My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
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Posted:Sep 11, 2006 3:13 am
Last Updated:Jun 28, 2010 7:09 pm
2936 Views
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Friday I decided to try my hand at acting again. I used to do plays and such all the time, some years ago. I haven't done any for about three years now. I figured it would be fun to try it again, and it would probably improve my social life.
So I went to auditions for "Stage Door" for the local community theater. As it happens, I was the only male who tried out. I'm PRETTY sure I got the part. Well, I dunno which part, there are 11 male roles. I don't think I can play all of them.
I'm sure that the director will find other guys to fill the roles, and I wasn't at the second day of auditions so who knows who showed up. What I can say is that there are 21 female roles in the show. Even if there are a couple more men...I'm liking my odds.   
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Eat that, you bitch!
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Posted:Aug 24, 2006 4:52 am
Last Updated:Aug 25, 2006 4:40 am
2786 Views
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For those of you keeping tabs (surely there are one or two of you), I went to court Tuesday in my suit against my ex.
And I kicked her lying ass. She came with some bullshit about how I said I would pay half of it as a gift, and brought a friend to lie for her and say that she heard me say that.
Which I never did.
I was very pissed off because I absolutely hate liars and especially bald-faced liars. But I held it in check, remained calm, stated my case, and whupped her lying ass. Oh it was sweet, and she was so pissed afterwards. She told me to never have any contact with her ever again...which was funny to me because if she actually believes that I have contact with her for any other reason besides getting my money back, she's even more of a headcase then I thought.
In the immortal words of Ben Folds:
"Give me my money back, I want my money back you bitch!"
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Uh...I'm back
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Posted:Aug 15, 2006 2:28 am
Last Updated:Aug 18, 2006 4:35 am
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Well. I have returned from Indy, to find things are a wee bit topsy turvy around here. I am not sure what to make of the whole "Fake Cliticals" thing. I guess I always thought that their photos looked a bit too professional, but...I never expected them to be completely created characters as seems to be the case.
That just sucks. What all did I miss while I was gone? What the hell???
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Ta Ta For Now
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Posted:Aug 8, 2006 5:42 am
Last Updated:Aug 15, 2006 2:29 am
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Okay, today is the day.
My membership has expired. And I am off on vacation to the beautiful metropolis of Indianapolis.
It may be a week or more til you hear from me.
Until then, don't do anything I wouldn't do.
(Okay, there really isn't anything I wouldn't do, but don't do it without me!)
Bye!
Brad
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What was I thinking again?
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Posted:Aug 5, 2006 4:58 am
Last Updated:Aug 22, 2006 12:08 am
2998 Views
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I had an idea for a blog post last night. I had a question I wanted to ask people.
And I will be goddamned if I didn't forget entirely what it was. I think I have early onset alzheimers. I swear to you I have no short term memory left.
People think that I am inattentive because I fail to notice and/or remember stuff. It's not that I don't care, really it isn't. I just have big fat holes in my brain. It's actually quite frustrating.
It would be different if I had misspent my youth killing off brain cells with illicit drugs, but I didn't. I wanted to preserve my mind for later use. Hell, why did I bother?? 
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Don't let them win
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Posted:Jul 27, 2006 6:00 am
Last Updated:Aug 22, 2006 12:09 am
3076 Views
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There was some sort of debacle recently among a few of the blogs I read regularly whereby some flaming idiots wrote nasty comments and basically made life hell for some people. In response, one turned off commenting and another stopped blogging for several days.
In all honesty, I was a little disappointed by these moves. I hate the idea that people can get what they want through violent or underhanded means. I do not think we should give in to people, even out of fear. This is the same feeling I got about the whole issue that came up with the Muhammed cartoons earlier this year.
Basically, what I saw was some violent fanatics using bully tactics to elicit the behavior they wanted out of people who didn't even subscribe to their beliefs. It made me ill how newspapers and media all over the world began to kowtow to the islamists, tiptoeing around any possible offensiveness and even in some case apologizing for printing them. Papers here in the US reported the story but were too afraid to show us the cartoons. I was so ANGRY about this.
