It is important, when someone dies, not to remember what we will, but to honestly bear witness to who that person was. Click "more" to continue.
Jan 18 2008
Tammy Gann (1957-2008)
Jan 05 2008
Pardon a bit of optimism
My generally dour outlook has been softened somewhat as of late. Could 2008, after all, be not such a bad year? Are we not heading into the future that reasonable people really want?
Witness: some significant moves towards reasonableness in high technology. DRM, the despicable accusatory scheme of the music labels, is no more. The idiotic format war in the next generation of movie distribution is coming to a close. A majority of Americans now play video games, belying the idea that they are somehow murder-simulators or pastimes for the demented.
Witness: the popularity of presidential candidates with truly fresh ideas. Barrack Obama and Ron Paul could not be more different from major-party candidates of the past 20 years. And yet, the new generation has fervently supported them. Obama won the Iowa Caucus on the basis of new members to that organization. Paul raised more money on a single day than any candidate ever. In my neighborhood I see signs, stickers, graffiti, all meant to get the message out about a man who wants to abolish the IRS and end the war on drugs. At no time in my life (or ever, that I know of) has this happened to such a degree.
Witness: the pendulum finally swinging back towards letting science do its thing. One way or another, stem cell research will now finally get the full backing of the governmental funding agencies. Whether through embryonic lines or modified skin cells, we will begin to develop technology which will immeasurably improve our lives. Moreover, the government now acknowledges that human-caused global warming is not only a reality, but a reality that we need to combat. The government is switching to CFL bulbs, working on building nuclear and solar power plants, funding research into converting CO2 into burnable fuel, and generally acknowledging the importance of what climate scientists have been screaming for over a decade.
Finally, witness: three best sellers from last year proclaiming the true evil of religion. Not a benign fairy tale, which it is not, not an innocent inane lifestyle choice, but a freedom-hating, death-worshiping, delusional belief. While major candidates absurdly claim that this is a nation formed by Christian founding fathers, at least we now have a sizable counterpoint. A majority believe in evolution, according to one survey, a truly obvious THEORY backed up by tens of thousands of well-researched FACTS.
Yes, we may be heading somewhere good. I remain reserved, but slightly optimistic.
Dec 29 2007
Post Mortem
It seems like I ought to write about Christmas, or someone should, and at the moment I'm doing it. The question, though, is what one ought to write--I could write about what I got, which is boring enough to anyone but me (although I highly recommend the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf fat-free no-sugar-added powder, with one can make coffee beverage or a pretty good hot chocolate for two points). Reuben got better stuff, or cooler stuff anyway, but, I dunno, writing about stuff?
One might also write about what was eaten at Christmas, though that's pretty boring too this year since nothing was disastrous--the roast was overdone, as usual, but much less so than usual, with some pretty tolerable medium pieces in the middle, and the honeybaked ham was not heated to the point that all the honeybaked ran out onto the bottom of the over, but merely enough to be warm. Not interesting, not like the dry and boneless turkey, or the cinder-like roasts of yesteryear. Reuben cut it, so all the pieces were actually cut though, hence no need to exclaim (too loudly) Jesus, did [family member] cut this meat? (Which he had.)
There were plumbing issues, but they were resolved satisfactorily enough that a Christmas plumber call was not necessary, anticlimactically by a bottle of "foaming plumbing snake" or something like that. Which we plan to employ on the slow-draining bathroom sink, now that we know of its tremendous unclogging power.
There were babies there (and babies are anyone under four feet tall to me these days) who did some cute things and some loud things but nothing terribly remarkable.
Pretty boring and normal in its weirdness, except maybe for the one sad thing I'm not talking about, and that I'm not going to talk about. That was Christmas this year.
Nov 20 2007
Hey, buy me stuff
Eventually I'm going to stick this in the sidebar, because I think it's cute, but, lazy, so, here:
