11:32 AM Oh hey, meant to commiserate with Tom. I've watched my IRA drop to below what I've put into it. Granted, I haven't been putting anything into it in some time, but it's still a drag. Imagine being 2 years away from your planned retirement and realizing that you've got 60% of what you had just a couple years ago. Of course, if you're that near to retirement your funds should probably have been moved anyways, but the point remains that people have lost a lot of paper wealth. The real drag is that you're getting out while it's low; ideally you'd be buying now while everything's in the crapper with the expectation that it will go up (Apple stock comes to mind right now), but who knows how many other Enrons and WorldComs are out there waiting to implode?

I'm not sure what to think about the "voting with my feet" idea, though I understand the sentiment. Capital flows where it will; it's a virus like humans and language (grin). I'm thinking I should be investing in beach front property in Belieze.

unrelated: i love coming across forgotten links in my bookmarks. Quorn!

11:04 AM The return of the West Coast Two! Can't wait to hear travel tales of debach, shenanigans and whatnot. Mayhaps tonight at Second Story (I plan on being there), or at the least at NotriousS/Spab's shing-ding tomorrow. Excellsior!

For Entwistle:

A missionary arrives in Africa and as he steps from his boat, he is greeted by the loudest tribal drumming he has ever heard. 'Fantastic,' he says to the elders, 'do the drums ever stop?' 'Drums stop, very bad,' says one of the elders. The drums carry on playing constantly and during the meal he asks another of the elders 'doesn't it bother you, the drums carrying on all the time?' 'No, drums stop, very bad, very bad,' he replies. After many more hours the missionary retires to his bed and spends ages trying to get to sleep but is kept awake for hours by the drumming. 'Bloody hell,' he says, 'will that frigging drumming never stop?' 'No, drums stop, very bad, very bad,' says an elder, at the same moment that the drumming stops. 'Thank wobbly Christ for that,' says the missionary, but the elder looks absolutely panicked. 'Why is it so bad, anyway, not having that constant drumming?' The elder replies, 'because when the drums stop it's the bass solo.'

I tried to find lyrics for "Dancing Master" from "Too Late the Hero," but didn't. Oh well. He was a great bass player, yessir.

Not even the wayback maching has the recent Onion archived with the short article "Ted Nugent Always Talks Like That" or something to that effect; wish I'd linked to it when it was up. Sean's link to that Salon article was interesting, tho I doubt I'd want to meet that bozo in person. Yes, it's cool that he's planted all those trees, and I think he's right on about managing wildlife as a way to preserve it (as happens each year here in Southern Indiana's cultural jewel, when deer season opens), but he's also a self-centered moron. He totally ducked what I thought was a good question: what would happen if everyone started hunting their own food?

Which is a poor seque into the Huffman post about managing wilderness. Chris, like your link says, the horses aren't indiginous to North America. Humans, however, are (depending on how far back you want to go, I suppose). We like to think of humans as "unnatural" but we're a part of nature too. We seem to have a bigger impact on our environment than other species, but we're also capable of addressing that impact (in theory). I think of wildlife management as sort of a euphemism for managing ourselves to minimize our impact. It's what we should be doing, I think. The idea of treading lightly and leaving no trace is a fine idealistic goal to strive for, but ultimately we're here and we're going to have an effect.

But the main thing that caught my eye was something you mention: "It was great to be reminded of this beautiful and advanced culture that fights every day to survive in the very places that it thrived just a short time ago. But that is a very long story with a very sad ending that I don't feel like explanding on." I guess I wanted to emphasize the "fights every day to survive" over the "very sad ending"'; nothing's ended. We're still a nation amongst many nations, though like most people I tend to imagine that's not the case.

At last week's Farmer's Market there was a guy at a table with info about Canku Luta, a non-profit raising buffalo to increase the herd in Black Hills so that people living there can continue to live traditionally. This stuff is going on all over the place. I want to learn more.