The only lesson learned by anyone was the radical islamists learned that they could get their way by beating people and burning things. I say to hell with that. I say the only proper response to that sort of behavior is to splash giant cartoons of Muhammed reaming a goat on the front page of every paper on earth. Seriously. And don't get me wrong, if christians or hindus went around rioting and hurting people every time they got offended, I'd say offend them more as well.
Fear should not dictate your speech. If you let fear stop you from saying what you want to say, then the strong and violent will ALWAYS win. The same goes for regular people in every day life. If you are allowing fear to dictate your behavior, then you are essentially allowing someone else to be master of your life. If someone is offended by you and wants to discuss it with you rationally and respectfully, then I don't mind if you come to an agreement with them. But if they use bully tactics, screw em. I'll risk my neck to prove a point...after all, it's what the founders of my country did for me.
Don't let angry mobs silence you.
Don't let terrorists change your behavior.
Don't let the weirdos in this world keep you in a shell.
And don't let some self-important bitch tell you how you ought to conduct your affairs.
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Judge Mathis too???
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Posted:Jul 26, 2006 1:38 am
Last Updated:Apr 29, 2024 12:41 am
2793 Views
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Yesterday I got a letter from the damn Judge Mathis show about my court case. I'm starting to wonder if anyone who has a small claims case doesn't get a shot at 15 minutes of fame.
I dunno if I should go for it or hold out for the People's Court.
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What
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Posted:Jul 25, 2006 2:51 am
Last Updated:Jul 26, 2006 1:08 am
3142 Views
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Well, it's getting along about the time I should add a new post to my blog, but honestly I don't know what to talk about. I have been having an invigorating discussion here on my blog with a couple of interested parties about my skeptical views on the paranormal (thanks to you two ladies, by the way, for providing me some intellectual challenge, I am enjoying it) and that has basically been taking up my blog time and thinking.
I would love for other people to join the discussion or just ask questions...please feel free. Also, I have some recommendations of you are interested in the subject. Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" is a great Showtime series which seeks the truth about all kinds of subjects, not just paranormal but challenging the conventional wisdom on things like bottled water, secondhand smoke, and circumcision. It's great stuff.
Also, check out any book written by James Randi or Joe Nickell, both great investigators into the paranormal. Look them up in your local library. Joe Nickell probably has the more recent authorships.
OH! And unrelated to that subject, I saw Clerks II on Friday. It was HILARIOUS. I loved it. If you are at all a Kevin Smith fan you should see this movie. It is a sad tragic comment on our society that a film like "Little Man", which has got to be the stupidest premise (and worst previews) I have ever seen in my life (worse than "White Chicks", and that was bad) comes in ahead of Clerks II at the weekend box office.
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What's so SUPER about the supernatural?
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Posted:Jul 20, 2006 7:47 am
Last Updated:Jul 26, 2006 1:05 am
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Okay last time I promised I would discuss the supernatural and my skepticism of it. If you are not the sort of person who finds this at all interesting, you should turn away now. I know this is a sex website and I should be talking about sex, but if and when I actually meet someone here I promise I'll post about it. Until then, I'll talk about whatever I dang well want to! 
I am what is called a skeptic. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, is my basic philosophy. I understand that a lot of people take things like this on faith, but I am not one of those people. Faith (to me) is just believing in the stuff you want to be true...wishful thinking in other words.
In today's society it is taken as almost a given by many people that there exist such things as ghosts, psychics, mediums, mind-readers, etc. A smaller but significant number of people believe in extra-terrestial visitation, alien abduction, faith healers, and so on. There is even a good chunk of people who believe in bigfoot and mothman.
Frankly, I'm just not sure why this is. Perhaps it is because so little attention is payed to the history of magic? It's only in the last couple hundred years or so that Magicians have been organized and recognized as entertainers who possess no real magical abilities. Legitimate magicians will tell you right to your face that they are using trickery on you to simulate mind-reading, remote-viewing, esp, what have you. But before they were entertainers, magicians were charlatans who made a credulous public believe that they were possessed of supernatural abilities. There are still many people out there who are using simple, centuries old magicians tricks to fool people. The only, ONLY difference between a medium and a magician is that a magician will tell you it's all fake. But I promise you that any skilled magician can perform any feat that any so-called psychic or medium can do.
