My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

So, first, while reading Choke I learned that I’ve been spelling “trache” incorrectly as “trach” for the last year-and-a-half, which is definitely embarrassing. Speaking of traches, I was supposed to get a new one this morning at 7 AM, but due to a scheduling snafu I have to wait until Friday morning. I hate the waiting, it’s the sort of thing a fellow just wants done and over being that it definitely has to be done…

Lately I feel a claustrophobic, I need high ceilings…

So, I finished Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead.  Speaker for the Dead is the second book in a series continuing the story of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, former destroyer of worlds. Because of the nature of space travel and the way time works while traveling at the speed of light, Ender’s a man in his early 30s who has lived for over 3000 calendar years, giving the series quite an epic feel.

I’m not here to talk about the first book, Ender’s Game, which was spectacular, I’m here to focus on this the second book. Speaker for the Dead is really a book about truth and how freeing it can be to live a life in which all secrets are laid bare. A Speaker is akin to one reading a eulogy at a memorial service, but rather than paint deceased in the best possible way, they simply tell the story of a life, factually and impartially. A Speaker tells of everything from acts of kindness to one’s flaws and sins, honestly and completely. Yes, it can be a painful process for those left behind, but ultimately, it allows them to examine their relationship with the deceased and their relationships with each other without lies and false pretenses. It’s beautiful, really. In a way, it’s kind of how I see Ira Glass and what he did for me.

At any rate, read Speaker for the Dead, it’s an amazing experience.

My next audio book is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

My dearest friend and personal assassin, Celeste, is currently between full-time jobs and as such, her freelance web designer business has to pay the bills awhile. Check her out at CheApo Web Design! At least check out her logo, it’s brilliant…

So, a reader pointed out last night that the TAL episode made it to Joost. I have no idea about half the places I turn up, it’s an odd feeling…

I just want to say that everyone involved with the film, Rise: Blood Hunter, owes me $9.99 right now. Obviously, I take some responsibility for the loss of my $9.99, I was bored and a little muddle-headed, but the fact remains that Rise: Blood Hunter is the absolute most boring vampire movie ever made. At least BloodRayne was so astonishingly bad that it was hilarious. I’d take hysterically awful over mind-numbingly dull any day.

Well, I got my hard drive working again! Apparently, the power supply went bad, but the actual data is spectacularly okay. I was able to get ahold of another power supply and everything works perfectly. My hours and hours of ill-gotten media are safe. موقع رهان كرة القدم

Of course, I also spent half of today in the e.r. for what is called a “trachitis.” I got some anti-biotics and on Wednesday I get a shiny new trache. سلوتس

One thing is fixed, another breaks and so goes the balance…

I just DVRed Mrs. Winterbourne and I’m not ashamed.

So, it’s been an odd week, capped off by the death of one of my more important external hard drives. Granted, it’s a drive that potentially had me Hell-bound, but I miss it just the same. One might wonder how a hard drive could hold sway over my immortal soul. Well, back when I was in the hospital, becoming what I became, I was talking to God a lot. He’s not much of a conversationalist, but He’s the easiest to talk to when one can’t talk. So, I was quite desperate not to die and I figured God was a good way to prevent it.

I’m not religious, but I’m also not one who only believes in God sometimes. No, I believe in God all the time. I believe that God is constantly watching and looking for reasons to take me downtown to Chinatown. Our relationship is a little dysfunctional. On the one hand, I totally believe that He has watched out for me on many occasions. I mean, my heart stopped last year, by rights it shouldn’t be beating right now, but it is. The odds were incredibly against me, but here I am. I chalk that up to God. Yet, at the same time, I totally believe that I do things to earn His wrath and wrath I get. For some reason, He always seems to make sure I ultimately end up okay. No, I don’t blame God for every single problem I ever had, but I don’t cross him off the list of usual suspects either.

Anyway, back to the hospital and the hard drive. During one of my talks with God, grasping at straws, I told Him I’d never rip another DVD I didn’t own or download any kind of entertainment I could legally buy. I got rid of everything I had at the time. God was Martin Blank with a gun to my face and I was the guy in bed saying, “whatever it is I’m doing that you don’t like, I’ll stop doing it.” I just didn’t want God to pull that trigger. Well, of course, a year and a half and hundreds of torrent files later, I had over 200 GB worth of movies and tv shows completely contradicting every promise I made. I lost all of it Thursday night. Hopefully, I won’t end up going to Hell.

I just finished Chuck Palahniuk’s latest, Snuff. I’m not quite certain how I feel about it. While reading it, it wasn’t my favorite of his works, yet the last four chapters kind of won me over. Snuff is the story of Cassie Wright and her attempt to break the world’s record for the most sex partners in a single work of pornography, 600 to be exact. The story is told from the perspective of three fellows waiting in line for a go at Cassie and the “talent wrangler,” the woman in charge of the 600 fellow gang-bang.

My first problem was that I just find the sex industry astonishingly depressing, and not in a fun Dawn of the Dead sort of way. Secondly, I couldn’t really like or relate to any of the characters. I suppose it’s a good thing that I have nothing in common with a bunch of porn fiends, but what I usually love about Palahniuk is that I do tend to identify with or feel empathy toward his characters. That said, it’s a short book and the last four chapters are amazing, so I have no regrets.

Continuing with Palahniuk, I’m now reading Choke. I’ve also got an audio book on deck, Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead.

It is absolutely impossible to smother me in my sleep with a pillow.