The countdown is on. My journey begins March 31 at 3:20pm and who knows what will happen in the two revolutions around the sun before I again return 'home'. Today I was booking hostel space for my layover in Manila and checking on similar arrangements for my arrival and first few days in Cairns, Australia. Given the amount of time I'll have in the Marshall's, I hope to get my basic SCUBA certification and if that works out, once I'm in Cairns I can do the Great Barrier Reef for a couple days.

Back to the hostels for a moment. For the past eight years I have worked in resorts in the Napa Valley, where we charged substantial rates for beautiful accommodations. Coming from that background, you develop an image of what service standards should be and expectations that follow. The trip I am taking will be a study in extremes. I booked a night in Manila that includes meals, shuttle to and from the airport and more for $6.18. Five nights with meals in Cairns will set me back $67. Now maybe I'll discover you get what you pay for, but my experiences in hostels in Europe and the feedback from others that have traveled to some of the places I am going overwhelmingly support them as clean, functional, and more than adequate for what I need. When three of my friends and I traveled through Europe, the most expensive hotel we stayed at was also the worst one we experienced. The hostels were far and away better, and only the wonderful beds at my aunt's house in Switzerland beat them. (my friends still comment on my aunts beds) I look forward to some very interesting lodging over the next two years.

I am remiss for having posted so little in the last few weeks. One little saga that went on during that time has drawn to a successful conclusion. About a month ago, the heating element in our stove decided it had had enough and self immolated. This obviously made it hard for the rest of us to cook. So a replacement element was ordered and a week passed until it arrived. The technician dutifully installed the new element and went to test it. TA DA nothing..... There was more internal damage than we had first assumed and essentially the stove was shot. Luckily, as my parents were wont to do, we had a spare stove in the garage from a previous home we had lived in. And now lugging it from place to place had rewarded us, so we thought. I hauled the stove up the stairs into the kitchen and got it connected. The next day while I was at work, my mom decided to cook. Well the dish was prepared, placed in the oven and what is that HORRIBLE SMELL emanating from the stove? Quickly, she removed the food, shut of the stove, opened the available windows, and tried to dissipate the rancid air. We surmised that mice had gotten into the stove and when we had a technician come a day later, he was able to open up the side panels and see where they had made nests in the insulation. They also had urinated throughout the insulation, thus leaving a very unpleasant surprise for us. So number two stove is shot. What to do, what to do? Craigslist came up with some very good deals, but in white and everything in our kitchen is cream/beige, so they were all nixed. Fortune still smiled on us and Sears was having a sale online. We selected a reasonably priced model similar to what we were replacing and ordered it. And had to wait eight days for it to arrive at the store, to be delivered to us. The day before it was to be delivered we got a call. Our stove had arrived, but had been damaged in the process of shipping and we would have to wait another week. There is only so much you can do with a microwave (despite what the mother in law of one of my coworkers believes) and we wanted our stove. Well yesterday it arrived, was installed, and promptly put into service baking several dishes, including a pecan desert I was enjoying this afternoon. All is right in the world if only for a few moments.

A couple more flash games I've found recently:

Chronotron and Perfect Balance

I have been busy lately and not posting as much as I would like. I did want to throw out a set of NASA images I was linked to recently. Incredible is all I can say.

I wrapped up my taxes over the weekend and was surprised to be getting nearly $5K back, although the portion from California may never come if the budget stalemate does not get resolved. I'm definitely not expecting it before I leave the country.

And a few Photoshops I've saved from recent contests ranging from:

Sentimental

by Chowderhead

Creeptastic

by ArcLight

Funny

by Snackwagon

Stylish

by TelefunkenU47

And two variations on a theme
that amused me.
Left by Camelclub
Right by Enemyboat

Just got home from up north. I went with my mom for the weekend to check over a piece of property before she put in an offer. Well it seems to be just what she is looking for and now it is ours. Ten acres of pine forest, plenty of space for a garden and orchard with good sun exposure. The house is a little over 2000 square feet with a good layout and lots of usable space. It is in the direct center of the property for maximum privacy. It is nearly finished being remodeled, so that makes it all the more appealing to my mom. The water comes from a strong mountain spring, all gravity feed with excellent pressure, doesn't need filtration. We will add solar once she moves in. There is a second 10 acre parcel adjacent to this one, that actually I might put an offer on. It is raw land, but has even better views. My mom seems overjoyed at the prospect of moving up there in a couple months and getting away from Angwin. Makes me sad in a way, but since I'll be gone for the next couple years anyway, I want to make sure she is happy and where she wants to be.


