...he's a total idiot, and so is everyone who voted for him...

Mr. Bush made a speech today in response to cries to pull out of the-war-which-should-not-be (Iraq). This is me, tearing him a new asshole:

Bush: "As Iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, we will be able to decrease our troop level in Iraq without losing our capability to defeat the terrorists."

Quill: That isn't going to work; it hasn't been working, and it's not going to start working now. Your administration's push for this "war on terra" has only succeeded in getting our troops killed, and fueling and uniting - and creating - more terrorist attacks, just like the recent one in England.

Bush: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorist tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder and invite new attacks on America."

Quill: So what you're saying is that by pulling out of this war, which is exhausting our military and veering focus away from the REAL terrorists, like Osama Bin Laden, it would show weakness on our part to the terrorists and give them some sort of victory? Nope; sorry, you stupid son of a bitch...by pulling out of Iraq, we're fixing a mistake YOU caused with your lies, spin, and propaganda; we're taking steps toward fixing our now-non-existant good standing with the nations of the world; and - and this is key - we're showing that we're no longer stupid enough to blow our military load on a pointless endeavor that has absolutely nothing to do with the ideals we're claiming to fight against.

Bush: "To all who wear the uniform, I make you this pledge: America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander-in-chief."

Quill: You're again dodging the issue and missing the point - but then, you've been slow and outright ignorant on the uptake your entire political and adult life as always. The troops that your'e pledging steadfast, American bravery to are the same soldiers out there in harms way for a war that our entire fucking country was "duped" into pursuing - you said there were WMDs; that was proven wrong. You said there was a connection between Saddam and the 9-11 terrorists; that was proven wrong. You claimed these two things to our country, and to the rest of the world, and when that was proven wrong, you backpeddled and held fast to the claim that it was all true. In the face of overwhelming evidence of your lies and spin, you dodge it by preaching bravery and morality and democracy.

It's not about "running away" from terrorist regimes; it's not about leaving a mess behind that we're now obligated - because of your cocaine-sniffing, silver-spooned, election-fixing ass - to clean up; it's about pulling out of a war that not only wasn't our place to start and shouldn't have been our focus, but is also a growing lost cause.

(On a side-note, where was your compassion for the people of New Orleans after Katrina?? Where is your compassion for our environment, for the victims of our shitty health-care system, for our less-fortunate? Where the fuck are your moral intentions THERE?!)

Bush: ""We should not fear the debate in Washington; it's one of the great strengths of our democracy that we can discuss our differences openly and honestly, even at times of war."

Quill: Really? Then why do you constantly skirt issues and questions? It's because the answers you have would hurt your flailing approval ratings, so you spin it into something else and change the subject...

Bush: "Your service makes that freedom possible. And today, because of the men and women in our military, people are expressing their opinions freely in the streets of Baghdad as well."

Quill: Great! Oh, but wait - only half of those people wanted that democracy. The other half didn't, and that half is the half that you are FORCING democracy on. Yeah, Saddam was a problem that needed to be dealt with; and yes, you're daddy dropped the ball the first time. But it wasn't necessarily your ball to pick up, and certainly not in the way you went about it. You rallied the American people around the cause of fighting terrorism, and then used that passion and drive, combined with the spread of fear of terrorism and "selective" intelligence to rush us into something entirely unrelated for the satisfaction of your own agenda. The ONLY good coming out of this entire thing is that the people of Iraq are out from under Saddam's thumb, but that result is still coming at a high price to this day, and as it's becoming very clear at this point, even that stands to lose out in the end. You can't force democracy on a culture that isn't ready for it, and doesn't fully want it. We are now the crutch on which a crippled Iraqi government leans on, and will continue to lean on due to the total lack of ability to be self-relient.

Bush: "Most Americans want two things in Iraq: They want to see our troops win and they want to see our troops come home as soon as possible. And those are my goals as well. I will settle for nothing less than complete victory."

Quill: Your goals are different; you seek to continue this thing until a utopian, perfect-world, happily-ever-after outcome occurs. It's not about bravery for you; bravery would be to admit that you misled our nation into this war, and you made a mistake. It's about being a stubborn asshole who wants to fill his father's shoes, as well as the shoes of the great presidents of our nation, and also about greasing the palms and scratching the backs of your entourage...

