October 2002 Archives

oh, now this is a scary costume.

so i'm keeping my kid home today so he'll feel well enough to go trick-or-treating (at the mall - indoors, warm, not too much exertion) tonight. doesn't that seem upside down? like energy should be expended on school, rather than saved up for fun? then i tell myself that it's not like he's a college student missing a crucial class so he can attend a kegger later on, he's in kindergarten, and this is halloween, and he has a pikachu costume he's really excited about and ... no, my priorities are just fine.

aren't they?

* * *
aww:

the mall was the place to see and be seen, but it was not the place for the candy. i would estimate the number of adorable youngsters in costume in the several hundreds, and the number of stores not sporting 'no candy' or 'out of candy' signs, in the tens. those that had, gave sparingly. i'm trying not to want to rant about this, but the mall really could have done better. they have the makings of being The Place To Be, having a real Event, and yet, they fail to motivate their leaseholders to participate to the fullest. how friggin' much is it out of a store's budget to invest a couple hundred bones in a good stock of goodies? expense it to marketing! make little goody bags with the store logo! these people have no vision, man.

my son's costume was an excellent choice -- numerous folks remarked 'look! pikachu!' and we saw no other pikachus. and look -- matching slippers:

on the other hand, we vastly underestimated our neighborhood. with hardly any kids, yet plenty of adults into the spirit of the day, decorated houses, happy gatherings of grownups feeling ever so generous -- what with the dearth of children, candy came in the handfulls, in the 'take as many as you want' kind of spirit. and everyone was so happy to see the little pikachu dude:

more pics in more ...

part one: i get out a little
picked up the daughter-person, we go to apply for her passport, me to sign an affadavit that i know she was really born here -- it asks me, how do you know? i answer, somewhat snarkily i fear, i am her mother, and i was there. she bribes me with coffee to take her to visit a friend at work, we get coffee, and visit. (update: picture from coffee place)

... i drop her off, and go to ...

part two: trader joes!
whoa. i had forgotten what a wonderland trader joe's really is. i went for milk thistle, i always keep a stock on hand, it's the one nice thing i do for my liver. end up roaming the aisles, happily wide-eyed at the array of wonderful things. i exercise extreme budgetary self control and only buy two extra things: creamy corn soup, and a bottle of very green juice. yummy healthy things. make mental note to go back when i'm not so broke, come home and ...

part three: whoopsie
arrive home to find kid looking quite ill -- you can see it in his eyes, they lack their customary sparkle. he seems a bit warm, so baby tylenol, and then ... oh no. he makes a big rush, inexplicably bypassing the bathroom (heading for the kitchen?) and pukes pink tylenol puke right at the edge of the laundry room, inches from linoleum. some sort of mysterious murphy's law of kid puke at work here.

(please let him be well by morning. not sick on halloween! no!)

the end.

seasons greetings, huey-style

you thought *trolls* were bad? wait till you get a pantload of newest form of evil, comment spam. yes, evil morons with basic scripting ability have been able to flood MT sites with comments, the same one, posted on every single entry. there is a marvelous discussion over at MT guru Phil Ringnalda's site, which i have been watching today, because i want to have solutions for any of my hostees affected by this.

if you catch this happening, ban the IP as quickly as you can. that would be in your blog configuration. there's an easy delete procedure for blogs using the MySQL form of MT, which surreally hostees should be able to convert to now, but i'll use myself as a guinea pig first. aside from that, there are patches in the works, and hopefully there won't be too much annoyance wrought by this.

