The Layman's blog: "The Layman's World"

So. . . The other day, I was in the grocery store. I was on a pretty tight budget, so when I got to the coffee aisle, I was really hesitant about what I was gonna' get. Those of you who shop at Kroger or Fry's know that their own "Kroger" brand is pretty good. Same stuff as Folgers, I'm sure. Well, I decided to buy the generic "value" brand and save a dollar. . . Good lord, it's horrible!!! Blehhhhhhhh. . . Thank god, I got the biggest can. . . That was sarcasm, for those who couldn't tell. Anyway, don't be cheap when it comes to coffee shopping. That's the point of the story.

I'm an atheist. Sometimes, I say that I'm a "born again" atheist, but that's not really true. I'm more of an "out of the closet" atheist. I have been, for a while. It's kind of weird, though. I don't know if being an atheist requires me to talk about it or not. . . Like, when I pretended to be a Christian, I was supposed to share my faith with everyone. I can't figure out if I'm supposed to do that, anymore. . . So, I figured I'd just put some of my thoughts out there, because I don't every really talk about it. I will say this. Being an atheist is wayyyy easier than being a Christian. You can sum it up with three major talking points. 1) Everything is here by chance. 2) What we know as morality is simply hardwired behavior that has evolved with us over billions of years in order to ensure the continuation of our species. 3) When we die, we just go back into the ground to become part of the matter of the universe, again. It's pretty liberating, really. I don't have to carry around all that junk about getting into heaven, anymore. I've always been an atheist. One of my earliest memories is of me reading a story about Moses using his staff to make water come out of a rock. . . or something like that. At five years old, I yelled out, "That's fake as hell!" My mom cracked up, then told me not to use that language, again. It was kinda' funny. I spent some time being a born again Christian, but I just never really bought into it. Too many contradictions internally, and of course too difficult to reconcile with all of the other spiritual beliefs that people are practicing. I gave that up. But, I kept lying about it, anyway. I used that line, "I believe in a god, but I'm don't believe in organized religion." That turned out to be crap, though. This is not an original thought of mine, but I will repeat it: Organized religion helps the poor, provides solace to people in times of need, and organizes people to take up social causes (whether or not everyone agrees with them). The Catholic church, under Pope John Paul II, was one of the driving forces behind the end of Soviet communism in Europe. It turns out that it's actually the belief in a supernatural being and to whom he will grant eternal life after death that causes all of the problems. No one can seem to agree on it. Everyone's god is the best one, and it's evidently worth fighting over. I read a lecture by Carl Sagan in his newest book, The Varieties of Scientific Experience, where he simply asks the rhetorical question: Is it any more ridiculous to think that the universe was just always there, than to think that God was just always there? Well, it's not, if you ask me. It's strange to me that people think otherwise. Now, if someone would just tell me if I'm a hypocrite for still saying "bless you" when someone sneezes, I'd be really happy. . .

Well. . . In this world of awesome videogames where you can kill, maim, solve crimes, be a rockstar, or a superbowl champ. . . I am regressing and spending tons and tons and tonnnnns of time playing this new casino game I got for my 'puter. I had one for my playstation and I loved it. I would just lose HOURS playing blackjack. Poker is my game, these days. I'm cleaning up in fake videogame money. Turned my $2000.00 into $1,292,250.00 in a week of playing. . . Maybe an hour or 2 each day. It makes me think of starting a new career, but I'm still too smart to think that I could win big, like that. The poker game doesn't have multiple players. It's just me versus the dealer. That sorta' sucks, but it's still fun. I got a little appreciation for the roulette table, too. Craps? Not so much. Baccarat confuses me. And I don't really touch the slots. I've been doin' well with the poker and blackjack, though. Anyway. . . All this is to say that I have tons of imaginary money now. . . So, I'm pretending to buy each of you something nice! ;-)

Well. . . I sat down today to do a quick top ten list. I was gonna' do my top ten favorite movies of all time, but it's been so long since I put anything up here, that I completely forgot that I already put that one up. So, I have to think of something else, now. What to do. . ? I dunno'. . . I'll have to think of something, I guess. Sometimes it's hard to come up with stuff to say. . . I guess I'll just put my pants on and drink my coffee and shut up, for now. ;-)

Well. . . It's been a long time since I put something on here. . . I'm not sure what to put up, today. I read a few books on the origins of life in the universe. . . One of 'em was tryin' to talk me into bein' an atheist. Richard Dawkins wrote it, and he was recently chewed a new one on South Park. It's a good book, though. And I got in an argument with a guy at work about whether or not evolution and natural selection happens at random or not. . . The dude said it wasn't random and that there is a cause and effect relationship between an organism's environment and the way it evolves. . . He's totally backwards about it. I also bought a huge TV/PC monitor, yesterday. . . Well, it's not huge, but it's big. 37". I feel like Batman when I'm at the 'puter!! Or like it's NORAD or something. OH!! And I saw Rocky Balboa, and it rocked! I would recommend it, if anyone cares about my opinion. Besides that stuff, it's just been workin' and having some beers from time to time. Nothin' fancy. I hope you all enjoyed this quick update on the life of a total stranger. :-)

Well, it's been a little while since I posted, and I know I already missed the second "Weekly" Nebulous Top Ten list, but I figured I'd put a little up here, today. I've been spending some time working on some new music, which seems to be coming along pretty well. The first song is pretty well written. I have a lyric, a rough guitar part, and some vocals put together. It's certainly a demo, though. I like to call it a sketch, to make it seem more like art. The one thing that's bugging me about it is that I think I'm trying to jam too much into the verses. And I'm using some of the same vocal phrasing that I always use, which makes it seem like kind of a drag. But, I think that will iron out with some work. I'll probably have to go back to the drawing board with the verses, which will make it draft number three. Hopefully, that will be a keeper. The other hold up is with my brother. I'm hoping to get him to work out the instrumentation, because he's a better player than I am. I think he's going to flake on me, though, so I'll end up having to put it all together, myself. We'll see. Anyway, I'll figure out a way to share it when it's all put together. More to come. . .

