Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Azarule's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
10:01 pm	Just finished The Demolished Man I have a strange feeling - something akin to walking indoors from a bright day. Like what I just processed was so intense that everything else needs a minute to catch up. Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, And dissension have begun. Make your enemies by choice, not by accident. And the boogeyman gets exactly what it wanted. Spooky. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
2:58 pm	Goddamn Dexter Dexter was an awesome show in it's first year, but has descended into something akin to emo-whiny status with the progression of its theme. Episode last night? Ten kinds of disturbing and therefore awesome.....right up until the last second, when they pulled the biggest 'bullshit moment' of the entire series. Can we just have all media be written by Joss Whedon, Joe Straczynski, or some combination thereof? (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
6:50 pm	Why Studying Psychology is Not For the Faint of Heart, Chapter 2. According to some of the literature I'm reading right now, pseudocyesis, which we usually think of as occurring when a person really wants to be pregnant, is also occasionally caused by women being deeply terrified of pregnancy. This is sort of like God's swan song of an FU to the female gender. "Oh, the idea of swelling up and producing a baby fills you with dread and (probably rational) terror? More so than anyone else you've ever met? Well, guess what! I'm going to make you think you're pregnant. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....." God does NOT like women. Okay, God doesn't like men either - I should point out that he designed our biology for short lives driven by manual labor and constant dissatisfaction with our mating situation. Humanity's sort of a lose-lose proposition. Today's revelation from ab-psy. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
11:46 am	Just when I think I'm out..... Stupid English education. You're wandering along one day, years after your creative writing training...you think it's gone - you think you're safely grounded in reality once again. And then something twangs your emotion. "It's okay", you tell yourself, "it's not going to happen this time." "I'm in control." And then.....you do it. You reflexively spin it into poetry. Days on the Wagon: 0. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
8:38 am	Because it's too awesome NOT to comment on: So, here's some stuff that's happened recently. You Lie! Summary: After complaints by Ammiano (and others) during the morning of an SF Democratic Party fundraiser that Schwartzenegger doesn't pay enough attention to bay area issues, Arnie showed up at said event. Apparently hre had been invited by the organizers, and accepted. I'll admit here, I think that's pretty ballsy. In a state that's as R-hating as California, it's gotta be tempting to keep your head down and just show up at your own party's events (like most do). But, when he shows up at the fundraiser, Ammiano screams "You lie!", pulling a literal Joe Wilson. According to Willy Brown (WILLY BROWN!!! The man has the manners of a gorilla on meth!) it was a tasteless and rude thing to do to an invited guest. So, two reasons I bring this up. One - Where's the media outrage? When a Repub did this EXACT thing, arguably in a situation where it was much less rude (Obama was at work, not invited, was arguing the merits of policy, not helping raise money for his OPPONENTS cause, etc), we still haven't heard the end of it. But not one story outside the local paper? Crazy. Two - Schwarzenegger did not sign a bill this week (not big news, Arnie's been turning back a lot of bills he thinks are biting unnecessarily at the state's budget). Now, while this would normally not make my "interesting" list, it does because he did this. That is all. :-) (Comment on this)
Friday, October 16th, 2009
10:12 am	Why Studying Psychology is Not For the Faint of Heart, Chapter 1. Does anyone else remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? One of my absolute favorite movies as a kid. Then, this morning, someone linked me to this scene. Why is this creepy? Well, MORE creepy than it was initially? Because, based on these children's complete lack of an ability to sense danger in this clearly psychotic situation, it's likely they've been victimized by past abusers. And, of course, they've only really been exposed to a couple of people on a constant basis (living as isolated as they do because of their social/geographic status), their father and the woman he's interested in. Statistically, women tend to be safe for kids. Translation: Dick Van Dyke beat/molested these children. Toot sweet! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
8:25 pm	See this? I checked into the backing on this, and it's disgusting. If you've ever mentioned anything remotely related to the subject in a room with me, you are no doubt aware of my negative feelings towards the way that corporate entities have taken over the information dissemination duties in our society. The above is probably the most blatant example I've encountered of why I hold that opinion. Haggen-Das sponsored that video, designed to look like a grass-roots expression of public concern over the disappearance of bees (something which has been occuring around the planet, without anyone being able to discern a reason. If you don't know, check here). HD tells everyone to go to their website to help bees, and their website says to buy their ice cream, going as blatant as to contain the headline "Buy a pint, save a bee". Upon closer (or ANY) examination, the strategy by which HD plans to save bees is "raising awareness". Raising awareness of a problem for which we have no understanding or remedy. And how do you raise awareness, you might ask? By BUYING HD ICE CREAM, of course! If you're extra-specially concerned, you can buy their commemorative honey-bee flavor. It's actually not that bad a plan, considering that they've carefully omitted how this gathered awareness is going to save a single bee. My current theory is that 4 units of awareness are equal to 1 unit of flower power, and that a thousand units of flower power can save a bee - but that's just a rough estimate. I suppose the root of this (and my Locke-ian rage towards it) is that we've been taught not only to let others take over for us completely, and that we're so far sold on the concept that they're actually telling us that just TELLING enough other people will get one of them to do things for us. Here's a tip, folks, "raising awareness" means nothing. No matter how many people are aware of the moon's distance from the Earth, it's still an immutable fact. Although it was once true in human societal matters that public awareness could accomplish things, it's been a long time since that was at all effective. Remember how aware everyone was of O.J. Simpson's guilt? Or how aware we all were about the wrongness of (insert war here). Or, hell, just how aware we are of the basic corrupt/indifferent nature of the systems that exist to protect the average person. Awareness does nothing. The only thing that does anything is doing something. If you don't do anything, you end up with a million people who are all aware as one of the most important creatures we share our planet with vanishes. Let go of the belief that you're so special that somewhere out there is a mysterious figure waiting to solve your problems. Push it to the door, kick it in the ass on the way to the curb, and take responsibility for something beyond your rent check, your car payment, and charging your iPod. Be something different. Be something special. Because we, as a species, are rapidly passing the point where we can indulge in it. 1. 2. 3. (Comment on this)
