Year: 2013

Well, another fall gamelan concert over-we played wonderfully. It was a small audience, though, but that’s not really why we play. Not much else is going on-work is stressful, and S is sick. I got a new work phone.

Recap: church, computer help didn’t, work, gamelan, S is sick, WFH Thursday, rehearsal Friday, new phone, concert in Beaverton.

Links: America Has Never Faced The Threat Posed by the Koch Brothers and Their Owned Republicans, Noam Chomsky | De-Americanizing the World, Beware: Huge Media Companies Are Selling Corporate Ideology as the ‘New American Center’ | Alternet, Poverty in America Is Mainstream – NYTimes.com, Chomsky: Why the Rest of the World No Longer Wants to be Like U.S. | Alternet, There Once Was a Time When the Super-Rich Needed a Middle Class to Be Successful — Not Any More | Alternet, this one is strong: Bam. Bam. Bam. The Lostness of Man.

Nothing at all. I need sponsorship, though. Again out of ca$h, but OK. Having interesting experiences and a cool dream last night. Hopefully something will come of it-I need to start writing. Maybe I’ll fire up the essays by hand rather than by computer. If we all followed this stuff, and worked at it, the world would be a much better place. Left my kindle at church. Need to work out more.

Recap: M to MS dance, overnight, daylong retreat, t’ai chi, church-had to usher, S got a crown & we’re tapped-OK with help from angels, gamelan, help a church member with computer stuff, Erika to Maple Grove, t’ai chi, more computer work & fail, church.

Links: The Top 10 Conservative Myths, Lies of Plutocracy: Exploding Five Myths that Dehumanize the Poor, The Lies That Will Kill America | Alternet, The World Without US, GOP Still Worried About “Those People”, Paul Krugman: The GOP’s War on the Poor is the Central Issue of Our Time | Alternet, Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt

I had one for the on the brighter side, but I changed my password & I’m locked out of my work computer.

It’s been a week-not much to say. Tennis, t’ai chi, no church, S just had a cold, gamelan. M and I got the cold. Hopefully we’ll have more cash these 2 weeks, but I’m not counting on it. I just don’t think there’s the discipline to do it.
Really the same old-keeping the house clean, kids, work, gamelan. Don’t know what else to say. I work through stuff when I can, spotty exercise except for walking/riding to/from work, occasional t’ai chi, progress is being made, but slowly.
Links: Forward Progressives — I’ve Had It With the Radical “Religious” Right, Inside the Conservative Brain: Why Tea Partiers Are Desperately Afraid | Alternet, America’s New Employment Reality, A Nation of Wimps | Psychology Today, A Short Shutdown History: Billy Graham Broke Our Brains and (Inadvertently) Sold America to the Koch Brothers Who Folded the USA into a Moronic Religious/Political Delusion Called the Tea Party

I’m like a goddamn broken record about my posting frequency, or lack thereof. It’s been a bit over a week, so I think I’ll post, if only to get my post count up and prove that I’m a real blogger, rather than a poser or wannabe. Not a bad week, as weeks go-I like walking to work, I’m hitting the tennis ball better, gamelan is super awesome, and t’ai chi is great. Church was church, the work week has been fine. Salem has a cough.
The gamelan gig was at a warehouse in NW. Open bar, weird. We played OK, but the drinking did odd things to our mood. No matter. It was a busy day-church for t’ai chi, school, then the gig. We have a gig the 29th-Threnody, which gives me fits, because we play it rarely and my part is non-trivial. I was happier when I was playing slenthem…
Not really a whole lot else, I try to sleep on the train to work, and work on the train home. Not much time for reading, and I need to get more consistent at cleaning at home. Kids are great-I love them so much.
The train is fun-great people watching, and the occasional excitement. Not bad messwise-only been a few times I’ve had disastrous results. And the chance of meeting random people I know. There’s also a cricket ground next to the tracks in Beaverton, so it’s fun to see a slice of cricket on nice days. And it’s been nice-not much rain, and warmish.
Still trying to move ahead with ID-my pace of reading is slower, but I’m so deep into it that the knowledge is almost innate, and I’m making progress, I guess. One of the things Dr. Steiner says is that you really don’t want to discuss your work or your progress, so that’s that.

