inherently different

Archive for February, 2006

My Academy Award Picks for 2006! Lot’s of long shots this year:

Best Picture: Crash
Best Director: George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck.
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote
Best Actress: Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents
Best Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplay: Crash – Paul Haggis
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain – Larry McMurtry
Cinematography: Memoirs of a Geisha
Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Original Score: Brokeback Mountain
Original Song: “In the Deep” – Crash
Best Makeup: Cinderella Man
Best Sound: King Kong
Best Visual Effects: King Kong
Best Foreign Language Film: Paradise Now (Palestine)
Best Documentary Feature: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

"The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility." – Brooks Atkinson (1894 – 1984

Some people have a very difficult time making decisions. I am not one of them. Since I could remember I have been able to make hard decisions the instant a problem arises that requires a choice. That is the one aspect of my personality that I take the most comfort from.

I’m of the opinion that most people who have problems making decisions also have problems with responsibilty. They are usually the ones who blame others for their failures, seek paths of least resistance, and generally try to avoid being responsible for others. I dislike being around people like that.

Unfortunately, I have rarely found myself with people capable of making decisions when the chips are down and consequently, I am forced to make the decisions no one else will make. This in turn has lead people to believe that I am, at best, hard hearted, and at worst, heartless.

I don’t make decisions with my heart, so perhaps that isn’t necessarily wrong. When it comes to certain types of decisions, I suppose it is better to be heartless than brainless.

I wonder… I wonder if the chips were down, and decisions needed to be made, would you be the one to step up and make them? If push came to shove, and someone needed to take responsibility, would you do it? If the matter were life or death? Could you step up? I wonder…

I woke up today and forgot where I was. Perhaps this is the early stages of alzheimer’s? It was momentary, but still disorienting to wake up and not know why you are waking up in a strange place. Of course, as soon as I saw my gf, I remembered where I was.

When I was much younger I would wake up absolutely terrified. Of course, that was mostly due to my relationship with my primary care giver.

On another unrelated note, Kate Bush released an album recently and it is possibly the best album she has ever released… well, two albums actually since it is a double cd set. If you liked Kate Bush back in the late 70s and early 80s as I did, you’ll love Aerial.

And yet on another completely unrelated note, this is the kind of post you get when you rush things. Yeah, I did say that I wouldn’t post again until Limey changed his site design, but to be honest, it was a half-assed change on Limey’s part, so you’ll get a half-assed post on my part.

Taking a short break… um, not that you can tell since I’ve posted so infrequently lately… just have some work to do. As always though, available through email! ciao.

It is once again time to reflect on how absolutely perfect Maui is. It is so perfect in fact that mammals come here by the thousands each winter to avoid the cold of their normal environment. I’m not talking about some blue haired geriatrics either… i’m talking about my favorite cetacean, the Megaptera novaeangliae, or as it is more commonly referred as, the Humpback Whale.

The Red Queen and I have gone on a Pacific Whale Foundation hosted tour of the waters off Maui in search of these huge lovable whales each of the last two years and again this year, we were not disappointed.

Let me tell you, these fuckers are huge. Like oprah winfrey huge. We’re talking bahdunkadunk huge.

I have tons of pictures, but this has to be my favorite. It shows a female and her primary escort. The pair danced and sang for us like Sonny & Cher. It was a great outing and perhaps might require a return visit. How was your friday?

This post was originally published on 06-25-2004 at 04:28 AM, but I thought I should air this one out since I recently saw a post about global warming on Asher Hunter’s blog (a great read by the way… can almost keep up with me rant for rant!)

I believe in a few socially irresponsible ideas. It has, on occasion, gotten me into trouble with a few of my more liberal, tree-hugging friends.

1. I believe Greenpeace is a terrorist organization.
2. I believe that recycling is bad for the environment.
3. I believe that most weekend-environmentalists are inherently stupid.
4. I believe the world will end eventually without mankind’s help or hinderance.
5. I believe that 90% of anything that the WWF, Audubon Society, Sierra Club, or Greenpeace states as fact is skewed heavily against corporations in order to scare people into giving them money.

I know, anyone who is reading this and purports to be environmentally conscious will say that I’m unaware of all the horrible things that are being done to the environment on a daily basis. They will spout "facts" about how we are creating greenhouse gases through pollution that are eroding the ozone and causing global warming. They will say that we are causing our forests to disappear through clear-cutting and deforestation. They will say that we are killing off 5 species a day.

The truth is much less apocalyptic and in consequence, it wouldn’t generate the kinds of donations necessary to keep these people who work for these organizations from having to get real jobs. I don’t believe anything either pro-environmentalist or anti-environmentalists spit out because it is all rhetoric. Crap.

Some good links on the many environmental myths that exist:
The Sky Falls on Environmental Myths
Ten Environmental Myths
Pro-Recycling Rhetoric
Exploding The Environmental Myths of 1997
Environmental Myths: A Brief Article
Recycling As Religion: Environmental Myths

Really, all I am asking for before someone starts to (acid) rain on my parade is to disengage your heart and engage your brain. I’m tired of misinformed do-gooders who don’t read or challenge what they are force fed by people with an agenda. Faith without understanding is dangerous. Passion without proof is more so.