Jan 2005

zooey's freebox escapade

2005 Jan 31

welcome to monday. it crashed down on my head like a brick, but i've seen worse. i was up risin' and shinin' in time for the phone interview with ELS. everything sounds great (heck some of my students would be japanese, rawk!) except i don't know if they want me for 4 hours a week, or 20. ideally it would need to be at least 15 or I'll be better off spending my time walking around town collecting deposit bottles. maybe as a back up plan i should start scoping out shopping carts and dust off my familiarity with cheeeep beerz. oh yeah.

just when i thought my resume had been filed away in the ol' "circular file", the folks from the britt festival called me this morning. so now i've got three irons in the fire.

add an unexpected jury duty to the week, and i think we'll be spending a lot of quality time in medford. joy.

never done the jury duty thing before. i'm a little freaked out by it actually, but i'll survive.

felt sick for a good part of the morning, but things cleared up and i went outside and headed up the hill to town. after making a couple of stops, i went over to the park and sat down on the parkbench. some guy walking with his kid goes by. i hear the familiar line that kids always seem to utter in my presence. "dad, what is she doing?" "I don't know, why don't you ask her?" it never came to that of course. kids have pretty short attention spans and the college kids playing football were way more interesting, i'm sure. as for me, i get to soak up the sun and look disreputable in peace, just the way i like.

i got a hankering to nosy on over to the freebox, so i walked down water street. i keep thinking i'm gonna score something big, but lately that hasn't happened. it's a slow time of year i guess. curiously enough i run into my neighbor there. today's crowd was pretty conversational. zooey was in a car putting up a fuss (i think she's a bit of a diva sometimes, and likes attention), so i amused her, and got a free ride home.

i had to go out again though. i forgot something the first time. a lot colder now that the sun has sank into the embrace of the mountains. the bus stop bench says "chokurei" right next to "don't tell anyone". a guy has two book tapes--"accepting your past" and converses more with the oncoming traffic than me. a guy with a ponytail carries a styrofoam case (that i now know contains some kind of bluegreen algae). the guy hiding around back looks like he's seen more alcohol than sleep. the bus is 10 minutes late and nobody's surprised.

watching people go by in cars is interesting. sometimes the cars they drive seem to make sense, and sometimes they're so wrong as to be comical. SUV's are invariably occupied by poofy blond haired soccer mom types--or republicans. most of the guys i saw at 4:45 pm were wearing white shirts and ties, which is kinda strange since you rarely see that sort of attire in this town outside of real estate offices and the bank. usually the people who are that dressed up are from out of town.

is that the chamber of commerce, no it's mr sunshine

2005 Jan 30

last night i saw indigo and that girl totally reminds me of kayla. mainly it's because they look alike, but i could also say that kayla has the same mannerisms. it makes me wonder how she's doing. i miss kids, they rock.

the moon must be void of course today because i can't concentrate on anything, and simple things seem very complicated. under the circumstances, i'd count myself lucky to get both of my feet to move in the same direction...i crashed into some guy and felt totally disoriented for 5 minutes.

after running into a problem with sugar sprinkles (of all things) i walked up the street vaguely disgruntled and hoped i would be able to get them somewhere on main. sure enough, allisons had 'em. i was talking with the cashier about bright the sun is--it's nice and sunny today if not particularly warm, then walked out the door.

there was a guy standing right outside, someone i used to see around, but haven't seen him in awhile. he couldn't say a word but was gleefully pointing up at something. i was feeling a bit dull in the senses so i looked and said "the chamber of commerce???" no, not that. oh...the sun! He looked elated. I can't explain it, but after that I felt really good. I guess some of his happiness rubbed off on me.

brian's baking cookies and the bathroom smells like citrusolve. it's a sunday. some dumb piece of shit put strange things in the recycle bins. i'm planning on making tamales in a little while. bubbles (the neighbors dog bit someone again). the dryer in the laundry room broke. my back tire's totally flat. smoky's trying to pounce on the legs of people who walk by. next week i have jury duty, of all things. it's just another week in my life. hopefully this one will be the one where i get a job. it's about that time.

