Mephistos

This is the greatest thing in a long time that I have accidentally stumbled upon in while.  Matter of fact I would call this even better then sliced bread.  So, as I was noting in another blog thread here (at least in the comments), I needed to find some big band era swing type of music and that while I do enjoy the sound of the music, I am really not familiar enough with it to be able to out and just by a CD – if I had found such anyway.  On top of that, I am horrible with remember song names and performers.  So I did a search for just just things when I had a few minutes between things this morning thinking that I would see what I could find in such a genre and go from there.

In my search list, and the only one that seemed to point to something I could stream to get an example of the sound and make sure it was I was wanting to pursue was this link to Pandora.  So, I clicked the link, Read more…

Fuel prices are coming back down.  This is a good thing.  Of course they are coming back down only because of the actual slacking of demand on oil right now.  That is largely coming from the decrease in demand from the United States, which has been in gasoline sticker shock from most of the spring and summer of this wonderful year so far.  It should also be noted, that a lot of the saber rattling that has been going on so far in the last few months over in the middle east has amounted to naught and that weather predictions have thus far proved to have little impact on production as well.

Are the the fuel prices we are paying at the pump likely to go back below $3.00 per gallon?  It could, but I doubt it will personally.  Certainly the days of $1 and change gas per gallon are long past us. Read more…

A couple of weeks back, Phil Gram made some comments about the recession  that we are in largely being a state of psychological recession.  He got a good deal of flack in the media about such comments but I think he may actually be right.  Now, keep in mind, I feel that psychologically, if you are are thinking something, it becomes or at least begins to reflect such in reality.

To begin with though, lets do some defining of the terminology we are using.  A pretty good set of definitions and a bit of depth in explaining what I am referring to can be found at the American Management Association’s website, in a review of the book One Foot out the Door, by Judith M. Bardwick.   The basic idea put forth in the book is that as a mass of folks start to feel a little bit uneasy Read more…

If you are at all familiar with you you know the whole of that quote is “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten,”  which is the title of a book and a fount of wisdom by Robert Fulghum.   I have always felt a little slighted by such a book title, as where I grew up there was not a county/state school system kindergarten and it did not become a required thing until some number of years after I started school.  I have always joked, knowing the basic contents of the book, that it is no wonder I don’t like to share and am not good at playing well with others – as I didn’t attend kindergarten.

I had a realization this morning as I attended church, which was the first time in a long time for such an occurrence mind you.  My realization was that the kind of things that were being taught in kindergarten Read more…

Currently I am sitting in front of a tavern in downtown Lexington, historic old court house across the street, blues music riffing through the outside speaking, enjoying a bourbon, dog at my feet.  Life is good if not for being so hot.  Of course, I might not be so hot if I had not just come from a swing dance.  I had no idea how hard that would be for me nor how much energy it would use over the a couple of hours.

This was something that had been planned for a bit as it is something that I want to do and it is also something I know that some other people I know enjoy on a regular basis.  Actually they are apparently a bit of regular with it at this place up around D.C. that is pretty much a historic site straight out of the 30’s or 40’s itself.  How awesomely cool would that be? Read more…

A short quick post, as I am not wanting to dwell on things very much in this vein to be honest.  Just in case anyone is wondering, especially if you had been looking at my facebook profile – yes, I had fallen for someone.  I had fallen for her very hard in a fairly short amount of time.  That quote I have about love is friendship on fire – well that is how I was feeling about things with her.  We started talking as friends due to common interests and such.  And I just feel so hard so quickly it is almost hard for me imagine, much less describe.

However, if you have been paying attention to the same things you also know well that I have been a bit emotionally in the shade of blue the last two weeks or so.  The speed at which she and I fell for one another was slow compared to the speed at which she stopped things.  That is what has had me sad.  The speed of it really just hit me like lightning out of the blue sky, well, okay, the blue sky had turned a threatening gray for just a bit, but still it was quick.

Now a lot of people tell me I fall for people to quickly and easily.  I don’t think that is really the case, but Read more…

Yesterday there was a bit on the radio about what has typically been a hot button, voting block issue – abortion.  It is unfortunate that on this one issue, it seems like I will never be correctly aligned with with.  The more liberal the politician the more apt they are to fully support this women right’s issue.  The more conservative, the more apt they are to want to take this one by the horns and outlaw it with a Roe v. Wade overturn.  Of course, this should come as no surprise to me.  Conservatives are so about wanting to legislate morality these days, that, as I have point out before, they have fundamentally gotten away from the idea that conservative should be wanting little government – hence the very reason that I find myself leaning more toward the party of liberty all the time.

