What I Did before Getting My Ass Back to Work

I've been wanting to post these photos for a long time now. The catch? I didn't get them until this past Monday. Unfortunately I neglected to take "before" pictures. Brandy was sweet enough to take these photos here with her wide angle lens.

This past Spring and early Summer I remodeled our upstairs bathroom. I had to. The toilet seemed as if it was about to fall through the floor and the vanity was a mass-produced piece of something you normally put in the toilet. So, apart from the tub/shower, I gutted the bathroom and started from scratch.

As it turned out, the floor had been rebuilt once before. Some water damage, primarily from the toilet, and a little from an earlier tub installation, had been cause for a previous effort to make things better. The sub-floor, luckily, was and is in very good shape. But the previous do-it-yourselfer pulled up a limited amount of floor where it was in the worst shape, filled it with a gypsum filler and installed the new vinyl on top.

I tore the whole thing out, leaving the subfloor behind. I installed 1/2" cement board on the subfloor and ceramic tile on top of that. I threw out the old vanity and built my own. I rewired for lighting, outlets and a wall heater (across from the tub - we used to have heat lamps - over the sink where they were much less effective). I built a medicine cabinet to replace the old metal one and put up a nice big mirror.

I found an abandoned, live, outlet inside one of the walls. I discovered that the toilet "closet" ring seal was nearly non-existent (my guess is the last "craftsman" decided to save $2 and used the old wax seal). I nearly panicked when I tried texturing the drywall work I had done, and ended up having to remove something like three gallons of "mud" from the walls before it dried on both the wall and in the damn texturer I rented from Home Depot (I resorted to canned touch-up texture in the end).

Bonnie is in love with this new bathroom. She takes a bath at the slightest provocation just so she can stare (honestly, this is what she tells me). I am waiting on cooler weather. It's too damn hot still to enjoy a bath.

But it is pretty.

Sometimes you're homeless because they take your home from you

I'm struck by how inappropriately gross the current mortgage market situation has become. Industry people, government officials and the "free" press are all acting out a great imitation of shock. Who coulda seen it coming after all?

I read about the inevitability of this months ago. I wish I could remember where. Some less-than-mainstream liberal rag or another. You know? The ones you can actually trust. May have been The Nation. It doesn't matter. The fact is this act of shocked surprise is a disgusting lie.

And of course our Dissembler in Chief has promised the industry to have the Fed do everything possible to lighten the blow on the mortgage industry. But there isn't so much as a whisper of promise for help for those poor bastards who were talked into taking out these mortgages in the first place. These people (with other bills to pay and children to feed and pride to salvage) are being scraped off into the garbage pail of convenient disposal. Real unemployment (not that reported by the liars in Washington) is on the rise. Wages are being assaulted. Nobody in government gives a damn about insuring the working poor (yeah, the working poor. Who else do you think the predatory lenders went after?).

Just wait. In a few months or maybe a year, the increase in the homeless will be blamed on (who else?), the homeless! They should have remained in rented houses and apartments. They shouldn't have had the temerity to think they were worthy of owning homes and taking out mortgages. A few lenders will fail (and that will be blamed on "bad risks" [meaning of course, "worthless" people]), but most will sail through fat and sassy. And nobody in the fucking Bush Bunker will lift a finger to make this whole practice illegal. And it god damned should be illegal. And don't hold out any hope that our pantie waisted Democrats in Congress will do anything.

You know, I am really pretty pedestrian when it comes to finance and the economy, and even balancing my own checkbook. But I foresaw the bursting of the Internet Start up bubble. I made this prediction to this very Republican CPA who worked for the same company that employed me at the time. He thought I was smoking pot (well I may actually have been doing so at the time, but that's beside the point). Now I actually liked this guy and he and I had lots of very interesting conversations. But I can't really believe that someone as smart as him couldn't see that crash coming. I just think he had his head up his ass. And I think conservative ideology is what stuffed it up there.

And I think the slavering sickos in their 3-piece Italian suits knew this mortgage crisis was coming. But I think greed has a way of sticking your head up your ass and making judgement (even selfish judgement) difficult. I think they just wanted to see how far they could push this before it all caved in on them. Of course they were all hoping to see the tell-tale signs of a collapse and ditch moments before the cave-in. But as I said, eyeballs behind intestinal walls are pretty useless. I hope some of them end up homeless.

Dream on Yar. When pigs fly.

Feist - 1 2 3 4

Feist's voice reminds me just a little of Maria Muldaur (she of Midnight at the Oasis fame. It's that vague throatiness. Her style however is nothing like. This song makes you want to sing or dance (for those of you who don't have two left legs and a tin ear).

Three x Seven

Three and seven are my two favorite primary numbers. I don't know why; I don't have any belief in numerology. If I had to choose between them, seven would win. But only if I had to choose. Three is pretty damn cool on its own.

And three times seven (3 x 7) produces twenty-one. Ergo 21 is one of my favorite non-prime numbers.

And my daughter Brandy turned 21 today, and she is my favorite daughter. Some would argue that one should not take favorites when it comes to your offspring. Brandy is an only child however so she shares the title of both my favorite child and my least favorite child. She spends time as the former much more than as the latter I am very glad to say.

Brandy has planned on having today revolve around her friends and their celebration of her 21-ness. We (Bonnie and I) were to take a back seat and wait until tomorrow night - the day after her birthday. Well she is 21; I suppose that's how things are supposed to progress. Nonetheless I was a little bummed that I wouldn't be able to celebrate with her (and give her presents) until tomorrow.

But she called this morning. Some friend who was supposed to have been there earlier failed to show (or some such, I can't remember for sure). Could she come over to watch Meet the Press and have pancakes with us?

So she came over (Bonnie and I had to rush and wrap her presents and I had to get to the store for a birthday card). We watched Meet the Press and we had pancakes. But the first order of business of course was her opening her presents. Bonnie gave her a purse (to join the 1,607 other purses in her collection). I gave her a very nice camera lens (to join the other two in her collection).

And we both gave her a ticket for a trip on the Durango-Silverton Railroad this October. We just so happen to both have tickets for the same trip as well. Bonnie and I took this train just after New Years almost two years ago and absolutely loved it. The train doesn't make the full journey in the winter so we are excited for the upcoming trip when the train will go the distance.

For anyone unfamiliar with this part of the world, the Durango-Silverton Railroad is a 150 (plus or minus) year old railroad that used to service the mining industry in remote Silverton Colorado, from its base in Durango Colorado. The railroad is now considered a national historical monument and is run for tourists. The scenery is spectacular as the train winds through high passes in the Rockies. In the fall the trees are a riot of color and the trip is a photographer's dream. So naturally we thought of Brandy.

Additionally, the last car on the train is a caboose of sorts with an old West bar and small tables and chairs the length of the car. The railroad has nostalgically dubbed this car the Parlor Car. The Parlor Car has the distinction of serving alcohol and not serving (or allowing) minors. So all the whimpering and wining children are herded with their parents onto other cars. And of course we are taking the Parlor Car. This is partially because Brandy is now 21 and therefore is allowed in the Parlor Car, and partially because it's just simply the nicest car to take the ride in.

I'll post photos after the trip. We are all quite excited.

Oh yes, and by the way, I want to "give a shout out" to Brandy. "Props" for turning 21 darling.

A Wrinkle in Our Time

Author Madeleine L'Engle passed away this Thursday at the age of 88. Ms. L'Engle, a resident of Connecticut, wrote some 60 books in her career, but the most well known, and the one for which I remember her, was A Wrinkle in Time. The book written for young teens was a favorite of young people and "won the American Library Association's 1963 Newbery Medal for best American children's book."

I almost missed this story as it was in a list which also included Madeleine McCanns, the missing little English girl. I would imagine the odds of having two current stories, both about Madeleine's, are pretty slim.

A Wrinkle in Time is a science fiction tale of a small family who's father goes missing. The kids include a girl named Meg, her genius brother (very young, like three or four if I remember), and her boyfriend named (I think) Calvin. I don't remember the genius brother's name. It could have been something like Charles Wallace. They get summoned or some such to go traveling along a space-time warp (called a tesseract) and save their father from some terrible prison. I don't remember the specifics about that.

There was a "good witch" called Mrs. Who, and another called Mrs. Whatsis. Or maybe just one of them existed. One of the chapters, involving a mirthful fortune teller, was entitled The Happy Medium. This has always been one of my favorite puns.

