The American Drive

Utah















Iowa





Illinois

Where I've Been, Where I'm Going

Ferry-Land









Monumental





I've Got An Ape Drape


The George Washington Bridge


Majestic


The Best Ad In NYC


It's Always Time for Hofstra


Benjamin Franklin


Thomas Jefferson


This Is Not a Building


That's nice...


But the Sculpture Sucks


Socrates or Bust





Celestial


Harold and Omer

Why Does Britney Shpears...?

I have pictures from the East Coast that I will post, an E. Coli scare that I possibly could mention, and probably fifteen points I could make on the state of the Middle East, but instead I will post this: Oops! She's done it again!

Enjoy!

Eddie Munster Eating Oatmeal And Drinking The Unrest Cure During The Third Reich, When Property Is Not Theft, Nor Man's Invention.

"The rise of the Quakers, with their studied rejection of secular authority and distinctions of social rank, was particularly ominous, and the Baptists, though in fact comparatively innocuous, were always associated with the excesses of the notorious Anabaptists of Munster a century before, while the Fifth Monarchists' belief in the imminent return of Christ to reign on earth for a thousand years with his saints had obvious and profoundly disturbing political implications. Economic depression and continued unemployment enhanced the general working-class unrest, and it was no coincidence that in April 1649, with food prices still rising, Gerrard Winstanley and his Diggers made their famous occupation of common land on St George's Hill, Surrey, denouncing property as 'a Norman invention'."

Stuart England, J.P. Kenyon, p. 180.

"You're Not Fun, You're Fat."

And this may be why.

Eroticaphile.

Because I usually forget the answers I provide in useless surveys that I take to make myself feel witty (I am by no means accusing you of such a thing!), here's the question and your answer that I am responding to:

"4. Believe in love:
Do people not believe in love? I wasnt aware of this lack of belief. That takes cynicism to a new depth. How does one argue against the belief in love? I want to know. Please send me a message if you know."

(Please note that I assumed you were not being sarcastic when you asked for someone to send you a message if they know, so I am not being weird.)

First of all, I had a big problem with "love" from my senior year of high school (it goes way back) until my sophomore year of college. The problem that I had with love lay in its definition. Most people, normal people, people that do not really think about defining words, would give me ostensive definitions, pointing to some action and saying, “That is love.” It was clear to me (being ever cynical) that those examples could be instances of spuriousness. Someone could be pretending that he or she was in love for some ulterior, selfish motive (free dinner?). While I admit that it is highly unlikely for all of those instances to be selfish, logically however, finding one selfish person acting as if he or she is in love is enough to discount the ostensive definition. Simply performing the actions that a person points to as love does not necessarily make one love.

Those with whom I spoke who thought about it more would give me definitions of “sincere and ultimate devotion,” “thinking of another person or persons more than you think about yourself,” etc. These may be better definitions, but my cynical mind thought of instances of torture in which, as in Orwell’s 1984, someone puts himself before the person he or she supposedly loves. Can someone truly tell me that Winston did not love Julia simply because he caved in to his fear of rats? Even in not so extreme situations, is it possible to put oneself before the beloved? People can be fickle beings, and what they say they love at one point of time can change later on or under different circumstances.

What is more, “love” itself can refer to various kinds of relationships. There is the love between family members, between friends, between lovers, between people and objects, between people and animals, etc. The intensity of the emotion varies so much so that it is hard to see if the same term truly encompasses all of those relationships. The Greeks divided love into “philos” and “eros.” Philos was used to refer to the more amicable type of love, whereas eros referred to the intense—often physical—kind. This distinction does not exist in English as far as I know, and that makes love twice as confusing. For instance, when a girl tells me she loves me, she usually means it in the philetic (I know, I made up a word) sense, even though sometimes I ardently wish (and in some cases believe) she means it in the erotic sense. This gets even more confusing out of context, or in a context that can make the statement seem equivocal (as in an ending to a drunken phone call). People say all the time that they love others, and I believe many hardly know what they mean when they say it.

Given this problem of definition, it was much easier to avoid the whole question of love. And if one does not know what love is, then how can one believe in it?

