Kenny's Head

Me? Just watching Star Wars Episode III in my hotel room. Calling it research for when I ride the new version of Star Tours.

Hey tumblr!

Turns out our hotel that we’re at tonight has free wi-fi. Glad I decided to bring my ebook reader just in case! Too bad Disney doesn’t do this.

We’re about halfway to L.A. We drove for about 8 hours, then stopped for a late lunch at a casino. Mom gave me $20 to gamble with, so I naturally went to the gas station and bought a couple packs of smokes for $10 (they’re cheap on Indian reservations) and then gambled and lost the other $10.

Then my mom said that if I got a frequent player card, they give you $5 on it to gamble (she doesn’t know about the smokes). So I got one and they put $15 on it since it was my birthday last week. I started picking good slot machines and video poker machines (I think I hit five four-of-a-kind hands). I left the casino with $60 in my pocket, so I’ve got a little money for Disney now…unless I save it for a drunk night or two when I get back (doubt I’ll be able to hold onto it that long though).

We just got to the hotel, and I still haven’t slept since getting up yesterday…I can’t seem to sleep in cars anymore (I wasn’t that good at it even when I lived in my car). I should sleep well tonight…I hope.

Anyway, since they have internet, I figured I’d send you a surprise post. It’s been a pretty good day. I needed one of those!

Not sure if there will be any more surprise internet on the trip…if there is, I’ll try to make another, but I can’t promise anything.

Don’t burn the tumblr down while I’m gone, kids!

Well, time to sign off of tumblr for a while. I’ll be on the road and without internet (unless I find someone willing to lend me their cell phone so I can post on tumblr or check email).

If you want to watch my flights on a flight tracker or anything so you can later tell me “See? I told you that you wouldn’t crash!” here’s the info (I think all times are local times):

Starting in about 15 minutes, we start driving to L.A., and I should be there sometime Sunday afternoon. Then I get to see an old high school buddy for a couple days, and get fucked up (and boy, do I need that).

November 30th, I fly SouthWest flight 1265 from L.A. to Vegas at 3:30pm. Then I take flight 437 from Vegas to Orlando at 5:00pm.

Then on December 15th, we fly out of Orlando on flight 210 to Chicago Midway at 1:00pm, then leave Chi-town on flight 347 to LAX at 3:55pm.

Then we drive up from L.A. to here, making stops on the way to see more family. I think that drive is going to be three or four days with all the stops, but I’m not sure.

So I’ll see you all sometime in a few weeks or so.

I’ll miss you, tumblr!

Every time I fly, I like a window seat. And when we take off, I try to decide at which point we’re too high to survive if the engines give out. I go from “this may be survivable” to “we may be close enough to circle back and glide in” to “we’re dead meat if we lose power now.”

Hmmm…seems some people took exception to Obama not bothering to thank God for all the war and famine.

Look, being religious is one thing…but getting upset that the President didn’t preach during his address is just stupid. He’s the president, not a priest.

And since I won’t be here when it inevitably makes the news sometime in early December, when atheists get ticked off at religious symbols being on public land (it happens every year around this time, as predictable as Black Friday violence at Walmart), I’ll just say it now: it’s freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. Just because you don’t believe doesn’t mean that other people aren’t allowed to express their own beliefs somewhere that you may have to see it.

That nativity scene isn’t going to shoot a God laser at you that forces you to become a Christian. The menorah isn’t going to drop a magic yarmulke on your head. The Festivus pole won’t force you to watch Seinfeld reruns, Clockwork Orange-style, with your eyes propped open.

And lastly, it’s OK to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. It’s also OK to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. First person I hear complaining about the wording someone uses to wish you joy gets punched in the mouth.

Time to scroll down and start my last night on tumblr for a while. I should be back somewhere around December 17th or 18th, I think.

Well, unless one of the planes I’m on crashes or something. I kinda dream about that a lot, so I bet if I see that we’re going down, I’ll just sigh and say “that figures.”

Matthew Lopez went to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch on Thursday night for the Black Friday sale but instead was caught in a pepper-spray attack by a woman who authorities said was “competitive shopping.”

…

Nakeasha Contreras, 20, of North Hollywood, arrived at midnight and hadn’t heard what happened. Even if she had, she said, she wouldn’t have been bothered: “I don’t care. I’m still getting my TV.” 

(source)

This is why we fail. Even the cops call it “competitive shopping,” and not “assault.” When it’s “capitalism” at work, I guess it’s OK.

