Thursday, February 26, 2004

Burnout Lately, I've been feeling a kind of political burnout.  Emotionally speaking, I'm finding it more and more difficult to continue to read about the things that are happening in our country and around the world.  It's just all getting me down.  The Administration is a disaster in every conceivable way, our country is in the midst of an ignorance and prejudice-fueled culture war, our education system is a shambles, and the trend nation-wide is to shaft people who need in favor of people who have. I firmly believe that Bush is going to lose in November.  I believe that from an intellectual and objective standpoint.  But increasingly I wonder if some large part of me needs to believe that in order to avoid losing all sense of optimism about this country for the next 10 years.  And I have no illusions; a Dem victory isn't going to magically make things better.  So many of the problems we have are entrenched, and will require years of dedicated effort to change.  I fear that if Bush wins again, I will become one of those cranks who loses their capacity to trust in the government or in people generally, like those people who never really got over Watergate.  I fear I might just shut it down and decide that there is no point in engaging in the national discourse for the rest of my life. 3:51:45 PM    Say what?[]

Bummer I guess I didn't rescue a hawk after all.  The Raptor Center called today and said that her head trauma was leading to seizures that were getting progressively worse, and they decided to euthanize her. She was a beautiful bird. 1:02:48 PM    Say what?[]

Name That Country Who can tell me what country's flag this is? (You know, I was going to have a little contest here, but I had a moment of clarity wherein I posted the little quiz above, and absolutely no one answered.) It's Iceland's flag.  I very much want to go to Iceland.  I hear it's a great place.  It's relatively cheap to get to from the Twin Cities, because Iceland Air flies through here.  No, we can't get a Southwest Airlines gate, but we get Iceland Air.  Why not take advantage? There are hot springs, and volcanos, and the Sugarcubes, and vodka, rare birds and lush greenery.  And, considering the only foreign countries I have been to are Canada, Belize and Puerto Rico (Yes, I know.  I still count it.), Iceland would be a totally different experience. I want to round up a posse to go to Iceland in the summer of 2006.  Who's with me? 11:01:38 AM    Say what?[]

Free Beer! Last night, I was out watching the Wolves/Nets game with Friends of Pipeline Katy and Brad.  After polishing off one 25oz beer, I decided I should probably have another.  When it arrived, I noticed there was some small black thing floating in it. It was a fly. I fished it out and put it on my napkin.  It wasn't a large fly, like a housefly.  It was a smaller kind of fly, but a fly nonetheless.  I wasn't particularly bothered by it's presence in my drink, the way I would be if it were in food that I were about to eat.  I'm not sure why I make that distinction, but I do.  And it was a small fly.  A larger fly would have bothered me much more. I wouldn't have said anything about it, but Katy informed our waitress about it anyway.  I just usually don't complain about service issues.  I mean, I worked in restaurants, and the fact is that there are flys and bugs around, and there's not a lot that can be done about it. Then the waitress brought me a new beer without a fly.  I drank it.  It was good. Then the check came, and she didn't charge me for my second beer, because of the fly.  I got a free 25oz. premium quality beer, all because of that little fly that I didn't have to drink.  I'm thinking maybe I should pack flys, just to get a free beer now and then.  Who does it hurt?  Not the bar.  Money grows on trees for bars.  Everybody knows that.  Besides, the drunker I get, the more I'm going to spend.  (It's not like I can pull the fly trick more than once in a given bar.)  Not the waitress.  She makes her money, gets a nice tip.  And not me, because I get free beer.  Everybody wins. Except the fly, of course. 10:46:48 AM    Say what?[]

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