The intellectual equivalent of a ham sandwich.

Archive for the ‘Du Jour of the Week’ Category

Tough Mudder Tweets

I am no stranger to bad ideas. Last year I did the MS150 (a 2 day, 150 mile bike ride from Houston to Austin). I made predictions before the bike ride for what I would be thinking on day 1, and day 2. This year I have been training for the Tough Mudder.

If I could tweet during the Tough Mudder, here’s how I’d expect it to go.

Mile 0: Huh, some of these guys don’t look so buff. If they can do it I can do it! Or maybe they’re secretly buff? I’m scared.

Mile 1: #WhatWasIThinking #ShootMe #hashTag

Mile 2: Two miles down! Why did I buy such garishly bright colors? I’m just covered in mud.

Mile 3: I now officially hate monkey bars. With a passion.

Mile 4: Oh man I just helped a dude up a wall thing. I feel like such a tough guy! But also nice. A tough nice guy! Like a villain in a musical?

Mile 5: I regret comparing myself to a villain in a musical.

Mile 6: If I was to do a word association game with either of the words ‘tough’ or ‘mudder’ my association would be a shrieking noise ending in a hiss.

Mile 7: Wait, did they say this was 10 to 12 miles? What is that? How much further is this!?

Mile 8: So that’s what an ice bath feels like.

Mile 9: #Crying #TellingPeopleItsSweat

Mile 10: So that’s what being shocked feels like.

Mile 11: Am I angry at myself? Is that what this is? Is is that I have self-hate?

Mile 12: Holy crap monkeys. I did it!!!! Now to shave this incredibly stupid looking beard.

 

You know I actually do have a Twitter account. You should follow me!

Category:

Du Jour of the Week

Tagged with:

Dystopians and Sex

Not long ago I finally read 1984 by George Orwell. It’s the age old charming tale of a dystopian future.

Here’s what struck me though:

Dystopian novels and sex seem to go hand in hand.

  1. Brave New World – Everything is regulated by the government, people who are created and controlled by the government are encouraged to have sex with whoever they please. People are not having sex to procreate, but instead as a recreational act (it’s a distraction).
  2. A Clockwork Orange – Some of the citizens in the country are out of control (which includes raping people), to counter this the government has devised a way to, basically, brainwash you to be good. Your self control is no longer there, you are “good” by force … To demonstrate this, the brainwashed man is put near a woman to show that, look, he’s not trying to attack her.
  3. 1984 – Life is incredibly regulated and, as part of that regulation, the government pairs you with a spouse. Sex is seen as a tool to create new citizens for the government. Sex is not seen as an enjoyable act, and as part of the main character’s rebellion he meets a woman who enjoys having sex.

It is interesting, and probably no accident, that these very well-known novels have such an “animal” or raw thing (sex) as something that is highlighted to demonstrate the government’s absolute control. After all, if you could control something like that, what else can’t you control?

It’s just crazy to me that sex is shown (at least in my opinion) as an example of control in such very different ways.

The other thing to notice is that the authors are all British. What is it about Brits and a sex-oriented dystopian future?

Category:

Du Jour of the Week

Tagged with:

Ant Farm Crop Yield

The carrots look miserable.

The celery isn’t even worth the dirt on my shoes.

The pecan tree is noticeably absent.

But I DO have a lot of dead ants, piled into a little triangle of depression. The one ant still living must be clinically insane.

 

***

I had an ant farm when I was a kid, and they really did bury their dead. It was weird, and amazing.

The only other thing that amazed me just as much? Trying to figure out what was going through the mind of the last ant left. What a nightmarish land. Trapped in some 2D living space, surrounded by your dead buddies, and some giant creature just stares at you and throws you bits of a Cheerio occasionally.

Category:

Du Jour of the Week

Tagged with: