I went to a wedding reception with Brandon. Since he's a member of the band, he's basically part of my extended family out here, so I get to do things like go to receptions with him, get free whatever-is-a-byproduct-of-his-job-s, and give him amounts of shit up with which he would not normally put. Actually, this time Kris and I were there just to keep him from killing someone or someones whose presence he knew would be very stressful to him. Everything went fine, no one died, and we met a lot of old and bloaty folks that we had nothing in common with, and managed to make them watch soulfly videos for a while.

Is it possible to classify things into the two categories of "promotes undesirable behavior" and "other"? Knee-jerk legislation to prohibit things ranging from free speech to dildos is built on the reasoning that these things contribute to [illegal / immoral / whatever you don't like] behavior. Violent TV does not cause violent reality (Japan, folks), at least no more than overly protective parents, stupid school faculty (I know what I'm talking about here), and even unpleasantly colored walls have been shown to. Everything contributes to the sensory input of an individual, and the interpretation of that input is subtle. I wonder if any legislators or concerned parents have felt murderous after watching a sickeningly violent movie. I myself have slaughtered uncountable (video-game) government agents and terrorists, but I know I could not (in reality) shoot an innocent person out of sheer sympathy; I know I am not a killer. In fact, I might get all blubbery and gross if forced to. Okay, so maybe it would be different if I played these games while I was growing up... but wait! I, in fact, repeatedly played atari 2600 games during my formative years which included graphic depictions of violence (including the sometimes-banned "gunslinger") and I'm pretty much okay! Oh, those weren't realistic? Today's games = much more realistic, huh? bwah. They look more like pictures, sure, but until video games include the sensation of how hard you have to push to drive a knife up through someone's jaw, they aren't realistic enough to cause serious behavioral damage in my book. Fortunately, for right now at least, the worst things that have come from such concerns are warning labels, rating systems, and other fairly benign aids to parental control. These systems are more like the nutrition-information panels on foodstuffs, giving us more of an idea of what we are getting. Ooh! 300% RDA of partial nudity! 5% RDA strong language! Perhaps it will turn out that violence is not bad for you, but language is, and there could be a sensory input diet like "The Zone" in which you can have as much violence as you want, but no language at all...

4 am! Superficially deep thoughts! Ate too many baloney hors d'oeuvres!

Dental floss, everybody!

Can I go to sleep with dental floss stuck in my teeth? No! In fact, I can barely type, so distracting is the sensation of having fibrous blue stuff wedging my teeth several microns too far apart. I am reduced to compulsively scraping at the sides of my teeth in the hopes of dislodging the rogue floss. Yes, both hands in my mouth just like the good old days. I'm sure this is some kind of sanitary no-no.

Today's pet peeve: people saying "etcetera etcetera" at the end of a list of two things. "When deciding which way to turn the steering wheel (i.e. left, right, etcetera etcetera)..." This tweaks me (today) because a) "etcetera etcetera" means the exact same thing as "etcetera" so there's no reason to say it unless b) you're trying to sound like you have thought of a big, big list but you actually haven't. If you're trying to do that, you're trying to fool me. If you just innocently say "etcetera etcetera" out of habit, you probably got into the habit trying to fool other people, so I should be peeved at you, too. Will everybody please stop trying to fool me?

if I were going to give my guitar a name, I would name it SHODAN, after the insane AI in system shock (I know, you're supposed to give guitars girl names, cause you wind up with them strapped to your crotch for hours during shows.) (diversity yay, though, go ahead and give your guitar any stupid name that pleases you.) "Shodan" is also the first-degree black belt.