:: Archipelapogo ::

:: 26.7.01 ::

I'm reputting on my counter. Yeah!!!!!!!!!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I found out that my friend from high school, Shawn, is working for Punk Planet now, in Chicago. PP has been around for quite a while, and is one of the seminal national punk zines. Congrats to shawn on his rad job!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I joined the Redeemer Readers, a book club at my church in which my mom and Sean Meade participate. The book for this month is called "Founding Brothers" about many of the revolutionary-era "heroes" of our country. Should be interesting. Watch here for further input.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Super sad stuff: Eudora Welty, one of the world's greatest short story writers, died yesterday at the age of 92. If you've never read any of her stuff, I'd go out and buy some now. She wrote short stories based in small town mississippi in the early 1900's. My personal favorites of hers are "A Worn Path" and "Why I live at the P.O." Once again, check these treasures out!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Some thoughts on Genoa:

I'm sick of seeing President Bush's smug, devilishly annoying grin as he says things like "Instead of addressing policies that represent the poor, you embrace policies that lock poor people into poverty." Nice speech writing, whichever PhD in English that's getting paid seven figures penned this wonderful phrase. I would like to challenge Bushy with two questions.... What policies are you talking about? and, furthermore, How will these policies lock poor people into poverty. I don't think he could answer either one on his own. It would be like the climatic scene in Billy Madison when Eric has to answer the question on Business Ethics. A bunch of stammering followed with an outburst of ignorance. I'm so sick of Bush looking so smug when he says statements like this, when i know all the while, he's probably never taken an economics course in his life. I have a degree in Econ, but i'm certainly not fit to make decisions that are going to affect billions worldwide. How is he fit to do this based on a simple synopsis that someone probably handed to him on the flight over there? If bushy was half as sympathetic as his Ad Agency would like us to believe he is, he would at least read some of the signs on the protesters placards, or (gasp!) sit down and talk with an appointed person representing the movement. Instead, the protesters are kept out of sight, and, therefore, out of mind by the eight leaders in Genoa today. At least French President Jacques Chirac has a moment of clarity when he says "There is no demonstration drawing 100,000, 150,000 people without having a valid reason" Kudos to you, President Chirac. He acknowledges that there are hundreds of thousands of protestors in the town, plus countless symapthizers, supporters, and political peers of these people who are sparing no expense to go out and really fight an extremely uphill battle for what they truly believe. Instead, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said that fellow leaders "expressed frustration with the lack of attention to the substance of the summit". Well, there's a simple explanation to that. Nothing changes via these summits. You have eight people, and bush's interpreter, sitting around a table drinking expensive coffee saying "let's keep with the status quo. Things are okay right now!" Yeah, the leaders did agree to give some money ($1 or $1.2 billion, depending on the source you hear it from) to the United Nations for AIDS reasearch. The UN was expecting more like $10 billion. Thanks a lot, organized nations. Supposedly, there is also to be "relief for poor nations", but I have yet to see any reports on the logistics of this. If anyone sees them, pls. let me know. Bushy is still under attack for his refusal to sign the Kyoto global warming treaty, which all of the other industrialized nations have signed. Now, the bushy administration has "quietly urged Canada, Australia, and Japan to scuttle an effort by pro-treaty nations to implement the pact without the United States." Gotta love this Teddy Roosevelt-esque "my way or fuck you" attitude that our "compassionate" president has adopted. But, hey, at least the president himself has "told his colleagues he won't bow to their pressure on Kyoto. He has promised to provide an alternative to the treaty." I guess that will happen when Exxon and Philip Morris tell bush what they want so the new policies won't hurt the profit margins too much. The epitome of this article (Associated Press, Ron Fournier as published in the Tulsa World, Saturday, July 21) is expressed by one of the worst lines i have ever read in a major newspaper article: "Later, Chirac and Bush were seen engaged in anaimated conversation during a summit dinner that also included leaders from five poor countries." Fucking Pitiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!

End of Rant
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I really dig this new template. To e-mail me, just click on the "contact" link above. Plus, i got to set up my recommended links!!!!!!! bonus for me!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

How do you like the new template? i, presonally, dig it lots. I got it via the blogger template design contest. It's dark, but, then again, so am I!!!!!!!!!!! Muhahahahahah
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Okay, i'm semi-depressed, b/c like noone that used to read this is reading it anymore. My girlfriend only checks it when she remembers, which is rare. Ryan, apparantly, doesn't care about the internet anymore, and his girlfriend, megan, reads this, but she's at camp for like three weeks or so. So, basically, this is like my conversation to the Rev. Sean Meade, but it's better just to talk to him, so..........what's my motivation????? If anyone else reads this, pls., e-mail me here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd sooooooooooo appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!! and if you do read this, please pass the word along!!!!!!!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

