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Journal Sep 2007

25 Sep 2007

Randi had a call from a soldier currently in Iraq, somehow (apparently by satellite phone from the logistics and the actual audio), and I was moved by the implications, as were the callers after him.

Why can't we end this occupation? I thought the Democrats were elected to do so, but they seem to be having difficulty (read: lack of cojones). Argh.

-res

Other news and opinion from the past:

18 Sep 2007

There isn't much out there that can make me reminisce about the '80s more than two things: Tears for Fears and Megazone 23.

There's a feeling I get hearing the excellent album Songs from the Big Chair. The song "The Working Hour" wasn't a big single or anything, but the instrumentation in that song (especially the saxophone and guitar work) evokes a longing for simpler times. High school for me. However, I'm much happier now knowing what I've achieved since then.

Likewise, the anime series Megazone 23 is an interesting animal. I started seeing a copy of Part 2, which I now know is a copy of the English language laserdisc, with Japanese subtitles. I was surprised at the graphic violence (and sex) for the genre, but I guess I was used to the other Americanized anime of the day (Voltron, Star Blazers, Robotech, etc.). But I thought it had a solid story and sparked a healthy questioning of authority. The premise of the whole series is that the population is living in an artificial world simulating the 1980s (the present at the film's release). Looking back, yeah, it's really '80s.

An interesting sidebar: the Part 2 I saw was prefaced by a short intro summarizing the events of Part 1, or so I thought. This intro was actually the alternate ending to Part 1, which you can see on YouTube. When I finally saw Part 1 in college, I was surprised that real ending wasn't the same. It wasn't till now that ADV Films released them (including Part 3), that I appreciated Part 1. Part 3 is an interesting two-part epilogue on what happened centuries after Part 2.

All in all: I'm glad it's not the '80s anymore, but I now reminisce about the prosperous '90s that I took for granted back then. All these decades provided great music, though.

-res

Other news and opinion from the day:

Other news and opinion from the past:

05 Sep 2007

Randi Rhodes has an interesting take on the Sen. Specter's defense of Sen. Craig: both Senators agreed on a stance against the PATRIOT Act, so Specter needs Craig to vote against its renewal (again). I guess most people have at least one redeeming quality. Too bad the closet denied Sen. Craig of the happiness he could have had and passed on to his constituents in the form of votes for equal rights for gays.

-res

Other news and opinion from the day:

04 Sep 2007

The photo gallery now has a new page, 22, which goes up to the beginning of Sep 2006. Enjoy! I'm working on the rest, and the CD list will get corrected and updated soon too.

In other news, Timmy started his first day of first grade today. Hello, homework! Can you believe he's this old already? Luckily, some of his former classmates are current ones this year.

Also, I started taking violin lessons a little less than two months ago. So far, I can play a few songs in A Major. I'm slowly teaching Evelyn in the process too. Maureen and Marsha learned for about a year in high school, so I'm using their old one, and Evelyn has Marsha's tiny 1/16 or 1/32 size violin from when she did it for a year as a wee one. Evelyn's starting out with a mock-up just to get the posture and coordination right, then maybe within a year she can start holding the real thing.

-res

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