Lascivious Nonsense - Olivia Munn

Hopefully Pauley Perrette can forgiven me, but I'm in lust with Olivia Munn, too. I mean, obviously I've got a thing for eccentric brunettes, I mean a good mind makes a lovely form all that much more appealing.

Anyhow, up until my move back to Klamath Falls, I'd never had access to G4, thus I'd never seen an episode of Attack of the Show. But, I had scene clips of Olivia Munn before, when she wore that Princess Leia golden bikini; very nice. However, AotS is now on my daily viewing list, knocking E's the Soup right off my viewing list. Not only is AotS funnier than Soup, but Olivia is down right nice to listen to, not to mention watch.

Basically, you've got this lady who is quite comfortable with herself that she does some of the oddest, funniest stuff while putting herself into some of the oddest, self-deprecating humor and I love it. Seriously, if she were a dude, instead of just acting like a dude, I'd probably be gay. *grins*

Well, now comes the time in my piece where I decide to stop, before I entice the subject of my lascivious nonsense to file for a restraining order out of fear. No need to worry, Olivia, no stalker here. *grins* But, if you ever wanna slum it in Oregon, lowering your standards, I'm here for you. ;)

Only thing worse than pipes freezing...

...is the pipes busting, so as to sap the joy from the brief happiness of them unfreezing.

Seriously. What. The. Fuck.

Now I bitch and moan, rant and rave, but I've been trying to keep an upbeat thought in my head, but for this one moment, right now, I'm so fuckin' depressed. It has definitely not been my year, two years now, if you wanna be specific, but so is life, I guess.

I don't even have time to feel really down about it, thus this post, as I need to finish a homework assignment for one of my classes and turn it in, in less than an hour. Feh.

*chuckles* 

I started to work on it, when I heard the excess water noise, had to rush to the neighbors to borrow the turn off, and then remember to turn off the electricity so that the brand spanking new water heater doesn't get blown out.

*grins*

I think I'm gonna leave people alone for awhile, maybe I've been a bit mean, here and there, and karma is just curb stomping my inner child, or something.

Later.

Paid to makeout with pretty ladies...

...has to be a seriously cool job, even if there is not apex of the whole thing.

I mean, seriously, guys in Hollywood get paid to makeout and get all handsy with some very lovely, curvy, enticing, and delectable women, how is that fair?

*chuckles*

Lucky bastards.

Leverage on TNT

It is a weird mix of events that can make a hit show, sometimes it is a interesting cast, good writing, solid production values, or just the right timeslot. But, there is one other keep potential for a show to hit the right audience, which is being the right show at the right time and I think TNT has the right show hitting at the right time, Leverage. Even though the cast, writing, production value, maybe even the timeslot, are all good, it is the fact that the show takes on corrupt businesses, criminals who got away on a technicality, and play on the desire righteous anger, where revenge and justice are often confused, that could make this show a hit.

It is a good caper program, with an interesting cast that has a nice chemistry, not to mention good lines to deliver, back and forth, that makes the show watchable. The plot of the pilot, which is obviously the undertone of the metaplot for the series, is believable, and the production of the show is solid, both of which are good signs, too. Yet, it is the fact that these folk, criminals turned to a more righteous path by the feel of doing what they do best, but for better reasons, that has the potential to ring true with viewers. Since many folk are touched by denials from insurance companies, unjust business practises, being on the wrong sign of powerful or influential people, with no one on their side, be it directly or indirectly, and they know that they would have liked to make things right, regardless of the legality.

Now I will admit, I am a mark for John Rogers, he's one of the geek generation, be it because he plays role-playing games, reads comic books, hell writers comic books, or all sorts of other reasons, thus he's like a lot of us who want smart shows, even if the premise is a bit grandiose. Right now, grandiose is a good thing to be, larger than life is nice, with a touch of grounded thought and concept, look at shows like Lost and Fringe, or the more down to earth, mostly, like the CSIs, it is all about something a bit more than vanilla. It is more about the people than the framework around them.

Leverage is like the Equalizer, more than the A-Team, in that you have a group of professionals whose professions happen to be on the outside of society, from the fringe element, yet they are applying it for the right reasons. Rob from the corrupt, so as to strike at more corrupt, has a nice ring to it, even if it is outside of the legal system. Dean Devlin and John Rogers have a good chance at a solid show here, fortunately they are on a cable network, TNT, that has a nice track record of taking on risky concepts and letting folk run with it.

I bet a lot of people in the audience would love to send the team after Enron, or any one of these CEOs looking for a bailout from the government, for idiotic choices that they have made, instead of forcing them to use their own money to save their companies. Hell, I know I would, so I'm definitely going to keep watching Leverage, and I think you should, too.

