merry scooter christmas

From OKCCSC Xmas p...

pics from the okc curiosity scooter club x-mas party are here.

wait...no, nevermind

i just spent the last hour or so reading over all of my past posts, dating back to July 2005. i've never been big on journaling, and this blog has definitely been the longest running diary-type device that i have ever completed. realizing that, i decided that i could not, in good conscious, cease to post to this blog. i may post identical entries to both myspace and here henceforth, but i cannot abandon this. not yet.

blog on!

this is the end. my only friend, the end.

my browser is set to use this blog as its default home page, which means i see the same post every day, and everyday i see that i haven't posted a new entry in a very long time. almost two months now, actually.

even more sad is that i have posted a new entry to my myspace blog in that time period. (okay, so it was just this week, but still). and so, i think i'm going to have to bite the bullet and own up to the fact that active blogging is a thing of the past for me, and since i don't do it as much, i am going to just let this blog die. as much as i like blogger's format and ease of use, i realize that my peak blogging behavior (as well as that of many of my formerly frequent-blogging friends) has waned considerably. this is primarily due to the rise in popularity of myspace, i'm sure. and, as much as i hate to admit it, despite it's ugly, ad-ridden interface, frequent downtime, and infestation by ridiculously annoying bands, adolescents, fake profiles, spammers, phishers, pornographers, and friends, i am a myspace addict, and i must feed my addiction. and to be honest, i like having everything in one place.

so, thanks for the laughs, the cries, and the conversations, blogger. i won't even delete you...i'll let you live on in legacy, until google says you've been inactive for too long and casts you into the darkened void of electromagnetic oblivion.

adios.

mas fotos

Here's the link to all the pics from the Pandora Strikes Back rally that have been posted on scoot.net:

http://scoot.net/gallery/2006/09/pandora/alltinyindex.html

Good stuff.

ukulele

the other day i was referred to the following video:


then today, i found the midnight ukulele disco. contains some pretty interesting covers, and several very funny/odd songs, such as angels gave me roofies, transgender bender, and who's got the crack.

moore's honor

to celebrate my sister, i am including four fantastically gross pictures from an episode several years ago. while sitting in a graduate school class, i received a text message that said "bambi won't sleep well tonight!" upon arriving home to my apartment, i parked next to val's chrysler sebring, and then saw this:she had loaned her car to a friend, and he was involved in a multi-car collision with a deer (he was the 4th vehicle to hit the animal). car was totalled, and val let it sit in front of the girls' dorm for several days while she waited on the word from state farm.

so here's to you, val: to all the black eyes, car accidents, and living with sloppy roommates; to conquistador andy, hallway rivalries, and throwing tonka trucks; to jerky boyfriends, kaybee toys, el chico, and chili's; to old lady perms, bee stings, legos and barbie; to being a moore and not liking chores; to liking to party and eating real hearty. may the best be yet to come. you are...conquistador valerie!

gonzo

despite my best efforts to always back up my computer data, i lost everything last night. i'll spare you the details here, but rest assured that the always prepared andy was out maneuvered by a box of wires and metal. the bastard. it's all gone - pictures, mp3s, banking information, bookmarks, quickbooks data, clinic- and school-related files - everything. gone.

i feel like my dog just died.

so, after hours of re-installations and updates, i think that i am officially back to the beginning. perhaps this event will help my wife see the need for that second hard drive on the RAID controller...

do you realize??

Finally, here are the pics from the Flaming Lips show. A couple of comments to begin: (1) No, I didn't take these personally. More on that later. (2) Though I didn't take them, I apologize on behalf of the person who did for their semi-poor quality. (3) I don't know whose hand is in several of the photos. I think it was the short girls in front of us. Consider this public flogging for their henious act of overt photo terrorism. Now, more pics!

Steven Drozd (below), guitarist, keyboardist, and very generous soul who made it possible for us to have the VIP passes. Gracias, my friend.

(below)View from our position looking back into the crowd. Does not do justice to the number of people who turned out for the show. I do like the woman in the habit, though, especially because she appears to be nine feet tall.

(below) An innumerable amount of confetti and balloons were released during the show, shooting several hundred feet back into the crowd. At times, it felt like it was raining happiness.

