Thursday, October 28, 2010

VOTE DAMMIT!!!

So did anyone catch The Daily Show last night? Due to increased pressures all around and a severe lack of sleep, I've been neglecting my nightly homage to Mr. Stewart.

Last night however, as I lay in bed, waiting for the beautiful and talented Mrs. Koda to remove her eyes... I switched it on, and found out that... DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

THE PRESIDENT WAS SCHEDULED TO BE ON.

I'll have to grab the show and embed it in a future post, but my thoughts on the interview...

I was reminded of why I like John Stewart and why I voted for Mr. Obama.

It wasn't the usual self-importance assuring, ass-kissing type appearance by a political ally, which one would expect on a network of bottom feeders like those on network like Fox, rather there was a spirited exchange of ideas and some definite calling out on mistakes (by both parties) and correction of perceived errors in judgment.

I feel inspired to vote... And since I'm pretty sure the Tea Party/Uber Conservative types can no longer stomach my blog, I think it best that I simply admonish you all to get out there and vote your conscience.

I'll be voting for freedom, civil liberty and family values, and I'm pretty sure none of my chosen candidates will be related to an elephant in that endeavor.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Performance of a Lifetime

Those of you who know the real me on Facebook, may recall that last week I opted to place in my mouth a giant Tootsie Roll Candy. For those who don't know what a Tootsie Roll is, it's a chocolate, chewy candy, not unlike toffee, and it's actually not that good. But I had a craving and it was handy, so in it went.

No sooner had I place said Tootsie Roll in my mouth than my phone rang... It was an unknown number, and appeared that it may be from a corporate source. The problem with calls from a corporate source is that often the number you see is simply an outgoing line number, and you can't call it back to see who called.

So mouth full of mediocre, chewy chocolateness, I grabbed the phone, and proceeded to leave the cubicle farm in which I work to take the call.

It turns out it was a call back on a position I applied for a week or two prior.

It could be an interesting position, and if I get it, the outcome could be interesting as well. I think I've already blogged about my boss wanting to use a new job as leverage to try and get my team and I raised.

Today is the job interview. I've clean shaven and smelling good (Although not too good - don't want to kill the guys with the scent of aftershave!). The suit pants are on, and the shoes are somewhat shiny. I have on a white shirt, and on the wall of my cubical is hanging my suit coat and my bright red "Power" tie.

I feel ready!

I left home a little early, and stopped by Carls Jr. for their 2 biscuits for $2 deal... Except they weren't doing it anymore.

Probably for the best, since my cholesterol could do with being lowered.

So I stopped by my favorite donut shop... MADBROOKS!!

And grabbed a grande "Highlander Grog" coffee and a couple of their large angular donuts. Because we all know that nothing lowers cholesterol like a nice creamy coffee and deep fried donuts, caked in sugar!

I'm feeling set for the performance of my lifetime. I usually approach these things with a certain amount of humility and honesty, and so far that approach has gotten me nowhere...

I'm not going to be arrogant or cocky, but By Jove... I am going to sell myself today.

Not since my high school performance of Big River have I felt the need to perform at such a high standard.

PROMOTION... HERE I COME!!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Don't Judge Me

OK folks, first my apologies... I had an issue with my computer over the weekend. What was supposed to be a simple upgrade to a new hard drive ended up being about 60 hours of pure stress and worry. Fortunately thanks to some help from a good Samaritan online, late last night I was able to access my computer again.

Phew!!

Turns out that there are three key things you shouldn't do when engaging in the process I engaged in. Of course none of these are actually mentioned in the accompanying documentation, and I actually managed to do all three. I ended up with cross-talk contamination between my old and new drive.

Anyway, you don't come here to read about my technical woes... That's why I set up Koda's Code - where I will try and document all of this later today.

You're here because I made some comments last week about a weird mood I was in... And it was kind of related to sex, which was like creating anticipation, and then amping it up on steroids.

This may be a long story, but it all started a couple of weeks ago.

There are two distinct motives behind it.

First, I've discovered a certain amount of pleasure in writing. While I was in school, composition was probably one of my least favorite subjects, but it seems recently that has all changed. Perhaps it's that I enjoy writing because I want to, and that I can write what I want and when I want. Perhaps it's the response from all my readers. Perhaps it's because I can tap into parts of my brain which have hither to been untapped. And perhaps it's a just a combination of all of that.

At the end of the day, I like writing and I think the best way to do it is to keep writing.

