You were a tough old man and I used to be terrified of you.  I thought that you were mean and grumpy and just all around not nice.  But I still loved you. 

I loved watching you work with your hands making things out of wood, fixing cars and plumbing and anything else that needed a mending.  I remember once you going down in the crawl space underneath my house to work on some pipes.  The crawl space was wet and dark and rather scary for a little kid but you need somebody to hold the flashlight for you and that somebody was me.  And while my imagination could make up all sorts of monsters to lurk just out of sight in the shadows I knew that I would be safe beause you were down there.

I remember going to stay with you and Grammy for a for a couple of days one summer when I was little.  I missed my mom and dad and wanted to go home but you came and sat with me and showed me a book of trains and made me feel better.  During those days we walked in the woods and by the brook and pond.  I drew pictures of the things I saw and you told me all about the animals that could be seen around the farm.

Years ago you climbed up one of the pyramids, you saw much of the world, you worked on trains.  In your last years you couldn’t even walk up the stairs in your own house.  I am sure for you this was the most horribly thing that could happen, to go from being such a strong and brave and powerful figure to one who was fragile and weak.  But you didn’t let this stop you.   You never wanted to be put into a retirement home and you never were.  You stayed on your farm until the end.

I never gave your maps back to you.  I’m sorry for that.  I thought it was stupid that you’d wanted them back, they were just National Geogrpahic maps.  But maybe it wasn’t stupid at all.  Maybe you were trying to tell me something that one can only understand in age.  That things slip away and to let too much slip is to give up.  You never did give up though and so I don’t think that you were ever as frail and weak as the doctors said you were.

They say you went quickly and painlessly.  For that I am glad.  A man like you should not have to suffer anymore than necessary.  My only reget is that I didn’t get to say one last goodbye.  That is the way of the world I suppose.  So I’ll say it now.

Goodbye Grampy, I love you, and will always keep you in my memory. 

Happy birthday goes out to Meg today.  Also, today is the anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education case in which the Supreme Court declared that segregation of schools was inherently unequal thus being a pivotal decision in the battle for racial equality. 

Others born this day:  Dennis Hopper, Gary Paulsen, Taj Mahal, Bill Paxton, Bob Saget, Enya, Trent Reznor, and Jordan Knight.

It must have happened sometime yesterday afternoon (I am not sure because I wasn’t paying that close attention) but General Lordisimo’s Apocalypse has surpassed 20,000 all time views.  Cool beans.  On another note I am hope to soon get my domain name up on this blog so that it will be generallodisimo.com as opposed to generallordisimo.WordPress.com.  Not a huge deal but I feel that considering that generallordisimo is quite a bit to type/say as is, the wordpress just makes it look ridiculously huge.  I have had this blog now for over a year and a half and it has officially taken something like $15 out of my wallet without in turn giving any money back to me.  That sucks, I need to work on it.

Okay, peace!  Going back to being miserably hungover and hating my job.

While finding stuff to post up on GSATC I try to remain unbiased toward the news that I encounter.  Still, regardless to that, I cannot help feeling great concern for Microsoft’s endorsement of smarter robot development.  What the fuck Microsoft?  You don’t control enough of the world as it is?  Now you need to push for the creation of soulless thinking machines?  God damn it!  Don’t do it!  You’ll bring doom on us all!

Self Aware Robots Must Be Stopped!

The philosophical and ethical implications of Tom the Dancing Bug on Salon.com today are wonderful.  I love smart cartoonists.

Every once and a while the Government does something really kick ass like pass House Resolution 753 which designates May 12th-18th of every year as American Craft Beer Week.  Fucking awesome!  I didn’t even know this when I went to Blue Ridge Brewery for dinner and some beers with Bear and Jimmy C last night, but I am sure glad I’ve had my craft beer during this wonderful and deserved celebration.  So y’all out there go and support craft brewing by having a pint of your favorite craft beer this week!  Craft Beer Rocks!

By the way; credit for my learning of this great week goes to Magic Hat, which, in my personal opinion, makes some of the best craft beers in the country.

For all you Twitter lovers out there, check out Twistori.  Just kind of a neat thing to see what people are twittering about.  Found this from Information Aesthetics yet another awesome site which in turn I believe I was pointed to from The Brand Builder some time ago.  Linking is fun!

Most people who know me are generally well aware of my unhealthy addiction to all things sugary (especially candy) but they may not be quite as aware of my extreme fondness for Doritos, Frito-Lay’s flavored corn chips.  As an example of that fondness I have myself consumed most of two bags of Doritos in just the past week alone.

I don’t really care all that much for chips in general.  Every once an awhile they are good especially if there is some tasty dip or somebody who is willing to whip up some yummy nachos.  But, for the most part they are just another unnecessary food.  But Doritos are different.  I actually have hard core cravings for them if I haven’t had them for a long time.  As such I usually tend to keep at least one bag somewhere in the house.  I know that they are not all that good for me but I don’t really care.  I think I eat pretty healthy all and all (besides all the candy and my great fondness for bacon-cheeseburgers) and so I think Doritos are okay for the most part.  Man I love them.

Sometimes I think a lot when I am really tired, like right before going to bed or right when I get up in the morning.  I think that I will call this thinking Fatigued Bathroom Philosophizing (FBP) because generally the thinking takes place when either I am taking my shower in the morning or brushing my teeth and taking a piss before bed.  The thing that I find funny about FBP is that when in the moment I get an idea and I am all like, “fuck me, I’m a god damn genius, why haven’t I ever thought of this before?”  Then I either go to bed or have my morning cup of coffee and suddenly the great ideas just begin to fade away.  It is almost like the more awake I am the stupider I am. 

I very distinctly remember having some really good, smart thoughts about determinism versus free will this morning while I washed up in the shower but about an hour later it was all fuzzy.  I’m left feeling disappointed.  Like, fuck, seriously, this morning I felt like I was working with book worthy material, and now all I’ve got is something along the lines of, “Um maybe we are sointo our routines because we lack free will?”  Really?  That’s it?  What a fucking waste!

Of course there is the distinct possibility that FBP isn’t actually creating any thoughts of genius at all but instead, in an utterly exhausted state my mind, I seem to believe that anything I think is a work of genius.  Perhaps coffee, or the act of obtaining several hours of sleep (if lucky) infuses a furthering sense of reality on my thoughts and concludes with a message such as, “When you are tired, don’t strain yourself too much, save thinking for when you are awake and can remember things.”  Hmmm. 

And I guess I can get some pretty decent thinking in during my waking hours as well.  I mean if I am sitting here thinking all of this the gears must be turning some right?  I mean I guess I could even take the idea of the mind and the waking body and go off on a whole rant about mind-body duality and why fatigue may actually affect cognition.  I’m not going to though, because I’m lazy, and I don’t really give much of a fuck to right now.

I swear a lot when I write . . . sorry.  I guess I don’t have to, but then again, I also don’t give too much of a fuck about that.  *sigh*  

. . . what anybody says, but an Italian sausage or a bratwurst, grilled, and then covered in barbecue sauce, if fucking delicious!  Twice now i have experienced the delight that it is and twice now I have been so very satisfied with the outcome.  Don’t believe me?  Fine, fuck you, go try it yourself!  It is awesome!