Month: July 2004

Great thanks to everyone who helped out – Sam is back to normal (or as normal he can be).

We’re going camping with our friends Mark and Maggie so that should be fun. Our friend Rob from CA is joining us. We’re going to Del Norte campground just south of Crescent City, CA. Hooray for road trips and redwoods. Hansel is dying to get on the open road. 😉

Thanks again, especially to and . You guys are the bestest.

Sam is home – he’s all beat, but he is stable and comfortable. Sure hope he gets better soon. Fever is almost gone, just needs to rest. We had to take him out early, but the nice Dr. we had the first night thinks it will be ok – we are nursing and watching him carefuly.

In other news, I have been accepted to PSU. A bit of good new sure was needed and that certainly helped.

Sams fever is back up and he has to stay another night and we have no money
I don’t know how we’re going to pay for it – The fucking hospital won’t hold a check until I get paid next week – We’ll just barely squeeze tonights stay and after that we have to bring him home even if he still needs to stay.
I don’t even know how we’re going to pay for gas in the car to get to work next week let alone food.
Our only good news is that our landlord is Heathers mum and will float us the rent for this month (which was enough to get him in the hospital and pay for him so far.)
Fuck the whole god damn world

Sam’s fever is down, he is still in Kitty Hospital. More news as it breaks.

Sam is in Kitty Hospital

We took him in after coming home from a movie and finding him lethargic and very warm – he has a 105.5 temp and is currently undergoing tests and an overnight stay at the hospital.

All spirtual, emotional, and financial offers well be warmly accepted.

Happy Birthday !!!

Soooo tired of the hot and humid weather.

When will it be raining again? (whine)

Yawn.

Had a full weekend, where did it go?

On Friday night and I went to a spur-of-the-moment party at ‘s abode. Much fun was had, much Floyd was listened to. It was nice being around a group of officianadoes where the subject was one I knew nothing about. I could just listen and learn.

Then On Saturday we worked on our Hallowe’en Maze at Jantzen Beach – Plenty more work to be done, for sure. More about that in later updates.

Sunday made some Raspberry jam from our local field’s shack – their last day was Sunday so we wanted to be sure to get enough for putting up. I think we have 5 1/2 pints. Need to find more Raspberries. The local Blackberry harvest can start any time. I think tonight after work I’ll pick a bunch to make Blackberry Liqeur from ‘s erzats recipe: Macerated fruit, Brandy: soak for 3 weeks, add simple syrup to taste. Blackberry Brandy/Liqeur anyone?

Sunday Afternoon we went to our friends Mark and Maggie’s house for a family get to-gether and hung out for a bit, then made our way home.

Monday is back to work!

We were robbed today.

The bitches took all our DVDs, 2 Laptops, our new lovely Digital Camera, our fabulous Hookah, our Xbox console, and all our Xbox games.

Mother Fuckers.

So now as of tomorrow we have renter’s insurance (day late and a dollar short) and we are getting an alarm installed.

Good news is all the components are still here, TV, all the computers/servers, my guitar. Some DVDs they left. I guess the thieves don’t like Monty Python, but they do like Buffy (but not the first season). I guess it was a rather freshman effort.

Boy does it suck. Still, could be worse.

Police came, filed a report, etc.

Called local DVD/Game trade shops to aler them, etc.

Hope you all had a better monday!

How can a subjective assesment of a work be “over-rated?”

I suppose a bigger question (perhaps worthy of another discussion) would be: “Is there any worth in purporting concrete aesthetics?”

Personal opinion gives one likes and dislikes, and one can create a guide or method to assessing art, but on what concrete base can you really trust a criticism?

Point in fact: Impressionism vs. Representationalism

At the rise of impressionism, it was widely regarded as “poor” judging from the critical guides of representational art (and contemporary critics). This ruling of the art elite was overturned and then applied againt represtationalism (too accessible, etc): Up into the current day, many late representational artists (such as Bouguereau) were/are derided for their representationalism. i.e. the “rules” have changed. (But who gets to create these rules?)

Given that basis, I pose that the very idea of calling something “over-rated,” is approaching an oxymoron. While the work may seem innaccessible to you, or you may deem the work common, or purile, or mundane against a large group of admirers is only you disagreeing with a large group. And we all know that the fallacy of “ad populum” doesn’t make things correct or great, but it does describe the popularity or “rate”ing.

To use the term “overrated” assumes a concrete scale of rating=(absolute)worth: A concrete “real” value. An elite is formed by those who share your aesthetics, backed by whatever criteria those groups purport to adhere to.

Yes, this is all semantics, and I understand the root of saying something is overrated does not necessarily follow my interpetation above. Still, is there anyone who really believes in universal aesthetics?

If you do, can you posit some support for it? I’d love to read an argument in favour.