thoughts of a pita?

i cannot take this anymore Thursday, August 14, 2003 | 06:19 p.m. Everything you say to me Takes me one step closer to the edge And I'm about to break I need a little room to breathe Cause I'm one step closer to the edge And I'm about to break goddammit! i'm so f--king pissed. i think it ridiculous that i'm treated like a pet, like i'm about to ruin some perfect home so i'm justified to being locked in. i need to be away; i need badly to be able to live outside of my parents' retarded narrow focus of being. there are other lifestyles that are not similar to yours! those people are not bad people! and i am not you! fuck.

fuck this. Friday, August 1, 2003 | 09:04 a.m. i'm at work, where i usually do .not. indulge in pitaing, but i saw this and it makes me so mad. from the ny times: Vatican Exhorts Legislators to Reject Same-Sex Unions By FRANK BRUNI ATICAN CITY, July 31 — Worried about the spread of laws that recognize same-sex couples, the Vatican today urged Roman Catholic lawmakers and others to fight back, calling support for such legislation "gravely immoral." That unwavering appeal came in a strongly worded, 12-page document that was devoted entirely to homosexuality, gay marriage and adoption by gays and lesbians, issues that have stirred fervent debate recently in North America and Europe. "There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family," the document said, asserting repeatedly that marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples. "Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law," it said. The document, published in several languages, including English, was presented as a set of guidelines for Catholic bishops and politicians and as an attempt to sway public debate, not as a fresh, revelatory examination of Catholic theology. It also contained an admonition for Catholic legislators in bodies that are considering laws to recognize same-sex unions or permit gays and lesbians to marry or adopt children. "To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral," said the document, which spelled out, on its final page, that it was being issued with the explicit approval and under the specific orders of Pope John Paul II. [harmful to the common good? what the hell are they talking about? how is it that in 2003, such extreme forms of prejudice not only exist, but are preached by figures of authority?] Although the document had been in the works for months and reiterated positions that the pope had already made clear, it represented an especially emphatic statement of those viewpoints. It was the second time this year that the Vatican instructed Catholic politicians to oppose gay marriages, underscoring the Vatican's objections and apprehensions. The document was released one day after President Bush announced that his administration was looking into ways to ensure that the term "marriage" would apply legally only to unions between men and women. Republican Congressional leaders have floated the idea of a constitutional amendment to do just that. [i will weep if one day this happened. i think that there are too many liberals and gays around to ever allow this kind of thing to pass, but i'm telling you, it's shocking that they're even thinking about this--adding a constitutional amendment on the term marriage. ridiculous.] Those developments reflected some lawmakers' concerns over an apparently growing acceptance of homosexuality, a profusion of gay characters and themes on American television, and legal entitlements in some states. Some European governments have formally recognized same-sex unions or are moving in that direction, an example of a widening chasm between Catholic teaching and European law that the pope has frequently decried. A law passed in France in 2000 made that country the first predominantly Roman Catholic nation to recognize homosexual unions. Just this year, Belgium began registering gay partnerships. Germany [^_~ mikhai], which also has a large Catholic population, grants gay couples protections, benefits and responsibilities traditionally reserved for married men and women. Similar measures are being considered in Britain. Two Canadian provinces also recently legalized same-sex marriages. Homosexuality is the dominant issue at a convention this week of the Episcopal Church USA, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The convention is deliberating whether to confirm an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire and whether to develop a blessing for same-sex unions. Conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans have threatened a schism if the convention votes in favor of those measures. A final resolution is expected within the next week. The practical effect of the Vatican document was uncertain, as one Vatican official acknowledged today. "We have to preach our principle, even if we know that many people won't abide by it," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The Vatican is worried, because we think marriage should be between a man and a woman." Many