If I remember, a tesseract is a real term. It refers to a dimension which includes both time and space. For instance, a piece of paper is two dimensional. You see a flat surface when you look at it. You can cut it out into paper dolls, but it's still flat. Then you have cubes, balls, pyramids, cylinders, and more and more complex shapes that we call three-dimensional. They're not flat. If you turn them around (or move around them) they present different faces. As you move toward or away from them, their perspective changes (That is also possible for two-dimensional objects, but only as seen in three-dimensional space).

Time is the fourth dimension. A point has zero dimension. If you move that point in one direction, you get a line, which we call one-dimensional. If you move that point or line in two orthogonal (at 90-degrees to each other) directions, you get a plane (a piece of paper) which is two-dimensional. Move a point, line, or plane in three orthogonal directions and you get an object which is three-dimensional.

But the fourth direction is that of moving an object in space. You can't see the continuum of the moving object. For instance, we see the continuum of a point which has been moved, as a line. But we have no representation for the continuum of an object which has been moved. We need time to see that. And we can only see that one instant at a time. But imagine if we could somehow see this fourth dimension. Or at least comprehend it. That is a tesseract. A tesseract is to an object what an object is to a plane, and a plane is to a line, and a line is to a point.

I'll admit I'm going by memory on all of this. I'm not avoiding research because I'm lazy. I just wanted to see how much I could remember about A Wrinkle in Time and tesseracts since I found both so fascinating when I was young.

Thank you for your contribution to my life Madeleine L'Engle.


Post Script: I found a much more in depth article about Ms. L'Engle than the one linked to above. My memory wasn't too far off. I may pick up one or two of her adult books (no not that kind of book) to read.

Death of a Salesman

Ever since Jerry Falwell coined the term Moral Majority, the Republican Party has taken on the mantle of protector of public morality. This was an ideological consideration, a religious revolution, and a painstakingly scripted socio-political strategy for raising votes and money. It has gained the conservative wing of American politics an upper hand by the pervasive cadence of Sunday school policy. All the converted have anchored their ships to this pier of permanence and "truth". The Machiavellian perfection of this coup is admirable for its audacious belief in the assurance of its own success.

Bill Clinton was nearly undone by the groundswell of indignation from that quarter. The mainstream press, pressed on both sides by the religious right, and the corporate grinder, has almost totally caved in. Appalling disregard for the law and the rights of human beings has been ignored and even sneered at. And this horde has ruled the day. In fact they have ruled the decade.

How fitting that this swarm of locusts should sweep back and eat its own kind. Or to be more accurate, they have bitten the hand that they have fed (and which for a while pretended to feed them).

Good Liberals have nearly shaken in fear at the grotesque caricatures of such men as embodied in Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. We have watched in disgust as they maneuvered "good Christian" pawns against sane policy and debate. We have sometimes been almost envious of their ability to master this juggernaut. But the juggernaut is out of control.

Those hungriest for power will seize it when it's offered to them freely and obsequiously. They will grasp the opportunity to take over when they see it arise. And in this case, they found the party that gave them that power to be wanting. They found them to be empty of the piety they professed.

And now the morally outraged Christian right, more indignant than ever at having been mislead and lied to, are descending for the kill.

Happy eating.

Hope from a Lead-Free Santa

In a story related to the one below, worried parents can buy their children toys for Christmas from some good alternate brands. These include Playskool, Brio and GeoMag says this story. Some companies haven't sullied their hands at the fountain of cheap labor.

What's Wong with This?

I've been trying to get around to writing this for the past two days. So we have this Chinese factory worker literally calling the stuff he makes for Americans, shit. And he's just the guy who's quoted. The story informs us that this is a common feeling among those making the crap we keep buying from supposedly American companies, because it's cheap!

No wonder they keep adding poison to the mix. Unscrupulous "American" corporations demand low prices. So factories not only hire children (the interviewed worker has been at the factory in the story since he was 12), but they use cheap (and coincidentally poisonous) substitutes for basic materials. Who could have seen that coming?

I heard an American mother on the radio complaining today about how hard it was to read the lot numbers on her kids' Mattel toys to see if they are part of a recall. Fuck it. Who cares? Boycott Mattel lady. I'm not going to say the Chinese are faultless here. Hell no. But Mattel and Wal Mart and McDonalds and - almost everybody it seems these days - are the most to blame.

