in light of my most recent study of Confucius, here are some of the quotes that i liked the most:

is one not a superior man if he does not feel hurt even though he is not recognized?

by nature men are alike. through practice they have become far apart

have no friends who are not as good as yourself

a good man does not worry about not being known by others but rather worries about not knowing them

a man who reviews the old so as to find out the new is qualified to teach others

if you set your mind on humanity, you will be free from evil

women and servants are most difficult to deal with. if you are familiar with them, they cease to be humble. if you keep a distance from them, they resent it.

only the most intelligent and the most stupid do not change



any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

- Jack Handy

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

i feel like living in this house is a scientific experiment looking at the reactions and interactions of different beings and materials to extreme cold temperature...like oil, food, human flesh, attitudes, computers, testicles, Old Spice body wash, and alarm clocks.


like the lab rat, i must escape


any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

only because i have heard this song multiple times in the past three days in random places, for some reason. i feel like there is a reason for that. there is a reason for everything.

If you're down and confused
And you don't remember who you're talkin' to
Concentration slip away
Cause your baby is so far away.
Well, there's a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove

Don't be angry, don't be sad,
Don't sit cryin' over good things you've had,
There's a girl right next to you
And she's just waiting for something you do.

Turn your heartache right into joy
She's a girl, you're a boy,
Get it together make it nice
Ain't gonna need anymore advice.
Well, there's a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love
Love the one you're with
Love the one you're with


-the isley brothers


good word
any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

carbomb pong = a success

death did not result, so that was a good thing

however it did allow certain participants to finally realize the point at which they can know for sure that they are drunk.
(could be the setup for a really good standup joke or segment)

you know you are drunk when your room has been transformed into the Whirl 'n Hurl from the local redneck carnival and you hold onto the closest piece of furniture to save yourself from being thrown into the infinite abyss...gravity has some how changed from the reliable constant acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2 in the direction of the Earth's core to a chaotic whirlwind of directional forces, occasionally even feeling like a black hole is doing its best to suck you off the face of the planet as you bury yourself deep under pillows and blankets to hide from its gaze....


so i hear...

always good to be called upon like Luke Skywalker to save the drunk friend from succumbing to the interstellar tractor beam...

the unsung hero of sobriety. never remembered the next morning...

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

frigid
frozen
frostbite
freezing


"cold" is insufficient

i can think of at least one more 'f' word that conveys my feelings about this weather and my house...

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

all this talk of getting old
it's getting me down my love
like a cat in a bag waiting to drown
this time i'm coming down

and i hope you're thinking of me
as you lay down on your side
now the drugs dont work
they just make you worse
but i know i'll see your face again


she liked you on wednesday
but now it's friday and she has to wash her hair


i guess at some point we have to come to the place where we dont care anymore. you have to rise above the fray. most would say removing yourself from the world isnt ideal, but sometimes it is the only way.

escape from the senseless and endless chaotic fury of life is not indifference. it is freedom.
to thine own self be true...

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.


Indifference is the essence of inhumanity.
any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

Matt Garrison, i still respect your love for Rum Raisin ice cream, because i tried it last semester in williamsburg at the Haagen Dazs. after ordering though, the one and only KJ informed me that there was a Bailey's Irish Cream flavor of ice cream there. amazed, but not willing to buy two things of ice cream, i stored that in the back of my head. tonight, after leaving DC and giving up on Cold Stone, we went to Safeway to find some ice cream to take back to Karla's house to eat while playing Trivial Pursuit. i was thinking about ben and jerry's but then moved on to rum raisin, and then as i became frustrated at not finding it, i spotted a pint of Haagen Dazs labelled "limited edition". the immediate thought was "no, could it be the Bailey's flavor?" and immediately i could see from afar (ok so, not that far, but play along with the romanticized version, it would look better in the film) that upon the side of the carton was the design for the label of that wonderous irish cream. abruptly stopping in the middle of the sentence i was saying and practically jumping through the glass door with ninja-quick reaction time, i snatched the pint of Bailey's Irish Cream flavored special edition ice cream and declared "YAHTZEE" as i displayed my discovery victoriously in the aisle of the supermarket. what a great day.

my brain is already planning scenes for this as is becomes a commercial. either for Haagen Dazs or for something else. i am thinking that the whole scenario could be adapted to fit just about anything. how about for life insurance? no one would see that coming. it would be a flash-back but no one would know until the end of the commercial. well, short film. not commercial. the fact that it was being used to sell a product doesnt change the fact that it will be a cinematography production. multiple shots of a man coming home from work. a long day. very long day. he is exhausted. he comes home to his pregnant wife and she is exhausted and cranky and tells him to go get her some ice cream. p.s. i think this would be so much more powerful if it was silent. i mean, no words. just action and mood music as the score in the background. long day, comes home, gets a load of crap from the wife, she wants ice cream, but it has to be the right flavor. he goes. looks fervently for the flavor, multiple shots from different angles. very distressed look on his face. opening and closing doors. looking at other brands, wondering if she will know the difference. but giving up. staring at the frozen case sadly and drops his head and begins to walk out. but then, out of the corner of his eye, he spots another row that he didnt even see. they were hiding. and it is the flavor he needs to get. music rises triumphantly. he grabs it and stares at it, cradles it. the ice cream becomes the baby as his life is fast-forwarded through the life of the child. all the joy and happiness of having a child stemming from that single moment at the supermarket where he conquered and found the ice cream to make his wife happy and feel better. then maybe ending with an intimate, close-up shot of him touching his wife's leg or back as the waves roll in on the beach on their family vacation. the touch comes as he is trying to get her attention to look at their son playing out in the waves and is the stimulus that has caused this flashback. the voice comes in and says something about, "so you can spend your time thinking about other things. no need to worry, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..." or something like that. depends on who you are pitching the commercial to. anyways. and with that my brain needs to rest.

my report on the quality of the ice cream..........unfathomable. so amazing. if i could say it purely in reference to ice cream and not be dirty or crude, it truly is orgasmic. incredible. i dont know what Haagen Dazs is thinking when they say that they are only having this flavor for a limited time. this is good enough to start a business on. it could be a menu item at a restaurant that people would hear about from across the country and go there just to get this ice cream. Haagen Dazs would be really stupid to ever take this off the shelves. it is incredible. i ate the whole pint without flinching. not rushing it, just never wanting to stop eating it. so good. highly recommended.


any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

the National World War II memorial on the Mall is incredible. especially at night. i cant wait for it to be summer so it will be warm enough to get in the water. but from a design and beauty standpoint, it is astounding. the cascading water fountains...the lights underneath. it was even more beautiful tonight because of the fog. this dense fog covered the district and northern va and some of maryland tonight. National airport was reporting visibility of 1/8 of a mile, and i think that was generous. Dulles reported zero visibility. driving home, i couldnt see a car that was 50 yards ahead of me, or signs or traffic lights. it was nuts. so that added an eerie feeling to the monument. the lights from underwater shining up through the oval of fountains hit the fog above the pool and danced in the air as the water refracted the light. it was almost as if the light was an active being, hovering over the water in the midst of a cloud. yet it was contained within a certain space and moved around rapidly as if trying to get out. at times it looked like an aurora bourealis would in black and white. it was so foggy that you could not look down the mall either way and see anything. the Lincoln memorial was hidden, the Washington monument (which was right next to the WWII memorial, but wasnt lit because it is closed????) was almost impossible to make out. it was only a shadow behind a dense curtain. the Capitol building was way too far away. there was no hope of seeing that. even the Jefferson Memorial was hidden across the water from where we parked. it was really weird, but very peaceful and beautiful at the same time. it didnt feel as cold as it felt like it should be with that kind of atmosphere.

i recommend going to the mall at night to anyone visiting DC. and you must see the WWII memorial. it is right next to the washington monument on the Lincoln Memorial side. the Washington Monument is the big phallic one....cant miss it. go there. it is worth it. and i am glad that it was finally approved and built. it is about time that soldiers from that war were remembered.




any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

oh, and one final thing....


