I am totally losing my memory. Did anyone else notice that I posted virtually the same thing on the 25th and on the 21st? I honestly had no recollection of the first one. Egads... senility creeps up on me....

I Kissed Dating Books Goodbye
Well perhaps not entirely, but I am becoming very wary of a certain side-effect inherrent in the rapidly-becoming-a-popular-norm-in-Christian-circles courtship/serious dating perspective. Wishing to eschew the casual dating philosophy of the world in order to stand apart and remain pure (in the intimacy sense), many single Christians are either accepting for themselves or being prompted into accepting a different, more "Christian" way of pursuing a mate. This newfangled approach may consist of anything from full-blown courtship ritual (wherein potential couples might meet together only in the presence and at the whim of the girl's parents) to simply a more stringently commitment-based dating relationship (that is, dating wherein potential marriage always looms heartily in the forefront of the relationship).

All well and good. I suppose. When it works out. But I have a growing suspicion that there is an uncounted danger lurking just below the surface of these approaches. I think that when the Christian scorns casual dating, he both gives up on a helpful tool for finding a mate with whom he might well match and places himself in a position by which he can more easily choose poorly. So, I suppose I ought to explain this.

First, the benefit of casual dating (and remember, one can still date casually and remain sexually undefiled). When one has the ability to approach a woman (and I guess I'll speak from a man's view... since that should be easiest for me, duh) and ask her to dinner with no thought as to whether he need contemplate a full blown commitment right off the bat, he finds far more liberty to learn more about a girl and what she likes and is like. If one doesn't have the threat of IS THIS THE ONE? looming over him from the get go, he is bound to be more relaxed. And certainly less hurt if things don't work out.

Another bonus of having the freedom to take out many girls is the opportunity of surprise. The chance of finding a girl who both likes you and would be a wonderful match for you increases greatly if the sample from which you can choose is larger (obviously). And so, the chance that you might unearth a great and caring personality in someone unsuspected likewise increases. I think that all things being equal, I would prefer a girl who had previous "boyfriends" to one without - simply because the former girl will more likely understand how the give and take of a relationship works (and also would be less likely to place all of her "marriage-hope" eggs in my basket).

And second, the deficit of these courtship models. Because commitment is a very high priority, one has to be pretty committed to the idea of any girl he pursues from the start. This places an enormous (and unnecessary) burden upon the relationship. Before the couple really even knows each other, they are asked (by each other, by their parents, by miscommunication of intent, by the gods of dating, &c.) to place far to much of their heart into a relationship. If it works out, fine. But there's no way one of these committed couples would end a relationship after two weeks when the first red flags pop up (I mean where's the commitment in that?). So, they persevere. Often such couples will become so committed to make their relationship work that they will fail to recognize how wrong they are for each other. The end result will either be a breakup after dating far longer than they should have (and thereby wasting valuable time during which each might have found someone far better suited to their needs) or perhaps a far too difficult marriage.

There are other tragedies that I can think of cropping up, but this is already far longer than I wanted it to be. I think in my final analysis, I simply say this:

Date around and find what you want when you finally find it - just keep the nookie and the mackin' out of the picture 'til you finally do get hitched.

And I think that'll make everyone happy.

Keeps his teeth nice and pimp? *dying here*

My Top 5 Films with Bruce Willis
(in no order beyond alphabetical):

1. Die Hard
2. Fifth Element
3. Hudson Hawk
4. Pulp Fiction
5. 12 Monkeys

It's really a good thing I didn't have to place them in order of preference. I really don't think I would have been able to discern between Die Hard and Hudson Hawk for the top position - they both stand at the top of their respective genres.

In case you were wondering, Saturday's carving featured Herman Melville and was carefully etched in medium of 3/4" pumpkin wall. Bon apetite!

My Top 5 Westerns
(in no order beyond alphabetical):

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. Quigley Down Under
5. The Shootist

Uhm... The Outlaw Josey Wales would have knocked out The Shootist easy as pie except for the fact that it commits egregious sin in allowing Sondra Locke any screentime. At all. Also, I wasn't certain if I'd be allowed to include Yojimbo as a Western of sorts (since it does occur in a fontierish Japan filled with rogues, vagabonds, and bordertown-justice).

I love Halloween! Such fun, such festivities! Yestereve's party was way funner than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Here's the party photos and I should have the pumpkin carvings up either tomorrow or later tonight.