Oh yeah, and Bush.

But I digress from the story. Read it here. What the Chinese factory workers hate about us is our insatiable appetite for absolutely worthless junk. They really seem to despise us. I have to say it's hard to blame them. But think about it: this country, once considered a mortal enemy, holds most American debt.

And they despise us.

Wide Screen

Bonnie's boss took her and two fellow managers aside on Friday and thanked them for doing such a great job during such a difficult month. He then slipped them each "gas money." This turned out to be enough to fuel a big rig from coast to coast with money left over for a hotel and a car for the weekend.

So we went out and bought a wide screen TV. The spur-of-the-moment bonus wasn't enough for the TV, but it paid for half of it and that was enough to get us off the stick.

We love movies. We watch probably anywhere from 10 to 20 movies a month and we've been jonesing for a wide screen for some time. This increased significantly when I bought and installed a decent home theater sound system last year.

So we finally took the plunge. We have a 40 inch Sony LCD with 1080p resolution. In case you don't know what that is, neither do I. I just know the picture is much better than with a 720p resolution. We read up on Consumer Reports and compared pictures in the store, and ended up spending about $300 more than we had promised ourselves to get one we are really happy with. For the same size, we still could have spent double what we did, so we feel we were reasonably fiscally prudent.

It is so much fun to have this TV. Of course to make it really superior we need to get HDTV service from our satellite company as well as Blue Ray (I think that's what they call it) DVDs. All in good time. For the time being I just love the big picture.

Gotta run. More later perhaps.

Mika Grace Kelly

I love this song (the video is OK). It's very Freddie Mercury.

Tribute to Schofield Barracks

I was born and raised in Hawaii. I lived there until I was 20. That is to say I lived there until I had the cash to get out of there. Hawaii is incredibly beautiful and the pace of life is healthier than in most places in our country. But I got out because the mind of Hawaii is small.

My folks were very liberal. Both were truly ahead of their times. While everyone else in our town who was white was sending their children to private schools, all five of us were thrust into the public school system. Both the students, children, administrators, and education board considered this system to be a white man's system shoved up the ass of a working person's life while the white man and his offspring insulated themselves and lived life from far off.

It was this world in which I was submersed K through 12. My brother John spent as much time in that system as I did (except that he graduated after his junior year in high school). My other siblings managed to escape sometime in junior high and managed to enjoy private school for a while.

OK, I need to stop for a moment. Those of you who haven't enjoyed this cultural peculiarity cannot really appreciate what I am talking about. I'm very liberal myself, yet I will say without hesitation that my years in that public school system as an extreme minority were some of the most negatively formative years of my life.

But when I was in sixth grade things changed for a while. This was in '67-'68 and my dad who was in the reserves was called up to go to Viet Nam. This was met with lots of emotion all around naturally. But as part of the deal my folks worked out, we moved to Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu (best known for Waikiki and Pearl Harbor). We spent nearly a year there. I enjoyed the only adolescent year of my life. I was not judged because of the (white) color of my skin. I instantly made friends. I didn't have to stand up on the bus on the way to and from school. I was human.

And I remember having terrible nightmares when the time to go home (with my habitually depressed mother whose husband was still in 'Nam) approached. All the loathing and fear of that jail sentence came rolling back to my subconscious mind. By the time 7th grade started I was a basket case, and rightly so. I had re-entered hell.

So I found an article today with a Schofield Barracks connection, and I immediately felt the old nostalgia for the place. The story is sad. It's a war story about young people who die for nothing. I don't know if it makes it better or worse that these people died from mechanical failure and not from war itself. Either way they would still be alive if not for the war.

And I feel some camaraderie with these people on this US Army Base who gave me a good year in my youth. You have my true sympathy for your lost ones.

Who Would'a Thunk? I love my job.

My first two and a half weeks (exactly) of work at my new job consisted of me sitting on my ass trying to look busy, and occasionally succeeding. I've written about that at some length below. In fact I sent links to everything I've written about this job to my sister Mary and was surprised to see I had 6 posts.

