Tuesday, May 27, 2003

So THIS is Purgatory!

Well, after the nine... TEN circles of meme quiz (see below), it seems only natural to take one based on the REAL 9 circles of Hell. Guess what?

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
LevelScore
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)High
Level 2 (Lustful)High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)Very Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Lovely.

Monday, May 26, 2003

Smeg!

Finally, I found my niche quiz. :)
Lister
Lister - You are deeply misunderstood. You have
dreams and ambitions - it's just that people
can't see them past your slovenly, lazy, crass,
unwashed, beer-guzzling exterior.


The Ultimate Red Dwarf Quest towards Self-Discovery
brought to you by Quizilla

Friday, May 23, 2003

Aren't we all just workin' hard for the Friday Five?

1. What brand of toothpaste do you use?
I'm a Crest man, myself. Actually, I'm pretty content with Aquafresh, as well.

2. What brand of toilet paper do you prefer?
Charmin. C'mon, it's squeezably soft!

3. What brand(s) of shoes do you wear?
I don't really go by brands. If I had a choice, though, I'd wear Converse Chuck Taylors 24/7/365.

4. What brand of soda do you drink?
Coke. Specifically, Vanilla Coke.

5. What brand of gum do you chew?
Again, I don't have a strict loyalty, but I do like Wrigley's a lot, particularly Spearmint and Juicy Fruit.

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Whine Line Time!

For those of you who are former Augustan/Aikenites, allow me to fill you in on what you're missing in this week's MetSpirit Whine Line:

(in order, and summarized for your pleasure)

*The GA legislature sucks
*The Chronicle and Austin Rhodes both suck at predictiing elections.
*Lowell Grenbaum (and local Democrats) suck.
*Teenagers suck
*Organic food sucks
*Gov. Perdue sucks for "betraying" conservative Repugs
*The dating scene sucks
*Trash pickup sucks
*Greenbaum sucks (again)
*Leadership Augusta sucks
*Segregated proms suck
*Sen. Joey Brush sucks
*Columbia County Repugs suck
*Dubya sucks
*Nightclubs for teens suck
*Frank Spears sucks
*This Modern World sucks
*The water department sucks
*Texas Dems and the Augusta commisioners suck
*Paving the canal path sucks
*Dubya, corporate nepotism, and ignorance about Iraq and 9/11 sucks
*The right-wing media suck
*Columbia Co. Sheriff's Dept. sucks
*Whiners about "lawn men" suck
*Not being able to see into publicly financed facilities sucks
*Not buying from local farmers sucks
*Not stopping liberals and Negroes sucks
*Privatized (and public, even) probation sucks
*Young teenagers throwing stuff sucks
*Dubya still sucks

There, I saved you about 10 minutes. You can thank me later.

Nine Levels Of Meme

All in all it's just another meme to do...

The way this one is structured reminds me of the line in Shrek about ogres having layers. Do they? Let's find out!

LAYER ONE
-- Name: Clint
-- Birth date: 08-07-66
-- Birthplace: Louisville (pronounced lew-is-vil), GA
-- Current Location: Virginia
-- Eye Color: blue
-- Hair Color: brunette with some gray streaking through to say "howdy!"
-- Height: 6'1"
-- Righty or Lefty: Righty, handily. Lefty, politically.
-- Zodiac Sign: Leo

LAYER TWO:
-- Your heritage: Lots of Irish, some English and French, a dash of German. Your standard Euromutt.
-- The shoes you wore today: Sandals
-- Your weakness: chocolate
-- Your fears: Death.
-- Your perfect pizza: Mmmm... pesto sauce, grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, and lots of mozz, feta and asiago cheese.
-- Goal you'd like to achieve: Learning to play a musical instrument.

LAYER THREE:
-- Your most overused phrase on AIM: I don't use AIM as often as I used to, but when I IM, I sometimes use LOL a bit more often than I should.
-- Your thoughts first waking up: Usually, it's "Hit the snooze button, Kathy!"
-- Your best physical feature: Well, I'd say it's my eyes. My fiancee has a different opinion.
-- Your most missed memory: Wait, does that mean one I've forgotten, or one that happened in the past and which I wish I could relive. I'll go with the latter and say it's memories of grade school. I could do with more coloring time. :)

LAYER FOUR:
-- Pepsi or Coke: Coke
-- McDonald's or Burger King: BK. My first job, and I LOVE their chicken sandwich.
-- Single or group dates: Single date.
-- Adidas or Nike: Converse. Chuck Taylors, baybee!
-- Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Lipton. You gotta brew that stuff, bee-yotch!
-- Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate!
-- Cappuccino or coffee: Actualy, I'm more of a Mochaccino kinda guy, thanks.