So, I think the funny thing about all this patriotic capitalist fervor** is the fact that a large portion of the people on street corners and parking lots selling car flags out of their minivans are unlegal immigrant businessman. I really think this is a great tribute to the America idealism... that people come from other nations (and break our laws to do so!) just to show their support for the American way by engaging blatantly in our wonderful economic system. These men and women are the true heroes in this effort - not only do they risk their lives crossing freeways to get here (even places with installed immigrant crossing signs are still dangerous), but they have come to a land wherein they might at any moment fall prey to other unlegal immigrants brandishing unheathful spores! And all for the sake of proclaiming how great this American nation of ours truly is. My hat's off to these industrious fellows and their cause! Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah!

** note: really the best way for the consumer to show his support of American life is to purchase-purchase-purchase and thereby affirm the glorious nature of our republic

Sorry I've been so busy! Posting seems to fall by the wayside when circumstance grabs ahold of me... I've just been so tied up with designing for Decablog, preparing a Halloween costume for the annual festivities (which I am again hosting - nothing special... just means that I have that to keep me busy too), trying to write a brief novel, and cetera. To aid in sating your hunger for new Danegeld, here are seven newly-posted though vintage (all date back between three and ten years) doodles.

Not quite finished with the all the templates and two of the current bios yet remain incomplete, but otherwise, the Pantheon is up and running. And Quetzalcoatl has already posted! Wonderful. Let's just hope the ball will continue to role....

My Top 5 Fav Desserts
(in no order beyond alphabetical):

1. Chocolate-Fudge Ice Cream (w/ sugar cone - 31 Flavors)
2. Hot Fudge Schooner Sundae (Coco's)
3. Lemon Meringue Pie
4. Mom's Chocolate Chip Brownies (no nuts)
5. Mud Pie (mocha - Claim Jumper)

So There!

Quite accidentally last evening, we strolled into a gallery presentation of the work of Hisashi Otsuka. While waiting for a table at California Pizza Kitchen in Newport Center, I suggested we mill around in a downstairs gallery to while away the time. Upon our entrance, a woman asked if we had RSVPed. We looked embarrassed and replied that we had not, but she said, "Oh no, don't worry, come on in. Would you like some wine?" What a place! But I consider us quite fortunate to have been able to peruse the man's work and see him (if only briefly) for some of his pieces were incredible. Of course you all know just how much I adore the Japanese feudal culture and to my glee, most of Otsuka's work reflected the sensibilities of this intriguing era! His work involves silk, some sot of paint (acryllic?), and embossing. And it's wonderful. Unfortunately, the jpegs on his site are a far cry from adequate to reveal the grandeur of his work, so if you're local to the area and you have even one art-appreciative bone in your body, I highly recommend stopping by the gallery.

One of the most curious things I've noticed in the days since our patriotism-fueled-affirmation-of-the-American-way-via-capitalism began as a response to the WTC assault is that most of the people selling flags (and car flags) on street corners out of their hatch-back are illegal immigrants. I know some illegal immigrants and they are glad that America truly is the land of opportunity that it was always fabled to be. God bless America!

My Top 5 Songs for a Rainy Day
(in no order beyond alphabetical):

1. "Lazy Days" - Leona Naess
2. "My Favorite Things" - John Coltrane
3. "Porcelain" - Moby
4. "Proportion Thing" - Havalina Rail Co.
5. "These Foolish Things" - Billy Holiday

So There!

Even then my destiny was assured.

Uhm...

After much painful consideration, narrowing down to eight, then adding four more, then narrowing down to six, and finally dropping two very worthy entries: my Top 5 Songs That I Never Tire of Hearing (with only one entry per artist - and listed in alphabetical order):

1. “Girlfriend” – Matthew Sweet
2. “Never Tear Us Apart” – INXS
3. “Sunshine of Your Love” – Cream
4. “Total Depravity” – Havalina Rail Co.
5. “We Close Our Eyes” – Oingo Boingo (off the live Farewell disk)

[note: this meme has appeared in too many places for me to properly attribute whence came the influence upon me, but since I recently rewatched High Fidelity (much better upon multiple viewings), I had been inspired to add regularly Top 5 lists - so we'll just start off easy with this one. also, it seems this one began here]

[the following was originally posted in comment to some other comments to some memoirs by a barberous samurai] .

Okay. Waitjustoneminnut! Who on earth said we live in a democracy? America has never been a democracy and never will be a democracy. We are an oligarchic republic (i.e., ruled by our sociological elites) with a small semblance of democratic principle used to placate the lower-born. Limiting suffrage is certainly elitist, but certainly not something contrary to everyday American principle - in fact, it would probably make the jobs of our candidating leadership easier allowing them to better focus on their tasks at hand. .