Second, I'm finding myself in a quandary of sorts. With blogging comes a certain amount of anonymity, which is awesome because in a way it lets you be yourself. Even better than anonymity though is meeting folks who you've gotten to know online. But the problem is, that when you move towards meeting folks, then you lose the aforementioned anonymity.

With anonymity, I can be myself, or even not be myself. I can share my deepest secrets and most intimate fantasies, but that's getting difficult the more readers I meet.

But don't get me wrong here... I LOVE MEETING YOU GUYS!! And like I said before it's better than being anonymous. But I still miss parts of the anonymity.

And that all leads into the third thing. I'm very happily married and have an awesome family. I wouldn't give up Mrs Koda for anything and I love her to death.

Being raised Mormon, my sexuality was very, very repressed. Perhaps it was for the best, because part of me wonders if it had been allowed to develop unreigned, there would be little Koda's the world over. Of course, perhaps that's just the warped Mormon thinking of... If you're not a good Mormon you become a valueless degenerate, willing to hop in the sack with anyone and anything.

Leaving Mormonism opens up a whole realm of sexual avenues to explore, except if you're married then those options are limited to you and your spouse, and let me reiterate again, that I wouldn't want to do anything which would impact my relationship with Mrs. Koda.

OK, so I like writing, I like aspects of anonymity, and I would love a way to explore sexuality without negative effects to my marriage. Actually... If I could explore together with Mrs. Koda, that would be awesome, but such exploration might not exactly be something I would share online.

Early one morning a few weeks ago, I had an idea...

What if I were to set up a new blogger account, and then start a new blog.

And this is where the "Don't judge me" warning comes into play!

My idea was to blog as a single young woman. Perhaps just out of college, starting a new career and getting settled in a new town. The idea was to develop her character, explore her interactions with others and blog about them. In retrospect, it would kind of be like writing a novel, except the writing would happen in real time, and for all to see.

I was going to be anonymous through the endeavor, and part of the fun would be seeing if anyone picked up on the blog, and how they followed it.

My plan wasn't to make it explicit in anyway, but allude to various relationships and interactions with members of the opposite sex.

As that idea has marinated over the past few weeks, another idea grew on top of it. This was the idea I alluded to last week.

What if I could find a female type person who wanted to do the same thing. We could kind of start blogs together, and then sort of develop this fictional relationship over time, and see where it went.

But I can foresee a big problem with this... Exploring that relationship, even with reversed gender rolls, could lead to the development of inappropriate feelings and or interactions, and like I said before, I'm not willing to risk anything with Mrs Koda.

I told her about my original idea when I came up with it a few weeks ago, and it was hard to read her. And then I told her about this new, morphed idea, and she shared some of my concerns. She's just not a bloggy type person either, but she did offer the suggestion that perhaps we could do it together... I'll have to see if anything develops there.

The final iteration of this idea happened over the weekend, and it's till not more than just a basic frame work.

The idea was to combine some of the previous ideas and come up with something both appropriate, but still fun. Anonymous, but still allowing interaction between people I know.

It's kind of that living novel idea, but with multiple participants.

So here's how it would work. We'd need at least 6 people to do it, and could add others as we went along. I think 6 gives enough people that it would be hard to determine identities, but not too many that managing online interactions would be too hard.

So about 6 people, and we would all set up new blogger accounts. We'd have to have a central blogger account where we could coordinate a few things, and that may be best kept private, but then each of those people would set up their own blogs. We could have guys being girls, girls being guys, girls being girls and guys being guys. Straight people being Gay and Gay people being Straight.

Each person would start with a basic character description and then we could work on the interactions. To begin with, I think it would have to focus on a friends type approach. Each person has their lives, but the other members of the groups are friends, and they kind of develop that friendship over time.

So my character may have certain attributes, have a unique workplace, and meet interesting characters. His/Her blog would then share those interactions and share it with the rest of the group, who would in turn, do the same.

Perhaps the private central blog could be a place to coordinate things which might then later be blogged about.

I think it would be fun to explore sexual type stuff as well - the anonymous factor would help facilitate that, but I wouldn't want it to turn into a literary porn site - If you know what I mean.

It's kind of anonymous, kind of fantasy, part improvisation and mostly just fun.

In looking that over, I can think of a few possibly outcomes.

I may be up in the night, off my rocker, and heading towards a beautiful mind type end.
It may be just a crazy idea I mess with for a while and then move onto something else.
It could be fun though too.

Whether it's one or all of those I guess only time will tell.

Feel free to comment, and/or suggest medications I should be on.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Just Good Stuff

Through a series of links, epiphanies and memories I arrived at a series of videos by New Zealand band Supergroove.

