The Soap Box
A place for me to dump my brain and you to pick thru it

Skool
12:50pm

Last week in my unusual psych grad class, we were talking about socialization so of course we watched scenes from Princess Bride and Dirty Harry. I understood the Princess Bride part but the Dirty Harry part was...different. Today we watched a scene from Blue Velvet to illustrate the theory of emotion. Uhhhh, yeah. And then, and I swear this is true, we lip synced together to Abba's SOS. So, if you ever wondered if you could hack grad school, I'd say yeah, you can hack it. The difficult part is getting in.

In other news, it's pay day and I'm going to a Passion Party tonight! Whooohoooo! Also, Albuquerque radio sucks ass. That is all.

Random Thoughts
8:28pm

Hooray for Melissa Etheridge winning the Oscar for best song! I honestly can't remember the last time my choice for best song for a movie won. "In the Deep" from Crash last year? Nope. "Blame Canada," one of the best songs in a movie ever? Nope. "Save Me," by the amazing Aimee Mann? Uh uh. Did I think Melissa would win? I did not, considering she was up against Randy Newman and three songs from Dreamgirls. I actually cried out with joy when they announced her name.

While we are talking about Oscars, did anyone see Maggie Gyllenhaal last night? Man, she's hot.

Does anyone really care anymore about anything that has to do with Anna Nicole Smith? Seriously. I call a moratorium the world over on this poor dead woman. Yes, I did blog about her will 9 days ago but 9 days later of 24/7 Anna Nicole is really over the top. Just cut it out.

One thing you realize when you live in New mexico is that every fucked up and twisted news story you read is somehow linked to New mexico. The most recent is that the zookeeper killed by a jaguar over the weekend in Denver grew up and went to college in this state. Yeah, that's only one story. Well, how about the story regarding someone duct taping cd players under pews in the cathedral that played sounds from porn movies during the Ash Wednesday service? Yeah, that was in Santa Fe. Then of course, there was the runaway bride and that woman who would rob banks while talking on the cell phone...I could go on and on.

Have you noticed the increase in food poisoning in the past year? Seriously, I do not recall anything like this ever before. As we have now been a leader in the industrial world for decades, shouldn't food be getting safer, not less safe? I'm normally not a conspiracy theorist, but I am wondering what's going on here. Perhaps terrorists testing the safety of our food supply? If so, I think they have found our Achilles heel.

It's That Time Again
8:10pm

It's windy as shit, blowing dust all over the place. It makes you feel like you have chronically dirty hair. My eyes and roof of my mouth are itchy. The cats are insane. Yep, it's springtime in the desert.

RIP DJ
6:50pm

There were so many reasons why growing up just outside of Boston was great. I have wonderful memories of seeing shows before they went on to Broadway, skipping school opening day to go to Fenway Park, hanging out in Harvard Square but few things were more exciting than the Boston Celtics while I was in High school. These were the years of Bird, McHale, Parrish, Ainge, Walton, and of course, Dennis Johnson.

I remember one time I somehow got invited to a game the night before I had a big test on the Canterbury Tales. I actually went to the old Bahston Gahden with a bunch of index cards covered with notes to help me study pre and post game. As was normal for me, I had to wander the Gahden before the game because, you know, you never know who you might run into. Well, this particular night, I ran into Dennis Johnson while he was talking to a friend who had made it to a game. Here I was, some punk kid, and he took the time to talk to me and autograph one of my Canterbury index cards. I remember acting all cool and all but inside I was so excited I had met him I don't remember at all what I or he said and I "forgot" to study the rest of the night.

Dennis Johnson died today from a heart attack at the tender age of 52. He currently was coach of an NBA developmental team in Austin Texas. He had multiple championship rings, participated on All Star teams, and, according to past players, teammates or otherwise, was a great guy with a real passion for the team. It's really strange to me that a great NBA star that I used to watch in high school is no longer with us. I know his passing is a great loss for friends, family and especially, his Austin Toros.