''The Inheritance'' is a film about power, about the price you pay for it and the responsibility that comes with it,'' explains Per Fly. ''It is about the choices we make that impact our lives, about will vs. passion and duty vs. freedom, about deciding between what you want to do and what you have to do. As part of my research for this film, I talked to several men who knew first hand what it was like to fire over two thousand employees in a single day. One of them had no scruples, and he'd go ahead and do it again tomorrow, because like he said: 'If I hadn't fired them, the whole company would have collapsed'. While another man I spoke with never got over it and subsequently suffered an emotional breakdown.

While not nearly on the scale portrayed in this Danish film, I felt for the main character because of the pressures I've felt since my dad died to preserve the estate and all he had worked so hard for. Even though my brother, my mother, and I agree on most of the financial choices we have had to make, it is still nerve wracking and the internal dialogue over what I want to do versus what I know my father would have wanted done and what I have to do continues to be very stressful. With the economy as it is and several million dollars at stake, I do not feel adequate to be making the decisions I know I have to. And I feel in many ways it is a losing battle, but I go on for the sake of duty. Maybe that is why I thought this was such a fantastic film.

Another Sundance come and gone. Different. Good. What's next.

I flew into SLC on Saturday night, the 17th, picked up my rental car (a fabulous Kia Rio - that's how I roll) and headed to Provo. After setting up in the generous accommodations, I waited to hear from Richard and the Birdmonster contingent, who planned on arriving around 1 am. Well they ran into issues in Nevada and never made it that night. So eventually I gave up and went to bed. The next morning, I still could not get in touch with Richard or the Birdmonsters and even though I was the keeper of the keys, I gave up on waiting and headed to Park City to start doing what I came for - watching movies. The waiting meant I missed a chance to see Cold Souls, so I'll have to be on the lookout for that as a future release, but I was able to pick up a ticket for Children of Invention. It was a story of two children, an Asian American brother and sister ages 10 and 6 respectively. Their parents are split (although only the boy understands this), the father is back in China and the mom is going from pyramid scheme to pyramid scheme trying to keep the family solvent. They lose their Boston house and move into an apartment complex still under construction by Chinese friends. When the mother gets arrested in one of her get rich quick pipe dreams, the children are left to fend for themselves and presume themselves to be abandoned. The brother sets a plan in motion to raise money and buy back their old house, by selling the inventions he and his sister have devised. The family is eventually reunited, but still in financial hardship. Impressive performances by the child actors (both first timers). Later in the week I would ride in the bus with both the kids and their dads. This was a strong start to the festival for me. While waitlisting a second film, EndGame, I got ahold of Richard and made plans to try and meet them, Shep and Pat at the Sundance Resort at 9pm to try and see Boy Interrupted. EndGame was a great movie, telling the backstory of the early negotiations between the ANC and the Botha/De Klerk government in South Africa, prior to the fall of apartheid. I appreciated learning more about that situation and the performances of William Hurt and Jonny Lee Miller were strong. The Q&A went long and I missed everyone at the Resort, but apparently they skipped Boy Interrupted anyway.

Monday was a three movie day, squeezed around a number of other events. Started out early with a showing of Old Partner, which turned out to be one of my favorites. It was a South Korean documentary following a 79 year old rice farmer and the ox he had worked with for 40 years. To see the relationship between man and beast was touching and to see the juxtaposition between the old ways and the new (with neighboring farms using tractors/pesticides) was heartbreaking. The there was quite a bit of humor in the guise of his wife's constant commentary. A very meditative film that got to me emotionally. Second I saw Everything Strange And New. Taking it's title from the pied piper story this followed a man who had the 'American Dream' and now was confronted with the realization that maybe it wasn't what he wanted after all. With very deliberate pacing (which I like, but I know many others think is too slow) he watches the relationships of his coworkers and friends and learns that what we want and what we need are usually not the same thing. Ultimately, he realizes he has what he needs and can ignore the pied piper that tells us we need more more more. I think this would be a hard sell for commercial success, but it was a film that I liked alot. After the film I met up with Richard, Pat and Shondene at the ASCAP music space to see Birdmonster in action. After their set and most of Meisha's we left to get something to eat. Returning from snacking we hung out in the green room and got to meet Wynonna Judd. She was extremely nice and spend close to half an hour talking with the Birdmonster guys. Then we all walked up Main Street to the Gibson Guitar Lodge for a photo shoot. Paparazzi galore, which translated into pictures/video of me on Defamer.com and Radar magazine's website (in the background of course). Here are a couple of my pics of it. Zack (of Birdmonster) is a cousin of Benjamin Bratt, so we headed to Prospector Square to see if we could get into his new film La Mission. There were six of us and we only managed to get three tickets. The others headed over to Eccles and got in to The Messenger. La Mission was a good film, set in SF's Mission District, dealing with violence and exclusion in the Hispanic community there. As it turned out those were the only films the band got to see, so it made their Sundance experience that much more memorable.