Once again, you spin the issue into the spread of democracy and freedom. Fuck that. Don't read me wrong, I'm all for freedom and liberty, but when the American people want us out of this thing; and half our government want us out of this thing; and the Iraqi government want us out of this thing along with the rest of the world; and we're failing miserably and getting embarrassed on the world stage...then it's pretty much time to quit.

(This guy, Erick Mink, says everything on my mind just perfectly. Give it a read, will you? Or, stay obliviously ignorant...hehe.)
Iraq: The folly of it all
By Eric Mink
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/30/2005
The happy band of incompetents led by George Bush and Dick Cheney is nothing if not consistent. Alas, where they are most steadfast is in maintaining their disconnection from reality, particularly in clinging to the delusion that there is no penalty for failure.

Even assuming it ever was possible to create democracy in Iraq by force, the Bush administration blew its chance through a long string of miserable decisions: It rejected voluminous advance planning done by the State Department for a post-Saddam Iraq, disregarded military projections of force levels needed to maintain order, dismissed accurate CIA analyses of likely post-war ethnic and tribal conflicts, disbanded the Iraqi army, under-equipped U.S. troops and installed a hapless-to-corrupt provisional governing authority.

Does the president think he gets a mulligan for such pervasive ineptitude?

There are consequences. Ironically, they are mostly the same boogeymen the administration conjures as the consequences of pulling American troops out of harm's way: civil war in Iraq, further instability in the Middle East, increased vulnerability to Islamist terrorism worldwide, the loss of U.S. credibility.
By any reasonable measurements, all these have already taken place, and they are of Bush's own making.

Tuesday's Los Angeles Times, for example, beefed up months of scattered news reports with a detailed account of the operations of Shiite paramilitary death squads within the Iraqi police force and Interior Ministry, including the use of torture in secret prisons and summary executions of Sunni opponents. Sunni militants, of course, represent the vast majority of the country's increasingly sophisticated and lethal insurgent forces.

Meanwhile, Iraq's former defense minister and dozens of his associates have fled to Jordan rather than face arrest warrants issued in the wake of an investigation of $1 billion that disappeared from the ministry's funds. Make that U.S. taxpayer funds. Yet, as reported last month by Knight-Ridder, the Pentagon hasn't had auditors in Iraq watching over reconstruction funds for more than a year.

The Iraq debacle also has been - and continues to be - a potent motivating force for the growth of international Islamist terrorism, undermining, rather than advancing, the best interests of the United States. Britain's former ambassador to the U.S., Sir Christopher Meyer, credits Iraq with the increase in terrorism by British citizens on British soil. "There is plenty of evidence," he told the Guardian newspaper earlier this month, "that home-grown terrorism was partly radicalized and fueled by what is going on in Iraq."

Administration officials like to point to elections in Egypt as evidence of the spread of the democratic impulse. But those on-going elections - the final round is scheduled for Thursday - have seen a newly invigorated Muslim Brotherhood movement already more than quadruple its parliamentary representation. The radical group is banned, so its candidates run as independents.

As for U.S. credibility, it could hardly erode further. Although the Bush administration continues trying to duck responsibility for the errors, the world well remembers the U.S.'s definitive declarations of Saddam's arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, his reconstituted nuclear programs and his ominous working alliance with al-Qaida. All were definitively wrong.

But the world doesn't need to judge the U.S. solely on words. Other nations can hardly be expected to forget Muslim prisoners abused and humiliated at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan, the web of internationally scattered CIA secret jails, the arbitrary imprisonment of prisoners without trial or even charges at Guantanamo, the administration's opposition to a statutory ban on inhumane treatment, the secret transport of prisoners to foreign countries for interrogation and, almost certainly, torture.

Do Bush, Cheney et al. believe these things have no effect on the credibility of the United States of America?

Administration defenders have been reduced to trotting out the old criticism-hurts-the-troops canard, knowing full well that what hurts troops are bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and the roadside and suicide bombs against which they are all but defenseless. Then they cry that critics haven't shown the president a way out of his own mess. Nonsense, and nothing exposed the desperation of the Bush camp more starkly than its response to Rep. Jack Murtha.