As for the fine line between art and entertainment, I suspect that it's not so fine a line as we might imagine. Art is not defined by the observer but by the creator. Therefore it matters naught if one views a thing as art and the other as entertainment; the true and only test is the heart of the creator in the midst of his creation. Art is expression of one's personal creativity and is created solely to satisfy his own creative muse. Entertainment is anything created for the enjoyment, provocation, excitement, empathy, comedy, &c. of others. If conciousness of another's perception guides one's creativity, the thing created ceases to be wholly personal - i.e. ceases to be art - and becomes an entertainment instead (perhaps even an artistic entertainment, but still an entertainment nonetheless). .

As for the main gist of this barbershop dialogue, I think that though some entertainers (e.g., Robbins, Sarandon, Sheen, the Balwins, and Schwartzeneggar) do have a feel for the political arena, they are not more astute than say, you, or Johnny T, or I. That they use their entertainment status to hock their political ideologies (however well-formed or ill-formed - as the case more likely is) makes them look just silly to those of us who are at least equally informed in the political arena. They are presented as political ideologues whose advice ought to be heeded - this is a great silliness as generally the last person to understand the needs of the masses is the über-riche, myopic denizen of Planet Celebrity. .

Just some thoughts. Take 'm or love 'em! I'm The Dane (you may recognize my voice from my weekly radio broadcasts "Storming the Hills in Viking Fury" and "Teatime with Sarah") and I recommend you vote Libertarian

Yes, it's true that Brandon lives a ways away from all his destinations, but lets not fool anyone into thinking that those of us who live closer to work have less of a drive. Click on the sat-photo below (taken from Brandon's old pickup whilst in orbit) to see the truth of our respective paths to work (I begin at casa fiesta and brandon begins in brandonland)

bad chicken + 12 hours = the fast-track sallies

Omigosh. Freaky. Just last night, after watching High Fidelity with Nolan (of the Lanky Trouble), we chatted about old Cusak films and why he never comments on Better Off Dead. This brought up One Crazy Summer (a disaster of a film that I highly don't recommend) and from there? Savage Steve Holland! I was mildly surprised that anyone (beside myself of course) remembered him. This led me to make mention of my favorite SSH film next to Better Off Dead - Secret Admirer with C. Thomas Howell (who hasn't bested his role in Red Dawn), Lori Laughlin (upon whom I bestowed the honor of being my 9th grade celebrity crush), Kelly Preston, and Fred Ward (whose pulsing temple still gives me the willies!). To hear someone else mention it within hours of when I mentioned it (to be fair, she mentioned it first as I probably said it around 3am) when I had never even met someone who was familiar with it - let alone someone who would conciously mention it - is spooky beyond reckoning. Well... I guess Halloween is coming up soon.

I'm too sexy for this blog. Too sexy for this blog. No way I'm disco dancing!

Wow. I feel special. This made my day and almost caused such joy that I would forget my deep and abiding malice toward SEARS. But no. I still loathe SEARS Customer Service and the hellspwned minions they represent. Hmmm... I wonder if mimi meme pee chang will let me join her band of the rejected?

You ask me: How would I rate the SEARS customer service department? Well if it weren't for their sheer and blindling incompetence, I would say they are The Finest Service Depart in the World today. Luckily, I don't have to let such blatant lies escape my lips or flow from these fingers. Before today, I had one purpose: to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Now I have two. My life is given second meaning. SEARS must pay for its insolence (and crappy service dept.). I will do all I can to stop the Amerikan hordes from patronizing such a sloppy establishment. You could even consider this a boycott. But not one of those dopey boycotts over moral issues like SEARS uses child labour (even though there's nothing inherently wrong with children working and they actually get paid more working at SEARS factories than at competing franchises*) or SEARS supports the homosexual lifestlye. No this is a boycott of principle! And what is the rallying cry of this movement? What is the reason, if not moral dispute, that I demand Amerikans cease the purchase of SEARS's goods and "services" (if that's what they call what their Service Dept offers)? Simply this:

SEARS is dumb!

Well, that oughtta at least be a good start in getting the message across.
[okay, yeah, i know as well as you do that SEARS probably doesn't have these kinda factories, but they might. heck they could even be in league with the girl scouts]

SEARS has four hours in which to redeem themselves before I get mad and build a site devoted to their destruction. Unfortunately SEARSsucks.com is taken, but I do have other options available to me. Let's hope that do the right thing and I don't have to act as the personification of divine wind: Kamakazi.

