The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

I was going to use this as entry into a contest but I decided I didn't wanted pay to do it so I'll let you enjoy it instead: Old Joe thought he was going to be sick. The hamburger sandwich wasn’t sitting well. He should have known the lunch counter wouldn’t just give away their best food to a homeless bum like himself. Sure, many still had the Christmas spirit but what can you do? As he stuck his hands inside his overalls, a toothless smile formed on his face. It was starting to get cold. As he walked, he stumbled and fell into the street. He saw the car barreling down on him but it was too late. Soon, the soothing blackness of death. Happy New Year.

My story begins on Friday the 20th. My bus was delayed due to the previous days storm and the inefficiency to get back up and running 100% when shutting down. Later we hear from a father talking to his daughter on his cell. Her bus from Boston, and therefore my bus was broken down in Kennebunk. Alternator was shot or something. Another bus bound for the north finally arrived going a different route but would still get me to Bangor. We had to go through Brunswick instead. OK I was thinking. Fine. First, I have to sit in the very front which, again, is fine. Then the driver asked me my name and tells me though this only the 3rd time he's done this route there is only one place in Brunswick he gets confused and maybe reading the directions out loud will help him. So I do it. I read for him to veer left and he turns left. I will point out here the directions they give their drivers suck ass. No mile markers and very few landmarks. So we drive and drive. I see signs for Bath, ...

Thursday, I drove up to Bangor to see the play "A Year With Frog and Toad," which my second cousin was in, with my uncle and grandmother. My aunt and parents met us there. A drive that would normally take like 2 and half hours took about 5 because, well, the weather was just so awesome... The musical was great, as I still love the stories, with, honestly, the best parts thanks to my cousin as Snail and "The Terribly Huge and Hugely Terrible Frog." The best part of the evening came when we were going to our cars. (I and my traveling companions were going to my parents for the weekend.) My uncle goes to his car and can't unlock the door. We all assume the lock is frozen. My father down the street opened his car just fine so he didn't know what was going on. My uncle kept kicking the door with the side of his foot to no avail. By now, I'm sure you smart readers have deduced that it wasn't his car! Good times... I was intending to drive back down on Fri...

The final episode of one of my favorite series was last night. Boston Legal was both thought-provoking and zany all the same time. Creator David E. Kelly basically combined the sensibilities of his previous law shows. It had the seriousness of the show it spun-off from, The Practice, but knew how to have fun at the same time like Ally McBeal . And the cast was amazing. Only James Spader, Candace Bergen and Wiliam Shatner were part of the cast in all five seasons but other luminaries included Monica Potter Rene Auberjenois, Julie Bowen, Parker Posey, John Larroquette, Tom Selleck, Betty White and Michael J. Fox not to leave out Shelly Berman, Anglea Cartwright, Gail O'Grady, Bernadette Peters, Cherie Oteri, Saul Rubinek, Valerie Bertinelli, Ming Na and so many others as guest stars! An episode only a week or two ago pointed out that this show was the only one on television with actors over 50 in important roles. That the over fifty set spend more money and actually watch more TV,...

I could've Twitted about 6 times about this but I decided a short blog pot would work better: On the Song "Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All?" by Band Aid in 1985(?): 1. Since Africa is like two-thirds Muslim, the age-old question should be "Do they really care?" 2. My favorite line is "Thank God it's them instead of you..." I assume they were just imitating assholes hearing this song but it still makes it sound like they're saying, "feeding starving Africans at Christmas is a good thing but if it was someone I actually know...that would just suck..." One Final Thought: -The title "The Christmas Song" should only be reserved for the song writing by Mel Torme about chestnuts roasting and knowing a turkey. If bands want to write their own "Christmas Song," which usually is pretty awesome, call it something else because that's just lazy... -

The title is a reference to my favorite line, found in chapter 4, of the book club book I just finished Saturday night: Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestup; who, by the way, went to the seminary I now work. The book tells the true story of how she dealt with the sudden death of her husband through mothering her four children, her job as Maine State Game Warden Chaplin, and her faith. There were hilarious parts and there were touching parts. I'm glad being part of a book group has encouraged me to read more nonfiction as I know for a fact that I definitely wouldn't have read this book for instance otherwise. Where was I when I finished it? Working another string quartet concert at my church. No icy sidewalks or prima donna pianists so it went much smoother this time. Apparently, I'm being groomed to eventually take over for the guy from church that usually works them. Eventually. I'm ambivalent as he pulls out all the stops but the extra money would obviously be nice....

