Happy Old Year!

With no other possible early destination, I ended up at Kahala Mall at 8am this morning after a quiet bus ride. I settled in with a cup of coffee at the Barnes & Noble® Café when it opened at 9am. The coffee prices have gone up yet again. I perused a few Linux magazines to pass the time. I can't say that I was significantly enthused.

At 10:45am, I rode the bus to town. After performing my usual workout at the gym, I ended up at Ala Moana Center. Yes, I decided to take the circuitous route back to Slob Manor (read: rental housing). I was not in the mood to ride a Route 1 bus full of senior citizens and Micronesians.

When I arrived at Slob Manor at 3pm, I noticed a strange van parked outside in the driveway. Apparently, the Indian guy was still moving stuff out. The Iraqi guy and his limerant object were nowhere in sight. The Indian guy completed his task at 4:30pm. Just after the Indian guy departed, Joseph and his limerant object returned. How coincidental is that? Subsequently, I could hear them upstairs moving things around, no doubt arranging their "love nest." The entire second floor and most of the downstairs kitchen are now controlled by Joseph and his limerant object. Not bad for a grand total of $700 per month (i.e., just the limerant object's rent). To celebrate, Joseph cooked an extravagent seven-course meal for both himself and his limerant object. Out with the old, in with the new.

Typical "In With the New" Hottie

With the remaining minutes of the year ticking down rapidly, there's not much left to discuss. I suppose that I should revert to a computer discussion. After all, my computers are the center of my life, eh? After over three years of using Linux-based operating systems (i.e., Ubuntu and MeeGo®), I still have mixed feelings about the experience. And, I have no idea why I purchased the Acer® Aspire One netbook. I should have just waited until I needed to replace my Toshiba® Satellite notebook. Then, I could have purchased a small higher performance notebook computer instead. What was I thinking? Oh well. That's all "water under the bridge" now.

So, the entire year has passed, and I am no better off than I was a a year ago. Absolutely nothing has changed. I still reside in a miserable filthy dump. I have even more useless possessions than I did a year ago. My entire life savings has dwindled significantly. However, I am still an emancipated wage slave. Yeah, that's probably worth more than anything else. Have a safe and happy old year!

Out With a Whimper

At the library this morning, I ran into Ann. She said that she was hoping to find me in order to share the good news. Ann is returning to wage slavery on Monday. Ann was relieved because she only had three weeks of unemployment benefits remaining. After that, Ann will not qualify for any kind of extension. So, I was happy for her in my own limited way. Otherwise, the rest of the day was mundane.

Back at Slob Manor (read: rental housing), the Indian guy finally came by to move all of his stuff out of the dump. The Iraqi guy and his limerant object were hiding in his room throughout the ordeal. They were most likely elated when the dust settled. With the Indian guy now officially out, what will happen next?

Rachel Roxxx I continue to wind down the year with a whimper. The evening consisted of downloading myriad hurdy-gurdy videos for my vast collection. All the while I listened to various Deep House Cat mixes. We're back up to 132 hurdy-gurdy titles. Remember when the collection had over 400 titles? Why did I divest them? Incidentally, Rachel Roxxx is one of my all-time favorite hurdy-gurdy stars. Alas, one more day of banality left in the year.

Next Stop: Nowhere

Another visit to Hawai'i Kai went well. Moms and I ate lunch at Zippy's. Later, moms served Welcome® vanilla ice cream for dessert. The rest of the day? The urban nomad fulfilled his usual benign functions and followed his routine itinerary as planned.

I suffered from moderate bouts of anxiety throughout the day. I could not isolate any reason for the anxiety. It is purely subconscious. I haven't been doing any deep thinking, not that my thoughts are deep to begin with. So, I cannot help but wonder if there is some unknown crisis ahead.

Well, only a couple of days left in the year, and I am suffering from a poverty of words. Perhaps I have taken my goal of brevity too seriously. Needless to say, I am not going to be composing any list of "resolutions" for the upcoming year. Why make promises that I cannot keep? Why bother since a year is an artificial time container?

