Christmas is officially approaching, now.
Time to think about how many, who to make and get presents for.
10 people to get presents for.
Cards
4 other folks to send cards to…. would anyone else from my LJ like a card? send me an e-mail at scott_vonberg@yahoo.com and let me know!
If you want to send me one, e-mail me, and I’ll send you my addy! 🙂
*note to self, put an “eyes only” entry with gifties list.
side note, when I hear the term, keep your eyes peeled, I think “peel” in term of the lid, thus, keep your eyes open.
Tomorrow would’ve been my father’s 55th birthday, were he still alive.
It’s odd, he’s been dead for just over twelve years now, and I still miss him quite a lot at times. In another span of the same, I’ll be as old as he was when he died. About now I start thinking about where I am compared to where he was at the same time.
Much of what follows happened before most of my friends on LJ were even born. I don’t feel old!
Things about my dad at 31, to the best of my memory. The year was 1976. Billy Beer was bought and sold as a drink. To quote my Dad, “Bleah. Urine.” His favorite movie that year was Murder by death, which I really only remember because we all saw it together during summer vacation. He had two boys, 7, and 3, and was happily married for the last nine years. Between what the wife was making as a hairdresser, and his job as engineer there was enough money to keep everyone comfortably fed, clothed and housed in a 4 bedroom home in Richmond Virginia. The family had three cars, one for the mother to run errands and work (green chevy duster), one for the father to run errands and work(yellow corvette stingray), and one for father and his pals to tinker on weekends..(unknown, but it was loud and rusty the whole time I remember it. (they didn’t drink Billy beer. The beer of choice at that time was Bud.) ) He spent every Sunday with the family, reading the comics with the kids, and going fishing at least once a month, “just the boys”. Fish was caught most weekends, and grilled that night. If nothing was caught we picked up burger meat at the local A&P, with the same results. That year, we vacationed in Mexico, and my father was hurt by a sting ray, diving. The only other folks out on the boat was myself and a friend of his, Roman. Roman was useless, (on reflection, he must’ve been either drunk or high) so my dad had to do some creative surgery on himself with a knife to dig the stinger out, tie a tourniquet on his leg, and drive the boat all the way back to shore, with me there, very frightened the whole time. (mother and my little brother were ashore, shopping). He turned out ok, but had a 4 inch scar on his thigh from then on. At that period in his life, my dad was a whiz at math, history, and things mechanical. Some of his weaknesses I remember were a complete lack of depth perception, a strong sense of “what’s Right”, and a powerful stubborn streak.
Compare:
Me, at 31, to the best of my memory. The year is 2000. Corona’s are bought and sold as a drink. Bleah. Urine. My favorite movie this year is best in show. and perhaps that sticks in my minds because I’ve seen it recently. I have no children or wife, but there’s someone I find very special. I’m living in a studio apartment in South Florida with a cat, and in my job as data architect/ programmer, I get by reasonably well with food, room, and clothing. I have no car, and spend a healthy chunk of the weekend surfing the net, seeing movies and playing with Newt. I don’t get together with the guys weekly, but see folks on occasion, and am working on having Sundays return to boys night with my brother and I. I tend to get takeout every Sunday, usually Italian, or Chinese. (I wish there were more Mexican/Spanish delivery places). This year, I’ve vacationed briefly (a weekend) in Disney, where thankfully I needed no self-inflicted knife wound to survive, but most of the folks I went with were stoned to pieces, so it’s just as well. At this period in my life, I view myself a whiz at trivia, history, and most computer stuff. Some of my weaknesses are my sleep disorder, a strong sense of “what’s right”, and a tendency to snap-judge inside the first minute of knowing people.
I can’t imagine having a wife and two growing children at this point in my life! I’d enjoy it, I think, but the life change would be so drastic, who knows what sort of situation things would be in? I do want to live more than an additional 11 years. I still have my spleen, so I think I’m reasonably safe from going the same way pop did.
Love is but a song we sing, fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring, or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wind, you may not know why
Come on people now, smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Some may come and some may go, you will surely pass
When the one who left us here, returns for us at last
We are but a moment’s sunlight, fading in the grass
Come on people now, smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
If you hear the song we sing, you will understand
You hold the key to love and fear, all in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both, it’s there at your command
Come on people now, smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Come on people now, smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Try to love one another right now
Try to love one another right now…
And now, the Dr. Suess Bible!
One day God said
This is what I will do
I’ll send down my son
I’ll send him to you
To clear up this humpity
Bumpity hulabaloo
His name will be Christ
And he’ll never wear shoes
And his pals will all call
Him the King of the Jews
He didn’t come in a plane
He didn’t come in a jeep
He didn’t come in the pouch
Of a high jumping vo veep
He rode on the back of a black sasatoo
Which is the blackiest creature
You ever could view
He rode to Jerusalem
Home of the grumpity Jews
Where false prophets are worshipped
Some even in two’s
There was Murrary Von Mer
And Genghis Vo Vooze
The one you could worship
By taking a snooze
Christ spoke from a mound
Which is a pile of ground
And people gathered around
Without making a sound
And thus he spake
Sin in socks
Socks full of sin
How do we quiet this
Jehoviadin din
Do unto others as
They do unto you
That includes you
Young Timothy Foo
One pharisee said to another he knew
What do we do with this upitty jew
We can wash him in wine
And make him all clean
And into Sam Zittle’s
Crucifixtion Machine
Twirl the gawhril
And relase the gavlease
And in go the nails
As fast as you please
And it is said that he
Said as he bled:
Forgive them Father
For they know not what they do
For they walk through this life
In toe crampity shoes.
Do you?
Amen.
If I was stranded on a desert island, and I could only have one person, one book, and one record with me,
I’d probably die of exposure.
