Ryno!!

Ryne Sandberg needs to be in the Hall of Fame, and I’m really hoping this is the year!

Sandberg, on the Hall of Fame ballot for the second year, is a nine-time Gold Glove winner and 10-time All-Star who received 244 votes, or 49.2 percent, in his first year on the ballot. Players need 75 percent to be elected into Cooperstown.

The numbers are there… the charisma is there… everything is there… He needs to be in the Hall of Fame… Needs!

I remember watching the Cubs years ago with my Grandmother… Ryno was always one of my favs (him and Dunston!). When a conversation turns to great 2nd basemen, his name always comes up… whether I’m the one talking, or someone else. Sandberg is a legendary 2nd baseman, and the thing lacking (aside from a World Series ring) is his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Do the right thing…

2-year-old model seeks lost wages

Sad.

A 2-year-old model and actor who cut his head at a playground is seeking unspecified lost wages and other compensation from the city.

Spam Comment

I was lucky enough to receive my first spam comment tonight. It was pushing viagra. Great. I love spam. I love getting to receive 200 spam messages at my work email over the course of a weekend. It’s wonderful. I really consider buying items from spam messages too… It’s such a great marketing technique. I bet the people that send these messages really see a great return on their spam investment. Really.

This is December 24, 2003

It’s morning. I’m wrapping gifts and trying to really understand why I don’t want to wrap gifts. I’m trying to understand why I feel the way I do (depressed). I’m trying to relate to myself, and forget myself, and begin something new. I’m trying and pushing and hoping and wanting and needing. This is almost confusing, almost understanding, almost torture. For what?

Thankfulness, Happiness… Where’s my appreciation? I know it’s there, somewhere… I’m caught up in my drama, ignoring a ringing telephone. I’m looking for something I don’t know if I can find. I’m alone, never completely… This is just like some sort of code, some sort of bitterness that needs completion.

Everyone is wrapped up in their own game. Forgetting others, remembering themselves… Feeling sorry for things that need to happen… feeling sorry. There’s a world going on outside, and I’m in here… wrapped up in paper and tape and ambient background noise… The sound of a UPS truck driving by. This is surely something that needs documented, for what else is there in life other than normal events?

I’m looking for time to heal all wounds… I’m looking towards the clock to tell me I need to move. This is not just another lonely day, it’s a season. A greeting. Wrapped up and packaged and tagged. Please understand I love life…

There’s almost no reason to be writing these words, other than my own little complex, simplification of a life respected and admired and revered. I’ve caught a moment in time on an image sensor, I’ve framed it and put it away… archived for some future. Move. Move. Move.

I’m next to myself, sitting, looking… The day begins with or without me. Ive been up since 8:30 am. There’s time again. Season. The season of neverendingforgivingmisunderstandinghappinessanger.

Season’s Greetings.

Ahh, the mystery!

This is what I’m talking about when I talk about the mystery of life. There are so many questions unanswered, so many things not known about this world… anything is possible. What do we really know about life? Really? What is not understood? What has been forgotten? Is it possible to become too rational over time, caught up in the little play we call life? Too much television. Too many movies. What is real life? Who is to say?

I don’t know what’s going to become of this story, but that’s a spooky looking picture, no doubt about it. I like the questions it arises. I like the unease in the picture. The possibilities.

The mystery takes a turn. The endlessness… the memories.

Sleep.

I should have been asleep by now. Template has me up. Thoughts have me up. I think I hear a cat meowing outside… it’s cold. I look, there’s nothing there.

Tomorrow has me up. The next day keeps me up. Sleep keeps me up.

I haven’t slept much lately. Various reasons make this so. Some good, some bad… some neither.

I turned the heat on tonight, that’s an odd thing around here. I like it cold. I love it cold. Tonight, I felt too cold.

I ate only one meal today. Tofu Satay, Panang Curry with Tofu, cup of Jasmine Tea, cup of Thai Iced Tea. The tea might have me up (doubtful).

I need to eat more. I need to sleep more… There’s plenty of time for all that.

(I swear I smell Jasmine rice right now…)

The clothes dryer is knocking around it’s contents, hoping to beat it into submission.

I submiss.

Comics 12.17.2003

Daredevil #55
Mack Daddy.

Hulk Gray #4 (Of 6)
For real this time?

Ultimate Six #5 (Of 7)
Bend this.

Ultimate Spider-Man #51
Same here.

What is there really to say? I like a lot of the story lines, I like the characters. I enjoy the artwork… but damn it if it doesn’t take me a second to figure out where I was last month, and what’s going on (in each title). Especially difficult with these books that come out once every 5 months. Is Rising Stars done yet? I can’t even recall!

Rising Stars started out so great, kept on getting better and better, and now it’s like the book never existed. I think issue 21 is the last issue I have. Now J. Michael Straczynski is writing Supreme Power, which has fast become one of my favorite titles. Similar to Rising Stars, but a different way of getting there. I hope this book doesn’t suffer the fate of Rising Stars… lost, in the void. Deleted from memory. Gone. Faded.