One Minute to Zero (Reprise)

Same ol' shit. Details not necessary. The year is winding down rapidly, and I still have nothing to say for myself. I perused the "blog" of a year ago to inspire myself for the upcoming few days. That's a laugh, isn't it? I also discovered that I did not go the gym on New Year's Day, even though it was apparently open. Yes, I noted that the gym will be open on this New Year's Day and even asked Kelly, the hottie front desk babe. She confirmed the upcoming holiday schedule and confirmed that the gym was definitely open last New Year's Day. She had been there at 6am to unlock the doors. I had evidently wasted the whole day at Kahala Mall.

At the library, I am currently revisiting my research into ancient civilizations. The latter is a topic that really interests me, but it causes a lot of anxiety as well. About 75 percent of the world's population places its faith in the Yahweh Triad (i.e., Judaism, Pauline-Christianity, and Islam). If they are correct, then humans have only been around for about 6,000 years. History doesn't even go that far back. Neither do any of our known world civilizations. Going further back only produces a few stone tools and fragments of monkey-like skeletons. On that basis, scientists and evolutionists believe that humans have been around for a long time in one form or another, beginning with the classic "howling barbarians."

Even then, the most current view is that behaviorally- and physically-modern humans have been around for about 100,000 years. If that is the case, then human civilization probably existed far longer than the known civilizations that date back maybe 5,000 years or so. Even then, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Sumerian societies exhibited far more sophistication in astronomy and engineering than can be explained by their allegedly short life-spans. For some reason, "mainstream pseudo-science absolutely refuses to entertain the idea that human civilization existed prior to the known ones. The advanced Egyptian and Sumerians just seemed to appear out of nowhere intact. Before that, only scattered and isolated primitive tribes barely scraped by. That makes absolutely no sense.

Ancient mythology and religions seem to feature unified themes that were only slightly muddled upon a possible forced population dispersion. In great dispute, of course, is an alleged global cataclysm that occurred around 12,500 years ago. The latter is often depicted as some kind of great flood. However, the flood may have been the result of the unknown cataclysm itself. And, only a global cataclysm would have caused a severe reduction and displacement of human populations.

Religious themes were terribly preoccupied with the immortality of the soul. Yet, over the thousands of years of human history, there can only be bewilderment that no one seemed to figure out that immortality was unattainable. All of the ritual and incantations, all of the inscriptions and writings, all of the huge stone that were quarried, shaped, moved, and stacked into megalithic monuments ... why? Extremely precise astronomy was used to align the monuments. Unbelievable feats of engineering were incorporated to construct the megaliths. Yet, after a couple of generations, no one could figure out that the effort was for nothing. Something is a amiss.

That's where we left off. We also covered a bit of cosmology. So, the entire year was not so "hollow." Well, I did happen to download a lot of great hurdy-gurdy videos for my vast collection all year. Anyway, I am not so much concerned about modern times. We are heading rapidly to our own self-destruction. instead, I want to continue to focus on the deep past. Perhaps I will develop my own thesis about what happened 12,000 years ago and beyond as well the implications upon history itself.

Post No. 1,702

"The only way to ameliorate an unacceptable reality is to first acknowledge its existence. In other words, one cannot change a condition that one fails (or refuses) to recognize." -- Larry Pinkney

Another visit to Hawai'i Kai went well. Moms and I ate lunch at Panda Express®. Later, moms served Welcome® vanilla ice cream for dessert. My bro arrived at about 2pm, just about the time I usually depart for the gym. We chatted briefly. My bro described an incident that resulted in a shouting match with one of the neighbors. The rest of the day? The urban nomad fulfilled his usual benign functions and followed his routine itinerary as planned.