Catholic lawmakers in the United States and Europe have long bucked the church on a range of issues, including abortion, which the church opposes. Many of the estimated 65 million Roman Catholics in the United States — almost one in four Americans — pick and choose which of the pope's pronouncements to obey. "Vatican officials seem to think that they still have the same kind of credibility they once had, and they don't," said the Rev. Andrew Greeley, a prominent Catholic sociologist in the United States. "I'm not saying that's good or bad, but that's certainly what the evidence seems to show." Father Greeley added that there was much greater acceptance of homosexuality among American Catholics today than there was a decade ago, but he said he was not certain if that acceptance extended to approval of same-sex unions. Congress is unlikely to entertain any legislation that supports such unions, although some states are grappling with the issue. Three years ago, Vermont passed a law that recognized gay couples. In Europe, the limits of the Vatican's influence, as well as one of the seeds of its frustration, were made clear in the pope's failed campaign to have a reference to Christianity inserted into the preamble of the current draft of a European Union constitution. The Vatican document issued today, titled "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons," condemned what it called "unjust discrimination against homosexual persons." But it maintained that the inability of same-sex couples to procreate on their own violated one of the God-given and most important aspects of marriage. It said legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples would amount to "approval of deviant behavior, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society." It added that allowing children to be adopted by gays and lesbians "would actually mean doing violence to these children" because it would put them in unhealthy home environments. [absurd.]

143 177155 14 Monday, July 28, 2003 | 08:25 p.m. remember in my very first pitas, i posted a great personal email that a woman on wall street accidentally sent to a co-worker? well, after that email, "mary", "callahan", and "price waterhouse" became my most often searched keyword hits for a long time (by the way, it is now "naked." how did that happen??). anyway, in the vein of fantastic-email-correspondences-people-should-have-the-sense-to-SAY-to-their-recipients-so-as-not-to-leave-a-trail-of-damning-evidence-behind-for-the-world-to-discover-on-the-internet, here is another priceless classic, footnote m. Claim: Intern for U.S. Senator sends embarrassing break-up e-mail to girlfriend. Status: True. Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2003] From: Kelly Tripplehorn [mailto:tripplehorny@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 2:11 PM Subject: you suck Well, as of this afternoon, I was planning on ruining your career by making phone calls to all of my parents friends and have you blackballed from the workplace as well as every prestigous law school in the country, but then (lucky for you) I decided not to do that because you are a sad sad person and I will just let your life self destruct right before my eyes. Michele I am sorry, I don't care how big of sadistic fucked up crush you have on me but people like me simple don't date people like you. You are too competitive with me and you just simply will never be better than me. I will always have more friends than you just because I don't care about beating people and lying to get to the top. (You are an absolute hipocrit in everything that you do, I am not going to go into details why you are because that would be a waste of my time and yours but I can assure you if you were to ever meet yourself you would hate your twin) I have told most all of the staff about our situation now and they already knew you were really messed you. They said when you were talking to them about me, they all told me you had 'serious issues' and that every word you said sounded scripted and they knew without a doubt that you were lying. I have noticed that people who you think are your good friends actually really dislike you but unlike me, they will not tell you to your face because they would rather be fake nice to you than be your enemy. Now talking about how I am obsessed with money, I simply am not. You are. You always are trying to impress me by how much money you have and I don't care. The difference is though I talk about it but it is never about bragging and it is never directly about money, it is always directly about the conversation. For instance, someone will ask, what are you doing for july 4rth. And then I will say I am going to aspen. It is a simple fact that I am but since you don't have a house in aspen, you get offended because of your competitive nature. When you talk about money you will say something like UT's tuition is 5% of your family's income, thus my tuition would be 125,000. Yea, Michele you are right, I brag too much about what I have. Well I am just going