Read Dave's "Three things."

My horoscope today:

"SagittariusNovember 21 - December 20Be polite and try your best not to impose on other people today, dear Sagittarius. It is important for you to behave well in all circumstances. You will find that people may feel as if they have been cheated, and though you may not be the source of their discontent, you may be feeling the consequences. Keep other people's issues separated from your own, and try not to let their discomfort bleed over into your world."

Well, it bled alright. Maybe it would have been better if I had read this at the beginning of the day rather than at the end. I didn't have a good day. On the bright side I got to yell at my boss. I was told this morning that one of my properties was not in acceptable shape and that the owners (who own many more) had decided that they would go with a new landscaping company. My defense was that I only get a little bit of time there every week and that this amount of time is not sufficient to do a good enough job. He didn't like this explanation and he then started lecturing me on future pay rates in future jobs and about how I could use this whole mess in life and that my now poor attitude was not helpful. It stopped right there. "Don't lecture me about life," I told him. I'm way too old for that. I could have had a much better day. I also don't think there was sufficient warning concerning this property. I thought I was doing my best with what I had to work with, really. Cheap m***********s all.

So now I have this tension headache that's starting to wrap itself around the left side of my neck and I have a limited number of therapies at hand. Maybe some day I'll have a job that I can excel at and be adequately compensated for. Yeah, fat chance, but I can hope.

photo_067.jpeg

Tuesday night at whirlyball.

I was on top of a building today in the U-District. What a nice Seattle winter day.

I finally went through the pile of bills and took care of them. The wood doors circa 1968 are cleaned and de-odorized. This problem seems to be a theme for me. The prior occupants must have smoked quite a bit. I used a TSP or TSP-like product to clean them and then I applied Odor-X from Turtle Wax. That stuff works. My bureau is put back together and now it is holding my clothes, rather than having them strewn on the floor. I was able to run the last three days and I even cooked tonight. Now I have food for the week. I hope you all have a nice one. (a four-day week for me)

This sounds like a good idea.

See why the gingerbread man smiles.

"For now the appalling truth is that there has been no remedy for the documented torture and killing of foreign prisoners by this American government."

"Those who oppose the war — how it started or how it bogged down — are routinely told that we are undermining the troops. Now those who run the war have to prove their support for the troops."

Fire all of them.

"While society is a kind of slow dance between the conservative and liberal impulses, the liberal role is the more important one. It makes our societies humane rather than just stable and mean."

With this new hard drive, I can download files from the net directly to the new drive. Once I get my act in gear I'll further back up the music and pictures to discs and then delete them and their gigabyte hogging space. This may seem a trifle thing in general, but for me it'll be a major coup. So I guess I'm stealing a U2 song. Sorry Bono. I wouldn't mind seeing them again. They came through Massachusetts in '84 and played a great concert. Wow, I'm getting old. Another coup would be to more wisely use my post work time for the coming week. It is really too dark to run then. We just had the shortest day of the year, and up here where the aurora borealis (*spelling is now corrected) can sometimes be seen, it seems especially short. and wet.

I found this the other day:

"Now, my words will not , I hope, be used to begin a new dogma. My dogma is the freedom of the individual. My dogma is the sacreligious one - that each of you is a good individual. There is nothing wrong with your emotions, or feelings, or being. When you know yourself then you are joyfully - joyfully - responsive, and, being joyfully responsive, you can carry your society to the furthest reaches of its creativity."

- Jane Roberts and Seth, The Unknown Reality, Volume Two, appendix 18, pg.740.

I gave up on the Buffalo external hard drive and returned it to Fry's for an Acomdata external hard drive. I missed out on the very good sale price for the Buffalo but if I couldn't get the thing to work then the sale price is a moot point. I now have 150 (160 advertised) gigabytes of space. My computer holds 11Gb. I can get my pictures and music off this machine and free up some very needed working space. I didn't have much time left.

I have two weeks until school starts again. The second course is with the same Dr. Phd. instructor. We'll know what to expect. As for now I'm enjoying not having to rush back to the apartment and then off to class. I'll need to start thinking about applying to the radiation program soon.

Have any of you ever heard of Whirlyball? We went there for the company Christmas party instead of bowling this year. In the world of Whirlyball, the players sit in these quasi-bumper cars and try as a team to thow a large wiffle ball through a backboard with a haijailai-type "paddle". There is a yellow team and a red team. I'm going there after work to watch Bob play. He had so much fun he joined the league. Edmonds holds the National Championship. (to be fair, by looking on the wall I think they hold them all as far back as '90)

Oh yeah, I know what else I was going to do. This past weekend I had tentatively planned on making Mom's donuts. Maybe that can be a Christmas Eve project. I need buttermilk, milk and eggs. I'll see whether I can re-create my version of them.

I could hardly believe it when I went online to check my final grade. I got an A-. I didn't even get an A- for the introductory biology course I took in the spring. That means for this instructor, I had anywhere from a 90 to a 95 percent. Considering that I came from behind with a 70 on the first test, I think I did pretty well.

And all you Seatowners (borrowing Sonya's saying), how did you like that sun today? For the first time in months I had to fish out my shades.

The weather is doing the crazy big, big rain thing again. This morning I thought I could just work through it for a while. I ended up being wet throughout the day. It usually doesn't rain this hard. I got a 95 on the special senses test (sight, hearing, taste and equilibrium). There were many answers I knew for the final on sight tonight but the nervous system still threw me. Overall I think I did well. Can we have a let-up with the rain now? My boots need a day to somewhat dry out.

The final test is tonight. I've gone over the previous tests four or more times. Now, it is either I know it or I don't. Peace.

vulcan nomad 1600

vulcan nomad 1600
Originally uploaded by nthaniel.

I ended up going to the motorcycle show anyways. Here is the bike I wish Honda would make. I sat on their 1300 and it seemed perfect for me. Mmmm ... bikes.

Apartment deck

My new apartment deck, posted directly from my camera phone.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I just signed up for the Flickr photo service. This is a picture from the summer when Bob and I climbed up to Camp Muir. I can finally post my own pictures to this site. Cool. Here is a link to the picture.

We had the last chapter test tonight and I think that I did well. I didn't have to guess on many at all, and I was able to fill in all the extra credit questions. Now we have the final cumulative test on Monday... and that is it. How many days has it rained lately? I think the answer would be "every".

I have two more tests left; Thursday and Monday. It was bad enough that I had the race a week and a half ago before a test and all the moving stuff also, but this coming weekend there is the motorcycle show.

... mmust ... study....

Damn. Bright, shiny, new motorcycles.

Ok, I'm back online. I have my new Qwest phone service and all my stuff is in the apartment. Whew. What a weekend. I bettered my half marathon time by a little and I got an 84 on the test Monday. We got to cut open a cow's eye on Tuesday. Don't underestimate the toughness of the sclera. It looks as though I am pretty much where I need to be in the course. I hope so because I'm signed up for the second course in the series for next quarter. It will be so much easier now that I live so close to school. And everyone is so happy that I have a focus. How many people are so concerned out there? It makes me wonder how I seem from the outside. Just a thought. Oh yeah, now I can google what Mt. St. Helens is doing, (you can see here) because that is currently a popular question in New England, and I can look for a Red Sox World Series hat. It still seems strange to type that. I want this one too.

The Space Needle has its hat on, just as Poets Seat Tower I'm sure has it's own. Is there a Christmas tree in the Connecticut River this year, or am I going back too many years? Later.