Am I the only one jealous of Licia's wild ride? I've started trying to come up with some sort of multi-year plan for myself (no, really, I mean it) so that eventually I could at least seriously think about living outside of the workforce for a time. The thing about 3year plans, though, is that they take 3 years to follow through. I'm more of a 15-minute attention-span type of guy.

Shameless plug: maybe you're like me and you've made a spreadsheet for yourself at work using MS Office. You bring it home, but you don't have Office installed. You're certainly not going to give MS one red cent for that program, much less the hundreds of dollars they want you to spend, but you still have options. You could rise the jolly roger and "get a copy" from work or a friend, or you could get a college buddy to pick up a $5 copy from IU. Or you could just download Open Office and not mess with MS at all! I've done so, and while my spreadsheet needs are minimal (just something to show where my paycheck goes, please), I have to say that this program is SAh-Wheat! (as Becky would say). Or is that Suite? (sorry, bad pun). Anyhoo, I like it. I plan on recommending it to the State of Indiana as a way to cut costs. Imagine, if the state licenses a copy of office for every employee (how many thousands is that?) for say, $100 each (probably more), think of the savings! O'Bannon will be thanking ME for the billiions!

Okay, I think I need to step away from the Blogger for a moment, perhaps to work on my top-secret fool-proof trick to get Pat to post more often, perhaps to load up a different BBS (not different BS, that'll always be the same) to replace now-defunct forum pages, perhaps to muck about with the home page a little, or perhaps (most likely) to start watching Bichunmoo, something I'd been thinking about buying online, but then found at the library (libraries rock!). Or maybe I'll do something else....

It's Friday people! Friday! Screw that 'make the most of every day' pap; THIS IS FRIDAY! heehee.

12:11 PM Okay, I guess this is a situation where comments would be a convenient thing ... does anyone use the tanque.org home page for the links? I was thinking of moving all the links to the links page and making tanque.org a simpler page, but I don't want to cut anybody off. (I'm not changing the pop-up - I'll probably add more links to it)

1:05 AM Hey Liz, I appreciate you describing your distaste for recent posts; I share some of that. I don't think you were referring exclusively to Brad, but all I can say is that Brad's proud of making "condescending, dismissive and snide remarks" in his posts, so if he bugs ya, just don't read him. Of course, that's no reason to stop reading tanquelogue regularly, and I'm hoping it doesn't kill your motivation to post either, because I'm your biggest fan. It's unsatisfying to say "just don't read it" since there is a feel of community at play here (despite my tendency to pretend it doesn't exist), but I think that's the only way to go. Part of the reason I'm not all that interested in getting comments installed on this page is that I'm not all that interested in turning this (tanquelogue) into a forum. This is where I post MY thoughts and opinions; it's extremely easy for anyone to post their own thoughts on their own page, so I don't feel any responsibility to provide more of a forum than I already have. If someone reading this page feels the urge to reply to something I've posted, you can shout it, or post to the forum (eventually to be replaced with a different bbs system), or email me, or, well.... that's enough about that.

Man, I just watched Hardball tonight, and I feel the urge to say that Falwell is a moron, and Ann Coulter is a snit. I need to watch more conservative news programming; it's fun and agravating and hilarious all at the same time. I know most people will think there's no reason to examine the "under God" phrase in the pledge, but I've never understood why that was there in the first place. Isn't the US a secular government? Same goes with the "In God We Trust" on all our money. As far as I'm concerned, get rid of it. I'm curious to see how all this shakes out. Of course, I'm willing to compromise: we can change the phrases to say "one nation, under Bacchus" and "in Bacchus we trust."

Let's see, what else have I been meaning to blog lately? I watched "My Dinner With Andre" this week and loved it. I hadn't realized before now that the actors in that film were playing themselves. Very interesting, it's a good conversation between two thoughtful individuals trying to get to something real. I recommend it.