Suddenly at high noon yesterday I sprang into action. My boss and the system developer discovered some major discrepencies in the new system we will be using "any day now." I was put to the task of taking care of everything we needed to do on our end (which was most of the work). Everyone seems happy with my work so I'm glad. We're still getting a couple of logic errors and the true geeks are going to have to disect the code to fix them I'm sure. That's what came up today. At the end of the day yesterday, the system was left nearly empty with data backups waiting to be re-imported. By the end of today, everything is loaded but not everything is working.

I think I'm going to love this job. It's been a long time since I loved a job. A very long time. In retrospect, I've always allowed people to promote me to a supervisory or management role and I just really hate managing. Oh give me a system to manage and I'm great. Just don't make me have to manage, directly or indirectly, personnel.

I will flat turn down any such further offers from here forward. I will not be a manager. And I will be a very effective and happy employee. I blog more when I am happy so that may not necessarily come as good news to you.

Spell Cuba

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque proposed in a speech this week to the third Forum for Latin American and East Asian Cooperation (FEALAC) in Brasilia, to launch a program aimed at eradicating world illiteracy (read the story here). He stated that the reality of 800 million illiterate adults and 80 million children who do not attend school is an unforgivable situation. He said that there “can be no development without human capital and no freedom without culture.”

But Cuba is our enemy and therefore cannot be taken seriously. Surely they harbor ulterior motives. After all if the United States government cannot be bothered to move on behalf of the illiterate and the poor in this nation, how can Cuba seriously expect to take on this task world wide, even with the combined help of other third world nations? I’ll bet Cuba doesn’t even have plans to hire Halliburton.

Not a Google Advertisement

I have my home page set to Google News because a) I'm a news junkie and b) Google News has more news feeds than I can find anywhere else (more than 4,500 in English according to their own press). I like the fact that all stories are grouped with anywhere from three to six links to additional stories on the same subject from different sources. And in addition to that there's a link by each story that will take you to all stories on that subject.

Admittedly the story that catches your eye is always the one listed at the top complete with tag lines and by lines. I tend to read these the most because, as I said, they catch my eye the most. Nonetheless I do read the alternate stories as well. I read from sources with nominally similar political leanings to mine. I read from some who have no stated (or implied) point of view. I read those who agree with my take on this world, and from those whose view of the world makes me sick. In short, I attempt to see a story from several points of view. This is part of the informative process and I like it.

I was browsing Google News last night and I noticed a header reading "Recommended for Yar." Oddly one of the three stories listed under this header was something about Britney Spears. I'll admit to the occasional gander her way but I make no habit of reading celebrity news. Nonetheless my curiosity over "recommended" stories was piqued and I clicked on the adjacent link reading "Learn more." And I did.

Google is offering a clever new service whereby they use their vast database with knowledge of the Internet and knowledge of you to match up your news interests with what's out there. Google's computers evaluate your choice of stories and your choice of venues and determines which stories, delivered by which sources, you will most want to see, and presents them to you on a small platter. They tell you (as you are learning more) that this can be so much better than having a news smorgasbord spread out in front of you. It will save your time and make sure you actually find the stories (written in your favorite slant) you really care about.

This could save me so much time and indecision. It could mean I won't waste my time reading meaningless blather (assuming they fix that Britney Spears thing). It could free me to be a lean, mean, news-reading machine.

Rupert Murdoch must be seething for not thinking of this first. I'm sure Google geeks just think this technology is cool; tailoring the Internet to the user is their first love. I'm sure Google marketing loves it, seeing the possibilities of steering readers to sites with the most Google advertisements. But any conspiratorial aspirations probably end there. The thing that makes me pause (actually I screech to a tire-burning stop), is the potential for abuse. I mentioned Rupert Murdoch at the top of this paragraph because this sounds like his wet dream. Intentionally or unintentionally people who subscribe to this wonderful new service will be fed filtered news, eliminating the serendipitous nature of garnering news on the web.

So Google is offering a tailored news service that totally disregards any alternate views or stories that don't fit in a narrow band of interest. I'm not saying Google is doing this for any nefarious reasons. But others are going to see the benefits. Look how well Faux News has used similar methods to create millions of mind-numb robotic mimics (a recent survey found that Fox News watchers are some of the least informed Americans [people who watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the most informed {beating out even NPR}]).

