this is totally tragic.
and *#&!% up.
D.J. for Run-DMC Is Shot to Death in Queens

Stand Clear of Closing Doors, and That Love Seat
via Witold Riedel

I've lugged my fair share of large odds and ends on public transportation, and I've seen other people with all kinds of weird stuff. Just a few months ago I managed to single-handedly get my new vacuum cleaner with all its attachments through (well, over, really) the BART turnstiles in only one try, without breaking anything.
but I've never tried a couch or a sousaphone.

my, how time flies when you're hacking up a lung.
I've had a cold all week. I've been unproductive, unlike my cough.

I went to the big peace march in SF on Saturday. a few photos are below. more coming soon. (really.)

When did I lose my love of Halloween? I can't remember the last time I had a really good costume, or even inspiration.
I guess I'm living vicariously through other folks like Neille, who's been posting a lot about the holiday, and is herself going as a rolling blackout. brilliant.

argh, cont'd

IHT: Putin's 'war on terrorism' outmaneuvers the U.S.
"It was a fateful mistake for Bush to have declared his war a "war against terrorism" after Sept. 11, 2001. That made it a war that can't be won. At the same time, it aligned the United States with governments around the world engaged in suppressing nationalist, regional, religious or ethnic separatism, too often by methods of social and political injustice."

"to hell with their delicious chocolate treats"

Chris White: Why I Oppose the US War on Terror: an ex-Marine Sergeant Speaks Out

Harry Hay
I close my eyes and bow my head and am grateful for you

sleep sweetly

BBC NEWS | Talking Point | Moscow theatre siege

well, this is depressing as hell, on top of everything else:
Armed Chechens storm Moscow theater, audience held hostage

Putin has been waiting for any excuse to further pound Chechnya into dust. I can't imagine he won't find this a perfectly reasonable one.

and what the fuck is this?
"By the scope it can only be compared to the tragedy in New York. The situation is extreme now," liberal Russian lawmaker Boris Nemtsov said in a television interview. "We must start a dialogue."
how exactly can this ("Those released did not see any dead bodies, but said the hostage-takers had beaten some in the audience. Two pregnant women were later released.") be compared with the "tragedy in New York?" The Russians are fishing.
I shudder to think of what Vladdie and George have to talk about.

so much to say, no time!
I finally managed to deal with both laundry and checkbook, neither of which makes for very exciting blogging.
I've also managed to slap together the beginnings of a blog for my sister, who's in Kyrgyzstan with the Peace Corps. it's rough. Blogger is not being very cooperative.
Went hiking, twice, this past weekend, and my knees and calves are still sore from the uphill. I took some pictures, and hopefully by the end of the year I'll get some new photo pages up.
Apple started demanding money from folks for their services, and I didn't give them any, so the photos of Death Valley I had on some apple pages are gone...
the tiny little projects just keep piling up.
and right now, taking a hot bath sounds a lot better than sitting in front of a computer for one more minute.

test

blogger is sucking right now.
i'm very sad.
changes are not being saved.
sad.

Doonesbury on blogging...

celery + gravity = art

a study of the effects of celery on loose elastic

The Onion: FAA Considering Passenger Ban

red, part two

"What makes Red Square red?"

from the IHT

Red Tubbies

for the first time in a long time, I wish I had some kind of comments feature here.

Mick LaSalle gets right down to the nitty-gritty:

'Swept Away' goes way off course

"Actually, that might explain Madonna's interest in the role -- it's the one context in which she can be believable as a romantic lead: The guy can't get off the island."

"your tail! so puffy!"

I've just discovered Evany.com.
an example of the right-on! that I'm thinkin':
"if a drink's going to set me back $14, I might as well be enjoying the soothing pitter patter of a Tonga rainstorm."
not much seems to make me giggle anymore. this did:
..."the abrupt Russian EKG nurse -- who said nothing but "Take your top off" ("Maybe that was her name," a friend suggested later)"...

and hey, I went to see Waycross and the Mekons that night, too, with Eli, so we've practically met.

I'm tired, ihr lieben. sweet dreams!

hi from Bishkek

Sunday I got an email from my sister Erika! (she's just begun two years of service in the Peace Corps, in Kyrgyzstan.)
What's really amazing is that I've managed to call her twice. she, and the rest of the fresh batch of volunteers, have been staying in a Soviet-built hotel, going through health and safety training, as well as the beginnings of cultural and language training. In two days she'll go to a village near Kant for more in-depth training.