I also finished Strega by Andrew Vachss. Vachss is a cheeseball in many ways, but he's also very consice with his language, and while the world he describes is out there, it does ring true. If you're looking for good hard-boiled crime fiction, I'd say read Flood or Strega (the first two of his Burke novels). Memorable passages include a description of a scared prison inmate's entry into the world of white supremacy, and speculation about the creation of the AIDS virus. He's written a Batman novell, which I think I need to read soon. And I think I need to make a point of keeping fiction in my reading rotation.

And, well, I guess that's all I have for now. I want to mention that I think American Psycho is a hilarious movie, it grows on me with each viewing and I think I need to own a copy eventually. Really, it's funny. It's no Ishtar, but that's really apples and oranges.

"Then there's this Ya-Ya Sisterhood thing. I was totally suckered into seeing it, because I saw an ad that had Ashley Judd in her bra, and the movie has "ya-ya"s in the title. I figured it'd be like Porky's for the next generation." via onion.

must get sleep.-

12:43 PM Today's a blah day. But life is still grand.

Trying to take over the world but running low on henchmen supplies? Try VillianSupply.com I found this on the webfoot site, where I also heard that the creator of Shoutbox has decided to drop further development on it. Not a really big deal, but I was curious to see what the next version would be like.

I meant to post a link to USUFRUCT earlier. I'd never heard that word before, and I can't believe that it hasn't come up before (to my knowledge) in all the discussions about Napster and internet radio and fair use and all that, since it pretty much sums describes why I don't feel bad about downloading music off the internet. It's kinda funny that it turns up in this Buckley article about the nation's rail system.

and now, some links from other pages:

• via plep: looking for some new weblogs to read? Ricebowl
• via Apathy: a fun comic called CatAndGirl. On of my faves: dork/nerd defined.
• cat stories via obscure store: cat spat, and a kitty underground railroad.

8:52 AM Happy Birthday, Amy!

7:10 AM Quicky-mini-Monday-morning-post Nice hot weekend passed, and I'm turning into an AC junkie; Plants are coming along well (though I'm not sure that I'm doing everything right, and the presence of ants still concerns me); Potato-Man subscribers have something new coming down the pike - and it's good; saw Minority Report and was underwhelmed; realized that the library has the second season of The Sopranos on DVD (score!); and saving the best for last, my cousin had a baby this weekend (woo-hoo!). New beard pix later this week (can't hardly wait, canya?). Brownie points for the first person to guess the source of the current tanque.org homepage graphic (hint: it's a movie). Stroke!

9:56 AM another Friday quickie: Chris and Sarah sittin' in a tree / m-a-r-r-i-e-d - One year this Sunday. Congrats you two!

6:57 AM Ah, the morning paradox. The alarm goes off at 5, I reach up to turn it back to 5:30 (my manual snooze) and cozy back into bed amongst pillows, comforter and various snoozing felines. Laying there, a thought crosses my mind: I wish it were 4:15 instead of 5:15, because then I'd have more sleep time left. But then again, if I was awake at 4:15 instead of 5:15, I'd have gotten less sleep, right? I think the earlier-waking equation only works on weekends and days off, when waking up early and staying in bed can really be savored, as opposed to those mornings when an agenda looms.

I stumble out of bed, out the front door and to the curb, looking to see if the trash guys have already come, but I don't see any cans set out up and down the street. This is Friday, isn't it? I wonder. It's probably too late anyways, I figure, and we don't have too much; it can wait another week. Such are my mornings....

Happy Birthday Sean! It's a day early, but what the heck.

Liz, I hear ya. I don't really have much to add concerning things prickish, but I do like reading your posts. It's cool to hear about the record deal stuff. Viva Indie Rock!

And did I send happy thoughts towards Momma and Poppa Huffman yet? I'm looking forward to seeing you guys baby-juggling little Chrisah Jr.

So, Catharine and Dan are on their way (or at least on their way to getting on their way) this morning. Sounds like they'll have fun on their trip. She came by last night to make sure she knew how to download pix from their digital camera, so hopefully we'll see some photos from Europe before too long (though she'll be depending on internet cafes for her connection, so I'm not sure how that'll work out). While noodling around with the camera, we got this masterful portrait of the beard, which I know you all live for these days.