Why have I been too busy to post? A new side project. Just for kicks. Really an outlet for me to fiddle with new designs, but I hope you'll enjoy it as well. Once it's operational. I anticipate that it will be fully operational in three weeks - but then who (besides The Shadow) knows? What is this grand venture to which I refer? Why, none other than The Decablog! And here's your sneak peek!

I did hope to be V.I.N.CENT. but the Iron Giant surpasses all my expectations... he was hip to the bone (or to the metallurgical endoskeleton).

a) Scary - simply for the fact that we now have to worry about a new war on top of this whole Afghanistan thing. I mean if Switzerland is finally on the move, what's next? Do we just sit back and hope that the longtime-neutral nation is pacified with their conquer of Czech lands? What if they're not satisfied with crushing Czechzerland under their boot heel? What then? How much is too much? When will we stop the madness?!?

"Good morning students. Welcome to Pop Philosophy 101! I hope you'll enjoy the semester as we deconstruct everything real and offer you nothing of substance in return." This is a great silliness for so many reasons that I don't even want to begin a critique - lest I become forever lost in a battle against faux-sophistry. The piles of sandwiches they're dishin' out in today's educational eviron... man, I'll tell you!

Here's a sneak preview of the pumpkin I'll be unveiling tonight. I'm actaully pretty disappointed with how it turned out. But at least there wasn't as much blood loss as with Vonnegut.

To shed further light, on 13 July 1999, I recieved a post to my then-guestbook from a now-samurai barber. What follows is the most tangible piece to the origin story of The Dane (sometimes known as Canute):

Yo Seth, THis is from Fabulous Yohan Terranova. Greetings. How are you? Do you know of other spys in O.C.? If so, do they have web sites? WHere are they? I was wondering because I have this little problem that needs professional help. Not that you couldn't take care of it, but I wanted a Dane to take care of it, not some mixed-breed like youself. So let me know. THanks!

No longer wishing to be known as a half-breed espionade, I, for purposes related to the Great Game, renounced all heritage save that Danish. So here I stand today, The Dane.

Dani is a good kid. Like her. Love her. Be her. [see? I told you]

The only one I missed was playwright/playwrite (and I went against my better judgment on that one too... grrr). I guess that means I'm not the world's worst speller, eh?

To my weighty pleasure (and likely my bosses' weighty chagrin), I am the Number One result when searching for original meaning of Halloween. This is really something of a hot topic at my house of employ as the bosses relegate that 31 October holiday into the realm of the strictly pagan — i.e., that realm of which no Christian ought partake. Me? I have something of a different understanding of holidays and what they mean. Last November, I discussed, briefly, a number of holidays and what their true meanings are. Because I got some interesting email from that post (and I think the topic is always relevant and worthwhile pursuing), I have reprinted that discussion in the following.

---

Sparked by a question I received at work ("What's the real meaning of Halloween?") and fanned by Dani's discussion of "the real essence of Christmas," the Bic lighter-sized flame of my ire must be quenched; and so, demands address.

People the world over, and especially Protestant Christians (at least in my experience), seem to have this notion that holidays have such a thing as a “real Meaning.” By real, I can only assume they refer to the original intention of a celebration. In fact, though, a holiday’s origins have little-to-nothing to do with the reasons individual celebrants honor that holiday. By all available evidence, the real meaning of a holiday is simply the meaning it holds to the individual who is celebrating it — thereby giving each holiday a multitude of “real” meanings.

Some examples:

Christmas:

Original Meaning: Began as a pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice, celebrating the rebirth of the sun. Popularly celebrated in the Roman Empire as a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture. Early Christians co-opted the holiday and gave it overtones of Christian nativity though Christ was not likely born in December.

Real Meaning (To Me): A time to enjoy friends and family through shared traditions, gifts, and healthy celebration.

Easter:

Original Meaning: Began as a celebration of pagan fertility goddess Eostre (meaning “Spring” in an ancient tongue). Where Christianity grew in influence, the celebration became the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Real Meaning (To Me): A time to enjoy friends and family through shared traditions, meals, and healthy celebration.

Halloween:

Original Meaning: Began as the Feast of Samhain, by which the druidic peoples would dress in costume and behave in chaotic fashion to scare away wandering spirits. Later co-opted by the Catholic Church and re-dubbed, “All Hallow’s Eve” or “All Saints Day.”

