Thoughts From the

Under Seed

2010-03-11T11:12:00.011-06:00

Usually, Stephen Colbert hits it right on the head. Remember his White House Correspondant's Dinner speech, where he mercilessly goofed on everyone in the Bush administration? ( I wish he'd pushed that "Gannon" button....)

But in this piece mocking a sponsor of the Glenn Beck - Eric Massa interview, he (and his writers) showed off a frightening lack of understanding. Sure, it's sometimes hilarious, the way Fox advertisers (especially Beck's) prey on the fears of their aging audience. And Colbert's fatuous demolishing of the ad's infomercial duplicity is great: unlabeled graphs, outrageous prices, act now or you might be dead!

But there are real questions left unanswered: why would anyone need non-hybrid seeds? What is it about non-hybrid seeds that makes them valuable in a crisis? And why would anyone spend good money on national advertising in the gamble that people will pay outrageous prices for these certain seeds?

The answer is that almost all the seeds we farm with (and eventually eat) in this country are neutered. That's right. If there were a complete societal meltdown, all those acres of corn, wheat, and soybean would simply die off, never to be replaced. What? Not what you learned in school? Can't the farmer just take some of his crop, grab the seeds right off the stalks and re-plant them, generating more and more plants, more and more seeds?

No, they can't.

Why? Because the agribusinesses that have taken over farming in this country have neutered our seed stock. They have done this on purpose, and the reasoning is simple. If you control the seeds, you control the farmers. And you control the food supply (and maybe, if they're lucky someday, the bioenergy supply as well).

Farmers in this country are between a rock and a hard place: the bank owns their land and agribusiness owns their seed. Farmers, who can't afford to go a season without growing, are forced to sign exclusive contracts with seed providers, and the seed they get has been engineered to be good for one season only.

Isn't that a crime against nature? You bet your ass it is. But there's a bitter irony here as well.

Reactionary survivalists don't need to pay hundreds of dollars for non-hybrid seeds. They don't need to mount an expedition to Norway to raid the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. They can just saunter over to the nearest organic farm - you know, the crazy hippies they've been mocking for the last 30 years - and get some organic (non-GMO, non-chemically sprayed, and non-hybrid) seeds, probably really, really cheap.

But that irony isn't the worst part. The worst part is that, given a chance to educate viewers and ream this advertisement even more, Colbert either didn't know, or he took a pass. The latter may be forgivable: he almost never breaks his conservo-facade.

Still, that barbed wire guarding his herb garden was a more apt metaphor than he probably knew.

I'm Sayin It

2009-09-03T11:14:00.006-05:00

I'm gettin on the record. Right now. I'm puttin on my raincoat and staring into the sun. If the clouds and the drops don't come, I might look silly, and not for the first time.

President Barack Obama: just another politician.

Historically, first African-American president. Major achievement for him, his community, and for all of us non-racists.

Better than George Dubya Bush. Definitely.

But that doesn't mean he's not just another politician.

Either he's not really a fighter, or he's not really a progressive.

Which one is the masquerade?

We got a second-term nomination for the Fed Chief who said on record that he didn't know which foreign banks got money from the bailout deals.
We got a huge stimulus package that represented mainstream economic philosophy at the time, and for which the Democrats are getting little if any credit.
We got a President who stood up in his first State of the Union and got the entire Republican side of the aisle standing and cheering for him - on national TV - when he talked about reigning in out-of-control banks, and then followed up on that by introducing no significant investigations or regulation.
We are in the process of closing Gitmo, but Obama has extended the use of extraordinary rendition (aka kidnapping people) and overseas interrogations.
We got a drawdown in Iraq, but a draw-up in Afghanistan with no clear definition of victory.
We got a President who seems content to let the rabid minority party gnaw his leg and double-deal with him all over the place, and who won't issue even the most perfunctory smack-down when people he is "negotiating" with run all over the country spreading vicious lies.
We are in the process of getting health-care legislation in which the President has promised big things to big industry players and has refused to even use that leverage to squash the insane rambling complaints of the opposition.

And that last one is maybe the worst (except for extraordinary rendition). There is something very shrewd about making promises to Big Pharma with the idea that they will help you fight the propaganda of the health insurance industry and their Republican pals. If you hold their feet to the fire, that is. These "partners" of yours are still giving money to fight against the government plans! This makes the President look like a big sissy.

