I’m it
Eponymous infected me with the latest meme and so I hereby comply to his tagging:
1. One book that changed your life: Either some work of Dr. Seuss or
Where the Wild Things Are. I think these books are probably responsible for my love of reading to this day. I remember these as the first books I loved. My mom might have better information on my first favorite book, but this will do for now.
OR
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk because he became my second obsession after I ran out of Vonnegut's books and his books lead me to look into minimalist postmodern fiction such as Will Christopher Baer, Chris Cleavenger, and Stephen Graham Jones (although he doesn't really fit into that category so much).
2. One book you have read more than once: All of
Chuck Palahniuk’s books except Haunted
3. One book you would want on a desert island: Can I take the whole Harry Potter series? I would want something lengthy that I could read and reread, and I think these would be ideal for that.
4. One book that made you laugh:
Bring Me The Head of Prince Charming by Zelazny and Sheckley.
5. One book that made you cry: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. One book you wish had been written: My Brain is Fantastical – A compendium of Russell Shearer’s poems, short stories, philosophy, and ideas
OR
Understanding all the Theoretical Orientations in Psychology and How to Execute them in Practice (that would be a very handy book for me to have access to)
7. One book you wish had never had been written: All of
Sylvia Browne’s science fiction
books or perhaps anything by Jane Austen.
8. One book you are currently reading: Already Dead: A California Gothic by
Denis Johnson9. One book you have been meaning to read: Demon Theory by
Stephen Graham Jones10. Now tag five people:
Jmac,
Xon,
Charles,
Tavis, and
Garrett.
Music Memories
Jmac gets the credit for this idea. He posted on his memories of hearing certain songs for the first time, but I'm switching it up a bit and just posting on memories that will be forever associated with certain songs. Some are first-time heard memories and some are just memories that I will always think of when I hear certain songs. So, in no particular order:
1. Ace of Base, "I Saw the Sign" -- In tenth grade I placed first in a local science fair and was invited to go to the State competition in Athens, GA. I travelled there with my Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Croft, her annoying daughter, and another winner from WHS, Justin Maynard. We rode in Croftie's van and her daughter played this song over and over again. It was stuck in my head for days. I took Honorable Mention and met some super-southern girl named Dixie (I kid you not) who I would run into every so often at UGA when I transferred there. I also think of riding in Xon's van when I hear this or any other song by Ace of Base, or Tom Petty, or Devo.
2. Ben Folds Five, Demo Tape -- During our Junior year at WHS, we attended a yearbook convention at UNC Chapel Hill. Jmac and I were the only people to go in our main group and we roomed together. We were walking around downtown Chapel Hill and we ventured into a music store. There I saw a poster with a guy playing the piano wearing Chuck Taylor One-stars, only his feet kicking above the keys visible. I thought it might be some sort of punk with piano sound because the poster was reminisent of some punk posters I'd seen. I happened to see a DIY display of the band's demo tapes on the counter on the way out and I bought one; the clerk told us that their CD release party was that same night and he could get us in, but we couldn't go. After I got back to the room and listened to the tape, I was disappointed by the college alternative rock I heard, but it grew on me and I love BFF today.
3. Operation Ivy, "Officer" -- We're riding in the church van to some retreat or another. The van is very full. Ron wanted to hear some of the music I liked back then in 11th grade so I thought of one song that I knew didn't have any bad language in it. It was "Unity" but unfortunately they put the tape in on the wrong side. I hear the opening of "Officer" and I start yelling from the very backseat, "TAKE IT OUT, STOP THE TAPE!" The intro is "Ah Ah AH AH OFFICER, F*** YOU!" The first two words play loudly and Ron moves to eject the tape faster than any human I've ever seen. To his credit, he later laughed about it and didn't throw it out the window like Grinny's Dominoe tape.
4. Violent Femmes, "Add It Up" / Jimmy Hendrix, "Fire" -- Jeff Lloyd told me about a skate park that I needed to check out -- this is the very beginning of sixth grade. I still had a Nash deck from Toys R Us. My dad took me to the Industrial Park where the indoor ramp was located and the guys that ran the store took me under their wing and taught me how to ride the HUGE halfpipe. They didn't look down on me at all and were really cool to me. I later got a better deck and went back frequently, but that first trip really hooked me. These songs played over the loudspeakers.
5. Violent Femmes, "Kiss Off" -- Some early St. Mark youth group trip during the Chip days, we took so many that I can't keep them separate. Charlie Sulzycki played this song and let me listen to it. It was the first time I heard the Femmes and the music was like nothing I had ever heard. I thought it was pretty cool since the older kids really liked it.
