I stood in the rain for several minutes listening to a pitch for Greenpeace. A girl who kept calling me "brother" ran through a set of facts regarding the coal industry. "Stop the mining" was basically the message I got. I'm not opposed to Greenpeace or their goals necessarily, but I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that I should give money and become a member.

I waited for an opportunity wherein I could leave without feeling too guilty. But the more I waited, the more I found it hard to come up with good arguments for my own lack of charity. That is to say, I didn't have any "diplomatic" things to say; all I could think of was "fuck you, I've got too many expenses already, and you want money from me?"

I walked away thinking about how my own job involves selling. It reminded me of how much I hate holding people through a presentation in which they clearly aren't interested, even though my job demands it. I thought about mentioning it, about asking her whether she enjoyed subjecting people to bullshit sales pitches or if she hated it as much as I do. But it was too late. I had already walked away. Fuck it.

I've lost a lot of free time.

Is it appropriate to bemoan the decaying of attention spans in our culture, or should it be accepted as inevitable? I'm thinking: people seem to be getting a whole lot dumber, but maybe that's been the trend forever. If we're drowned in stupidity, eventually we'll all grow gills, right?

I checked my temperature last night and it registered at 98.2º. The reason I checked was because my mom had called in order to make sure I had gone to see a doctor, which I had not. But why not see a doctor? I'm covered, says my mom; I do have insurance, I'm just reluctant to try my luc.

Mom has sent flannel sheets and is dry-cleaning a large winter coat that is to be sent later. Max received his package; a model geoduck (read gooey-duck) along with a Hallmark card. I took a sharpie marker and blotted/crossed out all the sappy bullshit parts. I wrote my own birthday greeting on the front and inside. Why buy the card in the first place? To show I care enough to buy a card while acknowledging that the pre-packaged sentiment is ridiculous and empty.


Sick, rite?

I think I'll make that a tradition of mine. I'll buy a card from Hallmark or whomever, then cross out all the stupid shit inside. Get the best of both worlds. Have cake and eat it too (because of birthdays lol).

The problem with purchasing gift cards is that the customer surrenders her/his creativity to a company who has already thought of his/her predicament. Like telling your friend or loved-one: "I followed the prompt and chose option 3. For you!"

And printing it out manually on some printer paper is just as aggravating if it's from a pre-fabricated template, or appears so. Perhaps it can be established as a general rule that manufactured sentiment is insulting, if not utterly repulsive.

Salvador Dalí is quoted as having said "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot."


Now there's a face you can trust.