Tuesday started with Beyond Tomorrow, an Inuit movie by the same collective that created The Fast Runner. A very deliberate and emotional film. There is an anthropological element to these films as they preserve on film the survival skills of these people groups and showcase their tools and culture. The film itself is the story of two older women and the grandson of one who are given the task of drying fish on a separate island for the summer. They would be picked up at the end of summer and this was not an uncommon situation where some members of the tribe would be out of communication for several months on their given tasks. Drying fish on an island removed the chance of wild animals (or their domesticated dogs) raiding the food stores. Well one old woman dies and the other too are not picked up at summer's end. They make the journey back to the main camp to find that everyone has been killed by a disease and must face the harsh winter on their own. This forces them to make some very difficult decisions and brings us to a painful climax. Next I saw the documentary End of the Line, with Richard. It dealt with the dilemma of overfishing that is gripping the entire world. Some fantastic underwater cinematography paired with powerful information makes this an inspirational and action inducing look at where we could be headed if we do not take a hard look at our stewardship of this planets resources. Afterwards, Richard and the band had to head to SLC for another gig and some TV interviews, so they gave me the six tickets they had for Push and we said our goodbyes. I quickly sold the extra five tickets and settled in to see the eventual Grand Jury and Audience prize winner of the festival. This was a gutcheck movie about an obese 17 year old black girl in New York, who has undergone and continues to undergo tremendous abuse of all types and yet still looks at life positively. With the support of a few teachers she is able to overcome her horrific upbringing and progress down the road to vast improvement for her and her children. My final film for the day was Manure, for which I had high hopes, as it was the latest by the marvelous Polish brothers of Northfork and Twin Falls Idaho fame. It dealt with fertilizer salesmen in the 1950/1960's in the American midwest. It had the look and much of the oddness that I expected, but was disappointing to me. Some definitely funny moments, but it felt very flat in the long run. For the rest of the week I got to masquerade as Birdmonster's manager, since they bestowed his credential on me when they left. Definitely beneficial in getting into the various filmmaker lodges/passholder areas.

Wednesday caught me at Zion and His Brother, a film set in Haifa following two teen aged brothers testing the boundaries of their relationship and taking on the rest of the world at the same time. Both the leads are first time actors and their performances were amazing. One of my favorites. The second film of the day was my personal favorite of the festival. With several parallels with Me and You and Everyone We Know from 2005, this film stars a performance artist/musician who incorporates her performance art in the film. When she reveals to some friends that she has never been in love and doesn't really believe in it, they propose a trip around the country to speak with people from many backgrounds on their ideas of what love is and to see if they can change her mind. This is a hybrid film because the interviews with real people is more documentary, she recreates some of the stories people tell with the use of puppets and performance pieces. She resists throughout, but this is a very cute film and I left with a large smile on my face. Third film of the day was a film noir called The Missing Person, with spot on performances, chain smoking detectives, things not as they seem, deadends, twists, etc. Michael Shannon has to follow a man from Chicago to LA and then back to New York and in so doing figure out who the man is and why someone wants him to return to New York. A great modern homage to the genre. I tried to get into Sin Nombre as my fourth movie and was shut out. It happens at least once each year. So, I went to plan B and hit Motherhood at Eccles. I should have given it a pass. I should note that it is not necessarily a bad movie, in fact it will most likely be a box office hit, but it was not something I would normally have sought out and did not ring true at all to me. Obviously, I am not a mother, but I could not imagine this being remotely realistic and I did not enjoy it. It starred Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards and Minnie Driver, all of who were at the showing, but none of that changed my mind.

