Diskage:
DVD • Plymptoons
CD-ROM • D2X
CD Player
• Audioslave - Audioslave
• Metallica -  S&M
• Tool - Salival
• Faster Pussycat - Whipped
• Tool - Undertow

Books Lying Open
• A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan

Soul-Devouring Worry
• Three novels to go and then I'm on my own.

When I Grow Up:
• Self portraits will elicit fewer cries of pain.

Curse of the Day:
• May your instincts lead you astray.

My first error was in not checking the game schedules.  Just because Saturday's games were on a 1 and 4:30pm, PST, doesn't mean that Sunday's will be.  They were on at 10am and 1:30pm, so I would have missed the entire first game in any event, and could have seen most of it before I went to bed, if I'd been aware and hadn't been busy finishing (reading) a novel.

My second error was in assuming my VCR would work, despite repeated evidence to the contrary.  It recorded about 10 seconds of a pick up truck commercial, and then spat out the tape, as it's known to do.  It will usually record as long as you tell it to, if it gets past the first few minutes. But since I was asleep when it began, I wasn't there to push the tape back in.

I got up around 6 and came in to the living room, half expecting to see the VCR blinking the "no tape" light, while the tape was ejected.  I wasn't disappointed.  I turned on the TV hoping to see the end of game two, and was out of luck, FOX had some stupid cartoon on; obviously the kids' fare they'd bumped back some hours to fit around the early football games.

So then I turned on the computer and logged onto ESPN.com, almost hoping the games had sucked, as playoff games so often do.  If I didn't see them, then hopefully those who did didn't enjoy them.  I'm mean like that.

What was the headline on ESPN?

*sigh*

The December mail bag has arrived, and it's quite beefy.  There are 16 mails listed, all of them with semi-extensive commentary from me.  I'd say it's at least 3 or 4 blogs in size, just going by the sheer amount of Fluxiness included, so take a look.  There's even an awkward dating story.  Woot.  And stuff.

Here's some news.  There's more down below.  And I'm aware it's not really "news".  It's some article that I use as an excuse to go on and on about whatever the hell bubbles to the top of the primordial muck that passes for my brain.  But anyway.

• Old people driving make me so nervous, since they just get befuddled, and don't concentrate on what they are doing. Not to mention how they take on and off ramps at about 30, and are lucky to get up over 55 on the highway. Here's a typical example.

A car jumped a parking-lot curb and smashed through the front windows of a clothing store Tuesday, narrowly missing a cashier and some customers. The driver and those in the store escaped injury in the wreck, which police deemed accidental. The 11 a.m. crash happened at Old Navy, 3369 E. Foothill Blvd.

"Here's where the cash register used to be,' said Capt. Larry Smith of the Pasadena Fire Department, surveying shattered glass and skid marks left by a 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis.

The driver was a 70 y/o female, trying to park in a handicapped spot, and she stepped on the gas instead of the brake, and was scared when the car started to go so she stomped on the pedal even harder, making the car go faster.  It's just lucky that she didn't run over anyone, and that the store was not open yet, so no one but some employees were inside.

I think old people should have to drive stick shifts.  You are forced to pay much more attention in one of those, especially when parking since you have to toggle the clutch and brake together, depending on your speed and if you're parking on a hill or not.  Plus if you forget which pedal you're using, you'll almost certainly just lurch forward or back and stall out.

And yes, I'm perfectly aware that most people over the age of 70 couldn't drive a stick well enough to pass their driving test.  That's the other part of the benefit to my strategy.

• Related to one comment I made in yesterday's "women don't like porn" essay, here is an article about drug companies rushing to try and find a female Viagra.

Drug companies often argue that 43% of women suffer from sexual dysfunction, a figure first cited in a 1999 article from the Journal of the American Medical Association. The number is based on responses from 1,500 women who reported whether or not they had experienced a sex-related problem for at least 2 months, such as lack of desire and lack of lubrication.

Many researchers have since criticized this figure, Moynihan writes, noting that changes in sexual desire are normal, and not necessarily a sign of a "disease."

