Where I am politically

I never thought I'd write a post about politics, being that I'm not really interested, nor discuss much about the topic. But for grins and giggles, laughs and guffaws, and the sake of possibly starting World War III, I'm going to open up and spew my political position all over your eyes. You'll get my entire history from A to Z, one to at least twelve, here to there, east to west and north to south—maybe even all the way to Covina. You never know.

My parents were good, churchgoing folks and tended to live and vote on the more conservative side. Regarding their politics, I don't remember much before the 1968 elections, but I know they were staunch Nixon supporters that year. Some of the kids in my fourth grade class at school had more liberal parents and a few referred to Nixon as a "lead head" (whatever that meant). Me, being as original as vanilla ice cream in those days, went right against Nixon and referred to him as a "lead head" at the dinner table one evening. Mom said nothing, but Dad gave me the lowdown on what Nixon and the Republican party stood for. From then on, I was convinced that the right was...right. I was a conservative.

Generally speaking, I stayed more or less "right wing" for many years, though I never did register to vote under the Republican party. To this day, my voter preference is "decline to state" or "non-partisan." Doing so was mainly to keep the political junk mail at bay and to stay off of anyone's list of people to contact. Phone calls during dinner are annoying as well, especially ones of a politcal nature. Don't even start me on sales calls.

I married a lady whose political views were very close to mine at the time. She may have some different views these days, but in conversations, I don't get the feeling that she's become more liberal-thinking. But we don't talk much about politics.

As time has gone on, national and world events have gotten me to spend more time thinking about what's best in terms of dealing with the various problems within the United States and in other parts of the world. My thoughts have begun to head toward the idea that the right isn't always right.

Until recently, if asked what my political viewpoint is, my answer would be "middle-of-the-road with a lean to the right." I still feel that being more middle-of-the-road is ideal because in the end, moderate, middle ground thinking will accomplish what is best for the largest number of people. Remember that you can't please everyone.

I mentioned earlier in this post that my parents were good, churchgoing folks who voted conservatively on candidates and issues. When you stop and think about it, most Protestant denominations lean heavily toward the right. I find that interesting because the conservative folks are the ones who tend to go with the status quo—keep things the same, whether bad or good. Change? Nope. Funny thing is that since we Protestants consider Jesus Christ to be our Savior and worship Him, we tend to think that He is aligned with our conservative values, though in truth, He was more liberal. His ideas and teachings went against the "conservative" Pharisees and leaders of the day, much like the liberals' do now. I really believe that if He were here now, walking the streets in the flesh and doing what He did then, He'd be considered quite the liberal by our standards.

If we're supposed to be following Him, perhaps we need to reexamine our conservative values. Change can be a good thing if it is warranted on an issue.

As a young man, I earned the nickname of Mr Conservo because I acted, behaved, and dressed very conservatively. Today, such is not the case. I will never become a sign waving, marching in the street, ultra left-wing Democrat, but everything about Mr Conservo is thankfully long gone.

Watching a movie at the ballpark

When I was growing up, we used to go watch movies at the El Portal Theater on Lankershim Blvd in the heart of North Hollywood CA. The theater is still there and approaching its 100th birthday. These days, movies shown there are rare, as live stage shows are the norm.

The El Portal was your typical movie theater. A couple dozen rows of seats with each row a bit higher than the row in front of it. Sometimes you were lucky and the theater wasn't full, increasing your chances of an empty seat in front of you and guaranteeing an unobstructed view of the screen.

Other times, however, someone rather tall or wearing a hat or a beehive hairdo would sit in front of you, guaranteeing a movie-long workout to try and see around or over the blockade. Not a lot of fun, though I will say that a polite request to remove the hat was honored in olden times, but sometimes ignored. The hairdo or tall person? You couldn't do much except moving to another seat or trying to sit higher.

While I have never observed a fistfight or any violence toward a human blockade, I've wondered what could be done to assure that all patrons of the theater will enjoy an unobstructed view of the movie regardless of where they sat.

Well, as fate would have it, someone beat me to it.

Build movie theaters with seats arranged as they are in sports venues. Stadium seating! But instead of two teams trying to win a game, there's a movie being shown on a giant screen.

Across the country and probably the world, new theaters are being built with stadium seating, and older theaters are being retrofitted as such.

