This just in

Thank you for the gift of life, mom.
Thank you for the gift of life, dad.
My life is something I try to use
in the best way possible
each and every day.
So, thank you,
parents
and grandparents
and ancestors
and everyone,
thank you for the gift of life. • 10:48 AM 0 comments

Bernie vs. JackBog

Step one: Local blogger rants about a public official(and, in the comments, gets lots of love and attention), and heaps scorn upon the elected official.

Step two: Elected official responds with a reasonable request to speak to the local blogger directly and defend himself.

Step three: Myself and others ask the perfectly legitimate question: will the local blogger take the elected official up on his offer?

It's early, and JackBog has not (as of my posting this) responded to the question, but I'd like to offer my prediction:

No, JackBog will not meet personally with Sheriff Bernie.

My take is that JackBog is all about complaining about stuff to his adoring Greek chorus, and not about actually doing something about the problems he complains about.

But, as I said, it's early yet... and everyone's waiting. • 8:32 PM 0 comments

Ideas in limbo

I haven't been posting lately. That's not to say that I haven't had ideas, or even sat down when I have some spare minutes and there are trucks in my tubes bringing me stuff. But it feels like my ideas lately are half-baked and not worthy of putting back on the truck for delivery to the world wide internets of tubes.

F'rinstance, I went into Blogger and took at look at all my saved draft posts. These are the ones I've started but haven't actually published yet. I have 28 - 28 unfinished thoughts, going back to when I first started this blog three years ago.

Not to get all meta on y'all, but for the record, and just because it'll give me something to talk about, here is a list of those draft posts, in chronological order.

• 3/11/05 - "More music I want to actually pay for"
  
• 3/30/05 - Another post about music.
  
• 11/4/05 - I found a picture on Flickr that looks like Bucky from "Get Fuzzy". Click it and see for yourself - luckily link rot hasn't taken hold, even after all this time.
  
• 12/13/05 - I started a list of things I'd like for Festivus - even though it felt a little greedy or selfish. Apparently I never got over that selfish feeling because obviously I never actually posted the list.
  
• 12/19/05 - A list of the movies I'd seen in 2005 (there were 35 total and several that I saw more than once)
  
• 12/22/05 - I started a post about a profile I saw on Salon Personals that gave me a clue about a new book by a favorite author - Arthur Nersesian.
  
• 3/24/06 - An alphabetical memetag game that I got from Tracy - and never posted.
  
• 4/9/06 - A post about installing Windows on my new sexy thing.
  
• 4/9/06 - Two separate political posts - one a review of seeing A-list bloggers Markos Moulitsas Zúniga and Jerome Armstrong discussing their book at Powell's City of Books, and an announcement about my starting a local political blog (which has come and gone, I'm afraid).
  
• 4/29/06 - Discussing how many of Jim Emerson's 102 movies everyone must see, that I've seen (it's 38).
  
• 6/3/06 - Annotating a Harvey Danger song, "Diminishing Returns".
  
• 8/1/06 - The second in my "Philosophy of Life" series.
  
• 8/18/06 - A post about the roles I prefer (and don't prefer) to play in life.
  
• 9/1/06 - A post describing book scouting as a way to make some money.
  
• 12/2/06 - A phone call from my dad.
  
• 1/1/07 - A couple of vacation-related posts - my Christmas trip to NYC "by the numbers", and an account of my New Year's Eve trying to get into Times Square.
  
• 1/1/07 - A bunch of lists summing up 2006 - movies seen, favorite posts of my own and others, how I did on last year's resolutions and what my new resolutions will be.
  
• 1/19/07 - A oath of fealty to Jessica Biel's shiny metal ass.
  
• 2/7/07 - Describing several strange dreams I'd had lately and discussing Lucid Dreaming.
  
• 2/7/07 - Bank of Amerca's "Shop Safe" program and how it's more about marketing than about actually combating identity theft.
  
• 2/7/07 - A discussion on Steve Job's controversial editorial "Thoughts on Music".
  
• 2/15/07 - Talking about watching the original "Star Wars" with Kevin, and being amazed at how much I know and remember about that movie.

There. That's all my draft posts. Now I'm caught up!

...oh, fine, some of those I might actually get around to finishing and posting. • 12:06 PM 0 comments

I win

I win!