squeaky pants

2005 Jan 29

woke up and went skiing again today. even though it was sunny, it actually snowed a bit while we were up there, not real hard or anything, just enough that the sky looked glittery...saw our neighbor up there too. it's that kind of town i guess (small). used the stuff we bought at the swap and it seemed to work alright, but i need to get poles. i still can't get over how pretty it is on top of mt ashland though...

fell down pretty hard on the ice in the parking lot just as we were leaving so i'm pretty sore and stiff now, but functioning. i've got a movie to go to in a little while.

what a fun day. wish they were all like this.

parking concepts

2005 Jan 28

whew, i did more driving today than i've done in months. i also went in several stores that don't sell hardware. that new goodwill in phoenix rocks, (it's the best in the county). and to top it all off, i deliberately drove down my least favorite road...crater lake highway.

i had a pretty good feeling about this job interview...i sure hope something good comes out of it. if anybody needs a job, i do. i also think if anybody knows about plants, it's me. so y'all know what needs to happen.

i also decided it was time to step it up and get serious about the DIY aspects of wedding planning. i'm all about not having to pay a fortune for this frilly crap. oh hell naw. ain't havin' dat shit. no way.

hard to believe the month is over. i gotta get with it.

usagi tsuki

2005 Jan 27

tonight's burning question, is the face of the moon that is visible outside my window, the same moon people in japan see? it's back to clouds and rain around here. i miss the freak warm spell, cos it's long gone now.

one thing i would sure like to know is how on earth do you get your browser to display japanese pages in japanese? i've never been able to figure this out. i'd love to know though...

just saw sonatine and now it's got me all homesick for okinawa. god i miss that place.

i'm surrounded by casualties of paperwork and bureaucracy, a jar of flax seeds, japanese homework, house keys, and a headache. today is one of those days where you hope tomorrow's gonna be better.

you are the spring of my winter

2005 Jan 25

you are the spring of my winter, i miss you like the desert misses the rain...

today was beautiful and i almost missed it.

walking by lithia creek, i stopped and sat on the bench by water street, where i sit all the time. there's a rather cryptic message scrawled on the slats of wood these days, written by some ungrammatical hand. the message is not important. but instead of watching the cars go by like usual, i twisted around and propped my chin up on the rails of the bridge, and looked lazily down at the creek rushing by. and saw a most curious thing-the likes of which i have never seen before-

"You are sitting quietly beside a clear, fast-flowing stream and you notice a movement in the water - is it a fish? no, it's a bird...the American Dipper. A plump slate gray bird, just over 5 inches in length...

American Dippers feed almost exclusively on insects and their larvae such as mayflies, mosquitoes, dragonflies and water beetles. Their wings help to propel them along when submerged and when swimming at the surface."

So down there in the creek, there was this crazy little grey bird that was diving into the water and swimming under it, not coming up for 10 seconds at a time. I'd never seen anything like this before in my life, so I watched this little marvel for quite awhile. I've seen this bird before, he's always singing under the bridge, kinda reminds me of a mockingbird because of all that sassy carrying on.

Apparently "they are found only on the western side of North America", and that's why I've never seen one before.

"American Dippers have a lovely melodious song which can be described as bubbling and wrenlike. Included in the song are many trills and repetitions and the song is loud enough and clear enough to be heard over rushing water." So I watched this crazy little bird swimming and diving and you know i wish I could swim THAT well.

just to keep that wildlife train moving on ahead, i decided to walk up granite street on what is best described as a death march. figured since the weather was so nice and all, why not hike up the hill? walking past this one house, i saw that the yard was full of deer, and i haven't seen deer in awhile, so i sat down on the sidewalk and watched them casually eating someone's bushes. they were pretty tame, and didn't seem to mind that they had an audience, they even started grooming each other...can't say as i've ever seen a deer scratch it's ears with its hindleg until this afternoon...just when one started walking towards me and came within 7 ft, some guy came and ruined my wild kingdom moment. oh well.

i love the view from up in the hills. but i hate being reminded that rich people in ashland are absolutely retarded. yep, i mean it. here people have these wonderful fruit trees, and do they do anything with them? noooo. they let the fruit rot on the tree or fall on the ground and roll down the street, going utterly to waste. and the kicker is i bet these same people buy apples/peaches/etc at the grocery store. the same ones that are growing right in the back yard...oh well, some people are hopeless.

