Food Aid to Africa

Here's a link someone might find useful :http://www.rachellaudan.com/2009/01/food-aid-in-africa-thoughts-from-the-field.html. A perspective on food aid from a correspondent actually on the ground in Africa.

Brave New World II

... And now we continue 'Brave New World' ...

When I posted the first part of this I had a number of things in mind to mention ... and of course I've now forgotten most of them. Oooooooops.

One thing I haven't forgotten isn't really a 'new' thing at all. More a 'relatively rare as of late' type thing. I've been posting about it for two months now. Pay attention :).

[Specifics redacted. Simply put, I'm crushing on someone ... ]

Yeah, I'm 38. "38 year olds don't have crushes" you might say. Well, you call it what you want. 'Mature attraction' or whatever. I'm callin' it a crush.

That's not the 'rare' part. Hey, I am human after all. And rather fond of the ladies to be honest. The 'rare' part is: I have this crush or whatever and it actually feels good. That hasn't happened in a while. For a good long time if I got too interested I'd paint myself into a fairly dark and unpleasent place.

But I'm enjoying this. Someday I'll have to post about WHY I am intrigued by this woman, but not today. Wanna see what, if anything, sprouts up first. And I haven't really given Bob Denver a chance to speak yet ...

Menu for Hope

... but before I continue with that I'd like to mention this (since the deadline is approaching): http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2008/12/menu-for-hope-v.html

Brave New World

I'm taking a day of vacation from work right now. Formerly we had to request the day off a week in advance, but thanks to a procedural change we can now make same-day requests. Which worked well for me today, since I would have otherwise had to take a sick day. Yesterday was a little stressful, the result being a LNF (Leg Not Functioning) day.

Actually yesterday was a decent day with one small issue to it. I went to the doctor to get my stitches removed (so I'm now stitches free!). That went really well. I had everything set up in advance (vacation, ride, etc...) so no stress there.

Until Tuesday night. My transportation provider calls my home phone to leave messages with my ride times. Only Tuesday my home line was down unexpectedly (don't know why - it's fine now). So I didn't know for sure that my ride would work out. It did, but I had ample time to get worked up about what could have happened.

Normally I would have had time Tuesday night to check up on things, which would have avoided the stress. Last Tuesday, however, I got home too late. I had gone to Best Buy (a home electronics store) after work instead of straight home. With all the waiting involved in getting this extra stop to work with the transportation folks I wasn't able to find out my ride times until the day I needed them. Unpleasent.

The reason I had to go to Best Buy on the other hand was very, very pleasent. I've realized - and this is new - that I can buy things at www.bestbuy.com and pick them up at the store. Eliminates most of the hassle involved in shopping there. And as long as I was there I picked up Batman: The Dark Knight on DVD. Haven't watched it yet (too busy playing with the stuff I picked up online), but I'm really looking forward to it.

I said 'playing with the stuff I picked up online' but that isn't entirely accurate. Most of what I picked up was writable DVD media, more of an 'office supply' type thing than a toy to play with. But I also picked up a mp3 player, something I rather inexplicably didn't own. Nice little doohickey, a 2 GB Sansa Clip. And to paraphrase the Bard:

O brave new world, that has such gizmos in 't.

---To Be Continued (Because I'm Outta Time!)---

Falling II

I had hoped to have news from the week just passed. I do, just not the news I'd like to have.

No, this doesn't have anything to do with the last few posts. When Bob Denver speaks I'll let you know.

Huh? Wha? Well that would be telling now wouldn't it :)

But I said I had news. Although it does have something to do with something I said recently, just not what I was talking about. In the big picture, wheels-within-wheels sense.

Remember when I said it had been several months since I had fallen? I said that last time I believe. Make that a few days :(

Wednesday I stumbled, put my hand out for support, and the door I was trying to use as that support wasn't where I thought it was.

So boom. Not really a little boom either. I wasn't telling tales when I said I know how to fall. So I managed to avoid serious injury. Took the fall 90% correctly. That last 10% I messed up pretty badly though.

I didn't mention it, but it is important not to let the momentum of the fall slam your head into the ground. Oops.

Slammed my head pretty hard. Ouch. My bad. No big deal. Didn't knock myself out or anything. Put my hand on the back of my head to scratch an itch and when I brought it down it was covered in blood. Managed to open up a gash on the back of my head when I hit the floor. A gash which required 9 stitches.

But that was the extent of my injury. Not gonna brag about that though. Apparently when I brag about things (like not falling), I'm just inviting them to happen.

Falling

Keeping with my trend of posts with the same title as a song but only tangentially related to said song I've titled this post 'Falling'. 'Falling' is the title of the Twin Peaks theme song, at least the version with lyricz. You csn hear it for youself on Julee Cruise's Falling Into The Night album, which includes several songs that appeared in the first season of the show in addition to non-Peaks material. Good stuff.

This is actually the third idea I had for this post. I want to run 'Origin' by someone else before developing it to a shareable state, and 'Begger' was altogether too negative. I'm trying to stay positive. In fact Friday I woke up and said 'It's a beautiful day! The birds are chirping ...' Except it really wasn't and they weren't. But 'It's a dreary day and the late-migrating waterfowl are quacking' just doesn't have the feel-good vibe I was going for.

But if I'm going to use 'Falling' as a title I should really talk about, you know, falling. The other day a coworker said something about falling and I realized I haven't really fallen in several months. I've taken some big falls in the past. Scares the heck out of whomever I'm with at the time. What folks lose sight of though is that I know how to fall. Main thing is to stay loose. When you stiffen up to break the fall is when most injuries occur. Go with what is happening and just try not to conk yourself on the head.

Then you to will be able to fall. Well, physically at least.

Ah, there I've gone and done it again. Implied there might be more to this post than rambling about how good I am at wiping out.

And there is. But I'm not saying what just yet. To paraphrase the Log Lady, someday Maynard G. Krebs will have something to say about this. Or I will that is, using the dialog written for that character.

Doubtlessly most people reading this are now completely lost. Oh well. 3 of my last 4 posts have been about the same general topic. Try to keep up :)

Election Day

No, not the Arcadia song. That's *reelection* day.

Wowing you with useless facts for 198 or so posts.

This one is no different. But it IS election day here in the US, so I should at least mention that thematically. What to do, what to do. How about just go with both topics?

I'll be up late tonight watching the returns. I do have some idea how it will be turning out, though. Just look at the indicators!

No, not the ones like current polls and stuff. The important but mostly ignored things:

- In the (usually incredibly predictive) Weekly Reader mock election (thousands of elementary school kids participate) Obama won over McCain.

- The Cat Fanciers of America/IAMS pet food contest between Obama's cat and McCain's kitty also went in Obama's direction.

- The Presidential Cookie Recipe contest ended controversially when it was discovered that Cindy McCain did not submit an old family recipe at all, but rather cribbed from a recent issue of a magazine. Why the media ignored cookiegate I can't understand. But at any rate: point Obama.

- Probably one of the most accurate predictors of presidential elections has been the performance of the Washington Redskins football team in the game prior to the election. If they win, the candidate from the current president's party is victorious. If they lose the other party nabs the White House. This pattern has been 94% accurate.

The 'skins lost Sunday.

But whatever the signs and portents I wish everyone participating in this election luck. Unless I disagree with your candidate. Then I wish you tremendous disappointment. :)