"DJ" realizes that no one is buying his bullshit and gives up.

And he did, in fact, modify his previous, unoriginal, insult. Getting a troll to modify a previous statement can definitely be considered a "win".

Dealing with tolls is fun sometimes. • 9:29 PM 0 comments

More on dishonest arguments

Tee-hee!

Aw, that's so cute! I got a rise out of one of the global climate change deniers!

And this "DJ" had to ignore what I was actually saying and then jump in with another example of the type of dishonest argument that I was describing. He's only parroting things that other people, the people who push him around and feed off his fear, have told him to say, things that have no bearing on the scientific debate and the search for solutions to the problem at hand. His misunderstanding of actual, valid scientific dissent makes a mockery of intelligent discussion.

Don't worry, "DJ"! When scientists and politicians and the progressive movement comes up with the solution to the global climate change that humans (humans like you!) have caused, you'll benefit from it just as do we. Unless of course your brains have exploded from having to deny that up is actually up and white is actually white.

Oh, and water? Still wet.

Yep, "DJ", I'm dismissive and arrogant and I am, in fact, a vastly better human being than you. Why? Because you're the type of "human being" that will deny that horses have four legs just because you're bitter and angry and fearful. You're feeling that way because daddy beat you and mommy ignored you and you know, deep down inside - no, wait, strike that, you wear it on your sleeve - that you're a turd with a computer and you have no impact whatsoever on public discourse or human affairs beyond being a pawn of politicians and CEOs and religious leaders that promise you things they will never deliver in exchange for the only value you offer - a vote every so often and all the spare cash they can siphon out of your bank accounts.

Luckily, as a friend has pointed out, fevered postings of comments like "jon" and "DJ" are unlikely to affect the actual search for solutions. And, yeah, people are working on solutions because, dude, the evidence is in for most people who aren't trading human civilization for money that they won't actually be able to spend it - when - what they're pretending to deny comes to pass.

What's a better stance to take, when faced with the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community?

Standing with your thumbs in your ears and your eyes clamped shut, shouting "La, la, la, I can't hear you!"

Picking apart the evidence until you can find small inconsistencies and then claiming it invalidates the whole thing?

Or realizing that the pattern that emerges from the multiple converging lines of evidence might be real and that we should move on to the search for a fix?

I can't expect someone of such ideological-based blindness to have participated in something as social and wholesome as the Boy Scouts but I think their motto is perfect here: Be prepared. It's, y'know, the position of strength, not weakness.

So you go and keep signing your paychecks over to companies like ExxonMobil, and mortgage your children's future against your ideology (and I mean "children" metaphorically) while the adults take care of things. • 6:57 PM 0 comments

Stop the nonsense

There was another post over at Blue Oregon about George Taylor, the global climate change denier-slash-"State climatologist".

And I get so tired of all the stoopid verbal tricks that deniers use to muddy the debate.

So I had to comment.

Here's my comment. Can you tell I was frustrated?

Sure, greenhouse gases are causing global warming.

Sure, humans produce a large amount of greenhouse gases via industry and combustion.

Sure, it's very simple to demonstrate that the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has risen in frighteningly dramatic fashion in the last 100-200 years.

Sure, carbon is a greenhouse gas.

Sure, the amount of atmospheric carbon directly correlates to global temperature, in the several ways in which we are able to measure historical trends.

Sure, the converging evidence from several differing methodologies points strongly to a future of severe global climate change that can drastically alter geography and human existence.

Sure, an overwhelming number of scientists have looked at the data and have gone on the record as saying that the conclusions are inescapable to any reasonable person.

Sure, even scientists like George Taylor have said that if the global climate change deniers (like himself) are wrong that the consequences will be disastrous for human civilization.

Sure, sometimes, rarely, a global climate change denier may agree with one or even several of the points above.

...still, there's three things deniers can cling to:

1) Any normal level of scientific debate (which, to any reasonable person, does not change the big picture) can be blown up by a denier to mean that "the science isn't in".

2) Abnormal and irrational "up is down" opinions can be purchased in a free market to create "dissent" even if it doesn't exist.

3) And finally, trying to get a denier to admit to the big picture can be unfairly categorized as "stifling dissent".