aside from the scenery, the weather was real nice and spring-like. i really had way too much clothes on for that job interview. i ran into a girl at the library that i kinda see around and got funny looks on account of the suit. oh well, might just start wearing really unlikely clothes around town just for the hell of it, who's to stop me or say anything about it? who would even care?

eva sent me this huge envelop full of correspondence paper and stamps. i take the hint...i'll try to be better about writing, really... ;)

there's a big round white moon rising full over the south slopes. i feel like howling at it, like the coyotes no doubt are. it's hard to believe all this lovely weather is going away fast like the stream down the hill. tomorrow will betray today. fair weather friends indeed. i miss you my loves...i don't often get to be silly anymore. i should write you letters upside down and backwards. i should sing silly songs and record them on cassette tapes and send them to you in really myserious packages with no return address labels. i should cut funny pictures out of magazines and make phony ransom notes in secret codes. i should take very silly pictures of myself and send them to you. oh why can't life be as fun as it was when i was 16?

my new years resolution is to have more fun.

Care must be taken that the streams on which the Dippers depend are kept free of pollutants and the debris from development or logging so that their current rating of "common within their range" remains stable and future generations will also enjoy the trilling song and the unique style of the little underwater songbird - the American Dipper.

"you don't know how to hop a train"

2005 Jan 24

another nice sunday, just like last week. i think this one was even warmer though. i won't get too excited about it because i still had to wear a jacket, but i only had on 3 layers. that's a big improvement. jan says there's tons of snow in chicago, and from what i've heard, it's at least freezing cold just about everywhere else. i'm glad it's not me for a change.

today was one of those days where you feel downright guilty about staying indoors...after fighting the urge for awhile, i cut on over to the railroad tracks and hiked down to the co-op and back. it's so nice not having to walk alongside 99 and all the traffic and diesel exhaust with the trucks coming through town. i hate air pollution. at least on the other roads it's bearable.

"you don't know how to hop a train," some freak in a truck hollered at me as i was walking home. it seemed like an odd thing to say...in a town where trains don't even run. not that i was trying.

all in all, a pretty decent day. i'm sure next week will screw it all up.

i think i'll end all of this by saying that i'm being utterly reminded that fooling with html at 11 o'clock at night is a baaaaad idea.

2005 Jan 22

it dominates the landscape, and is often the only white peak during months when other mountain tops are bare. you can see it from almost everywhere in the valley...good ol' mt. ashland. and i've never been up there.

finally we got motivated enough to head up that way. i just love having an excuse to drive up into the siskiyous because this part of the region is so pretty (nothing but creeks, forests and mountains)--and normally the only time i really get to see it is when we are going to san fransisco.

so here i am going skiing for the first time in 10 years. sure was rusty too. couldn't remember basic things like how to stop. fell down a whole lot. crashed into other people. other people crashed into me. but after awhile we both got to the point where we could get down a hill without falling, and brian says he had fun too (which i wasn't sure was going to happen).

my favorite part though, other than flying down the hill, was just the scenery. the ski park is in the rogue river national forest, so it's pretty undeveloped (for a ski area), so the scenery is amazing. from up there you can see mt shasta which is probably 100 miles away, a lot of northern california, and across the valley you can see Mt. Mclaughlin and the beginnings of the Klamath basin, a sea of snowy white capped mountain peaks for miles and miles. later, the peaks began taking on a pink/orange tint, and the valleys filled up with clouds. so pretty.

98% of nothing is...

2005 Jan 20

You don't get any credit for 98% of nothing, but if you ever wondered, the 20th of january is a GREAT time to go to the DMV. no wait.

lotta good that does me though. there's a catch. apprently the gods of indiana must be appeased. i don't have a clue why. is it a case of mistaken identity? some fiendish parking ticket? who knows. chicago, memphis, these i could see, but INDIANA???

maybe all this bus riding will become a more prominent part of my life than i had imagined...

horse poop

2005 Jan 20

a day that beautifully matches my ponderings, sombre and cloudy, murky even. the low fog drifting down the mountain slopes obscuring objects and thoughts alike.

the guy who posted the ad reminds me of a professor i once had at IU. he looked so much like kasza...horse trainers seem to be a similar bunch, always kind of short and stocky and good natured. this guy has 6 horses and they're all very different. a crow was mocking me up in a tall tree across the fence. it was time to go.

there was no time to lose, but the bus went without me, there was not enough room for my bike, and the driver shook his head, almost apologetically. so i had to drive to medford which lead to all sorts of diversions.

after i parked at the library and walked past RCC i ran into the crowd, and joined in the parade for all of 2 blocks.

standing on the ledge next to a maple tree, i watched all the traffic of front street drive by. the reactions to the protestors ran the gamut from waving white haired grandmothers, to indifferent housewives, to trucker with thumbs up and thumbs down. people in SUV's actually had Bush yard signs on hand, making it a point of driving by and waving it at the crowd. other comments suggested various sentiments that would not be generally described as rational. one girl was practically crying. a man was standing near the cops glaring at everything in his line of sight. others cheered as they drove by.

although pretty tame compared to what happened at some of the southern protests i've been to, all of this just reminds me, unfortunately that our country is a very divided place, and although Bush think's he's going to "rekindle the national unity that flourished after the Sept. 11 attacks." i wouldn't count on it, even in a small town in oregon.

so, while republicans are out there celebrating four more wars, or whatever it is republicans are into (i wouldn't know myself) i'll just say that there's an old anarchist quote that all of us down-n-out types would all do well to remember-"Whoever they elect, we are ungovernable." way i figure, whatever the old greedy bastards are up to, me and my scruffy clothes and unruly looking bicycle will still be up to some kind of no-good. i would invite all the pirates and dreamers and urban guerillas to join me in orchestrating acts of desperate beauty no matter what happens, but i don't need to. y'all already know what to do.

coming back down the hill to the post office, i saw a curious sight--a pile of horse poop on the road.

like i fell into some bad highschool drama

2005 Jan 18

not sure why every highschool kid in ashland is out runnin' da streets at 1 pm on a weekday, but i ran into a pile of 'em waiting for the bus. kinda weird hearing people talking about who's turning 21, and other things that just make me feel really old...

i'm not gonna say life was a picnic back then, but maybe compared to right now, it was. but at the same time, some things have gotten a lot simpler. i've already lived through a lot of the things i used to worry about at that age...and have basically figured out what i want to do with my life, if not exactly how to get there entirely...at 21 the very thought would have generated some angst.

as weird as it sounds, i went all the way to the library just to use a pencil. Crazy as it sounds, I don't have one...i donated every last one of them to the Memphis Literacy Council before i moved. figured i wouldn't need 'em for anything...

finally tracked down that elusive japanese class, and went for the first time this evening. as i figured, it's small (which is great, my college Japanese took place in a huge class of 40 or so other people and i hardly ever got called on). i'm rusty, but i think it will come back. apparently the level i picked is pretty right on. i'm looking forward to being in a class that i'm not teaching...it's been ages. i feel pretty lucky that i can take japanese in a continuing ed context. it's pretty awesome. maybe i should do spanish this way too, instead of slogging through huge classes with the undergraduates...

today was really nice and sunny, and for the first time in awhile it felt good to be outside.

improvements

2005 Jan 17

It's been a bit nicer outside lately...not so cold. so i've been out slinking around a bit more as a result.

Been busy applying for jobs and such. Maybe by next month something will happen. It seems like more and more jobs appear every day in the paper.

Talked to tim and it sounds like exciting things are going on back in Memphis. i miss those declerye kids alot. just ain't nobody like 'em around here.

i'm kind of in a slow period which is nice in a way--it gives me time to fill out paperwork and apply for school and plan for the wedding. all of these things alone are bad enough, if it weren't for the total lack of money, i'd actually appreciate this spell of unemployment.

Saturdays soapbox rag

2005 Jan 15

Lounged around most of the afternoon until it was time to go see "A Very Long Engagement". I've been wanting to see this for awhile, and even managed to talk brian into going. Whew, it's a sad one, don't let the trailers fool you, it's more of a detective story than a blatant love story for sure. Which is probably fine for most people. Afterwards we went to eat the Arbor house, which is apparently affiliated with Brian's boss in a familial way...which as a southerner, I can appreciate. That was a real nice place and all the food was really good. Now that I'm back home, I'm totally appreciating the lack of cleaning involved on my part.

Got this link in my email for a petition that I think is timely. Yep, apparently Barbara Boxer (who's up there with Jan "I'm a Jan fan" Schakowsky in my book), is gonna grill Condoleeza Rice. Which is something I wish I could attend personally, but alas...Anyhow, it's a long time coming and I'm glad somebody's up for it. So anyway if you think Condoleeza is due for a comeuppance, swing on over to ga4.org/campaign/ricehearings and sign the petition. Too bad she can't go hit Rumsfield over the head with a newspaper too, while she's at it, I'd donate some cash. The two of them together manage to offend me almost as much as George Bush.

dilemmas

2005 Jan 12

definitely one of those kinda days. they start early too, before dawn when the construction crew arrives in the pickup truck and tromps upstairs, and starts pounding and banging and drilling and god-only-knows-what-all-else. then the bad classic rock begins. don't get me wrong i like classic rock pretty well but this bonjovi from the 80's has got to go.

add to that i feel like crap already, and you've got a pretty picture of torturama.

every time i look at the graduate school website i find a new snag, today's was a couple of pre-req courses that i definitely have not taken. this sucks. that presents some unexpected obstacles of financial import. not sure WHAT to do.

the other dilemma today is brian already has picked out all his groomsmen and i have no idea who i should pick for a bridesmaid. i don't have hardly any female relatives that i'm obligated to choose, so i've got to figure out which of my friends might be into this sort of thing. i'm making it as easy as i can...nobody has to buy matching shoes or matching dresses (the very idea makes ME twitch), but there's still the question of who wants to do it. no idea how i should go trolling for people...

oh well maybe tomorrow all of these things will seem much simpler than they do today.

the not quite japanese class

2005 Jan 11

tonight was supposed to be my first night of japanese class, so i headed on over to RCC. the thing was, nobody ever showed up. nobody. yep, had the right day, the right time, and according to the schedule on the door, the right place. no, the person up in admissions said that the class wasn't cancelled. so i stuck around for the next session which was in one hour...and nobody came to that one either. so utterly perplexed, i went to the library, and went back home.

weird.

wonder what that was all about?

snowman

2005 Jan 08

another snow day, so we built ourselves a snowman out by the road. haven't done that since i was in college, one crazy night when we built some 9 ft tall wonder over by 312 around midnight on night years ago. doesn't snow much in the south. generally it doesn't snow too much here either, but we've had stuff on the ground 3 times and that's worth mentioning.

i've been feeling the insomnia too lately. don't know what it is, but i'll wake up at odd times of night and can't sleep so i'll just lay there and think about absolutely useless shit that i can't possibly do anything about. then if i do manage to go back to sleep i have these crazy crazy dreams about the weirdest stuff imaginable.

i have also noticed that i'm having a super hard time focusing on anything, no matter how trivial or important. basic stuff that any normal person could handle i seem to struggle with...we're talking basic life skills. had a particularly embarrasing situation at the store, but fortunately they were forgiving about it. but it scares me that i can get like this so easily. makes me nervous actually that this stuff can happen, and it all has to do with my memory or lack thereof. i wish i could blame it on something, but i wouldn't know where to start...

on a less esoteric note, i think we're gonna go ahead and get married this summer. might as well do it before we get involved in graduate school and don't have time to plan crap like weddings. so it'll probably be around the 4th of july. i still feel like i'm talking about someone else when i say this...i never thought i'd be getting married in my entire life. didn't think the odds were so good that anyone could put up with my quirks. but there you have it. i hope the whole process doesn't drive me crazy.

2005 Jan 06

Headlines I'd sure like to see..."Supreme Court Throws Out Election Challenge" Reuters - The Supreme Court threw out on Thursday a challenge to last month's presidential election, paving the way for liberal .... to take power next week after two weeks in political limbo. OR this one from NEWS.com.au, Australia - The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by former president .... against his loss in last month's presidential election. ... OR maybe even Supreme Court Hears Final Appeal on Presidential Vote Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Supreme Court today hears the final appeal against last month's presidential election as winner ... cut short his Christmas holiday... Okay, I think by now we've all figured out that I'm talking about the elections in Ukraine (whose irregularities curiously get more headlines than those much closer to home). But it would be really cool if for once i was talking about something happening here? What do I have against Bush anyway? Well as a person with an IQ that's actually higher than that of my toaster, there's a lot of rants and grumbles I could easily go with, but let's stick to current events:

For example here's another headline that should sound vaguely familiar too. IAEA to visit Iranian military site ISN SECURITY WATCH (01/06/05) ...has agreed to grant the UN access to a military site linked by US officials to an alleged secret nuclear weapons program, and the first UN inspectors could arrive "within days," only it's not Iraq this time, it's Iran. Oh goody, maybe we could have 3 concurrent wars going on at the SAME TIME! THAT sounds really FUN. Okay I'll lay off the sarcasm, but here's some things that I don't think are funny at all:

1. The national debt was practically nil until Bush came along. Now it's probably bigger than when Reagan was in office...

2. Under Bush Jr. there are now 43 million Americans with no health insurance. And lucky me, I'm one of them.

3. Bush's economic policies are responsible for the unemployment rate of 6%. There are now 9 million people out of work in America-3.3 million more than when Bush took office. And lucky me, I'm one of them.

4. He talks all this nice talk about funding the war, but if you're a part of that war, joke's on you, he cut your VA health care benefits! Say nothing of the fact that he's a well known draft dodger...

5. Thanks to him we have John Ashcroft, who would merit his own distinguished list of crimes against humanity.

6. Just like Willie Herenton, his followers think he's the second coming of Christ. (Lt. General Jerry Boykin, who said said of the president, "George Bush was not elected by a majority of voters in the United States. He was appointed by God. He's in the white house because God put him there."

7. His literacy level is such that he should probably be in adult literacy classes. yet unlike my students, he happens to run the most powerful country on earth...this makes me wonder if the people who elected him also need to sign up for basic adult literacy classes. the IQ requirement for voting is sounding better all the time.

8. He is a convicted felon. Last time I checked hardly anybody willingly hires felons, but we elect them as president in the US. gosh i'm so proud...

9. Despite his country's protest, he led the US into a war against Iraq that had nothing to do with 9-11.

10. The people's he's friends with are even scarier than he is.

i guess this means things will go on as they usually do...as the anarchists say "who ever you elect, the government still wins". Or at least in this case, the corporations win. oh goody, four more years for the secret society of imperialists to destroy what good is left in this country and replace it with greed, tyranny and repression.

great.

does this mean those of us who still care about pansy liberal things like jobs, the bill of rights, the health of our communities, etc, should give up and move to canada? probably not. what it does mean is we should stop waiting for some kind of miracle (obviously it didn't happen on Nov 2nd and it won't now either) and stand up for ourselves. as long as you are still comfortable, you are still complicit in the system. refusing to stand up for yourself is the same thing as enabling things to go on as they are now, which is obviously not good for the majority of the population of the country. so whatever it is that you care about, quit crying about it (nobody is listening) and DO something about it. anything really helps. the politicians (even the liberal ones) say all the time that they think that NOBODY CARES about what's going on because they aren't hearing from anybody. time to take matters into our own hands anyway...most politicians are owned by enough corporate interests that they probably wouldn't care anyway. But being a nuisance never hurts...As for me...if bush isn't going anywhere, then neither am I.

motivate

2005 Jan 06

"If you ever get annoyed, Look at me I'm self-employed, I love to work at nothing all day, And I'll be-Taking care of business every day..."

okay, well maybe not. it's not at all like the song says, i don't really enjoy slacking. it just gets foisted upon me every now and then.

worked on knocking out some long simmering troubles that have been sitting there on the back burner like the pot nobody wants to clean up after dinner. neglected too long, but dispatched in the end.

spent the afternoon on what was ultimately a wild goose chase, and went out to check out a job lead. some people swear by this method, but i never have much luck with it. sometimes I wish people would keep their "job tips" to themselves, because it seems like whenever anyone tells me about a job they always omit some crucial detail...like they heard about it 5 years ago, or that it's graveyard shift, or you need some kind of esoteric skill. this one didn't pan out either.

turns out that in spite of the fact I would have been more than qualified, the only shift they have is 5:30-2. I"m crazy, but not THAT crazy. I'd have to get up at 4:30 AM every day to be on time for that kinda gig, and there's no way i could solve any kind of logistical problem at 5 in the morning. nooo way.

the kicker is that the guy who told me about it didn't seem like the type who would get up at 5:30 either. oh well, i'm not too crazy about crater lake highway anyhow so it's probably just as well.

since i was in the area, i stopped by rcc and rather impulsively enrolled myself in the Japanese class and went downstair to the library and found exactly what i was looking for! the guy from the permaculture class called me back and it sounds like they might be willing to work with me on this, so I have to decide in the next couple of days if this is something i need to get into right now.

ended up watching this really crazy movie called gojoe. it was kinda neat with all the visuals and plot twists, but made no sense. sure enough there's a reason for that..."Gojoe was screened for international audiences in a shockingly butchered 97-minute print, missing almost all of the exposition and dialogue needed to make sense of the story. No wonder many of the English-language reviews of the movie were negative; they had seen at best a music-video version of the story. The full 137-minute version deserves wider exposure. " Aha, no wonder I had no idea what the hell was going on much of the time (and I've read the tale of heiki).

cough cough

2005 Jan 03

no i'm not sick, but brian is, so in a sense, it's about the same difference. poor guy, he's not doing so good.

it was pretty cold today but i still went out to the co-op and the library on my bike. it's a kind of insanity that feels good...it's both exhilirating and crazy to ride when it's this cold out. but it made everything feel warmer. my lungs weren't too happy about inhaling all that cold air, but they're never too happy about anything.

heard that a restaurant down the street was hiring, so i thought I'd check it out. not my ideal job but then again i worked at one love for a whole year, and didn't mind it all that much (except for the fact that i had to use collection agency tactics to get paid). this place isn't open late, and although it isn't vegetarian, i figure with breakfast foods, it won't be that big of a deal...

spent most of the rest of the day looking at graduate school stuff. sure is complex wading through all this semi-conflicting info, but i'll survive. i think i'm good and ready to get about it though. the sooner, the better.

where are you

2005 Jan 02

where have you gone, all you beautiful and mad rooftop accordion players? graceful garden gnomes? renegade bike pirates, boys who love boys like they're girls but they're boys who wear dresses who love girls who wear coveralls, banjo players and exotic dancers and hammock fanciers? or knights who say "nee" and people who make cups of tea, and goats full of glee? okay, i guess what i'm tryin' to say is i miss my peeps.

thank you for being who you are my beautiful rainbow spirits and faeries and elves and beautiful selves. ah, loves i miss you all.

staff of life

2005 Jan 02

slept in super late again this morning. yesterday right before i woke up i was dreaming that we were at declerye at a crazy potluck and all of us were outside dancing around and and pulling up these huge radishes and carrots and potatoes(like basketball size) out of the garden. today though, i woke up right after having another crazy dream, only in this one, evil crow spirits were trying to get into the house, and i was having a very intellectual argument with my brother about central heating. pretty weird...i should ask richard about THAT dream.

went iceskaing for awhile, but brian doesn't feel well, and it was really cold so we only lasted about 40 minutes. so we came on home, and i've been spending the rest of the afternoon baking bread. i've never done it before (unless you count using a bread machine mix), so of course i screwed up and forgot the salt, but it smells pretty good and it made three nice little loaves that are currently in the oven making the whole house smell lovely. also made up some gingerbread mix that i've had around for awhile. so basically i've been baking all afternoon, and reading. it snowed this morning but melted quickly even though the sun never really came out. but it's been mighty cold so other than going iceskating earlier, i haven't been out much today.