Sad Faced Boy

Merrrrrrrrrrrr

Thursday, November 30, 2006

ENGRISH THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE PIDGIN LANGUAGE
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Hold up while I roll up my sleeves for some late night I can't sleep bloggin. This time it was because I was trying to think up gifts for the loved ones in my family. It seems tonight SG laid down the grinch on me and asked if we even have to celebrate x-mas. Wha? I guess so. So then I started thinking about going on vacation somewhere which got me to thinking about going to Belize or Bonaire for some diving. Then I got hung up on wondering if the Sonos music system can connect to Linux machines and what the Civic SI sedan really looks like and before I knew it I went from going to sleep to wide awake.

Damn, I just sort of made up that whole engrish being a Japanese pidgin language but I think it might actually hold. Seriously it seems to hold up if you only read like the first paragraph of that wiki page:

A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. Pidgins have simple grammars and few synonyms, serving as auxiliary contact languages. They are learned as second languages rather than natively.


I don't know about you but if you've ever had a Japanese conversation partner the language that comes out of your mouths is pretty much a mish mash of things. Terrible Japanese on the English speaking persons part, so so English from the Japanese person and a strange mashing of Japanese and English in an attempt to create something that either one of you might understand. Then again if that doesn't work you can always smile at each other and say "Oppai Seiji" [Person who likes big boobs/I like big boobs/or something].

Engrish is one of those great aspects of Japanese culture whereby they use English in songs, conversations, advertisements and more to get a little bit more linguistic punch. I'm sure I've mentioned this before but then I'm getting older and drinking harder. Much harder indeed. How hard? Hard enough that gin now tastes good and whiskey is appealing.

Today at one point I got the urge to listen to a Japanese rock band called "The Pillows". Do not be lulled into a sense of comfort just because there are one eyed bears with gnashing teeth holding knives on their website. No this isn't a cutesy cover band full of 12 year old girls marching in step barely able to carry a tune. NO! This is the hard rocking trio of "The Pillows" and they WILL rock you like a hurricane of downey soft pillows. Truthfully though they really are good, really... seriously. The one song that got my attention was "Instant Music" for the reason that the lyrics while having a nice rhythm to them didn't really make much sense. It wasn't that they were in Japanese because I really wouldn't be able to understand them if they were. It was because the lyrics neither like Japanese or like English words translated into the Japanese phonetic system. They sounded more like the gibberish musical equivalent of singing "watermelon" over and over again when one forgets a lyric to a song.

So I looked up the lyrics and here is what I found, a true diamond in the mother fucking rough of Engrish. No WONDER I couldn't understand the song:

"MANYUARU RAIFU no ANIMARU" (Manual life animal?)

Huh?

"NÔ DAMÊJI na IMÊJI" (No damage image?)

WHA?

Sweet Jesus that's some good stuff and to top it all off I learned a new and useful phrase for the next time I go back.

"Kutabacchi mae yo".

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

WATCH ME AS I ATTEMPT TO NOT RUN SCREAMING OUT OF MY HOUSE
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Instead of working on cover letters for job postings I have chosen to stick my head in the sand of procrastination and start singing to myself very, very loudly. The thought of getting tanked a few martinis also crossed my mind but then when doesn't that cross my mind.

I don't know what it is about cover letters and resumes and all the self pimpery that brings out the six year old in me but out he comes every time. It's sad really I'm only at my current anymore because I hate cover letters, resumes and applying for jobs MORE than I dislike my job. Let me see if I can somehow explain my feelings of helplessness, depression and terror.

Do you ever get that helpless feeling where it feels like the walls are closing in on you. That the only thing you can do is sit there and let them fall and end whatever it is you call life?

When you sit down to right about yourself in a positive manner do you feel like your feet are super glued to train rails and a locomotive is bearing ominously down on you?

Does the thought of writing a cover letter make you feel like an agoraphobic who when reaching out their front door to get a carelessly thrown newspaper looses their balance and lurches onto the yard thereby instilling them with muscle freezing terror?

