Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
August 16, 2006
Impending farewells
Category: Serious

Hey all! Hope you're doing well. Things are really crappy on my end -- far more so than usual. Without going into too many details, I may be out on the streets as soon as November, so I've got a lot to do in the next couple of months. Among other things, tomorrow I'm planning to trek to the dollar store to buy a few hundred plastic baggies so that I can start sealing up my action figures and their accessories and preparing to post them on ebay. If you've read Scary-Crayon, you know how much that's going to kill me. My toys are pretty much my only tangible links to a time of my life that wasn't thoroughly and unrelentingly miserable, and I imagine that ridding myself of these mneumonic aids is only going to multiply my sorrows. There have been times when the only thing stopping me from taking my life at a given moment was glancing over and seeing Michaelangelo's head poking out from the heap of his brethren, sticking his red-and-green (because some of the paint has rubbed off) tongue at me as if to say, "Mellow out, dude!" I often pick up the figures and cradle them as if they were alive, because, in a sense, they are to me: they've been my constant companions throughout my life and have never betrayed me or responded to me with hatred and malice. On the plus side, with them and those attendant memories gone, I'll have no reason to stick around or maintain any sort of contact with my family members, which will make saying goodbye -- whatever that entails -- all that much easier.

I've been thinking about my memoir lately and why I seem unable to write it -- and now I think that it's because my experiences are such that they don't even seem remotely believable. A lot of the things that have happened to me are positively unreal, and even though people are familiar with the actions of terrorists and criminals and "Jerry Springer" guests and whatnot, nobody wants to believe that ordinary, well-adjusted and even well-to-do individuals would go out of their way to intentionally hurt others by (for example) making exaggerated police reports. Nobody wants to believe that that nice assistant teacher at work holds thoroughly racist views. Nobody wants to believe that their inspiring and dedicated physician thinks exceedingly little of his son, partly because the boy isn't out having all kinds of sex like he was at the kid's age. Nobody wants to believe that these kinds of people are regarded as heroes and role models. And nobody wants to believe the person telling them this information, especially when -- by that indivudual's own admission -- he has been decried as a murderer and a rapist and a violent psycho and a monster and worse. One of the interesting things about my life is that many of the people who have thought it ridiculous that I have been so falsely accused have later gone on to make the very same accusations.

But I do want to write about my life. So as I bag and label my beloved action figures in preparation for our final goodbye, I'm going to chronicle our good times together. I'm going to write about the crazes that led me to seek them out in the first place, what I thought when I first saw them (insofar as I can remember, anyway), and how the happy events that unfolded during our association relate to the later, less positive events in my life. I don't imagine that many people would be interested in reading that kind of book, so it'll likely end up being the last thing I post on SC -- at least for a while -- since I won't exactly have Internet access wherever I end up.

I should still be around and available at least during the next month or so, but I'll go ahead and thank you all for reading now. Fondest wishes and best of luck to you in the future.

-posted by Wes | 5:34 am | Comments (6)
August 13, 2006
Stuff that happened yesterday
Category: Miscellany

Using this touchpad on the laptop has been hurting my wrist something awful, so yesterday I went to get an optical mouse for the thing. Now that I've got it, however, I still find my wrist hurting -- and I look down to find myself using the damned touchpad. Old habits (well, not that old) die hard.

Something odd happened while I was out. I frequently pass by groups of teenagers while I'm out walking, and it's not uncommon for them to make some audible and unfavorable comment about me afterwards. If our exchange is of a more pleasant nature, words are rarely spoken at length: silent nods punctuated by the occasional "hey" or "how's it going?" sans an answer. But yesterday I passed by a small group of them -- one of whom appeared to be speaking on a cell phone. So despite her turning and making direct eye contact, I didn't realize at first that she was speaking to me when she chirped, "Hello!"

I was taken aback, but after a moment I responded, "Hi." Now, that is generally the end of sidewalk exchanges, but she went further and said, "How are you?" Her pace slowed; she clearly expected a response.

