Centerfield

I heard the song "Centerfield" by John Fogerty the other day. I hadn't heard it for a long time.

I've never been especially crazy about it. But it's OK.

Maybe the bad thing about it is that I have lots of bad memories of playing baseball as a kid in Little League. They put us, the most incompetent kids, in the outfield for some reason. Now it seems to me like that's a very important spot in the field. I wasn't very good at baseball because I didn't apply myself at the time.

I think I could do a lot better at it now, if I had the chance to go back and do it.

One way to do it better would be to get rid of all self-consciousness, as best as you can. And concentrate or allow your instincts to hone in on the ball and the relationship you have with it and the field. Like a Zen state.

Man vs. Ball, or Man vs. Himself with a ball along. That'd be the way to do it. Just forget the other guys and be one with the ball, or against it in some sort of ultimate personal way.

Just Me And A Laotian Guy

I was in an awkward social situation yesterday. There were four people at the front of our house, me, my wife, a Laotian friend (woman) who speaks very good English, and her aged father who doesn't know any English.

We're talking along, with dad standing their very silent and stoic looking.

Pretty soon something happened to separate all of us, except for me and the dad. The woman went running to see if she could find a recipe for egg rolls. And simultaneously my wife went into the house to get something, I can't remember what.

So there I am, alone with a guy who can't speak, and I can't speak to him. We're just there. At first I tried to make a gesture, like calling attention to his coat, then acting like I'm hot. As if to say, "Aren't you hot in this thing?" He did the exact same thing, as if to say, "I have no idea what you're trying to say."

From that point on, and we had four or five minutes standing there, we didn't say anything. I just stared straight ahead and I suppose he was too. It felt like it would be super rude to just leave, so I stood my ground, and finally the women came back.

I was thinking, "What's the chances of this? One in a million, that I'm out here alone on the front step with an elderly Laotian man."

Paying Your Doctor Bill With Chickens

I love the new proposal by Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden, challenging Harry Reid for his Nevada Senate seat. But I have some issues with it.

She thinks we ought to pay for stuff by bartering. Her proposal for this is that all of us would raise as many chickens as we can and pay each other with them.

So say you went to the doctor to have a simple procedure like a colonoscopy, which might otherwise be $1,000 or more, you could get by with paying for it in chickens. Maybe 10 chickens, let's say, which would only be around $40 if they were dressed. That's a much better price, obviously.

This is true. I had one of those things that you put eggs in to hatch them, and got rid of it literally three weeks ago, right before this proposal came out. Isn't that something? I could've saved it, got "cracking" on some eggs, and been ready for the new Republican regime.

I have a couple of issues with it, the logic of it, though. If we're all raising chickens, wouldn't the doctors be raising chickens too, to pay for things they need? At some point, why would I want people paying me in chickens if I myself already had a bunch raised? I know, they're money, but if I'm making my own, you see, maybe I'd want something else. Plus it seems like counterfeiting to be making your own money.

When I go to the farm store to buy chicken feed, what do I pay for it with? More chickens? If the chicken feed guys get too many chickens, they're busy using up all the feed for their own birds, so what will they have left over to sell us?

It's a brilliant plan in many ways, since chicken is a tremendous meat, and if you get them before they die they also lay eggs.

Gooberdust

Hail, hail, Gooberdust,
What the heck do we care?
What the heck do we care?

Heil, heil, Gooberdust!

Young And Innocent

I just finished the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "Young and Innocent."

This film didn't appeal to me entirely. It was definitely a film about an innocent man accused of something terrible, strangling a woman with a belt on the seashore.

The big evidence against him was that he was running from the scene and the fact that he owned a raincoat, which would've had a belt if he knew where it was.

Personally I think this would be a job for forensics to sort out. Because couldn't there be some other evidence to be collected at the scene? It seemed ridiculous to me that the automatically assumed this guy was guilty and case closed. Hmm.

Anyway, that was the movie. The constable's daughter is gradually won over by the guy, eventually believing him to be innocent. He escapes the police and tries his best to prove he didn't do it. It goes on from there, with a hobo kind of guy who knows about the raincoat, etc. I couldn't follow the whole rationale about the raincoat. There were things about it that didn't make sense to me.

We end up with a happy ending, thanks to a guy with a twitchy face inexplicably confessing on the dance floor. So that was that.

It wasn't my favorite Hitchcock movie by a hundred miles. There were lots of good things about it, though. The guy with the twitchy face was fun to watch. Also the other children at the dinner table and the kids at the birthday party were fun to watch.

Finished Hitchcock's "The Ring"

I finished the silent film by Alfred Hitchcock, "The Ring."

I really enjoyed it. There's lots of good stuff to it, photographic effects, expression, humor, drama.

The whole fight scene was really great. Very intense and nice.