LAYER FIVE:
-- Smoke: Once, once in a while. Now, no.
-- Cuss: Not too often, but still more than I like.
-- Sing: Sundays, Thursdays, and when I'm in the car.
-- Take a shower everyday: Try to. More often than not, I'm in the bath, though.
-- Do you think you've been in love: I am right now! (cribbed from Ombra)
-- Want to go to college: Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
-- Like(d) high school: Wasn't a fan, really. (4 schools in 4 years'll do that to you)
--Want to get married: Boy, do I! Fortunately, I found someone else who wants to, too. To ME! :D
--Believe in yourself: I try to. It's difficult, sometimes.
-- Get motion sickness: When I was a kid, yes.
-- Think you're attractive: Pleh!
-- Think you're a health freak: Nope. I just keep from dying.
-- Get along with your parent(s): Definitely!
-- Like thunderstorms: I like 'em except when I'm outside and the lightning is closing in.
-- Play an instrument: guitar (barely)

LAYER SIX:
In the past month...
--Drank alcohol: One beer last night.
-- Smoked: Noper.
-- Done a drug: Just Aleve and Sudafed.
--Made Out: Yeah, baby! Yeah!
-- Gone on a date: Yeah, kinda.
-- Gone to the mall?: Once, in Roanoke.
-- Eaten an entire box of Oreos?: Sadly, no.
-- Eaten sushi: Nuh-uh!
-- Been on stage: Lest you count the church choir, no.
-- Been dumped: No, thank God(dess).
--Gone skating: No, but that's a good idea. Thanks, Meme!
-- Made homemade cookies: No. *pout*
-- Gone skinny dipping: No! Dammit, Meme, stop putting these ideers in my head!
-- Dyed your hair: No.
-- Stolen anything: On advice of counsel, I invoke my Fiftn Amendment rights. Hey, it worked for Ollie North!
-- You sound boring: :pesci mode: Boring? How about I bore a drill right through the middle of your freakin' skull? Does that sound "boring" to you?:/pesci mode:

LAYER SEVEN
Ever...
-- Played a game that required removal of clothing: I practically made a career out of it!
-- If so, was it mixed company: Yepper!
-- Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: About a dozen times too often.
-- Been caught "doing something": :raises eyebrow: Define "doing something", please.
-- Been called a tease: Never.
-- Gotten beaten up: A couple of times, when I was a kid.
-- Shoplifted: When I was really, really young.
-- Changed who you were to fit in: unfortunately, yes.

LAYER EIGHT:
-- Age you hope to be married: 36 years, 11 months, 12 days, and about 14 hours.
-- Numbers and Names of Children: I'd like to have two, maybe. Names? Dunno.
-- Describe your Dream Wedding: Planning it right now. There's no better dream than marrying someone who truly loves me.
-- How do you want to die: surrounded by family and friends.
-- Where you want to go to college: Finished, at least for now.
-- What do you want to be when you grow up: Slightly older.
-- What country would you most like to visit: Ireland

LAYER TEN:
-- Number of drugs taken illegally: 1 (maybe with another unknowingly mixed in)
-- Number of people I could trust with my life: At least 6
-- Number of CDs that I own: When I moved in with my fiancee, I had over 300.
-- Number of piercings: 0
-- Number of tattoos: 1
-- Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper?: Before I got my present job, about 2 dozen times. Now, it's every week!
-- Number of scars on my body: 5 or 6
-- Number of things in my past that I regret: Several, but I don't want to get into that.

BTW, I know there's no ninth layer. I'd take it as a tribute to Dante, frankly.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

If I show you This, will you show me That?

1. Large or small family?
I grew up in a large family, but I'd prefer to have a smaller one.

2. Potato chips or pretzels?
Potato chips. Or are we talking about soft pretzels, in which case SOFT pretzels, definitely. With mustard. Brown, if you have it.

3. House or apartment?
House, by far! I don't think we could get squeezed into an apartment.

4. Zebras or giraffes?
I like giraffes better.

5. Candles or potpourri?
Candles! Romance, warmth, illumination. What more can I say?

6. Flowers or trees?
Trees are better for climbing, but I can always take a flower home. :)

7. Right or left-handed?
I like being right-handed, but I always wanted to be ambidexterous when I was a child.

8. Model trains or dolls/stuffed animals?
I love me some plushies, now.

9. Comedy or drama?
Hmmm, I don't want to have to choose. Comedy for watching, drama for performing, howzzat?

10. Thought-provoking question of the week: The city of Boston has recently banned smoking in all restaurants and bars. Would you want to see such a law passed in your city/town/country, or not?
Wait, wasn't that NYC? In any case, despite the obvious health benefits for non-smoking areas, I'm kinda against the spread of this kind of measure. I think there should be non-smoking areas in all public houses, and if a restaurant or bar wants to go smoke-free, I will patronize it all the more. However, I think a bar isn't a bar (sometimes) if there isn't a wafting of burnt tobacco products in the air. Just my opinion.

