Friday Fives

Friday Fives

1.If you were forced to eat only one thing for an entire week, what would it be?
A roast beef sammich prepared with swiss or muentster cheese on sour dough with mayo, horseradish, a dill pickle, lettuce, tomato and a slice of red onion. I could indeed eat that every day of my life.

2. What did you sing in the shower this morning?
“I can’t stop loving you.” by Ray Charles.

3. Describe your favorite T-shirt?
Either my T-Shirt from Remo with a quote from Zorba the Greek: “Life is trouble; only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and look for trouble.” Or my T-shirt funshelley gave me with a great quote from Ben Franklin: “Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

4. In the spirit of Spinal Tap what should the Eleventh Commandment be?
Though shalt use thy blinker and be a considerate driver.

5. What book would you like to see turned into a movie?
“Cat’s Cradle” by Vonnegut or Robert Harris “The Enigma Code.”

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[That personal essay thing]

It’s Not Procrastinating

They call it procrastinating. I call it contemplating.
Mostly, I spend my time contemplating. Contemplating and dreaming. Dreaming about winning the lottery. Dreaming about my future. The company I work for wants people to be “Do”-ers. I am not a Do-er. I am a dreamer. Getting past the dreamer step and into the real world is a challenge for me. I am always looking for that shortcut. As a kid I always immersed myself in books. I read all the biographies in the child’s section at a very young age and have always had a special fondness for non fiction, for the book that would tell how to get something done. Now, as an adult, I am at a particularly pesky part. The answer is not in the book anymore. I generally have the answer. I know what I need to do to have a good retirement – save and invest. However I seem unwilling to actually do the work. Instead I dream about it. I know what I need to do to be healthy and live a long life – eat a balanced, healthy diet of fresh ingredients and lovingly prepared food. Exercise every day. But instead I sit in front of the television eating my Sonic Burger and tater tots and plan and plot my healthy lifestyle shortcuts. To play the guitar, I must practice everyday, but instead I stare at the guitar, by more books and cds on how to play it and hope I will find the short cut. There is no short cut, I just must do the work.

I come to this easily enough. My father was dreamer, holding on to his last dying days for a chance to win the lotto. He dreamed of being a Senator or a Governor. He dreamed of the big house and the big farm. My mother, too was a bit of a dreamer, although smaller in scale and scope. She cares very little about the lotto or the Governor’s mansion. But she dreams. She has big dreams for her husband, her sons and daughters. She has big dreams and plans for the new life she is sculpting in her mountain valley home.

The dream is a sign, perhaps that we are alive. That we still are filled with hope and desire. When the dream is gone, when the desire dries up, with it goes the ambition and promise. But getting past the dream, getting past the blissful stare out the window and rolling up the sleeves and actually getting to the work is the real challenge. When doing the work, when fulfilling the dream, there is little time or energy left to do much else. Dreaming takes us away from the work and the work moves closer and closer to fulfilling the dream.

Now, if I could just find that to do list and get to work.

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More On RWR

Eric Alterman, over at his Blog on MSNBC.com has been putting together some thoughts on the Reagan passing. I think it is important to hear from the left and the populist side of the aisel as our nation gets wrapped up in a Reagan frenzy. He was a good president and probably what our nation needed to pull us out of the funk of the 1970s, but he was not our greatest leader and in fact was kind of tarnished when he left office. Take a moment and read Alterman’s thoughts. And for a deeper distillation, Paul Krugman in the New York Times takes the glowing reviews and the Reagan-era tax philosophy to task. This is a great article that says it so much better than I can.

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Wicked Cool Transit Of Venus Pics

With digital cameras and the like, it is no longer necessary to stand in the middle of a vacan lot with a telescope and binoculars to see a neat eclipse or solar event. Where was this technology when I was floundering my grade in Astronomy class in college!
Here is a great site with constantly added and updated pictures of today’s Venus Transit event, which happens eight years a part about every 100 years or so. Have a look. Here is my favorite so far.

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Poem du Jour

He is more and less than he will be remembered for.

Ronald Reagan lies in state, his memory etched on the TeeVee.
I avoid the constant drone, the voice and image engraved.
He will soon be memorialized, on a coin, a stamp, even Rushmore

But we will focus on the man in full? His deeds and misdeeds?
Enormously popular, an eight-year nap.
Famous for tax cuts, he raised taxes each year.
Famous for his Armageddon shouts of Communist apocalypse

A friend called it the end of the ’80s. On that we agree.
And like his deteriorating age, can we also move on?
A country music tribute video airs, Travis Tritt and flag waving.
The Gipper fading into memory, a hero enshrined.
Lunching with Gorbachev.

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Pr0n Irony This is a simple little picture of John Ashcroft made entirely of porn pictures. It made me giggle. Probably not safe for work and downloading will get you prosecuted by the Justice Department. Heh heh.