(below, both) Wayne hypnotizing/communing with the crowd. Frickin' girls and their hands.
(below) Girls on left side of stage dressed as aliens. Opposite them were people dressed as Santa Claus. All were from the crowd; they just happened to be lucky enough to get pulled onstage. All around, it was an amazing show. The degree to which Wayne was able to involve the crowd - physically, mentally, emotionally - added an extra umph that continues to make Flaming Lips concerts not just a musical performance but a participatory event for all who attend. One of the most powerful moments during the show occured when Wayne said that one of the best things about a Flaming Lips concert (and indicative of their fans) is that no matter how crazy or insane a crowd may be at one of their concerts, you never have to worry about something dangerous or harmful happening.

synæsthesia

recently i have had several discussions with my lpc supervisor, stacey, concerning our experiences as synesthetes, that is, having the condition of synesthesia. a brief explanatory comment:

neuroscientists have verified that synesthesia is a specific condition, which occurs when an individual who receives a stimulus in one sense modality simultaneously experiences a sensation in another, e.g. hearing sound in color. (see the wikipedia link above for specific descriptions of the various types of synestheisa)


our first conversation about synesthesia was rather eye-opening (pun intended). since that time, my investigations into the phenomenon have yielded an increasing amount of self-affirming information, helping me to gain a greater understanding of how i have always related to the world.

while many synesthetes report experiences during childhood where they made comments such as "play the purple music," i fear that my desire to conform to what i believed to be the right & proper way of viewing life instead caused a suffocation of expression and creativitiy. obviously certain aspects of my synesthesia have been quite useful, such as how i view the calendar (as a whole year and as it breaks down into months, weeks, days, etc.). to say to someone "this weekend is a couple of tall towers" would likely result in a reprimand of some sort; however, viewing upcoming days in terms of color and size is quite helpful if you are making plans. perhaps that has contributed to my rejection of a daily organizer for the majority of my life.

i am excited at this [seemingly] new lease on life. as my superego allows my id's color to flow into my ego, my perspective on many aspects of life is changed. emotional content that was once reigned in by monochromatic conformation powerfully bursts forward. i feel as if i am living the life of pleasantville.

partially unrelated, this is a red-letter weekend. tonight (thursday) i will be seeing jason boland's acoustic show at the wormy dog saloon, followed by tomorrow's "margarita friday" celebration and the flaming lips (see below). naturally, reviews and pics to follow.

Toe - Day 1: Well, we won.

My indoor soccer team, The Ticks, won our fourth game of the season last night. With a 9-2 victory over first-place rivals Code Blue, we launched ourselves into a commanding first place position going into the second half of the season.

However, about halfway thru the first half, I attempted to "clear" a ball out of our end of the field, and in doing so drove my foot into the heel of an opposing player. While he did have to take a seat for a little while, it looks like I may have received the worse end of the deal:

I feel I should note that I decided the injury was not life threatening, and being that we only had 2 subs, I played most of the second half, albeit at a slightly slower pace than usual. And yes, I did score a goal with the afflicted foot, but boy did it hurt.

The colors continue to worsen as time passes, so I'll try to post some daily pics over the next few days in case it gets real pretty.

For another nicely-colored past injury, see here. I kicked myself.

100 mpg

New toy is taking up space in Mantown:

wikiality

Fantastic Colbert clip.


And to save you time, a link to African elephants and Idaho.

And since I was on Wikipedia anyway, today (August 1) is the day the following musicans were born:

Jerry Garcia
Chuck D
Joe Elliott
Coolio

a zaireeka reflective

sunday afternoon, about tea time, i had the esteem privelege of joining fellow bloggers joe, amanda, jenn, cody, ryan, jon, and a few others for a listening part for the flaming lips album zaireeka. sadly, wayne coyne was not present, as he had to leave the state for a prior engagement.

i'll get it out of the way and explain that "zaireeka" is a combination of the words "zaire" (yes, the african nation) and "eureka" (not the springs in arkansas). "zaire" represents chaos in life (and, i suppose, in music), and "eureka" represents that serindipitous moment where something occurs to us (again, both in life and music). and truly the album had a certain zaireekan quality to it, a sort of chaotic jumble of sounds that gave life to auditory epiphanies from time to time.

my most striking acknowledgement is that the listening experience was distinctly different for each person in the room. while jon & i manned disc number 2, joe was enveloped by disc 1, ryan and jeff huddled closest to disc 3, and amanda was near disc 4 (though cody handled it's play/pause duties). jenn split the distance between 1 and 2, though she probably had a better angle on 3 and 4 as they were both pointed at her. likewise, cody had good angles on 1, 2, and 4, with the wine rack blocking much of 3.