Shari tells me I look like the Uni-bomber in this picture.

and just like that, it was Friday.

3:07 PM for Peptide: O'Bannon thanks state employees for commitment to voluntary furlough program. I've taken a couple days off without pay, but I don't really want to lose a day's pay every month. They've asked us to commit to taking one day a month off, telling us that those who do "will not be subject to any similar cost-saving measures that may be imposed by the State during this time period." Not quite ominous, but it does sound like they're keeping their options open.

Aside from that, I've got a cube with a view, which is quite a nice thing. I can see the baseball stadium from here, and the Hoosier Dome, and if I lean out I can see the canal and the river.

9:33 AM Nefarious clutter.

Bill, I miss Zaxxon.

10:56 AM Whew! I had a great time up at the lake this weekend (thanks Justine & Scott for having us up!), but came back stuffed up and groggy. Shari's worse off. Sick day. In the words of the sage Jibber: Po Tay Toe. My cat's breath smells like kitty food.

I need to start working on my conspiracy novel, "Or Did They Get to You, Too? [fnord]" For the record, I find conspiracy theories both fascinating and depressing. Stay Free is a magazine I picked up a Boxcar Books the other day, which I had forgotten about, then picked up again, and which is so far interesting. What's the signifigance? I DON'T KNOW! (hee hee).

"We should pause to reflect on just how far the United States has moved beyond anything that could be called a human scale of political order. The Constitution was framed for 3 million people in thirteen sovereign states. When the first Congress met in 1790, there was one representative for every 30,000. Since only property-holding white males could vote, that was close to Plato's ideal figure of around 5,000 voting citizens per state. By 1910, the U.S. population was 90 million, and Congress capped representation in the House at 435, where it remains today. Now, however, there are 287 million Americans, yielding a ratio of one representative for every 655,000. If we apply this ratio to 1790, there would have been only five members in the House of Representatives. Or, to put it another way, if the ratio of the Framers existed today, there would be around 9,000 members in the House. A debilitating body of that size would be out of scale. But does that mean that the ratio of the Framers is out of scale, or that the union has simply grown too large?

"Congress and the president now spend over 2 trillion dollars per year, about two thirds of the gross national product of Germany. This vast amount runs through the hands of only 435 representatives, 100 senators, and one president. Never has so much financial power been controlled by so few. But it gets worse: nine unelected Supreme Court Justices make major social policy for 287 million, and the executive branch, through its creation of "administrative law," has become a vast legislative body not answerable to the people in any meaningful sense." Donald Livingston, "Dismantling Leviathan," from the January issue of Chronicles, reprinted in Harper's 5/2002

I wish this was online so I could just link to it. Food for thought. fnord

"There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in history people have waited until it was too late to resist. President Bush has declared: "You're either with us or against us." Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say not in our name. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed." link

And continuing to compare ... yes, Amos, there's the difference that Native Americans aren't killing non-combatents in protest (I tried to make that point when I mentioned the lack of any Hamas-type organization). Of course, they're at least 7 generations ahead of the Palestinians in terms of their defeat. They're also not surrounded by sympathetic nations. If you polled american natives in the 1860's, you might have found a large percentage of them also agreed that the threat to them was so strong that it justified killing innocents. I don't know. I've never lived under an authority that saw fit to bulldoze my neighborhood because my neighbors were threatening, so I can only guess what sort of mindset that cultivates. And as far as Palestinians "giving up," I didn't mean to imply that I think they will; I was trying to guess what the long term strategy of Israeli policy is. I really don't understand it. They seem to want to pummel the palestinians in to submission, which doesn't make any sense to me.

Still blundering along....

11:46 AM Happy Birthday Justine!