I sincerely hope that he has some political ninjutsu going on, and that, a few months from now, I'm going to look damn foolish for saying what I'm saying. I hope that in his big Healthcare Address next week, and in his actions following, Obama shows the true value of patience, that he reveals (like Mohammed Ali) the virtue in allowing your opponent to exhaust themselves attacking you.

And then, when they have nothing left to say, you strike with a hard and lasting impression. You shame them for their ill behavior, and you doom them to irrelevance with a powerful mandate. You punish the backstabbers to whom you lent your good faith, and cut them out of the deal.

You show some fortitude, and some principle, and you show the people who put you in office that you have their backs.

But I'm betting that, based on what we've seen so far, Obama will not do that. That was the Obama of the campaign trail, not the Obama of the White House. That's what makes him just another politician.

So I'm putting on my raincoat and watching the horizon.

Prove me wrong, Mr. President. I hope - remember that word that Obama of the campaign trail used to love? - that you do.

Where Do We Rank?

2009-09-02T13:12:00.008-05:00

We're all aware that, in terms of healthcare and education, the US ranks quite a bit lower than we often tell ourselves according to our national myth of being "the greatest" country on earth. But at least we have one of the most robust, healthy systems of justice in the world. Still. Right?

Actually, we're being outdone at the moment by the likes of Nigeria. That's right, Nigeria, with its oppressive police and paramilitary force. Nigeria, which ranks 121 out of 180 countries in the global Corruption Perception Index. We rank way up at 18. But what I'm about to share should put that deep into question.

What does Nigeria do that we can't seem to do? Punish the people who got rich raping their economy. From the BBC:

Four senior banking executives in Nigeria have appeared in court to deny charges they were involved in a multi-billion dollar banking scandal.

and

Fifteen other chief executives at the banks - Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Finbank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank - are being questioned by police after the loans were not repaid.

and

One banker, Erastus Akingbola, former chief executive of Intercontinental bank, is still missing. He is on the run and wanted by Interpol.

and, lest you think that this was some local trouble, not connected to the big scams that have rocked the world economy:

All the banks were found to have low cash reserves because of bad loans.

Some of them were also accused of lending money to fake companies run by their friends, and falsely driving up share prices. Huh.

So, "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" apparently means that if you are a big enough crook, you get a seat at the table. The BIG table, the one where you're seated next to the president. Even Nigeria, which hovers around near Eritrea and Honduras in the CPI, manages to call these people to account. We seem helpless to do so.

Imagine picking up your favorite newspaper and seeing: Fugitive Bank Boss Still At Large.

That's the world Nigerians get to live in. Instead, we get: Obama selects Bernanke for Another Term.

Now, you can reasonably debate whether or not the Fed has helped or hindered our economy during the financial meltdown. But remember when that German fellow flew a small propeller plane into Red Square to try and find his long-lost lover? Guess who got fired, just as a show of accountability? If you said the Russian Defense chief, you'd be right. Now think about being the head of our central bank during the nation's biggest meltdown in 75 years - which was caused by the banks that you set rates and printed money for.

Whups! Can you believe it? The president wants to nominate you for another term. You must be one lucky guy.

But that's not the half of it. As Secretary of the Treasury, we get banking industry loveman Tim Geithner.

Imagine a truly progressive approach based on justice and the rule of law. Even if we (rightly or wrongly) regarded some of these financial giants as "too big to fail", shouldn't we have brought their leaders in to call them to task - under oath in a criminal court? Isn't that the very definition of responsibility and accountability? Sorry, CEOs, you were at the helm when the iceberg was struck. You claim you didn't know what was on your balance sheets or what kind of shenanigans were going on at your firm? You have just admitted gross negligence. Enjoy your time in prison. Maybe, on your way there, you can work on a better explanation why misrepresenting the value of your assets is not fraud.

Instead, what do we get in our supposedly not-that-corrupt republic? We find our leaders quibbling over bonuses and executive pay limits. This is whipping with a feather, and having to fight for that.

Next time someone mentions what a just country we are, remind them that they are talking about a "perception", and that in reality, we rank right alongside the scummiest juntas in the world. Maybe stuck between Libya and Nicaragua, but probably no higher than Nigeria.

But wait, maybe that's going too far. Our national government may be extremely corrupt, but at least we live in a relatively safe country. No, we don't. Okay, well at least we don't live in some repressive police state. Depends on your criteria, perhaps. Turns out, much of it depends simply on how much money you have.