It's these times that I really start to doubt my sanity and my ability to cope with the world. Sure I can write about my case of hemorrhoids, or my inability to come up with a set of lyrics that rhyme or my uncanny ability to clog any toilet. Yeah embarrass myself galore but try to pimp myself and I turn into a self loathing OCD hermit who can't find anything good about himself. One of the things that I find most interesting about these terror attacks is what I feel now isn't all that much different from the feelings of helplessness that I felt as a child. I really don't know what age I was when I would do this but six years old sounds like a good number. A number where it might actually be ok to be filled with irrational helplessness instead of a number say 12 or even say 29.

When I was a wee lad of six years old I remember crawling under the dining room table when it was homework time in the hopes that I could avoid doing homework. It wasn't rational and I seem to remember that it wasn't only due to the loathing of homework and the desire to be anywhere but at the homework table. The image I remember is an image of myself wallowing under the table in the attempt to out wait my mother so that she would go away and I could be left to do ANYTHING else. Come to think of it that was my standard operating procedure when getting the SCARY barber and avoiding going to church. That was the image, the feelings though are ones of sheer helplessness. I can't do this, I'm not smart enough, how do I start it, I don't understand what the question is asking. On and on and on the feelings of inadequacy would pummel me until whimpering I would wallow on the floor.

Yeesh makes me wonder why I'd ever want children since it's almost guaranteed that they would get some of this and then what good would I be? I'd probably wallow right there on the floor with them like a pair of sea lions rubbing their backs on a sun drenched rock yelping their helplessness for all to hear.

A little google on the internet about cover letters told me what SG already said. Paragraph one is where you mention the position, how you heard about it (if you heard about it from an employee or some such), and explain briefly your interest in the position while showing that you did a little research into the company/department. Paragraph two is where you address the required and desired qualifications that the position is looking for by using some examples from your current and previous jobs. Paragraph three finds us in the denouement of the cover letter smoking a cigarette and laying sweaty and exhausted in our bed of self pimpery. It all seems so simple until I start to actually write about it and then in comes the six year old overwhelmed with feelings of terror and inadequacy.


I'M TO SEXY FOR MY CLOTHES
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What is it about older men and their desire to prance around a locker room naked. Tonight there was this one guy who after showering walked right up to the row of sinks with his junk all hanging out and just stared at himself. There was a point where he must have heard something VERY interesting on the locker room TV because he walked his naked self over to the TV to see what was on and then walked back underwear in hand instead of on his bum. As if to make the statement "I'm sexy you think I'm sexy too watch me as my junk sways." WTF.


WELCOME MR. PILES OUR LITTLE NOT SO WELL KNOWN FRIEND
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How time flies when you have problems of the intestinal nature. Where to start, and whether one should even start or if anyone really even needs to hear about such problems. BWA HA HA.

About three weeks ago my body suddenly decided that it wanted to give me a little message that I am getting ready to get just a little bit older. So much like a mob gangster or loan shark who will come over to your house and break some of your stuff to give you a "message" my body decided to give me a case of hemroids.

In hindsight... hmmm hindsight, hind right-o. In hind sight I guess I have had many minor cases of hemroids. A little blood here, some more blood there but never to the point where a difficulty to sit would occur. HA-HA! This is no longer the case, or maybe I should say OH-NO. Before this experience my conception of hemroids was of old men talking about their hemroids acting up or of older beat cops with their humored cushions underneath their tender butts. Surely this is nothing that someone of my young and not so old age should have to worry about.

HEMROID CONTENT BELOW
Look away, try not to read this, try not to read this like you try not watch a oncoming train wreck. Hemroids if you ever wanted to know are actually caused when blood vessels in your anus enlarge to the point where the blood pools creating an inflamed region. There are the garden variety which appear internally and show up when you see some blood in the toilet. Then there are the Godzilla variety where they enlarge to the point that they actually are visible to the naked eye, the naked brown eye. I think the main causes tend to be constipation, straining, dehydration all of which lead to you sitting on the toilet too long which seems to increase the likelihood of blood pooling in those pesky rectal veins. I think of all those causes they might have left out one more thing .... playing Animal Crossing on the DS. That game is like crack, I know it's not good for me, it's a stupid game and yet I can turn it on and loose a half an hour just like that [snap]. So the only way for a humroid to go away is to give it time for the blood clot to be re-absorbed by your body. Sure you could have a doctor slice it open but only at the early stages if the vein is purplish in color. Once the vein becomes skin colored all you can do is wait it out.