Yesterday morning, I was walkin' around with my fly open. . . It was particularly weird, because I suffer from fly-open-ophobia, and I'm constantly checking my crotch to make sure nothing is getting out. But, yesterday, I didn't have any urge to do that. I walked out the door and across the street to the bus stop, got on the bus to work, walked around in the office for a while. . . No one said anything at all. And it wasn't just open, either. It was OHHHHHH-PENNNNNNN!!! I finally sat down and saw a flash of red where I should normally just see denim blue. I put it together that the red was my underwear, and it was soon the color of my blushing face. This sure explained some of the strange looks that people were giving me, all morning. This is the moment that I realized strangers will not tell you that your fly is down. What is the world coming to?

I can't think of anything to write about, this morning. I was trying to come up with something, but I'm not doing a good job. I think I have myself all geared up to write some new music, and it's distracting me from writing interesting things here. That is, assuming that I was ever writing interesting things. I'll amend that statement and just say "things," instead. I spent some time working on my new gear, and I love it. It was fifty bucks, well spent. I took a synthesiser track, tweaked it a little, and added some vocals to it. I took a backing track that my brother recorded and put some vocals on that. Neither of these are original compositions, but they turned out okay. Mainly, I just wanted to get my hands on some of the controls, and try this stuff out. I'm excited to get to work with it. I am especially glad that I put the software on my laptop, so I can take it anywhere. That will come in handy, I'm sure. For those of you who are interested in hearing some of the stuff, send me a note. They're small files, and I can put them on an email attachment for you. Later, I'll put them online, and post links to them, so you can listen or download them, that way. I can probably get in trouble for that, but we'll do it until someone tells me to cut it out. I won't tell if you don't. That's all for now. I am in the process of getting ready for work, so I want to leave you with this parting thought: Work sucks!! I think it's a catchy slogan.

Welcome to the first installment of my Nebulous Top Ten list. I call it nebulous because it is not set in stone, by any means. These just happen to be the movies that came into my head when I was making the list. I'm sure that if I did it on a different day, I'd come up with some different results. Anyway, this week I chose to share my top ten favorite movies of all time. Enjoy! 1. Star Wars I actually lump all six of the Star Wars films into this slot. But, it's the first one, which is really the fourth one, that has the most sentimental value, for me. I was seven years old when it came out, and it was the coolest thing ever. 2. Batman Begins This is the newest movie in the list. I was a big fan of Tim Burton's Batman movie with Michael Keaton. When I heard that Batman Begins was greenlighted, I was just hoping that it would be as good as Burton's. I was actually shocked by how good it was. The first time I saw it, I felt like I had just witnessed a historic event. 3. Can't Buy Me Love I don't know why I like this one, so much. Maybe I relate too closely with Ronnie Miller. I never paid anyone to hang out with me, but I sure tried being someone I'm not, a few times. I can watch this one over and over. I still get angry at Ronnie when he disses Cindy Mancini in front of the lockers. She's the hottest girl in school!! Is he an idiot!!? 4. Jaws This one creeped into my top ten in recent years. It's acknowledged as the original summer blockbuster, and it's Steven Spielberg's second movie. It's still one of his best. The scene where Quint describes the sinking of the USS Indiannapolis is one of the best scenes in any movie, ever. 5. The Manchurian Candidate I'm talking about the original one. Directed by John Frankenheimer in 1962. Frank Sinatra won an oscar for this movie. And even though the 2004 remake with Denzel was really good, they couldn't touch what Frankenheimer did with the brainwashing scenes. Watch the first 20 minutes of this movie, and you'll see what I mean. 6. Contact I am a big fan of Carl Sagan. I became a big fan after seeing this movie based on his book. It's ironic that Sagan was very much a proponent of a Godless universe, but this movie is so filled with themes of faith in the unseen. . . It's almost a religious testimony. 7. Vertigo This is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. And it's my favorite James Stewart movie. My jaw actually fell open when I got to the end. I don't think there's been another thriller quite this good. Very dark and very heavy. And Kim Novak is so hot. . . 8. Fail Safe This is another great Cold War era movie. It's all about the evil technology that could get away from us and start a nuclear war. There was a remake on CBS, a few years ago, but this original with Henry Fonda is still the best. It made me worry like crazy, after I saw it for the first time. 9. To Kill a Mockingbird This is one of the best movies ever, based on one of the great American novels. The AFI voted Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of all time. It's hard to argue that point. I think this movie set the standard for every courtroom drama that came after. And it's Robert Duvall's first big role, too. 10. Rocky IV No. . . This isn't the one with Mr. T. This is the one where Rocky fights the Russian. I think this one is so great because it is just such a product of it's time. It's a total propaganda film. The US versus the Soviet Union during the tail end of the Cold War. It so perfectly captures the time in which it was made, tht I think it should be considered a classic film. And of course, there are plenty of musical montages, too. And there you have it, folks. Please share your thoughts. I'll look forward to it.