Lefty's Personal Think Tank

Down We Go Together

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:55:33 GMT

"United 93 is a film that, we're told, will give us inspiration, courage, and wisdom. In fact, it resembles, rather, a horror film. One horror film in particular, if you ask me: George Romero's zombie flick Dawn of the Dead (and to some extent its predecessor, Night of the Living Dead). Not the gory flesh-eating zombie scenes, but the brief but even more profoundly disturbing scenes in the control rooms of the television stations, on the screens of the TV sets as the familiar breaks down into panic, information disintegrates in the attempt to report on the growing breakdown of civilization overwhelmed by the undead. No one wants to admit it, but no Flight 93 fable of heroism can mask the fact that we now live in a world we are utterly unprepared for, a world out of control.</p>

And, in closing:

"I did not come away from watching United 93 feeling optimistic about the triumph of the human spirit and the superior resilience of enlightenment values. Quite the opposite. I came away with a feeling that history has been hijacked by a cult of the undead, or the wannabe dead, suicidal mass murderers driven by theocratic savagery. That, if you want a metaphoric fable, we're all on Flight 93, we're all doomed to crash and burn; whatever we do, the best we can hope for is that the existential rewards of local acts of courage will help us hold on a little longer before the end of enlightenment civilization and the dawn of the dead."

Dark, but brutally honest, and the best articulation of how I'm feeling about all this right now. Reading 'The End of Faith' has been very affecting as well, and I recommend it to anyone who thinks religion is still useful to modern civilzation, as well as those who suspect it isn't, but haven't heard someone articulate powerfully and cogently exactly why.

I've thought about going to see this movie, but figured I already know enough of the salient points to not need to vicariously live through this horror myself. If all goes according to their plans, and I see little sign of that being impossible or even, increasingly, implausible, I'll get to see it firsthand soon enough anyway. The only upside is that once it's over we'll all be DEAD, and no one will get to gloat from Heaven or be confused about why they're in Hell. Because they'll be dead, see? Everything else is 'looking for the pony', and a depressing reminder of why I picked this handle in the first place. Wake me up in 500 years.

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On a lighter note, the apartment hunt continues. It is immensely liberating to know we can just go and look at places and take the one WE want, and not just "the one we want that our backers don't object too much to...". There are a plenthora of places in our newly-minted price range, and all nicely close to downtown/the store. We are feeling very confident about this decision, and I am very, very much looking forward to being back among civilzation again, if only til the bomb drops. (Crap, that last should have been behind the cut, I guess...)

We just looked at a place literally across the street from another firends' place, and liked but didn't LOVE it. Upside: "cutest kitty ever" downstairs, but living alongside the single most hyper 3-year old boy to ever sream "WE'RE HAVIN' SCRAMMMBBBED EGGGSSSS!" at you. Repeatedly. Others: nice neighborhood, gas heat, laundry on-site, nice screened-in fornt porch. Drawbacks: a little further from town than we really want, somewhat shabby condition, and that same cool porch slopes off at a noticeable angle. So, all in all, it goes int the 'maybe' pile.

We just got a line on a "bungalow" on Summer that fuschia is going to look at this evening, and there's another place we think may work for us over on Graves that has a showing next Saturday.

Anyway, more as we look at places.

-Lefty

For Scott(xwl)

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:20:17 GMT

This just in from my insider sources in the comics industry, even though you probably already knew about it...

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/8562.html

-Lefty

Stately State Street

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 01:12:12 GMT

Hey, folks-

This morning we went and looked at the State Street condo I mentioned the other day. It's not officially on the market yet, and we got hooked into it by a co-worker of fuschia's. The folks who own it are definitely moving, but it sounds like they don't have a specific time table yet, so it's a very up-in-the-air thing.

The condo in question is in an older house (1915?) that's been refurbished to much more modern standards. It's a large house that's been split in half down the middle to make two condos that presumably used to be apartments. The place we looked at is the front half of the house. It's on three floors, and tall rather than long. The yard is small, it has a little koi pond with a fountain, and the person who was there before put in a lot of flowers and such.

It's smaller, but rather charming. There's a big front room with gabled windows, the kitchen is small from a workspace standpoint, but has numerous cabinets, gas stove, and room for a kitchen table. There's a smaller bedroom downstairs, with a full bathroom including a shower stall. Main bedroom is upstairs, with a smaller bathroom just off the bedroom. Claw foot tub, notes fuschia.

There's a semi-finished basement with two small rooms, one set up as an office, the other one as a guest bedroom. It may be possible to knock the wall between them down and get a good-sized gaming space, but that's getting a bit ahead of ourselves, I guess. Utility room with laundry and a cat door.

Heat is radiators and OIL, ugh. Gas stove and dryer, though.

The folks who live in the house basically have a condo association of two, with all the common maintenance stuff split between them. Sounds like they typically spend <$200 a month on things like painting and roof, etc.

The coolest thing is the hot tub, of course, a smaller outdoor model that they run during the winter and has a cute little fence around it. It does make up for a number of other minor deficiencies that may crop up.

-Lefty

An Introduction of sorts.

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 05:34:27 GMT

Hello, everyone!

Jim here.

This is, obviously, the first entry in my new LJ. I am hoping to use it to get more involved in my remote friends' lives, as well as to try and start to get some writing kick-started.

For anyone look in on me for the first time, my name is Jim, I live in western New England, and I happen to own a comics and gaming store that I also manage. I'm in my late 30s, married, with no kids, and no plans to have any. I've got a degree in Theater, but never used it professionally.

I am pretty steadily involved in the role-playing hobby, with several games going regularly. I'm a moderate recreational reader, mostly SF and modern fantasy stuff along with the comics, modern lit, and a bit of video gaming. I've got a bike that I don't ride enough.

With my wife, I have three cats that we do our best to take care of. We love them like kids, and put up with all of their foibles.

I'm a vegetarian, but since I do the cooking, that doesn't cause any problems.

I don't know if it'll get any more interesting than this. Here's hoping.

-Lefty