7. "Unchained Melody" -- A sixth grade school dance; Melody Cadenhead had recently broken up with Philip
Carr Kearns and I wanted to slow dance with her so bad at this dance. I was too shy or chicken or whatever and waited too long. This was the last song I remember having a chance to ask her to dance, but I didn't.
8. Bad Company, "Feel like Making Love" / Drivin' and Cryin' -- On an EIP trip in Middle School, I listened to these songs with Carson McCutcheon, whom I had a major crush on at the time. We shared a headset and listened to music for a couple hours. It was a good trip even though we always remained friends and nothing more.
9. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Under the Bridge" -- I think Lee McGill let me borrow this tape on a school trip to Savannah. I listened to it over and over and over again on the bus ride for some reason.
10. Harry Connick, Jr., "With a Wink and a Smile" -- Bly and I kissed a lot during her first trip to Augusta. We listened to this song during that time (among other songs) and later we would dance to this for our first dance at our wedding reception. It's a nice song to have associated with memories of the person you love more than anything worldly.
11. GWAR -- At ASU my freshman year, last quarter, we were sitting in JJ Bower's car hanging out in between classes and he had a GWAR tape on the dash. I had heard of the band, but never had heard any of their music, I haven't really heard it since but I remember this event for the surrealness of it. That is one weird band.
12. Razor, "Discipline" -- Xon, Jmac (I think), maybe Charles, and I were are the Augusta Mall and Xon bought this out of the $0.99 bin. At home we listened to it a few times and then, after deciding it was horrible and of the Devil, we took it behind Warren Rd Elementary and tried to burn it by spraying hairspray on it and lighting it, but it wouldn't burn at all so finally we broke it into tiny pieces and buried it. It was truly awful heavy metal --discipline, discipline, welts on my chest, discipline, discipline, baby your (pain?) love is the best! And the other song where the lead singer just screams for five minutes, like one continuous scream -- not like the scream singing that's popular in heavy metal now, just screaming like he's getting killed or something. AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa!
13. Operation Ivy, Gorilla Biscuits -- Jay Sills made me a mix tape of punk and NY Hardcore and these two bands were featured heavily. This started many years of listening to punk and hardcore and going to shows down at the Capri in Augusta. I had a blast.
14. Bob Marley, "No Woman, No Cry" -- French club trip to Orlando. You may ask why the French Club was allowed to go to Disney World. Well, my friend, Epcot has France as one of its mini-nations, so that was the rationale for the trip. Weak, I know, but it worked thanks to Jmac's fancy negotiatin'. I listened to this song over and over outside our room one night when we were bored. I was just hanging out and people watching. Jmac had the greatest hits tape and I rewound it many times.
So, where were you when you heard whatever songs?
Oops
I just realized that I wrote up a post about music similar to
Jmac's "first time heard memories" post, but I forgot to actually post it. So, that should be up either tonight or tomorrow.
I also should remind everyone to go see
SNOA this
weekend!I've had it with these motherf---in' snakes on this motherf---in' plane!
Love/Hate
Chicago is my sworn enemy and my good friend. I am forced to love it when Bly visits and hate it when she’s gone. Actually, things are better now – but Monday I once again swore to kill Chicago if I got the chance. That’s the day Bly flew back to Athens after her visit from 8/3 (Thursday night) to 8/7 (Monday). One month down, 11 to go.
Here’s a somewhat picture heavy recap of our time together in August.
Bly arrived at 8:20pm on Thursday night much to my delight. We ate at a very authentic Italian restaurant in Forest Park, just a short distance from Berwyn where I live. I say authentic because everyone that worked there spoke Italian and I’d say 80% of the customers did, too. It was fantabulous. Lasagna for me and rigatoni for the little lady.
On Friday we ventured downtown to find the mythical Chicago pizza. Every restaurant in Chicago serves pizza – Mexican? Pizza on the menu. Chinese? Pizza on the menu. Irish Pub? Pizza on the menu. We wanted pizza-pizza so we went planned on hitting Pizzeria Uno, famed Chicago pizzeria.
Every time we headed downtown we took the L to the Loop and ventured out from there. Here’s Bly at the Oak Park stop waiting all cute-like for the train.
Bly hooking at the Oak Park L Stop.We arrived downtown and found Pizzeria Uno and Due (the same store, but the second one opened). We heard that the lines would be long, but it was stupid how long they were. You had to wait in line just to get the joy of being put on a list to wait even longer. I’m talking an hour and then another hour and then maybe 45 minutes for your pie. We left. After giving a bottle of water to a homeless man, we walked to Gino’s East across the street from the “Rock ‘N Roll McDonald’s,” a GIGANTIC three story McDonald’s.