"Fine," I said. "And you?"

"Oh, I'm good," she said. And we continued along our respective paths.

Evidently one of her friends thought the exchange was as strange as I did; in the distance, he exclaimed, "Yo, what was that?" She told him to shut up.

In these kinds of situations, I'm never sure whether these kids are being genuinely friendly or subtly insulting.

Picked up some screws and tiny LED lights (seriously; guess why) and a couple more DVDs while I was out, too. It never ends.

By the way, has anyone ever tried to listen to an audiobook while typing or reading anything else? I'm finding it incredibly difficult to do! Image editing, however, is much easier.

All for now, then.

-posted by Wes | 5:41 pm | Comments (4)
Ugh.
Category: Miscellany

Have you ever written a really lengthy, thorough, and somewhat personal message, only to mistype the e-mail address and send it to some random person? I mean, the recipient probably doesn't know anything about the situation or what's going on -- and it's really nothing that I wouldn't and haven't already detailed at length here, where anyone can read the page and search the archives -- but still. It's rather embarrassing.

Fingers crossed for a mailer daemon response.

-posted by Wes | 12:54 am | Comments (0)
August 11, 2006
a poem I just wrote
Category: Art

tonight I feel like dying
the stones have cracked my head
there's blood cascading down my face
and all I see is red

tonight I feel like dying
life's promises are lies
no hope, no smiles, no music
but my solitary cries

tonight I feel like dying
an end to misery
call me selfish, call me worthless
tell me what you think of me

tonight I feel like dying
I know that you don't care
I wish for loved ones at my side
but there is no one there

-posted by Wes | 1:56 am | Comments (0)
August 10, 2006
You're on notice
Category: Meme … Serious

Okay, so I kinda wanted to play along, but I quite dislike Stephen Colbert and did not want to post his picture on Wesoteric in any manner that remotely suggests otherwise. Now, I've always hated his show. I don't even like "The Daily Show" (I think the clips Stewart airs generally speak for themselves, such that his his comments and funny faces afterwards are totally unnecessary and kind of insulting, as if I'm supposed to think that what is essentially scrunching up one's nose after someone else lets a really rancid fart constitutes intelligent comedy), but Colbert's show just fucking sucks. What put him "on notice" in my opinion, though, was encouraging people to vandalize Wikipedia. I'll go on record and say that I think Wikipedia is probably one of the greatest things I've seen in years -- an online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute his/her knowledge about any subject, resulting in a potentially limitless source of information about a wealth of topics. But it only works insofar as people are including information that is true. (Or at least what they believe to be true. Frex, this "Pee-wee's Playhouse" entry refers to Roger as a memorable one-off, whereas I know for a fact that Roger was in at least one other episode. It's an honest mistake, though.) So I really don't think it's funny that Colbert encouraged people to intentionally falsify entries on the site (about elephants of all things; I love elephants). To someone who strongly values the sharing of knowledge and information, that's like encouraging others to sabotage the construction of a spiral staircase leading to Heaven.

But also -- while Stephen Colbert would've been at the top of my list, at least at the moment -- I couldn't come up with seven others. I mean, I could've filled it with largely trivial stuff -- Colin Baker probably would've made it (I really dislike the sixth Doctor; dissing Peri's weight is not cool), and I was also going to give a slot to people who break ninja bobbleheads and seem determined to avoid watching Grave of the Fireflies at all costs. More serious inclusions would've included President Bush (duh) and conservative Christians. I might've thrown BET in for good measure too.

But I'm really tired and didn't feel up to explaining each of my choices -- which is undoubtedly what I would have felt compelled to do. And I still dislike Stephen Colbert. So instead I made this:

Take that, Stephen Colbert!

I think that works nicely, yes. (And since the Dalek covers up the text, the meme is available here.) Until next time, then!

-posted by Wes | 10:33 pm | Comments (5)