But like I said the other day the woman the main character was fighting for wasn't any good. So when it came time for the "happy ending" and she ended up with her husband, it felt very empty. As in "Why would he want this tramp for a wife?" Even though I believe in forgiveness and all that. But there wasn't really any explanation as to why she turned from the seducer back to her husband. She just did.

I was looking at a site that's a Hitchcock wiki, and they have an article from back when the film was made, in the 1920s. I wanted to feature part of it that made this same kind of point about the woman:

The champion lays siege to his sparring-partner's wife, who seems to be in danger of yielding to him for no more charming reason than that he is a champion. One-Round Jack thereupon realizes that what is expected of him is that he shall himself rise to championship rank and fight for his woman. Why he thought it worth while, Heaven knows ; though she is our heroine, the lady seems to be an avaricious and silly minx from whose erratic affections a man might well have been glad to be free. However, a "fight for a woman" was considered necessary, and One-Round Jack obligingly went into training for a grand climax at the Albert Hall. (c) The Times (22/Nov/1927)

That's really good, and so true. This is definitely a flawed movie in that regard. Her "erratic affections a man might well have been glad to be free." LOL. And "Why he thought it worth while, Heaven knows." True!

Still, it's a fine film for lots of other reasons. I like all the other fighters, including prominently a black guy. It's nice to see him treated well and with a lot of camaraderie. There is one "N-word" reference to him in one of the titles, but I get the impression, sort of like Mark Twain or Joseph Conrad, that they didn't really mean anything terrible by the usage. 

The Vatican Forgives The Beatles

That's true. John Lennon said something about Jesus 44 or 45 years ago and now the Vatican has forgiven the Beatles.

It's true, but what a joke! What position is the Vatican in to be forgiving anyone? The stuff they're guilty of makes about everyone else's so-called sins small potatoes.

The Pope ought to be on his old crotchety knees making a few confessions himself. Then maybe he'd be in a position (I doubt it though) to judge the rest of us.

John Lennon was a better person than the Pope any day of the week. I hope he's looking down from the cosmos and saying, "Keep yer forgiveness, y' dirty old git!"

Two Months Ago

It looks like it was two months ago today, Feb. 14, that my life changed forever.

I heard about another job in another city that someone was essentially offering me. At first I basically turned it down, but I had other opportunities along the way to reconsider it, and finally accept it.

So it's been a heck of a two month period, with a lot of it being for me very uncomfortable. I was sore in the stomach for quite a bit and thought I might get an ulcer from worry. But somehow I kept going.

Then I eventually reached the point of no return with my current position, meaning I'm aimed in one direction and one direction only. Toward this other position and making a success of it. It'll be a huge change in my life in so many ways.

Onward and upward. In a way it seems like it's been longer. But it is exactly two months. A month from today I will be in it in earnest and looking for a bright future. I hope it turns out that way!

Hitchcock's "The Ring"

I've been watching Alfred Hitchcock's "The Ring" film the last couple days while doing my morning and evening exercises.

It's a very amusing film in lots of ways, with lots of great comedic bits. I love the guy, Gordon Harker, who I also remember from Hitch's film "The Farmer's Wife." He does a lot of the same kind of facial humor in "Ring" as he did in "Farmer's Wife." He was a definite treasure. And in "The Ring" he also picks his nose and his ears. He has a very funny face.

I like the setting for the film, which for quite a bit of it is a carnival, with weird carnys, like the tall man, the midget, etc. They're all gathered for the wedding of the ticket girl and the guy who takes on all comers in the boxing ring.

Speaking of the girl, she's a ditz. She marries the one guy, then she's oblivious to his feelings while she's busy cozying up with another guy, sitting on his lap, billing and cooing, the whole works. Anyone that stupid I certainly wouldn't want for a wife. If she didn't want to marry the first guy, she shouldn't have.

This is a silent film. The DVD I have has a nice musical soundtrack. It's been a real fun film to watch so far.

The Screeching Of Frogs And Other Creatures

Two days in a row I've taken my dog down to a park that has a swampy area behind it.

I'm not too sure why the city allows this swampy area to be there. I'm no ecologist but I've heard that swampy areas are a great breeding ground for mosquitoes. Since we generally know that's true, I can predict where the largest concentration of baby mosquitoes looking for their bottles will be.

At this point, though, it's not mosquito time. It's still nice out, cool and spring-like.

So we were down there a few times recently, including yesterday and today. Both days the frogs are really going at it. I guess it'd be frogs, making all those froggy noises. It's actually noisy in that area, but it's a good noise.

I was listening to it, trying to think of it in larger terms, like the underlying sound of all things. It's a great thing to hear. Now that I'm home, I wish I would've listened to it even closer.

