An American Bystander

Here comes Hurricane Rita, blowing towards the Gulf Coast.

The newsmedia, to date, has been salivating over this storm. Almost relishing it's coming. And now that it's been downgraded, there's almost a disappointment. Ugh.

Wolf Blitzer just got caught in a bit of a pickle with Jack Cafferty on CNN. Wolf was complaining that many of the TSA workers at Houston Int'l Airport had not reported to work. But, Jack pointed out, if you're a TSA worker and you need to evacuate your family, what would you do? Stay and help the entitled airline passengers clear the (pointless, really) security checks, or go help your family flee the hurricane. Well, rather than saying the he stands corrected, Wolf instead said "Well, shouldn't the government then get other TSA workers down there?" Thank you, Wolf. Another expectation put upon the goernment that can barely sustain its current operations...

The story about the elderly on the bus is just horrifying. What a retched way to die.

I don't think I'm going to make it to the gym today. But, I will succeed in going to Sport Chalet to buy a yoga mat. And I think I will definitely make it to the DMV to get my car re-registered.

I booked travel to Denver for me and Aaron Staubach for Puppetry. Should be fun having Aaron along.

Okay, so things are just sort of plodding along. Nothing too exciting, nothing too dramatic. Which means, I should have plenty of time to write. But, for the most part, it's not happening as I'd like it to.

I haven't smoked pot for about five weeks now, maybe longer. I don't necessarily miss it, except in that if I were smoking, I could at least use it to justify my eating habits. (Well, not justify, persay, but at least I could lay blame, correctly or not.) (Not, as the case is quickly becoming evident.)

I'm going to Denver in a week or so, to open up a production of Puppetry. That's good, because I get paid. It's also looking like Puppetry will do three weeks in Milwaukee in December, also making me a very happy camper.

Denver should be fun. Denver, of course, is home of the "Great Denver Ecstacy Debacle." Flag that if you want a good and nasty story about the Life of Daniel.

Tessie is wonderful as ever. She's crazy mad for a Jack Russell terrier that lives upstairs, and even went to the extraordinary lengths of putting her head through a glass window in the hopes of getting closer to the dog. (Yes, my dog would be on Jerry Springer if they had an episode on Love Crazed Mutts and the Pure-bred Terriers They Crave.)

Here is a picture of the old girl. This was taken from atop Runyon Canyon.

Okay, so that's what's going on with me. More soon!

P.S. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow.

It's Tuesday, and I have the day off. I fear that my beach-going days with Tessie have come to a close... It's way too chilly for sitting on the beach, and (taking President Bush's advice), I don't want to buy gas that I don't need (except for the small vase of gas that I like to keep on my desk, as it's so pretty). The drive to and from Huntington Beach uses a half-tank of gas, which is running about $25. Not that I'm super-poor, but $25 to sit on a chilly beach when Tessie can get as much running exercise up at Runyon seems wasteful.

The Roberts hearings have been interesting. He's not answered a single question (that I've seen) directly, and yet I still like him. I'm not sure why, but I think he could be a fair justice. Don't ask for proof, but nothing melts my cold heart like a pair of baby blues and a baseball analogy or two.

I'm going to go to the movies. First, I'll see "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," which got good marks, and will probably then do a double-feature and see "The Constant Gardner," which got outstanding reviews.

Tonight, no plans. Myabe I'll write?? Who knows.

Still not smoking pot, but still eating like a fiend. Ugh. My mother sent me info on Weight Watchers. Not sure that I'm on-board for it, and keep thinking I'll do the Slimfast Shake thing for a week or so, at least to get me to break the current trent of over-eating.

Nothing else going on. I'm watching Alo tomorrow from after school utnil the following morning. Maybe I'll take him to the movies. Not sure what he's allowed to see, but will check out Fandango.com to see...

Okay, off to the movies.

I've not blogged in ages... Over a month. Well, here we go. I'll give it a go and try and get some updates out into Cyberspace (so hopefully some day the snarky girls from CNN can cover my blog... Ah, a blogger can dream, right?)

Vice update: I've stopped smoking pot. I wouldn't call it a permanent change, but for the moment I at least feel like my brain is a bit clearer. While the desired outcome, to eat less and write more, hasn't necessarily come to fruition, I am at least hopeful that one of these days something will click (and hopefully it'll click before I go out and buy another bag of dope).

I have been doing some writing, but not nearly as much as I'd like. I took a respectable stab at getting my script "After Life" into the second act. While I'm not thrilled with how the second act is going, I am at least happy to be there. Other than that, I've thrown together a short film script, titleless at this moment, about a guy who posts an ad on Craigslist reading, "31 y.o. GWM, son of God, seeks 12 friends." I enjoyed writing scenes where the son of God interviews potential apostles. "Any history of betrayal in your past?"

On a more global note, the hurricane in the Gulf coast has been absolutely devastating to witness. As with 9/11, it is images of dogs that gets me welled up. Other than that, I remain analytical, comparing Fox to CNN to MSNBC, all the while checking drudgereport.com, huffingtonpost.com, and buzzflash.com, while also monitoring cnn.com and msnbc.com.

It has, on several occasions, gotten too overwhelming. Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I didn't allow myself to tune the TV to any news programs, rather getting updates from the web. It was a welcome exile from the televised horrors that have become commonplace.

Today, I did tune in. The first thing I saw was a mother lambasting the government all the while waiting for her son to be released from a line he was standing in after having traveled countless hours on his trip home from Iraq. The journo talking to her, I think, wasn't expecting her attack on the government. At one point, he said to her, "Look over there, at your son. Aren't you happy to have him home?" And she turned back to the interviewer and said, "I think he'd be safer over in Iraq at this moment." Chilling, I thought.

The disaster has promped my own hand-wringing about the potential for an earthquake here in L.A. I have my "survival kit," but think it would be woefully lacking if there were anything near the scale of Hurricane Katrina. There's a locksmith near the supermarket that sells stun guns out of a van. I actually thought about buying one. Not that I have much to defend, but it did cross my mind, and I guess I needed to get that out there...

Now, I'm home. I was going to take Tessie to the beach today, but it remained slightly chilly and overcast for the day, so we instead did a hike up Runyon Canyon. Spoke with my girlfriend Nadette from NYC on the walk. She's one of those friends, that, despite living far away and speaking infrequently, remains close to my heart. She has a new puppy pug, Olive, and can be seen at nadettestasa.blogspot.com.

Tonight, I have no plans. I was thinking about calling my friend Gib and seeing if he wanted to prowl the gay bars, but I doubt I'll work up the energy or courage to do that. In the meantime, I will sit on the sofa, watch (for the ba-zillionth time) "Love Actually," flip back and forth to the Red Sox/Yankees game, and think about writing. Will I actually write?? Stay tuned.