British TV

I'm not much for TV. There are a few shows I watch, 24, Stargate, the Simpsons, Nova. Hey, screw you, Nova is damn cool. Point being, I was trying to download a decent hex editor the other day and I ended up pulling a torrent for a British show from a few year ago called Hex.

Sort of a cross between a lesbian version of that witch show with the chick from Who's the Boss and Pretty much any show on the WB. And no, I didn't just watch it for the lesbian ghost thing. Though that did make for some interesting plots. And yes, while the general plot was kind of cheesy, the way in which it dealt with some of the issues was far beyond what you can find on American TV. There was one episode at the end of the first episodes that dealt with abortion. Granted, demonic abortion (seriously, trying to explain this shit, I would get lost and I've actually watched the shows) but it approached topics in a way you don't find on American TV. It was actually fairly mature about the way it handled things. Not that I've been able to actually watch more than five minutes of any given episode of the OC but it was more direct, more realistic (for a show about a witch and a lesbian ghost) and more mature in the way it approached issues, than anything you would find on Fox.

Okay, so run on sentences aside because I'm bloody tired, I'm disappointed by the fact that American TV would have deemed these topics as ill fit for youth and would have approached them in a much more melodramatic way. I like to believe that if you give reasonable people a chance, even if it's about something you may consider taboo, they can make a good decision. Now of course I'm usually wrong and people are fucking morons but I still like to believe that honesty and directness and bullshitlessness (fuck you, that's a real word) can lead to moral decisions by people.

So, not that I'm saying you should watch the show, 'cause it could have used far more girl on girl action, but it was a good distraction for a few evenings and it's nice to know that writers somewhere haven't been castrated by far, bullshit and overprotectiveness. Sky-1 actually makes decent programming. Well and of course they did have Farscape before the US did so, go figure.

Dream Interpretation

I've read a few books on dream interpretation. By far nothing major and I still don't understand much of it. I know just enough o bullshit it some and sound like I know what the hell I'm talking about.

Anyway, I had an interesting dream the other night. I flew from Honolulu to LAX to attend a lecture at USC. Can't remember which lecture. Probably one of Cory Doctorow's. Doesn't really matter. It was odd though. I remember flying up to LA with a good friend of mine, and we got there about ten minutes late, after the lecture had just started. I recall seeing a bunch of other people I know; some old friends from high school that I haven't seen in years, some friends friends from college, some former students of mine. All very odd. I'm not really sure what to make of it. Sometimes I miss LA. As much of a shithole as it was, still is, whatever, I miss it sometimes. Or maybe I just get senselessly nostalgic. Ah fuck it, maybe I'm just tired.

Happy Birthday

So I was reminded last night when I went to buy a bottle of port that today was my birthday. So Happy Birthday to me I guess :P

Dinner with Ryen, progress???

I hadn't seen Ryen in about a month. Either schedules didn't mesh or I couldn't get a hold of Rennell to setup a time.

By the way, as an aside here, I noticed a lot of blogs shortening names to protect the innocent, so Ryen would become R. Unfortunately I have too many fucking R's in my family for that not to get confusing. I guess I could put R for Ryen and B for Bitch, but that just seems excessive.

Anyway, I finally had dinner tonight with Ryen. Went to some Italian place in Kunia so we could get some last minute stuff for school. He starts tomorrow so we picked up some clothes and shoes and last minute supplies and he got a new toy. We ran a little late so he fell asleep in the car back to his grandparents. Okay, so back on track. Dinner was good. I missed seeing him on a regular basis, even if I did bail from work about twenty minutes early today. Fuck it. I put in sixty + hours last week, I'm taking twenty minutes, kiss my ass.

After dinner, well actually on the car ride out to Ewa to her grandmother's house (insert bad Little Red Riding Hood reference here) and on the way back to drop me off at home Renell and I had one of the few good conversations I can recall us having in quite some time.

I'm still confused, but there's far less of a will to direct any negative energy at her. Don't get me wrong, I'm Japanese, we know how to hold a fucking grudge like nobody's business and we're crazy fuckers about that retribution shit too. Who else could come up with Ninjas? Honestly now. And I do still harbor a good deal of resentment, but I have less of a will, less of a desire to direct any negative energy at her. I had no problem being a total prick because, well, shit still hurt. But I guess I'm a pussy, or maybe just tired, or maybe I just don't give half a fuck anymore. Wait, that doesn't work, a fuck is a good thing. I don't give half a shit? Maybe that's better? How about half a used condom? That seems almost appropriate. Yeah, I'm still bitter. eh, fuck it.

But was there progress made? I don't know. I see in her now the same shortfalls, the same issues, the same frustrations. It's almost sad and certainly disconcerting to see her making similar misalignments. I have no real stake in her life anymore, save Ryen, I maybe that allows me to see it more objectively. Maybe it's just the passage of time. No, scratch that, I don't believe that bullshit for a minute. I'm probably just tired. And a wuss.

Moved Offices

So we just moved offices at work. I don't really know what to say outside of that. I think at this point, I'm just too tired to think. Had some interesting dreams lately. Weird stuff. Not sure why, but the name Dan kept popping up. If it's another reference to the past, this is even more disturbing. Perhaps I just need more whiskey induced sleep?

Creativity and satisfaction

It's nice to be moving back into the normal mindset. The past few weeks have been pretty busy. I've finally gotten back into jotting down random thoughts, being a bit more relaxed. Work's a little more satisfying knowing things are starting to fly. All in all, not a bad thing going right now. Now the question is how long it'll last.

Why?

I got asked recently why I go out of my way to do shit at work. Stuff that generally falls outside of my area of responsibility. I have a post about it here: http://randomactsofjackassery.blogspot.com/2006/08/why.html .

The real answer is getting messages like this (identifying information removed to protect the innocent my ass from getting fired and/or sued.
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Dear Mr. Palmeira,

Thank you so very much for all the help and work you gave to us.
We really appreciate you coming over to our office and fixed DSL.
Thanks to your great job, now our computers are working just fine.

To be frank with you, we had a very hard time with Pacific LightNet and its customer service for the last several months.
It's been almost 4 months since we had called your company for help to repair the DSL problem, but no effort or progress had been seen.
It forced us to think about switching a phone company, but YOU have changed our mind !!
YOU solved the problem in just an hour, which took other people forever.
It was good to know that there still was a kind and supportive staff like YOU.

Please keep up the good work.
And thank you again for all your support.

Mahalo,

Branch Manager