Weekend Highlights

I moved into the apartment across the hall.  Instead of a studio, I now live in a one bedroom apartment.  Instead of viewing a wall every time I look out the window, I now look out on the street.  Instead of darkness, there is light.  Instead of cave dwelling, I am living on an open plain.  Instead of having to eat sitting Indian style on my bed, I can now enjoy meals prepared by me in my new eat in kitchen.
 
I have gone from college style dorm living to living like a legitimate grown up.
 
I am in the best mood today.
 

The Waffle Shop

As I told you Saturday, July 3, was a miserably hot day in Washington DC and somehow, in spite of my near heat exhaustion, I managed to keep pace with Jon as we visited the beautiful memorials and statutary tributes all over the mall. I have collected some photographic information that I'm going to use in a future posting about the FDR memorial. But for right now, I want to tell you about the Waffle Shop. We started our Sunday eager for more of DC's sites so we headed over to the Ford Theater. Neither of us had been to this neighborhood before so we did not know where to go for breakfast. We were walking down 10th street, looking at our guide book when out of nowhere popped this guy named George with SAM. I'm not sure what SAM stands for but he works for the city giving tourists advice on how to get where. He told us that the Waffle Shop was just up ahead. So we were looking and looking for a diner. As silly as it sounds I was surprised to find that the restaurant was actually called the WAFFLE SHOP.
 
To make a short story long, we had a cool waitress and we enjoyed the food a whole lot.  There was  a greater story in there that I wanted to relate, but too much time has passed.  I've lost the immediacy of the feeling to write about our great waitress, the colorful patrons and the funny newspaper review hanging on the wall which describes the place as too modern for Mary Todd Lincoln who probably would have not liked the 1940's style counters.
 
Or to write about the record breaking torrential rain that fell that day, our experience at Ford Theater including my joke about the John Wilkes PHONE Booths, so named by me because they were designed to seem authentic to the rebuilt theater with wooden keys; including how our Park Ranger kept referring to the Civil War as WWII during her prepared statement about the Lincoln Assassination; and how we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the National gallery where we saw the famous painting of A Woman Holding a Balance by Vermeer and an true to life DaVinci painting.

The temptation to blog all day has been greatly heightened by BLOGGER's new formatting keys.

Kids Today.

A few years ago, Caren Lissner took four weeks off from her regular job to observe teenagers as they are today as of three years ago.  She learned that they are not much different than when she was a teenager.

Martha Stewart

This just in:
 
Martha Stewart was sentenced to 5 months of prison time and 5 months of house arrest. 
 

Does anybody care?

Another Good Reason to Quit Smoking

This man exploded a porto potty while trying to light his cigarette.

Bush Bashing

Thank you Matthew Drudge for some more good reporting. (no sarcasm intended, hopefully none understood).

On today's Drudge Report, MD has started an article discussing Ozzy Osbourne's stage show at Jones Beach where as part of the show, Ozzy plays a film montage comparing George W. to Adolf Hitler.

Of course, I support Ozzy's right to free speech. He is certainly entitled to criticize President Bush as is Michael Moore.

So naturally, I hope others support my right to criticize the President's critics.

Again, I am not a fan of President Bush. I don't like the fact that that his strong religious beliefs seem to influence every decision he makes and that doesn't sound very objective to me or like he's separating church and state, especially in the area of reproduction rights. I don't like the fact that people are able to come up with conspiracy theories about him because where there is smoke there is fire. I don't like that many of his decisions seem to favor big business or lobbies that I don't necessarily agree with. With that said, I don't know enough about any of the above to really, publicly come out against the President so I'm not. I can say though that based on the above that I don't trust him and I don't like him and that I'm not voting for him.

However, I also would not compare him to HITLER. To do so is irresponsible and disrespectful of Hitler's actual victims. George Bush is not killing his own people to make a pure and superior race of his choosing. He is not murdering political dissidents or exterminating physically and mentally disabled individuals. Nor is he imprisoning gays or conducting medical experiments on twins.

Shame on you Ozzy. You grew up in post WWII England. You know about fucking Nazis and you know Bush isn't one.

I WON!!!

I am a winner.

I have licked smoking.

I had no cravings yesterday.

It's done.

I am no longer a smoker.

So what if the cravings have been replaced by free floating anxiety.

That's okay.

That's why God made heroine.

CANDY BLUE KITE

I extend a special thanks to Candy Blue Kite.

First, for pointing me in the direction of a great site that lets you draw yourself as an anime character. You can find that link on her site or back a few space.

Secondly, for providing me with the Southpark version of Val which was on my site earlier this week.

Candy IS fun!!!!

Michael Moore, Ugly American?

Here is a link to MICHAEL MOORE, UGLY AMERICAN by Jeffrey Morley for the Washington Post.

In this article, Morley discusses Pete Townshend's reaction to what Townshend perceives as Moore's bullying him into using his "Won't Get Fooled Again" in the Farenheit 9/11 soundtrack.

Here is a bit from the article:

"I greatly resent being bullied and slurred by him just because he didn't get what we wanted from me," Townshend told Ireland Online. Moore wanted Townshend's rock anthem "Won't Get Fooled Again" for use on the soundtrack of his anti-Bush documentary film, "Fahrenheit 9/11." Townshend refused, saying he thought Moore's previous movies amounted to "bullying." In response, Townshend said that Moore accused him of being a war supporter. Townshend says Moore's attitude was evocative of President Bush's war on terrorism credo: if you're not with me, you're against me.

