Lest Blood Be Shed

On Saturday I slept until like noon. I had been up until 4am the night previous listening to a live band playing in Rensselaer. I ended up playing the congo drum again by the end of the night. At any rate, I was still a little tired so I decided to watch some TV. I don't often find myself watching TV but sometimes it's fun. Well I happened upon the Alton Brown show on the food network. He was "lost" on a deserted island and the show was about making Pacific Island style food. He made a whole bunch of different food but one recipe caught my eye. The Sweet and Sour Pork. It looked so good. I tooled around the house a little bit, washed my bedding, and started to get hungry around 5pm. So I called up Maura (she was suppose to call me around 4pm so she could do her laundry) and asked her if she wanted to try cooking some sweet and sour chicken and sushi for dinner. I cleaned myself up a little bit and dropped by her house to pick her up. We went to the store and bought all the various things we needed for the meal. Alton said it would only take 30-minutes to prepare the food but I would like to challenge that. We started cooking around 6pm and didn't eat until maybe 8pm. It was so yummy. Now, the picture I've included is just the aftermath of the dinner. After we had devoured the sweet and sour chicken and some overly wasabified sushi! I heart Alton Brown!

Yesterday was such a nice day and it is tradition in my family to use Sunday afternoons for light cleaning of things that make a big difference. The most common thing we do is laundry or wash the car. Well, I had finished my laundry on Friday afternoon so I decided to wash my car. I hadn't washed the car for at least 8 months so it was time for that task to be taken on. I put some shorts and sandals on and started washing the car. While I was washing the car (no music or anything to distract my holy solitude) I started thinking how strange it was that if I were to walk outside with underwear on it would be considered indecent but if I am wearing a different fabric the act is completely licit. There I was glistening in the sun with only a pair of shorts separating me from an illicit scandal and proper social decorum. It seems to me the connection (or disconnect) is that in shorts I can work but in underwear I can only play (as it were). In shorts I can be a decent producer in a population but in underwear I can only entertain my unproductive pleasures. The Occident is such a weirdly configured culture. So I've included a picture that may be scandalous to some just to show that it's really not all that scandalous to not be a mindless producing worker bee and just have fun some times.

Speaking of weird, I took some melatonin last night to get my sleep schedule back in sync. I always have the most lucid dreams when I take that stuff and last night was no exception.

I dreamt I was asleep in my bed--or at least trying to get to sleep. While I was laying there on the bed a demon started to sneak out from under my bed. This demon is one that has bothered me since I was maybe 6 years old and he was up to his old tricks again. This time I wasn't going to take it!

My friends Maura, M.Lovely and I went to the midnight showing of Star Wars: Episode III. Maura had to do a report for the paper and she bought my ticket... so how could I say no? (Even thought today I am so tired sitting here at work). I don't want to give anything away for those who planning on seeing it but I will repeat my favorite quote from the show. This was a dialog between Darth Vader and Obi Wan. Darth Vader tells Obi Wan, "You are either with us or you are the enemy." To which Obi Wan responds, "Only the Sith think is such un-nuanced binary terms." (or something like that, it was like 1am when I heard it) I just laughed and laughed because all I could think about was the quote from George W. Bush, "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists" George W. Bush is a Sith! The funny thing is, when I was watching Episodes IV, V, and VI with Maura in preparation for this Episode my mind continually saw the stark similarities between American domestic and foreign policy and that of the Empire's in Star Wars.

In other news, I have been thinking a lot about just how inherently evil capitalism is (please don't confuse this with democracy. They are completely separate ideas). Capitalism is an ethic of fear and scarcity thats supreme goal is security at the cost of others who are unable to compete (read: greed). It is a system that worships "money" and ownership of materials. Both of these things are fictions and are extensions of a prideful mindset. I see far too many of the socialist institutions in this country being eroded by those who worship this Capitalism and follow its tenets. I haven't fully thought about these things and I need to learn more if I want to articulate anything more than I have already but think about this little bit of information I learned about Capitalism in high school economics class. Capitalism as a system of economy requires there to be a group of poor and oppressed people for the system to function correctly.

So with all that, I wonder if the Empire of America will be defused before it is coalesced or if far greater oppression will rise before the Culture of Fear and Scarcity falls from it's own internal hate and suffering.