I have decided not to opt for Google's new service. I considered creating an alter-persona to test it out and get a real comparison. But I doubt I will; it would be a pain in the butt as I would have to regularly read news under both personas. I love reading news, but I do have a life.

Ferry Well

There's a new "Superferry" serving the Hawaiian Islands. This story says it's the first-ever such service in Hawaii. I do seem to remember a failed ferry service back in the early 70s', consisting of hydrofoil boats. Am I mistaken or does anybody else remember?

Anyway, local environmentalists have sought an injunction against the service claiming there was no environmental impact study done and that the impacts of the service could be significant. The state supreme court agreed. Surfers off Kauai prevented the ferry from docking for an hour on it's second voyage.

The company that operates the ferry (Hawaii Superferry Inc.) ran maiden voyages despite the supreme court ruling, as nothing stipulated they hault service. Meanwhile they are arguing that cruise ships have long used these same waters without having to submit to this scrutiny.

As an ex-native, I fully appreciate the value of alternate inter-island commute vehicles. One of the toughest things about living in Hawaii is the inability to leave - even to go next door to a neighboring island - inexpensively. Based on the prices for the ferry service ($240 plus for passenger and car), the status quo will remain, at least with regard to price. It may be that passenger service alone will be more reasonably priced.

I've taken ferries in the Pacific Northwest. I never spent that kind of money - and those trips did include our car. I've seen whales breach (is that the right word - when whales clear the surface?) in front of the ferry. I never considered at the time that perhaps they were endangered by the ferry itself. You think so? Could be.

I like ferry commutes. They are much more comfortable than airplanes, and usually much less expensive. I sympathize with the environmentalists in Hawaii as well as with their supreme court though. As our planet gets smaller and more fragile in the face of the viral presence of humans, we need to continue to examine and question the means and methods we employ for our civilization's welfare.

Still I guess I secretly hope the ferry service gets a pass.

Our Hero

On a Lighter Note...

While I maintain this blog primarily as a means of airing my views about things both important and trivial, I occasionally wax vehemently political. I know a few people who visit this blog whos views differ dramatically from mine and while I would love to convince you that my politics are superior to yours, I know I won't.

And for those of you who fit this bill, I would still like to welcome you to read my less polarizing posts. To wit, here is one such post.

I previously posted regarding our plans for our back yard. I have several such posts and I'll let you find them for yourself rather than linking to them here. The rendering at the right shows this composite plan (click on the image to see it larger).

Bonnie and I were out Saturday and visited an open house down the street (we like to see what houses are selling for what in our neighborhood). It was a lovely house and we particularly liked a garden pavilion they had semi-permanently attached to their patio. Our backyard plans have included a structurally attached canopy over our patio, but this new idea has us intrigued.

This rendering shows what we have in mind (click on the image to see it larger). It also shows our new (as yet unbuilt) shed and deck plans. I think there are upsides and downsides to this pavilion. I'd love to have additional input. Feel free to comment.

GONEzales

At long last Alberto Gonzales is gone (or will be as of September 17th). Neither he nor the White House have given any explanation. Not that any explanation they give would fool us. In retrospect I can't believe they bothered to give an explanation when Karl Rove "quit." Both men went from being political assets to this despotic administration, to being political liabilities. End of story.

That is not to say they won't be well rewarded for their service to the fourth Reich. Like Scooter Libby both Rove and Gonzo will be presented with care packages stuffed with Get Out of Jail Free cards, invitations to join lucrative lobbying positions and/or corporate boards, and membership for life in the Good Ol' Boy's Club. That Gonzo made it from Mexican immigrant parents to this position in life is a testament to what graft will buy you.

OK, so hurrah Gonzo is gone. Shit! He was really the Dem's best chance at nailing Bush and Cheney. Actually Libby, Rove and Gonzo were the Trifecta. And while each of them can still be investigated (though some argue that Libby is currently actually immune to such), I now anticipate any Democrat led investigations to fold like a house of cards. Double shit!

Just so we have the record straight, I am not out to see Bush and Cheney get their just deserts for vengeance's sake. Yes, I am petty enough to want to see them go down just so I could laugh and cheer for months on end. But that's not the reason I've advocated (and signed petitions, and written to Congress) for impeachment. Like many other Americans I am appalled at how our Constitution has been compromised and flouted by this Administration. I know citizens around the world are appalled at what America is becoming, but what they don't share with us is the sense of betrayal we feel here as our most sacred document is being pissed on.

