My views on politics, life, death, the army, and other things too miscellaneous to mention here. This is a personal blog. This blog is 100% factual.
Bill Duckwing
Poet, Author, Journalist
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Your Super-Cute Daily Terror Alert Update Will Be Forevermore:
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"There are some myths and untruths surrounding the role God plays in our daily lives. To say that religion and politics do not mix, is certainly a myth, unless you ask a liberal. Anything that affects a Christian (and voting is one of them) — enters into the religious realm. Trying to separate the two is like trying to separate oil from a glass of water, it's impossible to do. "
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Friday, June 17, 2005
Pick This Album Up
I heard the song "Me and My Arrow" by Harry Nilsson the other day. The obvious Beatles influnence on the song intrigued me, so I looked it up online, and found out it was from a soundtrack to an aminated 70's tv show for kids called "The Point!" I recognized the album cover art. I had this album when I was a kid, and probably hadn't listened to it in over 20 years.
It's a great album. Before, I vaguely recognized Nilsson's name but tended to lump him in with all the other classic rock B-listers. But now I look forward to exploring some of his late sixties work. He definitely wrote some trippy songs.
-duckwing, at 7:52 PM
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Friday, June 10, 2005
Hey! Let's Hang Out!
Yesterday, I was walking around the college campus near where I live. A few hours prior, a huge thunderstorm had brought down much of the area to ruins, and even now a faint coating of warm water on all the sidewalks and all the leaves of the shrubs, made me imagine it was a coat of wax laid down by some floor polisher that had just gone ahead and vigorously polished everything in town, like the minuteman floor polisher, boots and floor waxer always by his bedside, always ready to go out and wax the streets at a moments notice. Or something.
It was such a reflective moment for me, that I almost cried. And the thought of my warm weathered tears striking the concrete and evaporating off into steam actually did moisten my ducts a little bit. As I was wiping the tears from my eyes, a thought struck me, and I instantly pulled out my camera phone and snapped a picture of myself wiping the tears from my eyes with the other hand, to capture the moment for posterity.
 I showed my picture to a couple of strangers on the street, and they were pretty knocked out about it, as you can see. Actually this shot of me showing the picture I took of myself being all sensitive and shit was staged. Sorry about that. I actually had to exchange my camera with another guy and have him snap this picture with my camera, while me and the girls posed ourselves and went over his contact list. We were laughing because we didn't recognize anyone on his list. It was pretty funny.
I actually love my new camera phone. I remember, back when I didn't have a camera phone, going out to bars with my friends, and not having a camera phone to take their pictures with. Most of my conversations with my friends often went like this:
"Hey, Bill! This is fun, hanging out in a bar, with all of our friends! You should take a picture of us with a camera phone, for posterity, and then you'll always remember this night, so that, when you want to remember this night, in this bar, for posterity's sake, you can look at the pictures you took of us, this night, and remember..."
 "Yeah? Well, you know I would! That would be fucking awesome! Except there is a problem with that line of thinking, Carla (Carla's one of my friends)! I don't even own a camera phone!"
"That sucks!"
"I know!"
"I mean, that really sucks."
"I know!"
So after slapping myself in the forehead a few more times, I went out and got one. And shit, if I haven't been taking pictures with it. I've been pretty busy.
Probably the most anxiety inducing moment of all of this, though, was actually taking my first picture. How would my camera phone measure up to the others? This question was answered over a few pints of Guiness at some Irish pub I went to a few weeks ago. I'm pretty much impartial to Guiness, for me it's kind of a special-time kind of beer. Only for special social occasions will I drink a Guiness, like when I go to Irish pubs. It's because I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I don't order a Guiness, that people will laugh at me for not ordering a Guiness. I guess it's just like what they say.
"When in Rome..."
"...do what the Romans do..."
Actually, am I even correct in making this assumption? I've always wondered what would happen if I ordered something funny in a Irish pub, you know, I don't know, like a Coors or something. Wouldn't the waiter just totally flip out? I'm going to have to try that sometime...
 "Hey, waiter! Yeah, I would like...a...COORS!"
I bet that would totally knock him off his guard. Point, set, and match. It'd be all over. But it's kinda of scary, too, because I might get kicked out.
Yikes. Think I'll play it safe.
Anyway, so we're sitting around this table, enjoying our Guiness' and listening to U2 on the old surroundsound, and everybody is having a good time, laughing and talking and taking pictures of one another. Flash bulbs from our table illuminate our table like a bright blue glowstick, obscuring the smoke and dank darkness otherwise enveloping us. I make my move.
*Flash*
"Hey, will you look at that!" Carla said, "Bill has a camera phone!"
"Yes!" I said.
"GIVE IT TO ME!" she screamed at me. She looked at me with such hatred, that I almost dropped my beer on the floor.
"Okay.."
"Wow! This camera is the bomb! Can I take a picture of you with your camera?"
"Uh, sure." I felt like I was about to piss my pants. She looked at me, a quizzical look, as if my phone had better be the bomb.
 The flash went off, and she turned the on the image viewer on the camera phone. She studied it, frowning the entire time. And then, the corners of her mouth turned upward. Then a smirk. Then a full-throated giggle.
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, "I love the resolution on this phone!"
"Isn't it great!" I yelled back at her.
"Yes, I love it!"
"Well, thanks!"
And so a disaster was narrowly averted.
-duckwing, at 6:29 PM
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