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"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you" —Nathaniel Hawthorne

My parents actually had a framed poster of this quote hanging in their bathroom for the longest time. It depicted a couple of cartoon children chasing butterflies in a 1970s-ish field of flowers. Why is this relevant today? Because I had one of those moments just recently. You see, it all started when I heard a particular Yo La Tengo song in passing on KEXP-FM. It must have struck a chord with me, because I remembered it and tried to find it. It was growing on me, but I had yet to hear it a second time! I wracked my brain, trying to Google the song by its lyrics. No luck. I thought about going into Yo La Tengo chat rooms and saying, I'm looking for this song, but I don't know what it's called and I don't know the lyrics... I eventually decided against this.

Just the other day, I had my Winamp on shuffle, and all of a sudden, I heard it emanating from my speakers again! Turns out it's called "Today is the Day" from Summer Sun. Sublime. Slow and deliberate. Earthy. Ethereal. Hazy. Hypnotic. I must have downloaded it off one of my podcasts or something, because I have no recollection of finding it. Totally insane.

Here's a little list I started making last month...

Allow states to lower the drinking age to 18. So, you're an adult, old enough to appear in "adult" films; old enough to mow down enemy combatants with M1A1 Abrams tanks, but not old enough to bring a glass of pinot noir to your lips?

Institute a flat consumption tax and eliminate the income tax. Granted, this may put my dad out of a job, but hey — how much time/money/stress will this save? A consumption tax should not discriminate against certain products — such as cigarettes or gasoline.

For the sake of free speech, eliminate all campaign finance restrictions. All means all.

Either ban tobacco products completely or revert all restrictive and hypocritical legislation regarding its use, taxation, and advertisement.

Overthrow Roe v. Wade and bring abortion laws back to the states.

Make Social Security contributions and payouts voluntary. Remove all taxes on government benefit payments and capital gains income.

Deport as many illegal aliens as possible. Enforce laws. Strengthen the borders.

Protect citizens from out-of-control judges.

See also: what I believe

Is there something about the sight of Lindsay Lohan with one closed eye that movie execs find particularly attractive? Apparently so, for three of her past four feature films contain pervasive promotional material that features her winking gratuitously to the camera, breaking the fourth wall in the process. Consider these images from Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and her newest film, Just My Luck.

As far as I can tell, Fox has even factored Lohan's winking into the plot of Just My Luck, as the tagline "Everything changed in the wink of an eye." appears on the official movie poster. I have a feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better.

Isn't it great to live in a country where the average person can own a car for the sake of mere convenience? After having moved close to the Forest Glen metro station, I no longer rely on my car, Janus, to take me to the train. Janus now sits quietly at home day after day, while I work. She's now used for non-essential trips — Pleasure, if you will. I'm literally one block from church. 7/10 of a mile from the hospital and the train station. A mile from the mall and grocery stores. Everything is right here. Yet I'm paying for a car that, essentially, is used to shuttle me back and forth between volleyball and the gym.

The monthly cost of staying in shape:

• volleyball and gym memberships: $40
• car payment: $341
• depreciation: $134
• insurance: $50
• fuel: $60
• misc. car expenses: $20

There. The estimated monthly amount required to keep my body in peak shape: $645. $21 a day?

I recently subscribed to Paste Magazine after having received three complimentary issues. I was hooked. Paste doesn't patronize or appeal to the lowest common denominator. Women are not portrayed as merely objects. Artists are judged according to merit and talent — not good looks or connections. All bi-monthly issues come with either a free CD, DVD, or both. And these aren't your average "sampler" discs. The CDs are packed with over twenty full songs, and the DVDs have over two hours of full music videos, short films, previews, et cetera. At $3.75 an issue, it's a steal. And Paste manages to do all of this without selling out or being pretentious.

When I subscribed, I noticed that there was a gap in my issues — for some reason I hadn't received Issue 20. I contacted Paste and asked them as much; they said I had probably subscribed a bit too late to receive Issue 20. Nevertheless, they sent me my missing issue, no questions asked. I was very impressed with their service, to say the least. As readership in Paste increases, I'm hoping that the magazine dubbed the "anti-Rolling Stone" will not succumb to pressures to evolve into what it originally set out to distinguish itself from. Please no.

In reply to Eric Meyer's recent post:

Why not the Pesach blood as well?

Most of the modern seder is based upon God's explicit instructions as recorded in Exodus. Below are some comments I wrote on the subject: Seder and the Night of Deliverance

Now, I must admit that Exodus 12:23-27 basically says to observe the ceremony of spreading lamb's blood on the door frames as a "lasting ordinance". However, most Jews today also do not observe the Sin Offerings, Guilt Offerings, and Burnt Offerings as depicted in Leviticus 5 and elsewhere, probably more out of practicality than out of indifference.

Of course, Christians today do not observe these instructions because Christ fulfilled the laws of Moses and became the last sacrifice.

I'm eagerly anticipating the release of Grandaddy's new album, Just Like the Fambly Cat. It's a shame that this will be their last studio album, as I've just recently become a fan of theirs. Leader Jason Lytle recently spoke with Paste Magazine:

Unfortunately, money was a big part of [the decision to break up]... The band wasn't making money and the guys were always broke, and [having been] appointed the ringleader early on, I was exhausted with having to constantly dish out excuses and assurances and false hope. We did this for a long time, often considered on the verge of greatness, and greatness never came, and collectively the will to make that happen disappeared... It's been a bummer to hear from people how much we meant to them and how they simply don't want us to stop. It's sad.

And so it goes. I've been listening to "Elevate Myself", track 11 from the album. It sounds like a slick little single, and I've heard that the rest of the album is of similar quality. Like a greatest hits album, but with all new songs. There are drawbacks to this praise, however. Remember that Smash Mouth's Astro Lounge album was once categorized as such.

Mitchell Baker has a new post that actually explains me quite well:

...Many artists practice their art because the drive is in them and needs to get out. A set of programmers [has] the same internal drive. My husband is one — he will happily spend hours — days if he could — programming on his own, unrelated to any job or money.

I'd get home from a long day of sitting at my computer at work, and the first thing I want to do is fire up my home PC and start coding, developing, designing, etc. And I couldn't care less if I'm not getting paid for it. Perhaps that's my Achilles Heel.

Amazon.com's wishlist goes German on me... It's funny that the other options aren't in German, only the first, translated as "I must have." Amazon does have a German site, so there must be a cross-pollination thing going on or something.

Annie threw another "girl's night in" party, so I got the chance to catch a late-night showing of Thank You for Smoking. The film was quirky and thought-provoking, et cetera, but what I relished most about it was its on-location filming in DC. A fictitious research and lobbying group, the Academy of Tobacco Studies, is set in a building that is, in real life, the Department of Energy (my day job!). The DOE site in DC is a massive group of structures that houses thousands of federal and contractor employees. I think it was the movie's intent to imply that the entire building belonged to the "Academy of Tobacco Studies" — in reality such agencies could make do with — perhaps — 1/100th of the floor space of the Forrestal building complex. (more production notes)

Some of the bar scenes looked like they could have been filmed at the Caucus Room, but the end credits mentioned the Hyatt Regency as a location. I don't know for sure... A particular scene in the offices of The Washington Probe featured a row of cubicles with nameplates on each. The first nameplate I saw happened to be my mother's first name and maiden name. Far out.