Bailing out Wall Street in the hope it would trickle down - well, there were excuses for that, or at least I haven't studied finance enough to be able to disprove them. Throwing single-payer out the window to get pharma "on board" - I just figured there was stuff going on behind the scenes that time would reveal. But this Afghanistan "surge?"

OK, that's just what politicians do. We're on our own, as ever. I was wrong, wrong, and wrong, and might even have been expected to know better.

But next time Obama urges Americans to go the extra mile and pull together in the name of reclaiming what made America great, I'll be laughing in both of his faces.

Wrote this to send to my boss, then didn't have the heart, because she can't help the fact that nobody's sending us work.

Oh give me a file in a weird lo-file style,
Or a tape with a knot and a twist,
Give me sounds, I’ll make text, then do whatever’s next
To make up for the hours that I’ve missed.

Just a focus group, please, they can all be Chinese
Moderated by Aussies and Kurds,
Inadmissible wires full of screeching of tires
And with nothing but four-letter words.

Hours, hours for my pay,
Any language at all, what the heck,
Cure my underworked blues, Mama needs some new shoes
Or at least not to bounce my rent check.

I’ll type out a book by some pyramid crook
Or a lunatic’s mouth-foaming rant,
Science isn’t so tricky, I’ve got Google and Wiki
If you offer, I won’t say I can’t.

Give me insurance fraud, undergrads, Omigawd,
Or some toothless old geezer with fits,
Kids who babble and yell, the Consultants from Hell
And that preacher who thinks he’s the shit.

Hours, hours for my pay,
I’ll transliterate Martian and Greek,
Follow rules without fail, even “Web” and “e-mail,”*
And hope it gets better next week!

*We've got some crackpot formatting policies - always capitalize web or website and hyphenate email. I personally think it makes us sound like T. Herman Zweibel.

Today my iTunes has chosen, so far, three Changelings songs about mermaids, and then their "Afternoon of a Newt." Sure, it's raining... but this is above and beyond! I did pick a starfish earring, sand-dollar pendant, and fish-scale belt.

As it turns out, I continue to astonish myself with my ability to shrink, diminish, wane, do without, be less, reduce expectations. They're all excellent skills under the current circumstances - but very counter to the culture in which I live! I'm supposed to take, expand, game the system or its breakdown, overpower, insist on MORE MORE MORE. I wonder whether this is why it's taking us so long to haul out of this mess - people falling for get-rich-quick scams, losing connections over attempts to exploit friendship or family ties, pouring resources into empty feelgood schemes. By breaking all the rules, I'm almost doing as I'm "supposed to" - accepting an advantage, however alien.

I do occasionally wonder whether I'll know what to do with myself When Things Get Better. But that's just ridiculous. I can handle bounty just fine! But it's weird being among a very, very small minority who can handle scarcity. We're not even supposed to acknowledge it. Greed's supposed to conquer all, greed and cleverness. But greed is no longer clever.

http://www.wesoldieron.org/women/

For these women veterans, a home to call their own - The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

On the way to see a show this evening, I was greeted by a HUGE (well, for around here) stripey-legged spider hanging in the middle of the path under the light. I pointed her out to the next people coming through. They walked around on the OTHER side, and neither of us disturbed her web; she just drifted serenely off to the side. So. Connections will figure big in this next year, as will good luck (at least if I mind my connections), and aesthetic beauty will be something to pay attention to.

Dontcha love it when you get your reading without even asking?

I always seem to end up arguing with people I agree with, because they make ideas I agree with look bad. The temptation to come off clever, enlightened, or otherwise superior can totally defeat the presentation of a good idea by making it look like the presenter's a snob, possessed of resources that make their approach possible for them while it isn't for others, or lying outright.

PETA is probably loathed most sincerely by animal-rights advocates, because they make animal-rights advocacy look like the province of goggle-eyed wack jobs with an exaggerated form of "white" guilt who want to make us all atone for their birth into privilege.

