For Shame, America

I have said that many times before. I said it when we elected The Bumpkin to our highest elected office in 2000. I said it again when I heard eighteen million people watched the series premiere of the Friends spin-off, "Joey." And when the parts of this country that should have been allowed to secede 150 years ago re-elected "Dubya" in 2004, I said it yet again.

I meant it most solemnly each time I've said it, but this time I mean it with a deep and sorrowful regret of the fact that I am in some socio-political way associated to some of our fellow countrymen.

First off, I am done listening to news about New Orleans. It's a horrible tragedy, and I feel badly for the survivors, but really, what is newsworthy about it anymore? The relief efforts for the refugees are receiving an overwhelming response, so what more attention do they need from me, John Q Public?

Having said that, I'm here to talk about Hurricane Katrina. Sorry, but this is actually important.

In the weeks following the disaster there have been a number of reports floating around the internet, in the form of mass-forwarded emails. These reports range from supposed first-hand accounts of people dealing with the refugees to "My Dad was there and he said" types of accounts. The common thread with them all is they paint a very unsympathetic portrait of these people.

They are shown to be greedy, slovenly, angry, rude, etc etc to the very people that are there to help them. These poor, homeless people who don't have a job to work even if they wanted to are accused of doing everything from refusing what they are given, to attacking volunteers all the way on up to maliciously vandalizing facilities. I'm here to tell you that there is no factual basis for any of these claims. Spread the word. In fact, if you, or someone you know are getting these emails, you owe it to yourself to have a look at the following links.

REST STOP

SO I VOLUNTEERED

PARAMEDIC

The links go to articles on SNOPES . If you read one of them, PLEASE, READ THE WHOLE THING, especially the summation at the bottom. Snopes is a website dedicated to digging deep into the muck to find the truth behind urban legends, large scale hoaxes, and even fallacious news items. They've been around for years, and I trust them, not only because of their age, but also because they are free and open about their sources and bibliography that yielded their judgments.

I have waded through several of these emails, and picked the three that I felt were the best... or worst... whatever. One thing that disturbs me greatly is that another very strong common thread is that the people in these emails say things to the effect that FOX News is the only news source doing a "good job" of showing what's really going on down there. WHAT!?! WHAT?!?! WHAT?!?! Surely, my eyes have a serious bacterial infection and are secreting puss that happened to form the shape of those words on the lens of my eye, right? Surely, my mild case of manic depression has escalated into full-blown psychosis and I am hallucinating? DID I TAKE THE BUS TO CRAZY-LAND AND FALL ASLEEP UNTIL I GOT TO THE CAPITAL?!?!

Fox is slanted crap. Anyone who isn't high or a fundamentalist christian knows that. The fact that these people are citing it tells you what place they are coming from. What's their angle for making these folks look bad, you might ask. That is simple, as Snopes so astutely points out in the above links. If we feel like these are bad people then we can justify scaling back the relief efforts and just let them die and/or kill each other. Think about it, if these are good people then of course we will feel obligated as a country to do everything in our power to help them. BUT if they are mean ingrates who callously abuse those who are trying to help them then we can just write them all off and not feel bad about it. It's called a salve to the conscience.

It's also one of the most insidious propaganda campaigns I have ever seen. BUT. Let's say for just a second that a substantial portion of these people have been ingrates. Let's say for the sake of discussion that they have been verbally abusive. These folks have just had their whole world turned upside down, lost their home, lost their job, possibly lost loved ones, and lost everything they have EVER owned all in a matter of minutes and are now left far from the place they call home with only the clothes on their backs. I think these people deserve a little wiggle room when it comes to fvcking manners! I mean, come on!

It's called shock, people. It hits us all in different ways.

Going To The Meat Market With a Belly Full of Prime Rib

Thursday night a handful of us tried to resurrect the weekly tradition we briefly had of going to Margarita Rocks. Over the summer it was great. Good music, cool people and cheap booze. Sadly, this night was kinda lacking. The music was hit and miss (mostly miss) and the guys were being sleazy to the ladies accompanying me (Molllie, Noel and Meg). On a positive note, the booze was still cheap.