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Jet Setting Playboy In Chief

Last week, in an email I wrote this about President GW Bush:

He is bored and doesn’t have the attention span to continue focusing on the issues at hand. There are a few great rumors he has gone back to drinking and is very Reagan-like lately in his inability to work at a full 40 – 50 hour week. This is a jet-setting-playboy who weaseled his way into the greatest job in the world and now is bored and annoyed at the prospect of having to actually go through with it. He loves the idea of winning another election, but I honestly believe he doesn’t relish the idea of working this gig for another four years. (These are all just reflections, intuitions and rumors and not based on any factual evidence, so take it for what its worth.)”

Now, it seems, I am not alone in this. A group of unnamed White House aides, speaking off the record have described the Bush White House as erratic, paranoid and impatient and compared these last few weeks to those of the Nixon years.

Former Nixon Chief Legal Counsel and Watergate star John Dean has said essentially the same thing, although more eloquently in his new book, described in this Salon.com/Findlaw article.

As someone posted on Metafilter, does our generation now have our own Nixon?

Friday Fives

Friday Fives

1. What is your favorite drink recipe?
The Harvey Wallbanger
Vodka (I am fond of Kettel One), Cointreu, Orange Juice, Ice in a pint glass. Stir vigorously. Add a floater of Galliano to the top and enjoy. It’s like an old-fashioned orange creamsicle.

The Gin and Tonic
Gin, tonic,lime in a high ball class – stir vigoursly. Enjoy.

And in colder months a Martini. 7 shots premium gin (Bombay Blue Saphirre is my choice) one half shot vermouth. shake in an ice cold shaker full of ice.
Pour some vermouth into a cocktail glass and swirl and rinse. Discard the vermouth. Fill the glass with ice to chill.
Shake, shake, shake, shake. When ice has take over the outside of the shaker, it has been shaken enough.

Discard the ice in the cocktail glass and strain your drink into it. Serve with a cocktail onion or a pepperoncini.
Enjoy.

2. What is your favorite comfort food?
Smothered burritos with homemade green chili. Or lasagna. Depending on the mood. I do turn to food when I am anxious. I tend to also migrate to candy as a comfort food – Red Vines and gummy bears are constant companions for anxiety.

3. What is your favorite comfort song?
This is tough. I love music and usually have something going all the time. But the favorite comfort song would be that song you play over and over and over again. Hmmmmmm. I think recently it would be “Lonesome Day” by Springsteen.

Lonesome Day (Bruce Springsteen, 2002)
Baby once I thought I knew,
everything I needed to know about you.
Your sweet whisper, your tender touch;
I didn’t really know that much.
Jokes on me, but it’s gonna be OK,
if I can just get through this Lonesome Day.

Hell is brewing, dark sun’s on the rise,
this storm’ll blow through by and by.
House is on fire, vipers in the grass,
a little revenge and this too shall pass.
This too shall pass, darling, I’m gonna pray.
Right now, all I got’s this Lonesome Day.

It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right, yeah (3x)
it’s all right, it’s all right…

Better ask questions before you shoot.
Deceit and betrayal’s bitter fruit.
It’s hard to swallow, come time to pay,
that taste on your tongue don’t easily slip away.
Let kingdom come, I’m gonna find my way,
after this Lonesome Day.

It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right, yeah (6x)

4. In a world without television, what do you do on a rainy/snowy day?
Write in my journal. Play computer chess. Cook – (usually bread or something complicated.)

5. Rabbit’s foot or horseshoe? What is your lucky totem?
Well, after last weekend’s gambling fest in Central City, I would say I am running totemless. But I do keep a polished blue rock in my pocket that reminds me of my dad.

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Notes On The 40th Birthday Bash

My journal entry as kept during two nights in Central City/Blackhawk while celebrating/contemplating turning 40 years old:

Big Birthday Bash Weekend Telemundo Weather Man, Deadwood cussing, gambling, losing, Adrian H, Michelle B., books, presents, Riviera buffet, Fortune City, balloons, Josh’s Mom, dealing, Blackjack, Waterman pen, watch, Mark, Robert, a night under the stars, Chris and Sara, Reid, Jenn, Central City, Harvey Wallbangers, Malibu Julz, CO 119, 2000 yards, “strapping college men rock climbing,” wheel chairs, oxygen, this is not Vegas, a minor celebrity, Rev. Ed, Tylenol with Codeine, Prilosec, Immodium A.D., sandals, long naps, sleeping in, nursing hangover, drinking binge, breakfast, bad coffee, upset tummy, early checkout, Ron Howard, clown fucking, gold dollar tokens, “The Price is Right”, Bob Barker, nickel slots, sucker bet, lost in Nederland, William B., Drew and Jon, magic slot fingers, fast cash, the money bus, kayakers, Adam & Sage, Charro, Connie Chung, The Fixx, “One Thing Leads To Another,” red light – no service, Apollo 13, chain smoking, Tony Roma, “My life for a decent cup of coffee!”, Tony and Heather T., home brewed beer, “Rats!”, Davies’ Chuckwagon Diner, Double Diamond Deluxe, slots, lost in “The Lodge”,” Sunday morning, driving down the mountain, snow, rain, river side wanderings, Nils Lofgrin cd.