and i think the varieties of listening experience is the essence of what wayne was seeking to create in recording the album. in the liner notes, wayne notes that not all CD players play at the same speed, which inherantly provides some degree of mismatch between the sounds of the discs (we witnessed this as well). Perhaps this is most appropriately conveyed by quoting said liner notes:

"From what I can tell, CD players will not play in synch with each other. They get close, depending on the quality of the players, but for the most part it can be pretty random. It was this part that excited me, the fact that they played close enough together that you could tell what was going on, but also played unpredictably in front of or behind the other making it confusing. Sometimes one would start behind and catch up to the other, other times the opposite. What I like best about it was how different and out of whack and otherwise simple song could get...and with that in mid I started to think with an "expanded" view of what music and songs could be... I would try to present music that was both clear and confusing, where rhythms fought each other, where time signatures were simple yet unpredictable... music that would be unfamiliar even after a thousand listens. Music that, according to the normal ideas of what music is, doesn't work... instead of listening to a song and passively being either entertained or bored the listener would be engaged and agitated.. soothed but suspect.. in a state of suspended anticipation.. The listener could hear an exaggerated dimension of sound where sometimes reverb comes before a sound occurs, other times it's delayed.. Where a melody that's pleasant and uplifting, upon being shifted slightly, becomes dissonant and interruptive.. Where crescendos miss their cues either late or early or both... making music that purposely destroys its own momentum... and instead of hearing these things and thinking of them as being wrong or annoying... I heard the possibilities of a bizarre new format."

blog version ?.0

I have an insatiable habit of choosing new blog layout themes every few months. Forgive the lack of consistency, but like my underwear, this thing's gotta be changed sometime.

All undergarments aside, in case you didn't see Zidane's headbutt from the World Cup finals, here it is:

thrINK

Went under the needle again yesterday. Props to Boogy for the work.

still funny

This vid still cracks me up every time.

i'll raise you a spamburger

Got another $50 of free money for Party Poker. I'm back in business.

And just because they entertain me, here are some of the phrases from my recent spam that were particularly enticing and/or ridiculous:

FW:NarlyErection

-=LonelyHouseWives=- WouldLikeToGetLaid

Tiny~Tina Do yyouu wwantt to mmeett tonnigght?

I am continually amused at how many ASCII and alpha-numeric ways there are to refer to sex and genitalia. Thank you, spammers, for your humor.

hosed

Final night of the sleep study. In 12 hours, I will be $400 in the black on this deal. Let's hope it goes better than last time. Sounds like Joe had a similarly bad experience with his first night.

Goodnight.

slave to money

Had the first night of my current sleep study this week at the lynn institute this week. If nothing else, I made 200 clams just for lying there with a tube down my throat and wires glued to my head.

On an unrelated note, I also took part in the 2006 NAMI Oklahoma NAMIwalk today. It was crowded, rainy, and slightly cold, but otherwise a good time. I got to see a number of clients from my former employer, Hope.

In seeing these people today I was reminded of why positions at community mental health facilities have such a high turnover rate for employees...and likely for clients as well. More than anything, the lack of change in the individual clients' lives is difficult to face. Today I saw four clients who, due to the severity of their mental illness and/or cognitive deficits that they possess, will probably never be able to reach the level of recovery for which they strive. And after seeing those people day in and day out for two years, with their constant struggle to just stay afloat, a person gets disappointed. To be one of those unfortunate people is even more of a struggle. It's diffifult to find the motivation to work on your recovery when you're surrounded by people who are content with complacency.
That to say, I was inspired in my efforts to be a licensed professional counselor, becuase I, like many others, need to see results for my actions. Fruits of my labor, if you will.

Also this week I found out that I passed my LPC test. Studying is overrated.

one of those days

Not my garage, but I know how this guy feels.

ink number 2

Newest tattoo. Ah, my new addiction.

I suppose having this permanently etched on my body fully qualifies me as a redneck.

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas."
- Davy Crockett

summertime

Shimmers is open again to fulfill your shaved ice dreams.

(Caption: K-Poo showing her excitement over the Grand Re-Opening of Shimmers in OKC)

Neverland

Think you're a Peter Pan fan? You have nothing on this guy.

