I'm officially on the wagon (again), this time until St. Patty's day. This is one of those ongoing "take stock" kinda things, a gut check to see if I get the DT's and need to really worry about the beer/wine intake. I had the booze blues for the early half of the week, but am over the hump now. Had to take an Advil on Monday and Tuesday night, but now I'm fine. Mostly it was just me being pissed off that I have to endure the sleepless nights with our hard-to-put-down-without-squawking 1 month old, and the tantrumy-in-the-middle-of-the-night-at-random 2 year old without something to take the edge off. Yes, I said it. It's a crutch. And I was a bit wobbly (figuratively) without that crutch for a couple of days. But last night I was able to accomplish a lot of little projects I've been putting off after the kids went down, like creating new file folders to put away random things we get in the mail from the County Assessor...you know, file folders devoted to the subject of home ownership, something I am still getting used to.

So I guess I'm not an alcoholic, just a heavy drinker. Of course, I question whether that's the case relative to some of the folks who still live where I come from, not to mention some of my ancestors. At times like these I think of an old Paul K. and the Weathermen song, "Liquid" : "You have a way about you I can easily understand/No you're not gonna do to me what you did to my old man."

Now, mind you, the lyrics don't resonate literally, as my dad rarely drinks more than the customary 1-2 beers before dinner, but drinking certainly runs in the family. I've thought about how I'd do a cover of that song in moments of clarity, and then I get to thinking I'll do a bunch of covers of songs like that, ones not well known. But I don't have the mental, nor physical, nor time...space for such a project as yet. Among the other songs I've long thought of, one would probably be a Verlaines song, maybe from Some Disenchanted Evening or Ready To Fly (assuming I can figure out all of the fuckin' chords), and of course I forget the rest at the moment.

It's been years since I've written a song, so perhaps a few covers. As usual I'll probably ping for suggestions. Far be it for me to come up with much on my own these days. In some ways, after making an honest assessment of my life, it has always been so. I seem to thrive best when collaborating or perusing secondary sources which I can then attempt to refine or make my own. Maybe the operative word is: distill.

Every time there's a snowstorm you can bet there's someone (see yesterday's post for what I've decided to call them) who sends a political cartoon that usually has: a. A house buried in snow on it b. A reference to Al Gore c. Some flippant comment about "global warming."

Okay, fucktards, listen up: Global warming doesn't mean the temperature in every bumfuck backwater in the U.S.A. and beyond is going to go up. It's the average global temperature of near-surface air and oceans. In fact, it's quite possible that you assholes will see MORE snow due to, ahem, global climate change. The scientists call it that now because of you dumbasses and your congressmen whose pockets are lined up by the oil, coal, gas industries and the gross polluters who think a quick buck is important enough that they have to spread misinformation and lies.

If you want to have an honest debate about climate change and things that may be legitimately up for debate, fine. But even if your grossest misrepresentation were true, ie. man is not causing climate change, wouldn't you still agree that it's probably better to conserve resources for future generations, not to mention your pitiful selves when you get old, than to just do whatever the fuck you want without regard to your neighbor? Because that's really what this is all about, isn't it?

Love thy neighbor. So for all of you numbnuts out there making stupid comments about how global warming is bullshit because we just had 17 inches of snow: Take a fucking hike and eat the yellow snow, and stop forwarding me your retarded emails.

Thanks.

I don't know if it's possible for me to get through a day without looking at a news or political site, but if it were, today would be that day. It looks like the pitchforks are out, and I'm reminded that, while the two party pendulum swing is as American as apple pie, I don't think the 21st century is going to be an American century because of it. Then again, it appears the patterns beginning with the previous turn of the century are still about the same. There was a Gilded (aka Robber Baron) age in the late 19th Century, then things took a turn in the early 20th (labor unrest, and many thanks to Upton Sinclair) which led to T.R. and Progressivism. In the midst of that was a Panic. What next? Another Great War?