Because it's all about scalpels and drugs, and there's no way any medical issue could be easily-cured through life style or mental health changes, right?  Or you could just deal with your problems, rather than hoping for a miracle pill to make you all better.

• In further related news, the dangerous, placebo-esque, brain-chemical altering drug Prozac has been approved for children.

The US Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it has approved Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac (fluoxetine) to treat depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents aged seven to 17 years.

It's clearly a coup, since while no more than "most" adults are depressed and OCD from time to time, "all" teenagers are, on a regular basis.  And most are quite eager to consume just about any sort of weird chemical they get a chance at, as stories of smoking banana peels and sniffing glue should attest.  Whether they'll want to take a drug that they're supposed to is open to debate, since as all parents know, the best way to get a teen to not do something is to say they have to.

In a larger perspective, the prospect of every teenager on earth taking legalized drugs to try and "even them out" scares me.  Feeling fucked up at least half the time is sort of the whole point of being a teenager, due to your changing body, society's expectations of you, greater freedom and responsibility, hormones surging, etc.  I'm not in favor of drugs that alter the brain chemistry of adults, personally.  But then that's why I would never dream of taking LSD or other such things, since I'm relatively pleased with how my brain works now, and wouldn't want to risk screwing it all up for no reason other than boredom.

I've always been of the, "Suck it up and smack yourself out of your funk, you weakling." mindset.  People want attention and want to feel miserable since it gives them an excuse to be too lazy to do anything productive.  It's a way to avoid real life.  And I've been depressed a few times, and felt it was all hopeless, so I am basing this somewhat on personal experience.

It seems like bullshit to me that you can take a pill and be happy again.  Well you can, I mean you can take a drug and get a ton of extra energy, or be manic for a while, but I think virtually everyone who feels that way could do it on their own, if they just made an effort.  And the pill won't work forever, somewhat like junkies keep needing more and more cocaine to get high.

That being said, a guy I know and see once or twice a year has been depressed and pretty miserable to be around for about four years.  Gloomy, unpleasant, quiet, moody, etc.  You'd be quite happy if he decided he was too depressed to show up, rather than showing up and ruining the evening for everyone else.  I saw him this year around Xmas... and he was like a new man.  Well, that's an exaggeration, but he was not at all depressed or unpleasant to be around.  He had energy and vitality and was interesting to talk to, and seemed like a real person.  And he mentioned at one point that he'd been taking Zoloft for some months, and it was making an amazing difference.  He felt good, had energy, wasn't depressed or gloomy all the time, and it was extremely evident in his behavior, long before I had any idea he was achieving better living through chemistry.

Which sort of throws a monkey wrench in my "drugs are bullshit" theories, huh?

I guess I'll agree that if a person is so down that there's no getting worse, and has been down for years, they might as well try anything short of partial lobotomy.  It might even work. (The anything, not the lobotomy.)  Children and teens are so pushed and pulled by forces beyond their control that I think it's absurd to turn to medication in anything but a last resort.  Virtually all teens go through periods of depression, and for virtually all of them it's due to a breakup, or problems with their parents, or school troubles, etc.  Which, if cured/improved, would cure/improve their mental state.

And yeah, it's probably a lot easier to give a kid a pill than it is to actually look into improving their life in multiple ways.  Especially if the parents paying for the pill would have to look at themselves and make changes to help their kid's life improve.  And perhaps the kid will be happier on the pill, and therefore less likely to turn to more dangerous drugs, or get knocked up, or run away, or fail every class and ruin their future career aspirations.  And maybe they'll feel better, and therefore make changes in their life to improve it, and therefore be able to kick the drug and live a real life without chemical dependency.

But it's hard for me to not see this as a way for the drug manufacturers to get their hooks into their market at an earlier age, much like the cute cartoon cigarette ads. Train a 13 y/o that they'll be miserable with out your magic pill, they never learn any depression coping skills, and you've got a customer for life. 

• One of the most outrageous examples of how Islamic law works is presented in this news story.

Tiouli was on a business trip last October when, she alleges, she was raped by three men who offered her a lift home from a nightclub. She reported the attack immediately to the Dubai police, who after investigating her claim arrested her.