So, a quick review of the presidential candidates and their positions.  Obama pretty much supports an open right to a woman’s right to choose, tough he noted the choice should be made in conjunction with husbands, family, preacher, minister, doctor, or whoever else.  And he also made a point noting that a state should have the right to limit certain kinds of late term abortions.  McCain on the other hand, has firmly stated, despite his sometime renegade voting record (where I have usually agreed with him over just a straight republican block vote), he will, if elected make an effort to balance the Supreme Court with new appointees that will likely overturn Roe v. Wade.

Obviously one of these views is much more in tune with the government being hands off and not meddling in things that really are not any of there business. I don’t think I have to point out which one is which, and I do have to point that out your probably are not likely to be reading this blog anyway.  Point is though, I am not a one issue voter.  But when I see things like this, and start to look at a few other things I really am not liking either candidate that is running for president very much.  I really think our two party system as become too rigidly defined and unable to break out of any mold into new territory if you wish to be successful in the bigger game of national politics.

And for the record, while I am on this rant about abortion and such – one thing I have mentioned to more then a few people in my past and never really been able to explain very well is this.  A woman can’t have a child by herself, it takes a man and woman to start that seed.  I completely realize that woman’s body is hers and she needs to be able to make choices about what happens with it.  But how is that a man signs over all his rights in the decision making process when the deed is done.  Take for instance, a woman has an abortion with out telling the father – given my current desire to have children, if that happened with out it being discussed I would be devastated, crushed.  Hopefully, before I got in that situation I would feel like I knew the woman well enough to ensure that would never happen.  Turn it around though, and accident happens – woman, without consulting the father, can have the child – possibly without him even really knowing.  But then he could and would be responsible to his paternal duties of support if nothing else as soon as she pursued the issue.  No one seems to see my point that I think the man is getting a raw deal in this decision making process.

Of course, maybe the larger problem with my hang up is I have no real solution to offer – eventually I mostly come back to living with the fact that the man assumes the responsibility at the point engaging in the act of creation – the woman does have that extra window, largely due to it being her body and the right to do with her body as she will to do what she needs to do.  Of course,there are some that would argue it is all moot, that true liberty should be granted to the unborn child, whose rights would be infringed on if it is aborted and I can almost see that too – especially if it were mine.

First, my sincere apologies.  I know there is a silent hush and even a gasp or two that I did not continue my huge running record of eight days in a row with at least one blog posting.  Sorry folks and my apologies.  I will try to make up for it some today.   I had, to say the least a rough couple of days lately, and while I am sure some of that will come out more here shortly, it doesn’t necessarily all need too and it especially doesn’t need to be in this blog.  That is no excuse though and had I not gotten distracted for a good bit with emails and such at around 11:00pm yesterday, when I sat down to compose this, I would have probably keep day nine in a row intact as well.   Speaking of records, one was set here yesterday, the most pages viewed here at the Mephistos blog ever!

On to the subject matter.  I was talking to a friend today and was told it is hard to be happy oneself if one’s own happiness is tied totally to another person.  Now maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it did kind of too me.  I am very saddened by a recent turn of events and I admit that I was about to completely loose it – just what exactly it is, I am not sure, but I was about to loose it at the time of the conversation.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that while a HUGE part of future dreams, goals, ambitions, and just things to do, things to have,  were being built around a person, not all of them necessarily are.  There are huge holes in those dreams and goals that, well, really can not be accomplished without another person.  And frankly, I think those are important dreams and goals to have.  But, what I wanted to do was list some of the goals, dreams, or just general things that will bring me happiness without that special person.  And just so anyone reading knows – I do think any goals achieved with someone to share them with are all the more special and apt to bring that much more happiness.