Oh Yeah. My City Rocks Harder Than Yours
11:10pm

Albuquerque is THE PLACE, the only place, where these incredibly hot electric cars will be built in this country. I wonder if they need any test drivers...

They are also building a movie studio with 12 sound stages in Albuquerque. It's supposed to be the largest studio outside of California.

Maybe the value of my house will continue to climb, unlike the values of houses in other parts of the country.

The Disgusting Reality (sequel to An Inconvenient Truth)
8:47pm

The affects of depleted uranium on our own troops, claimed to be innocuous by the US government, is clearly devastating. The following comes from the Center for Research on Globalization web site:

During the 6 week 1991 Gulf war only 467 U.S. personnel were wounded and about 150 killed. Out of the 580,000 military personnel who served in that war, 325,000 were reported to be on permanent medical disability by the year 2000. It was also reported then the number was increasing by 43,000 each year. In fact, the annual increases were even greater, and by 2004 the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) reported over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans to be on medical disability. It also reported over 500,000 veterans were homeless. Studies were also done on veterans whose wives had normal babies before the war. It reported two-thirds of post-war births of those studied had severe birth defects, such as missing brains, eyes, legs and arms and blood diseases. (Emphasis mine.)

We are doing this to our own people. We are doing this to our troops, their families and their unborn children. It is illegal under international treaties to use depleted uranium as a weapon but apparently it's not illegal to be dumb enough to expose your own people to it. Pretty sad, huh?

Odds and Ends
7:56pm

So, I'm in this graduate level psychology class and it's a little nutty. A couple of weeks ago, we were shown in class a scene from Bladerunner which was supposed to illustrate structured reification. I didn't get it. Then the week after we were shown a clip from Taxi Driver which I think was supposed to tell us something about identity. All I got out of it is that "we're all fucked" which I pretty much already knew. The professor also told a very inappropriate sexual joke. I'm not sure what that was supposed to teach us.

My car smells strongly of...well...anyone remember Creepy Crawlers? (Julie?)There was this plastic goop (literally, it was called goop) of various colors that you put in these metal molds shaped like different bugs and "cooked" to make it solid. My car smells like cooking Creepy Crawlers! Does ANYONE have any idea what's going on? There's no puddles or stains under the car and the engine isn't running hot. Someone help!

The kitten, aka Mr. Man, has decided it's time for him to go outside. I have decided it is NOT time for him to go outside. The result of this disagreement is that when I come home and have my hands full, he darts out the front door. The only way I'd have to stop him is if I kicked him in the face, which I would never do to any cat, much less my Mr. Man. He has escaped twice so far and has spent all of perhaps 45 seconds outside. Since he has no idea what's out there or how to get away from me, he is easy to catch and release back indoors. He also has decided it's time to explore the garage. I have decided this is not a battle I wish to pursue so when he weasels his way in the garage, I just close the door and leave him there for about 5 minutes. Then he's ready to come back out hismelf. Just when I'm fed up with him, he curls up in my lap and purrs (like he's doing right now) and you just can't be mad at him for long. He's really a big cuddlebug.

And what's with Mr. Boston CONSTANTLY picking his nose on the "I Love NY" show on VH1? Ugh! Dude. You're giving my home town a bad name! Cut it out!

Strange Fame
3:30pm

So, I know you want to know what's the big thing about Anna Nicole's will. So she left her money to her dead son. Her money will just go to her daughter even though she's not named in the will, right? Well, it turns out the daughter is in the will, just not by name.

Yeah, her will states that any child that came along after Daniel was DISINHERITED! Oopsie! Basically, any fortune, real or imagined, is in the hands of her lawyer-bed partner, Howard K. Stern. It doesn't even matter whose the father of her daughter.

And in other weird weird news, Britney Spears SHAVED HER OWN HEAD! WTF? Oh, and she was in rehab for one day in the Caribbean. Then she left and shaved her head apparently because nothing says "I'm clean" like a shaved head, especially on a chick.