I Never Would've Suspected Him

There's nothing about this guy that screams "I'm trouble," absolutely nothing.

I see no obvious reason to suspect that he might be behind any nefarious "anti guv'mint" dealings. I repeat, no obvious reason whatsoever.

The fact that he was charged with planting 36 pipe bombs in an anti government spree comes as a complete surprise to me. Let me stress this fact, it's a complete surprise to me.

Everything about him says to me, "Mr. Nice Guy."

Palin Believes In A Nuclear Response To A Cyber Attack

I saw it on TV tonight, one of those pandering to the audience, idiot moments that Sarah Palin is famous for, lamenting the latest so-called Obama outrage.

This outrage was that President Obama excluded a nuclear response in the event of a cyber attack, which Palin complained about. Someone hacks our computer, Palin wants a nuclear war?

This is disgraceful. This is someone the Republicans would make a good president? She gets up in the morning. Oops, did my finger hit the button?

What's It Like To Throw Away Books?

Since I'm moving, I'm up against the wall on the quantity of stuff I have. And something had to give. Meaning I needed to pare down drastically and quickly.

Over several days I was cleaning my basement and some of the other rooms of stuff. Most of my excess stuff, stuff that's not kept in more accessible rooms, was in the basement. My basement was like a thicket or swamp of stuff. Crazy thick.

In all that time I managed to sort out what became a little over ¾ a ton, over 1500 pounds of books, plus such an assortment of other things that it was literally over 3000 pounds besides the books. The over 3000 pounds worth of stuff I took to a recycling center nearby.

Today it was time to get rid of the books. I was trying to sell them in the want ads but no one called. I took a couple carloads to a thrift store, a carload and three more boxes to a book sale coming up, then they were overwhelmed, so instead of messing around with the last remaining thrift store, I took them to the recycling center. The grand total poundage on the books that ended up at the center was 1060 pounds. I'm thinking the three carloads was at least 500 pounds, probably more like a thousand. Meaning it'd be literally a ton of books I got rid of today!

That's tough. I'm the kind of guy, had I seen the ad in the paper, I would've been right there to buy them ... at least that'd be the temptation. Now, though, I'm starting to live in a different way, where I think it'd be best for me to pare down and keep paring until I have barely anything. If at all possible.

So what's it like to throw books away? And to have them be shoved up among the other garbage, very unceremoniously, and to eventually go up the chute and be spat off into the recycled paper bin? It feels terrible. But I was running out of options, and I needed something now.

I'm Sluggish And Loving It

I don't love by nature feeling sluggish. I have to remind myself about my philosophy of enjoying the various conditions of consciousness.

I need constant reminders, because I like feeling good and hate feeling badly. But if I get the reminder in there in time -- and I usually don't, it's an afterthought -- I start feeling good about it again. Vicious circle.

Looking on the bright side, I will sleep really well tonight, after I get all my chores done.

I've been preparing for my move. Having too many possessions has become a curse to me on that account. I spent much of the day today, again, working on this project. It's tiring ... but wonderful (!) (?)

Hitchcock's "Blackmail"

The most recent film I watched is Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail," from 1929. I loved it.

There's an interesting article on it at Wikipedia. The main thing from Wiki that I want to mention is how Anny Ondra, starring in the film, comes across rather awkwardly because someone is just off camera recording her lines. They felt Anny's Czech accent wouldn't be right for the film, and dubbing wasn't possible at the time, so she is (presumably) saying her lines without being heard and this other woman is off camera saying the lines along with Anny's lips! That'd make anyone seem awkward.

It is distracting once you know about it. And it seems like, to help cue the person off camera, Joan Barry, she gives plenty of facial warning that she's about to speak. The others are speaking fairly much as normal, only Anny has this weird thing to do, as far as I know.

This was the first talkie in Britain. The talking isn't constant. There are plenty of gaps, where you'd think the people would be talking, so there's a lot of things about the film that don't seem natural.

Other than that, there's a lot of great things about this film, such as the recurring use of a painting pointing an accusatory finger, since Anny's character has killed a guy. The fact that he was killed with a knife keeps coming up, weighing heavily on her psyche. The guy doing the petty blackmailing is very menacing.

I love all the creative things that Hitchcock did with this. There's a whole scene with the guy who's about to be killed playing a song on the piano while Anny is undressing behind him. That was lovely to see. It seemed like a really long scene to do in one take, with him apparently singing live, and her undressing being done so that she would step into the scene at just the right time. Before that they're painting a picture, her and him together, and it looks pretty good. There's some sexy bits in the film. But it's nasty when he attacks her and appears to be about to rape her. That's when she kills him.

There's plenty of things to love about this film. I recommend it highly. I was engrossed in it, even with the weird timing and very deliberate pace in certain parts.