"The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this." -John Stuart Mill

I watched Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 this week. While it wasn't as much fun as The Omega Code, it still has plenty of enjoyable moments. I love both these movies. I think it has to do, beyond b-movie-with-a-budget feel of them, with the way they tell a story from an arm's length. You follow the characters, but there's never any inner character exploration; the story is the main thing, not the individuals. In that way it reminds me of old Soviet filmmaking like Potemkin, were we're not supposed to focus too much on the individual but rather on the larger scope of the tale. After all, this is a story about the end of The World, not of the relationship between two brothers.

It reminds me also of Christ The Vampire, a great little book I'll have to hunt down again (I lost my copy soon after college), where the story is deliberately told in a way to de-emphasize the individual characters (it's sortof a socialist thing, if I remember correctly). I've read one other book by that author, Eccarius, called "We Should Have Killed the King," written in a similar style about anarchists tearing apart the power structure and taking to the hills and whatnot (memory fades, I need to hunt this stuff back down). The title refers to a peasant revolt where the lumpen take control of the king's palace, but are convinced by his pleas for compassion to let him live if he promises to change his tyranical ways. Once they've dispersed, he raises his security forces and punishes them all for their rebellion.

Perhaps it reveals more about me than I'd like to mention that around the time I was reading that stuff was soon after I'd read my first Chomsky, back in the early to mid 90's as I recall, coming out of college with my telecommunications degree and absolutely no idea of how I was going to fit into society. Two years earlier I'd been reading Wilson's Illuminati! and Cosmic Trigger. Good stuff. I vaguely remember realizing that anarchists weren't just punk rockers (in fact, much of mainstream punk rock was just about anarchy, not anarchism), that they had some pretty interesting things to say about the world. I have yet to come to terms with the application of anarchistic ideals in the world, but I continue to find value in that perspective.

Tom, you're right that weblogging gets over-analyzed (witness that recent NYTimes article - too lazy to find the link - which was basically about how people with weblogs don't all share the same views; duh), but I'm not sure that's what I was getting at. The fact that I can communicate with someone 1000 miles away is what interests me, not that I can piss them off. Viva self-publishing, which has evolved thoughout my whole life and I'm sure will continue to do so. There's that private/public overlap, which takes some getting used to - but there I go overanalyzing it again. As for palestinians ...

Huffman makes some interesting points comparing native americans to palestinians. However, I don't think the US regularly fires on native americans, or bulldozes their homes and farms, or takes seige of their property with military force. I'm also curious about the comparison between the prospects for citizenship offered to native americans in america v. the prospects of Israli citizenship offered palestinians (guess I should just research that on my own, though). Yes, the native american reservations aren't home to radical terrorist organizations like Hamas, but if they were I'd like to think the US wouldn't just plow through entire villages to get to them. Where I do see an interesting comparison, however, is the idea of how far back should the rights of the original residents go. I don't know how to judge this, but at some point it seems that history just moves on, and those who's ancestors were screwed over just have to get on with it. Northern Ireland comes to mind; the IRA needs to come to terms with the fact that NI is not going to become free of England, and blowing up innocent people isn't helping anyone (although there are still good fights to be fought, defending against the protestant militia groups there for instance). The Israeli government seems to think that if they can just hold onto the settlements for a generation or two, eventually the displaced people will just despair and give up. They're probably right. Doesn't make it less repugnant to me, but there you go.

and now some links:

The threats are so ghastly that "if we wait for [them] to fully materialise, we will have waited too long." And he drew the inference: America must "be ready for pre-emptive action when necessary." link. Does this remind anyone else of Minority Report?

Many Americans, however, are unlikely to worry about the legal niceties of the circumstances of a man Mr Bush has called "a threat to the country", who is now "off the streets". link Many, but some of us are still sticklers for little things like due process, especially when we're not given much to go on. I'm still willing to recognize that the govt did the right thing with this guy, but not based on the evidence I have to go on so far.

