|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stumpage Reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monday, January 26, 2004 :::
Random Thoughts:
Mars Landing: Friday night I was up around midnight reading, and realized that latest Mars rover deal was supposed to land shortly after midnight. I bemoaned the fact my level of cable service does not have CNN or I'd be able to watch some news vixen breathlessly report on events. But I remembered that of the 15 or so channels I do have, one of them is NASA TV. As I watched the events in the control room, I was struck by how incredibly awkward all the mission control nerds looked hugging and trying to high-five each other. They looked even more uncomfortable than the dweebs in those terrible Microsoft Office ads. It was kind of weird seeing Al Gore standing off the the side with seemingly no fanfare. Then to make it even more surreal, Arnold Schwarznegger showed up and started schmoozing. He and Gore acted like they were not even in the same room.
I know some people bitch and moan about spending money exploring space when there are so many needs here on earth, and they do have some valid points. But I figure as long as George Bush is president, this country, the world's opinion of it, and our budget are all going to hell, so why not. Rather than have Bush's first (and only I pray) term being remembered as a time of rampant corporate corruption, ballooning federal deficits, an erosion of our most basic civil rights, the most arrogant foreign policy since The Mexican War, and the continued rape and pillage of our national resources for the benefit of his rich friends. Instead, we could have Bush's term as president remembered as a time of rampant corporate corruption, ballooning federal deficits, an erosion of our most basic civil rights, the most arrogant foreign policy since The Mexican War, , the continued rape and pillage of our national resources for the benefit of his rich friends, and the time we landed a couple probes on Mars.
I Love Shitty Weather, For a Little While ...
It was nice being snowed in yesterday. I didn't have anywhere I needed to be, and enjoyed a guilt-free day of doing nothing but eating, drinking coffee, and reading The Wolves of Calla.
Today the fun has stopped. I have a couple things I really need to be doing on what would normally be my day off anyways. I ventured out this morning to the grocery store, not for any real necessities, more from cabin fever than anything else. The roads are still pretty bad in this part of the world. If the freezing rain they are forecasting happens today it will be worse. Today I have to do something around the house, at least clean up some, or I won't be able to live with myself. Plus, if I do something useful, I can enjoy some more guilt-free fucking off later this afternoon.
Quote of the Day:
He was in the changeless, legend-haunted city of Arkham, with its clustering gambrel roofs that sway and sag over attics where witches hid from the King's men in the dark, olden days of the Province. Nor was any spot in that city more steeped in macabre memory than the gable room which harbored him -- for it was this house and this room which had likewise harbored old Keziah Mason, whose flight from the Salem Gaol at the last no one was ever able to explain. That was in 1692 -- the gaoler had gone mad and babbled of a small white-fanged furry thing which scuttled out of Keziah's cell, and not even Cotton Mather could explain the curves and angles smeared on the gray, stone walls with some red, sticky fluid.
--- H.P. Lovecraft, The Dreams in the Witch-House, 1932.
::: posted by tom at 11:08 AM
|
|
|
|