One of the men admitted to having "consensual sex" with Tiouli, which made her, in the eyes of Dubai's judiciary, guilty of both adultery and making a false rape accusation. She could face up to 18 months in prison. None of the men has been charged.

Tiouli was in prison for five days and has since been staying at a hotel. The government has taken her passport and refused to let her leave the country until her trial, which has not yet been scheduled.

Now I suppose we have to consider the possibility that she actually did have consensual sex with the guy, and they had a fight or she balked at screwing his friends also, and that her complaint is in fact false. Even if you accept all of that, it's obvious she's being screwed (again).  The guy admits to sex, so why isn't he getting 18 months in prison? Because countries with Islamic law are extremely sexist and primitive, that's why.

• This seems like a stupid little story about the lack of freedom or common sense in schools these days, until it turns more interesting with the wacky quotage half way through.  Some Christian group in a high school wanted to give out candy canes with religious messages.  The school said no, no one can give out non-school messages of any kind, for any reason.  Probably a stupid rule, but hey, what else is new in schools these days.  The kids went ahead and did it anyway, and they're likely get suspended when they return.

They are fighting to not be suspended, apparently under the reasoning that, 1) they really don't want to be suspended, and 2) they are special, and 3) rules don't apply to them.

The students, who were forbidden by school administrators to distribute the candy and messages, are accusing school officials of violating their rights to free speech and expression.

''No matter what they do, we're not backing down,'' Stephen Grabowski, 16, said yesterday. ''We really believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we're prepared to fight. They picked the wrong people to step on.''

Look, you whining pussy.  You knew the rules, they broke them, take your punishment like a man.  WWJD?  Etc.

The part that cracked me up and made this worth posting was their explanation of what candy canes are.

Taped to each was a piece of paper that included a religious explanation for the candy cane's shape and colors. The J shape stands for ''Jesus,'' or, when inverted, symbolizes a shepherd's staff, Grabowski said. The white is for Jesus's purity, and the red is for the blood he shed, Grabowski said. The notes also included some Bible verses and a prayer.

I'd never heard that foolishness before, but apparently it's all the rage among the insecure Christian types that need to feel everything on earth is some sort of religious symbol.  I checked on Snopes for the real story, and it wasn't hard to find.

An amusing related link is this one, which debunks the fantasy that the annoyingly long Twelve Days of Christmas song is some sort of secret Christian training hymn, or something.

the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is said to have been developed by Christians who could not open practice their faith because they lived in societies where Christianity was forbidden. Locating a place in the western world where the practice of Christianity was banned during the last several centuries is difficult enough, but trying to discern the usefulness of a Christmas song as a method of preserving tenets of Christianity in a society where the practice of Christianity itself was outlawed is truly a mind bender.

Something I did not know.

Some misinterpretations have crept into the English version over the years, though. For example, the fourth day's gift is four "colly birds," not four "calling birds." (The word "colly" literally means "black as coal," and thus "colly birds" would be blackbirds.) The "five golden rings" refers not to five pieces of jewelry, but to five ring-necked birds (such as pheasants). When these errors are corrected, the pattern of the first seven gifts' all being types of birds is re-established.

So the only good/practical gift of the whole 12 turns out to be poultry.  Yet another reason not to sing the whole damn thing.

• Insert all of your "Religious nuts are sick and twisted." comments in this one.  And if you don't have any such comments, you'll probably be able to think some up pretty soon.

Yes, "God's Creation Outreach Ministry". This one sets off just about every warning light I have.  Tiny fanatical religious sect with an ominous name, home schooling (so no rational adults can interfere in their personal perversions), dedication to corporal punishment...  it's like a child abuse assembly line.  And it's even sadder that the boy they murdered was adopted.  His own parents vanished, probably crack fiends, he's been abused and is miserable, and then gets adopted by these psychos who beat him for Jesus and tie him up like Houdini, even gagging him so that he eventually chokes on his own vomit.  

The only surprising thing to me is that they are black.  The parents should be fed to wolves.  Christian wolves.

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