On Nov. 17, the 73-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat issued a quiet but powerful and impassioned call for removing U.S. troops from Iraq, positioning a quick-response military team elsewhere in the region to protect American interests and pursuing international diplomacy as the route to stability in Iraq. The White House and its congressional operatives first tried a thinly veiled smear of the respected legislator and decorated veteran, then backtracked in a panic when the strategy backfired.

Murtha is no naive dottering senior. The specifics of his proposals might need tweaking, but his analysis of Iraq is unerring: "Continued military action in Iraq," he stated, "is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region. . . ."

The dream is over, whether or not the Bush White House realizes or admits it. U.S. troops are going to leave, and Iraq will continue to be a mess. The only questions are how bad a mess it will be, how many more will be killed and injured and whether the president is capable of putting the welfare of the troops and the country before the unhealthy messianic fixation cited, most recently, in this week's New Yorker by several former and current U.S. military and intelligence officials.

In 1984's "The March of Folly," the celebrated historian Barbara W. Tuchman reviewed centuries of calamitous statecraft, looking for examples that met three specific criteria: "To qualify as folly," she wrote, "it must have been perceived as counter-productive in its own time, not merely by hindsight. . . . A feasible alternative course of action must have been available. . . . (and) the policy in question should be that of a group, not an individual ruler, and should persist beyond any one political lifetime. . . ."

Tuchman focused on the refusal of Renaissance popes to correct rampant abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, thus producing the Protestant Reformation; Great Britain's war with its American colonies, resulting in an independent United States of America and contributing to the end of the British Empire; and the Vietnam War, in which Democratic and Republican administrations betrayed American principles with enormous long-term costs.

The continuing war in Iraq is poised to join Tuchman's tragic roster of dishonor.

...and now, as if MY insults weren't enough...

So, as many of you know - some of you all-too well - my "thing" is insults and "being a smartass"...well, I found these great literary taunts to be amusing and very relevant to several people I know, as well as certain situations and issues of the last year or so. While I won't reveal WHO or WHAT each quote references, you guys should be smart enough to figure that part out. Should be...to be fair, I'll put asterisk (*) next to the quotes that reference actual people. You're welcome!

GREAT LITERARY TAUNTS

"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here." --- Stephen Bishop *

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." -- Winston Churchill (about Clement Atlee) *

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." --- Irvin S. Cobb

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." --- Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." ---
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)*

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." --- Samuel Johnson *

"He had delusions of adequacy." --- Walter Kerr *

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." --- Groucho Marx

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." --- Thomas Brackett Reed *

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." --- Forrest Tucker *

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." --- Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." --- Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." --- Oscar Wilde *

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." --- Oscar Wilde *

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." --- Billy Wilder ***

...and now it's time for shprockets when we dahnce...

Oh, yes, lets do that. Oooooooooooo shit!

Last night was party at our place - I drank heavily (though not as heavily as Dave, that balcony-jumping motherfucker), and now my head has a low-level buzz going. That's okay though, doesn't hurt.

In about an hour, me, Heather, Scuba, Scott, and Amanda are going to Fast Eddie's Bon-Aire for lunch in Alton, IL. It's an excursion Heather and I have been meaning to go on, and it's something different.

Plans are being set for the next "Ultimate" guy's night. Plans are also being made for the "Ultimate" co-ed party, which will be more or less the same thing, only not a sausage-fest.

If you're wondering what's been going down with all that drama B.S., let me ease your minds and report that everything and everyone involved with the various acts of stupidity are still the way we left them...yay! It's kinda like a volcano between eruptions right now, that's all.

Quill's Final Thought (Of The Blog):

There are more important things happening than ourselves; some people probably will never wake up and see that.


Quilled Tunes: "Another Know It All" - Chevelle

...say what?!...

"About a month and a half ago, Quill got a job in his field. I took this as a sign of hope, thinking maybe that meant something good would happen to me in the near future. I am working with a headhunter named Chris Spear. I told him how my friend had gotten a job in his field, and he asked me what my friend's field was. I told him construction management, and he scoffed at that. He said that construction companies normally layoff in the winter, and that my friend was more than likely going to be doing manual labor all day, until the winter when he got laid off."

What? What?!

