Untitled III

Life can sometimes bring you shit. And then more shit. And all you can do, is "danse sur la merde."

Luscher Farm

The farmland is slowly disappearing. Back in my high school years, enormous houses popped up one after the other across the street from the blackberry bushes and the horse farm, shielding the old farm house (the only aesthetically pleasing architecture) from view. While away at college, and upon my subsequent visits home, I was distraught to discover the flowing fields of wheat and grass that would be frequented by geese in the autumn on their migration was turning into yet another lot for these McMansions. Slicing up the field, they built fences and roads and constructed homes twice the size of the earlier excessively large homes built beyond the fields. Now, the developers have decided to move south with their destruction of nature, and have dug up the fields and grass that once stood at the end of Overlook as it intersects with Stafford. There is now a gigantic sports field (oh yes, because the 5 or so we have within 5 mins drive from there are not enough) complete with enormous, glaringly bright stadium lights. What happened to the community gardens? the dog park? to nature? Why on earth are we replacing real grass with that impostor that bedecks a football field?

Reds

Using cadmium red to highlight the underlying alizarin crimson makes the drapery POP.

Tedious is the process, but rewarding is the product.

'They mooed half the night. Then, no mooing'

[Article in this morning's Oregonian]



So apparently it wasn't insanely foggy and rainy just here, but all over the northwest, leading to the deaths of hundreds of cows. Organic cows (not that that makes a difference, but the article I read this morning explicitly stated they were such). It's times like these I'm glad my house is on a hill and on stilts, hundreds of feet above the ocean. But a lot of houses aren't...and the coast is flooding, and apparently "tempests" are now supposed to be the norm in the pacific northwest. Storms were one major thing I missed about the east coast, the rumbling of thunder and flashes of lightning I would try to catch glimpses of from my bedroom window on the top floor through what little bit of sky I could make out. Not to mention the monsoon-like rain experienced in northern Michigan.

In any case, as sexy as storms are, Oregon needs to prepare itself for weather change. We don't want to lose our coast after all, though if necessary one could always follow the Dutch example and build a dike.

Diplomacy

Bush Insists Iran Remains a Threat Despite Arms Data

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — President Bush warned on Tuesday that Iran remained a threat despite an intelligence assessment that it had halted a covert program to develop nuclear weapons four years ago, as the administration struggled to save a diplomatic process now in disarray.

Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, at a White House news conference on Tuesday. President Bush and his senior aides are trying to hold together the group of nations seeking to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Once again facing criticism over the handling — and meaning — of intelligence reports, Mr. Bush said the new assessment underscored the need to intensify international efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

He said Iran could not be entrusted with acquiring even the scientific knowledge to enrich uranium for peaceful civilian use, explicitly declaring for the first time what has been an underlying premise of the administration’s policy. He also appeared to rule out any new diplomatic initiative with the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Look, Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous, if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Bush said during a news conference dominated by questions about the fallout of the assessment, known as a National Intelligence Estimate. “What’s to say they couldn’t start another covert nuclear weapons program?”

...

Ugh. The conniving deceptiveness of this man and his administration. Trying to lead us into the same bullshit that led us to Iraq in the first place. What a fucktard (how intellectual am I). I'm envisioning another political cartoon. Bush as Rambo, bedecked with armaments, and severely disappointed to discover upon his entering the battle scene the enemy is sipping tea, saying he's too late.

Whatever happened to diplomacy?

And on that note, Uncle Robert is moving today to Jerusalem, where he will be working in the governor's palace with Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair. Awesome.

Keeping my hands occupied

1: P2, K2, P3, K2, [P2,K1] x 4, P2, K2, P3, K2, P2
2: K1, K tbl, P2, C1 over 2 right, P2, [k2, p1] x 4, K2, P2, C1 over 2 left, P2, K2
4: K1, K tbl, P2, K3, P2, K2, [P1, 2/2 left cross PB] x 2, P2, K3, P2, K2
6: see 2
8: K1, K tbl, P2, K3, P2, [2/2 right cross PB, P1] x 2, K2, P2, K3, P2, K2

and repeat.