Pop goes the King

The death of Michael Jackson makes me sad for the following reasons:

- it has completely over-shadowed Farrah and she had anal cancer ... dude ... all that only to get busted out as top story
- who can fill the tabloids like he could? the virtual wealth, the baby dropping, Prince Michael, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II (aka "Blanket"). Come on, there's no one to take his place, not even Jon and Kate or any of the Housewives rolled together
- his death is referred to on every news story/news cast as "The King of Pop has died today," which means that, yes, when Madonna goes one day we will have to hear "The Material Girl was 87 when she..."
- who gets the Jeff Koons sculpture of Bubbles? And what about 50% of the Beatles songs?
- the movie channels will be playing "The Wiz" all weekend now and I'll never get "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" out of my head
- who had him picked in the third star pool? nobody.
- will this create an even bigger spectacle of public mourning than the death of Princess Di?

I just feel as though there's now this void in the world, sucked clean of the phrase "Wacko Jacko".

It is a sad day.

correction

No mention of Jon and Kate in the office, but I was ripped for not caring that Ed McMahon died. I thought he'd died last year. What do I know?

Down time in the down turn

You'd think I'd have a lot more free time to my day now that school is over.

And you'd be right. I spend a lot of it sleeping, which leads to a general lack of completion for everything else -- although that's not entirely true, since I did manage to finish a book on Sunday, but still, other stuff just can't seem to move up to the top of my list, like buy food or laundry.

I do manage to Wii Fit every day and can't seem to lose a bit of weight, although my Fit age went down to 21 last night. I even did the 10 minute boxing and got a "Good job" out of the boxing Wii (who usually barks at me for not breaking a sweat or tells me that he knows I can do better -- how does he know? He's a Wii). Whatever. Maybe this is my optimal weight or maybe I'm gaining all this incredible muscle and it's making me heavier. Yeah .... that's it.

Jon and Kate are breaking up. I'm sure at work today they'll be berating me for not feeling sorry enough for them. I'm sorry they're getting divorced, although, from what I hear, they weren't exactly happy anyway, but I can't really work up the tears. There are so many other people out there with 8 kids who don't live in big houses and go on paid vacations to the Carribbean. Those people deserve more sympathy than these meatheads. If one of them had a job, maybe I'd think of them as people, but it's like The Bachelor/'ette. I find it really hard to get excited about pretty well-adjusted people trying to find dates. "Oh boo hoo, she had to dump the tan one for the fireman, what a difficult decision. Her life must be hell." That kind of thing.

rrrrar ... I don't even watch that Jon and Kate show. I had no intention of getting involved in their drama. Damn them for being on the cover of US every week. Why? Why?

Blog As News = Rental

This citizen journalism thing is for dopes. I'm going to keep writing about myself and my great life and my great self in my great life. Or maybe comment on exciting international (yet strangely personal) news like this:

F1 faces split as eight teams break away
Eurosport Fri, 19 Jun 11:47:00 2009

Formula One plunged into its biggest crisis in 60 years with eight of the 10 teams announcing plans to set up their own championship.

So long Bernie Ecclestone, you destructive idiot muppet bastard. For years he has run this sport into the ground along with Max Mosley (you remember him, the guy caught on video in the Nazi party with the hookers). I hope this is solid and the teams don't turn back because with them go the sponsors, the drivers and the best cars, and coming back are the great circuits like Indianapolis and Silverstone (which was getting cut after this year) and maybe even a return to South Africa or Mexico.

Man, I wish the US team had jumped in, even if they haven't responded to my resume.

I feel so very different

Whoo! University of Oregon RULES! The dean actually ended the ceremony with "Go Ducks."

Dude.

Yeah, that's my cap. You can't really tell, but it has a glitter sealant keeping the newspaper down. I wanted to be seen n' stuff. There are more pictures in the Flickr. Most of the time I had my eyes closed or my mouth open or both. I tried to pick out pictures that had a little less of that. Sorry, I have a weird face for photos.

So, it's over now and the family and friends have returned to their normal lives -- the brother has called and said he felt "bad" about not being here (I said, "Good.") and he didn't say "badly," so I think I can forgive him. We still have beer and a lot of Diet Coke in the backyard. I just can't bring myself to empty the ice chests. It's silly but I feel as though I'm acknowledging summer by keeping drinks on the porch.

I've been working today and go into the office for reals tomorrow. But school is over and I can read now and maybe watch a movie all the way through in one sitting, I don't know. Do I wish I was going to work for a newspaper? Kind of. We watched Superman last night (geez, I forgot how corny it was and how Valerie Perrine gave it a PG rating) and I was feeling wistful whenever they were in the Daily Planet newsroom. But the pay is lousy and I need to maintain my heady lifestyle of backyard badminton and periodic penny gambling.