* * *
in other news, never ever visit a site called FriendGreetings.com to pick up an e-card. it's not technically considered a virus, because you actually have to click and accept an agreement to let it use your email contact list to mail out special offers, but it's still very viral, and does other annoying things to your computer aside from just hijacking your contact list with your permission. i highly recommend reading this to understand more about this version of evil.

so. you know the handy formatting buttons in the MT interface? (well, in IE, i can't use 'em myself on my main puter, *sigh*) well. you will now find them above the comment box. they work just like they do in MT, that is, highlight the text in question and it will make it bold, italic, underlined, or a URL. i forget where i saw this today, but when i did i thought, hey! i bet that's easy! and, well, it was.

question: since i made them text links so they go with all the various skins, do you think there should be further instructions, so folks know what they are? then again, i like to make sure my comment boxes are like programming a VCR, according to some people, so this would be right in line with that ... :)

so, yesterday, i couldn't get into the dentist's parking lot the first time because, being in the correct side of the driveway with a car also going out, there was no way in hell to turn into the parking lot. why? because a verylarge pickup truck had parked in what used to be a space, but wasn't a space anymore (white lines painted over pavement color, obvious new white lines and little end-bumpers now marking the *real* parking spots). i drove around the block and re-entered with no other cars coming so i could swing the turn.

i was in less than a good mood, even before that.

i took the small notebook from my purse, and wrote in rather angry handwriting, this is NOT a parking space YOU IDIOT. i tore the page off, got out of the car, glancing around furitively to make sure no one was approaching who might be the owner (yes i'm a chickenshit), and placed the note under the wiper blade of the truck.

walked in the dentist's office feeling all tingly. yeah, it was a good first time.

ok. this is just cute.

this, however, is ... disturbing.

when i was a kid my mommy had this book, i'm convinced it was titled that exactly, in letters that looked like chalk on a blackboard. and it had places for report cards, and notes about school records and pictures ... i've since lost it (i think) (maybe?) (it could be in the garage with the spiders, but i have my doubts), but i remember it was a really cool thing to rediscover when i was about thirty or so.

yesterday kurt's first school pictures came (one will be scanned and posted on his blog later), and of course i've saved every single bit of schoolwork he's brought home so far and intend to save every other one, no doubt i'm going to need some kind of organization if i'm going to pack-rat this hard.

it would so rock if i could find a book just like the one my mom kept for me, for the most important bits of this collection. and, i figure, a nice set of those storage boxes you usually associate with accounting files.

because i'm gonna collect. yes, i already live in the chaos of my own packrattiness, let alone these intentions toward vicarious packrattiness, but the thing is, i'm convinced these things will be treasures to him some 20, 30 years from now. i've misplaced a great deal of my childhood, and most of the memories are tied to things still i have pictures of, or other memorabilia. i want him to be able to have more memories than i do. 'cause nostalgia sucks without the tools to revive the memory cells that store the stuff you're nostalgic for.

Forbidden thoughts about 9/11: The readers respond

and some of them are real doozies. "Hey, how do we get ahold of all the new 212 cell numbers that'll be available?"

link via zuchris

if you had secret thoughts about 9-11 that you never shared anywhere, you are welcome to post them anonymously here, and i promise not to reveal any identifying info.

1. spicy peanuts, vanilla coffee, and red licorice make a fine breakfast. ok well no, but it'll do in a pinch.

2. i am in no mood. none.

3. it's supposed to feel like getting to sleep in? it didn't.

4. why can this company hire some fancy sales dude and then there he is noodling around on his computer all day, rather than getting out and selling stuff? oh tell me he's doing something job related. ha. i'm doing something more job related than he is, and i'm freakin' blogging!

5. i need to go in business for myself. or i need a raise. or more coffee.

* * *
oh, one more thing? (imagine complete change of voice here) -- i've listed kurtwood's site in photoblogs.org. it's a voting system. so if you think the kid is cool, maybe go click him a plus? he was at #39 last time i checked (you have to find him on the list, positions change all the time).

and for the record, photoblogs.org is a way cool idea.

i've officially had my digicam for a year -- one of the first batches of pics i took, i lost in a terrible 'what does this button do' accident. those pictures, i took at the punkin patch -- so this year i went back, because i love punkin patches.

another unproductive weekend (well, except for reading the first actual book i hadn't read before in a long, long time). having afterglow from hearts in atlantis, that feeling when you're fresh off a marathon reading session and the characters and words and images are still with you.

