Damen is next.

The Doors Closing chime snaps Dayne out of his trance. He sat for who knows how long, staring blankly through the train windows, barely aware of the people filing in and out of the car. Where was I the last few seconds, he thought to himself. An answer did not present itself. He slowly blinked his eyes into focus and turned his head towards his fellow passengers. He noted each individual's expression, tagged them with the names; 'nice smile', 'big nose', 'pretty eyes', 'high-maintenance', 'great legs', 'curly hair', only briefly wondering why he only gave names to the women.

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33

Well, since 33 is right around the corner, meaning I will be 33 years old, I thought I would do a little tribute to 33. Cause it's cool, or something. 

First, a wikilink to 33 (the number, not the year and not the disambiguation). Which isn't funny if you've never been a wiki-ite. Anywho, so you don't have to read the whole wikipagia on 33, I'll give you the highlights. I will be 33 and that's about it. No, seriously. 

• 33 is the name of the first episode of the new Battlestar Gallactica. And I'm a geek.
• 33 is the country code to call France. I've been to France, see the link.
• 33 is the atomic number for Arsenic. Arsenic kills people; no relation.
• The intellectual cycle, one of three fundamental biorhythm cycles is 33 days long. The intellectual cycle regulates intelligence, logic, mental reaction, alertness, sense of direction, decision-making, judgment, power of deduction, memory, and ambition. On my birthday this year I will be at the peak of my 33 day intellectual cycle, meaning I will be smarter than everything and everyone. I'll be taking that day off. Check out yours.
• A normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually in which pass 33 pairs of nervous groups. So, technically everyone under 33 is spineless...Eat that.
• 33 is, according to the Newton scale, the temperature when water boils. And it relates because I like Fig Newtons and I'm hot.
• Allegedly, some guy named Jesus (no lastey, like Cher) performed 33 miracles and died when he was 33. I'm smart, I've spread out my miracles a little better so I can live longer. Also, Krishna, the god with 16,000 wives and 180,000 sons, died to repurchase the Karma of the humanity at 33.
• 33 rpm is the speed of an LP. I used to own LP's.
• 33 is the coming of age of a hobbit in The Lord of the Rings. I have better feet than a hobbit, but I still haven't come of age as of yet.
• Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in 3 canticas - each consisting of 33 cantos. His name begins with D and I was thinking about getting a game called Dante's Inferno.
• The highest title you can recieve as a member of the Free Masons is rank 33 or the Illuminati. I have the Illuminati Trilogy at home, I haven't read it, but I have it.
• Title 33 is the U.S. Code that deals with Navigation and Navigable Waters. I'm a Water Resources Engineer.
• The Planck Limit of quantum physics describes the smallest possible theoretical particle in the known universe as having a size no smaller than 10-33cc (cubic centimeters for you stupid Americans). 
• The place where 33°30'N, meets 33°30'E, is near the Southern end of the island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean Sea, believed to host vast, unexplored archeological resources from nearby ancient cultures, allegedly even the lost city of Atlantis. Recent sonar imagery of the region reveals underwater structures resembling canals measuring 330 ft. wide with 33 ft. high walls. Dig that shit up.
• Number 33, 1949 by Jackson Pollock has me in it with one of my voices sitting on my shoulder. No, it's not a Rorschach and I'm totally serious. And now I'm creeped out.
• According to R. Allendy, "this number shows the free activity of the being in the organization of the world. It shows the free creature related to the plans of the Creator by links of justice and love or by the providential intermediaries". This number is seen thus connected to the Karma - 3 + 3 = 6. 
• 33 is the number of turns in a complete sequence of DNA. Last I checked I have a complete sequence of DNA.
• Vintage Queens Number 33 (Agent Lynch) is a Londoner, a redhead and hot, all things I dig (big-time).

 

In short, 33 is effed up; in all sorts of ways. And it's old. Cheers.

It has a beautiful symmetry to it, doesn't it? I wonder what it means when the lines cross.

pieces of me (Part 1 of ?)

There is something about that voice in your head. Or voices. You know how it is, when you react to something, when you're trying to decide something, or are simply around thinking about something. Those little voices in the back of your mind, teasing, tempting, nagging, pushing, pulling, yelling.... I've been doing some 'pieces' work lately and I've come to recognize a couple of those voices. Fortunately for me, and for you as well, I've come up with a great little analogy for these two in particular. 

Imagine if you will, a fly. Flies as a rule have short lives, and they know it, and because of that they spend every minute of their lives experiencing everything. everything. In order to get everything they possibly can out of those three days of life, they buzz around A LOT. And I mean a lot, they fly around here and there, testing everything, tasting, sensing, feeling, doing, working, playing, trying everything. They frantically search for new experiences, new highs, new lows, to explore! It's what they do. Sometimes to their detriment though. They only have three days to live, so they have a hard time standing still, they're unstable, they don't stand in one place for a very long time and always have one foot out the door, rarely committing to anything. 

