The Man

I'm still formulating my thoughts on Michael Jackson ( it may take me some time to work out how I feel about the whole thing, as complicated as it is), but did want to get to this other matter. I've already formulated two lists to rank the attractiveness of women (both "active" and "historical"), and felt that I ultimately ought to even things up with a list of men. I can't really speak for the attractiveness of men, but can say whether or not they are admirable. When someone reaches the pinnacle of admiration, we call them "The Man". Who is the man? Where to start...

Today's events

Today has been a fairly good day thus far. It began with me getting up at the very reasonable hour of 7am, getting some much-needed groceries, and getting my backpack back from a friend. He had been down in San Diego for the last week, and I was without numerous important items, including my library books: The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter & Reflections In A Golden Eye, both by Carson McCullers.So he came with the backpack, and we talked a while. After that he dropped me off at my Toastmasters meeting.

It was a good meeting, and I had a good time serving as Toastmaster. In that role one organizes the meeting and introduces the speakers. The response to my performance was good, with a lot of people laughing at my jokes. A number of people were kind enough to complement me afterward, and all of that feels very good. I'm very glad I joined- it was one of my better decisions.

Improv

Monday, of course, was improv night. This week we were working on emotions, and I'd say I had partial success in that at least. As always, class was very crowded, and there was only enough time for each person to get on stage three times. Even so, there was good energy and good performances. I've come to enjoy the company of the other regulars very much, and always look forward to seeing them. Apart from the pleasure I get out of the experience, I have a feeling that my participation may yield very big things.

After the workshop, many of us headed to a nearby bar, where the good times continued. I mainly just drank soda, and this was for two reasons. Firstly, I'm not often willing to pay what they charge, and secondly, I'm fearful of acting stupid and incoherent. Anyway, it was really wonderful to be with those people for a while longer. Can't wait for the next time.

Mark Sanford

I've been following the story of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's disappearance with interest. For a time, there was no explanation of his whereabouts. Indeed, no one, not even his immediate family knew. We then got a few conflicting reports. The story now is that he has been hiking the Appalachian Trail. Alternately, however, we have been told that he was writing and that he was finishing up projects. Any of these explanations, in the absence of the others, would probably satisfy, but all together, they are suspicious.

Speech!

I haven't written since Thursday, which I feel badly about. To begin with, I'll offer an account of the speech I gave on that day. I started the day nice and early, having coffee, going over my material, and spending a little time online. As I sometimes do, I had breakfast at a local fast food establishment. This probably didn't do much for my health, but it enhanced my fortitude in advance of the speech.

Speech

As I said, my speech was on the subject of the situation in Tehran, and I did give that speech early this afternoon. I don't really have the energy to properly describe it, so look for that sometime Friday.

Name of the game

Another day and another game. There was good food and a good time. Finally we saw one particular season ticket holder and caught up. Dodgers made a good effort, but couldn't get it done.
Tonight I need to finalize my speech, the subject of which will be the ongoing strife in Tehran, Iran. Hopefully I'll be able to do this serious subject more justice than my previous serious speech concerning the menace of Somali piracy. We'll see, and I'll probably have something up here by mid-afternoon.

More to come tonight only in the event of a truly remarkable event.

Improv & Baseball

Yesterday was improv class, and it was a good one. The size of the group was unusually large, but we managed. Our teacher was a sub from one of the advanced classes, due to our usual teacher being tied up with a movie. I think I acquitted myself well. I got a good response on my performances, as well as on my suggestions for other people's scenes.

After class a number of us went to a bar nearby. I only do that at the suggestion of others, but it was a good time.

Tonight the dodgers started a series at home against Oakland, and I was there. Dodgers win it on the last at bat in the bottom of the tenth. Probably I'll be there for the others as well.
I will be giving a speech at Toastmasters thursday. Report to follow.

Revolution?

Before I was born, the people of Iran were stuck with an unjust autocratic government. It was partly of our making, and a change of regimes was probably called for. I think that reasonable people were sorely disappointed by what followed. It's been a long, hard row for the good people of that nation to hoe, but there's just a ghost of a chance that the end of the bad days is in sight. As I write this, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Iranians are marching and demonstrating after what appeared to all the world to be a rigged election. It was one which kept out the reformer and kept in the despicable Ahmedinejad. A nationwide strike is in the offing, and if the movement hangs together, they will not have to hang separately( as Dr. Franklin said during our fight).

Cleaning my room

One of the many areas I'd like to improve on in my life is cleanliness. It seems that wherever I am living, I do just enough to not get thrown out of that particular place. I observed today that I really only clean things up when I'm looking for something. Yesterday it was my passport, so I really made an effort to tidy things up, even continuing after I had found what I was looking for.

In that pet subject of mine, entropy, it says that all systems are breaking down. That means that as soon as I finished cleaning up, things started getting messy again. I must make an effort to be more vigilant, because I know that when I do better in areas like that, I can lead a better life in all sorts of ways.

Passports

When I was in college, I read a newspaper article which indicated that a small proportion of US citizens possess passports. I forget what the fraction was, but it was something like one in three or one in six or something similar. I took that article to be an unfortunate commentary on the provincialism of most Americans as well as myself. I had then and have now great aspirations, and that includes travel. There are many places I want to see, and I have crossed few off the list. Getting the rest necessitated a passport.

I would rather that passports were not necessary for international travel. They feel somewhat like an abrogation of freedom. Nonetheless, they are required by law, so late in 2005, I went to the nearest post office to get one. I was told that I didn't have the proper documents. I argued a little, but postal employees don't give in. I went home, and set about getting the necessary documents. That took a little while. In time though, I have everything I needed. It just remained to get a picture taken, then to go back to the post office.