So maybe I was a little dehydrated, maybe I was playing some Animal Crossing and maybe my body just decided that it had to go right as SG started one of her marathon 15 minute showers with all that shaving and bathing that women are so fond of doing. My body subconsciously waits for these opportunities to make me decide just how far I will wait before I either end up squatting in the backyard hoping to God that my neighbors don't look out their windows right at that instant or end the mystery completely in my marriage and do a number 2 while SG is showering. Why not go to another bathroom one might think and if one had said option one would but one does not. So far I have dodged the fecal bullet but every time it gets closer and closer and my will to fight it gets smaller each time.

I actually took a day off on Monday sighting "intestinal issues" because by Sunday I had nearly convinced myself that what I was seeing/feeling wasn't actually hemorrhoids but my intestines. I don't even want to go into why I thought this was the case. Let me just say that I have seen things that I would rather not see and may now be forever haunted by it. Monday found me sitting at a urgent care facility and awaiting an appointment with a doctor. I could have gone to my own doctor if I actually went to him on a yearly or even bi-yearly basis but with the practice I go to I don't think I've actually had the same doctor twice.

URGENT CARE NOTE
Something one might want to note when faced with going to a urgent care facility in the Columbus Ohio area is that they are all run by one company and that company doesn't currently accept Anthem health insurance. You get one free-bee basically and then after that you are liable for all costs. So Yipee my one get out of free urgent care card was wasted on hemroids.


Ever since my brush with Mr. Gomer piles I have had a few therapeutic conversations about it to help me get over my embarrassing condition. Wouldn't you know every time I mention it I seem to get the response "oh, hemroids? I have had those before." Granted I mean most people probably don't just out of the blue go "I had some hemroids last night, passed a little blood, little bit of pain but I'm doing alright just slathered some preparation-h up there and am fine."

Of my hemroid therapy sessions to date my most uncomfortable one had to have been while talking to my mother. Next thing I knew I was knocked flat after having been told that she has had them but never knew until she asked my Dad and oh by the way it runs in the family and oh have you ever tried those anal suppositories? Wha-huh? Anal + Suppositories + Mother. Weee may I live a thousand years and never hear that again.

You'd think that the whole thing would be done after my skipping work, diagnosis, and therapy like conversations with other people but you'd be wrong. One of the things that Dr. Valentine forgot to mention when explaining to me what a hemroid was is that they could potentially break thereby releasing blood down one's leg at a potentially inopportune time. Really though is there ever a good time for an expected stream of blood to be released. It could be worse I guess I could be a woman and then I would be exposed to this terror on a monthly basis. God must hate women. Sooo I luckily happened to be at home and was able to staunch the flow and create a band aid like application but then was stuck with the problem of bloody swamp ass for the next week. Bloody Swamp Ass? Well you know swamp ass right? Well bloody swamp ass is swamp ass with well blood. Ick ick and double ick.

SG through all of this has been very supportive except for a few cases when I could see a snicker come out of her mouth. Then there was her having one of my animals in Animal Crossing call me bloodybutt and then there was the motherly conversation that she tried to give me about washing blood out of my underwear. Seriously.

One humorous thing that happened during all this (besides the blood, and the pain, and Dr. Valentine, and conversations with one's parent) was that the Family Guy episode "Stewie Loves Lois" just happened to air around the time when I was having my hemroid experience. Just watch the episode again sometime and then try to imagine you just had a doctor check you out for hemroids.