Well, that's kind of a downer.

No one ever said reality was going to be fun. Unless, of course, you happen to be a bigwig at a major bank in the United States. Party on, TARP! Party on, Wayne.

Goddamn I Hate Fox News

2009-08-11T11:27:00.012-05:00

I know, I know! We all hate fox news. At least those of us that are not clueless / mentally deficient / terminally afraid / racist. But I sauntered over to their website the other day just to wander around and see what's what, and wouldn't you know it? The Fox News website, usually more moderate than their television stations, has finally jumped the shark and gone down the rabbit hole, to mix a few naturalist metaphors. Let's get right to it.

Look at this!

You are making a strong claim about the Speaker of the House. It's too easy - she said that people who are disrupting town halls are acting un-American because they are stifling debate. That's not hard to understand, is it? She did not call all Protestors un-American. She said those who are being disruptive and stifling debate are un-American. I mean, maybe FN has a point here, that it's wrong for anyone in government to challenge the "American"-ness of a group of our own citizens. Yeah, if this wasn't coming from the side that's had a near-monopoly on calling people un-American for the last 60 years!

Okay, moving on.

It gets worse as we go. Here is another page. These are all from the same damn day!

Can you read the subhead? It says that the AARP, one of the most respected seniors' organizations in the country, "is coming under criticism from its own members for appearing to support President Obama's health care reform plans".

Wow, that might give you the impression that the AARP, while it doesn't support Health Care Reform,
has been giving some members the impression that it actually does support Health Care Reform, though, according to Fox News, it doesn't.

Oh Yeah??

Plus, you have to read the actual article, but I'll point out a great feature:

"Recent polling by FOX News shows seniors, many of whom are on Medicare, don't want a major overhaul -- 93 percent rate their current coverage as good or excellent, and 56 percent say they oppose the creation of a government-run option for all Americans."

The idea is that government-run, single-payer Medicare has such a good approval rating, that people don't want a version for the rest of us???

Excuse me while I go shave my head and join an ashram and pray for the enlightenment of humanity. I just need to get away. I wish I could be funny about it, but it just ain't funny. Is the Greatest Generation turning into the Selfishest Generation? Maybe, but I think it's more likely that Fox News is just lying their faces off!

But wait - it gets even more bizarre. And remember, this is all in one day of Fox News's coverage.

Fox News has this awesome segment called America's Future. You can tell it's on point - see all the futuristic writing? Just look at this:

In case you can't read the tag line, it's "FOX News, in an ongoing series of special reports, takes an in-depth look at the challenges our nation will face in the future."

Looking at this, you might think that OUR ENTIRE FRICKIN COUNTRY IS TURNING MUSLIM!

Look at the first five videos! They're all about some crazy encroachment of Islam into America. Amazing! You would think, because this is featured on a "news" show, that this was something that was actually happening! Oooooh, they're going to turn everyone Muslim!

My favorite is the next bit, where the focus is on textbooks. The piece - I mean, look this up, it's awesome - people are complaining that the coverage of Islam in their textbooks doesn't focus enough on extremism. I mean, WHAT? First of all, there's one book in their own news report that has a whole section there on 9/11. So, not enough, huh?

First of all, I just need to say: people in this country are free to practice or not practice any religion they choose. Period.

But really, these people are claiming that the textbooks don't give enough history of the violence in Islamic history. I'm sure they are also clamoring for the full bloody breadth of the Crusades to be exposed to our youth. And maybe they are...after all, they seem to think that Holy War is a good thing.

But - here is the larger point - aren't there REAL, ACTUAL challenges facing our country, something besides the treatment of a religion that's followed by a tiny percentage of our country? I don't know, maybe the Health Care Crisis might be a good place to start. Or the putrid corruption infesting our political system. Or our abhorrent educational system. Or our struggling military. Or the choking, poisonous pollution we spew every day.

No, instead Fox News wants to ignore real problems to keep people riled and stewing over these imagined insults to some equally imagined "real American" character. In the process, they just let everything get worse, and they recruit legions of undereducated saps to actually muck up the works for those who are actually trying to solve our real problems.

Goddamn I hate Fox News!

Belated VD Thoughts

2009-02-20T14:01:00.002-06:00

Is it possible that "cooties" was the result of an adult attempting to explain the effects of veneral disease to children?