@Chris "Paint-Chip Eater" Spear: Listen here, you fucking douche-bag...First of all, you obviously have NO IDEA what construction management even IS. I don't "do" manual labor out in the field; I'm an assistant estimator, which means I'm training in that aspect of putting together bids and figuring costs of jobs, so that we can get awarded work.

Second, the company I'm working for, Kozeny-Wagner, is expanding, thank you very much; they've hired about three people since I started working, and they are seeking more people presently. They spent time and money starting up my health-insurance, and they have NO PLANS to "fire me during the slow period".

Third, you're probably THE worst job-placement individual on the face of the earth, and that includes all the mentally retarded, short-bussy people that clean trays at McDonalds. "Don't put your resume on monster or careerbuilder. Get a job at pizza hut. Duh, duh, gurfle!" What the fuck happened that you ended up in this field?! You're horrible at it!!!!! Well, guess what? You're fucking fired, you fucking idiot. From now on, if Dan needs any advice on job hunting, he can come to the people - like me, Heather, and his other friends; and someone who's GOOD at his job - who have something useful and helpful to say.

@Beaver: I'm not going to get laid off two months after being hired, dude. This guy has no fucking idea what he's doing, and you need to drop him. Now.

Can you hear me now? Well, of course you can - I now have my own cell phone. :)

It's a pretty sweet-ass phone, too...a Motorola V551, which doesn't mean anything if you don't know what one looks like. Look it up. It's got a speakerphone, voice-dialing, color screen, clam-shell design (flip phone, for you non-technical types), external BLUE display caller ID/call waiting, and...a video camera/digital camera. Plus, it's blue tooth capable and has mp3 ring tone features. Can you tell I love my phone yet?

Anyway...I want to re-state my congratulations to Question (Campo) on his fantastic new job. I absolutely LOVE it when people around me succeed and achieve their goals. It just makes me happy. (Because, after all, I'm such a dick.)

Speaking of reeking of success, Heather is nearing the start of her pursuit of that Masters degree. I'm so damn proud of that girl; not only is she THE best teacher to ever come down the pipe, now she's going to be THE best counselor, too.

There's also success on my end, in the form of doing quality work at my job, but I shant be a braggart and toot my own horn today.

In political news, the Iraqi government is now calling for the U.S. to lay down a schedule for withdrawal from Iraq. (Taugh, taugh, Bush!) Apparently, the government there is of the opinion that the insurgents have a "legitimate right" of resistance to the U.S. "freedom" campaign (because, really, how is blowing up someone's house and way of life and walking casually away promoting any kind of freedom???), and shouldn't be labeled as terrorists if they're only attacking U.S. forces. So, now half of our country's citizens - the SMART half - want out of this thing, the rest of the free world wants us to stop, and the Iraqi people want us out of this thing. The tide is turning, and I'm thrilled!

Quilled Tunes: "Drown" - Gravity Kills

Congratulations, Dan C.!!

@Question: Dude, that is AWESOME! Congratulations! I'm SO happy for you, man!

...news, news, let's talk news...

My blog used to be filled with all sorts of news tidbits. Not so much as of late, huh? I'm going to correct that...now.

Here's how this will work. I'm going to post a news link, and then add whatever I have to say about it below it. Some will be old news; some new; some out of left field. Wanna decipher what my comments mean? You can figure that part out, I think. (I hope. For your sake.)