i read so impatiently, so obsessively. i read 'the stand' in, i think, about eight hours (however i did not put it down -- not to eat, or pee, or anything) (i mean, i did eat and pee, just did it with a book in my face). maybe it's why i don't read as much as i used to, it just eats my life. kind of like the internet, only it can be done lying on a couch all cozy.

mmm, babbling. so, i'm sure there are things i should have done for folks. i haven't forgotten you, unless i have, and there's nothing wrong with emailing me to remind me of stuff -- i really am scattered as all heck. and the whole server move thingy was rather overwhelming, but still, that doesn't excuse not getting, say, all the passwords done, or that last site i have to convert to MT (sorry Bob). *sigh*

and as with all good books, i find myself wanting to go back and re-read my favorite parts again; the impatient pace i set for finishing leaves not enough time to savor. so now, with the last bit of my waking weekend, that is exactly what i am going to do.

first of all, mirror project #2. what fun it is finding shiny things!

secondly, due to not feeling real well yesterday, i found that laying on the couch reading a book was more my speed than the frenetic pace of reading some blogs and fixing others and, you know, living on internet time. so. what did we have in the house that i hadn't read yet? hearts in atlantis. interesting in that this was the book stephen king was writing at the time of his accident, and it's really two different books, divided into before/after the accident: the first part with the usual paranormal suspects and references to the gunslinger/dark tower series, the second, picking up a thin thread from the first book and going off into the sixties and the anti-war movement, in a normal world now free of creepy car-monsters and aliens in yellow coats. the whole thing chock-full of 60's references and me completely swept up in that period of history, which i experienced as a person too young to grasp it all, but all of it completely familiar.

i expect to be done within a few hours here, and things shall return to normal internet-wise, but right now i'm off to hang out in the sixties some more. fierce nostalgia. fierce.

through the miracle of modern cellular technology, i've just attended a wild-sounding party in berkeley, where *garbled list of bloggers* is gathered, as we speak. or i write. you know. i talked to Jilly, Portia, Mikey, and Hoopty, and then the noise really started to wear my ear down, but there were many more people there.

*sigh* vicarious is better than nothing, but i still feel like i'm totally missing out.

Total 99,976
Last Hour 22
i'm so getting there

we're having a conflict. we have to set the clocks back (right)? so that makes things earlier. which means that at what's supposed to be, say, 6:00 tomorrow, and getting dark, it will instead be 5:00. i know this, i swear. he says i'm wrong, and mumbles off to say he's going to watch the news.

now, the good thing is, he actually knew about the clock thing. i would have been oblivious, since i use my computer time and that would have adjusted -- i don't even know if i would have noticed the difference (say, if i'd switched the alarm to 'on' in the dark) until, like, monday morning, when i would have got up ... earlier. it is earlier isn't it?

daylight savings time really taxes my little brain.

i'm pretty sure i consulted with someone on the phone about that last post, it may have been my idea but it wasn't something i wanted to make a big deal over. except, well, yes, apparently i did. i mean, i was incredibly obsessed and conflicted about being obsessed. also, i'm convinced this conversation took place (i am not making this up) under my dining room table. um. yeah. acoustics? hm. note to self: stick with the beer. the beer does not sneak up on a person and ambush them like that wine. wine is like weak, red tequila. we don't do tequila here anymore, and we won't be red wining anymore either.

ok anyway, where was i? just realizing i'm drinking coffee out of a cup decorated with elephants in red and white striped jackets with blue vests, jumping up and down waving go - go - go - gop signs. my son came and sat on my lap and informed me that when he grows up, he will be able to say bad words like the f word, the a word, and the k word. the k word?

life's nice and surreal, isn't it? it's supposed to be raining dammit. it is in las vegas! how do i know this? *sigh* it would be one of the messages i left on the phone spree, returning the call. see? it wasn't all bad. um. what?

i need cheese.

so this update on the upcoming election comes in from moveon.org -- listing candidates who are leading contenders in key races to keep some balance in our government, come november.

and sadly, one of the few listed here, paul wellstone (D-MN) has died today, in a plane crash along with family members, staffers, and the pilots. my heart goes out to the surviving family, this is a horrible tragedy. it's also a political tragedy, because he was a man of integrity and principles. and he voted against the iraq resolution, in spite of being in a hotly contested race for re-election.

hey -- some of my best friends are republicans. really. but, and no offense meant, i really don't want control of the house, senate, and white house, all in the hands of one party. i worry.