to stop writing because you are just absolutely beneath me. I have heard that you try to undermine people all the time that are better than you and everysingle time it does not work because people can see through such shallowness and that is why as I have heard so many times, Most "everyone at UT absolutely hates you." For instance even the people that you thought were your friends Mellissa Mahaffey or that girl you met at espn, they hate you, they just never say anything. Everyone knows you are a pathetic social climber who will go to any discusting means to move up the ladder. But guess what Michele, you will never move up the ladder because I am at the top and people like me hate people like you. You might be able to trick people like me for maybe a month or so but your true personality comes through after a while and it is vile, if that. You have sooooo many people that absolutely hate you and you will never know it because they will never say anything to your face. You will not succeed in life and even the staff thinks that also, after I told them about the things that you do. You suck and good luck being miserable for the rest of your life. I do not even know why I wasted my time typing this for suck slime. Everyone tells me that you are so beneath me (which you are) and I should not get worked up over suck trifles. By the end of the day if I wanted to, I could make a phone call and have your life absolutely ruined but there is no need because you are falling fast enough towards failure without me. In the end, all I can say is that people love me and people hate you. You should observe me and take a few notes on how to make real friends. Other than you tieing this one other person, I have never had such little respect for a human being in my life. I don't even have to tell you why because in my very accurate analysis that most everyone else agrees with, if you were to agree with my analyis about your character than my whole entire analysis would be wrong. Your inflamed ego has left you so blind and so impotent that you can nto even recognize the most obvious flaws in yourself. All your old roommates absolutely hated you and you still think the problem is with them, not you. Well I talked to your roommates and I thought they nice normal girls. So naturally, you would not fit in with them because you are so intellectually above them all. Right? You suck at life and you need to figure out why or you will be miserable for the rest of your life. Once again from your intellectual, moral, social, and emotional superior, Paul Kelly Tripplehorn, Jr. Origins: In June 2003 the brutal break-up e-mail quoted above was fired off by Paul Kelly Tripplehorn, Jr., an intern employed in the office of a U.S. Senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison, to his now-former girlfriend, Michele. And once again, an e-mail meant for just one recipient escaped into the wilds of the Internet and caused untold embarrassment and professional difficulties for its originator. Once the intemperate missive hit the Internet at large and assumed the proportions of a cyber-national scandal, Mr. Tripplehorn was dismissed from his internship, according to the Washington Post: "As soon as it was brought to the attention of our internship coordinator, they had a very frank discussion, and he was dismissed," Kevin Schweers told us about the late-June incident involving Tripplehorn, a 20-year-old Amherst College sophomore, and his ex-girlfriend, an unnamed 20-year-old University of Texas student. For his part, Mr. Tripplehorn denied that he had been fired: Tripplehorn disputed that he was fired and said he's now interning in the office of a Republican House member he refused to identify. "What I did was wrong," he told us. "I wrote that letter in under 15 minutes in an absolute rage, and the only purpose of it was to make this girl irritated and push her buttons." Unfortunately for Mr. Tripplehorn, the "send" button was the one button he shouldn't have pushed. His line — "I could make a phone call and have your life absolutely ruined" — has now assumed an irony he certainly didn't anticipate. Last updated: 15 July 2003 my favorite part? his email address. here's a pic of me and ry when we were at disneyworld in orlando, and another of jon and i when we saw bad boys 2!! i actually stopped by verizon to exchange my phone (my model, sexy as it is, actually has *software* issues, can you believe it? i suppose it's also fortunate, in some odd way, that it had a sticky button, too, b/c i dont think you can exchange for a new one unless you have hardware issues. i'm not sure). anyway, so i was at verizon and i checked out their one model of camera/phone and the picture quality wasn't that good...even so, i think i'm obsessed with the idea of a camera/phone, partly because it has the cool slash in it and partly because i have a strange penchant for useless things combined in nice packages with other useless things. (oooh the analogies that are springing to mind...) anyway, do other carriers have cooler camera/phones?

courage under fire Friday, June 27, 2003 | 09:00 a.m. read the national news today, guys. in a 6-3 vote, the supreme court justices overruled a texas sodomy law, thereby invalidating antisodomy laws in all states that still have them. i wonder if any of my california friends are surprised to hear this--in a handful of states, "deviant" sex (oral, anal) is illegal under old, old, old legislature. meaning, if police enter a place of residence (like, if neighbors called in a weapons disturbance call like they did in the texas case) and saw sexual "misconduct", they could haul those people in and prosecute them under the law. ridiculous, isn't it? massachusetts is one of these states. when the supreme court heard a similar case like this 17 years ago, the vote was 5-4 to uphold the sodomy law (meaning their new ruling not only went against the law itself, but their old ruling! isn't that cool?) anyway, when they had this case 17 years ago, they voted to uphold the sodomy law, meaning that the people who were caught were, held in jail, had to go to court, humiliated, and put through hell simply for having sex in their own home. the real issue here is that these laws target people (like the couple mentioned above) who are gay. of the handful of states that have criminal sodomy laws, four--FOUR!!--apply the law exclusively to same-sex partners! WTF is that about?! it is UNBELIEVABLE that this has been going on, not just that these old laws are stupid (you can't sit on a milk crate on a new york sidewalk cause that's an "improper use of a milk crate") or that they are enforced (a cop actually wrote a guy a ticket for sitting on a milk crate on the sidewalk, true story), but that in these four states (texas, kansas, oklaholma, missouri) it is only SELECTIVELY applied (now imagine if it was fine for white people to sit on milk crates, but illegal for black people). it's utterly abominable. that said, i understand it's difficult to change old laws. it's one thing to say that, for example, slavery is wrong, and to take those old laws out of play--that's easy, there's no one who will argue with you. but no politician wants to get up in front of constituents and tell them that any law governing vice, particularly sex, should be taken out of effect, whether or not people abide by it (which they don't). no one running for an office wants to say, "vote for me, i am going to take out this law that says no anal sex." but it's high time that queer people get some recognition and respect here. honestly, politicians -do- need to say, "hey, these laws are ridiculous and prejudiced. i -am- going to take out this law that says no anal sex. it's retarded." for queer men and women to have their private lives demeaned and invalidated--made a crime--is so incredibly unjust. so i'm really excited, becuase i think this is a great step towards gay marriage and equality in general. here's the new york times article and the l.a. times article. (they basically say the same thing, but i thought both were interesting. any thoughts? leave me a post. :) i'm going on vacation, have a great week, guys!!!

i *always* get what i came for. Wednesday, June 25, 2003 | 10:18 p.m. harry potter, so far, is great! i have to admit, i am not devouring year five as quickly as i did 4 (one night), as i started on sunday and have about 150 more pgs to go, but it's one of the few books i really catch myself enjoying--like, an active thought as i'm reading, "wow. i'm really liking this!" i was surprised when i saw "the italian job," which i thought was going to be bad, that i thought the same thing as well. first lsat class is tomorrow--haven't done the homework yet. haha! some things never change. i saw "the real thing" by tom stoppard at the center theater in long beach over the weekend. i think stoppard has a really amazing way of getting discourse on the stage--his arguments make sense, and they're whip-smart and witty at the same time. what it must be like to be known for your brains and wit! i would love to be able to infuse a genuine intelligence and spark into my writing, but instead, i think i get ashamed that it's not spectacular, and it really keeps me from finishing anything i start. gotta remember to not let that stop me. wes, you'll like this. as i was driving home today, i heard a couple songs on the radio, and i was picturing how i would film their music videos if i could create my own. i