A very happy anniversary to Holden Caulfield!!! Catcher in the Rye was published 50 years ago this week. This is by far one of my favorite books ever. I cried when I first read it. If, for some god-awful reason, you've never read this wonderful book, go, right now, and pick it up. You owe it to yourself.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Oh, man. I'm super psyched! I just found out that Citizen Fish is playing OKC on 5-August. Yeah! I saw them in November, i think, in Austin, and they put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. Maybe I can convince Ryan to go with me, since I went to Tulsa JamFest with him. He owes me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

While we're on politics, may I please express my disgust at the house of reps for dismissing the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill. It's extremely appalling that we can't get a simple measure to pass through this complicated system of payouts and lies in order to give the individual a little more freedom, in this, the land of the "free" and home of the "brave". It's also a shame that few politicians possess the brains or the balls to get elected outside of taking all kinds of soft money. I feel nauseous.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Flag burning is apparantly in the news again. The irony of banning the "symbol of freedom" in protest is immense. Fortunately, all the reports I've heard have said that it is extremely unlikely to pass the Senate. My personal "representative", Steve Largent, voted for the bill. There's a big surprise.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

For any of you all looking for a good napster alternative, i've been using Audio Galaxy lately, and i'm really enjoying it. Good interface, and some great features that napster didn't have, i.e. it commits you to a version of a song, and if someone that you're downloading from goes off line, it finds another version and continues right where it left off, which is great. Give it a shot, all you piraters!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Hey gente....I had a great time on my trip down to norman, ft. worth, et al. I got to play disc golf in OKC at Will Roger's Park (very close to the OCU campus). It's a nice course, with some fairly easy holes, and some that are rather difficult. I finished at Five over par, so i felt pretty good about that. I also got to hang with my friend Nader and his Saudi Arabian buddies, which was pretty damn cool. I love meeting different people. But I definitely enjoyed it. In ft. worth, i got to meet up with the lovely denise for some good hang out time. we went to six flags in arlington on thursday, which turned out to be the perfect day to go, b/c there were very small lines, so we got to ride everything. Let me just say that the new Titan down there is amazing! You really haul on that thing. I seriously thought i was going to lose my contact lenses. Then, denise and i went to waco to hang out with some latin fools that we hadn't seen since graduation. It's always fun to feel very normal when you're taken away from what you're used to. It was a very typical, natural, fun night in waco (yes, it can be done, you just have to know how to do it). Plus, denise treated me to Genghis Grill for lunch on saturday in ft. worth, so that was definitely the bomb. It was a great trip. but, 1,030 miles later, i'm back at home, and now i have to look for a job, but for real this time. sucks....
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I heard about this story on NPR today, and found a brief article on Yahoo. It's pretty sad, and it says that Ukraine is the most dangerous place right now to be a reporter in Europe. NPR also said that the reporter was a big anti-corruption advocate, so that's probably the cause of the incident. Sometimes people just suck...
:: Scott [+] ::
...

What''s up people? Amazingly enough, I'm heading out of town again. This time, it's a road trip to Norman, Ft. Worth and Dallas, and Waco. Only about 5 days, so not very long, but i'm looking forward to seeing some folks that I haven't in a while, and the travel is good. Also, I played two rounds of disc golf today, the first in the morning at Riverside, which, granted is probably the easiest course in tulsa, but i finished one under par, which was the first time i've done that anywhere. I also played Chandler Park with Ryan, and finished at two over par, the best I've done out there. It was a good day indeed!
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I realized that i only posted like 4 or 5 times in the whole month june. granted, I was out of town for three weeks, but that's still pretty lame. So, yeah. but nothing happens in this town, except a bunch of wrecks, apparantly. Tulsa was given the honor as having 2 of the 10 worst intersections by State Farm. Of course, Philadelphia had 2 of the worst 3, so i guess we're not the most dangerous city or anything. Anywho, i'm stretching for a post here, which is not cool, so i'm going to end it.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I rented the movie "Cecil B. Demented" tonight. It's a John Waters film starring Steven Dorff, Melanie Griffith, etc. about some "guerrila filmmakers" who kidnap a hollywood starlet (griffith) and force her to join their underground, revolutionary film plot. The filmmakers are pissed b/c hollywood fiilms have become so cheesy and worthless. It's a very funny movie, with some great satire on the holywood studios. Typical to john waters, it has lots of violence, and sexual overtones (but, no nudity). Very odd, but very funny. If you're into strange, semi-disturbing, but intelligent and original film, i'd definitely reccoment it.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

I found the most random example of irony on tv today. Have you seen the "singers and songwriters" cd you can buy? They have Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, bunch of random people. They also put an Eric Clapton song on there, who is both a good singer and songwriter, i have much respect for him. But, the song they put on is "I shot the sheriff", ironicaly enough, not written by clapton, but by bob marley. wierd, huh?
:: Scott [+] ::
...