Bowl America: may God bless you ten thousand fold for having Killian's Irish Red on tap.....amazing. oh....and Karla Petty as well. the usual wise sage with witty, yet insightful commentary.

oh and by the way....appparently i am not that bad at bowling. who knew? i have bowled two, maybe three times in my life. but i almost broke 200 tonight. not bad. anyways.

love you KJ. dont give up on me. you will find something i am not good at, i swear.


any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

apparently, according to an internet survey site, this is the animal which best represents me and my personality:



i dont know....some of it is true i guess....ok well maybe more than some....argh....ok fine. maybe some of those online quizzes actually have some sort of psychological basis and have some validity to them....or maybe they are just like the psychics and tell you what you want to hear so that you cant argue....

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

i think Karla Petty and i both agree that Butterfly Effect is a disturbing movie. i dont care about the ending i dont care about the underlying subliminal themes and subliminal myths you attempt to turn into stories by the end of the movie, i can honestly say that i wish i had those 113 minutes of my life back. i would have invested them elsewhere. not that there arent interesting ideas, not that i got bored or i thought it was stupid. it was too bleak and depressing and disturbing and upsetting. it was not something fun to watch. yes i know all about your chaos theory and your existential cognitive turbulence, but come on. i can not even enjoy that. i cant even concentrate on that after seeing all that other stuff happen. and thinking you know what will happen next, but in fact having no clue. it was a mess. it was not enjoyable. bleh.

that is my rating.

in other news, thursday on through the weekend should be good days...



any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

oh....and another realization:

this has to do with positive olfactory association. laundry detergent is very powerful. maybe even more so than perfume. you dont even realize how much of a persons unique "smell" is due to the process of cleaning those clothes they are wearing. if they happen to wash your clothes for you, and then you put those clothes on, it is as if you are surrounded and completely enveloped in their essence. it is beyond description. the only observable external response is most likely a second closer smell of the fabric, a huge smile and maybe even a faint "mmm". and then that scent follows you around for another couple hours, surprising you as you get a wiff of yourself. this whole time your mind is going insane. the connecting systems and synapses are going nuts trying to connect these smells to emotions and memories. it can be incredibly wonderful in a very overwhelming sort of way. i think i will ziploc some of these to perserve their scent as long as possible. an attempt to hold onto memories that slowly slip away as the days become weeks and the images less vivid. or maybe you just have to schedule regular jobs laundry in this alternate environment. dont doubt the power of that nose and the parts of your brain it is wired directly to. and yes, i knew that before that stupid Old Spice commercial that tries to educate the world about smell association and links to the brain.

and since i am not sure i thanked you enough miss i-did-your-laundry-as-soon-as-we-got-in-the-door, thank you once again. you gave me much more than clean clothes.

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

Andrew: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.
Sam: I still feel at home in my house.
Andrew: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this right of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for you kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.

it is so true. there is something about moving on, but not moving out. my stuff is still here, but at this point i feel like that is the case only because i dont have anywhere else to put it. it is as if this house, this room, is just a holding zone, a waiting room of life. you dont really feel like you belong there anymore. you dont really feel like it is home. but you dont have anywhere else to go. nowhere else is truly home for you yet.

you look forward to coming home, but a lot of that is because you look forward to getting away from whatever else is going on in your crazy world. there is a bit of peace at home. there is a piece of you that wants to drive along those familiar roads to see those faces that remember your own. you want to see your family, you want to spend time with them. but then you remember that you have moved on. you are in a different place. going home is almost a regressive journey away from the progress you have made in your life. nostaligia is great. spending time with people is great. but it is weird to realize that this is no longer home. you are just setting up a temporary bunking area before heading back to another residence. you may even call this other place "home" now. but you know that is temporary too. so how long will it last? when will the houses you live in become a home? it needs to replace the one that you have moved out of. even if you havent physically relocated all of your belongings, your heart is not as firmly founded in that house.

it is bittersweet...

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

as was advertised and conveyed to me, the movie Garden State and its soundtrack are both incredible. i enjoyed both very much. i feel that i may have to purchase both in the near future. very quotable as well. not that movies aren't naturally all like that for me. but still. i feel like there will be quote surfacing on here and in away messages in the near future...

