poison girl, and when blogs collide

friday night i watched jarheads. i was somewhat interested in it when it came out, but i heard enough negative reviews complaining about it being blatantly anti-war and such that i lost some interest. having watched it now, i’m not sure why there was as much complaining about it — excepting of course the knee-jerk reactionary conservatives who can’t help but spew vitriol towards anyone not toeing the rhetoric line. the movie seemed like one person’s experience, and seemed to combine world views of war, military, politics, personal relationships, etc. in what seemed to be a reasonable and realistic way. in fact, i rather liked the film. i feel like it pretty accurately portrays what a lot of people feel and go through (not having gone through it myself, of course — i even decided against going forward with the air force and army rotc scholarships i had applied for when i was headed to college).
people can try to turn everything into a black-and-white, good-and-bad, right-vs.-wrong dichotomy, but the real world simply is not that way. doing so to the real world distorts and manipulates the reality of things, and many times can force you to make incorrect judgments and have incorrect perspectives because your simplified sifting mechanism just can’t handle the diversity and complexity that actually exists in the world. sure, someone like me can slip into cynicism and negativism just as easily as someone else can slip into blind allegiance and unquestioned trust and faith. the key is to try to be who you are while maintaining a balance that keeps you from falling too far in one direction or another. consider the situation, mull over the facts, listen to what the other people are saying — even if you don’t agree, there may be some truth there, or something you can learn to help understand why they believe what they do. you don’t have to agree in order to respect and understand. and you can use their information to create a better built and more accurate perspective for yourself.
after watching the movie i jumped on second life for awhile, then i went over to poison girl for about an hour. whoever thinks i’m too picky about being attracted to women obviously hasn’t been with me in places like that. it’s chock full of the kind of girls that make me swoon. (unfortunately, almost all of them smoke and drink a lot. …just a second…is that being picky?) i was slack-jawed by a girl who looked amazingly like jennifer (the girl my heart beat for over so many years), except with jet-black hair, a bettie page/alt girl attitude, and a top that accentuated an impressive…uh…personality. if only somehow the two of them could be melded into one person. oh. my. L-rd. my brain would explode. *sigh* but there were plenty of other sites to see. all the alt chicks in black with tattoos and piercings, the indie girls, the trendy alt girls (not so much my cup of tea, but you never know.)
not being a conversationalist, or particularly outgoing, or filled with the slightest bit of confidence or optimism, i was content to play out the awkward meetings followed by dismissals and brush offs in my mind — thus cutting out the middle-man (or middle-woman, as the case may be) and saving myself some time and embarrassment. i can’t decide if it’s better to be ignorant that such places exist, or if it actually gives me hope that maybe out there somewhere there is someone who would match up with me. (although tamara was a rare girl who matched more of the list in my mind than most…and look how that turned out. maybe i don’t know what my match really is.)
saturday i headed to saint arnold’s brewery for their saturday tour. it’s the first time i’d been there since they started charging $5 a head. for years it was free, but it was getting incredibly crowded. even charging, the place was pretty packed. i was somewhat surprised. i forgot to take the six-pack containers i’ve had sitting around for months now (you can turn them in for glasses, shirts, etc.). of course, they still didn’t have any glasses with their logo in black, so maybe it’s just as well i forgot the cases. (i’ve got two of the black logo glasses and have been wanting to make a set for awhile now.)
the reason i went up there was to meet up with kevin and jo, who are back here visiting from seattle. (kevin’s blog is linked from mine, over on the navigation on the right.) after partaking of saint arnold’s fine crafts, i joined the group in eating a late lunch at onion creek.
on the way back home i stopped and got my pickup inspection done, so i’m good for another year. it’s so nice not having to get an emissions tests — cheaper, faster, easier.