Insanity runs in the family...

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The soundtrack of your life?
Most people have suffered from having a song "stuck in their head." But is that an isolated occurrence? ( Poll behind the cut... )I'm currently hearing "When Vegans Attack" by Clutch, e.g.

Well that was completely fucking pointless.

Some brief world politics
There are only a handful of countries were Shia Muslims outnumber the Sunnis. The two largest are Iran and Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a Sunni. The current "democratically elected" government in Iraq is Shia.

No matter what the U.S. does, the minute it pulls out of Iraq, Iraq will become an ally of Iran.

By invading Iraq, and removing Saddam, the Bush administration and the neo-cons in general have strengthened Iran more than any nuclear program ever will.

Also, President Obama's diplomatic maneuverings in respect to Iran, are, presumably, the first steps in an exit strategy from Iraq.

I feel like everything I do lately turns to shit. I should sedate myself before driving home, I feel a road rage coming on, and I'm still sitting at my desk.

I am an alternative energy source
The American Heart Association guidelines for triglycerides are:

Normal	Less than 150 mg/dL
Borderline-high	150 to 199 mg/dL
High	200 to 499 mg/dL
Very high	500 mg/dL or higher

My blood test last week scored a 2,168 mg/dL. Apparently, cars that have been converted to run on bio-diesel can be fueled by my blood.

Oh, and in other news, I'm diabetic. WHEEEEEE!

Politics
On the Rachel Maddow podcast, I heard a Republican congressman say, "Americans are afraid that the country the country their children grow up in won't be the country they grew up in."

What a horrible thing to want! If I had kids I wouldn't want them to grow up in the country I grew up in--I want them to grow up in a better country! I mean, think about the country your parents grew up in--would you want things to still be that way?

That's one of the things that's so damning about the GOP these days. They have nothing to offer in terms of improving the country, their only fight is to maintain the status quo. Yes, I realize that resisting change is the role of conservatives, but at the same time, that should NOT mean refusing to fix problems.

Things change. Culture, technology, world politics. The Reagan-era Republicans adapted to huge changes. The Gingrich-era GOP was all about changing government. But the current Limbaugh-era of Republicans should be called the "Do Nothings." They whine, bitch and moan, but they don't actually want to DO anything.

Liquidating
I hate the process. I'd rather just give it all away, but some of it is worth > $100, and I can use that money. Well, now that I think about, my HDTV is probably the only electronics item worth the hassle of selling. The books, CDs and DVDs probably wouldn't net me much in the long run. So, maybe I can just sell the TV and give away the rest--that I don't throw away, that is.

I'm looking to de-clutter my apartment, and maybe my life along the way. I want to try to reduce my access to the bad distractions, like the internet and television. I'm thinking I'll replace my big TV and home computer with an iPod Touch or similar. (Yes, the thing I just agonized over then returned a few months ago.)

I've decided to join the masses and build a little echo chamber for myself. So far I have some NPR and public radio podcasts, and the podcast of the audio portion of the Rachel Maddow show. Any other suggestions?

Broke down on a road to no where
I want to just walk away. From my life, from myself. I feel like I've made a wrong turn in life and have ended up in a dead-end. Or many wrong turns, and it's just too late, and I'm guaranteed to DNF.

I'm so very immature. I'll turn forty in December but my brain is still in its twenties, waiting for my real life to start. But it has started--it's half over, and I'm still waiting for things to straighten out, and for my life to become what it's supposed to be.

I've had thoughts of suicide at times in my life when my depression was deep, I was down in the pit and miserable. I don't feel depressed or miserable, but I seem to have lost all hope. Does that make sense? I feel generally upbeat and unafraid, but with no hope at all for my life ever being any better than this. I've peaked as an unreliable low-level chemist, alone and mostly broke, living in a messy explosion of an apartment, and driving a dirty, dented, full of fast-food trash car. I've never been very ambitious, by my God, how sad.

I need to do something. Something major. Burn it all. Blow my brains out. Hit the road. Go overseas. See the Southern Cross. Find a place I feel like I belong. Become an expert in something, anything. Publish a book. Join a motorcycle racing crew. Order a pizza for dinner.

All my grandparents are dead. My dad is dead. My mother is undergoing chemo. Who in the hell do I turn to for advice?

Moto-wrenching
I've given up on the kludged-together Scorpion exhaust. I decided to use the bigger header, but go back to the stock muffler. I no longer have an obnoxiously loud bike.

Anyway, the diameter of the header was just a wee bit too large for the muffler, so on Friday I took it to a custom exhaust shop where a guy flared the muffler for me for free. I gave him a $10 tip, and everyone was happy.

On the way to the muffler shop, though, I had spotted another shop with a bunch of sport bikes out front. So, I went there next.

Sure enough it was a motorcycle shop, and my favorite kind--a tiny little showroom that looked like a teenagers closet. Stuff piled everywhere and hanging on the wall, etcetcetc. There wasn't anyone in there, so I went outside and looked in the roll-up door, and there was some folks standing around a sportbike on a Dyno. Vroom, vroom. I let myself in. (I love my anti-anxiety meds.)

I ended up back in the showroom sitting down and talking over the counter with Sandy, presumably one of the owners. Apparently the place has been in business for years, and she told me that bikes that come in which have been jetted or mapped by the owners are nearly always very rich. Despite being below sea level, the high temperatures and high humidity makes motorcycles prefer the leaner side of things.

This weekend I hammered the exhaust onto the bike, then hammered the set ring on my rear spring to adjust my race sag to 4". I then decided to see if I could change the main jet with the carb installed on the bike. I could, and did, going down to a 150.

I test road the bike on Sunday, and it didn't seem much better, but it wasn't any worse, and--most importantly--the header pipe did not get smelting-furnace hot and turn all kinds of funky colors.

I think I'm going to try going up to a 155 main, but put in the leaner needle. So, I should be the same through the mid-range, but fatter up top. Still trying to break the 90 mph (corrected) barrier. Where's Ray when I need him?

Speaking of "District 9"
If you like sciffy action-flicks, I recommend it.

( Spoliers behind the cut! You have been warned. )

Get offa my lawn.
There's a thread on reddit in which kids are commiserating about how horribly difficult fax machines are to use, and how offensive it is for them to have to use such an antiquated form of communication. One averred that the use of fax machines is evidence that a company is doomed to failure.

I can still remember turning the crank on a mimeograph machine. The smell of the ink and how all the reproductions felt wet and limp.