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winterbadgerI'm trying to avoid posting all the maundering blah that's going through my mind, as I don't want to increase the worldwide incidence of depression and suicide. :-)
Instead I'll yammer about books, my bike, my new doctor, and the ever-present little metal men.
12/50: The abridged (alas) audio version of Seymour Hersh's "Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib". Another depressing account of the way the last administration lied and distorted the truth, twisted and nearly broke the relationship between civilian leadership in DOD and the uniformed command of America's armed forces, perverted the purpose and role of the military's special forces units, turned military prisons into torture chambers and encouraged military police to commit acts of perversion and brutality, defended the use of torture to gain intelligence in the face of international law and decades of experience by trained interrogators. I understand if the Obama Adminsitration wants to try to focus on what American can accomplish in a bipartisan way instead of plunging us into a horror of witch hunts, but I hope that international organizations and other national governments will pursue war crimes proceedings against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Feith, and all the rest. They don't deserve to have a quiet, prosperous retirement--they should feel like hunted criminals, unable to go where they want or do what they like for fear of arrest, tril, and imprisonment.
13/50: Another quick dive into the pool of childhood nostalgia reading. "Seven Day Magic" by Edward Eager is another of that author's comfortable stories about somewhat magical things happening to a cadre of young siblings and friends. I like them because the author is imaginative and tells a fun story, and I think they are good books for kids because they present an image of being a kid that is somewhat idealised but at the same time has some realism. None of the kids are little angels; everyone has their faults, sometimes friends or siblings fight, sometimes the protagonists do things they know are bad. Sometimes parents and other adults are unfair or unsympathetic, but parents' misdeeds are often at root reactions to larger problems that they are trying to shield their children from. At the same time, only foolish adults talk down to these kids; smart ones treat them like people--not tiny adults, but not infants, either, finding a way to combine their ultimate authority with respect and consideration.
Anyway, this is a fun tale, in which the kids (friends from two families) come across a magic book in the local library, a book that grants them wishes and takes them on largely (though not exclusively) literary adventures. Dragons, magicians, prairie blizzards, magic babies (no, really), and television variety shows all feature in their wanderings. Good, harmless fun with some excellent modeling of values.
Bike: Rupert got his yearly tuneup, and I really want to find some solution, like a bike shed, to keep from having him sitting out in bad weather all the time. I'm also going to stop taking him back to Spokes. Every time lately that I've taken him there, they've gone something they didn't need to that wasn't what I asked them to do, and that I then had to fix. Twice now they've adjusted the cables for the computer I mounted so that it doesn't work properly. When I had them replace the handlebars, that got bent in the Port Wine Accident, they threw away the old one with the bell still attached to it; when I pointed this out, they didn't volunteer to replace it, just said rather snarkily that "when people bring bikes in, they usually remove things they want to keep". Oh, really? Well, I'll be removing my bike from your maintenance duties.
I finally got a recommendation for a local doctor who takes my insurance, and I had an appointment just yesterday. She's great! An older woman from South Asia (her medical degree is from the University of Kashmir), she listens to what you have to say, explains what diagnosis she comes to, describes possible courses of treatment and explains why she's suggesting the one she is. She doesn't rush through an appointment. She has a wry sense of humour. I really like her!
The little metal men... I have a ton of guys to paint up for Cold Wars and, as usual, I have been procrastinating far too much. I have a lot still to do, and that will be taking up most of my free time in the evenings and the next two weekends. Still, when I'm done, I'll have lots more done, which will be nice!
Something weird happened last night. I had a couple of chops and some asparagus that I made for dinner. I bit into one of the stalks of harry grass and something went crunch, and since then I've had a bitter taste lingering around my mouth that I can't get rid of. Hope I didn't damage a filling...
Instead I'll yammer about books, my bike, my new doctor, and the ever-present little metal men.
12/50: The abridged (alas) audio version of Seymour Hersh's "Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib". Another depressing account of the way the last administration lied and distorted the truth, twisted and nearly broke the relationship between civilian leadership in DOD and the uniformed command of America's armed forces, perverted the purpose and role of the military's special forces units, turned military prisons into torture chambers and encouraged military police to commit acts of perversion and brutality, defended the use of torture to gain intelligence in the face of international law and decades of experience by trained interrogators. I understand if the Obama Adminsitration wants to try to focus on what American can accomplish in a bipartisan way instead of plunging us into a horror of witch hunts, but I hope that international organizations and other national governments will pursue war crimes proceedings against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Feith, and all the rest. They don't deserve to have a quiet, prosperous retirement--they should feel like hunted criminals, unable to go where they want or do what they like for fear of arrest, tril, and imprisonment.
13/50: Another quick dive into the pool of childhood nostalgia reading. "Seven Day Magic" by Edward Eager is another of that author's comfortable stories about somewhat magical things happening to a cadre of young siblings and friends. I like them because the author is imaginative and tells a fun story, and I think they are good books for kids because they present an image of being a kid that is somewhat idealised but at the same time has some realism. None of the kids are little angels; everyone has their faults, sometimes friends or siblings fight, sometimes the protagonists do things they know are bad. Sometimes parents and other adults are unfair or unsympathetic, but parents' misdeeds are often at root reactions to larger problems that they are trying to shield their children from. At the same time, only foolish adults talk down to these kids; smart ones treat them like people--not tiny adults, but not infants, either, finding a way to combine their ultimate authority with respect and consideration.
Anyway, this is a fun tale, in which the kids (friends from two families) come across a magic book in the local library, a book that grants them wishes and takes them on largely (though not exclusively) literary adventures. Dragons, magicians, prairie blizzards, magic babies (no, really), and television variety shows all feature in their wanderings. Good, harmless fun with some excellent modeling of values.
Bike: Rupert got his yearly tuneup, and I really want to find some solution, like a bike shed, to keep from having him sitting out in bad weather all the time. I'm also going to stop taking him back to Spokes. Every time lately that I've taken him there, they've gone something they didn't need to that wasn't what I asked them to do, and that I then had to fix. Twice now they've adjusted the cables for the computer I mounted so that it doesn't work properly. When I had them replace the handlebars, that got bent in the Port Wine Accident, they threw away the old one with the bell still attached to it; when I pointed this out, they didn't volunteer to replace it, just said rather snarkily that "when people bring bikes in, they usually remove things they want to keep". Oh, really? Well, I'll be removing my bike from your maintenance duties.
I finally got a recommendation for a local doctor who takes my insurance, and I had an appointment just yesterday. She's great! An older woman from South Asia (her medical degree is from the University of Kashmir), she listens to what you have to say, explains what diagnosis she comes to, describes possible courses of treatment and explains why she's suggesting the one she is. She doesn't rush through an appointment. She has a wry sense of humour. I really like her!
The little metal men... I have a ton of guys to paint up for Cold Wars and, as usual, I have been procrastinating far too much. I have a lot still to do, and that will be taking up most of my free time in the evenings and the next two weekends. Still, when I'm done, I'll have lots more done, which will be nice!
Something weird happened last night. I had a couple of chops and some asparagus that I made for dinner. I bit into one of the stalks of harry grass and something went crunch, and since then I've had a bitter taste lingering around my mouth that I can't get rid of. Hope I didn't damage a filling...
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 06:48 pm (UTC)Love Lloyd Alexander; just reread some of his recently and found them as wonderful as I did the first time.
Other reading from then: Joan Aiken, especially her Armitage stories, John Christopher, EB White, TH White, Margery Sharp, and Mary Norton. Of course CS Lewis...