One guy came up behind Noel while she was dancing with Mollie. Now, I'm not an extremely jealous-type, but I do have a small jealous streak in me, so this guy was getting on my nerves a little. Plus, he had this look in his eye. He was That Guy At The Club. You know, That Guy who's more than a little drunk and looking like a drooling dog over a nice steak. I just plain didn't like it. So I was watching this dude like a hawk, looking for just one wrong move to give me a good enough excuse to get myself kicked out for breaking his jaw.

Then his arm curled around her waist and he started grinding hard into her back side. Okay, not enough to warrant socking him in the face, but enough to step in. Fortunately, Meg saw it too and got in there before I could. I say fortunately because the odds of her getting into a fight with the guy were significantly lower, and also if that did happen, odds are he would be thrown out, not her. Sometimes the old gender double-standard can pay off for a lady.

With That Guy still behind No', Meg came up to her front and shot him a look that would've said to any rational guy "FVCK OFF!!"I saw this look and it said that loud and clear to me, but not to our new friend. Eventually, after repeatedly attempting to talk to the two girls and getting nowhere, the guy got the hint and left them alone... BUT then he came back. After they came off the floor and were hanging around with me on the side, there he was. He leaned in too close to Meg for my liking and said something like this:

That Guy: Hey, can I just dance with your friend? (pointing at Noel)

Meg: No, and you need to go away. Now.

Again, I was about to do the macho asshole thing, but again Meg took care of it without two males getting into a pissing contest. God, I love my girls. As much as my protective instincts kick in, I rarely ever need to use them. A girl who can take care of her own sh*t is so hot.

Later, as we were leaving we saw something that I don't think I ever expected to see in real life. As we walked up to our car to take off, two people were climbing out of the dense bushes in front of our parking spot. I'd say they were hispanic, about our age (early to mid twenties) and dressed like they just came from the club themselves... that is, before they decided to go in the bushes and fvck like bunnies (literally). He was putting a belt back on, and tucking in his shirt and she was pulling her pants up. It was so cute, it was the awkward blossoming of a young why-doesn't-he-call-me. They actually used the hood of our car to push themselves up off the ground. They were clearly very drunk. Human behavior is so fascinating to me. I mean, they were as close to us as a few feet when they were climbing up, and we weren't in the car yet, but neither of them looked any of us in the eye, nor did they look each other in the eye or touch each other for that matter. Not once.

As soon as we were in the car we laughed our frigging asses off. Not much funnier than awkward guilt-ridden, bush sex.

Sometimes I understand where TV/Movie writers get their incredible and unbelievable plot lines from.

So, I got hired at Gold's Gym last Friday. Interviewed with Colt (district manager) and George (general manager) and they both liked me. I'm not certified yet, but I explained that my test is in November, and they seemed satisfied with that. My new boss, George, said he was out of the forms he needed me to fill out, so he'd pick them up over the weekend from another store, and call me on Monday. In the mean time he told me to work the floor and try to make some connections with some possible future clients.

Cool.

Well, Monday, I hadn't heard from George by 4 pm so I called him. I actually ended up talking to Sam, my new regional manager. She was filling in for George because he ended up being rushed to the emergency room on Saturday and was being kept in intensive care. He is a diabetic and had some kind of huge sugar crash or something like that. My guess is it was something more serious than that, because he's still there now, and a simple sugar crash, while dangerous, is not something that alone would keep somebody in the hospital for five days. The only details Sam has is that whatever it was, it was related to his diabetes.

Also, Colt is on vacation in Hawaii. So the next boss up, Sam, is running things. I mentioned to her who I am, and my situation and she explained that they are normally really strict about certification, but she won't make George's decision for him. She trusts his instincts to do his job.. Unfortunately for me, she insists on discussing my employment with George before she'll let me start. So, until George gets better, or Colt gets back I am in emplyment limbo. What are the freaking odds that all these circumstances would coalesce in just such a way?

I feel like each morning this week needs a soap opera-like title and theme song.

As The World Poops...? No, no.

The Poops Of Our Lives...? Nah.

Ain't That Some Poop.

Holy hell

I have had migraines once or twice in my life. I've never been prone to them, like my friend Brian, but I have had the experience.

Yesterday I had the worst one I have ever had in my life. It was so bad, for so long that I was kind of hoping I would die, just so it would stop.

I remembered that the last time I had one that it comes with a heightening of the senses. The eyes and ears especially become so sensitive that the slightest sound or light can make your head pound and your stomach churn. This time this part of the experience soared to new heights. I actually experienced momentary synesthesia.

