Ever Been Really Tired But Can't Fall Asleep Because Your Brain Is Running With Meaningless Thoughts?

The brilliance of Scrubs has been discussed this week in light of the Scrubs marathon on Thursday. And the final song in the episode is sheer brilliance. (You know, I've realized I say "brilliance" or "brilliant" quite often. I should learn some new words.)
Winter - Josh Radin
I should know who I am by now,
I walk the record stand somehow,
thinkin’ of winterthe name is the splinter inside me
while I wait
And I remember the sound
of your November downtown,
And I remember the truth
a warm December with you,
but I don’t have to make this mistake,
and I don’t have to stay this way
if only I would wake
the walk has all been cleared by now
your voice is all I hear somehow
calling out winter
your voice is the splinter inside me
while I wait
And I remember the sound
of your November downtown,
And I remember the truth
a warm December with you,
but I don’t have to make this mistake,
and I don’t have to stay this way
if only I would wake
I could have lost myself
in rough blue waters in your eyes,
and I miss you stil
loh I remember the sound
of your November downtown
And I remember the truth,
a warm December with you
but I don’t have to make this mistake,
and I don’t have to stay this way
if only I would wake.

 

I'm Old...
As I've mentioned, my cousins were here this weekend. The oldest are going to be seniors in college (the one is even thinking law school - I'm doing my best to dissuade her.) ;-) Anyway, my cousins had never seen Field of Dreams. Seriously. I couldn't believe it. That's a classic great movie. My one cousin said she never wanted to watch it beause she assumed it was only about baseball. I was stunned. Only about baseball? It's about magic, and family, and regret. It's a tear jerker. It's a great movie.

"My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass-out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious." I'm not sure why I wrote that. It's in my head - I needed it to get out.

 
Any Advice for my Future Self
Why do I find the concept of (the now defunct) mylastemail.com so frightening, and think that www.futureme.org so cool? I can write to myself in 2036! This leads to some questions: (1)  Will I still be alive? (2) At the same email address? (3) And on a practical matter - does email still works in the same way in the future? But to be honest, I think it would be way better to talk to my past self. That would be useful. "Dear Stephanie, you will have this choice coming up soon.  Try not to fuck up again. In other words - don't do X. Love, me."

 
Major Props to Carlos Delgado
Carlos Delgado is incredibly anti-war. He refuses to stand up for God Bless America, the seventh inning patriotic moment that started in the aftermath of 9.11.  He's been doing this all season. For whatever reason, this story has just come out. Meanwhile, Yankee fans decided to boo him for his position. I guess I didn't realize that the First Amendment and protesting was somehow an insult to Americans like Joe Torre and some fans indicated. Ron Borges said it best. "Delgado is not trying to make a mockery of the game or a spectacle of himself. It took half a season for anyone to even notice what he was doing and ask him why. So just how disruptive is it? More to the point, why aren't we cheering a man who is publicly teaching our sons and daughters that in the United States you are free to stand up for what you believe, even if your government doesn't agree? Now that's something worth fighting for."

 
"Fair and Balanced??"
This past week, MoveOn.Org and Common Cause (the former of which I'm in, the latter of which I'm not) brought a petition with the FTC about Fox News's slogan "Fair and Balanced." The FTC basically said we don't give a fuck about it and indicated they are going to ignore it, for all intents and purposes. I actually signed the petition, but I don't know how I feel about it. From a First Amendment standpoint, Fox should be able to say whatever they want as their slogan, and no one should be able to stop them, even if it's a big fat lie. But Fox wants to trademark "Fair and Balanced." That's ridiculous. Fox, Trump with "You're fired." These aren't original statements, people! They are sayings.

 
I love Amish bread, but watching Amish kids go wild and crazy might be as interesting as watching thebread bake
Amish in the City? Reality TV is getting out of hand. But two of the Amish people are from Ohio - Ruth and Miriam. Oh, we are so proud...

 
Sadly, I'm single
Speaking of proud Ohio things, the Twins festival is coming up. It's near Cleveland, and they always make a big deal of it, and it always makes me sad I'm not a twin. I always wanted to have a twin (other than the festival). Though I guess that it would be somewhat hard to always be thought of as a duo. The grass is always greener...