No one at the White House seems to have done anything wrong during the event at the heart of the "scandal". Later, though, several members of the administration provided explanations that were disingenuous. And, rather as the Enron affair revealed systemic problems within the business world, the new scandal is prompting questions about the way America's intelligence agencies work. link File this under "don't call it a conspiracy, it's just the way things are done." I don't for a minute think that the president knew jack about anything prior to 9-11, but what's up with Rice saying "no one could have imagined this"?

Finally, the story Christopher links to is powerful stuff. I don't even really know what to say.

9:25 AM heehee....

7:09 AM Short week - I have tomorrow off so today is really Friday for me (YeeHaw!). Tomorrow I'll be heading to the wilds of Northern Indiana to do things lake-related, and get to see Bart and Christy (of Rox fame), so this weekend should be a good one.

I meant to post this earlier, but I can only wonder if the dates of the Chimp break-ins Bill linked to coincide with John's recent trip....

12:46 AM Okay, here's a post I might just throw away....

I'm coming full circle on Huffman's recent post about what he feels comfortable about discussing online and what he doesn't: "Life is the individual journey of discovery for these answers. It's just something that people have to come to on their own." Here's the thing: while I totally understand why someone wouldn't want to have to defend their opinions on the internet (it's tedious and rarely rewarding, in my experience), I really do like reading what my friends have to say. And while I think I understand the idea that you can't force somebody to re-evaluate their perspective on a certain topic, I don't think that means you shouldn't describe your perspective. At least, I value it when someone takes the time to describe their perspective on something. But by reading your page, I'm already "coming to it on my own"; I'm interested in what you have to say, otherwise I wouldn't be reading your webpage.

I know some of my friends aren't interested in getting into debates, especially on the internet; that's cool with me. I'm not all that into debating everything either. I have no interest in trying to convince Ernie, for instance, that a zygote isn't a human being; I respect his perspective, but don't share it, and that's that. I also respect that some of my friends don't want to have the heavy conversations take place via weblogs; feelings get hurt. That's reason enough for me.

The thing for me is, I sometimes want to post to articles like this, even though I know it's not what some of my friends think. It might go so far as to offend some people. I don't know. It's not my intention to offend, but I run that risk. It's hard. I think I'm easily offended too, though I like to picture otherwise.

This is a tedious business. Here's a mystery quote, which has nothing to do with any of this:

"Worst of all is the technical development which produces the means for the destruction of human life, and the dearly created products of labor. We older people lived through that shudderingly in the World War. But even more terrible than this destruction seems to me the unworthy servitude into which the individual is swept by war. Is it not terrible to be forced by the community to deeds which every individual feels to be most despicable crimes? Only a few have had the moral greatness to resist; they are in my eyes the true heroes of the World War." link

Peace.

8:49 AM

Tom Tomorrow asks the question that I've been wondering over the past day or so: "why did they decide to use this guy [Abdullah Al Mujahir] as the test case for the dismantling of the Constitution?" It sounds like he refused to answer questions about what he was doing abroad, but so far I'm not seeing the rest of the picture. How long should they be allowed to hold this guy without granting access to a lawyer or pressing any charges?

7:10 AM Happy Birthday Liz! The 30's have been pretty cool, but I think there's a lot of potential for the 40's, too. :)

"According to (Chomsky/Ned/my aunt Mazey), this kind of (shit/poppycock/malarkey) has been going on since (the Old Testament/1879/I cheated on her with a bridesmaid at my brother's wedding/M*A*S*H was still on)" heehee. Nice, Tom. Get that thing scripted up so that it randomizes the output, and you could probably go on vacation and fool us into thinking you're still posting. It goes nicely with the "Law of Limited Ideas" you linked to earlier, and with the chart that killed Liz's will-to-blog.

I remain, however, a firm believer in the value of the blog, particularly as a way to get "meaningless prattling about life" from my friends, whatever the trend is (despite the fact that I've been posting less lately for some reason). We saw Jim and Clint off last night at the Upland; they begin their northwest adventure today. Color me a little jealous.

7:09 AM Looks like there's some MySQL problems with my host this morning (hence the error message on Shoutbox, which stores it's data in MySQL table); I'm sure it will be back soon.