Everyones gotta be right...

While I am not free of this little fact, I am aware of it and do my best to avoid it, but why do people always gotta be right about something? Why do we always try to keep on point, even if it is not important? What is it about a conversation that has a statement, counter-statement, clarification and restatement, then firmer reasoning statement, and so forth and so on?

I get discourse, I get commiserating, I get debate, discussion, and so forth, but why is it so rare, so hard, for people to just talk about something? Is conversing for the sake of conversing, or expanding thought, so out of place today? Does everything have to be about being right or wrong, of turning someone to your line of thought, or away from it? What is it about polarization of conversation that is so previlant today?

I remember, when I was younger, that the purpose of debate was about fully examining a topic, of seeing it from multiple sides and viewpoints, however, like many things, it became more about the competition than the discussion. Again, it was more about winners and losers, not thoughts and discourse.

Perhaps it is blind idealism, or thinking complexity into a simple situation, but it would be nice, I think, to just be able to blather on about something, examining all its facets, without a worry about winning and losing.

Modern-Day Piracy...

...and I'm not talking about digital piracy, but the sea-going kind that has been getting more and more play in recent days.

All the romanticized myths and legends aside, especially the good fiction and movies, but the reality of pirates should be quite simple, yet society seems to have forgotten that pirates need to be fought, caught, or slain, not necessarily in that order.

Is it that hard of a concept? Has the modern world grown that soft that the idea of fighting someone who us not fighting under a nation's flag doesn't occur to them? If that's so, you need a reminder about the war on terror, as there are no flags there, either.

The pirates are so brazen, now, that they don't even hide or aim for small targets, so there is no excuse about them being in hiding. While it is understandable to be concerned about the hostages, that concern should be under a reasonable amount, not cripplingly so. If you pay them off, if you let them go, then they see zero reason to not continue what they're doing.

Find them. Sink them. Sheesh.

So Roddy Piper smokes pot...

...but, honestly, why is it a big deal?

Marijuana has been so demonized since it was restricted that folks don't seem to know how to think for themselves, especially when the talking point and misnomer known as "gateway drug" is brandied about. It is so insipid that our society is under the yolk of an ignorant law that is enforcing someone else's morality, or some groups morality, on supposedly free people.

Now, quick point of clarity here, I do not smoke pot. I tried it a couple of times when I was younger and it was okay, did about the same thing for me that beer did, so I did not see the need to risk using it when there was a legal alternative. But, I still think it should be legal, just as alcohol is legal, as well as cigarettes, as neither are all that good for you, yet you should still have the freedom, we should still have the freedom to choose our vice.

Marijuana is only a gateway drug because it is a low echelon, minor substance that is where most folk are introduced to a underground or counter culture environment, but you know what else is a gateway drug? Underage drinking and smoking, yet those are only minor when looked at, in comparison to the life changing event that getting caught with pot in some states can be.

It is bad enough that when pot was criminalized it was done so with ignorance and racism, as well as a pocket full of lies, and was attached to those most idiotic of political movements of the last century, which was prohibition. Not only did prohibition create a niche for an organized criminal element, it romanticised it, as some seemed to forget that our nation normally encourages the rebellious, independent spirit. We like to decide for ourselves, thus when all sort of things that were once legal became outlawed, due to a minority of opinion from some uptight fools, we rebelled and sought out what we could no longer have, right or wrong.

Yet, when the light was seen, only alcohol was decriminalized, which then created a market to keep organized crime alive, as they still had something to push. Billions, if not trillions, of dollars later, as well as tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, lives ruined over the past century because we decided to tell folks what they could legally intoxicate themselves with.

Stupid. Massively stupid.

Free adults in the United States of America should have the right to choose whether or not they want to drink or drug themselves and if they do something criminal while under the influence, then do what is done with drunk drivers, and prosecute them for negligent behavior. But, simply enough, quite shoving your moral thought down other peoples' throats, as it is our choice, nor your choice. Also, before anyone tries that lame duck of a canard about murder being enforced morality, too, you should notice that I'm talking about letting people do what they want to themselves, not to others.

Sheesh, get out of our bedrooms, or smoke rooms, out wine racks, and every other aspect of our personal life. It is damn annoying.

Legend of the Seeker TV Show...

...which is supposed to be based on the Terry Goodkind series, however it seems more like it was inspired by some folks who saw these books on the shelf with some interesting dustcovers, yet only skimmed the books themselves.

