Inconvenient Democracy

Quote from article above:

The victory of Hamas represents an enormous test for the Palestinians, for the Western nations who pressed for this election and who provide millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and for the Arab world, which is likely to be shaken by the victory of a militant Islamic party in the symbolic heart of the Muslim world.

...this article followed by a look-what-you-gone-done headline, "Bush Defends His Goal of Spreading Democracy to the Mideast".

This Is Drifting

I can confirm that CrouchingTurbo, Oblivia's sister, will be hitting town in a few weeks for a fun filled few days. There will be a soiree.

People ask me what she does and try and describe the motor sport that her company sells supplies for called "drifting". These guys are nuts in this vid. They probably shouldn't be weaving in and out of traffic like that.

This sport is practiced all over the world where there are car enthusiats.

The Book I Would Like to Ghost-Write

For Lightspeedchick

wrong way.
Originally uploaded by jeevs.

May you arrive on this sign *just before* you need it the most.

Letting Go

As soon as I gave myself permission to eat, I wasn’t hungry anymore. As soon as I gave myself permission to stop, all I wanted to do was keep going. As soon as I gave myself permission to sleep, I remembered the name of the Fine Young Cannibals’ lead singer: Roland Gift. I wrote about habits of mind before but now I have a fuller understanding of how it applies to me.

I choose a path and I stick with it for much longer than I ought, believing this to be steadfast and admirable. But if I become less comfortable with said path as I start down it, I don’t stop to think about it because that would mean I made a mistake. And that’s bad, right? Its good to be right, right? I find myself in a situation of an unnatural lock down where I simply imprison myself. You must. You must. You must. But its MY cage and I even find myself defending it at times. I smother inklings that I should change course, preferring to carry on in an attempt to live up to the ideal of what I started, only with none of the original conviction and zeal. Only by forcing myself to choose and not judging myself for it, makes it less of a struggle.

I'm learning, slowly.

"chest-high water"

Australian woman killed by bull shark in "chest-high water" - close enough to be heard and laughed off as a joker by friends.

*shudder*

Ordering Pizza In the Year 2010

Insert requisite where-does-the-time-go post here.

I can't say I'm risk averse but perhaps I'm not as good with change as I would like to think I am. Rather, I find that the kind of change I don't want to be everywhere and the kind of change I can do without to be terribly stable.

REGIME CHANGE can't happen fast enough for me (is that like turning up the music to block that persistent smell of sewage?) The couch is tapped of SPARE CHANGE so its a damn good thing I'm starting a new job soon. I'm a bit sick of the tune I've been whistling lately but (like a good Stock Aitken and Waterman song) the KEY CHANGE is coming up, I can feel it. I was glad to get a CHANGE OF SCENERY back in the fall only to realise that there was nothing really wrong with the view where I am now. And finally, a perennial: why do clothing retailers (upscale or otherwise) always have dust bunnies in their CHANGE ROOMS?

I'm grateful for the people friends I made last year and for the continued health and prosperity of the people dear to me, near and far. Let this never change.

And finally, a word to the wise. Don't take my silence as a sign that I don't think of you. It could simply be that my computer's hard drive failed and I've lost "data" that was meaningless to me until it became impossible for me to access it anymore. THEN I saw fit to scour the ends of the earth to find a way to get it back. Back up your data.