* * *
and, with that we return to regularly scheduled kd: lite, now in progress.

if you've noticed blogger being down, the reason would be, it's been hacked. i got an email for someone googling for 'blogger security', who reports:

when I placed the request to have the password sent, I received a message telling me the password would be mailed to someone else:
"hax0redbyme!"

* * *
important update, from Lisa: They say the database was compromised so anyone using blogger needs to change their ftp password to their webserver - again.

that would be urgent -- until FTP passwords are changed, theoretically the hacker could be all up in your server, doing hacky things. bad news. (only applies if you use blogger and publish to your own webspace, not blogspot)

i really need to do something about this moppy head of mine. really really.

started out with traffic. oh, i was bored. bored, bored, bored. hmm. look! the radio is a shiny thing! this, cropped a bit, has now been submitted to the mirror project:

so further along, i discover the reason for the traffic was the general public's insatiable appetite for rubbernecking. there were a lot of cops:

the reason was (according to the radio) a full felony stop with guns drawn and everything. i missed the excitement, but as traffic speeded up, got the cuffing:

then, in oxnard, i pulled over to document this quite lovely house, whose occupants apparently take halloween very, very, very seriously:
   
and finally, after they rescheduled what i was there for and decided instead to just torture me with another cleaning, i discovered that my dentists do not have a very confidence-inspiring bathroom:

finally, later in the evening, i went to get some red wine (for my health, doncha know) and found the automobile of a very, very serious (and probably very unhappy, considering proximity to world series game, and the fact they weren't actually there), baseball fan:

the end.

moral of this story: having a digicam with you whenever, wherever, enhances the whole experience.

if you don't use the skin controller to set your own cookie, you will be seeing penguins right about now. they make me happy. i hope they do that for you too.

Faith is a brilliant designer, yes? yes.

* * *
update: alright you mac people, is this better? i hope you're all happy with yourselves. upsetting the delicate balance of my friday afternoon penguin-ness.

two pictures taken today, out and about with kurt -- a glass orb and some graffiti:

so i dreamt i was a ghost. giving seminars on how to be successful. had this shiny shelf thing embroidered on my puffy sleeve, it was supposed to represent prosperity. i was thin, attractive, and all about the empowerment. anyway.

i feel crazed. there was a note on the fridge in the lunchroom saying if you like the vanilla creamer please contribute and i'm all, i didn't even know it was for everyone? so i went to my car to get some change and i looked at the shiny quarters in the console cupholder and thought, tacos. what if i want jack in the box? i have enough for four tacos, if i were to decide this was a taco day. i considered this and said outloud, 'don't spend your tacos. keep your tacos'. and then turned nervously to see if anyone was anywhere near. if i hear someone saying that sitting in a parked car, i'd worry.

the server shit is driving me here, to the edge of madness. oh, i'm not mad. i'm even. and there's hope now, but for now surreally dot com copies of MT are all wadded up in my ass like bad panties.

huh? maybe i should try to get to bed before two am some night. yeah right.

oh one more thing -- information about linking mp3s with the trackback auto-discovery on, is in more ...

so jhames, in the spirit of the previously posted spongebob fun song, posted the lyrics to that great classic, the happy happy joy joy song.

me? i have the mp3. and i'm putting it in the more text and using the auto-pinger at the same time, just because that sort of thing amuses me greatly.

but not as greatly as listening to the happy happy joy joy song.

ahh, technology.