And much love to Nakeasha, for standing by the “fuck it — as long as I get mine, fuck everyone else” attitude that seems to define our culture these days.

Wonder how much longer we’ll continue to “celebrate” cheaply-made crap (you don’t think that cheap 42” plasma TV is the same quality at the full price one, do you?) being sold while American consumers degrade themselves in a scramble for stuff that a Consumer Reports study says will be cheaper if they just wait.

I know, I’m drinking really slowly. But I’m also doing laundry and packing. Stepdad wants to load the car up tomorrow night before he goes to bed.

I hope I can make it three weeks without anywhere to vent.

mac-encheeze:

redneckroyalty:

tweetface replied to your post: Horrible Message..

It’s better than Disney where everyone’s mother dies.

True..  and their marriage ends right after the wedding.  I mean…  as far as we know.  

I thought I was the only one who noticed that Walt Disney was a misogynistic woman hater?

Since when does everyone’s mother die and Walt hate women?

Forgive me if I misread what is being said, since I don’t follow redneckroyalty and they hide their content from non-followers so I can’t see the original post. But, as the Disney Nerd of the bunch, I felt I should speak up when this exchange showed up on my dash.

Sure, Bambi’s mom gets it. She was a deer. It was hunting season. It sucked, but it certainly wasn’t woman-hating.

Most animated Disney movies are tales that existed long before Disney adapted them into cartoons. They were written by Hans Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm, or they were old folk tales. It wasn’t Walt that killed their mom, it was the original author.

And many did have living mothers. Princess Aurora (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty); Dumbo; Alice; Simba; John, Michael, and Wendy from Peter Pan, Andy from Toy Story; Rapunzel…they all have moms present and accounted for in the movie. Even the Banks kids from Mary Poppins have their mother around (who, incidentally, is fighting for womens’ right to vote in the movie). There are plenty of other mothers to choose from, as well.

What kind of movie would it be if everybody was just happy?

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. Her parents loved her very much, and they lived long and full lives playing hide and seek together. One day the princess twisted her ankle, and her mom got her some ice for it, and they lived happily ever after.”

Not too many people would go to that movie. Well, OK, you slap the Disney name on anything and a lot of people will go. But it won’t be anywhere near the classic story passed from generation to generation that the movies that actually get made are.

My step-brother-in-law left behind some beer when he left tonight.

I don’t know if it’s really the best Milwaukee has to offer, but it will do quite nicely.

Sorry if I post weird things later.

Don’t worry, this won’t be one of my long emo posts. It’ll be a short emo post.

Two things worth mentioning happened today (well, three, now that I think about it…but I promise to stop there. Or at least put the rest in a new post if I think of more).

1. My older sister, who is the one who has spent the last month or so trying to guilt-trip me into being at my dad’s for Thanksgiving (she stayed with him when he and my mom divorced, so he still loved her), was here. She didn’t make the trip to Dad’s house, even after all the time she spent trying to convince me that I’m a terrible person for not going. My younger sister, who was the one in the family who understood why I didn’t want to go, actually went. Hope she doesn’t feel silly being the only one of us who is there (considering that he’s not actually her dad, although when she was born, he and our mom were still married).

2. When I sat down to eat, my chair collapsed. I tried to catch myself with both arms, and my already-screwed-up left shoulder has been in constant pain since (as opposed to only when I move it, like normal). My older sister told me “Oh, yeah, I heard a crack when I sat in that earlier and saw that the leg separated from the crossbar, and figured I’d broken it.” Somehow this didn’t become important information until after I sat on it sat through it.

3. My older sister’s kids are 11 and 4, and still not potty trained. I went in to the restroom to make room for pie (we actually didn’t have any pie, but the phrase works today), and had to clean up the two rolls of toilet paper that my four year old niece had TP’d the bathroom with. Then I had to clean the seat of the toilet, which was covered in pee from the 11 year old nephew. When I mentioned it to my sister and her husband, their response was “Oh, yeah, they do that all the time.” That was it. So if, in about ten years, you work with a kid who has less social skills than we do, and pees all over the bathroom, I’m sorry…it’s probably a relative of mine whose parents couldn’t be bothered to raise him.

OK, fair enough, my parents couldn’t be bothered to raise me either, but I had my grandma to keep me in line, for the most part. I still have a ton of issues, but at least, on those rare occasions when I do miss the toilet, I clean up after myself.