So Long And Thanks For All The Nerds

Katy has arrived in town, and I've got lots to share on that front, but that will take time and lots of work to download lots of pictures, so I'll have to save that for later. For now, let me relate a quick story about going to see "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" last night.

First of all, let me say that I don't plan to do movie reviews very often on this site. To me, critiquing movies on a website is a poor-man's way of coming up with subject matter for discussion without having to exercise any creativity on your own part. It's just too easy. Movies are wonderful and I watch a great many of them (too many, actually), but if you lead a full, interesting life there will be enough things to talk about without having to rely on the movie industry to give you subject matter.

Now that that's of my chest, how was the movie? Strange. And kind of hollow. In a weird way, it was like seeing a band you've loved for twenty years going through the motions on their Third Annual Farewell Tour. Hearing all the old familiar stuff again sort of gives you a warm feeling inside, but it just doesn't give you that same rush anymore that it gave you the first time you heard it, or even the tenth time. Not only is the book The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy over twenty-five years old, but it's been turned into a radio play and was produced on television for (I guess) the BBC; I remember the televised version showing up a lot in college dorm rooms where lived guys who thought that being able to quote every line of a Monty Python movie somehow made up for the fact that at 22 years of age they had never kissed a girl. For a true Douglas Adams aficionado (which, sorry to say, I guess I am--more on that in a minute) there really isn't much that surprises you. Several times I found myself thinking something like "oh, here comes the joke about the sperm whale and the bowl of petunias. Let's all sing along!" And of course, if you're not a Douglas Adams fan, I'm sure the whole think didn't make a lick of sense.

Perhaps I wasn't in the best of moods to see the film. First off, I have to give props to Melissa, who humored me by coming along. It's a real sacrifice for her since she really doesn't care for Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Any movie that includes Elves or dialogue about deflector shields is pretty much a non-starter for her. I had expected the crowds to be rather small, figuring that on a Friday night most of the yahoos that were going to the movies would be going to see XXX (the Ice Cube movie, not porn). Imagine my embarrassment when we encountered a very long line for our movie. A long line full of . . .nerds. Star Trek Convention-caliber nerds. Some of them actually brought towels to see the movie. See, towels are what The Hitchhikers Guide says you have to carry with you at all times if you're going to travel through interstellar space, because . . . oh never mind. Just believe me when I tell you that bringing a towel to see The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy is the best was I can think of to let the world know that you're a 34 year old virgin.

What really depressed me was the thought that to a greater or lesser extent, these were MY PEOPLE! While not a full-blown nerd, I myself have strong nerd tendencies at the very least. I mean, I was there to see The Hitchhikers Guide on opening night, wasn't I? True, I had a beautiful woman with me, and I would never in a million years have thought of bringing a towel (A TOWEL, FOR GOD'S SAKE!), but in the end there's no escaping the fact that I am not too many rungs up the evolutionary ladder from these dateless wonders. I'm not sure what Mel sees in me, but I'm not looking that gift horse in the mouth.

After two years, words start to feel hollow

Seventeen bombs set off today in Iraq. Fifty people dead, including three Americans. This in a War that the Bushies and the Conservative Media has declared victory in on at least five major occasions that I can recall--The fall of Baghdad, the "Mission Accomplished" speech, the capture of Saddam, the hand-over of soverignty, and most recently with those purple-finger elections. Yet the killing just goes on and on. And surely, when al Zarqawi is captured (which he inevitably will be) we'll go through the back-slapping all over again, and the usual suspects will assure us once again that it was all worth it, that even if the WMDs were a lie, hey, we brought 'freedum' to the Iraqi people, or at least to the ones who haven't been killed.

I'm not for a total pull-out from Iraq. Colin Powell was right; we broke it, now we own it. It would be even more irresponsible of us to simply throw that country to the wolves. I just wish that somehow, somewhere, some way the poeple who led us into this mess could be held accountable.

Imminent Arrival of Yukon Sully's More-Famous Sister--City of Reno Officially On Lockdown Until Further Notice

The upcoming weekend promises to be busy. The youngest of my siblings, Katy, will be arriving in Reno from L.A. (Los Angeles, Not Lower Alabama) early tomorrow morning. Much craziness is sure to ensue. Katy is a struggling actress bound for fame and fortune, so I'm hoping to get a few more pictures of us together so that one day I might be able to convincingly document the fact that I knew her way back when. The pictures should be posted soon, unless they end up being truly bribe-worthy, in which case I'll keep them in a dry, dark place for future use.

Mad Dog v. Rocket

Greg Maddux starts tonight against Roger Clements in Houston. This will be the first time in 18 years that two 300-game winners have started against one another. That almost one-fifth the amount of time it's been since my Cubbies last won the World Series! I was just looking at his roster picture, and my God does Greg Maddux look old. Click here to see what I mean

I never met a real cowboy who went to Yale

I caught some of some of Dubbya's press conference last night. I have a few things to say about it, but first I want to explain something. I don't really intend for this to be a political blog--God knows there's enough of those out there, perpetually engaging in slap-fights with each other. That being said, politics is bound to come up from time to time. It's just part of who I am.

