April 2003

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Birthdays Apparently

April 9, 2003 in imported | No comments

Birthdays Apparently
Today is Sassy’s Birthday

And I forgot my good friend and roommate, Erin’s birthday yesterday.

Happy Birthday!

Maybe I need to save these dates somewhere so I don’t forget them?

Slimming Down (in ListServ land)

April 8, 2003 in imported | No comments

Slimming Down (in ListServ land)
Dropped 2 mailing lists today.

Too much email.

As in, I still get too much email—but now I’ll have less interminable nattering in my inbox.

Good discussion lists are civil places to be. I have no need for places of incivility and rudeness and pedantry. The world is that way, and I like my places to talk and socialize to not be so much like the world. If a private club is just like the whole world, what’s the point of the private club?

Yesterday

April 7, 2003 in imported | No comments

Yesterday
Leah beat me 8 to 2 at Air Hockey.

I want a rematch

Current Events

April 6, 2003 in imported | No comments

Current Events
So what’s new with Joe? Lost in the aether? Lost in space? Lost in the public transit system of San Diego County somewhere?

Or maybe it’s D) NONE OF THE ABOVE

Things are pretty good, actually.

The non-sequitur-formatted update:

Yesterday I got a hug from my mother-in-law who was visiting from Miami

Yesterday I gave even more old photos and frames to my estranged wife

I’m glad we are still amicable

I still have not filed for divorce, but today I’m working on the papers

Procrastination is still a problem

Friday was a great day, my Grandma made me a carrot cake for my birthday

Friday I enjoyed fish and chips

I’m still enjoying the bus

I’m still not likely to get a bike

I have no room for a bike here, really

rudy and my aunt still think I should get a bike

I’m still seeing Leah

Leah is a great thing in my life

Work is good, still

There is more to tell in the work arena, but not in public

Saturday I played some great intense racquetball with an aunt and uncle

I’m behind in my reading

My roommate gave me an audiobook of The Tennis Partner some weeks ago, and I’m finally finishing it, and it is moving but depressing

Last week I bought some new pants, smaller than before

Still making progress on the size/weight front

I feel I’m in better health than I have been in perhaps 6 years

We went through the time change today, and I again wonder why we don’t simply leave things in Daylight Savings Time

The other night Leah and I did some sketching together, and it was really, calmly, quietly wonderful

Compared with last year at this time, I have 4 less teeth

Compared with last year, a higher percentage of my teeth are in good shape

I got a cell phone not long ago, and so far it’s been very useful

I’m loathe to give the number to lots of people though, as it is possible to abuse

Today my back aches, I think from the racquetball yesterday

I worry about the health of my roommate, and am still unsure of what I can possibly say or do to help, other to wish encouragement

For my birthday, Leah gave me a great stamp of my ArtLung logo, and today I have put it to good use in some paper correspondence

Today I’m organizing my backpack

Today my hair is uncombed

Today I am chilled out


Onward

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?

April 2, 2003 in imported | No comments

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?
I got some peculiar referers here on the blog, check these three recent entries:

From the IP address: 66.12.154.134

Looks like a joke or something. I wonder if anyone else is seeing these?

Back to Random Links

April 2, 2003 in imported | No comments

Back to Random Links

No Fooling.

April 1, 2003 in imported | 1 comment

No Fooling.
15 years ago I learned something critical and important about myself. It’s beyond the scope of this blog to talk specifics, but let’s simply say that I made some greivous mistakes in my youth, for which I have atoned. I will never forget these lessons, and the people who have helped me be a better person over the years.

The world is upended right now, and things are upended for me a bit at the moment, but this too shall pass, with determination, hard work, and some proper meditative calm.

So.

Probably none of this makes sense, but that’s fine. I’m thinking too much about my audience for this blog and not about what what matters. What matters is that this is a space for me to bleed on the page. A place for me to work stuff out.

So hey. Time to do that.

I’m sick of the war. Not of the media coverage. The war. I’m displeased with the revealed vapidity of the press, which seems to think wars are quick, bloodless affairs, and are shocked, shocked to see that human beings are turned to mush by war. I’ve seen a fair number of broken, bloody bodies in my medical background, and warfare is the creation of carnage and destruction. And I don’t like it. This is not so much a political opinion I’m voicing here, just an observation that I feel sick in my heart when I look at news of almost any kind. For example, here’s the… Quote of The Day: An American Serviceman in Iraq

“When I go home, people will want to treat me like a hero, but I’m not,” he told the Times. “I’m a Christian man. If I have to kill the other guy, I will, but it doesn’t make me a hero. I just want to go home to my wife and kids.”
From Town becomes horrific battleground

And it’s true, Americans are shocked that this is not a “cakewalk” – and yet this is what the populace says it wants, Saddam is a bad man, and he must be removed.

How many bad men run countries around the world? Are we going to deploy men and women to depose all of them?

As my Grandmother might say: It makes me want to spit!

And then I read articles like this: War-Gamed: Why the Army shouldn’t be so surprised by Saddam’s moves

In which we find that in the wargames that we have played for scenarios that are something like Iraq-Invasion ‘03, the side playing the faux-Iraqis was chastised for playing his role too well.

And that makes me want to spit too. What in the hell are we doing by playing wargames against glass-jawed opponents? If you’re going to spar, you should spar with someone who’s going to challenge your skills. Stacking the deck, putting a finger on the scale—however you choose to describe it, it’s not a good thing to cheat the military of challenging opponents.

Because certainly the enemy faced in Iraq is a challenging opponent.

In terms of a conventional army, they’re not challenging. No.

But as far as irregular forces, which have the capacity to kill, to trick, to use subterfuge, car bombs, suicide attacks, they can certainly hurt Americans well enough to provide death to American servicemen. I weep this night for the dead men.

How much of this will our forces endure?

There are people going back into Iraq to fight: War against Iraq stirs Arab Pride:
In contrast to the knee-jerk expressions of support for Hussein that are often heard among Iraqis, he carefully avoided saying anything about the Iraqi president. His desire to return, it seemed, had little to do with Hussein and everything to do with loyalty to country.

“I am going back to defend the Iraqi people; to defend the old women of Iraq; the old men of Iraq; the land of Iraq,” said the 33-year-old Shiite. “Do you allow someone to enter your home and force you out of it. They have put up the American flag in Umm Qasr. This is not liberation. This is occupation.”
National pride, for a nation with a dictator? It’s difficult for my brain to process such thinking, and yet there it is.

Meanwhile, I think of the Pictures of the Day
Amazing images of the war. Images of war

I have so much yet to learn about myself and the world. I’m always learning new things about this world and what it takes to survive and be a healthy person. With some hard work I’ll keep getting better.

I’m up too late. Time to sleep.

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