Peter: My god, we've all been victims of Dr. Hartman's "Prostate Exam." Well gentlemen, the abuse stops here. I will not turn a brown eye to this. I am gonna sue that bastard and make him pay out the ass. No ifs, ands, or butts. I'm gonna be really anal about this.
(Pauses)
Peter: Sphincter. (edit)

Friday, November 10, 2006

Someone call the wambulance......

PLACEBO, SHE WANTS REVENGE AT THE AGORA
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Someone call the wambulance, because there's going to be an accident... in MA PANTS, no not really. No it isn't the "wambulance" it's "ambulance" but SG finds Brian Moloko's voice (lead singer of Placebo) voice so nasal that that's all she hears when she catches that line from the song "Infra-Red".

Saturday I was fortunate to both catch a concert with Placebo and actually have someone make the two and a half hour trek up north with me. I say fortunate because in the past when I looked up tour dates for Placebo all that I would see was:

1.) Almost all stadium tours, and stadium tours are teh suck.
2.) Mostly in Europe and mostly stadium tours but or not I can't really tell.
3.) If not all in Europe then only in the bigger U.S. cities on the coasts.

To get an opportunity to see them in a venue as small as the Agora gave the whole experience something more of a religious pilgrimage than a drive to see a band. Take that and then throw in the fact that Placebo is apparently only playing six dates in the U.S. and I am in groupie heaven. I mean come on it would be like being able to see U2 if U2 were your band of holy grail and they just happened to be playing in a club that holds no more than a couple hundred people. I was going to say that I don't completely hate stadium and lawn style concerts but no I really do hate them. Oh.. oh please let me spend close to $100 for a ticket that gets me within binOcular distance of the band. I went to a Genesis concert when I was in middle school that was of the stadium variety type and it was worthless but that might have been because it was Genesis. I just don't get stadium concerts, when I go to a concert I want it to be in a dingy converted theater all run down with walls the color of soot that only can be got from generations of cigarette smoke and lack of maintenance. I want a pit sticky with stale beer and what I want most of all is the ability to SEE the band and to get right up next to the stage if I so choose. Now that's a concert.

Placebo is one of those bands where you either like them or you don't. SG can't stand them because as I said Brian Molokos has this hyper nasal pitched voice that sounds like God came down and pinched his nose together with an invisible clothing pin. I think I first heard Placebo at my first job back when Napster was king and internet radio stations were all the rage. There was this one internet radio station called "Evil Dildo" whose website had a evil looking baby with cake smeared all over it's evil toothless face holding a fork in a menacing fashion. Too this day I am still haunted by that picture. Underneath it said something like

"[something, something, something] going to chew your dick with my tiny little teeth."


There is so much wrong with a baby saying that they are going to chew your dick with tiny little teeth. . It was from this radio station that I first heard Placebo and from then on I can't seem stop my knee jerk response to purchasing their albums.

The concert was excellent and while I hadn't listened to any of the opening band She Wants Revenge before the concert I can say now after having listened to the album that they were pretty good. Sure She Wants Revenge sounds kind of pop-ish and sure they may not be the most original band but all and all they have some palatable music and can put on a decent show. As for Placebo they played a fantastic set doing every song off of their current album along with classics like "Special K".

The only thing I have to complain about as I raise my wrinkly old hand above my head clenching it and shouting was the people at the show in the pit. When She Wants Revenge played there was some clapping, head nodding, and little jumps of exuberance but all and all there wasn't much of a response. When the songs ended their was a roar of appreciation accompanied by clapping but during a song the people in the pit might as well have been mannequins. Huh? If you like the music enough to give that kind of response after why not get up and move a little. But they were the opening band and don't people usually just ignore the opening band? I guess. When Placebo started I found myself amidst a bunch of kids that were more interested in text messaging and drinking as many tall boy PBR's before the concert ended. Shit man even the Japanese, those quiet restrained Japanese, created a mighty fine pit for Jimmy Eat World. Who knows though maybe jumping up and down and crowd surfing is passe, something that the younger generation talks about in reference to those people that used to listen to that "grunge" thing. Or maybe Placebo just isn't the type of music that really lends itself to a energetic pit.