Bobby: Daddy, why is uncle Billy jumping around and grabbing his privates?
Daddy: Uh, uncle Billy has, uh..."cooties".
Bobby: What's cooties?
Daddy: Um, it's something you catch from girls.
Bobby: Oh, shit.

Bobby runs down the street to his friend Jimmy's house.

Bobby: Jimmy! Jimmy! Guess what!

New List: Parcels

2009-02-20T12:35:00.003-06:00

Things I'd Like to See Inside Other Things:

1. Quartz inside a wad of chewed up chewing gum
2. A canary inside a postal tube (openended)
3. Bread dough inside an asphalt box
4. Marbles inside an automobile tire
5. Rain inside a bee's eye
6. A bullet inside an epoxy egg
7. Confetti inside a miniature pressure cooker
8. A rabbit's foot keychain inside an empty wading pool
9. A shark's tooth inside a translucent marshmallow
10. Gravel inside a coca cola can

Out In the Fields

2008-11-07T16:39:00.002-06:00

From a philosophical standpoint, there is something unaccounted for in the inductive method of science: Inspiration. Should scientists work to seek out what lies in the cracks of accumulated evidence - not as fissures in the canon, but as unexplored totalities & dimensions? Reliance only on collected experience can also be thought of as provincialism.

Office Halloween Candy Roundup

2008-10-31T15:00:00.003-05:00

1 box of lemonade-coated sour cherry nerds - already gone.
2 twizzlers - attrition rate: 50%
2 rolls of sweettarts. in smarties form. who do they think they're foolin? i'll eat them in traditional smarties fashion, biting off the rims first in my mouth. did they really want that?
5 tootsie rolls. chocolate taffy mongrels. typically smart mutts
1 box of apple-coated watermelon nerds. no word on whether the apple is sour or not, but i'm having taste-bud spasms just imagining the combination.
2 banana laffy taffys. TWO! truly blessed.
3 other laffy taffys of dramatically less important flavors. grape is a sleeper, though.
4 dubble bubbles that will get crammed in my mouth in rapid succession
1 solitary apple jolly rancher. why? why?
1 tootsie pop. orange. not the most exciting flavor, but classic. oh, we don't know yet? let's ask this owl. hey owl, you graduated, we get that. why do you still gotta wear the mortar board? is that all you're gonna do in life?

Plea from an American with Bad Credit

2008-10-22T13:56:00.001-05:00

This may come as a surprise, but my plea is not for fairer treatment. It is expected that when large financial concerns such as AIG and Goldman Sachs tank, the government shovels money into their coffers to protect the savings of the country. The willingness of these once-reputable giants to defraud each other of unfathomable sums and then to show up, hat in hand, at the taxpayer’s door is an old story, sickening, yet accurately predicted by many. As a citizen of our economy who has bad credit, it is not for me to point fingers.

What I suggest, though, is a thorough re-examination of what debt actually means in our economy. Here is something else which may surprise: despite my abysmal credit rating, I have (almost) no debt. My wife, whose student loan debt is five-figures, has excellent credit. This seeming paradox makes sense in a way; she borrows money and pays it back regularly, with interest. She is the kind of person to whom a bank would want to loan money, because through their loans to her, they are assured a profit.

On the other hand, given my history of not taking out very many loans and not always paying them back on time, I present a host of worrisome questions to lending institutions. Will they lose money floating my missed payments? Will they ever hear from me again after I get their money, or would they end up having to sell my bad debt to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar?

By now, most people have heard of the massive switch in our economic thinking that has led to the current crisis. Namely, lenders figured out that overextended borrowers were good for business, because they usually could only afford to pay the monthly minimum on their adjustable rate loans. This meant that the lenders could make a profit off the principal for decades. Then, if the debt went too far into the red, the lender could package the debt, misrepresent its risk (the fraud part of the equation) and sell it to another financial institution. Tick, tick, boom. At some point, that all comes due, and then multimillionaires show up at the federal treasury asking for a hand-out.

I think I’ve done a good job avoiding the consumer end of this mess by not having a credit card. I am fiscally conservative. If I don’t have money for something, I don’t like buying it. I got butterflies in my stomach when I took out the loan to buy my first car, not because of consumer excitement, but because of debt anxiety.

Here’s the funny part: a friend recently told me it was imperative that I get a credit card, because I am not building up a credit rating. Having a credit card is tantamount to signing a contract where one party can alter the terms of the agreement without notifying the other party. To me, that is economic insanity, and a big part of the reason we’re in the pickle we’re in now.

