I made it a goal to see "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhistan" this weekend. This is harder than it sounds, because I have a rule about seeing movies in the theater: I do it only if (a) I believe the movie is so visually and thematically spectacular that it cannot be properly appreciated on the ( Read more... )

"Do unto others," the philosophers say, "as you would have them do unto you." This is also known as the Golden Rule. Seems fair, doesn't it? I know the sorts of things I'd like done unto me, and I imagine people would generally appreciate it if I did those very things unto them. Nor have I met anyone who professes to disagree with this ( Read more... )

There's a mini-pumpkin carving and decorating contest at work. I've carved mine into a Jack-o-Lantern which resembles Frankenstein's monster. It's got huge scars where flesh was carefully assembled to make a face, twisted old mini-pumpkin teeth in a dead mini-pumpkin mouth, and the metal bolts from just beneath the base (as if protruding from the ( Read more... )

It is generally accepted that what we think of as human contact--gossip, idle chatter, jokes--fulfills the same function in our species as the social grooming behaviors found in other species. Any animal can form an extensive social network in this fashion, building trust and fondness among members of its species ( Read more... )

Today, I read something in the news--something pertinent to American politics--which made me angry. The nature of the news, however, is not what I wish to write about today; but rather, the nature of the anger ( Read more... )

The good news: I'm finally on MySpace. Visit me at http://www.myspace.com/kungfumegadevil.

The other good news: Having that account inspires me to write more.

CNN.com, September 29, 2006: "Nazarbayev and other Kazakh officials have sought to raise the profile of the oil-rich former Soviet republic and assure the West that, contrary to Borat's claims, theirs is not a nation of drunken anti-Semites who treat their women worse than their donkeys."

For the last week, I've been training temporary employees. One of these is a part-time English teacher, who today told me that my skills at teaching adults were strong ( Read more... )

I've had it with these
Motherfucking snakes on this
Motherfucking plane

I had a conversation recently about Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, but does it seem right that love is the fatal flaw? The Montagues and the Capulets may have been flawed in their pride and their hatred, but was it wrong for Romeo and Juliet to love each other ( Read more... )