Serenity Tea all gone

The Serenity Tea I purchased at the dealer room at Conflikt is now ALL GONNEE.  I has a sad.  Jeff and I were really enjoying it, but I guess we will have to make do with Yorkshire Tea now (by appointment to some English toff, don’t you know).

Miss Margot is very very slowly starting to develop brains.  She is getting out of my way when I make for “my chair”, which is good, because I actually sat on her this past week (Jeff was horrified of course) but all that fur saved her.  Speaking of which, I have a picture to post.

Watched this movie and if you are interest in art, archaeology, the films of Werner Herzog, Neolithic times, and data visualization (the fly through of the cave as data points had me gasping for air) it will blow your mind.  As with all Herzog films, there are points when he departs from the narrative so thoroughly that you are left shaking your head, but as with all Herzog films, you are enriched and challenged.

Every once in a while this past week I could hear a blast of Looney Tunes music coming from Jeff’s room and I couldn’t help myself smiling.

Church this morning.  It will be a rousing service by Robert Latham, and I am sure he will get as many of us as are able out of our chairs.  The workshop was fab by all accounts and well attended.

Gay schlafen

The newest character in Midnite Moving can be sent to sleep for a couple of hours by saying gay schlafen, which is go to sleep in Yiddish.  Which is the kind of thing that happens when two people who are alien mad scientists who shouldn’t be having or raising children decide “I’ma risk it”.  And don’t you wish you had THAT app.

Awoke far too early this morning.  (boring SG1 reference) Amanda Tapping tweeted about her Bouvier, George, who’s 120 lbs of lapdog, and whose gas rivals that of Christopher Judge.  These are the kinds of things I find teddibly amusing, which is as much as you need to know about the compos of my mentis these days.

I am arguing with myself this morning as to whether I really want to go to an all day church event about growth.  I think it’s a waste of money, but I am curious about how this expensive Unitarian boffin – who just so happens to be the establishing minister for the church – is going to fire us up.  I don’t want to go, as I am afraid I will ‘air my views’ in a ‘less than respectful or helpful way’.  Maybe I should.  Teach the controversy and all.

The waste of money part comes from the notion that growth comes from being an attractive church.  Our Religious Education program, which is the magnet which draws young adults with children to the church, is fanTAStic in terms of curriculum and staff . no srsly . but badly housed.  I mean, really badly housed.  The space we’re renting doesn’t suit and most parents come in and see it and recoil in horror.  We have tried to get this ameliorated but we DON’T OWN THE BUILDING, and of course unless every elder in the congregation drops dead and leaves his or her entire estate to the church, we never will own a building either.  On the basis of my conversations with other churches this not having a building ain’t a bad thing.  Church buildings get older than human beings eventually and there’s nothing like remediating asbestos tiles and leaky roofs and recalcitrant dragon-furnaces to put a damper on Sunday worship and cast a pall of gloom over the Board.

As it is, we can do church anywhere, with despatch and aplomb.  We’d hate to move again, but we will if we have to, and church will continue no matter what.

Looks like Katie’s buying a restaurant.  She’s seen it done right and done wrong, and I’m sure she’ll be fine.  We do NOT have big plans.  We have small ones.  I am going to be the silent partner and biscotti baker, which I am very happy about, since I will finally have a space close to my house which is exactly what I want for baking biscotti, and the way the law works anything that’s baked there must be sold there in at least some quantity so it’s not a factory.  I’ll be making a deposit on Monday (she’s at work even though it’s a stat) and Katie and I already have an immense list of things to work through.  I want her energy and intelligence to be rewarded.  Keith expressed reservations, interestingly, but I think he may be experiencing jealousy.  Which reminds me, now I really DO have to change my will, so Keith and Katie get a more equitable share, and so Paul is no longer the executor.

We’re not planning on making any money for most of the first year, start up date April Fools (and you should have seen Katie’s face as we set the date).  The easiest thing for me to do is to think about the money as being lost.  Out of the gate.  Something about this feels right though, there’s a weird ‘this will be okay’ vibe.

The Treasurer problem I had has been resolved.  I crashed the chart of accounts somehow in Simply Accounting and reasoned my way out of the problem with a few adjustments. Now it’s time to MAKE RECEIPTS FOR ALL THE DONORS.  It is a finite problem with a deadline, and it’s all good.

They also surf who only sand and wade

Still haven’t heard back from daughter Katie about her checking out of the cafe.  I suppose I’ll hear eventually.

More addiction research.    Which reminded me of this:  (Pope, in case you care).

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

 

There was a fingernail paring of moon in the sky this morning, clothed about the waist with diaphanous clouds.

Worked for about five hours over at Sue’s yesterday.  I didn’t quite wear out my welcome, but it was a near thing.  Came home and cooked chicken breasts with cauliflower for dins.  The chicken breasts roasted up like that are so very very nommy.  Now I gotta get my rear in gear and get some brekky happening for me and Jeff.

NOTHER SONG LAST NIGHT.  Compared to the last one which is THE SADDEST SONG EVAR, it is so intensely cheerful it is quite ludicrous.  You know, I could probably write a song every other day for the rest of my life if someone let me.  Oh, right…. I get to do that myself.  Ah well.

Things are unsettled around here again.  Is the household splitting up, and what form will things take?  If either of us get a job, the problem is reduced for a while, but we do both have to have an income of some sort, and so…. it’s a puzzler.  I’m going to cook brekky, try to straighten out a bit of the mess I made yesterday, get access to my epost mailers, run some laundry, and work on my resume, again, since there seems to be something wrong with it.  I did get responses from two job ads but learned in the process I had submitted to an agency, which is just a specialized case of shouting down a well unless there is something on your resume that is a must have for a hot job.