Do I have that correct, wingnuts? I really grow tired of all their rhetorical tricks and nonsense. They abuse logical thought in ways they don't even understand.

Why don't you just go play in your little fantasy worlds and let the adults worry about the big picture for a while? You've had your chance for the last couple thousand years. Let's let science, rationalism, and logical thought have a chance, eh?

• 12:01 PM 2 comments

Repairdat.org

My friend (and awesome web-host) Caleb has made a little contribution to help New Orleans, at the request of a friend of his.

Repairdat.org is a site that lets people send in items that need repair, and then lets the users of the site vote on which ones need repair first. It's kinda like Digg only specifically aimed at New Orleans, and is intended to be a bridge between the online world and the real world.

Andrew, the inspiration and, I'm assuming, proprietor of the site, has moved to New Orleans to start a non-profit theater company to entertain and help the damaged city and its inhabitants.

The source code for the site is open and freely available on the wiki, although Caleb intends to add many more features as time goes on. • 6:15 AM 0 comments

President's Day

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation, January 17, 1961:

My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.

My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

II.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

III.

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology -- global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger is poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle -- with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

IV.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

V.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

VI.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

VII.

So -- in this my last good night to you as your President -- I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I -- my fellow citizens -- need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

• 9:13 AM 0 comments

Thinking

What have I been thinking about lately?

• Lindsay Lohan and how everyone is so mean to her. Stop being so mean to LiLo! She's dealing with the pressures of stardom and the ready availability of booze and drugs!
  
• The Millenium Falcon, Han Solo and Chewbacca's space ship. I had a dream the other night where I owned that ship, and the first thing I wanted to do was take all my friends for a ride, but nobody was home. I have no idea what that means, other than thinking it was really cool to be piloting the Falcon. Oh, and I was watching the original "Star Wars" with a friend the other night.
  
• When I ask for "room for cream" in my large (20 oz) coffee, I want room to add cream to the damned cup. I'm not talking about a bare 1/8" of space between the top of the liquid and the top of the cup! I mean some friggin' room! Like at least a 1/2".
  
• I love my Chucks, even though they provide little to no support for my feet. I still love them, even though my feet get cold and wet when it rains. I just love them.
  
• I think that my restlessness lately stems from a basic metaphor: that movement equals progress. Because we live with the logic of movement and because our brains connect the logic of movement and journeys to the abstract concepts of progress and its lack (stagnation), if I'm just sittin' around the house watchin' teevee, the metaphor kicks in and triggers a feeling of guilt in me for not, y'know, doing something - i.e., not moving. It's stupid but I can't change it, at least not quickly.

...huh. I thought I'd have more of a list. I guess not. • 1:05 PM 1 comments

New diner!

I carpool with Tracy and her mom every day, and our morning route goes down SW Naito Parkway.

Friday morning I saw a little diner under the Broadway Bridge. It looked old, like it had been there for years, and yet I didn't remember seeing it before. I don't want to bust out my "native Portlander" stories, but believe me, I've got native cred like you wouldn't believe, and for all the times I've been around that end of the Broadway, I didn't remember seeing that diner, called, apparently, "Bridge Diner".

Tracy and her mom were talking when we drove past, and I'm pretty much non-talk-y in the morning, so I didn't say anything at the time, which means I have no witnesses to verify that I noticed anything unusual Friday morning. And it promptly fell out of my head as the day went on, so I didn't google it or anything.

Until this morning, when I checked in on the Portland Mercury blog and saw a post about a movie that's being filmed in Portland, starring Sly Stallone and Diane Lane... and the fake diner they built under the Broadway Bridge for a set, and how it's all weathered and Portland-ized and how Diane Lane was in "Judge Dredd", which I clearly don't remember at all because that movie sucked.

Not that this will convince anyone, but I'm just happy I'm not crazy in that way - the way of "not remembering diners that have been there for years" way. Yay, me! • 10:45 AM 2 comments

I was born ready

I was born ready... to watch this trailer. It makes me giggle like a schoolgirl.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.



Al Freakin' Pacino?

...but, I'm sorry, Ellen Barkin is not an adequate substitute for Julia Roberts.