By the way, I was a little groggy this morning, thanks to another party at the Chinaman house next door. The faggots were carrying on until 5am this morning, complete with drunken foolishness and horrendous singing in cacophonous Chinkspeak. As of the last couple of weeks, though, I have resorted to deploying Flents® foam ear plugs, the best of its kind. So, the noise didn't really bother me that much. I also always keep the AOSafety® Stow-A-Way® earmuffs handy for total noise suppression, if necessary.

Well, as the year draws to a close, I find myself looking back at the sheer meaninglessness of it all. I perused a few random posts from the "blog" of the past year. I find myself in shock that my life can be summarized in a handful of hollow words. And, "hollow" is pretty much an accurate description of the whole of my existence. Unlike the year before, when I made tremendous headway in research on a variety of topics, this year is marked by nothing of significance. I suppose I could rationalize the year of nothing as a time to digest all of the findings of my prior research. Heck, that sounds good to me. Much better than summarizing it all as "chokin' da chicken." Sheesh!

Secret Agent Man (Reprise)

Well, I thought that I would enjoy the usual Sunday urban nomad trek, that is, until I arrived at Ala Moana Center. All of the stores apparently opened at 8am or earlier this morning. The whole place was already mobbed with satanic gargoyles when I got there at 8:40am. The fools were spending money like there's no tomorrow. Just a day after Saturnalia, can you believe it? At least I managed to return the blank DVD to Longs® for a refund. The rest of the day? Same ol' shit.

Back at Slob Manor (read: rental housing), I had a long chat with the landlord this afternoon. The most interesting part of the conversation concerned the reason why the temporary tenant moved out so abruptly, She was supposed to stay for about two months while waiting for the unit in the landlord's son's four-plex to be readied. The temporary tenant only offered that she was moving in with a friend in Kailua. The landlord eventually found out the truth from her son. It turns out that Joseph, the Iraqi guy, was trying real hard to hook up with the temporary tenant. That's right. Joseph was attempting to "tap dat ass" (read: "score"). "I can't rent the room to a woman with [Joseph] here," the landlord told me. Well, yeah, unless the landlord is aching to become an accessory to Joseph in a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Joseph, the Iraqi guy, is a major concern since he pays little, if any, rent. The landlord gave him the opportunity to work at the nursery as barter for his rent. However, Joseph just isn't interested. He makes excuses after two hours and leaves. Or, he just doesn't show up. If he's actually at work, he moves extremely slow. Joseph would rather hang out at Slob Manor. And, now, we know the reason why ... he wanted to "score." The landlord also heard something about Joseph's "political asylum" status, just as I suspected. She has finally realized that Joseph is far more cunning than previously thought. After all, the Iraqi guy is a secret agent man. Sheesh!

I am not certain why, but the landlord went into more details about her financial situation than I would consider prudent. She mentioned that she gave the proceeds from the sale of the house in Hawai'i Kai to her son. Her son is using the money to fund his solar panel installation business and also for the construction of his new four-plex house near downtown. The nursery is not doing too well ever since new housing construction bottomed out. Slob Manor itself has two mortgages. The landlord's husband works at the water treatment plant near Sandy Beach, so he has a steady income. Yet, the implication seems to be that money is tight. Obviously, subsidizing Joseph's grand life-style is costing the landlord about $800 per month. The obvious solution is to give Joseph his "walking papers" and find a reliable tenant to take his place.

Incidentally, I have not responded to the cheesy bid for my "condotel" unit yet. Here's what Urban Coyote suggested:

Cry yourself to sleep for a night or two until you can answer this question: "How big a loss can I tolerate?" When you have the answer, give a COUNTER OFFER that would result in that loss.

Maybe the asshole who is trying to steal it likes it enough to be reasonable about this ....

Actually, that was my immediate reaction sans the crying. At this point in time, I am willing to take a $25,000 loss. That's not exactly chump change, but I had already planned to lose some money when I purchased the dump. Of course, at the time, I had intended to be an "owner occupant." All of the messy details are recorded in the "blog."