CARS FOR SALE, APPETIZING YOUNG CARS FOR SALE
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Our cars these days are giving us and particularly me nothing but trouble. I can just see them testing their boundaries like three year old children do. See me Mommy? I know you said I can't touch this but what if I keep inching closer and closer? How close will you allow me to get to it before I get in trouble. In this same way I can feel our cars testing me seeing just what it will take for me to take the final plunge and just get a new car.

It's not like I bought them two years ago and have grown tired of them, it's just that I don't want a car payment. Why? Just you lose your job for eight months and live off unemployment and you start to realize how tenative things can be and how something unexpected could push you into financial dire straits when you least expect it. Then there's the desire to walk right into the dealership, haggle a price and when they ask how you'd like to finance the car look them right in the face and say "CASH", dip into a silver suitcase and start throwing wads of bills in their face. I can just feel the satisfaction.

What started this whole feeling that our cars were testing their boundaries was when on Monday (October 30th) the Saturn decided to just up and die right as I was easing away from the driveway. Three days, one tow, a few phone calls, $57 and a blister that goes from one side of my tiny toe to the other it seems that the auto shop doesn't really know what is going on. Apparently the engine somehow got flooded and when I brought it in all they did was do something called a "clear flush" where you press the gas peddle all the way to the floor and start cranking the engine till it starts. In my mind if an engine is flooded you don't want to put your foot to the floor, it just seems counter intuitive. So I asked Mr. Car Man what was up with this "clear flush" thing and to which I found out that almost all cars made after the mid 90's have fuel injectors. Cars with fuel injectors all have the ability to do a clear flush which will reset the fuel injectors and thereby allow you to start your car. With Saturn's in this case if you put your foot to the floor while turning the key it will tell the fuel injectors to reset. So Huzzah for my $57 lesson in modern automotive technology. As for the blister? On the day that Saturn (for I refuse to call it my car and thereby accept any responsibility for it) died I decided to huff it to work and be all European with my walking and potential stinking. It was a nice day so I figured why not walk 3 miles in my dress shoes. Besides it will be a good to know how long it takes to walk to work if I ever have to do it again. The magical number? ~50 minutes and many blisters.

Continuing the testing of boundaries I got a call from SG Wednesday morning after she had left for work telling me that a side wall of one of my tires just blew out. Like a fireman I throw on a pair of pants, last nights socks and whatever pair of shoes that that were near the bed and drove to swap cars with her. I realize this has nothing to do the actual inner workings of the car and that the tires are a separate thing but nonetheless it still feels personal. Thankfully it turns out I have a month left on my extended warranty on the tires so for once the extended warranty actually pays off.


FEELING A LITTLE see-TRESS..
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While driving home the other night I was listening to Market Place on NPR. I can't explain my love for that radio show or why I have an unexplainable urge to download pod casts of it even though I don't listen to pod casts. Here is a show all about business, and markets, and money and things that I don't really care that much about. Err well I do like money. I think my love for Market Place has to do with the hosts wonderful super hero radio voice. I've heard the show when he isn't hosting it and the show just doesn't have the same draw for me. I find that Market Place parallels the British car show "Top Gear" where they are able to talk about cars and present it in such a manner that even SG (self proclaimed apathetic car person) likes to watch. I just wish that they would show more "Top Gear" over here in the states as it seems new episodes are sporadic at best. Along the lines of "Top Gear" there was a funny parody that some guys did using video game footage from Battlefield 2 where they did a "Top Gear" like review of I what I think was a Bradly tank.

Tanks, "Top Gear".... oh yes Market Place. So the whole reason why I brought this all up was that during a Market Place episode a few days back there was a Vietnamese guy named Andrew Lam who was doing a little story about how people in Vietnam are changing due to capitalism. What I found so humorous/interesting was that people in Vietnam had to adopt the English word "stress" into their language because the closest thing to stress in Vietnamese is "cang thang than kinh" - "tension of the mind". I sort of like that tension of the mind thing. Anyway if you are one who doesn't like real audio here is another link that will allow you to read the broadcast.