Kidding aside, I am amazed that, with all of the information at our fingertips now (took me 3 seconds to look up the Panic of 1907), how short our collective memory has become. At least, for those who control the mainstream media outlets. It seems the narrative wins over all, regardless whether or not there are inconvenient facts that would render the narrative less compelling. Scott Brown the people's candidate? Puh-leeze. Next they'll be saying Tom Delay was, in fact, a true American hero and Enron an American success story.

First day back at the office since the holiday shutdown and my two weeks of paternity leave (I call it that, though technically it's regular accrued time off), and it's quite a soft landing, being that today is MLK day and everyone else is off. I spent the first hour catching up on emails, but mostly I just went around the office wishing everyone a happy new year, and thanking them for the well wishes upon Brenna's arrival on January 3rd. Brenna is a healthy eater, doing well so far. Things seem easier this time around. Livie's been a good big sister so far, though I think there's a subconscious thing going on with her that's coming out in the form of challenging boundaries, and feeding off of any negativity from our displeasure over said boundary challenges. These things will iron out as long as we remain calm, kind and nurturing. I've tried to focus on that, and so has K. We haven't exactly succeeded 100% but it's a process.

On the political front, 2010 begins with the pendulum seemingly swinging back in the other direction, an emboldened GOP and some of the rowdy know nothings who came out in the McCain Palin rallies peddling ignorance seemingly resurgent. We shall see, but all indicators point to a GOP pickup in the Mass. special election for Ted Kennedy's seat. It seems to be the law of things (revolution, counter-revolution) - and this country deserves what it will get - second rate status in the 21st Century, if we can't get sensible health care reform passed. The bill ain't perfect, but we will not be able to compete in the global economy in the long run unless we catch up to the other industrialized nations of the world when it comes to things like universal health care. We live in too complex a society and world to "go back to simpler times." But I'm using the language of the know nothings like Glenn Beck and others when I paraphrase such things.

In sports, I have a sinking feeling that the old man (#4) is gonna get his ring this year, and next, and then retire and go into the Hall as a Viking. As a Packer fan who came of age during the gory years, I cannot help to be a pessimist when it comes to the subject of sports. I can't hold a candle to Cubs fans, but you get the idea. GO SAINTS!

I have no resolutions this year, except maybe to try and get more income than the last. We shall see if and/or how that comes to pass.

Brenna's here!

A convergence of many of my geek-like tendencies: I watched the video of Obama's Nobel Acceptance Speech (lecture) this morning while reading the text as prepared for delivery, and noted the differences between what was written and what he was saying. Later, when I viewed the text of the speech on the New York Times website, I decided I'd copy that version and the original prepared remarks into Word documents and then use the comparison software I have supported for the past 3+ years to compare the differences between the two.

It's an interesting read (for me) trying to guess what changes were ad libbed, what were written as last minute revisions, and what may have been edited by the White House Office of the Press Secretary and the New York Times itself. I first ran the prepared remarks against the New York Times version, and then I ran the White House version against the New York Times version to see if there was any further editing by the New York Times. I found one change: In the last paragraph, the word "depravation" was changed, by the New York Times apparently, to "deprivation." The correct spelling, taken context, is clearly depravation.

I copied all versions into Word files at the time I noticed them. I'll bet some of that will eventually be corrected. I'll spare posting all of those.

But here is the comparison of the original remarks and the official White House transcript.

Last weekend the nesting ritual began after a brief "Braxton-Hicks" scare, so we're by and large prepared for the arrival of our second daughter some time between now and next month. This pregnancy has been tougher on K's body, a lot more kicking going on. Overall it seems to have progressed a lot faster. And maybe I've been in a bit more denial than I should, as in "holy shit, we're actually about to have a second child and I don't feel prepared in the least!" That is, until this past weekend, where we rearranged things in the house to put up the new crib in our room, packed up our hospital suitcase, put together our checklist, did the hospital tour (since we'll be going to Oakland Kaiser and not Santa Clara this time) and so on. When there's a little bed waiting for our little one, it seems more "real," to me at least. I hope I am up to the task of taking care of Livie a little bit more, especially in those "mommy mommy" moments when the only comfort is when K walks into the room...and she can't because she'll be nursing. Only one way to find out. Brenna Kay, you'll soon be here!