2:39 AM I wonder sometimes if I've been around cats for much of my life because I have a feline personality, or if I have a feline personality because I've been around cats most of my life. Of course, I don't have a working definition for "feline personality," but I know what I mean. Having had "pet" allergies all my life, I think it's a real shame when I hear that someone is allergic to cats or dogs. My allergies seem to melt away after I've lived with a particular animal for a while (building tolerance, I suppose, or generating empathy perhaps), but I definately retain the ability to react negatively to new dog/cat dander. There's a part of me that will always think of the idea of pets as odd, but I like living with cats.

Scooping, by the way, was not enough. It's time to dump the old and start anew with fresh litter, but that's another project.

Here's something that cracked me up tonight, though at the time I was a little too stressed to appreciate it: near the end of the day at work I'd gone off-site to swap out some back-up tapes, and I got a page that we were having some serious network issues (connections dropped, no one able to authenticate to servers, &etc.). It was towards the end of the day, after 4, but still obviously affecting a bunch of staff. I get back in my car, frustrated that I couldn't get the problem resolved quickly over the phone, and drive back to the office, and when I get back to our floor, two of the help desk guys greet me by falling to their knees and bowing as if in prayer. Man, it was goofy and we were all laughing (though I was still in "freaked out, gotta figure out what the problem is" mode), but I just remembered it now, as I was typing at my computer and listening to Eddie purr, and it makes me grin.

I'll tell ya, while Clint's prediction of my lack of phone-responding post-novel-sold-to-Hollywood might be accurate, I suspect that the opposite is just as likely. When I hit the "big time" I'll be calling on a regular basis, usually after midnight and drunk, offering to fly anyone out who's willing to join the debauchery train, even after repeated attempts to convince me that my friends are happy where they are, that they don't want to throw their careers away, that I should really call back sometime when they don't have to be at work in 4 hours. At least, that's how I picture it.

And...

Jibber's recent post about conspiracy theories reminded me of a Chomsky interview I'd heard a several years ago:

"We want to find out the truth about the way things work. There are doubtless cases in which people get together, in fact, every example we find of planning decisions is a case where people got together and tried to figure something out and used their power or the power that they could draw from to try to achieve a result. If you like, that's a conspiracy. So with that definition everything that happens is a conspiracy. So if the Board of General Motors gets together and decides what kind of Chrysler, Ford, something, to produce next year, that's a conspiracy. Every business decision, every editorial decision ... "

"Take, say, the CIA, which is considered the source of lots of conspiracies. We have a ton of information about them, and as I read the information, they're pretty loyal bureaucrats and do what they're told. As far as the Pentagon goes, they'll push their interests, and the services will push their interests, but in pretty transparent ways."

link. It's a long interview, but if you search that page for "conspiracy" you'll find the section I quote.

And while I'm linking/quoting Noam, this cracked me up and made me smile: Chomsky v. Bennett

And as far as abortion goes.... You know, a valued friend of mine had this to say regarding abortion a while back:

"The pro-choice movement is about protecting a woman's right to control her own body. That's the most fundamental thing. And the pro-choice movement talks about abortion in these terms because if they don't convince you of this essential point, to a large degree rest is inconsequential. That's the right, the rest really doesn't mean shit - all the empathy in the world, the classroom debates, and the moral judgements - they don't mean crap because either a woman has a right to control what happens to her body or she doesn't."

That pretty much sums it up for me too.

7:27 AM Woke up this morning an hour or so before dawn to the quite pleasing sound of gentle rain and a ton of bird calls, and cool breezes through open windows. Very nice. Even the prospect of work in a short time couldn't spoil it.

Two things I meant to post last night: first, Classic Pyx wants to be Classical Film and Music reborn, at least in terms of DVD's and VHS, and is offering charter memberships as a way to generate some seed money. It sounds like a good deal, and while I'm not sure that that sort of store can really survive on the square, I'd sure like it to. Details (like what rental costs will be) are slim, but basically if you give him 20 bucks now, you'll get 25 bucks rental credit. Part of next paycheck is earmarked.