Friday, May 16, 2003

Friday Five later this evening, but first:

Can man live by bread... I mean, Guinness (and milk) alone?

Go. Read. Come back. Comment.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

You know it's Tuesday, so you'll know this...

1. Packrat or minimalist?
I confess I am a packrat! Much to my HBB's chagrin.

2. Computer: desktop or laptop?
Desktop all the way.

3. Seashore or mountains?
I'll take the mountains. Less chance of a sunburn.

4. Carpeting or bare floors?
Carpeting, if nothing else than for the reduced chance of cold feet.

5. Drinking water: bottled or tap?
Tap, if it tastes all right.

6. Shopping websites: eBay or Amazon?
eBay. You're not gonna find left-handed moss-covered family gradunzas on Amazon, baby!

7. Cute little kitties or big scary tigers?
Cute little kitties.

8. Front door or back door?
I'm a front door kinda guy.

9. Lots of jewelry, or little/none?
Little/none.

10. Thought-provoking question of the week: At the last minute, you obtain tickets to an event you're dying to attend. However, you have to work that day! Do you ask the boss for the time off, or just call in sick?
I'd ask for the boss.

Friday, May 9, 2003

Shooting Sharpton

OK, so clintster.com is on hiatus. For how long, I don't know, but it'll be a while. In any case, I should be putting up pics on my old Clintster's site soon.

In other news, I shot Al Sharpton yesterday. Lemme 'splain.

Every election year, Washington & Lee University hosts a Mock Convention whereby they attempt to predict the Presidential nominee for the non-incumbent party for that year. They've held it since 1908, and since '48 they've only missed the nominee once.

Well, this week was the warm-up to the MockCon, and two of the guests present were Dick Morris and The Rev. Dr. Al Sharpton. I asked to be put on the assignment to photograph the event and my editor agreed.

Yesterday I went out to W&L to check it out. Sharpton was late getting there, but we finally started it up about 4:30. Morris spoke first. He was a little off-putting at first, but I see why Pres. clinton hired him for his 1996 campaign. He knows his politics, and could probably give the Democratic candidates a few pointers.

Then came Sharpton. Astonishing. I kinda caught myself when he got up to speak. He is quite the dynamic speaker, and made some very salient points about the Democratic party and about the presidency in his speech. I got some pretty good shots off, so I was pleased all around.

I called my parents to tell them about it last night. When I talked to Dad, I told him, "Guess which Democratic candidate I took photos of today?"

Dad: "It wasn't Sharpton..."

Me: "It was!"

Dad: "no, no, no, let me guess..."

It took me telling him a couple of times to convince him that I wasn't joking. Heh! That's something for the family scrapbook. I almost wish I'd gotten a pic of me shaking his hand for posterity's sake.

Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Live, from Lexington, it's This-or-That Tuesday!!!

1. TV or radio?
TV; radio (especially here) is just so stagnant. Exception: Saturdays on NPR.

2. On the radio: talk or music station?
Talk. Even then, I usually turn it off after 10 minutes, 'cause I get so disgusted.

3. Actual books or books-on-tape (or e-books)?
Actual books. B-O-Ts make me feel like I'm locked into the pattern of the reader.

4. Actual newspaper, or web version?
Actual newspaper. Hey, I work for one, whaddaya gonna do?

5. Wall Street Journal or National Enquirer?
The Enquirer. At least I know up front the news stories are bogus.

6. TV news...news channel such as CNN, or your local broadcast news?
Local news. Although it's not really local here; the closest TV station is 45 miles away. :P

7. A movie you've been looking forward to seeing gets bad reviews all around. See it anyway, or pass?
I'd see it anyway, although I'd do so with more than a bit of trepidation.

8. See movies when they first come out, or wait a few weeks for the lines at the theater to get shorter?
Depends on the movie. As I get older, I find myself more content to wait a while.

9. TV: cable, satellite dish, or just plain old antenna?
Hmmm, toughie. I guess I'd go with cable, if for no other reason than the cable internet hookup I get with mine.

10. Thought-provoking question of the week: If you had to choose only one form of media to come into your home, which would you choose...print (newspapers, magazines) or electronic (TV, internet)? Why?
If forced to, I'd probably choose electronic media. I could always print out hard copies (that Kathy would have me throw away immediately afterwards), and with Internet, I'd be able to communicate with other people. I'm just sayin'.

Monday, May 5, 2003

Randomenities for Monday...

1) The weekend was pretty good, if a little rainy. The Kath and I went to Roanoke and bummed around for a while. We ate at a pretty good Italian place downtown (I had Chicken Mafia, she had shrimp and scallops), she found the shoes she had ordered were too big for her feet, I got Phantom of the Opera (the 1925 version) on DVD, and we saw Bend it like Beckham (good movie).