Friday, July 24th, 2009
5:16 am	There's a piece on The Guild where Felicia Day complains that she has a little person inside her that hates her, and can make her mouth move. Some days. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
5:52 pm	What we learned as children, that one plus one equals two, we know to be false. One, plus one, equals one. We even have a word for when you, plus another, equals one. That word is love. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
10:30 am	Here it goes again! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 15th, 2009
6:23 pm	Watched the Lost season finale ( My Thoughts ) (Comment on this)
Monday, March 16th, 2009
7:52 pm	Something I heard today In a life that's mostly froth and bubbles, two things stand like stone: kindness in another's troubles, and courage in our own. (Comment on this)
Monday, March 9th, 2009
9:02 pm	Disappointed. PETA Spay/Neuter Knowledge Quiz Now, we all know that PETA is one of the craziest organizations to walk the Earth (Quiet your flaming - I like animals, but you can't deny PETA is f-ing nuts.), but I was completely ready to give them credit for creating a knowledge quiz with a strip-tease theme. I mean, you're reaching a segment of the population who likes boobs. Which as I recall is pretty much everyone. But then you get to the end...and it's a giant tease. Way to go PETA, recruit new people to the cause of animal welfare, and then piss them off. You remain, the least effective psychos whose cause I happen to agree with. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
9:56 pm	Bucket List I saw this on a facebook page. You're supposed to mark off things you've done and blank the ones you haven't. Shall we? Things you have done during your lifetime: (x) Gone on a blind date (X) Skipped school (x) Watched someone die (x) Been to Canada (X) Been to Mexico ( ) Been to Florida (X) Been to Hawaii (X) Been on a plane (X) Been on a helicopter (X) Been lost (x) Gone to Washington, DC (X) Swam in the ocean (X) Cried yourself to sleep (X) Played cops and robbers (X) Recently colored with crayons (X) Sang Karaoke (x) Paid for a meal with coins only ( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch (X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't (X) Made prank phone calls ( ) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans (X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose & elsewhere (X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue (X) Danced in the rain-naked. (X) Written a letter to Santa Claus ( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe (X) Watched the sunrise with someone (X) Blown bubbles (X) Gone ice-skating (X) Gone to the movies (X) Been deep sea fishing ( ) Driven across the United States (East to West and North to South) ( ) Been in a hot air balloon ( ) Been sky diving (X) Gone snowmobiling ( ) Lived in more than one country - (X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets (X) Seen a falling star and made a wish ( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser ( ) Seen the Statue of Liberty (X) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle ( ) Been on a cruise - (X) Traveled by train (X) Traveled by motorcycle (X) Been horse back riding (x) Ridden on a San Francisco cable car (x) Been to Disneyland or Disney World ( ) Been in a rain forest (x) Seen whales in the ocean ( ) Been to Niagara Falls ( ) Ridden on an elephant ( ) Swam with dolphins ( ) Been to the Olympics ( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China ( ) Saw and heard a glacier calf ( ) Been spinnaker flying (x) Been water-skiing (X) Been snow-skiing ( ) Been to Westminster Abbey ( ) Been to the Louvre ( ) Swam in the Mediterranean ( ) Swam in the Dead Sea (x) Snorkled with tropical fish (X) Been to a Major League Baseball game ( ) Been to a National Football League game ( ) Been to an NHL game. (X) Been SCUBA diving (X) Gone Bungee jumping (X) Been to a third world country ( ) given birth ( ) been inside a cage with an African Tiger TAKE IT ONE STEP FURTHER WHAT IS YOUR BUCKET LIST: ADD things YOU will do. Found a company that does something worthwhile Discover something new to the world Enlighten someone else, about something important Change a life Save 100 animals Help save 1 species Live where I can't get home (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
2:49 pm	My Deep Thoughts I just realized that Jack Handey is a real person. In honor of that realization, here is my own take on a great man's art form: Whenever I see a pro football game, I think to myself, "five of those guys are probably gay." Sometimes, I think about all the starving people in the world. And then I think about all the orphan babies, and I wonder why nobody does anything about this stuff? I think when someone compliments your wardrobe, you should say "Thank you, Father, but can we go back to mass now?" That would really freak them out. The most valuable gift of all is a child's laughter. That's why, whenever a child laughs, I put them in my basement and lock the door. Because someday I'd like to buy a boat. Okay, not as good as he is. But fun. :) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
10:53 pm	Great Music We all have our favorite songs. That one little piece of music that we (and sometimes only we) just groove to completely. But there are some songs, you may like or hate them, that resonate with everyone. I think I've found a few.... The Rolling Stones, "Paint it Black". Everyone I've ever talked to says they feel the whammy from Paint. Personally, I think it cuts off the bloodflow to whatever part of the brain regulates morality. If I ever have to perpetrate a massacre, this is what'll be playing. Somebody told me they brainscanned people while this played, and it caused huge brain chemistry spikes. Dunno if that's true. Judy Garland, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Same effect, completely different emotion. I've seen entire rooms slow down and stop when this started playing. Maybe it's the Wizard of Oz tie-in from when we all were kids...I dunno. Has anyone out there not seen that movie? I'm interested in your opinion. And in how you've managed never to see that movie. What, did you go through childhood in a box? ...can anyone suggest a few more? (PS - Honorable mention to Iz for his version of Rainbow. Is it the shoes?) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