Thursday was another early morning, starting at 8:30 with Adam, a story about learning to love. The title character is a highly functioning Asperger syndrome sufferer who develops a friendship with his new upstairs neighbor Beth. We follow the story mostly from Beths POV. It never gets cheesy and everything is handled in a sensitive way. I really like this film. Next was Unmade Beds, which had an impressive soundtrack and followed two primary leads Vera, a Belgian girl and Axl, a Spanish boy who find themselves living in a London squat as they work out their issues and personal journeys. A creative piece with plenty of musical performances and a mostly satisfying story. I tried to get into Art & Copy, a documentary on advertising, at the new Temple facility, but was too far back in the waitlist to get in. The Temple is a beautiful building from the outside and I wish I had had a chance to see more of the interior, although I was told by others that it was very similar to the Racquetclub space. After missing out of that I got a ticket to Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. I should have give it a pass. It was a hodge podge of short films duct taped together to try and assemble something movie like, there was little to make it cohesive and several segments seemed totally random. The basic premise was that the lead tries to move past a recent breakup by interviewing and analysing all/most of the men she is in contact with. Stereotypes abound. Luckily, my final film for the day was BurmaVJ a documentary about the leader of a band of civilians who risked their lives to get footage out of Myanmar during the past couple years. Especially during the protests and uprisings of the citizenry and the Buddhist monks in that country. These are truly brave people and the doc showed just what the risks they face are. It was personally interesting for another reason: my cousin Daniel is married to a Burmese girl, I grew up with friends in SF who were Burmese, and I would love to visit the country.

Friday, turned into an epic. It started with a great political farce, In The Loop. As one of the festival programmers said, if it wasn't so funny it would be terrifying. We follow the back and forth between British government and US officials as they misspeak, spin, cover, deny, and generally stumble blindly along and make matters far worse. And it is all too plausible. Great performances all around and I was overjoyed to see "Sledgehammer" in a large role. I spent a few hours in the filmmakers lodge and then chose to see Dada's Dance instead of Peter & Vandy. Both had seemed interesting, but maybe I chose wrong. I have to make a concession - it is entirely possible that a bad set of subtitling greatly changed the flow/feel of the film, but as it was there were far too many gaps in the story and un/under explained situations to feel like a product ready for public consumption. Set in China, a young girl, already a flirt with a reputation in her town, is told by her mother's boyfriend that she is adopted after she spurns his inappropriate advances. She sets off with a neighbor boy to find her real mother. What follows is a disjointed and unfocused set of misadventures.

That should have been an omen for my own misadventures to come. I left Park City about 5pm, and on approaching SLC ran into HEAVY fog. I returned my rental car, dropped off my luggage and went to read my book in anticipation of a 9pm departure to SF. Well, the fog did in 29 flights by the time the night was over. Mine was first postponed 90 minutes, the plane could not land from Tampa Bay and was diverted to Idaho. Another 90 minutes and a second attempt to land at SLC failed with the plane now being diverted to Las Vegas. This repeated until they finally got a larger plane and we were able to leave at 4 am. Of course this screwed up my ride to be picked up at the airport and I had to wait nearly 3 hours in SF for an Evans bus to Napa. And once in Napa, it took another 45 minutes for a ride to get free and come to retrieve me. So, by 11 am I was home and could jump in the shower, change and get over to church. Luckily the rest of the day went splendidly and our Chamber of Commerce awards dinner at the CIA was nearly flawless. Sunday was a recovery day and this morning I got four of my vaccinations in preparation for my trip. I got the prescriptions for two more oral vaccines and my malaria medication. I will still have to go to the county for a Yellow Fever vaccine and then I'll be set for the next two years. And I narrowed down my options for travel insurance so it looks like that will be far less than I had expected.

More coming soon.....

The Return of Sundance.....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123120095259855597.html Interesting link 1.

Dave Barry year end review.

Sundance reviews coming in a day or two. Still recovering from a horrible return trip from Utah, thanks to SLC fog, 7 hours of plane delays, no weekend shuttle service in SF when I arrived, etc, etc. But Sundance was very good this year. More soon. Plus a couple book reviews of late.

I'm sitting here listening to a promo copy of Matan's latest release as the incarnation Sesto Sento: Key To The Universe. He has consistently come up with wonderful renditions of 'mainstream' music and the remix of Moby's Lift Me Up is a gem. There is also a vocal psy track (not just samples) called Misterious Ways that is quite good.

Second up is the compilation "organic circuitry" on the Ektoplazm label, which is all over the place - from 110 to 148 bpm. It was mastered at OOOD's Stooodio in the UK and Colin's influence shows. I count that as a good thing. I've always liked how international the psytrance culture is. This comp boasts artists from Sweden, Norway, Japan, the US, Israel, Canada, and Finland. None of the tracks has blown me away, but they are consistently well produced and certainly keep things moving. I think Filteria's The Predator (2907 Remix) is my favorite with its old school goaesque groove.

A couple days ago, on the recommendation of a coworker, I ventured over to Santa Rosa and watched "Slumdog Millionaire" the newest film by Danny Boyle. It was well worth the slow, foggy drive from Angwin. Boyle again proves what a versatile director he is and this is a very strong piece of film to add to his impressive resume. The story is of an un-schooled boy from the slums of Mumbai, who makes it onto the Indian version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". He does so well that the authorities believe he has to be cheating. The film follows in flashbacks as he describes how he knew the answers to question after question, from his education in the streets. There is much humor, sadness, and beauty throughout the film. It definitely left me feeling good. And it will be playing at the Cameo later this month for you locals to check out.

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was pretty quiet but that was a good thing. I got a gift certificate to Barnes & Nobles (Thank you to you know who). And that has already been put to excellent use at their 50% off after Christmas sale. This is my written haul:









and, not covered by the GC, a DVD by the director of Head On!

All the best to everyone as we knock the door down to 2009!

I like Out Of Our Depths new album cover art and the play on words incorporated into it.

Sad but true as opposed to Facepalm.

I'm giving a second listen to Talpa's second album "When The Somberness Becomes A Game". Talpa is the psy project of a classical trained musician who happens to be a Serbian soldier and it is some of the most experimental and unique music I've heard in a long time (since his first album actually or maybe the first Eskimo album). The track "No Choice" is fantastic, with some sick sick sounds. 'Good City' and 'I Feel Nothing' and "Still Dreaming" are also excellent. The album is a joy to listen to from the point that it is a sonic adventure, encompassing a huge variety of influences and soundscapes, and as much fun as it is to listen to, I have a real hard time imagining how it would work into a set. But it IS a REALLY fun listen while I'm online.


Also gave another listen to Dino Psaras' "Where Words Fail Music Speaks". First, I love that title. For me, music has such a deep component of conveying emotions that I often find hard to put into words. I've always loved music and when I first started listening to psy, I knew I had discovered the music that resonated with my soul, moreso than any other style of music. It still does fifteen years and counting. It is hard for me to imagine what my life would be like without music - I probably would not still be alive today in all seriousness. Back to WWFMS, this is the grinding, pulsing trance with detailed sound design I would expect from him. There are guest appearances from Wrecked Machines, Deedrah, Dimitri Nakov, Michelle Adamson, and Space Cat. The track "Firewall" is so awesomely good I can get past the Michelle Adamson vocals (I think she is getting over exposed in the psy scene) . "Questions" is another great track, as are both versions of the title track.

The disenchantment is already starting and it is exactly what I expected, but hoped would not happen. Obama was labeled a communist by some on the far right and now his fellow democrats are lamenting that he has not appointed 'a single true progressive' in his Cabinet. He will be crucified by both extremes, when what I have seen so far bodes well for those of us anchored in some degree of reality. Centrist or moderate positions are the most likely to garner the support necessary from both sides to at least begin making meaningful change. They may not be as flashy or exciting, but compromise rarely is. And the sooner we stop polarizing and realize that only by working together will we begin to improve the lot of all people, the better.

AN INTERROGATOR SPEAKS is a thoughtful opinion piece on the 'deeply flawed' interrogation techniques used in Iraq and why they do more harm than good. The author is cut from the 'moral fabric' we could use a lot more of in our military. Worth a read.

Signs of the Times....

I hope this is not where we are all headed. Or this actually. But with this coming soon, who knows.

Finding Forgiveness is a five part feature article from The Oregonian newspaper, focusing on a member of a news aggregater site I frequent. It was interesting to see the pieces come out over the past week and the responses on Fark. It is quite long, but the writing is very good and the story is compelling. I felt good after getting through it.

This weekend (Sunday 2PM @ the PUC Church Sanctuary) is the memorial for Trevor Murtagh.

And an early Christmas present arrived for me:
A little Acer AspireOne Netbook to go around the world with me. So far I'm having fun with it.

I had a real hard time not laughing out loud at this piece. The subheading alone caused me pain as I tried to contain my response. So I can put off refilling my prescription a little while longer. Yay to life!