Gino’s East Pizzeria.We walked right in and sat right down. The place is silly with graffiti – it’s on every surface in the place. We tried our hand at commemorating our anniversary with sappy, middle school proclamations of love.
Here’s Bly making happy-like because she knows yummy pizza will soon be delivered past her lips, into her mouth where it will be chewed and mixed with saliva to ensure easier mobility, down her esophagus, past her pyloric sphincter and into her belly.
Bly at Gino’s East.I love Bly!
Russ Loves Bly 8/4/2006 – 5th Year Anniversary.Me all happy-like because I ate some yummy garlic bread sticks!
Russ at Gino’s East.A wall of graffiti on which I wrote a message:
RS Hearts BLY – can you find it?The pizza crust isn’t all that thick – but it’s deep dish and they know what they’re doing. We got pepperoni and chicken. The sauce was delicious and the ingredients were fresh. I am going to miss this pizza.
Best Pizza I’ve Ever Had.More encouraged vandalism was committed by two Georgians on the night of 8/4/2006. An all points bulletin was issued for the arrest of Bly Shearer and husband, Russell Shearer.
Bly Loves RFS! Woohoo!Shed a tear when you have to leave this eatery. So good.
Goodbye Gino’s East.On Saturday we decided to venture downtown once again to go on a boat ride and to hang out for as many continuous hours as possible. We arrived downtown at noon, went to Navy Pier to get our tickets for the 10pm Fireworks Cruise, and ate lunch at a brew house (more good food). We headed out to find something to do for ten hours – first we rode the L north to Lincoln Park to check out the Conservatory and Zoo
The conservatory was very nice and very beautiful inside. It houses some very neat flowers and if you’re lucky you may see a security guard swearing very loudy at a large black man exiting the building! We walked up to the doors and saw just that – “F--- YOU,” screaming security guard with no concern for small children about yells. Mumbles, the black guy, hurriedly walks outside and turns around muttering to the guard. The security guard yells, “Yeah, we’ll see! Let’s go!” Mumbles gets louder and says something about the guard following him to “go.” It was odd.
Conservatory Park next to Lincoln Park Zoo.We met Zanzibar, the diving polar bear, at the Zoo. He dove, swam in a circle, scratched his belly on some submerged rocks, and surfaced only to do it all over, again and again.
Diving Polar Bear at LPZ.After seeing the sights at the zoo, such as the loudly roaring lion, the dead-looking sea lions, the carcass eating tiger, and the poo eating gorilla (he was a popular attraction) we headed South to Millennium Park. First, a quick stop at Starbucks where I took a fifteen minute nap and Bly read a novel and we were off to see some weird art.
In Millennium Park there is a giant silver bean looking thing called Clouds or something. It’s pretty cool in person. From the side it looks like a spaceship similar to the one in the Flight of the Navigator. From the front it looks like a fancy robot butt.
Reflections.Here’s the butt view. So many people inside the butt – Chicago is a kinky city.
Shiny Butt Sculpture.
Giant Shiny Bean.When you go inside/under the sculpture, you can see some really weird stuff. The inside is sort of hollowed out above you so it creates some pretty cool reflections.
Under the Shiny Sculpture.
Psychadelic Reflections.Here’s the skyline at the Park. We could here the Lollapalooza Festival from the park like we were there. Common and Flaming Lips were on the two stages we could hear at the time.
Skyline at Millenium Park.Self-portrait in the garden.
Millenium Park Garden.We headed back to Navy Pier a couple hours before our cruise. The ferris wheel was in full effect and after eating sangwiches at Hagen Daas we waited for our cruise to start nearby.
Navy Pier Ferris Wheel (Sponsored by McDonald’s!)I’m all fancy with photography.
Ferris Wheel Again.Here’s the boat we rode out to lake on. It’s a “tall ship” called the Windy II. We had a pretty good ride. It got pretty chilly out there, but it felt good after being in the sweltering trolley. The transportation from the Loop is free if you get on a Navy Pier Trolley. The only problem is that they aren’t air conditioned, they pack them with 10,000 people, and the windows don’t open very much. I almost died. I saw Jesus’ eyes about five minutes into our journey. I wanted to cry. Seriously. This is the first time I was angry due to heat and sweating on this trip.
Yeeargh, it be the Windy II.
Ghost Ship.