Like any loan request, my plea carries an explanation of circumstances. Here is the preamble: I paid back my car loan in its entirety. Occasionally, like many people in our economy, I missed a payment and doubled up on my next payment. I basically carried a balance on the loan. I incurred late fees. I ended up paying slightly more interest. But, the loan company got back every cent it spent on me, and made a profit from letting me use its money to purchase a car. The system worked.

My plea is that someone create a credit agency that makes a distinction between someone like myself and the bum who has a nearly identical credit rating to my own, the person who has thousands and thousands of dollars in outstanding debt that they will never pay off, which the lender will end up selling as bad debt.

Allow me to take you back to a simpler time, only decades ago, when more people borrowed from the local bank or general store than from some corporation hundreds of miles away. Typically, the lender and borrower knew each other, and it was not uncommon for some people to have a running tab at the local saloon or market. In these situations, businesses did well for themselves by making the simple distinction between people who couldn’t always pay and people who never paid.

I have a job. I buy things in the marketplace. Occasionally (though rarely), I borrow money to do so. You’d think some enterprising lending organization would court me and the millions of Americans just like me, who don’t mind carrying a little debt once in awhile – or paying for the privilege – but who don’t want to be raped in the pocketbook for missing a payment here or there. This lender would do really well by offering a loan product that allowed for some flexibility in repayment, with a reasonable and well-defined penalty. Americans are a mostly fair people. They well understand the concept of fault and penalty, but they are coming to understand that incurring double-digit interest for missing a single payment is usually not worth whatever they bought with the loan.

You’d think that getting money back with interest would be most important to a lending institution. In diving to the bottom of the credit market, American lenders have missed out on a huge pool of consumers who should be seen as moderate credit risks, but have been lumped in with the deadbeats. Those of us not drowning in debt are waiting for the chance to help get the economy moving again.

First Fall of Ashes

2008-10-08T15:49:00.002-05:00

First fall of ashes
Rained and turned the grasses brown
Dusted my fingers with pulverized time.

I sat out through it, and slowed my breath to the stench of our broken censer,
Smashed by that man we made, Atlas with his singed skin.

Too dry, this deluge, too choking white.
A molten river flow might wake things up, might somehow steam.
But those chambers are fused, and only bone slakes the land.

I thought those first flakes a miracle, wondered at the sky.

Someone's roof or dog or bed
Hit me in the corner of the eye.

SNL-ophone

2008-10-06T19:10:00.002-05:00

I don't speak Palin-ese, but I don't speak Palin-mocking-ese, either. They both make my head hurt equally, except that one is comedy, and the other is late-night political satire on NBC.

CAPTLST

2008-09-24T11:24:00.002-05:00

Found myself last night behind a Porsche convertible with the license plate, CAPTLST. I was turning left and pulled up along side him. The driver didn't seem happy.

I wondered if he was listening to the same radio report I was, wherein pundits from all colors of the political spectrum were verbally lacerating our nation's top-tier financiers.

I kind of hoped he was.

In Urbis (New List)

2008-06-19T11:07:00.003-05:00

Wishes for the city:

1. Gigantic canopy
2. Raft maze on the lake
3. Rats-to-work program
4. Solar power
5. Rooftop cabana telescope league
6. Skyscraper hang-gliding championships
7. Tryst fountain
8. Sewer psychiatrists
9. Alleycat WestSideStory Street Theater
10. Bicycle freeways
11. Rubber sidewalks
12. Granny-movers

Seeming Doe

2008-06-19T11:01:00.001-05:00

I almost thought you were a deer
Ruslting near the chain link

The eye corner stares with utmost uncertainty

Head hanging to your low seedlings
Thin limbs tight to the ground

Except for your grin, old lady
I might have been right.

It's A Secret

2008-04-02T13:30:00.002-05:00

All history is secret. All historians are liars. They are a cabal of wishful reverse prognosticators.

Also, history in the present tense we call "The News".

A Sleep Number

2008-03-17T13:35:00.002-05:00

Hopefully, my own defiance prizewinner.

