Daily Aggravations and Regrets
  and more actual aggravations

May 7, 1999.  Friday.
 

    There are quite a few things bothering me today. But I don't really feel like writing them.  I'm a little groggy and a little grumpy.  Plus, it's raining outside.  I guess I'll just write about yesterday then.

    I left work around 3:30 and went over to Matt's place in NW DC.  I talked to him a bit outside Georgetown's Law Library.  Then I hung out in his room for awhile while I waited for 6:30 to roll around so I could pick up the key to Rick's apartment.  I met Matt around 6 and then we decided to go over to Union Station to get dinner.  I guess there was some highschool tour group or something, because the place was filled with teenagers.  After walking around for a bit and seeing all the scantily clad teenage girls, Matt couldn't help but exclaim "This is like a pedophiliacs dream!"  When I said that I was going to quote him today on that, he protested "It is! It's ridiculous... Look at them!"  The more he protested that it indeed was a pedophialic's dream, the funnier it got. He just kept digging himself into this dirty-old man hole.  however, it was rather odd to see so many young girls in short shorts or tight vinyl pants.  And some girl in line in front of us at the Cajun Grill was kinda sticking her tongue in her boyfriend's ear.  That was kind of exciting.
    Anyway, we got our food and sat there and watched the crowd for a while. Matt continued with his deviant monologue. In all fairness, there were a lot of attractive girls around.  But still, it'd be very illegal at our advance ages.  Not that there was even a thought.  Out loud, anyway.  Eventually the subject turned to how much he doesn't like lawschool and how much I don't like work.  But he said that the starting salary of almost every firm in New York was six figures.  What a pig.  Of course, I'd love to be making that kind of money. He also said that he's made a deal with his friend who's going to USC's film school.  Once he's raking in the dough, he'll finance her first movie, but he gets to star in it.  Maybe  I can finagle my way in by writing a good review of it or something. I mean, that Journalism degree has to pay off somehow.

Well, I had some coffee and donut, and just did a very large update to the new "about me" page, and my mood has improved somewhat. I feel more like typing now, although it's almost lunch time.  Anyway, as long as I'm here, I might as well write.  so...

    For some reason, I couldn't stop watching C-Span again last night. It was more on the Senate hearings on teen violence.  This time, I don't know what, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell was testifying.  Sen. Tom Harkin had with him a copy of PC Gaming magazine, and used it to show effectively demonstrate how today's violent video games show what an out of touch old codger he is.  Ok, admittedly, I thought one of the ads that was very proud of it's game for showing all sorts of graphic shit "including exit wounds," was a little much.  But still, so what?  I can honestly say that I am no different in my reaction to video games now than when I was 12.  If anything, i'm more sensitized to violence.  he fact that kids like to see the grahic results of their video game labors doesn't mean they're gonna run into the street and start poppin's caps in random asses.  People try to establish too much of a link between the two.
    They had some other people testify as well. One, whose name escapes me, was a "generational historian,"  who seemed to me to be a glorified high school guidance counselor.  He was very syrupy in his delivery, and he annoyed me very much at first. I hate generalizing generations. The concept of generations actually bothers me. I mean you can't really categorize people by groups of more than 4 or 5 years i'd say. So i think every decade has at least two distinct "generations."  Anyway, as much as this guy annoyed me, he did have some good points. Actually, they were more like useful facts. He did have all sorts of statistics that highschool violence, before the Colorado thing, was actuall way down, more than 50 percent of the reported level from the 1992-93 school year. Even with the Columbine shooting, the number of fatalities in schools is still far less than previous years.  So, at least statistically, schools seem to be getting safer. And also pointed out that kids really are smarter than people give them credit for.  Naive, but still pretty smart. The problem is that all these political types think it's their job to protect kids from this shit.  It really bothered me when one of the Senators used his questioning time to first, request that his introduction be officially entered into the recorded transcript, and then proceeded to describe a bill he would be presenting later.  All very self-serving. A "youth protection" bill.  To quote the Onion, "We shouldn't wait any longer to enact knee-jerk legislation."  Kids can take care of themselves.  Also, they said that the place to teach kids right and wrond were home, school, and church. This imaginary separation of church and State really bothers me, by the way.  Especially when I didn't get to stay home from school for Chinese New Year or some shit like that.  Anyway, i'm really straying from the topic, so it's time for a new paragraph.
    Anyway, the people in this Senate Committee just nauseated me.  Tom Harkin really started to remind me of the cabbie who chastized us after seeing The Matrix.  And they all appeared to be very self-seving.  "Here's what I, along with my esteemed colleague, propse to do about the problem...for the record."  sigh...   The Libertarain party is starting to look better and better.

    Nora arrives in about 12 hours. And I'm very excited. I doubt Jed is going to come up like he planned to, seeing as I haven't mentioned it to him in almost two weeks. That's well outside the 2 or 3 day warning that you need to give jed.  Honestly, his antics are kind starting to piss me off.  He called me at work the other day, and said he'd call me back the next day, and i haven't heard from him since. The phone in his apartment isn't working, and he never checks his email, so it's unlikely that he even knows Nora is coming.  I mean, i've been telling him for months, and he said he'd come up, but i'd be VERY surprised if he remembered. I'm not sure why his phone's not working, but i'd bet he just didn't pay his phone bill.  He's becoming dangerously apathetic. I never thought you could put those two words together.  I've tried to contact him everyway I know how, I've even had Rodzilla try to get a hold of him.  He's called her house  a coupla times looking for my new number. which I told him I'd sent to him via email, but he hasn't bothered to check.  Anyway, I'm still excited to see Nora.  I guess we'll go out with Matt and his girfriend this weekend.  That should prove interesting.  Other than that, I don't really know what we're gonna do.  I have no real ideas.  Well, i"m gonna go get a Chicken Burrito. Maybe I'll write more later.

I'm on the phone with Erin Rosencrans, my best friend from freshman year, right now.   She's at law school at BC.  She's reminding me off all these things that I used to, and it makes me feel like a big dork.  I have an innate capacity to be really really lame.
 
 

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