Fireworks Cruise.The red line was running some sort of three trains South one train North bonanza when we waited to go North. We hit the opposite extravaganza earlier in the day while trying to go South. Three trains would fly by in the direction opposite from where we needed to go and then a train would slowly pull up into sight, stop for ten minutes, and finally arrive at the stop we waited at. The trains are supposed to run every ten minutes. The tunnels are HOT. Jesus decided to speak to me and he told me to kill them all, but luckily Bly told me it was just some Latino dude named “Hey-zues” and not my Lord and Savior. Finally we get on the train – this is at about midnight – and it goes fifty feet and then stops for five minutes while we stand in a car packed full of human sacrifices. Or at least that’s what they would have been had the train not started again. I was tired, hot, tired, and angry because my cells no longer contained any water. Apoptosis is not fun.
Here’s Bly being about one third pissed off as I was:
Sweat Lodge.We finally make it back to the truck in Oak Park and there is a ticket, JOY! Apparently, you cannot back into parking spaces in the free parking deck in Oak Park. Blinded by rage, I looked around and saw no signs, scrimshaw, smoke signals, or morse code beeping boxes warning me about this law. I vowed at that point to try to get as many tickets for unmarked and strange offenses as possible while I’m here. So far, I have two. Didn’t move during street cleaning hours and backing into parking space. Chicago two, Russ zero.
We got back to the house at 2am and crashed. Sunday was “take it easy” day. We ate at Cheesecake Factory (yum!) and saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Hilarious.
Ok, that’s enough for now.
Baggage
I went to a Hatha Yoga class last night at the Loyola Health Center (gym) of which I am a member. I thought, "Hey, it's at a pretty good medical school! Surely it will focus on the medical/psychological/realistic benefits of practicing yoga and won't get into the mumbo jumbo, codswallop aspects." Oh well.
First: It was a good class and it was HARD! I could do most of the poses and hold them like I should, but some of them (i.e., Warrior poses, deep bend) I could barely do by the time the last half of class rolled around. My left knee was shaking and I'm not flexible at all. But, it was good and I think I'll go back. It lasted close to an hour and a half!
Now the bad: I heard "open your heart chakra" more times that I care to retell. I guess they leave it up to the instructor to teach yoga however they want. A HUGE red flag went up when, at the beginning of the class, she started talking about how many gyms offer yoga classes focusing on the health benefits or the benefits to concentration and physical fitness while ignoring the spiritual aspects of yoga. She blathered on about the eight parts of yoga, which includes the spriritual. So, I tried to ignore all the talk of chakras, energy meridians, energy flows, "psychic healing," blah blah blah. Apparently I was supposed to get a huge emotional release during class. People weep, people "transform," people realign their spirits during classes -- luckily no one in this class seemed to go through any of that. She even claimed to be at sessions where people get over childhood sexual abuse because of some of the poses, because their chakras open and release the trauma. I'd like to see some research on that, I yelled from the back -- just kidding.
Here's a quote from one of the guys at the end, "I didn't realize I was so angry, but getting into some of the poses helped me see that I was." The instructor replied, "Who needs to spend a hundred dollars on therapy when you can just take yoga!" She was pleased as punch. I held my tongue.
I don't know how to "open my heart," which she said over and over and over again. Yes, breathing deeply and stretching is good for you, but it's not realigning any sort of chi or meridians or energy flows. Yes, focusing on a point in the distance can increase your concentration and balance, but it does not allow you to open doors to your consciousness and transcend the worldly plane. I tried to view these things as fruity metaphors, but it's hard when you know the person saying it actually believes it.
I need to find a class called "rational stretching" or something.
Heh.
Bly hooking at the Oak Park L Stop.
Gino’s East Pizzeria.
Bly at Gino’s East.
Russ Loves Bly 8/4/2006 – 5th Year Anniversary.
Russ at Gino’s East.
RS Hearts BLY – can you find it?
Best Pizza I’ve Ever Had.
Bly Loves RFS! Woohoo!
Goodbye Gino’s East.
Conservatory Park next to Lincoln Park Zoo.
Diving Polar Bear at LPZ.
Reflections.
Shiny Butt Sculpture.
Giant Shiny Bean.
Under the Shiny Sculpture.
Psychadelic Reflections.
Skyline at Millenium Park.
Millenium Park Garden.
Navy Pier Ferris Wheel (Sponsored by McDonald’s!)
Ferris Wheel Again.
Yeeargh, it be the Windy II.
Ghost Ship.
Fireworks Cruise.
Sweat Lodge.
