Year: 2004
Lions on the Line Shack
Posted on October 6, 2004 in Hikes and Trails Mountain Lions
A mother and her cub have been spotted in these parts.
A Charity Event
Posted on October 6, 2004 in Appeals and Goodwill Geocaching
Geocaching.com would be ideal for such an exercise.
The Ninth Commandment
Posted on October 6, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Morals & Ethics Secularism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100704Z.shtml
Among the Others
Posted on October 5, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Film
Spending too much time among the Others can be hazardous for your health, you know.
Another Waiting World
Posted on October 4, 2004 in Body Language Routine
Went to have my blood tested — triglycerides, sugars, chloresterol and all that can be traced through a needle. Lynn went along because she had her own list from her doctor. We arrived at 7 am to find a long line of desperate old men and women at the door. A white box next to the employee entrance bore a green Biohazard sticker and a legend that promised thieves that they would only bear off urine and blood samples, no money or other valuables.
The staff took ten minutes to slap themselves into consciousness before the queue began to move. I got in five minutes later. There was one empty seat in the waiting room which I left open because Lynn was behind me. Her bad knees make standing uncomfortable. A wirey oldster stared at me: why wasn’t I taking the chair? Then the tech called him in and I sat down. He never figured out my modus operandi.
I made a few notes as I sat there:
Waiting room, another waiting world, faces all in numbers and news of the world, trying to get tips on the future [do they have that much time?]…the waiting cramped, unspacious, people standing between the chairs which are all filled, reading newspapers — business sections — casual clothes, walking shoes. The lobby is stuffed up. Yes, old men have so much to do during the day, picking their noses, sitting with their hands on the thighs or steepled in their laps as if they were directing their prayers to the beige wall. As someone rises, another sits down, all men except for Lynn. No one rises except to go into the Room. The door opens, relieving the staleness. Newspapers abandoned. Skinny legs shake.
I was interrupted by my call. Later I made these notes:
Phlebotomist is good. Like running a Q-tip over my arm….moving up to kiss the crease…”You didn’t say ‘Ouch’, so I have to do it again” — could this be my calmness? Afterwards, a small bruise, a rose mole on an articulated trout, done with except for the urine sample, which refuses to come — Will they call me back for another shot at the orange-lidded cup? Looking for crumbling pieces of kidney floating in the yellow…People don’t want to know about this, but I’m writing it anyways. So many men go through this, as Paul said to me the other day “When you get to be our age, you realize why the life expectancy in so many countries is 50 years of age….” I would probably be assured my grave in four years, green lawn, no stipples except for a few days after they puncture the ground with a backhoe — the turf is a scar. Here a dead man is stuffed like a collagen sponge, here he plugs the earth.”
As I waited in the hallway for Lynn, I contemplated the darkness. The receptionist in the main lobby brushed her long blonde hair and collected her things in the blue light. The lobby and the hallways were dark, until you got partway down. Then you met the half light of the artficial morning.
Geocachet
Posted on October 4, 2004 in Geocaching
This will be an excellent way to waste our weekends
No Food For Vultures
Posted on October 3, 2004 in Hikes and Trails Medications
A few vultures soared overhead but they lost interest in me.
Buddhist Style Mind Control
Posted on October 2, 2004 in Encounters Myths & Mysticism
They tell you ‘Don’t think and we promise we won’t either!’
The Law vs. The Great Agreement
Posted on October 1, 2004 in Secularism
Thomas Jefferson put it succinctly when a friend asked him if the Ten Commandments had formed the basis for the Constitution. No, he said, in a letter.
Darkness is Not the Concept
Posted on October 1, 2004 in Myths & Mysticism
They aren’t getting the Concept.
Strange Light: 6 PM
Posted on September 30, 2004 in Weather
As I walked out the front door and loitered on the deck, I noticed that a mass of clouds had moved in. The cover had not congealed, so there were breaks. Mounts Modjeska and Santiago wore somber Benedictine blacks and deep blues. The foothills, however, shone goldenly. Even the olive caking of greasewood and manzanita glowed like precious metal. The glory that belonged to the highest parts of the skyline exalted the low.
When Lynn came out to go with me to a poetry reading, I said “Look at the Light.”
“It’s nice,”she said, without stopping.
The Friedman Effect
Posted on September 30, 2004 in Blogging Journalists & Pundits
One of the writers at OC Metroblog is suggesting behind the scenes that we plan our coverage for the blog, meaning that we find writers to do politics, music, etc. I find this disturbing and have said so. Because it is a larger issue of interest to group blogs, I am bringing it out here.
Blogging is about people sticking their noses in places where Big Media refuses to allow them to go because they don’t have the credentials. We all saw what credentials did in the coverage of Bush’s ramping up to the Iraq War. The nation turned to Thomas Friedman, the New York Times’ expert on the Middle East. Friedman clucked a bit and declared that the war was fine because it would get rid of Saddam. It took him more than a year to half-admit that he’d been wrong. In the meantime, Iraq turned into a quagmire.
The lesson is that we cannot afford to have this kind of narrowing of voice in our free forum of ideas. I hold the system which styled Friedman as a last word on Iraq, which prevented “nonexperts” from having their say, as responsible for the war in a major way. Of course, Friedman himself must love the system because it shuts up his opponents. (We’ve seen on this very blog a recent example of a columnist who could not handle criticism.) Blogging emerged, in large part, as a way for outsiders to regain their right to participate in the discussion of major issues. I, for one, am not about to give that up.
If a blogger on a group blog wishes to focus her or his efforts in a particular area, that’s fine with me, but to “organize”, to “plan coverage” sounds to me like the makings of heavy-handed control and the birthing of prima donnas. There are many different perspectives on any issue facing the country today, more than the media leads us to believe. We are best served as a free people by evaluating the facts rather than the glamour of the personalities. The Friedman Effect cost us dearly on the national level. I’m not about to allow it to happen in the free forum of any blog that I am a part of.