Something you might not know about me is that .. I have a good attitude towards menstruation. That’s right, I’m the guy! The guy with a good attitude towards menstruation! Oh, I know a lot of men are made uncomfortable by this monthly miracle. But not me. No, I embrace it. Embrace it the way the way some men embrace the weekend! Why I anticipate it the way a child anticipates Christmas!
Did you know that, uh, in a lot of native Indian cultures, menstruating woman were forced to leave the village, lest their *powerful* magic should overwhelm the Shaman? If I were Shaman, I wouldn’t be so competitive. I’d be more open and giving. I’d be a shaman with…a good attitude towards menstruation!
‘Cause after all, what is it? a cluster of blood vessels, awaiting a fertilized egg. Providing a safe warm place for that egg to grow. And if a life does not occur, the whole thing is flushed away, and the cycle begins again. Now is that anything to be ashamed of or disgusted by? No, this is the nesting stuff of Humanity!
That’s why the woman I shall love will be able to menstruate as fully and freely as she desires. Even if her monthly flow should build in intensity to a raging rust colored torrent! An unbridled river of life giving blood flowing from between her legs! An awesome cataract plunging off the edge of our couch. I wouldn’t be fazed! No, no, even if coureur de bois would come up stream, battling the rapids, and singing a ‘jaunty song’! I would take no offense, rather I would ford across that mighty womanly river, and fetch herbal tea and Pamprin. And then I would mop her brow and admire her fecundity. For I…Have A Good Attitude….Towards MENSTRUATION!
I’m home.
actually got to leave early.
now I have nothing to do.
Where is my dearest one? Must be off non-computing somewhere.
Very strange, semi-biblical flash of dream at the end of sleep.
In the desert at night, walking alone, I came across a burning bush, its stubby trunk a core of fire, molten twigs snapping and bursting brilliantly into flame, sharp cracking sound, the sound of light. And all the leaves fell like stars, shooting down with faint seared firework traces of light in the darkness, burning for a second then fading away, leaving their ghosts in ashes behind them to sink to the ground slowly, lighter than air, and disappear. The heat haze shimmers and shifts in the sand, which appears to be moving as the shadows spread in waves across it. And if I stare at these shadows, and then into the heart of the fire, my eyes start to see something almost like a face, speaking, and the crackling and hissing of the flames are a message, which I could decipher if only I could make it out..
Wait. And watch. And listen.
And then dawn comes swiftly over the desert, the horizon all around me. The whole sky is on fire, and the light is blinding, and I fall down in the sand to hide my eyes, still desperately trying – to listen – and, when I look up again, the fire has gone out. Flakes of ash settle and disappear, all burnt up to nothing. The silence is as heavy as the weight of the sand in the desert, a silence in which no sound could possibly be imagined.
Woke up wondering if there was a message. But there was only tea, and toast.
In love there is but happiness,
No frowns or tears,
Only the warm glow of another.
I wish all could feel such bliss.
I wish all could see such light.
I wish all could enjoy such warmth.
The world could truly be,
Happiness as all can see,
My love for thee.
“Love is an overwhelming concern for the well-being of another without any regard for what you receive in return.”
Life’s Rewards
Mothman.
“Scientific explanations” in old sci-fi films.
30s pulp heroes.
Carillons.
The Prisoner TV series
Old maps.
Armillary spheres.
Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts, hot from the fryer.(Darktrain reminded me! yum!)
Typhoon’s Penang-style Char Kway Teow over rice.
Hayao Miyazaki
Hong Kong movies.
That part in The Shadow when he says “To the Sanctum!”
Boing Boing magazine.
Oingo Boingo
The word “boing”.
Outdated slang, like “jeepers” and “criminy”.
Call of the West by Wall of Voodoo.
Boiled peanuts.
I have no Idea how ODB pulled it off. how to hide from the police
Sheesh… I imagine that there’d be lots of donors…Poop Transfusion!
Smokin’ on a night train, chewin’ on a jelly roll,
Smokin’ on a night train, chewin’ on a jelly roll,
I’m runnin’ up a flag without a pole,
I’m walkin’ on a shoe without a sole,
Smokin’ on a night train, chewin’ on a jelly roll.
(OK here i’ comes, lesson one.)
You can’t cook an egg unless you got yourself a frying pan.
(You know it’s the truth.)
You can’t cook an egg unless you got yourself a frying pan.
You shouldn’t rob a bank without a plan,
You shouldn’t use your tongue to stop a fan.
Smokin’ on a night train, chewin’ on a jelly roll.
(Now here come lesson number two.)
Shouldn’t wanna do it if you don’t want to not do it right.
Eba-dabba-dooba-daba-deba-daba-do, all right.
(I ain’t makin’ this up.)
You don’t go dancin’ in the day,
You don’t golfin’ in the night.
Smokin’ on a night train, chewin’ on a jelly roll.
(Yeah.)
Smokin’ on a night train, chewin’ on a jelly roll.
I don’t quite know what to make of today… not a 100% win.
I got to see my sweet little treeflower, however briefly, online. (best part of the day!)
was supposed to hear from my brother by noon, so we could do something together, preferably to head to Dave & Cathi’s place and have a little bite to eat with the hippies. no dice. apparently, he lost his cell phone (his only phone) and so was incommunicado when I tried to reach him. ultimately, he was reached by mother, and so we all had to eat there. I met his current girl, and she’s pleasant, but has a few issues. She was very (perhaps too) open about her life and lifestyle to me, and even came on a bit. Derek seemed cool with this, apparently he’s not terribly serious about her. Creeped me out, though. I feel that she drinks too much, and is a poor influence on him. I don’t want him drinking and potentially drugging as much.
rescheduled time with Derek for Sundays again… hopefully we can get back to getting together weekly. I worry about him, and miss him.