Also, ALLEGRA TRY NOT TO READ THE GAWKER UNEMPLOYMENT STORIES. People talking about having no savings after two years of unemployment is not helpful to your mental health.

Zero dark thirty

Feels like when I woke up this morning.  Ah well.  At least I have conquered that part of me that takes a computer to bed.  I am sleeping longer and better as a consequence, even if I am going to bed ludicrously early.

The movie Zero Dark Thirty was excellent.  What I enjoyed about it most was that it was very easy to read the movie as a total indictment of how the Americans do foreign policy, and that it wasn’t just a rah rah torture porn American triumphalist spectacle.  I know that is how some people parsed it, but Kathryn Bigelow has stated repeatedly that she finds war and violence repellent but it’s a fact of life.  She once remarked that the dirty secret of war is that some men enjoy it, and knowing that makes some of her directorial choices seem a little more nuanced that a straight left wing parsing of the movie might suggest.

 

 

Teeth clean

So my next appointment is to go look at this cafe.  Katie, who is supposed to be accompanying me, is actually at the accountants (big yay, it will help her finances) and Paul and Keith, who are not going to be involved at all, are coming.  Not thrilled about that but what the hell.  I will give a full report to Jeff and Katie later.

 

Laughing at myself

There was a game yesterday.  The Superb Owl game.  There was Stygian darkness.

Church yesterday was great.  I told Anita I’m throwing both the Secretary and the Treasurer jobs over the side effective the next AGM and of course while I feel guilty relief is coursing through my veins in a startling way.  Also I wrote some checks and entered some data.

Work search is still ghastly.  No responses.  It’s like shouting down a well.  Its a damned good thing that I’ve got money in the bank.

 

False starts

I tried once before to write a song about the backstory of griffins, but I think this one will work out better, being in a minor key.  Lyrics when they come to me.  On track for a 14 song month, per FAWM.

Church today.  I am not feeling very inspired, but I’ll feel differently after church.  Oh, yeah, I forgot… we’re rehearsing.

ooh Fred Pohl filk!

Gonna go to Gateway, yes indeed
Gonna take that ride
Gonna go to Gateway, yessirree
Gonna take that ride
Maybe I will hit the jackpot baby
Find my ticket among the stars
Maybe I’ll keep my head down baby
Wiping tables in the Blue Hell bar…

Gonna go to Gateway, o yeah
Gonna take that ride
Gonna go to Gateway, unh hunh
Gonna take that ride
Maybe I will meet some aliens
Find some fancy tech that’s o so rare
Maybe I will take a loser trip
Spend my last minutes fighting for air

Gonna go to Gateway, understand
Gonna take that ride
Gonna go to Gateway, that’s the plan
Gonna take that ride
Can’t call this plan courage
when it’s the only option that I’ve got
I’ll do cause I have to, the day is coming fast
I’ll find out what I get for what I bought.

And your choice of one veggie entree….

In a spectacular outburst of insanity, I may buy a takeout/café.  It’s in a part of Edmonds that is very dead for restaurants, but in about three months the new rec/community center will open and there will actually be more traffic.  I’ll be talking to the current owner on Monday.  It’s a really good deal for the kitchen equipment though… looks like it’s all going for about 30 cents on the dollar.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND The Impossible, but not if you’re scared to drown.  The lead child actor, Tom Holland, is so good that it is obvious he will have a long and illustrious career, and Naomi Watts and Ewen McGregor are simply wonderful as the parents. It’s about the Boxing Day tsunami.

Lunacy (in a size 44 long)

The gun lunacy in the US just boggles n croggles me.  From CNN.com:

 

According to the FBI, in the entire country in 2011 there were just 201 justifiable homicides committed with guns by private citizens. There are over 300 million guns in America, which means that about 1 out of every 1.5 million guns was actually used for lethal self-defense. According to the National Weather Service, your chance of being hit by lightning this year is a mere 1 in 1 million.

The paucity of training in statistics and how to understand them is obviously part of the NRA strategy.  If you scare someone, they are at a disadvantage for staying rational.  It’s a fact of the human brain.  In fact, the ability to force one’s brain into staying rational while scared out of your tiny mind is one of the things that distinguishes humans from critters.  Not everyone is so gifted, though.

I came up with another lovely line for my notebook last night.  “Darwin backed into a meatgrinder and assembled something from the chunks” (with respect to an ugly critter from a video game, but could be more widely applied… Jeff is playing Borderlands II and there’s some UUUUGly critters.)

SO TEMPTED to go with Tammy to New Orleans in March.

Well I got one thing done….

This was overdue, almost, since I’m supposed to be singing it this month.

 

Edited May 2015 for midi and pdf.

A Beacon Celebration pdf

A Beacon Celebration midi, you’ll need to download and play outside this stupid wordpress ick.

Beacon birthday song

To think that it all started with committee work
These decades past
Some now here assembled came and did not shirk
And they had a blast
We are trying to help the world
All the little boys and girls
And the ones who aren’t sure which they are
Growing their theology
Becoming all that they can be
Knowing in their lives they’ll wander far
And Beacon will be part of who they are

All the controversies now seem very small
When we look back
It’s a miracle that we are here at all
With all that flack
Boards and staff in panoply
Ministers and homilies
Days when the presenter failed to show
Visits to the partner church
Pledges paid or in the lurch
Always wondering if we would grow
As if our wishing somehow made it so.

But it is no joke
We fight oppression’s yoke
Whether in the soul or on the street
What you think is true
Is shown in what you do
And sharing truth is really why we meet

Here’s to Beacon’s 30th, now raise a glass
And toast us proudly
Maybe all our dreams have not yet come to pass
Still we sing loudly
We can set up anywhere
Little but somehow we share
Knowing that our giving shows our love
The future holds its mystery
As we toast our history
And the peace that we’re all dreaming of.