was totally overcome by a huge craving for a digital camera. i keep slipping into this idealism! if i had a camera and editing equipment, i thought, i would be able to make little shorts and play around with footage! of course, i know this is very much in the same vein as my writing ambitions--purely fantasy, in other words. i'd probably leave the camera at home all the time, or be too lazy to transfer it onto the computer, or something else really lame. still... i got a letter from emily today! :) my mom was like, who do you know in st. louis? hehe. great stationary, too. good incentive for me to write to her, which i've been meaning to do (are we seeing a general trend in the pitas today? hehe) okay, i'll be email-less and pita-less all next week, not, i suppose, that i've exactly been keeping up. my family and i are going to florida for a couple days, then from there we're going on a small cruise (wow! i know, exciting) for a cousin's wedding (i *honestly* only thought that happened in movies, getting married on cruises. i dont think i will take that route, thank you). i bought a knee length spaghetti-strap red dress earlier on this month, is that okay attire for a casual cruise wedding, you think? meanwhile, i hope i get a tan next week, too, the sun has been miserable in southern cali. with the exception being today--warm, sunny, perfect. i honestly think the previous lack of sun is directly correlated to my lack of motivation for emails and pita-ing. i haven't sent *one* mass email to my college people *yet*. usually, by this time i'm on my third, just babbling away, pushing out of my mind the reality that they're not really reading it. =) my stepdad come home late tonight, so my mom and i went out to dinner by ourselves. we talked for, like, 2 1/2 hours! it was kind of cool, actually, b/c she and i aren't exactly the type to chit chat usually--i dont feel comfortable sharing with her certain things, added to the fact that i think she has no interest in them anyway. of course, this isn't 100 percent exactly how it is; she does want to know things about me, so it was cool to sort of breech that. i even worked in little parts where i apologized for being a brat and told her that i respected her a lot, which is true but normally goes unsaid. meanwhile, every one and their mother is born in late june/early july, so i've been scrambling trying to keep them all straight. i know i'm going to horrifically forget someone's birthday who is close to me, i am getting sweaty-palmed just thinking about the worst possible case. clearly i was not cut out for the remembering business, don't they understand?! okay, here's the quick conclusion, as i looove lists. current fiction: harry potter (duh) and hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy current nonfiction: lsat. UGH. song i heard today that i liked: something by staind, i forget the title but some sad guitar, i really liked it. old song i heard today that i jammed to: ain't no mountain high enough. next dvd plans: to show "adaptation" to wes and in return watch hours and hours of "24" favorite office supply: toss up between free cool colored pens and free cool colored post-its. don't forget!!: send mail!! email daddy!! call doctor!! can't wait to: get a tan. (is that shallow? i like being tan.) off to do: lsat homework. ciao guys.

knock, knock? Thursday, June 5, 2003 | 08:40 p.m. Knock, knock Who’s there. You might be a redneck if… you think tobacco is a vegetable. You might be a redneck if… you think tobacco is a vegetable who? I thought this was a redneck joke. Nope. It’s a knock, knock joke. Oops. Knock, knock Who’s there? Boo. Boo who? Don’t get so upset, crybaby! What? Ha! Ha! I made you say “boo-hoo”! You’re a real idiot. That wasn’t necessary. Knock, knock Yo mama Yo mama who? Yo mama so fat, she caught a flesh-eating virus and that was three years ago. I bet you’re fat, huh? What? I’m… You are, aren’t you? Fat! I’m plumpish. Knock, knock Tremble mortal and despair – it is I, THE ANGEL OF DEATH! Tremble mortal and despair – it is I, THE ANGEL OF DEATH who? Actually, I’m here for Jones in #D1 but I need to take a monster crap and I hate to kill and THEN use the bathroom, you know? Its rude and the other way around, well it ruins my dramatic entrance. So… You want to use my toilet? Yeah? Go right ahead. Got anything to read? Just the crossword. You finished it. Sorry? Hold my scythe.