The trick to making stadium seating successful is to do it right from the start. I have observed at least one example of stadium seating that, in my humble opinion, leaves a bit to be desired. Along with my friend, Jim Kula, we try to see the Oxnard Film Society's foreign film on Monday nights at a multiplex in Oxnard. This appears to be a newer theater, or has been substantially upgraded. All 14 auditoriums feature stadium seating. Jim and I sit in the last row at the very top for the best view and no disruption from anyone behind us because there is no one behind us. Fortunately, it's rare that the seats in front of us are occupied, making our experience that much better.

However, on my most recent visit, I had the distinktive (I misspelled it on purpose; you'll see why) pleasure of sitting behind a guy who was tall enough to scratch an itch on his head by rubbing it on any ceiling. Not only did Mr Sequoia Tree not slouch a bit (like most folks), he moved from side to side, seemingly with intention, but I'm sure it wasn't. Luckily, there was a seat to my right which got me out from behind him.

This madcap Adventure at the Movies was a bit annoying, but after the movie, I spent some time trying to figure out why my row wasn't as much higher as it should have been (in theory). This was the last row, but somehow needs to be raised a few inches. Looking at the steps, I noticed that the rise from the next row forward is the same, but the seats don't seem much higher. An optical illusion, perhaps, but something seems...off. I could possibly explain to management what the problem is and make suggestions as to how to fix it if I were to spend the time to take measurements and photos, but something tells me that management would write me off as "that crackpot with OCD."

Who else but I would put so much effort into something that really needs no such analysis? I think that the best course of action for me would be to stick to going to the theater and just watch the movie like everyone else.

Vacation's over...back to writing

I took a vacation? Why am I always the last to know?

No, I didn't take a vacation. I can't afford to go anywhere or do anything. And besides, these days I barely have enough energy to walk outside and get my newspapers. But we'll save all of that for another post.

Word of warning: this post may be a bit...rambly. Yes, that's one of my patent-pending terms. As defined in the dictioneric:

rambly [RAM blee] adj. Having the characteristic of rambling, as in wandering all over the place topicwise while writing and making little or no sense.

The...dictioneric. Sounds pretty Erical, huh? And "rambly" and "topicwise" weren't too far behind that one. I have referred to myself as a wordsmith three or 17 times. Perhaps that's true.

My reference to taking a vacation comes from the fact that I haven't written anything for awhile. Somehow, September came and went without a single post. I attribute that to the fact that I've been feeling poorly as of late. Well, everyone knows that my health is on the "eh" side and slipping further toward the down side of things. But this post isn't about my health. I've already written about that, and everyone who knows me knows that. The armchair physicians in my life have advised me from here to unfinity (yes, that's also an Eric word) as to how to deal with my issues. Some advice I've tried (and it didn't work), and some just didn't seem right. It's time for a visit to the doctor. A real one.

On sort of a side note, I may have mentioned that, given my body's reaction as of late to being dragged aboard my beloved roller coaster rides, I had doubts as to whether to renew my Six Flags season pass for 2020. Well, I decided that it would be better to have a valid pass should I feel up to going than to not have one. So I bit the bullet and renewed. In fact, my sister Barbara and I had to visit Six Flags Magic Mountain in order to get our 2020 passes processed, so we made a day of it.

I did survive a few rides aboard those gravity-powered contraptions. My ride on Twisted Colossus was the first of the year, and was most uncomfortable. I know that my weight is on the rise (not good, and I know that), but I was bordering on having to take the Walk of Shame™. Instead, I sucked in the ol' gut and they got the bar to the safe zone and I rode. It was very, very tight and I almost couldn't wait for the ride to be over. It's a rare moment when I can't wait for a coaster ride to be over. But it's also a sign that a few changes in my life need to be made. Getting back to work would be a good start, but laying off the snacks and putting some miles on the Reeboks would be a good thing, too. Even a couple of laps around the block would help. One lap around our block is a half-mile. Two or three laps a day would be a great start.

Keeping the rambly theme going, I managed to work a casino job last month. It was good to get back behind the roulette table and take money from innocent, unsuspecting players. I also got to breathe a sigh of relief in that I did not get booted from the casino crew. I've had a feeling that I forgot about a job earlier this year, so I didn't show up, causing Sean to relieve me of my duties as croupier. At the party, I spoke with him and told him about how I was almost panicked about that. Sean smiled and even laughed a little. I guess the fact that I was working a party was a good indicator that I am still on the crew. Losing a 23-year side gig would indeed be "croupy." I know, bad joke. But it was hysterical. Get it?

One can write, and one can ramble. I've done plenty of each in this post. Remember that this month marks ten years of my planet's existence and I plan to commemorate it with a post of some kind. Stay tuned...