McCain Onion - Funny

Happy B-day

If he were still alive, this would be Dad's Birthday. And since there's an impending election, it got me to remembering. Dad was never one to spend much time on futile endeavors. The town I grew up in was pretty heavily one political party. If you were in the other, you weren't likely going to see your candidate elected. You could vote for anybody in the general election, but you had to pick a party to vote in the primaries. So Dad, being the smart guy he was, registered in the other party so he could at least have some voice and help pick the lesser of two evils. That kind of practicality has been infused in me and has stood me in good stead.

I don't know exactly why I can't apply it to women and dating though. I guess I'll have to work on that.

:-)

Almost That Time

This picture is on loan from the nice folks over at Extreme Pumpkins.
Wander over and have a look. Those of you in countries that don't really get behind the whole Halloween thing don't know what you're missing. It isn't just an excuse to eat sugar, there's costumes and carving too.

Ein Moment der Klarheit

Sometimes I do my best thinking when my hands are busy with things that don't really require my brain. So, I was mortising hinges today and I had a moment of clarity. Lately I've been making trying to make decisions and kind of talking myself into one path more than another with phrases like "Why not?" and "I've got nothing to lose." I was doing that again when some unused gear in my head decided to join the rotation and I realized that I have nothing to lose because there's nothing to be gained.

Why go after a thing you don't care if you have?

This Week

This week is Peace, Friendship, and Goodwill Week.

Next week is International Herpes Awareness Week.

I hope the proximity is accidental.

Of course, next week is also Intimate Apparel Market Week.
And November 2nd is also Plan Your Epitaph Day.

It just keeps getting stranger. We also have an election jammed in there. We'll see what happens.

Stone

Take this:



And make this:



Since this picture was taken, this stonework has been pointed with a darker color. I'll have to get another pic one of these days.

Tick Tock

How do you know when you're wasting your time? Sometimes it's plainly obvious, others not so much. I guess the real test is to ask yourself to look at the situation as if it were somebody else, removing the emotional complications. What would you tell a good friend who was in your situation? Would you tell them what you think they want to hear, the way we tell ourselves? Or would you tell them the harsh, honest truth as best you see it?

I think it's time I held myself to my own higher standard and stop wasting time. You can't ever get those minutes back.

I Wonder If She Knows

I wonder if Dascha knows what kind of country she's trying to get into?

I searched Google for "bush administration controversy" and found the Wikipedia entry. It has 8 subcategories and 175 pages. They're grouped by letter of the alphabet and they only missed Q, X, and Z. I don't recommend you look at it for very long unless you have a pretty strong tolerance for depression. When I was a kid, we thought Watergate was scandalous.

All I can say is - wow.

It Must Be Love

I got this e-mail today.
____________________________________________________
Hello ;)

I'm unmarried girl from Russia and need liaison. My name is Dasha and I'm 28 y.o.

Find out my pics here.

I need you! ;)

____________________________________________________


There was an embedded link that led to a "404 not found" error on a site somewhere in south central Italy that belongs to an architectural firm. So apparently what "Dasha" needs is somebody slightly smarter than a post to send spam for her.

:-)

An Anniversary Of Sorts

There's this thing that happens in conversations where you use examples from your own life and times to participate. For a while now a lot of the examples that sprang to my mind had to do with the future I thought would be my life. So, I've had a lot of quiet moments in conversations because the things that I would have said are things I don't get to say anymore. Lately, my brain has been reopening the stuff that came before that and the possibilities that are still out there, and I find it easier to get into those conversations again. I've always been a pretty fast healer and never one to wallow. Keep what's useful, shed what's not, move on. Life won't wait for you.

A Curse, I Tell You

I had occasion to be riding in a car with one of my analog friends for part of a day recently. He got to talking, and the result is that I'm about a millimeter away from writing another book. I'm not sure what kind of sickness possesses me to do these things. Yeah, it's another in the Darkling series, though a little different and darker. So I created the files, wrote a paragraph to get my brain going, am thinking about the proper music, starting to imagine the cover, and thinking up titles.

Why can't I just play video games like normal people?

:-)

EE&V

Eyes
Darkened disused warehouse interior.

Ears
One shoe scuffing slightly against concrete.

Voice
"It doesn't hurt as much as I though it would."

"It won't hurt at all in another minute."

Feeling Quotey

“The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.”
-Jim Rohn


“We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy”
-Walter Anderson


“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”
-Tom Robbins


"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."
-Anais Nin


“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
-Carl W. Buechner

More Freedom.

On that same topic, the more I learn, the more I think back and piece things together, the more I understand. And I'm still annoyed with myself for seeing what I wanted and overlooking things I didn't, but I'll do better next time. And the more I understand, the more I'm glad to be out. It could have been much worse, I could have been much deeper in the ugliness. I feel a bit like I walked up to the train tracks, looked both ways, didn't see anything, and still somehow hesitated. Then the fast freight shot by. It ups the stress level, makes your heart race, but it's good to be alive. I'm going to be more careful in the future, rest assured.

No More Forevers

I think I've given away the last forever that I had. From here on it is what it is. I think it's about time I grew up, put on my superhero mask and got out there. The cape and the costume don't shield you from anything, they make a target out of you. No more selfishly lurking in the shadows, my turn is long overdue.

Freedom!

I have the answers I wanted about my recent un-engagement and breakup. It's not pretty, but it all fits together now and I understand. And I can let it all go now. Walk away.
I don't plan to air it all out here, there's really no point anymore, but I wanted to let people know that I'm getting past it better all the time.