I admit that the argument proffered is a weak one for many reasons, and that is part of the reason why I believe in love now. But, as one who did not believe in love for a time, that was the basis for my lack of belief.

Let Freedom Burn

For now, we can still burn flags. In a way, Rothbard lives.

Courtly Behavior

After two years of working for a lawyer, I finally went to court (Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of San Diego, North County Division) yesterday. I had to drop off a file to be picked up by an attorney who would continue (postpone) an afternoon hearing as a favor for our office. The judge had insisted that we appear to continue the hearing, and since my boss's associate went on vacation as of Friday, we needed to get another attorney to appear for us to continue that hearing.

After leaving the file with the bailiff, I decided to stick around for a few minutes and watch the proceeding. The Respondent was representing himself, and the Petitioner had an attorney representing her (apparently working for free, as he indicated to Judge Isackson). The issues before the court were property issues (the Petitioner's 401K, the community residence, attorney's fees paid from community funds, etc.), but the Respondent kept bringing up child custody issues. He kept telling the court that he had tapes (which were of course not submitted as evidence) wherein the Petitioner had indicated that she did not even want to have the children. That was the whole thrust of the Respondent's argument; he barely said anything in response to the issues before the court (the Respondent did show a lack of understanding of community property when he could not understand how paying attorney's fees from money earned during the marriage constituted community funds).

Some advice to those who choose to appear before the court in propria persona: please at least read the local rules for the particular county in which you will appear. If poring over a voluminous tome discussing the rules of court does not appeal to you, then get an attorney. While attorneys tend to be expensive (though the attorney for Petitioner was working "gratis," as he told the judge), it will save you the embarrassment of being off topic in the courtroom, and you will have a better chance of getting what you want.

The court took a fifteen minute recess to give the court reporter a break. The judge said she would give her rulings after the recess. I left then, partly because I had to get back to work, and partly because I did not really care whom would receive which property. It seemed really trivial. Plus, I now had a better idea of what my boss does in court. I, however, do not want to follow in my boss's footsteps.

Gradually Graduating in Gradations

(Note: All of these pictures were taken in Los Angeles, California. Weird, huh?)

Mine, Not Mine, All in Vain.

"The period between Passover and the festival of Shavuot is known as the period of the Omer. There are many customs and traditions attached to this period. There are many activities for this, such as 'Bringing the Omer,' 'Counting of the Omer,' and No weddings."

I guess that's enough.

Admit To Fraudulence.

Compare:

"He was invading my personal space, as I had learned in Psych. class, and I instinctively sunk back into the seat. That just made him move in closer. I was practically one with the leather at this point, and unless I hopped into the back seat, there was nowhere else for me to go" (McCafferty 213).

and

"He was definitely invading my personal space, as I had learned in Human Evolution class last summer, and I instinctively backed up till my legs hit the chair I had been sitting in. That just made him move in closer, until the grommets in the leather embossed the backs of my knees, and he finally tilted the book toward me" (Viswanathan 175).

Apparently Kaavya Viswanathan, one of the youngest published authors (she's 19) and a Harvard student, wrote a book (How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life [a miserable title, no?]) that bears certain similarities to Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts (another miserable title, yes), published in 2001. It is currently under investigation according to the San Diego Union Tribune. (By the way, I got all this information from an article in the San Diego Union Tribune in the April 25, 2006 edition entitled "Similarities found between 2001 novel, 19-year-old's hit book" by Andrew Ryan of the Associated Press. I do not want to be another Indian accused of plagiarism.) Based on the passage, it seems too similar to be merely coincedence. Maybe it's just me and my jealousy.

Because I Have Nothing To Say:

Pong.


Dementia


Bare Knuckle!


Rockin' Out


Feel Like Getting Shammed?


India, Undefined.


India, Redefined.

Vendetta! Vendetta! Vendetta!