Just thought I'd add a little cultural diversity to the blog!





And my all time favorite - I just couldn't find a version with decent audio quality...

Thursday, October 21, 2010

My Mood

I've still got something on my brain... Kind of know what I want to do, but I have an idea to make it better, but not sure how to go about the additional resource I need in order to get it done, and do so without straying into the realm of the inappropriate.

Perhaps I should just be quiet about it for now.

In the meantime...



Kind of it, but not really...

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

In My Pants

I don't think I've posted this yet, but...

I feel the need to post something humorous, and I have this real deep desire to delve into things of an erotic nature... I may get back to that second thing at a later date.

Anyway, this kind of covers reason 1 and kind of sort of covers 2, except it's not the kind of thing which usually turns me on... Actually it doesn't turn me on at all, but some might.



Thanks to Leah for that one...

And now in a similar vein, and some guys who the group above reminded me of.

An oldy by a goody...

And at least one of these two is from Wellington, which ties this whole post back into what I talked about yesterday.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Itchy Feet

My feet are getting increasingly itchy...

I was on a New Zealand employment site last week, and they wanted me to register before I could view the details for a position they had in Aukland. And then part of the registration process involved the submission of my CV...

Long story short... I now have an online CV that can be viewed by Kiwi employers. I don't have any outstanding skills per say, but perhaps as I try to rectify that over the next couple of years, that reality may change.

I found myself on a site looking at Brazil this morning as well... I think it was inspired by Pitbull.

I don't think Mrs Koda would go for a change in culture which included a language change as well, but it was fun to look. I think I could do Chile, Argentina, or almost any South American country.

But first prize would definitely be Wellington, New Zealand.

Friday, October 15, 2010

New Look

Hey Folks! I made some changes to the blog... In case you didn't notice :-)

Unfortunately in the process I lost my graphics and my blogroll.

I think I got most of the blogroll back, and I'm hoping you like the new graphics.

If however you find you or your mates missing from the blogroll on this blog, or my other blog, please let me know.

And if I could enhance the design on this site to make it more readable, I'm happy to oblige there as well. But I can't unless you tell me!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Big One Two!!!

So folks, on the calendar of memorable days in my personal history, today stands well above any other.

October 13th, 1998

I got married to the wonderful, beautiful and vivacious Mrs. Koda!

We've known each other since November of 1996, although her initial impression of me was that I was somewhat of a geek and likely a person to be avoided.

Perhaps I'm a bit like a virus... You don't necessarily have to like me, but if you hang around me long enough, I'll latch on and won't let go.

We had to pretty much circumnavigate the globe to get together, but when we did, we were inseperable and have been ever since.

Think about her stirs in me thoughts of God...

For only God could know why she's stuck with me all these years!!

HAPPY 12th ANNIVERSARY BABE!!!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Female Point System

In the world of romance, one single rule applies: Make the woman happy. Do something she likes and you get points. Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted. You don't get any points for doing something she expects. Sorry, that's the way the game is played.

Here is a guide to the point system:

SIMPLE DUTIES

You make the bed (+1)

You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillow (0)

You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets (-1)

You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) in the rain (+8)

But return with Beer (-5)


You check out a suspicious noise at night (+1)

You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing (0)

You check out a suspicious noise and it is something (+5)

You pummel it with iron rod (+10)

It's her pet (-20)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS

You stay by her side the entire party (0)

You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with an old school
friend (-2)

Named Tina (-10)

Tina is a dancer (-20)

Tina has silicone implants (-80)

HER BIRTHDAY

You take her out to dinner (+2)

You take her out to dinner and it's not a sports bar (+3)

Okay, it's a sports bar (-2)

And it's all-you-can-eat night (-3)

It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted
the colors of your favorite team (-10)

A NIGHT OUT

You take her to a movie (+1)

You take her to a movie she likes (+3)

You take her to a movie you hate (+6)

You take her to a movie you like (-2)

It's called 'Death Cop' (-3)

You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)

YOUR PHYSIQUE

You develop a noticeable potbelly (-15)

You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)

You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy
Hawaiian shirts (-30)

You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-8000)

THE BIG QUESTION

She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) (Yes, you lose points no matter what)

You hesitate in responding (-10)

You reply, "Where?" (-35)

Any other response (-20)

COMMUNICATION

When she wants to talk about a problem, you listen, displaying what
looks like a concerned expression (0)

You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)

You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV (+500)

She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep (-4000)

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Walking the Walk

If you follow this blog, you know I'm pretty big on Equality, especially gay rights. I think it's a combination of knowing its the right thing to do, and perhaps a little attempt at trying to atone for past homophobic attitudes, while being a "Good Mormon".