Thanksgiving well wishes to everyone

All day long we have watched the fog bank ebb and flow, never quite engulfing our house on the ridge. Now that the sun is setting the fog will be victorious and take the ridge for the night. The banquet of food has been decimated by fourteen hungry people and we are looking at slides from the 80's and some are groggily lounging on the couches. Soon, I'll be heading to Roseville for the second round and to help Scott and Donica move into their newly purchased home. So as I sneak away for a few minutes here and contemplate how much I have been blessed in my life, I also have to pay close attention to what is happening out there in the rest of the world. Two of the places I will be spending almost 5 months over the next two years are in turmoil.

Anti government protestors hoping for the ouster of the current Prime Minister in Thailand.

India's Muslims in Crisis: The Attacks in Mumbai

Even if the world is hemorrhaging towards an apocalypse, I still have VERY much to be thankful for and God continues to give me peace.

Americans Fail a Basic Test of Their History and Institutions presents the findings of a large scale study on civic literacy. The results are atrocious, but not surprising from a society that is entertaining itself to death. "Widespread ignorance of our nation’s history and institutions is a worrisome sign for our nation’s future. As we shall see, today’s Americans share the conviction of the Founding Fathers that civic education is important—and they are right in this conviction. Respondents who score in the top third in civic literacy, the survey shows, are more likely than those who score poorly on the test to participate in the civic life of their communities and country." The gap between the results of our elected officials and the general public is hard for me to believe. It is scary actually. A brief quiz variation of the study questions is here to see if you can do any better. I really hope so, because the bar is set very low. I was somewhat disappointed that I got 81.82% but it gave me an opportunity to brush up and get the correct answers to the ones I missed. And that lets me learn for the next time. After reading "The Dumbest Generation" and seeing items like this, I can only think that reading is the greatest skill we can pass on to others. Instilling a love of reading opens the doors to lifelong learning, promotes and expands the vocabulary, gives you insights into history and culture that even in today's 'small/flat world' most people will have no other opportunity to experience. Plus it is just so much fun. Really it is (I can not imagine a life without books).

Today I spoke with my boss and we set a final work day for me. I will continue working until the end of February, take a couple weeks off and then head out to Guam to start my world trek. That gives me time to make sure my dad's estate is in proper order, probate is closed, and my mom is taken care of before I leave. Hopefully, if things go well, Gabe will join me in New Zealand, I'm guessing in June now, but that has gotten more nebulous since he is twitterpated and his back issues have yet to be adequately addressed. Right now I'm planning like I'm going on my own and we will see how the rest of it works out. The airlines will only sell tickets out to 12 months from the current date, so I'm only able to get the first third of the trip covered right now. I guess that would give me an out in the case Gabe does not come at all and at least as far as China before I would have to make a definite decision.

Will you use your power for good or for awesome?

Two more articles on the auto industry bail out: An Op-Ed piece and a news piece on the current stalled situation.

Interestingly, despite the drastic problems rippling through the economy, the investment choices my dad had made prior to his death are paying off. We have lost nothing and actually made a decent return over the past 6 months all things considered. That is something I can thank God for.

On a more humorous note, Jacksonville, Florida's presidential write-in votes were released. A very broad and interesting range of vote getters. Cartoon characters, deities, actors, financial gurus, college football quarterbacks, etc. Even four misguided people who were apparently confused by the ballot itself and wrote in for Obama (this did occur in Florida). I'm sure most communities would be similarly funny if their write-ins were released to the public.

George Will commenting on the US auto maker bailout request. I actually favor letting them wither or at least consolidate, rather than throwing money at them.

And an interesting piece of background on Bretton Woods, in regard to the upcoming Bretton Woods II meetings scheduled for next month. Quite long, but important enough to be worth reading.

Why Obama and McCain Need Each Other is a brief article that to me marks a very good sign. The less partisan polarization the better and if these two can work together reasonably, I do believe it will set a good example for the rest of our elected officials.

I guess I'm missing out on the creation of 'Generation O', or as the headline says "Change you can conceive in". Not that it wasn't mentioned to me. I got a text the night of the election that put it rather bluntly: "Obama won, F@#$ a black chick to celebrate." It was offensive that this friend of mine would think that was acceptable or funny to me. It appears that Obama is the new Chuck Norris. Some of his feats I have been alerted to recently:
1)Obama can divide by zero
2)The science community is releasing an updated periodic table of elements. It will consist of only two elements: Baraktanium and Obamanesium.
3)Obama can believe its not butter.
4)Obama can build a snowman out of water.
4)There is no "Ctrl" button on Barack Obama's keyboard. Barack Obama is always in control.