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

oh and one more thing discovered today:
Checker's fast food burger place has harnessed the power of combining a good product and good marketing
late night TV commercial when people are a little hungry but it is too late to go to Checkers
the next day when they are trying to figure out what to eat for lunch, that commercial pops into their head
so powerful is this association that you are willing to drive 20 minutes out of your way to try it
and the best part, well aside from having a picnic with a heater and music in the back of the Jeep with the seat removed and the tailgate open, the food was really good. well, i mean, we arent talking chef quality entrees or anything, clearly. but if you are scrutinizing fast food along those lines then you are looking the wrong place entirely anyways. mushroom & swiss double cheeseburger, chili cheese double cheeseburger, and bacon cheddar double cheeseburger. buy two for $4. not bad. and actually very tasty. and good sweet tea and chili cheese fries too. yeah...you may have to reach for the Tums at a later point, but some would say that is the sign of a really good meal. just dont try to eat all three versions of the double cheeseburger in one sitting. that could be a little too much.

so in conclusion. well done Checker's.

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

hush my little baby
dont you say a word
cause im going to give you everything i promised i would
hush my little baby
please dont say a word
cause id like to give you everything i promised i would

well ill give you my heart
and ill give you all my soul
and you van have my money
and if you like you can have control
and all i want from you is love and a little bit of faith
maybe trust, honesty goes a long long way
in my mind i miss you every night that you're not there
and all i'd like to do is sit around and breathe your air
and although you dont feel the things that i might do
all i need is just you

hey girl
come with me
and let yourself go


any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

p.s. in case you didnt know, my dad is really smart. we joke about him knowing everything about everything. but seriously, i think he does. i mean except for spelling, but that is ok. kinda hard to feel like you are accomplishing anything in life when you have to sift through piles and piles of awards and recognition and diplomas and medals, as well as finding out that he scored a 1560 on his SAT (equivalent). i think i need to get a tattoo that reminds me that "you are good enough, you are smart enough, and doggone it, people like you"

i dont know if i could deal with working for him though. yikes. two people obsessed with success and approval. lots of hard work of course. but it would never be good enough. and Freud would say that such a situation is unhealthy and will frequently lead to conflict. anyways. just a thought.



any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

my new favorite TV commercials:
"I Will Do Anything for Love" Dr. Pepper commercial
Tostitos wedding football game commercial

some might say that there is a correlation between these two. i would be one of those people. it may be a little difficult to find, but i dont think so. just think about it.



any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

sometimes it is hard to not have something
but then if you have been without it for a long period of time and it finally comes back to you, it is wonderful. but what then when it is taken away again? what happens when it all goes back to the way it was? is it not easy to get upset or sad or feel lonely? you just wish you could stay in that moment, that perfect time of excitement and happiness that you had been missing and had been dying to experience once again. you wish she wouldnt leave. you wish you werent separated by 300 miles. you wish things would work out. but most of all, if this separation is necessary and unavoidable, then you wish that in the future this would be made more of a priority. that you wouldnt settle for AIM or phone. that you would realize how important this is and how much you want it and need it.

but for now. just enjoy the fact that it happened and be happy in that.




any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu

it's been emotional.
it's been incredible.

what a great couple of days...

i never knew sharing my life with someone and getting to know them better would be this rewarding and exciting...
i dont want it to end
it is so exciting and so fun and all that i look forward to

you know who you are
you know what you mean
you know how excited i am
but careful and cautious

thank you for all you are and all you are willing to be for me
you encourage me to be myself
you like me for who i am
you want me to never settle
and i agree

i think we are doing the right thing
i know this is difficult to deal with right now
but i know that doing this the right way will be better for both of us in the long run

i cant say enough about these past couple days
how much i looked forward to them
they were everything i wanted and needed
it was perfect

thanks for being who you are....

and yes most of these posts are not about you. but there are a couple. i just went back and read through them. dont sell yourself short, neither here nor in the CD write-ups. there isnt anything wrong with that assumption. dont sell yourself short in reference to your importance, impact, and significance in my life. with some caution and reserve of course... ;)


i think i have said enough for right now...

any and all comments or responses are welcome at dabele@wm.edu