On a disturbing note, I received a recall notice for my Nissan® Frontier truck. The issue appears to be a minor one involving the replacement of the Engine Control Module. I also received a letter that increases the truck's warranty by two years only for the fuel gauge sender. I have had only one incident when the fuel gauge did not read correctly. Provided that the labor costs are covered, I plan to replace the sender. Oh, the joys of "ownership"!

Late Note: I submitted my application to test the new Google Chrome CR-48 netbook. The device is meant for total "cloud computing," a concept that somehow bothers me. So, we'll see what happens next, eh?

Saturnalia 2010

Untrue to my word, I ended up at Kahala Mall this morning at 8:30am. I carried my Acer® Aspire One netbook computer with me, but the latter was not deployed. Coffee was courtesy Zippy's. I sipped the coffee in the mall. After completion, I rode the bus to town specifically to retrieve my mail. An old loser in the back of the bus was dropping back a bottle of cheap hard liquor and a bottle of cheap wine simultaneously. Subsequently, I rode a very crowded bus back to the mall. Half of the passengers were Micronesians. The other half were senior citizens.

Typical Saturnalia Hottie

I procured a second cup of coffee at Mickey Dee's®. Then, I loitered in the mall until 2:30pm. I also happened to purchase one blank DVD at Longs®. By the way, Longs® was pretty crowded. How much money do those fools really have? I purchased the DVD in anticipation of copying the Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) ISO to it.

I reluctantly returned to Slob Manor (read: rental housing). I noticed that Joseph, the Iraqi guy, has occupied the vacant room downstairs again. He also moved all of his refrigerated food back downstairs. So, he and his limerant object now have the entire fridge upstairs and one-third of the fridge downstairs in the kitchen filled with their food. The iraqi guy's limerant object also has the whole second floor to herself and her mangy mutt. Are they livin' large, or what?

What did I do for dinner? Did I have to venture into Waikiki? No, I planned ahead. Yesterday, I purchased half-a-pound of ahi poke at Foodland. So, for dinner, I made an ahi poke salad. I also dropped back three bottles of cheap brewskis as "appetizers." Sheesh!

Well, I discovered quite by accident that LMDE, just like most other Linux "distros," is plagued by the aggressive head parking (i.e., load cycle) problem. So, I won't need the blank DVD after all. Unbelievable as it may seem, only MeeGo® appears to have solved the problem. In fact, MeeGo® is a pretty good operating system, despite its cartoon-ish user interface. MeeGo® boots up in about 15 seconds. All of the applications load significantly faster than in other "distros," even though MeeGo® uses the Gnome® framework. MeeGo® is very stable. Power management and wireless networking work flawlessly.

On a side note, I received a ridiculously low bid for the "condotel" unit. While I am tempted to divest the dump immediately, I cannot fathom a $76,000 loss. I also received a notice that the "condotel" maintenance fee will be reduced next year. Will wonders never cease?

Eve of Saturnalia 2010

Another visit to Hawai'i Kai went well. Moms and I ate lunch at Zippy's. My bro and his family were home, so I cut my visit short. The rest of the day? The urban nomad fulfilled his usual benign functions and followed his routine itinerary as planned.

Back at Slob Manor (read: rental housing), no one was around. Alan has been gone for three days now. Neither the Iraqi guy or his limerant object were to be seen. The temporary tenant had apparently moved out sometime during the day. I was all by myself for once. And, in a way, I felt the chilling effects of loneliness.

Well, the landlord returned to host a dinner party at about 6:30pm. And, I assume that the Iraqi guy and his limerant object were moving furniture around upstairs at 7pm. I should have known better. The Iraqi guy and his limerant object have nowhere to go, no one to visit, and nothing to do. So, my solitude and loneliness were extremely short-lived.