This swoon is going to have unpleasant side-effects the moment he doesn't lead us all to Candy Mountain. But til then we can hope.

I'm sure most of you in the Angwin area are aware, but this story has actually gotten nationwide press. I do not know all the details, but from reading multiple articles and speaking with my aunt and uncle who teach at the school, I feel I have a pretty good idea and it is sad all around. ne thing that I have not heard mentioned much is that as bad as it is for the families of the four and the other drivers, it is also a scarring event for the emergency responders. I had a good friend in college who had worked as an EMT and never fully dealt with the trauma of responding to some accidents involving children. It ultimately resulted in his suicide.

Congratulations to Tim Lincecum! The second San Francisco Giants pitcher in history to take home a Cy Young. I knew he had a chance to win this based on the amazing year he had, but thought that because of the final standings, and the Giants overall subpar year, he would be penalized. There were some rather strong competitors for the prize, so the actual vote totals are impressive and confirm what a special year he did have. The more 'official' MLB article on this is here, but the humorously titled "San Francisco hobo accepts Cy Young award for Tim Lincecum" was worth linking to as well. I hope he has many more good years of pitching and that they are for the Giants.

Someone sent me a link to a game (which I could not get to work - maybe that is for the best while I'm at work, hmmmm), but the site had another game which did work and I liked. The tantalizingly named HDOS Databank Request is extremely simple in premise (horizontally switching positions between two adjacent cells to create consecutive strings of 3 or more similar blocks), but quite challenging due to the very limited number of switches you are permitted. I have only ventured through the first 17 levels (about halfway) and will continue through the rest as time permits.

Another game that was sent to me that I think some of you (Lisa) would like is essentially an anti Tetris, called 99-Bricks. Take 99 randomly ordered Tetris blocks and create the tallest tower you can. The trick comes from a slightly jelly-like, sponginess to the blocks that introduces all kinds of vibration and sway to your tower. Fun and addicting.

It is articles like this about a leading candidate for Attorney General in the new Obama presidential power structure that confirm my hesitancy to believe real change will ever come through a political environment where corruption and obfuscation seem to rule the day. It is not about parties, it is about rampant, unchecked, wholesale failures of the system in which the more things "change" the more they remain the same. It is endemic of politics and power. And it makes me sad for the future. Nice way to end this post, right? So, go play some 99-Bricks or HDOS...

I just finished reading this article and the chills (good ones BTW) are still running up and down my spine. You have to read the whole thing, but it is worth it.

Definitely helped equalize the facepalm stories I saw today of people who are stopping their mortgage payments, because Obama will take care of 'all that'.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll be taking in a couple Adventist Forum lectures on "Theology and Theatre". Then working on Sunday.

Just a few quick links:

In quotes: US election reactions from around the world

The full text of McCain's concession speech.

The full text of Obama's victory speech.

Well the election results did not take long to confirm a change in direction and a historical presidential win for Barack Obama. I'm indifferent on the outcome, I was not particularly thrilled with either major party candidate and voted third party myself. I do not believe doing so is a wasted vote. It allows me to voice my dissatisfaction with the two party system. I thought Obama made a very good speech shortly after accepting McCain's concession. Earlier a couple commentators were talking about how different the role of president is from that of 100 years ago. There was no mass media, no constant focus on the president, no daily soundbites. He was a figurehead and administrator, but did not warrant the praise/scorn we heap on our leaders today. We do give the presidents now far too much credit for how the country is doing good or bad, for influencing the economy, etc. They are primarily puppets for the entities that really pull the strings. While I would like to believe, I'm pretty cynical about how much 'change' Obama can really bring, even with large Democrat majorities in the House and Senate, and really we shouldn't expect him to save us. He is Obama the man, not the Obamessiah. I was glad to hear that the voter turnout was so high because I do believe that an active, ongoing participation in the process, by as many people as possible, is the only way that some of the change that would benefit all of us will get accomplished. And there is a whole lot of work to be done before the ship is righted from its current conditions. I'll hope for the best and expect the worst because 'government is here to help' is rarely a good thing to hear in my experience.

Here is to change that is real and valuable, not just from the frying pan into the fire for change sake!!