Reading: Albert Camus, The rebel: an essay on man in revolt

Listening: Steve Reich, Three Tales

Thirty-two

As of midnight last night. Happy birthday to me.

I threw the I Ching again, referring to the Wilhelm/Baynes and Huang translations for interpretation. The operation this year was significant for a number of reasons: Partly because my thirty-first year sucked far more than I ever could have imagined, partly because I'm not certain of the direction in which my life is heading and could use guidance from any source, and partly because I've been trying to cultivate a more Taoist attitude toward life anyway, and the idea of "doing by not-doing" has actually brought me some equanimity lately.

For the past two years that I've done this (and subsequently blogged about it), I've said "I'll explain why I do this in a few days." Obviously that hasn't happened yet, and it probably won't happen now. This has become an intensely personal ritual, and I lack the language to really explain why. So there will be no dissection of my motives. Just the words themselves.

The results:

Lower trigram: Kan (Water)
Upper trigram: Gen (Mountain)

Hexagram no. 4: Meng (alternately translated as "Childhood" and "Youthful Folly")

I've been avoiding politics for a little while, and until reading Waveflux this morning I'd kind of blocked out today's impending inaugural shenanigans.

A couple of folks have asked me where the political posts have gone, and whether I'll start them up again. The answer is, "I don't know." Everything in my life is in flux- I'll likely be moving in the next couple of weeks, and, er, haven't really figured out where I'm going to go yet- and until I get on my feet in regard to future plans I can't devote crucial energy to a line of thought that just sickens and saddens me.

For the moment, posts about politics will likely be sporadic. I'm sure that there will be some political writing, but politics will cease to be the focus of this blog for the immediate future. This will no doubt change eventually. I've followed politics since elementary school and I'm too interested in the subject to give up thinking and writing about it entirely. Once I get situated I'm planning on doing much more in the way of activism, and that will help get me in the mindset to scribble about politics as well.

I believe the children are our future

I was doing a "Bad Teen Blog Of The Day" series of posts a while back, wherein I would write about, well, bad teen blogs I randomly found on Blogspot. In retrospect, that was probably gratuitiously mean.

So as penance, I'm gonna spotlight a couple of blogs I enjoy that are written by teenagers:

Martin Borquoi: I met Martin on Monkeyfilter, and had this impression of him as being in college... when I finally read his profile I couldn't believe that he was still in high school. He's a good writer, has fine taste in music and the design of his site is quite rad.

Tom Campbell: Tom occasionally comments here, which is how I found his blog. I wish that I was half as self aware as he when I was his age. An excellent writer.

Right now I am having a conversation via IM with nietzscheswife about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Conclusions:

1. I have rad online friends.

2. Weltanschauung is a fantastic word.

I wrote below about a friend who said I reminded him of Christopher Walken. Jarrett left a comment asking "So are you used to the Chris Walken comparisons? Or do they still surprise you?"

I get them occasionally, and it's always more flattering than being told that I look like "Scott Hamilton" or "Neil Bush."

But this post isn't going to be about me. It's going to be about one of the raddest websites ever: Christmas Letters to Christopher Walken (a project by artist Brandon Bird). Go read.

Tone has one. Theron just got one. Space Kitty has one. Casey has, like, 2 frillion of them. And at the risk of seeming like I'm jumping on some bandwagon, I'm thinking about getting a tattoo as well.

The first concern: quality control. Being somewhat solarphobic, I'm not concerned about fucking up my body art from spending a lot of time outdoors. My main concern is making sure that whatever I do is done right the first time. I've seen some amazing tattoos... and I've also seen tattoos that look like they were done at Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash, using a guitar string and a broken ball-point pen. I'd like to avoid that scenario when putting permanent marks on my body.

The second consideration: What do I get?

One of the more appalling things I've seen on the internets lately is TatAD, a month-old Canadian venture which matches up companies with gullible saps who are actually willing to have a corporate logo permanently inked onto their body. Unfortunate tattoos are nothing new (I occasionally see aging stoners with OZZY inked onto their knuckles, and think "How are you gonna explain that to your grandkids?"), but this proposal seems particularly crass. Not that that's stopping anyone. At the time of this writing, 915 people have registered with the site.

Not I, said the duck. As much as I would like to get this Michelangelo image on my arm, I think I'm going to go with something a little more personal. I've thrown the I Ching on my birthday for the past couple of years, and I think I'll get the hexagrams derived from those operations tattooed somewhere on my body. The beauty of this idea is that I can add to it each year, creating something that is both an ongoing art piece and a commentary on my life.