So, how does one present a good idea without getting people's backs up? I've experimented with a lot of approaches. Quoting third parties and describing situations in which I'm not directly involved seems to help sometimes. So does joking around about it, and being very clear about what a poor exemplar I am. But mostly, if someone's getting all up in my grill about their dissenting opinion, I leave them to it, because if their opinion's that important to them, nothing I or anyone could say would make any difference to them.

What a year. It started with a bang - "Quit making a mess, it's time to get to work." And like any major cleanup, it's turned up mountains of dirt.

And already, the Veil's getting raggedy and I'm listening for the dogs. You want ghosts, Father? Have I got ghosts for you! We've got hungry ghosts, lonely ghosts, horror-movie ghosts, unavenged ghosts and the ghosts of vengeance, ghosts out of history, ghosts out of the future. I hope your spear is sharp and your dogs good and hungry, Father. We're about ghosted out up here.

When I was a kid, "crowded" automatically meant "unhealthy." A crowded place was considered to be dirty, noisy, and a likely place for crime. A place was crowded because it started out all right, but the people there had too many kids and nobody could afford to leave. Now, with it so expensive, dirty, noisy, and dangerous to get from point A to point B, we're talking about optimizing population density to minimize waste. Things like lawns are losing their conspicuous-consumption shine.

It's funny being old enough to observe stuff like this first-hand!

Also, when I was a little Catholic, "blessed are the poor in spirit" totally made sense, because refusing to waste resources on ostentation was living like a poor person. Being poor was at least a way to avoid making too big a mess. But now, with shoddily-produced food, inefficient cars, wasteful appliances, and a throwaway lifestyle being significantly more affordable than sustainability, you really do have to be somewhat well-to-do to make a real difference.

Matt, I drink to you! And I'm never touching another can of Monster again. That stuff's gross anyway.

As an aside, that little Kokopelli guy in the Rock Art logo was, folklorically speaking, a champion of - get this - agricultural diversity.

Red Bean & Butternut Squash Soup

1 lb small red beans
1 butternut squash
3 Cubanelle peppers
3 onions
16 cups (4 L) water
1/4 cup olive oil (plus more for sauteing peppers & onions)
2 Tbsp salt (can be reduced or omitted if desired)
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp sage
1 Tbsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
10 medium or 20 small cloves garlic (at least that’s where I stopped counting. “One small head” is probably about right.)

Soak, drain, and rinse beans. Boil 16 cups water, add soaked beans, cubed squash, cayenne, nutmeg, sage, thyme, and rosemary. Crush in all that garlic! Add 1/4 olive oil. Boil until beans are soft (this will take some time).

Meanwhile, chop peppers and onions and saute in olive oil (peppers first, then adding onions) until soft but not brown or soggy.

When beans are soft, mash soup with potato masher - you don’t have to liquefy all the beans and squash, just get enough into the broth to make it substantial. Add sauteed onions & peppers. Serve with bread (a good French sourdough would be a nice choice!)

Woke up early today and realized "getting home after the newspaper" doesn't mean anything to a lot of people nowadays.

When I was a little kid, it was the milk. We had an insulated milk box on the front porch, into which we'd put a checklist, and at dawn the next day the milkman would take it and put in the box the contents of the previous day's checklist. We eventually discontinued the service because it was too expensive. I'd totally forgotten about that, milk delivery. I suppose it could still be a good idea for a huge family not too close to the equator, if nobody stole the milk. I just have the one brother, but he drank a LOT of milk.

I read somewhere that there's an injera bakery - can't seem to find it now - that delivers. So you can have fresh injera delivered daily, to eat with store-bought milk while you read the newspaper online.

An old acquaintance (to be frank, I never liked her that much; she's a drama queen and I'm allergic to drama) has hit the streets and is living in her car. She's fishing around for a place to stay. I said no, chickened out on the basis of experience (not with her, with somebody else).

