I had the boys most of yesterday (well, nearly all of yesterday). Took'em to the playground, then to the Zoo, where there Nature Boardwalk has finally been opened. It looks great (I snapped lots of pix, no worries; will post'em when I've got a moment), although the greenery needs to grow in fully -- it'll be zeroscaped, like native flora to fill up the area. But it looks wonderful already, and the boys loved it.
Took the boys to the fireworks last night, which they enjoyed, although they really enjoyed just being out at night and running around on the beach, wearing glow necklaces. Very cute! I started to feel ill while out there, and, sure enough, got stomach flu, which kept me up most of the night. B1 got it this morning, the poor guy.
I'm sipping on a 7-Up right now. Had to! I've held out for hours and hours and hours.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy Independence Day
Happy Independence Day, everybody! Hope it's a happy, sparkly day for you, wherever you are.
I'm sleepy; I did a lot of bike-riding today. Gonna take the boys out later to watch the fireworks, which they're launching today, for whatever reason.
I'd take a nap, but it'd spoil my bedtime, right? *yawn*
I'm sleepy; I did a lot of bike-riding today. Gonna take the boys out later to watch the fireworks, which they're launching today, for whatever reason.
I'd take a nap, but it'd spoil my bedtime, right? *yawn*
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Whew
So, Spain squeaked a 1 - 0 from Paraguay, and Germany trounced Argentina 4 - 0. Now to the semifinals next week:
Uruguay v. Holland
Germany v. Spain
We'll see how it goes. The Dutch are very formidable, and the German are amazing. Spain is the #2 ranked team in the world, but I don't know if they can beat Germany or not. Hope so.
B1 was doing karate today, a new thing for him. He was pretty reluctant to do it, but Exene took him with one of his friendettes. I'll see how it went for him later, when he comes back.
Uruguay v. Holland
Germany v. Spain
We'll see how it goes. The Dutch are very formidable, and the German are amazing. Spain is the #2 ranked team in the world, but I don't know if they can beat Germany or not. Hope so.
B1 was doing karate today, a new thing for him. He was pretty reluctant to do it, but Exene took him with one of his friendettes. I'll see how it went for him later, when he comes back.
World Cup!
Okay, so Germany v. Argentina this morning, then Spain v. Paraguay later today! C'mon, Spain! I'm wearing my Spain jersey (also known as a "kit") today! Awooooo! B2 calls his vuvuzela his "googoozela" -- that cutes me out.
Exene is now 119 lbs.!
Exene is now 119 lbs.!
Limoncello?!
I saw this face on an anti-child prostitution PSA ad on the bus the other day, and almost did a spit-take in shock! It's like the SEINFELD where Elaine sees the mannequin that looks like her! I just took a hasty picture of it, as the bus was crowded, but still, it was uncanny! I'll try to snap a better picture of it if I run into it again.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Parasitic
I always read a lot about parasites. Having lived with one for 20 years, I'm something of an expert on the topic. Bahah! But really, I am fascinated by their adroit gaming of evolution. The Sacculina barnacle mentioned in the above article was the inspiration for my short story, "Rotgut."
Going, Going, Ghana...
Poor Ghana. They fought so hard, lost on a shootout to Uruguay. AAUGH! I swear, every team I liked (excepting Spain and Germany) has gone down. Cameroon, up in flames. Ivory Coast, toast. Mexico, a mess. Slovakia exits fast! Now Ghana, gone-a.
It was a mostly clean match, and hard-fought, going into extra time (two 15-minute OT periods), although Ghana was hosed in the very last minute of the second OT when, in a scramble in the box, Ghana shot a goal in that was batted out by a Uruguayan player who handballed it out of the goal. Well and good, it yielded a penalty kick. And then the Ghanian player fired his penalty kick at the goal, hitting the UPPER BAR, sending it hurtling skyward. No goal. Ghana fucked. Then they move to a shootout, which brings Uruguay from certain doom to back to life, and Uruguay outshoots Ghana in the penalty kicks, 4 kicks to 2, winning the match. Poor Ghana. Terrible way to go! It was sad to see all the Africans down in the mouth for the last African team standing -- they had 90,000 people there, most of them pulling for Ghana. Ghana's failure to score more goals earlier cost them. They seemed to dominate about two-thirds of the match, only to run out of steam at key moments
Uruguay, then, gets the dubious pleasure of going up against Holland, who ought to be able to cream them, given their strong performance against Brazil.
Tomorrow morning, it's Germany v. Argentina (go, Germany!) and later, Spain v. Paraguay (go, Spain!) If, for some reason, those two teams go down, then I'll root for Holland, who should be able to prevail over Uruguay. Of course, if Germany wins and Spain wins, then my two favorite remaining teams will be competing against each other (Spain v. Germany has me rooting for Spain, naturally, although Germany plays very, very well, is fun to watch, and I don't know how Spain would fare against them).
Sigh. Sorry, Ghana. You were a really good team, and deserved a better finish than you got.