Pretty clearly, the motive behind that press conference was the dive Dubbya has taken in the polls that he supposedly doesn't pay attention to. Basically he's lost or is losing public support on everything that's come up since the election--Social Security, Terri Schiavo, the Bolton nomination, Tom Delay, increased violence in Iraq, etc.--and someone somewhere figured it's time for a healthy dose of the ol' Dubbya "guy you want at your barbeque" charm. I don't want to get bogged down in the details of his talking points, but what I can't help but wonder is why so many of my fellow Americans won't see this charade for what it is. I think there's a sizeable number of people out there who trust the guy simply because he's a moderately convincing fake cowboy.

More frightening still is the machine that the Republicans have built which supports this fake cowboy. The Republican machine sort of reminds me of a brilliant offensive system in football. The quarterback may rack up unbelievable numbers, but those in the know will tell you "it's really the system." In much the same way, the Republicans have built a ground-up political system based in churches and ex-urban America, supported by a super-disciplined message machine (talk radio, Fox News, pundits, etc.) that creates a ideological support system--really more an Identity than an ideology--for local and national politicians, leading all the way up to the President. In a sense, Dubbya is like that quarterback in the brilliantly-devised system. He's the "face" of the team and gets much of the credit, but in reality you could plug just about anyone into the system and so long as he knows the basic playbook he'll be just as successful. Meanwhile, as Howard Dean pointed out a few weeks ago, Democrats flounder around, waiting for the next John Kennedy or Bill Clinton to come and rescue them. Rather than building an effective system like the Republicans have, they muddle along, hoping that a star player will emerge to take them to the promised land. The result of all this is fairly predictable: De facto one-party rule. Democrats may be enjoying a few successes lately, but so much of the country has come to so personally associate themselves with the Republican "Identity" that it will probably take at least a generation to bring about a meaningful shift.

Yes, More Ivory Billed Woodpecker

This is an artist's depiction of the apparently no-longer-extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Laugh all you want, I think this is pretty cool.

Visual Aid

Sorry about the previous blank post--there has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth as I try to figure out how to post photos. If this works, you should see a picture of Melissa (my beautiful girlfriend) and me snowboarding at Northstar, one of the Tahoe region's 17,000 or so ski resorts.

Ivory Billed Woodpecker Lives!

In trying to download the snowboarding picture above, I accidentally created a blank post that I can't seem to delete. So since blogspot is handing me lemons, I'm going to make lemonaide; I'm editing this post to share what I find to be a wonderful bit of news.

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker, one of the American South's most gorgeous native birds, was thought to have been wiped out of existance close to 60 years ago. Rumors of the bird's survival and occasional sightings persisted down through the years, but now there appears to be videotaped evidence that these massive birds have somehow survived. Yes, this is the sort of stuff that gets closet Environmentalists like me all in a tizzy. I'll be very upset if this turns out to be a mistake or a hoax.

The One Responsible

Click the above title for a link to Mimi's (not her real name, but I respect her desire for a nomme de guerre) site. For better or worse, she's the one who set me onto blogspot. If I could figure out how to set up a links sections, she'd be on it.

UPDATE: Success! See the new "Links" section, just below the "Archive" section on the left. I really am smarter than you are :-).

Dance, Monkey!!!

Is there anything more humiliating than a looking for a job? My current job with the Second Judicial District is a temporary one, scheduled to end in mid-August, so I'm in full-on job search mode right now. I just got done with a quickie phone-interview with one of Reno's more prestigious law firms (no names, just to protect the innocent).

The truth, of course, is that what I really like doing is exactly what I do now--being a law clerk. My hope is that I will get a staff attorney position with the Nevada Supreme Court. I have an application in, but that will probably take some time to work it's way through the bureaucracy. Keep your fingers crossed.

Sure, it's not much now, but oh boy, just you wait!

I'm a novice blogger and am still figuring things out. This site is very Spartan right now, but that will change in the coming days and weeks. I'm hoping to figure out how to get pictures posted ASAP. Information both verbal and visual about me and the epic tale that is my life will be forthcoming.

I intend this blog to primarily serve as a way for family and friends in far-flung parts of the world to keep up with the comings and goings in my little world. The learning curve will probably be steep as I slowly figure out how to make the best use of this newfangled modern technology, but I will do the best I can. In the meantime, please be patient. Thanks.

Finally Moving Into The 21st Century

Okay, I give up. I'll become a blogger. I'll join the blogosphere. I'll be a blogger-riffic, blog-tacular blog boy. I'll do it now, before it becomes a legal requirement. I'll move back into my parent's basement, write in a hyper-casual style and turn snarkiness into an art form. I'll obsess about the minutia of my daily existence in a manner that implies people should actually care about it. I'll harbor the deep, abiding conviction that publishing half-ass political commentary or pseudo-sophisticated movie reviews makes me smarter than everyone else. Worst of all, I'll harbor the deep, abiding conviction that someone, somewhere is actually reading what I write.

Welcome to the Adventures of Yukon Sully.