2:36 pm	U.S. to send $900 million in aid to Gaza This is why we're tanking. Someone once told me that if you considered a corporation as an actual person (the literal definition), that person's actions would declare them a sociopath. In the case of government, we have a class of representatives who all went to the same schools (and frequently come from the same families). In this hypothetical world of incorporate entities, our government is intensely inbred. It is becoming more and more apparent that if you were to consider ourgovnerment as an actual person, that person likely has six toes. With the hypothetical person their condition is funny (or sad, if you're taking the analogy more seriously), in the case of our real entity we have a mutant who controls the military, the prison system, and the police. And they use this to take your stuff. Not to mix my metaphors, but that sounds a lot like a Disney villain. So, what's my point? My point is that in a fiscal environment approaching 10% unemployment (CA figures), our government is sending a billion dollars of our money overseas to rebuild someone else's house. The only interpretation I can make of this event is that this is a very loud declaration of "I'm smart, I'm important" which, although no one who hears it believes, is uttered by a dangerous enough mutant that the rest of the room is going to avert their eyes and pretend not to notice. Let's increase some more taxes. I think Georgia was giving us looks, and I heard that Croatia told France we're not smart. (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
8:03 pm	Directly copied from Beth's thingie, I'm just gonna separate them into "read" and "not-read" categories, with some comments. The 'Y' and 'N' bits are hers. Read: 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (awful, just awful.) 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (given) 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I caved.) 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Did not like.) 6 The Bible (Silly, spiteful, and contradictory, but still necessary.) 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (GREAT) 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens Y 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy N 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller N 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Why is hamlet seperate?) 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (because I'm gonna kill jfk.) 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger N 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (and I told Mrs. Aguilera reading this would never help me.) 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens N 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy N 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams Y 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky Y 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck Y 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Y 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (When I was about 12.) 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (Strangely, I *loved* this as a kid) 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis Y (this is a duplicate of #33...) 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne Y 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell Y 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (Bleah.) 52 Dune - Frank Herbert (Good, then bleah. But God-Emperor was awesome.) 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens Y 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (READ THIS BOOK !!!!!) 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time N 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck N 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (creepy factor...rising...) 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (Another awesome book. Read it so you know when it's being ripped off.[hint-a lot]) 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac (Not as good as advertised) 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie N 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville ("Is it a whale?" "Let's mutiny". I just saved you two days.) 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (Please sir?) 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker Y 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett Y 75 Ulysses - James Joyce N 76 The Inferno - Dante (Dante was kind of a whiny, petty, loser.) 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Y 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White Y 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad Y 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery Y 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle N 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas N 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (I read the whole series! Twice!) Not Read: 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte Y 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman Y 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott Y 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier N 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien Y 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk N 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot N 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell N 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh N 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy N 34 Emma - Jane Austen Y 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen Y 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini N 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres Mais N 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden N 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown N 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez N 44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving N 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy N 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood Y 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan N 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel N 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons N 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen Y 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth N 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon N 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez N 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt N 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold N 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy N 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding N 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson N 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome N 78 Germinal - Emile Zola N 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray N 80 Possession - AS Byattn N 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell N 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker N 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro N 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert N 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry N 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom N 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton N 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks N 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams N 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole N 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute N 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo Y (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
9:51 am	IM is Fun A conversation I had earlier today: >>>: I'll be worried when you say "Nothing says love like a good whipping." Me : I have said "whips are okay within the bonds of a loving relationship" >>>: WOW. I have an AWESOME mail man! That is all. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 16th, 2009
11:22 pm	I just got to write a paper about Fight Club as an enlightened portrayal of male and female sexuality. Sometimes I love being in college. (Comment on this)