It's an interesting article which I of course am posting, because parts of Morley's discussion support my stance that Moore is being anti-American. I also post it because for every article that supports Moore's movie there seems to be one against it.

VIVA LA DEBATE!!!!!

Another Day, Another Demon

Today is Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday . . .ARGH!!!!!

I woke up feeling like I needed a cigarette. The feeling has been waxing and waning all morning. Right now, it's a soft craving. I'm trying to put it out of my head. It's not like I'm not busy, or like I don't have activities to distract me. The activities just aren't engrossing enough. I'm working on the second of my three installments about my trip to DC. It's almost done. The last intallment will be my critique of the FDR memorial on the mall. It will have pictures so look forward to that.

Someone is smoking on my building's fire escape and I can smell it from my desk. It smells both disgusting and delicious. What is wrong with me?

I continue to receive support from my friends and family for quitting smoking. It's really the only time people will encourage you to be a quitter if you think about it. My family didn't rally behind me when I quit piano lessons, nor did I receive a lot of support when I tried to drop my History of the Civil War class in my third year of college.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for right now.

Even Demons Need a Day of Rest

My inner demon took a break yesterday. I didn't experience any cravings. While I was bothered by the heat during my frisbee match in Central Park with Jon, I still wasn't bothered by an urge to smoke. Last night, while watching Shakespeare in the Park, I was a non-smoker, as if I had never smoked before, as if I never became addicted, as if I never started smoking, really smoking in college.

Where were the challenges this weekend? Well, the big challenge was on Saturday facing the day alone. To combat my strong craving, which seemed to pick up around 1:30 pm where it had left off from my incredible craving of the day before, I employed myself in the most inane activity. I surrounded myself with the other shoppers on Steinway Street and spent three hours walking up and down two blocks of stores, looking at things and stretching $20.00 as far as one can possibly stretch it.

The distraction worked. I was tired enough by the time I got home that I could nap, then get ready to go out and then face my next big challenge which was going to a party at a bar. Luckily for me, none of the attendees were smokers so there was no one to follow outside, there was no one to tempt me with their deliciously smoky smells and there was no way I was going to walk up a flight of stairs just to buy cigarettes.

Anyway, I made it through another weekend without smoking.

I rock!!!

Living with my Inner Demon

Yesterday, was the hardest of the days I have spent not smoking. From 11 a.m. up until I fell asleep last night, I experienced the worst craving of the non-smoking experience.
I woke up this morning feeling free yet again of my addiction and I hope this feeling lasts.

I am resolved not to smoke, which means I am resolved to endure all cravings to come no matter how painful.

I know the pain will not kill me.

It just really sucks, is all.

A Memorable Trip - Part 1

(The unofficial story about the below is that the intensified heat sucked all the joy out of the experience for me, all the solemnity, all the awe. . .it was just too f-ing hot and I couldn't get out of that plaza fast enough.)

Officially . . .

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Jon and I visited Washington DC. The first memorial we saw (aside from the towering Washington Monument which can be seen from practically everywhere) was the WWII Memorial. Here is a picture of Memorial Plaza. As you can see, it is made of solid white stone.

It's beautiful and moving. Memorial Plaza is divided in two parts, each representing a different theater of the war. Along the walls at eye level are bas reliefs depicting various scenes from various battles, all very sad, all honoring the great efforts of those who lived and died in what many consider to be the last great war.

The taller posts, that resemble either columns or headstones are simply decorated with one wreath, under which is printed the name of each state or country (depending on whether it was in Atlantic or Pacific section).

We arrived on Saturday, which was a hot and hazy day. At the WWII Memorial, strolling with the other tourist amidst all that sunshine and white stone was like crawling inside of an oven. You can see the water in the photograph. Picture mobs of people cooling themselves off in that water. I thought about going in myself but remembered that germs often do well in water and was worried about getting some kind of skin eating bacteria in addition to a few more freckles.

Still Not Smoking

For those of you who have been following my life's dramas, you may recall that I stopped smoking last week on Tueday.

Aside from a few slips, I am still not smoking.

More about Moore

That's what I'd like to see. A movie that doesn't pander to the NPR totebag crowds shuttling edamame home to their mud-compact homes in V-4 Saabs. One that has an answer every time the SUV-driving, fried-children-eating, baby-seal-beating Republicans say "But what about..." In stead we get a movie meant to make liberals feel good about themselves.

The above is a snippet taken from THE FILTHY CRITIC's review of Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11 now playing in theaters.

This critique strengthens my resolve not to see Farenheit 9/11.

So. What brings YOU here?

Unusual searches that have lead people here:

bar "long island" spoonerism
swedish message
eyeball jewelry
spoonbending

Marlon Brando died.

I'll never forget his timeless performance in Porgy & Bess, or the time he saved a small village from near starvation by not eating at any of their homes.

Do You Remember Owl Jolson?

I love to sing-a
About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a,
I love to sing-a,
About a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a,
Anything-a with a swing-a to an "I love you-a,"
I love to, I love to sing!

Fanning the Flames

Not surprisingly, Michael Moore's movie is likely to become the first imported documentary in China.

So, I ask you. . . if this documentary comes out strongly and convincingly against our Government, should this film be seen in countries that are looking for any excuse to annihilate us?