So far, my Thanksgiving weekend has been quite different. My roommate and I had my parents, grandmother and uncle over for the actual meal. My aunt/his mother had to work but she provided the chocolate cream pie and got a plate later. As is usual when my family gets together, we laughed a lot. My father told this story he heard on the radio where astronauts have this machine that turns their urine into drinkable water but it's still being perfected so it's still 10% urine. They compensate by using Tang! Supposedly, it tastes good... Yesterday included going to Applebee's for lunch with more family followed by going to my grandparents for more pie and conversation. That was nice actually and devoid of annoying weirdness so yay! Last night, we went down to see the annual "Lighting of the Holiday Tree Ceremony." They call it thus to be PC but aside from "The Dreidel Song" and the universally accepted "I Love Mud." It was all Christmas. Be acc...

Apparently the new trailer for the upcoming Star Trek film has been updated: So excited!

This past week I finished reading a classic Star Trek novel. The Pandora Principle is the official, until debunked in a movie or TV series, origin story of Lt. Saavik; who's now a captain in the recent "Vulcan books" by Sherman and Schwartz. I really have to doubt the two women read this book by Carolyn Clowes when they decided Spock and Saavik would be betrothed to each other. In the Pandora Principle , Spock is not only her mentor but, it turns out he raised her from the time he found her at around age 11 or 12 until she was old enough to enter Starfleet Academy making the betrothal plot point kind of "Woody and Soon Yi" which may be less taboo in Vulcan culture but still... The book takes place shortly before Star Trek II even though Robin Curtis, not Kirstie Alley, is on the cover. The dialogue in this book was great and the plot overall was interesting but I was left unsatisfied with the ending despite the awesome climax. It seemed they were gearing up f...

Musical Magic 8 Ball Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud, and press play. Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING. 1. How does the world see me? "Band on the Run"- Paul McCartney & Wings Do they see me as stuck inside a room? 2. Will I have a happy life? "El Salvador"- Peter, Paul & Mary I'm gonna have to go with "No"... 3. What do my friends really think of me? "I'll Never Find Another You"- The Seekers Awww That's sweet... 4. Do people secretly lust after me? "For the Life of Me"- The Wallflowers Probably not then... 5. How can I make myself happy? "Fire and Rain"- Richie Havens Reconnect with an old lover? 6. What should I do with my life? "Good Shepherd"- Jefferson Airplane Feed sheep apparently... 7. Will I ever have children? "Just a Girl"- No Doubt. Well, yes, that would help... 8. What is some good advic...

Probably every four years, maybe more often, maybe less, the "Christian Right" determine which candidate best follows their interpretation of the Bible. This forces the implication that to be a follower of Jesus' teaching you must be a Republican. I have no idea where people get this. I personally do not remember the verse or chapter where Jesus goes to Abraham's homeland (Find Ur on a map. It's in Iraq!) and subjects the villagers to illegal search and seizure or the part where Jesus praises John the Baptist, or whoever, for leveling a Samaritan village after a Samaritan bombs a donkey or something. But they must be in there... The death penalty is based on the code of Hammarabi which states "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Jesus says, on the other hand, Christians must "turn the other cheek" and that the other law was total donkeyshit. Someone will have to explain to me how continuing the act of vengeance with another act of vengeanc...

A revelation hit me the other night while I was trying to sleep. Terry Brooks' Word and Void series continuing with the just finished Genesis of Shannara trilogy (I haven't read the final book Gypsy Morph yet.) Is basically The Dark Is Rising series for a more mature audience. Yes, fantasy book fans will point out that every fantasy series is basically about good versus evil but the similarities here are rather scary. Both books deal with the Dark or, more creatively, the Void trying to take over the Earth. Both deal with prophecy predicting this would happen thousands of years ago. Both have the ultimate "Force of Good" known simply as "The Lady." Oh, and both a have a Tree... The differences are great, however. While Susan Copper's series draws off Celtic Myth. Terry Brooks combines Native American myth with typical fantasy elements as elven magic. Though I haven't read it, I'm imagining the ending of his series as more akin to the wa...

Related in the order it appears in my head: 1. My parents and I watched two movies on TV. the 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara; who isn't Scarlett's sister, we explained to my father, because Scarlett is a fictional character...This was on TCM so it was unedited. I thought it was being shown because of Halloween approaching but my feeling at the time of that thought was that this movie is even less of a Halloween movie than Frankenstein since it's just about a guy who's deaf and deformed. It turns out it was actually shown because of RKO's anniversary which is a much better reason. I loved the part where Quasimodo was throwing stones off the bell tower on the attacking peasants and then, when he dumped the vat of molten metal, I laughed so hard! 2. We also saw The 40 Year Old Virgin on NBC. (With an 8pm start time no less!) Yeah the language was edited out ("Forget you!") but I really don't think it's appr...