Although Julia probably wouldn't have been able to top the whole meta "Julia playing Tess playing Julia" thing from "Ocean's 12". • 8:38 AM 0 comments

Don't take it that way

My favorite line from "The Office" last night (from memory):

Ryan: It wasn't personal...

Michael: Of course it was personal. It was business - that's the most personal thing there is.

• 7:06 AM 0 comments

The Triangle closes

I actually told someone yesterday that I don't celebrate St. Valentine's Day because "it's a religious holiday." I was only partly serious - Valentinus was just a name in a list compiled in the early years of church history, and the traditions that we associate with the holiday today may have been invented out of whole cloth by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th Century. So in addition to being a tribute to romantic love, it may also be traditional to tell lies today.

At least that's how I see it. Your views may differ.

Tracy says she used my joke about the Single Person's Bermuda Triangle of holidays: Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day. I can't take complete credit for that joke but I don't remember where I heard it first. For me, New Year's Eve has always seemed more "romantic" than Valentine's Day. Romantic movies almost never have their climax set on a day in February, but how often do the romantic leads finally get together on New Year's Eve? Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal did. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks did. Apparently both Nora Ephron and myself see things the same way.

Nora, if you're not doing anything tonight, contact me.

In any case, I prefer non-traditional celebrations, so even though my family knows I love them, and even though my female friends all know I love them, this one is goin' out to my guy friends.

In a manly way.

• 6:58 AM 0 comments

Standard Management Response #1

Me: I've noticed that I'm getting more of these kinds of trouble tickets. It seems to indicate a pattern.

Management: That customer is probably having a problem with X. Contact that customer and have him/her do Y.

Me: ...I've already talked to that customer. I was trying to bring your attention to the overall pattern.

Management: I am already aware of the pattern and have been working on it for some time.

Me: ...so why is the pattern still occurring?

Management: ...crickets chirping... • 6:18 AM 0 comments

The OTHER "Good Book"

530 Christian congregations held services this past weekend, celebrating Charles Darwin's 198th birthday and the theory of evolution.

That number is up 13% from last year, apparently.

The link above doesn't give the entire article - one has to be a subscriber to New Scientist magazine to read the whole thing. But in the part I can read, I like this quote:

"For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science," says Michael Zimmerman, founder of Evolution Sunday and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University in Indianapolis.

What? Christians are standing up to the voices of the radical right-wing Christianists who have been mixing politics and religion?

That's awesome. The standing-up part, not the mixing-politics-and-religion part (which leads to fascism, actually).

So, happy birthday Charles Darwin, and more power to Michael Zimmerman and Evolution Sunday! • 7:25 AM 0 comments

Anna Nicole

The Anna Nicole Smith story is a sad one. However, it's really a personal one for the family and friends involved, and doesn't have any implications for national or local public policy. It's not really appropriate for national news shows.

Is it? • 12:10 PM 0 comments

Fluid dynamics

It's such a ritual, preparing a cup of coffee. Leaving room for cream, adding just the right amount of sugar, testing it for the proper temperature, all these things must be done before it reaches the sweet spot, the brief moment in time when all the combinations of coffee-bitterness, milky-sugary-sweetness, and perfect warminosity reach their optimum apogee.

Once it's there, it's almost impossible for me to stop drinking it, and before I know it, the cup is empty. Not a cup half-full or half-empty, but filled with nothing but air and not precious life-giving beverage. • 7:22 AM 0 comments

Waiting for my Ruca

Today might be the 10th business day after my state tax return was accepted.

Or it might be the 9th. Depends on if you count the day it got accepted as Day 0, or Day 1.

Either way - fuckers have ANOTHER loophole. They say that you can expect your refund 7 to 10 business days after they've begun processing returns. And who the hell knows when that will begin? It's not like they post that on their website.

C'mon! I've already received my Federal refund! Just give it up, Oregon! • 6:40 AM 1 comments

Neighborly

Sunday morning I was walking back from the grocery store, carrying three bags of stuff to eat for the week. I saw that Old Barfy was sitting outside in front of Peggy's apartment, next door to mine. He shouted out, "How's ol' Brian doin' today?"

I nodded a hello and kept my head down as though deep in thought.

Suddenly Peggy burst out of her apartment, the screen door banging against its stop. She was wearing a faded bathrobe and was adjusting her glasses as if she'd just put them on. "Brian? Where's your cat?" she shouted significantly.