DICTIONARY.COM describes synesthesia as "a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color."

I didn't experience the example listed of seeing sounds as colors, but my senses seemed to be having crosstalk, like mutual interference on a cell phone or walkie takie. Any one sense seemed to overlap with the others. I cut off sight by keeping my eyes shut and covered, smell was covered by a stuffy nose, and taste was irrelevent because I wasn't eating, but hearing and touch seemed to blur the normally rigid line between them. I didn't see sounds, but I felt them. I mean every sound became a physical wave that traveled up and down the length of my body and it hurt like a b*tch! Worse than the pain was the waves of nausea. The girls were watching a movie in the living room and I was in the bedroom with the door closed and a swell of music in the movie's score made my entire body feel like it was being beaten with reeds on a rocking boat in a storm. Each car that drove by outside the window felt like needles in my hands and feet. The sound of my own voice as I whimpered from all this felt like being pelted with hot, peeled grapes.

These sensations lasted only for maybe an hour or two, but the migraine lasted for about fifteen hours. I woke up with it around ten a.m. yesterday, and it finally faded away early this morning around two or three. I still have a slight, residual ache in the back of my head as one last, little souvenir.

I'm writing this, not for sympathy, but to share the experience about synesthesia. It was incredible! I mean, yes, it was horribly painful, and an experience I would not wish to repeat, but I'm glad I had it the one time. I was in too much of a state to really appreciate it yesterday, but looking at it now, when I can distance myself from the pain and nausea, it really was an amazing experience. Imagine if every sound you hear could also be perceived as a tactile sensation.

Kinda cool.

When it rains, it pours.

And when the sun is shining, well, you better put on some godd@mn sunglasses, boy!

Within twelve hours of each other I was cast in STAGEBRUSH Theatre's production of The Crucible, AND hired at Gold's Gym.

The EVEN better news is I may be starting as an assitant manager at the gym. Apparently, the guy really liked me.

The way the job works is like this: New gym members at Gold's get offered one free session with a personal trainer. Those members who want their free session are referred to either the manager or assistant manager who then assesses them as a client and tries to sell them on signing a training contract. Then they go out on the floor with their trainer for the day (who also tries to close the deal, if the manager could not).

As the assistant I will make a base pay of $600 per month, plus an 8% comission for each contract I can close. The guy was honest with me that you won't sign a whole crapload of contracts, but the contracts are for one year minimum, so just one or two commissions per month would be a huge sum of money. George, my boss, said he averages about five to ten new contracts per month.

The scheduling for that job may be difficult, but if it doesn't work out, then I am still a trainer for them. They hand me the warm leads for contracts, or signed clients if they close it. They also recommend that I be on the floor during peak morning hours to try to recruit clients on my own. Plus, for every client i recruit on my own, I get the commission!

Either way, and more importantly than all that: I HAVE A FULL GYM, FIVE MINUTES FROM HOME, FOR FREE!! HOORAY!!

Jess 09/09/2005 said:

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that made me quite mad for it's stupidity. Maybe someone can explain. It said "God Would Be Pro-Life." There are two things wrong here. God "would" be, this implies that the almighty He either doesn't exist or is dead. As to say, "if there was a God, he would probably be pro-life." This bumper sticker was most likely placed on the car by an extremely religious (most likely Catholic) pro-lifer. And then secondly, and most annoyingly, those who want to bring God into these arguments, like I said, are most likely Catholic, or subscribe to some sect of Christianity. Christianity has always prided itself in the selling point that God gave us free will. Free will is the freedom to choose. So it only makes sense to me that God would be pro-choice. The almighty He wouldn't give us free will and boast about it just to prefer that we not have the legal freedom to use it.

I originally started writing this whole thing in JESS'S comments on her 09/09/2005 post, but it started getting WAY too long, so here it is.

Allow me to play devil's advocate for a second... or God's advocate, as the case seems to be.

The idea is God gave us free will, but God also set down rules for us to follow and consequences for breaking those rules because he wanted us to follow them. So, yes, we can do whatever we want, but God does not encourage the exercising of that free will in every arena. In fact, free will is God's way of testing us. If we're smart enough to avoid using that free will to break his rules, then we are rewarded. One of those rules being "Though shalt not kill." So God IS definitely pro-life.

