my nose hurts

The day that NASA announces the Kepler probe's mission to explore the Orion arm of our Milky Way galaxy, William F. Shatner releases "Redshirt" and "Pon Farr", Star Trek inspired fragrances. This was not how I wanted my radio alarm to wake me up this morning.

Admittedly, I thought that it was a joke. The radio station that I wake to has some "funny" non news/ non commercial news/commercials. When I heard the tagline for "Redshirt", I thought for sure that it was a joke. But it is not. It really does exist.
And now that it does, all of you graduates fresh from Starfleet Academy, anticipating your first away team mission on an uncharted class M planet in the Orion arm... don your red shirts and don't even bother to set your phasers. Wear "Redshirt" because for you, "tomorrow may never come."

Uh... what? Redshirt, "because tomorrow may never come"? How do you finish that thought? It's Shatner so I guess it would be something like "So bang what you can today?"

Then there is the Pon Farr fragrance. People who wrote the news copy called it the Vulcan mating ritual. It is not. It brings betrothed Vulcan couples to the ritual. But it is a condition that induces something called "plak tow", loosely translated as blood fever. If you are a Vulcan and you ignore the biological indices you get the blood fever. Once Pon Farr settles in you have only two choices... mate or die. I presume this is why Shatner decided on Pon Farr for a name. Afterall, he seems to have the same biologic directive. Kirk part Vulcan? Who knew? Who could tell?
Ugh! Another reason to pull the plug on his clout within the franchise. And that of those who approved this project. I hate to quote a Kilingon, especially Koloth's unnamed second, but what a "swaggering, arrogant, overbearing tin-plated dictator with delusions ofc godhood."

I begin translation on a german document

Found among some of the piles of paper work, a german document mentioning Grampa's male family that I knew about and some names of women I did not know about. Best of all... maiden names. Yeeeeeeeeee haw!
i could be lost in translation for a while so unless No Line on the Horizon is faboo and actually in stores tomorrow... this line will be silent a while.

successfully avoided a murder one wrap

Spent the day with brother without bloodshed. A good sign. But as I told a friend, I'm not likely to take this olive branch. I keep getting whacked with them everytime I reach for them. I may be a slow study, but I do learn.
He is laid off for a while. So now he wants to get cracking on packing up dad's stuff and getting it out of the house. Silly him, he thinks I'm gonna help. I've been spinning my wheels because I have been refused every request. No it isn't mature. But you know what? It also makes no sense to spend my time and energy doing something which will be forgotten the second he starts accounting for hours. I mean holy crap, he accused me of ignoring his birthdays. I'm the one that bakes his freakin' cake! Forget his bday my left foot.
So he's had his fill of not talking to his sisters. So he says. And how long will that last? Until he and his wife get back together? Until he finds someone else? Until he's managed to get some money out of the estate? I already told him today that the voting is 15 to 3; MQT over CHI-town for my next destination. He knows I am not sticking around.
And that is even after he offered to help me start up my business. Yep. If I weren't firmly resolved and well educated on the subject of our patterns of interaction I would have fallen for it. Based on his use of terms, I'd say that someone besides myself has accused him of dream killing. Still... not falling for it.
And as far as the votes go: I need to live in a bigger city. I love Marquette in a way to make words inadequate. But, I truly need to expand my horizons. Besides, a better brother is there. And my cousin drops in enough to make visiting face-face more likely.

twitterverse

So I have a bunch of followers on twitter that I never expected. And some old friends who have joined the twitterverse. In all, its quite amazing. I am enthralled. Almost. Enthralled to the degree to which one must actually mean the word would mean that I would never do anything else for a week.
I love twitter. This is the kind of thing garaunteed to make a broader world.

its just music

I know this. And it shouldn't make me this nuts. But puh-lease! This is just ridiculously insane!!
Six months ago I heard about U2's new album. LAst Tuesday they released it on their Myspace site. But NOT IN STORES???? WTF! So I thought, well maybe Best Buy or Borders will have lucked out and gotten advance copies.
That's a big NO from BB. So across the street to Borders i go. And when I get there? IT'S PLAYING ON THE STEREO! I skippped over to Alan, threw a "Salve (sall-way)" at him and said I want this, handing him the CD case. No prob for Alan. He hit a few keys and presto magic NOTHING.
Alan: (sheepishly) You aren't gonna like this.
Me: Not available.
Alan: No... not until
Me & Alan: MArch 3rd.
A curse on the marketing genious who came up with this brilliant idea of frustrating the fan base. And a curse on he band members who concurred with this totally lame LAME lame idea.
I know it's just music. But really? Is it JUST music? Is music ever JUST music? I mean, there is something intrinsic in the creation of music, any art, that speaks to the soul and connects listener to band/solo artist. Music that speaks to the individual, feeds the soul. It quickens the body and stimulates the mind. It isn't just music... random notes on a page. It is an experience. An experience that I have been waiting for the last six months. It is an experience that I had hoped would induce sunshine on my cloudy days. A new experience to bring in a new phase of my life. Music tends to do that. "Beautiful Day" got me through a painful break up during one of Sting's dry spells. In fact, it rather laid the ground work to appreciate Sacred Love without a jaundiced ear.
So I have been frustrated and barely able to stand this passage of time this whole week. And I wa just doing something random on Facebook when I am suddenly face to face with an ad for an album I would already own if SOMEONE WEREN'T A COMPLETE IDIOT!!!!!!!!! Talk about torment.
I know this should eclipse all other negative comments about Bono and his spokesmanship, forever defaming him in my eyes. But you have to seperate the man from the marketing or you lose the music. I know this too. But I don't care. It's just plain mean!