Just saw something incredible

I was watching the Military Channel on an early Saturday morning, as I sometimes do, when a mind-blowing ad came on. Now, anyone who has been fishing knows, one must first thread the hook. One then baits the hook, and then casts. The device offered in the ad makes clear the fact that casting a rod (or pole, as the case may be) is too onerous an act for some anglers. Then there are those who are physically able to cast, but do not fish because it is not exciting enough. The device alleviates that problem as well.

It looks like a slightly over-large handle, and shows only a button. Once the button is pressed, the device launches a hook on a line with great force. It's that simple. Upon seeing this, I swore in awe as loudly as I felt able to in an apartment with roommates. This is an amazing invention. Now, I don't shill unless I've been paid, so I won't share more information than I have, but I would love to see it catch on.

Live At The Tonight Show

As previously indicated, I had tickets to see the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. It was a very good time. My report: We got to the studio about 3:00, having illicitly parked in the subway lot nearby. There was myself, an alumni friend, and his neighbor. We walked towards the studio gate, and were intercepted by a show staffer. That was kind of odd. I suppose it was necessary though, as we may not have quickly found our way to the proper place otherwise. There was a separated open-air corridor where I checked us in, and where we waited for a while before going inside.

Baseball and show biz

The last couple of days, I've been at dodger stadium. Tomorrow, I'll be on the lot at universal watching conan o'brien's tonight show. I'll have comments and maybe pictures tomorrow evening.

The early morning

I think I may have written about the morning before. It's the earliest and most laden with potential part of the day. I recently was reading Walden, and the early morning was important to Thoreau. Clearly he found it easier to get up early than I do, as he faced fewer obstacles in so doing. I miraculously woke up before 6 am today. Today may very well hold much in store for me.

Ugh

Monday night, improv. Good class. I got some praise for what I did today, which is cool. I didn't think it was necessarily my best, but it feels really good to hear things like that from cool people whose own work I admire and whose opinions I respect.

Regarding the "ugh": I have not been doing too well in my well-intentioned effort to post something every single day. I'll just try to post as regularly as I can while making sure I get in a post for every day in the month, as I had previously done.

Chess

I indicated after the purchase of a chess set that I would have more to say. Firstly, I'm not very good. I need to study more and develop my mind so that I can see more moves ahead. I'm going to play as much as I can, and check out some books.

Now, about my chess playing past: I have a faint recollection of playing with my father very early, but there's not much to that. What I remember well is the chess I played in charter school. I had an excellent teacher at that time- maybe the best teacher I've ever had. He was sort of a Professor X to a team of X-Men. I mean by that that he fostered the development of a group of exceptionally special kids. We all seemed to have amazing accomplishments in our futures. We were all child prodigies of a kind. He got us into movies, animation, physics, and among other things, chess.

We had something like 15 or so chess sets, and played regularly. We had rankings and scheduled matches by ranking. As I said, I'm not very good and was not any better then. I was not the worst, though. I remember a match against someone in particular. She had me on the brink of defeat, but because she didn't know how to put me away, I kept slipping off the hook. I started gloating after each move, which was inappropriate. The teacher got fed up, and put me in checkmate in one movie. It was memorable.

Shopping

I picked up a considerable amount of groceries today. I expect that they'll last me quite a while. I went around 7 this morning, which seems to be a good time to take advantage of clearance discounts on certain inventory. For breakfast, cereal, for lunch, hotdogs, and for dinner, spaghetti. Also purchased were apples, potatoes, spinach, ramen noodles and cup o'noodles. Already on hand were white rice, soy sauce, beer and coffee.

Random Assortment

Toastmasters was today. Somewhat disorganized at the start, robbing us of some four or five minutes. If we had it, it would have given me more time for my table topics. I also provided the word of the day. Next week, I'm an evaluator.

Currently, I'm at Dodger Stadium. No score as yet, but that's bound to change. On the other side of downtown, the Lakers are beating the Magic in Game 1 of the Finals.

In other news, I picked up an inexpensive chess set at the drugstore. Hopefully I'll get some use out of it and improve my game. Suffice it to say that I know how the pieces move, but that my gift for strategy is minimal. Those who seek me out on facebook may engage me in a game. I'll have more to say about my chess experiences in future.

Tomorrow, it's the peace gathering. Should be a good time, and I'll be sure to say something about it.

Back To The Ballpark

Got back to Dodger Stadium for the first time in forever. I don't think I had been there since the few games I made in April. This was a series against Arizona, so I was torn, as always. Next is the Phillies, which is simpler emotionally. I'll be there tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Should be fun.

Tomorrow is also Toastmasters, and I will be providing Table Topics. This will be important since we will have only one scheduled speech. Then, Friday, it's the Peace Gathering, which is always a very good time.

Going Out

I haven't written since Sunday, but nothing has happened to me. I'm fine, and there's a little updating to do. Monday was improv class, and it was excellent. There are certainly areas where I need to improve, but I'm feeling better and better about my performances. I think it can't be terribly long before I'm moved up to the next level, which would be the second of three.

After class, a number of us went to a bar where a fellow improv-er works a couple days of the week. I don't do such things often, but was glad to do so this time. I had one drink: a delicious Fat Tire. We talked and drank and ate goldfish for a while, and left some time after midnight. Always nice to socialize, and I'm glad it's becoming more of my life.