Facebook Statuses about Pearl Harbor

Yesterday before heading out to McDonald's with the kids, I saw a Facebook status that was akin to it being "Karma" that Japanese people are dying because generations ago, the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor.  And the status also noted that we shouldn't be collecting donations for the Japanese people because they didn't do anything for us.  I had a very instant "WTF" response, and it pretty much tainted my whole evening because it was so amazingly ignorant and xenophobic in nature.

It's gotten a lot of blowback from the internet community since, showing up even on reddit, and I just have to get up on my soapbox for a minute here.  I really shouldn't have to state why that avenue of thinking is dangerous and self-centered, not to mention incredibly stupid to boot.  But I just have to say this:

You can be a patriotic American without being hateful towards another country or its people.  

It's simple common sense but everytime I read about the religious protesting the right for a mosque to be built, or Indians being targeted because they looked like Muslims, or even that vapid comedian with his goddamn terrorist puppet - it drives me insane.  They perpetuate the stereotype of the narrow-minded gun-toting American that the world is wary of.  Shoot first, ask questions later.  

In recent months, I've read about troops in the Middle East disobeying orders to shoot citizens protesting their governments, and these troops no doubt love their country and have swore to protect their homeland.  But they have to know the difference between right, wrong, and being patriotic - and where that patriotism rests on the scale of ethics.  

So if you read about one of these Facebook statuses, I think the best thing to do is to comment on their post, and tell them that you've donated some money in their name for the people of Japan.  I think that's the most patriotic gesture you can show.

My ass is encased in a form-fitting cushion of awesome.

The memory foam that we ordered from Amazon finally came today, and it was a little sketchy when I pulled it out of the box initially.  It was so tightly folded up and bounded into a bale that it didn't look like much.  Even as I was dismantling it, I had to peel off what seemed to be a half inch of foam that looked and smelt like dried animal hide.  I had hoped that it was a good purchase, and wasn't so sure when I left to return to life.

But when I returned a few hours later, it had grown to it's natural state - the thin slab of stinky cheese slices was now a hefty, thick slab of form fitting heaven.  I'm not quite sure how it'll play on my back, but here's to the hope that it'll fare better than my memory foam pillow.  We had gotten those in the mail yesterday and although my wife claims to have had the best night of sleep in a long time, my experience was far from endearing.  In fact, I kept waking up to find my head laying on what felt like a chunk of cold cut.  My back was stiff and annoyed when I got out of bed this morning.  But I'm going to give it a week, see if I adapt to the pillow or vice versa.  If it doesn't pan out, I'll set the damn thing on fire.  I guess it's a bit flammable from what I read.

I uttered something witty today, even though I'm sure even the person I was talking to probably didn't even hear me.  But someone asked me if I was leaving too, and I replied that no, someone has to stick around to swab the decks of this sinking ship.  Sigh.  So many of my jokes never get realized because I don't have the same kind of audience as I used to have.

One of my major shortcomings is my constant feeling of regret.  Nothing to do with my family or anything like that, I truly love them and secretly thank them for preventing me from becoming this train-wreck it could've been.  But rather just the little things.  Things that I've done that, in other people's perspective, may have been good, bad, or just fine - but I still feel bad one way or another about it.  Probably one of my worst life decisions had to be that I went into wedding videography.  I know there have been customers who have recommended me, who simply love what I've capture on their very special day, but I've also had customers who have either not given any feedback - which I feel is probably because they hated it but didn't say anything, or they straight out disliked my work. 

I think the idea of ever being that responsible for someone's life event terrifies me now.  I don't mind doing something like that as a friend casually, but if money was involved or I was the sole person capturing that event?  No thanks.  I even had a dream the other night about an idea for a short film, had it all ready to go - but the lead actress had a schedule conflict.  I just don't want to deal with that anymore.  I'm getting comfortable with the idea that I'm a better follower and contributer, and not so much a leader.  I loathe the responsibility of being one.  I often even wonder if I'm a good enough father - although in that analogy, it's probably good that I'm even questioning that notion.

Anyhow, that's something that I have to work on.  Letting history be just that and not reliving it over and over again.  I suppose writing things on a blog isn't necessarily the best path to living in the moment either.  Hmm.

Migraines and change

Really nothing that says good morning like waking up at four in the morning with a killer headache. Then I just got hyper-freaked about the time and tried to sleep despite the constant worry that I just wasn't going to get rid of the headache. When the ipod finally sounded, the headache was itself in full blast. So, utilizing one of the perks of the job and the fact that my manager is in Sweden, I emailed in that I was going to work from home after I slept the headache off.

So hours later, when I woke up feeling a bit confused, I ended up going into work anyway because there really is a ton of work to do and my job isn't the type of job whereby the work goes away you make it go away. So I went in, stayed really late, and now my schedule feels off again.

At any rate, I really needed to work today because our weekend was a giant spending spree, and amazingly a lot of it was done without even leaving the house. We got a memory mattress and pillows at Amazon, then got another Roku box because despite the PS3's streaming capabilities, it is more of an afterthought app that sometimes stutters at what it has to do. And I love that company anyway. I think we've bought 5 Rokus from them now. All the power to them. Then we went on another spree at Old Navy, because I really need more clothes than polo shirts and sweatshirts, so I got some dress up shirts and kids clothes. All and all, a grand damage to the checkbook.