Last night, and finishing this morning, my roommate and I watched Evan Almighty with Steve Carrell and Lauren Graham with Morgan Freeman reprising his role from Bruce Almighty as God. Carrell plays Evan a newly elected congressman who is charged by God to build an ark for the coming flood. I was expecting a much less religious movie with raunch but this actually would work in a middle school aged church school class. Including where to find it in the bible (Genesis 6:14). Go find it!

Recently, I finished reading the fourth book in the Dark is Rising series: The Grey King . I had hopes for this book given that it won a Newberry Medal when it came out in the late seventies. At first, I was willing to concede it was better than Greenwitch but it was hard for me to figure out how this won anything but now that I've finished it, I was, to quote a certain turtle from Finding Nemo , "like whoa." As any good writer should do, Cooper takes her story from this myth and that myth and combines them really coolly in my humble opinion. (A certain fan of Celtic mythology would like these books...) I found myself oddly interested in the Welsh countryside as well. Up until this point, all I really knew was that Doctor Who and other shows were filmed in Cardiff... Now a word or twenty about the Red Sox making to the American League Championship series versus the D...Rays. The Rays have a great young team this year and what they've accomplished is amazing but I j...

How the Vice Presidential Debate should have gone. (Or is it how it went?):

I came across this article the other day and have been dying to share it with you. Thank God this wasn't thought of in '84... This leads me to my thoughts on the VP debate. While Palin wasn't a "deer-in-headlights," this really wasn't a good performance for her. There was one question Biden totally didn't answer and others he answered frankly half-assed but Palin was not answering questions all night and actually said at one point "I may not answer the questions you want me to answer..." Then why are you even at this debate? The debate was, well, sedate. I wanted a "You're no Jack Kennedy" moment or an old guy wondering where he was but, sadly, it didn't happen... I was admittedly surprised that the Red Sox won both games in Anaheim. Sure, they've dominated the Angels in the postseason but I really thought the trend of the Angels dominating in the regular season then choking in the post wouldn't continue. We only need ...

The first selection from my book group was Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. This maybe the first non-fiction book I've reviewed here. (For now, we'll just say it is.) My conservative readers may say that this book is pure liberal trash but no it isn't. Sure, it ultimately supports a liberal point of view but it was compiled from interviews with a few dozen veterans of the current conflict and points out that several things that seem to us as wrong couldn't be helped because they weren't supplied translators, proper training or the situation didn't give them time to think it through properly. The cultural/language barrier seemed to be the biggest problem faced by the soldiers. This was a perspective that I really didn't give a passing thought before reading the book. As a liberal, I was, of course, bothered by incidents related where the troops were ordered to perform acts to civilians, or the ...

Today, my roommate and I were at Starbucks and I saw a new collection of Canadian artists called Northern Songs . I liked a handful of the choices but wasn't pleased by a few omissions. Googling the album to see what others thought. Doing so, I came across an assignment from a professor of Canadian studies at the University of Vermont (Where else would they have a major like that?) to come up with their own list of tracks. I would love an assignment like this so I'm doing it! The original list: 1. Feist - "Mushaboom" 2. Pilot Speed - "Knife-Grey Sea" 3. Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane" 4. The Band - "The Weight" 5. k.d. lang - "Constant Craving" 6. Rufus Wainwright - "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" 7. Sarah McLachlan - "Angel" 8. Ron Sexsmith - "All in Good Time" 9. Kate and Anna McGarrigle "Entre la Jeunesse et la Sagesse" 10. Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine" 11. The Be Goo...

I guess we'll start on Saturday. I had an alumni Homecoming celebration downtown. As usual, nobody from my class came but I was surprised as I entered that a friend from high school was there. It turns out that her sister is the director of Alumni Relations at my college. Somewhat weird I think although I didn't go that far way to college so that may explain it... Sunday we were supposed to go out to eat with family as some of my aunts and uncles were going to be up but lunch was scheduled too early for us so my other aunt and I ended up getting our food to go before heading over to my grandparents. This turned out fine in the end. We started a book group at my church that afternoon. I guess we'll be meeting monthly. I discuss the first book after I finish it which shouldn't be much longer. Monday, my cousin/roommate, my aunt and I met my aunt and uncle who had been up visiting from Jersey. This went well until we got talking politics against my better judgment but what...