Perhaps I will make this a newsy blog and talk about things like the election in Iran and the economy and why it irritates me that Jon and Kate get paid to have cameras follow them around and then complain that cameras follow them around. Yeah ... that's it ... I'll be a CITIZEN JOURNALIST. (reporter - paycheck = blog)

Covah yo ears, dahlin

Stephen Fry in Big Ben (from his Twitter post).

"BigBenBoo" by stephenfry on audioboo.fm

Shared via AddThis

Brilliant

yay. i graduate saturday

Register-Guard lays off 21 employees
The company reduces its work force by 7 percent to cope with ad revenue undercut by the recession
By Ilene Aleshire
The Register-Guard


-- by the way, can you imagine working there and having to write this story?

week

Rescuing the neighbor's dog ... taking finals ... working all day ... cleaning the house all night

and my Wii fit age keeps hitting the 40's! "School is making you old," the cousin/roommate told me. Sheeyah it is. One more day and it's done. Then I'll be in the 20's like he is. You'll see! You'll all see!

Tomorrow I turn in the photo portfolio and take the art final -- the samurai final was a tricky little sucker. Who drew the map in The Seven Samurai? and stuff like that. That one I knew (Kambei) and the one about Kikuchiyo, but Lady Yae in Heaven and Earth? Who's going to remember the girlfriend who dies off-screen as some side-plot? And there were two questions about her. I think I passed okay, but I'm pretty sure I missed a few.

Parents here on Thursday. Of course it's going to rain. Why have sun? Why? Because it was predicted, that's why. Now I'll never hear the end of "It rains all the time there" because for them it does. nuts.

Oh yeah, this just in: the wee brother, apparently still hasn't decided.

That is all.

AIR RAID!

I'm sitting outside at the EMU Amphitheatre enjoying the fruits of being a senior. It's Senior Send Off and I get such great freebies as a rootbeer float in a collector pint glass and a plastic cup of popcorn. I'm surrounded by my fellow seniors, all of us better than those underclassmen who pass us and look in with envy. I'm one with others ---- so why do I still feel like a complete space alien? People still look at me like they're not sure if I'm a student or a parent. I mean, feck, I'm in line, aren't I? I'M ONE OF YOU.

If you give us finals, do we not cry?
If you make us drink a beer bong, do we not belch?

So wipe that face off your heads, bitches, and HIT THE DIRT!

Head. Mush. Editing done. Two multimedia projects done. One due next week. Samurai final next Monday ("Just a reminder: if you fail this you fail the entire course") then Art final as the final final Wednesday. Then Tailhook Convection will be rocking the Rolling Stone challenge in Shanghai. whoo!

Oh yeah, then we're getting a Wii.

"UK singing star Susan Boyle suffering exhaustion"

Honey, I know how she feels.

This multimedia project is a b... I now only have 3 tracks of sound to mix because 5 wouldn't meld into a 2 1/5 minute show, but then I've got to line the mixed sound up with the slideshow so that she's not describing A while we see picture B. Man oh man. I was sitting in front of a Mac for 3 hours yesterday trying to make it work -- that's after spending 5 hours sitting at the office getting told by a-holes on the chat line that I don't really work for the company I work for, I actually work for the company that they were looking for and I just didn't know because I must be new. Man oh man, I can't wait to have weekends off.

But things have improved on the home beautification project (aka: putting crap away). Thanks to the cousin/roommate, we now have a lovely TV stand and soon our records will be in neat shelving units instead of stacked against the walls of the red room. AND we bought a badminton set. We are thisclose to being ready to receive the family -- well, family with the possible exception of the little brother who has to decide whether or not he's coming up for my graduation. I can't get over my pissed-off-ness that he will have to "let me knoe" whether or not he's coming. How painful is that? I went to both of his weddings, no questions asked. At the first one I had to sleep in someone else's bed that had 4 half-filled pints of water hidden at various locations around the sheets. The shower had more hair than I did. I was stoned at his second wedding -- but, still, I was there and in it and performed the role of taxi driver for guests (yeah, it's a mystery why, but people seemed to think I was okay to drive them back and forth to the motel).

But I digress from the rant ... although now I'm not as pissed off because I was remembering what it was like to be stoned. Those were the days.

Maybe he'll change his mind (or make it up or do whatever he needs to do) and come, but the hurt's already happened and I'll probably end up crying either way, because that's what I do.

I really need some sleep. Kel, you're right. I don't know how I do it either. I'm going to wake up next week in one of those Matrix pods and realize it's all been some computer programmed reality, I know it.