moo! Wednesday, June 4, 2003 | 10:46 p.m. To days of inspiration Playing hookie, making something out of nothing The need to express, to communicate, To going against the grain, Going insane--going mad To loving tension, no pension To more than one dimension, To starving for attention, Hating convention, hating pretension Not to mention of course, Hating dear old mom and dad To riding your bike midday past the three- piece suits To fruits, to no absolutes To Absolut--to choice, to the Village Voice To any passing fad To being an "us" for once, instead of a "them"-- La vie Boheme To hand-crafted beers made in local breweries To yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and cheese To leather, to dildos, to curry vindaloo To huevos rancheros and Maya Angelou Emotion, devotion, to causing a commotion Creation, vacation--mucho masturbation Compassion, to fashion, to passion when it's new To Sontag, to Sondheim, to anything taboo Ginsberg, Dylan, Cunningham and Cage Lenny Bruce, Langston Hughes, to the stage! To Uta, to Buddha, Pablo Neruda, too Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow To blow off Auntie Em La vie Boheme Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens, Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee Wee Herman German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, Carmina Burana To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy Vaclav Havel - The Sex Pistols, 8BC, To no shame - never playing the Fame Game To marijuana! To sodomy, it's between God and me To S and M! La vie Boheme > thought this was pretty funny! from imdb: Ebert Reserves a Different Finger for Gallo Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert said today (Wednesday) that he can produce tape recordings of director-writer-actor Vincent Gallo making the comments that Gallo now says he never made. In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, Gallo maintained that he never disowned his movie, The Brown Bunny, which received disastrous reviews when it was screened at Cannes last month, and that he had never apologized for making it. "The only thing I am sorry about is putting a curse on Roger Ebert's colon," Gallo said. "If a fat pig like Roger Ebert doesn't like my movie then I'm sorry for him." Ebert responded that he wasn't too worried about the curse. "I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny." And paraphrasing a perhaps apocryphal remark by Winston Churchill, Ebert concluded: "It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of The Brown Bunny." haha, ouch!! i had heard that ed norton did the italian job only because he was forced to, but the whole story is interesting: click here.

hehe, boys wish Wednesday, June 4, 2003 | 01:20 a.m. Comrade G: i still think you two would make the perfect lesbian duo xc253: me and *ally*?! Comrade G: I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next year Comrade G: yes xc253: are you kidding? xc253: lol Comrade G: no xc253: lol, i love it. Comrade G: you HAVE to call me when it happens, though Comrade G: or it just won't be any good xc253: like, "hey, come downstairs, we're about to start?" Comrade G: that would work beautifully Comrade G: don't you think that would be awesome? xc253: haha, or did you mean a debriefing the next day? Comrade G: no i mean right before embarking xc253: you wish!! hehe

holy cow, look at those colors. Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | 01:40 p.m. okay!! i haven't posted in close to a month, so sorry. i wanted to start off with a raman-style nod to everyone who wished me a happy bday!! :) you guys are so sweet... thank you to shira, who called me and ally, who let me celebrate a day early...thanks to kari, em, eric, hale, edgardo, sam, jimbo, corie, kirk, ari, adrian, em ente, l-day, craig, meg, mikey, and mike o for sending me im-messages and emails of bday love. from home, thanks soo much to my bebbeh elaine, wes, mike, raman, gina, and rj for thinking of me...and then, i have to especially thank alana, marcos, andres and matt for taking me out to my bday lunch at pappa charlie's, and for giving me mo, hehe, and adaptation...my 'rents, for my bday phone call, cake, and my cell phone (a month early!). and thank you geoff, for taking me out for my bday dinner. whew!! i've been meaning to do that for sooo long. =) you guys rule. thank you. packing and moving out was surprisingly managable this year, thank god, in comparison to last year, anyway. andrew took good care of me and luckily everything went off w/o a hitch. in other news, i'm back at the lapd and the mayor's office this summer...as well as taking lsat classes...busy busy busy. movie so far have included spy game, two weeks notice, the recruit, and gosford park last night. maybe if wes and i get our acts together we can start up the movie review site again...we'll see. okay, more news as it happens, and at ten to the hour every hour here on mtv. (AAGGHHH! sick. sick. i can't believe i just thought of that. damn the man! and tv!)