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I also realized, upon looking back at my LJ, that I had failed to define exactly what the lump in my knee IS. It is not a tumor of any sort. Rather, it's a bone cyst that has developed around one of the ligaments. Still painful, not life-threatening or anything silly like that. I need to get it removed, but I'm trying to hold off until October when my FMLA kicks in.
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Can I get an Amen, please? http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/com This is the first time I've seen someone successfully articulate my misgivings with Unitarianism and with the whole 'respect everyone' charade. Wonderful stuff.
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http://www.brat-halla.com I can't figure out if it's brilliantly funny or hilariously blasphemous. Or both. Odin and Frigga at Costco was precious. But where's Bragi? I demand Bragi!
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I love my job, I really do. (For those who need a catchup, I'm a wine specialist and manager's assistant for Twin Liquors here in Austin). However, if there's a part of my job -- or rather, a time of my job -- that I like the least, it's Saturday mornings. They're depressing, despite "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" playing on NPR. The crowd who comes in on Saturday mornings just reek of desperation; they buy cheap booze in huge amounts, they are often waiting in their trucks for me to open at 10am. They're the quiet alcoholics of the world, the people who start drinking when they wake up and finish when they go to bed. This is not the wine and food pairing crowd; this is Kentucky Deluxe 'bourbon', Ron Rio rum, Taaka, Crystal Palace gin, and other baseboard cleaners. I've processed my feelings, and it's all about my grandmother -- who started the day with Jim Beam and ended it with Seagram's Vodka, and was never sober inbetween. I've come to realize there's still a lot of pain there, and there always will be. And if it's not that, it's the parade of rednecks with guns. Thankfully, we're out of deer season, but during November and December Saturday morning was heavily salted with camouflaged road apples buying cheap peppermint schnapps and bourbon. You couldn't pay me to go into the woods with these guys, not even if I was wearing orange from head to toe AND wearing kevlar to boot. People think Friday night would be the worst in the liquor business. Nah, Friday nights are fun. I get to use my brain occasionally. Saturday mornings, though...
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First off....THIS is funny. http://www.comicvsaudience.net/images/fl That said: And then there's Mirrormask. I wanted to love Mirrormask. I expected to love Mirrormask -- script by Neil Gaiman, special effects by the Henson Workshop, what's not to love? But I was oddly disappointed. On a cynical level, I felt like I was watching "Labyrinth" with art direction by Cirque du Soliel on acid. The lead, Stephanie Leonidas, was excellent (and I feel old; Corwin thinks she's incredibly good-looking) but the rest of the performances didn't move me much. Maybe it was that I expected more from a Gaiman/Henson collaboration, but...while I'm glad I saw it, I'm not overly eager to see it again.
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It's been a while since I posted. Let me try to do the quick summary. JOB: Still love it. Retail at the holidays was exhausting, but other than that this is a great gig. Inventory starts 2/2. HEALTH: Um. Right knee is dangerously close to unspeakable. I have a doctor's appointment in about forty-five minutes to try to figure out why there's a tangerine-sized lump on one of my ligaments, and every so often that knee decides to attempt to throw me at the ground. It has failed so far, but...damn, it hurts. I also have officially joined The Bifocal Generation. FAMILY: Mixed bag. Bran's health -- specifically her asthma -- is kicking her butt. Corwin is doing better at Westwood, though it's a tough school. Aven is great. Cat's health is iffy; she was diagnosed with Hypermobility Syndrome (www.medicinenet.com/hypermobility_syndro WRITING: Get back to me after I survive inventory and decide to go fiction or non-fiction for the next one. MKP: I staffed my tenth weekend in December at the Greater Carolinas Center. Had a wonderful experience. Have been out of local leadership for a few months while I took a breather after stepping down as president in October. Will be returning after inventory. PRIESTHOOD: I'm working on restarting the CUUPS group at our UU church. If you read this, send me a note? Let me know someone's out there? Leave a comment?
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I know honesty -- especially honesty in professional sports -- is a rare thing. Which is why this story matters. Golfer turns self in for using illegal ball. It may not seem like much -- and in truth, ninety-nine percent of the time I don't give a damn about professional golf. (When asked about my feelings on the sport, I fall back on two quotes: Mark Twain's "Golf is a good walk spoilt" and Rosie O'Donnell's "Golf is men in ugly pants walking".) But this is the kind of thing that in my opinion our society -- our global society -- needs more of. Accountability, self-policing, and just plain old playing fair. So here's to J.P. Hayes, my hero of the week. May we all remember that if no one else is watching, we are watching ourselves.
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I found this REALLY funny. http://www.236.com/video/2008/get_your_w There are some other great bits on 236.com -- I really like the Sarah Palin VLog, especially the last entry. "I WON! I'M THE PRINCESS OF AMERICA!
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Yes, I do. I love my new job, even if getting there is a hassle right now because of the Cap Metro strike. I'm currently sitting here. I've finished my work, restocked and squared the shelves, done my paperwork, and it's...two hours and some change into my shift. Nothing to do now but surf the 'net, which leads to this amazing website for us booze geeks: Check THIS out. I want to be THIS guy. Did a Samhain ritual last night at the UU church. Small turnout, but it laid foundation for later, which is what I was looking for. Very pleased Obama won. Amused Indiana went blue; it just proves to me that Hoosiers think about their pocketbook first, which is a pleasantly pragmatic school of thought. Better than Texas, where we have one big ol' blue island (Austin) in the middle of a sea of RedneckState.