Anyway, with all that said, I, like many others found the hate spewed forth from the pulpit at the LDS Conference this past weekend, especially vile and inappropriate.

I'm upset, angry and felt good about my efforts to help spread the word about it.

But... I think the time may have come for a new level of involvement.

On Thursday night this week, Pride in Utah are organizing a rally in Salt Lake City. I'm not sure what form it will take, but I feel the need to attend.

On one hand, it means leaving my family for an entire night, but on the other hand, I think it's time I walked the walk, and put my money where my mouth is.

Right is right.

Utah Protest Over Boyd K Packer Hate Speech

Monday, October 04, 2010

Post #500!

On Monday June 18th, 2007, I found myself thinking about freedom. It had been on my mind for a while, and after setting up a blog a short time before, I hammered out a short couple of paragraphs and published my first posting as Urban Koda.

Freedom is Free

It's hard to tell exactly where I stood politically and religiously at the time, but I think I still believed in the Church. Politically I think I was still way right of most of the population, although I found myself become increasingly Libertarian.

Much has happened since then...

I got my pecker snipped here.

I got hacked off by a fat lady at Walmart here and have taken a lot of heat since for my stance of welfare programs.

Along the way, I went from being a huge fan of Glenn Beck, to cringing everytime I here his voice and witnessing the effect of his bigoted rants.

I'm not sure if I've had much influence, other than helping people identify cranial lumps.

But at the end of the day I've had fun and met a ton of new friends along the way.

I find myself now a Socialist Libertarian, with a strong distaste for any form of organized religion, a skeptical outlook about the existence of God, and far greater love and respect for my fellow men and women.

I know I'll forget some of my readers, but at the risk of offending some, just some special mentions...

Matsby, or The Mediocre Gatsby as he was back then... He was the catalyst who inspired me to blog, and became my first officially commenter.

Morgan Mouse, my favorite Sydney resident and the person who has most influenced my feelings towards cats. Of course most of that credit goes to Tigger.

E, always good with the comments and willing to provide feedback. E also played a key role in my being caught apostatizing by my parents - oh the memories!!

TravelVixen, or Ms. Ranty Pants. The young lady single handedly responsible for changing my opinion on socialized healthcare and likely the one foremost responsible for my becoming a freaking liberal.

CAW - Good friend and fellow conspiracy theorist. Also my favorite customer service person!

Gregoire - I'm not sure I can quite categorize this reader, other than to say of all my readers, the effect of his blogging and comments on my posts, may have had the greatest effect on me, at least religiously.

Clink - The regular anonymous provider of thoughtful feedback, and a good friend in real life

Lisa, Kuri, TGD, TGW, Bowie, AndrewS, CHansen, Rock Waterman, Leah, Sister Secret, Molly, Holly, J-Dog, Heretic, Simply Sarah, Maureen, Loren, Sean, Donna Banta and scores of others who routinely comment and provide ideas, feedback and other support.

Dave P, who it turns out was the one responsible for my suspicion that the Mormon Gestapo was tracking my movements, and the subsequent freak-out - OK, so the freakout was all me, but his visit sparked it off!

And last by by no means least... D. Sirmize. He's been a little scarce lately, but his often opposing views have forced me to be more honest, and examine my sources carefully before posting. I still think Glenn Beck is an opportunistic ass, but I try to cite actually reasons when posting stuff about him now.

There are others to be sure, some I've like, most I've loved, and only one or two who I've found to be disagreeable.

I've been told that I have the Philosophy of Satan in the Marrow of my bones, and to go crawl in a hole and die, but at the end of the day, the entire experience has been unforgettable, not in the least regrettable, and become a significant part of who I am.

To those who read in secret, thanks!

To those who read and comment, thanks as well!

And to those whom I'm now friends with in real life, thank you, thank you, thank you!

To celebrate this post, we held a party at the Koda household yesterday. It was short notice, and likely badly time, especially in conjunction with Mormon Conference and other things.

But we got a cake, had it decorated and were graced with 8 visitors during the afternoon. The largest gathering ever of Urban Koda followers.

Now to be fair, 4 of those visitors likely had little to no choice as to their attendance.

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes and The Guy with the Hair... Thanks for the cookies and your friendship. It's nice to know you're not alone.

And the folks behind Mormon Expressions, your visit, and your contributions to our lives, both through our personal interactions, as well as through the podcast, have been invaluable in my journey and that of my family as well.

Thanks Everyone and here's to another 500 posts!!!