(End of advocate-playing here)

That said, the term "pro-life" itself is something I've taken issue with. I mean, yes, an embryo is definitely life, but it's smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, and in NO way represents a human being. I mean, are you "pro-lifers" going to start championing the protection of all other micro-organisms too? It hardly seems fair to leave out protozoa, paramecium and rotifera.

The dictionary has many definitions of "life." Two of which are as follows:

"the property or quality that distinguishes dead organisms from living ones, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli"

"the interval of time between birth and death."

Birth and death, eh? Whoops!

An embryo or fetus are incapable of sustaining themselves outside of the womb at all, they must live off their mother. So, where inside the womb does life actually begin? Unanswerable, but I would argue that it begins at birth. Debating about where in the womb it starts is completely arbitrary and would have no basis in science. Birth is a nice clean, beginning point. Well, maybe not clean... you know what with all the goo and whatnot that comes out.

Even after birth, babies are completely incapable of sustaining themselves until a number of years later. A newborn baby has little to no motor function, no ability to communicate, and NO cognitive or emotive ability what-so-ever. That's right, a newborn is biologically incapable of thought or feeling initially. Not that I'm advocating killing babies after birth, but if a baby cannot even think or feel (or to use the definition above, it can neither reproduce, nor respond to stimuli) immediately after birth, then how can you call it life inside the womb? The answer is you smack the word potential in front of life.

Bible-thumpers seem to think that potential life is more important than actual life. So every time I masturbate, am I murdering thousands of defenseless little sperm? Should I be imprisoned for terminating hundreds of billions of potential babies over the years? Clearly, that is much more serious a crime than say, oh I don't know, charging into Iraq and shooting and bombing thousands of actual humans.

Also, here's a news flash for all you so-called PRO-LIFERS out there. The opposite of pro-choice is not pro-life. To call one's self pro-life sounds like you're arguing with a horde of zombies who want to exterminate all of humanity. In that instance, pro-life would sound appropriate. But right now, in the real world, where zombies are confined to bad video games and George Romero movies, the issue you are arguing is choice. Not life, but choice. The argument is whether or not a pregnant woman should have a choice. One side says yes, the other says no. That makes for a pro-choice and anti-choice argument. The pro-lifers say no, because the glob of cells inside the mother should have rights and protections under the law, right? We all agree on that. BUT the key is they use that as the reasoning to say to the Choicers "no, a woman should not have that CHOICE." Being for or against life is not the issue here, especially since some of those same champions of unborn cell clumps are very, very pro-war.

Oh my! Smell that? That's the smell of hypocrisy. Kind of stinks, doesn't it?

Comments:

I disagree. I think that He would obviously have a preference in the choice that we would make when faced with it, but I think that He would want us to have the ability to make the choice. The ability to "take the test" as you put it.
I'm saying here that if God were to vote on whether or not abortion should be illegal, he would vote no. Whether he would think that abortion is not the right choice, but that it should be a choice.
There is a really REALLY big difference in being virtuous by character and virtuous by circumstance.
Take as an example a guy who is socially inept and a virgin. Can he tout being a virgin as a virtuous claim of his? No, he is not a virgin for making the choice to be, he is a virgin by circumstance. Same thought process can be applied to this discussion.
Is a woman who doesn't have an abortion in a place where it is illegal because she can't morally equivalent to the woman who chooses not to have the procedure?
Jess 09.13.05 - 12:23 pm

I understand what you are saying, but your argument there is based on the assumption that making abortion illegal makes it impossible. Look at The Prohibition in the early 20th century, alcohal sales didn't flag for a second. I know that abortions won't be like that, but you see my point? There are always ways around the law. Even in this world where abortions are illegal, women who really want one will still find a way, even if that means getting it done by some drunk ex-doctor with a coat-hanger in a back alley. So, these women in this hypothetical world are still virtuous by choice, not by circumstance, it's just that the law has made abortion the more difficult choice to make.
Joey 09.13.05 - 1:05 pm