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/26/news/fortune500/walmart.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Oh yes...let's do THAT. You motherfuckers!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/26/odd.onion.reut/index.html
Waaaaah! We don't wanna be poked fun at anymore, waahhhh! Cry me a river, you assholes. You only COMPLAIN!! \m/ because there's truth in the jokes...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/28/people.georgetakei.ap/index.html
...and this is unexpected news how?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/03/brown.fema.emails/index.html
Yeah, I really feel for you...you were working so very hard, after all. Why don't you go fail miserably at yet another job?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/04/eminent.domain.ap/index.html
Thank you...now you're doing something useful and beneficial to the greater society...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/11/04/summit.protext.ap/index.html
I'm totally with you guys on this one. However, you can fucking keep him...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/11/10/godzilla.find/index.html
Heh. Thought Nix would appreciate this one. Pretty neat.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/10/religion.robertson.reut/index.html
Oh, Jesus tap-dancing Christ--! Oh, look! I'm sitting on my couch in my vehicular-type dwelling, snapping my fingers. A few months later, you stub your toe and break it...and guess what?!...I did that! Yes I did, yes I did, it was aaaallllll me! That's what you ge--oh, damn, wrong religion. (These are the people that were voted into office by morons who shouldn't be allowed to be left alone, much less vote someone into power. Thanks, all you wonderful Republicans and Republican-supporters. Thanks a lot.)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/11/bush.intel/index.html
It must be tiring grasping at all those straws, huh George? "Duh, what do I do? What would YOU do?? I got nothing but Iraq and the war on terra..."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/more/11/14/obit.guerrero.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/14/bush.asia.ap/index.html
Well, if you mean our troops are getting mixed feelings in light of your blatant incompetence and gross tendency for lies and deciet in all issues regarding a war we didn't have to send them into the line of fire for...then sure. (You fucking prick.)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/15/sexparty.mom.ap/index.html
Uh...what?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/14/bush.poll/index.html
Say what?? No. Come on. You're putting me on. No way!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/15/senate.iraq.ap/index.html
Good. It's about damn fucking time.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/11/15/china.moon.real.estate.reut/index.html
... Wow. That blows those bridge salesmen right out of the water.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/11/16/severe.weather/index.html
(All together now...) "It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fiiiiiiiiiiinnnne..."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/16/sparrow.domino.ap/index.html
You gotta be kidding me...that's some funny shit, though!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/16/woodward.leak/index.html
Uh, a tad bit late there, aren't we?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/11/16/internet.summit.ap/index.html
Well that figures...we're already the most retarded country in the world, so why not put us in control of something so ripe for spawning countless retarded things (like Republican blogging, for instance; or fighting with someone on a forum board; did I say that out loud? Oops.)...


Well, hopefully some of you at least skimmed over the news articles to "get" the meat of my commentary. If you didn't, how lazy are you today, huh? Kidding. Or am I?


Quilled Tunes: "Bat Country" - Avenged Sevenfold

Best of luck at your appointment with Lindenwood today, Heather!

I love you!

Quilled Tunes: "Stricken" - Disturbed

Now that I know this email publishing thing works (I tested it earlier this morning) I can update my blog from email.

Weekend was good. Saw "Wedding Crashers" again, this time with Amber, Scuba, Beaver, Dave, Nate, Jason, and Hizzy. We're definitely getting that movie, it's hilarious. We've pretty much figured out our future cell-phone plan of choice; now it's just a matter of getting me that phone...

Forum B.S. seems to be over; let's hope. I'm just glad it didn't revolve around me for once.

Things are great on the job front; it's a learning process for me, and a big one, but I'm doing a good job at it according to my co-workers/superiors. I love it.

@Heather: I love you! This weekend was very relaxing and awesome. We need to do stuff like that more often.

Parties are forthcoming, and several of them to boot. Stay tuned.

Until next time...

Quilled Tunes: "Wings Of A Butterfly" - Him

Another MEME for you all...

I agree with my buddy Tom; I like this meme, too:

"If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you."

P.S. I wanna hear as many memories as you can cram into that comment box, guys; and if you run out of space, post twice! :)

...a few words...

I'll keep this as short as possible.

To catch you all up to speed on the latest bullshit - and believe me, it is - Corey and Scott have started a ghost-hunting thing and posted it on the Bug Juice Mega-Forum. Actually, it has it's own section there, as it's a Bug Juice related deal. Nix, Hizzy, & the mysterious "hmmm" offered their advice and assistance; Corey and Scott said no; these three took offense; Corey bitched them all out, and in the process spoke some lies about Hizzy. Beaver decided to grace the situation with his ever-so-"wise" interjections, and here we are in the present.

The forum stuff has been settled already, thanks to yours truly. I'm able to do that because I'm an administrator there. If only I could lock the thread on the bullshit of real life as easily...

While it's true that Hizzy has garnished herself an unfortunately-almost-100%-accurate reputation for not being able to be trusted with things you wouldn't want others to know about - truth of the matter is, she didn't do the crime that Corey slapped on her. Corey says Hizz tried to blab stuff around the group about a personal matter in his life. Well, she didn't. Would she have had she not talked to me first? I'm not Miss Cleo, so I can't tell you (although it is possible, sorry to say Hizz). But she didn't.