2) I can't seem to lose much weight. The wedding is coming up, and I want to be able to fit into my tux and not look like a London taxi coming down the aisle. Looks like I'll have to redouble my efforts in the exercising department.

3) Ashton Kucher must never be allowed to host Saturday Night Live ever again. Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER!

4) You can groom a dog, shampoo her 'til the cows come home, and pamper her like she was your own child, but if it's rained outside and she needs to go tinkle, she will find a way to get messy.

5) I will never let the grass grow as tall as it was this weekend before I mowed it. Reason 1: it took me two hours to get it mowed (and I didn't even get around to trimming it). Reason 2: I'm tired of undressing to go to bed or showering and finding a tick on me. Luckily, Kathy managed to pull the most stubborn one off my back before it managed to bury itself in my skin.

6) Only 75 days until the biggest day of my life.

That is all. Return to your stations.

But By Night I'm One Helluva Lover...

I knew it...


You are *Frank*! You are the star of the show! You
are definitely a performer although you can get
stroppy if you don't get your way. But you are
sexy, charming and rather naughty. Ditch the
pearls though...


Which Rocky Horror Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sunday, May 4, 2003

Omigod, omigod, omigod! It's finally here...

Feast your eyes on

clintster.com

Hope you likey!

Friday, May 2, 2003

I got Friday Five! Yaaaaayyyyyyyy!

1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.

"I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. Please don't ask me to explain.

2. Name two songs that always make you cry.

Hmmm, I don't really cry over songs, but the second time I ever saw Les Miserables, I cried like a baby.

3. Name three songs that turn you on.

"Possession" by Sarah McLachlan
"Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin
"The Feeling begins" by Peter Gabriel

4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.

"Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town", Pearl Jam
"They're coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", Napoleon XIV
"Save Tonight", Eagle Eye Cherry
"Uncle Fucka", Terrence and Phillip

5. Name five songs you couldn't ever do without.

Omigod...
"Amazing Grace"
"A Day in the Life", The Beatles
"Gimme Shelter", The Rolling Stones
"Porch", Pearl Jam
Requiem, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*

*I realize this is a complete musical work, so nyyaaah! If I had to take one piece from it, though, I'd pick "Lachrymosa".

Thursday, May 1, 2003

A little blast from the past, courtesy of The State:

Louie & the Last Supper

Jesus (Tom): I tell you this. You will not break bread again with me until it is in heaven.
Excuse me. Excuse me? Peter, John? I'm talking here. it's kind of important.

Peter (Kevin): Sorry. You were saying?

Jesus: I was saying... I tell you this. you will not break bread again with me--what are you whispering about?

John (Joe): Nothing, nothing.

Jesus: No, you were talking about something. I hate it when people do that. Could you just tell me what it is, please?

Peter: No, it was nothing. I was just telling John here that Louie's coming tonight.

Announcer: And now, Louie! The guy who comes in and says his catch phrase over and over again.

Jesus: Louie, Louie, the "Gonna dip my balls in it one?"

John: Yes, he's coming, he's coming.

Jesus: Oy vey. Who invited Louie?
Judas? Judas, why did you invite Louie?

Judas (Ben): What? I thought he would lighten the mood a little bit. He's funny! Dippin' the balls in it thing? it's a good bit!
Oh, now I'm the bad guy. I mean, everybody likes Louie, right?

Jesus: It's not that I don't like Louie. I love Louie. I love everybody, that's my thing, man. It's just- the balls-dipping thing, it's cheap, you know?
It's not my sense of humor. Tonight I thought it'd be the thirteen of us...

Louie (Ken): Hey everybody!

All: LOUIE!

Louie: Who's got something for me?

David: I do!

Louie: What is it?

David: Babagaloush (?)

Louie: I wanna dip my balls in it!!

All: Yay!

Louie: Who's got a plate of something?

Mike B: I do!

Louie: What is it?

Mike B: Potato Colga.

Louie: I wanna dip my balls in it!!

All: Yay!! Louie! Louie! Louie!

Jesus: Peter- Peter, John, James, you don't wanna stay with me tonight?

Peter: Well, come with us. We're going over to Louie's. He's gonna dip his balls in some things!

Louie: I wanna dip my balls in it!!

John: Come on, Louie's waiting. Let's go!

James (Todd): We'll have supper next weekend.

Jesus: Real quick, seriously. I'm dying for the sins of the world, and of of you's gonna deny me, and one of you's gonna betray me!

Louie: I wanna dip my balls in it!

Mike S: We have the warrant for the arrest of Jesus of Nazareth. Are you Jesus of Nazareth?

Jesus: He just went that way, he's got a short-sleeved shirt and a tie, and he's yelling about his balls.