Last day in Austin, tonight my brother arrives and we continue the roadwarrior adventures West tomorrow, turkey dinner went well, I am proud to say. I thought I could have done just a bit better but I am my own worst critic on cooking matters. Turkey was moist and properly done, but I didn't get enough chorizo in the stuffing and so it didn't baste the turkey in the grease like last year, oh well.
Posts
PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.47
1. Have you ever made a wish that came true? Fairly often, moved to DC and moving back home, both qualify.
2. How about any wishes that you are happy never came true? Don't really stop to thinking about it, not really, time moves on *shrug*
3. Do you like who you are? Are you the person you hoped you would become? Getting there, I have acoomplished alot of what I wanted to workwise, but new challenges are on the doorstep, I can't wait to meet them.
4. I recently found some job applications that I never turned in. Back in 1986 I intended to apply at "County Seat" and "Chess King" but got an offer from Penny's (where I worked all through college). It was a good thing, since only one of the three is still around. Have you ever applied for positions, or had any interviews, where you later are glad you never got the job? A number of them, I messed up a think tank interview one time, but considering where they ...
Poetry Wednesday
The biggest thing I regularly missed living in the West was good Mexican food in Arizona it was always around, so it was a stark contrast to DC where it was always a hunt to even find decent stuff. That is why it was such fun to go to the grocery store here in Texas yesterday buying Thanksgiving preparations. Tortillas, Chorizo, Tamales, not just one kind, but varieties, and the tortillas were good not like the cardboard tasting stuff at the store in the East. I can eat these all by themselves they are so good. So in honor of those found memories a related poem, now off to make some breakfast tacos.
COMIDA
uno se come
la luna en la tortilla
comes frijol
y comes tierra
comes chile
y comes sol y fuego
bebes agua
y bebes cielo.
One eats the moon in a tortilla
eat frijoles and you eat earth
eat chile and you eat sun and fire
drink water and you drink sky
FOOD - Victor Valle
Fun times, the likes you can only have with old friends you don't see often enough. They usually gather once a year at Thanksgiving and then for a camping trip in the summer, I haven't been able to make the camping trip, but being back in the West it isn't all that far away, so I may have to change that habit. A highly computer literate crowd here with half the people checking email just for work purposes while here and the rest of us geeky enough to check ours on regular basis as well. Beef comas are on tap for tonight, that's right we are in Texas so it's all you can eat BBQ . Pretty decent ribs, brisket, sausage as I recall from years past.
Everyone else is asleep but I through my first cup o' coffee so I am nearly able to decern shapes and even type, Poetry Wednesday shortly and that will likely be it for posting today.
Reports from the Road
I made it safely to Austin. Long days spent driving but I learned a few things on the way...
* Don't play Count the Roadkill as a time passing game in the South, I was well over 30 before I left Virginia.
* Sign you are a Desert kid at heart #32 - I still was pleasantly surprised every time I crossed a river to see it actually contained water.
* Tennesse was very pretty, I drove past Dollyworld, I dunno I just thought it would have been bigger.
* Arkansas was everything I dreamed, sadly
* Sign you might be a geek #12 - You keep passing gas stations and wondering why they are offering DSL for so cheap. Hint: It was diesel fuel
* Jen and any one else who enjoys beef, if your path should take you down I-30 between Dallas and Texarkana stop in Mt Pleasant for BBQ at Blalock Bar-B-Q, damn tasty sausage and beef.
* Vasectomy reversal is a very popular procedure in the South at least according to the number of signs for it, luckily it was sa...
Trailer arrived this morning so load it up, head 'em up, move 'em out, RAWHIDE!
I rented a section of a trailer load it with the help of a few friends, anyone free around 10am tomorrow? The moving company will pick it up and take it West, renting out the unused portion to other folks. Then during the week after Thanksgiving they will drop it by my folk's house. I unload it on that end, simple and pretty affordable in comparison to most other moving options. Otherwise I am packing up my office, settling computer access and a few other issues and away we go...
