The Set-Up

Well, tonight was the set-up with Jimmy Mac, the brother of one of my co-workers. I have decided that I will make a pro/con list of tonight's date because I don't think a play by play would work.
Pros:
1. Knows and loves Bruce Campbell, one of the greatest actors ever.
2. Appears to be lacking in the nerd humor department
3. Knowledgeable about books, although has an unhealthy love of Kurt Vonnegut.
4. Exceptional miniature golf player.
5. Can understand when you are referencing Seinfeld, Wayne's World, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights
6. We appear to be on the same level as to nerdiness.
7. We are the same age
8. We talked for almost six hours straight without the conversation lacking

Cons:
1. He could use a new car
2. He's appears to not like Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, even though he never really watched the show.
3. I'm not sure of religious affiliation. I noticed he definitely wasn't a Temple goer, if you know what I mean. He did say that he had gotten rid of almost all of his rated-R movies and why would you do that if you weren't a Mormon?

I'll think of some other things, but I'm tired and I have some things to do.

ERS

Wow. I have been strangely opinionated lately. Let's get back to the important stuff. I think that I have skin cancer. There's this rash on my arm (rachel, michele and I nicknamed it ERS for elbow rash syndrome) and no matter what I do, it won't go away.
On the bright side, I will have health insurance in a matter of months. That's right, I have a job. I am working at the hospital in the Pharmacy there, and hopefully, if I play my cards right, I can get them to pay for pharmacist school.
So when I get my health insurance, I can have the ERS checked out.

Don't Show Me Your Guns

There are a few things that should probably never be talked about in the work place, unless among very close friends.
1. Politics
2. Religion
3. Sex

At the pharmacy, we break all of these rules daily, which hasn't really been a problem...UNTIL TODAY. Remember how that kid killed 32 people the other day. I was just talking about how I saw a news report about the lax gun laws in Virginia. I was saying that it wasn't right that this kid could just walk into a gun store and pick up a hand gun with only a very limited background check. Why would anyone need a hand gun in a hurry, if not to kill a bunch of people?
Let's just say that this pharmacist, who shall remain nameless, did not like my statement, even though I was merely explaining what I'd learned from a news report.
He argued with me that Virginia had very strict guns laws (which were unconstitutional) and that if more people would carry guns, this sort of thing wouldn't happen.
You know what? I think that's crap. He says that when he goes to a restaurant, he wants to make sure he's protected against anything that might happen, you know, in case someone decides to rob the local Sizzler.
The problem is, what has happened in this man's life that he feels that having a hand gun in his wife's purse makes him any more safe than the rest of us. Pardon me, but I certainly don't feel safe knowing that the guy next to me at the movie theatre is "packing heat" just in case the people behind him talk really loud.
Did I mention that he doesn't even believe that you need to lock up your guns in your house , just to prevent the little ones (some call them children) from finding them and blowing their heads off. "Just make sure they're not loaded," he says. Isn't that what every idiot says before his child kills himself with a "not loaded" gun. I saw that episode of Beverly Hills 90210. The kid didn't make it.
You may feel that you have the right to carry a gun on you at all times, but guess what-not everyone feels that way. Not everyone wants to be a member of the NRA. I certainly don't, and I think a lot of people feel that way. And you may think it's a constitutional right to have a gun, and it is. But I have a constitutional right to feel safe, and I don't knowing that any moron can get himself a concealed weapons permit.
Last I checked we didn't live in the Wild, Wild West. The need to have a gun at your waist went out of style a long time ago.

Monsters are real

John Steinbeck said in his book East Of Eden:
I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one's fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishments for concealed sins.
And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and the body may be perfect but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters may not the same process produce a malformed soul?

I don't know why horrible things happen in the world, and most importantly, I don't understand the monsters that are behind it all. How can one person be so filled with hate, so inhuman. It doesn't make sense to me.

I have been reading a lot of reports on the Virginia Tech shooter, and I am positive that I haven't uncovered the whole truth, but what I have seen makes me sick to my stomach. I just wanted to write about it, because what happened was a tragedy. The people killed deserved to live. (Did you know one of the professor's survived the Holocaust?)

I don't know, this was just on my mind. I generally try to stay out of debates. I don't think my opinion matters much when it comes to important issues. But I did want to write this little bit, in an effort to help me understand.

Well, Tax Time is upon us. Uncle Sam is knocking on my door, waiting for me to get my act together to send him my dues. Fortunately for me, my dues have already been paid throughout all of last year so I am happy to be receiving a wonderful thing called a Tax Return.
Here's what I want to do with my money:
1. Finally buy The Chosen Collection, which is the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on DVD. Oh, I can't wait.
2. Pay some bills, you know, what with being unemployed for the time being, it would be nice to do something like this.
3. Maybe drive up to Ogden and go to Maddox, the greatest restaurant ever made.

I haven't thought of what else I need to do, but if you have any ideas, let me know.

Nerd Humor Attacks!!!

Tonight, I sat through twenty minutes of brain teasers. That's right, brain teasers. We are all familiar with them. They were the sort of riddles you enjoyed as an eight year old child. "A rooster is sitting on top of the hen house and lays an egg, which way does the egg roll off the roof?" Answer: "Idiot, rooster's don't lay eggs." Of course, these brain teasers are the ultimate in nerd humor. Are we hobbits trying to riddle our way past Gollum? I don't think so. And I don't need to be graded on my ability to come up with these stupid answers. "A man and his son are in a car accident where the man dies. They rush his son to the hospital and the doctor says, 'I'm sorry, I can't operate on my own son.' How is this possible?" Answer: "The doctor is the boy's mother." Isn't that clever? The answer is no, it's not!
And don't get me started on the woman who doesn't know the correct pronunciation of Naples, Italy.