It was a mostly clean match, and hard-fought, going into extra time (two 15-minute OT periods), although Ghana was hosed in the very last minute of the second OT when, in a scramble in the box, Ghana shot a goal in that was batted out by a Uruguayan player who handballed it out of the goal. Well and good, it yielded a penalty kick. And then the Ghanian player fired his penalty kick at the goal, hitting the UPPER BAR, sending it hurtling skyward. No goal. Ghana fucked. Then they move to a shootout, which brings Uruguay from certain doom to back to life, and Uruguay outshoots Ghana in the penalty kicks, 4 kicks to 2, winning the match. Poor Ghana. Terrible way to go! It was sad to see all the Africans down in the mouth for the last African team standing -- they had 90,000 people there, most of them pulling for Ghana. Ghana's failure to score more goals earlier cost them. They seemed to dominate about two-thirds of the match, only to run out of steam at key moments
Uruguay, then, gets the dubious pleasure of going up against Holland, who ought to be able to cream them, given their strong performance against Brazil.
Tomorrow morning, it's Germany v. Argentina (go, Germany!) and later, Spain v. Paraguay (go, Spain!) If, for some reason, those two teams go down, then I'll root for Holland, who should be able to prevail over Uruguay. Of course, if Germany wins and Spain wins, then my two favorite remaining teams will be competing against each other (Spain v. Germany has me rooting for Spain, naturally, although Germany plays very, very well, is fun to watch, and I don't know how Spain would fare against them).
Sigh. Sorry, Ghana. You were a really good team, and deserved a better finish than you got.
Flying Dutchmen Beat Brazil
I'm amazed! Holland beat Brazil 2 - 1 in a flop-n-foul-tastic match that had plenty of thrills, particularly in the second half, when Brazil went to pieces, unable to check their emotions when up against the Netherlands!
Cello, There!
Hard-working musician waiting for the train. The CSO is just off this stop. I'm sure she makes at least double my salary. It pays to play!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
a4a (1996-2010)
Aww, it looks like the archive that hosted my old political blog (Anarchy for Anybody) went belly-up this year (I think roughly around the end of April). I worked hard on that site for a long time (particularly active from 1996-2001; I think sometime in 2000 I lost access to the direct FTP stuff I used to do to update the site myself, back in the day, and just made one last post in 2001 thanks to some friends and fans, and let it languish from that point on as a kind of archive of radical political thought in the 90s). Even at the end of my most active period with that project, I found refuge in fiction over nonfiction for my ideas -- that I found art was the best way of expressing my radical attitudes (just flourishes here and there, a sensibility, a sense of the possible -- I don't write polemics in fiction).
Still, 14 years is a long time for a blog, even if I hadn't been active on it for nine of those years, it still exposed a lot of people to new and different ideas (I remember it having something like 500,000 hits or more the last time I checked it, which is paltry in Net terms, but nice for a fringe political site -- I used to get comments from people who would write me expressing gratitude for that site). One of my essays (really, my most influential one, circa 1996) is still archived out there, which is nice to know. Everything else is apparently gone. I may have discs of the stuff saved somewhere (unlikely, anymore, after a few moves), but I've moved on from that stuff. Not in terms of my politics, which remain stubbornly small "l" libertarian and internationalist in spirit, but I've always been more philosophical than doctrinaire.
It's weird to think of that time and contrast it with the 00s, like how our political culture curdled in the face of right-wing extremism that's continued to hold our country back. We truly are falling behind. So many vital concerns I had then have become policy, now -- our country suspended habeas corpus, it is now a nation that officially tortures, we have secret prisons, etc., etc. -- serious breaches of liberty, carried out without hesitation or shame, or really much substantive debate. Sure, a lot of hand-wringing and navel-gazing, but the Beltway consensus seems to have accepted this as the "new normal."
In so many ways, the 90s seems like the last "good" American decade -- a time of peace and prosperity. Certainly the 00s did not begin auspiciously, and we're grinding along unsteadily in this second decade of the 21st Century as an imperial nation, desperately stratified economically, debt-ridden, deficit-laden, with an exhausted workforce and an overcommitted (and massive) military, with one-and-a-half political factions jousting for ever-dwindling voter market share (one group wanting to lead the nation the wrong way [the Republicans], the other unwilling to lead at all).
From my vantage point as an everyday citizen and political outsider, it's amazing to behold. But I console myself that bad times make for good art -- it gets the creative mind spinning, even as American life in the 21st Century is an affront to one's intelligence and a insult to the imagination. We are becoming a banana republic before our very eyes.
A decade ago, I'd comment about the "Youngstownification of the country" (and those of you from Youngstown surely know what I'm talking about) -- where ignorance was paraded about with pride, where things spiraled down into oblivion, and people would cheer the corrupt and the vile as heroes, and I see it continuing, maybe even accelerating. Maybe it's just a natural human reaction to political, economic, and cultural entropy. Maybe it's how people react when they don't even realize why they're fucked, or what's fucking them. I'm not sure. It's something, for damned sure.
Anyway, a4a is gone, but I'm still kicking, fuckers. ; )
Still, 14 years is a long time for a blog, even if I hadn't been active on it for nine of those years, it still exposed a lot of people to new and different ideas (I remember it having something like 500,000 hits or more the last time I checked it, which is paltry in Net terms, but nice for a fringe political site -- I used to get comments from people who would write me expressing gratitude for that site). One of my essays (really, my most influential one, circa 1996) is still archived out there, which is nice to know. Everything else is apparently gone. I may have discs of the stuff saved somewhere (unlikely, anymore, after a few moves), but I've moved on from that stuff. Not in terms of my politics, which remain stubbornly small "l" libertarian and internationalist in spirit, but I've always been more philosophical than doctrinaire.
It's weird to think of that time and contrast it with the 00s, like how our political culture curdled in the face of right-wing extremism that's continued to hold our country back. We truly are falling behind. So many vital concerns I had then have become policy, now -- our country suspended habeas corpus, it is now a nation that officially tortures, we have secret prisons, etc., etc. -- serious breaches of liberty, carried out without hesitation or shame, or really much substantive debate. Sure, a lot of hand-wringing and navel-gazing, but the Beltway consensus seems to have accepted this as the "new normal."
In so many ways, the 90s seems like the last "good" American decade -- a time of peace and prosperity. Certainly the 00s did not begin auspiciously, and we're grinding along unsteadily in this second decade of the 21st Century as an imperial nation, desperately stratified economically, debt-ridden, deficit-laden, with an exhausted workforce and an overcommitted (and massive) military, with one-and-a-half political factions jousting for ever-dwindling voter market share (one group wanting to lead the nation the wrong way [the Republicans], the other unwilling to lead at all).
From my vantage point as an everyday citizen and political outsider, it's amazing to behold. But I console myself that bad times make for good art -- it gets the creative mind spinning, even as American life in the 21st Century is an affront to one's intelligence and a insult to the imagination. We are becoming a banana republic before our very eyes.
A decade ago, I'd comment about the "Youngstownification of the country" (and those of you from Youngstown surely know what I'm talking about) -- where ignorance was paraded about with pride, where things spiraled down into oblivion, and people would cheer the corrupt and the vile as heroes, and I see it continuing, maybe even accelerating. Maybe it's just a natural human reaction to political, economic, and cultural entropy. Maybe it's how people react when they don't even realize why they're fucked, or what's fucking them. I'm not sure. It's something, for damned sure.
Anyway, a4a is gone, but I'm still kicking, fuckers. ; )
Vuvuzela Konzert
Okay, so there's one more week of World Cuppage left, but before it's done, I had to sling some more vuvuzela-related hee-hee...
Vuvuzela Konzert
*snicker*
Frankly, I think it violates the blaring spirit of the vuvuzela to actually play it, but it still amuses me.
Vuvuzela Konzert
*snicker*
Frankly, I think it violates the blaring spirit of the vuvuzela to actually play it, but it still amuses me.
Artful Dodger
I'm noshing on an Italian BMT (on Hearty Italian bread, with provolone cheese, naturally) from Subway at the moment. *nosh nosh* <-- see?
Beautiful day today -- mild, summery, sunny, lovely. A good walking-around kind of day, although I didn't have my camera handy, it was okay, because nothing jumped out at me (which is perhaps a good thing in Hyde Park -- you don't want anything or anybody jumping out at you down here!)
I was very pleased to learn that my good friend Corvina is getting a venue at ArtPrize! Yay! I stumbled upon that competition earlier this year and told her about it, said she should definitely submit something, on the off chance that she might get a venue (that's the real challenge with ArtPrize -- the venues are incredibly competitive and hard to get). And she got a venue! Her work is so solid, I'm really pleased she got in. Very, very cool. And what's even cooler is that the top 10 finalists win cash prizes for their works (and the prizes are phenomenally good). But even if she's not a finalist, at least she got in! Go get'em, Corvina! I'm so happy for her!
Beautiful day today -- mild, summery, sunny, lovely. A good walking-around kind of day, although I didn't have my camera handy, it was okay, because nothing jumped out at me (which is perhaps a good thing in Hyde Park -- you don't want anything or anybody jumping out at you down here!)
I was very pleased to learn that my good friend Corvina is getting a venue at ArtPrize! Yay! I stumbled upon that competition earlier this year and told her about it, said she should definitely submit something, on the off chance that she might get a venue (that's the real challenge with ArtPrize -- the venues are incredibly competitive and hard to get). And she got a venue! Her work is so solid, I'm really pleased she got in. Very, very cool. And what's even cooler is that the top 10 finalists win cash prizes for their works (and the prizes are phenomenally good). But even if she's not a finalist, at least she got in! Go get'em, Corvina! I'm so happy for her!
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