The Amazing Randi is a magician who has spent his life to disputing the claims of supernatural powers by people (www.randi.org). He pretty much knows every trick imaginable, or can figure out what trick they are using by observing them in action. He has used his own knowledge of the magicians trade to perform "impossible" feats such as sealing the winning lottery numbers in an envelope which was then given to a neutral party, locked in a safe, and then removed after the drawing (at no time was he allowed to handle the envelope after he had placed the numbers inside). Lo and behold the correct numbers were written inside. Why didn't he just win the lottery if he knew the numbers? Because he couldn't, it was a trick.
The James Randi Educational Foundation has put up a one million dollar prize to anyone who can demonstrate a genuine paranormal ability under scientific conditions. This money has sat in trust for over 30 years, and nobody has even come close to collecting it. Feel free to read the terms of collecting the money on his website, they are not unreasonable. He also has written several books which will reveal to the curious reader the various methods that psychics, mediums, telepaths, and other such folks use to fool you.
The worst are the faith healers. These scum feed off of the pain and desperation of others, giving them nothing but false hope and occasionally death in return. A couple of years ago I saw a ABC news special about a Brazilian healer calling himself "John of God", and it incensed me. At no time was this so-called news show remotely incredulous about this man's claims. The methods he used are not much different than any of a number of so-called "psychic surgeons" who use slight of hand and simple theatrics to effect useless cures.
Another class of faker that upsets me are mediums, like John Edwards and his ilk, who claim to talk to the dead and grow rich off of other people's loss and grief. They use various methods, but the most common method is the "cold-reading" and "shotgun" method, where they spew out a lot of different information and then focus on the things that the person reacts to. By continuing to throw things out and focus on the "hits" that they get, they can quickly get to a point where the person they are doing the reading for is providing them nearly all the information they need without even realizing it. At the end, the person has filtered out all the "misses" that the medium made and remembers only that they "knew things they couldn't possibly have known!"
I could go on, but I feel that I am not properly framing the argument and this is getting long. So what I would like to do is have any of my loyal readers out there (all 3 or 4 of you) ask me questions and/or make counterpoints for me to address. You can bring up anything that you beliebe may be evidence for the paranormal, and I will try to give you counterevidence or at least some explanation as to why it is not good evidence for the paranormal.
Also included in this are things like "biorythms", "astrology", "homeopathic medicine" "naturopathy" "osteopathy" "chiropractic" (yes, chiropractic, it's junk people), and of course "scientology" which is one of the biggest scams ever concieved.
Go ahead, ask away (or fire away)!
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TV will RUIN my life!
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Posted:Jul 16, 2006 6:54 am
Last Updated:Jul 29, 2006 7:49 am
3015 Views
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There was a time in my life when I watched practically no TV.
This was not that long ago. The reason was mostly that TV SUCKED. When the Reality TV craze started, I thought "well, I'm free!" I'll never have to worry about catching the newest episode of my favorite show, because there is nothing I want to watch.
I hate reality TV, and for many years that and bad sitcoms and 12 different versions of Law and Order & CSI was all that was on. Booooooring.
Then, TV started to get good again. At first it was just "24" that I watched. It was kind of depressing because I had to make sure I saw every episode every week or I would miss something important. I like that in a TV show actually, but missing an episode is nerve-wracking. It was okay though, it was the only show I watched regularly for quite a while. FOX usually tried to put really cool, interesting new shows on like "Greg the Bunny", "The Tick", "Firefly", "Undeclared", "Wonderfalls", etc, but the network was AWFUL at supporting them and usually cancelled them after 2 episodes and showed "Who wants to marry a midget?" instead.
Then came Lost. Man I love that show. It's so good, and it has such great writing and mystery and stories and characters...I can't say enough about the quality of this show. I would say it is the best show on television, but there is another which is even better.