VeriChip is a miniaturized radio frequency identification device (RFID) that can be used in a variety of security, financial, emergency identification and healthcare applications. About the size of a grain of rice, each VeriChip product contains a unique verification number and will be available in several formats, some of which will be insertable under the skin. The verification number is captured by briefly passing a proprietary scanner over the VeriChip. A small amount of radio frequency energy passes from the scanner energizing the dormant VeriChip, which then emits a radio frequency signal transmitting the verification number.

look. i'm sure this thing has valid uses. but if it comes into any widespread use, the concept of privacy will cease to exist, entirely. history. gone. *poof* like that.

one of the scariest rice-grain sized things i've ever seen.

when the kid and i are out wandering, i can't help but snap a few myself:

a rusty t-bird, a gnome reclining, and the ventura sky:
   

f is for friends that do stuff together
u is for you and me
n is for anwhere at anytime at all, down here in the deep blue sea

because the world is stressful, we need a little spongebob.

kurtwood's photolog is the featured site on wander-lust.com today.

i'm absolutely tickled.

... as reported by Dogbert's New Ruling Class (DNRC) operatives. Most of these come from the mouths of managers.

i have set zim as the default skin. (hopefully that's what you're seeing) because i am damn tired of the pink thing (still available thru the skin controller, if you like). it's very late and i've been up roaming around telnet windows fixing databases, and well, i feel a little whimsical.

i have to dig through my 3000 some old emails saved in the old email client, and find this image Faith sent me with luscious green colors i want to use. this may take a day or so, and i have other projects too.

but it's been too long on the pink and white thang. time to move along.

i might change the defaults here and there just to keep life interesting.

oh, and since i have these cookies, if you *don't* see zim, let me know. i'm pretty sure he's compatible with normal browsers, and completely blows up in NS4, about which i no longer care one whit. sorry. no. not really.

so chris comes and sits down on the couch and hands me a cookie. eat it! he says. it's an oreo-type cookie, not one of my favorite cookie types. eat it! he insists. so i do.

it came out of the mother's cookie assortment. it's the standard dark chocolate cookie with white filling, but there are colorful sparkles in the creme filling.

and they are pop rocks. whoa! very trippy on the tongue.

good thing i wasn't drinking a coke, i might have exploded!

wow. peace in our time. how could that statement be any more sweeping?

where does ideology begin? how does a person come to have beliefs? i think the best opinions are formed in a malleable mind, far after the forming events of childhood, when the individual is capable of critical thinking (which i think is mostly sadly absent these days). this pacifist person you read here used to be the worst kind of nationalist. i could repeat rhetoric like you wouldn't believe, in an effort to entirely disregard anything that upset my worldview. how dare you suggest that i don't live in the greatest country on earth dammit?

and it happened because i blog. and it happened because i read dissenting opinions from my own, from all over the world and all over the political spectrum, and was moved by them. i was moved away from some opinions, and toward others. the opinions that bothered me most, spoke in absolutes of good and evil, casting the US in the role of good, my country right or wrong.

and nothing, no thing, is absolute to me anymore. i read blogs in which the name of Noam Chomsky is invoked in the most scathing tone, as if he, and his ideas, were some great threat to life as we know it, and then i realize the man is brilliant, idealistic, and expresses our best hopes. yes he's on the extreme, but without extreme visionaries, there will be no change. and right now the warmongers have the upper hand. if the warmongers win this one, we're all fucking doomed. the only way this civilization will not collapse under the weight of its own power, is if the pacifists win. there's no future for us if war is how we preserve peace. and when i say no future, i mean this: this thought i had today. that i may not be here to see it, but parts of me, my descendents, will suffer the end. i don't want to send them into that, i want to protect them, and i feel i'm living in the times that could produce the cusp event that will save my great or great-great-grandbabies from the fall of the empire we're under right now.

tangentially speaking, my point is this: those who would sacrifice freedom for security, deserve neither. freedom is by nature a delicate balance, fraught with peril. so i can comfort myself with the knowledge that this process is not supposed to be comfortable. i should be just as nervous as i am, posting this, admitting what a radical advocate for peace i've become, in this past year, watching my own country declare war on everything in the world which doesn't agree with it. watching as my resident is handed unprecedented power, and millions of good citizens subscribe to the doctrine of rabid xenophobia.

