Sad but true
I forgot the date, which leaves me sad and a little ashamed. Got up in the middle of the night to find the cards. Looked it up in an old calendar. 7 years.
An old blog entry filled with joy. New songs mark a new life. Ever determined to move on, but for a few sleepless moments I dwell in the past.
The joy of dingleberries
Noticed one while I was brushing the little boy this morning. Wanted to remove it but figured he'd be seriously pissed. Must have fallen off when he was napping next to me on the sofa. Never been so happy to find one as I was today. Funny. One day I will miss this. Treasure the moment.
Love less
Thinking about the dream kept me awake for a good half hour or so before I fell asleep again. One of the last times I had a powerful dream, I wrote down notes and later discarded them. What a loss.
In the face of love lost, I rediscovered a childhood classmate and found what seemed to be a deeper love. As the dream state lifted, reality set in. She is married and has a family of her own. Upon further reflection, this isn't just any random classmate, but one I certainly had a crush on, which at that age tended to focus on the smartest girl in my class. While not the first time I've fallen in love in a dream, this may well be the most memorable.
Preaching to the choir
Table to Farm. Nice article about eating local, but this quote in particular expresses perfectly my feelings about returning to Texas.
While it took the couple a while to come around to coming home, Smithville seems to suit their goals. Justus recalled Eklof's urging him to consider it: "She said: 'Look, we can live in San Francisco forever, and we’re never going to change anyone’s mind because we’re going to be in our insular community. If we ever want to make any change, we’ve got to be the monkey wrench from the inside.'"
Thelma’s Closed By Fire
First, Williams Smokehouse, now this.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/02/thelmas_closed_by_fire.php
On a lighter note, the new Grimaldi's finally opens.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/02/grimaldis_now_open_in_sugarlan.php
End of another experiment
Over a year has passed since its inception. Is it too soon for the mid-life crisis to have passed? My idealism seems to be fading.
Election Day
[Pre-Election Day musings written 11/3. Perhaps I was concerned about what others would think about my having voted for Nader when I left this post in draft status. Seems wrong to delete it. Leaving this in its original, unfinished state.]
Hard not to think about the Presidential election this year. I am constantly having to remind myself that no matter which major party candidate wins, little will change unless it takes root at ground level. I recall that Obama said something like this early in his campaign, and I wonder if anyone actually paid attention to it. Last time I checked, Congress makes the laws. The President wields veto power and executes foreign policy. Gun and abortion rights aren't going anywhere.
On foreign policy, Obama shows a far less belligerent attitude in general than the warmonger McCain. What idiot jokes about bombing Iran? Scant "pro-life" outrage will be found on that issue. This alone makes him a no-brainer choice between these two, but I'm constantly reminded of Nader's words: "The problem with voting for the lesser of two evils is that at the end of the day, you're left with evil." Or something like that.
Voting for Nader in NY was an easy choice in 2004, but a more difficult choice in TX in 2008. Principles won out in the end:
- I still hold a grudge against the Democrats for suing to keep Nader off the ballot in 2004 (to be fair, this isn't necessarily specific to Obama).
- Obama voted in favor of telecom immunity on the issue of warrant-less wiretaps, which even Hillary opposed.
- Strong support for ethanol as part of energy reform.
- Supported the $700B bank bailout bill. This is a huge theft of taxpayer money in my mind, but it seems no one really cares.
Investing in guns
Was chatting about investments last night, and the topic of gold stocks came up. Thought I had jotted this quote down somewhere else a long time ago. When asked for advice on investing in gold, Scott Burns replied:
I wouldn't buy gold except as insurance against chaos, and if I were worried about chaos, I'd buy a gun and lots of bullets before I bought gold.
Paperless statements revisited
What a mess. Switched to paperless statements for one of my cards, and the email notification promptly ended up buried in my to-do bin. Due to the sudden death of my desktop and the distraction of Hurricane Ike, I forgot to make payment and was hit with a substantial late fee and finance charge. Noticed that Citi finally added automatic payments of the statement balance recently, which I signed up for immediately. A call to customer service got the charges reimbursed. Avoid paperless statements unless you also sign up for auto-pay.
Terrible terror filled terrified
Man Guilty in Canada Terror Plot. Thought this happened only in the US. Muslim teen gets prison for paintball, doughnuts, and talking smack?!
Charges were dropped this year against seven of the defendants. And evidence presented at the first trial suggests that the group was long on inflammatory talk about plots but short on the means and methods to carry them out, and that it may have been aided - and perhaps provoked - by paid police informants.
From the first terrifying charges outlined by prosecutors to the gritty, often comically deflated details that have emerged in court, the case of the Toronto 18 seems to fit a well-established pattern in terrorism prosecutions. Whether the result of trumped-up charges, conflicting demands of intelligence agencies or difficulties of trying cases where evidence is withheld by governments looking to protect their sources and methods, numerous terrorism trials in the United States and Europe have similarly foundered over the years.
