22_Intelligence Is Sexy: Part 1: The Startening

NOTE:  This post was written Friday morning.  Being on vacation for a few days rocks, but not in terms of updating the blog accordingly.

I have to say that I'm feeling fairly stereotypical today. Sporting a Travis Bickle mohawk, I'm sitting in a diner in Pottstown, Pennsylvania waiting for a tattoo appointment. I understand that I'm not nearly punk enough to call myself as such, but for the God-fearing, camo-jacket wearing denizens of this particular wood-paneled, egg-slinging establishment, I might as well be Sid Vicious's ghost come back to haunt them with my inability to play the bass guitar.

However, a thought occurred to me. Shortly after writing this, I intend on jumping on the HuffPo or finding a newspaper and reading about some current events. Does that make me punk? It's true that the punk movement cannot be separated from strong political leanings. Not that the Sex Pistols were paragons of political awareness, but it has been a long standing staple of punk music that you must know at least enough about politics to be pissed off about it.

In that sense, many, many (too many) Americans are punk. Too many Americans know only enough to be pissed off (thanks a lot, Fox news), but far too few know enough to in any way turn that anger into anything that could be useful. It's enough, I suppose to scream and shout and get it off your chest. It's not useful when that screaming and shouting and getting it off your chest turns in to an actual political movement that has divorced itself of facts, reasoning, logic or understanding of the current political climate and instead focuses on a ridiculous feeling of victimization somehow felt by many, many white Christians (translation: the largest demographic in the country) that stems from the fact that they have to pay taxes like everyone else.

And here's where intelligence comes in to it. Because, I believe in this day and age, if you want to be a punk in the rebellious sort of sense, the best thing you can do is to become intelligent. And not just “Hey man, I read this one article one time about how much a bomb costs and now I'm a military bureaucracy hating anarchopunk freegan with horrible, horrible white-boy dreadlocks!” sort of bettering yourself. I mean reading lots about lots.

For instance, did you know that Thomas Paine himself was all for Social Security, public schools and Medicare? Ya know, those things that the standard Tea Party member would burst a few veins getting upset about. And the real problem isn't that they're being told an endless, factually desolate narrative by Fox news and Drudge report, the real problem is that they simply don't know. Honestly, how many people have ever really read “Common Sense”? Or can name another one of Paine's works? I can't, but that's my point, isn't it? Here I am using it against the Tea Party when I don't really know much about it myself. And that, folks, is not Sexy.

And so I'm starting a new segment: Intelligence Is Sexy. Now, there are limits to this. It's not like we"re going to learn quantum physics (or even anything approaching Pre-Calc). We can, however, try our best to learn at least one valuable, proven, intelligent thing in a time period of a week or so. That's where you all come in. I am now accepting ideas for areas that we should all brush up on. Obviously we're not going to be able to read Bolano's 2666, nor are we going to become world-class horticulturists in one week, but we can at least start.

So now it begins: Tell me things I need to find out about and let's do it together. If we can't, we'll say why. Because, it's not necessarily about knowing that much, but also about being able to find out, should we need to.

And by the way, this diner, the Ice House, does a surprisingly excellent Eggs Benedict. If you ever find yourself here in Pottstown and need breakfast, come here.  And they also make their own donuts which, I'm not a guy with a sweet tooth but HOLY GOD they are GOOD.  Like, worth a trip good.

- Kid

21_Losing It

As part of the Fall of Awesome, my monthly goal in this, the tenth month of the year, is to lose ten pounds.  That seems entirely realistic, which means that I am going to, very unrealistically, aim to lose more.  Because I can be an over-achiever when I want to be.

So far I've lost one pound.  Winning.

And regardless of the marginal loss, I do feel lighter.  I know that there have been varying reports on whether exercise actually improves your mental health (most sources say yes, Vice magazine says no, so in my sphere of influence, this is a hotly contested debate), but it's certainly helped me.  The Orioles still being in the series also helps.

There's something about the chill in the air as well.  The temperature in Baltimore at the end of October tend to represent the coldest it ever gets in South Africa.   Yes, it can snow there, but it is rare (you should have seen my facebook feed when it snowed in Johannesburg earlier this year) and the temperatures don't stay cold for long.  But here, once that October breeze starts to blow, you can kiss your air conditioning goodbye, because it's not going to be needed again for at least six months.

It's a reminder that I am here, not there.  That that was before, not now.  It's another reason I feel lighter.  That happened, and I helped it happen, but it is in the past now for me to look back on, think on, and hopefully gain something from, but it is, primarily, in the past.

Now I can concentrate on my new love:  a new writing project involving dissent against a military bureaucracy that aims to take control of all facets of American life, a doomed love affair and, of course, robots using car batteries to get high.  Duh.

- Kid