i have to do this. i'm doing it for my kids. the struggle for peace will no doubt throw us into insecurity and fear, and this will not be easy. it is, however, at least in my mind, necessary.

now, go read Dru

all three surreallys are going -- as we speak. for further info on the issues, go to the support boards.

first i have to upgrade your DBs. there are lots. it will take awhile. then the DNS must resolve since MT uses absolute links within the CGIs.

the new servers are better though. they have cooler stuff and things.

what are you wearing?

i was going to get all this stuff done. and? nothing. only thing i did was post kid pictures over there in kurt's photolog. oh, and i got groceries. and did dishes. twice! but that's it. so why do i feel so wrung out?

so, you know, i really think he's better at this, but here these are anyway:

yeah. just pictures, wandering around the neighborhood. as we rounded the corner, people coming out of the restaurant made some sort of exclamation about the sunset -- and then i turned around and just gasped. it's more gorgeous than my non-zooming, inadequately pixelled camera could deal with (in this case, the kid's coolcam took a better pic than mine did).

but it's a nice evening activity, roaming around looking for ... things. and stuff. for pictures.

a large spaceship has crashed into harrods of london, and a large robot has emerged, and said, "take me to your lizard". ford prefect explains this to arthur dent:

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see ..."
"You mean it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

i know it was a long and interesting dream. when i woke up, i could still remember bits and scenes, i had the feelings, but not the details -- and then this reminded me of a really teenage poem i wrote ... you know, when i was a teenager. maybe i should see if i can recall it from memory, because every blog should have bad teenage poetry in it somewhere. and cat pictures. but i don't have any of those right now.

but the one dream image that's stuck with me throughout the day, and annoyingly enough, is with me still, is this: chris wandering around the house dressed only in bread. yes, bread. sliced bread. wheat, i think. stuck to various bits of him, no idea how it was sticking to him, and then there was the slice he had stuck between his ass cheeks.

why can't he understand that after he acts like that in my dream, i'm going to be a little fussy at him? i mean, if i dream something that annoying about a person, they must have done something to cause it.

so anyway the silly adolescent poem was about that just on the tip of your mind feeling, that can't quite get to it feeling. i may add it in the more text later.

The American Republic is Dead. Hail the American Empire.

please. it upset me greatly, kept me up way too late, and prevented me from focusing on ignoring the issues. and realize, it's long, and will take you a bit of time to read, and really absorb, and this may not be a comfortable process.

and this is a good thing.

lunch: the rest of last night's bean/rice/cheese burrito (enormous!) topped with leftover homemade salsa from the potluck. hot! mmm.

and speaking of beans, or, well, on a related note, if you catch my drift ... i've mentioned this in passing in people's comments, but today i got another one, and decided to share it with you. it's just such an earnest, gut-felt missive, and some of the passages are really quite moving.

breakfast: homemade pumpkin cheescake (leftovers from the big boss's day potluck) and coffee with dulce de leche coffemate. mmm.

office: deserted. the geek patrol is all off in LA at some M$ mind-control indoctrination, and me, i'm feeling a little sleepy and full.

more coffee. yeah :) ahhhhhh friday

***
oh, and in the mellow, laid back, california-feeling friday department, yesterday on the radio, a local station had this feature, smash hit or smash it, in which they play some local band and the listeners call in and review the music. well, they played a little number by slackstring, and the first five callers just loved it, as i did. one listener called it 'a cross between sublime and the grateful dead', which, is kinda bizarre sounding, but they do have that latter day hippie sound going on.

anyway, you can listen to the song (the top one on the list) (or listen to some others) and even buy their cd for ten bucks, if you find it gets your toes a-tappin, which it did mine. i think it was recorded in the singer's bedroom, like, he had to get his mom to turn off the vacuum sometimes. which i think is just ... cute. ok? it's adorable. i figured i'd support it in some small way, hence the recommendation.