In this culture - or perhaps among humans in general - a necessity offered temporarily is considered to be owed in perpetuity, because it is a necessity. On the face of it, that's sort of explainable, if not exactly logical. But what it adds up to in real life that "time to go" is greeted with hysterics, threats, theft, and petty vengeance, no matter what the original arrangement was or how clearly stated.

If I ever find myself homeless, I will answer "time to go" with packing and "thank you." And in the run-up to "time to go" I will be working - for pay if I can, and on a plan in any case.

Our time has come, age of the hammerhead
This is our mission, to be the daleks of God
Too late for silence, too late for anything
It's all too much for me, its roots go down too deep for me

A punishing fire, an animal frenzy
These hammerhead people know what danger is for
You let them in and now they're everywhere
If it's mineral or vegetable it's back a little up a little

Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything

Purification by immersion in our filthy demon seed
We know the only things you like are paranoid sex and childish greed
Our own worst enemies, they hollowed us out of wood
Look at all the grease inside us, gonna get us this time but good
Whether we pull it out or push it in it all ends up the same
You know a hammerhead is a hammerhead by any other name

Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything

Onward hammerheads, bright and dangerous
Jumping running in the field and factory
God save hammerheads, keeping going
We are sleek and special and we're sure of something

Blessed are the apemen
Blessed are the shit kickers
Blessed are the jack hammers
Blessed is the big damage
Blessed are the faith healers
Blessed are the moon walkers
Blessed are the snake people
Blessed are the heat seekers...

Shout, push, hammerheads
Yes, yes, hammerheads

Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything

Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything

Onward hammerheads, bright and dangerous
Jumping running in the field and factory
God save hammerheads, keeping going...

Writer : MARSH, CARL ALLEN, DAVID GEOFFREY ANDREWS, BARRY BARKER, MARTYN
Copyright : Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

A co-worker brought in a loaf of oatmeal bread and a tub of what looked like margarine, but tasted like sour cream butter.  I hadn't had sour cream butter since 1985 (it's very easy to find in Germany, but not here).  Turns out it's Brummel & Brown yogurt spread, which doesn't contain ANY butter.  But it sure is tasty!  It is, however, not vegetarian (it contains gelatin).  I think I'm going to be a Born Again Toast Fan this winter.

Battered friend out of state:  "It's NOT like that.  I am NOT in danger.  He should be the one driven out of the house, not me.  I'm going to wait until I have the resources to divorce him."  He has an untreated (no insurance) personality disorder with violent rage episodes.  She's supporting him & 2 kids on not much pay.  She won't contact the police, the shelter, tell anyone anywhere near her what's going on, because it's "not his fault."  He has repeatedly threatened her life.

It's terrifying how fast burnout hits.  Last night I was resolved to stand strong.  But I crumpled by morning.  And I think I was the last one.

On the way back from the Garden Club plant sale, I stopped by a yard sale that offered, among other things, the bulb horn from a model T.  Being the person I am, of course I tried to honk it.  Being from a Model T, the rubber bulb disintegrated (duh).  So I went to pay for it (she was only asking $25) and she only took $20 and insisted that I take something, and suggested that I consider one of her vintage cast iron trivets.  So now I have a pretty curly-roots-tree trivet.  I hope she finds a replacement bulb for the horn.  I invoke the Spirits of Honk to bring her a new rubber bulb for her Model T horn, so mote it be!

Night Mind is when my don't-give-a-damn is broken, and I worry excessively about unlikely things or things I can't do anything about.  I figured out where it comes from.  Sudafed.  I already knew not to take it after 10 AM or two days in a row.  Now I know that if I take it, I'll have to compensate to sleep even the day after, e.g. two Percogesic and a Benadryl (and fiber, just because it goes so well with Benadryl).  But on the whole, I'm going to stay away from Sudafed unless my head is threatening to blow up (as it was Monday morning).

I am grateful that my sinus problems pointed me to the fix as well as to the problem.  But I would still prefer that everybody just not smoke.