Then again, I'll probably just get drunk one night and get the COBRA insignia from the G.I. Joe cartoons etched into my epidermis. I'm nothing if not impulsive.

Because It Wasn't Enough That We Had To Go Through The Eighties One Time...

According to Newsweek, the US military is considering the use of Special Forces-advised death squads in Iraq. You might remember that as the strategy that brought joy to the hearts of so many El Salvadorans.

I get email

From Theron:

how is it back in florida? doesnt that state smell like old people and
mickey mouse's balls? i would think that it does. but i have only ever been there once, and i was too young then to know exactly what mouse balls smell like.

i am much wiser now.

love, theron

UPDATE: The comment thread for this post got really crass, really quickly. Read at your own risk. Seriously.

Yet more fun with anagrams

While I was in Cali, Theron mentioned that if I were to do some anagrams of his full name, he wouldn't be disappointed. So, here goes:

theronharleyjacobs anagrams into...

Ssh! Loony Arab reject!
Re: Anarchy hotel jobs.
Jeer hot anarchy slob.
Oh, her best carnal joy.
Learn job. Theory: cash.

All right... I'm packing clothes, getting ready to return my rental car and mentally steeling myself for a horrific drive in the rain to the airport in Long Beach, and an even more horrific red-eye flight back to Florida.

California has been wonderful. Exactly what I needed. Every time I come here I ache with how much I truly miss this place. And now, with no real reason to stay in Florida long-term, there's no reason I can't move back. So, I'm considering it. A move might not happen right away, but I'm already researching jobs and will focus on applying to graduate schools in Los Angeles.

I feel bad that I didn't get to see more of my friends since I've been here. Then again, I'm contemplating at least a temporary move out here for the summer, so I'll meet up with people then. Summer vacation is simultaneously the best and worst thing about being a teacher... the benefits should be obvious, but the non-paycheck-receiving aspect of being laid off a couple of months every year is frightning, and if I live with family for those months I can keep my expenses way down.

Three things:

1. Apparently my driving scares everyone. I would therefore like to issue this open apology to anyone in the world that I might have freaked out or ticked off over the past several years with my Grand Theft Auto-like vehicular shenanigans.

2. Just before New Year's I went to a meetup of Monkeyfilter members in Los Angeles. This was the first time I've ever met online frinds, and I had a fabulous time. I particularly enjoyed meeting the lovely and talented Space Kitty, who over the course of the last week has become a really good friend.

3. I went to see John's band Secret Fun Club last night at the Hot Monkey Love Cafe (they've played a couple of shows since I've been here; John goes to graduate school in Illinois and Sal's other band Some Girls is blowing up big, so their window of opportunity for shows is slim). The Makeout Boys also played. While talking with Jenn, Mario (their singer) came over, gave me a hug and said hello, and said "Man, Chris... every time I see you, you look like you're thinking about killing someone with your mind... like you're going to make their head explode or something. Like Christopher Walken in that one movie."

Happy New Year

OK, "Happy New-ish Year" might be a little more appropriate, since I'm scribbling this a few days into the year. I'm still in California, trying to recover from the clusterfuck that was 2004. The past year, for a whole host of reasons that I am not going to get into here, was the worst year of my life. I feel reasonably good about 2005, though. It will be a year of transitions, and that's not always a bad thing.

Here's my year-end wrap-up:

Best album: They Might Be Giants, The Spine (runners-up: timewellspent, timewellspent; Tortoise, It's All Around You; Brian Wilson, Smile)

Best film: Napoleon Dynamite (runners-up: Fahrenheit 9/11; Spider Man 2; Saved, Shreck 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban)

Worst word or phrase: "Blog." I will continue to use it, though.

Celebrity deaths that bummed me out: Susan Sontag, Rodney Dangerfield, Christopher Reeve, Ray Charles, Marlon Brando, Johnny Ramone

A grave upon which I shall dance: Ronald Reagan. I know I'm horrible for saying that; I'm sorry.

Favorite websites: Monkeyfilter; Waveflux; Creek Running North; Get Your War On; Clusterstruck (Tone Milazzo's new project); Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Blog

Most interesting development in the life of this blog: Being posted at Metafilter during my "hurricane blogging" stint.

Favorite Bushism: "Internets"