So just for the record, since I have been challenged on this: THE NEO-CON AGENDA FOISTED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS NOT BEING PERPETRATED IN MY NAME WITH MY CONSENT. I WHOLEHEARTEDLY REJECT THIS ADMINISTRATION'S CLAIM TO VALIDITY. OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY HAS BEEN USURPED BY A TRAITOROUS ENEMY FROM WITHIN.

I forgot to give this post a title. You're getting sloppy Yar.

This is what I started to write last night, only to be distracted. I'm sitting right now at my desk at work on my second Friday on the job. I finally received my computer this Tuesday and I was excited. Here I would be put to work at last.

Right.

I'm still waiting to get to work. I have found things to do here and there but largely I am just twiddling my thumbs. Now I can twiddle my thumbs on the computer instead of twiddling my thumbs ... with my thumbs.

I've installed several free utilities and other programs on the computer here. None of these has impressed me yet. I have a couple of programs at home I would like to install here but they have multiple installation prevention. There is one program I use that I don't exactly have a legitimate license for. I won't install that here at work. No no no.

I sit and listen to web-streamed programming as I "work" on my computer. I listen to progressive radio program The Stephanie Miller Show first thing in the morning, and then I listen to Thom Hartmann on Air America. After him I either listen to Randi Rhodes (also of Air America) or I stream KINK FM. KINK is a station Bonnie and I found in Oregon when we lived there. We really like the mix of music and the progressive hosts. And we don't have anything like that offered locally. We used to catch a station called Radio Free Santa Fe but I think they were bought out by Clear Channel or somebody and turned into a parking lot.

I'm supposed to get busy by the end of next week (please dog!); right in time for a three-day weekend. Go figure. I hope to never have time at work to post here again. Cross your fingers with me.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

I started this post much earlier this evening and then went out for dinner with Bonnie and Brandy. Now I need to regroup my thoughts and start over. The title makes no sense here but I'll leave it and come up with something new when I post.

Great Excerpts from Pet Diaries

I got this from my niece Mindy. I have no idea where it originated, but it is funny.

Excerpts from a Dog's Diary

8:00am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9: 30am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10: 30am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00pm - Milk Bones! My favorite thing!
7:00pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!


Excerpts from a Cat's Diary

Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am.

Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow - but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe . . .

. . . for now . . .

Leahy Caught Doing the Right Thing

Thom Hartmann is always reminding people to call out our politicians (no matter which party) when they "get caught" doing the right thing. When Pat Leahy caused the White House to be subpoenaed over illegal wire taps and then was summarily ignored, I admit I was skeptical if there would be any follow-up by the Democrats. But today Patrick Leahy, Vermont Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would hold the White House in contempt if they failed to respond to the subpoenas. He said he would prefer cooperation but that he felt the Whitehouse was currently in contempt and had been provided enough time to reply already.

Thank you Senator Lehey. I don't know how this is going to end but people of courage are going to be the ones who make a difference.

Beth's Blog: Countdown On NBC#links

I like the statement: 'NBC SVP Phil Griffin (said), "The world has changed, and I think people have come in line with the smart, focused approach [Keith (Oberman)] has on the show."'

Beth's Blog: Countdown On NBC#links

My Dues at Work

The ACLU has filed suit with the FISA court over the extraordinary surveillance powers given this administration. And the court has ruled the government must answer the ACLU. Further, the government must explain any continued withholding of facts. The government has been given until August 31st to respond. The ACLU in turn must respond to what the government gives them by September 14th.

I don't know if any further rulings have been made or can be inferred if the ACLU challenges the government's response. I would have to assume the court would hold the government in contempt if they fail to respond, but I have no idea what if any the effect of holding the government in contempt would be. That is unless they simply hold key players in contempt (whom would they choose do you suppose). And contempt can mean jail time.

I don't know how this will all work out, but I want to congratulate the ACLU for this unprecedented move. If Congress lacks the moral courage to find out and make public the truth, the true freedom fighters will need to step in. I think this bodes well for our democracy.