Peggy's normally nice to me, but because I was still in anti-social mood I wasn't reading her correctly. Was she mad at me? Did Smacky do something bad? Or was she worried? I stopped on the sidewalk, weighted down by the bags I carried, facing her. "I think he's in the house," and I moved my right arm slightly towards my front door. "Why?"

She paused a minute. "Do you go up to the store?"

I was still not getting her. I gave her the confused look.

"Foster's Market, she's talking about," Old Barfy offerred from his seat.

"There's a sign up there," she said, "about somebody pouring... something on the cats in the neighborhood."

"It... burns 'em, or somethin'," O.B. said.

"Like... acid?" I asked.

O.B. nodded, and Peggy continued, "Anyway, I just wanted you to know, and to keep an eye on your cat."

"Thanks," I said. "I'm pretty sure he was in my apartment when I left. I hadn't noticed anything on him..." my voice trailed off.

"OK, I just wanted you to know. There's some real weirdos out there."

I nodded again, and then finished walking up to my front door. As I put the bags on the ground to dig out my key, Smacky came bursting out of the bushes and made a black furry streak for the front step. "Shit! There you are! I thought you were inside."

Smacky just flopped over on his side, meowing at me, and rubbing his head on my shoe. He didn't have anything on him that I could see.

I kept him inside the rest of the day, in spite of the weather, until he scratched me a couple of times. That's when I threw him out briefly while I watched a movie. • 6:44 AM 1 comments

HFCS

Still feeling un-wordy. Many things on my mind lately - the hours and hours I spend in bed (14 hours between Friday and Saturday, 12.5 hours between Saturday and Sunday); the guy who got evicted from his apartment upstairs yet now lives with the nice lady next door, who sits outside all the time and drinks and smokes and tries to say 'hi' to everyone who walks by in a really creepy manner; how little I actually use my computers to do something creative; how freakin' cold it is; how hard it is to run in the cold and how that's affected my weekly miles; my super-cool new running shoes; what to do with my tax refund - and by 'what to do' I mean the best way to keep me from spending it all on strippers and pizza; how much teevee I've been watching since I got a DVR...

..oh, my, that sounds like depression, doesn't it? Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. I just feel unsocial and un-wordy. My brain is filled (metaphorically speaking) with images and feelings, a stew of mostly-negative but some positive emotions, and the effort of converting those into words, and the words into movements of my fingers on a keyboard, just seems beyond me lately.

Maybe this is normal for February. I'll keep running when I can, and just keep plugging away at work, and spending time with my friends when I can, and it will sort itself out.

And maybe it's high fructose corn syrup.

Have you heard of this? It's chemically- and enzymatically-enhanced corn juice. Some say it's bad for us in ways we're only beginning to comprehend. It's cheaper to make, in the US, because of all the corn subsidies from the Feds, and it has a longer shelf-life than cane sugar, so I know this: that shit's in everything.

I did some grocery shopping this morning, and one of the items I wanted to stock up on was more jam for my breakfast toast. I normally buy the generic label raspberry, but I've had that for a while, so instead went looking at labels. And I had HFCS on my mind.

Hmmm... the jam I normally buy has HFCS listed as the second ingredient. Why would they add a sweetener to fruit? Seemed odd. Same story with the blackberry and strawberry jams. I realized that there's a difference between "jam", "jelly", "preserves" and "topping". At least, they're all labeled differently, even though I couldn't see a difference. They pretty much all had fruit, water, HFCS, and preservatives.

You'd think that, say, Smucker's "Simply Fruit" preserves would be, oh, I don't know, simply fruit? Maybe a little water? You'd be wrong, my label-reading friend. In fact, Smucker's "Simply Fruit" preserves include fruit, water, preservatives, and both HFCS and corn syrup. Why would it need both?

I moved to the ones labeled "organic". Instead of HFCS, they listed "cane sugar" (probably good) or "organic sugar". What the hell is "organic sugar"? Since I didn't have an internet connection there in the aisle, I couldn't look it up. I still haven't, mostly 'cause at that point I punted and didn't buy any preserves.

Meh. That's how I'm feeling these days; every time I start to take an action, it gets complicated, and I end up not taking any action at all. • 12:10 PM 0 comments