Ben profile picture

Ben

Disgustingly happy.

About Me

Everywhere in the world is only relative to just three places: where you are, where you want to be, and where you keep your stuff. And for now I know all three.I am finally back in the country after two years in Japan teaching English as a second language. I killed a few months around Hong Kong, China, and Thailand. Ups and downs. Pros and cons. Met good people and shit happened. People are getting bored with me saying how good it is to back home. Got some good pics uploaded. Layout by Stephanies VIP_Layouts!

My Interests

Philosophy. Movies. Art. Travel. Movies. Redheads. Movies with redheads. Procrastinating. Shiny objects. Games. Edges. Being different from most if not everyone else in the room.

I'd like to meet:

Julianne Moore. Hippies, punks, goths, any kind of freak. I need outside influence to do something about my mundane life.

Music:

Eccletic is good. Petty, Phish, Bif Naked, Beastie Boys, DJ Benjamin Paul, Vivaldi, Irish folk, Irish rock, Japanese not-pop, electronica, Polish o.n.a. mixes, P-Funk (yeeaah!) Matthew Sweet, Neutral Milk Hotel, Talking Heads, Danny Elfman, Hedningarna, Beatles, loud classical, Lords of Acid, Robert McFerrin w/ Yo-Yo Ma, Perez Prado the original mambo king, Manson's earlier works, most everything 'cept most country/western.

Movies:

Amelie was great. Delicatessen and City of Lost Children were better. Same director. Miyazaki Hayao is a great filmaker. Akira Kurasawa is god. Woody Allen rules supreme. Tarantino is good but overrated. Shawshank Redemption, Usual Suspects, Run Lola Run, Monty Python, Better Off Dead, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dazed and Confused, Jackie Chan, The Princess Bride... (I'm a sap), Strange Brew... (I'm a Shakespeare buff), John Belushi flicks, Jim Henson studios, Tim Burton, Evil Dead, older Mel Brooks films, The list goes on.

Television:

I never get tired of M.A.S.H.. I dig my anime and old-school toons. I prefer subtitles. I've been into Invader ZIM for a while and a roommate in Japan introduced me to The Venture Brothers. I have a fiendish memory for any kind of media. Especially Eddie Izzard and Denis Leary.

Books:

Non fiction is all well and good. But Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are great. Tom Robbins, Kafka, Douglas Adams. The Czech Republic has a good literary history.

Heroes:

Anyone who sucker-punches Bush. Or a kidney shot. I'm easy.

My Blog

original quotes... don't read!

"Plan A is for when everything goes perfectly, just as you want it. Therefore it is optimistic and thus unrealistic." A Realist, (also known as a pessimist)"Plan B is for the cautious, C for the paran...
Posted by Ben on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

Tagged.... I guess I'm it.

I have been darted, tagged, and released into the wilderness so that others may observe me. I now have to write six things about myself. 6 anythings. They might not even have to be true.... So you can...
Posted by Ben on Thu, 06 Apr 2006 04:03:00 PST

Trumping a religious fanatic.

I have about as much issues with god as an agnostic can. Which is to say, none. But fanatics are so much fun to converse with that I just had to post this. Upon establishing that the person is a ...
Posted by Ben on Tue, 06 Dec 2005 02:59:00 PST

religious billboard

Highway billboard... Letters at least 8ft. high. All caps. "CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS" No other explanation. Let's take the common ground, for the sake of argument, that Christ was real and the ...
Posted by Ben on Fri, 04 Nov 2005 09:23:00 PST

"Aloha, Say the pretty Girls" review by Elizabeth Clark

Ben Urban and I super enjoyed this fun. I can so see him in his "Big Lebowski"-robe finery giving knife-and-chain massages as one of the weirdo characters in this hilarious coming-of-age play. Here's ...
Posted by Ben on Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:36:00 PST

If you hate or like hypocrisy, read this

This, I believe, is important. I don't know how much press this received back in the States, but I just read in a Chinese newspaper that the U.S. has withdrawn from something called the "Optional P...
Posted by Ben on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

Here's to immortality! For coffee fans...

Seeking immortality (of name) one night, I decided to post my creation online. A drink that has been named Urban Legend. This is something I created a little over two years ago which has received no...
Posted by Ben on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

run Lola run interpretation... Don't read if you haven't seen it!

The first time I saw it. I loved it, and thought "So true, a few seconds can make all difference in someone's day/life." And I thought it was, in literary terms, very naturalistic. I still love i...
Posted by Ben on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST