the long emergency - surviving catastrophies of the 21st century

this is a very interesting video about the problems facing our economy and society as we move into the new century, among them our dependence on oil, our automobile-dependent way of life, urban design, etc. it's an interview with James Howard Kunstler, author of the long emergency - surviving catastrophies of the 21st century, editor at rolling stone and writer for the new york times. i recognized him as the pessimist from "the end of suburbia", a great little documentary done by brant local barry silverthorn, but he's much more balanced it seems in this discussion for the massachusetts school of law "books of our time" show.

watch it, it's engaging and informative.

chemicals in my cream / fatherhood

fresh cream. the idea of it connotes some kind of natural, pure state for me, clean and white, full of nutrition and rich fats to nurture a calf to maturity.

so was my naive state of mind when i reached for my neilson "fresh cream 10%" a minute ago and noticed it supposedly expired on oct 23, but its still good as new. so i looked at the ingredients. in addition to what you'd expect, you know, cream, water, milk, there were also sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, carrageenan, and dextrose. in cream! i hate to think what was in my jr. bacon cheeseburger yesterday. maybe its time to revert to vegetarianism and go organic. i don't want my baby being siphoned this crap!

yes, my baby! autumn is pregnant. due sometime late spring/early summer.

i just saw a UFO!

alright, so it was about 7am this morning and i was coming home from autumn's work after walking her there. was up crossing the train tracks by the greenwood cemetary on west st. and lo! in the sky, a few inches down from the cresent moon, really between the moon and the horizon where you could just see the sun's light blue influence spreading upwards, was this period-sized dot of brilliant yellow light! it was moving, and around a 35º fan of luminous gradient diffused out behind it into the sky, like a very large slice of pie. at first i thought it was a plane or helicopter with some kind of ultra-powerful floodlight attached to the front, but as i watched it, i realized it was moving in the reverse direction of the fanning light. i crossed the train tracks in case a freight caravan would come along, still keeping a close eye, and about 30 seconds later, this thing dimmed and then disappeared into what looked like a puff of smoke. the plume behind it wavered and drifted, and became a foggy cloud instead of a sharp-edged, well-lit angle.

either i just saw a spaceship go into romulan "cloak" mode, or that was one massive meteor. either way, it's given me a renewed sense of smallness in the face of the sky, and in the face of all i don't know about this world i live in. and i wish i'd taken a video so i could sell it to the national inquirer.

the ease and turn

finally, i'm out from under the shadow of that electoral reform paper; out from under the shadow of classes, campaigns, etc. just a couple exams, and i'm home free til january come banging in.

so i'm sitting at my desk, sipping some coffee with eggnog. cut myself an extra thick slice of raisin toast with butter. taking the time to wrap up little odds and ends i've put off for ages, plan maybe some nice times with autumn. that poor girl, i'm honestly needing to give her 1. a lot more credit and praise for her intelligence and patience and balance. and it's funny that those are a few things she thinks she lacks in, but she has so much more of all of them than i do. i couldn't have found a more perfect girl. i just hope i can keep it together and let things grow between us again. i've put her through a lot. i need to work on admitting that... especially to her. and to myself. i'm not sure what my problem is.

anyways, i'm the new CEO of the local green party association, which should be a bit of fun on the side, although i can't let it take too much time from me. i'm refocusing on these 4 things, in priority sequence, as my christmas holiday and new years thereafter priorities.

1. autumn
2. paying off debts.
3. school
4. music

speaking of music, my band, false heroics has an album out!: www.falseheroics.com. we're shipping worldwide!