I know all about being blamed for things I didn't do, so it really fucking chaps my ass when it happens to someone else.

@Corey - Bro, you and I have been friends for a long time; so I won't mix words, but I'll be frank with you. Being pissed is your option; your opinion of the Hizz is your own; but shut the fuck up when it comes to accusing someone of something they didn't fucking do.

@Hizzy - You've been attacked, and no one knows what that's like better than me. But I would suggest to just let it die. Don't respond. Ignore it all.

I mentioned Beaver before. He not only chimed in with his two cents, but also has made some pretty abrasive comments about the personal matter I mentioned in blog-land.

@Beaver - Shut the fuck up, dude. This is not your fight, you should stay out of it. You can defend Hizzy without resorting to attacks and 'fuck yous' - and on this particular issue that you keep bringing up, it's the last thing you should be talking about. Again, shut the fuck up about it. That's not a threat, but some advice from a friend. Corey would NOT be as nice about it, and believe me, if he felt like doing something about it, no amount of backing you could garnish from your pool of friends would really stop him. Given the context of the matter at hand, you're kinda lucky I haven't taken a more active role myself about it.

And now, I am going to curl up in my nice, warm bed with my beautiful wife. Goodnight everyone...pleasant dreams to you all.


Quilled Tunes: "Fear" - Disturbed

Sometimes, we all make mistakes in judgment. We also, sometimes, tend to forget to do the little things that mean the world to someone.

I did both those things yesterday.

Over this past weekend, I had an amazing "date" with Heather. We went to see Saw II, went to dinner at Sonic, and sat in our living room watching the last parts of the storm that hit Saturday night. Friday we rented movies, but were both really tired and ended up not finishing even the first movie! He he.

We also added 'Monster-In-Law' to our DVD collection (yes, a chick flick, but it wasn't completely horrible like some I could name).

@Heather: I love you. How could I forget to mention this stuff? I'm sorry - you mean the world to me, even when I forget to mention it to you from time to time.

I love the new clothes you got, and I can't wait to see you tonight, baby. Love you!

P.S. The Blues are a true embarassment. Bleh.

...and now, a few [hundred] words from KWILL...

It's been awhile since I posted any kind of detail on occuring events. So, here we go (be forewarned; this may be long-winded):

Not this past Thursday, but the Thursday BEFORE last, Question was in St. Louis for one night only. It wasn't planned, he was passing through on his way to other things, but I got to hang out with him anyway. Damn it was great to see that guy. I got to catch up with him a bit and see some of his new drawings for the comic strip. I hope he drops California and moves back to St. Louis or somewhere closer.

The next day was the Gravity Kills show. Great fucking show, too! If you missed it...well, you missed OUT, plain and simple.

The following week was full of exciting work-related things. I attended a pre-bid meeting for a project we might be bidding at the Saint Louis Zoo; I helped with getting our bid together for the School of Journalism project in Columbia, MO at Mizzou (Mye-Zow! Goat-cream!); in general, it was a great week at work.

This past week was also Halloween. Becky had a party, and there were lots of good things to eat (and some other not-so-good things, but it's "girl food" - whatcha gonna do?). Right after that, I went over to Nix's "den" and chilled with him for a bit. He had invited some people over; no one bothered to be curteous enough to show up or call and say they weren't showing up (which was extremely rude, but then, that's to be expected from some people nowadays), so I was glad to be there for the guy.

Hung out with Scott Thursday night, along with Corey. Fun times. Funny things. Non-drama, non-high-school-bullshit times. Oh, Discordia, how I miss those times being ALL THE TIME.

Been thinking about those "good old days" a lot, lately. I'm beginning to think things seemed so grand back then because everyone was on the same page and at the same level of immaturity - therefore, childish baby games were less frowned upon. Now, some of us have grown past that (not many, though) - and some of us have absolutely not (quite a few); and some teeter-totter back and forth from maturity to immaturity at random.