Real Meaning (To Me): A time to enjoy friends and family through shared traditions (involving costumes and carved pumpkins), sweet foods, and healthy celebration.

Thanksgiving:

Original Meaning: Began as an annual feast to commemorate — with thanks given to God — the successful settlement of the American coast.

Real Meaning (To Me): A time to enjoy friends and family through shared traditions, meals, and healthy celebration.

Fourth of July:

Original Meaning: American celebration of the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn’t want to pay their taxes.

Real Meaning (To Me): A time to enjoy friends and family through shared traditions, meals, and healthy celebration.

Valentine’s Day:

Original Meaning: Began as a day to honor the martyred St. Valentine, who met his end on February 14^th (the same day devoted to love lotteries).

Real Meaning (To Me): A time to enjoy my girl through romance, a classy meal, and healthy celebration.

In the end, the only meaning any holiday can have is what it means to you. If you want to make Santa the meaning of Christmas, go ahead. If you prefer Christ, fine. If you just like to give presents, goody. Just don’t complain that people don’t celebrate the day the same as you. That's all. Thanks for the ear. I think I'll go celebrate it.

---

The great thing is that my goal of slowly turning every holiday celebration into equal prats of each other is gradually becoming a reality! It's true! At more than half of this last year's celebrations, I have carved pumpkins (or melons in the off-season) and our Christmas party was almost a costume party as I had planned until strong whining turned it back into a regular party (though I did carve two pumpkins to make up for it). Actually, if I recall, neither Casey nor Ian received word of this alteration in the costume party plans and truly did show up in their masquerading regalia! What fun! I even plan on carving a pumpkin this weekend just for kicks — they had a 3-4-1 deal at the market which could NOT be passed up.

We've added a bio section to the Samurai Barber's site. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

A new doodlepie: "Two's a Crowd"

An old habit of mine — offering to the humble reader humourous conversation between myself and the fellows — rears forth again with a slight dialogue involving myself and Mike of Cavallo's fame. Bon Apetite!

Mikey: excuse me...we prefer 5683 if you don't mind

me: ugh... that was some imposter who wrote that

me: don't worry. I've dispatched the fiend with extreme prejudice

Mikey: I had hoped so. I was confident that you, being the brilliant spy that you are, wouldn't forget the proper codes

me: codes shmodes, I just like killin'

Mikey: ah ah ah...we prefer to say clean

me: i prefer to say disembowel, but i don't get many jobs with that type of lingo... so yeah, I usually stick with 'clean' as well. thanks for the reminder

Mikey: do you have issues?

me: several: some Entertainment Weekly, a couple Premieres, and thee of Movieline

me: Why? Do you need to borrow?

Mikey: Well, and I speak as a brother in Christ when I say this, but maybe you should consider subscribing to a different sort of magazine if these particular ones have you bent on disembowling...just a thought

me: ohhhhh.... I see the problem, you worry needlessly. a simple mistyping has caused all this confusion. when i said "disembowel" I meant to type "disembowl." I really merely want to add to my great collection of cereal bowls

me: I'm really looking for the Kelloggs special edition.. the one with the Trix rabbit the frog from Sugar Smacks and Cap'n Crunch

me: I really need a Post Super Sugar Crisp bear too

Mikey: holy linguistics! Yes, I see the confusion that my inexcusable illiteracy has caused. Please forgive me...

me: actually, I bear the whole of the blame for my igregious error of having butterfingers whilst typing

Mikey: Then yes, I accept your blame and hold you fully and undeniably at fault for the confusion at hand and hereby punish you to three slaps to the face by your very own hand

me: BRING IT!!! *oof* OH YEAH, YOU CALL THAT A SLAP YOU PANSY *aowwff* OH YEAH?? ONE MORE!! GIVE IT TOO ME BABY! GIVE IT!! *ouch* Ooh that last one was a good one

Mikey signed off at 4:09:58 PM.

Malaysian authorities are whining. Apparently, Ben Stiller's new comedy (involving the conspired-yet-foiled assasination of the Malaysian prime minister) has raised the hackles of the thin-skinned.

Even Roger Ebert seemingly rushes to the nation's defense: "If the Malaysians made a comedy about the assassination of the president of the United States because of his support of slavery, it would seem approximately as funny to us as Zoolander would seem to them."

Well, if the Malaysians made a film about the thwarted assasination of the American president that was as consistently funny as was Zoolander, I certainly wouldn't be complaining.