I just thought of a better way to communicate what I mean here.
A law against something does not prevent that something, it only creates a penalty when you do that something. Perfect example is robbing a liquor store. Yes, that is illegal, and I would be thrown in jail if I did it. But do I have a choice about doing it? Absoultely, yes, I do.
Passing a law does not end free will. Only in a distopian world where we are all mindless automatons, watched every second by Big Brother is there a world where virtue does not come from choice.
Trust me on this one. I tried this exact same argument that you wrote here against a christian once a couple years ago and he expalined it the way I just did. You can't find a whole in it.
The point here worth noting is not what God would think, it's that His very existence is unvarifiable, rendering any and all of His opinions invalid in any logical argument. That's where we win. In the logic department. The other side doesn't seem to have any.
Joey 09.13.05 - 4:18 pm


Biologically a baby in the womb acts as a parasite.
Do we defend the principle of self preservation from other human beings, i.e. murder, because of choice or the protection of life?
Rights, or the ability to make choices are secondary qualities based upon higher predicates of ethic.
Brian Y. 09.15.05 - 4:57 pm

I would also point out that woman were having back alley abortions and getting very ill or dieing themselves because of the un-regulated ways in which these abortions took place. This leads me to believe that if abortion were made illegal woman would not stop getting them, but go about it another way, just like prohibition. Better to have it regulated in my opinion. I also feel that ‘God’ and ‘Religion’ should have nothing, NOTHING, to do with law making. However, this may never happen because people’s beliefs and morals are usually centered around religion therefore it will play a part in their decisions for laws and regulation. Good topic.
Tracy 09.15.05 - 4:59 pm

BRIAN SAID "Rights, or the ability to make choices are secondary qualities based upon higher predicates of ethic."

I'm not sure I know what this means, but if I do I don't know how this relates to what we are discussing. Please elaborate.
Joey 09.15.05 - 11:18 pm

Brian: the definiton of a parasite according to dictionary.com is:
"An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host."
I found three other definitions on various colleges websites and all list specifically that the "parasite" takes from the host in some way(s) and does not give back anything, and in fact some definitions specify that parasites harm the host, or even slowly kill them.
I will agree that a fetus takes from the mother without giving directly, but it's not as though the mother does not get anything out of the arrangement. The mother does NOT get anything concrete back like the nourishment, or protection she provides her fetus. What she gets back is more abstract and instinctual. No, I don't mean love, I mean the perpetuation or "survival" of her species. That is the precise reason why animals reproduce. The instinct to survive.
That is where the dictionary.com definition comes in. It states "contributing nothing to the survival of its host." The fetus itself IS the survival of the host. Even after the host dies, however that may be, the baby lives on to carry on the host's line on earth.
Joey 09.15.05 - 11:38 pm

Wow- you are long winded enough to become a politician (see gw's speech about new orleans?) however you did get an excellent point across. Kudos, and I agree, mostly with Joey. Especially about "prolife" activists. They are so prolife they see no harm in blowing up a center where abortions are provided. Most of these places also provide pre and post natal care as well. Good job Billy Bob in camo- blow up the ones planning on having the baby too. Duh.
Jaime [Who?] 09.19.05 - 2:49 pm

In that last long-winded bit I was more playing devil's advocate. I was hoping to provoke further discussion, but nobody took the bait. Oh well.
Joey 09.19.05 - 6:13 pm

Travel Journal Entry From London Trip 07/31/04

I Forgot The Benadryl?

I've been saying for years now that my kids will be raised by a hired nanny (exclusively) until the age of twelve, at which point they will be introduced to me. Incidentally, the nanny's name will be Consuela.

The woman sitting next to me at the gate has a very loud and very rambunctious little two-year-old boy with her. Someone cheerily pointed out the boy's loudness and rambunctiousness as if these were good qualities to have in a cabin-mate for a VERY long flight to London.

The child's mother smiled ruefully and replied "Yeah, and I forgot the Benadryl. Haha. It's going to be a long flight."

Not being a parent myself, that phrase confused me. Benadryl? Luckily she went on to explain. It seems that it's a widely known, old parental trick to give a loud little kid a shot of Benadryl before getting on a plane. It acts as a mild sedative and the child sleeps peacefully for hours. Or, at least if he doesn't sleep it will mellow him out a great deal.

Now that I know this fact, and now that I know that she forgot this magical elixir I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs "How in the name of all that is holy could you possibly forget something as important as the %$#@ Benadryl!"

