Mindfuck

Well, I finally got around to paying for the app I use to rip songs off CDs... Marillion albums were (a) multiple CDs, which played hell with actually listening to them on infinite repeat in my CD player which has a changer which holds *3* CDs (one and a HALF Marillion albums. Gah.) and also (b) not really tracked all that transparently -- Brave had three or four tracks with a dozen different songs between them, which would have made using the free version aggravation. So, yeah, it wasn't even that expensive. Should have done it years ago.

Anyway, I went out to see The Hulk before it slipped out of theaters... noticed, once I got to the theater, that Pirates of the Carribean and Terminator 3 were both also playing and I kind of want to see those too, but The Hulk was pretty good. Not a stupid superhero movie like I was afraid of. The ending dragged on a bit, but I managed to stay awake through the whole thing, and it never made me cringe -- there are plenty of good movies where neither of those are true, let alone both. }:P

On the way out, though, it was dark and the parking lot was deserted -- I'd been at a late showing of an unpopular and very long movie -- and 'Running Down a Dream' came on the radio, so I had to -- was FORCED to -- drive around randomly until it ended, then try to find my way home. Which was kind of difficult because for some reason the stoplights and streetlights were way brighter than they should have been, and I couldn't read any of the signs.

But eventually I recognized some of the neon signs, and headed home. But as I was pulling into the parking lot, the climax of 'Chop Suey' by System of the Down came on, and I just *had* to sing along with it... hunched over the steering wheel in the parking lot, crooning the lyrics and sobbing... yeah, it's a cheesy song, and bears no relation whatsoever to my life, but the emotion is totally there.

Anyway, the mindfuck was when I rode the elevator up to the third floor, and started to walk towards my apartment, I decided to look up instead of staring at my feet the whole way, which raised the brim of my hat enough that I could see down the hallway, and it just looked so totally alien and unreal that by the time I finally reached the door to my apartment I was certain that there was something behind it other than my apartment, and that by putting the key in the door I was making a horrible mistake.

Luckily, that turned out not to be the case.

Doing Laundry

I'm finally doing my laundry. Yes, I post in my journal every time I do laundry. No, you probably shouldn't go searching back to see when the last time was. I'm not sure I was on LJ yet.

I figured out why the machines were stealing my quarters. When it says 'push slide in slowly' it doesn't mean 'until it catches on something momentarily, then slam your fist into it'. Heh heh. o.o;

Someone recommended using bleach to kill fungus. I hope it works. And doesn't turn all my clothes white -- most of the befungified clothing was bright orange.

And of course, now that all my clothes are being washed, I'm hungry. I suppose it's technically legal to drive around with only a swimsuit and shoes on, but I think I'll just wait.

[edit] The clothes are fine, worked like a charm. And putting the clothes in two separate dryers made them significantly less damp after drying (although they're still spread out all over my room to dry out more) so hopefully they won't mildew again.

Mandatory Patriotism

Note, first of all, that when I say something is 'mandatory', I don't mean that someone came to my house and forced me to do it. I just mean that someone *should*.

Anyway, the subject of todays reverie is the Star Spangled Banner. It may be a horrid tune stolen (if you believe Negativeland) from a british drinking song, but the imagery is powerful.

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof, through the night, that the flag was still there...

We exist because people hate us. To spite them. It's as simple as that. If the world was fundamentally aligned with our values, then we wouldn't need to be a country.

And that's why the terrorists will never win. They will only feed our anger. GRAAAAR.