Mexican Dreams

I had a dream that Kate, Veronica, Renata, Harry, Cat, Jason and I were all sitting around a big table with a white, white table cloath eating corios. Now, in my dream (which I suspect may have been inspired by an amazing lunch at Veronica's house) corios were basically the same as flutas--actually, they were exactly the same as flutas...except that they were called corios. We were all laughing and talking and eating, and Kate was sitting on my lap, putting salsa on my corios for me. Then Kate's alarm went off and I woke up to find her nuzzled up against my chest as we napped in her bed.
It was a very good dream.

Helloooooo Ooooooouuuut Theeerreeeeeee!

I'm kind of curious to see who reads this thing...so if you read this blog. Please leave a message on this poste saying so. If you happen to be someone I don't know (which is unlikely) then please feel free to leave a bit saying something about yourself if you wnt to.
Either way, I'm curious to see whose's reading this...so please post.

To Govern Well or Fairly? Or Maybe just Fairly Well...

I feel like there are two big ideas when people talk about "good" government. In one, people want a government where everyone gets a say, where everyones interests are represented, and where everyone is heard and is a part of the decision making process in some way, shape, or form. In the other, people want a government that will make wise decisions that will benefit everyone as a group. The trouble is that while these ideas may seem compatible in theory, in practice you can only have one or the other. You don't usually get both. Governments that are fair (ie that are beholden to the people's wishes) tend to make bad decisions because "the people" often don't know what the best decision really is and everyone tries to do what is in their individual best interests anyway. Business tries to screw labor, labor tries to screw business, one region want's to have priority over the next, and each class, each familly, and more than anything else, each individual is out for itself. We don't do a good job of looking after the group as a whole rather than ourselves. This results in a tumultuous debacle of a decision making process, since the government has to try and please as many people as possible or face the prospect of being thrown out of office, and as a consequence policy is designed to please rather than bring results and can be inconsistent according to the shifting winds of popular oppinion. On the other hand, regardless of whatever else you might want to say about it, it is fair. The majority always wins (whether they're right or wrong) and if you can get the majority then you can get your way no matter who you are. Incidently, fair isn't the same thing as everyone getting their own way...that's just inconsistent and impossible.
On the other hand you can have a government that governs well but doesn't really ask anyone's oppinion. Because decision making is taken out of the hands of the mob, they cna make decisions to benefit the whole system rather than having each element of it try and screw over the others. They can do what's best for the group and trust that as life improves for the group life will improve for the each individual in the group as well. Now, no one is always right and this applies to givernments as well as people...but you have a much better chance of being right if you can take the time to sit down and think things our rationally rather trying to appease several different factions all at once. The trouble with this is that the enlightened people making the decisions aren't always so enlightened, and that when you get people in office who are dishonest or downright evil, it can be a bother to get them out. On the other hand, it is possible to have a system where the government makes the decisions and the people can remove the government only in dire circumstances.
Quite frankly, I think that the differnce between these two systens doesn't lie in the system istelf so much as the culture of the people in the system. People can choose leaders because they want them to implement the policies they want, or they can choose leaders because they trust their wisdom, intelligence, and competence and accept that the reason why they elected them in the first place is because they believe that these people truly do know best.

So, which do you choose?

Here are some things that I generally enjoy, listed in no particular order:


Shaving with a fresh razor
Taking long, hot showers
Watching Kate's hips sway when she moves
Drying off with a warm towel straight from the dryer
The ache you get the day after you excersize a lot
The word aranciata
Dawn and Dusk
Taking pictures of the sky
Cloudy days that have a real depth
When Kate kisses me awake in the morning
Going to bed early, falling asleep effortlessly, and waking up in time to watch the sun rise
THE CITY
Christmas
Women
Scotland
Books
Movies that have good plot, good acting, and good fights
When my friends call instead of the reverse
Dim sum
Meatbuns
Short poetry in general, and haiku in particular
Japanese food
Firefly
fireflies
Authors who can dream of convincing worlds
Books that don't just tell a story
Wood-block prints
Martial arts
Watercolor paintings
Montaik
The beach
Sailing
That warm feeling you get after you've just woken up and your bed and pillow conform perfectly to the shape of your body
When I think of something new
The distant past
dreams
Wrstling for fun
The idea of a world of principle
The feeling Kate's lips on my own, and of her body in the circle of my arms
Medical stuff
When herbal remedies actually work
Arguing
Music
Cats
Wolves
Memoryfoam
Meerkats
Mongese
When I manage to do more than seven pullups
When science fiction is intelligently written
A good massage
The straight punch
When Kate rubs my head
Sleep
The smell of thyme
When the grass gets dewy
A good science experiment
Seeing other worlds with my own eyes
Mars
Europa
Rainbows
Peregine falcons
The idea of kami
The idea of the Way
Living in a world with vaccinations and penicillin
Kissing
When I block, and it works
My sheets
When I talk about intelligent stuff with my friends
Snow
Storms
When I sleep through my alarm and it's ok
Lightning
Bookstores
The smell of old books
The smell and feel of the air right before a storm
Dinner
Biology
Those glass balls filled with electricity
Chocolate
Apple pie

9/11 Memorial

I went a 9/11 memorial this evening. We listened to the the college president speak to us about love and hate and the danger of blind faith. We all lit candles while an accapella group sang and the American Flag was lowered from the pole where it flew at half-mast all day, neatly folded up and carried away. Then we all stood there in the chill evening surrounding the flagpole in a circle, starring in to our candles silently to reflect. I remembered the sound that the first plane made and how strange and unbelievable it was to sit in class with Madame Gonzalez and stare up at the tv while disaster unfolded when we should have been doing french. More than anything else though, I remember walking home with my father at noon through streets coated with dust while public transport shut down all around us and people staggered up from ground-zero coted in white dust. They would have looked like ghosts except that the tears they were weeping left skin-colored tracks down their cheeks.
And I can't help but be angry at the organization and the people who did this too us. Who took people who normally would have worked an eight or nine hour day and gone home to their famillies and instead forced them to face the choice of jumping eighty or one hundred stories to a quick death or die slowly by fire. Those who could not chose died when the Towers collapsed.
I am also angry at those who leaders who should have taken care of us and instead chose to lead us on a wild goose chase of lies and failures because they thought that it would yield more productive results and make them look better. Lies may change appearences, but only the truth produces results. Remember that only the truth brings justice.
WE WILL NEVER FORGET. I WILL NEVER FORGET.

College Haiku

Drunken yelling in
the hall. Then Crickets join in.
Man, I want to sleep

1) Think honestly within yourself in your dealing with all men.

2) Constant training is the only Way to learn strategy.

3)Become familliar with every art you come across.

4)Understand the Way of other disciplines.

5)Know the difference between right and wrong in the matters of men.

6)Strive for inner judgement and an understanding of everything.

7) See that which cannot be seen.

8) Overlook nothing, regardless of its insignificance.

9) Do not waste time idling or thinking after you have set your goals.

--The Book of Five Rings, by Musashi: "Endnotes to the Book of Earth"


Somehow we started there and ended here. Somewhere along the way, something went very, very wrong.

The End of the Corcodile Hunter

Two days ago Steve Erwin died. Hail and farewell to the Crocodile hunter. The man was invincible; he would wrestle crocodiles with his bare hands, reach and pick up venous without thinking twice and stand there talking camly while they twisted in the air and did their best to do him in. The thing is, they never could. No matter how hard she tried, Mother Nature never could strike that man down--untill now.
Some people called him crazy and I'll admit that I laughed at him more than a couple of times myself. In retrospect though, it's hard to not have at least a little respect for a man who could--and would--willingly go and take on deadly creatures mono-a-mono.
Anyway, sane or otherwise, I'll miss him and I think that the world is a sorrier, more boring place for his passing.
The ironic thing is that what killed him in the end isn't really that dangerous: a stingray. Stingrays can be nasty--being venemous and all--but the venom washes out if you just stay in the ocean for a bit. Plenty of people get stung all the time and end up just fine--cruises let you swim with them some times. He got stung in the heart though, at which point there isn't much anyone can do. It's ironic that the man who wrestled crocs with his bare hands was killed by the fairly gentle sting-ray.
At any rate, I'd like to announce a brief moment of silence for Steve Erwin, whose presence and acts heroism (insanity?) will be missed.