Thanks to Noel for this link.

holy week

I'm back, baby. The 2006 Lenten season is drawing to a close, though by my nearly obsessive use of MySpace, you'd never know it.

New pics to come, new stories to tell, new links to follow. Gimme two days, maybe less.

Excited?

Hiatus

No new posts for awhile. I will be back...oh yes, I will be back. Check back in April.

you like to put jelly on a lady?

If you haven't watched the trailer for the upcoming Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, you are missing out. It's a pretty funny promo, right up there with the one for Saving Silverman.

Speaking of movie trailers, there is also a new Jack Black film entitled Nacho Libre due out soon. Looks decent, has potential, hope it delivers.

Two other links worthy of mention:
1. Guy gets speeding ticket w/ wrong info on it. Writes very humorous response to gov't, and gets a reply.

2. Why [this guy] will never have a girlfriend. Probably b/c he is a huge math nerd. This has been around awhile, but is still funny, even if you don't like math. Nerd.

Keepers of Lists - The Keepers Welcome You

I'm blogging about this site primarily so that I can add it to my favorites on my home computer. Aside from that, it is funny and perhaps even somewhat useful.

Keepers of Lists - The Keepers Welcome You

times have changed

I realized today [actually, it was about a month ago] that blogging amongst my friends has dramatically declined in frequency from what it was at its peak, which occured in the neighborhood of six months ago. Back then, in the "glory days," we had the hopeless blog, regular heated discussions on TC and Alt's blogs, and near-weekly updates on sjolin and my own. Now, however, there is a new girl in town, and her name is MySpace. She is taking up our time by allowing us to find friends of yesteryear, now scattered across the country, and rekindle the friendships we never had. But tonight, MySpace's server is down for updating, so I'm posting on here.

Incidentally, if you are an aspiring evil overlord, this guy has a pretty decent handbook to follow.

holy hair bands from holland!

I just saw this on my friend's MySpace and had to share. Sweet Jesus!

links of interest

I'm happy to say that I have corrupted several others in my advertisement of the StumbleUpon toolbar. For those of you who aren't Firefox users, you can stumble by proxy via my blog.

And so, here are this week's Links of Interest:

crash different. Hilarious video of a guy complaining about Macs. New fav video.
rock, paper, saddam. If you haven't already seen this flash movie, it's worth the time.
broke mac mountain. While we're making fun of Macs, here's this.
The Always Amusing Euphemism Generator. Marginally funny.
McVideogame. Try to run the McDonalds corp w/o running into the ground. Go ahead, try.
And to top it all off,
Oklahoma Full Auto Shootout. Festival where overweight Okies and thier young children get together in the hills to play with high-powered automatic weapons. On video. With tracer bullets. And explosions.

stumbling with firefox

If you don't already use Mozilla Firefox for your web browswer, you should definitely consider switching. Tabbed browsing is the way to go, plus it's considerably more stable than IE, it's skinnable, and it has cool extensions you can download.

One such extension is the StumpleUpon toolbar, which gives you a button that, once clicked, takes you to a random website (you select various categories of subject matter) that you probably wouldn't otherwise find. In the spirit of other link-driven sites such as Fark.com and CollegeHumor, here are a few of the links I have "stumbled upon" this week:

Indian [Eastern, not American] music generator. Prepare the Quicky Mart.
Finger puppet DJ thingy. Funny and pretty cool.
Badass drumline guy. Dresses like a douchebag, but he wails on the drums.
Stories from a suicide-watch nurse. Insightful, thought-provoking.

More to come.

HAHAHAHAHA. Just found out that the city of Detroit gave Jerome Bettis a key to the city. The last person to receive one was none other than Saddam Hussein back in 1980. Seriously. Sometimes the jokes just write themselves...

in other news...

Whew, sorry about that excessively long post.

Your news in brief:

Teaching is going well. Still barely ahead of the students in reading, but beginning to get into the groove of teaching. Realization for the week: the down side to teaching is that you can't just wake up and decide to skip class. This will be the first semester - ever - that I attended every session of every class.

Started seeing clients. If anyone you know expresses a desire to seek counseling, feel free to give them my name and number. Unless I know them, of course, as that would be unethical. Not that I want to know any of my friends that well anyway.

Finally beat GTA:San Andreas. Just the missions, not all the other little stuff. Damn long game, and I enjoyed it.

