Z.Monkey’s Blog

In an interesting turn of events I purchased DDR: Mario Remix yesterday. I would give you pictures of Heidi and me making fools of ourselves but I was too busy making fools to go get the camera. It even has a long jump mini-game in it (a la Nintendo Track & Field). My thighs burned. Speaking of burning my next purchase may just have to be a footbag, as bagging feet also makes my thighs burn. We also purchased a new tank for the little shelled creature that lives in our living room.

He seems happier now, though he’s a nasty bastard when you get him out of the water… all hissing and biting. Also, if you live in the Dover, NH area the local book repository is having a book sale, but if you are looking for a 1908 (?) copy of Faust too bad, I already bought it. I give it one read before it disintegrates. At least it has a cloth binding so there will be no redrot. It could ruin my white gloves! Poor sod.

In an aside, I can’t wait for it to get really cold. I want the water to freeze on the ponds so I can go out skating and, if it snows, snow shoeing. I do not know why I am so excited for winter… it is not something that often comes over me. Perhaps, it is because it is only light during the day so if I want to do anything outside I have to leave work early or not go in. Perhaps, when everything dies or hibernates or whatever it reminds you what is good about life.

While I was at the bookstore last night I picked and read through part of a translation of A Season in Hell by some long dead french jackoff named Rimbaud. I really do not know what to think of the work but I am intrigued to read more (perhaps I should have bought). It seems to be little more than an internal dialog that the auther has with himself, but rarely have a read something so angry. The author seems to hate society for what it has made him, himself for what he is and God for making him feel shame and guilt. The introduction says that he was a proto-bohemian poet (a non-conformer if you will) but he seems to me to be a hateful, egotistical, though intellegent, prick. Interesting.

The work ends with the dates April-August, 1873. This was apparently his season of hell. (I am sure that Dan is contemplating posting a comment about his season of hell). It is possible that this date could simply be when he wrote the piece, but it seems more appealling to think of this as a time when he examined himself and the world, and liked not what he saw. Perhaps, a more pessimistic person would say that life is more than a season, while a more optimistic person would say that he needs to stop focusing on the negative. I would say, …

Z.Monkey

…if you went out to a bar and forgot to settle up your tab? Assuming that you go back that is. Last night Heidi suggested that we go out and have some beers and I reluctantly (Haha) agreed. So we went out to Trophy’s nee Daniels. As the bar recently changed ownership there was work being done, which made conversation difficult. Why it was being done at 9 O’clock at night when the place is empty during the day? I have no idea. Itt seems like a bad idea to me. Anyways, we watched the B’s game mostly in silent (noise) and drank our beers. I enjoyed myself. Then, when the game finished up, we got up and left. I remembered this morning that I did not pay the bill.

I leave for Hawaii in a couple of days. Woot. I have allocated a couple of days for non-work related stuff, hopefully everything works out.

Z.Monkey

Okay, now that I have made sure there are no fires here at work I will take a little time to write. This last weekend Heidi and I went to her grandmother’s brother’s grandson’s wedding with her grandmother and mother. Not necessarily my first choice for a weekend but I’d do much worse things for my wife and, besides, I put her through enough crap. So we drive down to the Cape, pick up the mothers, eat some sandwichs and head back north to Woburn/Stoneham. I was giving directions and I like to think that I did a pretty good job at it. The only mistake was based on the different titles ‘From 93 South’ (read north) and ‘From 93 North’ (read south). I forgot to read the 93 and turned us the wrong way off the offramp. Normal the next direction will bring an error like this to light, here are the next rest of the directions (as remembered by me):

Now it appears that Woburn and Stoneham are mirror images of each other. We were able to follow the directions upto the ‘look there’s the fuck church’ step without suspecting there was an error. Incidently, there was a church on the right. Here is a map (Pleasant St. in Woburn is one way so the directions are a little messed up). By the way the Woburn Public Library has a cool ass building, and in case you cared the wedding was nice.

Yesterday, much to Heidi’s chagrin, I played B&W2 and was much amused. I must train my stupid creature to not play with his toy and with the villagers as much. I could probably right for a while longer but there is work to be done.

Z.Monkey

I came in this morning and was forced to listen to this (make sure you can hear it, you may have to use IE). Now I am grateful. What a inconsiderate pig I must be. Anyways, today is third day of my illness. I have composed a poem about my illness (can normal rhyme with normal?):

I sometimes am in awe of my greatness. By the way coffee with cream is very soothing on sore throats (or at least my sore throat). I would drink coffee all day if I did not know what too much caffeine did to a person. Ah, stupid, stupid No-Doz. Also, I finally found the image I put in my English 501 paper on procrastination, which I wrote cranked up on coffee and cigarettes.

Z.Monkey

So I finally uploaded pictures from my/our recent trips (Finland, San Diego, Cape Cod). Below are wonderful advertisements I saw in Finland and San Diego. Awesome.

I am feeling under the weather but I am trying to recover as we have a hockey game tonight. Maybe I should have stayed home today so I’d feel better tonight. Haha. I am one dedicated fellow.

Jeff, Heidi, Jared and I went to see Wallace and Gromit last weekend at Smitty’s Cinema. This was a thoroughly enjoyable experience as we were able to drink beer and eat whole meals of food! Plus the movie had the most amusing use of the word loam I have ever seen in a movie. It was also the first time I have seen a short film at the movies since Roger Rabbit. Ramble, ramble, ramble…

Z.Monkey

P.S. Who shits with a skateboard?

There is another thing that I remember from the interview with Vonnegut on the P to the B to the S (Stupid Bush and by Bush I mean anyone who would cut funding for PBS). It was a comment by Vonnegut that people were meant to ‘fart around’. While I may not like the wording (haha… I do like it!) I do like the idea, we should take our time doing things. We should get distracted by stuff that interests us. While there needs to be a balance with Getting Shit Done (GSD), being distracted and reading up on something a little outside the scope of work, homework, e&c. can be helpful, or at least sane-itizing. Hmm… I think I have been complaining enough, I am trying to look at things differently (Per request from the Heidi).

Anyone up for watching some hockey tonight? I am. I am also up for playing some… I am hoping that the water that flows near my apartment freezes. Anyone have any reading suggestions? A Tale of Two Cities, while more interesting than the opening sentence would suggest, is not really holding my interest.

Z.Monkey

Here… look at these:

Sebastian Spreng

Bob Dob

I feel that I should write something today, but what? Last night as I was flipping between football games (52 - 3?! Stupid Green Bay) I came across an interview with Kurt Vonnegut.

The interview only seemed to reinforce my view of the man as a pessimist with a negative view of humanity, though with a bizarre love for people. One thing I did not know is that he is a self proclaimed Luddite mainly because technology is fucking with the way we live. It keeps us isolated from one another… ex: my name is not Z.Monkey. I can stand on my soap box without worrying about anyone knowing who I am. This weblog does not come up when you do a search for my name (this is not necessarily a bad thing as a future employer could then find this and not hire me because of views I express here). It does, however, cut down on my chances of actually meeting new people (the obvious exception being spammers). It is also a one way discussion, mostly. Wouldn’t it be better if my friend’s and family were all able to post? It could become a community of ideas and not just me spewing trash. Sigh. With everyone moving around and shit it is difficult to form many solid relationships.

Last week we did a power hour and Maletas decided to call up our friend in Georgia. It was good talk to him, and reminded me of all the good times we had together. It also made me realize how bad I am at actually keeping in touch with people… maybe its because I have nothing to say or because I am too self-absorbed.

By the way, this shirt is very amusing.

Z.Monkey

Thanks Bino. Now I can abuse virtual animals.