Autumn in DC
Cool damn fogginess
Embraces a DC Autumn day
Washington Monument peeks over the stoic Treasury building
A whisper in my mind
remember this
don't let it fade away
Leaves crunch under my feet
as I wander past the White House once more
Before the journey home begins
Children skipping rope, protesters demostrate
A church bell rings the noon hour
I sit, pause
Ponder the moment
Before it's gone
Before my life moves on
Poetry Wednesday
Generally for Poetry Wednesday I try to pick something with imagination and creativity, not the same old poem people constantly cite, all that being said, it's my blog and I can break that rule if I want to. This poem is overused, overcited, but it is also rather good. Since I am heading towards my own Walden Pond o' sorts it just fits.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewh...
Packing and Farewells
That is what my life outside of work has been filled with the last few days. If I am not knee deep in boxes sorting, tossing out, or packing various items, I am saying goodbye to friends telling each other we will see each other again and demanding they visit out West. Many of these folks I know I'll see again, but many others we will exchange the occasional email, maybe share a drink in 6 months, a year, maybe two and that will be it. Not that I want to part company, but I know that's the way of the world, so I am trying really hard to enjoy these last definate moments with people because tomorrow is just a dream and may never arrive. So we raise our glasses toast to the future, but in that moment we are together alive and we share alittle understanding which I suppose is all we can ask for in this life.
To anyone I may miss before departing, best wishes and I hope to see you again.
PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.46
1. When I was a teenager, I used to ride all the "spin-y" rides at the fair and fun parks. I'd never get dizzy or sick, and I could ride them all day. My favorite was the Tilt-A-Whirl. Now I should call it the "Tilt-A-Hurl" because it seems I can't even get on a Merry-Go-Round without feeling queasy. Is there anything you used to be able to do physically that you no longer can? What changed? My ankle has been bothering me the last few months, because of my own stupidty, but nothing else really.
2. If you could go to lunch with someone famous, anyone living or dead, who would you choose? What questions would you ask them? I would say most likely Einstein and ask him questions about the future of humanity I think, but if I could open up the term to fame among my friends, I'd honestly like to have lunch with Reemul one more time.
3. On that same thought, there are probably several Bloggers you enjoy reading but h...
Eisner Gives ABC 'Four To Five Years'
That's funny at the rate they are going I figured Eisner would run them out of business in closer two to three years at his current rate. It is nice to know he is so optimistic about their future. I am glad that the Captain is noting his ship is sinking, I just wonder if he will do anything about it? It's not like they intentional ran Who Wants to Be a Millionaire into the ground by over showing it or running Drew Carey's show every other hour. Although I won't predict the end of Eisner's career, he always seems to survive no matter what he goes through and I am sure such will be the case with ABC.
Poetry Wednesday
While I do beleive I may have posted this one before it has been in my mind again in the last week so I'll post it, from The Hobbit
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.
Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have knows. (found here )
Sometime in the next week or so is my blogiversary. First one, I can't be sure of the exact date due to the wonderful archive system with blogger but it was a week or two before Thanksgiving I finally started one, it's been a fun year. I don't know that my writing has improved over the course of the year but it has become a constant fixture of my life, which was the point for it to be established. Traffic is what it is which is actually pretty consistant for the last 8 months with the occasional spike and I'll reach the big 10K hits mark either by the end of the month or just into December. Once I am settled in Arizona Bear Droppings will be moving on to a new host and will likely move to another blog engine. Not that I have major complaints with blogger, it has been great for what it is, a free service, meaning I try not to complain too much when it doesn't work or I have problems. From others who use Blogger Pro, I don't know the cost model is worth it for me ...
About a week and half before the move all the details coming into focus, tasks needed to be completed, boxes needed to be packed. I knew I really wanted to hit the road already, but I didn't realize how much until I was picking up someone from the airport last night and they turned to me in the middle of conversation and said "You really want to get out of here don't you?" Answer is of course yes I have set my path know the compass lines, even the roads between here in Phoenix I'll need to drive. Abit of my father in me I suppose, that once I decide a course of action I want it under way already.
The recent grey weather in the DC area of late has kind of been nice, because I see what awaits me and it makes me for confident of the choice. Likewise the environment in my office seems to indicate this is right, because yesterday we received the word on the budget next year and no staff raises for two years in a row. Budget is tight, but cost of living would have ...
PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.45
1. Although I was told before hand by my mother, my Grandfather finally told me he has cancer and it was speculated he has about 12 months to live. Has someone you know ever told you they had a terminal illness? What was it like for you when you found out. How did that change your relationship with them? One of my best friends had a terminal illness the entire time I knew him, it was never a question of if, but when, the when was two months ago. All it made me do especially after his lung transplant was try to value the time I had and could share with him since it wasn't alot and I knew it wouldn't last. I still think about him nearly everyday.
2. The concept of having 12 months comes as somewhat of a shock. Often those estimates are wrong and a person lives much longer. But still, it makes me think. If you found out you had 12 months to live, what would you do with that time? How would it change the way you live? Or would it? Live ever...
As I rode the metro to lunch with a friend today I had butterflies in my stomach the whole ride, I couldn't figure out why I had been one the metro hundreds, thousands of times, it was a just a buddy I don't see as often these days, but as the train pulled into Capitol South it struck me, there was a good chance that would be the last time I went into the Congressional offices before I left town. Business doesn't take me there as often, so the chances were good I wouldn't need to return. A recent conversation with a friend suggested we we're both at the beginning of new adventures in our lives and matched the feeling to the one you got as a kid the night before Christmas, as I got up to leave the train I knew she was right.
Twas the night before Xmas, can't wait to see what awaits me...
Election
I have wanted to do a post election post but everytime I get started it starts off ugly and mean spirited and goes down hill from there, generally they start all the lines of " Okay, you Dems didn't have a good election, but let's cut the Chick Little the sky is falling crap. " Republicans don't have a 60 vote majority in the Senate and there are alot of Moderate Republicans in Congress so your nightmares of Republicans burst into your house late at night, beating you senseless and handing your freedom to companies is just a bad dream. Or maybe Tuesday night not sure.
Lex has made a number of good points about the election, things I have been thinking but holding back saying because this is a family show and my mother would have frowned on the amount of vulgarities I'd have to use to make the same points.
The funny thing is this could be a very good election results in regards of free speech and the internet, if the Democrats had taken ov...
You would think finding a club for a car wouldn't be that tough, but it was tonight. I went to the Target at Potomac Row and while they had plenty of holiday car gifts, flashlights, repair kits, etc. not one club, I could not even find where they would have been in the section. Kinda surprising considering less than 5 miles away as the crow flies is one of the areas with the highest car theft rates in the country, just a few blocks from the Capitol to boot. I drove around for another 30-45 minutes looking for a place that would carry them and be open, finally I found Sears, unfortunately they closed 10 minutes early tonight as I walked in people were pulling their registers....oh well, maybe tomorrow.
I had a pleasant surprise this morning, I remembered the fact a friend from college was running for a state representative seat in Arizona. I looked up his results this morning and he won. So congratulations Ken and good luck! I went to college with someone in a state house seat, scary, must be getting old or sumptin'
Ryder Found Guilty
In honor of Wynona's conviction today a few quotes from her movies that just seem to fit.
"You guys better not be inhaling."
"I have to work around here, and unfortunately Mr. District Attorney, you are a master at the art of time suckage."
"Will we never all be together again?" Oh wait that is what she told me as the cops drug her off...
"I rather crave violence."
"It's one thing to want someone out of your life, but it's another thing to serve them a wake-up cup full of Liquid Drano."
"If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being. You'd be a game-show host."
"I'm not going to work at The Gap for chrissake!"
Oh wait that last one has nothing to do with her conviction, just me and the move to Arizona, never mind.
(Quotes thanks to IMDB )
POSTSCRIPT : In a related story , Ryder Vows to Find the Real Shoplifters , th...
Poetry Wednesday
Dolor of Autumn
The Acrid scents of autumn,
Reminiscent of slinking beasts, make me fear
Everything, tear-trembling stars of autumn
And the snore of the night in my ear.
For suddenly, flush-fallen,
All my life, in a rush
Of shedding away, has left me
Naked, exposed on the bush.
I, on the bush of the globe,
Like a newly-naked berry, shrink
Disclosed: but I also am prowling
As well in the scents that slink
Abroad: I in this naked berry
Of flesh that stands dismayed on the bush;
And I in the stealthy, brindled odours
Prowling about the lush
And acrid night of autumn;
My soul, along with the rout,
Rank and treacherous, prowling,
Disseminated out.