The recap: tennis & run to work afterwards, t’ai chi-one person, Harvest Festival, gamelan gig-“crass or inappropriate? How about both!”, church, fixed bike, but not riding (too dark in the morning without lights), church photos, gov’t shutdown is ovah, no ca$h, S is sick.

Links: The Obama Doctrine | Noam Chomsky, The Koch Brothers' "Samson Option", Moving Beyond the Structural Violence of Capitalist Nightmares-Buddhist Peace Fellowship / Turning Wheel Media, It's Going to Be a Scorcher … of a Century, How Christian Delusions Are Driving the GOP Insane | Alternet, Living the Orwellian Life, How Racism Drives the Zeal to Destroy Iran and Maintain Global Hegemony | Alternet, Last Hours of Humanity: We Appear to Be Warming the World into Its 6th Major Extinction Event | Alternet, Millions of Jobs, Trillions of Dollars: We Can't Afford the Republican Right | Alternet, How the South Is Holding America Hostage | Alternet, Chris Hedges: The Radical Christian Right and the War on Government – Chris Hedges – Truthdig, We are respectable negroes: Shutdown: The Republican Party is Possessed by a Hallucinatory Ideology. Those Outside of the Cult Cannot Understand Them., Rust Never Sleeps

I haven’t done this for awhile. Don’t know if it’s a long gap or not. But my motivation isn’t there, and work is a mess, and I’m really tired and easily fatigued. I think I need more than a day or 2 off every so often. I’m trying to stay active at work and riding my bike back and forth to the train. Not that any of this is helping my disposition-I guess I’m just reflecting the mood and malaise. I get home and any effort of any consequence just wipes me out. I think part of it is going to bed late and getting up early.
No matter-I think I’ll post this, just to say I did. No one except me reads this or anything, so it’s just vanity and a desire not to forget the events that make up a life.

Here’s the recap: tennis-hitting a bit harder, 7th grade work day, church meeting-contention, bridge collapse, 2 big tornadoes in OK, work from home Fri, S visit to Kindy, cleaning, park w/kids, dentist, gamelan, more contention, more gamelan, rearrange house, cleaning, church @ park, day off for Erika, work from home, last day of school, pool, C overnight, nickel arcade, church, birthday party, more work from home, no church, Milwaukie farmer’s market, back to work, cleaning, the tour, out of cash, drama about M’s trip, 4th of July @ friends’, other friends on the 5th, drive M to airport, church, back to work, tennis, C is in our room, visiting friends too, church, back to gamelan, M is home, work thing, church, C friends’ visit, work trip, big gamelan day, church, S playing, birthday, out of ca$h, hang out with S, church, (I missed a few weeks here-likely work, home, gamelan, church), $$$ from a gig, tennis, visit from E’s god Uncle, school work party, the whole Sarah Horn thing is touching me deeply, I think I’m making progress. Gamelan gig, church, first day of school, week off, another gamelan gig, back to work, parent meetings, tennis, church, run with M, C is sick, rummage sale, C to Opal Creek, teaching t’ai chi, help at school, ISS flyover at some point, cool and rainy-fall is here. The gov’t shutdown and debt ceiling. Upcoming gamelan gigs.

