Ghost Town

When we took #clydethebeagle  and #austinthebeagle  for the happy pills for our cross-country move in one week, the vet advised us that the drugs would make the beagles' third eyelids come down. Or she said they would make their third eye open . I don't remember which, so I'm not sure what sort of drugs these are.

For the record, I have no opinions whatsoever about anything that may or may not have occurred in the news today. Don't even try to engage me, because I will just stare blankly at you. I am COMPLETELY ignorant and apathetic. Today is one of the precious few days when it is just easier to be a Strauss&Howevian Gen-Xer than Boomer or Millennial.  Hey, whatever, nevermind.

I don't know if I agree with this writer or not.  When I was in my twenties and moved to Austin, I encountered a lot of hipper-than-thou types who hated, HATED!, any music they considered to be mainstream, just because it was mainstream. I found that to be idiotic.  They still weren't making decisions for themselves; they were still being controlled by the mainstream.  If you aren't going to think for yourself, I'd rather you stay in the light where we can see you.  If the mainstream is making decisions for you, just agree with those decisions.  Don't pretend you are rebelling by reflexively disagreeing with everything you hear. It's annoying and unhelpful to anyone.  This writer seems aware of this phenomenon in others, but also is a victim of it herself. When she hypothesizes about her younger life if she'd grown up in a place like San Francisco, she says, "Being a natural freethinker I would have rebelled against the dominant liberal culture."  ...

I wanted to avoid teaching, but it is the family business. I was the eldest son, supposed to be the one in the Family to get out and into a more respectable profession, but it didn't work out that way. Ultimately, I became even more ruthless in my pedagogy than those who had gone before. Basically, I'm the Michael Corleone of teaching.

Gods, it is vanishingly difficult to overpraise those who fought the Nazis, but if anyone could do it, it's the weepy-eyed Bob Greene.  Dude is so sappy, sentimental, jingoistic, and one-dimensional. Greene's just a DWI and an OD away from being the Thomas Kinkade of literature. http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/24/opinion/greene-eisenhower/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Many people from the "drown government in a bathtub" crowd like to hold up UPS and FedEx as shining examples of how government functions should be privatized for more efficiency and better customer experience. We just came from the UPS store where one employee was taking his own sweet time serving a line that extended almost out the door. How is this different from the USPS experience, again?

Y'know, I'm not seeing enough of this kind of Twitter-grave-dancing in my feeds.  Can someone post a "Total Dicks" circle and help a Plusser out? http://www.buzzfeed.com/tommywilhelm/google-users-being-total-dicks-about-the-twitter

We are moving 1500 miles away.  Our beagles get carsick, so we will be visiting the vet tonight to get them some happy pills for the journey. The vet insisted on seeing them to prescribe the pills. I am not sure if this means they think our beagles are doctor shopping for prescription drugs. Admittedly, Clyde looks a little stoned in this picture, but this is how he likes to sleep, with his eyes half-open. #clydethebeagle #austinthebeagle

This is a theology I simply cannot get behind.  It identifies Weird Al Yankovic as a minion of Satan, and I cannot accept that. http://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/pearlsbeforeswine/s-1159024

If the dreams you dream on the night of the solstice really do come to pass, I am screwed.

I posted on FB that we were moving to PDX and within minutes the ads were all like, need a DENTIST in Oregon? need a home loan in Portland? need to buy modern furniture for your new home? Facebook is like one of those creepy salesman types who sidles up to you at a party and says in a syrupy tone: "I couldn't help overhearing that you were in the market for a new car . . . "

Austin was always in transition.  Austin was always judgmental. http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/new-map-of-austin-tells-the-painfully-funny-truth-about-a-city-in-transitio

Trying to request a transcript from my university.  Their web form crashes for some reason every time I hit the Tab key.  Have you any idea how difficult it is to fill out a web form without habitually hitting the Tab key?  I am literally typing the information with my right hand and keeping my left hand behind my back so my left pinky doesn't hit that verboten Tab key.

I know vague social media statuses are way annoying, but this one applies to seemingly my whole life at the moment, and I just need to scream it to the world so I can get started on the work of breaking things down to achievable tasks: OMG! ARGH! I should have done this days/months/years ago!

The biggest political problem I see with this is that, of the groups most likely to agree with this sentiment-- arsonists, felons, and 8-year-olds who hate school-- only the first are allowed to vote, and then only until they get caught and become the second. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/08/496799/romney-says-america-doesnt-need-more-fireman-more-policemen-more-teachers/

Years from now, I will remember this era-- characterized by 1) Sprint being unable to get a clear cell signal to my block, and 2) attempts to find a job out of state-- as "The Time of Phone Interviews Conducted While Sitting in Cars Parked in Random Places".

If the Internet were Victorian London, Google+ would be its Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and Facebook would be its Bethlem Royal Hospital.

The other frustration is travelling with people who refuse to eat at the local place.  *"Let's go to Applebee's,"* they exclaim and just look kind of confused when you say, um, we could eat there at home... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreethoughtBlogs/~3/DXZIynDSh28/

Sheesh! If Google+ is a ghost town, it's the New York City of the ethereal plane.

I think this, like most of Axl Rose's post-G'n'R ideas, is awesome! Like Axl'n'Slash, Bill Glover and I worked together on various questionable enterprises in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I will therefore ban my fans from wearing Billy Glover t-shirts to my shows. http://stereogum.com/1051431/axl-bans-fans-from-wearing-slash-shirts-to-gnr-shows/news/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+stereogum/cBYa+(stereogum)&utm_content=Google+Reader

While reading this piece on the Fortean Times website about the Phantom Time Hypothesis, I ran across the following sentence regarding the "polymath qualities of Charlemagne": "the conclusion is simple: far too much is ascribed to this one person.”  I realized that, in my own field, the Bill-Shakespeare-Never-Wrote-Them-Plays nonsense is predicated on similar logic.  Apparently, to be a conspiracy theorist, one must simultaneously hold the competing views that mythical reptilian elites are capable of all kinds of global mischief perpetrated across history, but ordinary historical personages cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/5593/phantom_time.html