• Continue getting in better shape, both weight going down and physical ability/endurance going up.  Have been considering for some time the joing of a gymn and I think I am going to do that this Friday.
• More time spent with horses – though this one is a no thoughts required and it always makes me happy, I have been very busy this summer.  So to facilitate this as occurring even more, I am moving the horses to a boarding establishment much closer to my work probably next week.
• Traveling, though I do a LOT of this already and enjoy it immensely.  I am getting a kick start on this one by taking a trip to somewhere this weekend, as yet to be determined on the details.  I still want to do that trip to Europe sometime soon – though my original intent had been to do that this spring.
• Getting a better on my vehicle situation – this will entail getting the older truck running soon which I have neglected to spend the time it needs.  Trading old truck and car for newer truck (with 4 doors and all the general things I want) later this fall.  Prior to that, probably taking money out of savings and buying a decent horse trailer.  And lastly, to help with fuel expenses and be green (by using less fuel) get a motorcylce over the winter.  And don’t get me wrong, I love the little car – but I need something to haul horses with and I can’t justify two regular vehicles in my life right now.
• More historical activity – which is a tricky one, as I was planning on doing more of these with the person, dipping into some other periods and just having fun with some changes.  I think I will still do some of that in the future, but for the near term I am going to focus back on SCA a bit more, attend a LOT more events and get into heavy fighting – been off and on about that a bit lately, but attended a practice this eve and it was a good thing – even told the Prince of Midrealm in 4-5 years I would like to be where I can compete well in a Crown Tourney.  I got armour out last weekend, it still needs some work though.  And I have always wanted to move toward more authenticity, though some stuff is pretty good, some stuff I have is not so much.  Consider it a goal, a full weeks worth of authetic apparel for Gulf Wars next March.
• Something I enjoy, but have not done much of lately, is making, or more correctly, chaning the state of things with my hands.  Wether by hammer and forge, cutting away wood and screwing, or just sculpting something with the grinder I just get a joy out of figuring out and doing things.  Unfortunately my shop stuff is all pretty much in storage.
• Acquistion of land – you know I am so up in the air about this one.  The one side of me really wants to have the little farm, with a few animals and especially the horses – doing the work with draft horses.  The other side of me though has really enjoyed the last 7-8 months where I could do whatever whenever I wanted without any being locked into finding someone to take care of things, and I could board the few horses for the short term until I got more ready to settle down.  And there is the “up in the air” part.  I am ready to settle down, but I think this whole land thing should be something that is shared with another person.  Maybe I should remove this one from the list.  Well, anyway, I know if I actually got the land it would make me very happy – so even though I am not sure I will pursue this one with a huge gusto yet, I will leave it on the list.
• Different living quarters, well this is one with the other person involved I was not to worried about.  Iw as here very little during the work week, travelling most weekends for one thing or another, and kind of already thinking about a general direction of where I was going in the next year or so, maybe less.  However, this is not where I want to be come December unless there is some near plan to make a change by then.  So, I will be starting to look for something else then – something that can probably support a couple of the other things here.
• Good food, especially home grown, and cooked – which I love to do, both the growing and cooking.  Alas, I will have to be sad about this one, as I know someone who had the most wonderful looking tomatoes growing last I saw them – but I am planning on doing some cooking for some group of people sometime soon and that will make me happy.  Just have to figure out what group of people and what to cook.
• Money – well it is not that money itself makes me happy, nor even what it can buy per say, but rather that with money I can afford to do the things I enjoy doing, like doing travelling, jousting, getting/making armour/garb for SCA stuff and such – and to that end I am very pleased with my somtimes annoying and sometimes getting toward stressful job.
• To be my own boss is one that would make me incrediably happy and I always seem to get distracted on this one when there is another person around and do pretty good with when alone, so actually a huge opportunity to get going on this one.

Well there is enough of an immediate short list to make me feel happy about it.  Granted, there are a few things that would make me even more happy with another person but those few that I am thinking of you can’t really do alone.

As I return to work and my regular routine, I heard an interesting series of reports regarding the plan of many congressional republicans to find more oil and use less.  I think the absurdity of and upside down status from standard economical theories and laws is almost comical, so quickly:  If there is more oil available, the supply is hence up; as supply is increased the price will go down.  If the price goes down, as we have seen for the 30 years from 1975 to 2005 in this country, what happens to the basic idea of conservation and working toward a model with a much greater independence from oil as an energy source in the long term?

What I really want to focus on though is the find more part of the equation.  First, let me say, I don’t have to much problem with opening the coast lines on the Pacific and Atlantic coast up to some limited exploration and drilling.  I do feel like the areas in Alaska are perhaps a little bit more in greater need of federal protection as lands that were set aside on that, but even that I am a bit up in the air about.  However, the argument that opening these coastal areas up to exploration and drilling is in anyway going to help the current energy price crisis is absolutely absurd.

Consider this – 3/4 of all leases of federal “territories” the Gulf Coast for oil drilling are unused as of this date.  Not 1 in 4, but 75% of the capacity that could be used in the Gulf Coast for drilling is currently NOT in use.  But wait just a second, I thought we needed the open up additional areas on both the Pacific and Atlantic coast as well as in Alaska in order to achieve the greater capacity needs that we are currently hitting, which is why oil is so high.

Well in fact, we have lots of untapped resources right now – exactly where we allow the oil companies to drill.  What is more, the oil companies are actually paying leases on most of those areas in five or ten year blocks for the right to explore and drill on those unused areas.  Further, oil companies will typically buy up the leases on consecutive areas in order to keep competition from having a crack at them or the areas nearby.  A lot of industry analysts from the outside looking in indicate that it is in the oil companies interests to hold on to some reserves to drill from in the future, waiting as prices go even higher to tap into the limited resource.  Further, it is easy to see how, if you were  stockholder in some oil company, they tapped out where they were drilling, but didn’t have something in reserve to move to, the stock price and company as a whole would quickly be pushed very low.