Spider-Man 2

Nice.

Comics 12.10.2003

Wanted #1 (Of 6)
Hopefully another Mark Millar beaut…

Nyx #3
I love teen mutant drama.

Ultimate X-Men #40
X.

Happily, a small week.

In other news, the air conditioner here at work blows right on my hands, and they get so damn cold it’s hard to type… making it hard to work, making it hard to type… and so on…

The Hobbit

This would be boss…

New Zealand film director Peter Jackson (news), tipped to win an Oscar for his “The Lord of the Rings” epic, said Monday he would like to make “The Hobbit” prequel to the trilogy and work with some of the same actors again.

Time vs. No Time

Where does it go, and why does it have to leave?

I’m not assuming anyone has even noticed (or even cares), but I’ve been posting a lot more over at my photoblog (which has actually become my defult blog on the cloudshift.net site… I’m actually attempting to post a photo a day, which is both good and bad… It’s a nice exercise for an amateur like myself (good), but at the same time, there’s bound to be a good amount of filler (bad).

I’ve been spending a lot of time with my camera lately, and with the addition of my fancy ass new macro lens, I’ve been hanging out with it even more…

Which brings me to time vs. no time.

I watch the days go by (just numbers) on various websites, blogs, calendars, etc. I’ve been trying to post a photo a day, and I’m paying even more attention to time slipping by… Whatever time is, my perception of it is changing, as the days get shorter, the weeks pass by quicker and the years aren’t what they once were… but it’s all the same and I can’t begin to measure whatever it is… I have an idea of what a day is, and the amount of time that passes by today is the same as it was 20 years ago… Time isn’t really concerned with Monday or Tuesday, or this week or year…. it passes as it pleases, and I age as I please, and I try to capture some of that time in a photograph or poem…

A tiny snapshot of this second, put down for someone’s review, or view. Poetry is a photograph of words, stopping what time put in motion in some distant past, or future, or now. These words have all been said before, by me on another day or time or place… They’ve been read by you now, or 30 minutes ago, or 3 hours from now…

I started writing this entry 10 minutes ago, and already it’s reached my eyes, powered by some synapse gapped by some sort of impulse that I am not only impulsed to forget, but I’m destined to remember…

Two hours ago I sat in this chair and listened to a recording from 1955… I tried to picture (in my head) the performance being played out, like the drama of life, or the life of drama (stars, moons, flying through space)… I listened and thought of a photograph I thought I saw, it’s color only existing because it does, and not only because it doesn’t.

This is time passing by, and I’m attempting to grab a hold of it, and not let it forget, that I too created time, destroyed time, and again (another time), will be taken over by time.

Cry of the Snow Lion

Going to see Cry of the Snow Lion tonight… Looking forward to it.

Haibane-Renmei

For my birthday I was lucky enough to receive the first 2 DVDs of the Haibane-Renmei series. It’s by the creator of the Lain (which I love, for some reason), and is about a “race” of people called “Haibane”.

For the most part I really enjoyed the discs (which contain 7 episodes of the series). I notice some definite similarities to the Lain series (the main character’s interior monologue being one).

The direction of the series seems unclear, though I am guessing what it’s going to boil down to is “What are the Haibane?”, which is a good and valid question. I only hope there’s an answer somewhere in this series.

The artwork is beautiful, and there’s a real attention to detail, especially in regards to the individual characters… I’m looking forward to the next DVD release, which is December 16.

Comics 12.03.2003

Detective Comics #789
Am I getting this? I can’t remember. That tells me a little something.

Superman Batman #4
Buying monthly comics tells me even more that my memory is slipping.

Incredible Hulk #64
Incredible…

Supreme Power #5
This book is fast becoming my favorite title….

Ultimate Spider-Man #50
I’m losing interest in this title for some reason.

Ultimates #12
Ultimates? What?

Ready to Explode

Explosion. We are smaller than even we know.

A new close-up view of the violent surroundings of the brightest known star in the Milky Way Galaxy confirms the unstable beast’s years are numbered. The study also yields new insight into the huge, eruptive star.

Eta Carinae is 100 times more massive than the Sun and 5 million times as luminous.

I still like the mystery that exists in the real world… the uncertainty, and the questions forever unanswered. There’s so much in life that makes no sense to my rational mind… So much reason that is so unreasonable. I love it all.

Although I don’t understand the real world, I can keep on striving to become comfortable in it. For now, I just keep playing dress up and thinking that what I am doing every day is somehow real… somehow worth something (although it may be)… Confusion, uncertainty, questions, mystery… The power and the will to move on.

How important are the important things in your life? How important will these things be when you are lying on your death bed, searching for some comfort, or a familiar face? Have you pushed everyone away, or have you held loved ones close? What really matters? Does it?

Cubs Hall of Famers

Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson and Lee Smith, three Chicago Cubs that should be in the Hall of Fame, perhaps this is the year.

The trio of former Chicago Cubs players are among the 32 candidates on the Hall of Fame ballot to be determined by voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. The winners will be announced Jan. 6.

Perhaps.