Austin, America

We missed our first night in Austin due to a "tire complication" screwing our whole itinerary, sending us to sleep ("nap") in a Motel 6 in Houston at like 2 am, to catch an early morning flight to our final destination the next day! Continental Airlines = not a good first impression.


South Congress St. is neat.

Austin has many vintage clothing and thrift stores.


"Keep Austin Wierd" is the unofficial motto of the city and you start to see why after a few hours being there.

la resistance

“The democrats have to fight back. Really, if it weren’t for a big lawsuit, I myself would like to punch Karl Rove in the face. This whole country has been lied to by a few coy men, and propagated by sick talk show hosts, Limbaugh, Falwell, and Bill O'Reily. Really, we are where we are right now in this country because all of the American people have been lied to. That is serious stuff. American soldiers are dying everyday over oil. It doesn't seem real, but then one day you wake up and you realize. What kind of country is this? Damn the republicans.”
-Part of an email I received today.

shapes

Rachel and I leave for Austin tomorrow evening! (hence the white monster to the left, dancing) November is looking to be a good month, with all the pretty colored leaves and their hidden beauties revealed; they fall to the ground every minute, night and day. This is all truly nothing less than beautiful. This, however, is truly wacky.

Halloweeny

Speculation on morality

A fascinating article appeared in the Times today, leading me to think about an increasingly interesting subject to me; morality. Why do most of us do the right thing and not the wrong thing? How important is religion in this decision? There was some chatter about this subject a few weeks ago on the NPR which I remember catching some of on my lunch break, and then coming back to my computer to take the Moral Sense Test.
It would seem that morality has re-emerged as a hot topic after studies yielded some surprising results. Most notably that we, as suggested by the article linked above, are "hard wired" to be moral animals regardless of religious beliefes or the child rearing practices we are a product of. We have a sense of "moral grammar" that is innate, such as our "innate neural machinery for language".
Just read the article. It is good.

the weekend

A "dark" party consisting of low lighting, a bonfire and just about any alcoholic concoction you can imagine (the finger is a cookie).



A beautiful day was taken advantage of today in Colonial Williamsburg, "a walk back in time."



It sure was windy!

She's Alive! Alive!

The Bride of Frankenstein was showing at the Chrysler tonight. Rachel and I went with her brother Matt. We had a drink with some friends wee hadn't seen in awhile and ate some tasty pinwheels (as I believe they're called). We also got to glance at the new photography exhibit which was pretty rad. Rachel knew someone from high school in one of the photos.

guitar heros

Question, for those of strong opinions:
I think the first 6 seconds of "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix is probably one of the top ten best sounds of recorded electric guitar in history. What are some other worthy moments for this top ten list?

Take Back Your Time Day

"Are you, or your friends or relatives, working more now but enjoying it less? Does your family's schedule feel like a road race? If so, you're not alone. Millions of Americans are overworked, over-scheduled and just plain stressed out.
We're putting in longer hours on the job now than we did in the 1950s, despite promises of a coming age of leisure before the year 2000.
In fact, we're working more than medieval peasants did, and more than the citizens of any other industrial country.
Mandatory overtime is at near record levels, in spite of a recession.
On average, we work nearly nine full weeks (350 hours) LONGER per year than our peers in Western Europe do.
Working Americans average a little over two weeks of vacation per year, while Europeans average five to six weeks. Many of us (including 37% of women earning less than $40,000 per year) get no paid vacation at all.
Contemporary Americans complain of unprecedented levels of busyness in everyday life. They worry about frenetic schedules, hurried children, couples with no time together, families who rarely eat meals together, and an onslaught of "hidden work" from proliferating emails, junk mail, and telemarketing calls."

-From here.
Go for a walk. Get off your computer. Slowly drink a cup of tea. Go out for a long dinner. Read a book. Write a letter. Stay off YouTube. Draw a picture. Walk a dog. Have sex. Go for a long bike ride. Go to the ocean and watch it move. Have a long conversation. Don't go to Myspace today.
Take it back!

love

a celebration of grapes

Andrew; crossed.

the ride home.

the accident that happend.

do whatever you want, go without the flow, forget everything you know,

is there something wrong?

"Time Lapse" films are always cool.

Good morning. For those of you who live, sit, talk and gawk on the Internet, you may forget sometimes that the world outside waits (I know I do sometimes). So for your enjoyment and mine, Click Here to watch a musing, contemplative short clip on our lives from the perspective of "time passing by."
As found in the piles of compiled Internet activity at digg.

Oh wait! This one might be even better than the first one! It has great shots of Los Angeles and San Francisco. I hope you enjoyed the time-lapses for today. Now go off and drink a cup of tea and meditate on the pros and cons of the estimated 300 million people living in the US, next week.

caught in the flash dot com

On Saturday night, the least-likely-to-give-a-shit-person I know, my wife Rachel, was Caught In The Flash at DC9's Tease Dance Party, and now she is forever indelible on the hipster website, whether she likes it or not.

Postscript: Rachel's blog has been inoperational for months (in case you haven't figured that out). She is unable to access her account and its an unsolved mystery. So until further notice, don't bother checking it unless yon want to see my ugly mug at an Eagles of Death Metal show.

more from the tease dance party (the outtakes)...

Today is the greatest...

sizing up a giant...


going for it.
Shout at the Devil!

Jamba Juice wheat grass made Rory barf today.

Dailies (e n d)

at least for the moment...

The Christian Way

"The thing that has struck me about the Amish, is how truly Christian they are ... they will not be photographed or interviewed because is it too vain. We won't see any Amish on CNN, Oprah or the like because they believe in humility and privacy. They have thanked the police and firefighters who helped their community. They have expressed forgiveness to the murderer and have also expressed sympathy towards his wife and children. They have noted how difficult it will be for their and the murderer's children to go back to school. This tragedy has deeply affected me. But, I have come away with a sense that the Amish have shown us all an example of how Christ would behave ... with dignity, forgiveness and love. They are a real Christian community."
-As taken from this TIME magazine guy, Andrew Sullivan's blog here. I was moved enough by it to repost; moved. mainly by the plain truth in it. It really is rather shocking to see such true "Christian" virtues. It's beyond most of this country's understanding to have such humility and empathy when such an awful, senseless crime is committed. Sure, there will always be individuals who show such traits, but to have an entire community of people that chooses to see things this way is truly exceptional.

rain away.