You know, how the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is "Based on True Events", yet if you look at the Ed Gein story, which is the true event, there's no skin-mask wearing psycho chasing teens in panties through a macabre farm of cannibalism. Gotta love word play, dontcha?

Anyhow, it's not like I'm a fan of Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, although I might have to give it a second look, one of these days, but I almost feel sorry for the guy and wonder how he feels about the TV series. It is definitely more in the Hercules and Xena vein of fantasy, with the production values only modestly okay.

The casting is so-so, as Richard is a smidge too young, but Zedd is, in my view, pretty spot on and Kahlan's actress, Bridget Regan, is quite a pleasant sight to see. Overall the show is okay, it'd make for pretty okay fantasy, too, but it's not really that Sword of Truth-ish and I find it annoying.

Hopefully it'll get better, but I sort of doubt it, odds are it'll go the episodic route of Hercules, Xena, and Beastmaster, with a consistent metaplot, yet weak execution with sporadic moments of "Hey, that's cool."

Well, hopefully George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series will be a glorious HBO production that'll send geek-gasms through the intertubes.

Small towns are nice...

...and it has taken me quite a few years to remember this fact, but as they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

It was the mid-90s when I moved away from Klamath Falls, Oregon, when I followed my heart outward, up to the Portland Metro area before taking a quick sidestep to Boise, Idaho, so I've been gone from Klamath Falls for roughly twelve years. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't regret leaving, nor why I left, not even when I did while I was gone, but a big part of me is realizing that some of it could have been done without leaving Klamath Falls.

There is no real part of the country, just as there is not fake part of the country, everyone is different in the United States and it shows, be it by region or by city. Sometimes you just find a feel that fits and, for me, it is often the small college towns that I feel more at home, as opposed to the dense urban sprawl. It has a feel that is comfortable and almost stressless for me, although I do miss the stadium theaters, dense population of game stores, and other creature comforts, but the stressless life is not too bad.

Klamath Falls is in a really nice part of Oregon, as there are lots of forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and historical and natural sites, like Crater Lake. Sure, it's about as far from Portland as you can get, while still being in Oregon, but the Rogue Valley is nearby and a trip to Portland can be pretty quick and easy, if you plan it right. Plus, generally, the people are okay too, even if you don't agree with them. I'm, pretty much, a rabid moderate when it comes to politics, thus the far left and right just tick me off, a lot, but even here in Klamath, I'm chill on that, too.

Maybe it's just the right time for me to be here, but I think, seriously, that it's more of a matter of people knowing when they've found the right zone for them to be in and I'm sure I'd get this feeling in the right big town, like Seattle, but I'm glad to be home in Oregon, the weather is nice, as is the wildlife, so it's all good.

Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches...

...are really good, I'm not even out of Strawberry Preserves, yet I felt like trying honey and it's awesome. It does this weird thing with the bread, where it hardens it, sort of, which adds a cool texture that I remember from when I was a kid and I'd put Maple Syrup on bread.

Yeah, I had a major sweet tooth, one that's mostly in control today, as opposed to the days where I'd buy a tube of chocolate frosting and eat it with a spoon.

It's sort of odd the things you find you like, as I'm one of those folks who can stomach a peanut butter and mayo sandwich, which my Grampa Emerson introduced me to, as a kid, yet most people gag at the idea of it. Of course, I hate Lima Beans, as well as Hominy, as they've this odd bloated corpse look to them, which bugs the hell out of me.

I've tried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, in honor of Elvis, and they're okay, but not my cup of tea. But, now, I'm in this odd mood for experimentation, which is most likely due to my odd diet for the past month of eating only Mac-N-Cheese with various marinated tunas.

*shrugs*

Yeah, definitely not a blog about healthy eating here. :D

What a difference a week makes...

...as we went from a nation where it was a radical thought that an African-American could run for the Office of President of the United States to a nation where that thought is now a historical fact and reality.

Barack Hussein Obama, he who will be the 44th President of the United States, has done what many would have thought impossible in less than a generation since the epic speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.. It has been less than a generation since segregation was ended, a handful of generations since the American Civil War, and we have gone from a nation whose honor was stained by the inhuman act of owning a person to a nation where we have elected an African-American man to the highest office in the land.

It is an amazing day, a future fill with hope, wonderful, joyous hope, and the world now sees that the American dream is so much more than it was just one day before. We have elected the son of a first generation emigrant as our President, how much of a epoch changing event is that?

Not only did I vote for Barack Obama, but I donated money and time toward his campaign and I've never been more proud to be an American than I am right now. The stain on our national honor is a little bit less today, our image in the national eye is a little bit brighter today, and the words against us are a little quieter today, and that is a good thing.