Battlestar Galactica. Okay, I know what people are thinking (people who don't watch it anyway). "Isn't that some space show on the Sci-Fi network based on that stupid old Lorne Greene show?" Well, yes it is. But it is also the best written show on TV. If you don't believe me, go out and read some reviews by "legitimate" TV critics, most of whom agree with me that this show is FANTASTIC. It's actually surprising to me how great this show is...the Sci-Fi network cheese factor can be pretty high, but this show is stellar. The writing, effects, and acting are all top-notch, and the story and characters are all fascinating and very deep.
I have also recently discovered Scrubs, which is HILARIOUS and I am currently buying all the DVDs because it's probably the funniest show I have seen in ages. My Name is Earl is also pretty good but I haven't had time to watch that so hopefully I can get the DVDs for that as well.
As you can see, i am becoming a TV junkie, and I blame the fact that it's getting really good. This next season looks like it will add some more must see TV to my list, "Heroes" in particular looks like my kind of show. Just recently USA premiered a show called "Psych" that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's about a guy who has extremely honed observational skills and a photographic memory who uses that to convince the police he is a psychic to solve crimes and collect reward money.
I like the concept because all the damn psychic shows and ghost speakers and all that rot was starting to get me annoyed. Don't get me wrong, I love a good supernatural story as much as the next guy, maybe even more. But the fact is that people actually BELIEVE that there are real psychics and mediums out there, and these shows are feeding that belief. I was glad to see a show that takes a more realistic approach to psychic detectives, ie they are FRAUDS.
Perhaps I will get into the whole "Skeptic" thing in my next blog. Really this was supposed to be about TV and why I spend all my time watching it. So until next time, adieu mes amis.
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My life just got a little surreal
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Posted:Jul 13, 2006 7:28 am
Last Updated:Aug 5, 2006 4:39 am
2835 Views
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So here's an interesting thing that happened to me.
I got a call from a producer at the Judge Judy show the other day. Seems they want to put my case on their show.
See, I am suing my ex for some 700 dollars she owes me for this dang chihuahua she bullied me into buying for her. It would probably make an interesting show, but I'm not sure how they knew that (the details in the court record are slim) or how they knew about it at all.
I think Judge Judy has spies among the court clerks. I sure as heck never expected to get that call, especially as I live in the middle of Iowa. But they will give me an all-expenses paid trip to LA, which would be awesome. I would probably do it just for that, but they also pay you for the TV appearance, and if you win they hand you a check for the amount as you walk out the door. All of which is sweet.
However, my ex is a total flake, and what is going to happen is that she is going to forget to even challenge the suit, resulting in an automatic judgement in my favor, meaning no Judge Judy show. I know that is how this will play out. Which, you know, on the one hand automatic win, which is great, but on the other hand...free trip to California. Too bad it probably won't happen.
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What not to say to strange girls
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Posted:Jun 15, 2006 6:01 am
Last Updated:Jul 6, 2006 10:20 am
2862 Views
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I went to see a movie last night at the local university cinema, the Bijou. It was called "I Am A Sex Addict" and was a pretty funny and entertaining near-documentary about the filmmaker's struggle with his penchant for prostitutes. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys funny, true stories about sex, love, addiction, and the human condition.
The problem is, when I got there I forgot the name of the movie we were going to see. I stood in front of the girl at the ticket booth dumbly for a second, then turned to the person I was with and asked, "What were we going to see again?" Then reminded, I turned back around and proudly announced, "I am a sex addict!"
The girl kind of sat there and blinked at me for a moment. I turned a bit red and stammered, "I uh, mean, I'd like a ticket for I Am A Sex Addict, not that I am a sex addict, sorry."
She was suitably understanding of my faux paux, but I can't help but think she held in her laughter until I was out of sight.
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II'm at home, but leave me a message anyway.
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Posted:Jun 4, 2006 4:56 am
Last Updated:Jun 15, 2006 6:05 am
858 Views
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Hey you Standard members (like me) who want to get in touch, leave me a message here! I'd love to chat or email or what have you. New people are always fun to meet.
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To link to this blog (Atreides10) use [blog Atreides10] in your messages.
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