it's all in the spirit of this friday, which is very fuzzy-feeling right now.

more coffee :)

love the bran as she loves you. all she asks of you is unfailing devotion. show your devotion, brothers and sisters!

amen, sistah! i revere you. and ping you!

third try's the charm, right? two whole thought-trains, derailed and starting with a blank box, now just passing one line. ahh, here we go again.

hard to focus these days. so many issues, so many debates, so much controversy. me? been absolutely diving nose-first into kurt's photolog, since it gives me the chance to view the world with at least a semblance of innocence. to separate from the stressors of modern life. the terror-fueled politicizing of the blog world makes me just want to flee into childlike whimsy, or should i say childish? *shrug* i know there's not much i can do to change the world. i mail my congresspersons semi-regularly, voice an occasional opinion and then instantly cringe, knowing my stance will instantly alienate some folks, and disliking the part of myself that cares too much for what people think of what i think.

i want to avoid the controversy and sadness and fear, and just live this life here, my life which has very little effect on the world at large, but possibly a significant effect on the things within my reach. i can offer a kind word to friends, or administer blog-aid when possible. i can do homework with my son and kiss his head frequently with pride. i can rejoice when he grabs a camera and takes pictures of things i'd never think to photograph. i can call my daughter or my parents, just to say hi, and remember to always end the call with i love you. i can love, rather than fear.

and i can stop worrying about what people think of my politics, which in the grand scheme of things, hardly matters at all. hopefully. maybe.

mornings. i don't know how you normal folk do it -- by normal, i mean, you have a job that starts at X:00, and you routinely get up and get there by then, or thereabouts. this morning, had to have my afternooner kindergartener to school by eight am. eight. in the morning. it's like, still dark or something. car all covered with dew, can't see out the windows as i try and pull into the heavy SUV traffic generated by all the good catholic parents dropping their charges off at the large parochial high school on our block (side note: man, with skirts like that on a morning like this? brrrr!).

the night before, knowing everything has to be just so, is incredibly nerve-wracking. hopping up off the couch circa one am, to check and see if the kid's jacket was indeed washed and dried. tossing, turning, deciding to rearrange my sidebar circa one thirty am. toss. turn. restless dreams. wake up two times, have milk and crackers. alarm goes off at seven, oy. oy oy oy. snooze alarm till seven twelve am. oy. get up struggle with regular, ordinary, normal morning tasks, knowing the urgency of getting him to school at eight. by eight. or else.

come back home, wanting nothing more than to go back to bed and recover from these adventures. contemplate the fact next year every single day is going to be like this. and on and on throughout the next 12 years. oy.

i'll leave you with some pumpkin cookies (yum!):

i wanted to encourage kurtwood in his photographic pursuits, so, i made him a photolog. he does love seeing his name and his pictures on the internet.

kurtwood's photolog can be reached thru kurtwood.com, but the actual URL is http://kurt.hooha.us.

ok, so, the new MT does come with search capabilities, but, i have two whole different copies of MT, that could not be searched at once (by MT, that is). i could have gone with atomz.com, but the free version only goes to 500 pages -- i'm way, way over that. what to do? site search is very handy for when you are thinking, ok, i remember this post about ... but where was it?

did you know you can put a google search box in your site? people can search either just your site, or the whole web -- and it's free, and it's really easy to install. and it's right here.

you can see it in action in my sidebar, scroll down.

in other geeky news, last night before i added blogrolling to the sidebar of kurtwood.com, i actually had every bit of that code on every page validating as XHTML. i was so excited i nearly had an accident. um. pretend i didn't say that, k?

and i've added a sidebar linky thingy that makes a link to kurtwood's latest post, out of whatever i put in the excerpt field (picture, bit of news, whatever i want). *sigh* i also made great progress on this cool PHP/MySQL dealie i'm working on for work.

somebody stop me before i geek again. or, well, no. i like this.