I finally saw V for Vendetta on April 1, 2006 (a fool I was for waiting so long to see it). Of course, I liked it. The movie was loaded with many a good quote (often Shakespeare, from plays I have not read, sadly), and brought up many artistic, philosophical, and political issues. An in depth review of it would be extremely long, and I neither have the capacity nor the patience to bring up all the things I would like, especially considering how out of practice I am in writing critiques.

The one thing that I would like to bring up is the line that Evey (Natalie Portman) said about half-way through the film, "artists tell lies to expose the truth, while politicians tell them to cover it up." (That is how I remember the line, it may or may not be totally accurate.) This quote is exemplified in the use of masks throughout the film. Both V (Hugo Weaving) and the (fictional) British government make use of masks in the film: V of course has his Guy Fawkes mask, which, unlike Spiderman or Batman, he never removes; and the government has those "black bag" masks which they put on people they want to "erase." Naturally, both masks are meant to hide the faces of the respective people behind them. V wants to cover the horrible disfigurement he underwent at Lark Hill, in effect lying to others about his true appearance (there is one scene when a police officer tries to punch V in the face, but the officer hurts his hand on the metal mask), but at the same time the Guy Fawkes mask is meant to expose the horrible truth (ironically, the same truth he conceals) behind the St. Mary’s and Three Waters epidemics. The black bags, however, are meant to cover up, in that they are put on anyone who dissents from the government in any form. So as far as the masks are concerned, this would make the government a composition of politicians, but would that also make V an artist?

It is clear from the movie that V loves art. In his "cave," he is surrounded by books, sculpture, music, and paintings (mostly pilfered from the government censor trucks). He plays Tchaikovsky as he blows up buildings, quotes literature as he kills government officials, and even has Evey act the part of a call girl before murdering a Bishop. And given that, by his lie, he exposes the horrible truth to the investigating officer (Mr. Finch, played by Stephen Rea) and to Evey, it seems that V could very well be an artist. However, his vendetta is personal, and, on a larger scale, political. The methods V sometimes uses are also similar to the chancellor’s strategies at keeping the "peace" (I do not want to give away too much of the movie by explaining how), and V is clearly starting a political revolution.

Maybe Evey’s quote is simply a wink by the Wachowski brothers (possibly David Lloyd?) to the audience about the movie itself, for I do not believe that V can be considered an artist, just a different kind of politician (maybe the right kind).

I Have Not Seen It Yet...

But I think maybe I should.

Oh Queso...

I should have posted this sooner, but, for some reason, I did not. I guess it was apathy and lethargy on my part. I got into Rutgers University (the campus in Newark, New Jersey). I was really excited when I got the e-mail, but that excitement has gone down considerably since I found out (it has been about a week)--not that anything happened...it is just...my routine has obliterated much of the excitement. I am, however, now anxious to hear back from the other schools to which I applied, namely, San Diego State University and the University of Chicago. I'm on the waiting list at the University of Chicago, and, when I called there earlier today, I found out that I will not hear from them until June. I cannot make hide nor hair of San Diego State's Web Portal (to check the status of my application), so I wonder if they will take me or not. Oh, and on top of that I still need to get the official packet in the mail from admissions from Rutgers as well. It is all a matter of waiting, really.

In light of all this, I have come to a realization: now that I actually have gotten into a school, I need to start practicing academic writing again. My reading has been going slow (as always), but it is extremely difficult to focus on a book when you are brain-dead from an entire day of performing either mindless tasks or wracking your brain trying to figure out how to get something done. Also, as this blog has evinced, I have not written anything academic in a very long time. All I have basically done was copy and paste other people's work without any in depth discussion. I have also failed in producing anything artistic in a while (a failed attempt at a story, a horrible poem that I would never post on here), and these next few months might be the last time I will have "free time" to produce something, anything.

Okay so--without promising anything--my fans (ha!) should expect to see a more serious, insightful, and enlightened Omer (ha!). Posts might be few and far between (as usual), but, hopefully, they will be somewhat academic, structured, clear, and succinct. I will try to avoid my rambling. I will try to write better. I will try.