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So I'm watching the lines and the crowds and all the first-time voters on CNN, and I have just one thing to say: Thank you, President George W Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and all the rest of the cronies. No, seriously. It looks like eight years of attempted tyranny, combined with the nomination of a man with real charisma and (maybe even) principles, has resulted in the American people once again giving a shit. It looks like we're tired of a stupid war, of Republican corporate socialism, of privelege pissing on the Constitution. It looks like the middle class is mad. And in a perverse way, we have George W Bush and his band of puppeteers to thank for it. It looks like he finally pushed the average Joe and Joanne just a little too far. In my most cynical moments, I thought the American people were doomed to be permanently sheep. It looks like perhaps there's a little life in the goat side of things as well. So thanks, Shrub. In a just world, you would be on trial for war crimes -- but we all know that's not going to happen, as the US government only respects international law and The Hague as far as it's convenient. That sucks. But you know, George -- Bud Selig's looking older and older, and I suspect that Commissioner of Major League Baseball is a job you'd actually be really really good at. So go get Condie to fix your resume during pillow talk. Brush up on your baseball with Bill James and Peter Gammons. Thanks, George. You finally pissed us off enough. We'll be over here, cleaning up the mess -- hopefully with President Obama. Hopefully, we're wiser. Hopefully, next time we'll recognize tyranny faster than eight years.
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So...I vote. I've voted, in fact, in every major election since I was 18, and most if not all primaries. (I'd say all, but I'm not positive of that.) People ask why I vote. "It doesn't mean anything," they say. "It's the same thieves in charge, no matter what." The latest person I hear this from, constantly, is my general manager at my almost-old job. (Last day is Sunday.) (Of course, he's a conservative evangelical, so I don't try to talk him out of it too much.) Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it does. I haven't decided for sure; I vacillate between being the conspiracy theorist who believes it's all decided ahead of time anyway and everyone is a shill for The Con and being the idealist who believes we can change things. Which leads me to my next point; I'm voting for Barack Obama. And, frankly, you should too. (Unless, of course, you're one of my out-of-country friends, in which case, feel free to ignore this post completely.) Why Obama? Well, it's not about John McCain. Until this election, I had huge amounts of respect for John McCain; more than I did for several Democrats (Jon Lieberman and Ted Kennedy come to mind.) He has suffered for this country, he has stuck to his principles for the most part, and he's astonishingly candid. He has, unfortunately, sold his soul a bit to try to get elected -- but I could even live with that if the Democrat was a complete loser. But his age puts Sarah Palin one heartbeat away from the Presidency, and Sarah Palin stands for everything I have given my life to avoid. Freaky evangelical fundie? Check. Tool of the oil companies? Check. Crooked politician? Check. Worst of all to me, perhaps, is that the woman acts so damned stupid. My one ineradicable prejudice is against people who have risen to positions of power and authority despite their complete idiocy, and Palin fits the bill. The woman is, in my opinion, not fit to hold any office higher than dogcatcher of a small county in Mississippi. Do I buy Obama's message of Change? Well....maybe. I'll wait and see. I'm willing to take the chance. (And don't tell me to vote Libertarian. I refuse to vote for a man who once tried to get the Defense Department to outlaw the practice of my religion on military bases; I don't care if he's gotten a bad case of enlightenment.) But I will NOT vote for Sarah Palin for anything. So out comes my Obama/Biden stickers.
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It's been a while since I posted, so... Reminder that you can always read my more frequent but still sporadic rantings here. I have a better job now! I work at Twin Liquors as a wine specialist; I start training on the 28th. It was time and past time to get out of the restaurant business; we're feeling the economic downturn, and I have kids to feed. I'm still working on my next book; more on that later. I'm doing a lot of reading; wading my way through Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren", Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", and Asimov's history of science. I tried to read Pynchon again; no dice. It just doesn't work for me.
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Now, see, this is the kind of political commentary I can live with...
And I think a pink White House would be, like, totally hot.
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In reference to the earlier post when I talked about our current housing situation and asked for guidance... We were approved today for choice #1, and we move on May 31st. Yay! D
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So. My family is currently facing a huge decision, and since tonight I couldn't sleep (stomach trouble and general insomnia) I got out my Faerie cards and did a reading about that decision. Once they were done laughing at me, two points became very clear. One is somewhat personal, though if needed I will illuminate. The second one is the more germane one to this post; that being that I need to learn how to ask for help and that I need outside help in this decision. So....I'm asking all of you for help. I suspect most, if not all, of you, practice some sort of divination or discernment, even if in some cases it's prayer. (Hi, Beldar.) I would like to ask any of you who are comfortable with it to perform a divination for me within the next 48 hours, as the decision we are looking at should ideally be made by this Friday. I will give all of you a minimum of data to work with. The data is this: Elisabeth and I's apartment lease is up May 31. We are moving to a house somewhere in the Austin area, with an intent to rent this house and settle in it for at least three years. We will also be taking physical custody of my son Corwin on July 1, with an intention to take physical custody of Catrien in two years when she starts high school. Here is the question, as best as I can word it: Given our needs, our limitations, and our finances as a family, which house should be the first one we apply for on May 2? Here are our three choices: Option #1 -- 3 bd, 2 bath off Pecan Creek Parkway in the Anderson Mill and FM 620 area of northwest Austin. I would prefer, for scientific and magical reasons, to not provide any other data on these houses. My want is for this to be a purely intuitive read. Please, my friends, leave your results in a comment to this post. I look forward to getting help from you. Duke/Dag
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Just a few random news updates for y'all:
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amused
gloomy
thoughtful
nervous