Kitten Pics!
12:24pm

Lazy bloggers love putting up pictures of their pets. It makes for a relatively interesting post and takes little mental effort. With that in mind, I give you a typical day for our kitten.

"What do you mean this is your skool bag? I fit in it perfectly! Go find something else!"

"When are you going to let me outside??? Until you do, I'm gonna climb the curtains!"

"I can't decide if I want to be ferocious and attack your arm or if I want to be pretty and clean my tail. I know! I'll do both!"

Yeah, I'm a Day Late. Sue Me.
1:41am

Happy Valentine's Day Video.

PS: Insomnia sucks!

I'm Not Making This Up
9:14pm

Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller are teaming up for a movie in which the Hardy boys are all growed up and solving one last case. What a strange pairing!

Thoughts on Being a Therapist - Part 2
8:32pm

• When your client is depressed, expect to be depressed as well
• Their stories of child abuse will haunt you for days, if not weeks
• When your client is doing well, you feel like you're on top of the world
• I can handle it when my client cries but when his eys well up and he doesn't cry, I want to cry for him
• How am I ever going to manage seeing 6 or more clients a day?

Travelin' Fool
9:26am

Now I'm at this conference. Will blog more once I get home this weekend. And then I plan to stay home.

Not Buying It
12:34am

For some reason I've been hearing the phrase, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission" a lot lately and I say that's bullshit. That is all.

Hey Dude!
12:34am

Payback's a bitch.

History Gone Awry
7:13pm

Why is Planet of the Apes on the History channel right now? Did I pull a Rip Van Winkle?

Today's Quiz
4:55pm

Today's quiz has you guessing what famous American author is attributed to the incredibly racist quote below:

The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are.

Hint: The quote is from approximately 1890. Googling the answer = cheating! (My game, my rools.)

Place your guess in the comments. I'll put the answer there in a few days.

Yet Another Reason Why I Have Cats Instead of Kids
9:28am

From a friend's blog:

"At least with a cat, you can wrap them in a towel and force a pill down their throats. Small boys are much more challenging."

OK, being a cat owner, I can tell you that getting pills into cats is a possibly life threatening task at times. And it's harder in small boys? Uh, no thanks! I'm not saying no one should have kids. Seriously, it's a good thing others REALLY like them because if it were left up to me, the human race would die out.

Things on My Mind
12:07am

Here is why I don't use MySpace. And here. And here.

We are still sans a second car and Nick teaches in Santa Fe 3 days a week which means me getting to and from campus is a pain in the ass. I've been on campus more than usual because of this and have made a discovery. The more you are on campus, the more work you end up doing...which I must have known on some level as I normally try to spend the least amount of time on campus as I can. Actually, I don't spend much time on campus because us grad students are sequestered from the "normal people" in the basement of our building which is riddled with cockroaches and gaseous smells. Charming, no?

I finally felt good after the last therapist appointment with my client. I wasn't depressed or anxious or worrying that my client was gonna off himself. Wow. I hope we continue in this direction. It feels REALLY good.

The dingleberries that are upset that Daniel Radcliffe is appearing in a theater show in the "all together" really need to get over it. The guy is not REALLY Harry Potter. He's an actor. Let the kid stretch for a change you puritanical numbnuts.

Is anyone else upset that Exxon Mobile made a record $39 billion last year? Let me say that again. Exxon Mobile made a record $39 BILLION last year. That is more than any company has ever made in one year. Have you all been having fun buying that gas at over $2 a gallon in order to make a few fat cats even fatter? Seriously. This is ridiculous.

And it's already Friday! Yay! We'll probably see Volver this weekend. I wanted to see Smokin' Aces but have found out there is a lot of bloody violence and I'm not into that.

Blog Name: The Soap Box
Email: jenben[at]g-r-c.com
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