For the night, with a great breath intaken,
Has taken my spirit outside
Me, till I reel with disseminated consciousness,
Like a man who has died.
At the same time I stand exposed
Here on the bush of the globe, ...
Election Day Predictions
On election day I'd like to make a few predictions
Prediction : James Traficant will win with 37% of the vote in a split district.
Result : Case goes to Supreme Court as some party sues on election fraud.
Prediction : Jeb Bush wins in Florida.
Result : Case goes to Supreme Court as someone sues on election fraud.
Prediction : Mondale wins election, but dies of heart attack in victory speech, Ventura sticks with his appointee for next two years until next general election.
Result : Case goes to Supreme Court as some party sues on election fraud.
Prediction : Arizona 1st district Republican accusations of illegal voters brought in from New Mexico and Democrats accuse Republicans of voter intimidation.
Result : Case goes to Supreme Court as both parties sue on election fraud.
The simple answer is this country is going sue happy, the media doesn't help any. I do like the idea of voters having a voter id card or state issued id in gene...
Interesting ideas on Information Architecture at AIfIA . The 25 Thesis are a good read, but I don't know I agree with #3 that Chaos and entropy are inherently bad. I think they tend to be the natural order rather than the structured format that we recognize if you look at on leave changing colors it looks chaotic, but as I look out my office window and see the beauty of the different trees turning colors I see a natural pattern. But definately some intriquing concepts.
Moving on Down the Road
I think most regular readers got a copy of this, but it never hurts to post it as well.
As some of you may know as of the end of the month I will be returning to Northern Arizona to live. Right now the departure date is around November 23rd/24th with a layover in Austin to visit a few friends and then get to Arizona at the first of December.
I have been living in DC for 6 years and it has been a wonderful experience, I have made a lot of good friends and I hope to stay in contact with you. I plan on regular visits to the DC area so you are not completely done with me. When I moved to DC I intended for this to be a stay of 3 to 5 years and then leave when I was ready, I lasted a bit longer. I came to DC to get some work experience and now I have that.
When people ask me why I am moving I generally have been giving a vague answer and may cite this or that, but it is really hard to state a single that is why reason, so to give you a bit of insight here i...
PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.44
1. Have you ever had to appear in court? What was the reason? How did it turn out? Traffic ticket, I fought it and lost. At least I tried.
2. Ever been accused of something you never did? Were you able to convince anyone? Occasionally, I am just innocent, so they believed me *chuckle*
3. When it comes to crime and punishment, do you agree with the saying "An eye for an eye?" I in justice and humanity, which have nothing to do with the legal system. Sometimes that means an eye for an eye sometimes that means compassion and forgiveness, all based on circumstances and past history.
4. Are you a judgemental person? Do you ever make up your mind about a person before you know them? When was the last time that happened? Or if not, how do you keep from being judgemental? I try not to judge rather just watch and listen, but in listen folks occasionally get the opinion I am judging them, which is not my intent. But I try to listen and ...
BIG MOVE(TM)
Canel Gym Membership - Check
Buy Vehicle - Check
Tell Landlord I am moving out - Check
Tell Boss I am moving - Check
That last one was the tough one, but especially in cases like this that I like my boss as a person so I tried to give him as much warning as we could. We will see if we can work out a telecommuting option or not he was not deadset against the concept. As I suspected it would be part-time likely, because there are somethings I can't do from telecommuting. But it would be nice to have a steady income source over the course of the move. Yup it's really going to happen by the beginning of December I'll be in Arizona, the wheels are set in motion.
New Addition
There is a new addition to the Bear Dropping's family, that's right I am now the proud owner of a 1999 Honda CR-V. While this is not my exact car it matches the color and the general features. I bought it Saturday and first thing this morning I got up and looked out the door to make sure it was real and not a dream.
As Jill noted today is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month . An exercise not in quality but quanitity to force you to sit and write daily all throughout the month. With all that is going on this month it seems a waste and unlikely that I could completely the offcial 50K word goal. So I'll do it unofficially on my own and if I don't get it completed, no big loss, it will force me to write through out the month.