"Today was Kyrgyz culture day, and there was a gathering in the back of our hotel where there is a park dedicated to the hero of the national epic called "manas." they slaughtered a sheep for us (i watched and didn't faint), and then prepared the national dish plov, which was very delicious. The ambassador and many from the embassy attended. I ate lunch in a yurt with him and his wife! a yurt is the traditional nomadic tent, which they set up for the occasion. the highlight was the kyrgyz national orchestra's performance. the orchestra consists of traditional instruments. it was extremely beautiful. There were also the 3 volunteers who came back after the evacuation, as well as a volunteer who married a Kyrgyz.

this was the first day of "fun," otherwise every day has been filled with language classes and safety, health, and policy orientation. the amount of preparation that the PC has made is amazing. each training site, as well as our future permanent site, has been checked out by the directors as well as medical officers. there are many kyrgyz nationals employed by PC as well. I still don't know what my permanent site will be, but I am in a Kyrgyz language group, so it's more likely that I'll be more towards the south, and more likely that I'll not be in a city. I'll find out my site location next week.

On wednesday we'll be moving to our villages for the training period. 5 PCVs (Peace corps volunteers) will live in each village around the central town of Kant, (not far from Bishkek) where we will stay with families but spend the day in language training and technical (teacher training) with our teacher. My teacher (actually my language and cross cultural facilitator) is named Kanekey, and she is very nice. She is Kyrgyz. I hope to get to know her better.
They plan on giving us 136 hours of language training.
i'm looking forward to moving out of the hotel. there are signs that this is a former soviet country everywhere, even at the hotel. but all of this is very interesting. yesterday we went for a walk, through some run-down housing developments and up through some hills. though we are on the edge of the city of Bishkek, we saw lots of livestock being brought down from the upper pastures for the night. From the hotel, we can see beautiful snow-capped mountains, as well as ugly soviet skyscrapers."

Anil Dash:
"jodie foster, fine young cannibals, honda civic- together again for the very first time!"

"A Tassée pleine, Joie s'enchaîne" (Joy flows from full tasse)

I am reminded that the season for Beaujolais Nouveaux is coming... (this site has a lot of good information about Beaujolais, as well as some kinda funny stuff...)

"La Confrérie des Maîstres Vignerons de Chénas et Moulin-à-Vent saw the day in 1996.
It is made up of winemakers and friends of these two great Crus, inhabitants of three communes: La Chapelle-de-Guinchay, Chénas and Romanèche-Thorins. The founders set out their mission as being:
-to celebrate the virtues of both the Crus during their meetings.
-to have good-natured fun.
-to honour the title of "Chevalier de la Tassée" (knight of the tasse de vin) given to illustrious people considered to be "Dignus Tastevini" (worthy of the tasse de vin)."

I wonder, how exactly does one become "Dignus Tastevini"?

Eli sent me this Tom Tomorrow cartoon-
"Something to humble the legions of angry political bloggers:"

today's dog fix, courtesy of Textism-
Oliver meets his mom!

lifted from The St. Eli Come Draw With Me Retired Memorial Shrine, from markmartin.net.

This, also from Mark Martin, is hilarious:
The Ugly Truth will Curdle Your Girdle...

Last week I tried, once again, to mince garlic and slice up other various veggies with a really crappy knife. I couldn't take it any more.
So I went shopping.
I've just used my brand new 8 inch Global chef's knife for the first time, and it was heavenly.
It cut a very crisp red bell pepper as if it were slicing butter.
I had to stop myself from cutting smaller and smaller slices, it was so great.
Maybe I'll slice up the carrots, just for fun.
on the other hand, maybe after the crappy, clutzy week I'm having, I should just put the knife away for now...

So, the other night I turned on my trusty ibook, which has been running OS X since January.
Unbidden, and ever-so-sweetly, it booted up in OS 9. My old desktop appeared, like a bright pink ghost.
I rebooted in OS X, and that worked, so I took a few deep breaths.
Then I opened up Mail, which gave me some strange error messages.
I rebooted everything once more, and haven't had any problems since then, but now I'm nervous.
It's like that feeling in junior high when you started having a sneaking suspicion that your best friend might be a horrible bitch.
or something. you know what I mean.
the trust is shaky.
it saddens me.

When I got up the next morning, I washed some dishes before I had my coffee and managed to break my favorite mug and a wine glass.

I haven't looked at any horoscopes lately, but I wouldn't be surprised if they told me not to perform any brain surgery this week.

still loving this Craig's List posting I saw on Nil's blog:

this is in or around 4th Circle of Hell.