Author: vogelein (Page 15 of 19)
I was up late last night, revamping the Vogelein website. I took a shower and headed to bed around 2:30am. I stopped by the studio to make sure everything was turned off, and what do I find circling my ceiling but a li’l brown bat. He’s going round and round, and both cats are sitting there stupidly watching him, looking as though they’re at an airshow. (Neither of them know what to do when they capture a junebug; that bat’d be no contest.)
So Paul and I engaged in bleary-eyed bat-wrangling until about 3am. Paul finally concussed the poor guy by whacking him midair with an old vinyl LP (I couldn’t make this stuff up). He was stunned, but still peeping. We carried him outside in a cardboard box and left him out there. Either he flew away or got et by the neighbor’s half-feral cat; either way, circle of life.
I really like bats. I’m not afraid of them at all, but I will say this: they certainly have the startle-factor in their favor.
Man.
I’m positive that the bulk-bagged wasabi peas carried by the Kzoo food coop are made by ninjas.
They’re hands-down the hottest wasabi peas I’ve ever eaten. Unlike regular wapeas, which I can down by the handful with little ill effect, one or two of these guys can reduce me to a blinking, snorting, teary-eyed pile of weak-kneed gaijin goo. They’re like swallowing little wasabi caltrops, designed to puncture my digestive system.
Can I stop eating them? Hell, no.
**Thniiiiiif**
Spent the majority of the weekend working on Fiery Studios work instead of pulling overtime at the day job. Hooray!
Had a workshop in Plymouth; it went very well. I sure like that library. They’re such nice folks — here’s hoping they have us back again.
Finished most everything in the 40-page preview; beta-readers, check your inboxes tomorrow.
Everybody else: there’s a big stie overhaul a-comin’. I built the DHTML script and the background last night, and tonight I start the formidable task of shoehorning all the old content into the new design. Then I have the even more formidable task of re-updating the site with current, pertinent information. Buh. If all goes well, sometime next week the V website should have an entirely new look, feel, and navigation system. Yay!
The path report is back: her lymph nodes are clear. They caught it early; she’s gonna be fine.
Praise God, and thanks to all of you who held us in the Light.
Much love to you all.
Miss you
You’ll put it on a polished stone
and lay it on his grave
Miss you
And make his work clothes
into placemats as a reminder
Miss you — Miss you
But not enough to respect his wishes,
not enough to respect his life’s work.
So I was listening to NPR’s Science Friday last week, and they had NY Times columnist Tom Friedman on, talking about his new book The Earth is Flat, which is all about globalization and greening our transportation industry. (you can hear it on MP3 download here, for the time being — dunno how long the link will last — and it’s mighty good listening, about 45 minutes. Highly recommended.)
And then I read this Op-Ed piece (which originally ran in the NYT). He touched briefly on this topic on Science Friday, but this is an expansion of the idea.
I swear to God, it was wonderful hearing this guy. It was so wonderful to hear an expert — and a prominent NYT columnist, at that — say all the stuff I’ve been shouting about for the last year on this blog, and say it in a nonpartisan way. He was basically like, “look, this is not a partisan issue and we don’t have three years to spare. We need another “Moon Shot”-style push for technology now, right this minute, or the Indians and the Chinese are going to bury us so fast it’ll make our heads spin, and we won’t be able to react because they’ll have not only our purse strings, but all the brainpower.”
Go man go. Now if only people will listen to us hollering in the wilderness.
Now the railroad came generations ago
And the town grew up as the crops did grow
The crops grew well and the town did too
They say it’s dyin now and there ain’t a thing we can do
I don’t have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The cost goes up
What we made comes down
What’s gonna happen to our little town
The summer is full of thunder
The kids run and play
Momma got a new wrinkle
Poppa ain’t got much to say
Rust grows along the railroad track
The young folks leave
They don’t come back
And I don’t have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The boards go up
The signs come down
What’s gonna happen to our little town
Tom lost his farm
And we lost Tom
He left in the night
I don’t know where he’s gone
What he’d lost
He just couldn’t face
What we’re losin’ can’t be replaced
I don’t have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The reason we’re here
Is the farms around
So what’s gonna happen to our little town
We’ve seen hard times
Many times before
Maybe this whole thing is just one more
It never was perfect
Maybe no one’s to blame
To see it die like this
It’s a god damned shame
And I don’t have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The sun comes up
The sun goes down
But what’s gonna happen to our little town
— Greg Brown
I just watered the garden with fish emulsion, and now all the flies in the neighborhood are at my house, circling the plants, saying “Hey, baby — what’s that bewitching scent you’re wearing?”
A Landfill near Columbus is going to be used as a Methane-harvesting plant. On its way out, the methane will turn a microturbine, which will help heat and power the plant. Then it’ll be turned into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which can be used to power CNG cars in the city’s fleet. Later they hope to turn the methane into Methanol for use in Biodiesel production, and for hydrogen extraction.
Details here.
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