 
Did A Full Investigation Ever Occur??
What ever happened to Bush "fully investigating" the senior admininstratation official who called 6 journalists to reveal the identity of Joseph Wilson's wife (the CIA agent), allegedly in revenge because he criticized the administration?  I haven't heard anything about it since. Did I miss it, or was it swept under the rug (like Cheney and Halliburton and the no-bid contracts in Iraq? Hey, I took Government Contracts in law school!)

 
Mensa
A brilliant friend sent me the July 2004 issue of Mensa Bullet I N - Famous Mensans Edition. On the inside of the front cover is this problem by Google. It's driving my crazy. It involves math, and I want to know the answer, but I'd need a calculator. And I don't own one except attached to my cell phone. My favorite part are the letters, many of which are full of arrogant self-importance. Then they have the bios on the famous Mensans (go figure).  People like Geena Davis, Marilyn vos Savant (for some unknown and unfair reason, she bothers me), and my personal favorite, Asia Carrera. According to her bio, she is an "adult star" who was at Rutgers University on a full academic scholarship majoring in Business and Japanese. She dropped out because she "made more money and had more fun as an adult star." Some of her 300+ roles have included A Is For Asia (a biography?) And she's won Adult Video News Performer of the Year and Best Sex Scene Award. (Who even knew porn had such awards.) But my favorite part is that she rarely attends functions "because she's an extremely shy person." Wow, we define shy differently. Since she's in Mensa, guess it's my definition that's wrong.


A Music Review
Finally, I have been listening to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra' s Beethoven's Last Night while I've been working. I cannot say enough good things about them. They originated from a rock group (Savatage maybe?) and were created by Paul O'Neill (of Broadway fame).  Yes, it's a rock opera, but it's so much more. I've seen them twice in concert (the Christmas concert, obviously). I think that the music is so enchanting. I could listen to it forever. There are a few songs that literally jump out at you and grab your emotions. Or at least mine. It's a CD, but has a story line to follow (you have to read the cover to funny appreciate it). Quickly put, Beethoven has just finished his Tenth Symphony. He thinks it's his best ever. He is visited by Fate, who tells him he's going to die that night. He's then visited by Mephistopheles  who tells him that he's going with him to hell - unless he agrees to give up all of his music. His soul or his music? And his music is his only legacy...It then goes into his reflection of his life - he thinks he would have been so much happier and life better if he wasn't deaf. We then see how he was in love with Teresa, and she with him, when he realized that he was going deaf, so he pushed her away. He now realizes that she wouldn't have left him because of that. He ultimately decides not to give his music away because it would take too much away from the world. (Yay!) Then Mephistopheles points out a little girl sleeping on his stoop and tells him that he's going to make her life hell and torture her her entire life unless he agrees to give up just his Tenth Symphony (which no one has heard so it's not a loss to the world), and if Beethoven agress, he'll leave the girl alone. Beethoven realizes that he can't let this girl suffer, even though there will be many more like her who will. He agrees to give up the Symphony. Twist (Fate's son, how appropriate) points out that he can't trust Mephistopheles, and says they should write a contract. They do. Beethoven signs despondently. Mephistopheles signs in triumph and grabs the Symphony to burn it. It doesn't burn. Turns out that Twist wrote the name of his brother who died at childbirth. Twist (intentionally) wrote the first, and he was given the same name but was the second. So Mephistophles has been tricked. He disappears in anger. Then Twist reveals that Beethoven is going to die - but he was never going to hell. He dies. As he does, Twist takes the Tenth Symphony and hides it in the wall of the house, never to be discovered. The CD has Jody Ashworth as Beethoven, who I think is really good, but I've also seen him at the Cleveland Playhouse in Plaid Tidings last year which I really liked, so I might be impartial. Someone else told me that they thought he was the weakest part of the CD b/c his voice lacked emotion. I thought he was great and didn't notice this lack of emotion. But speaking of emotion, Adam Pascal (the original Roger in Rent - yet another asshole who I adore, the charater Roger I mean, not Adam Pascal), who I absolutely adore (now I am talking about Adam Pascal), is back in Aida on Broadway until it closes. Due to me deep love for Adam Pascal, and for Aida itself (the ultimate love story - and home to Written in the Stars, one of the best songs ever), if anyone wants to take a roadtrip to NYC (after my trials - so like in September...)

And now it's extremely late, and I'm extremely tired, so I'm off to sleep. I still haven't talked about my stirring debut, but I guess I'll get to that later. Sugar, I have a deposition tomorrow. That was an important thing to recall. I wish I did before I wasted an hour. Oh, well, pleasant dreams everyone.