Had I a nickel for each batting eye,
The quinticential counting of a lie,
I'd take my bulging bag of riches far
To scatter all those pieces on the bar.
With every hundred nickels down my throat,
I'd kick myself for playing such a goat.
When chance was mine, to bare my treasured heart,
My pretense marked its own protective art.
Resuscitate me now, relight my torch,
I've stuporously passed out on your porch.
Oh take me in and put me down in bed,
And let me breathe noxiously on your head.
With poisoned vapors masking all my fear,
My heart can pour out on you now, my dear.

Sprung!

2008-03-13T15:01:00.004-05:00

Gravel flowering into a field of dark scree
Emerges from potholes its shadow shorter
The air is thick with particles of once-ice
My nostrils pick them out of the air, and with them
The tickle of re-emerging life
Concrete hums with sun
The vernal ether effuses
No present tense
Like spring.

Non of Non = ...

2008-03-12T18:11:00.010-05:00

Fiction, the most honest writing in the world, is all we have. Literally.

All writing in the world is fiction. I'll prove it. Here is a nice, verifiable, non-fiction sentence: "Yesterday, I walked to the car."

Uh-oh, we're already in trouble. "Yesterday". Whose yesterday? Yesterday-now, or yesterday-whenever-this-was-written? It's impossible to say. It really depends on that murky relativistic swamp known as "context". Break it into two words.

Next up in our ostensibly non-ficticious phrase is the word, "I". Wow, don't even get me started on this guy. Who is "I"? Is there a narrator anywhere, ever, whom you can really trust? This is the same narrator who is capable of saying such: "I always lie: this is the truth" and "I think; therefore, I am". You could spend an eternity trying to prove that such things were not fiction. Also, I (me) happen to know that the I (narrator) in this sentence is none other than I (me). Enough on this, I (me, but also narrating now) think we've got the point; but we'll be back.

"Walked". Finally, something solid to stand on. Guilty only of the sin of omission.

"To". At this point, we realize that there is a reason or goal at the end of the walking. The sneaky "I" is not just ambling aimlessly. There is a destination point. Again, this is a matter of reference and trust.

"The"... Yes....

"Car." Oh, the car! Walked to the car! Could there be anything more to say about this? We can be reasonably trusting that the car, as described with the word "car" (deconstructionists take note) is, in fact, a car. But wait, there's more. It happens to be a car that is in relation, somehow, to this highly suspicious "I". Does the car belong to "I"? Is "I" going to steal the car? We don't know, but more than just the simple act of walking to the car, the narrator has chosen to describe this act.

Okay, okay, so all authors are potential liars.

Authors of fiction are just more honest about their lies, and as such, are able to get closer to the truth.

Actually, yesterday (from when this was written), I (me) walked (steadily and with a positive gait, I can assure you) to my (yes, just about) car (pretty well true).

But you'll just have to take my word, for it.

Well, Can It?

2008-03-06T12:20:00.003-06:00

Last night, after a deluge, I met with some aliens. Astounded that they had wicker chairs in the kitchen of their spacecraft. Got a nice tour, and then asked them some very important questions. The only one I can remember is, "can art save the world??" The answer: "No."

In the In-Between

2008-03-06T12:05:00.005-06:00

In trying to walk out the door this morning, I found myself pressed against the screen. The back door had swung closed, and my hand repeatedly pushed the screen-door latch, but kept absently missing. It took my brain a little while to figure out what was going on, and in that time I remained a malfunctioning robot, pushing at the wrong spot again and again. Later, I wondered if that's what we are all doing in life - ever pushing at the exit latch, and only once succeeding. Then it occured to me that in life, just like this morning, before you get to the middle state between the doors, you're in the kitchen, and afterward, you're in the back yard.

Packin Light

2008-03-05T12:37:00.002-06:00

New List: Takin on the moon trip:

1. scuba dooba doo (for two)
2. my favorite earthbound moon
3. her hair clips (antigrav ponytail)
4. flourescent frisbee
5. yo-yo
6. folding shovel
7. travel trampoline (remember tether!)
8. sparklers (for re-entry)
9. flag with mcdonalds logo
10. snowsuit for making angels in moon dust
11. moon boots (duh)
12. calipers

Pixel Pusher

2008-03-05T12:20:00.002-06:00

I'm stacking boxes today. Boxes of boxes, made up of tiny boxes. It's called an excel shite. Jealous of the lady at Starbucks who gets to clean down the espresso machine. She gets to feel contours. She gets heat in her hands. Office plastic is neither hot nor cold. I'm pushing around little luminous squares of crystal color, using lukewarm dark-grey plastic. Coffee, put it in neutral....