Now, imagine a rock. Rocks are around for a long time, as a result they are in no particular hurry to do much of anything. Rocks are solid. Rocks are stable. Rocks stand still and are content (perhaps even happy) doing so. Rocks bask in the glory of being in one place for extended periods of time. Rocks are firmly rooted to the earth, are physically connected to the dirt around them. Rocks shoulder the weight of the world, support the earth around them and weather the storms.

Now, imagine the rock and the fly being tethered together by a broken rubber band (or bungee cord), one end on the rock the other on the fly. So now the rock and the fly need to live together, not necessarily a symbiotic relationship but both living through each other and potentially off of each other. The fly does what it does, it buzzes around interested in this, interested in that, pulling on that rubber band in every direction imaginable, but still able to try everything it wants to try and very aware of the rock at the other end. The rock does what it does, sitting around, being stable, feeling the earth, being still, not moved by the fly but quite aware that it's on the other end.

And somehow these two pieces, though quite different, manage to coexist. In fact it's much more, they actually like each other. They may disagree, but they appreciate the part their cohort plays in their life. The rock is stability for the fly, the fly is life for the rock. Then there are those times when they are able to work together. The fly tugs on the rubber band with such strength and determination that the rock has to listen, they like the same things after all, and when they come to the decision together that the direction the fly wants to go is the direction they both should go, the rock gladly pulls its mass from the earth and happily carries it's share of the burden forward.

And now I bring this back to myself, to my own voices. The one voice in my head desperate to get out, to run and play, to take a class, to date a girl, to read a book, to write a post. The other voice desperate to stay still, to play a game, to watch tv, to just sit and be. Before I could visualize those two individuals and distinguish between them in order to give them the appreciation and affection they desired, I would always find myself struggling to listen, with both voices yelling at the same time, merging into one, and me trying to be all to both, and rarely doing anything for either, or myself. But now I know their places, I know their jobs, I know their wants and desires and needs; for they are also my own, but they gnaw at me much less than they did before. Cheers.

Dear ie8.

ie8. I'm sorry, but I simply cannot do this anymore. We've had a good relationship, we've had good times and not so good. You know with the windows live plugins and easy of sign-ins and the smoothness of running Silverlight and streaming my zunepass songs over the web and the relative safety of surfing "In-Private" on all of those porn sites. It has definitely been a good ride, but unfortunately that ride has to end. I can learn to love and have actually defended you on your many little issues; flash problems, slow boot up times, saving passwords but not showing me where they are, not having an ad-block plugin, having icons that are way over sized, ridiculous internet zone settings, etc. But last night was the final straw; you know what happened, a beautifully written piece, a piece of my mind, heart and soul; lost with the click of a button...the Save button. To lose a 500 word post that meant a lot to me, is far more than I can take on top of all of the little things we've tried to get through before. 

I'm sorry, but it's over. It's not me, it's you. Cheers.

P.S. Sure, Chrome is a whore, but at least I can add a link in my post correctly.

mePhone

iPhone people: you crack me up. I've given up making fun of your phone because it has miserable service, it drops calls, it doesn't handle data properly, is locked down like a fascist regime and it has 9,987 fart apps. 9,988 9,989... You obviously pay that no mind since it is a beautiful piece of shiny Apple hardware. I get that, it is indeed lovely. What I don't get, however, is why you think you need to whip it out of your pocket every five minutes. Who are you showing it off to? In case you hadn't noticed, 75% of the people on the train have one, and they're no more impressed by it than you are. Is it some sort of occult club? Was there kool-aid involved, because you appear to be on something.

Shame on me, I shouldn't judge; this is supposed to be about laughter. So, like I said, you whip that thing out every five minutes, (that's what she said) are you getting texts that often? No, because you don't type anything on it.

Phone calls? No, you don't answer them.

Emails? Perhaps, you seem to be looking intently at something, but you don't type anything to respond. It is, however, an email so you don't necessarily have to respond, especially if it's spam; which I get in my inbox once every twenty to thirty minutes, so that can't be it.

Are you changing songs? I've heard it's a mediocre mp3 player, but no again, lack of headphones.

Did you think you received a phone call/email/text and weren't quite sure so you had to check it? I've been there before, it felt like my pocket was buzzing, was that my phone.

Or perhaps you're looking at the phone and hoping, nay, praying someone will call you? I've been there too; I know unrequited love and I know about broken hearts.

Seriously, I really want to know.

What is it you are doing?! I don't understand, but I do find it humorous because I really do believe it's you trying to show the rest of the world that you have one. Like it's a status symbol, the Ferrari of cell phones: no one actually uses it, it's difficult to insure, costly to run, hard to drive, you worry about every dip, pothole, speedbump and chunk of whatever that has been shot through the air by the tire of another vehicle. Useless, but it's a Ferrari, and that makes it sexy. The iPhone however is not sexy; rarity and expense make things sexy, ubiquitous and affordable make things...gasp...normal... Sorry to hurt your feelings mePhone users, you're 3 years behind impressing me, but you do make me laugh, I guess that's worth something. Cheers.