Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
December 16, 2005
The Great Room Excavation
Category: Miscellany

Room of Wes, June 2004.

That is what my room looked like in June 2004. By November of that year, it looked like this. So you can just imagine what it looks like now. Or at least how it did look before I spent almost twelve hours last night -- I started at 10:30 PM and didn't sleep until around 10 AM this morning -- burrowing through the mess in an attempt to restore it to some semblance of order.

It's Hulkerrific...

Now, I didn't take any pics of what the room looked like before I started, but several hours into the cleaning process, this is what the room looked like. Note the captions. In the course of rummaging through the clutter, I actually came across three boxes with cereal still in them, all of which had been expired for at least a year. Pictured here is a box of Winter Fruity Pebbles -- which, given its expiration date, must have been there since the previous winter season. Nice. Also, the reference to the bed frame calls attention to one of my modes of travel. Given that the floor was often too cluttered to serve as a suitable path, I used to grip the frame of the top bunk with my hands and strafe along the side until reaching an acceptable dismount spot. I'm actually going to miss doing that! It was kinda fun and made me feel like only the most nimble of secret agents could navigate my lair of mystery. (more...)

-posted by Wes | 6:24 pm | Comments (14)
December 14, 2005
Hasta la vista, Tookie
Category: Serious

Been a while since I wrote something of a more substantial nature.

I'd heard that people were anticipating LA riots following the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams III, and in thinking about some of the folks I know in California, it popped into my head to see if anything had happened. Upon finding an article that addressed my concern -- it was all quiet on the Western front -- I went on to read the numerous comments that readers had posted regarding this turn of events. And I haven't been this disgusted in a long time. Which is saying something, since I find myself thoroughly disgusted on a daily basis.

Now, I don't go in for the death penalty. Even if a person has done unspeakable things, once that person is caught and incarcerated, that person can do no further damage. Killing the convict neither serves to protect society -- if they're that worried about the person doing further damage, they should probably beef up the prison security -- and numerous studies have shown that the death penalty is not a deterrent for violent crime. In the thread attached to that article, posters gloated over the execution, condemning the deceased as a "merderous thug" (so either they can't spell or were referring to the French word for crap) and asserting that now young would-be gang members will look at the fatal consequences and be frightened away from that path. But look: if the threat of being beaten, stabbed, or shot to death by rival gang members isn't enough to dissuade them, why should the death of an apparently repentant man, 25 years later, by lethal injection, have any effect on their mindsets whatsoever?

Yes, I do think it was a glaring flaw on Tookie's part to claim innocence for the murders -- unless he actually didn't commit them. I think he probably did. However, when the state executed him, it didn't kill a violent, 28-year-old multiple murderer. It killed a harmless 51-year-old author of children's books that spoke out against gangs. Tookie never claimed that he didn't co-found the Crips, and during his time in prison he renounced his former activities and wrote books to dissuade others from following in his footsteps. I'm not saying that's tantamount to achieving "redemption" or atoning for murdering four people and starting a gang that's been responsible for the deaths of thousands. But the impact that he might have had in the future does constitute a compelling reason to spare his life.

Was Tookie genuinely sorry? There's no way to know. However, one in his position only needs to appear sincere to make an impact. Had Tookie been spared, the media buzz surrounding the case might have helped to spread his anti-gang message to a number of different people who wouldn't otherwise have been reached. Maybe that'll still happen. Maybe it never would have, given the fickle nature of the media. Maybe Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should realize that they do their causes no favors by getting involved.

Maybe people who claim to have such respect for life shouldn't derive such satisfaction from the deaths of others.

-posted by Wes | 6:44 am | Comments (4)
December 8, 2005
WTF
Category: Miscellany

I cannot believe that this woman just said, on national television, that her thighs stick together when she gets nervous. She then advised women at home to grease their inner thighs in order to prevent this from happening.

I fucking want to vomit now.

-posted by Wes | 10:48 pm | Comments (4)
These fortunes are bullshit!
Category: Miscellany

Latest fortune cookie reading:

You have a friendly heart and are well admired.

See topic.

-posted by Wes | 3:33 pm | Comments (4)
December 6, 2005
Animal Farm
Category: Miscellany

Assuming you're not already, would you become a vegetarian if it were suddenly discovered that cows, pigs, chickens, goats, etc. could talk and, moreover, are capable of highly intelligent thought? And do you think that most people would make significant changes to their eating habits?

Just wondering!

-posted by Wes | 9:31 pm | Comments (9)