The Soon-To-Be Graduate Student Is Sick

"Words, he realised, words, words, words. He had lived too much with words and not what the words stood for. James Joyce had been such another, with his deliberate choice of a sweetheart from a sweetshop, his refusal to correct a visitor who had called a painting a photograph, because 'photograph' was so lovely a word. But James Joyce at least had not told a gangster that he had done a tray on the moor just because he liked the sound of it. A world of words, thought Edwin, saying it aloud and liking the sound of it. 'A whirling world of words.' Apart from its accidents of sound, etymology and lexical definition, did he really know the meaning of any one word? Love, for instance. Interesting, that collocation of sounds: the clear allophone of the voiced divided phoneme gliding to that newest of all English vowels which Shakespeare, for instance, did not know, ending with the soft bite of the voiced labiodental. And its origin? Edwin saw the word tumble back to Anglo-Saxon and beyond, and its cognate Teutonic forms tumbling back too, so that all forms ultimately melted in the prehistoric primitive Germanic mother. Fascinating. But there was something about the word that should be even more fascinating, to the man if not to the philologist: its real significance when used in such a locution as 'Edwin loves Sheila'. And Edwin realised that he didn't find it fascinating. Let him loose in the real world, where words are glued to things, and see what he did: stole, swore, lied, committed acts of violence on things and people. He had never been sufficiently interested in words, that was the trouble."

Anthony Burgess, The Doctor Is Sick (pp. 152-3).

Can you relate to Edwin? Well, Kenya?

I Think I Would Rather Keep The Money...

This is an e-mail I got today from someone (something?) I do not know. I think it's hilarious.

"Subject: AMERICANS CAN STOP THIS WAR ON TERRORISM! PLEASE READ AND PASS IT ON!

I was watching one of those talk shows last night on this damn war in Iraq and the other countries we are fighting in. I can't remember who made the comment, but he said...'Someone should UP the reward on Bin Laden and let's just see how fast we bring him to Justice!'

That's when I thought to myself, 'that's it!!!' We the people can stop this war and do something that has never in history been done. With our personal money we can stop this war! Look at all the money we give to churches, peace causes and donations for righteous causes.... and for unnecessary items also. We the people could be a bigger voice than our Government and show true freedom and what this country is all about! We need to do this to show the rest of the world that this country was made for the people and we have the right and freedom to control our Government. Not our Government controlling the people. If we, the public, pooled our money together and made a reward for Bin Laden and all the other supposedly bad guys we're after. Some force of nature will take care of this problem for the USA. We the people can show the rest of the world that we are a benign entity as a whole. We the people can show the rest of the world that Democracy is the only way to stamp out injustice. We the people can control our destiny as a nation and show the world what our fore fathers had truly meant by the 'Melting Pot'.

I believe this is the way to stop the war.

All you Huge lottery winners. All you people with lots of money. And all you people who have money, who can spare to help this cause. Show your true voice!! Let's make a reward so irresistible that only the most noble of great women and men step forth to claim such a victory in American history. And let those who do try to claim such a victory, be honest, benign and true. Let's actually make this world a place we can all live in. With peace and tranquility. If money is truly power, than we the people have the power to stop this war!!! Never in history has this been done. WE CAN DO THIS WITH OUR MONEY! Let us put the rest of the world in awe by doing this! Let's show the world we truly want peace and not let our government speak for us!! We will make a monument of all the names who give money for this cause. The monument will have to be a website, since the probability of millions of names could be on it. A website of true American History. Let not only Americans donate for such a cause but those throughout the world who believe in world peace. Competition should be put aside. Working together to build a better future for all of mankind should be the main objective for us as humans.

We the people could stop this war. We could stop any war for that matter. No more innocent people dead.

I love my family and my country. I love people in general and want the best for all. I believe the majority of the world wants peace. It's only money and we can always make more. Address below:"

Of course, no address followed. It seems like it would cost more money to find Osama Bin Laden than the reward would be if every American donated to the cause. I also highly doubt that finding Osama Bin Laden will stop this war, or "any war." The naivete and child-like hope the e-mail engenders is laughable. This might have been written by a child for all I know: the syntax is certainly child-like. And to find someone greedy enough to risk life and limb to find Osama Bin Laden for money seems highly improbable too. This e-mail is just too ridiculous to be taken seriously. The things people expect people to believe... I think I would rather keep the money than give it to some ridiculous kid with a messianic complex.