Here's hypocrisy for you: When you get dropped by an entire group of "bad" people for whining and bitching (which upsets you greatly and hurts you, no less), and then years later drop an entire group of AWESOME people and give one person's [completely phantom and imaginary] "whining and bitching" as one of the main reasons for doing so. (Now, just go ahead and guess which of the aforementioned categories a person like this would belong in, hm?)

But hey - it's certainly not a loss, is it? No; no, it's not.

Saw "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Taken by itself, it's so-so. Compared with the original, it's pretty lamsorz. Don't get me wrong, Depp did a good job in the role; and I understand and appreciate that this incarnation is "closer to the book"; however, Gene Wilder's Wonka was worlds creepier than Depp's - mostly because you expect Depp to play a creepy guy, but when Wilder pulls it off, it genuinely creeps you the fuck out. That, and I didn't like the way they handled the Oompah-Loompahs. Oh, for the days when midgets could get work as Oompah-Loompahs, Munchkins, and Ewoks. Now, everything is CGI-ed out the ass. Fuck that milk.

I'm going to cut open your throat and use your blood as syrup on my pancakes! Yay!! Gotta love Mr. Happy Face...

Got some new stuff, too, bi-atches! They are:

Willard (DVD)
The Watcher (DVD)
The Amityville Horror [re-make] (DVD)
Son Of Godzilla (DVD)
Constantine (DVD)
Duel Collector's Edition (DVD)
A Perfect Murder (DVD)
Fear Factory - Archtype [Digipak] (CD)

Tuesday I'm going to be at the Pageant, seeing Disturbed for the first time. I love Disturbed. I know this is going to be a great fucking show, too. Tonight, I'm going to the hockey game with Scott, Corey, and Murph. Yes, you read that correctly - we're going to go to a sporting event, unbelievable as that may sound.

Party announcements, like deaths, come in threes. (Shut up, yes they do. I'll prove it...right now.)

As many of you know, I got a new job. The company I work for is Kozeny-Wagner (and quite an awesome company it is, too; check it out)...but that's not as important as my actually getting this fantastic new job that pays me very well. This is, of course, cause to celebrate, so - you guessed it - there will be a party forthcoming. I'm waiting to plan this shindig until Scott and/or Nix can attend, but it will happen, and there will be, as always, much fun at the Quill house.

"Mighty Meatfest" is going to happen early Spring. There will be a nominal fee for each person, but with that fee you will receive unlimited food and drink, and any "proceeds" will go to fund the Night Of The Living Loaf film project, currently in pre-production.

Last year's "Ultimate Guys Night" was a resounding success. Because of this, it is going to happen again. It'll be the same deal as before, only better, impossible as that may sound. More details on that in the near future...

I've decided that in the interest of time and money, QUILLCADE is going to change a bit. It'll still be the total-machine-o-awesomeness that I've been talking about, just done in such a way that allows it to be more feasible and, overall, realized faster.

I finished the sixth book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, "Song Of Susannah". Excellent read; this thing just keeps getting better and better with every fucking page. Speaking of The Dark Tower, Marvel is putting out a comic book that takes place between the events told by Roland from Mejis in "Wizard & Glass" and "The Gunslinger" (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read). It's been awhile since I collected any comic book with any regularity, but...this is an exception to that.

Well, I've said much and either enlightened or bored you. Until next time, my Quillmaniacs...


Quilled Tunes: "We Don't Care Anymore" - Story Of The Year

STORY OF THE YEAR

"We Don't Care Anymore"

Underneath the gun in front of waiting eyes
Our time has just begun no second chance tonight

So we walk the longest days to live inside the shortest nights
We compromise our hearts to keep them satisfied
The shadows of our past, hard to ignore but judgment means nothing that's not what we're fighting for

We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore

Underneath the gun in front of doubting eyes
We walk this path as one take on the world tonight
And we'll carve our names into their bones
We'll never sell ourselves that's not what we're fighting for

We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore

I won't let this love, I won't let this love die, I won't let it die
There is only one thing that matters this time
At the hands of judgment I won't let it die, no sacrifice, regrets left behind, I won't let it die

This time, yeah, this time I won't let it die, that's not what we're fighting for
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
No we don't care anymore
We don't care anymore
We don't care anymore

I won't let this love, I won't let this love die