Super Bowl party, anyone?

reality is a nice place, but i wouldn't want to live there

It occurred to me the other day that our concept of reality is quite slippery. Each person is largely responsible for recognizing what is "real" to them, and thereby create their own sense of reality, to some extent at least. However, because some portion of a person's "reality" will inevitably vary from another person's "reality," we are left to argue over which reality is correct.

An example of this is the SNU bubble. I asked the students in my Gen Psych II class to complete a story based on a short prompt provided to them. Without fail, all five groups developed the story as if the main character was a student at SNU. While something similar to this university-centric pattern may or may not occur at a larger university (e.g. University of Oklahoma), the point is that the students in my class shape their reality by the environment they experience everyday.

The difficulty I have had this week is when people say something to the effect of "Well, just wait until you get out in the 'real' world," or "Wait 'til 'real life' hits." It seems to me that those statements are used to put down the person who is doing the "waiting," as if to imply that their lack of experience in the "ways of the world" have somehow made them inferior. Commonly used in the context of people who are sheltered from "bad things" in life, they are viewed as being immature and inexperienced. Is their situation in life considerably different than a Bushman from southern Africa who sees a city for the first time? Or any different than an individual who was raised on the streets of Harlem attending the University of Iowa? (I can hear the flame war beginning...)

Sure, maybe the Bushman would have a hard time adapting to life in an industrialized nation, and so he remains with his people in Africa. Sure, maybe the hoodlum will find it difficult to believe that people on campus care about him, and go on to sabotage those relationships. And sure, maybe the sheltered SNU student will live their entire life in the Oklahoma City area and only experience the "real world" through biased mass media presentations. But, should any of these three example people venture out into the new "real world" that they are privy to, they would still only be able to experience it from one vantage point.

My argument here is for tolerance. Tolerance of other's experiences, however myopic they may be. If you have a wider variety of experience than someone else, share it with them! Talk to them, tell them about your experiences and let them make the comparisons. Berating someone for not immediately or innately understanding what your perception of the "real world" does nothing, save for possible solidifying misconceptions they may have about you. Just because someone doesn't "know" doesn't mean you should write them off. Patience. Talk. Live. Love.

hipster trap

Hot Fuss finally arrived today in the mail. My first new CD since...The Ramones Greatest Hits, I guess. I wonder how long until CDs are completely obsolete...

Yukon burning

Yikes! As I was driving home a few minutes ago, I noticed some smoke in the air. Turns out, there is a decent-sized grass fire burning about a mile south of our house. Ooh, wait, "Chopper 4" is in the air on the scene...

Okay, looks like the fire will probably continue to move to the east but remain south of our neighborhood. Good news for us, bad news for the folks that live across I-40 from us who are in the path of the fire. Hopefully the OKFD & YFD will be able to hold it at Czech Hall Road. Also, there is an active oil well not too far from the current location of this fire. That could be real bad.

I think I'll go water the lawn now...

first day and conspiracy

I'm exhausted, so this will be short.

Managed to make it through the first day of classes today without too many problems. Bought new mountain bikes. Found this interesting site convering ten of the wackiest conspiracy theories. After just watching Syriana, they were especially entertaining.

professor andrew moore

I will indeed be teaching three classes this spring at SNU: General Psych I, Gen Psych II, and Psych of Children & Youth. Much preparation is needed.

Herald Sun: See what the booze can do

Holy crap, check out this article. Woman did a Super Size Me type documentary on the effects of alcohol onher body. Interesting...and eye-opening.

Herald Sun: See what the booze can do.

academia

So it appears I may become one of the newest adjunct professors of psychology for the undergraduate program at SNU. More info on this in coming days.

In a somewhat related career note, I did finally get approval to do my LPC licensure supervision at Life Counseling Center, which is a considerable relief. Should receive my first batch of business cards relatively soon, however, if you know anyone who is seeking counseling, please feel free to give them my name and phone number.

hell yeah

HOOK 'EM!

now, time to watch sportscenter to see the highlights over and over and over...

i want my free ipod, dammit

again, i thought i'd post my referral link so that i can get a free ipod. i've had one person sucessfully complete an offer, and so i just need 4 more. if you spend $5 on completing an offer for this noble and worthy cause, let me know, and as soon as it posts i will reimburse you, if you so desire. in advance, thank you.

here's the link: http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=15144288.

should you have any doubts on the validity of this offer, please read this.