We've gone from yes we can, to yes we have, and that is a powerful thing to have done.

Why does it feel wrong to keep secrets?

Seriously, why does it feel wrong to keep secrets?

I'm not talking about hiding the fact that you're sleeping with someone you shouldn't be, nor the ubiquitous stealing office supplies from your company, or other silly stuff that's more hurtful or dishonest, but feeling bad about keeping something that's private, private.

It's always one of those things that when it comes out it's really not that big of a deal, yet the reaction to it is like you knew who killed JFK, who really did it, but said nothing to anyone. Maybe it was embarrassing, maybe it was deeply personal, maybe you were protecting someone from bad thoughts or wishes of others, or maybe you just felt it wasn't anyone's business, yet you're made to feel bad, feel guilty, for keeping it a secret.

Why?

If it is truly innocent, truly not hurting anyone that it is not known, why should we feel guilty about keeping the secret?

Is there some odd part of human civilization, at least in modern time, that gives folk the impression that they have the right to know everything about a person, every little secret and if a secret is kept that somehow, some way, the person keeping the secret means people ill? I just don't get it.

I'm not an idiot, I think I'm a fairly good judge of people, character, and hold a fair bit of understanding of how the human beast works, yet that one thing slips through my fingers each and every time. I'm not talking about the government keeping secrets from the governed, nor am I talking about cheating spouse or significant other, I'm just talking about the concept of personal privacy and whether or not we're allowed it, anymore.

I'm of the view that privacy does exist and that you do not owe everyone a synopsis on every aspect of your life, regardless of what it is, since we've a right to privacy. Maybe I'm just mopey, or down right now, so my brain is rattling off on some weird tangential though, but it is called Emerson's Rambling Nights, so I guess it's fitting.

Anyhow, who knows if anyone is even out there, reading this, and seeing what I'm saying. Maybe I'm just shouting into the storm that is the Internet and the yelling is cathartic enough.

I'm in lust with Pauley Perrette...

...I call it lust because I don't know her, so I couldn't, shouldn't, call it love. But, it's all good, so no worries about a stalker vibe going here. I don't think we're destined lovers with her handlers keeping her from me, or whatever cliched insanity that we usually here from stalkers. I just think she's an interesting, intriguing woman with a unique beauty wrapped around a cool mind.

I'm sure she's got someone, it'd be more surprising if she didn't, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that they're pretty cool to hangout with. The conversations, I'd imagine, are varied and interesting, but I'm a criminal justice major, so that could just be an oddball hope or thought of mine. It'd be kinda cool, when you think about it, that she studied forensics, thus lending that air of authenticity to her character.

Then, wrapped all around that mind of her, is that lovely form of hers. Forget the fact that I'm a sucker for brunettes, which I am, or that I find those eyes and her smile enticing, but it's the whole, unique package that draws my brain to think the most illicit of things. Of that, I'm sure, if I ever met her I'd have to apologize for. I know it's silly, but I'm off the mindset that it's okay to think all sorts of things about people that you don't know, without telling them, but once you know someone, it's only civil to let them in on it.

But, as I've said before, will say again, I'm a bit of an odd duck.

However, this is about Pauley, not me. *chuckles* I'll fully admit, I never watched NCIS until I was bored one day, watched an episode, saw Pauley, and fell in lust with her and in love with the show. I know Abby is a character, but if Abby was a person, I'm sure she'd be a lot like Pauley, which would be cool.

I've never been into the Goth thing myself, but Pauley and the Suicide Girls have definitely enlightened me to the fact that I like freethinking ladies who do with themselves as they see fit. Independence is, I think, one of the key aphrodisiacs for me. There is just something about that air of a strong woman that makes my mind go all over the place with illicity thoughts, ideas, and fantasies.

Anyhow, I think it's time to cut this short, before I set off the stalker alarm, too much, and get a court order dropped on my head.

In closing, Pauley, if you see this, don't worry, while I'm lustful, I'm also sane, thus not all "I'm your biggest fan" cliched. That is all.

So let me get this right....

....if I blow something up, but it's more spontaneous, then I'm not a terrorist? I guess, then, that makes me asks, what qualifies as planning?

McCain just made a quick move to pull Palin's bacon out of the fire, since she was asked what the difference between a militant radical bomber from the 60s and an abortion bomber; the correct answer, Sarah, is nothing, they're both violent extremists, not by definition of their targets being government institutions. I mean, seriously, if you're against homegrown terrorism, then you're against all of it, not just the groups who are likely to vote against you.

I think that exorcism you had done on you didn't take and you might wanna visit Thomas Muthee, again, for a booster shot.