After that outburst, I feel it necessary to say something regarding my feelings towards children. So far I actually like kids. A lot. IF AND ONLY IF the following conditions are true:

1 They're in a good mood.
2 They're not mine.

If I do have kids one day and they are reading these words I have written here... well...
In my defense, I am twenty-four years old as I write this and you guys are the furthest thing from where I am right now. Just because you are not a priority now does not mean you won't be later.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

We used to have a neighbor that lived directly below us on the ground floor. His name was Ross. I would guess he was about sixty-ish years old. Ross was a really friendly neighbor, often insisting we stop and chat with him. He loved the theatre and the arts and even insisted that when the Mesa Arts Center's season opened that he would take the three of us to go see a show.

Nice guy.

Often when we were coming or going from our our apartment he would be outside in a lawn chair smoking, or chatting with other neighbors, or even playing a little tennis. Well, for the past few weeks we haven't seen him at all. And then a lockbox showed up on his doorknob one day. The lockbox isn't one of those Century 21 ones where the key is inside so the realtor can show the house. No, this is one of those that covers the entire knob so nobody can get in without the key to the box and the door. We assmued the worst. He was either evicted or he had passed away. Both were plausible, because once I saw workers going in and out and through the doorway I could see that Ross's furniture was still inside.

Finally, a couple nights ago another neighbor, Mike, was outside smoking. Mike had spent a lot of time hanging out with Ross, so I asked if he knew what had happened to him. Sure he enough, he did. Ross was alive and well, but no longer a legal resident of The Cimmaron Apartments.

Apparently Ross was a Con Man, a huckster, a grifter, a scam artist. The scam he was running here, I guess somehow involved Qwest. It was clear to me that Mike hadn't gotten all the details about the scam and that he didn't really understand it, because I couldn't really understand it from his description. It was something like Ross claimed he worked for Qwest and that he could lower people's bills, but instead he just jacked up their bill. I don't know how that works, and I'm not sure where he gets paid in there, but I'm guessing he asks for a bribe to lower the bill or something like that. I dunno.

So, until recently I lived upstairs from a con man. A bad one too by the sound of his scam. I just read the autobiography from one of the most succesful CON MEN of all time and the most important principle I learned from that book was simple: don't sh*t where you eat. Meaning, have a safe sanctuary, and earn a good rep there. Ross took in his own neighbors who knew where he lived for Christ's sake. If he were smart he would've been fleecing people in Scottsdale, or Tempe and never let them know where he lived.

Still, though, it's kind of cool to know that I was that close to that kind of action. I finished reading that autobiography the day before we found out, so my mind was flying through all the scams that the author mentioned to try to piece these Qwest details together to see where it fit. All in all, it didn't seem to.

The only thing that did fit the mold was the fact that the scam centered around the idea that the "mark" was trying to get something for nothing. The con man's greatest tool resides within the mark himself. More often than not a con man convinces the mark that they are going to make a killing at someone else's expense. In Ross's case, the idea was that he and the nieghbor were essentially going to steal from Qwest. Then the mark is left holding the bag, or in this case the bill.

Hello. How are you?

I'm having an up and down day myself. AARRGH!! More down than up.

I had lunch with my mom and brother for my mom's birthday. That was nice.

Then I went to my Dad's and picked up my $200 worth of bills that I
can't afford and have to ask Meg for help on. That sucked.

Then my brother told me I don't have to pay him back for my Avenue Q
ticket. It's a gift. That was nice.

Then I found out I didn't pass my Personal Trainer's test. It's 800 points possible, and
to pass you need 500. I GOT 499 GODD@MN IT! ONE POINT SHORT?!?!?
ARGH!! That one point will cost me $175 retake fee. That sucked.

Now Meg says that she has to go take care of her Nana until 10ish, and
she's crabby about that and my bills, and my test. And I'm crabby
about everything, and NOW I have to sit down and work on this fvcking
sound design and I am in a really terrible mood!

Hopefully, tonight's festivities will clear my head. Well, maybe not "clear" it, but further muddy it with distractions. Yeah, that sounds good.

Today I do a tiny bit of job-hunting. Want to work at a gym around here. We'll see how that goes.

Tonight I meet all of Noel's "other" friends. Other meaning the friends that she has that aren't already neatly contained within the little incestuous family that we all love so much.

We'll see how that goes too.

Film at 11:00