Oil company representatives of course denied the above as a reasoning, and instead indicated that it due to the long process involved with both permitting and exploration.  They further stated that there simply is not the additional oil rig platforms nor the personal with the ability to operate them available for any more then what we currently have in production right now.  So, I have to ask then, given the steady and sometimes rapid price increase of oil over especially the last two years, if no ramp up to put additional rigs and human resources into the current areas we can drill is has not occurred, what makes us think that we can get anything done any faster in slightly different environments on different coast they may require slightly different procedures and processes?  Further, I would think that if congress really wanted to help the process along, a reduction in the red tape for permitting and perhaps even assistance offered in training new oil rig operators or at least a canceling of personal education loans if used in this field kind of deal would be much more suited to actually accomplishing any kind of goal.

As a matter of fact, I like that idea so much I think I am going to bounce out a letter to my congressial representives suggesting just such a thought.

Some good news, especially given those who may have seen my recent notes on Facebook and Myspace,  something to help offset my recent gloom in other places.  There is quiet a bit of it to be had if I just look hard enough for it and ignore a certain few other things for the time being.  As I have been fond of making some itemized list of late, I think this one also calls for such a format.  So, in no particular order, some good news…

• I have completely converted over my home (desktop) computer to the new model, it is running great and I am very pleased with the new speed, memory, and especially the Sata II drives in it.
• Probably some of the best of the good news, today – well this morning, I got on the scale and for the first time in probably near five years I weighed less then 300 pounds.  This is where I was heading late last fall when I got side tracked and never could seem to get traction back toward loosing again until just recently.
• Last week I also purchased a new pair of shorts, to have for this weekend mostly – the good news, to get the size that fit best, I had to go two full sizes smaller in the waist then what I had been wearing.  Now, do not get to excited, I already knew that my pants were getting to big and that I didn’t wear a belt they would not stay up – but I didn’t realize just how far down I had gone.  I am still not see the size loss that much, but other folks constantly are mentioning it, so maybe it is showing some or maybe they are just trying to be encouraging?
• In combination with the weight loss, which has mostly come from just controlling what I consume and keeping that at a level that is reasonable or slightly below that, I have also been exercising somewhat regularly.  Mostly this entails getting near about two miles of a brisk walk at least every other day.  Today, Bitzer and I did it with the ten pound waits on the legs.  I need to start getting those on the wrist some as well.  The exercise is making me feel great as a general rule – and especially given the number seemingly young acquaintances that have passed of late, I think that is a good thing.
• I received my digital camera late last week.  It is a large step up from the old one, which stored pictures on floppy disks.  The new one is not top of the line, but at 7.0 mega-pixels it is not too shabby either.  I will have to get a memory card for it at some point, but it does just fine for the twenty shots or so I have made so far.
• I am making a life category posting that does not have the category frustration clicked at the same time.  Mind you, that is not to say I am not frustrated, just that there is nothing in this posting that is qualified as a frustration.
• I have made seven days in a row here on the the blog with a posting of some sort.  A few of those, I will agree the quality there of is perhaps a bit questionable and my apologies for that.  I will mention in my defense, my past seven days did not go at all as I had envisioned it going when I started that goal of several days in row with a post.  Hopefully, as I am now on a roll, I will be able to keep that up.
• The amount of traffic, what small amount it is, that is coming to the blogs is seeing a slightly upward trend.  Now granted, it hard to say for sure until it averages over a couple of weeks and the upward trend continues, but I am pleased with it for the last few days given its current trend – especially given the Sunday and Monday have historically been low days for traffic here.
• I am officially on the Gulf Wars Equestrian staff for next years war.  Had that confirmed in a conversation earlier this week.  I am not sure why I am excited about this, it means I will be working at one of the events I typically try to just chill out and enjoy the moment while I am there.
• Seems like there should be something else here, but for the life of me I can’t think of what it is – maybe I was going to say I am thankful for what I got and such as that, but that would seem kind of out of my character in general, so probably not.
• In between all the rebel-rousing I have done this weekend, I have gotten to watch some old movies that I have never seen before and some newer, but yet older movies, that I have seen perhaps 100’s of times.  They were all enjoyable, even if some brought me to levels of emotion I am not use to experiencing, for whatever reasons.
• I between the movies and the rebel-rousing, I have also managed to read a good deal in two of the books I am currently getting myself through.  Both are biographies of authors, but what a difference in styles (and times) between Mallory and Twain.  I will be sure and give some sort of note here when I complete the both of them.

That seems to be a bigger list then I thought I was going to muster, of course I should erase that one.  Anyway, I am off to bed now, as I promised Bitzer we would get up and do two miles of walking in the cool of the morn prior to work and our shower.

* – My apologies if that image is copyright, let me know and I will remove it, but it did appear with out any such indication where I found it, it was appropriate, and I liked the retro look with just a bit of sexual appeal.