Secondly, I meant to comment on Heidi's post yesterday: making dinner with loved ones doesn't sound mundane to me, it sounds like where it's at. Nourishment for mind/body/soul and all that. I don't make enough time to cook at home as much as I should; gotta remember to do that.

And while I'm making notes to self: trash night tonight, must scoop!

10:28 PM It's so rare that I end up in Second Story these days that it felt a little odd when I happened to be there this past Friday night. Events leading up to this turn of events are as follows: Despite my best efforts to the contrary, I was in fact in condition to play some racquetball early on Friday, as it was a non-work day for me. Sean, my usual ride for such affairs, has taken to riding his bike, and so I was to do so as well. I pulled the old horse out of the basement and peddled off after Sean, panting and beginning to wonder about my condition when we finally arrived, but storm clouds loomed, and we decided to put the bikes in Sean&Sonya's garage and drive (gotta get my bike out of Lake Benham soon). So there was racquetball; we were late.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Shanti, a nice change from the usual La Charriada fare, followed by a short walk down Kirkwood and some ice cream, and later some coffee. Pretty nice to be hanging with 3 generations of Ansaldos, I must say.

And then when I got home, the evening still relatively young, there was a lengthy rambling message on the machine from Jimmy, and when I called back I talked to Jennifer, who in her wisdom ridiculed my attempts at claiming weariness and said they'd be by shortly to transport me to Second Story. Before leaving I consulted with Shari in terms of fashion; when one asks, "does this look too dorky?" and the result is a long, reflective pause, you already have your answer, c'est vrai? Never one to shy from the dorky, I kept on my outfit of plaid shorts, brown shoes, white socks and new birthday rugby shirt, quickly sucked down another Rhinelander, and then went to my carriage.

So the cool thing was, sitting at a table with some of the usual suspects, was not necessarily that I was back in Second Story, but rather that I was watching Jimmy up on stage, however briefly, playing bass again before a live audience. But it was also just fun to be back watching bands at the old haunt, even though it was quite a mellow affair. I said hello to John the Bartender, always sure that he won't remember me, and my ego was given a small boost as he handed me my bottle and said, "I didn't recognize you at first!" (referring to the beard). Aha, yes. I'm not sure he knows my name, but he does seem to recognize me.

Yeah, paying bar prices for beer and listening to live music. Fun stuff. I pick that out as a single moment in a sea of moments since I've last blogged, as I don't really feel the urge or need to catalog every little Nedsperience here; perhaps there'd be something to be learned from that, but the odds are against. Thanks to all who gave the birthday shouts! I have to admit that my birthdays are really non-events, with each passing year becoming sillier and sillier to recognize, but it is good to pay attention to passing time, n'est pas? In any event, I've sort of cultivated the birthday as non-event for the past several years now, if only to build a defense to my own shameful record of remembering anyone else's. Shari's got the birthday thing down to a science.

Man, color me jealous, Licia; blissfully unemployed and looking to travel. It all sounds so open-ended. Does this mean you're moving out of Portland? You've got a couch waiting here in Bloomington anytime.

It's funny, Shari's watching Evita in the other room, and I have to admit that I like the tunes. They're good background to typing.

K-rad's recent land purchase also has me feeling quite jealous. I feel I'll be in the renter's trap for some time to come, as I've gotten myself into so much debt. She asked about music selections/suggestions, but I don't think she'd be into the same stuff as me. I've been grooving on two Fugazi albums heavy-duty recently: "the argument" (the latest) and "end hits." I don't think the lyrics by themselves really capture what I like about the songs (being separated from the atmosphere and energy of the music), so I'm not posting any right now, though I probably will one of these days....

Here's a review of The Argument that rang true for me: link.

Hmmm.... meant to post more tonight, but this is about all the time I have for bloggin tonight. Peace, peeps.