A Pun, A Pun, My Kingdom For A Pun!

I posted this very thing on my Myspace. I have come to the realization that recycled material is good for all environments. If you give me all of the correct band names in this piece, you'll get a prize! It should be pretty easy for anyone that knows me well.

I use Green Rifles to shoot Red Robots on Green Days when I'm accused of being john Dillinger Four times; my real name is Elliott Smith, and I have achieved Nirvana so many times in my life that I am as high as a Bad Astronaut who just purchased a Wagon that Lags from Something that I understood to be as Corporate. I have Descended from the same source as ALL people, viz., Adam and Eve, who must have had the entire human genome coded in their DNA, unless you think some evolution occurred between now and then. In which case I might be wrong. That's what I've heard on the Radio that's in my Head. I live in Creeper Lagoon, a new town with Newfound Glory, a Bad Religion, and No Effects. I can produce no Offspring because of my wife's Swingin' Udders (which makes her known as a Violent Femme fatale), and that only makes me feel Less Than Jake does. That, in turn, makes me as Mad as a Caddy for Jimmy Carter and his Peace Mission (which involves Eating the World). I work in alkali flats with three guys, which makes us an Alkaline Trio; we're Diggers, too, so since all we do is destroy the already barren flats, I guess that would make us Vandals as well. When I'm finished with work, I look, feel, and smell Rancid. I usually read Matthew until I'm Good again and can join my Band of workers. One of them always calls me sam, and he forces me to respond with, "Sam I Am." It seems everyone calls me different things, so I have No Use For A Name. I would really like to Rise Against that notion, but it seems like I'm stuck with the Swindle of having more than one name. It makes me as crazy as a Goo Goo Doll. Agent 51, who works on Operation: Ivy, told me I'm stuck this way forever, but I know that's only Propaganda from Gandhi. I'm so much Weaker Than him. Just once, though, if I could be the one that Saves The Day, then I wouldn't cry like a Screeching Weasel. I just want to walk up to the mirror, look at myself, Face To Face, and tell myself to stop acting like such a Pinhead while stuffing Gunpowder in my 17th century musket. Of course, gunpowder would be everywhere, which will only make me a Weezer. I would like to someday have 88 Fingers just like Louie; that is the Confessional I told my Dashboard. Some people say louie has a Ten Foot Pole, but that's only a Social Distortion. Anyway, this is longer than it needs to be: I'm losing connection with The Network.

Completely Wrong...Totally Wrong

You Are Bart Simpson

Very misunderstood, most people just dismiss you as "trouble." Little do they know that you're wise and well accomplished beyond your years. You will be remembered for: starring in your own TV show and saving the town from a comet Your life philosophy: "I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again!"

The Simpsons Personality Test

Since I Was "Tagged."

4 Jobs You Have Had In Your Life:
1. Merchandising Sales Clerk - Zoological Society of San Diego.
2. Legal Assistant - The Law Offices of Peter J. Mueller
3. Child
4. Adult

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
1. Fight Club
2. Fight Club
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. Team America: World Police

4 Places You Have Lived:
1. Montclair, California
2. San Diego, California
3. Irvine, California
4. The dark side of the moon.

4 TV Shows You Love To Watch:
1. The Simpsons
2. Family Guy
3. American Dad
4. World Series of Poker

4 Places You Have Been On Vacation:
1. Cambridge, England
2. Hyderabad, India
3. Karachi, Pakistan
4. Houston, Texas

4 Websites You Visit Daily:
1. Hotmail
2. Myspace
3. AOL.com
4. The Unrest Cure

4 Of Your Favorite Foods:
1. Anything my mother makes
2. Anything Prego's serves
3. (Shepherd's) Bread
4. Cheese

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. Irvine, California
2. Redding, California
3. Cambridge, England
4. Prego's

I'm not tagging anyone else. This ends with me.