helmetiblog

why would Kevin visit cuteoverload.com?

a) it's a phase
b) helps me cope with the horrors out there
c) wasn't exposed to enough cute imagery as a child
d) trying to keep my network traffic balanced and I had earlier googled for the horse from The Godfather
e) Derek started it

I've always thought it untrue in a movie or a television drama when music would begin playing in the background of a scene. I'm not even talking about a musical, where not only can everyone involved hear the music but they also know the sympathetic choreography. I mean any sort of poignant moment undergone by the protagonist and emotionally augmented by the use of music. I never understood how it could have been playing for the character; it seemed just a gimmick aimed at the audience. I never understood, until I got my own portable mp3 device. This enabled me to play music to match the emotion of my own moment, and it's just as powerful as its broadcast counterpart. In a privacy contrived with headphones I now understand how life and music can intertwine.

Now I understand. Counting Crows is playing.

I don't really like Christmas movies or music enough to talk about them. Posting a Christmas wish list wasn't something I wanted to do. So instead I'm going with this non-Christmas list, a list of things I don't expect for Christmas in 2005, but all perfectly desirable items and maybe even fodder for future wish lists.

[laddered library] - This has been a dream of mine for some time, and someday before this life comes to an end I intend to make it happen. But probably not this Christmas.

[Mounted Triceratops Skull Model] - I can totally see this in my new library. It would be perfect, and is probably almost as necessary as the requisite antique globe.

[The Ultimate Star Trek Collection] - The title alone is both necessary and sufficient in its description.

[hot air balloon] - If I were to get one of these for Christmas it would change my life forever. I think it would be in a good way.

[Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT] - Perhaps the most-likely item on this list to make it into my eventual posession, the Digital Rebel XT would be a huge boost to the love for photography I think I have.

And since no Christmas list is complete without an iPod this year (or so I keep hearing), I'll add this [iPod mini setup] (the bear cradle is a must-have).

So there you have it -- a non-Christmas list, just in time for Christmas. Is there anything in particular on your non-Christmas list this year? Anything I've left off, those who know me well?

Update: I knew as soon as I published this I would think of the one item I shouldn't have left off, and indeed, so I did -- [a transporter pad]! (Preferrably functional)

Given my inattentiveness to blogging lately, and given Kristen's prompting, here's a little something to get me going again.

seven favorite microwaveable dinners:
tortilla with cheese
a can of soup
popcorn
a black bean burger
a chicken burrito
another can of soup
beans, cheese and salsa

seven desired domestic reforms or govermental actions:
income and payroll tax disolution (fairtax anyone?)
reign-in spending and deficit reduction
education reform
welfare disolution (with possible private-charity incentive)
legal reforms to aid small business and entrepreneurship
Alito confirmation
proposals for other ownership society-based reforms

seven artists discovered since summer:
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Michael Buble
Carbon Leaf
David Crowder Band
The Afro Celt Sound System
Vince Guaraldi
Si*Sé

seven strong desires:
a hot-air balloon ride
a home library complete with ladder
to work in speech and natural language processing
to be consistent in the small, important things
a combination of travel, photography and helping people
to transplant the satisfaction of chocolate or blueberry cobbler into healthier foods
to make a difference to those around me

seven daily news sources:
ussmariner.com
slashdot.org
townhall.com
news.google.com
hotdlz.com
livescience.com
forbes.com

seven good authors and a book or series:
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game series
JRR Tolkien - LOTR trilogy
Ravi Zacharias - Deliver Us from Evil
Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
Robert Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Willa Cather - My Antonia
Frank Norris - McTeague

seven questions to consider:
can private charity take over in the wake of a complete welfare repeal?
how about the growing capabilities in genetic manipulation and impending chimerization of man and beast?
will we reach indefinite lifetimes and how broadly should they be available?
what would someone else do with it if given your life for two years?
what should a christian business look like?
is there any merit to an argument against terraforming and extraplanetary colonization?
why aren't more people libertarians?