As of yesterday, I observed that my Nissan® Frontier truck is the only vehicle that is parked in the Slob Manor dirt pile. The landlord has made provisions for all of the vehicles (except mine) to be parked on the concrete driveway. The Iraqi guy and his limerant object have the choicest spots. Oddly, the Indian guy has paid up his overdue rent, but the landlord has packed up many of his things for him and given away his parking spot. Technically, the Indian guy is still a tenant until the end of the month. He is being treated with even less respect than I am.

Although the new version of Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) was released today, I opted to download the ISO for Ubuntu "Maverick Meerkat." The reason? The LMDE ISO is so large that it requires a blank DVD. I gave away all of my blank DVDs. I could opt for the regular Ubuntu-based version of Linux Mint, but why bother?

Incidentally, switching to a Debian-based distribution will not prevent another package manager problem since both Linux Mint and Ubuntu use the Debian package management system (i.e., dpkg, apt, aptitude). I could run into the same problem again.

Well, that's my Eve of Saturnalia story. How pathetic, eh? The rest of the evening will be spent perusing the various hurdy-gurdy sites in order to find more great hurdy-gurdy videos to add to my vast collection. Now, that's something to celebrate!

Empire of Delusion

Not a whole lot happens in the ol' lavahead's current life scheme. He follows the same routine day after day, week after week, year after year. The only interruptions are usually incidents of grief or stupidity, such as the on-going computer problems. Being poverty-stricken only allows him to experience life from a derelict's point of view.

We're heading into the Saturnalia weekend. I read last year's "blog" to make note of what I should not do. A worthless trip to Kahala Mall is obviously out of the question. I already know that Safeway® in Kuapa Kai is the only place in the immediate locale that will be open (for a limited number of hours). I may have to venture into Waikiki because I know for certain that all of the stores and food joints will be open there. Otherwise, where will I procure my dinner?

The entire empire will be celebrating a Pauline-Christian farce on Saturday. Everywhere I've been, I have noticed the proliferation of Pauline-Christian and pagan decorations for a holiday that actually worships the Sun God. Nonetheless, I am dumbstruck by the absence of a secular state. Even government offices have been decorated to reflect a religious holiday. And, the offices will be closed during the actual holiday. What happened to separation of church and state? There never was a separation, that's what. Take a look at the empire's fiat money. Look at the Unholy Scriptures which is used in a variety of legal and political theatrics. Sickening. And, what of the empire's wars? Are they not Holy Wars?

The empire is a scary place. Anyone outside of the empire should be thankful. The majority of the empire's citizenry is goosestepping to the Fascist beat. My powers of observation have keenly noted that the cattle have already been branded. They are now the equivalent of the loyal citizens of Nazi Germany. The only difference is that, in the empire, money is Der Führer. Sieg Heil!

Even More Computer Woes

Yet another uneventful day has been crossed off the calendar. If anything could be construed as memorable, that would be the restoration of my extreme monk haircut at the Institute of Hair Design this afternoon. In my incongruent state, not much is memorable. I returned to Slob Manor (read: rental housing) about 30 minutes earlier than usual after an extremely grueling bus ride from town. Naturally, I locked myself in my squalid room.

The Ubuntu "Karmic Koala" package manager apparently "hosed" itself sometime within the last two days. My Toshiba® Satellite notebook computer is still functional. However, I can no longer update the system. And, I can neither add or remove applications. I attempted a repair by applying a few commands in the terminal with absolutely no success. Does it matter? "Karmic Koala" is only supported for another four months anyway.

Well, since I will have to install a whole new operating system (i.e., fresh install), I have been contemplating Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), which is fully Debian compatible (unlike Ubuntu). LMDE dispenses with frivolities like the buggy Plymouth splash screen and all of the integrated social aggregation junk. It is also a "rolling release," so it's a one-time install. Heck, I may attempt to run it "live" on my Acer® Aspire One netbook computer.

On second thought, I may just leave well enough alone. Fiddling around with the computer is just another vapid waste of time. And, wasting time just increases incongruence. Sheesh!