I know it's a bit mean of me to say this, but I'm in a crap mood today, anyhow, so I'm gonna say it. Sometimes when Sarah Palin starts answering a question badly, in that blathering way she does trying to hold her ground around a talking point, she really reminds me of Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007 and her moment of televised brain farting.

Anyhow, I'm gonna shut up now, I swore I'd try to be nicer this political season, but I'm getting close to my nasty level that I had against John Kerry last time. Seriously, folks, think before you open you mouth, or else you're never gonna win a damn thing.

Okay, one last nasty thing, then I'm done.

She set gender equality back a decade with her vapid answers, circular logic, and inability to raise her candidacy beyond her MILF Status?

Who is Governor Sarah Palin?

I voted for Obama...

...and while I'd like for you to do so, too, I'll be happy if you just vote, period. Vote for whomever you want, even if it is a write-in candidate, McCain, or someone from a 3rd Party, but just vote. While I'd be happier if my candidate won, I'd be even happier with a huge increase in voter turn out, be it in your state or on a national level.

If more folk just voted, I think we'd have a much more diverse and interesting political environment than we do now. We'd turn into a more party system, than a two party system, and that would just be awesome.

So, my fellow Americans, vote, please. Vote your thoughts, your minds, your hearts, and your beliefs, but just vote. It's not only your privilege, but it's your right, exercise it and throw the statistics on their heads.

I wish we were there already...

...in that future with flying cars, mining of the asteroids, artificial intelligences, jet packs, and all other sorts of stuff that you'd find in a Brin novel. Heck, even the talking dolphins would be cool, so long as they didn't sound like Darwin from Seaquest.

It'd be different, I'm sure there'd be new issues to deal with, new problems to replace the old problems, but it'd a wondrous time, too. I'm sure it'd be a bit more bleak, not the Utopia of Demolition Man, probably somewhere closer to Minority Report than Blade Runner, but it'd be change. It'd be progress, for good or bad, as the World the way it is today ain't the future, it's more the past 2.0 with some updates that change ths surface, but the insides are all the same.

Imagine a world where prototypers are common to every home, where people make their own tools, pieces of equipment, and common needed items from public domain templates, their own work, or purchased templates with specific replication allotments. We're not too far off from that, if you get a chance go searching for protoypers, they're this cool devices that you can built things from ceramic, aluminum, and plastics, potentially even carbon filament, at very low costs right in your home.

We're on the cusp, potentially, of a sudden paradigm shift where the middle-class groups, be it the low end or the high, are going to have this shift where the economics of the world balance out a lot better than they do now. It'll be a move away from the neo-feudalism that we have today, where the wage slave is the serf, the middle management is the local lord, and the various Boards and stockholders are the upper nobility that are starting to devore their own via incest.

While I'm all for capitalism, I'm more for the person, or as they're referred to in the United States, the People. I'm very much a "Needs of the Many, Outweigh the Needs of the Few", to remember the words of my favorite Vulcan. Too often, I think, does the cheerleaders of the big corporations drone on about capitalism versus communism when what they really mean is their ideal of capitalism.

Big Money, mind you, doesn't want the little guy getting his licks in, making his fair share, or coming up with his idea that they have to pay him for. Goodness knows that the little guy, or lady, shouldn't have a chance to do something that the big companies can't just take. The only difference between the Robber Barons of the turn of the century before this most recent turn is that they're not individuals like J.P Morgan and crew, they're groups of them. 

Funny how that works, huh? When it was big, rich, powerful individuals we had issue with it, but when a slightly more numerous group of the same sorts of folk, even some descendants in there, do it we've less issue. We vilify the individual, yet allow the group to just slip under the radar. If a single person runs around killing people, we're outrage that it could happen, yet when a large grop does it, we turn a blind eye.

Anyhow, obviously I got all sidetracky - the place is called Rambling Nights, ain't it?

Hence why I want the future, even with its troubles, as it's gotta be better than this, the now and here.

Welcome!

Welcome to the rambling nights full of errant thoughts of one Robert N. Emerson, a computer technician, freelance writer, freethinker, and humanist, also known as 'Me'.

Hi.

It's my hope that you pull up a chair, read what I've got to say, and share your thoughts with my own. While I'm open to full discourse, remember that it's my house, my table, my chairs, and thus my rules. I've got to abide by the landlord's rules, so you've got to abide by mine.

Be cool and cool will be done to you. Be uncool and it will be returned unto you.

That's pretty much my main rule, left open to my transulation, but I'm pretty easy going, even if some of my talk doesn't always seem so.

Thanks and enjoy!