Links: We, the Vast Underclass, Must Rise Up Against Global Mafia-or Die, The Violence of Organized Forgetting, The United States Is Awash in Public Stupidity, and Critical Thought Is Under Assault | Alternet, Intellectual Dishonesty & The Death Of The Professional Left –, "The Efficiency Trap"—How Promoting Efficiency Means Sustaining a Broken System | Alternet, Chris Hedges Answers Questions from Viewers, The Case for Optimism Amidst a Political Wasteland of the Soul, How Successful Cooperative Economic Models Can Work Wonderfully… Somewhere Else | Alternet, There Are Good Alternatives to US Capitalism, But No Way to Get There | Alternet, Forward Progressives — The Conservative March Toward a Society of Sociopaths, The Rise of American Theocracy – Quiet Mike : Quiet Mike, Chomsky: America's Imperial Power Is Showing Real Signs of Decline | Alternet, Why Life in America Can Literally Drive You Insane | Alternet, Evangelical Corporations Try To Force Their Employees To Follow Their Religious Beliefs, Take a Close Look at Craziness of the GOP's Attempts to Destroy Obamacare — It'll Take Your Breath Away | Alternet, We're in a Post-Constitutional America: Our Country Is Going Sideways in Plain Sight, and Nobody's Saying Much About It | Alternet, Why Republicans Want Jobs to Stay Anemic | Common Dreams, Moyers: 50 Million Go Hungry Each Day | Alternet, The Corporate Right-Wing Agenda Is Driving Thousands of Americans to Attempt Suicide | Alternet, 8 Ways Privatization Has Brought Pain and Misery to American Life | Alternet, God and democracy: One nation, under nothing | The Economist, Crumbling American Dreams – NYTimes.com, What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World | RAW FOR BEAUTY, We're All Being Poisoned by Deregulated Capitalism, Why the Anger? | Robert Reich, Mankind: Death by Corporation, Part III – the TPP as Corporate Deathstar, Murdering the Wretched of the Earth, The Massacres in Egypt Are a Precursor to a Wider Global Conflict Between the Elites and the World’s Poor | Alternet, What Does it Mean to be an Outsider in a Capitalist Society? | Alternet, Chomsky: The U.S. Behaves Nothing Like a Democracy, But You'll Never Hear About It in Our 'Free Press' | Alternet, Will the American Right Kill Us All? | Alternet, . Welcome to the Age of Denial By ADAM FRANK… – Dominionism is destroying America, Can You Feel It? People are Getting More Tense as Anti-Human New Political Order Takes Shape | Alternet, 8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance | Alternet, Labor Day Is a Scam To Keep You Poor and Miserable Forever, America Is More Terrifying Than Orwell’s Fiction | Alternet, 10 Ways America Has Come to Resemble a Banana Republic | Alternet, Shake a Stick in Post-Financial Collapse America, and One Hits Poverty, 10 Ways America Has Come to Resemble a Banana Republic | Alternet, Death by Corporation, Part IV: Dissolving the Planet for Oil, The Financial Crisis and the Second Great Depression Myth, The Biggest Assault on Our Democracy Is Coming from the Center of Our Own Government | Alternet, Jonathan Frazen: While We Are Busy Tweeting, Texting and Spending, the World is Drifting Towards Disaster | Alternet, The Origins of Our Police State, RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013 | Alternet, The Age of Confusion – Mass Manipulation, Propaganda and Frequency Prisons – Waking Times, Path to Autocracy: Could America Become a Police State?, 12 Signs America Is Insane | Alternet, Financial Core of the Transnational Corporate Class — Censored Notebook, Investigative Research, The Sick Ayn Randian War Against Everyone Who Isn't Rich | Alternet, GOP Launches Race War to Boost the 1 Percent | Alternet, Noam Chomsky: 'The Foundations of Liberty Are Ripped to Shreds' | Alternet, Five Ways Capitalist Greed is Ripping Off the American People | Alternet, Obedience to Corporate-State Authority Makes Consumer Society Increasingly Dangerous, We Now Live in World in Which No One Is Listening to the Planet’s Sole Superpower | Alternet, Forget Climate Change, We Must Prepare for a Catastrophic Climate Breakdown | Alternet, The theology of government shutdown: Christian dominionism | Mercy not Sacrifice, No Triumph for Austerity, Forget Climate Change, We Must Prepare for a Catastrophic Climate Breakdown | Alternet, We're Addicted to Economic Growth and It Will Be the Death of Us | Alternet, Colbert King: The tea party resurrects the spirit of the Old Confederacy – The Washington Post